Bismarck

ps: There are no Persian cats in Cape Matapan in these chapters, but these chapters are quite important for the advancement of the plot, so I’ll tell you about it in advance.

ps: The iOS client will not be updated until the 14th, so please ask for it in advance~

Chapter 371: Italian Mafia Big Sister

"...Still no news from the water scouts we sent out earlier?"

Looking at the lack of news in the radio room, Iakino felt a little uneasy. He didn't know where the British fleet was and what appearance it would appear in front of him. What worried him even more was that if a night battle came, how much advantage would he have.

It was almost four o'clock local time in the afternoon of March 28th. The days in early spring were not very long, and dusk was gradually coming. In the still chilly sea breeze, the Italian fleet was moving towards its target.

Because the strait from Cape Matapan to Crete is about 120 kilometers wide, a single fleet cannot completely block it, so General Iachino had to divide his Italian fleet into two detachments, patrolling the north and south directions of the strait respectively. In this way, one detachment can cover a width of 60 kilometers, which reduces the difficulty slightly.

However, once it was night, without radar, they were no different from blind people.

This is also the focus of Iakino's concern.

"If only we had a radar like the Bismarck." He sighed slightly.

The detachment in front includes three heavy cruisers, two light cruisers and five destroyers. Their primary task is to search for the enemy. After successfully searching for the enemy, if the enemy is stronger than you or about the same as you, keep tracking them. If the enemy is much weaker than you, try to eat them up!

In short, it is the pirate ship logic of fighting if you can win, and running away if you can't.

However, Iachino did not have any expectations of killing the enemy with the detachment. The British would not be foolish enough to divide their forces, so the most he could do was to keep tracking and hope that he would not be killed by the British fleet.

The real main force of the battle is Iachino personally leading the Vittorio Veneto, including three heavy cruisers and eight destroyers, and all other warships. They will assemble in the waters near Cape Matapan as the main force for the decisive battle.

In order to detect the enemy first, it was not enough to rely on the cruiser fleet to search for the enemy, so as early as noon, General Iakino released his ship-borne seaplane reconnaissance. But... the planes released at noon, now it was dusk, and there was no sign of them flying back, and no news came...

As for the Air Force reconnaissance aircraft, there has been no news sent so far...

Although various situations in war always lead to delays in intelligence, there was no situation report today. It was unusually quiet, just like the calm before a storm...

This situation almost made General Iakino think that he had traveled through time and space, and that his fleet was the only one left in this world.

This is impossible. If something is abnormal, there must be something wrong.

wrong!

That is not tranquility, that is the dead silence with a storm brewing!

Admiral Iakino restlessly paced around the bridge command post for more than a dozen times. He was thinking about countermeasures and trying to find a solution, but without any information about the battle situation, all his imaginations were in vain. He lit a cigarette, but didn't take a puff until the cigarette in his hand burned his fingers...

"The plane hasn't come back yet. Something must have happened... Maybe it hit a British plane..."

He didn't think that his reconnaissance plane could fly for a whole afternoon, so it must have been shot down.

So where do they go now?

Should they continue to advance? If they do, they will most likely enter a night battle. Without radar, they will be very passive in a night battle.

If we don't move forward and the British escape, this highly anticipated operation will fail.

As an admiral, he often needs to make decisions. No matter whether the information is sufficient or insufficient, he needs to make a judgment on the battle situation in the command room and then give orders.

This kind of decision is easy, sometimes difficult, big or small.

Maybe it concerns the fate of a ship, maybe it is a fleet, and of course it is also the fate of a country.

Iachino certainly did not think that his decision would affect the fate of Italy. He thought at most that this failure would mean missing out on the British supply fleet.

But... this feeling of being unable to do anything is still very unpleasant.

----------

However, just when Admiral Iakino was obviously getting impatient, the communications soldier rushed in.

"What's the matter?" The general raised his eyebrows.

"Report! Air Force reconnaissance plane sent a situation report! We found a British cruiser formation 30 nautical miles southeast of the cruiser formation we sent to the southern waters. It was heading northwest at a speed of about 20 knots. There were about four cruisers and four destroyers. No battleships were found. We are now conducting additional reconnaissance!"

This was good news, and Iakino instantly felt like he was back on earth again.

"No battleships? It seems they are here to explore the way... Their battleships should be not far behind us. It seems that we should move forward a little further! Don't let the British battleships swallow our cruisers..."

After thinking for a while, Iakino realized that he had finally caught such a rare opportunity in the past six months and could not miss it easily, so he issued the order to join the battle without hesitation: "Order the cruisers to intercept, our formation accelerates to 135 knots! Head southwest ! Immediately reinforce the cruiser division, destroy the British cruisers as soon as possible, and then prepare to intercept the British battleships!"

"Yes!"

----

At 5pm, on the bridge of the Warspite...

Almost when the Italian fleet discovered the British advance fleet, the British also reported the situation, and Cunningham received the news first.

"Report! The Vanguard Fleet encountered the Italian fleet northwest of Crete and south of Antikythera Island. The enemy has 5 cruisers and 6 destroyers, but Veneto was not found!"

"It looks like they have spotted our cruiser, but haven't they spotted Veneto? Then Veneto should be in the northwest of them, probably coming as a support force! If the time is five o'clock now, send out a wave of carrier-based aircraft, and then the battleships will make a straight line to intercept their retreat and prepare for a night battle!"

After a quick mental assessment, Cunningham, who had a rough idea of ​​the enemy situation, quickly issued a tactical order: "Order! Vanguard cruisers, entangle their cruiser fleet! The Formidable, bring the cruisers, and the carrier-based aircraft will take off immediately - the focus is on searching for the Veneto in the northwest of the sea where the vanguard fleet is fighting! The battleships, bring the destroyers, speed 310 knots, we will act separately from the Formidable and the cruisers, heading degrees, and prepare for a night battle!"

"Yes!"

For Cunningham, his hope was to drag the Italians into a night battle, after all, he had a secret weapon.

---

After receiving Cunningham's order, the British Mediterranean Fleet began to act with rapid efficiency.

The technical performance of British cruisers is not as good as that of Italian heavy cruisers. The design of Italian heavy cruisers is the most reasonable among the treaty cruisers, especially in terms of protection - a 11400-ton battleship has 2700 tons of armor, 152 mm armor and 100 mm deck. Moreover, the defense area is much larger than that of American cruisers, and the armor thickness is much greater than that of German cruisers. It can be said that it takes into account both offense and defense.

In this encounter, the British were at a disadvantage in terms of the number of cruisers, 5:4, but relying on their speed which was not inferior to that of the Italians, the British vanguard cruiser fleet maintained its position at 25000 meters - the maximum range of the Italian 203 mm main guns, and kept harassing the Italian cruisers back and forth.

When the enemy advances, I retreat; when the enemy retreats, I advance, fighting a guerrilla war.

The Italian cruisers wanted to have a decisive battle with the British fleet, but the speed of both sides was similar, and under the British command that was focused on harassing the enemy, they could do nothing to the enemy.

The two cruiser fleets launched sparse artillery fire at a distance of 25 kilometers, but at this distance, even Bismarck could not guarantee that it could hit the target, let alone them - both sides were just wasting artillery shells meaninglessly.

The situation did not change until 5:45 p.m., when the Veneto led by Admiral Iachino arrived at the battlefield.

For cruisers, the power of a battleship is overwhelming, and it is not possible to achieve good results by just siege, not to mention that they are at a disadvantage in terms of numbers.

"Target the British cruiser, AB turret, test fire a round!" he ordered quickly.

"Boom--" With a shocking sound, the entire battleship was shaking and trembling. Veneto's 380 ancestral powder cannon finally opened fire.

Although the dispersion of the Veneto's guns was large, the actual accuracy of the gunfire was not bad. After the first round of test firing, it achieved good results. The second round of salvos at a distance of 25000 meters almost hit the British cruiser Orion. Moreover, the powerful explosion power of the battleship's main gun shells even caused this Dido-class second-batch anti-aircraft light cruiser to take on water... After that, the Veneto's full-gun salvos were also fired at the British cruisers one after another. The powerful firepower suppressed the British cruisers so much that they could not even raise their heads.

Seeing that the situation was not right and that all their magic weapons had been used, the British gentlemen who had been able to tease the silly little girl at will before had no choice but to hurriedly send a telegram to the aircraft carrier to inform it of the location of the Veneto, while turning around and fleeing in panic.

Are you kidding? Even if VV is a destroyer, you British people can’t get your hands on it!

Moreover, they were forced to perform various difficult fancy gymnastics moves in the process of escaping, just to barely avoid being hit at a distance of 25000 meters. Even so, the British cruisers were almost unilaterally beaten by the various cross-fires of the Veneto on the way of evacuation, especially the Glasgow at the end of the fleet. It was even more dangerous. The various water columns that kept erupting around them made the sailors on it tremble with fear. If they were hit by the drug cannon...

The significance of big ships and big guns is fully demonstrated at this time. Armor is truth and caliber is justice!

According to the British cruiser fleet commander, Vice Admiral Pulliham Webber, "Damn it, if this continues, it's only a matter of time before we get hit..."

It was almost half past six, and the setting sun was about to set. The last four BF110Cs that had been patrolling over the Veneto in the sky had also evacuated the battlefield. At this time, it was basically impossible for the British planes to come out again, as their fuel was about to run out.

In the waters west of Crete that were gradually being shrouded in darkness, Admiral Iakino breathed a sigh of relief as he watched the setting sun rise above the horizon in the west.

"The sun is about to set, so the British planes will not be dispatched. What we should worry about most is the British fleet. They have radar and we don't. The last time the Japanese naval delegation came to Italy, although we exchanged some night combat training in the absence of radar, we were unable to carry out those training due to insufficient fuel... It seems that we should prepare to quit while we are ahead..."

Iakino was a little unwilling to accept the result. It seemed that he had not achieved any results yet. He had sent out a whole fleet of his best weapons, but only got a few near misses. This was a little too ridiculous...

But at this moment, the heart-wrenching shouts of the air defense sentry outside the command post rang out...

"Plane! British plane! Air raid!! Air raid!!!"

The general looked confused, then suddenly rushed to the side of the bridge and raised the telescope.

In his field of vision, he saw a shocking scene: a team of black fighter planes were flying towards him.

"Air defense! Prepare for air defense!" he shouted.

"Send me a radio! Damn it, request air support!"

Under the cover of the deep blue twilight in the sky, six F4F Wildcat fighters, eighteen SBD Dauntless dive bombers and twelve TBD Destroyer torpedo planes dispatched from the aircraft carrier HMS Formidable attacked from an altitude of meters and from an ultra-low altitude close to the sea level, attacking the Italian mafia leader who had been so powerful in the artillery battle against the cruiser...

(PS: In the historical facts of the Battle of Cape Matapan, Veneto unilaterally beat the British cruiser fleet at a distance of 25000 meters for a full hour)

ps, please give me a blade and a reward~

Chapter 372: VV escapes death

Faced with the sudden air attack, everyone was shocked.

"Avoid! Avoid!"

"Shoot into the air!"

In the channel, the captains' shouts at the top of their lungs were heard one after another.

The Italian warships twisted their hulls frantically and fired desperately into the sky. For a moment, the slightly dim sky was densely intertwined with golden threads of death.

However, the level of the Italian fleet is really limited. In history, even a broken-legged fish could not shoot down a few planes with its training level. How could it possibly do anything to these more advanced and more sturdy American carrier-based aircraft?

The pilot smiled contemptuously and bravely rushed into the seemingly solid air defense circle painstakingly built by the Italians, and then dropped torpedoes and bombs at the dodging warships.

The focus is naturally the largest region, Veneto.

A carrier-based plane roared and lowered its altitude, heading straight for the turning Veneto. The torpedo on the belly of the plane flashed a cold light, and the strong wind even caused waves on the sea surface.

The anti-aircraft guns on both sides of the ship kept firing, and the fire spread everywhere, as if it was an indicator light welcoming it.

"March, Two, One"

As the pilot pressed the button, the huge torpedo fell off the belly of the plane with a click, and nimbly dived into the sea. Then a white streak appeared on the sea, pointing straight in the direction of Veneto.

"Torpedo!" A panicked report came from the lookout tower, and at the same time, the crew on the side of the ship dropped their weapons and hid inside.

The distance was too close. By the time the torpedo had surfaced, it was only a few hundred meters away from Veneto.

The speed was too fast, and as a battleship it was unable to maneuver at all.

As a deafening explosion erupted from the side of the ship, the water column was as high as ten meters, and all the people on the bridge were thrown to the ground.

The only thing Admiral Iakino could do was to arrange damage control...

Five minutes, just five minutes of air strike. During these five minutes, all the torpedoes and bombs were dropped at once, and the fleet that the Italians were so proud of suffered heavy losses.

The battleship Veneto was hit by two torpedoes and three bombs. Although the torpedo in the boiler room was successfully defended by the Pugliese system, the left engine room, which lacked the Pugliese system and was only protected by traditional bulkheads, was blown into a propolis and almost lost power! The chaos caused by the 4300 tons of water inflow and the imbalance of thrust even paralyzed the Veneto on the sea!

Of course, it wasn't just the Veneto that suffered. The engine room of the heavy cruiser Pola was also hit by a torpedo. This poor guy was paralyzed on the sea with the Veneto. Another destroyer was sunk, and a light cruiser and a destroyer were injured...

After losing Veneto, their main combat force, the British cruisers that had been badly beaten in the distance before, like a group of hyenas seeing a lion with a broken leg, lingered back, waiting for an opportunity to bite something.

Although the hyenas did not dare to get too close due to the overwhelming range of the Veneto and the protection of other Italian cruisers, they still followed from a distance of 30000 yards. Admiral Iachino knew without hesitation that they were following him to tip off the British main fleet, which was somewhere unknown.

And...at this time, Iakino was almost certain that the information was absolutely inaccurate!

Who the hell told him the only thing the British were escorting was an old lady?!

Those previous planes were all mentioned in the bulletin. They were new carrier-based aircraft purchased by the British aircraft carrier from the United States. This meant that there was at least one British aircraft carrier in the nearby waters - and this was not mentioned at all in the previous intelligence bulletin!

Since such an important battleship as an aircraft carrier can be ignored, it is conceivable that the British fleet definitely has more than one battleship!

Iakino really wanted to slam that document in the intelligence department's face - if he could go back.

What are they doing to eat!

Now the position of his fleet has been exposed, and Veneto and others have been seriously injured. It will be dark in ten minutes at most. By then, in front of the British fleet's radar, he will be a cripple and blind man - how can he fight this battle!

"Repair it immediately, and retreat immediately after repairing it!" Admiral Iakino gritted his teeth and issued this humiliating order unwillingly...

-----

Iachino's guess was correct. Only 90 nautical miles southeast of the Veneto, Cunningham, who had received the news that the aircraft carrier had severely damaged the Veneto, was leading the Mediterranean Fleet, headed by the three Queen Elizabeth-class battleships, HMS Warspite, HMS Barham and HMS Warrior. The British main fleet, guarded by four destroyers on both sides, was speeding towards the lame Veneto at a full speed of knots.

It’s just that the three battleships are not very fast, so it takes a little more time.

It's getting darker.

The British cruisers would not miss this opportunity. Under the guidance of radar, they used artillery fire to harass the Italian fleet's repair and towing work. The Italian fleet, which lacked radar and searchlights, was now completely in a passive position. They could not see the surrounding situation clearly and could only take turns firing flares in the general direction of the British fleet to deter the other side...

Don’t come over here...if you come over we will beat you to death!

This is probably what it means to be fierce on the outside but weak on the inside.

Although the Italian sailors exerted 120% of their potential in the face of life and death, and worked hard to repair the Veneto, which gradually recovered to a speed of ten knots after a few minutes, and even slowly accelerated to nearly twenty knots two hours later. But the power of the poor heavy cruiser Pola could not be repaired, but she could not abandon her comrades on the battlefield, so she had to be taken care of by her two sister ships in the same squadron. Fiume towed Pola, Zara and four destroyers to one side for protection, and towed at a speed of ten knots to the back of the slowly retreating Italian fleet, gradually falling behind and separating from the main force...