Bismarck

Even though, in the next second, I might get scolded for no reason...

Fortunately, Wilcox did not scold him. Perhaps it was because the battle situation was bad and he had to focus all his attention on commanding and judging the situation, so he had neither the mood nor the time to scold him... ?

In fact, during this period of time, because the Salt Lake City evacuated, the Portland had already been hit by two shells. Although the damage was not serious enough to evacuate the battlefield, by now both sides had already known that the Portland alone could not be a match for Prince Eugen, and it was only a matter of time before it was defeated...

In short, after this atmosphere of not daring to breathe in the headquarters lasted for a few minutes, Wilcox finally gave the order:

"...Let the Portland withdraw first and join the destroyer squadron of our fleet... In addition, at their current speed and course, they will reach the boundary between our defense zone and the British in an hour... Call the British side, inform them of the position and course of this German heavy cruiser, and ask them to join us in encircling and killing this damn heavy cruiser..."

There was a hint of dejection in his tone...

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"Top Top. Look, look. It looks like their last heavy cruiser is about to retreat."

In the captain's room of the Prince Eugen, a girl with golden twin ponytails gently reached out her hand and tugged at her captain's sleeve, while her other hand pointed in the direction of the heavy cruiser Portland that was turning around.

"Yes, I saw it. You fired three 203mm shells at us before we even got close to us. He's the only one left. Do you think we can stop running? - By the way, how many shells do we have left?"

Top put down the telescope and pulled Eugen's twin ponytails lovingly and asked.

"Well... the ammunition consumption is still not small... Now my main guns only have about 15 shells per gun... Oops~ stop pulling my braids." Eugen slapped Top's hand away in a grudge, then pursed his lips and thought for a while, and finally began to count with his fingers in a silly and cute way: "... There are about guided high-explosive shells per gun... The armor-piercing shells are basically untouched, and there are still shells per gun... The remaining conventional high-explosive shells are only or per gun... Oh, right! There are an extra flares on the ship. And I heard from my sisters that they have added materials in them."

"Only half of the shells are left..." Although he had repelled the American heavy cruiser fleet, Top felt a little sad when he saw the American fleet still chasing him. However, when he heard about the "replenished shells", Top asked with concern: "What did you add?"

"Yeah...it's nothing actually, just a bunch of foil strips added." Eugen stuck out his tongue and said with a hopscotch.

"Jamming bombs? Great. This way we can break out at night." Top glanced at the standard clock on the wall and began to think about the situation on the battlefield. "It's 4:20 Berlin time now, which means it's 2:20 here. There are still two hours before it gets dark... Now that the American heavy cruiser has moved out of the way, at our current course and speed, they should be calling on the British for help, right?"

But just after Top finished speaking, Eugen continued:

"Top Top, the American battleship sent a telegram. It's a coded telegram, and the length of the telegram is a bit long. I just don't know who it is for..."

"They must be calling the British to intercept us." Top said without thinking, "The British will definitely reply to the telegram soon. Eugen, pay attention. If there is a new radio signal ahead of us, mark the location for me immediately."

"Okay..." Knowing the seriousness of the matter, Eugen clenched his fists and nodded vigorously.

ps: I always forget to post pictures, here they are all at once

534: The first success of guided torpedoes

As Top expected, within ten minutes, at about 110:, Eugen detected a radio signal that was returning a call from a position about degrees southwest of the ship...

"…The distance is too far to measure, but judging from the signal strength, it should be about a hundred kilometers away…"

Top, who was marking the location on the nautical chart, looked at Eugen, who was lowering her head a little depressed because she failed to measure the accurate enemy distance for her captain. Even her cute twin ponytails seemed to droop a little. He stretched out his finger with a mixture of anger and amusement, and tapped the little forehead under Eugen's bangs.

What a lovely little girl.

"Ouch, that hurts."

The secretary ship, who was tapped on the forehead, stretched out his hand to cover his forehead in fear of the pain, and did not forget to complain about the grievance: "Really, such a long distance, they did not send the signal for a long time, I really can't locate it..."

Eugen was explaining something to herself, but in fact Top didn't mean to blame her at all.

Before I could finish my complaints, a big hand reached out and touched my forehead under the bangs:

"You've done pretty well, Eugen."

"Eh?"

"At least we know that the British flagship is about a hundred kilometers away, which means we are still safe for the time being. That's enough."

"All right···"

"So, our Eugen is doing pretty well. We're going to fight again soon, and it'll all depend on you then."

"Yeah. Okay, okay. I will fight well!" After being coaxed by Top, Eugen quickly raised his head full of energy, clenched his little fists, and bounced his toes lightly, becoming happy.

Although he was a rough man, after all, with more than thirty years of experience and more than a year of companionship with Eugen, he could see that this Eugen needed to be coaxed...

Young girls are naturally sensitive, and this girl was "imprisoned" by Raeder for a year right after she was born. She was also plotted against by Kumets and the previous vice-captain. She might be even more sensitive, so she was even more startled...

I was nervous because I couldn't determine the detection distance. It was normal that the distance and the time it took to send a message were not enough to determine the distance...

"Forget it, just comfort her as much as you can. She worked very hard during the battle anyway..."

"And if the British come too..."

He lowered his head to look at the nautical chart again, but when he saw the latest position markings, Top was a little dazed.

"The two American destroyers on the left rear have closed the distance to 18,000? The four destroyers on the right, two battleships, and the retreating heavy cruiser have circled back... Does the American commander want to use up all my ammunition through a round-the-clock battle, and then sink Eugen together with the British?"

Besides, we don’t know if there will be any British interception ahead…

But look at the distance, it's 18,000 yards, and the American destroyer behind the left is chasing us at a speed of 37 knots.

It seems like... it’s time to do something big.

A bright light bulb suddenly lit up in Top's head.

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Wilcox was standing beside the chart table, directing his men to pursue the Prinz Eugen while calculating the time and position of the possible appearance of the British allies. Soon, he received an unfortunate and completely unexpected loss report...

"Report to the commander. The two destroyers that we withdrew from the patrol line and were now tracking the Prinz Eugen suddenly sank!"

Originally, the two American battleships were very far away from Prince Eugen, and due to the inherent design defects of the North Carolina-class battleships, their maximum speed was only 27 or 28 knots. After running for nearly an hour, they were now about 20 nautical miles away from Prince Eugen, and could only confirm the battle situation through telegrams sent from other ships.

When the battle report came, it was bad news...

"What did you say? It sank suddenly? Didn't you want them to confirm that it wasn't sunk in a gun battle?"

Major General Wilcox found it hard to believe the "sudden death" and immediately asked his communications staff to verify the situation.

Soon, the news came again.

"It has been verified, sir. Although our other pursuit ships did not show any signs of firing from the two destroyers, the Prinz Eugen. It looks like they were sunk by a torpedo."

"Torpedo? Let me see." Wilcox rushed to the edge of the nautical chart in disbelief, but after calculating the situation marks on the nautical chart for a while, he could only helplessly admit defeat...

"The distance is 18,000 yards, and they are in pursuit. The torpedo range of the Germans should be around 15,000 yards. Taking the angle into consideration, their route is indeed within the maximum range of the German torpedoes... But how can these guys driving the destroyers be so careless? Six torpedoes can destroy both of their ships... Order the four destroyers here to keep their distance from them. Be careful of their torpedoes. Calculate their route. The vertical distance from the German route cannot be less than 16,000 yards!"

It was too humiliating to be killed by a torpedo at the extreme distance, Wilcox found it unbelievable.

Wilcox, who was somewhat annoyed by the destroyer's "recklessness", angrily gave orders, asking his subordinates to keep their distance. But on the other hand, he comforted himself and said, "Fortunately, Eugen only has twelve torpedoes. At least the six torpedo tubes on their port side are just for show..."

Another seemingly "good" news is that the vertical distance between the destroyer's route and the Prince Eugen's route has always been more than 16,000 yards. And it has been safe.

This was somewhat good news for Wilcox, who had already lost four destroyers and had three cruisers severely damaged.

——?

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"I hit it! I hit it! Top Top, I hit it!"

In the bridge of the Prince Eugen, Eugen with two ponytails was like a happy little rabbit. He held Top's arm and shook it back and forth, while jumping for joy in the direction of the two sunk American destroyers in the distance.

"Yes, two destroyers, this is a good result! Hahaha." Top laughed happily.

Being hit by a cannonball and being hit by a torpedo are two completely different concepts. The two destroyers probably never dreamed that such a dangerous thing would suddenly appear underwater. When the violent explosion came out around them, the crew members were probably still confused. The entire ship was almost blown into two pieces by the huge power of the torpedo. Various parts were blown out along with black smoke and soon disappeared on the water.

Top, with a doting expression on his face, was also very happy when he saw Eugen happy.

Before Bismarck mentioned the concept of guided torpedoes, who would have thought that torpedoes could be used in this way besides calculating positions and firing in a fan-shaped pattern as a one-time life-threatening weapon at the last moment?

However, it seems that the guided torpedo operated by Eugen himself is quite effective. After all, there are faster guided shells, not to mention much slower torpedoes. Bismarck and Zeppelin taught this thing to Eugen after working on it for two or three days.

First he calculated the torpedo speed and the enemy destroyer's speed, then the maximum approach angle and the torpedo lead time, and finally, with his subordinates looking at him as idiots, he shamelessly ordered to fire only two torpedoes. Now, with his arms hugged by the jubilant Eugen, he could go and look at his subordinates who were stunned and looked like idiots with expressions on their faces.

Don't be too complacent. After all, you are the captain, so you should pretend to be arrogant in front of your subordinates. Although there is a jumping little girl hanging on your arm, you can't pretend to be cool...

----

"It's almost three o'clock now. Although we should be close to the British defense zone, if the Americans can only catch up with us with destroyers... now we have two less 'tails', the commander of the American fleet on the other side should be crying."

Top was making a wishful calculation, and he was already 100% sure of his success in breaking out. Looking at Eugen, who was hanging on his arm and still excited, he pulled her braids and asked lovingly, "Eugen, can you sense if there are any traces of the British?"

"Yeah! Okay~"

Eugen folded his arms, closed his eyes, and after sensing for a while, he said, "Hmm... Top, there is a radar signal in front of us, 10 degrees to the starboard, and it seems to be heading straight in front of us... Wait, Top, I'll observe it again and mark the map, and then I can know how far they are from us."

As he spoke, he grabbed a pencil and slide rule, pounced on Eugen's chart table, and began to mark the chart carefully.

After all, during the more than one year of "imprisonment", in order to pass the time in prison and prove her ability to the navy leaders when she was allowed to go to sea, she basically studied naval business all the time, except for sitting on the top of the bridge and feeling depressed. The seriousness of her study made Top, who taught her business knowledge, ashamed...

This cute girl also has a serious side when it comes to studying. She is much better than her sister Tirpitz.

Even though the high-ranking navy officers had abandoned Eugen in order to preserve their own political power, leaving her and themselves to die, it now seemed... this girl could finally freely display her abilities.

It was already certain that there must be British warships blocking him in front, and perhaps British reinforcements would arrive on the right. Britain and the United States were determined to block him here and prevent him from returning safely with Eugen - but that didn't matter. In order to get rid of the faces of military politicians like Kumetz and the Admiralty, and for Prince Eugen's freedom, he had never thought of withdrawing.

Although the British were indeed a formidable opponent, he had already seen through the Americans' strengths. He would wait another hour and a half until dark, and that would be the time for him to break out.

I am looking forward to the expressions of Americans at that time.

"Top Top, I marked it."

While Top was daydreaming with emotion, Eugen had already marked out several lines - against the azure blue background of the ocean on the nautical chart, several line segments, combined with Eugen's own heading, marked out a triangle.

As an old sailor, Top certainly knew that this was a method of using trigonometric functions to guess the enemy's speed and thus determine the enemy's distance.

The enemy radar signal was far beyond Eugen's perception range. If it was a fast destroyer, the distance would be very far at the same angle change. If the distance was too far, the destroyer's radar power would not be enough. Then it could only be a cruiser or battleship-level target. According to the speed of 32 knots, the distance was just a junior high school trigonometric problem.

Well, Eugen has already figured it out.

"Top Top, if they are cruisers or battleships, they are probably a little over 40 kilometers away from us. They will soon be within my detection range."

After hearing Eugen's report, which was similar to his own estimate, Top felt more confident:

"Eugen, turn. Head to 315 degrees northwest. The British have been lured out now. They will be sure of us when it gets dark. We just need to hold out for an hour and a half to break out."

"Okay, I'll do my best~"

The cute Eugen clenched his fists with full energy and answered excitedly. That cute look made Top, who felt his nose was a little hot, cover his nose subconsciously...

On the other side, after hearing the communication officer's report that the destroyer ahead had discovered Eugen's turn, Wilcox, who believed that the Allies had arrived and was confident of a comeback, also gave orders to the US fleet to turn around and intercept and start chasing...

"Turn around! Chase! We must keep this damn cruiser here!"

In the command tower of the USS Washington, Wilcox's roar echoed between the walls and instruments...

Chapter 535: The breakout begins!

The chasing and fleeing warships quickly caught up from 3:30 to 4:30. By this time, it was already dark...

The wind and waves outside the porthole had died down a bit, and it looked like patrol planes equipped with search radars would be able to take off in the second half of the night, and tomorrow the aircraft carriers should be able to dispatch large-scale air strike groups. But on the bridge of the USS Washington, Wilcox was not happy at all.

In such a pitch-dark night, he had no chance of blocking the Prince Eugen.

Looking out the porthole, the sky first changed from dark grayish-white due to the dense clouds to the deep blue color unique to the setting sun in bad weather, and then became darker and darker, until finally it was so dark that you couldn't see your hand in front of you, completely covering the Faroe Islands, this area of ​​waters where the North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans meet.

In the pitch-dark night, the British and American navies, who were unable to get along well, looked at the completely dark sky and were both troubled...

The British, who generally had radars and IFF, were fine, but the American fleet, which only had two slow battleships equipped with radars and no IFF function, was in a big trouble.

In the dark night, it is pitch dark, and a ship without radar is definitely blind. Even if there is radar, but there is no friend-or-foe identification, even if the target is found, it is useless if it cannot be determined whether it is the enemy or not.

The British fleet had no coordination with their side at all. Although theoretically their radar could keep an eye on the Prinz Eugen, the American fleet now found it difficult to determine the positions of friendly ships around them, not to mention the British dozens of nautical miles away.

And the obvious tragedy is that the two cruisers and one battlecruiser of the British fleet could not outrun the Prince Eugen at all.

Unable to defeat them, Prince Eugen ran very fast, with the boiler's power output at maximum, rushing forward through the waves, and he could only worry when he saw the British and Americans.

After an hour, the distance between the British fleet and the Prinz Eugen had increased from 25 kilometers at its closest to more than 30 kilometers, and was about to be out of the radar search range.

If they were to break away, they wouldn't know where to find anyone.

Soon, a telegram came from the UK, which was as expected: "Prince Eugen has left the radar search range of our fleet. Their last course was 304 degrees northwest, towards the waters north of Iceland, with a speed of 37.5 knots..."

The American thought, since Prince Eugen has broken away, then you can follow us to chase him. But what made people speechless was that the British said, "In order to prevent accidental injuries, our fleet will withdraw to the waters east of the demarcation line to deploy defenses..."

It’s not that they don’t consider the Americans. After all, they are allies, right? So at the end, they added a sentence “God bless you and good luck…”

Are you ready to just walk away?

When Wilcox held the telegram, he felt very aggrieved. He didn't know whether to curse the British or not, and he didn't know what to say.

After all, it’s the truth…

"…After I go back this time, I must tell those bastards in the Navy Shipbuilding Committee to equip us with radars before sending us out to fight. I also want them to modify the fire control system for me!"

In the end, he had to vent his anger on the Naval Shipbuilding Committee.