Bismarck

The tactics of the British aircraft group on the opposite side were obviously carefully studied and considered. More than 20 attack aircraft were dispersed into more than ten two-plane teams at a long distance, with a very far distance between them. They dived at a small angle, forming an extra-large fan with a width of ten kilometers, and rushed towards the German fleet in an orderly manner. Although doing so would reduce the ability of the attack aircraft to cover each other, it could effectively break through the terrifying and accurate anti-aircraft firepower circle of the ship girl.

Although the main gun rotation speed of Bismarck and Tirpitz is 5 degrees per second, which is much faster than the 381 degrees per second rotation speed of the main gun of Warspite 2, can the main gun rotation speed be faster than the sprint speed of the aircraft?

After this kind of low-angle dive, the tactic of low-altitude and high-speed raid, the effect of VT proximity fuze at long distance is greatly discounted - long-range anti-aircraft shells have a large fall angle, and after receiving the reflection of sea clutter, it cannot be guaranteed that they will always explode close to the enemy aircraft. Even if they are successfully detonated near the enemy aircraft, the depression angle of the shells will turn the "funnel" of the shrapnel into an oblique attack surface, and the effective attack surface will be at least half of the normal state!

The VT has an effective range of twelve kilometers, and facing British and American attack aircraft that have dived at a small angle to 430 kilometers per hour or even faster, it can only last for a minute and a half at most!

In one and a half minutes, not to mention that the Bismarck and Tirpitz in the front had only sixteen 105mm anti-aircraft guns, even if the eighteen 105mm anti-aircraft guns of the Zeppelin and Prinz Eugen towed behind were added, the ammunition salvo in one and a half minutes could not shoot down many planes!

Not to mention, the British aircraft formation was so scattered! Whether it was anti-aircraft guns or fighters, they had to shift firepower to shoot down a target, but the time spent shifting firepower was enough for them to rush closer! After all, no matter how powerful the Lütjens fleet was, there were only a few warships, and the transfer of anti-aircraft guns also required time and coordination! As for the air force, it had to race against time, otherwise it would miss the target!

In fact, this is the same idea as Zeppelin's previous method of dealing with the anti-aircraft range of the main gun of the Warspite. Although at the beginning, this method was used by Zeppelin himself - I wonder if the courts of Britain and the United States will rule that the naval aviation should pay copyright royalties to Zeppelin when using this tactic?

(In fact, this tactic was still useful in the 1980s to evade the first generation of anti-aircraft missiles - during the Falklands War, more than a dozen warships and civilian ships were collectively wept over when they were blown up by Argentina with old-fashioned bombs.)

Piles of smoke exploded between the sea and the sky, and shrapnel like raindrops blasted water splashes on the surface of the Indian Ocean.

The Spitfires dragged the seawater track created by the propeller storm and swept across the sea surface covered with smoke at lightning speed. Under the pursuit of Zeppelin and the interception of Buckhorn, Novotny and others, the Spitfires desperately covered the attack aircraft group that had suffered considerable losses in the air battle, and rushed straight down towards their target of this air battle!

"God bless Great Britain! Long live the British Empire!"

Hysterical voices were heard one after another on the British military radio station...

In front of the British aircraft group, the two Evil Spirit-class battleships Bismarck and Tirpitz also opened fire!

The anti-aircraft guns flashed with fire!

At the beginning, there was only a flash from time to time, which was so brilliant and impactful that it could be felt even from a distance, but it was not too difficult to avoid - that was the fire of the 380mm main gun!

The trajectory of the 380mm high-explosive bomb is very flat. One round of firing from the eight main guns can create a fire net hundreds of meters wide, composed of explosive fragments. Fortunately, the British pilots are now trained to disperse attacks and evade flexibly. At long distances, the flight time of the shells reaches more than seconds. As long as they are prepared in advance, they can still avoid some of them.

However, when the British aircraft group rushed into the effective range of the 105mm anti-aircraft guns, the two German battleships that had been firing sporadically with their main guns at a leisurely pace were suddenly like a hornet's nest!

The rain of bullets in the sky suddenly became dense, and the rapid-fire firepower of the 105mm anti-aircraft guns smashed over in rows! These large-caliber anti-aircraft guns, which could fire a round every three seconds on average, were controlled by crazy gunners, who kept taking shells from the armored windows of the warship's hull at the back, and then several people passed them to the loaders, who stuffed them into the gun barrels and immediately fired them out by pressing the button! The long rod-shaped prefabricated fragments like blades chopped the fuselage structures of the SBD Dreadnought and the Barracuda, and from time to time, the wings of the aircraft were broken directly by the stress generated by lift and aerodynamics after the main beam was damaged!

At a closer distance, Bismarck and her men were firing the 50mm twin-mounted anti-aircraft guns they had obtained from Goering!

These hand-cranked weapons, which had excellent basic performance but were initially designed to be unreasonable and weighed several tons, were transformed from weak weapons into powerful weapons in an instant after Lütjens used all his connections to ask Krupp to convert them into motor-driven twin-mounted naval anti-aircraft guns, equipped them with Italian-made gyro-stabilized bases, and even covered them with a 30mm shell that could completely defend against Hispano machine gun strafing and high-explosive shrapnel explosions!

The single-barrel 180mm anti-aircraft gun has a firing rate of 8000 rounds per minute and an effective range of more than 50 meters. Under the control of the two ship girls through the firing director, coupled with the continuous-fire 37mm anti-aircraft gun with a strictly distinguished firing range, which is specially designed to deal with the fish that slip through the net, it is actually very restrained against this low-altitude and high-speed raid tactics!

Moreover… Although the German 37mm and 105mm anti-aircraft guns did not have as strong turret shells as the 50mm anti-aircraft guns, especially the 37mm anti-aircraft guns that were almost completely exposed, they were easily suppressed by fighter jets’ firepower once they were in combat. However, these anti-aircraft guns sacrificed a considerable part of their defense power, but they were all equipped with gyro-stabilized bases, which could ensure normal firing when the warships were maneuvering greatly! !

The 105mm anti-aircraft guns with the longest range had a pre-set firing table, and relied on salvos to form an interception fire layer. The 50mm anti-aircraft guns concentrated their firepower and fired freely at medium distances. The 37mm anti-aircraft guns, as the last barrier, were responsible for a certain firing angle in each group as the last close defense firepower. And from time to time, the 380mm main guns would suddenly fire a shot - although the 380mm main guns had the slowest turning speed, they had good ballistic performance and fast retention speed! At medium distances, the combined four rounds of artillery fire from the two battleships Bismarck and Tirpitz directly took away the lives of four groups of eight British attack planes! !

As for anti-aircraft firepower, the most important thing is not how many anti-aircraft guns there are in theory, nor how many directors there are in theory, but how to organize these anti-aircraft guns to the maximum extent! It is necessary to fully utilize the role of each anti-aircraft gun, efficiently and quickly assign targets, and fully calculate the impact of firepower transfer and ship maneuvers on the efficiency of anti-aircraft gun firepower organization, and even the interference of the main gun firing on the efficiency of the secondary gun firepower, etc.

The speed of the aircraft can be described as lightning! If the anti-aircraft firepower operation and management is not efficient enough, the consequences will be extremely serious! ! Whether it is a single ship or a fleet, as long as there is a problem, whether it is missing people in target allocation, overlapping firepower shooting, or a mix-up between multiple layers of firepower... it will directly lead to catastrophic consequences!

however……

These four are all ship girls!

Long before Zeppelin entered service, under the persuasion of Bismarck, Lütjens and his men could be said to be the most dedicated group of generals in the world's navy to anti-aircraft firepower, not to mention their years of actual combat experience and rigorous training.

Even the lazy Tirpitz could be trained by Lindemann to look at the British fighter planes with a vicious look - although that was the look of a little hamster who was a little unhappy with the training and was looking at a punching bag, but...

Not counting the terrifying anti-aircraft firepower distribution efficiency between the Bismarck and Tirpitz sisters, even if the Zeppelin was still nervously collecting the fleet until now - even if some planes that were injured and ran out of ammunition in the interception air battle required emergency landing, there were only a few planes waiting in line in the sky for collection! Not to mention that the Zeppelin was directly guarding her!

Although the British attack aircraft group assault formation is still fierce and the tactics have been adjusted, it is still tragically defeated by the clear sky and the one-click change...

The long-range anti-aircraft guns of the German ships, in accordance with the order of firepower distribution, were slowly starting from both sides of the British assault formation, and taking aim at the attacking British attack aircraft one by one - doing so could minimize the time and adjustment range of each firepower transfer!

As for the planes that were caught in the middle and had not been specifically targeted, they were also fired upon one by one in a certain order as they entered the range of the concentrated firepower of the twin-mounted 50mm anti-aircraft guns at medium distances. The concentrated firepower of the twin-mounted 50mm anti-aircraft guns was a perverted level of lethal firepower! In the sight of the director, with each volley of the twelve 50mm gun barrels, almost one British plane had its wings broken, exploded in the air, or fell into the rolling Indian Ocean a dozen meters below with billowing smoke! …

Although there were still many remaining aircraft that had finally reached the range of the 4500-meter 37mm anti-aircraft guns, the light anti-aircraft guns that had been assigned to different areas, each group was responsible for driving out an area, like a hedgehog, extending its sharp thorns in all directions! Moreover, they had a gyro-stabilized base, so they did not need to rely purely on numbers to brush the barrage like the British and American 40mm Bofors!

Although the mission was just to drive away the British aircraft and not threaten the warships, the efficiency of shooting down the enemy aircraft should not be underestimated! Relying on the shooting foundation provided by the stable chassis, the killing efficiency of these 37-round machine guns is even higher than that of the tubes, and the eight-barrel 40 Bofors with higher firepower delivery is even better! !

Among the British aircraft fleet that were speeding at full speed, planes would occasionally crash into the rolling waves!

The prospects looked good, but problems arose.

After all, it was an airplane, and it could always break in with its high speed! Not to mention, the British planes were too scattered!

Even though the battleship itself provided approximate fire control parameters, the German 105mm and 57mm anti-aircraft guns still had to be re-aimed every time they shifted firepower.

The time it takes to re-aim after the firepower is transferred is actually much longer than the time it takes to shoot down an enemy plane!

Under the full-force attack of the cat and mouse sisters, ten out of the twenty-plus British planes were shot down in just one and a half minutes - and they were all relatively bulkier torpedo planes!

Now the British army has only four torpedo planes left, and there is no way they can continue with their planned tactics!

but……

In just one and a half minutes, the British aircraft group had already rushed very close!

The current British aircraft group is only 5000 meters away from the cat and mouse sisters, and even the Zeppelin behind them is only 7500 meters away!

In front of the British assault aircraft group whose speed has soared to 450 kilometers per hour, it takes less than sixty seconds to fly the last distance!

Zeppelin had been recovering the plane until just now and could not maneuver freely!

Now Bontai has arranged the worst-case aircraft to land first, and the aircraft waiting to land that have not been recovered in time are not in a bad situation and have been temporarily evacuated from the sky above Zeppelin. But even if she has given up on recovering the aircraft, with a high center of gravity and difficult to maneuver aircraft carrier, it is impossible for her to escape from the suicide attack of the British assault aircraft group that has already killed red-eyed!

Those remaining British aircraft groups that had been scattered also realized this!

Moreover, all the British pilots knew that their attack wave was the largest assault force that the Indefatigable could dispatch! In addition to being able to send out a few Fulmars for reconnaissance and a few Swordfish for anti-submarine warfare, the escort carriers also put together all the forces they could put together - it was the 17 extra Spitfire fighters that had just been added, together with the Indefatigable's own fighters, at the cost of heavy casualties, under the cover of the German fighters led by the Edelweiss Witch herself, they finally rushed here!

Now, there is no way out!

Moreover, that German bitch Zeppelin is right in front of us!

Even though the fire from the battleships Bismarck and Tirpitz in front of her was getting more and more intense, and even though one after another of her comrades were hit and caught fire under the crazy strafing of the German Evil Spirit battleships and fell into the ocean with black smoke, it could not suppress the madness and bloodiness in the hearts of the British pilots!

"Brothers! Charge forward! If we sink the Zeppelin, we will win!"

"Go! Sink her!"

"God bless Great Britain!!"

"Long live the King!!"

Although the casualties were heavy under the interception of the fleet's firepower, the number of remaining British attack planes was not small at all! The attack planes quickly adjusted their course in twos and threes. Whether it was the Barracudas that continued to charge straight ahead or the SBDs that tried to bypass them from both sides, they all aimed their attack targets at the Zeppelins! !

"Oh no! They're heading for me...our aircraft carrier!!"

Zeppelin in the sky was the first to notice something was wrong, and she almost let it slip (the German words "my" and "our" are pronounced differently)! But in such a chaotic battlefield, she was powerless!

The loss rate of the fleet assault is proportional to the time the fleet is exposed to the air defense fire network, and the success rate of the fleet assault is proportional to the depth of the air defense circle! Although the Lütjens fleet has strong air defense firepower, its weakness of lacking light warships to form the outer defense depth is fully exposed at this moment!

Looking at the British aircraft fleet that was resembling the Japanese Kamikaze suicide squad, somehow, everyone seemed to hear a sentence in Japanese in their minds: It’s getting dark, load the cards!

And in front of him, the hysterical and crazy eyes of the pilots who were blood-thirsty appeared inexplicably...

"Sister! What should I do?"

"Raisi! Hold on! You must hold on!"

Bismarck and Tirpitz gritted their teeth and used all their energy to command the firepower on their ships to kill the British aircraft! But although the frontal aircraft were destroyed one by one by their artillery fire, they no longer had the energy to deal with the British attack aircraft that passed by them!

It took the enemy plane no more than a minute to reach Zeppelin's position, but this one minute seemed longer than a year!

Now the only barrier around Zeppelin is the heavy cruiser Prince Eugen, which looks as fragile as a small rabbit and inconspicuous in comparison under the cover of the huge bodies of his two sisters!

But even so, Parasko with twin ponytails will not back down at all!

"Top Top! They're coming for Sister Zeppelin!"

Pulling Top's sleeve, Eugen pointed to a small black dot in the distance that was charging wildly in the hail of bullets - although one of them would be shot down from time to time, the remaining British pilots were obviously blood-thirsty in order to attack the Zeppelin!

The ferocious momentum of the attack made little Eugen's face change...

"I saw it... Such a brutal attack..." Top was also sweating: "Eugen, you must hold on! Got it?!"

"Yes! For Sister Zeppelin, I will definitely hold on!"

"Believe in yourself and fight according to the instructions given before! You can do it!" Top stretched out his hand, wiped his own back, and then touched the little rabbit's long ears to comfort him - although there was still moisture from the cold sweat in his palms!

"Yeah! I'll fight well... Top Top, they're coming! I'm ready to fire!!"

Although her face was pale, the little rabbit with golden twin tails who was being comforted by Top also nodded seriously!

At this moment, the last four Barracuda torpedo planes that attacked head-on from the direction of Bismarck and Tirpitz had been shot down one after another, but before they died, they dropped their own anti-navigation mines at the Bismarck battleship four or five kilometers away! !

The other nine SBD Dauntless dive bombers flew around from the right side of the Bismarck and headed straight for the Zeppelin aircraft carrier! !

"Tsk... It's actually like this..."

"Sister! Be careful to dodge!"

Tirpitz was on the left side of Bismarck and could only stare blankly at the British SBD Dauntless dive bombers that sneaked around from the other side of Bismarck!

Bismarck herself was now very cautiously adjusting her course, leaving the control of the anti-aircraft firepower to her sailors - the British head-on mines were dropped from different angles, and the reaction time given to her at this distance was too short! Now she could only try her best to get through the gaps in the torpedoes, and she had no way to take care of anti-aircraft shooting at the same time! !

Although those sailors were well-trained under the direct supervision of Lütjens, they were still somewhat inferior to Bismarck, who could perfectly control his own body! !

The 50mm and 105mm anti-aircraft guns on the Bismarck battleship barely shot down two enemy planes, but the remaining seven had already rushed under the muzzle of Prince Eugen's guns...

"Heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen, open fire!"

With a crisp and delicate shout, the blonde little girl who had been following behind the older sisters obediently became anxious and began to command her firepower to shoot at full force! Her position also began to turn to the direction of the fleet rushing towards Zeppelin!

She was planning to block herself from the British's path to hit Zeppelin! !

"Eugen...?"

Top clearly felt that his heavy cruiser was changing its position! Although with his naval experience and bloodiness, how could he not know what Eugen was thinking, his worry about Eugen still made him turn around and ask a question.

But when Top turned around, he saw a little Eugen who was already furious...

"Even if I become scrap metal, I will protect you all!"

Prince Eugen had red eyes and looked still nervous, but his originally cute little face was now full of stubbornness!

With a ship like this, Top felt that... there was no need to ask anything!

Top turned on the microphone in the bridge command post and shouted, "Damage control team, prepare for repairs immediately! Anti-aircraft artillery team, shoot hard!"

兔子急了都咬人，更不要说欧根还是一艘满载排水量两万吨，有着每侧3座双联装105高炮、6座双联装50高炮、9座双联装37高炮的战斗型派拉斯！论高炮火力的凶残程度，她其实一点也不比自己的两位姐姐弱到哪里！

What's more, Eugen rushed between Zeppelin and the British fighter planes. The rapidly shortened distance increased her shooting accuracy. The instantaneous firepower network completely stunned the British.

At the same time, the Zeppelin aircraft carrier's own six twin-mounted 105mm anti-aircraft guns also opened fire - with the aircraft carrier's maneuverability, it was impossible to dodge, but in terms of anti-aircraft firepower, Zeppelin was not inferior to any aircraft carrier!

The remaining seven SBD Dreadnoughts in sea-skimming attack mode had increased their speed to 480 by descending while attacking, but this speed could not be maintained forever! Moreover, under the heavy air pressure generated by this speed, the rudder effect of the dive bomber had no way to evade, and could only rely on speed to charge!

However, the firepower of Prinz Eugen and Zeppelin was not weaker than that of Bismarck and Tirpitz! Even though Bismarck was trying his best to determine the evasive position of the torpedo and could only let the sailors operate the anti-aircraft guns; and Tirpitz was on the other side of the anti-aircraft formation and could not fire...

Forty-five seconds, just forty-five seconds, that's how long it took for those SBDs to rush to the position of the Prinz Eugen! It was also the time it took for four airborne torpedoes to narrowly pass by the battleship Bismarck, with the closest torpedo being less than two meters away from her, completely passing by her!

But in just forty-five seconds, the last remaining SBDs were killed one after another by the fierce guns of the Prinz Eugen and the crossfire of the sailors of the battleship Bismarck! !

Become a dad with one click and the sky will be clear!

“Damn it!!!”

The closest British long-range aircraft was only 500 meters away from Eugen, but it was still turned into a fireball by the intensive firepower of Prince Eugen!

In desperation, the British leader dropped the 500 kg high-explosive bomb he was carrying at the last moment before crashing. It was originally intended to bomb aircraft carriers and was equipped with a time-delayed fuse. It drifted towards Prinz Eugen! But even if the combat-type Paras was facing the enemy sideways and had no time to evade, it was not a cricket that had been hastily thrown out of desperation and drifted towards the enemy!

A black "lump of iron" passed by the rear of the rear main turret of the Prinz Eugen, and then exploded in the sky nearly 50 meters away under the effect of the time-delay fuse. However, the biggest impact of the explosion at this distance on the Prinz Eugen was that several shrapnel hit her superstructure, injuring several sailors, and slightly bending the barrel of a mm anti-aircraft gun - but as long as the barrel was not completely broken, for the Prinz Eugen, her own recovery ability and the spare parts she carried on her body could quickly solve this small problem!

This exploded bomb was the only damage inflicted by the British air raid fleet on the German warships, and it was also the last scene of this brutal sea and air battle...

Looking at the smoke gradually dissipating, looking at the sky becoming clear again, and then looking at the radar screen, all the fighter planes' IFF signals showed that they were all friendly forces, and everyone couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

The air raid, which lasted just over two minutes, was quite brief but extremely intense and brutal, and it was over...

Although, the mission is far from over...

Chapter 618: Traces Revealed

"Did the attack fail..."

On the flight deck of the USS Indefatigable, Cunningham had a worried look on his face. By ten o'clock in the morning, only a few returning planes had arrived...

There were only 36 Spitfires, 16 Barracudas, and 20 SBDs on the Indefatigable. Most of his attack planes had been deployed in the morning raid—but only a few returned!

"The fleet took off at seven o'clock, and the air raid began at eight o'clock. It's already ten o'clock. If they haven't returned yet, their fuel consumption will definitely exceed the fuel capacity limit... Oh, forget it, let's think about the next step..."

Looking at the scratches left by the forced-landing planes on the empty flight deck, Cunningham shook his head helplessly, lowered his head, silently made the sign of the cross for the sacrificed warriors, then tightened his coat and walked towards the hatch of the bridge with his somewhat desolate body.

One round of air strikes dealt a heavy blow to the aviation force!