Bismarck

Although it was expected, it was also beyond our expectations.

"Captain, I think Zeppelin can't hold on this time. Zeppelin...has already taken off for the third time..."

"Well, I see..."

Bismarck put down his coffee cup and spoke in a low voice. Lütjens put down his pipe almost at the same time and his face was also a little gloomy.

It has been less than eleven hours since we left the sea, and we have spent all of it in intense battles. Even though I took another sip of the bad-tasting substitute coffee, this strange mixture of chicory beetroot powder and burnt oats, which has no refreshing effect at all, not only tastes carcinogenic, but also does not refresh me at all!

The smoke-filled C4ISR combat command center not only lacks the tranquility of a fairyland, but the smell like a gas chamber makes the lungs feel like they are burning.

I was even more upset: the German fleet was under-strength and the enemy was too numerous!

In order to ensure that the German fleet could safely enter the French port under the enemy's three-sided siege, Lütjens could only constantly "move" the air defense formation to protect the most critical aircraft carrier!

The fleet is now moving at full speed towards the port of Brest, so the position change operation is more complicated than this.

Or to put it more directly: the operational efficiency of the German fleet's formation adjustment is the key to a safe evacuation!

Especially, it is still dark and gloomy now...

You know, changing the positions of warships in a formation at night is no small matter: the blackout means that navigation lights and signal lights cannot be turned on, and the low-power navigation radar alone cannot directly reflect the position and actual speed and course changes of other friendly ships. If you are not careful, you will crash into your own people - at the least, the ship will be destroyed and people will die, and at worst, the formation will collapse! !

Especially now that we are in wartime, if the enemy's formation collapses during an air raid, there is basically no need to fight!

In order to arrange these repeated changes in formation, Lütjens was really worried!

In order to consider the turning and maneuvering of the three aircraft carriers, the remaining one battlecruiser, two armored cruisers, one heavy cruiser, and six destroyers, under the command of Prince Eugen's captain Top, surrounded the three aircraft carriers and formed a huge wheel-shaped formation with a diameter of fourteen kilometers, encircling the three aircraft carriers Zeppelin, Europa and Bremen in the middle and protecting them tightly.

On the periphery of the wheel formation were four battleships led by Lütjens himself, constantly moving in the direction of the greatest threat, acting as the air defense fan outside the aircraft carrier's wheel formation.

Constantly changing positions between battleships and aircraft carriers to ensure that the key defense direction has the strongest defensive firepower. This is just like the "King and Rook Castling" in chess, and is now used by Lütjens as a tactical operation to protect the aircraft carrier formation.

When the home fleet attacked at 406:, Lütjens led the four battleships, Bismarck, Ludendorff, Hindenburg and Tirpitz, firmly stuck kilometers north of the wheel formation. Under the artillery data of the cat and mouse sisters, they commanded Hindenburg and Ludendorff respectively, and used the thirty-two main guns of the four battleships of the fleet to disperse the enemy's torch fighter bomber group and heavy bomber group one after another.

The Prince Eugen in the wheel formation behind, with the battlecruiser Gneisenau, which had the strongest anti-aircraft firepower, was stuck in the west of the aircraft carrier, and also defeated the carrier-based air attack launched by Tovey's three aircraft carriers.

Now, the next target to be intercepted becomes the carrier-based aircraft groups of the five US aircraft carriers in the south.

For some reason, a sentence suddenly popped up in Lütjens' mind: Ah, it's time again for his battleships to "run around" to seize positions...

In the aircraft carrier wheel formation, the slowest ship is the Europa sisters at 25 knots, followed by the two Deutschland-class ships at 27 knots. Under normal circumstances, the overall speed of the formation should be five or six knots slower than the slowest warship in the formation. Only in this way can the position change be completed within half an hour.

With this calculation, the speed of the German aircraft carrier formation after slowing down can only be maintained at 20 knots when changing formation! Adding the speed of the battleships and the mentality of "getting closer to Brest as much as possible", the relative lateral movement rate between the battleship formation and the aircraft carrier formation advancing from north to south is about 41 knots per hour, which means 38 kilometers in half an hour.

There was a distance of 25 kilometers between Lütjens' battleship formation and the aircraft carrier formation under Bonte's overall command. However, if we consider that the wheel-shaped formation originally had a large circle with a diameter of 15 kilometers, then the battleships had to keep a safe formation distance of 3 to 5 kilometers away from the wheel-shaped formation.

With such an "actual length" of forty kilometers, the battleship formation can only be deployed to the two wings of the aircraft carrier fleet, and together with the Prince Eugen in the middle of the wheel formation, form a large outer circle to provide cover for the aircraft carrier fleet.

In this way, the battleships are positioned ten kilometers away from the aircraft carrier, and combined with the 406-kilometer air defense radius of the 25 main gun, an air defense depth of thirty-five kilometers can be achieved!

Although the depth of thirty-five kilometers is not far, it just exceeds the maximum range of thirty-two kilometers of the enemy's anti-ship missiles - this is enough to ensure that the enemy aircraft formation can be thrown into chaos with the main gun on the eve of the enemy's anti-ship missiles!

At the same time, the formation of the aircraft carrier formation itself must also be adjusted.

Previously, due to the early warning of the Grape missile attack, Eugen and Gneisenau were positioned on the west side of the aircraft carrier wheel formation. But now, since the main direction of resistance has become the US aircraft carriers in the southwest, the positions of all ships in the entire wheel formation must be extended counterclockwise from west to south - and the fleet positions must be "rotated" while ensuring the speed of the formation heading north.

In fact, as early as after repelling the 2:30 air attack, before the enemy's returning planes flew away, Lütjens had already ordered the battle fleet and the aircraft carrier fleet to move closer to each other and implement the "King-Rook Exchange" tactical operation.

Bonte was very decisive. After releasing the fighter group, it turned north, slowed down its formation, and shortened the distance to Lütjens' four battleships in order to form a formation earlier before the American aircraft group attacked.

The aircraft carrier is the absolute center of the entire naval battle, so the wheel formation around it must be changed frequently. In order to coordinate the wheel formation, Top, who commands all the escort fleets around the aircraft carrier, definitely used his brain a lot that night!

After all, it is such a large formation, with 17 warships and a wheel-shaped formation with a diameter of 14 or 15 kilometers. It will take some time to reorganize.

The US military aircraft group was only a hundred kilometers away from them - with the speed of American aircraft, this distance would take at most fifteen minutes!

What’s more, the opposing fleet is supported by three ship girls!

This is not good news for the German fleet, which already has a weak financial situation, small capital and little profit, and cannot afford to buy on credit!

Especially now it's dark at night, and we can't see our hands in front of us. If we adjust the formation, we'll collide with the ship if we're not careful!

Every second counts on the battlefield, so there is no time to make things so difficult for you, Kumetz!

Fortunately, in addition to Zeppelin flying fighters, there were three ship girls in the fleet, and the computer automatic mapping system allowed Bonte (who commanded the three aircraft carriers) and Top (who was in charge of the overall command of the aircraft carrier escort squadron) to grasp the position and course of each ship at any time. At the same time, in order to take into account the heavy turning radius of the three aircraft carriers and the long effective range of the 37 anti-aircraft guns and 40 Bofors as the main close-range air defense weapons, the distance between the ships in the formation was basically more than meters. Otherwise, with the German destroyer fleet still only being barely trained, it would have caused a multi-vehicle chain collision in bad weather!

As a result, at this time, Kumets over there was actually grabbing the destroyer to make trouble in order to "seize" a relatively safe inner circle position...? !

Lütjens, who was so angry that he was fuming, said, "I have a phrase, 'The peasants are stupid', but I don't know whether to say it or not! !

(PS: Historically, the German Navy was equipped with 37 manual machine guns, 37 automatic anti-aircraft guns and 40 Bofors...)

The battle situation was tense, and everyone was fighting hard! In order to protect the remaining fighters and escape safely, Zeppelin was cut off by McCampbell and Thatch's attack from both sides for the second time. Bonte, who took over the command of the air battle, shouted at the top of his lungs on the radio. Top and Eugen, who were sailing with the aircraft carrier escort team and adjusting the position, were also busy. As the admiral of the Golden Knight Navy, he led his flagship to run around the entire formation and personally supported the front line of the entire air defense formation. Only you, Kumets, have been slacking off. Now that you heard that Zeppelin had lost, you messed up the entire wheel formation.

"Kumetz, calm down! If you keep making trouble, it will be your responsibility if the wheel formation cannot be set up!"

Under the complicated gaze of the Persian cat beside him, which was half asking, half complaining and a little suspected of whispering in his ear, Lütjens became more and more annoyed the more he thought about it. He grabbed the tactical radio and yelled at it fiercely.

With a click, he threw the radio microphone and headphones onto the table. He was too lazy to listen to what Kumetz said on the radio. Pinching his nose, Lütjens sometimes thought: If Kumetz's rank was not too high, he really wanted to let Lindemann directly command Tirpitz and Hindenburg!

Although Lindemann is a joking guy who is not serious in daily life, his command ability is actually much stronger than Kumets!

However, this is really just a thought...

Because the two Hindenburg-class ships did not have the ability to predict the long-range firing of their main guns, they had to provide fire control guidance one by one. However, no matter how powerful Kumets was, his rank was that of admiral, equal to himself, and as a result, a problem arose: according to the principles of naval formation, it was impossible for two general-level officers to sit close together, so as to avoid being caught in one net and completely losing command.

However, the battleship only has these four guns. Even though the 380 gun that Grenier replaced was the main gun of Bismarck, the ballistic parameters are still somewhat different from the 406 gun. The specific elevation angle and time parameters of the 406 gun need to be converted. But the problem is that the timeliness requirement for air shooting is very strict, and temporary conversion will definitely miss the target!

The result was that the battlecruiser Gneisenau could only be sent to the aircraft carrier formation as an escort and could not be formed into a group with himself - otherwise, he would command Ludendorff and Lindemann would command Gneisenau, and wouldn't it be wonderful if the cooperation was perfect?

Unfortunately, the difference in the main guns made this impossible! So in the end it became like this...

It's already difficult enough to form a formation here at night, and now there's this old man causing trouble everywhere!

The American aircraft group over there is getting closer and closer!

The Air Force is inherently high in attack and low in defense, so the only way to deal with an air raid is to completely break up the bombing formation before dropping the bombs.

Unfortunately, they couldn't even win an air battle. Even Zeppelin was shot down by the enemy twice tonight...

The brightness of the waning moon was really dim, and Lütjens felt powerless and dizzy. He drank all the hot coffee that his ship cat had just brewed for him in one breath.

On the other side of the sea, Top and Eugen were still busy directing the change of positions. The two destroyers that were originally in position moved away from the center from the left and right sides, and then turned a big circle to "cover" the rear of Kumets. After the two destroyers and Kumets' Hindenburg were in position, the other warships that rotated "counterclockwise" were able to adjust their positions.

Although it was not pitch dark, it was still a mess on the dark sea for a long time. Moreover, in the night environment, with the training level of the remaining destroyers, it would take at least several minutes to accurately locate their positions relative to each other... ?

Moreover, the aircraft carrier formation is now heading towards thirty degrees northeast by north, and it must turn back to its original course before engaging the enemy - it cannot do without turning, as the jammers are towed behind the ship. If the enemy attacks from behind, they can follow the jammer's tail and directly hit the body of the jammer!

If the heading of the formation is different from the heading of the enemy aircraft, then if the enemy aircraft group wants to enter the attack route from behind, it can only take several minutes to turn around in a big circle. This period of time is enough for the formation to turn around and change its heading.

However, if the opponent can directly enter "BOY♂NEXT♂DOOR" when attacking...

However, with a powerful enemy at hand, in order to ensure that the formation does not become chaotic, only after the formation is fully combined can the order be given again for the formation to turn around collectively - and, you know, even if the order is given in advance, it will take at least five minutes for the formation to turn around collectively!

If we calculate the time it takes for the American planes to launch the attack and the time left for the entire formation to turn around, it would be really risky!

"Humph, so I still have to go to the front line to provide cover? MD Kumets..."

He took a long puff of his cigarette, and then put the pipe heavily on the table. Lütjens, who was already extremely impatient, stood up suddenly with gritted teeth, shook his shoulders, and shook the navy windbreaker that the secretary had put on his back on the chair: "Let's ignore Kumets who wants to mix in with the aircraft carriers. Tell Bonte and Top that the aircraft carrier formation and the aircraft carrier escort fleet will continue to be under their command. In addition, Bismarck, call your sister to come with us, and we will go to the front to cover the formation!"

"understand!"

The main gun sight of the Bismarck battleship tilted slightly, glanced at Kumets who was driving his battleship into the aircraft carrier pile, and then pulled his sister who was also very angry together, and the two battleships nodded in unison.

The American plane on the opposite side was already within ten minutes’ flight!

Chapter 849: Discovering the Aircraft Carrier

"Their aircraft carrier should be heading this way, but... why haven't they found it yet?"

A lonely and inconspicuous black shadow was moving quickly in the equally dark night sky, looking around.

Even in the pressurized and heated flight cabin, the temperature at an altitude of six thousand meters in the cold winter still made Walter Engels shiver. He tightened the collar and cuffs of his leather flight jacket, and shrank further.

"If these signals are clustered in three directions, it looks like they have at least three formations..."

Engels rolled the fighter plane left and right to confirm that there were no enemy planes sneaking up from behind him. He muttered a few words, looked at the radar screen that showed no echo signals, and continued to adjust the frequency band selection on the FW-190 fighter's radio navigator back and forth. He selected a course that "looked more like an aircraft carrier formation" and flew over.

German fighter planes were originally equipped with radio navigators that could select radio signals of specific frequencies as navigation beacons. Since carrier-based fighter planes had higher requirements for navigation and reconnaissance, Zeppelin made a request to the military industry through the Air Force Equipment Department to further expand the frequency band selection range of navigation radio stations. With the mass production of small electron tubes, it is now possible to search multiple electromagnetic wave bands including radar decimeter and centimeter wave bands, as well as conventional communication frequencies, and also has the function of signal strength metering and display.

In an emergency situation, this thing can also search for signals from both enemy and friendly radars - you know, the receiving distance of passive radar signals is nearly twice as far as the radar's own effective search distance!

One is a one-way electromagnetic wave signal, and the other is an electromagnetic wave that "goes and comes back", isn't that the case?

Doesn't the Navy's submarine force also have the "Biscay Bay Cross"? Now it also has a centimeter-wave radar signal receiver!

only……

"I don't know if my judgment is correct, and I don't know how the wing commander and everyone else are doing now... Come to think of it, if I go out without permission like this, will the wing commander and Captain Bangtai scold me when I return... Hmm? Something seems to be happening? It looks like I'm finally getting close to my target!"

While muttering to himself, Engels once again rolled the fighter plane left and right as usual. Looking around, he found that there seemed to be a few vague shadows in the sky on both sides of him! When he pulled the fighter's joystick and turned the nose of the plane to the suspicious position, several ghost green ghost green reflections appeared on the small radar screen that was originally "normal" to the point of being almost rigid!

"Four planes on each side, attacking from both sides? It looks like they are coming from the front... But if you want to intercept me, you have to catch up with me first!"

After taking a look at the position of the enemy's fighter plane and making a rough assessment of the direction it was coming from, the corners of Engels' mouth curled up slightly.

This is an ace bomber pilot who changed his career to fly fighter jets and has achieved seven or eight victories. He is absolutely confident in his mount!

This is the vast Bay of Biscay, not the English Channel, which is full of dangers. As long as the opponent's "bottle spirit" is not encountered, the dark-black shrike is really not afraid of anyone if it combines high speed, dive acceleration, rolling performance and instantaneous turn performance!

"The cruising speed is 570, which is enough in theory without accelerating. But we should still increase the speed a little bit. When they get close, we can dive at a large angle and accelerate to escape their attack! But speaking of which, there are signals from two formations ahead... But it doesn't matter, as long as they send out the second wave of interceptors. I will see the direction they are coming from and the altitude above, and I should be able to determine where their aircraft carrier is!"

Speaking of which, single-machine kamikaze and the like... As a soldier in the evil spirit fleet and having traveled all over the country for so many years, he is very clear about the air defense efficiency of the ship mother. However, if the opponent's position is reported to the commander of his own wing and aircraft carrier, and then a round of missile strikes is called, this is completely possible!

Speaking of which, he always remembered very clearly that on top of the two Hindenburg-class battleships, there were still the last forty-eight V-1 "Nemesis" cruise missiles that had not been used!

After pressing the joystick slightly, Engels' mouth corners curled up more confidently.

---

"Jia Jia, there's a fighter jet coming, probably for reconnaissance... The patrol plane I sent out failed to stop it."

The carefree Intel Price touched the back of his head and pretended to be embarrassed, while sticking out his tongue.

"I know, I know. I know that your Enterprise is responsible for the anti-ship bombing, but I don't have time to command the close-range air defense now. Zeppelin over there has been defeated for the third time, and I'm still repairing my main body here! Tsk..."

Saratoga, half complaining and half blaming others, pouted in frustration, and together with Enterprise, looked at a certain girl with no knowledge of the company: "Hey... Jiaozi, among us, your anti-aircraft firepower is the strongest, so you are the one who will deal with that guy?"

The cute and adorable Gufulin looked at the two sisters opposite her who were smiling like foxes, then looked at the four twin-mounted MK38 anti-aircraft guns they were pointing at on her bodies, and blinked speechlessly - although, she was not a talkative person.

But...are you two bullying an honest person?

He was still blessing his own dead bald eagle - okay, okay, there wasn't much for McCampbell to do now.

After all, even Zeppelin was shot down for the second time by the siege of American aircraft.

With a thought, the Essex aircraft carrier's radio communication channel received several interception guidance instructions. Moreover, the engine power of several US fighter jets in the dark sky seemed to work even faster! Even the pilots, for some reason, felt that the physical burden of flying the plane had become a little lighter.

Among the three sisters, not only does she have the strongest anti-aircraft firepower, but any flying team stationed on her also has the strongest air combat capability.

Although her two sisters often joked that her understanding of air combat was 100% from the chatterbox, in fact, it was the result of her using her abilities to bless her own flying team!

Now, her thoughts were like an invitation to death to Engels!

Chapter 850: Can’t Retreat

"Damn it, how come their anti-aircraft tactical coordination is so strong... and those F4Us, when did their dive speed become so fast?"

Four Corsairs were closely following him, and four F6F Hellcats were flying around him. And there were other enemy planes in the outer areas, and they rushed to the blocking position with all their might while he was busy dodging left and right!

Even though the FW-190's dive speed is unmatched in the world, it is now surrounded and has no way out due to the interlocking chain coordination!

Engels in the cockpit was sweating and panting, looking around in panic, and he dared not stop the joystick and throttle lever in his hands, because the fire net formed by the opponent's 12.7 heavy machine guns had a direct shooting distance of thousands of meters! In particular, although the night sky was dim and unclear, the opponent's maneuvers, attacks and even tactical coordination were very methodical, with a routine of shooting-disengaging-accelerating to occupy a position-attack again, leaving you no time to even breathe!

"MD, this is fatal..."

Engels, who was at a loss as to what to do, spat secretly, lowered the nose of his plane, and continued to fly forward under the watchful eyes of more than 20 armed enemy planes.

The frequency band of the radio direction finder had long been adjusted to the commonly used frequency of the communication network, and just ahead, several groups of radio signals that were obviously commanded by air traffic control were constantly communicating with the aircraft.

Engels was sure that it was not the radio communication of the radar sentry ship's air command liaison - because the direction from which the opponent's reinforcement fighter jets flew was the same direction as the direction of the most active radio stations!

Although, before I get shot down, I have to get closer and confirm it again...

---

On the other side of the battlefield, on the battleships Bismarck and Tirpitz that were located right behind the fleet, and on the southernmost position of the Lun formation, as well as the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen that was sandwiched between the two of them and the battlecruiser Gneisenau, and even the entire Lun formation, as well as the three aircraft carriers that were heavily protected by the Lun formation, not only Lütjens and Bismarck were nervous, but also Bonte, Zeppelin, Lindemann, Tirpitz, Top, Eugen, and even Kumetz... Even the most ordinary sailors were wearing life jackets and helmets, looking solemnly at the pale night sky under the moonlight in the southwest - although, even with the naked eye, no one could see the enemy aircraft formation that was dozens of kilometers away but getting closer and closer.

In the depressing atmosphere of the flagship C4ISR command center, everyone on board was staring intently at the command computer screen in front of them, while exchanging combat information:

"How far are the Americans from us? Is there enough time?"

"Sixty kilometers away, the enemy's aircraft group is deploying. Ninety-nine bombers, about three waves in total!"