Bismarck

After shouting, Bismarck realized how embarrassing it was...Bonthe and Lütjens both looked over.

"What's wrong?" Lütjens asked.

"Nothing." Zeppelin let go of his hand with a smile, "Just a joke with my sister."

Actually did nothing...

She knew what Bismarck was thinking. She could tell from the expression on her face before he entered the room. But she really couldn't be blamed. Injuries in battle were inevitable, even if Zeppelin himself was the one controlling it.

"Sometimes I really can't figure out who is the older sister and who is the younger sister." Lütjens smiled at Bonte beside him. "Zeppelin is much more mature than Bismarck."

Bangtai smiled and said nothing.

"It was obviously me." Bismarck muttered.

"That... Zeppelin, really..."

"No need to say more." Zeppelin stretched out a white finger and pressed it on Bismarck's red lips to stop her from speaking. The latter blushed. This action was so embarrassing...

"I don't blame you, don't blame yourself." But what Zeppelin said was not wrong at all. She just smiled and said, "If I blame others for such a small injury, how can I face the war? Besides, you didn't make any mistakes in the operation. I can't do it better than you, so, really don't blame yourself, otherwise I will be embarrassed."

"But, having said that, if you really make a mistake, be careful or I'll spank you!"

"Hey! I'm your sister!" Bismarck retorted loudly with a red face. How could her dignity as a sister be trampled upon like this!

"Go ask your captain~" Zeppelin walked out of the bridge with a smile on his face, in a rare good mood, leaving Bismarck with its fur standing on end.

When she walked onto the flight deck with a smile on her face, all the pilots were stunned.

"Major Zeppelin is so beautiful..."

"I didn't realize it, it turns out you look so pretty when you smile."

"What are you looking at? Go do your job!"

Zeppelin pretended not to hear what her colleague said and walked quickly to the hangar. Her fighter plane, painted with eye-catching edelweiss, was undergoing intensive maintenance and she needed to go and take a look.

"How is my plane?" She walked up to the mechanic who was checking the damage on the fighter plane and asked.

"Ah!" The mechanic was working attentively when he was suddenly patted by a hand behind him. He was startled and turned around.

However, after seeing the person coming, the young mechanic's words began to become unsound.

"Hello, Major Zeppelin."

"Yeah." Zeppelin nodded as a greeting, and she looked back at her fighter plane. "How is it?"

"There's nothing serious wrong with your plane," the mechanic quickly replied. "Although it looks like there are a lot of holes, they are all insignificant and can be repaired quickly."

It was pretty much what she thought, Zeppelin thought. She also knew a lot about airplanes, and her own plane had done a rough scan. Since it was able to fly back, it proved that the problem was not serious.

"Then help me repair it quickly. I never know when the British will come again."

"Of course, we will arrange your plane first." The mechanic assured, patting his chest.

"But, Major Zeppelin, are you okay?" The mechanic pointed to the tattered canopy and asked, "This was hit by a 20mm cannon. It's hard to imagine that here..."

"It didn't hit directly, it just grazed the explosion." Zeppelin interrupted him and glanced at the mechanic. "And if there was something wrong, would I still be standing here talking to you?"

Yup

If the cockpit was really hit by a machine gun, then the beautiful Major Zeppelin would have turned into a pile of minced meat. How could she still be here intact!

How could I think like that!

The mechanic rubbed the back of his head awkwardly and apologized awkwardly, "Yes, it's my fault for being too stupid."

"Then I'll go back to the bridge first. If you need anything, just come to me."

"Yes Yes"

ps: It is very easy to tell whether the cannon exploded in the cockpit~ The mechanic is not a fool! Please give me a monthly ticket~ Please give me a monthly ticket~

Chapter 224: Zeppelin's Counterattack (Part 2)

The mechanic climbed onto the plane. He had just surveyed the fuselage from the outside, and now he was going to enter the cockpit for a careful inspection.

"Major Zeppelin is really lucky. He is unharmed like this." When he stepped onto the gangway, he saw the cockpit glass that was almost blown into pieces. He couldn't help but sigh. What else could he say except that he was lucky.

However, he soon discovered that something was wrong...

"Is this - shrapnel?" He took a casual glance and found the small piece of thing stuck in the broken altimeter.

Obviously, these are shrapnel left after a shell exploded.

“You have this too?”

After careful inspection, the mechanic discovered that not only the altimeter, but the entire cockpit was almost baptized by scattered shrapnel. This horrifying scene made him stunned.

Is this what Major Zeppelin meant by exploding only outside?

After seeing this scene, the mechanic could almost immediately confirm that one or several shells had definitely exploded inside the cockpit!

He bent down and sniffed the seat hard. With the airflow, what entered his nostrils was not only the faint fragrance, but more of the thick smoke of gunpowder.

The mechanic frowned, feeling a wave of disbelief in his heart. If the shell exploded inside the cockpit, then Major Zeppelin...

After Zeppelin finished his work and returned to the bridge, everyone in the command center began to discuss business...

In the C3I command room, Bonte was reporting the comprehensive damage situation to Lütjens - although it might be more convenient for Zeppelin or Bismarck to say it themselves.

"…Although the Zeppelin was hit by a suicide attack by the British Air Force, the fire has been basically brought under control because there was no ammunition explosion or large-scale fuel fire, and the fuel pipes were emptied and filled with carbon dioxide…"

"How's the rudder?" asked Lütjens.

"The rudder has internal damage and water ingress, but it still can't move. It seems to be stuck from the outside. If we want to maintain the speed, it will be difficult for the damage control team to repair it. But now that Zeppelin is back, it should be fine..."

"The front elevator is no longer usable, but it was flush with the deck before. Now it has been reinforced and treated as part of the deck... The damage control team is setting up support frames and perforated steel plates to repair the deck runway. At the current progress, it will take at most two hours to repair. It is expected that aircraft can take off and land after the repair."

"Well, I'm already repairing the tail rudder. The jam on the outside isn't very serious. The damage control team can do a great job repairing the internal water ingress and equipment. There's no need to worry about that. I estimate that the tail rudder will be usable again in about an hour at the latest." Zeppelin added.

"Okay, I understand. Besides...it's six o'clock now, which means we can take off the plane at eight o'clock?" Lutjens and Bontai looked at each other.

"When will the next British offensive be?"

"They probably won't come for a while." Bangtai thought for a moment and said, "Although we suffered heavy losses, the British carriers also lost about half of their aircraft. They probably only have about 150 to 160 aircraft in total. The aircraft they just dispatched are at least 100, and the remaining aircraft should also include the carrier's own escort fighters. They can't put together a strike group at all. They can only recover the aircraft that escaped and refuel and load bombs. But this will take at least three hours. As for land-based aircraft...if they can come, there won't be so few aircraft just now."

The British must have suffered heavy losses in the tragic air battle just now, and their situation is not much better than that of the German fleet - even though they are fighting at home. The Royal Navy's fleet must be busy repairing and reorganizing now.

"Yeah, that's about right." Lütjens nodded, agreeing with Bonte's judgment. But he still said, "Even so, we still have to prepare the attack aircraft group in two hours... By the way, how many planes do we have now?"

"There is no loss of the twenty-nine JU87Cs and they can be deployed at any time - Flensburg is organizing the deck dispatch command. But the bomb on the front deck just now destroyed eleven planes and damaged four others. In addition, we lost seven planes and damaged ten others in the previous air battle. Now we only have eight planes that can be deployed. In addition, it depends on how many of the damaged planes yesterday can be repaired..." Bangtai flipped through the record sheet with an ugly look on his face.

"Is that so..." Lütjens's expression darkened.

Although in his eyes, the bombing efficiency of JU87 may not be as good as the battleship's artillery fire, and the ammunition output per unit time of the two is completely not in the same order of magnitude, the combat range and reconnaissance range of an aircraft carrier are too large.

Even as a new aircraft carrier user, he had seen through the battles in the past two days. Even though aircraft carriers were far inferior to battleships in terms of attack and defense, tactical operations were more complicated, and aircraft were more vulnerable to damage. However, aircraft had a much longer range, more than ten times that of battleships, and a larger reconnaissance range, which allowed them to completely seize the initiative on the battlefield. As for the dive bomber's bombing efficiency, it was not as effective against battleships.

Now Germany does not have a carrier-based torpedo aircraft with suitable performance. If it had a carrier-based torpedo, it would be a terrible scene - technically speaking, it is just a matter of time, that's all...

"It seems that Bismarck is right. Aircraft carriers are indeed the masters of future naval warfare..."

However, even though Lütjens knew the role of aircraft carriers, he still found it incomprehensible that Bismarck had long ago directly proposed that battleships were obsolete and then took the initiative to give the protagonist position on the battlefield to Zeppelin.

Because in his opinion, at that time - even now, in the eyes of countries around the world, the strength of a country's navy is still measured by large ships and cannons. Battleships are still a well-deserved symbol of power. In addition, she herself is a battleship, so how could she think of eliminating herself? Handing it over to others?

Could it be that there is no personal interest in the mind of the ship girl, and everything is based on the overall consideration?

Lütjens was puzzled, but it seemed that this was the only explanation.

The three of them have a really good relationship.

Lütjens couldn't help but glance at Bismarck, who was calculating something with Zeppelin, and his serious expression.

However, he did not stop making plans. "Let the fighters that can still go into battle refuel and replenish ammunition directly on the flight deck. Also, ask the damage control team if they can get a few more planes out..."

"Yes!" Bangtai saluted and walked to the microphone to contact the maintenance team.

"In addition, we just received a situation report from each ship. All the warships have only about 50% of their anti-aircraft shells left... Hipper just got hit by a 500-pound bomb, and the D turret is unusable. In addition, Top said that he hopes to be given 40 minutes to search and rescue the officers and soldiers who fell into the water from the sunken destroyer... The number of casualties is being counted."

"40 minutes?" Lütjens looked at the sea chart, thought for a while, and nodded: "If it is temporarily safe now, then yes! But when the time comes, we must prepare to leave as a team. In addition, for air defense and anti-submarine, you, Zeppelin, and Grape may have to work hard again..."

"It would be great if there were more convenient means of search and rescue, such as helicopters or something..." Somehow, Bismarck suddenly thought of helicopters of later generations, and then this term popped up in his mind without thinking.

"Helicopter?" Both Bonte and Lütjens were puzzled. "What is that?"

"Uh..." Knowing that he had let something slip, Bismarck wanted to laugh it off, but seeing the looks in the two people's eyes, he had to explain to them: "Ah, actually, I was thinking, if there is an aircraft with a large propeller on top that can take off and land vertically, it would be better to use it for rescue or transportation, because it doesn't need a runway or anything, and it has a wide field of view and a fast speed, which is much better than those rescue boats..."

"Is there such a thing?" The two grown men continued to stare at each other.

"Bontai, have you heard about it?" Lütjens looked at his subordinates, who shook their heads to indicate that they didn't know.

"Yes!" Zeppelin, who was looking at the sea chart, said, "Don't you know?"

"I don't know." Bangtai answered honestly.

"I wonder what you were doing a few days ago?" Zeppelin snorted slightly.

"The principle of this thing can be traced back to ancient China, where there was a toy called the 'Chinese spinning top'. Leonardo da Vinci also drew a sketch in the 15th century. But in reality, someone has made this thing. Last year, someone in the United States made one, and... just last month, a man named Flettner in Germany developed a helicopter nicknamed the Hummingbird, and he said that the Hummingbird he developed can be used on warships. It seems that he is now promoting it to the Navy and the Air Force."

Listening to Zeppelin's serious explanation, the two generals were confused.

"This...where did you see it?" Bangtai asked again.

I can't ask the last time about this embarrassing thing. As a subordinate, I can only bear Zeppelin's contempt...

"So I say you two are really... Well, it's the internal reference of the Air Force last month. If I'm not mistaken, there should be some internal reference of the Navy as well, right?"

Well, last month, Bonte and Lütjens were busy with training and familiarization with aircraft carrier operations, respectively. They were busy investigating and formulating combat plans for various combat units. They had no time to read internal reference materials, which are generally just informational materials. So who would have noticed them?

Although he had sufficient reasons, under Zeppelin's gaze, the iceberg Bangtai seemed to show signs of cracking a little and turned away awkwardly.

Lütjens and Bonte couldn't help but wonder if they needed to catch up on their studies in the face of the rapid advancement of technology... and Bismarck, who was standing aside, was already pursing his lips to hold back his laughter and almost laughed out loud.

"Okay, Bismarck, next time if I don't have time, remember to read the internal reference and then tell me the content." Lütjens put his fist in front of his mouth and coughed lightly.

"Yes, Captain."

At the same time, under the rising sun of the North Sea, four JU87Cs carrying bombs and conducting armed reconnaissance were secretly following a group of skuas that were returning in tatters, using the cover of clouds and the flashes of the sea waves.

In the contrast between the sun and the clouds, the jaguars in front seemed to have dropped a little. Captain Hake, the leader of the dive bomber squadron 3, looked at him and turned on the low-power high-frequency short-range tactical channel (the communication distance is relatively short to prevent radio direction finding), and called the three planes behind: "Everyone, pay attention, the jaguars have dropped in altitude, and may be preparing to land. The enemy's aircraft carrier should be nearby! Everyone, be alert and prepare to lower the altitude!"

"Roger that!"

Three loud replies came from the radio. Captain Harker hummed, lowered the altitude a little with his fleet, and continued to closely follow the group of skuas ahead.

But he didn't know that the last one flying the plane, Lieutenant Hans Ulrich Rudel, who had just switched from a reconnaissance plane to a dive bomber, was depressed and gnashing his teeth, preparing to make a big news...

At seven o'clock in the morning in summer, the sun is shining brightly, and the morning sun casts its light unreservedly on the seemingly tranquil sea and sky.

Today, it will be a good weather.

In the gaps between the clouds, on the endless sea surface, the wakes scattered over an area of ​​tens of square kilometers, running from west to east, sparkled in the rising sun.

Surrounded by several light warships like the moon surrounded by stars, there are three aircraft carriers and two battlecruisers. They appear under the reflection of the rising sun in the southeast direction.

Shadows of patrolling fighters appeared in the sky, patrolling in groups of two or two above the fleet. Some of the more vigilant fighters even flew behind the returning Jaegers to see if there were any German aircraft following them.

Fortunately, Captain Hake had cleverly dispersed the reconnaissance planes and moved in groups of two to the low-altitude clouds further south.

Under the cover of clouds and sunlight on the sea, and because the British radar at the time did not have an IFF function and its detection performance for scattered aircraft was not very ideal, the display was just a line with a rotating azimuth, and the small echo signal was fleeting, or it might be the negligence of the British radar soldiers... In short, neither the British fighters in the sky nor the British fleet had discovered their small group of armed reconnaissance aircraft.

They quickly approached the alert fleet...

ps: People nowadays always want big news~ How about a generous reward or something~~ Please give me your monthly vote!

Chapter 225: Zeppelin's Counterattack

Following the returning British fighter planes, Hake and the JU87Cs followed all the way to this sea area. Then, while the British aircraft carriers were organizing the landing of carrier-based aircraft and could not maneuver freely, they hid in the low-altitude area south of the British fleet.

"Send a message to the flagship, target confirmed, enemy fleet coordinates XXX.XXX, three aircraft carriers, two battleships, at least seven destroyers, speed approximately 25 knots, heading due east 090..." Captain Hake observed the British fleet in the distance while giving tactical instructions to his men on the close-range tactical channel.

"Everyone, pay attention and stay hidden. Also, if there is nothing serious, try to use short-range tactical channels and radios. This place is at least 250 kilometers away from the Zeppelin. The flight deck of the Zeppelin needs at least two hours of repairs before the planes can take off, and it will take at least another hour to fly over. So for at least these three hours, we are the only eyes and ears of the entire fleet! Got it?!"

"Yes!" "Received!"

Listening to Captain Hake's instructions on the radio and the serious responses from the other two seniors in front, he looked at the observation window below his feet - a 250KG bomb was hanging on the bomb rack under his feet, but it seemed that he might not have the chance to drop it this time?

If I have to wait for the follow-up bombers, what else can I do?

But under military orders, no one could do anything.