Bismarck

Page 55

"Okay, I know."

Lütjens asked Bismarck a question, and after she nodded to indicate that there was no problem, he ordered Vice Captain Lindemann to "Start the main engine!"

The silence was broken.

A loud roar came from the interior of the Bismarck, and then, like a flag being raised, one after another, the warships in the estuary that received the signal began to move.

The soldiers who were riding on a ship for the first time nervously grabbed the things around them. They had boarded the ship several hours ago and were quite excited when they first got on board. It would be nice to just relax and look at the scenery on the sea. But when the main engine started, the vibration went from the bottom up to the internal organs, and the strong smell of oil smoke hit their noses (many cabins were poorly sealed), the soldiers suddenly became weak, and some even vomited soon after.

"Captain, all ships are ready and can set off at any time." Lindman said after receiving signals from various ships.

"Operation Weiser, begin!"

The battleship Bismarck sailed out first, followed closely by the battlecruisers Gneisenau and Scharnhorst, both of which were part of the squadron heading to Narvik, and the pocket battleships Lützow and Blücher. A large landing fleet consisting of 7 light cruisers, 14 destroyers, 28 submarines and several auxiliary ships, carrying more than soldiers, marched towards the Baltic Sea.

When the residents at the mouth of the Weser River woke up in the morning, they were surprised to find that all the warships in the port had disappeared overnight.

At the same time, upon receiving the news that the German fleet had suddenly disappeared, British reconnaissance planes began to conduct a large-scale search of the relevant waters.

Morning of April 7th.

The sun had just risen behind the fleet, and a new day had arrived in the Western Hemisphere, but no one wanted this day to come.

"It's daytime now." Lindemann sighed. "The British reconnaissance planes must have been dispatched. They may be looking for us all over the North Sea."

Bismarck nodded. "We can only buy one night at most. As soon as the sun rises, they should know that we have left the mouth of the Weser River."

"How much time do we have to reach the Skagerraka Strait?"

"About the afternoon," said Lindemann.

"Hopefully no reconnaissance planes come by before they leave."

The "they" Bismarck mentioned refers to the fleet heading to Oslo (the capital of Norway). If they were discovered by reconnaissance aircraft before crossing the strait and the movements of the squadron were mastered, then the fleet's combat intentions would be easily deduced. Not only would the combat effectiveness be greatly reduced, but even Bismarck, who was on a diversionary mission, might be surrounded by the British.

Tirpitz stared at her big eyes, not quite understanding, watching her sister and the captain discussing something. It was her first time experiencing such a thing, so she was naturally excited and nervous. Although she didn't understand, she listened very carefully.

God seemed to have heard Bismarck's voice and generously gave the fleet a lucky charm, so the whole morning passed safely, with no submarines or aircraft coming to harass them. The fleet was divided into two parts in a tense situation, one part crossed the Skagerrak Strait, and the other went directly north to Oslo.

When the fleet heading for Oslo disappeared on the sea level, Bismarck clearly felt that Lütjens' expression relaxed a little, and the first phase of the combat mission was accomplished.

At one o'clock in the afternoon, the fleet heading for Narvik began to cross the strait under the leadership of the flagship Bismarck. Lütjens was not too worried about the underwater threat. As early as a month ago, Dönitz's submarine force began combat readiness cruises on this necessary route, during which they also sank a British submarine. It can be said that the bottom of the strait is now controlled by them.

Lütjens still had confidence in Dönitz and his men, so the only thing he was worried about now was the threat from the air, or more precisely, reconnaissance aircraft.

"Bismarck," said Lütjens.

"exist."

"Always pay attention to the movements in the sky. If you spot a reconnaissance aircraft, immediately... forget it. We can't hit it anyway. Just tell me."

"Uh, I see." Bismarck nodded.

"Damn it, the clouds are getting thicker." Edward looked around and muttered. This was his second sortie. Ever since they knew the German fleet was setting sail, their reconnaissance pilots had been flying non-stop. He didn't even have time to go to the bathroom before he flew a second time. He used the glass bottles in the cabin to relieve himself. They all hoped to find the German fleet, but after a morning, all the planes that flew out found nothing. There was nothing but the sea.

The weather was clear in the morning, and the enemy fleet was not spotted even at a visual distance of dozens of kilometers. It looked cloudy in the afternoon, with low clouds and a much shorter observation distance, so the chance of spotting was even smaller.

Edward had just returned from the Baltic Sea. He looked at the fuel gauge and it seemed that he could still sail back to the Stratoglar Strait, so he decided to try his luck.

"Damn Germans, don't let me find you." He cursed fiercely, although he didn't know where his plane could attack. The handsome pilot was in his girlfriend's arms at the time, but was pulled up by an emergency assembly advertisement. Until now, he was so angry. Go back earlier and continue the unfinished work earlier. Thinking of his girlfriend's charming and gentle moans, Edward felt his heart beating fast.

With a turn, the plane flew towards the strait.

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"The clouds are getting lower and lower." Bismarck muttered to himself while standing on the bridge, "The humidity in the air seems to be getting higher, too."

She touched her body and seemed to feel a little wet.

The weather at sea is always unpredictable. It was sunny in the morning, but it started to rain in the afternoon. It would be nice if it stayed like this until it rained.

"That's the best thing for us." Lütjens said from his captain's chair, "Low cloud reconnaissance aircraft can't see very far."

"Yeah." Bismarck nodded. "I hope it rains."

However, luck was not on the German side this time.

"Reconnaissance aircraft spotted!!!"

ps: Another update, don’t you think you should reward me!!! Give me the money =. =. Also, do you prefer the third person or the first person?

Chapter 79: First Round of Bombardment

Edward felt that God must have blessed him today. An accidental decision actually allowed him to discover the German fleet he had been looking for for a long time, and the leader was the German flagship, the Bismarck! He immediately turned on the radio transceiver and reported the situation to the headquarters.

"Headquarters, the German fleet has been spotted! They are crossing the Channel!"

"Who are you and where did you find it?"

"I'm Lieutenant Edward of the 9th Scouting Squadron. I've spotted the German main fleet in the Strait of Stegerlach. They're heading towards the North Sea!"

"Who's the flagship?" An excited voice immediately came from the headset.

"It's the Bismarck."

"Please confirm again."

"No mistake, I can recognize it even if it turns to ashes!" Edward said with certainty. Before setting off, everyone of them had carefully identified the Bismarck's appearance, so how could they have made a mistake? Now there was a miniature photo of Bismarck on his dashboard. If Bismarck was a girl, then her position in his heart would definitely be higher than that of his girlfriend...

"Lieutenant, you have done a great job." Edward was about to breathe a sigh of relief when an encouraging voice came out of the headset. Then the voice said, "We need you to confirm the number of their warships now. Can you do it?"

"I may be running out of fuel..." Edward said in embarrassment, "The weather here is not very good. I have to get very close to see how many of them there are. Now only the Bismarck has left the strait."

"Lieutenant, this is related to the victory of our battle and the glory of the British Empire. I hope you can hold on... I say, sir, yes!"

"If you succeed, I can promote you directly! Now, go and observe closely!" A new voice came into the headset, speaking in an imperative tone.

Edward knew that this was a senior officer, but in this case, promotion was secondary. If he went back now, if he delayed the opportunity to fight, and disobeyed orders, he would probably be brought to a military court and might even be shot.

He looked at the running low on fuel, gritted his teeth, pulled the steering lever, and headed towards the German fleet. He knew that he would not have enough fuel to return to the base, and finding a place to make an emergency landing was his first priority - he just hoped that the German fleet would not discover him.

"Bismarck, Scharnhorst, Gneisenau... Hmm? It seems that Blücher is missing?"

Edward looked at the weather in the strait. It was already covered with dark clouds. Visibility was very poor and hazy. All he could see was a fleet of ships behind him. It seemed that there was Blücher...

He wanted to get closer to take a look, but he didn't realize that he had unknowingly entered the range of the Bismarck 105 anti-aircraft gun.

"Lieutenant Edward, what is the situation of the German fleet?"

"Their main fleet is all here (in fact, Blücher has already led a squadron to Oslo at this time) and is passing through the strait!"

"Captain, we have been discovered." Bismarck sighed and said, "I intercepted the radio signal of the reconnaissance plane and confirmed that he has reported it."

"Really?" Lütjens sighed. He was discovered after all.

"But that reconnaissance plane is approaching and will soon enter the anti-aircraft fire range. Should we open fire?"

"Since we have already discovered it, why do we need to observe it closely?" Lindman asked curiously.

"Because they haven't determined our numbers, most of the fleet is still inside the strait, and it's hard to observe in low visibility!" Lütjens thought for a while and said affirmatively, "Bismarck!"

"exist!"

"Shoot him down as soon as he gets close. Depends on your proximity fuse!"

"understand!"

Ding-ling-ling - the battle alarm sounded instantly, and the anti-aircraft guns were immediately ready. At this time, the British reconnaissance plane had reached the critical position of the 105 anti-aircraft gun, and the muzzles on the right side of the ship were all pointed at the plane that was still moving forward without knowing it.

"Sister, what are we doing now?" Tirpitz asked curiously, looking at the sea before the storm.

Bismarck brought her sister outside the bridge.

"There's a plane coming from the opposite direction, Grape, pay attention to the direction of my anti-aircraft gun, you can feel it, right?" Bismarck said with a smile, as if she was not about to start a battle, but just an insignificant teaching lesson for her sister.

Bismarck moved the direction of the 105mm gun and Tirpitz nodded.

To be honest, the pilot of that plane was very tricky. He was flying close to the cloud base, and the area below the belly of the plane was dark green, making it difficult to be spotted against the gloomy sky. He would occasionally hide in the clouds - but in Bismarck's eyes, all this was just poor acting.

"Tizi, pay attention, it's about to begin."

"Fire!" Bismarck gave the order, and several 105 anti-aircraft guns on his body let out the first roar. Amid the loud bang, the shells drew bright trajectories and flew into the air, but it was obvious that they were much higher.

"It needs to be lower." Bismarck said, "Pay attention, Grape, correcting the trajectory is something that must be done. For someone like you, yours is too high, so we need to lower it a little bit now."

"Yeah." Tirpitz felt the changes in Bismarck's body and then remembered them in his mind.

"Fire!"

The 105 gun roared again.

Because Bismarck had proposed to Lütjens a long time ago that in order to better control his own abilities and not to cause any doubts among the crew, Lütjens announced that an automatic control device should be installed on the ship, so that he could take over some firepower when necessary for air defense and ship-to-ship shooting. As for what an automatic control device is, you won't have an answer if you ask the crew, because they don't know either. They only saw a few engineers "pretending" to install some things, and then the gun barrels would move by themselves. They were surprised at first, but they got used to it over time. As long as the captain didn't specifically order them to operate the artillery, their task was to monitor the use of ammunition, and they were happy to relax...

The second round was still a little short, but the nearby shells had already exploded, and the flying debris made holes in the reconnaissance plane.

"Continue to correct, correction completed, fire!"

Edward had just reported the number of enemy fleets and was about to pull up when suddenly a bright line of fire flew over him. After a while, a slight explosion was heard.

"It's over, it's been discovered!"

ps: I will update again later!!! It's New Year's Eve and I'm still typing, aren't you going to vote or something? Little fairies~ Happy New Year to everyone, give me the red envelope (fuck poi)

Chapter 80: The Sun Never Sets

"It's over, we've been discovered!" This thought flashed through Edward's mind, and he subconsciously increased the altitude of the plane.

The shells stopped for a moment, and Edward knew that the gunners on the other side were adjusting. He took advantage of this time to continue climbing, trying desperately to get into the clouds.

"As long as I'm above the clouds, I'll be safe. The people on the other side won't be able to see me." He comforted himself.

Another barrage of shells came, one of which exploded under the belly of the plane.

"Damn it! How can it be so accurate!" Edward cursed. It was only the second round of shelling, but he clearly felt that he was hit. The fuselage trembled. He was so scared that he quickly checked everywhere. Fortunately, there was no problem with the control and the plane was normal.

"Hurry, hurry, hurry!" He was anxious and stepped on the accelerator to the bottom. He didn't care about the economic speed anymore. He was sure that the commander of the opponent was experienced and he might be shot down if he stayed for one more second!

The reconnaissance plane made an overloaded noise, its speed increased significantly, and then it plunged into the thick clouds.

Bismarck continued to keep his lock on the dying reconnaissance plane.

"The clouds? Too bad they can't protect you either."

"Fire!"

A series of shells whizzed out...

"Safe." Edward breathed a sigh of relief and was about to contact headquarters when suddenly a series of shells pierced through the clouds. He didn't have time to react. One of the shells went straight to the side of his cockpit and exploded!

This type of shell was specially made by Krupp at the request of Bismarck. It was filled with steel bars and had great destructive power but poor aerodynamic shape. Edward would not have to worry if it exploded at a slightly longer distance. However, this distance was too close...

A steel bar instantly shattered the solid cockpit glass, and then tore Edward's chest diagonally. The splattered blood directly covered the remaining glass surface. A big hole was punched in the wing of the reconnaissance plane, and then under the influence of the strong wind, the hole turned into structural damage. After a few seconds, there was finally a teeth-grinding sound of metal twisting, and the wing and fuselage separated.

The reconnaissance plane fell with a wail like a bird with broken wings.

Through the blood-red cockpit glass, Edward saw the sea getting closer and closer, and he suddenly remembered what his girlfriend said to him when he went out this morning.

"Edward, please come back soon"

His lips moved a few times but he didn't utter a single letter.

In the face of a high-speed fall, the sea is as hard as cement.

Boom—the plane exploded, taking the pilot with it.

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"Sister, did he crash?" Tirpitz asked curiously.

"Yes, that's right." Bismarck touched his sister's head. "Let's go in."

"What about the pilot?"

"Dead." Bismarck was stunned for a moment and said.

"Ah, why?"

"This is war. It's either you or I. Grape, you have to start adapting to it." Bismarck sighed.

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