Bismarck

"Zeppelin... I don't want you to die..." Bismarck muttered absentmindedly. She didn't even notice that, although the ship was slowing down, it was also turning slightly...

Hamster and Eugen were still anxious over there, and Commander Lütjens was still shouting on the radio. Zeppelin covered his still dizzy head and turned on the radio microphone in silence...

"Commander, Grape, Eugen, I'm Zeppelin..." Before he could finish his words, he was interrupted by the surprised Lütjens who asked him questions like a Gatling gun:

"Zeppelin?! You came out? What the hell is going on!... Lindemann and Top just told me that you let go of the towline?!"

"Um, Commander, it's like this. I saw that their torpedoes have a lead time. So I just need to let go of the towline and stop, and then you can speed up and turn the rudder to avoid their preset lead time..."

"Why do you want to give up on your own...wait, what did you just say?!" Lütjens, who had not yet recovered from the news of Zeppelin's "suicide", and Bismarck, who had noticed something was wrong, one holding the microphone and the other sitting on the ground, both looked confused.

Even Tizi and Eugen in the WIFI, as well as Lindemann and Top who were equally shocked and angry beside Tizi and Eugen, now had a WTF expression on their faces.

"Um, Commander, what I meant is that their lead time is based on the fact that Bismarck and I are both at 16 knots, so as long as the cable is disconnected, you will also speed up when I stop the ship, and the torpedoes with inaccurate lead time can be avoided directly..."

Knowing that everyone was concerned, but still a little speechless, Qi Bolin covered his face with his hands and smiled bitterly...

Looking at the battlefield around, the British torpedo planes had already turned and evacuated with the fighter planes after dropping the torpedoes. As for the distance of the torpedoes over there, more than a minute had passed after all this tossing and turning - British aircraft-borne torpedoes

Now the distance of the torpedoes on the left side is still 1800 meters, which is about one and a half minutes. Although the distance of the torpedo attack behind me is closer, they are sailing in the same direction as me and Bismarck, and the closing rate is only meters per minute! They are still meters away from me. Even if I stop, they will have to wait at least another minute and a half to reach my position! As for the submarine torpedoes, please wait for another eight minutes.

As for the Bismarck in front of him, even if its speed did not increase any more and remained at sixteen knots, the torpedoes would have to fire for more than three more minutes. Not to mention that the Bismarck's boilers had been working at full capacity in order to tow itself - the huge power offset the drag. Now that the drag had disappeared, was it possible for it not to accelerate?

Although the British still had several torpedoes to deal with Tirpitz and Eugen, they were not in a state of reduced speed! The torpedoes against themselves and Bismarck were the focus, but although they were weak, their judgment ability was not lost - the lead time of those torpedoes was calculated based on the towing speed of 16 knots. As long as the speed changed, all the lead time would be invalid.

In other words, as long as the ship stopped - although its tonnage and inertia were not small, it could stop completely in just 1500 meters with its rudder effect that increased resistance and the power that had not yet recovered. However, the torpedoes, which were calculated based on the lead time of the Bismarck towing them forward at knots, were more than meters ahead of it - even if the torpedoes had some errors, it would be rare to "win" at such a distance of to meters.

As for the four torpedoes at the rear, it was even simpler. After all, the stern of the ship was facing the torpedoes, and with the fierce firepower of Tirpitz's previous crazy interception, the enemy's torpedo planes would never be able to aim at the stern of the ship, which was only 30 meters wide. In other words, this was to prevent the Bismarck, which was only 16 knots, from evading the torpedoes. However, as long as he took the opportunity to turn the rudder at the last moment to find the right angle, the probability of these torpedoes passing by him was very high. And without the burden of himself, the Bismarck could dodge it as long as he could speed up.

After all, it has 153,000 horsepower in normal conditions and 166,000 horsepower in overload conditions. Without the burden of being dragged down by myself, and with the ability of the ship girl, even if it is a 50,000-ton battlecat, the acceleration should not be too bad...

As for those submarine torpedoes that were only traveling at 28 knots, had seven or eight minutes left, and had made the wrong predictions...

So, it's obviously safe and can be continued, why do they have to do this one by one...

"...So, that's it... Commander, Grape, Eugen, you guys just dodge these torpedoes first..."

"Ah... okay, okay!"

On the other side of the radio and WIFI, and even on the other side of herself, the commander and her good sister, finally came to their senses.

Enduring fatigue, dizziness and pain, Zeppelin breathed a sigh of relief.

Seeing that the enemy planes had fled and the submarine's torpedoes were no longer a threat, Zeppelin took one last look at his own body... Well, more and more boilers had begun to ignite - he calculated in his mind that even if half of the boilers could not be used, his speed could at least reach more than twenty-six or twenty-seven knots.

After all, her 160,000 horsepower is quite terrifying.

As long as I recover my power, it will be difficult for them to catch up with me! As long as I wait until night, the boiler room will restore the energy supply, and I should be able to move around. Qi Bolin found that even Bangtai in the emergency room seemed to be stable under the doctor's surgery.

It seems that this disaster is over...

For some reason, Qi Bolin suddenly thought of a couplet: Good fortune never comes alone, misfortune never comes alone.

"I don't know if this counts as extending my life... Well, now that everything is fine, I'll go and take a rest... Bismarck, Grape, Eugen, it looks like I'll have to trouble you for a while..."

After greeting everyone again, the phantom of Zeppelin, who could no longer maintain his image, faded away again. As if falling asleep, the scene that flashed through Zeppelin's mind was the pinky promise he and Bismarck made to each other on the timber ship at the Gdynia dock...

"Bismarck, Grape, Eugen... Thank you, thank you everyone..."

(Because it is the Year of the Dog, I have managed to survive for a while. Happy New Year everyone*^_^*)

Chapter 699 (Original Chapter 98)

I feel dizzy...

My head is dizzy...

There's still a lot of noise outside...

I always feel like I have no strength at all...

And my body is sore and painful...

It hurts if I move a little bit...

But...it seems to be better than before?

I remember it hurt more before... Wait! It seems like we are still in the air raid?

and…

With her mind wandering, she seemed to hear the humming sound of the fan, the puffing sound of the boiler spurting out fuel, and the peculiar banging sound of ignition. And with these ignition sounds, she seemed to feel that she had begun to regain a little strength?

At this time, there was a faint voice that seemed to be shouting, "Tirpitz! Pay attention to the turn! Avoid the front of their aircraft torpedoes first!"

This voice is... Bismarck... and now it is... an air raid...

I was startled, and my originally vague mind instantly wanted to wake myself up completely!

But just as she thought about waking up, she felt dizzy again...

“Damn it! The energy I need to move…isn’t enough…then…”

After taking a quick look at the battlefield environment, Zeppelin quickly made up his mind...

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

On the aircraft carrier Zeppelin, no matter it was the pilots, the damage control team, or the anti-aircraft gunners wearing helmets and carrying shells, everyone had a look of worry and a hint of numbness in their eyes, and they raised their heads as if facing a great enemy, looking at the sudden enemy planes in the sky!

"Plane! Watch out for the plane!"

"British fighter planes are coming down!"

"Oh no! There are fighter jets that were just put together on the flight deck!"

"…There's no time to worry about those planes! Evacuate the deck immediately! Anti-aircraft guns, fire!"

"Damn it! They are too fast, we can't hit them... (bang bang bang...)... They are strafing our planes on the deck! These bastards!"

"Damn it!"

Under the vast and magnificent sky of the Atlantic Ocean, in this brutal and fierce air battle, two British fighter planes finally broke through the direction of the Tirpitz, passed through the fire net woven by tracer bullets and the smoke clouds of anti-aircraft artillery fire, and roared in with the storm stirred up by the propellers!

Eight Hispano machine guns fired a barrage of bullets crazily, and the flight deck and superstructure of the Zeppelin aircraft carrier were whizzed by clusters of machine gun shells. Although the machine gun shells could not threaten the 20 mm thick runway of the flight deck, the dense explosion points and flying shrapnel made the runway and bridge of the entire Zeppelin aircraft carrier crackle with bursts of noise.

Although the seven planes parked on the flight deck had been evacuated as far as possible, three of them were still set on fire by this round of intensive shooting, and the remaining four were also damaged. Fortunately, these planes were either just put together or had just landed, and there was not much fuel in the fuselage, so the scale of the fire and gasoline explosion was not large, and no worse impact occurred...

However, after the British finished shooting at the Zeppelin, they immediately rushed towards the Bismarck, which was towing the Zeppelin less than 200 meters away!

"Damn it! Don't be so arrogant!"

In the bridge of the Zeppelin, looking at the soldiers around him who suffered heavy casualties from the machine gun fire, the red-eyed Bismarck stared closely at the two extremely rampant fighter planes, and in the next moment, the 37 machine guns in the rear firing range of the Bismarck battleship that was towing the aircraft carrier in front of the Zeppelin aircraft carrier immediately pulled out a chain of fire, facing the two British fighter planes rushing towards them!

The sudden fire net, at such a close distance, the two British fighter planes were instantly covered by it without being able to dodge! However, after seeing their planes being hit, the two British Kamikazes pushed the joystick at the same time...

With two loud bangs, two Spitfire fighters, one in front and one behind, crashed into the rear bridge and rear main turret of the Bismarck battleship, creating two huge fireballs!

Although the main turret could not be damaged by the impact of fighter planes, the top of the C main turret ("Karl" turret) and the anti-aircraft guns on the rear bridge, which were almost exposed to the air, were not so resistant to collision! Moreover, the injury of the main body was directly reflected on Bismarck in the bridge of the Zeppelin at the rear of the hull. He felt a flash in front of his eyes, his arm hurt, and he couldn't help but groan.

While the antiaircraft firepower was suppressed at this moment, two groups of assault torpedo planes flew over the sea surface one after the other, one in front and one behind, in the direction of the front and side, with dense spider-web-like fire lines and fireworks!

Although the attacking enemy planes were either destroyed or damaged and had to abandon their attack routes due to the interference of the artillery fire from the Tirpitz battleship and the Prinz Eugen heavy cruiser on both wings, there were still eight or nine planes that broke through the fire net and dropped torpedoes!

On the blue surface of the Atlantic Ocean, the propellers of the torpedoes stirred up white trails with bubbles!

"Port side at eight o'clock! Distance 3500 meters! Five torpedo planes... Wait! They dropped torpedoes!"

"Four torpedo planes in the rear! Distance 2800 meters! They dropped torpedoes and are disengaging now!"

The air observer's hysterical hoarse voice was full of despair! Bismarck, the direct commander, looked even worse, and her eyes were filled with fear. Her pupils were already dilated. In her perception, in front of her and the starboard side of the aircraft carrier, there were four submarine torpedoes rushing towards her at a speed of 28 knots, following the seven white lines behind and on the left! And judging by her own course, speed, and the position and order of the other party's torpedoes...

Airstrike/Submarine coordinated attack—Torpedo salvo, triple strike!

Not to mention Zeppelin, even his own body would not be able to avoid this round of attack!

You know, now that his main body is dragging Zeppelin's main body, whose power has not yet recovered, there is no way for him to turn and evade! !

What should he do... Bismarck was so anxious that he wanted to explode.

Sudden--

"…Bismarck…leave me alone…"

Before Bismarck could think of a solution to the panic caused by the three consecutive attacks, a faint, weak and cold voice suddenly sounded in her ears!

Her eyes, originally filled with fear, suddenly opened wider! A variety of mixed emotions surged up at once! Before she could say anything, in the next second, Bismarck could feel a sudden "bang!" from the steel cable that her body was dragging the Zeppelin aircraft carrier with!

That's the sound of the tow cable breaking!

He was desperately dragging the Zeppelin's main body, and after losing the dragging force, he suddenly rushed forward! ! At the same time, in front of Bismarck's eyes filled with shock, fear and disbelief, there was only a cold and indifferent shadow with a faint smile:

"Bismarck... leave me alone, just dodge the torpedoes yourself..."

ps: OMG, the order is wrong... This is the previous one, I wanted to leave a suspense... But...

Chapter 700: The Road Ahead

A telegram was sent to the bridge of the battleship Duke of York and was quickly delivered to Tovey.

"Did the air raid fail again?" Looking at Tovey's gloomy expression after reading the telegram, the experienced War-weary knew what had happened.

"Yes... the reconnaissance plane just sent a telegram saying that the Zeppelin has resumed sailing..." Tovey replied with a gloomy face. He folded the telegram and handed it to the staff officer standing beside him: "Take it and file it."

The staff officer took the telegram and turned away, while Tovey, who had a gloomy face, and War-weary, who also had an ugly face, gathered around the chart table again...

"We are sailing at 50 knots ( km/h) and it's pm now - but they are able to run now. The distance between us and them is at least kilometers!" Tovey compared the distance on the chart with a ruler and said angrily, "We will definitely not be able to catch up with them before dark, but after dark, the probability of them breaking through at night is too high! I am really worried."

If they were allowed to break through, then all their previous efforts and sacrifices would be in vain. He was extremely unwilling to accept such a result, even though he had experienced it many times.

"The aircraft cannot be deployed for the time being... Previously we had one full-deck and one half-deck, and now all the deck operations of the aircraft carriers are under great pressure..." He picked up the battle report and flipped through it, then calculated in his mind and frowned: "Besides, our aircraft losses are not small now."

"In the previous two waves, 164 aircraft were sent out, and of them were shot down or seriously damaged! Among the remaining , nearly were damaged and needed repairs. Even though there are more than aircraft that can be deployed, most of them are fighters, reconnaissance aircraft, and anti-submarine aircraft. Now, the number of bombers that can be directly deployed is less than for all five aircraft carriers!"

The more he talked, the angrier he became. He angrily slammed the battle report in his hand on the chart table and said, "If we really delay until night, we will have no advantage over Zeppelin. I don't believe that Zeppelin will not take this opportunity to repair a few fighters and then install radars to intercept our night reconnaissance planes!"

At this moment, Tovey's expression became increasingly gloomy as he thought of another enemy: "That's right... Besides, there's Kumets waiting for us in Biscay Bay..."

When Kumets was mentioned, War-weary's expression changed: "Kumets... has already reached the Bay of Biscay..."

As Cunningham's secretary ship, and for military needs, she could have obtained the latest military intelligence directly from Cunningham - although Kumets was a rather despicable man, he was still a general with a large number of troops in the German army. His movements should have been reported to Tovey and taken into consideration in the next combat plan!

Kumets is located in the Bay of Biscay, about 1600 kilometers away from the Azores, and it takes about a day and a half to sail at a speed of knots. But... compared to the distant Azores, the Bay of Biscay is a location that is firmly at the doorstep of the British Isles.

No matter how insignificant Kumets may be, he is still a general with a large number of troops under his command. Not to mention that the current Kumets fleet still firmly holds the advantage in the interior.

What is the inside advantage? Let's use a simple analogy: if the British Isles, the target of the battle, are the center of a circle, then anyone who can draw a circle with a compass can see that the Anglo-American fleet, 2000 kilometers away from the British mainland, has to travel four or five times longer to reach the same position than the Kumets fleet, which is only kilometers away from the British mainland. Or, in other words, the opponent's time is inherently several times faster than Tovey's.

If Tovey wanted to withdraw from the Azores to the British Isles now, it would take two full days at a speed of 25 knots - but if Kumets, also at 25 knots, wanted to block Tovey's way home, he could stop him in the morning at most - and he had a whole day to set up an ambush for Tovey.

Even though Kumetz had consumed a lot of fuel in his journey from Norway to the Bay of Biscay, Germany had long been following the route of using attack ships and submarines to disrupt commerce. Without any other skills, the ability to resupply at sea was a must. At the doorstep of the Bay of Biscay, it was no problem for Raeder to send two supply ships under the cover of the Air Force to directly resupply at sea.

But they were in a different situation - just in terms of aircraft, including reconnaissance aircraft and anti-submarine aircraft like the Swordfish, there were only about seventy aircraft that could be deployed in combat, while Kumets' two Europa-class aircraft carriers had a capacity of one hundred and fifty aircraft.

More importantly, the north is the range of German submarines and long-range reconnaissance aircraft! ——The distance of the outer line is so far that the possibility of being discovered by German reconnaissance aircraft or even submarines is definitely not too low! Even if it is the German aircraft carrier's own carrier-based aircraft, the reconnaissance radius will never be less than 200 nautical miles (370 kilometers).

If I really have to take a detour back, I'd be a little unsure.

"Or, should we just eat Lütjens first?" War-weary gritted her teeth fiercely. She couldn't swallow this anger.

"But we can't catch up with them now. They have recovered their speed. We can't close the distance with them..." Tovey's face was also stern, but even on his stern face, there was still four words written on it: "...The battleships can't catch up with them. The aircraft carrier will have to wait until sunset to dispatch aircraft again at the earliest - but Zeppelin's night battle command ability is too strong. Fighting a night battle with her, the numerical advantage is of no use at all."

"Night flights are not possible, and the speed difference between us and them is not that big. In other words, as long as we wait until dark, the old devil Lütjens will most likely escape from under our noses - the Atlantic is too big, they can escape however they want!"

"Not to mention that there's Kumets behind us - this is the first time I've discovered that this incompetent guy is actually a little annoying!" War-weary looked at the location of Biscay Bay on the sea chart, and didn't have any good ideas for the time being...

In fact, not to mention Warspite and Tovey, even Churchill and Cunningham in London were also struggling in their hearts - Kumetz's advantageous position in the interior was no longer as simple as "hateful"!

Because everyone knows that this fleet is the last main fleet of Britain and the United States in the Atlantic!

At this point in the war, the British and American Allied Navy suffered heavy losses - 17 battleships and battlecruisers, 12 aircraft carriers, more than 40 cruisers, and more than 100 destroyers! ! All the battleships that the British and American Allied Forces can send out now, except for the three Yorktown sisters and one Saratoga, a total of four aircraft carriers, who are struggling to defend the safety of the shipping line from Pearl Harbor to Australia in front of the ten aircraft carriers of the Japanese Navy in the Pacific, all the other battleships that can be deployed - one armored aircraft carrier Vengeance, two King George Vs, four South Dakotas, and five Colossus-class light carriers, are already concentrated in Tovey's hands!

It is said that Japan, which now has an absolute advantage in the Pacific and has not completely broken off relations with the United States because it had previously declared war legally, has sent a secret delegation to find the United States, which is now in a period of transition and stretched to the limit, and demand peace talks on the current war situation in the Pacific!

Moreover, according to the information Churchill had, the United States - and even Churchill himself - actually wanted to stop the war in the Pacific as soon as possible, and then withdraw the four aircraft carriers back to the Pacific to maintain the British Empire from collapse. As for the country on the Far East continent across the Pacific that is still struggling to resist the Japanese Empire's iron hoofs and locusts crossing the border and robbing the land? They are just a bunch of East Asian sick men, so let them sacrifice!

No matter how much the yellow people sacrifice or how cruelly they are betrayed for the benefit of the white people, they should feel honored - they even have a considerable number of slaves of their own who are willing to do anything for the foreign masters.

But… even if there is a peace talk, the United States has suffered so much in the Pacific, and it is impossible to reach an agreement in one or two days - in other words, the four aircraft carriers of the United States in the Pacific will definitely not be moved for a while! In other words, the only and final guarantee of the British and American sea control in the Atlantic is the fleet in Tovey's hands! And if this fleet encounters any problems again...

I'm afraid the British Empire could just move directly to Canada to "fight the war to the end."

The word "Evacuation" has already come to everyone's mind...

ps: Crossroads