The Rise of the Third Reich
Chapter 592: The Killer
"Plop!"
There was a huge sound of falling into the water, and a Sunderland "Short" seaplane hovering in the sky near the 5th Fleet of the European Combined Fleet fell into the sea dragging flames. Now the distance between the fleets of both sides is less than 30 nautical miles, and a night decisive battle of the surface fleets is just around the corner.
However, in the night fleet battle between Britain and Germany, the role of the "Cat Eye Warrior" has been greatly reduced. Although the British and German navies also have lookouts with long-sightedness and night vision who consume cod liver oil every day, radar and night reconnaissance aircraft are the magic weapons of the British and German navies in fighting night battles.
However, if there is a "magic weapon", there will be a method of restraint. The current method for radar is to use balloons to throw aluminum chaff strips, but this is of little significance in a fleet decisive battle. Because the formations of both sides are moving at high speed, where should the aluminum foil strips be thrown? And this thing interferes with the radars of both sides. As for aluminum foil balloons, they are not very useful, because no one will rely on radar alone to shoot, and flares and other things still have to be shot.
Night reconnaissance aircraft are not so lucky. The aircraft detects the ship, and the air search radar on the ship can also detect the aircraft. Moreover, both sides are now equipped with good night combat aircraft. The British have Mosquitoes, while the Germans have the He-219 known as the "mosquito killer".
"Commander, the last British reconnaissance plane has been shot down!" Colonel Wagner said to General Karls, "It seems that our He-219 is still more powerful."
"Our planes are still staring at the British fleet?" Admiral Karls asked.
"Still keeping an eye on it, the British don't have a night combat aircraft that can deal with the He-219!"
"good!"
Admiral Karls nodded and ordered: "Now form the team, Friedrich I (P class), Berlin (M class cruiser), Cologne (M class cruiser) form the 1st missile team; Teresa Maria HMS, Hamburg (M class), and Frankfurt (M class) formed the 2nd missile squadron; Kaiser Wilhelm, Hannover (M class), and Danze (M class) formed the 3rd missile squadron; Vienna (SP class) Cruiser), Z38, Z39, T61 (1940-type lightning strike ship), T62, and T63 form the 4th Thunder Strike Team; Prague (SP class), Z40, Z41, T64, T65, and T66 The No. 5 Lightning Strike Team was formed; the Riga (SP level), Z42, Z43, T67, T68, and T69 formed the 6th Thunder Strike Team. "
Because the 5th Fleet had also divided its forces before, turning some of the older cruisers, destroyers and lightning strike ships as well as three slower escort aircraft carriers into an escort detachment, protecting the landing fleet and walking slowly behind the main fleet.
The main force in the hands of Admiral Karls is 3 P-class ships, 6 M-class cruisers, 3 SP-class cruisers, 6 1936-type or 1938-type destroyers, and 9 light ships called lightning strike ships. warship.
German "Thunder Strike Ships" are different from Japanese "Thunder Strike Ships". The Japanese Navy is very obsessed with torpedo attacks on surface ships, especially long-distance lightning strikes. Therefore, it will equip light cruisers with a large number of torpedoes to become the so-called heavily equipped torpedo strikes. ship. The German torpedo ship is actually an enlarged torpedo boat, generally with a displacement of about 1,000 tons, equipped with a 105mm naval gun and two triple or quadruple torpedo launch tubes.
The nine lightning strike ships in the hands of Admiral Karls are the behemoth 1940 type of lightning strike ships. This type of torpedo attack ship was built in a Dutch shipyard starting in 1940. There are 12 ships in total, with a standard displacement of up to 1931 tons. They have 4 127mm high-level dual-purpose guns and 4 twin-mounted 40mm Bofors anti-aircraft guns, as well as 2 Equipped with four 533mm torpedo tubes. A recently completed modification also installed sonar-equipped depth bombs and hedgehog bombs on these 12 1940-type ships, which are not very different from destroyers.
Now that there are lightning strike ships, the German Navy naturally has night lightning strike tactics like the Japanese Navy. However, the Germans do not have the Type 93 spear torpedo like the Japanese that can hit 40,000 meters (36 knots). It is not that they have not been introduced, but the German Navy feels that it is unsafe. They would rather use safe and reliable but longer range. T1 torpedoes for close range, and leave long-distance targets to V1/V3 wireless remote-controlled missiles to deal with them - V1 missiles are currently not equipped with the navy because their rocket engines are not yet qualified, but V3 missiles using piston engines have been It is fully mature, and the guidance method has also changed from the original wired remote control to the use of radio signals for remote control, which can make the V3 missile have a longer range, up to 30 kilometers (because the V3 flies on its own power, if you want to drag the line, 30 Kilometers of wire are a bit heavy).
The new weapons such as V1/V3 wireless remote-controlled missiles are now in the hands of the German Navy, and are also regarded as weapons similar to torpedoes. Even the methods and formations used are similar.
…
"Commander, the radar has detected targets at 171 degrees, 174 degrees, 176 degrees, 180 degrees, 183 degrees, 185 degrees... there are at least 6 detachments coming towards us quickly."
6 teams? Is this going to be struck by lightning? Admiral Tovey and the new Chief of Staff of the Home Fleet, Rear Admiral Mountbatten, who came from a royal family and whose great-grandmother was Queen Victoria, looked at each other. Everyone felt a little strange, didn't the Germans have three battlecruisers? Why did it start with lightning strike tactics?
"What's the distance?" Mountbatten asked.
"Between 33,000-36,000 yards."
"Admiral, one of the six detachments should be the artillery detachment." Mountbatten said to Tovey, "According to intelligence, the Germans have first-class battlecruisers that are quite weak in firepower but very fast. We may be encountering them now. .
I think the Germans might divide the fleet into 5 lightning columns and 1 artillery column. The bombardment column covered the torpedo attack with fire from a distance of 25,000 yards (22,860 m), while their reconnaissance aircraft dropped flares and bombs, and perhaps wire-controlled glide bombs. In addition, the Germans do not have the strength to confront us head-on and are likely to use high speed to escape after launching torpedoes and wire-controlled bombs. "
If there were no secret weapon like the wire-controlled V3 missile, Mountbatten's analysis would be basically correct. Admiral Karls, who only owned three P-class armored ships, did not have the strength to engage in a head-on confrontation with the seven battleships of the British Home Fleet. Using high-speed penetration to launch torpedoes and then retreating at high speed was probably the only possible tactic.
Mountbatten said: "So I propose to adopt the same detachment tactics, with Hawkins, Caledon, Afriliti, Ashanti, Bedouin, Eskimo, Kuo The Erka and the Maori were the 2nd driving patrol; the Infingham, the Galati, the Somali, the Punjabi, the Mashona, the Nubian, and the Mohawk Man and Sikh were the 3rd patrol group; Cornwall, Cassandra, La Fore, Lance, Lani, Legion, Blitzkrieg and Lively were the 4th Driving Patrol Group; with Cavendish, Caradoc, Onslow, Offa, Assault, Promote, Tagril, and Gazelle as the 5th Driving Patrol Group; with Sappho HMS K, HMS Queen of Egypt, HMS Codrington, HMS Acasta, HMS Friend, HMS Arkron, HMS Positive, and HMS Antelope formed the 6th drive patrol group; HMS Berwick, HMS Caledon, and HMS Keith The 7th cruise force, the Winged Lizard, the Beagle, the Blanche, the Boudicca and the Shuofeng formed the 7th cruise force; the remaining combat ships formed the 1st main force."
Mountbatten's plan was very simple. Aren't the Germans divided into 6 teams? Well, our home fleet has a lot of ships, so it will be divided into 7 battle groups, 6 of which are cruisers, consisting of 1 heavy cruiser, 1 light cruiser and 6 destroyers. We will fight against the 6 German battle groups and not let them go. The German lightning strike formations came close to lay mines. Seven battleships plus another 10 light cruisers or destroyers formed the first battle group to hide behind and bombard them.
…
"Commander, the British have also divided into groups. There are 7 groups. One of them is cruising in the rear, and the other 6 are coming towards us."
Now that the distance between the two sides is less than 30,000 meters, the British fleet detachment cannot escape the detection of the German shipborne radar and the aerial Fw-200C radar.
"Commander, there is a detachment coming towards us, very fast!"
"Commander, it should be a patrol unit." Colonel Wagner, chief of staff of the 5th Fleet, immediately knew what the British wanted to do without even thinking. "There must be a heavy cruiser in this detachment, and we can just use the 280mm cannon to deal with it!"
The current P-class guided missile cruiser was originally an armored ship and was originally designed to deal with British heavy cruisers. The firepower of the main gun is theoretically stronger than that of any British heavy cruiser, and the P-class ship's speed of 34 knots is no slower than that of a heavy cruiser. It is definitely a heavy-duty killer!
"No, use V3 missiles!" General Kars shook his head, "I can't risk losing a guided missile cruiser!"
"Gunnery Officer, prepare for V3 missile launch!" The captain of the Friedrich I heard the order from Admiral Karls and immediately began to arrange the V3 missile for launch.
P-class ships, like most German battleships, are big ships with small guns, a typical example of a waste of tonnage. However, this kind of shooting is convenient for the P-class ship to install the V3 missile launch system. Because the P-class ship is very long, 223 meters, and has few main guns, there is a very spacious seaplane deck between the two chimneys amidships.
After taking away the seaplane, two V3 missile catapults were installed in place, and an ammunition depot that could place 12 V3 missiles was built under the V3 missile deck (the original seaplane deck). You can use the two cranes originally used to lift seaplanes to lift the V3 island bombs in the ammunition depot and place them on the catapults.
The entire operation process is very slow and dangerous. Once the missile mounted on the catapult is hit by an enemy naval gun, it will cause a catastrophe. Therefore, the P-class guided missile cruiser adopts the "one-hit-and-leave" tactic, which is to approach at high speed, then fire two V3s at the same time, wait until the V3 hits or misses, then quickly break away, and reload in safe waters away from enemy fire. .
You'll Also Like
-
One evolution point per second, all beasts are star level
Chapter 117 4 hours ago -
Naruto: Starting from the fusion illusion and replicating bloodline
Chapter 284 4 hours ago -
Real Elf World
Chapter 152 4 hours ago -
Short video: Shocking the world
Chapter 245 4 hours ago -
Chronicles of Ascension: The Path to Immortality
Chapter 1089 1 days ago -
Family Cultivation: I can upgrade my magic weapon
Chapter 1172 1 days ago -
The Wizarding World: Throne of Frost
Chapter 133 1 days ago -
Mirroring the changes
Chapter 757 1 days ago -
Soviet Union 1991
Chapter 1122 1 days ago -
Kyojuro, the life of a Hokage since the age of one
Chapter 137 1 days ago