Bismarck

"…So they want us to be cannon fodder in order to fight back?!"

"Stop talking nonsense! Why don't you go and save Bob? He can't hold on any longer!"

"…British Army, British Army, this is the US Army Air Force… Where are you now? We are in trouble because of the German fighter planes…"

"…You guys drop the bombs first! The Edelweiss Witch has led a team to find us, and now we can't form a team! Damn it! My right arm is on fire! These damn Germans…"

"Captain, Captain, the clouds are so thick that our infrared missile seeker can't find the target. We can't use it!!"

"…Can't find the target? I @￥%＃you bastard! Drop the bombs, drop the bombs! You have radar-guided missiles! Besides, even if you turn on the seeker, it's better than being blinded by their fighter planes in this cloud!!"

Amid the roars of the British and American commanders on the radio and the enemy alerts of the incoming German fighter planes, the remaining planes over the northwest waters of Iceland, after receiving a brief hint of guidance signals, immediately became impatient and dropped the more than 100 missiles they had in their stomachs.

After the missiles were launched and the planes became somewhat lighter, the Allied pilots, who were already overwhelmed with themselves, no longer cared about anything else. They were even too lazy to confirm the results of the battle. They simply controlled the bombers that had lost all their missiles, turned around and ran away without paying attention to the formation.

As for things like "the aircraft groups attacking from two directions had been hit so hard that they could not coordinate the timing of their missile attacks", the frightened British pilots said they didn't want to care about it anymore.

After all, victory belongs to the boss, but your life belongs to yourself.

"As expected, their coordination has been broken up by us, and even the missiles here have been mostly lost... So, now it depends on whether the three of them can withstand the missiles from 'the other side'..."

Zeppelin glanced at the missiles that had been launched from the clouds, and his mentality instantly became calm.

After all, we had seen a truly organized missile attack the previous night.

Because she had blown up the aircraft carrier before, she no longer had the Allied fighters to suppress her air superiority. In addition, more than two hours had passed since she attacked and blew up the aircraft carrier, and there were five more planes in the formation that needed to be repaired and refueled. In addition, her "Wild Boar Assault" interception tactics, which used a group of planes against a group of planes, were extremely efficient!

The interception during the day today was very chaotic because of the persistence of the remaining aircraft, and even the missiles dropped were so few that they could not form an attack wave. Even the most critical situation, the opponent's obvious intention to use two large aircraft groups to attack him from the front and back, was now unable to form a coordinated situation due to his attack.

As for the missile attack from the direction of Iceland, she still believed that the three sisters who were guarding her body over there might be able to deal with it... right?

Thinking about the combat situation before taking off, Zeppelin still felt a little scared.

After all, this was the Allies' desperate attack!

After Zeppelin destroyed four aircraft carriers of the Allied fleet, the Allied forces, still unwilling to give up, apparently urgently modified their combat deployment, and concentrated all their hopes and all the troops they could muster on this wave of air strikes!

The Icelandic airport dispatched all 65 bombers they could currently deploy. On the other hand, although the airport in the north of the British mainland was attacked by the German Norwegian base, the Allied forces, with more soldiers and generals, still assembled more than 80 bombers from the mainland, forming five large aircraft groups, and attacked the German fleet from the front and back directions!

First, a large group of hundreds of aircraft was discovered behind the entire fleet. Then, according to convention, it was the Zeppelin that took off. But who knew that just as the carrier-based aircraft took off, the radar detected a group of no less than 80 aircraft flying over from the direction of Iceland!

Zeppelin, who had just taken off, estimated the arrival time of the Allied fleet, as well as her own course and speed, and was shocked to find that her fleet was likely to be hit by Allied missiles from two directions at the same time—even the time of the missile attack was estimated to seconds! ?

Can it be said that these guys hate us to the core?

You know, if they attack from two directions at the same time, the trajectory of the missiles will be a "net" that intersects each other without blind spots! Under such a fire net, even if they are all intact, they will still lose one while focusing on the other!

Moreover, at this moment, Zeppelin can only dispatch 23 planes!

But at this moment, the captain Bangtai, who had been silent all along, suddenly came up with an idea:

Focus on FW-190 and press one of them first!

This suggestion was immediately approved by Commander Lütjens.

After analyzing the battlefield, seeing that the number of aircraft groups in the direction of Iceland was smaller and the threat was smaller, Captain Bonte and the commander quickly decided to first attack the bomber group that was following them from behind. There were more of them and they posed a greater threat, but because they were in a tailing position, the interception time would be longer!

The Edelweiss Witch, which had already taken off, did not hesitate after receiving the order. She took five BF-109s and twelve FW-190s and went straight to meet the more than ninety Lancaster heavy bombers flying from behind without thinking twice.

The other four FW-190s and two BF-109s could only be led by the three ace pilots Buckhorn, Rudolf and the support maniac Grislawski to interfere with the bomber group on the Icelandic side - although, at least in the early stages of the battle, the distance between the two groups could be as large as more than kilometers, beyond Zeppelin's command range.

In this situation, even Zeppelin could only ask the command center on Captain Bonte's ship to guide Buckhorn and his men to intercept - after all, Zeppelin's side was the main force, and the other side was just harassing. As long as they could pose a threat to the Allied bombers and prevent them from waiting peacefully for the local aircraft to drop bombs together, they could form a coordinated attack on the fleet.

Fortunately, due to the lack of suppression by Allied fighters, the interception of the bomber group heading towards the British mainland was successful!

They met the enemy ninety kilometers away and fought for fifteen minutes. Zeppelin and her subordinates, among the three bomber squadrons of the British Army, were like a comet attacking the moon, a rainbow piercing the sun, and a hawk striking the palace. They killed their way in and out three times with unstoppable momentum!

And most importantly, Zeppelin's interception delayed the time it took for the allied aircraft to launch missile attacks by a full two minutes compared to the time it took for the bombers from Iceland to coordinate!

As for the so-called "continue to hover and wait for the opportunity"... do you really think that Buckhorn and the others over there are just decorations? !

You know, no matter how slow the "Bat" anti-ship missile flies, it still flies eight kilometers a minute! The two-minute time difference is enough to turn a fleet that might have been attacked from both directions into a "one-way attack" that only needs to deal with one direction at a time.

Although the 200 missiles from Iceland in front are also difficult to deal with, the difficulty of "more than 400 missiles attacking from both sides almost at the same time" and "being able to deal with the 200 missiles in front first and then turn around to deal with the sparse missiles on your side" are not at the same level of difficulty at all!

With Zeppelin's perception ability of early warning and commanding fighter jets, how could he not see the missiles swarming behind him in the sky? The time gap between them and the missiles he had just launched was large enough for his tall and bulky body to make half a circle on the sea.

Although, Zeppelin was still unhappy about the fact that he had no troops and could only use his limited troops to carry out harassment to intercept the two bomber groups in front of the fleet, he had no troops at all.

"…Speaking of which, we still suffered from insufficient number of planes, and we lost seven of the twenty-three planes… Forget it, at least after Iceland was dispersed, the threat of being attacked from both sides has been almost eliminated. Besides, Iceland should not be able to bear such continuous fighting, right?"

"Speaking of which, this is probably the last hurdle on the road to breaking out..." Shaking his head, Zeppelin put aside his thoughts. "Hmm? The direction of these missiles... It seems that some of them are heading towards our main body?"

Looking at the sparse missiles in front of her, Zeppelin felt that the threat seemed not to have been eliminated thoroughly enough, so she pressed down her wings and dived directly - she wanted to use her wings to "knock over" these anti-ship missiles one by one, although they could only glide simply, there were still a few that seemed to pose a greater threat to her body!

Although these missiles are small in size, as an "evil spirit", she is confident that she can do this.

Of course, for such a dangerous job, the pilots under her may not be able to see the position of missiles between the thick layers of clouds like herself... She would never say that she was reluctant to let those bad boys trained by her risk their lives with her!

After all, you have to solve your own problems yourself, right?

--More than half an hour later------

"Commander, the results of the air strike are out... According to the report from the Mosquito reconnaissance plane that was just dispatched, although all the crew members of the Lütjens were hit and caught fire, they were still moving at a speed of about 24 knots... According to the calculations of the staff group, they will probably face the US fleet in two to three hours - around 1 p.m. ... In addition, the American allies in Iceland said that although their army aviation forces suffered little loss, the continuous deployment had a great impact on the mechanical wear of the aircraft, so they had to suspend the attack. I hope... I hope we will understand..."

In the lounge, Tovey was half lying on the bed of the warship, with his eyes closed, listening to the vanguard's report without saying a word.

Seeing Tovey like this, Qianwei felt bad. She, who was standing aside, could only put away the folder in her hand.

But at this time, Tovey, who still had his eyes closed, spoke slowly, even a little tiredly:

"Did the reconnaissance plane tell us how badly the damage to Lütjens's fleet was done? Especially Zeppelin?"

"This..." The vanguard hurriedly pulled out the folder in his hand and flipped through it: "According to the report confirmed by the reconnaissance aircraft's low-altitude reconnaissance, Zeppelin was suspected to be hit on the starboard side - and at that time, Prince Eugen also drove in front of their formation, as if to salvage the pilots who had made an emergency landing on the sea. However, Zeppelin's speed can still be maintained at around 24 knots... In addition, although the superstructures of Bismarck, Tirpitz and Prinz Eugen were severely damaged, they could still use their main guns and some anti-aircraft guns to fire high-explosive bombs to attack reconnaissance aircraft - although they did not hit the target, even if this was just a demonstration, it at least showed that the Germans should still have a certain artillery combat capability..."

"Artillery combat capability..." Tovey opened his gray and turbid eyes and looked at the snowy sea outside the porthole: "Vanguard, do you think that even if the two sides engage in battle, how long can the five old American ships hold back Bismarck and his men?"

"Well... although I haven't seen the artillery battle between the two of them, but based on my own estimation, if we use guided shells, if we rely on our speed advantage, we can probably completely defeat those five American battleships in no more than two hours." Vanguard made a quick estimate and came to a not very optimistic conclusion.

"What if you catch up with him? I remember you can run up to 26 knots now, right?"

"There's not enough time, Commander..." The vanguard smiled bitterly and shook his head. "It's eleven o'clock now, but we are still more than sixty nautical miles away from our American allies. Even if I leave the formation and chase at full speed now, it will take until four o'clock in the afternoon to catch up with the American fleet - but by that time, they should have been wiped out by the Bismarck sisters..."

"Forget it, tell the American fleet that we should all withdraw..."

Tovey stretched out a hand from under the quilt on the bed and interrupted the vanguard.

"Eh? Wait, Commander, are we just going to retreat like this? Even if they run into the Denmark Strait, we can stop them in the Bay of Biscay as long as we retreat southward, right?!"

The confused Vanguard's voice unconsciously rose a few notes. In particular, she could not accept the fact that she had to go home with wounds all over her body without even seeing the enemy in her first battle under the enemy's anti-ship missiles.

"Forget about it. You can't fight a war just by being angry. If you chase them with one ship, without the cooperation of others, can you defeat Bismarck and Tirpitz? Besides, even if we can destroy Lütjens, if the fleet has no aircraft carriers to cover it, are you sure that Kumetz won't come from the Bay of Biscay to take advantage of the situation? Remember, that guy has two aircraft carriers, and he just sank Rodney's in the early morning!"

"But we still have the Iceland airport. Even if the planes there need to be overhauled, we can still send more planes over there, right?"

"Iceland airport? Don't count on it. That place is right on the seashore. 40 years ago, I was there commanding Rodney and Nelson to fight Bismarck!" Looking at the new secretary ship who was obviously unwilling to admit defeat, Tovey's tone was a little depressed: "Most of the planes at Iceland airport now need maintenance and cannot be dispatched for the time being. Not to mention that as long as they enter the Denmark Strait, they will be out of the combat range of our domestic airport - besides, even if the planes at Iceland airport do not need maintenance, the location of that airport is on the seashore outside Reykjavik! So don't talk about mobilizing planes to bomb there. Given the location of that airport, it would be good if the Americans don't evacuate the planes and avoid the bombardment of Bismarck and others!"

Vanguard clenched his fists, gritted his teeth, and looked unconvinced. Tovey, on the other hand, said a lot and felt a little chest tightness. He took a few deep breaths, rubbed his chest, and continued, "... Let me put it this way, the fact that Zeppelin can still run at 24 knots means that she is not seriously injured, and it is unclear how many planes she has left. Don't look at me. I know Eugen is trying to rescue people, but who knows how many planes she can repair in the next few hours?! Besides, you know that even if Zeppelin only has one plane left, her air combat capability should not be underestimated! Not to mention that the weather is getting worse now. In this visibility, ordinary people are blind and deaf against the ship girl. So what if there are more people? Aren't they just sent to her for unilateral slaughter!"

"Well... okay..." Vanguard smacked his lips.

She also knew that what her commander said made sense, but she still felt unwilling to see how the first battle turned out.

However, Tovey turned his head and leaned on the bedside, and continued with a normal expression:

"In fact, even if they break out, it will be useless."

"?" The vanguard looked confused and had a puzzled expression.

"The American allies will come to launch Operation Torch next month, do you remember?"

"So, Commander, you mean to wait until Operation Torch to settle the score?" Vanguard seemed to understand a little, but she still couldn't suppress her doubts: "Even if the American allies can send out three ship girls to fight side by side with me and Senior Warspite, but... this is still not safe, right? What if Lütjens and the others run away again?"

"Hey, it's that simple!" Hearing the words of the vanguard, Tovey was actually amused: "Even if they break out, they can just hide in the Bay of Biscay. But in that case, we only need to concentrate our forces to block the Bay of Biscay. Why do we need to defend the GIUK waterway on one hand and Kumetz in the Bay of Biscay on the other hand like today, and end up with our forces dispersed and failing on both ends?"

"So... Commander, this is actually a routine?" After listening to Tovey's statement, Qianwei's eyes lit up again.

"Yeah, didn't you learn the book "Some Principles of Maritime Strategy" in your war history class? In history, the Royal Navy was most afraid of the inferior enemy forces that gathered together without knowing their own strength and tried to compete with us in terms of fleet numbers!" Even though he was usually serious, Tovey, who was in a better mood now, smiled and shook his hands: "... So, Vanguard, you are still too young, too simple, and too naive. You need to learn some more skills... (Baji!)"

Before he could finish his joke, a pillow with a green amphibian printed on it was thrown hard at Tovey's face by the angry secretary.

In the room, only the cute secretary was left, mumbling unhappily to her commander:

"I'm going to training! Humph!"

Chapter 811: Sailing to the Denmark Strait

Tovey's estimate was correct, the damage to the evil spirit fleet in the Denmark Strait was indeed not serious.

The weather in the northern waters of Iceland became even worse. The wounded German fleet was repairing its wounds while sailing forward in the heavy snow, braving the huge waves caused by the cold current.

"Has the pilot been fished out?"

On the WIFI, Zeppelin was anxiously asking Eugen about the whereabouts of his pilot.

"No, he died..."

Eugen stood at the side of his own ship feeling somewhat sad, wiping the tears from the corners of his eyes.

Upon hearing this, Zeppelin on the other side also lowered his head silently.

In the previous air raid, although she eliminated several missiles that were following her, she was attacked from both sides after all. Even with the full support of several sisters, her body was still hit by two anti-ship missiles.

Although the missile's trajectory was relatively flat, the flight deck was not seriously damaged except for some areas being slightly bulged and damaged by the shock wave of the explosion. However, the blazing flames from the two large holes on the hull and the tilt of the hull caused by water ingress still made it impossible for her to retrieve the aircraft for more than an hour because of firefighting and righting the hull.

The pilots, including Zeppelin himself, who had already experienced a fierce battle in the sky, had no choice but to hover in the sky as much as possible, waiting for the aircraft carrier to resume its take-off and landing capabilities.

However, several of these planes were forced to make emergency landings on the sea in the fourth-level sea conditions in the Arctic Ocean in the cold winter because they were too seriously damaged or ran out of fuel.

However, under the influence of the Jan Mayen cold current in northern Iceland, the two-meter-and-a-half-meter-high waves, the strong wind of nearly fifty meters per second, and the freezing cold water temperature that would freeze you unconscious on the spot if you jumped in, turned the forced landing into a real death...

Among the twenty-three planes, in addition to the seven lost in the air battle, another six planes could not hold on and had to make an emergency landing on the cold and howling sea!

Even though Eugen ignored the fact that his ship was also hit and caught fire, he immediately ran to the place where the planes made an emergency landing to rescue people. However, among the six planes, he was lucky enough to rescue only one pilot who was already frozen unconscious. Only by looking at the dog tags did he know that his name was Hartmann...

Under Bonte's command and Zeppelin's cooperation, the damage control team put all their efforts into repairing half of the flight deck and pulling up the arresting net in more than an hour, so that this aircraft carrier, which had made great achievements but was also scarred, could finally accommodate the remaining pilots in the sky...

The hangar of the Zeppelin aircraft carrier, which was originally full of neat planes and bustling with people, has now become somewhat desolate and even a little messy. Looking at the scarred hull and recalling the voices and smiles of those who will never come back again, even Zeppelin, who is used to seeing life and death, is now filled with sadness.

The brutal air battle had ended, and the GR-186 wing, which originally had 109 fighters and 190 reconnaissance planes, was now down to only five BF-s, FW-s, and four reconnaissance planes after repeated air battles and missile attacks. Even if the pilots and pilot cadets of the reconnaissance planes were included, there were only pilots left on board.

However, such heavy sacrifices and such severe losses were not in vain! After destroying and severely damaging two British aircraft carrier formations and repelling several large-scale air strikes at the cost of almost 186% of their own strength, the GR- carrier-based aircraft wing finally covered their fleet and desperately broke into the weakly defended Denmark Strait!

"Zeppelin, what's wrong... cough cough!"

Looking at his aircraft carrier standing blankly on the flight deck after the air battle, Bangtai, who was already weak from the serious injury, tightened his windbreaker and walked out of the hatch of the bridge.

"Nothing, I just feel a little uncomfortable..."

Zeppelin, who was unwilling to open his eyes, shook his head, his tone a little low.

The ace elites that he personally trained did not fall in the brutal air battle, but sacrificed their lives on the sea after the battle!

However, even if dying on the battlefield was the fate of a soldier, as their commander and instructor, how could she accept that her subordinates had such a fateful ending? !

Looking at Qiberin who was feeling a little depressed, Bangtai could tell at a glance that she was getting too hung up on a rut.

Having worked together for so many years, Bangtai knew very well what kind of personality Zeppelin had. He was a bit strong-willed and stubborn, but at the same time, he also knew that this aircraft carrier was just temporarily unable to think straight.

But I still have to give some advice.

Tightening his windbreaker again, Bangtai stepped forward and said softly, "Are you thinking about the pilots who died? I know, I feel bad too. But... we still have to fight later, do you want to accompany me to check on the repair of your damage?"

"?" Seeing his captain looking at him with kindness, Zeppelin, who had never felt such kindness before, was stunned on the spot.

She knew that her captain wanted to divert her attention, but why did she not object to this method?

"Come on, accompany me to your hangar and see how they are doing with the repairs."

"Um……"

Looking at Bangtai, who was hunched over due to the injury and coughing in the cold wind, Qiberin suppressed his emotions and nodded.

In the hangar of the Zeppelin aircraft carrier, which had been hit by seven or eight anti-ship missiles, the engineers were busy enduring the shaking of the strong winds and waves, and were building temporary support brackets in the hangar to support the strength of the most critical flight deck of the entire aircraft carrier; and the damage control team, who were also braving the cold wind and splashing icy water mist, were gritting their teeth and repairing the holes caused by the anti-ship missiles; in the internal structure of the hull, the firefighters, who were coughing continuously due to the smoke from the fire, were dragging their exhausted bodies and desperately controlling the splashing water hoses in their hands; and now that the hangar could no longer be used, the ground crew had all gathered in front of the flight deck, on the side of the bridge, and were using steel cables to tightly tie down the warhawks, whether they had just stopped or were rescued from the hangar, to the flight deck.

No matter if they were pilots or ground crew members, they all knew very well that the remaining 19 fighters and four reconnaissance planes on the scarred flight deck were the Zeppelin aircraft carrier, which was also the last air defense barrier of the entire formation!

Looking at the sailors who were working diligently, busy and doing their duty all over the ship, Zeppelin, who was originally feeling a little depressed, now had a more resolute expression on his face.

She even felt that she should say something, but she couldn't say anything.

The future of the war still seems to be endless, but whether it is the sacrificed comrades or the surviving officers and soldiers, this road must always continue - and they paid such a heavy sacrifice, isn’t it just for themselves and others to go further?

After taking a quick glance at the secretary ship and carrier-based aircraft wing commander beside him, whose expression changed from gloomy to resolute, Bangtai smiled.