Bismarck

The scene stunned him.

A violent explosion like a volcanic eruption in the night sky illuminated the entire night sky like lightning in an instant, as if it was a hero's funeral, announcing that the battlecruiser HMS Renown, a veteran with 1916 years of military service since , had fulfilled her final duty as a member of the Royal Navy - she died on the battlefield for the glory of the Royal Navy.

The explosion exploded instantly and ended quickly. Apart from the sparks, they could no longer see its figure. They could only guess its end based on their feelings. It should have been blown into pieces. In the midst of the explosion, the figure of a golden-haired, double-eyed, conscientious, dedicated, and perfect maid appeared in front of people. After she performed a perfect and elegant maid's resignation etiquette to everyone, she gradually withered in the night filled with blood and fire...

Watching the Renown gradually sinking to the bottom of the sea, while the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, which did not suffer much damage, had already begun to turn and were about to rush to the T-position right in front of the two remaining British battleships, everyone who saw this scene turned pale!

The Germans were bombarding with unrelenting force. Before anyone could recover from the maid's heroic farewell, another ball of fire erupted from the Howe! By the time everyone realized what was happening and the smoke from the Howe began to dissipate, the two main turrets on the bow of this King George V-class battleship had already been paralyzed. Now she only had the firepower of the four rear main guns to fight back...

The shadow of despair crept into everyone's heart...

"Is the British Empire really going to end this time..."

"My God... have you abandoned Great Britain?..."

"Amen... Amitabha... Allahu Akbar... It doesn't matter who it is, please save the British Empire..."

Even Tovey, who had been standing in front of the window, lowered his head helplessly:

"Hood... Looks like I'll have to come find you soon..."

"If I had listened to you and turned the rudder to avoid that torpedo, it would have been great..."

"I let you die under my blind command, and now the Home Fleet is about to be defeated by me... I, John Tovey, am a sinner..."

"Well... As the commander of the Royal Navy's Home Fleet, even if I am a sinner, I will fight with all my strength..." With tears streaming down his face, Tovey hastily wiped his eyes with the edge of his admiral's sleeve. When he raised his head, his eyes were determined and his voice was stern: "Everyone listen to me! There are no cowards in the Royal Navy of the British Empire! Even if we all die here today, we must die in a way that is worthy of the British Empire and the Royal Navy!"

Even if the entire Home Fleet is sunk here today, the flesh and blood of the Germans must be left behind!

The sea breeze and gunpowder smoke pouring in from the broken portholes gave Admiral Tovey's stern roar an air of determination to fight to the death! The officers and soldiers in the bridge fell silent, and a tragic and heroic spirit of fighting to the end gradually rose in everyone's hearts!

He looked at the flashes in the distance outside the porthole - that was the direction of the Hindenburg and Ludendorff battleships 22 kilometers away! Tovey, who had already made up his mind to die, suppressed his feelings for Hood, looked at his men whose morale had gradually risen, and began to issue the final order:

"Communications officer, tell all Royal Navy warships that can still fight on the battlefield, including the battleship Howe, that I will lead the charge! Order everyone to follow my ship and launch a final assault on the enemy flagship Hindenburg! Also, send a telegram to the Admiralty about the current battle situation. The British Empire Royal Navy's Home Fleet will fight to the end no matter what! God bless the king, long live the British Empire!"

"Yes!"

Seeing that Admiral Tovey had made up his mind, the remaining officers and soldiers in the bridge of the Duke of York also responded in unison, fearlessly ready to die, yet with a hint of tragic heroism!

The telegram was sent out quickly, and the remaining British fleet began to turn around and launched what might be the final assault of the British Royal Navy's Home Fleet in the direction of the Hindenburg battleship!

However, just as this solemn and tragic scene was beginning, it was interrupted by the voice of the lookout:

"Report! Report! Good news! There are warships bombarding the enemy from behind! Are they our reinforcements?!"

"Reinforcements?!" Everyone rushed to the window sill! In the dark night, behind the distant German fleet, red streaks of light, like a meteor shower of God's judgment on the sins of the world, completely enveloped the Hindenburg in a column of water and flames!

“…There really are reinforcements!”

"This... this is God Bless Britain!"

"Am I dreaming!"

"God has revealed himself!! Allahu Akbar!"

Even Tovey was stunned by the scene before him:

"Who... who are these reinforcements? ... Hood... could it be your spirit in heaven, watching over us...?"

At this moment, everyone heard the radio in the bridge begin to make a rustling sound - someone was contacting them!

Everyone's eyes turned to the signalman who rushed back from the window to the radio station and turned on the switch embarrassedly. Everyone had the same question in their mind:

"Who is it?"

"Torvy, I'm Cunningham! I'm here with Warspite to support you!"

The originally cynical voice was now filled with anger:

"…I have received your telegram and your determination. The Renown has fulfilled her duty… Then, now is the time for us to avenge the Renown! I will join your assault and attack the Hindenburg from both sides!"

"We want the Germans to pay back their blood debt with their own blood!"

The Duke of York, the Warspite, the Howe on one side, and the other light warships around, all the anger and hatred soon converged into a common slogan:

"eye for eye!"

Chapter 588: War-weary Rage—Ahem, happy birthday!

Five minutes ago...

"Hit it! Hit it again... Wait! That's... a secondary explosion! The Renown exploded... Shane! It was Shane! It was Shane who sank the Renown! Shane has done a great job! (Captain of the Scharnhorst) Major General Erich Bey has perfectly inherited the spirit and will of the Second Imperial Navy. We are about to avenge the betrayed fleet! He is not alone now... He is no longer alone now!"

It's really exaggerated...

On the bridge of the Scharnhorst, a round-faced man wearing a rear admiral's uniform and with a slightly fierce look suddenly sneezed twice in a row without any warning:

"…The guy who's making the announcement…what does 'I'm not a human being' mean?! My last name isn't Brando…"

-----

In the bridge of the Hindenburg, the excited voice of the observation post was like the incarnation of some legendary world's best anchor, describing the situation on the battlefield as hysterical and passionate! Under the influence of his hoarse voice, the entire headquarters of the German Arctic Fleet was also a sea of ​​jubilation!

In the German Navy, few people would not grit their teeth when talking about the Renown battlecruiser. This battlecruiser, which has been in service since World War I, is the Scharnhorst, and is also an old rival of the German Navy! Her six 381mm main guns once left a deep and painful impression on the German Navy! And now, this maid, who even the Germans had to be moved by, finally fell under the muzzle of the Scharnhorst!

The reputation sank, and the situation on the battlefield was too favorable! Even a fool could see that the Duke of York and the Howe, which had been badly beaten by Hindenburg and Ludendorff in the two-on-two head-on confrontation, were just waiting to die after Schaan and Gnay withdrew their hands!

The lookout, who seemed to have drunk a large can of poisoned milk for dinner, had also seen that the enemy, who was already dragging thick smoke and whose firepower had long been incomplete, seemed to have begun to turn in his direction and began to attack the Hindenburg. And the observer did not forget his duty as a poisoned milk, and also reported the situation to the headquarters in detail through the microphone. But now the speed of the two British battleships has dropped to about 26 knots, which can't catch up with the speed of 30 knots on our side!

Not to mention that the current distance is still more than 20 nautical miles away, it can be avoided with just a slight turn command.

Who cares about this last struggle that only belongs to losers?

There are already more than a dozen planes flying sparsely in the sky from the direction of Iceland and the Faroe Islands, but they are useless in the sky now!

It is early February, the season of the waning moon, and the moon only appears in the second half of the night. Although the sky is full of flares, the sea is also full of smoke! In addition, the German warships are carrying electronic jammers, and the flying gunfire and water columns between the two warship formations on the sea seriously interfere with and affect the aircraft assault... Not to mention, the three remaining German destroyers on the periphery of the German warships, led by Hipper, have loaded the anti-aircraft guns on the ship with shells and are ready! These anti-aircraft guns have been loaded with VT fuze shells with rod-shaped fragmentation warheads that have a killing bonus against large bombers!

Although there were more than twenty British and American bombers flying over the battlefield, all equipped with torpedoes, they were restricted by the night sky, the chaotic battlefield, and the hedgehog-like VT fuze anti-aircraft guns, and now they could only stare blankly!

The requirement for a torpedo assault is to find the direction of the assault more than ten kilometers away and maintain an ultra-low-altitude formation flight of about ten meters, but the range of the flares is not large, and the burning time of the flares is not long. The battlefield was in chaos again. The dim yellow light that flickered in the sky, the fierce flashes of artillery fire, and the dark night without moonlight all seriously affected the ability of aircraft to drop mines - you know, air-to-ship torpedoes must be dropped at an ultra-low altitude of less than ten meters! But the altimeter of this era, professionally called a membrane barometer, has an error of more than ten meters! Using this thing to play ultra-low-altitude flight in the dark night where you can hardly see the height, I am afraid that if you are not careful, you will fall into the sea with both the person and the plane!

(PS: The principle of the diaphragm barometer is that a sealed box containing standard atmospheric pressure is covered with a sealed membrane, and then the protrusion of the membrane generated by the comparison of the internal and external air pressure is used to push the mechanical structure, and then the pointer is driven to indicate the altitude. Moreover, the error limit of this thing is within a range of more than ten meters, but this thing was the core component of the first generation of anti-ship missile automatic altimeter even in the 60s, so the bombers in the 40s only had this as a precision altimeter. This is not because today is August 8th, the birthday of the membrane, so I maliciously worship someone: P)

In the Hindenburg's headquarters, everyone was smiling and looked relaxed, as if the remnants of the Royal Navy on the opposite side were a group of medals that were almost certain to win!

Especially Kumets, who was full of confidence and stood proudly by the porthole, changing his posture from time to time, as if he had become a world-famous general who led the German War Navy's Arctic Fleet to successfully destroy the main force of the Royal Navy. Looking at his smug look, he was probably thinking about what kind of posture he should strike when he leads his troops back in triumph so that his photo can be recorded in history like the Battle of the Norwegian Sea...

Although Kumets himself knew that the current Royal Navy had been drained bit by bit by Lütjens and his ship girls for more than two years, and even if he won a "great victory" this time, it was completely a result of bullying the weak and stepping on Lütjens' achievements to create a record for himself. But it doesn't matter. After decades, who knows the truth?

Should I take this opportunity to give an impromptu speech to further enhance my image? Hmm…

However, just when Kumets was feeling proud, the radio signalman's shouting interrupted him from his self-satisfied YY...

"Why are you calling me? Can't you see I'm...thinking about the battle situation?"

Looking at the signalman who interrupted him, Kumets shouted angrily.

"Um... Commander, it's the Scharnhorst calling you..."

Seeing that his boss was in a bad mood, the communications soldier shrank his neck and handed over a pair of headphones with some fear.

Kumets, who was in a bad mood, snatched the headset and shouted impatiently into the microphone hanging on the headset: "Bey? What do you want from me?"

However, Bey had no time to care whether Kumetz was in a good mood or not, or whether his tone was polite or not, or whether he was showing off his power or anything like that!

Just now, the radar of the Scharnhorst found the echo signal of a new target on the edge of the display screen, and judging from the strength of the signal, it should be a large warship! And it is sailing in the opposite direction of the German fleet!

However, since the flagship Hindenburg is slower than its battlecruisers, it is now lagging behind them by several nautical miles.

If he turned around with Shane and Genai now, he might be able to intercept this newly appeared enemy ship - until now, Bay had not figured out who this newly appeared warship was.

Faced with this situation, Major General Bey decided to turn around while informing Admiral Kumets of the news.

"Commander! Emergency! Our radar detected a large ship 27 kilometers to the right, and it is now heading in your direction - I am sure that the ship is definitely not a friendly ship... Commander, the situation is urgent, we have now turned to deal with the newly appeared enemy ship, and now request further instructions!"

Bey's voice was urgent, but Kumets was still a little confused:

"You said... 27 kilometers to your right... there is a large battleship that is in a counter-naval battle posture with us..."

"Yes! Commander! If you don't give the order, you and the flagship will be in its range!..." Bey's voice was heard from the radio immediately, and he was very anxious. But in the next second, this anxiety turned into panic: "Commander! They are firing in your direction! Please evade immediately!"

"What? Cannon fire?" Kumets understood now. His reaction was always faster than usual. He turned around and shouted at the navigator, "Enemy ships are firing! Evade immediately!"

But... the Hindenburg battleship, with a full load displacement of 60,000 tons, had too much inertia. Even though the navigator turned the steering wheel immediately, it took her a full two minutes to start turning!

Even though the enemy's shells were still nearly 30 kilometers away from the Hindenburg, the flight time of the shells would not take more than two minutes...

What's more, the operator of this round of bombardment was the battleship HMS Warspite, who was aware that the battlecruiser HMS Renown had defended the last glory of the Royal Navy with her life!

Just before the firing...

Commander Tari of the battleship HMS Warspite and Secretary Bailey were sitting next to Cunningham, who was looking remorseful.

"...We are still a step too late..." Cunningham shook his head. He, who used to be cynical and playful, now had a face full of self-blame and grief: "...If I hadn't told you to go behind them before, and if we had made a big circle at sea, the Renown...maybe we could have saved it..."

"No, it's not your fault..."

War-weary gently grasped his admiral's hand, gently stroked Cunningham's rough and heavy hand, and comforted his admiral: "I know you are very upset, but there is nothing I can do..."

"You also know that the battle line is a test of the combat effectiveness of a single ship... The Germans have four large battleships, and even if we join forces with Tovey and his men, in a four-on-four situation, only I can fight against one. The performance of Tovey and his men's battleships cannot match that of the Germans... The so-called battleships mean that only warships that are strong enough are qualified to be on the battle line to fight against the enemy's battleships..."

"The Renown has completed her mission, so don't be sad. How can there be no sacrifices in a naval battle? After all, I am also a battleship..." War-weary seemed to want to persuade him, but was interrupted by Cunningham's gnashing voice:

"No, no, no, I'm not sad. I just feel hatred now!"

Although he seems cynical, he is actually loyal and righteous, and is also a tough warrior who has walked out of the cruel war! Although he is now the First Sea Lord and the rank of Admiral, Cunningham is still an old sailor who fights the wind and waves on the sea!

Grabbing War-weary's hand, the old sailor, filled with anger, looked at his secretary ship and said, "War-weary, can you still fight now?"

"I can fight. Even though I'm old, I can run just as fast as Hindenburg." War-weary, who was also filled with anger, nodded gently but firmly, and looked at the old sailor who had been with him for nearly 30 years. "Now I'll show you what your wife is capable of. As long as I lift my skirt and don't let it drag on the ground, I will definitely not run slower than those German new battleships!"

Just as Warspite said this, the barrel of the British 27-inch heirloom gun was fully loaded with eight CRH8 low-resistance hard-capped armor-piercing blasting shells, the same type as those of the Hood battlecruiser that sank in the war, with green markings on the head and kilograms of Sheridan high explosive inside! The fire control system of the battleship Warspite, under the control of the sailors and the correction personally locked by Warspite, had firmly calibrated all the artillery parameters of the German battleship that was still showing off its might nearly kilometers away on the Demerick calculator of the Dreyer fire control director!

"For the glory of the Royal Navy! To avenge its reputation! ... Damn Germans, see what the Royal Navy's artillery skills of hitting the target are like!!"

In the rage of Warspite, the battleship Warspite unleashed her true full power! With the predictive shooting of the sharpshooter (Ship B skill) and the Tovey fleet that was preparing to attack the German Arctic Fleet head-on, the Hindenburg was directly backstabbed and critiqued! Eight CRH8 piercing bombs with the rage of revenge (Ship R skill) and the glory of the Royal Navy (Ship R skill) directly covered the panicked Hindenburg!

With two loud bangs coming from the rear bridge and front deck of the Hindenburg battleship (Ship C Night Battle Second Company), in the confused eyes of Kumets, who was showing off his might before but is now at a loss, the Hindenburg battleship, with raging flames and billowing smoke on the rear bridge, her No. 1 main turret was stuck by the first round of salvos from Warspite!

In the rage of the ship girl's war-weariness, the battleship Warspite exploded with its true strength...

ps: Today seems to be someone’s birthday...

Chapter 589: There are people from the opposite country!!!

War-weary's sudden backstab left Kumets completely stunned!

The Hindenburg battleship had one of its turrets jammed by the first round of salvos from Warspite!

The consequence was equivalent to directly cutting off Hindenburg's combat effectiveness by a quarter.

If German battleships had not traditionally been designed with siege resistance and survivability in mind, the thickness of the armor on the back of the turret was not much different from that on the front, and many measures were taken in the design of structural strength, internal compartment armor, and fire extinguishing and explosion suppression to ensure the overall survivability of the battleship - even at the cost of being seriously overweight - then the consequences of the main turret being penetrated would have been even more serious...

If it is penetrated and causes a chain reaction explosion, the outcome will probably be the same as the reputation just now.

Before Kumets had time to rejoice, another shell hit the ship, causing the entire bridge to become a mess.

Now I don’t dare to stick my head out of the porthole, because whether I can come back after sticking my head out is another matter.

War-weary, who was only concerned about the victory of the Home Fleet and revenge for the head maid, continued to bombard the Hindenburg battleship desperately! In front of the gorgeous and accurate barrage of the battle-hardened old lady shooter, the Hindenburg was caught off guard and was hit repeatedly. For a while, there was no time to respond!

Explosions of varying sizes kept popping up all over the Hindenburg, like a torch pointing the direction in the night sky.

Almost at the same time, various damage control messages flew onto the bridge like snowflakes, leaving the onlookers stunned.

The cabin was on fire, water was entering, and there were scrapped items. Even though the superiors were not very good, the quality of the sailors below was acceptable, and they reported all the problems responsibly.

Of course, the most serious of these is definitely the turret, and the rest can be said to be just a tickle.

Seeing the flagship in distress, the Ludendorff, following behind the Hindenburg, immediately wanted to rescue its flagship. But at this time, both Hindenburg and Ludendorff were aiming at Tovey on the left side of the warship and firing, while Warspite was on the right side!

This was a very embarrassing thing. When all the guns were firing, someone suddenly appeared behind them... In other words, there was no defense at all behind them.

If it wanted to turn to the right, it was possible, but the Hindenburg-class battleship's turret, which was loaded with heavy SKC34/406, had a rotation rate of only two degrees per second, so it would take nearly a minute and a half to turn the turret! Even if the turret was turned over, it would take several rounds of time to calibrate and correct the fire!

Warspite has now seized the initiative, and with her firepower, what will happen to Hindenburg in these few rounds...

Almost like a lamb to be slaughtered.

Such a large battleship was suddenly caught in a dilemma.

The German soldiers were desperately trying to turn the turret which was so slow that they couldn't even think about it. They just wanted to use human power to turn it...