PS: Thank you for the monthly ticket voted by the book friend "River Crab Sheji", and continue to ask for recommendation votes T-T

And almost at the same time, two destroyers, ignoring their own air defense, were sunk by the fighters of the aviation regiment (the destroyers have a small tonnage, and the bombs carried by the fighters can easily be sunk. It was easily sunk without damage, but all six torpedo planes were also shot down, and the aviation regiment was already seriously injured by this point, and after being shot down at sea, even if the pilots successfully parachuted, it would be difficult for them to get timely rescue, and even if the Germans won the battle, they would probably only survive two or three percent.

Seeing the courage of the pilots of the air force, the whole German fleet was deeply moved by their spirit of sacrifice, and the commander of the fleet, Admiral Lukins, immediately persuaded the air force through the radio not to continue to lose strength, "The next battle is left to us, you just leave some uninjured planes to prevent the enemy from escaping"

Since the navy was so confident, the commander of the aviation regiment immediately ordered the evacuation, the wounded went back to repair, and the bombs dropped also returned to the ship for replenishment, leaving only 24 planes whose combat effectiveness was not damaged to keep an eye on the battle situation from afar, in case the British saw that the situation was not good and fled, and if the battle situation was unfavorable, they would also help.

But the commander of the German fleet, Admiral Lukins, knew very well that after the failure of the steering gear of the battleship King George V, his fleet was invincible, because the British capital ships could not catch up with his four battleships, and the British light warships could not beat them. And to the surprise of Admiral Lukins, just now in order to deal with the threat of the German fleet. The British fleet was forced into a formation that was more conducive to air defense but less suitable for artillery battles, and before they could adjust, the three large German warships were already within easy range of their main guns

At present, the greatest threat to the German fleet is the intact battleship Rodney, but although the design of this battleship is relatively backward, but the maneuverability is not in vain, the battleship Rodney has obtained the offensive and defensive capabilities beyond the new battleship of King George V, not only the caliber of the main gun has reached an astonishing 406mm, but also the thickness of the armor exceeds that of the King George V-class battleship, which attaches great importance to defense. Although Admiral Lukins did not know the detailed parameters of the battleship Rodney, he was all too familiar with the characteristics of this old battleship like an iron turtle. Therefore, he did not hesitate to order the Bismarck's four front guns to be loaded with correction shells. The target was the Rodney

At this time, the British fleet could only "respond to all changes with the same", because if they were to catch up, the battleship King George V, whose steering gear had failed, could not keep up, and if there were no destroyers left. It will definitely be left alone and taken out by German planes that are eyeing it. And if enough destroyers are left. What to do with the battleship Rodney? And for the same reason, the British light cruisers and destroyers easily did not dare to leave the group to attack the three German warships, from this point of view. Even if those 24 German planes did nothing, they still had a non-negligible impact on the war situation.

However, the British warships did not just wait for the enemy to come and turn to the side facing the enemy, so as to put as many naval guns as possible into the attack, which was the only response they could now. Moreover, under this kind of wait-and-wait style of play, the firepower on the battleship King George V can also be utilized, and the firepower advantage of the British fleet is enhanced, but due to the failure of the steering gear, it is extremely difficult to steer, not only is it difficult to face the enemy with the side chord, but also the uncontrolled steering of the warship also makes it impossible to complete the calibration at all, so the main gun hit rate is greatly reduced, only slightly better than the German Tirpitz battleship that cannot be used by the commander, but if you want to hit the enemy ship, you also have to rely on great luck

Even for other British warships such as the Rodney, the British fleet lost the lead when the turn was completed, and by the time the battleship Rodney completed the turn, the four front guns of the battleship Tirpitz had already fired their first span, and began to load the 381mm C-type shells that posed a lethal threat to the "Iron Turtle" of the Rodney.

Although the first two rounds of 4-gun salvos missed, the Tirpitz's 4 forward guns still hit the target before the 9 406mm guns on the Rodney fired a straddle, and a 1-ton C-piercing armor-piercing projectile hit the seaplane catapult on the battleship Rodney at a near-vertical angle, and the remaining strength burrowed into the powder magazine under the catapult, causing an inextinguishable fire and a violent explosion. Had it not been for the many years of service of the battleship Rodney, the officers and men on board were generally experienced veterans, and they were very calm and sophisticated, so as to avoid the fire from spreading to the more important compartments and causing a catastrophe

Soon, the Rodney also fired the first straddle fire on the Bismarck battleship, but before that, due to the faster rate of fire of the 283mm naval guns, the two German battle cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenor had already fired the Rodney battleship, although the main guns of these two warships with a caliber of only 283mm were difficult to pose a fatal threat to the extremely thickly armored battleship Rodney, but it was no problem to sweep the superstructure, Although these two battle cruisers alone could not win a battleship, they could be of great help if they cooperated with the battleship Bismarck.

It's just that even with an ultra-high rate of fire close to 4 rounds a minute, it is not so easy to destroy the radar and command instrument on the Rodney, after all, the power of the 283mm shell is much worse than that of the 381mm caliber, unlike the latter, as long as it hits the bridge, the radar, the command instrument, or at least the observation and sighting device can be damaged, and with the limited accuracy of the naval gun, it is not easy to hit the radar or command instrument directly? In fact, the two ships bombarded the battleship Rodney for more than a minute, and the biggest result was that a shell hit the thin armor part of the battleship Rodney underwater, causing water to enter, which somewhat reduced its already slow speed

After the first hit of the Rodney, the next two salvos of the battleship Bismarck missed, but was hit by a 406mm armor-piercing projectile from the battleship Rodney, fortunately, the horizontal armor of the Bismarck was replaced with a new type of armor steel and properly thickened, and the protection ability was several times stronger than in history, and the distance between the two ships exceeded 25,000 meters, so the shells were directly ejected and exploded over the deck, With the exception of flying shrapnel that wounded a crew member operating a small-caliber anti-aircraft gun, the battleship Bismarck suffered no damage. (To be continued......)