Bismarck

"...Captain, we should be almost there now, right?" Lütjens looked at the distress telegram and couldn't bear to read it any more. He crumpled it into a ball and asked with a sullen face.

I don't know if it's because of anger or embarrassment.

"Yes! We have arrived at the sea area where they are! Captain!" The navigator looked at the nautical chart and replied loudly.

Fortunately, Lütjens judged early on that the action plan had been exposed, and promptly ordered the Bismarck to turn to Narvik. Therefore, when the Bismarck received the distress message from Gneisenau, it was actually almost near Narvik.

"Order, enter level one combat deployment, Bismarck! Radar, pay attention to search!"

"understand!"

Although Lütjens gave the order to the radar personnel, it was Bismarck who actually executed it. Bismarck nodded and greatly expanded the search range.

It was normal at first, but soon Bismarck's attention was drawn to one direction.

It seems... it seems that I can see the fire reflected against the dark clouds in the distance. Is that the fire from the battleship?

"Captain, there seems to be a fire over there, which may be the trace of the battleship's main gun firing!" Bismarck immediately reported to Lütjens. Without waiting for Lütjens' instructions, he began to increase the speed on his own and began to "consciously pay attention" to the main gun director.

Lütjens felt Bismarck speeding up and looked at her with appreciation, but still shouted in a mock manner.

"Full speed ahead."

"Forward five, got it!"

(PS: This is against the rules in actual combat, mainly because changing the speed without authorization will cause the artillery firing parameter settings to be inconsistent with the actual speed, resulting in inaccurate artillery firing...)

Soon, Bismarck's perception ability discovered two warships in front of her that were chasing and firing at the same time. They should be the Repulse and the Repulse. It seemed that they also discovered her existence. The Repulse began to move in her direction and the turret began to turn.

Bismarck told her captain, and after she finished speaking, the radar soldier came belatedly to report: "Two large warships were spotted ahead, 22000 meters away!"

Before the battle even started, Bismarck complained to the captain: "Our radar really needs to be improved..."

The captain glanced at her and said, "Bismarck! Prepare to fire!!"

Although the gunner's answer was very loud, Bismarck knew that he was speaking to her.

However, it was very energy-consuming for Bismarck to operate the artillery and maintain the speed at the same time. Although she could afford it now, she had no energy to stand. So Bismarck leaned against the porthole, leaned on the cold windowsill, closed her eyes, and "looked" at herself with another vision - the warship under her feet was Bismarck's body. She was already able to skillfully operate her sights, her main guns, and calculate complex ballistics. Especially the most difficult fire control comprehensive calculation, even if the firing director equipped by the German warship was so advanced that only five people were needed to operate it, it still required people to determine the detailed distance and movement parameters of the enemy, and to adjust the shooting error by comparing the water column of the shooting, and it required a lot of operation steps. But if she operated it herself, it would be very simple.

Although her eyes were closed, Bismarck could clearly "see" the enemy ship parameters on the rangefinder and the distance to the enemy ship on the radar. Combined with her "sensory radar", the process of N steps that required hundreds of people from several departments working together for the sailors was as natural as instinct for a battleship itself.

No! That's not right! This is her instinct! The instinct of a battleship!

In her mind, she clearly used the sight to suppress the shadow of the enemy ship more than 20 kilometers away. Even under the high-power rangefinder, it was still just a small black shadow under the sky. At the same time, she also clearly felt that eight 800-kilogram armor-piercing shells were dragged from the ammunition depot into the hoist through a series of mechanical equipment under the control of the sailors, and then pulled onto the turret, and finally stuffed into the gun barrel together with a pile of propellant bags.

The gunners and operators of the fire control director were nervously setting parameters and calculating the lead time for firing, while the enemy ship on the opposite side seemed to have noticed and began to maneuver slightly, and gradually raised its gun barrel. However, Bismarck knew from the professional knowledge given to her by the captain that the small maneuvers of warships would have a certain impact on accuracy, and the fire control director principle used by the British was different from theirs. Although the hit rate of long-term shooting was not lower than ours, the first few rounds of shooting largely depended on "getting a feel" by measuring the dispersion error.

Although in theory, the initial shooting was all about "feeling good", Bismarck was different from them after all! Shooting was a natural instinct for her who was well prepared. After all, she was the soul of this battleship.

Bismarck closed her eyes, and all the parameters gathered in her consciousness and then integrated into the trajectory, including wind speed and lead time, and even the possible movement direction of the enemy warship.

After everything was over, she said softly, "Ready."

On the other side, Lütjens nodded, turned on the megaphone, and shouted firmly, "Bismarck! Shoot!!"

At this moment, the warship rolled to a balanced position. When the horizontal measuring instrument was powered on, Bismarck's idea of ​​"shooting" seemed to be turned on. Eight 380mm shells whizzed out from the muzzle. And her senses seemed to be the same as the shells in her barrel just a moment ago. She could clearly see the shells flying into the vast sky, and then dived towards the target from a height of tens of thousands of meters.

Is this what it feels like to fly like a cannonball? It feels like the wind is blowing.

Bismarck smiled unconsciously. Her consciousness followed the shell and stopped about one kilometer away from the enemy ship. Then she looked at the location where the shell fell. The dispersion range of this salvo was... around the target! Seven tall water columns rose around the enemy ship in front! Where is the other shell?

Before she could think about it carefully, there was a loud "bang" in the middle of the British warship, and a yellow-orange fireball suddenly exploded. A large number of objects such as anti-aircraft machine guns and secondary guns turned into parts, and the sailors operating them flew into the sky with the exploding fireball.

There was a cheer in the bridge; the first shot from a moving-to-moving range at 18000 yards hit the target!

Simply incredible!

"Hit on the first shot! Switch to efficient shooting immediately! Maximum firing rate! Four rounds of shooting!!"

Hearing the gunner's voice coming from the microphone, Bismarck felt that the captain rarely smiled in front of his subordinates.

"Well done!" Lütjens clenched his fist slightly, walked to Bismarck and whispered softly.

"It should be." Bismarck said with a smile, while her consciousness continued to unfold and began to fine-tune the next round of shooting.

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"Damn it! Isn't Bismarck in the North Sea?!" The captain of the Repulse almost fell to the ground because he lost his balance, and the bridge was in chaos. After he finally stood up, he quickly asked about the damage.

"Report the damage to me immediately!"

"The middle of the ship was hit, and the secondary guns and anti-aircraft machine guns were destroyed!" A sailor answered loudly, "35 people were killed!"

The captain of the Repulse nodded sullenly, looking angrily at the dark shadow on the horizon.

"Repulse, strike back! Target----Bismarck!! Fire!!!"

Ps: Thanks to [Futanarishizuichi] [Mingxuelang] [Youya] for their rewards, here comes the second update! Thank you for your support!!! Thank you also to the other students who gave rewards~

Chapter 85: Fighting Back

The shells fell quickly beside me, but the landing point was far away from me. The splashes from the 380 shells didn't even hit me at all. Every time the opponent's shell was fired, my consciousness began to track its trajectory to judge whether it would hit me.

The counterattack of the Repulse was ineffective. Because of me, the Bismarck aimed at the Repulse from the beginning, and used the most efficient shooting after the first round of hits, and fired 800KG armor-piercing shells one after another at an average of one round every thirty seconds. The calculation principle of the British fire control is to rely on statistical shooting errors to correct shooting parameters, but the "hasty Repulse" had no time to aim steadily and count errors in its hasty counterattack. The shells flew everywhere, but no salvo could threaten me. They were either too far or too close, and the biggest one just gave me a bath.

Instead, the shells I fired enveloped the Repulse in a dense forest of water. Although the captain of the Repulse personally grabbed the steering wheel and tried his best to control the 30,000-ton heavy ship under his feet, it was not easy for the huge and heavy ship to change its course. Moreover, they had now entered my conscious perception area. I could keenly sense their every movement, so whenever their captain wanted to turn, my shells could always quickly follow.

Is that what you mean by a maggot on the tarsal bone?

Hahaha.

In just two minutes, the Repulse, which had no time to change its course, was wounded by the storm-like bombardment. Under the sweep of my armor-piercing shells, one of the Repulse's front main turrets went silent, and the once mighty gun barrel twisted its body and drooped weakly. The middle and tail parts were hit by two shells each, revealing hideous wounds, and the steel rolled terribly, like a wound on the human body. The waves rolled up by the Arctic storm and the waves caused by high-speed sailing kept pouring into the two shocking large holes.

Let you immerse yourself here today!

The Repulse finally turned its huge body and left its original route, but I was staring at the Repulse and could clearly see the change in its course. Seeing that the parameters adjusted by the gunner and the fire control operator seemed to have some errors, I adjusted the parameters to the correct parameters with just a thought.

With the gunner's shout of "Fire", the captain of the Repulse could only watch in despair as the shells seemed to have eyes and once again covered his new route. He had no choice but to rush into this steel forest composed of water columns, fireworks and blood, as if the god of death was incarnate.

···Third person perspective···

The captain of the Repulse gritted his teeth and shouted to the messenger, "Quick! Send a signal to the Renown. The Bismarck on the opposite side is too strong. We should retreat towards the Home Fleet first!"

"Yes, Captain!"

Just as the messenger was about to leave, the captain of the Repulse said again, "Tell the Renown that we will cover its evacuation and will delay the Bismarck at all costs!"

The messenger was stunned for a moment, then saluted resolutely: "Yes! We will cover the evacuation of the Renown! At the same time, lure the enemy fleet closer to the Home Fleet!!"

Looking at the messenger who turned away with a determined look on his face, the captain turned on the microphone: "Attention everyone! I am the captain! Now I order that my ship will follow behind the Renown! Cover the Renown's evacuation and hold on to the German fleet! If I die, no matter who the acting commander is, they must complete this mission for me!!"

Faintly, firm responses of "yes sir!" were heard from the microphones.

Scharnhorst and Gneisenau on the other side also saw all this, so they mustered up their remaining courage and turned back to attack the Renown. Although the main armor of the Renown could withstand the 283MM guns of Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, it was one against two after all. If armor-piercing shells didn't work, they would use high-explosive shells to wash the deck. Previously, he had only scared off the two German ships by catching them off guard. Now, after the German ships reacted, he immediately fell behind in a two-on-one situation. Although he could still hold on in the rain of bullets, he had no time to take care of the Repulse.

"Captain, news from the Repulse!!!"

The captain of the Renown looked at the message sent by the Repulse, was silent for two or three seconds, and then issued an order: "Right full rudder, three into five, heading 210! Pay attention to cover the Repulse! We will retreat while fighting! Also, send a telegram to the Home Fleet and the headquarters quickly, my ship and the Repulse were besieged by the Bismarck, Scharnhorst and Gneisenau in the waters southwest of Luften! The Repulse was damaged! We are evacuating towards the Home Fleet! Even if we sink in battle, we will hold on to the Germans firmly!!"

As the two British ships turned around and evacuated, we could see the wounded Shane and Gnay on the sea and sky line in the distance. The captain ordered the confidential officer: "Send a telegram to ask them how they are. Also, ask them to write a self-criticism and explain the situation of Nelson at 29 knots!" The second half of the sentence sounded unpleasant.

Soon, the loss reports of Schaan and Gneisenau came in. Both ships suffered some damage. The main director and rear main gun of Gneisenau were destroyed. Schaan was also hit by several shells in the previous battle. Although it could still maintain high-speed sailing, the wind and waves kept pumping water into the wounds, causing the hull to tilt to a certain extent.

The opposing ships Renown and Repulse were sailing south while firing back. Although the Repulse was always under pressure, Shane and Gurney could not suppress the Renown.

While I wasn't paying attention, the Renown, under the hail of bullets from the Shag sisters, slowly adjusted its course, kept a certain angle with me, and then began shooting at me with its six 381 heavy guns.

By the time I reacted, his shell had already been fired. I immediately tracked where his shell landed, and then my heart tightened - it was too close!

The 20-second flight passed in a flash. I had no way to avoid it. I could only bite my lips, hold my breath, and wait to be hit by the shells.

A shell grazed my rear bridge, creating a series of sparks, and then broke the rear mast in two and smashed it down hard. My hair felt like it was being pulled hard, and I felt dizzy. The rear mast smashed hard on a 37mm anti-aircraft gun. Although there were no casualties due to the muzzle shock wave of the battleship's main gun, the anti-aircraft gun sailors hid in the cabin according to regulations, but the barrel of the 37mm gun was twisted by the hit, and it was definitely unusable.

"Hiss——" I gasped.

It hurts!

"What happened?" the captain asked quickly. I think he also heard the loud noise. "Where are you injured?"

"Well, it's okay." I pressed my head hard and grinned. "The mast was broken and an anti-aircraft gun was smashed. It's okay, Captain."

"That's good." The captain nodded. He was just about to put his hand on my head and rub it for me, but suddenly he remembered that we were on the bridge, so he put his hand down again.

"Ahem, keep fighting."

"Yes, Captain!"

I stood next to the captain again. The battle was still going on. The captain was looking at the situation on the opposite side with a telescope. Reputation and Counterattack did not want to withdraw from the battlefield so quickly. It seemed that they were always keeping a distance and maneuvering towards the south.

"There seems to be a problem?" The captain looked at it for a long time and suddenly said something.

"Huh?" I turned around and asked.

"Send a telegram to Bonte immediately to ask what's going on over there." After looking at the chart for a while, the captain walked to the chart table, picked up a pencil, ruler and compass, and said to the confidential staff while gesturing. Soon Bonte's telegram came back: "Two Norwegian coastal defense ships were destroyed, three coastal artillery fire points were suppressed, and they successfully landed in Narvik half an hour ago. The losses were minor, only the fuel was running low, and each ship only had about 2% of the fuel left."

"What's wrong?" Anyway, the gunners were in charge of the shooting, so I could exit the previous fire control state and take a short break. Seeing the captain seriously calculating, I picked up a cup of coffee and walked to the captain's side and asked softly.

"They're trying to lure us in...Oh thank you, I won't drink for now." The captain replied while continuing to concentrate on gesturing on the map.

"Pay attention to their course and keep a distance from us. I think I know what they want to do."

The captain laughed and threw the pen onto the chart, then spoke confidently.

"That's what they did at the Skagerrak twenty years ago!"

"It's a pity that their intentions have been exposed." I chuckled.

I know that the "Skagerak" the captain mentioned is the famous Battle of Jutland during World War I. In that naval battle, Britain and Germany used battlecruisers as bait against each other, and in the end, the British succeeded in leading the main force of the German High Seas Fleet into an ambush. The captain at that time participated in this battle, which can be said to be the largest battleship decisive battle in history, as a destroyer captain. Of course, everyone knows the ending.

After hearing what he said, I also went to the windowsill to observe the actions of the British battlecruisers. After a look, it was indeed very suspicious. The Reputation and Counterattack were desperately turning around and firing while retreating. If they relaxed a little, they would move back.

This is not what a real retreat would look like.

"There is indeed a problem." I said to the captain, leaning on the windowsill.

"It's only 1200 kilometers from Scapa Flow to here. Intelligence says they set out to sea on the afternoon of the 7th, so they're almost there now. It's less than two hours from here to Narvik... In this case..."

The captain began to ponder over countermeasures without saying a word. I stood aside and watched the captain quietly. It turned out that men are most attractive when they are calm and serious - especially old men like the captain, who have a special temperament.

However, the captain seemed to have come up with a solution after thinking for a while. He rushed from the chart table to the microphone and shouted an order...

ps: Please recommend~please reward~anything!!!

Chapter 86: Counterattack, dead!

The captain walked to the microphone and gave the order without any hesitation.

"I am Captain Lütjens, and the message is as follows."

"I order, first, to inform the headquarters and all nearby units by telegram that the British Home Fleet is likely to be near Narvik! Our ships are now entering the ambush circle. If we encounter the British Home Fleet, we will do our best to lure it away!

2. Order the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau to turn around immediately, evacuate at full speed, break out on their own, and disperse if necessary!

3. Order the Bontai landing fleet to evacuate Narvik immediately after replenishment is completed, and go to the X Sea Area to join the auxiliary cruiser Vedel (currently hiding in the Arctic Sea as a supply ship), and then break out on their own! At the same time, notify the landing force to move away from the beachhead immediately! Our ship will buy time for him to evacuate!

4. Report to the Admiralty that sea transportation is likely to be impossible and the Norwegian route may be cut off by the British fleet. Request the Air Force to immediately airdrop supplies and reinforcements to the Narvik Army Landing Force for defense!

5. I will order the Bismarck to go at full speed, chase the two battlecruisers Renown and Counterattack, and do my best to sink them! "

The captain spoke all the orders in one breath, and only nodded in satisfaction when a firm response came from the microphone.

"Captain, we are about to enter the British ambush circle." I spoke after listening to this.

"Yes." The captain nodded. "Counterattack and Reputation are the two ships that pose the greatest threat to us. We must sink or severely damage them at all costs to ensure the safety of our landing forces. As for the battleships, as long as we don't face them head-on, they will not pose a threat."

"It's up to you." The captain smiled at me apologetically. "Does your head still hurt?"

"It's just a minor injury." I shook my head nonchalantly. "Then I'll go full speed ahead and fight back first?"

"Well, please!" The captain said to me in a serious tone that he had never used before.

Shane and Genai received the order and said nothing. They quickly started to turn, and the light signals on the Avida flashed again and again.

It seems like sending a signal?

"Wish me good luck?" I distinguished it carefully before reading it out loud.

"Why make it like a farewell?" I laughed.

The Shag sisters quickly turned around and retreated, soon disappearing from sight. Then it was my turn to perform.

Come on, fight back!

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