813 Admiral's Decision, Fourteen Love Fight to Win!?

Nov. 20, 7:50 a.m. %Net,

The "casualty naval battle" in the North Sea continues. The German High Seas Fleet still relied on its speed to be much faster than the British Home Fleet, keeping the distance between 20,000 and 22,000 meters between the two sides. The British were not given the slightest chance to close the distance. The battleship formations of the British, although they had an overwhelming numerical superiority, were too slow to take the opponent at all, so they could only try their luck with countless tons of shells...... It's just that today's lady luck doesn't seem to favor the British very much, and after fighting for a long time, the German high seas fleet is still unscathed.

In this way, the largest battleship Armageddon at sea since the Battle of Jutland was carried out in such a dull way. It seems that the battleships of both sides did not come here to fight, but to act as targets for each other's aircraft. What really determines the outcome is not the tens of thousands of tons of warships that they spent a huge amount of money to build, but those small aircraft with aluminum alloy shells.

As time passed, the fog over the North Sea gradually dissipated, and the clouds in the sky were thick, but there was no sign of rain. And the planes of both sides have absolutely no possibility of losing their way under the guidance of their respective fleets. Commanders on both sides knew that it would not be long before the master of the battlefield would turn from a battleship into an airplane. Time is running out for battleships!

And on whose side will air superiority be? While the British Hugh. Both Dowding and Germany's superfat Goering confidently declared that their air forces could seize air supremacy in the North Sea. However, in the end, it can only be one side that will seize air supremacy, and what awaits the other side will be a devastating disaster.

Should the fate of the British Home Fleet be left to the Air Force?

Now it's time for Forbes to make the final decision. No, both Admiral Forbes and the British Empire have run out of options! Because what they are now facing is not a contest between Britain and Germany, but a world war. This Anglo-German (Chinese) naval clash in the North Sea was a gamble by the British Empire to try to save the unfavorable situation of the world war, and Britain could only guarantee the empire if it ended in a draw, and her powerful home fleet would be firmly contained on its own soil. She could only watch as China and Japan seized her rich and vast colonies.

This was the adverse effect that Pearl Harbor and the Battle of Hawaii had on Britain.

Admiral Forbes stood silently in front of the chart, his eyes wandering between the North Sea and the west coast of Norway, northern Germany and Denmark. There was a look of pain on that resolute and serious face, as if he was making up his mind against all odds.

The capital ships of both sides fought in a single column in artillery battles, which was the most common formation in the battleship era, but the German High Seas Fleet, which had the advantage of speed, had the initiative in this formation, and they could immediately withdraw from the battlefield if they wanted to, and similarly, they could keep the engagement distance to a level that made every Brit on the North Sea depressed. They are clearly confident in their air superiority, and only want to delay until the fog and clouds have cleared a little, and then use the planes to decide the outcome of the naval battle.

If the United States had not suffered a crushing defeat in Hawaii, Britain would not have had to fight hard, even if it was to run back to Scapa Bay with their tails between their legs, as long as they kept the strength of their home fleet, took advantage of the favorable terrain of the British Isles and the continuous blood transfusion of the United States and the slow attrition of Germany, although they may not be able to win, it is always not much of a problem to keep the draw.

But now, if the British Empire wants to survive, it must win! And the only way to win is to fight hard...... Only let the navy in which the British Empire has the upper hand fight! If Japan, which is weak, can defeat the United States with a deadly style of play and gain sea supremacy in the Pacific Ocean, why can't the British Royal Navy, which has dominated the seas for hundreds of years, fight to the death?

Forbes raised his head, looked at the German High Seas Fleet in the mist in the distance, gritted his teeth, and shouted: "Change formation!" Swing sideways, bow against the enemy, we rush over to disrupt the battle! ”

Before the Sino-Japanese First Sino-Japanese War, the tactics of horizontal formation and chaotic warfare used to be the mainstream tactics of naval warfare, but in the Battle of Dadonggou, after the Japanese Combined Fleet defeated the Beiyang Naval Division's horizontal ships to meet the enemy with the tactics of meeting the enemy on the side of the column, the tactics of meeting the enemy on the side of the column became the mainstream of naval warfare tactics for several decades because of the advantage of giving full play to the maximum power of the fleet's main guns. Even the British Native Fleet Combat Regulations required all battleships to be lined up in a single column and in an advantageous position, because only then could the Home Fleet be at its fullest.

But the problem is that the current British Empire has declined, and most of the battleships of the Home Grand Fleet are products of the First World War. If you meet the enemy in a single column in columns, the maximum speed of the entire formation will be limited by those super-slow old battleships, at most 21 or 22 knots, which is almost 10 knots slower than the opponent! In this way, the advantageous position was always in the hands of the Germans, and the initiative in the battle was also in the hands of the German High Seas Fleet. In such a situation, the original tactics were changed, the enemy was faced with a horizontal formation, charged like an infantry, and while suffering certain losses, the opponent's formation was disrupted and the naval battle dragged into a melee...... In that way, the home fleet, which is clearly ahead of the opponent in training and experience, and has a clear advantage in numbers, will have a good chance of winning the battle!

……

"Sir! Enemy fleet...... The enemy fleet seems to be rushing towards us?! ”

"What?" Vice Admiral Yu Yanshou was stunned when he heard this, and turned his head to look at the captain of the battleship Zhenyuan.

"Sir, the results observed by the radar and the lookout post are the same, and the enemy seems to be ...... As if with the infantry charge, the whole fleet rushed up! The navigator explained.

Yu Yanshou was stunned and stunned, these British guys are crazy, right? Now it's a naval battle! Do they still want to fight bayonets with battleships? The bow of the ship is against the enemy, and the whole fleet charges...... How can there be such a play? Didn't these Brits know that in the course of their charge, the 84 large-caliber main guns possessed by all 11 battleships and armored ships of the High Seas Fleet could be concentrated in one point and the battleships of the Britishmen could be named one by one? Now the distance between the two sides is still nearly 20,000 meters! That's 10.81 nautical miles. Even if it is the Hood, Richelieu and Jean. It will take 20 minutes for the Barr to rush into the queue of the High Seas Fleet at a speed of more than 30 knots, of course, the premise is that the High Seas Fleet is motionless and waiting for the other side to attack! And in those 20 minutes!

"Sir! The command ordered, reduce the speed to 15 knots, shell the target, the Hood! The order of shelling ......" the shout of the communications chief suddenly interrupted Yu Yanshou's train of thought.

Vice Admiral Lütjans, commander of the main detachment of the High Seas Fleet, has already made a decision! Since the British are desperate, then of course the high seas fleet will be with them to the end! Well, in fact, Vice Admiral Ruttejans didn't think about turning around and escaping, but he found himself in a position that was not very suitable for escaping, because his fleet was between the British mainland and the British mainland. If you become a horizontal formation like the British, turn around and run...... Then it will inevitably approach the British mainland, and the opponent's bombers will be dispatched soon! If the formation of the home fleet was bypassed by the column in columns, it would most likely be overtaken by the Hood, the Richelieu, and the . The Barr, as well as a dozen British heavy cruisers, bit the tail. So, after weighing the pros and cons, Lütjens was determined to make the most of the 20 minutes.

After a slight hesitation of a few tens of seconds, the main guns of the 11 battleships and armored ships of the High Seas Fleet pointed their guns at the British battlecruiser HMS Hood, which rushed to the front. The 84 large-caliber main guns burst out almost simultaneously, and the 17 battleships and battle cruisers of the British Home Fleet, including 4 King class, 4 Queen Elizabeth class, 4 Iron Duke class, 2 Nelson-class, 1 Hood class, and 2 Richelieu-class ships temporarily under the command of the British Home Fleet, can use 90 bow guns of more than 13.5 inches at the same time to meet the enemy! Its firepower is much stronger than that of the German High Seas Fleet, but because all the ships are charging at full speed (otherwise, the German High Seas Fleet can definitely circle around the British fleet with its high speed), the formation has long been chaotic, because it is no longer possible to unify the main gun fire of each ship, so they can only be left to fight on their own!

And in this case, the fastest and rushed to the front, the Hood, Richelieu and Jean. The three ships of the Barr were naturally the victims of attracting the firepower of the German High Seas Fleet...... Of course, they are also the key to the success of this assault! If these three ships can successfully disrupt the formation of the German High Seas Fleet, they will buy precious time for the 14 British battleships behind them, and once these battleships are allowed to rush into the formation of the High Seas Fleet, the battle situation today will inevitably turn into the melee that Admiral Forbes expected! The British Home Fleet, which was superior in numbers, training, and firepower, would almost certainly win!

Perhaps the bad luck of the battlecruiser Hood in history finally happened, and the 84 heavy guns of the German fleet fired only two salvos, and a huge ball of fire rose from the Hood! This time, it was the German battleship Tirpitz, whose No. 1 turret fired a 380mm "high muzzle velocity light armor-piercing projectile" that hit the front of the Hood's bow turret B, which was the strongest in the entire Hood's armor, with Harvey carburized armor steel up to 15 inches thick. However, at a distance of 15,000 meters, such a defense was not enough to withstand the armor-piercing shells fired by the Tirpitz's SKC34 naval guns (slightly different from the main guns of the Chinese-built Zhenyuan). 800 kg of armor-piercing shells forcibly drilled through the front of the 15-inch turret, and then an explosion occurred inside the turret, lifting the entire turret weighing hundreds of tons! Thankfully, the massive explosion in the B turret did not affect the ammunition bay under the turret, and the Hood was able to escape for the time being.

However, this was apparently only the beginning of the Hood's bad luck, and as the projectile's point of impact was captured by the High Seas Fleet's fire control rangefinders, the German High Seas Fleet's 84 heavy guns quickly rained down shells on the Hood's less sturdy hull.

At 8:03 and 8:05, the Hood was shot twice in succession! In particular, at 8:05, a 380mm armor-piercing projectile fired by the battleship Bismarck fell on the deck at the rear of the mainmast, and the thin deck armor was penetrated like a piece of paper, and the 800-kilogram armor-piercing projectile drilled into the aft engine room of the Hood, and exploded there, and the fragments produced by the explosion easily penetrated the thin armor between the rear engine room and the secondary gun propellant compartment, detonating nearly 20 tons of propellant stored there, and then the explosion caused a chain reaction. The X, "Y" turret fired the charge bays, detonating nearly 95 tons of 15-inch main gun charges in two compartments, and the results were of course devastating. With this series of violent explosions, the entire Hood was engulfed in smoke and fire almost instantly. The "X" main turret of the Hood was completely lifted into the air dozens of meters high by this violent explosion, and the smoke from the explosion soared into the sky, and a large number of hull fragments were thrown into the air and scattered in the surrounding sea, some even fell on the Richelieu and Jean. On the deck of the Barr. After the explosion, the hull of the Hood broke into two sections at the rear mainmast, and the rear part was blown into a pile of wreckage, which capsized and sank after being separated from the front part. The bow sank into the sea within minutes of the explosion! All but four of the 1,421 officers and men on board the Hood were killed on board, including Vice Admiral Holland, who had led the lead fleet to lure the enemy.

After the Hood was finished, the next target for the German High Seas Fleet was the just-completed French battleship Richelieu. This battleship and its sister ship Jean. The Barr is a super warship designed and developed by France specifically for the Zhenyuan class. Compared to the thin-skinned battlecruiser Hood, the Richelieu-class battleship was almost a floating fortress covered in thick steel armor.

The turret layout of this class of battleships was very strange, with the two quadruple main guns all arranged on the front deck, and no main guns on the rear deck. This layout of the two main turrets in front of the bridge is conducive to reducing the area of heavy armor protection and saving weight to strengthen the defense capability of key areas, so the Richelieu with a standard displacement of 38,500 tons is almost the best defense battleship in the world! Its waterline armor is 328mm thick and has a 15-degree camber, with an 18mm caving liner behind the armor columns. The turret was 430 mm thick on the front, 270 mm thick on the sides, 405 mm thick on the bezel, and 340 mm thick on the conning tower. In addition, the Richelieu class was designed with the threat from the air in mind. Therefore, in addition to installing a large number of anti-aircraft guns, it also strengthened the horizontal armor, and the ship has a total of two decks to lay armor, the first layer is 150-170mm thick, the second layer is 40-100mm thick, and the armor on the top of the turret is also 195mm, which can effectively defend against threats from the air.

Now, the two French battleships, with all eight main guns moving forward and with incredible and solid armor, became a thorn in the side of all the gunners of the German High Seas Fleet. The 84 heavy guns, under the command of Lütjens, once again aimed their guns at the Richelieu, which was charging at a high speed of 30 knots. In less than 2 minutes, the French battleship was hit by 3 380mm and 2 280mm armor-piercing shells, but the steel behemoth didn't seem to suffer much damage, but the bow sank slightly, and the speed slowed down a little.

And François, who commanded two French battleships. Admiral Darlan was also clearly a very good admiral, and from the outset he ordered all 16 main guns of the two Richelieu-class battleships to be poured on the nearest battleship, the Mackensen.

At 8:08, the two French battleships finally inflicted the greatest losses on the German High Seas Fleet since the beginning of the naval battle, two 380mm shells hit the Mackensen, one destroyed the A turret of the ship's bow, and the other pierced the waterline armor of the bow, and about hundreds of tons of seawater rushed in. Therefore, it can be regarded as moderately damaged.

And only a minute later, 81 bombarded German heavy guns were still in color, and the rainstorm of 380mm and 280mm shells swept across the hull of the Richelieu, of which 1 380mm armor-piercing shell hit the frontal armor steel plate of the Richelieu A turret head-on, and the distance of less than 12,000 meters made the power of the German's "high muzzle velocity light armor-piercing projectile" fully exerted, and the armor steel up to 430mm thick could not block the penetration of the shells...... The force of the shell explosion shattered the entire turret to pieces, and the huge shock wave shattered the electro-hydraulic pump of the B turret, rendering the Richelieu's remaining four 380mm cannons temporarily unusable. As a result, the French battleship, which had high hopes from the British side, had to waive the banner of "this ship is heavily damaged, withdraw from the battle" and withdraw from the battlefield in disgrace.

Just when the British Home Fleet's assault seemed to be about to suffer a crushing defeat, the two most powerful battleships of the British Navy, the Nelson and the Rodney, finally rushed to a distance of 15,000 meters from the German High Seas Fleet formation. Their 18 16-inch guns began to bombard the already damaged battleship Mackensen. After only three volleys, the battleship Mackensen was hit by another bullet and burst into flames, a huge 16-inch shell piercing the waterline armor in its stern, and a large explosion occurred in the power compartment! At this point, the German-designed Chinese-built super battleship suffered fatal damage, and although the well-designed waterproof compartment could ensure that the battleship continued to float, it lost all power and became a huge floating target.

The bitter battle of the German High Seas Fleet has finally begun!

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