readx;

"Your Majesty, Germany has attacked the Soviet Union!"

"How's it going?"

Wang Chenhao's heart trembled slightly, and he secretly criticized Hitler for finally making a move against the Soviet Union. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info╔╗

Song Jiaoren and Zhang Zizhong glanced at each other, and the latter said first: "Your Majesty, the situation is not optimistic for the Soviet Union!" The Germans launched a surprise attack and staged lightning tactics again, and by the time the minister arrived, the Soviet army on the Soviet-German border had collapsed, and the German offensive was unstoppable. ”

At 3:30 a.m. on July 22, 1941, the German army launched a surprise attack on the Soviet Union on a long front of more than 2,000 kilometers from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Black Sea in the south, divided into three army groups: the north, the center, and the south.

At the beginning of the Barbarossa Plan, the task of the German Army Group Center was to encircle and annihilate the Soviet army in Belarus, with a source of 50 divisions and 2 brigades, and then attack Moscow, the heart of the Soviet Union, the strength of Army Group North was 29 divisions, and the task was to annihilate the Soviet army on the Baltic coast and attack Leningrad, and the task of Army Group South was to attack Kiev and the whole of Ukraine in the general direction, and eliminate the main force of the Soviet army in Ukraine west of the Dnieper River, with a source of 57 divisions and 13 brigades. In addition, two armies, Norway and Finland, directed to the north, carried out surprise attacks in the direction of Murmansk and Leningrad, respectively.

At the very beginning of the war, 66 airfields in the western part of the Soviet Union were heavily bombed, and the Soviet army lost more than 1,200 planes within half a day, of which 900 were destroyed at the airfields before they could take off. The command organs of the border military districts are basically paralyzed.

The German Army advanced 50-60 kilometers on the first day of the war. The Soviet State Defense Committee, in the face of unclear combat conditions, issued an unrealistic order that night, demanding that the border military districts carry out a fierce counterattack to destroy the invading enemy. This kind of blind command has worsened the situation at the front.

In the first week of the war, the Germans fought extremely easily by virtue of their sudden attack, superiority in weapons and equipment, long mobilization and concentration of troops, and combat experience. Army Group Center has advanced to Minsk, the political center of Belarus, the advance of Army Group South. Approaching Kiev, Army Group North had crossed the Western Dvina.

Although the Soviet government took urgent measures to change the forward military district into a front army and set up a Soviet high command, it could not be prepared before the outbreak of war due to a large amount of work. As a result, the Soviet army suffered a serious defeat at the beginning of the war, because the Soviet army's equipment was very outdated compared with the German army, the quality of the command personnel was poor, and the enemy's main attack direction was wrongly judged, so that as soon as the war began, 28 divisions were completely annihilated, and 70 divisions lost more than half of their personnel and weapons. According to the statistics of reports sent back by war correspondents of the Chinese Empire, in the first 18 days of the Soviet-German war. The Soviet Union lost 2,000 trains of munitions, 4,000 artillery pieces, 2,000 aircraft, 1,500 tanks, and 300,000 Soviet troops captured.

On land. The same is true at sea.

The main fleet of the German Navy, 8 ultimate battleships, 4 super battleships, 8 battlecruisers (fast battleships), as well as 32 light and heavy cruisers and more than 200 destroyers of various types, plus more than 100 U-boats were put into battle against the Soviet Navy in the Baltic Sea. At the same time, 6 German Charlotte-class escort aircraft carriers also took part in the battle, inflicting air strikes on Soviet coastal cities and naval bases.

On the eve of the outbreak of the Soviet-German war, the Soviet Navy had three fleets, the Northern Fleet, the Baltic Fleet, and the Black Sea Fleet.

By order of the People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR on May 11, 1937, the Northern District Fleet was reorganized into the Northern Fleet. A number of measures have been taken to further strengthen the strength of the warships and to improve the combat and political training of the crews. During the Soviet-Finnish War, the Northern Fleet successfully completed a series of important tasks to support and support the combat operations of the army units. ╔╗

At the outbreak of the Soviet-German war, the Northern Fleet had 2 battleships, 2 cruisers, 15 submarines, 8 destroyers, 7 frigates, 15 frigates, 2 minesweepers and 1 minelayer. Fleet aviation has 116 aircraft. During the war, a number of surface ships, submarines, and aircraft were transferred from the Caspian District Fleet to supplement the Northern Fleet. The coastal defense has 14 fixed artillery batteries of 100-180 mm and several 45-mm artillery batteries. In order to defend the coastal zone and coastal ports of the White Sea, as well as to perform other tasks, the White Sea Naval Base (located in Arkhangelsk) was formed within the formation of the Northern Fleet in August 1940, and in May 1941 it was reorganized into the White Sea District Fleet.

When the Germans blitzed the Soviet Union, the German Navy also launched an offensive in the area under the jurisdiction of the Northern Fleet. The formations of the Northern Fleet, in coordination with the 14th Army, smashed the German plans to capture naval anchorages on the Murmansk and Kola peninsulas in a short period of time.

The Black Sea Fleet was established on January 11, 1935, and Stalin renamed the Black Sea and Azov Sea Navies the Black Sea Fleet (with the main base in Sevastopol). During several five-year plans before the war, the Black Sea Fleet was replenished with dozens of new combat ships of various types and a number of auxiliary vessels. The aviation, coastal defense and air defense systems were established. By the beginning of the Soviet-German war, the Black Sea Fleet consisted of 1 battleship, 6 cruisers, 3 destroyers, 14 destroyers, 47 submarines, 4 gunboats, 2 torpedo boat detachments, several minesweeper groups, frigate and submarine hunting groups, as well as other ships and boats. The fleet aviation has a total of 625 aircraft of various types. In addition, the Danube District Flotilla and the reconstituted Azov District Flotilla were also incorporated into the Black Sea Fleet.

The Baltic Fleet was the main force of the Soviet Navy. During the Soviet-Finnish war, the fleet blocked the waters around the Gulf of Bothnia and the Gulf of Finland, attacked enemy bases and fleets, supported the forces of the Leningrad Front to break through the "Manaling Line" and attack Vyborg.

Before the start of the Soviet-German war, the Baltic Fleet consisted of 8 battleships, 4 battle cruisers, 2 heavy cruisers, 7 light cruisers, 2 destroyers, 19 destroyers, 48 torpedo boats, 69 submarines, 656 aircraft, several coastal defense regiments and air defense regiments. ╔╗ was one of the most combat-ready combined battle formations in the Soviet Navy, and its basic strength was stationed in Tallinn and Riga, facing off against the navies of Germany and Finland.

As a result of Stalin's implementation of the plan of operations with a heavy thunderstorm, on the eve of the Soviet-German war the fleet was strengthened in combat readiness. In the end, the Baltic Fleet effectively crushed the surprise attack of the enemy.

However, with the successive defeats of the Soviet army in the border war, the German army gradually invaded the interior of the Soviet Union. The stationing system of the fleet was seriously damaged by the Luftwaffe, and its activities were greatly restricted. Had to fight in an extremely complex situation.

In order to prevent the Baltic Fleet from being completely annihilated by the German Navy, the Soviet High Command ordered the Baltic Fleet to break through from the Gulf of Riga and return to St. Petersburg out of the desire to protect the ship.

The Soviet Navy at this time had 4 Soviet-class ultimate battleships, 6 super battleships, 6 battle cruisers, 14 light and heavy cruisers, as well as more than 300 destroyers of various types and more than 200 submarines in the Gulf of Riga.

The Soviet Navy, albeit in a weaker position than the German Navy. But in the Baltic Sea, the threat of the Soviet Navy to the German Navy was self-evident.

In order to destroy the Soviet Navy, the German General Staff Headquarters formulated a separate set of naval operations in the Barbarossa Plan, that is, to concentrate the main forces of the German High Seas Fleet and encircle the main forces of the Soviet Navy in the Gulf of Riga with a surprise attack.

In order to carry out the plan of the great thunderstorm to invade Germany, Stalin placed the main force of the Soviet Navy in the Gulf of Riga, Latvia, and prepared to raid the German Baltic Fleet in Poland at the first time. Then concentrate on dealing with the remaining battleships of the German Navy.

Stalin knew very well that the war against Germany would definitely be supported by the Entente, and although the conditions offered by Britain and France to the Soviet Union were not good enough, Stalin's plan for a great thunderstorm was based on this background. ╔╗ In the Reichstag of the Thunderstorm Plan, even if the German Navy had two-thirds of the ships left. It was still stronger than the Soviet Navy, but if the Anglo-French Entente Navy was included, the German Navy that could be divided against the Soviet Navy was pitifully few.

In the end, however, Hitler was quick to implement the Barbarossa Plan, and the Soviet Navy was caught by surprise, just like the Soviet Army.

However, relative to the Soviet Army, the losses of the Soviet Navy did not hurt the bones.

On the afternoon of July 22, 1941, the German Navy sailed into the Gulf of Riga to prepare for the annihilation of the main force of the Soviet Navy in the Gulf of Riga.

The commander of the Soviet Navy was not in the fleet, and the deputy commander, Vice Admiral Kikov, in order to save the ship, immediately ordered the Soviet fleet to flee to St. Petersburg. Although Kikov's original intention was to escape, he accidentally saved the power of the Soviet Navy and became a hero of the Soviet Union instead of being punished.

However, his escape was very dangerous, and he was almost wiped out by the German navy.

The German Navy never expected that the Soviet Navy would flee without a fight, which led to the German Navy's plan for a decisive battle with capital ships having to be hastily adjusted, and a cat-and-mouse pursuit battle was staged in the Gulf of Riga.

Three secret military airfields established in German Poland took part in air raids on the naval battle of the Gulf of Riga. Four air brigades were selected from the three air wings of Berlin, Hamburg, and Frankfurt, with 6 reconnaissance planes, 100 fighters, and 120 attack planes, totaling 226 aircraft. The air force received information at 5 p.m. on the same day, dispatched four reconnaissance planes at 6 p.m., 18 bombers took off 15 minutes later, and 15 more torpedo bombers took off at 7 p.m. ╔╗

But the Germans were not discouraged, they concluded that a huge fleet of the Soviet Navy could not have disappeared like this, and that it must have been secretly catty in places where the Germans did not often appear.

At 6 o'clock in the morning of the 23rd, the Germans sent nine reconnaissance planes, which were divided into two routes, and the search area was divided into 600 nautical miles and 250 nautical miles. Then 34 bombers took off at 7 o'clock, and 1 hour 35 later, 50 torpedo planes took off. But after a long search, he still found nothing, and he was about to return empty-handed.

At the critical moment, on the way back, the No. 3 search aircraft noticed a large wake on the sea more than 50 nautical miles from the island of Hiuma (the wake will disappear for a long time after the passage of large ships), so it judged that the Soviet fleet would pass from there.

It turned out that Kikov was too timid to take the main channel to the south, but secretly crossed the Saremaa Islands northwest of the Gulf of Riga, because there were many islands there, the route was complicated, and it was raining heavily on the day of his escape, just to avoid the detection of German planes.

Of course. Kikov didn't dare to go there, but it happened that a captain officer named Tovsky in the fleet had just completed a survey of the waters near the Saremaa Islands and discovered a waterway that could be passed by the ultimate Soviet-class battleship, which made Kikov take this hidden path as a last resort.

It was also because of the Soviet fleet that this just-discovered route was taken. This made it impossible for German intelligence to determine the location of the Soviet fleet, because their intelligence showed that the Saremaa Islands could not be passed safely by the ultimate battleships, so the German reconnaissance planes had given up searching that area before.

After the German Navy received the report. Immediately assemble so that the battleship abandoned the main channel and turned to the northwest course. Intercept the Soviet Navy before it escapes from the Gulf of Riga.

In order to delay the speed of the Soviet Navy, the German naval aviation, having received the report, ordered all nearby aircraft to turn at high speed to the target sea area. However, when the commander of the nearby German flying group received the order to receive the enemy, he found that the time, direction, and fuel he had brought were insufficient, and it was very difficult to achieve a satisfactory result, because the German aircraft group had been flying for more than five hours.

However, the Luftwaffe commanders chose to fight.

At 9:19 a.m., a group of German aircraft appeared over the Soviet fleet. A fierce naval and air battle began.

Although the Chinese Empire did not install the powerful Vulcan Phalanx system for the Soviet Union when it built the Soviet-class ultimate battleships, at the request of the Soviet Navy, the most advanced parallel anti-aircraft guns and anti-aircraft machine gun systems of the Chinese Empire were installed for them, and their air defense capabilities were equally strong.

The first wave of German planes was staring at the largest battleship Lenin, which was attacking the German planes with powerful anti-aircraft fire, flashing torpedoes and aerial bombs flying on the one hand.

At an altitude of 3,000 meters, seven of the eight German bombers were hit. Of the 75 torpedo planes that took part in the battle, 8 were destroyed, 11 were seriously injured and forced to land, 2 were seriously damaged, and 25 were damaged.

But. Still, a dozen German planes broke through the anti-aircraft fire network of the battleship Lenin, dropping aerial bombs and torpedoes.

At 9:23, the port side of the Lenin was hit by four torpedoes, and the powerful mine-proof longitudinal wall and watertight compartment system designed by the Chinese Empire played a role, and the mine-proof longitudinal wall blocked the armor-piercing attack of the three torpedoes. A torpedo tore through a 0.7-meter-wide opening, but was quickly shut down by two watertight compartments to block the backflow of seawater, and the impact on the battleship Lenin was minimal.

Similarly, the German planes that attacked the other three Soviet-class ultimate battleships failed to achieve results and instead lost a large number of aircraft.

As a result, the German aircraft group changed its tactics and abandoned attacking Soviet-class battleships in favor of other Soviet battleships with weaker anti-aircraft firepower.

The anti-aircraft fire of the Soviet-class battleships was due to the superior eight-mounted machine guns and two-mounted machine guns installed by the Chinese Empire. However, the Soviets bought the Soviet-class battleships with the money saved by tightening their belts, and after that, the Soviet Navy thought that it could also build anti-aircraft artillery, so the anti-aircraft guns on other warships were no longer imported from the Chinese Empire.

These Soviet warships, which were equipped with copycats, had their anti-aircraft firepower greatly reduced, and soon exploited the loopholes for German aircraft.

From 9:24 to 9:27, in just three minutes, the German torpedo planes attacking the battleship Gangut fired a total of 15 torpedoes, seven of which hit. Seawater quickly poured into the Gangut through the tear-open gap, filling most of the watertight compartments in less than two minutes, and the Gangut was filled with more than 2,700 tons of seawater, and its speed was quickly reduced from 27 knots to 6 knots.

At this time, the 500-kilogram bombs of several German dive bombers hit two more Ganguts, causing a large explosion in the powder magazine at gun position No. 4. The Gangut lasted less than seven minutes at sea before sinking.

On the other side, the battleship Marat was attacked by a total of 35 torpedo planes during this time. German aircraft fired 34 torpedoes and hit 14, almost all of which hit the stern. As a 250-kilogram bomb hit the rear bridge control tower, the stern of the 20,000-ton battleship, which was more than 10 years old, broke in two and sank to the bottom of the sea.

In order to protect the capital ships, many destroyers of the Soviet Navy took the initiative to block torpedoes dropped by German aircraft for the capital ships, and as a result, another 17 destroyers were sunk by mines.

The German planes were in a hurry to return home because they did not have enough fuel, so they hurriedly dropped all the torpedoes and aerial bombs, which was why the Soviet fleet was able to reduce its losses, otherwise more battleships would have been sunk.

After being attacked by the Germans, Vice Admiral Kikov was so frightened that he almost peed his pants, and despite the opposition of his men, he abandoned several wounded light cruisers and destroyers, and immediately ordered the whole fleet to move forward quickly. Moreover, before leaving, Kikov shamelessly ordered these wounded warships to turn around and go southwest to act as bait.

In this way, the main forces of the Soviet Navy, under the leadership of Kikov, advanced at full speed at all costs, and finally escaped before the German fleet blocked the exit, thus preserving the main forces of the Soviet Navy.

The German navy, which arrived later, did not dare to take risks easily because it was not familiar with the water ripples in the area, and finally gave up the idea of completely annihilating the Soviet Navy. However, several light cruisers and destroyers left behind by Kikov were sunk by the angry German Navy. (To be continued.) If you like this work, you are welcome to come to the starting point to vote for recommendation and monthly passes, and your support is my biggest motivation. )