Eight fifty-four o'clock

A group of fighters flew over from the east in black pressure, looking at these fighters, the soldiers of the combined fleet couldn't help cheering, it was not other planes, all German planes, and they were all dive bombers, there were forty or fifty of them, these were Stukka, although they were ordinary models, and there were no torpedoes that were the most effective against battleships, but they carried huge semi-armor-piercing bombs weighing 1000KG, and the Royal Fleet finally ushered in the day of being bombed by aircraft. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

The first target to be targeted was the Nelson, perhaps because he was the slowest, falling to the rear, and the gun barrel was the largest, as the air force they would not look at anything else, but the thick barrel was powerful, and the 1000Kg bomb fell from the sky, just smashed into the position between the two main guns, and the shock wave generated by the explosion forced the Nelson's gun barrel to lift up a little.

This is just the beginning, Goering has made a lot of money this time, Stuka's pilots are all selected excellent pilots, which is why it will be so slow to arrive, Goering wants to use this battle to prove that the Navy does not need its own aircraft, and the Air Force can do all of this.

Forts were often broken through from within, and the Nelson was very well defended, but like all warships, its deck could not have been covered with steel plates three or four hundred millimeters thick, and his armor was only 152 millimeters.

I only saw countless whistling Stuka constantly pulling himself up, rising to an altitude of two or three thousand meters, and then falling from the sky like performing acrobatics, the angle of nearly 90 degrees made many anti-aircraft guns useless, the naval soldiers on the deck finally realized the fear in the mouths of those army troops, listening to the whistling sound getting closer and closer, countless people shouted like crazy, but they could not stop the one-ton bomb on the Stuka plane from rushing down with huge inertia, and Stuka naturally pulled up the nose and flew up.

Dive bombers usually hit tanks several meters wide, and now they are asked to bomb this hundred-meter-long giant ship, although the battleship is constantly maneuvering, but the hit rate is still surprisingly high, as long as the German planes are not hit by anti-aircraft fire, five or six out of ten will accurately hit the bomb on the deck of the battleship, and for a while it is not clear whether the battleship was hit by the combined fleet or bombed by the aircraft.

The deck of the Nelson was full of dead corpses, but maybe it was luck, such a bombardment did not hit its ammunition depot or boilers and other important parts, John Tovey on the heavy cruiser Norfolk in the distance slowly lowered the binoculars, his tears slowly slipped down, it was so miserable, the aircraft carrier force was almost completely wiped out, all the battleships were injured, one of them sank, one lost its combat power, one slowed down, one was beaten by the air force, it had to be decided, Otherwise, the great Royal Navy could really lose four capital ships here, and as for the destroyers and cruisers that had the upper hand, they would not be able to change the overall situation at all in such a naval battle. Once the main force of the Combined Fleet is victorious, it is easy to shoot those destroyers or cruisers to death.

But there is still hope, John Tovey has not forgotten that he still has reinforcements, which is why he is desperate to retreat, he looked at the time, it is almost nine o'clock, and the only way now is to wait for reinforcements. He immediately asked, "Send a report and ask, where are the Warriors and the Resolve?" ”

After a while, the payoff came.

"What, it won't be until eleven o'clock, and that's three hours? We can't hold on for that long. John Tovey was well aware of his current situation, and he decisively gave the order to retreat: "Order the George V to hold out to the end, and if it really can't be done, sink itself!" Can't leave it for the Germans, after ordering the Nelson to be broken, they should prove their loyalty to the British Empire, and order the Duke of York to lead the retreat to the battlefield, retreat in the direction of five o'clock, there are reinforcements from the H fleet over there, as long as they can meet them, they will be safe! In addition, the destroyer and cruiser formations are responsible for covering, and the whole army is retreating while fighting, hurry, I will go to the Yorke and continue to command the battle! ”

At 9:13, the whole British army retreated, and Lytyans, who had discovered the situation, of course would not let his rare victory end like this, and immediately began to give the order: "Order!" The Bismarck went to deal with the George V, the Tirpitz pursued head-on, and the Richelieu and Jean Barr used their speed advantage to get around and couldn't let them slip away! Fast! Call a destroyer, I will go to the front to command, Bismarck can no longer be a flagship. ”

The Duke of York, the only most complete combat force of the British army, was only 25 knots, and the Nelson was less than 20 knots, although the speed of the three capital ships of the Combined Fleet also decreased even more, but it was only a matter of time before the Duke of York caught up, but the destroyers and cruisers that constantly harassed made the Combined Fleet extremely tired, and as for the Combined Fleet's own destroyers and cruisers, most of them had sunk and seriously damaged because they were outnumbered.

Although the speed of the two ships of the Richelieu class has also decreased compared to the time of the battle, they can still maintain a high speed of 27 to 28 knots, especially the Jean Barr, whose power is the latest model, with a full 165,000 horsepower, and the maximum speed can reach 32 knots at the beginning of the war, and it can also sail at a speed of more than 30 knots at this time.

The George V, which stayed behind, had no combat power at all, and under the threat of the approaching Bismarck, it finally began to sink itself at 9:37, and the self-sinking lasted for a full hour before it ended, fully demonstrating the unyielding courage of the British army, looking at the self-sinking George V, the German troops on the Bismarck felt a lot in their hearts, who remembers, once upon a time, the high seas fleet that was forced to sink itself....

On the other side, the pursuit lasted for almost an hour, the distance between the Tirpitz and the Nelson was shortened to less than 10,000 meters, the two ships continued to bombard, the cannon sounded, and the smoke billowed out, Nelson's defense is indeed very strong, and the attack power is not low, you fire a salvo on both sides, I fire a salvo against each other, at this distance, the shells of both sides can break the armor, which makes the battle extremely fierce.

The Richelieu and Jean Bar had already managed to overtake the main forces of the Royal Home Fleet, and in just another hour they would cut off their return route completely.

At this time, another group of planes flew, still German dive bombers, but this time they were no longer hanging bombs, but thick torpedoes.

This is Stukka's improved Ju87E, which is also hung with torpedoes that are more suitable for naval warfare, looking at these torpedo machines, the Royal Fleet can't help but let out a wail, and the corresponding is the cheers of the Combined Fleet.

The Stukas first detoured to the Richelieu and Jean Bar, and then lowered the altitude to a distance of less than 100 meters from the sea surface.

Fighting an airplane at a distance of one or two kilometers is not a simple matter for the fleet on the waves, if it was just at the beginning of the war, it was okay to have complete personnel, but now that it has been fighting for several hours, many anti-aircraft guns have been blown up, and more importantly, the royal home fleet has not lined up the air defense formation at all, which makes their counterattack impossible to knock down a few planes at all, and can only constantly maneuver and dodge.

"Boom!" A light cruiser was hit after dodging two or three torpedoes, this was the first one, and then the battleships were constantly shot, and by the time the planes shook their butts and left, even the broken Nelson was hit by two fish, which made him even slower and more about to fall behind.

The Duke of York was still safe and sound under the premise that the two destroyers were blocking mines for him, but John Tovey on the battleship already felt the smell of death, and if reinforcements arrived, then it really couldn't be withdrawn.

At 10:27 a.m., the Richelieu and Jean Bar made another turn, ready to outflank.

"Quick! Generate electricity again to confirm how long it will take for the H fleet to arrive. John Tovey asked again.

Just as the dispatcher was delivering the news, a cheer came, and a soldier came in and shouted happily, "Reinforcements are coming!" Our reinforcements are coming! It's the H Fleet!! ”

Ten forty-three minutes

At the most critical moment, the two capital ships of the H Fleet in the Mediterranean rushed to the battlefield.

Looking at everything on the battlefield, Vice Admiral James Somerville, who led the team, couldn't believe his eyes, the Royal Navy was actually at a disadvantage in naval battles? Nelson was beaten to the point of dying, two of the four battleships were left, George V and the Prince of Wales were gone, and he would not have guessed that it was their bad mood that caused them to fall behind, the only possibility was that it had sunk, God, when was the last time such a loss was made? Even in the last Battle of Jutland, the Royal Navy did not lose 2 battleships at once, oh, look, the Nelson seems to be almost immobile, yes, three.

The current situation was that the Tirpitz and other ships of the Combined Fleet were in the far north, the Royal Home Fleet was in the middle, the Combined Fleet Richelieu and Jean Bar had already interspersed the Royal Home Fleet, and the Royal Mediterranean H Fleet was at the southernmost point, about 30,000 meters away from the Richelieu and Jean Bar fleets, and was immediately within the range of operations. The Warrior and the Resolve are both old ships, with a speed of only about 25 knots, which is due to the change of power system, but after all, they are new forces, and they fired fiercely at the nearest French battleship Richelieu in the first blow, and formed a flanking attack on the two ships together with the British home fleet.

The battlefield immediately began to divide, and the two French ships began to face the H fleet, and the Tirpitz quickly prepared to seize the Nelson in a hurry, and then go after the Duke of York.

At this time, an extremely dramatic scene appeared, the No. 2 main gun of the Richelieu suddenly exploded, and the huge barrel was forcibly blown into two, and at the same time the entire turret was blown open by a small half, and none of the gunners inside survived.

Everyone watching this scene was stunned, and Lu Teyans, who got the news from a distance, simply scolded his mother.

As a party, the Richelieu was also stunned, he had a total of eight main guns, but this explosion made half of his firepower unable to fire, and such an accident made the gunners of the main guns of the two French ships a little frightened, even if they were killed by the enemy's shells, this was killed by their own main guns, what is it. Such a farce can't help but add a touch of comedy to the brutal sea battle.

John Tovey jumped for joy when he saw such a scene, it seems that the goddess of victory still favors the British fleet?

The Richelieu formation, which had lost a quarter of its firepower, suddenly suppressed the H fleet on the opposite side, although it was an old ship, but it was equipped with 15-inch guns, which was already stronger than the French ships in artillery bombardment, and Germany did not equip the French warships with the latest radar fire control, so that the modernized H fleet slowly gained an advantage.

Looking at such a situation, fearing that a good victory would be reversed, the commander of the Combined Fleet, Lutyans, ordered that it would be taken as long as the Nelson was taken, and at this time, the speed of the Nelson had basically dropped to five or six knots, and it had become a fixed water target, and there was an extremely obvious inclination.

At eleven :27, the Richelieu changed direction and began to retreat, seeing this, the H fleet, which was the first to rescue, did not pursue, but covered the retreat of the home fleet.

At eleven thirty-two a.m., the Nelson saw that there was no hope of breaking through and began to sink itself.

At 11:37, with the last run, the Battle of the Eastern Atlantic was over, and the French Major General Mazen walked up to the Tirpitz and came to Lütjans, and said with some embarrassment, "Your Excellency, we are also surprised by this matter. ”

Lu Teyans shook his head and said, "This matter is not your responsibility, although the life of the battleship's main guns is not long, but it will never explode after less than a hundred rounds, I will report this matter to the Führer, we have to check it carefully to see if it will be because of spies." ”

Mazen didn't expect Lütjans to speak for himself, and immediately felt grateful, looked at the sinking Nelson and said, "It's just a pity that they didn't all take them all, and now the Duke of York and the H fleet are back to the Gibraltar fortress, and the battle there will probably be even more difficult." ”

Lu Teyans smiled and said, "This matter.... Who knows. ”

"Report! A telegram from General Dönitz. A sailor came in and said.

"Read!"

"The seventh and eighth detachments of our sea wolf have arrived at the designated position, please inform the other party of the possible arrival time."

Lu Teyans clapped his hands and exclaimed, "Good! Tell Dönitz that the other party has just left the main battlefield and will arrive at his location in about seven to eight hours, let him get ready and give the other party a big gift! ”