Bismarck

The British are in tears.

On the cruiser Prince Eugen, the command staff led by Heyer included an air defense guidance team.

In air combat, apart from the performance and quantity of aircraft, the depth of interception and the distance of attack are compared. However, with good organization and coordination, if more aircraft can be dispatched at one time, the depth of control can be greater.

Although it is not known whether it was luck or strength, up to this point, even though the two destroyers, Blackshirt and Aviator, had sunk on the shallows in the bay, even though the Bismarck was seriously injured and dying, and the Tirpitz was also covered with wounds, the most serious damage to the two Italian light cruisers was that a few pieces of paint were knocked off by the British fighter planes that swept the area.

They were like auspicious signs, illuminating the entire tragic battlefield.

At this moment, another group of Axis fighter planes appeared in the sky above the battlefield...

Without air superiority and the cover of coastal artillery, the British Army on the seawall had no way to withstand the desperate frontal assault of German tanks while resisting the "parallel pursuit" of the Bismarck battleship.

Bismarck's speed had dropped to ten knots. The water intake made her heavier and heavier, and her steps became extremely heavy. The sailors now only did two things - firing and draining water, trying to delay the sinking of Bismarck as much as possible.

Since Lütjens has ordered to save the flagship, they must try their best. Besides, for sailors, a warship is their home, and no one wants to watch it sink.

Several damage control team members have died on the way to rescue the damage.

However, even when the waterline of the bow was only two meters away from the deck, the main gun continued to fire, firing continuously at the British who were almost parallel to them.

Bismarck had broken away from the escort of the two Italian cruisers and headed into the minefield on its own.

At a speed of ten knots, there was no need to worry about hitting any mines. Bismarck began to use her "mine clearance launcher" modified from the army mortar to try to clear a shortcut directly to Alexandria in the minefield...

At 10:30 am on August 13, Bismarck was still 20 kilometers away from the outermost shoal of Alexandria West Harbor...

At the same time, the tanks of the African Corps had already crushed the British troops, and drove at full speed into the town of Correl, only 30 kilometers away from Alexandria, where the defenders had fled everywhere due to the artillery fire.

The port of Alexandria is already in sight.

(PS: Regarding the auspiciousness of the Italian Navy's Prinz Eugen light cruiser: the ship belongs to the third batch of the Duke of Aosta class among the mercenary-class light cruisers. There are two ships in this class, namely the Duke of Aosta and the Prinz Eugen. Both ships participated in the brutal Mediterranean naval battle and even defeated the Royal Navy. Moreover, throughout the Second World War, whether it was the powerful British Mediterranean Fleet or the German Second Air Fleet (Luftflotte in the original German means Air Fleet in English) carrying air-to-ship missiles in the later period, the Duke of Aosta and the Prinz Eugen had no losses. In the end, the two sisters survived the Second World War safely together and died a good death.)

Chapter 475: The wind has changed

"What? The Bismarck is no longer viable?"

In the command room of the battleship HMS Warspite, Cunningham was telling Warspite that he was confused.

"Yes... I heard from their correspondence that Bismarck seems to be almost dying. Tirpitz and Zeppelin are desperately calling her name... But... is she that weak?"

Even though War-Yan heard it with his own ears over WIFI, he still found it a little unbelievable.

"Well... Actually, you have already seriously injured Bismarck before, right?" Cunningham quickly regained his heartless look and said with a smile: "Maybe the air force just picked on you?"

"Of course! My artillery skills are not comparable to that little wild cat!" War-weary raised his head as a matter of course, said proudly, and wrinkled his nose.

Although, the battle wounds on my body are still hurting... especially the old problems in my legs and feet...

If it wasn't because of bad luck, and the main axis was interrupted by Bismarck's salvo and the rear main guns were collectively silenced, with her artillery skills, even an old ship would not necessarily be afraid of Bismarck!

Although, I don't know why, I always feel like something is wrong...

"Well, the Bismarck is finished, but it's a pity that the casualties will most likely be counted as caused by the bombing of the Air Force..." Cunningham didn't think much about it and just smiled when he heard the news that the Bismarck was sunk.

As a veteran of many battles, he was no longer interested in the routine of grabbing heads to report military merits and gain medals to build up his reputation. Relatively speaking, he was more concerned about the situation of other ships in the Mediterranean Fleet: "By the way, how are the Indomitable and the cruiser fleet?"

"This is a telegram that just came in, and I haven't had time to report it to you yet." War-weary opened the folder in his hand and pulled out another secret telegram from under the Air Force's battle report: "...According to the report just received, in the cruiser fleet, except for the loss of Penelope, the injured London and Kent, as well as the Aurora, have been evacuated. Now they have reunited with Lister's aircraft carrier formation. It's just that...something is not going well with Lister's aircraft carrier formation..."

"Huh? What happened to the aircraft carrier?" Cunningham's heart skipped a beat before he could even put away his smiling face!

"Well... the Hermes was hit by two bombs and was severely damaged. Now they are trying their best to rescue it. But as for the Indomitable... the port side was hit by two torpedoes and a heavy bomb dropped from the side. It is currently tilted 18 degrees and has almost lost power. Damage control said that they can't control the water inflow and the roll. The situation is extremely dangerous..."

"What? Then what can we do?" Cunningham couldn't sit still any longer!

The UK currently has only these three Illustrious-class aircraft carriers. The Illustrious and Formidable, which were severely damaged in the Battle of Crete, are still under overhaul in the UK shipyard! If the Indomitable aircraft carrier in their hands is damaged like this again... Will the British Empire have no aircraft carriers to use again?

"Can you order the Indomitable to find a place to run aground and then repair it?"

"…This is probably going to be difficult. They are still over 150 kilometers away from the nearest coast so it's going to be difficult… Wait! Bismarck!!"

He was originally thinking about rescuing the indomitable War-weariness, but suddenly he seemed to have figured something out!

"What's wrong? Have you thought of anything?!" Cunningham couldn't help but ask as he looked at War-weary's expression.

"Commander! I doubt that the Bismarck has really sunk!" War-weary clenched his fists and said angrily, "The line from Alexandria to Alamein is full of silt alluvial terrain, and the seabed near the shore is very shallow! What if the Bismarck is sitting on the beach pretending to be dead, but is actually repairing it and waiting to be moved at night..."

"Well! In that case... immediately report this intelligence to Admiral Arthur Tedder of the Middle East Air Force Headquarters, and ask him to send people to continue the bombing! In addition, we have to dispatch some troops to intercept... If we don't have enough submarines in the Mediterranean... forget it, let the Aurora take a few destroyers to prepare for a night attack..."

"As for Indomitable and God of Athletics, we should save as many as we can..."

"Yes!"

Seeing Cunningham's somewhat lonely expression, Secretary Bailey also felt a little helpless.

Does this damn Persian cat have nine lives...?

Please don't really put on an "unsinkable battleship" show for me...

Angry and tired of fighting, he bit his back teeth fiercely...

============================

"Useless! A bunch of useless! One hundred and three planes can't defeat forty-two!!!"

In the operations room of the British Royal Air Force Middle East-North Africa Command, the furious Air Marshal Arthur Tedder was furious. The several air force generals standing in front of him all looked embarrassed, with tears dripping down their faces...

"And you didn't even remember who to target first? More than a hundred planes were torn apart by forty-two planes. Losing twenty-five is fine, but what are you doing with the remaining planes? A small group here, a small group there, slaughtered by enemy planes and anti-aircraft guns, and you didn't even blow up the last target... Where's your organization? Where's your coordination? Where's your professionalism as a member of the Royal Air Force? Have you been fed to the dogs?!"

Faced with the bloody curses, a bunch of subordinates were trembling with fear and dared not say a word.

"...Where are the Germans now? How many air force fleets can we muster for the next wave? If we want to concentrate our attack, how long will it take to gather?" After cursing for a long time, Admiral Ted finally vented his anger. He picked up the cup and took a sip of black tea with the scent of North African dust, and asked unhappily.

"Um... General Auchinleck just sent a report that Rommel has captured the town of Correl and is heading towards the last outpost, Village. In addition, General Auchinleck has withdrawn the front-line troops, so we can bomb the German convoy."

A staff officer flipped through the folder in his hand and reported as he did so.

"As for planes... we can now dispatch about 40 fighters from three nearby airports, and nearly 70 bombers and twin-engine heavy fighters from several airports in the rear... If we want to concentrate bombing, we can dispatch them now, and we can start bombing in about an hour..."

"Is that all we have? Well..." Ted frowned and thought for a moment, "Alexandria is extremely important, but with these few planes we have now, I'm afraid we can't threaten the enemy... Forget it, the safety of Alexandria is more important."

At this moment, another communications staff officer ran over:

"Commander! Admiral Cunningham of the Mediterranean Fleet called! They said that they learned from the intercepted communications that the Bismarck might have been seriously damaged, but it might run aground for repairs. They asked us to continue bombing the Bismarck if possible and make sure it sinks completely..."

"...Tsk, tell him I know and I will go and bomb it!" Sir Ted glanced at the distant Mediterranean with an unhappy look on his face. "Their navy must have suffered a psychological trauma from the Bismarck. They can't even tell which target is more important now... Order the bomber fleet to focus on bombing the German Africa Corps and the Tirpitz. Drop two bombs on that dead cat Bismarck if there is a chance. If there is no chance, wait until I have bombed the Africa Corps and the German fleet, and then I will come back to deal with the dead cat on the beach!"

"Yes!!"

---------

Although Viragh Town was the last line of defense outside Alexandria, the roads in this area were extremely narrow, with only one road available for movement, and the terrain on both sides was full of lakes and swamps, making it impossible to outflank. Moreover, a few kilometers behind, at the three-way intersection leading to Cairo through a causeway, there was another stronghold, which was easy to defend but difficult to attack!

However, now that the morale and organization of the British army have been completely destroyed by the naval guns, all this has completely lost its meaning! !

Although the South African 1st Division had reached the southern shore of Lake Mareotis, even so, in the face of naval guns, they could only retreat obediently, watching the cold and heavy tracks of the Afrika Korps tanks on the embankment on the north shore of the lake more than ten kilometers away, ruthlessly rolling over the abandoned British positions in the North African desert!

Even the mines hastily laid by the British during their retreat had no effect on the German convoy as Bismarck directed the two Italian cruisers to bombard and clear the mines, as well as the minesweeping chains of armored engineering vehicles.

The feeling of powerlessness surged in the hearts of every British soldier...

"Damn it, can we just watch the Germans occupy Alexandria..."

"General Auchinleck said he wanted to give up Alexander. What was he thinking?!"

"We are 40,000 people against their 4,000 people. How can this be..."

"The air force has been bombing all the time, we can't just stand there and watch!!"

"This damn old fool will be court-martialed sooner or later!!"

……

Somewhere on the edge of the North African desert, Auchinleck's temporary field headquarters...

A communications officer came to Auchinleck, who was resting with his eyes closed in front of the window...

"General, the South African First Division has arrived at the town of El AMRIYA (10 kilometers southeast of Virag, on the shore of Lake Mareotis). They have also sent a protest and a request for battle, asking you to order them to attack and fight Rommel to the death in Alexandria..."

In fact, even the communications officer no longer looked at Auchinleck with respect...

Looking at the look in his subordinates' eyes, Auchinleck gave a miserable laugh and covered his forehead helplessly...

What stupid things you said...

He doesn't want to lose Alexandria either!

but…

There were only a few earthen embankments here, just wide enough for a road! Moreover, all the roads and strongholds along this line were within the bombardment range of the German warships. If he did not withdraw his men from the positions and abandon the stronghold of Virag, not only would he die for no reason under the muzzle of the guns, but he would also have no way to launch an artillery attack on the African Corps...

From Correl to Virag, the New Zealanders had been defeated by the artillery fire, and the First Armored Division was unable to deploy on the seawall and was suppressed by the artillery fire and could not raise its head. Aren’t the losses heavy enough?

However, someone has to clean up the mess... Although I guess in all likelihood, I will be the scapegoat...

"...Have General Arthur Tedder's bomber fleet been dispatched?"

With a sad smile, Auchinleck asked.

Although he looked at his boss as a good-for-nothing, he still had to answer the question. The communications officer flipped through the folder in his hand: "... They just dispatched a fleet of about 110 aircraft five minutes ago. General Ted said they will start bombing Rommel and the German fleet in about an hour!"

"An hour? Alright, tell the New Zealand 2nd Division, South Africa 1st Division, and the 1st Armored Division that planes will bomb in an hour, and start the attack after the bombing is over... But if you find that you can't attack, withdraw immediately!!"

"Yes..." The communications officer rolled his eyes at Auchinleck and retreated. He seemed to mutter something, like "a glutton" or something...

Auchinleck did not care about his subordinates' contempt, but just looked at the sand flying outside the window with worry...

"The wind direction... has changed..."

Chapter 476: Bismarck...disappears

At noon on August 1941, 8, on the west bank of Alexandria Port,

A large warship with a draft of nearly three meters and a deck flush with the slowly advancing waves had already arrived at the shore of a protruding land in Westport. Under the personal control of Admiral Lütjens, commander of the Mediterranean Fleet of the Greater German War Navy, it was slowly and carefully approaching the shallows of the protruding land.

But even though it looked like it might sink at any moment, the last bit of firepower remaining on this battleship was still firing at British targets far away on the shore as best it could!

Outside the western port of Alexandria, the last barrier on the edge of the city, the Alexandria Barracks, was hit one by one by the 380mm main gun of the Bismarck battleship, which was almost fired at close range, and was completely demolished into ruins! And in the urban area of ​​Alexandria, ten kilometers further east, the officers and soldiers of the New Zealand Second Division who retreated in a panic and tried to hide or even counterattack in the city buildings were almost holding their heads and trembling.

Right next to this battleship, the billowing dust on the seawall road on the shore meant that the African Corps had arrived as promised!

The 2800 men of the African Corps who survived the hard battle, seven long-barreled Type 150 tanks, thirteen modified Type 88 tanks, seven 37mm howitzers, eighteen field guns, thirteen anti-tank guns, four mm anti-aircraft guns, three mm anti-aircraft guns, one hundred and seventy trucks, and the last two armored engineering vehicles,

However, even with heavy casualties, it still could not conceal one fact: the African Corps had already rushed into the western port of Alexandria!

Victory is at hand!

"Brothers! Alexandria Port is just ahead! The battleship Bismarck has controlled the entire West Port with her firepower! Follow me, charge!"

"Come on!"

"Into Alexandria!"

The rolling iron stream, carrying all the yellow sand, whistled past the battleship Bismarck! Behind the two leading armored engineering vehicles, a row of Type 4 tanks deployed in an assault formation drove non-stop along the coastal highway, passing the dusty Union Jacks that fell on the ground in the barracks, and rushed into the western port area of ​​Alexandria with the sound of tracks and the infantry on the tanks!

On the tank rushing in the front, there are two small flags hanging behind the turret: one is 78 cm square, with four black and white squares similar to chess, and a circle of red border around it; the other is a gray background with a gold border, with a golden eagle emblem on it, and a triangular flag with thirty-one swastika symbols on the gold border - the flag of the German Army Group Commander, and the flag of the Army General!

The African Corps is an absolute army group level headquarters!

Just as the tank passed by the behemoth on the coast, Rommel, commander of the African Corps, leaned his head out from the tank's commander's seat and saluted the Bismarck, which was slowly landing on the left coast, covered in smoke and scars!

-

"We have entered and occupied the western port of Alexandria. Next, we will station here and wait for reinforcements. Thank you very much for the support of the Mediterranean Fleet. Without your strong support, I would never have won this battle. - Erwin Rommel"

The communications staff read the telegram sent by Rommel with a happy face, but Lütjens, who was standing on the steering gear, waved his hand impatiently.

He no longer had any intention to think about this problem.

Bismarck's condition was becoming increasingly unfavorable.

"Got it. Go ahead and get off. I'm going to get the Bismarck to the beach. Also, don't bother me with this kind of shit next time! If it weren't for Rommel's plan, the Bismarck wouldn't have been damaged like this!"

Don’t think that Rommel’s words of thanks can write off everything!

Looking at Lütjens, who was standing by the steering gear, gritting his teeth and concentrating, carefully maneuvering the warship to find a place to land, the communications staff officer retreated with a sullen look on his face.

"Bismarck, look, is there any shallow water area here?" Lütjens asked softly as he watched the communications staff officer walk down.

The next second, a soft sigh was heard in Lütjens' ears.

"Captain, there's a place just ahead, west of the seawall. Never mind. I can see the bottom of the sea. Let me do it."