Lütjens picked up his binoculars and looked at the British aircraft that were gradually visible in the distance. He ordered to prepare for enemy air attacks, speed up, and contact the air force to cover us. But then he found that there were not many aircraft on the other side, and he frowned.
The leader said that all ships should maintain their formation and not panic.
Since it was an exploratory attack, the British army only dispatched less than twenty aircraft, the main force of which were Sea Hurricane fighters, Barracuda bombers and two Swordfish torpedo attack aircraft.
You must know that at this time, the British army's competitive ship "Unicorn" could carry nearly 50 aircraft, and the "Formidable Victory" could carry a total of more than 160 aircraft. Although the aircraft in this era were not as large and heavy as later generations, they
Neither the ejection system nor the aircraft carrier itself is as perfect as it was later developed. As an old-fashioned aircraft carrier, the Jing Shen can only carry 20 aircraft, and as the size of the aircraft gradually increases, the number of passengers it can carry is also constantly decreasing.
This is also the reason why the aircraft carrier faction was unable to completely gain the upper hand during this period. A dozen aircraft were really not enough to look at in front of the waiting fleet.
This was the case at this time. As soon as more than a dozen British aircraft lowered their altitude, they were greeted by extremely fierce anti-aircraft fire. Bismarck-class battleships were equipped with 8 twin 105mm guns, 8 twin 37mm anti-aircraft guns and 20 20mm anti-aircraft guns.
mm anti-aircraft guns. The Richelieu-class battleships have three triple-mounted 152mm anti-aircraft guns and six twin-mounted 100mm caliber anti-aircraft guns. They are also surrounded by many destroyers and cruisers.
But what has to be said is that both the German anti-aircraft guns and the French anti-aircraft guns have a rate of fire that is too slow to pose a sufficient threat to aircraft flying faster and faster. When there are few enemy aircraft, it is nothing.
When the number of enemy planes reaches a certain level, it will be miserable.
The British army originally wanted to test the German anti-aircraft firepower. The torpedo bombers and dive bombers dropped their bombs from a long distance away, and then hurriedly retreated. However, two or three fighters were still shot down by the anti-aircraft firepower of the mixed fleet, and they dropped bombs at the same time.
All the torpedoes and bombs that came down were flexibly dodged by the mixed fleet. The British army lost three aircraft, which confirmed that the mixed fleet really did not have an aircraft carrier. It also thought that it had figured out the German air defense firepower network. John
After Tovey got the news, he felt that he had made a small profit.
Four battleships, two cruisers, eleven destroyers, and a submarine that I don’t know exists. John Tovey took a few chess pieces and placed them on the chart. He would not forget the most mysterious and terrifying submarine in the German navy.
force.
Your Excellency, Commander, according to the speed of the submarine, it should be impossible for them to move together with the main fleet. Some officers immediately raised objections.
John Tovey glared at him and said, pedantic, have you forgotten what the military did in the early days when submarines could not travel alone?
Someone immediately said in surprise that what the Commander meant was that their submarine might be taken away by a battleship, and then released during the battle. If this is the case, although we have the advantage in the sky, we are completely unstoppable at the bottom of the sea.
Disadvantage.
John Tovey nodded and said, "Don't underestimate any enemy. Our British Navy has been across the world for hundreds of years. As long as we don't underestimate the enemy and deal with it carefully, no one can be our opponent. What we fear most is nothing else but our pride and complacency."
, why we were completely defeated in the Battle of France? To put it bluntly, we were too complacent with the Maginot Line.
After being scolded by John Tovey, all the British generals corrected their attitudes. John Tovey said with satisfaction that we have four battleships: the George V, the Prince of Wales, the Duke of York, and the Nelson. They are the same as the enemy, and we have
With air force support, all destroyers only need to surround the battleships. Don't be greedy for credit. The only task of each destroyer team is to ensure that no submarines interfere with our army. Once the battleships start a battle, they must ensure that their firepower is concentrated.
Win the first battle
A naval officer next to him suddenly suggested: Your Excellency, Commander, why don't we unite with Fleet H, so that we have seven battleships in total, and we can have an absolute advantage.
John Tovey nodded, then shook his head and said, "Your idea is good, but it is too naive. What is our strategic goal? To defend the Fortress of Gibraltar. So what is needed to defend the Fortress of Gibraltar? What is needed is an aircraft to attack their train guns. So."
The only way for the plane to come over is to transfer to Gibraltar via an aircraft carrier. This means that we must have a main fleet in the East Atlantic and four battleships by your side. Can you sleep well?
After John Tovey finished speaking, he pointed to the chart and said, "So we must defeat the German and French naval forces at the very beginning. Although our advantage is not obvious now, we still have support. Where can Germany go to get another battleship? I have already decided."
The order was given for Fleet H to dispatch the two battleships Valiant Resolve. The Italian Navy is still in Parma. By the time they dispatch, the Revenge will have arrived in Gibraltar. He and the battlecruiser Renown are enough to stop the Italian army. We only need to entangle them.
If we stay with each other for at most two days, victory will definitely belong to us.
After everyone listened to John Tovey's entire deployment, they immediately felt confident and began to take action.
At this time, Lütjens again sent four or five reconnaissance planes for reconnaissance, but one reconnaissance plane never came back. Lütjens immediately knew that his reconnaissance plane must have been shot down by the British army, and he immediately ordered the fleet to attack
The direction of the reconnaissance plane was heading forward.
At 9:50, the German fleet was harassed by the British again. This attack damaged an anti-aircraft gun of a German cruiser.
At 10:10, the German fleet was harassed by the British Air Force for the third time. The German Air Force arrived and the first air battle broke out. The British aircraft were no match for the professional fighter Moxa, but the Moxa's stay in the air was only less than ten seconds.
Minutes later, he was soon forced to leave. Everyone understood that this meant that the two sides were extremely close. Lütjens was extremely nervous. The result of not having air superiority was that the opponent fully understood his formation, which was extremely passive in a naval battle.
.
General, something is wrong. A middle-aged naval officer suddenly said.
Lütjens looked at him and asked what's wrong, what did you find, my colonel.
The colonel immediately said, General, I just did some calculations. If our two armies should be within 60,000 meters at this time, it means that after the other party discovered us, they immediately came towards us without waiting long. This is not in line with the other party.
Their strategic purpose is to rescue Gibraltar this time, not to fight us, so I am worried that the British army is planning something. After all, we do not have air superiority.
Lütjens touched his chin, thought for a while and then asked your name.
The colonel immediately said, "Doghard Wagner, my commander."
Lütjens nodded and said hello, Wagner, what do you think and why the British army did this?
Wagner pointed to the chart and said, according to the intelligence, the opponent has five battleships, but there are two more in Gibraltar. I'm worried that the opponent's purpose is not to fight us decisively, but to entangle us first, and then when we are fighting, Gibraltar's h
The fleet came out from the diagonal and gave us a fatal blow
Lütjens smiled slightly and said, "Let them come. We have at least one day, enough to send them swimming." He ordered the fleet to turn southeast
The officer next to him asked strangely. The British planes all came from the west. Aren't we too far away?
Lütjens shook his head and said, "Don't worry, they will catch up. Someone, please send me a telegram to the Air Force."
Now that he knew that the British army also had the idea of fighting him, Lütjens naturally wanted to make full use of this idea. Going southeast would be closer to the land, so that he could also get a certain amount of air cover, and most importantly
He forced the British army to chase him at the fastest speed, but he knew that his ship was several knots faster than the British army. The Nelson, an old ship, had a speed of 23 knots, which was undoubtedly a hindrance.
At 13:40, the German army turned southeast.
John Tovey received the report from the Air Force and was stunned for a moment. He never expected that the German army would retreat without a fight. He looked at the chart and asked doubtfully why.
After thinking for a while, I could only attribute this behavior to the cowardice of the German and French mixed fleet. John Tovey was unwilling to let the mixed fleet leave like this, and immediately ordered a pursuit. Knowing that his speed might be slower, John Tovey simply
He sent out more than 120 aircraft to form a super-large fleet to attack first, and told them that there was no need to sink them, just to slow down the mixed fleet.
The speed of the aircraft was very fast, and they had already obtained the German route. At 15:20, the huge fleet of aircraft arrived near the mixed fleet.
Looking at the huge fleet of aircraft, Lütjens felt extremely nervous. He was not confident whether his fleet could survive it, but this was the only way. If these aircraft came out during a bombardment with the British fleet, then
That's the worst.
The British aircraft group did not rush to attack directly, but relied on their own speed to start dividing their forces. After the encirclement was formed, at the command of the commander, hundreds of aircraft swooped in like a swarm.
Fire, fire, block them, stay in formation, no chaos, no chaos
The scene of hundreds of planes circling and attacking the fleet clearly shocked everyone. Most of the planes inside were torpedo planes and dive bombers. Since the mixed fleet had no fighter planes at all, the British fighter jets acted as decoys.
, these fighters constantly hovered in front of the fleet to attract firepower, while the torpedo planes and dive bombers tried their best to break through the blind spots of the firepower network and launch a fierce attack on the mixed fleet.
In the fourth minute of the air attack, a formation of three Swordfish torpedo attack aircraft found an opportunity to launch torpedoes at the battleship Richelieu. One torpedo hit the lower right part of the battleship. Fortunately, the battleship Richelieu was designing
At that time, great attention was paid to threats from the underwater. Not only were mine-proof walls and mine-proof compartments used for indirect protection in the lower part of the armored belt, fuel tank armored partitions, multiple armored partitions combined with watertight compartments, etc., but also in the hull and
There is also a thick layer of foam rubber filled between the mine protection walls, so that the warship is only slightly flooded, without affecting the combat effectiveness at all.
But it had only been a few minutes, and everyone in the mixed fleet was filled with a haze. Then, explosions occurred one after another, and all the torpedo planes and dive bombers pursued the four battleships. At the sixth minute, Bismarck
The deck of the ship was hit. At the seventh minute, the Tirpitz was hit by a torpedo and a bomb. At the eighth minute, a destroyer blocked a torpedo for the Richelieu and began to sink.
Of course, the losses of the British air force were not small. More than 20 aircraft were shot down in ten minutes, but everyone could see that the British army had a greater advantage. After all, the British battleships had not yet taken action.
At the twelfth minute, two consecutive bombs penetrated the deck of the Jean Bart, knocking off a secondary gun. At the thirteenth minute, a torpedo hit the rear of the Jean Bart.
At this time, a large number of aircraft suddenly appeared from a distance. When he heard the cries of the soldiers, Lütjens took a long breath and finally caught up, only to see more than 20 German fighter jets.
He rushed into the British fleet in fear, and immediately disrupted the rhythm of the British attack. When he saw the mixed fleet coming with reinforcements, his morale immediately rose, and the sound of anti-aircraft guns was heard.
Seeing the fleet smoking everywhere, the British Air Force commander was extremely unwilling. He firmly believed that if he continued to fight, he would be able to force the fleet to slow down. Seeing that the fleet had lost more than thirty aircraft, he ordered a retreat.
He planned to come back later. After all, it was too far away from the land, and he didn't believe how long these Army aviation planes could stay.
The British army thought correctly. The army aircraft quickly retreated. At this time, the distance between the two armies was about 45 nautical miles, and the mixed fleet was about 180 kilometers away from the land.
At 15:15, the British army once again dispatched more than a hundred aircraft to attack the mixed fleet. The mixed fleet suffered the loss of one cruiser, three battleships were injured to varying degrees, and the overall speed of the fleet dropped to 21.
With the support of the Army Aviation, the British army lost more than 40 aircraft this time, bringing the number of British aircraft down to less than 100.
Something is wrong. John Tovey looked at the returning fleet and exclaimed in surprise: How could this happen once by such a coincidence, and again the second time? How could the other party's army aviation arrive in such a timely manner every time. To be continued...