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"Come on! It's our turn, lads! ”

The distance of forty-five kilometers was enough for the aircraft carrier "Ark Royal" to react, and the experienced captain of the ship, Commodore Calis, immediately ordered to turn the rudder to the 070 course to make the bow wind. The 20 SeaSpitfires had already been prepared to take off first, and due to the urgency of time, the fighters rushed to the German fleet almost without any formation.

Pang Xun's plane was lined up behind the dive bomber, and when the last "Yaksha" left the deck, Major Esmond in the front seat immediately increased the throttle and released the brakes. Driven by the 2,000-horsepower twin Mustang engines, the "Osprey U," carrying 730 kg of British-made aviation torpedoes and six British 27kg rockets, rushed into the sky with only 97 meters of runway.

After ascending to the sky, Pang Xun immediately turned on the camera and pointed it in the direction of the fighter. At this time, the first wave of the "Sea Spitfire" had stopped the German JU87D4 dive bomber, although the Stuka was famous in Europe, it was obviously not a good carrier-based attack aircraft. On the contrary, in addition to the tail hook problem that often causes landing damage, the "Sea Spitfire" has a very strong combat capability, with two 20 mm cannons and four 7.62 mm machine guns killing and causing damage.

With the advantage of numbers, the "Sea Spitfire" quickly separated the JU87D4 one by one, and the sky was full of fighters chasing and fighting. But to Pang Xun's surprise, he didn't see a German escort fighter. "Colonel, did you see the German fighters?" "No, they must be hiding nearby." Esmond was also puzzled, and suspiciously ordered all planes to strengthen their vigilance, but until all the "Yaksha U" and "Osprey U" took off, the German fighters were still nowhere to be seen.

At this time, the "Sea Spitfire" had shot down nearly half of the JU87D4 dive bombers, and the rest were exhausted by the anti-aircraft guns of the battleship "Prince of Wales" and 3 destroyers. Seeing this, Major Esmond decided to attack the enemy aircraft carrier along the route from which the German planes came, so he asked Rear Admiral Calis to send 8 "Sea Spitfire" escorts.

Brigadier General Calis agreed to his request, and gave him command of all 43 attack planes (one of which failed to take off), and asked to attack the most threatening aircraft carrier "Zeppelin" first. But what people didn't know was that if they didn't cross the skies over Iceland and took the strait to the north, they would first see the Bismarck-class battleships moving south. But as Major Esmond said afterwards at the naval hearings: "Even if I had discovered Bismarck first, I would not have attacked, because my first target was Zeppelin." "As a world-class navy, the British know that the aircraft carriers must be taken out in order to maximize the safety of their fleet.

Just ten minutes after Pang Xun's random group left, 20 FI-167s slowly appeared above sea level.

At this time, the remaining 12 Sea Spitfires were still strangling the last few JU87D4 dive bombers, although the radar of the "Prince of Wales" warned in advance and directed the fighters to intercept, but the Fi-167 had a strong low-altitude ability, ensuring that it was less than 25 kilometers away from the target when it was discovered. At this critical juncture, the essence of the British and German navies finally appeared, and the British pilots immediately divided 8 to intercept, while 4 destroyers quickly rushed to the middle of the aircraft carrier and torpedo planes. The FI-167 had clearly seen the "Ark Royal", which was evading maneuvers and had no fighter cover in the sky, but it still rigidly went to deal with the battleship first.

The FI-167 biplane torpedo aircraft was comparable to the British "Swordfish" torpedo aircraft, with good low-altitude ability but poor maneuverability, and immediately dispersed when it saw the "Sea Spitfire". However, as a cutting-edge battleship, the "Prince of Wales" still has a strong air defense capability, and the 16 **mm high-level dual-purpose guns quickly built a long-range barrier with a barrage. More importantly, after purchasing "Zhengzhou-made" 40-mm and 25-mm anti-aircraft guns and patents from China, Britain has changed the original eight quadruple bangbang guns to 20 twin 40-mm anti-aircraft guns and 16 single-mounted 25-mm rapid-fire guns. These two prototypes of Zhengzhou-made anti-aircraft are derived from the famous Bofors drawings, because the production equipment is three years earlier than Bofors and the surname can be better, so as early as 1935, it was exported to Poland, Norway and other countries, squeezing Bofors into a corner. Now it almost dominates the field of small-caliber anti-aircraft artillery, and even the U.S. Navy bought the L60 patent in 1938, and the more powerful L70 after the Cape Town Conference. Up to now, including self-produced and imitation, there have been sales records of 100,000 units, including 60,000 units of 25-mm rapid-fire guns made in Zhengzhou, which has become a real "barrier of air defense of all countries." ”

The dense projectiles ejected from 56 "Zhengzhou-made" doors formed a sharp metal barrier over the battleship, and several FI-167s were shot down in an instant. But the German pilots were still very sophisticated, and the vast majority of them had long experience in fighting the British, so they still found the time to fire six torpedoes at the "Prince of Wales". Although the captain tried his best to dodge, he still ate three, so that the battleship with a full load of more than 40,000 tons kept circling on the sea.

If you eat three torpedoes on another warship, there will definitely be a tilt, but the "Prince of Wales" does not. Its super underwater multi-layer "sandwich" structure anti-torpedo compartment effectively reduces the continuous destructive power of the torpedo, and the displacement capacity of the hull is 2400 tons per hour, ranking first in the world!

But in any case, the slowed down "Prince of Wales" withdrew from the ensuing battle.

After heavy damage to the battleship, the remaining 4 FI-167s remembered to attack the aircraft carrier, but it was too late and were shot down by the "Sea Spitfire" and dense anti-aircraft artillery that drove back. Of the 36 German attack planes that sorted, only 5 escaped the pursuit.

But they have nowhere to land!

By the time the German attack aircraft group was returning, Major Esmond had already spotted the aircraft carrier "Zeppelin" and the "Lützov" heavy patrol towed 20 nautical miles behind the "Bismarck." Without any hesitation, the "Sea Spitfire" took the lead in rushing up to stop 10 **F109T, and the attack aircraft group also made a detour to the north and launched an attack on the two ships along the separated airspace.

Compared with the anti-aircraft firepower of the "Prince of Wales", the anti-aircraft firepower of the German ship is weaker than a little, especially the criticized 37-mm hand-pulled machine, which is not comparable to the "made in Zhengzhou" at all. What surprised Pang Xun the most was that the "Zeppelin" aircraft carrier was actually equipped with 16 150-mm naval guns for sea operations! You know, no matter how large the tonnage of the battleship is, every inch of space is very cherished, the aircraft carrier is not easy to arrange anti-aircraft guns because of the open deck, and the German Navy even uses hundreds of tons of tonnage to install heavy artillery, which really makes him feel that the German Navy has been castrated too hard since the last naval defeat! So much so that it seriously lags behind the world naval current.

12 105-mm anti-aircraft guns, 22 37-mm hand-pulled machines and 28 20-mm rapid-fire guns could not stop the swarming "Yaksha U" and "Osprey U".

At 6:20 a.m., the first "Yaksha-U" dive bomber broke through the defensive circle and could resist the armored deck of 500-pound bombs, but could not block the 800kg aviation armor-piercing bombs imported from China. The bomb easily penetrated the amidship deck and exploded when it penetrated deep into the hangar. The violent explosion gave the invincible Germans on the ground the bitter fruit of both ideological and technical backwardness, and the poor ventilation system added to the power of the bombs. Pang Xun's camera clearly recorded the spectacular sight of the bomb hitting the target and then the flames erupting from both sides of the lower deck.

Seeing that the "Zeppelin" was shot, **F109T frantically wanted to rush into the battle circle to chase and kill the attack aircraft group, but in the face of the interception of the much more powerful "Sea Spitfire", many planes were shot down instead.

After the first bomb hit, the attack was much easier, and in just five minutes "Zeppelin" received four bombshells. The explosion distorted the deck, littered with corpses and blood spots, and flames scurried back and forth in the enclosed hangar, engulfing more German sailors. "Let's go!" When the dive bombers left, Major Esmond shouted and led the "Osprey U" attack planes to launch a torpedo attack on the two ships from multiple angles at the same time. The 730-kilogram British aviation torpedoes were not powerful enough, but the "Zeppelin" and "Lützov" still ate four torpedoes each, and the torpedo dropped by Pang Xun hit the bow of the latter, causing the water to stall.

Although the two ships finally maintained their balance, they were surrounded by a swarm of British and American patrols the next morning, and finally sank themselves.

Pang Xun did not linger, because there were still two Bismarck-class battleships waiting for them. Just in the attack aircraft group with the loss of 9 aircraft. When returning from the defeat of 2 German capital ships, the long-wave radar of the "Tirpitz" detected two approaching targets.

"They said it was a cruiser." Lindemann, the captain of the Bismarck, conveyed the message to Lütjens.

The Germans, who have the world's most sophisticated machining technology, are very backward in electronic technology. The long-wave radars installed on the two ships have a short detection distance, especially for sea searches, even in the best weather, they never exceed 20 kilometers, and it is impossible to distinguish the type of ship by the strength of the signal source, so the radar crew on the "Tirpitz" judged that the other party was a cruiser based entirely on experience.

But in fact, these two were the battleships "Rodney" and the heavy cruiser "Norfolk" of the First Mobile Fleet of the Royal Navy, and when the "Tirpitz" discovered them, it judged that the opposite side was "Bismarck" based on more advanced radar readings.

"Heading 310, full speed, ready for battle." Ruttejans maneuvered first. The "Bismarck" sounded the battle alarm, and the eight SKC34 main guns quickly turned in the direction of the British ship. At this time, Vice Admiral Horant on the "Rodney" also adjusted the course from 240 to 280, and immediately called the two "King George V-class" battleships to the south to arrive as soon as possible.

Ten minutes later, when the two sides were 15 kilometers closer, the optical sight reported a difference in speed between the front and rear of the British fleet, one of which had an unusually long foredeck. Lütjans immediately realized that this was not a cruiser, but the battleship "Rodney", with all the main guns in front.

The Germans once ridiculed the "Rodney" as the largest shallow water heavy gunboat in the world, but in fact, as one of the seven major battleships before the war, although the "Rodney" ship gun is inferior to the "Colorado" and "Nagato", its protection capability is the strongest in the **IG7.

Lütjans was not careless, because he had studied the "Rodney" in detail and knew that even if he fought 2 to 1, his SKC34 main gun might not be able to cut through the opponent's heavy armor. What's more, this sea area is too dangerous, and he doesn't want to waste time on a "slow turtle", so he simply sped south. "Damn! Damn it! The problem is that his two "King George V" are still 40 nautical miles away, and the carrier-based aircraft have just completed the attack wave and are returning home, and as for the "Norfolk" heavy cruise, even if it goes up, it is not enough for people to fight.

"I think the British should ask the Reich to put a Mercedes on it." On the two "Bismarcks", the junior officers mocked the already invisible "Rodney", and even the sailors on the deck relaxed and whistled into the distance. Only the Lütjans in the bridge was cold, because he had received the news that the "Zeppelin" and "Lützov" had been attacked by British carrier-based aircraft, and the water had seriously stalled.

This means that the opponent's attack aircraft group is likely to be on its way back, and counting the time to reload and refuel, the opponent will be able to return to combat after a maximum of an hour and a half.

That's only enough time for him to run 45 nautical miles.

"Gentlemen, we're in trouble." Lütjans did not hide the defeat behind: "From now on, increase the deck lookout personnel, let the Tirpitz distance ourselves from us, and all anti-aircraft guns are ready for the enemy ship!" As soon as he asked for the reinforcement of air defense, the "Tirpitz" in front once again raised the flag that the enemy ship had been discovered.

Lindemann and the others frowned violently, at this time, who was on the other side?

"The shelling radar is ready, turret number one is in place, number two."

In the distance was none other than the U.S. Navy's Task Force 4 led by Kincaid. On the battleship "North Carolina", Kincaid, who was on the road for several days and nights in a row, looked tired and had bloodshot eyes in his eyes, and patted his arm gently: "Heading 303, help the C turret open the firing window." "As an academic in the U.S. Navy, Kincaid has a gentle temperament and does not like to shout, and he does not smoke or drink. That's why Halsey always scolded him, calling him a "bastard who doesn't smoke or drink." But this "bastard" vice admiral won the trust of Roosevelt and handed over the two strongest battleships of the current US Navy to his command.

Kincaid, who had a better radar than the Germans, turned ahead of time and deflected the bow 57 degrees to the left so that he could use the firepower of all three turrets. At this time, Lu Teyans was still thinking about who was on the other side. "Three turrets! It's North Carolina, it's American! ”

After approaching 17 kilometers, the masthead lookout finally confirmed the type of battleship on the opposite side.

Captain Lindeman and Chief of Staff Cotter looked at each other, they never expected to encounter North Carolina. Lu Teyans was also stunned, and subconsciously looked at his watch until he was sure that the watch was not broken, and then turned his head to look at the nautical chart. There is only one possibility, the Americans rushed in a straight line at a speed of more than 24 knots in the whole journey! Not to mention how much stress the main engine will be caused by maintaining a speed of 24 knots for more than 2,000 kilometers, it is enough to be shocking enough to penetrate the dozens of U-boats deployed by Dönitz between Canada and Greenland without being detected.

It's too late to say anything.

18 MK6 406-mm guns, already rapidly raised. "Fire!" Just 16 kilometers into the country, two North Carolina preemptively opened fire.

The US Navy's MK6 406-mm naval gun, although not as good as the later MK7, was much stronger than the "Cream Cannon" of the USS Rodney. Moreover, the US military is already equipped with a running sight radar, so in the first salvo, the shells fell one kilometer in front of the two "Bismarcks".

In order to avoid the embarrassment of being able to exert only half of the firepower, and worried about the "Rodney" behind him, Lütjans ordered to turn right, avoiding the Labrador Sea while giving full play to the firepower of all the main guns. In this way, the two fleets became a goose-wing chase formation, with the bows all pointing towards the Canadian coast.

Then Lütjans ordered to slow down to 27 knots and fire on the "North Carolina" at the head.

"Boom, boom." The rumbling of cannons once again sang a loud symphony of steel, and the 34 main guns of both sides tested each other's armor over and over again.

The American cowboys sweated profusely and fired six volleys in a short period of time, but before they could receive the news of the hit, the "North Carolina" was hit in the head!

In just the third round, the "Bismarck" made a big hole on Houship Island in North Carolina.

"Shot, we've been shot! D-Zone, Penetrating Surname Damage! I need to cut off the power to this place immediately. Colonel Robben, covered in blood, clutched the deck phone and reported the damage to the bridge. Kincaid's face changed slightly, and he began to worry about whether he could resist Bismarck's SKC34 main gun. His concern was justified, because of the hasty design and naval treaty restrictions, in order to obtain high speed, American designers used too much tonnage for the main engine, and finally had to take into account the horizontal armor to defend against the increasingly threatening aircraft, so the defense was poor. With the exception of the conning tower and turret frontage, the important waterline main armor belt was designed to protect against 356-mm guns, which is why the Navy was not satisfied with the construction of the "South Dakota" class instead.

Rao is everyone was angry about avenging the 22nd Task Force, and the fledgling naval rookies on the two ships also shivered, and even the heartbeat could be heard in the quiet island, and in the face of the extraordinary precision of German artillery fire, the officers turned all their eyes to their commanders.

"Cut off the power to Zone D, send someone to check on the injury, and the rest continue to attack." In order not to let everyone see his nervousness, Kincaid slowly lowered the arm he was holding, and put his hands into his pockets and clenched them into fists.

2 North Carolina continued to fire.

At 7:31, good news finally came after the 9th round of volleys. The lookout reported that one of the shells of the "North Carolina" accurately hit the third turret of the Bismarck. Although the Mk6 main gun was not yet equipped with the newly developed special heavy shells of the United States, the poor turret defense capability of the "Bismarck" was completely exposed in this attack. Because the distance was 15 kilometers at this time, the trajectory of the 406 mm armor-piercing projectile was already relatively steep, so it easily penetrated the top of the turret with a 180 mm roof, so that the entire turret was destroyed in the explosion.

"Turret, the weak point of the Germans is the turret!" Kincaid's staff immediately caught the weakness. But when they ordered all the guns to be aimed at the turrets, the battleship under their feet trembled again, and Bismarck's counterattack was still so sharp and unstoppable.

The artillery battle was at a fever pitch, and with optical fire control and longer-trained veterans, Lütjans's fleet continued to hit two North Carolina, and high-speed flicks repeatedly ravaged the opponent's pitiful main armor belt. But Kincaid just refused to give up, refused any suggestion to withdraw from the artillery battle, and even if the "Washington" reported that the entire mast had been blown up, he resolutely refused to retreat. Because he knew that as long as he held on a little longer, British carrier-based aircraft would come to help.

The red-eyed American sailors used all their weapons like crazy, even the harmless 127-mm secondary guns were desperately strafing. All sighting equipment locked the coordinates on Bismarck's turret. The MK6 main gun began to exert its might, and in just half an hour, it destroyed 3 turrets in a row, which made Lütjans feel chilled as he got bigger. What made him even more incredible was the unexpectedly tenacious tenacity of the US Navy! In German propaganda, American GIs always appear as "little Hollywood boys", but now? The two North Carolina were obviously beaten and smoked all over their bodies, but they kept chasing them.

At this time, the situation of Lütjans was already very bad, and North Carolina had problems with its protection, but the cannon was better than him. Although Bismarck had a larger tonnage and better protection, the weakness of the main gun was growing.

"Enemy planes!"

Lütjans didn't want to fight, so he ordered the release of smoke in an attempt to hasten his escape, but before he could shake off Kincaid, the group of British attack planes flying from the east made all efforts come to naught.

"There." Pang Xun, who had refueled and hung up the bombs, patted Esmond on the shoulder and pointed at the four battleships that were billowing black smoke. Taking advantage of the descent, he also took this precious video with his camera.

In the video, a dense column of water rises around the four battleships, forming a huge forest of water columns. And the tragic scene made him gasp. I saw that the Star-Spangled Banner on the "North Carolina" was gone, the three secondary guns on the starboard side were missing, the hull looked like a few pieces had been bitten off, and a large number of broken pipelines were exposed in the charred hollow. And the "Washington" simply disappeared from the ship island, the top of the chimney was flattened, and the deck was tilted several degrees. Looking at the Germans again, it was no better, the "Bismarck" lost one turret, the upper deck was as messy as a dog gnawed, and there were German sailors running to extinguish the fire everywhere, and the "Tirpitz" behind it had two turrets spewing billowing black smoke, if it were not for the high speed of 28 knots, I am afraid that the entire warship would be wrapped in smoke.

Seeing the group of attack aircraft, Kincaid finally breathed a sigh of relief, and couldn't help wiping the sweat with his cuffs, so that the two ships could avoid and stop the shelling.

"Pong! Have you prayed? At this point, Major Esmond interrupted the filming and shouted loudly.

"I'm a Buddhist!"

"Well, pray to your God for me! It's mine! Major Esmond shouted excitedly, and after leading his wingman in a circle, he quickly descended to a low altitude of 100 meters, and then slowly descended to an ultra-low altitude of less than 50 meters, rushing towards the bow of the Bismarck.

"Watch out for him!"

There was chaos on the deck of the Bismarck, and the bow lookout watched in horror as two Osprey U swooped down on him. The captain on the island also saw Esmond and quickly turned the steering wheel to try to dodge. The huge battleship made a quick turn on the sea, but as Pang Xun said, the Bismarck-class hull was too long! Even if the Germans designed it to be very flexible, it would not be possible to be faster than the plane.

Six or seven 37mm hand-pulled machines and 20mm rapid-fire guns were aimed at Esmond to spray shells, but the experienced British Navy ace pilot gritted his teeth and held out until 1,000 meters before Pang Xun and his wingman dropped the torpedo. Two torpedoes rushed towards the battleship with white waves, and when the wingman fired a torpedo and missed the stern, the one fired by Pang Xun hit the stern wheel.

"Boom!"

Even if the power is small, the cavity effect created by the torpedo explosion increases the potential energy. Although Pang Xun's fixed camera could only capture the image of the water column obscuring the stern, it turned out that the torpedo not only damaged the underwater compartment, but also damaged the rudder of the Bismarck.

In order to slow down the other party as much as possible, the rest of the British pilots also worked hard, and Pang Xun, who returned to the high altitude, also recorded these moments. One dive bomber after another roared down in formation, the torpedo attack planes scattered in all directions, and two or two formations plunged into the air defense circle covered with bullets. At this time, the two "Bismarcks" were helpless, and the previous artillery battle had already caused them to lose nearly half of their deck anti-aircraft guns, so they could not stop the repeated attacks of so many aircraft.

Twenty minutes later, when the last Osprey U broke out of the battle circle, the "Bismarck" ate an 800-kilogram armor-piercing shell and 4 torpedoes, and the Tirpitz was also hit by 5 torpedoes, and the speed of both ships began to decline rapidly.

Lütjans tried to make a final salvage, and since Kincaid was busy saving his North Carolina and couldn't catch up, he ordered the smoke to be released and called for nearby German submarines to help, trying to escape the pursuit while the enemy was attacking. But he didn't succeed, because he was afraid that he would escape again, Edmonds and Pang Xun's "Osprey U" stayed in the sky to monitor the German ship's every move, which also allowed Pang Xun to film the entire naval battle.

At 9:11 a.m., the USS Rodney joined up with two George V-class battleships and took over from Kincaid, who was fighting the fire and regaining his balance, and chased after him from behind. Faced with the German ships, which had been seriously flooded and lost half of their firepower, Vice Admiral Holland asked the three ships to pull 2,000 meters away to disperse the enemy's firepower, and then launched an attack from 20,000 meters away.

The German ship, which was still trapped and fighting, did not show weakness, and slowly turned left with great difficulty when the steering gear failed and the water ingress was serious, and fired back at the side of the battleship facing the British ship. Knowing that the "Rodney" would be difficult to deal with, Lütjans even ordered all fire to be aimed at the second "King George V". The sophisticated German artillery once again showed amazing strength, hitting the "King George V" one after another, and in just a few minutes, the battleship was covered in smoke. However, due to the release of the "Duke of York", which was in third place, the latter took advantage of the small size and fast speed of the cannon and destroyed the main gun fire commanders of the "Bismarck" and "Tirpitz" with a little intensive artillery fire.

At this time, several other British light and heavy cruisers also quickly circled to the right side of the German ship, formed an angle with the battleship, and constantly adjusted their positions to obtain the best position. The two "Bismarcks", which were clumsy due to serious injuries, could not cope with the siege at all, and in just half an hour, all the remaining five main gun turrets were destroyed by the nine main guns of the "Rodney" one by one. Seeing this scene, Pang Xun knew that Bismarck was finished. Two Bismarcks are like wounded tigers surrounded by wolves! Staring at the bloody eyes, he launched fierce attacks on the enemy again and again, but was scarred by the claws again and again and continued to bleed. Even if the remnants remained, even if they were the largest tonnage in Europe, even if the Germans had the best armor in the world, no warship would be able to hold back such a fierce siege.

The German sailors who insisted on fighting still fought back with their eyes open, but Lütjens knew that it was impossible to survive, so he sent a final telegram to Berlin: "The ship is overwhelmed, and I will fight until the last shell." ”

Hitler, who was far away in Berlin, was silent for a long time and replied: "Show your courage, the whole German people are with you!" ”

At 10 o'clock in the morning, after the two "North Carolina"-class battleships urgently treated their injuries, they slowly caught up from behind, which also indicated that the final battle to encircle and destroy the German ships had officially begun.

Kincaid later said that he did not want to participate in the final brawl, but the officers and sailors insisted on doing so. Because everyone believed that the hard work of smashing the hard shell of the "Bismarck" was entirely done by them and the two American battleships, and if the British sat back and watched all the fruits of the final victory in their pockets, it would certainly be a big blow to the confidence of the American Navy, so after restoring the balance, he immediately contacted Horant and asked to join the battle circle.

At this time, the two "Bismarck" had no ability to fight back at all, because all 16 main guns were destroyed, so Horant took the initiative to give up part of the credit, let Kincaid line up behind the queue, and let all five battleships get closer to 3600 meters, and then use the main guns to "strafe" at the level of the German ships! 44 main guns (North Carolina lost one turret) fired a salvo, heavy shells were denser than raindrops, the superstructure of the German ship was in flames, black smoke was billowing beyond recognition, all the pipes in the cabin were blown up, the air was filled, the sea water poured into the cabin frantically, and the thin red line of fire at the crack could be seen after the steel plate was cracked. Once upon a time, the invincible "Bismarck" was covered with rivers of blood, explosions and burns everywhere, and corpses everywhere.

It's incredible! In the face of such a super-dense bombardment of the main guns, there were still individual secondary guns on the two German ships stubbornly returning fire.

Walter, a German sailor who was later rescued, described the scene as follows: "I was terrified, and all of us knew we were not going to live. There were explosions everywhere, and high-pressure steam tumbled back and forth in every compartment. I could see through the narrow air holes that the deck had been flattened, and many familiar people could only see a foot or a few pieces of flesh. At this time, Heinz asked me for a cigarette, and I thought he was scared too, but he didn't. He smoked his cigarette and rushed out, and the shells exploded right next to him, but he was unharmed and rushed all the way to the rapid-fire cannon 100 yards away. There, he pulled the bolt and asked Karl to reload the shells for him, and then fired at the British and the Americans. We all knew it was futile, but his courage inspired us all, and we ended up running to the stern of the ship, singing Long Live Deutschland, and jumping into the icy waters. I remember that about five or eight hundred people jumped into the sea, but very few survived. ”

The Germans' outdated concept of comprehensive protection, excellent dome armor design, and tightly arranged watertight compartments only increased the suffering of the sailors. In the face of the close bombardment of five battleships, the two "Bismarcks" were like abandoned babies who were helpless, trembling in the artillery fire. A few days ago, the scene of the "Mississippi" was returned to Germany a thousand times over. According to the declassified documents of Britain and the United States after the incident, in the close shelling that lasted 85 minutes, 5 battleships fired a total of 1141 main gun shells at the German ship! Heavy patrols and secondary artillery also fired 3156 shells!

No battleship can continue to survive in this situation, and the miracle of unsinkability in the parallel world has not appeared, because no matter how powerful the dome armor and multi-layer compartments are, they can't stop the close-range bombardment of more than a dozen MK6s.

At 12:07, the "Tirpitz" was the first to have an internal explosion, the bow broke off and quickly disappeared into the sea, and a few minutes later the "Bismarck" also began to sink slowly. Due to the serious flooding of the two North Carolina, Horant was worried about being attacked by German submarines, so he led the main force to protect Kincaid and retreated to Britain, leaving only a few destroyers to monitor and salvage the German sailors who fell into the water, and finally he also asked the "Norfolk" heavy cruiser to lead 15 British and American destroyers through the strait to pursue the wounded "Zeppelin" and "Lutzov".

At 1:10 p.m., seeing that the "Bismarck" was sinking slowly, the British destroyer "Maori" sent it to the bottom of the sea forever with four torpedoes, and less than 300 of the more than 4,000 German officers and men on the two ships were rescued, and all the senior officers, including Lütjens, were killed in the battle.

At about 11 o'clock in the morning of the next day, the British and American destroyers found the seriously wounded "Zeppelin" and "Lützov" north of Iceland, and after a not too fierce exchange of fire, the German sailors, who could not escape, opened the sea valve and sank the two warships in the deep Arctic Ocean. At the same time, the two Scharnhorst-class battlecruisers, which had been waiting for Lütjens in the Atlantic, abandoned their scheduled plans to return to the French port of Brest after learning the news.

In order to encircle and destroy the German ships, Britain and the United States also paid a great price, a total of four ships were sunk, and six were injured. Among them, the "North Carolina" and "Washington", which were the most seriously wounded, stayed in the dock for half a year, and a total of 5,312 officers and men died, of which 4,427 were US troops. The day after their return to port, Admiral Henry Arnold dispatched 400 **17 and **24 bombers to launch a series of air raids on the two ships and the port of Brest. In 19 hours of indiscriminate bombardment, the entire port of Brest was razed to the ground. Both ships were also seriously damaged, and it was not until the beginning of 43 that they returned to the German naval combat sequence.

On the evening of November 19, Churchill officially announced the sinking of the German fleet in London, calling it a turning point in the war. The whole of Britain thundered with joy, and the British, who had been tormented by the bombs and the successive defeats of the army, were finally able to breathe a sigh of relief. For the past few years, the huge tonnage "Bismarck" has been considered unsinkable and the greatest threat to the British mainland.

Germany, on the other hand, was plunged into great grief. But Raeder and other German navigators were even more angry that Hitler, although in his subsequent speech vowed to rebuild the navy and build more powerful warships to fight the enemy, a month later he ordered the construction of two H39 battleships and the "Peter Strassel" aircraft carrier to be terminated, and resources were used to build more much-needed U-boats.

In the face of the powerful British and American navies, the German navy was still fighting to the death, and was emasculated by itself in this way.

Later, Yang Qiu wrote this passage in his memoirs: "That day was a turning point in the Atlantic, because there was no German navy again. Although German submarines sank 11 million tons of ships in the following year, and the Allies were stranded on the ground, the last thing I worried about was a stalemate. ”…… (To be continued.) )