Bismarck

"Full left rudder!" The helmsman made a big turn. The bridge was so quiet that only the rustling sound of the hydraulic rudder could be heard. Then, with a "click", it was locked at the maximum rudder angle.

"All crew members hold on to the objects around you!" Lindemann shouted

Without him saying anything, everyone grabbed everything they could hold onto. As soon as he finished speaking, I felt the ship suddenly sink to the left, then turn sideways, and everyone involuntarily fell to the left. Because the bridge was high, this feeling was most obvious. I saw the sergeant leaning against the wall put his feet directly on the wall.

The left side of the ship was almost touching the water surface. I felt that if the waves were a little higher, they would have directly covered the deck. The starboard side was tilted high, revealing the red underwater armor.

This great circle was only one-fourth of the way through, and had not yet reached the part with the greatest centrifugal force, yet why did it feel like the ship was about to capsize? I looked at the captain with some surprise, and asked him.

I was probably the most relaxed person on the boat at this moment, because my feet were directly connected to the steel plate, and my hands were just holding the door in a pretend manner.

"You are going too fast," the captain said, "adjust your attitude."

I suddenly came to my senses and thought, okay, it will be okay to use full rudder because the design speed is 28 knots, and I am almost exceeding the speed by more than one third!

I was so scared that I broke out in a cold sweat. I quickly mobilized all the water pumps and oil pumps to pump the contents of the water and oil tanks on the left to the right, and at the same time slightly reduced the speed of the left main shaft. During my emergency remedies, the hull gradually approached the midpoint of the semicircle.

But the ship is still sinking

At this time, everyone else on the bridge realized that something was wrong. The height of the left deck kept decreasing, and the roll angle was getting larger and larger. This was not a normal performance. If the bow of the ship dived into the water, the huge impact would even cause the steel to deform directly!

There was a gasp on the bridge.

I didn't care about the speed at this time, I just greatly reduced the speed of the left shaft, and the centrifugal force dropped immediately. The deck just passed the center of the circle just above the water surface, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

As soon as my ship was straightened, Lindemann came over and pulled me aside.

"What happened just now? Your head almost fell into the water!" His tone was very bad, which directly aroused my dissatisfaction. I didn't even mention your problem! I was the one who was hurt when I fell into the water, okay!

"Second Officer, I was just about to say this. Can you blame me? What was my speed when you gave the order just now?" I asked back unhappily. "I followed your and the captain's instructions and ran to 37 knots, but my design indicator was full rudder at 28 knots. Whose fault is it?"

Lindemann was choked by me and was speechless.

"I thought you would know," Lindemann said.

"I'm just a warship. The specific operation depends on you. Please don't cheat me," I said helplessly.

"Ahem, I get it. I'll be more careful next time." Lindman fled back to the control panel.

Bismarck VS Lindemann, Bismarck wins!

"Speed ​​3 to 4" he ordered loudly

"The torpedo passed by my starboard side and disappeared. At nine o'clock, an enemy bomber appeared and prepared to bomb me. The S-shaped evasive maneuver begins!"

Everyone grabbed the objects around them again.

Chapter 14: Scolding

On the first day of the sea trial, except for a little problem with the first full rudder due to poor speed control, the subsequent S-shaped maneuvers and emergency stops were all completed successfully, proving my excellent sea trial performance. When the sun was about to set, I returned to the anchorage near a small island in the Baltic Sea after a day of training and dropped anchor.

After I had dinner with the captain, Lindemann and others, they all started to get busy. Not only did they have to summarize the results of today's sea trials and discuss improvement plans with the engineers, they also had to work on perfecting tomorrow's artillery tests. They were very busy.

I felt embarrassed to disturb them, so I started walking along the deck after dinner and taking in the scenery. One circle around the ship was one kilometer long, which was enough. I walked around twice and then leaned on the railing at the stern to watch the sunset.

"Hey, what's your name?" I said to the sailor sitting on the rear deck smoking

"Ah, my name is Anderson." The sailor stood up nervously, and suddenly remembered something, so he threw the cigarette in his hand onto the deck and stepped on it.

My eyes paused and said, "Kid, I understand that you want to leave a good impression, but you threw the cigarette butt on my leg. Is that really okay?"

"Miss, what's up?"

"Hehe, it's okay, don't be nervous. I just want to ask if you are comfortable on the boat." I took a deep breath and put on a smile again.

"Ah, not bad, the Bismarck is big and very comfortable to live in," the young man showed a satisfied expression. "My squad leader always said that the ship was small and the cabins were cramped, but it's not the case on the Bismarck. I can even play ball on the rear deck."

"Haha, as long as I live well," I said with a smile, "Bismarck is a very good ship, you do a good job" I praised myself without blushing or getting nervous

"Miss, are you the ship's engineer?"

"Yeah, what's wrong?"

"Can I know your name?" Young man, your face is really red. Is it really okay?

"Just call me Mai," I said

"Miss Mai, Miss Mai," the sailor was about to speak when a man ran over from the front of the boat. I saw that it was the orderly who kept serving me fruit during the day.

"Hello, squad leader." The young man in front of me immediately stood up and greeted me. It seems that the orderly's rank is higher than this young man.

"Ah, what's going on?" I asked

"Miss Mai, the captain is looking for you in his room. Please come over immediately," the orderly said

"Captain? Okay, I'll be right there," I said immediately

"Excuse me, young man. The captain wants to see me. I have to leave now. We'll talk again when we have a chance."

"Okay, goodbye Miss Mai."

Is it because my expression of leaving is too obvious? Why do I feel that this guy is frustrated by me? I thought as I trotted to the captain's room, but soon I lost my mind to think about other things - the captain took out a pile of shooting information for me to see.

Captain, although I don't need to sleep, I really don't want to look at these papers all night. I feel like crying but I have no tears.

The result was that I spent the whole night reading the shooting regulations, and the next morning I went to the bridge with black eyes. Although battleships don't need to sleep, they don't say that you can't be overworked!

"Bismarck, what's wrong with you?" Lindemann looked at me in such a miserable state and asked me while holding back his laughter.

"Ask the Captain," I replied unhappily, glaring at the culprit.

The captain took a sip of coffee slowly, glanced at me, and seemed to have a hint of smile on his face?

"Orderly, bring her some fruit."

"Puff" Lindemann laughed in a very unpresentable way, and the orderly immediately carried out the order faithfully. Looking at them speechlessly, well, I feel that I have been despised again.

At 8 o'clock in the morning, I started the main engine and slowly sailed out of the anchorage. The first subject was to shoot at floating targets with the secondary guns. This time, the destroyer was responsible for setting the target. When it left the anchorage, it was towing a small boat behind it, about three kilometers away from it. The boat had a large white sail, which was the target I used to shoot.

At nine o'clock in the morning, we arrived at the test sea area. The weather was not very good today. As soon as we left the anchorage, the sky was covered with dark clouds. The sea was very rough. I kept tossing up and down, and sometimes rolling sideways, which was a big test for the aiming of the artillery.

"Captain, this is a bit difficult," I whispered. "The floating target is often invisible, and I find it difficult to aim. I can only use my perception to grasp its approximate direction. The obstruction of the sea water is obvious."

The small boat often reached the bottom of the valley and the top of the waves. Sometimes its view was blocked by the wave walls, and sometimes it was higher than me. The distance difference was really big.

"Let the gunnery officer fire first, you just watch from the side, and you can try the last few shots." The captain turned his head and whispered in my ear

"Ahem." I left without leaving any trace, my face slightly red. Although I knew the captain had no other intentions, I was still a little shy. Captain, your hot breath is reaching my ears! Is this considered harassing subordinates?

“I’ll watch carefully from the sidelines,” I said.

When the destroyer was about five nautical miles away from us, the bombardment began. I didn't know the specific firing process, but I heard the gunner on the top immediately start calculating when he captured the target. He was a professional officer indeed. I can proudly say that the officers on my ship were all top-notch in the German Navy. It didn't take long from the time the target was discovered, and a series of shooting hits were calculated, which was quite fast.

"Enemy ship is 090 yards away, bearing 20, elevation degrees, left degrees, test fire two rounds"

The artillery sergeants had been on standby for a long time, and they began to operate the turrets the moment they received the order - the three twin-mounted 150mm naval guns on my port side were quickly pointed at the target under hydraulic drive.

The atmosphere in the cockpit was extremely quiet. It was no exaggeration to say that one could hear the sound of a pin drop. Everyone was waiting for the moment when the ship's hull would tremble.

However, the sudden increase in the roll made the gunner hesitate to give the order to fire. I was so large that it took a long time to swing back to the horizontal line after missing it. He stared closely at the red line representing the horizontal line.

5 4 3 2 1 I counted silently in my heart, and finally——

"fire!"

"fire!"

The order instantly reached the ears of the gunner. A gun on the port side in front of me trembled violently and a ball of blazing fire erupted. My gun barrel finally let out the first roar!

The bullet whizzed out!

Although the 150mm naval gun was not as abnormal as the 380mm, its recoil still shook everyone, including me, severely because it was right next to the bridge. At that moment, I felt my ears buzzing.

As soon as the shell was fired, I immediately used my perception to track its trajectory, and quickly recorded various parameters, which will be an important reference for me to design the trajectory myself. As an aside, since I became a battleship, I feel that my logical calculation ability has increased day by day. I was a liberal arts student in my previous life. Everyone can relate to my dislike for mathematics. However, my mental arithmetic ability and sensitivity to various numbers are completely improved. Unknowingly, I can skillfully use various calculation and processing methods. When I deal with a problem at full speed, I feel more and more that my brain is close to a computer.

Then again, the captain and his men didn't have my perception, they just picked up binoculars at the same time to observe the damage effects.

In my mind, two naval guns flew over the small boat and blasted water more than ten meters high on the sea surface on the other side. The huge shock wave shook the small boat.

"Two missiles overshot the target and nearly missed it. Correct the trajectory!" the gunner shouted, and someone immediately began calculating the parameters. After a while, the corrected trajectory came out again.

The first round of artillery fire rarely hits the target directly, so rarely that the captain and his men basically don't look at the effect of the first round, but only look at the deviation. The small deviation is considered qualified. This time, the gunner achieved a near miss on the first test, which is already very good.

"Correct trajectory, elevation 19 degrees, bearing 085, fire!"

"fire!"

My cannon roared again, but by this time I had quickly adapted to the situation and the huge explosion had no effect on me.

I followed its trajectory. The shell formed a beautiful parabola, crossing nearly ten kilometers of water. I only heard a dull "bang". This time it hit the hull of the wooden boat very smoothly, making two large holes in it. However, because the wooden boat was too small, the fuse was not fired at the right time, so a violent explosion occurred after passing through.

There was a cheer in the bridge; the second test shot hit the target, which was a very good result.

The gunner immediately gave another order: "The parameters remain unchanged, fire on the port side, fire!"

The three turrets on the port side opened fire at the same time, and after a burst of intense water spray, the wooden ship completely disappeared from our sight.

"Beautiful!" Lindeman couldn't help but punched

"Notify Z56, drop target number two and begin mobile target shooting"

"Yes, Captain."

The second wooden boat was lowered by the destroyer and connected to it by a cable, and was towed across the sea at a speed of 20 knots.

"You are in control this time. Block out the gunner's voice and don't listen to his parameters. Just fire when he gives the order." The captain glanced at me.

"What if my parameters don't match the gunner's?" I worried. "Won't the gunner find it strange?"

"It's strange, but you are on sea trial now, there will always be 'problems'," the captain said as a matter of course.

"Uh" I was speechless

"Okay, I'll try."

I gritted my teeth and prepared to go all out.

"No, Captain," I shrank back when I was about to reach the end.

Although I knew this day would come sooner or later, I was still worried when I was asked to fire the cannon myself. After all, I grew up carefree in a peaceful era, so I always felt at a loss when I came into contact with such a deadly weapon.

"Captain, this is a mobile target. What if we can't control it well and hit a destroyer?" I said hesitantly, "There are a lot of people on that ship. I have no experience in firing a cannon."

“I’m afraid I can’t do it”

The captain's eyes suddenly fixed on my face, and I was so nervous.

"If you can still turn around after three miles, it means you can go back to the factory," the captain sneered. His eyes were heavy. "Bismarck, don't forget your identity. You are a warship. It is your duty to obey orders. Being timid and hesitant will only hurt you in the end! Why are there so many whys! Even if the person in front is your own, you must fire as long as the superior orders you to!"

"What are you now? Disobeying orders during wartime? If it were my crew, I would have slapped him a long time ago, do you understand?"

The captain's voice was low but his tone was stern. My face turned red all of a sudden. This was the first time I was reprimanded mercilessly by the captain since we met.

"I..."

"You don't have to answer. Just tell me if what I said is right or not. You don't consider yourself a soldier at all! Look at how weak you are inside. If you have to worry about this, how can you go to the battlefield?" The captain continued, the sarcasm and disdain in his tone so obvious, mocking my ridiculous naivety.

"Seeing your behavior, I doubt whether you will disobey orders on the battlefield! With such behavior, you will definitely not survive on the battlefield."

"I thought you should understand what Lindemann said to you." The captain shook his head in disappointment.

The captain's voice was like a thunderbolt that struck directly into my heart.

"I..." My eyes were filled with tears. Although I felt wronged, I had nothing to say. The captain's words were hard to hear, but every word was precious. Although I kept saying that I wanted to survive on the battlefield and wait until the end of World War II, I never consciously achieved this goal. Hesitation, fear of blood, and even escaping from reality, I have many taboos, but all I have is a heart that loves my country and wants to go home?

What a irony, I thought to myself.

When I encounter the Hood in the future, will I refuse to obey orders because I don't dare to kill people? I simulated it and found to my dismay that this disobedience situation might be difficult to occur, but the psychological burden caused by killing thousands of people at once is very likely, and the direct consequence is a significant decrease in combat effectiveness. As Lindemann said last time, there are pros and cons to a battleship having its own soul, so he warned me to have a goal that I would strive for unremittingly. But I didn't fully understand what he said.

what should I do?

Don't think too much! A voice in my heart suddenly became louder, trust your captain, the warship and the captain should be one, you have to combine your goals with the captain's goals, he will not harm you!

Obey his orders! To achieve your goals, you need to take practical actions!

I suddenly became enlightened, and my eyes became clear again

"Captain, I understand. I will do my best to complete the mission," I wiped my eyes and gritted my teeth and insisted, determined to overcome the hurdle in my heart no matter what.

The captain glanced at me, his face still expressionless, but there was a flash of relief in his eyes, as if he saw a lost child finally find his way home.

He snorted, "Don't let me down."

"Bismarck won't!"

At this moment, I truly recognized my identity. I am Bismarck, the most powerful battleship in Germany! An unyielding battleship that fights until it sinks!