"The armor turret is loaded!" In the huge armor turret of the Hangzhou, the flagship of the 58th Task Force of the Ming Navy, I saw my subordinates putting the silk-wrapped propellant bag into the gun chamber. The gunner, who was wearing only a shirt www.biquge.info picked up the phone and shouted.

The firing command room, located under the bridge, passed the news to the gunners after receiving the call, waiting for his order.

"Fire!" With the order of the gunner, the three huge turrets on the Hangzhou fired nine shots in quick succession at a rate of one second. Nine heavy armor-piercing shells of 400 mm caliber burst out in the dazzling light that lit up almost the entire night, and flew into the dark night.

Not only the Hangzhou battleship, but also the eight Ming Army's new provincial capital-class battleships lined up in a long battle line fired a salvo almost at the same time, and dozens of large-caliber shells flew towards the German High Seas Fleet battle line more than ten nautical miles away. At this distance, the two sides saw each other almost the size of a matchbox with the naked eye, and they were fighting at night. If you just fight with the naked eye, there is almost no hit rate to speak of. Both the Ming army and Germany relied on a unified firing command system and fire control radar for all ships.

The actual combat radar invented by the Ming Dynasty has shown a powerful role after it was put into the battlefield, and many allies have followed up to vigorously study the radar. Germany, which has strong scientific and technological capabilities, is one of the countries that has made technological breakthroughs.

"No hits." The report from the radar room made Vice Admiral Wang Nan, the commander of the 58th Task Force of the Ming Army, frown tightly, "Reduce the speed to fourteen knots." The fleet deviated five degrees to the left and leaned up. ”

If you want to increase the target hit rate, the first thing is to have a stable shooting platform. The speed of the battleship should not be too high, and if it is too fast, it will have a great impact on the shooting accuracy. Another important way is to bring the two sides closer. The closer you get, the more accurate your shots will be.

Wang Nan is very confident in his fleet, and he believes that his fleet is strong, and even if it is a hard-fought battle, it can achieve ultimate victory. More importantly, the current Ming Navy has completely lost its life. Even if the 58th Task Force was completely wiped out, it would not be an unbearable loss for the Ming Navy. But if the Allies lost the German High Seas Fleet, they would have lost almost half of the sky.

The distance between the battle lines of the two sides began to gradually close, and the hit rate of the shelling continued to rise. As many shells continued to fly back and forth, huge fires continued to rise from the battleships of both sides. The Ming army's new provincial capital-class battleships not only had fierce firepower, but also had very strong armor. Unless the main guns of the Germans were lucky enough to hit the vital point directly, they were not very threatening to the Ming battleships.

And if the Ming Navy, which used a new type of soft back-risk armor-piercing bullet and a new main gun of 400 mm caliber, passed through with a single shot, the old super dreadnoughts in the German army would be miserable. Although the Germans modernized these superintrepids several times. However, the armor belt could not be modified on a large scale. It's still at the same level as it was twenty years ago.

As the two sides drew the battle line closer to a distance of about ten nautical miles, the hit rates of both sides began to rise sharply almost simultaneously. In the case of fighting for quality, the Ming warships undoubtedly have an advantage. More than ten minutes later, the first to suffer was the battleship Bavaria at the tail of the German High Seas Fleet's battle line.

After the modernization, the Bavaria's full load displacement rose to almost 40,000 tons, but its main armor belt remained at the level of 350 mm. This was a good idea at the time, but twenty years later, both in terms of thickness and the use of armor steel, are seriously behind.

The battleship Xining, which was fighting against the Bavaria, smashed a 400 mm armor-piercing shell into the front of the No. 4 turret in the stern of the Bavaria. The frontal armor of the turret, three hundred and fifty mm thick, was penetrated. Armor-piercing shells exploded inside the turret. At that time, the fourth turret was being reloaded, and the riot door to the ammunition depot on the ground floor was not closed, and after the explosion of this armor-piercing shell, the huge force directly swept the ammunition depot in the bilge.

Numerous cartridges were ignited by heat and flames, and then the deadly shells. In the final darkness before dawn, the Bavaria, with its ammunition depot detonated, lit up the battlefield like a miniature sun. Almost all of the battleships saw how quickly the Bavaria, which had been blown in two in the second half, dissipated into a huge whirlpool.

In less than five minutes, the Bavaria sank. Of the more than 1,400 officers and men on board, only a few dozen survived. The sinking of the Bavaria was like opening a Pandora's box, and more and more German warships were sunk in the sea.

It was followed by three other super-dreadnoughts of the same class. Baden, Saxony and Württemberg. These old super-dreadnought battleships are far behind in terms of armor protection and fire projection in the face of new high-speed battleships, and it is very normal for them to lose one after another when they bombard the battleships of the Ming Navy.

With the destruction of the super-dreadnoughts, the German naval battle line began to fall into a situation of a minority fighting a majority. At this time, Lütjans had no other choice, he could not choose to withdraw from the battlefield. Because once you quit, it means giving up hope of breaking through. When the rain clouds disperse, even if you want to, you won't have a chance.

In this case, Lütjans can only choose to invest all the power in his hands. The German fleet began to move closer to the Ming fleet, heavy cruisers began to fill the gap in firepower, and light cruisers and a large number of Z-type destroyers began to accelerate towards the Ming fleet for lightning operations.

Seeing the German destroyer group rushing towards him, feeling the rising sun shining on his body, Vice Admiral Wang Nan gave the order to distance the battle line and the light fleet to rush out of the queue to block the German lightning strike fleet.

Dozens or hundreds of light warships on both sides began to hedge against each other, while the Ming battle line began to accelerate and turn to open up the distance, and the German battle line was rapidly pursuing.

As the distance and speed increased, the hit rate of the artillery between the two sides decreased rapidly. The capital ships did not achieve much success among themselves, but the battle between the light warships was in full swing. The city-class destroyers of the Ming had an advantage in the tonnage of fire armor, and the Z-type destroyers of the Germans had an advantage in numbers.

The intensive shelling between the two sides set the sea on fire. The huge column of water that rose densely surrounded many warships, and the battle was even fiercer than the decisive battle between the capital ships.

The officers and men of the German Navy were well aware of the importance of this battle, and with unprecedented courage, they approached the Ming line of battle at high speed under the fierce bombardment of the Ming light warships and the secondary guns of the capital ships, and fired rows of torpedoes at a distance of 2,000 meters.

Most of the secondary guns on the main ship of the Ming army facing the German navy had been damaged in the previous artillery battle, and the firepower of the Ming heavy patrol could not be compared with that of their German counterparts. This caused the two Ming battleships to eat several torpedoes one after another.

Although with strong waterline armor, it withstood the attack of torpedoes. However, the two battleships were severely damaged by this, and their speed was reduced and they could not get out of the battle line. Under these circumstances, Vice Admiral Wang Nan could not give up his battleship, so he had to cancel the tactic of flying kites at a distance, and continued to engage in a hard-to-head duel with the German High Seas Fleet.

More than an hour later, the Germans were in despair. It's not just that their battleship group is losing more and more, but the more important reason is that the weather is gradually improving after dawn. Looking at the gradually parting clouds and bright sunshine, the senior commanders of the German Navy knew that their fleet was finished.

At the last moment, the German naval commanders ordered their aircraft carriers to fly as many fighters as possible to attack the Ming fleet, in an attempt to prove their honor as soldiers.

The 58th Task Force under the command of Wang Nan was attacked by the German air force, and two battleships and two heavy cruisers, which had been seriously wounded, were sunk during the attack, and many battleships were damaged. However, when the Ming army's aviation attack formation arrived on the battlefield, the whole battle came to an end.

In the end, the German Navy's High Seas Fleet was almost completely wiped out. Dozens of warships of all types, including all aircraft carriers, battleships, and heavy cruisers, were sunk in this naval battle. With less than ten light cruisers and destroyers and the only large battleship, the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen miraculously escaped under the onslaught of the Ming army.

Many high-ranking German naval commanders, including Raeder, Lütjens and others, sank with the ship. When the flagship Bismarck sank, the admirals refused to go to the battleship Tirpitz, which was also under heavy attack, and chose to die with dignity.

The total annihilation of the German High Seas Fleet meant that the Allies had no formed surface ship formations in the Atlantic, except for the British Royal Navy, which was huddled in the British Isles.

And there is a small episode on the destruction island of the European Combined Fleet, that is, the dignitaries of various countries who set off with the fleet successfully arrived in Greenland, and then took a plane to the American continent. It's just that after the loss of the naval fleet, the dignitaries of these countries no longer have much effect in the eyes of pragmatic Americans.

After the total annihilation of the European Combined Fleet, no one doubted that the Ming Dynasty would finally win the war that would affect the whole world. A week after the end of the naval battle, after only a brief replenishment in the harbor, the Atlantic Fleet of the Ming Navy set sail again to provide cover for the Ming landing force to attack the British.

The Ming Dynasty's landing operation against Britain officially began. (To be continued.) )