Bismarck

Not to mention, the three American BIG 7-class battleships, which were equipped with 16-inch main guns, had a range of more than 36 kilometers - and this was without the powerful charge mode! !

Although the Bismarck also has CRH8 armor-piercing shells, the maximum range has increased from the original 36 kilometers to about 38 kilometers, and if the high-charge is used, the maximum range is kilometers - although this is beyond the Bismarck's perception range. Even with radar, detection at this distance is already very inaccurate.

But...if Warspite also fires a powerful charge...

The long-range bombardment of the war-weary in the Battle of Zawiyat-Zanzur and the Battle of El Alamein is still fresh in the memory of both Lütjens and Bismarck!!

Then the decision is obvious!

The first mover wins! The late mover is controlled by others! !

In order to maintain the evasive space of the formation and for safety reasons, the large warships were always arranged in a column with a gap of about 1000 meters between them - this gap was not a big deal at ordinary times, but under the current extreme range, this distance was enough to kill people! !

Well, let's take advantage of the fact that only Warriors and Warspite can get to us now, and even the firepower range of the three Colorado-class battleships in the middle is not enough!

If the British want to get close to us and confront us head-on, then... let's just fly a kite!

"Order: Our fleet steers 15 degrees to the left - turn the rudder now and start turning in two minutes. In addition, the targets are assigned to Warrior and Warspite - the battleships Bismarck and Tirpitz, start shelling!"

Chapter 620: Ultra-Long-Range Artillery Bombardment

"Damn it... I missed again!!"*3

The battleships Warspite, Bismarck, and even Tirpitz, the three battleships of both sides with their own emotions and wills, almost spoke in unison, expressing almost the same thoughts!

The artillery battle has been going on for ten minutes, but the hitting efficiency of both sides at the extreme range is terrible!

Under Lütjens' command, the cat and mouse sisters were very cautious and maintained a distance of thirty-three kilometers from the Allied fleet - at this distance, even the War Weary would have required the use of powerful charges.

But... even for the ship girl, the muzzle velocity, gun recoil and displacement after using the strong charge are only for reference...

After all, once the shell leaves the barrel, it is no longer something they can control.

If they don't even know the velocity of the gun, how can they hit the target accurately?

Even though the Allied side had five battleships that could open fire, and even though she was still doing her best to suppress dispersion and error, her most accurate round so far had only grazed the Bismarck battleship's front main turret, which had been thickened to 200 mm during the overhaul after the Icelandic Battle.

In the face of Bismarck's evasive tilt, the already exhausted CRH8 armor-piercing shells, even with a drop angle of more than degrees, could only be judged as ricochets, and after drawing a line of fire, they plunged into the sea - only scraping off a layer of paint...

Bismarck dusted himself off indifferently, not feeling that there was anything wrong at all.

Of course, the situation on her side is not much better.

According to the German Navy's standards, first use the half-salvo method to quickly find the center of gravity of the artillery dispersion, and then follow up with several rapid rounds of fire, catching the opponent off guard before she has time to evade!

but…

At a distance of more than 30 kilometers, the shells would take one and a half minutes to fly. As a fellow ship girl, Bismarck knew very well what this time meant. According to this time estimate, as long as Warspite's observation was not too blurred, she would not only be able to easily know which direction she should evade, but she could also remind other warships which direction to evade while evading. There would be no problem at all.

As for why Bismarck knew... it was because she also used this method to avoid Warspite's bombardment - in fact, as early as after the Battle of Zawiyat Zanzur, Bismarck had already thought about how to avoid Warspite's ultra-long-range bombardment.

Both sides used this method, so of course they couldn't hit each other.

But obviously, Warspite had also thought about this problem. The most direct evidence was that the shells fired by Bismarck and Tirpitz only created splashes around Warspite - not to mention Warspite, even the leading Warrior clumsily dodged a lot of shells in the counter-fire of Tirpitz, which was also the leading battleship of the German formation.

Although both sides seem to be firing various cross-shot shots, which is quite spectacular - but what's the point if you can't hit the target!

The Bismarck is now a little anxious.

---

Previously, she and her captain had carefully considered the details of long-range bombardment and drafted a set of operating methods that seemed completely feasible. Even with the captain's permission, Bismarck had used dozens of shells for testing. Although the Socotra Island Garrison had a certain amount of shells in reserve, they could not be fired at will! Testing dozens of shells was already a luxury for her and her captain!

but…

Actual combat and the experimental field are two completely different things!

Not to mention, the number of dozens of shells is too small. There is no pattern to find after a little firing. Now we can only rely on our feelings. For the consumption of the Socotra Island Garrison, it is already quite luxurious, but the data collected is not enough to perfect this set of long-range artillery operations!

Although Krupp provided firing tables for high-charge and long-range artillery fire when manufacturing their SKC34 380mm main gun, the actual artillery fire of the battleship is not that simple...

Especially, this kind of artillery fire close to the limit of range...

The long-range bombardment of battleships is a very metaphysical "face book"...

In addition to the rolling and pitching of the hull, as well as operational errors in observation and aiming, the factors that affect the dispersion of the artillery itself are mainly the probabilistic errors of initial velocity, firing angle and ballistic coefficient.

Although the dispersion area of ​​half of the shells in the bombardment, or the center of gravity of the dispersion, can still be relatively maintained within a certain range - this is also the direct parameter that determines the effective attack range, and the bombardment correction is also the deviation value between this dispersion area and the target. However, outside of this half of the shell dispersion area, the overall dispersion of the entire bombardment during the duration has actually reached a very troublesome dispersion range.

The accuracy of a warship's artillery fire is actually based on the measurement of the deviation and the correction made by the gunner. However, at such a long distance, the actual impact point of the artillery fire has long been blocked by the horizon, and even with radar, it is difficult to determine where half of the dispersion surface is.

Although, this aspect is the biggest advantage of the ship girl over ordinary battleships...

But the problem doesn’t end there…

Many people actually don’t know that the actual muzzle velocity of a shell is not the so-called initial velocity - the so-called "initial velocity" itself is only an inaccurate thing. It is the test result of countless experiments on the test site, and then the average value is deduced, and a very rough shooting table is made. Then the gunner uses the data in the shooting table for "reference only" - in fact, if you want to be precise, the slight difference in the amount of propellant, the slight difference in the combustion process, and even the change in the barrel temperature after each firing of the artillery, etc. The result is that the muzzle velocity of each shell is different!

The most important problem is the vibration of the entire gun body and the shaking of the hull when firing - this is impossible to avoid, and there is no way to predict it, and it can only be compensated by various methods.

Under normal circumstances, long-range artillery fire relies heavily on observation to measure the deviation value, and then the gunner corrects the parameters based on experience.

This was originally the biggest advantage of the ship. Especially compared to the Warspite, which had to use heavy-duty charges that wore out a lot to reach this range, the Bismarck and Tirpitz were even equipped with speed coils, and even "appropriated" a fire control radar to accurately measure the trajectory of their shells.

but……

At this distance, although the dispersion surface can be controlled and the distance deviation of the opponent's position and shell dispersion can be located, but... if the opponent is also evasive, the hit rate cannot be guaranteed!

Besides, the Bismarck has a speed coil and a ballistic observation radar, but the Warspite also has the British predictive shooting...

Not to mention, there were five battleships firing after all - the momentum of the sixteen 381-guns and twenty-four 406-guns firing together was much stronger than that of himself and his sister combined!

Even the Warspite who was commanding the bombardment could only accurately correct her own dispersion, while other battleships at this distance actually relied on range suppression to make up the numbers.

but…

There were water columns everywhere, and it was quite troublesome to avoid them! Not to mention that Warspite would provide them with some correction parameters. Although they were only suppressing the area, they were not blindly attacking!

The trajectory of the shell is a parabola, and the flight time is irregularly increasing. One and a half minutes, nearly two minutes of shell flight time, is too long for a ship girl!

With both sides trying to avoid the other side's artillery fire, the hit rates of Bismarck and Warspite were horribly low! The opposing Allied forces still had a numerical advantage of 5 to 2, and Bismarck was directly trapped in a river situation!

"No wonder they like to use missiles and the like later... Should we switch to guided shells...?"

Bismarck gritted his teeth and thought of the guided shells in the ammunition depot - although guided shells can only be used for high-explosive shells, and now it has actually exceeded the maximum range of guided shells...

"Captain, should we get closer and use guided shells? Even high-explosive shells can wipe out their superstructures, right?... Eh?!"

Bismarck wanted to continue speaking, but was interrupted by Lütjens with a wave of his hand:

"No! Don't use guided shells unless it's absolutely necessary!"

"Huh? Why?" Bismarck was a little confused.

"At a close distance, Warspite can also hit accurately, and they have eight battleships after all... Besides, you can observe the trajectory of the shells and judge the landing point, but Warspite can too! So it is very likely that she can also see through your trick!" Looking at his secretary cat, Lütjens said seriously: "We haven't used guided shells against her before, and we haven't seen her use it so far, which means she probably doesn't know about this thing. But if you use it in front of them now, they will probably know this trick from now on."

"We can only use this thing as a last resort, especially when the opponent is the same as you."

Lütjens was right, and Bismarck had nothing to say.

"Um... that's right... but Captain! If that's the case, we won't be able to quickly deal with their fleet, and we won't be able to attack the transport fleet behind their ships!"

"Yeah... we have to think of a way..." Lütjens's face became more serious, staring straight at the enemy and friendly situation on the automatic plotter. But suddenly, the Allied fleet on the automatic plotter, and the few targets at the end, seemed to be moving away...

"Bismarck, look at what this is?" Lütjens quickly called his secretary ship. Bismarck also began to concentrate and observe the movements of the other side:

"Captain! Those are the three R-class battleships at the back of them. They seem to have broken away from the fleet and are heading in the direction of the transport team!"

"What?! Their last three battleships actually went to the transport fleet?!" Lütjens raised his head fiercely, and his face changed drastically after a moment of thought: "Oh no! They probably saw that we don't dare to risk you and Tirpitz being seriously injured and fight with them to a draw!"

"Captain, what's wrong?"

Seeing Lütjens's face change, Bismarck was also stunned.

"Their three R-class ships can't reach us, and leaving the formation won't affect their combat effectiveness. But if they go to cover the transport convoy, then even if we rely on our speed to get rid of the Warspite, we must first deal with these three battleships before we can attack the transport convoy. If we are unlucky, we will be caught in a situation where we are attacked from both sides by the Warspite and these three R-class ships, and then we will have no choice but to give up the attack..."

"Then...how about taking advantage of their R-level evacuation to kill Warspite first?" The Persian cat, who was unwilling to give up, came up with another bad idea in an instant.

"That won't work. If we get closer, the force advantage of their five battleships is too great. Even if we fight head-on, with Warspite here, the risk is too great!" Lütjens shook his head, and then as if he had thought of something, his face became even worse: "Wait... if that's the case... Tsk, Summerville has already seen that we are just a guerrilla fleet that is strong on the outside but weak on the inside and cannot afford any heavy losses..."

"The tactical combat power advantage is not enough to offset the serious strategic disadvantage. Summerville, have you found our biggest weakness?..."

Faced with the embarrassing situation of being seen through by the opponent, the captain fell into deep thought while looking at the sea chart. In Bismarck's eyes, his captain's brows were now twisted into a knot...

Looking at his own captain, Bismarck, although he didn't think so much, he gritted his teeth secretly:

"It's all because of this damned old witch... I don't believe I can't hit you!"

PS: It seems that the dispersion of MK7 is also reasonable. The reason why it is beaten by the Vanguard is purely due to the design of the fire control system...

PS2: Has anyone noticed that although the overall dispersion range of 36000 yards is larger than that of 25000 yards, half of the dispersion is within the target range? (However, observation at this distance, especially for targets such as destroyers like Nobeki, can only be done by aerial observation shooting...) Although, compared to this picture, the 87-yard dispersion of 33000 yards and half of the dispersion of 250 yards that Iowa shot after being equipped with speed radar and modern fire control system in 130 is actually due to the modern fire control system to offset the observation error.

PS3: In fact, the dispersion of Yamato's long-range artillery fire is also very high (@33000 yards on the poor white plain) - in a long-range artillery battle between battleships, it seems that the artillery dispersion is not a big problem, it is mainly due to corrections and avoidance...

Chapter 621: Ammunition depot!

"Somerville and Bailey's wife put up a good fight!"

On the sea, the British fleet and the German fleet were still engaged in rounds of artillery battles. But in a certain area deep in the Indian Ocean, Cunningham, who was in charge of the Indefatigable, was leisurely drinking black tea - while drinking, he flipped through the freshly baked battle report on the table.

It can be seen that Cunningham was very satisfied with the battle situation - it would be strange if he was not satisfied after such a fight!

"…The opponent is that old devil Lütjens, and we only used five battleships to temporarily suppress him… So, the next thing to think about is what their next move will be…"

Taking a sip of the fragrant black tea, Cunningham smiled faintly and began to think about the possible development of the next battle situation.

Although Lütjens's battleships can run at thirty-six knots, far exceeding the twenty-one to twenty-four knots of the old battleships, Somerville is not worried at all!

The British fleet originally had an advantage in the interior, and the speed problem was avoided to the greatest extent! As for the artillery and range? With Warspite, the firepower range of the Somerville battleship fleet can reach a full thirty-five kilometers - the maximum range of the American Colorado-class battleship is thirty-six kilometers!

Moreover, this time the American battleships were the BIG SEVEN class Colorado class - unlike those flashy American 14-inch standard battleships with terrible artillery dispersion, the Colorado class's artillery dispersion was completely above the standard! In terms of the range of the artillery fire, they were not afraid of those German ships at all!

Under the premise that the range is not inferior at all, the speed of the British fleet is slow, but relying on the advantage of the interior, it can completely achieve the legendary anti-access/area denial! Even if the speed of the German fleet is much faster than the old iron turtle, with a radius of more than 30 kilometers, the Germans will have to go around a big circle even if they want to take a detour! And this time is enough for Somerville to deny the German fleet in the area for at least three hours!

Moreover, Summerville has now dispatched R-class battleships to directly cover the transport team. Although this seems to disperse the troops, but...

Not to mention that you still have North Carolina and Washington in your hands. Even though you, Lütjens, seem to be in a glorious position, you are actually in political exile, isolated overseas, and helpless - do you dare to fight with our Allies for losses?

Even if 90% of these old warships and transport ships were lost, Britain, which had island bases in the Indian Ocean, and the United States, which was wealthy and powerful, could afford the loss. But if any of Lütjens' ships were damaged, repairing them in a place like Socotra would be a headache for him.

Moreover, the strategic situation is actually more favorable to the allies.

As long as aviation gasoline reaches the Middle East, Admiral Ted's Middle East Air Force will have enough fuel to easily block the 1900-kilometer-long and fragile Red Sea route - at that time, it will depend on whether you, Lütjens, will break through with your broken ship, or hide in the Mediterranean and be locked up by Auchinleck again.

"Ah, the Prime Minister is right this time..."

Thinking about this operation, it was Churchill who saw Lütjens' biggest weakness. Cunningham shook his head in self-mockery - but it didn't matter. After all, he was only a naval marshal and did not need to be responsible for higher-level overall strategies. Therefore, it was reasonable for the prime minister to see things that he did not see.

Moreover, by now, both Cunningham and Somerville had realized that Lütjens did not want his ship girls to suffer too much loss - but facing such a heavily defended escort fleet, how could they defeat it without paying a price!

---

Cunningham couldn't help but laugh out loud at the thought of this.

Even... Cunningham was already thinking, if he could talk to Lütjens face to face, would he flirt with him like he did with his own war-weary son, squinting his face, and then shamelessly pointing a finger at Old Lü, hooking his neck, and shamelessly teasing him:

Lütjens, I have a rich family and great wealth, but can you... afford the loss? !

When Cunningham thought of this scene, he felt it was quite exciting. He even wondered if it would be similar to the scene in BL novels, where a smiling young scoundrel teases a stubborn but helpless handsome boy from a good family.

Then how about you just obey me or just go home with me or something like that...

Cunningham, who was addicted to YY, smiled even more miserably. But he soon realized that something seemed to be wrong...

Wait! Danmei novel…

What the hell is danmei literature!

Bah! I am a man, I like women, and I am married. I can’t become a weird person!

But… I don’t know why, but I always feel like I’m standing at the door of a new world…

This door... to enter or not to enter, that is the question...

Cunningham felt a little tangled for a moment...

----------

Meanwhile, on the other side of the sea.

"Bismarck, tell Tirpitz that Warspite is the key! Ignore the Warrior and destroy the Warspite first! Also tell them that we may have to fight continuously later, so save as much ammunition as possible!"