Bismarck

then……

“Boom—Shua…”

Chapter 679: Chain Schemes (Part 2)

Several 234mm fortress guns on both sides of the port suddenly spoke, and the sea surface was instantly illuminated by the high-hanging flares! The cat and mouse sisters, who were suddenly exposed under the flares, had no time to release smoke screens, and saw the flashes of fire and roars like a symphony on the cliffs dozens of kilometers away! Even though Bismarck and Tirpitz, who were well prepared, turned quickly, three or four shells still hit the hulls of the two battleships under the predictive shooting tactics used by the British artillery group, which was also well prepared.

In the midst of a violent fireball, Bismarck's command room shook violently, and then bursts of smoke suddenly filled the air... When Lütjens, who had regained his balance from the shock, picked up the phone to inquire about the damage, he found that the phone had no response...

"Bismarck, what's going on?!"

"…Report to the captain, the bridge was hit and caught fire - probably one 234, and now some communication lines have failed!"

"Ask the damage control team to repair it immediately...By the way, Bismarck, how is the grape?"

"Captain, the stern of the ship was hit by a 381, and her bow was hit by a 234... Hmm?! Report to the captain! The British cruisers and destroyers rushed out! Also, it seems that their airport has taken off planes again!"

Amid the rumbling of artillery, Bismarck, who was avoiding the bombardment of the harbor fortress, could see that in the direction of Simon Town Naval Port, 25 kilometers to the left of him and Tizi, two heavily armed light cruisers and six destroyers had formed an echelon formation ready to strike at any time, and rushed over from the side at a speed of more than 30 knots! Moreover, even his radar seemed to be in the position of Cape Town in front, capturing several groups of small targets that seemed to be circling at a speed of about 200 kilometers, as if waiting to gather, and taking this opportunity to start rising from the ground and low altitude to the altitude of the sky!

The only good thing was that he and Tizi had turned around now. But even so, the three-sided attack from the harbour artillery (qi) and (ji) of the core position of the Cape of Good Hope Fortress, False Bay, was still very fierce! Once the destroyer rushed out, and the air strike group arrived, then the consequences for him would most likely be irreparable!

"Where is Zeppelin's plane?" asked Lütjens.

"They've arrived. Zeppelin is leading the team himself, but..." Bismarck gritted his teeth and said, "Zeppelin doesn't have many planes now. The thirteen planes she brought this time are all the troops she can send out for combat, except for the last three spare planes..."

"Well, I understand..." Lütjens sighed slightly, glanced at the automatic plotter again, then grabbed a ruler and gestured the distance between himself and the deepest part of Simon's Town Military Port: "...We are already thirty kilometers away from where their transport ship is docked, so...it's almost time to 'do this'...Bismarck, first tell Zeppelin that the British planes are likely to outflanking us. Then notify Tizi that the 'Black Baron' plan begins now!"

"According to our planned combat steps, first bombard our predetermined targets, then launch guided torpedoes at the enemy destroyer fleet, and finally turn around - right now! The battle begins!"

"Yes!!"

Bismarck, knowing his captain's overall plan, said nothing on the spot. He shouted "Tizi" directly on the WIFI and began to turn the gun and load the shells.

Under the will of the Bismarck battleship, even the heavy 800 kg 380 high-explosive shells were loaded a few points faster than before. The next second after the pre-loaded shells in the barrel fired, a new round of shells and propellant were poured out from the elevator and immediately stuffed into the loading chain! Two or three rounds of guided shells burst and fired accurately and fiercely at the transport ships docked in the deepest part of the harbor, hitting these thin-skinned and stuffed transport ships on the spot and making them look innocent and dizzy! Grapes was also unambiguous. Like her sister, she also fired several rounds of guided shells and smashed them out with murderous intent! The only difference was that her target was not the transport ship, but the oil tank on the dock of Simon Town Fortress!

Under the bombardment of the cat and mouse sisters, the night sky was filled with debris and body parts flying everywhere, and the sky and sea were a sea of ​​fire and thick smoke! But the most important problem was that the oil storage tanks in Simon Town were right next to the fort! The thick smoke and flames directly blocked the firing range of the sixteen fortress guns of the two forts!

"This... Could it be that their goal is not to reduce the oil shortage, but to really destroy the Cape Town Fortress?!"

Admiral Willis, who was watching this nightmare in the fortress command room, was so frightened that he was dumbfounded...

Willis, in a panic, quickly picked up the phone and ordered his men to do their best to cover the merchant fleet and rescue the oil tank area. Not to mention the seven frigates of the South African Navy - they had only received anti-submarine escort training and had only fought anti-submarine escort battles, and for a while they did not remember the precautions issued by the Navy Department that "evil spirit warships ignore smoke screens". And some of the defenders of Simon Town Fort and the North Battery, in the case of smoke and fire and smoke obscuring their vision, even they, the fort artillery, had to leave their gun positions to put out the fire - in fact, even if they did not put out the fire, with such a fierce fire, they had no way to continue to ensure the efficiency of the artillery fire...

The problem is that on the battlefield, the consequences of misjudgment are very serious, especially when it comes to that kind of chain of tactics...

"First, we blew up the oil tanks in the merchant ship anchorage area and Simon's Town, causing the British to misjudge and think that we are going to storm the Cape Town Fortress. The smoke from the oil tanks will obscure their vision and create a blind spot for their artillery fire, so they will have to go to put out the fire. Then we can use this time difference and blind spot of firepower to defeat them one by one - as long as the artillery positions of the Cape Town Fortress are cleared, we can tow away as many oil tankers as we want... Captain, this is a chain of tricks!"

Seeing the panic and surprise of the British in the Cape of Good Hope, the Persian cat looked at his captain with excitement, chattering non-stop. The captain snorted and said nothing, but there was a smile on his face.

Seeing such a captain, for some reason, Bismarck always felt that his captain's current state was like Sima Yi who shamelessly put on women's clothes and annoyed Zhuge Liang to death at Wuzhangyuan...

But she was happy, and the captain was happy too, but the British were really not happy...

Two and a half minutes, that is, after two or three bursts of firing, both the naval port dock of Simon Town Fortress and the merchant ship anchorage at the deepest part of the harbor were in chaos amid raging flames and billowing smoke! Especially at the Simon Town Naval Port Dock, the locations of the oil storage tanks and temporary fuel storage facilities were very delicate - either they were built next to the gun positions of the Simon Town Fort, or they just blocked the position where the North Fort in the north of Simon Town connected with Bismarck and the others.

The weak northwest wind, which was only two or three meters per second, was not able to blow away the extremely thick smoke from the burning heavy oil. Instead, the billowing heat waves and thick smoke turned the more than ten gun positions of several artillery batteries here into a BBQ venue.

Simon's Town was in a mess, and the merchant ship berths were not much better! Several merchant ships that were directly hit - even two oil tankers, were also turned into a large cloud of thick black smoke! The remaining merchant ships were panicked on the spot under the bombardment of the battleships. Some were putting out the fire, pulling out the anchor, starting the car, jumping into the sea... In addition, the South African Navy frigates in the port saw that the situation was not good and rushed to the front of the merchant ships to release smoke to cover... It was like a vegetable market at six o'clock in the morning, and the scene was in chaos!

As for the bombardment of the cat and mouse sisters...? Not to mention that it was still dawn, and the optical sight had been tossed by the smoke and fire, so it could not see anything. As for radar aiming... Tirpitz's electronic jammer was always on!

Although the other turrets - the East Battery on the east side of the port and the Khayelistsha Battery deep in the port, could still continue to fire, and seeing the miserable state of Simon Town and the merchant ship berth, they were in fact desperately attacking the two German battleships. However, the firepower of the turrets had been directly halved, and the threat to the Bismarck and Tirpitz, which had already begun to turn around, was much weaker than the momentum of the previous 34 guns firing at the same time... And soon, the turrets that "got what they wanted" to attract the gunfire of the two evil warships also began to be bombarded by the sixteen SKC380/mm main guns. The chaotic harbor was a mess for the British, but it had no effect on the ship girl! The chaotic battlefield environment greatly facilitated the evil warships to fish in troubled waters!

Under the operation of the 50,000-ton girl, the smoke, turning, and shelling were almost done in one go! The pride of the two German Empire War Navy, in such an environment, took out the mood of daily target practice, with a sneer on their faces, and slowly slaughtered the harbor princess!

As for those destroyers and cruisers that were so anxious that they rushed up at full speed and were ready to fight to the death, I don't know if they noticed that the situation they and the cat and mouse sisters were in was completely the most unfavorable situation for head-on anti-ship torpedoes in a torpedo war... Within a few minutes, these courageous light warships were stranded or seriously injured in the successive torpedo water columns and the rain of bullets from 150 guns - if the water depth here was not only a dozen meters on average, and there were many shallows along the coast, many ships would probably have sunk directly.

As for the situation in the sky, an air battle was also under the command of Zeppelin, who was leading the team personally. Not far to the west and south of the Fals Bay, it was also in full swing. After determining the British attack route, the BF-109 and FW-190, who seized the advantageous position, climbed and dived to cooperate with each other, and shot down British planes one after another. Even if some planes were able to break through Zeppelin's interception, the cat and mouse sisters, who turned and drilled back with smoke, under the command of Lütjens, were very cunning and drilled into the smoke area where the British destroyers were severely damaged or sunk. The northwest-northwest wind direction could not blow away the thick smoke and special military smoke, but it looked even more bizarre on the dark sea at dawn.

Groups of British aircraft could not see their targets clearly while being chased by Zeppelin! The surrounding mountains made it impossible for them to "attack from a different angle" - the aircraft had to prepare to enter the route more than ten kilometers in advance, otherwise it would take several hundred meters to turn at the speed of the aircraft, not to mention stabilizing the route, aiming at the target, and ensuring the hit rate of the bomb through formation and coordination - the only way to attack the cat and mouse sisters was from behind, but it was all smoke!

Under the series of schemes, the seemingly indestructible Cape of Good Hope Fortress Harbor Qiji has been completely thrown into chaos...

Chapter 680: Defeating Harbor Princess

The blazing fire shone through the observation window on the reinforced concrete wall of the headquarters, illuminating Admiral Willis's dumbfounded face. The smoke and fire even made Admiral Willis' eyes feel hot and painful - if the heat wave hadn't evaporated his tears completely, Willis might have already shed tears.

The situation, which had been extremely advantageous, suddenly deteriorated into this state, which was really beyond his expectations.

But, it makes sense...

It was because Lütjens unexpectedly bombarded the merchant fleet and the oil depot at the Simon's Town Garrison Wharf as soon as he arrived that many people, including himself, made serious mistakes in judgment...

But this mistake is actually the most fatal!

If it was just the merchant fleet and the oil tank fire that obscured the Simon Town artillery, it would be fine. You have to know that fortress artillery is different from naval artillery. All the positions in the firing range have been pre-observed and divided. Even if the Simon Town artillery and the artillery north of Simon Town cannot be directly observed, a mobile observation group can be sent to drag a wired telephone to establish a temporary observation station. Observation posts in other directions can still use the telephone to report their positions to direct the artillery fire.

but……

Whether it was himself who ordered the fire brigade to rescue the oil tanks and the merchant fleet, or the destroyers and frigates who released billowing smoke screens at the first moment out of reflex to try to cover the merchant fleet, what he did not expect was that in the False Bay surrounded by Cape Town and surrounding mountains on three sides, with the weak northwest-by-northwest level 2 wind in the port, the thick smoke could not be dispersed at all!

The black smoke from burning merchant ships and oil tanks, together with the smoke released by warships, filled half of False Bay with a miasma of black smoke! The cover of darkness and the cloud-like smoke made optical observation meaningless. Coupled with the suppression of electronic interference, all of our observation methods have now become blind!

Now, apart from being able to occasionally see the target through a gap, the only thing left was the inaccurate radio direction-finding device, which could barely measure the opponent's position and then call for artillery to fire blindly according to the coordinate system. Even so, the two evil spirits on the opposite side were constantly turning the jammer on and off to switch between them, which made the radio direction-finder's head full of black question marks.

After all, as the core base of the Cape of Good Hope Fortress, False Bay is a bay with a width and depth of more than 30 kilometers! Even if you stand on the mountain behind the Simon Town Garrison on a sunny day, you may not be able to see the other side of the harbor! Not to mention now that it is dawn, in the dark night, with black smoke, red flames, white military smoke aerosols, and flares floating in the sky... Now that it is dazzling, this place is already a bizarre hell on earth!

As for the evil warships on the opposite side... According to what Marshal Cunningham's secretary Belle Dura Despicio had told him, the observation capabilities of the evil warships were perfect and not affected by obstructions! But when he realized that something was wrong and wanted to urgently stop the destroyers, cruisers and frigates that were running around with smoke, the harbor was already full of smoke...

And those two damned evil spirit warships, in such an environment where it was difficult to distinguish between friend and foe, were taking advantage of the situation like fish in water! One after another, the fortress cannons that gritted their teeth and persisted in firing back desperately, regardless of whether they could find the target or not, were named one by one by these two despicable and shameless evil spirit-class battleships in the fog of the battlefield!

Even in front of him, where there was only thick smoke and flames, the smug smile of old bastard Lütjens, which he had only seen in photos in intelligence files, appeared...

In the darkness before dawn, there was a bustle of people and roar of artillery fire, but Admiral Willis was already dumbfounded.

"Report to the General! The East Battery suffered heavy losses! Now there are only the last two guns left!!"

The staff officer who came running in with a sweat on his face woke up Admiral Willis who was silent to the point of being almost numb. After saying "oh", Willis mechanically lowered his head slightly and looked stiffly at the watch on his arm that had been with him for decades in the military.

Five fifteen...

Willis still remembered that just before, he saw the two evil warships, Bismarck and Tirpitz, breaking into Harbor Princess' territory. Thousands of cannons roared in the fortress, and the continuous hits started at five o'clock in the morning!

Up to now, only fifteen minutes have passed...

However, within just these fifteen minutes, the Cape of Good Hope Fortress suffered heavy losses!

Five or six transport ships sank, and the oil depot of Simon Town Garrison was on fire. The billowing smoke and heat waves directly made the four gun positions of Simon Town Battery unable to operate, and also blocked the view of the observation port of the North Battery. Although Simon Town and the North Battery still had four fortress guns that could continue to fire, and the Khayelistsha Battery at the deepest part of the harbor also had two 381 guns that could cover here, but just after firing a few shots, the last four 234mm fortress guns of Simon Town Battery were directly covered by the firepower of the two evil warships on the opposite side!

Although the Khayelistsha Battery still has two 381 fortress guns, there is no 234 fortress gun to supplement the firepower at this distance. The firepower density of two 381 heavy fortress guns is not enough to threaten the evil spirit that seems to have walked out of the legend full of nonsense!

In just five minutes, a huge firepower blind spot was created on the left side of the Harbor Princess! Then the two damn guys cruised back and forth in this blind spot! Here, before Simon Town Battery and North Battery restored their artillery capabilities, in addition to the only two 381mm fortress guns, the East Battery and Khayelistsha Battery also had sixteen 234mm fortress guns, but the range was not enough!

And now, the East Fort has been destroyed!

It is conceivable that without the constraints of the East Battery, the next step for the damn bastard Lütjens is to get closer and directly take out the two innermost 381 fortress guns! By then, the Cape of Good Hope base will really be finished - if the fire in the oil tank cannot be extinguished before the East Battery is completely destroyed.

However, this is an oil tank, and it is the fuel for the entire Cape Town Port! It is not easy to put out the raging fire in the oil tank that is out of control...

Willis punched the windowsill of the observation window in frustration.

Thinking back to the time when he was afraid that Lütjens would attack the port of Cape Town, he had even gathered all the merchant fleets here for safety reasons! He planned to rely on the tight defense of the Cape of Good Hope Fortress to ensure safety.

Including the fuel from the Cape Town port, all the fuel that could be loaded into the tanker was loaded on, and the fuel that could not be loaded was placed in the fuel tanks at the Simon's Town Naval Port!

There was definitely nothing wrong with the original idea of ​​this approach, but it overlooked one thing: the warships under the command of the old ghost Lütjens were not driven by humans, but by evil spirits!

With evil spirits, they can actually do whatever they want? !

Moreover, at the same time, the six destroyers and two heavily armed light cruisers sent out by their side were all wiped out by the damn guided torpedo strike!

As for the air force, the battle that started the night before has not stopped, and now many planes are already wounded and unable to fight again. Although according to the assessment, the GR-186 wing of the Zeppelin aircraft carrier should also have suffered heavy casualties, but up to now, the Edelweiss Witch can still bring fighter jets to the door!

The situation was very dangerous. Although they tried their best to hold on, the fortresses in the port were already in great danger. The only hope - the air force - could not find the target in the strange battlefield environment of the port and was still running around! Add in a Zeppelin, and they were really at a loss and anxious!

Especially the Edelweiss Witch! Although I am only a navy, I have heard from the air force that she is a true killer - it is said that the number of her kills has now exceeded 300 - what does this mean? !

According to some rumors, some of the pilots around the Edelweiss Witch have shot down more than a hundred planes.

You know, even before the war, the Cape Town Fortress had already gathered the backbone of the South African Air Force, but there were only ten squadrons and 120 aircraft.

Right now, the dedicated radio station for communicating with the Air Force was placed on the table by his earphones. Without deliberately listening, he could hear the actual air combat situation coming from the earphones - or rather, the various anxious, irritable, helpless, and even desperate calls from pilots struggling to survive...

"Gannet Squadron calling! Gannet Squadron calling! Please indicate the target! Please indicate the target! We can't find the target! Damn it! These guys haven't responded yet!"

"...Okay, stop shouting. I think they can't protect themselves either."

“…Captain! Captain!! Damn it! Where are the fighters? We need support!!”

"Brothers, I finally caught him! Give me..."

"...George...Shit! It's a diving 190! When the hell did these damn bastards climb to high altitude? Ouch?!"

"Captain, be careful! There's a 109 behind you...wait...Edelweiss Witch! That's the Edelweiss Witch!"

“…Huh…Huh…No wonder…No wonder she’s so powerful. This is the power of the Edelweiss Witch…Hmm…”

“…Oh no! The captain was shot down. WHAT? When will I… Ugh—!”

"Brothers, be careful of those BF-109s! I bet those guys are all aces! They are very good at sneak attacks, backstabs and mutual cover... Damn it! The engine is not running!"

"Skydive! Skydive now!"

"Albatross Squadron Number Four calling! Albatross Squadron Number Four calling! ... (Sobbing) ... Captain! Bob! Where are you! Where are you! Wuu ...

…………

Even without listening carefully, one can tell that even the Air Force is now in a tough battle.

But... I was dealing with an unscientific evil spirit, and I had no way to deal with it...

The eight fortress guns of the East Battery had been completely destroyed, and the German evil spirits, who had opened up a larger space for activities, continued to advance relentlessly! In just seven minutes, the two most powerful 381mm main batteries of the Khayelistsha Battery were destroyed, and now, the German ships have begun to turn their firepower to the Simon Town Garrison Battery, which theoretically still has twelve guns available, and the North Battery on the northern hillside of Simon Town, and began to search and bombard those 234mm fish that have escaped the net!

I don’t know who designed the fortress in Cape Town, or whether it was a compromise made by the Admiralty because of the declining power of the British Empire... In addition to the eight powerful 381mm naval guns at the entrance of False Bay, there are only two 234-inch guns guarding the Simon’s Town Garrison Headquarters inside the port... Although those mm fortress guns are powerful and the range of to kilometers is enough to resist ordinary battleship attacks, they are useless in front of evil spirits with a range of more than kilometers...

Most importantly, the Simon Town Naval Port oil depot did not have an absolutely safe but expensive cavern dug in the nearby mountain, but only had a few cement oil tanks next to the dock. Although in theory, these oil tanks with leak containment pools and 40-50 mm steel plate protection were considered safe enough to withstand normal bombardment and bombing, but...

This damn evil spirit... and, even more damn, the designer!!

From Willis and the British officers and soldiers to the trembling civilians, everyone began to curse.

However, curses are always useless, especially against the evil spirits that crawled out of hell in the legend...

………………

At dawn, under the pale sky, the ocean was covered with billowing fire and thick smoke. Black smoke clouds and white smoke screens swayed with the red flames under the dim flares. In the night sky behind the battlefield fog, bright lights accompanied by the roar of steel would occasionally light up.

Tracers crisscrossed and woven into a web, floating back and forth over False Bay; radio stations, staff officers, and communications officers ran in and out, bringing the bad news that one turret after another had been destroyed by the gunfire of the Evil Spirit-class battleships...

Willis looked up outside, then at the sky that was beginning to turn pale. Above the sky, tracer bullets were still flying back and forth without stopping for a moment. Lütjens was obviously determined to do whatever he wanted with the help of the ship girl, and although the guns (gang) and forts (wan) in his hands were also firing back with all their might, under the cover of the damn fog and smoke, it was conceivable that the effect was bleak.

boom! ! boom! !

There was a violent shock at the garrison headquarters - it went without saying that after destroying the other artillery batteries, the German ships and crews began their final attack on the Simon Town Garrison and the last few fortress guns in the surrounding area!

The fire net in the sky was supposed to be a dragnet that would capture all the German ships and crews, but now it has turned into a devil crawling out of hell, demanding the lives of the British Empire...

I... feel so ashamed of the British Empire and of Marshal Cunningham's training!

With a click, Admiral Willis, who wanted to shed tears but had no tears left, turned off the talk switch of the Air Force radio in the surprised eyes of his subordinates, grabbed the military cap with shame and unwillingness, put it on his head and walked out.

The Simon Town Garrison was built in a small town between the mountains and the sea. In addition to the soldiers, there were also some civilians living here. Although the defeat was certain, he knew that his military career would end completely after this battle. But before that, as a soldier who defended the land and protected the people, he had to do one last thing - to command the forces that he could still command, to rescue the supplies in the garrison as much as possible, and to evacuate the civilians in the town...

The Germans are fascists, and they also have evil spirits... God knows whether Lütjens and his men will get so angry that they will directly bombard Simon's town for fun!

However, such malicious speculation about other people's mentality, especially when the other party is an evil spirit, is a very corrupt behavior...

Simon Town is surrounded by mountains and faces the sea, so the land is very narrow. Fortress cannons, oil tanks, garrison offices, barracks, etc. are all crowded together in this small town.

Just as Willis was about to go out and gather the people from the garrison headquarters to fill in, a shell that was originally intended to bombard the artillery position but was slightly off to the west, came down at a speed faster than the speed of sound from thirty kilometers away, and fell straight on the head of Admiral Willis who didn't know what was going on...

Admiral Algernon Willis, commander of the Cape of Good Hope Garrison of the Royal Navy of the United Kingdom, was killed in action!

........................

"It looks like today is a good day."

More than 100 kilometers south of the Cape of Good Hope Fortress, on the bridge of the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen, which was responsible for protecting the main body of the Zeppelin aircraft carrier and two transport ships carrying the last of spare ammunition and fuel, Captain Top squinted his eyes with dark circles under them, admiring the blue sky illuminated by the rising sun in the east.

Beside him, the twin-tailed Prince Paras was standing on tiptoe with a telescope in his hand, looking eagerly in the direction of the Cape of Good Hope, muttering to himself:

"Top Top, why haven't Sister Bismarck and Sister Tizi come yet?"

"It's almost there, almost there. Didn't you see that Zeppelin's plane has returned?"