Bismarck

"I'm such a jinx!" Bismarck couldn't help but curse inwardly, and she quickly told Lütjens about the situation.

"Captain, a destroyer has appeared, right in front of us on the right!"

The two warships were now approaching each other at a relative speed of seventy knots.

Bismarck's own mental power diffusion range is about twenty nautical miles, while the radar detection range of the British destroyer is only about fourteen nautical miles. This distance of nearly ten kilometers is the time she can react.

"They didn't find us, did they?" Lütjens was not surprised at all. He would have been surprised if there was no blockade.

"No radio was detected. The destroyer's attitude did not change. It should not have discovered us."

"Left rudder forty-five degrees! Evade!" If possible, Lütjens still wanted to avoid being discovered.

"Forty-five degrees left!" the helmsman replied loudly.

After a minute of response, Bismarck's heavy hull turned left and headed towards the Faroe Islands.

"Oh no, there is also a destroyer in front of the left!" Just when Bismarck thought he had avoided the detection of a destroyer, the situation appeared again in front.

And now, there is no escape.

"There's nothing we can do. We have to be discovered. I knew this would happen." Lütjens said in a deep voice, "It looks like the British won't let us get away so easily this time!"

"Gunner, sound the battle alert!"

"understand!"

"Level 1 combat deployment, close the watertight compartment!"

The shrill ringing of the bell echoed throughout the ship, and the atmosphere suddenly became tense.

"Captain, charge!" Lütjens continued to give orders. Since there was no way to avoid it, they had to fight and charge at the same time!

The distance of more than ten kilometers was only a few minutes, and Bismarck, who was closely following them, soon discovered that the destroyer on the opposite side sent out a radio signal.

"They've discovered us!" Bismarck reported.

But the strange thing was that the destroyer, which had clearly discovered him, did not turn around and leave immediately, but continued to approach him.

"Captain, is it still approaching?"

Expel him from your side. Are you looking for death?

"It's raining heavily now, and the visibility is only seven or eight kilometers. They can't be sure just by relying on radar. I guess they want to get closer to confirm us." Lütjens judged.

"Shall we open fire?" the gunner asked. "Of course, it's up to Miss Bismarck whether she'll allow it."

Bismarck glared at him.

"No, opening fire now would be equivalent to confirming the news. Wait until we are within visual distance before opening fire."

"Yes!"

Bismarck stared closely. The shells on the turret had already been loaded and the eight naval guns were already pointing in that direction. If he wanted to fight, he would kill as many as he could first.

"The target is starting to turn!"

"Fire!"

The moment the lookout reported, Lütjens gave a decisive order.

"boom--"

The battle of the Rhine Exercise has begun.

ps: There is still no news from the big sister... I will slowly start to push it myself, although it is rather troublesome... I measured it again and again on the map today.

Please call me soul painter.

Chapter 338: Beyond Visual Range Bombardment

With the roar of the giant cannon, the entire sea surface seemed to be quiet for a moment. The shock wave caused by the muzzle storm even made the surrounding raindrops evaporate instantly, and then it pressed heavily on the sea surface, forming a concave surface.

The destroyer steered desperately, but the eight kilometers distance only gave it ten seconds to move. Eight shells whizzed in and penetrated the thick rain. If hit, a big hole would be torn in the fragile hull of the destroyer.

However···

"Missed the target!"

the lookout shouted.

Lütjens looked at Bismarck in confusion. There should be no mistakes at this distance.

"I didn't take the rain into consideration." Bismarck said embarrassedly, "I'll try again."

“Hit the attention,” he said.

"The other side has laid mines." Bismarck saw a series of white marks shot out from the opposing destroyer.

"You evade it."

"Re-aim! Calculate trajectory!"

The destroyer turned around, released the remaining torpedoes, and then fled to the rear at full speed. The torpedoes enveloped the Bismarck like a fan that was getting bigger and bigger.

However, this obvious target was not so difficult for her to avoid.

"Forward three, right fifteen!" Lütjens ordered.

"Boom--" the ship's guns opened fire again, and at the same time the secondary guns also fired a dense barrage of bullets - even the 150mm secondary guns could cause fatal damage to the destroyer.

In a flash, a large amount of water splashed across the destroyer's route as a main gun armored shell penetrated from the upper deck of the main engine room, piercing directly through the bottom of the ship, paralyzing it on the sea.

"Hit! The target was destroyed!"

Bismarck wanted to attack the remaining destroyer that had been discovered, but it was too far away and it was not very realistic.

"Go at full speed, get as close as possible to the Faroe Islands, and head east when you're out of the waterway! Since there are enemies here, there must be an ambush in the Denmark Strait. I guess they've already started turning around." Lütjens immediately judged.

"Yes!"

"I just don't know what's ahead." He added in his heart.

--

"What? Bismarck's trace has been found!" Tovey was already inside the Denmark Strait at this time. He was completing the deployment and waiting for Bismarck to come in. He was a little disappointed to hear the news. As expected, Lütjens did not come up according to the information provided by the spy.

In his opinion, the best solution was for Bismarck to go through the Denmark Strait and be sunk by Hood here, but Lütjens chose another way.

"But no matter which path you choose, the result will be the same." Tovey is still confident in the fleet he deployed in the Faroe Waterway, and he just needs to wait until he gets there.

"Are you sure it's Bismarck?" Tovey asked.

"The destroyer ahead only said that he had spotted a ship signal and speculated it was the Bismarck." Because they were on a battlefield, the destroyer's captain did not dare to speak absolutely. If the ship on the radar was not the Bismarck and the opportunity to fight was missed, he would be in the military court in the end.

"Let him make a clear visual inspection and then report to me." Tovey certainly understood this. If the object in front was not the Bismarck but a disguised ship and he left again, that would be ridiculous.

However, he also ordered, "The fleet completes the turn and prepares for support!"

"Yes!"

In the end, the destroyer confirmed that the ship was the Bismarck, and of course, it itself ended up being buried at sea.

However, considering the cost of losing a destroyer, it is still worth it. After all, a large number of destroyers will arrive to support the United States soon.

"Target the Faroe Channel, full speed ahead! Tell Rodney and Nelson to stop Bismarck at all costs!"

"Yes!"

---------

Rodney and Nelson's battle alarms had already been sounded. From the news from the front, they knew that the Bismarck was ahead. The captains of the two battleships cursed their bad luck at the same time. Fighting against Bismarck was the last thing they wanted to see. Even in the last Icelandic Battle, when the Bismarck was seriously injured, it could still fight them on equal terms...

General Tovey only imagined that the enemy was beaten so badly that he could not take care of himself. If they had continued fighting, both sides would have perished. As the captain of a battleship, it was very painful for him to see his battleship being damaged like that.

Why not just send Bismarck to find Hood? Why did he go to the Faroe Islands?

"Follow Nelson and deploy!"

However, looking at the telegram sent from the flagship, Captain Rodney had no choice but to give the order to deploy according to the predetermined formation, no matter how unwilling he was.

Everyone knows that the Nelson-class naval guns are quite strange. If you are not careful, your own turret may explode. In order to exert full firepower, you can only turn sideways and turn the turret to one side.

The two battleships sailed diagonally towards the Faroe Channel, with their front and rear positions slightly staggered. A total of eighteen 406 naval guns would soon form a powerful firepower network.

Two heavy cruisers also followed. Although the power of 203 was not strong, it was enough to play a supporting role.

Hopefully I can fire first.

-

Of course it was impossible for them to fire first. How could Bismarck give them this opportunity?

"Enemy battleship spotted!" With the radar operator's report, the atmosphere on the bridge became extremely tense.

"It's Rodney and Nelson." Bismarck whispered in Lütjens' ear, "and two heavy cruisers."

"We are old acquaintances." Lütjens grinned. "Keep the speed and course, just go ahead. If we stop, we will be surrounded. We have to force our way out."

"These two ships are not easy opponents either, you have to be careful," Lütjens reminded.

"I understand."

The two sides were approaching each other rapidly, and a real exchange of fire was about to break out, but one side had already calculated the combat position, while the other side was still in the dark and was advancing like a blind man.

"Get into position!" Following Lütjens' order, each battle position quickly made preparations.

"Gunner, calculate position, fire in one minute!"

"understand!"

"Three, two, one—fire!"

The hull shook violently, and eight heavy artillery roared out again. This time it was a sneak attack when the opponent was completely unaware. The opponent did not make any evasive moves and continued to move forward along the established route. The rain and dark clouds covered the artillery flames tightly, and the two warships did not even notice the shells in front of them.

It was not until Nelson was hit by two heavy artillery shells at once, with two large holes blown out in front and back in an instant, and water splashes dozens of meters high were blown up around it, that they realized they were attacked.

Captain Nelson was sitting on a chair when the sudden explosion threw him off. The entire bridge was in turmoil. Then there was a crackling sound from outside. It was a rain of parts formed after the steel shell was torn apart. The thick smoke directly shrouded the bridge in confusion...

"Avoid! Avoid!"

Without even asking what was happening, the captain quickly got up and began giving orders.

"Captain, we were hit by two shells!" The deputy captain received several phone calls in succession and hurried to report to him.

There were holes in Nelson's bow and stern, causing a secondary gun turret to be blown into the sky, but the damage in these two places was insignificant to a huge battleship.

"Does the radar see the target?" He asked the radar angrily while dodging.

"Report to the captain, no!" The radar officer replied helplessly. There was nothing he could do about it.

Compared to the thrilling experience of Nelson, Rodney behind him was much luckier. At least the eight shells did not come towards them. However, he was still frightened when he saw Nelson's butt suddenly explode in front of him, and he immediately started to turn the rudder to avoid it.

But before the ship started to move, half a minute later, another round of artillery fire came from the sky. This time the ship was lucky, and a shell hit Nelson's main armor belt more than 20 kilometers away, then bounced off and hit the water.

At the beginning, Lütjens started to shoot rapidly, one round every thirty seconds. In this situation, Nelson was basically stationary, which was a good shooting window. If you missed it, it would be a disaster at this long distance.

"The damage is not serious." Bismarck said. Even though he had replaced the bullets with heavy ones, it was impossible to penetrate the main armor at such a long distance.

"Normal, keep shooting. Are they starting to evade?"

"Yes."

"Aim before shooting, no need to go at full speed," said Lütjens.

"Keep sailing and keep moving forward!"

Bismarck's hull was now positioned diagonally toward the east in preparation for a breakout, so that the four turrets could fire simultaneously.

A few minutes later, Nelson, whose formation was in disarray, finally saw the Bismarck on the radar, but it was still a long distance away from being visible.

Although they did not want to confront Bismarck, the angry British were not so easy to deal with. The Germans only relied on Bismarck and their radar was very primitive, while the British radar at that time could already measure distances, but of course the accuracy was not very high.

"Aim at her! Fire!"

Bismarck looked at the eighteen shells flying towards him from Rodney and Nelson. He didn't even want to dodge, not to mention that the two battleships were still evading him. Even if he was stationary, he couldn't be hit according to such crude radar positioning.

"Want to disrupt our track?" Lütjens took a look, but he couldn't see the landing point if it was farther away, which shows how poor the accuracy was.

"Keep moving forward like this. It's best to keep the exchange of fire with them within visual range as short as possible."

The visual range is eight kilometers. The exchange of fire within this distance is basically at the level of mutual penetration.

"Turn, right rudder 135." Lütjens suddenly ordered.

So in Nelson's radar, Bismarck turned towards the Denmark Strait.