Bismarck

"The Germans have night-fighting carrier-based fighters. Our aircraft, whether they are the Fulmar night-fighting models or the handsome shore-based fighters, cannot defeat them... Forget it, send a telegram immediately and ask the remaining two destroyers to withdraw, so as not to make unnecessary losses..."

"Yes!" the officer responded and stepped back.

"In that case, now the enemy is in the dark and I am in the light..." Standing next to Cunningham, Yan Zhan said somewhat unwillingly.

"I know, we all know that destroyers are the eyes and ears of the fleet, but destroyers can't beat them, and our only high-speed ship formation is not strong enough. Even if you are not injured, you only have three battleships and three heavy cruisers. You can't be sure of fighting against their two battleships and one heavy cruiser..." Touching his nose, Cunningham was even more helpless: "Now we can only be thankful that we let the three BIG7-level American battleships return to Giffen. The seven battleships in his hands can still fight back against the German ships... Forget it, we will move our position back a little, and keep in touch with Somerville and Giffen to form a corner. We can deal with all kinds of changes with the same strategy and drag it out tonight first..."

“…This is the only way.” Looking at his own body which had just been hastily repaired and now only had four main guns able to fire, War-weary could only nod his head resentfully.

Cunningham didn't say anything, but just looked out the porthole where it was completely dark with only the faint moonlight.

It was seven o'clock in the evening. Although it was not late according to the clock, I didn't know why I felt uneasy.

I am afraid this night will be the darkest and most bizarre night...

.....................

Starting from the destruction of two destroyers in front of the left side of the "Support" escort fleet at 7 o'clock in the evening, the ship girls under Lütjens did not attack the escort fleet, but like real evil spirits from hell, they turned slightly and disappeared into the hazy night!

Everyone in the escort team knew that these hateful "evil spirits" were nearby. Although the escort fleet had an absolute advantage in terms of manpower in theory, the speed of the battleships was a major flaw, and the limited number of destroyers and light cruisers had to protect both the battleships and the transport ships... Under such a tight situation, they still had no way to deal with Lütjens!

The British, unwilling to give up, were not content to let the escort carrier stand still, and they also launched several Swordfish and even Fulmar equipped with sea-search radars to act as night reconnaissance patrol aircraft, heading in the direction that the German fleet might avoid - taking advantage of the night to fish in troubled waters!

After all, with the radar level of this era, it is very difficult to intercept night fighters!

Although warships are equipped with large-scale search radars, the search radar positioning technology is still very imperfect. The use of long waves with a longer detection distance results in low detection accuracy and cannot guide nighttime interception. Airborne radars are small in size, with an effective search distance of only five kilometers, and can only search at a very small fixed angle forward. The search efficiency is about the same as that of a blind man. In fact, because high-power magnetrons generate very high heat, in order to prevent the original parts from burning, the start-up time of airborne radars is strictly limited!

However, the search distance of the aircraft over the sea is much longer! The echo signal of the warship is much larger than that of the aircraft. Even a low-power sea radar can ensure that the traces of the enemy fleet can be found tens of kilometers away!

Besides, airplanes are much more flexible than battleships after all!

You know, with the current technology, if the difficulty of night search and night anti-ship air strikes is still acceptable, then night interception is an absolute trouble!

Although radars now have PPI in warships and combat command systems, such large equipment cannot be installed on fighter jets! In the pitch-black night, pilots have no reference points and can only read data from the flashing scales on a bunch of oscilloscopes...

Even if I am calm, it takes more than ten to twenty seconds just to interpret the data.

In an air battle where seconds are counted, how can you have more than 10 or 20 seconds to interpret the data? And this is when you are calm and composed. If you are impatient or even flustered because you can't find the target in an actual battlefield, then you will never find anything.

Not to mention, with the performance of analog radio stations and early radars of that era, it was difficult to organize night interceptions, and there was also a limitation on the radio guidance bandwidth.

Even the main night fighter units in Germany, under the unified command of the "Ballad" combat command system, with Germany's command technology, could only guide sixty or seventy aircraft in the skies over the entire German mainland and the occupied areas on the European continent, and intercept hundreds of British bombers under the counterattack of British Mosquito long-range fighters.

The "Gall Bed" combat command system is already one of the best national air defense systems in the world at this time! But even against large-scale heavy bomber groups, the "Gall Bed" must use three radars to command a fighter to attack an enemy plane - a "Freya" search radar to mark the air situation, and then use two "Würzburg" tracking radars to lock the enemy plane and guide its own interceptor respectively. With this system, the cost and operation complexity are imaginable! Moreover, even the command and operation efficiency of interception operations is affected by the strong electronic interference of the British army!

This is the case with Germany's well-equipped strategic night air defense system. So, in the vast ocean, if one wants to intercept those reconnaissance aircraft that attack alone, the interception efficiency under normal circumstances will naturally be even lower!

but……

What if it was an abnormal night interception air battle...?

So Cunningham, War-weary, and the staff, who were sitting next to the radio, eagerly waiting to mark the movement of the German fleet as soon as possible, heard a live broadcast of a night target shooting...

“…Help!! Help… (Boom!)”

“…Calling the flagship! We’ve been intercepted… (Boom!) Hiss… Hiss…”

"Damn Edelweiss Witch!! I...I curse...(boom boom boom boom!)"

Every now and then, the radio station would broadcast the dying cries for help of reconnaissance planes being shot down, which made Cunningham and War-weary's faces turn pale!

How could they forget the plague god Zeppelin! !

The mad War-weary angrily slammed his pencil on the chart table and sat down hard on the stool. Cunningham also looked helpless, stretched out his hand and pinched the bridge of his nose between his eyes, and said: "... Forget it, let the reconnaissance plane withdraw..."

A staff officer took the order and left. It took Cunningham a long time to calm down the war-weary man beside him.

"These damn German sailors are just restless!"

Cunningham looked at the clock on the wall and silently calculated in his mind: "It's almost nine o'clock now... I guess they will start harassing us soon. It will be dangerous in the second half of the night when there is no moon!"

"But the escort team is too large, and it's impossible to gather the troops...!" War-weary said angrily.

Cunningham nodded and was about to say something, but before he could open his mouth, a staff officer ran over:

"Report to the Marshal! The American allies reported that they encountered the German fleet!"

Chapter 631: The Essence of Guerrilla Warfare

Major General Giffen felt somewhat fortunate, but at the same time felt somewhat wronged.

Two hours ago at 7pm, the Lütjens fleet destroyed two destroyers on guard and disappeared into the night. In order to guard the fleet and keep track of the German fleet as much as possible, the British and American coalition forces were in a state of panic for a while.

The legendary Lütjens Fleet of the German Navy had a speed of 32 knots, much faster than most of their old warships which only had a speed of 21 knots! With such a speed difference, and the enemy being in the dark while we were in the light, even the night reconnaissance planes that were released were shot down one after another by someone called the "Edelweiss Witch", making the atmosphere of the entire fleet somewhat panic.

It’s like someone is always watching you in the dark. How can it not be scary?

Fortunately, when adjusting the deployment, the British returned the three Colorado-class battleships they had lent to General Somerville. As a result, Rear Admiral Giffen, who was in charge of the Nevada and had seven battleships under his command, felt a little more confident (stupid?):

"... Let's go to the front and keep watch!... Right now our main battleships are mostly on the left side of the convoy. I'm afraid they will go around us in front and attack from the right side of the convoy..."

Major General Giffen still remembered that two hours ago, he had sent a telegram to the Allied commander-in-chief of this operation, Admiral Cunningham of the British Royal Navy. Admiral Cunningham approved this approach and promised to let the mobile fleet consisting of the Warspite, North Carolina, and South Dakota follow him closely and provide support at any time.

So now, with seven battleships arranged in a single horizontal formation that was most conducive to searching, I was advancing at full speed ahead of the convoy to search for the enemy, and I collided with the flank of the German fleet at a 90-degree vertical T-shaped angle...

A new moon was setting in the west, and the occasional flashes of fire on the sea thirty kilometers away reminded everyone on this side that the 380mm artillery fire was coming towards them - although the shelling was not fierce, it was horrifyingly accurate!

The rain of bullets directly enveloped the battleships on their side in water columns. This extremely accurate rain of bullets would inevitably cause a loud bang and explode on their battleships every now and then.

I don’t know if it was specifically aimed at the concentrated defense of the American battleships. According to the report of the damage control team, the shelling this time was basically high-explosive shells. Is it my illusion? It seems that on the eve of being hit, I seemed to see a black shadow passing by my eyes in an instant, and it seemed to be slightly tilted...

It must be the bizarre light and shadow on the night battlefield that made my eyes dazzled!

Wiping his eyes and shaking his head, Rear Admiral Giffen, who had crashed into a German ship and suffered a setback, let go of the "illusion" in front of him, and began to count the sources of intelligence he had received in a depressed manner, and re-evaluated the battlefield situation in front of him.

Although his American fleet had seven battleships, he had arranged them in a horizontal formation to ensure the search range! It was only after he had just engaged the enemy that he ordered the entire fleet to turn south and change from a horizontal formation to a vertical formation. Moreover, with a turn of this magnitude, the parameters of the fire control director would definitely have to be reconfigured.

Giffen didn't even need to confirm it specifically. He only needed to listen to the receiver beside him to know that up to now, the parameters of the main gun directors of his battleships were still being re-measured and re-set...

The American battleship was like a small bunker. Only the warship's instruments and observation equipment were inside the command tower, which was not noisy, but the atmosphere was quite depressing. From the microphone beside his ear, the frustrated Rear Admiral Giffen could hear that the bridge under his feet was now in chaos...

"...Radar soldier, what's the distance?...What? The radar is being jammed? Switch the frequency band quickly. Also, let the Oklahoma be responsible for launching flares. The other warships use optical instruments to measure the distance!"

"The distance is too far, and the curvature of the earth blocks the target from being clearly seen, so it has not been measured yet? I￥＆%@＃..."

"Haven't you measured it yet? Hurry up! I'm waiting for your data!"

"... Closer! Shoot closer! Increase the distance by 200 meters... OK! Fire!... Wait? What? They're turning again?"

"…The impact point is far away… What happened? Why did the flare go out? This is really hell!"

"...Operator, keep aiming! Closer by 200 meters - wait! I said close! Why are you moving further away?!... What! The flares went out again? It seems that they were extinguished by their anti-aircraft guns? Then why don't you hurry up... (Boom!)"

Another loud bang interrupted the chaos and shouting in the bridge.

When Major General Giffen, wearing a helmet and a life jacket, finally climbed up from where he fell, he felt that the battleship under his feet was a little tilted.

I picked up the phone and asked the damage control team. Sure enough, a high-explosive shell had penetrated the unprotected area on the port side of the bow, causing water to enter! Fortunately, the main armor protection area was long enough and there were enough compartments, so the damage was still within controllable range!

The hull designs of the three-class battleships Nevada, Tennessee, and Colorado are quite conscientious. Their so-called "key protection" is actually quite "comprehensive protection" in terms of armor thickness, armor belt defense area, and even the design of the compartments and fish-proof areas inside the hull. Compared with the North Carolina, South Dakota, and even Iowa, which dared to cut corners in the core area compartments twenty years later, and had serious insufficient reserve buoyancy and torpedo protection capabilities (except North Carolina), they are really much stronger in defense, survivability, and even conscience...

In just a few minutes, both the Tennessee and Colorado battleships were injured! However, due to the long distance, electronic interference, and the deadly rifling processing of the American 14-inch naval guns, none of their counterattacks had hit the target so far!

The German fleet on the opposite side, relying on its superior speed, sailed towards the southeast-southeast direction, and the distance between them was getting farther and farther!

In just a quarter of an hour, the distance had been shortened to thirty-three kilometers. Although it was still within the maximum range of the 356 and 406 main guns of the American battleships, at this distance, due to the obstruction of the earth's curvature, even if the Germans did not use anti-aircraft guns to shoot down their flares, they could not see anything with the optical rangefinder alone, and the radar aiming was also harassed, so it was impossible to have any hit rate. Major General Giffen was so angry that he cursed, but he could do nothing.

There was another loud bang, and the warship under his feet was hit again! The high-explosive bomb of the last round of bombardment by the German fleet directly opened a large skylight on his stern deck - and just after this explosion, the sea surface that was previously in full swing suddenly became silent! Even the radar display screen that was previously disturbed has become "clean" again!

At this moment, both the radar and optical equipment of their own fleet have completely lost track of the target's movements!

"Damn it, these Germans are really weird!" Major General Giffen, who had lost his target, punched the armored wall in anger.

"Report to the General! Marshal Cunningham sent a letter saying that they are on their way, and their location is about 30 kilometers northwest of us. Our radar has also contacted them, and now they are asking about the battle situation on our side."

The voice of the communications officer came from the microphone beside him. Major General Giffen, who was already in a bad mood, frowned:

"Tsk, are these British policemen from Scotland Yard? They just arrived now, and the German ships and crew have already fled... Never mind, tell them that the Germans are running in the south-southwest direction, and we can't catch up with them! Ask for instructions on the next combat arrangement!"

Pursing his lips, Major General Giffen remembered that Britain and the United States had now formed an alliance, and the two sides had an agreement on joint military operations. According to the agreement, the Allied fleet in the entire Indian Ocean theater was presided over by the British, and as a participating force, he had to obey the British arrangements as long as it did not violate the interests of the United States!

Although Cunningham and Somerville on the opposite side were both famous generals, and there had been no obvious mistakes in their command so far, Major General Giffen always had some emotions in his heart - in addition to being unhappy, he was more uneasy!

However, after a while, Marshal Cunningham called back:

"…The enemy is too fast. We can only defend the transport fleet as much as possible…My mobile fleet is approaching you…I have ordered Somerville to advance to your position and guard the west and northwest. You will be responsible for guarding the southeast of the convoy, and I will guard the southwest after I get closer to you…In this way, our three fleets will be arranged in a fan shape, taking care of each other, and we must not let the German ships and crew take advantage of the opportunity…"

Looking at the telegram in his hand, Giffen held his chin and thought about it. There seemed to be nothing wrong with this battle plan.

"This old fellow Cunningham is really good..."

But before Major General Giffen could finish his emotion, the radar soldier called out from the microphone beside him:

"Report to the commander! The radar is disturbing again!"

"What?!" Major General Giffen was stunned.

Before Giffen could react, ominous flashes appeared on the sea in the southwest!

That was the roar of the battleship's main gun!

---

The clock hand ticked in the dark night and gradually reached ten o'clock in the evening.

The atmosphere in the command cabin of the battleship Bismarck was also not relaxed at all...

The empty coffee cup had been on the corner of the table for a while, and the dried coffee had formed a light brown coffee scale at the bottom of the cup. But Lütjens was lying on the chart table, marking the enemy situation with all his heart, while Bismarck was also concentrating on sitting on the fire control director, manipulating his main body to fire at the opposite side!

From time to time, the latest battlefield situation information could be heard by Lütjens through the headphone cable plugged into the radio!

Zeppelin, flying in the sky in the Edelweiss early warning and command fighter, not only firmly controlled the air superiority, but also relied on his high-altitude search ability to see the distribution and movement of the British fleet on the sea clearly! On the other side, a small hamster behind the large Persian cat was also firing sporadically while stretching her ears to monitor the British radar signals and radio communications in cyberspace.

A steady stream of battlefield information was thus gathered into Lütjens' headphones.

"...Their position has been determined, but the distribution of their escort fleet is still in disarray!" After drawing a few more strokes and pondering for a while, Lütjens thought about it several times in his mind and spoke.

"What should we do now? Should we continue to fight them? Wait! Captain! Enemies have been spotted behind the American battleship!"

"…It's Warspite! There are two North Carolinas and three heavy cruisers! The distance is forty kilometers!"

Bismarck's eyes never left the fire control periscope, but it did not prevent her from observing the battlefield and talking to her captain. Her bombardment was also ongoing.

Because she had been upgrading her radar electronic equipment sporadically during this period, and three months ago when she went to Trincomalee, Lütjens had come up with the idea of ​​"concentrating" according to the radar mode in order to improve her artillery skills. Now her observation range - if she concentrates - can reach more than 40 kilometers!

Unfortunately, the high-speed formation of War-weary appeared right behind the US battleship! As a result, it was stared at by the upgraded cat's eye!

Although it is only three kilometers more, and only when you are concentrating - that is, only when you are directing long-range artillery fire, but the search ability is such that one kilometer more is better! Not to mention the 40-kilometer field of view, which is actually 37% more than 16.8 kilometers!

Moreover, this happens to be the maximum range of the improved 8crh 380 main gun shell with bottom concave!

The range of artillery shells is greatly affected by air resistance. Shells with lower resistance naturally have a longer actual range! However... the dispersion at this distance is still uncertain, so it has never been used before...

Lütjens marked the position reported by Bismarck on the nautical chart.

He looked at the tactical situation on the nautical chart: his current position was 80 kilometers southeast of the British high-speed convoy, and between him and the high-speed convoy was the high-speed formation led by Warspite and seven old American warships.

Around the high-speed convoy, not far to the northeast - probably less than 21 kilometers - are four old British battleships, crawling eastward at 60 knots! As for the British's last and largest low-speed convoy, it is to the west of the four old British battleships, and has been pulled down kilometers!

Although the size of the escort fleet is calculated in units of 50 to kilometers, the nominal distance between the low-speed escort fleet and the high-speed escort fleet on the nautical chart is kilometers, but the actual distance is only about kilometers...

Looking at the marked chart, Lütjens had a clear idea in his mind:

"It looks like we've already pulled two of the three Allied battleship formations here. The only ones left are probably the four old battleships led by Somerville... If this is the case, if we make a few more turns, their positions will be completely messed up!"

Bismarck, who was standing next to her, also heard what her captain said, and immediately knew what he was going to do. After a slight adjustment, she fired the last round of shells, retracted the periscope, and gently jumped down from the seat of the fire control director: "Captain, shall we retreat?"

"Well, turn the rudder to the left and retreat to the southeast by east! Then turn left again in half an hour and circle back in front of their escort team!" Lütjens nodded with confidence, reached out to touch the coffee cup next to him, and then found that the cup was empty.

Bismarck saw that the captain was holding an empty cup, and hurriedly exclaimed "Ah", snatched the cup from his captain's hand, and ran to the tea room with his head down. After a hurried sound of washing cups, a Persian cat with wet hands brought a cup filled with warm coffee that had obviously just been wiped to his captain.

Looking at the ship cat that was in a mess while washing cups and making coffee, Lütjens took the coffee with a bit of amusement and took a sip. However, the Persian cat felt a bit depressed when being looked at like this by his captain.

The Persian cat turned around and the hamster followed closely behind, and had already lost contact with the Allied fleet behind. Seeing the officers and staff in the command room, who were now idle again, secretly glancing at him and the captain with very obscure eyes, the naturally sensitive cat creature felt a little uncomfortable being watched.

In order to divert attention, the embarrassed Persian cat began to make small talk:

"Hey... Captain, what should we do next?"

"Wait? Didn't I tell you to run for half an hour first, then get in front of their escort team and go find Somerville to cause trouble."

Seeing this girl trying to find something to talk about to ease the awkwardness, and seeing the furtive looks from his subordinates, Lütjens, who was also feeling a little embarrassed, quickly changed the subject and explained the next steps: "Now we have dragged two of their three formations to the right wing of the escort fleet, leaving only the four old battleships of Somerville on the left wing. And now that Zeppelin has shot down their radar reconnaissance aircraft, they have no way of grasping our movements and can only search and guard separately."

"...They have two escort teams, each of which covers an area of ​​more than 10 to 20 kilometers. With such a large fleet, they can only split up to ensure the safety of the transport team. But in this way, their warships will be scattered! But if they are scattered, you and Tirpitz's two ships... can deal with at least four of their battleships, right?"

At this point, the expression on Lütjens' face had turned into a sneer. Bismarck on the opposite side also quickly reacted and nodded: