Listening to John Tovey's words, the staff officer next to him reluctantly smiled and said, "Could it be a coincidence?" The Axis fleets were not supported by air forces in the first place, and it was normal for their land aviation to come to escort them frequently. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ”

John Tovey shook his head and said, "According to the report, their fleet is still nearly two hundred kilometers from land, and each time the German army fighter plane comes there are more than thirty, this time it even reached forty or fifty, how many planes will they deploy in Spain?" He must have had a purposeful purpose in their sorties, and I suspect that our plane didn't take off for long. Their plane departed, otherwise, it would never have been. ”

"So how did the Axis know about it?" Someone wondered.

John Tovey said with some uncertainty, "Maybe there's a submarine watching between our two armies." ”

"Report! The latest military information, due to our air raids, several ships may be slowed down due to water ingress! The speed of the detected enemy is now only 21 knots. A non-commissioned officer came over and reported.

When John Tovey heard this, he was immediately overjoyed and said, "This is great, no matter how much preparation they have, but strength is also the most important thing, our strength is much stronger than them now, as long as we catch up, we can win in one battle!" ”

Saying that, John Tovey no longer worries about whether there are submarines lurking on the road, and in his mind, even if the mixed fleet knows that it is coming, it will be difficult to have one more battleship.

At 17 o'clock, the British troops rushed at full speed on the mixed fleet, and at the same time launched another air attack, which wounded the Tirpitz in the Combined Fleet, and its main guns had difficulty turning, which was later restored after emergency repairs.

This was the end of the day, and in the darkness of the night, both sides relaxed, and the clouds in the sky slowly obscured the stars, and experienced sailors knew that in three days there might be a heavy rain.

At three o'clock in the morning on April 28, the British fleet was discovered by a German submarine lurking in the middle, and the mixed fleet began to regroup according to the British formation.

At 4:20 a.m., the mixed fleet was changed from an anti-aircraft formation to a combat formation, with four battleships lined up in a battle line, and the rest of the ships formed a formation to escort the battleships around them.

At 5:30 a.m., it was still extremely dark, and the British and German troops discovered each other's traces shortly after each other, and the two sides were about 40,000 meters apart, less than 110 kilometers from land.

In the dark, neither side can see each other's situation clearly, and can only rely on radar to determine the approximate location of the other. Both sides were equipped with fire control radars, which were almost the same in terms of performance, but some of the radars in the Axis fleets were not functioning properly due to several air raids. Neither side took the initiative to open fire, but continued to slowly approach.

In one of the rooms of the George V, a Canadian named Stewart was staring at the screen in front of him, this was the control room of the fire control radar, Stewart was a little nervous, after all, it was the first time that such a big battle was coming.

Due to the early development of the British radar, it can be said that it was first-class at this time, but the British Navy has not yet become accustomed to the new gadget of fire control radar, according to reason, Stewart will record the data transmitted by the radar, and then transmit the data to a special person through the small counting dial on the M-type transmitter, who will read it and input it into the computer. But the reality is that this set of work was only tested once before the war, and it can be said that everyone is not really sure whether this set of tools is good or not.

Stewart suddenly found that all the ships on the opposite side scanned by the radar were facing him horizontally, and the opponent's formation had already been arranged? Is this a trap??

Everyone knows the importance of the T-prefix in naval warfare, and the key to grabbing the T-prefix is to look at the speed, and your own fleet can catch up with the mixed fleet, and it can be seen that the British army should have a greater advantage in speed, how can it become like this?

Stewart hurriedly walked out of the radar room to report upward, and by the time John Tovey knew that the opposite side had set up a position, the distance between the two sides had shrunk to 30,000 meters.

When John Tovey learned of the situation on the other side, he immediately shouted, "Quick! Speed up, go around and regain the T-prefix! ”

The T-shaped often changes hands in naval battles, and re-grabbing requires not only being faster than the opponent, but also enduring a period of disadvantage first, and John Tovey has the confidence to get through it.

Five forty-two a.m

At 27,000 kilometers, the main guns of both armies could threaten each other, and Lütjans was the first to give the order to open fire, and the first salvo of four battleships was fired, and 32 380-mm guns were fired together, announcing the start of the battle.

As the British army was still on the march, the targets of the four battleships were all aimed at the front heavy cruiser Sussex, as a heavy cruiser in the Ordinance period, although there were eight eight-inch guns, but the defense was sacrificed to the waterline armor 89 mm, deck armor 76 mm, and the thickest ammunition compartment was only 114 mm, thinner than the latest tank lying in the German factory, although only two of the 32 shells hit the Sussex, But more than 800 kilograms of shells pierced the Sussex's armor with great ease, and then exploded inside the ship's hull, and in the dark night, the Sussex was as obvious as a torch, and the British fleet around it gasped.

One shot into the soul!

The Richelieu-class battleships were equipped with 8 guns in 4 groups, but in fact, the 4 guns in the turret were divided into two groups, and the two guns in each group were linked, and the 2 guns in the other group were relatively independent, and at the same time, a loading system called "elastic loading" was adopted, which increased the combat rate of fire of the guns, making them significantly faster than other ships. A minute later, two Richelieu-class battleships were the first to fire a second salvo, targeting two large ships, the heavy cruiser Dorsetshire and the Duke of York.

The British fleet also began to return fire, but at this distance, only the main guns of the battleships were really lethal, and the heavy patrol 200-mm guns could not be a danger to the German and French battleships.

It is true that only battleships can deal with battleships.

The two Bismarck-class battleships then began a second salvo, targeting the British capital ship George V. But the nearest point of the salvo shells was four or five hundred meters.

John Tovey saw that he had just opened fire and that he had lost a heavy cruiser, and immediately shouted in a rage, "Return fire!" Fight back!! Contact the aircraft carriers now and let them come to their aid! ”

The British counterattack began, although due to the angle problem, not able to use all the artillery, but still powerful, the first British salvo was fruitless, the British destroyers, cruisers accelerated speed, divided into two lines, one to guard around the battleship to prevent possible submarine attacks, and one to rush forward to prepare for close shooting or lightning strikes.

The battle was in full swing, and the sky was still dark, except for the artillery fire from the shooting.

The current situation of the battle is that the British fleet is turning and trying to figure out how to approach like the Combined Fleet, which is controlling its speed while continuing to move closer to land.

In the third salvo, with the assistance of the new fire control radar and the commander, the German ship hit the George V with a shell, and its 15-inch armor successfully resisted the impact of the shell, leaving only a black recess, but the recess was close to the bow and stern direction There are some cracks, which can be seen that the limit of armor defense has almost been reached.

In the third salvo, the French ship Jean Barr fired two shells less than 200 meters away from the Dorsetshire, forming a straddle fire.

The British army's combat idea was to concentrate firepower to offset the unfavorable status quo of their formation, and a 721-kilogram shell hit the German ship Bismarck, which was also considered an arrow, but this 721-kilogram shell could not break the defense at all, which was also expected.

The two armies continued to exchange fire, and the distance had been reduced to 24,000 meters, which was the result of mixed fleet control, after all, the German and French warships had the advantage of defense, and they could protect themselves to the greatest extent by shooting from a distance.

At this time, the aircraft carrier group hanging behind began to prepare for takeoff, just waiting for dawn, because the clouds covered the stars and the moon, at this time to take off, the pilot of the plane could not correctly distinguish the difference between the sky and the sea, and it was very easy to cause accidents.

The two battleship detachments of the H Fleet that came to the rescue, still about 110 nautical miles away from the exchange of fire, were speeding up, and Vice Admiral James Somerville, who commanded them, was not nervous, and in his heart, the biggest effect of rushing to the battlefield was probably to break through the opponent's psychological defense line and make the opponent surrender.

At 6:03 a.m., the Dorsetshire was pierced by shells under the fifth salvo of French ships, and thousands of tons of seawater poured in rapidly, and the speed dropped rapidly.

The distance between the two armies was reduced to 23,000 meters, and the assault formations of British destroyers and cruisers began to exchange fire with the destroyers and cruisers of the combined fleet.

At 6:07, the George V hit the Bismarck again, and the two hit shells still could not break through the defense. This defensive power made the corners of John Tovey's mouth jump.

At 6:10, the Nelson, one of the BIG7 kings of treaty-type battleships, hit the Bismarck with his 406 mm gun, and the huge lethality directly set off one of his secondary guns, causing the Bismarck to ignite a raging fire and suddenly become a light in the darkness.

John Tovey was overjoyed by this result, and he immediately said, "Order the battle line to attack the enemy's capital ship that is on fire, and take it down!" ”

At 6:13, the sky began to light up, and the British planes, which had been preparing for a long time, immediately began to take off, ready to enter the battle.

At 6:14, the battleships of both sides had completed more than ten salvos by this time, but none of the eight battleships were seriously damaged.

At 6:17 a.m., the Dorset was shot again and began to sink.

Lu Teyans looked at his watch, then looked at the sky and said, "Order the fleet to speed up, prepare for air defense battles, and life and death depend on this one!" ”

At 6:15, the Combined Fleet suddenly accelerated, reaching nearly 30 knots after ten minutes, such a speed surprised John Tovey, the reason why he was able to catch up with the attack on the Combined Fleet was because after the air raid, the speed of the Combined Fleet was greatly reduced, but now it seems that this is a play played by the Combined Fleet, he can't help but feel a little chill in his back, such a big drama, its purpose is naturally not small.

But to this extent, the battle had to go on, and the British fleet began to accelerate, but the Nelson suddenly became embarrassed, because his top speed was only less than 24 knots, which made him gradually break away from the battle line, but fortunately his main guns were larger in caliber and had a longer range, and he did not delay participating in the battle for a while.

At 6:18, Tirpitz hit the forward section of the Prince of Wales, the shell piercing the deck armor, removing one of its secondary guns and igniting a fire.

At 6:19, Jean Barr's radar fire control was hit.

At 6:27, the British Air Force took off and began to form a formation to the main battlefield.

On the main battlefield, the two sides are inseparable, John Tovey really can't understand the intention of the Combined Fleet, such a long-range attack for the battleship, may not be effective for a day, which is actually not good for the Combined Fleet, after all, he still has planes to join the attack. In time, the German army and aviation will provide support, but it is still too much to lose.

At 6:34 a.m., the first battle of the battleship was won by the Richelieu, whose main guns struck the rear horizontal armor of the Duke of York, whose armor belt gradually decreased in the direction of the bow and stern, and this blow made a large hole, and damaged its power system, and its speed dropped from 29 to 25 knots, and it had to be regrouped.

At 6:41, the British air force reached the main battlefield and began to attack the Combined Fleet at 49 minutes. Unsurprisingly, John Tovey was less than seven minutes into the air raid before the German Army arrived, and an air battle broke out over the main battlefield.

At 6:43, a message reached John Tovey's hands, and when John Tovey saw this telegram, he couldn't believe his eyes, he rubbed it desperately, and when he looked again, he was sure that he was really not dazzled.

This is a farewell telegram, sent by the Victory and the Dreadnought, indicating that they were hit by German submarines and were attacked by four and seven respectively, the Dreadnought disintegrated and sank very simply, the Victory held out for a while, but it was also powerless, and the other two aircraft carriers were not focused on because they were smaller, one was slightly injured, and the other lost power.

John Tovey didn't want to dwell on where these submarines came from, or why the destroyers he left behind weren't well guarded, or if the damn submarines had been caught, and he looked at the fighters in the sky who were still fighting, and what he was supposed to say to these pilots... Well, your house was bombed, why don't you parachute out, and how about we take a boat home?