Menderson. Borken and the Scheer are determined to do their best, he probably wants to contribute more to the Third Reich before it sinks, even if it is a cushion on his back!

When the Scheer turned the rudder, the artillery battle became more intense and brutal, by which time the destroyer had turned the rudder and retreated, returning to a safe position to reload the torpedo, a task that had to be done with extreme care, as the slightest mistake would have dire consequences.

Therefore, the Scheer, Brest and Odessa were left on the battlefield for a time, and the three ships were tightly bitten together, and all the firepower that could be used was fired, so that this sea was completely opened.

In the seventeenth round of firing, the Scheer finally made a hit, a 305-kilogram high-explosive shell exploded in the rear of the Brest, and a triple turret was instantly shattered, and shrapnel killed all the gunners, and their stumps and flesh were mixed with the broken turrets and transport boats and thrown into the sky.

Even the hot shrapnel penetrated the fuel tanks of the catapult plane, and the leaking gasoline soon caused a fire that led to a series of explosions. The fire spread rapidly, threatening the ammunition depot under the destroyed turret, but fortunately, the captain of the ship, Colonel Malinowski, gave the order to fill the ammunition depot with water, otherwise, in a few minutes the Brest would have exploded in two!

Note that the disaster on the Brest was not over, and ten minutes later, another 150-mm shell hit the lower part of the bridge of the Brest with unusually accurate accuracy, and scattered shrapnel passed through the viewing window, wounding Malinowski's arm.

However, the Brest was not intimidated, and they bravely stayed on the battlefield to continue the fight, and fought back with more ferocious firepower. In the heavy salvo, the Scheer was hit by at least four armor-piercing shells, one of which penetrated the weak main armor and entered the boiler room, destroying at least one of the Scheer's boiler rooms. This also led directly to the Scheer's speed being further reduced to 16 knots.

This is great news for the Brest and Odessa. For the next fifteen minutes, they rained a large number of shells around the pocket battleship. Smoke and flames continued to rise from the broken hull of the Scheer, but the Germans resisted stubbornly until the Ro-3 swarm flew over the sea.

Malinowski later recalled: "It was an absolute honor to be able to sink the Scheer, before the carrier-based aircraft arrived on the battlefield. My comrades and I firmly believe that this honor belongs only to us. We have paid with our blood and lives for this, and we have it at our fingertips! ”

"But, but what we didn't expect was that it was all ruined by carrier-based aircraft, and the Ro-3 group circled around us, seemingly identifying targets. Soon the huge group of twelve fighters was divided, and they climbed over the Scheer in groups, and then began to dive with a roar! ”

At this time. The Scheer, whose speed had dropped to 14 knots, was basically a dead target, and the first Dive-Drop Ro-3 accurately smashed the 1,000-kilogram bomb into the Scheer's hull.

Malinowski recalled: "They hit it so accurately that the bomb easily pierced the Scheer and exploded violently near its bottom, and I saw a chimney thrown into the sky, and then the Scheer broke in two. This caused the eleven Ro-3s behind to give up the attack, and they flapped their wings and flew away! ”

Even after many years, Malinowski recalls that scene. Still quite depressed: "It's just a little bit, originally the Scheer was ours." But naval aviation took our prey halfway. It's so unfair! ”

Also shouting about unfairness was Gorshkov, who knew that the situation was not good when he saw dozens of R-2/3 groups flying overhead, and he ordered the radioman to listen to the signals of the Air Force, and he wanted to know the results of the battle in the first place!

"At midnight and fifteen, the Tirpitz and Scharnhorst were spotted. The two ships sailed at high speed in the southwest direction at a speed of about 28 knots! ”

"0:23, the reformation is complete, ready to attack!"

"At 0:26, the enemy ship's anti-aircraft fire was very strong!"

"0:30. BF-109 was spotted, and escort fighters went to intercept! ”

Gorshkov was genuinely restless, almost scratching his ears and cheeks when he heard the air force attack, and he was glad to hear that the German fighter planes had appeared. To be honest, he himself felt red afterwards.

For the time being, however, Gorshkov was able to sit and listen to the radio, because his fleet was at least an hour away from the Tirpitz, and it would take half an hour for his main guns to reach his opponent at the earliest.

And in this half hour, the pilots of the Red Navy had plenty of time to perform. Of course, the situation at that time was not so simple, because the resistance of the Tirpitz and Scharnhorst, as well as the German fighter pilots, was unusually fierce!

According to the combat history of the Red Navy's carrier-based aviation, forty-eight Ro2/3 attack aircraft took part in the attack on the Tirpitz and Scharnhorst, half of them carrying torpedoes and the other half carrying FAB-1000 or FAB-500 bombs. A handful of Yak-3K carrier-based aircraft and Pe-2m2 long-range fighters were engaged in dogfights with German fighters.

The Yak-3K provided air cover to prevent German fighters from approaching their own dive attack group, while the Pe-2M2 swooped down from high altitude with a roar to disperse the German planes trailing behind the torpedo attack group, and fired at the decks and superstructures of the Tirpitz and Scharnhorst with cannons and machine guns.

The rain of bullets swept down like a storm, causing heavy casualties to two German ships, including the captain of the Tirpitz Meyer, who was also wounded, so you can imagine how fierce the Pe-2M2's strafing fire was.

Soon 24 Ro-2/3 began to dive, dropping 12 FAB-1000 bombs and 24 FAB-500 bombs. Within 60 seconds, the Tirpitz and Scharnhorst were hit by one high-explosive, three semi-armor-piercing and three armor-piercing shells.

In order to pursue higher accuracy of hitting, Red Navy pilots mostly dived to extreme altitudes before dropping bombs. Although this increases the hit rate, it must also be seen that because the bomb altitude is relatively low, the kinetic energy of the aerial bomb is insufficient. As a result, none of the bombs were able to penetrate the horizontal armor of the Tirpitz and Scharnhorst, and did not achieve the desired lethal effect. Despite this, the superstructure of both ships was badly damaged and became unrecognizable.

At the same time as the dive bombing began, a second wave of torpedo offensives was also unfolding. The Ro-2/3 attack aircraft, carrying aviation torpedoes, were the key targets of the German fighters and were intercepted layer by layer. The few BF-2s, freed from the entanglement of the Pe-2m3 and Yak-109K, caused no small problems for the torpedo formations, and about 5 Ro-2/3 were shot down before entering the attack course. After entering the attack route, the anti-aircraft artillery fire network of the German ships was already waiting for the rabbit, and the rain of bullets and bullets occupied almost half of the sky.

Gulaev, the heroic pilot who took part in the battle, recalled: "About a nautical mile in front of me was the Tirpitz, and from my position I could see her long and narrow hull, which had already eaten several bombs and smoke billowed from the middle of the hull. I held the joystick tightly and didn't dare to move, not because I was nervous. Rather, the enemy's anti-aircraft artillery fire was so intense that shells exploded around me every second, and the popping sound of shrapnel entering the body could be heard. In addition, the blast and shock waves were coming at my plane in waves, and it felt like sitting in a small boat and weathering the rough seas. I had to hold the rudder so that the bombardier could hold the enemy ship firmly and the torpedo would be accurate! ”

"It flew until it was about 700 meters away from the Tirpitz, and with a cheer from Shutov, the bombardier, and a slam of the air. I knew the torpedo was thrown. Before I had time to take a closer look at the torpedo, I had to pull it up quickly, because the altitude was too low. If we don't pull it up quickly, we will crash headfirst into the Tirpitz. A minute later, when I flew over the Tirpitz's head, I had a chance to see how the attack worked. ”

"To be honest, I don't see anything at all. Because the sea surface was already boiling, the water column from the bullets and shells (Pe-2m2 was constantly diving and strafing) and the wake from torpedoes dropped by friendly aircraft. So you can't find which torpedo is yours at all. I couldn't even figure out if the torpedoes we dropped hit or not, because the sea was so chaotic. And we don't have enough fuel, so we have to go back immediately. ”

The first wave of torpedo attacks was effective, with at least three torpedoes hitting the Tirpitz and Scharnhorst. Of these, the Tirpitz was attacked even more. He was hit by two mines. One hit the Tirpitz under the main armor belt, opening a large hole in the hull and flooding the Tirpitz with at least 500 tons. Another one made a slight mistake in depth fixing and hit the Tirpitz's main armor belt, and although it failed to cause as much damage as the previous one, the violent explosion also deformed and cracked part of the hull. As for the Scharnhorst, the ship was lucky, the torpedo fuse that hit him was faulty, it was only inserted into the hull, but it did not explode.

After this wave of offensives was over, Siricos's face became even heavier, he didn't know if the Red Navy would be able to continue to launch the third and fourth waves of attacks, but he knew that if there were, the Tirpitz and Scharnhorst might not be able to resist.

Because the bad news was always with him, just now Captain Meyer told him that because the hull was flooded with more than 1,000 tons, it was no longer possible for the Tirpitz to maintain a high speed of 29 knots, and the most optimistic estimate could only maintain a speed of about 26 knots.

Ciliacs knew exactly what the drop of speed meant to the Tirpitz, and he could only order: "Plug and drain the leak as soon as possible, restore speed as soon as possible, and inform the Scharnhorst to speed up and go first!" ”

Yes, Siriakos has to consider the worst-case scenario, now that the Scharnhorst is not too badly injured, and with its engine power, there is still room for acceleration to continue to keep the two ships in formation, and the end result is that neither ship is spared.

Moreover, Siriacos also discovered just now that the Russians were more interested in the Tirpitz, and most of the attacks were focused on the Tirpitz, and the Russians were not interested in the Scharnhorst for the time being. This is quite normal, and if Siriacos were Russian, he would have made the same choice, after all, the Tirpitz was more threatening.

That being the case, Siriacos had an idea if the two ships acted separately. While all enemy aircraft were focused on the Tirpitz, was the Scharnhorst spared? Siriakos didn't know if that speculation would come true, but he had to try, because there really wasn't a better way for him right now.

One thing Ciriacos guessed was right, and that was that the Red Navy was indeed more interested in the Tirpitz, according to Li Xiaofeng's orders. The most important thing in this operation is to sink the Tirpitz, and as for Scharnhorst or something, it's all a side dish. If you eat the side dish and let the main dish run away, that's called stupidity.

So when the third and fourth waves of attack aircraft were massing over Cilicos' "fleet", almost no one paid attention to the Scharnhorst, which was speeding away, and almost all the attack fire fell on the Tirpitz.

The third wave of Ro-2/3 had a total of 22 bombs, all but six carrying FAB-1000 bombs, and the others all carried FAB-250 bombs, each carrying six bombs. A total of 102 bombs were dropped by the Red Navy in this wave. These include 6 FAB-1000 armor-piercing shells, 36 FAB-250 armor-piercing shells, 36 FAB-250 semi-armor-piercing shells and 24 high-explosive shells.

Due to the heavy damage to the previous deck and superstructure of the German ship, the fire and smoke seriously affected its air defense efficiency, and the Luftwaffe fighters had returned or been shot down, the hit rate of this wave was greatly improved. A total of 15 bombs hit the Tirpitz.

The only regret is that these 15 bombs still failed to penetrate the Tirpitz's main armor and the vital ammunition depot, which only further aggravated the damage to the Tirpitz's horizontal armor and above.

A significant part of these compartments were not destroyed by bombs. It was engulfed in flames, the middle of which was the most severe. The two 150-mm secondary gun turrets on the starboard side were completely destroyed, the three 150-mm secondary guns on the port side were also damaged, the chimney was broken into a hornet's nest by bomb fragments, and the boiler room ventilation ducts were destroyed. The starboard main engine stopped running due to violent vibrations, and two boilers were unusable because the boiler water was severely "contaminated".

The Tirpitz was hit the hardest by the two FAB-1000 armor-piercing shells, and one smashed the starboard aircraft catapult, the crane and the two carrier-based aircraft into pieces. Finally, it exploded on the horizontal armored deck, and the shock wave destroyed a large number of bulkheads, passages, and various pipes. Another FAB-1000 did not hit the Tirpitz directly, but fell into the water near the port side, but the explosion penetrated the hull under the main armor belt and destroyed one of the oil tanks. Incidentally, part of the broadside defensive compartments were destroyed, so that two waterproof areas were flooded. The near-miss bomb caused a lot of underwater damage, causing the Tirpitz to take another thousand tons into the water.

By the end of the third wave of air strikes, more than 150 people had been killed and about 350 wounded, including the captain, or 17 percent of the ship's officers and men. The dead were mainly anti-aircraft gunners, mostly victims of high-explosive shells and Pe-2M2 cannon fire.

Note that the Tirpitz's suffering was not over, after this round of air raids, its speed was further reduced to 23 knots, and because of the large number of fires caused, a considerable part of the ship's officers and men had to temporarily put down their weapons and devote themselves to intense fire fighting and rescue work, which led to a further decline in the ship's air defense efficiency.

And soon the fourth wave of attacks of the Red Naval Aviation came, which was launched not by aircraft carrier-based aircraft, but by Il-4T torpedo aircraft taking off from the Tromsø airbase. Escorted by 24 Pe-2M2s, 48 Il-4Ts finally arrived on the battlefield, carrying 45-46AB-A aviation torpedoes. A total of 8 waves were divided into 8 waves to attack the Tirpitz.

The first wave of 6 torpedoes was all lost under the Tirpitz's full dodge.

The second wave still did not bear fruit.

The third wave is still a flurry.

It was not until the fourth wave that the Il-4 made a catch, and two torpedoes hit the Tirpitz near the stern. As a result, its speed dropped to 17 knots again.

The fifth and sixth waves are still unsuccessful.

The seventh wave hit a mine, but unfortunately the torpedo fuse had a problem and failed to explode.

Fortunately, the eighth wave made up for this disappointment, and finally hit the bow of the Tirpitz again, and the water ingress caused the bow to be almost completely buried in the sea, reducing the speed of the Tirpitz to 15 knots.

However, the Nazi steel monster did not give in, and under the leadership of Siriacos, the ship still stubbornly tried to escape, and at that critical moment, the German naval officers and sailors showed a high level of technical and tactical skills. Within half an hour, they closed the breaches in the bow and stern of the ship and restored the speed to about 20 knots. And they did an excellent job of extinguishing the fire, basically controlling the spread of the fire, and if they were given enough time, extinguishing the fire was not a big problem.

It was at this time that the fifth and sixth waves of air raids came, and the thirty-six Ro-2/3s became the straw that broke the Tirpitz. Of course, at the same time Gorshkov was crushed. At this time, his formation of battleships and heavy cruisers finally spotted the Tirpitz with thick smoke, and at that time, Gorshkov's mood was both excited and somewhat depressed.

Excitedly, he could finally fight the enemy's battleships, and to his dismay, the Tirpitz was in a bad situation at this time, and it was half-crippled to say that it didn't sound good, which made Gorshkov more or less unhappy...... (To be continued......)

PS: Bow and thank you cjsky, the most powerful army, drunken maple, glorious charter, Southern Rangers and Comrade Juventus!