From 5 a.m. on 25 January, the hearts of the people of the British Isles fluctuated with the content of the German broadcast to Britain. Germany's radio station against Britain broadcast the results of the battle on the front line almost immediately.

"The bombs dropped by my heroic and invincible German naval aviation in five minutes have hit the Nelson nine times in a row, and this old antique of the "Sunset Empire" should be completely destroyed! ”

"Hit, hit! A bomb dropped by JU87 hits the second turret of the Royal Oak! Woo, what a big fireworks, are the shells and propellant packets in the turret detonated? Let's guess whether the ammunition depot of the Royal Oak will be blown up by this blow, and after the Battle of Jutland, it is hoped that twenty years later the British will be able to correct the old problem of their warship's ammunition depot penchant for explosions. ”

"Hit, hit again! I just got the news that the Ramillis has been shot! The bomb dropped by JU87 hit the tail of the ship, listeners, friends, wait a minute, let me see the newly obtained message Well, this blow damaged the power system of the Ramillis, and the warship's steering gear now seems to be stuck, which is really unfortunate. ”

"It's miserable, it's miserable, like the hapless Nelson, the Malaya also suffered seven heavy bombs, two turrets were blown up, and the bow was blown up to the point where it didn't look like a man! It's so miserable. Let me see what the telegram says"

Navy Headquarters Building, Winston. Churchill's hand holding the cigar trembled slightly, and the battle situation on the front line, the Germans broadcast live to the whole of Europe with such a high-profile radio broadcast. Thanks to the host's "detailed commentary", the broadcasts of the British, through the Germans, were even more timely and detailed than the calls from the Germans themselves.

It was ten o'clock, and the battle was going on thousands of miles away, and the streets of the cities of the British Isles were much quieter than usual, because the vast majority of civilians were there. Now they are all at home, turning on the radio and listening to the Germans' broadcasts to the British. During the war, it was illegal to listen to "enemy radio", but at this moment when the sun never set on the final fate of the Imperial Royal Navy, no one paid attention to it.

The Royal Navy, which is engaged in a third decisive battle over the Norwegian Sea, is now in a very disadvantageous position, due to the two fatal flaws of lack of air supremacy and the slow speed of the capital ships. The last six remaining battleships of the Royal Navy were being repeatedly abused and beaten by the adversary's naval air forces.

For four hours after dawn, when the German Navy attacked the warship, it was JU87C dive bombers that were dispatched. Using an aircraft carrier hiding in the distance as a sea base, it repeatedly took off and landed fighter planes and dropped heavy bombs on British ships. In order to increase the efficiency of the attack, after the land-based bombers were eliminated, some German fighters also hung up small bombers to join the ranks of whipping British ships.

For a battleship with rough skin. The 700-kilogram heavy bomb was a little powerless to sink him directly. However, it can effectively destroy the anti-aircraft guns filled with the hull, and clear the way for the subsequent torpedo attack group to launch a fatal blow.

After the attack of the JU87C group at 9:15, the six British battleships each ate a different number of bombs.

The battleship Nelson, which was heavily cared for, swallowed nine shells, the Royal Oak suffered six, the Malaya and Courage received five each, the Ramillis received four shots, and the Resolve had a little better luck and also suffered two aerial bombs.

After this round of air strikes. The six capital ships of the Royal Navy, all of which were damaged. Only one of Nelson's wounded turrets No. 1 was able to turn normally. However, with his internal structure damaged, his hit rate is optimistic.

The remaining five battleships were all 2X4 turrets with a double-mounted eight-gun layout, and five of the 20 turrets of the five ships were directly or indirectly hit by aerial bombs in the air raid, causing damage of different ranges and were no longer able to be used normally. The fifteen-inch main guns capable of firing at the German ships normally, the five ships combined were only fifteen and thirty.

After the air raids. The German ship, which had previously made an "escape" gesture, changed course, and not only did not flee anymore, but took the initiative to move closer to the British ship, but at the same time deliberately kept a distance of 26,000 kilometers.

The fact that the German ships no longer fled would have been good news for the Royal Navy. But when the next wave of air strikes could hit the head at any time, this situation is definitely not a good thing. As a result of the air raid at 9:15, the German Navy lost only nine JU87Cs and many were wounded, but the Royal Navy can be said to have been "castrated" by the opponent and lost nearly half of its combat strength.

It's a shudder to think about.

After the air raid, the captain of the battleship Royal Oak, who was acting as the commander of the fleet, was already frightened and hesitant, knowing that another air raid like this would lead to the withdrawal of the home fleet. The German capital ships were approaching at this moment, precisely to entangle his fleet, and at the same time the artillery weakened the air defense of the ships in preparation for the next round of air raids.

Although the British saw the tactics of the German Navy, the situation faced by the Royal Navy at the moment was an out-and-out dead end, and they lacked speed to get rid of the entanglement of the opponent's water gunboats, nor could they outrun the planes. The only remaining ship is like a butterfly in a spider's web, no matter how much it struggles, it cannot escape the fate of final destruction.

At ten o'clock, when the returning JU87Cs landed on the aircraft carrier one by one to replenish fuel and ammunition, the German battleships that had turned back had already begun to exchange fire with the British capital ships. In the previous bombardment, the hull of the six British battleships was damaged, and the last night they ran at full speed for a long time, and now their boiler systems have reached their limits. The maximum speed of each ship generally dropped by two or three knots, and the speed of the British ships was even more pronounced compared to the scarn-class sisters who were in good condition.

Relying on the advantage of high speed close to 10 knots, the two Shane sisters easily controlled the distance of the two sides in the artillery battle between 27,000 and 28,000 kilometers. The British battleships in front of them were all "old guns" from the First World War era, and the shells they used were all "light bullets", and when the power dropped from a distance, the power dropped extremely strictly, and the hit rate became very bad. The only exception was the battleship Nelson, although the caliber was sixteen inches. But it also uses the wrong light bullet design, and the power is reduced in long-range artillery battles above 20,000 meters. In front of the turret armor of the Shane sisters, which was up to 450 mm thick, a fifteen-inch shell from 27,000 kilometers was simply not enough.

At a distance of about 27,000 kilometers, the two Shane sisters raised eighteen sixteen-inch (406 mm) gun barrels, taking advantage of their "big and good work" and rough skin. Fierce fire was fired at the British ship.

In this round of shooting, the German battleships did not use the "crab shells" of strong charge to fire the charge on a large scale like in the Battle of Bergen, and the shells fired were just ordinary blasting shells

Cannonballs fired with strong charges have a long range and great power, and the only flaw is the strict ablation of the barrel, after using this kind of shell, even if it is a modified barrel. The service life is only about 130 rounds. During the Battle of Bergen, one of the reasons for the sharp drop in the hit rate of the Shane sisters in the artillery battle after dawn was also the heavy use of "crab shells" in the artillery battle that night, which affected the later hit rate.

Based on the lessons learned from the Battle of Bergen, the 406 mm guns on the sister ships of the Shane were able to penetrate the main armor belt and detonate the ammunition depot of the Revenge-class or Queen Elizabeth-class battleships when 27,000 were fired. At the time of the Battle of Bergen. At that time, the two ships were also approaching a distance of about 18,000 kilometers before they were able to sink the ammunition depot of the two Sovereign-class battleships through gunfire. Hannah thought back in hindsight. At that time, the German ships on those two revenge-class battleships consumed too many shells, and the best way to sink the battleships quickly was to use torpedo attacks with good results.

So this long-range shot, the two sister ships fired both explosive and powerful blasting grenades. Its purpose was to sweep the deck, remove the remnants of anti-aircraft fire from the opponent's battleship, and pull out the "spikes" from the British battleship.

27,000 kilometers apart. The two Shane-class battleships were unhurried to bombard their opponents from a distance, and the auxiliary ships that lingered around them were not in a hurry to launch lightning strikes, but only to protect them from the destroyers of the British fleet. For the sake of safety, the two main German battleships were also in no hurry to approach the British fleet. It was only by virtue of the advantage of speed that the distance between the two sides was firmly controlled at the node of 25,000 kilometers.

With the level of gunnery in World War II, the general engagement distance of battleships of various countries is 20,000 meters, and beyond this distance, the hit rate will drop sharply. However, in real history, during the Norwegian War, in the battle in which the Scharn sisters sank the aircraft carrier Glory, there were 26,000 ultra-long hits, but most of these hits were "character bombs".

For the two magical post-Shane sister ships, they can still achieve a good hit rate at a distance of 27,000 kilometers due to the fact that they continue to provide accurate gun correction numbers. Lin Han and Hannah regretted the most that when they first designed the Scharn sister ships, because the German Navy had too many debts over the past ten years, it was already very reluctant to launch the 16-inch main gun and the 40,000-ton hull at that time. Although the main guns of the Shane-class battleships in service used a heavy bomb design, it was still a little too small to kill those Treaty-class battleships at a distance of 27,000 kilometers. Due to the fact that the caliber of the artillery is not large enough, it is the biggest regret of the two that they cannot fully give full play to the advantages of the perception and the number of shots of the two people.

The Yamato battleship, which is now under construction in Japan and is about to be completed, is equipped with a 460 mm eighteen-inch super cannon, which is the weapon that can truly give full play to the advantages of the two. It is a pity that the time point for Germany and Japan to exchange technology and experience in the manufacture of large-caliber artillery was too late, and it was too late to build battleships with larger-caliber guns.

In the main gun turrets of the two sister ships of the Shane, under the control of sailors, the warheads of the 1,200-kilogram blasting grenades were pushed diagonally from the lifters into the loading track. and pushed into place by a robotic arm. Then, after the propellant pack taken out of the metal container was filled into the chamber, the two Shane-class ships raised their gun barrels high, and all that remained was to wait for the "firing window" to appear.

A few seconds later, with a loud roar like the sky cracking, the front of the raised gun muzzle of the battleship Scharnhorst violently erupted into a storm of fire nearly sixty meters long, and the barrel in the center of the three turrets in the front, middle and rear opened fire first. The three red dragons soared into the air, spanning a long distance of 25,000 kilometers, and then fell diagonally under the force of gravity, smashing straight into the nearest battleship, the Malaya.

The battleship Gneisenau, which was sent by Lin Han, did the same. A half-salvo of first fire from the middle barrels of the three turrets aimed at the least wounded British ship of the Resolve. The only two pocket battleships in the fleet that could be hit at 27,000 kilometers were also dumping 283 mm blasting grenades at the British ships as "soy sauce".

At the same time, six British ships, including the battleship Nar, which had only one turret available, raised their guns regardless of the remoteness. Use all available main guns to fire on both German ships.

"Wow!"

In the midst of the thunder, six towering giant water columns and four thinner and shorter water columns suddenly rose on the surface of the sea, which was already boiling because of the war, and the former was even higher than the mast of the battleship Nelson.

"Is it a grenade? Damn Germans, what do they want to do? ”

The captains of the six British battleships judged at a glance from the height of the water column that had been blown up in the sea by the shots that had been lost in the sea, and that the German battleships were all grenades.

The first wave of test firing from the German battleships had a deviation of as little as 1,200 meters, while the British Navy's shells had a deviation of more than 2,000 meters.

"One turret. The deviation of the impact point is 1200 before and after, and the deviation from the left and right is 6 degrees! ”

"The No. 2 turret, the deviation of the impact point is 1400 before and after, and the deviation from the left and right is 7 degrees!"

"No. 3 turret, the deviation of the impact point is 1600 years before and after, and the deviation from the left and right is 7 degrees!"

On the Shane sister ship, Lin Han and Hannah reported the correction value of the deviation in the way of "human flesh" detection. The number of corrections reported by the two is jù. Compared with the real number jù, there is still a certain error. But it is much more accurate than the detection numbers of optical or fire control radar technology of this era.

After receiving the correction jù provided by Lin Han and Hannah, the pitch angle of the Shane guns was fine-tuned according to the new number jù from the central fire control room. Not only them, but also the other two pocket battleships, also received a number of signals from the channel.

In order to provide better and more accurate shots, both Lin Han and Hannah focused on one target. Two pocket battleships that "helped" on the side, they also had one ship. The targets for aiming and firing were also the Malaya and the Resolve.

Fifty-first seconds after the first round of test firing stopped, a new round of shells flew out of the chamber with a roar of earth-shattering rage. This time, the barrels on the left and right sides of the triple barrel of the shell were fired.

Dozens of seconds later, the captains of the Malaya and the Resolve were horrified to find the second round of school firing from the German battleship. The nearest deviation from the point of landing of the shell has been reduced to two hundred meters.

"Damn, how did the Germans hit so accurately!"

This was the moment the shell fell into the water, and the thoughts that all the captains of the British ships were surging in their minds at that moment, and there was no need for the guidance of the temporary flagship, and almost all the fleets issued orders at this moment to ask the battleships to advance at full speed and assault, approaching the distance from the German ships. At the same time, the destroyers and cruisers in the fleet were instructed to charge the German fleet again, and this played into the hands of the German Hannah.

Such light auxiliary ships were gathered only next to the main battleships and only strengthened their air defense. And after these ships left the team to launch a charge, the anti-aircraft fire network to protect the battleships was also greatly weakened.

In the chart room, the combat staff officer constantly issued instructions, instructed the two capital ships to correct their course, and continued to maintain a distance of 27,000 kilometers from the British ships, so that the British ships' delusions of wanting to get close came to naught. At the same time, Commander Raeder issued an order for the auxiliary ships in the fleet to make an all-out attack to intercept the British ships that had been stabbed in a honeycomb.

"They don't have a choice, they have to choose one over the other between the bad and the worse."

In the chart room of the Scharnhorst, Tashi Yamaguchi, who was observing the battle as a "VIP", sighed to Chiaki Matsuda.

Chiaki Matsuda, who also knew what the real trump card of the Germans was, was silent at this point.

Chiaki Matsuda fully understood what Yamaguchi had said.

The British battleships could continue to play this tactic of huddle up and increase the density of air defense, but the consequence of this was that the German battleships were slowly blown up by the 27,000-kilometer ultra-long fire of the German battleships and the long-distance washing of the deck with grenades. The sixteen-inch grenade could not penetrate the main armor belt of the battleship, but it was extremely ferocious when it was washed on the deck, and a single hit could destroy everything and people within a few tens of meters, which was the best means of destroying the auxiliary measures of the hull surface without thick armor protection. The six British battleships were hedgehog-like anti-aircraft guns, but most of these anti-aircraft guns were "naked", and a 16-inch grenade could almost wipe most of the anti-aircraft fire on one side.

If there is no air threat. The British had no choice but to give up these anti-aircraft guns and continue to play long-range combat bombardment with the Germans, but in the face of the severe threat of air strikes by German aircraft, the Germans made it clear that their main purpose was to destroy the opponent's anti-aircraft firepower, and then play with them at the rhythm of the Germans and shoot slowly and leisurely at a long distance, which was pure stupidity to wait for death.

The consequence of such a reckless charge would be a reduction in the density of the enemy's anti-aircraft fire network. But this is really the choice that the British are most forced to choose in the worst possible circumstances.

Standing still is death, fleeing is death, charging or death, the current Royal Navy is just doing the last struggle before dying.

The moment the three British aircraft carriers were sunk, the outcome of the Third Battle of the Norwegian Sea was already decided! After this battle, the total annihilation of the Royal Navy was a foregone conclusion.

I sighed for the former "world's first" navy in my heart, for a long time. Chiaki Matsuda regretted Yamaguchi's much-smelling afterthoughts: "They should have brought all the fighters with them when they attacked!" ”

Yamaguchi replied, "The empty mother is an offensive weapon, not a defensive weapon!" However, you are right about this, in today's battle, Britain's only chance of victory is that the planes brought by the sortie are all fighters, so that at least it can maintain its own defensive air supremacy. ”

As soon as the words were finished, the Scharnhorst shook violently, this time stronger than the previous rounds. After several rounds of corrective firing in a row. The Scharnhorst switched from a half-salvo to an all-out salvo.

Thirty seconds later, the familiar "voice of the god" in the chart room sounded again.

"The No. 3 barrel of turret No. 2 hit the port side of the Malaya. Destroy one ping-pong cannon, six single 20mm guns, and two 4.7-inch guns. ”

Listening to the results of the shelling of the battleship Scharnhorst, Chiaki Matsuda said to Yamaguchi in a slightly lost tone: "Yamaguchi-kun, you were right in the past, the era of big ships and huge guns. It's over indeed! ”

When the two were talking and exchanging, the battle outside the chart room had gradually heated up.

Due to the huge superiority of the German navy in speed close to ten knots, the distance of the exchange of fire between the main battleships of Britain and Germany has been controlled by the German side within a distance of 27,000 kilometers. The main warships of both sides have always thrown "stones" at each other at this "far" distance. And the "little brothers" under each other have been entangled in close proximity, and they have begun a tragic battle between the white knife and the red knife.

In this assault, the Royal Navy threw all the remaining 20 destroyers into the assault at once, and the remaining 12 cruisers also joined the attack.

The reason why all the chips were thrown into this battlefield at once was that the main battleship had no time.

The previously attacked JU87Cs are refueling and restocking, and it is inferred from time that they will reappear over the battlefield in a maximum of another hour. Having learned the lessons of the previous wave of attacks, the officers and men of the Royal Navy can guess how much of the combat power of their own battleships will remain after this wave of strikes.

Escaping is absolutely impossible to escape, and only by pressing it with all your strength and striking to the death can you win the chance of survival on that line.

On the German side, Hannah's ambitions and appetites were enormous.

In today's battle, her strategic purpose is to completely annihilate the main force of the Royal Navy participating in the war. Therefore, the combat tactics of the German fleet after dawn abandoned the most secure air attack tactics of long-range kite flying. Because although this tactic can ensure that the battleships of the side are unscathed and achieve an N-to-zero result, this value of N is still too small and not big enough in Hannah's opinion.

The battlefleet took the initiative to advance and was able to entangle the opponent through artillery battles, but it was the greatest guarantee for the total annihilation of the British Royal Navy in today's World War. Now the Royal Navy has been forced to carry out a desperate assault, and this situation is exactly what she wants to see. (To be continued......)

PS: I have fixed the duplicate BUG in chapter 278 and chapter 279 above, and it was the wrong chapter when I corrected the typos this morning.

Friends who read books on mobile phones, due to the bug of mobile phone memory, to see the modified chapters, you have to clean up the memory, update and correct to see.

The quickest way is to remove the phone from the shelves and put it back on the shelves. When you open it again, it will be restored.