Iron Cross

"Hahaha! Look where you are running to?" Major General Bei laughed endlessly on the Scharnhorst. His perseverance and mad dog-like chasing spirit finally paid off. Three hours after discovering the Christopher formation, he relied on lifting With the Alpitz's intimidating interception, he not only succeeded in catching the opponent, but also took the lead in scoring a hit.

Just when the British turned around and fled in a panic to avoid the Tirpitz, they were not only forced to slow down, but also quickly got closer to the German warships behind them. Rear Admiral Bay had been letting his three warships fire violently. As a result, Sussek The Svenska was directly hit by the Scharnhorst at a distance of less than 18,000 meters. A 283mm shell landed on the anti-aircraft gun emplacement closest to the bridge. Not only were all the gunners of the gun directly killed, but they were also destroyed. The entire front of the bridge was destroyed, and all the personnel around the bridge were killed mercilessly. Only the command tower withstood the shrapnel with its relatively thick armor.

Before the British could react, the Scharnhorst, which had clear results and landing points guaranteed, and a greatly improved hit rate, seized the opportunity and continued to fire, pouring shells on the thin treaty-type heavy cruiser. An armor-piercing bomb directly penetrated the deck and entered the power compartment. The Sussex lost power within half a minute, and its speed suddenly dropped to only 20 knots.

Since the British cruiser formation was advancing in a single column, in order to avoid colliding with the suddenly decelerating flagship, the following heavy cruiser HMS Norfolk was forced to slow down and turn to the right, trying to bypass the flagship and continue to move forward, but was stopped The Lützow coming from the north blocked the way, and the two sides began to exchange naval guns. The distance between each other suddenly dropped to more than 16,000 meters. For Lützow's 283mm naval gun, this is a relatively satisfactory engagement distance, but for the 203mm naval gun on the Norfolk, this distance appears to be slightly farther, and the lethality does not seem to be enough. Now the British army simply does not have the courage to engage in firefights. The German army still has a Tirpitz in hand. When 380mm caliber shells continue to fall around the ships, all the British officers and soldiers have only one word in their minds - escape!

At this time, there were two destroyers in the formation, one was the Nubian and the other was the Tatar (both Horde-class). Seeing that the flagship was in trouble, they rushed forward desperately and prepared to use torpedoes to force the German warship to turn. , but they were hit by artillery shells fired from the Hipper before they reached the appropriate distance to launch torpedoes. The Nubian's bridge, which was the first to be hit, received a 203mm artillery shell, and the entire bridge It exploded instantly, like a person entering hell. A total of more than 60 officers and soldiers around and inside were killed instantly, and it sank first not long after. The Tatar had slightly better luck. After completing the torpedo launch, it was hit by Hipper on the left side of the front and capsized due to excessive water intake. The torpedo he launched was easily avoided by the German ship because of its low density.

But their sacrifice did not win more lives for other warships. While the Norfolk's attention was on the Lützow, the Seydlitz fired from its side and rear, and jointly aimed the attack with the Lützow, while the European The Prince of Roots devoted its ammunition to the light cruiser Lin Xian (Lin Xian class). The Lin Xian, which only had a weight of 5,200 tons, did not dare to engage in battle and just fled, while the Sussex, whose speed was greatly reduced, Leave it to the Scharnhorst to deal with it alone.

At 12:26, ​​Christopher had no choice but to issue an order to disband the formation, requiring the Norfolk, which had been hit by several bombs, but still at normal speed, to take the Linxian to go first, with the flagship providing cover. However, it was too late to escape unscathed at this time. Lieutenant General Kumetz ordered the Tirpitz to keep firing at the Norfolk. The 380mm shells continued to explode in the water around the Norfolk, stirring up water jets one after another. The Norfolk struggled to Walking through it, your whole body is enveloped.

At 12:31, the Norfolk was accurately hit in the middle of the ship by the Tirpitz. After an earth-shattering explosion, the treaty-type heavy cruiser was blasted with a large gap of 5 meters square, and seawater poured in crazily. At 2 minutes, the whole ship tilted 20 degrees to starboard. Before the captain could issue the order to abandon the ship, the Tirpitz hit Norfolk again, directly breaking the warship into two pieces. More than 700 officers and soldiers on the ship finally Less than 80 people escaped with their lives.

At this time, Sussex was still fighting tenaciously against the Scharnhorst. His condition was very bad. Although he hit the Scharnhorst several times, they were not fatal. There was no obvious damage outside the puffs of smoke, but the firepower he faced became more and more fierce - after the Tirpitz sank the Norfolk, the vacated Lützow and Seydlitz were both Pour all the ship's firepower onto the heavy cruiser, which has a speed of only 17 knots.

At 12:48, the Tirpitz came to its senses and began to fire a salvo against the Sussex. The heavy cruiser, which was in a mess above the deck and only the first turret was still functional, finally couldn't hold on. After being hit by several 380mm or 283mm shells, it began to sink due to too much water. In the last minute of sinking, the only naval gun he could still use was still fighting back bravely.

From the beginning to the end of the firefight, the Royal Navy lost two heavy cruisers and two destroyers in just 35 minutes. Only the injured Linxian escaped from the battlefield with its higher speed and flexibility, plus the loss of the Loyalty a few hours ago. , the entire cruiser formation was beaten by the Germans in just 5 hours, leaving only one wounded light cruiser and one destroyer. The losses were very heavy.

For the Royal Navy, the most formidable enemy has now begun to merge: the Norwegian formation, including the Tirpitz, and the North Sea Fleet starting from the mainland have all merged together. In addition to a large number of capital ships, behind them there are 2 aircraft carriers, in just one morning, they sank 5 warships, and the price they paid was just more than 1,000 large-caliber artillery shells and several secondary batteries and anti-aircraft guns on the Scharnhorst.

When Raeder ran to the Prime Minister's Office and excitedly told Hoffman the good news of the surface fleet's victory, he was stunned, and then he reacted and asked: "You relied on traditional artillery battles to kill two British heavy cruisers? "

"Yes! Head of state."

Hoffman quickly made a calculation: when ambushing the JW-51 fleet, the Norwegian formation killed one Kent class. Coupled with today's results, it seems that there are not many British heavy cruisers left. He immediately laughed: "So Churchill only has 4-5 heavy cruisers available?"

"It should be. It takes at least 2 years to build a treaty cruiser, and it only takes 20 minutes to kill them..."

But after Hoffman looked at the map, he immediately thought of something else. His brows couldn't help but frown. Looking at Redel's blushing face, he really couldn't bear to interrupt him, but he still had to say something in the end. explain.

"But, my dear Admiral of the Navy, what was the original purpose of our tsunami plan? Are we dispatching all the battleships just to deal with the British cruisers?" His tone was a little anxious, "Our goal was originally to use Tyr The Pitts attracted the attention of the main force of the British Home Fleet, and then created an opportunity for the main fleet to break into the Atlantic Ocean. Now, you have merged the two fleets together. Will the British be fooled? Or, do you plan to go this way? Fight head-on?"

"This..." Redel was also dumbfounded, as if a duck had been grabbed by the neck when it was singing its most joyful song. The old marshal babbling for a long time and was speechless. After waiting for a while, he explained, "This It was a suggestion made by the Japanese advisory group. General Machar sent a telegram to ask for instructions, and we all agreed to change the plan."

Hoffman knew that Raeder was not bringing up Ozawa and others at this time to avoid responsibility, but to convince himself with subtext - this was a decision unanimously agreed by the staff and consultants.

Hoffman sighed: "It's not surprising that the Japanese came up with the idea - although the Japanese navy's command level is higher than ours, some of their officers are sometimes prone to being petty."

Redel nodded knowingly. He was also a proven navy veteran and could easily figure out the reason.

"No matter what, it's always good to destroy enemy warships, but what should we do next? How do you plan to break into the Atlantic Ocean in a safe way?"

"General Machar suggested that the fleet move northwest as a whole, then conduct a second formation at night and re-distribute it late at night."

"But we lost five very precious hours doing this."

"Führer, you can't just think like this. The British knew the information about the Tirpitz formation through spies and the location of our main formation through the cruise fleet. In fact, we no longer have the conditions to sneak into the Atlantic quietly. We will inevitably end up with them. The British did it once. If I have to face these cruisers, I would rather waste 5 hours to destroy them now than see them in future wars - they fight us alone or cooperate with British battleships to fight us. The concept is different.”

"Okay, you've convinced me. I'll come back to the Admiralty at 8 o'clock in the evening to listen to your latest report."

"What should we do next?" In the Admiralty in London, a gloomy-looking Pound was also asking this question.

"If the enemy fleets gather together, Fleet E alone cannot stop them. They must merge with Fleet W." Tovey thought for a while and said, "Or even though the two fleets do not merge, they are not deployed at a distance apart. More than 100 nautical miles to facilitate timely support.”

“Where do you want their central location to be?”

"In the waters about 300 nautical miles south of Iceland, no matter which waterway the enemy passes through, we still have a chance to catch them." Tovey thought about it, "When the Independence and Pennsylvania arrive, our chances will be greater. Some."

"That's all we can do for the time being."