Chapter 474 Hood's Fate (Part 2)

"Lieutenant General, 15 enemy ships seem to be changing into a double column."

At 0:48 a.m. on June 11, the radar of the battlecruiser Hood, which was heading south, found that the oncoming German fleet suddenly changed from a single column to a double column.

"Lieutenant General, one of the columns is speeding towards us!"

Two minutes later, the radar officer reported loudly again.

"That's a destroyer squadron," Vice Admiral Holland said calmly, "The German radar may not be as good as ours, so the destroyers need to fire flares."

Now Britain already has a fire control radar code-named "Type 284", which was installed on the Hood and Prince of Wales in March 1941. Therefore, these two battleships can fire at night without the help of flares.

However, the German radar is slightly worse and cannot serve as a fire control radar. However, the FuMo22-H radar can still determine the approximate location of the enemy ship, and then the light cruiser and destroyer can fire flares.

"Let the Edinburgh, Electra, Echo, Adventure and Cossack form a formation to engage the enemy destroyers."

Vice Admiral Holland immediately adjusted the deployment and sent a light cruiser and three destroyers to prevent the German cruiser formation from firing flares.

Four British warships quickly came out of the queue, formed a formation, and then rushed towards the formation of six German ships at a speed of 32 knots - the six German ships were "Berlin", "Vienna", T13, T14, T15 and T16.

The first exchange of fire was between these four British ships and the six German ships.

The first to open fire was the SP-class "Vienna", which fired flares over the British light cruiser "Edinburgh" that was in the front. Then the "Edinburgh" also fired flares, illuminating the "Vienna" (at this time, there was no fire control radar on the British light cruisers and destroyers).

Then, the "Edinburgh" and "Vienna" became live targets to attract shells. The unfortunate thing was that the German "Vienna" was hit by 4 6-inch shells and 3 4-inch shells in less than 5 minutes. Many parts of the hull caught fire and had to withdraw from the battle under the cover of smoke released by the destroyer. The situation of the British "Edinburgh" was much better. It was a "10,000-ton light cruiser". Although the main gun caliber was only 6 inches, there were as many as 12 guns and the armor was relatively strong. Therefore, it was still not a big deal to be hit by several German 150mm shells. After repelling the "Vienna", it aimed its guns at the 7,800-ton "Berlin".

At the same time, the confrontation between battleships and heavy cruisers began! The first to open fire was the "Hood". When the "Hood" approached the main German fleet to 23,000 meters, Vice Admiral Holland ordered to open fire. The target was the first battleship in the German fleet - Vice Admiral Holland thought it was a battleship, but it was actually the heavy cruiser "Prince Eugen". After the "Hood" opened fire, the "Prince of Wales" also opened fire, and its target was the second battleship in the German fleet. The British also thought it was a battleship, but it was actually the heavy cruiser "Lützow".

Rear Admiral Erich Bey formed an unexpected and strange formation, with two heavy cruisers in front and the battleship "Gneisenau" in the third position of the column. As a result, the "Hood" and the "Prince of Wales" were fooled and mistook the two heavy cruisers for opponents.

While the British fleet opened fire, Rear Admiral Erich Bey ordered the fleet to turn 200 degrees to the left in order to seize the T-head position. His fleet now ran at a top speed of 32.5 knots, while the British fleet could only maintain a speed of 28 knots. Although the Hood ran at 29 knots in the sea trial after the last overhaul, considering the age of the Hood, no one dared to let it use its full strength.

Long before the start of this naval battle, the generals and elite staff of the British Royal Navy had studied ways to deal with these fast German warships. According to the Royal Navy's gunnery experts, Vice Admiral Holtworth, who once served as the captain of the Hood, and Vice Admiral Holland, the current captain of the Hood, agreed. When the Hood confronted the German fast battleship, it should face the enemy with the bow, so as to reduce the area of ​​bullets as much as possible, and then turn to exert the power of all main guns after the two sides were close. At the same time, it can use the thickest side armor to face the enemy to prevent the weak deck from being hit vertically by the enemy's 380mm shells.

This tactic, to be fair, is very suitable for the British fleet battleships, which are slower but more powerful and have thick armor, but the Hood is a battlecruiser with a thin skin and a large body. However, Holland still uses this tactic today. Facing the turn of the main fleet of the German fleet, the Hood and the Prince of Wales chose to attack at full speed. Therefore, the German fleet successfully seized the T-head position.

When the two sides were about 18,000 meters apart, the fast cruiser "Prague" in the German fleet fired flares, which landed accurately around the "Hood", covering this battlecruiser, which was as huge as a mountain, in a dazzling white light.

Then the main gun of the "Gneisenau" and the main guns of the "Prince Eugen" and "Lützow" opened fire at the same time. All 22 guns were aimed at the "Hood" which was in the front, while the "Hood" and "Prince of Wales" could only fight back with the 4 15-inch guns and 6 14-inch guns on the bow.

When the German battleships and heavy cruisers opened fire, Vice Admiral Holland realized that he had just hit the wrong target. He quickly ordered the "Hood" and "Prince of Wales" to aim at the "Gneisenau" again and fire. At this moment, a 203mm shell from the "Prince Eugen" actually hit the "Hood".

The impact point was an anti-aircraft gun shell storage box on the starboard midship deck. These ammunition storage boxes installed outside the armored deck were hit during the battle of the "Scharnhorst" in 1939. Later, when the "Hood" was overhauled, some of the ammunition boxes were moved below the deck. However, due to the increasing threat of German air power, many anti-aircraft guns had to be temporarily installed, and the ammunition boxes of these anti-aircraft guns were installed on the deck. As a result, it was hit again this time, and the ammunition exploded and a fire was caused.

Vice Admiral Holland secretly shouted "bad", it was a night battle now, and if someone caught fire, wouldn't it become a live target that absorbs shells? In this case, it would be inconvenient to escape!

"Order damage control to rescue and put out the fire immediately." Vice Admiral Holland paused, and then issued another order: "The whole team turned left 280 degrees!"

He felt that he could not get closer to the other side, and was ready to keep his formation parallel to the German formation. But at this moment, the shells from the "Prince Eugen" hit the "Hood" again, and the huge vibration caused by the explosion of the shells caused the 284 fire control radar of the "Hood" to malfunction. Without the fire control radar, Holland could only order the secondary guns of the "Hood" to fire flares. But before the flares were fired, the "Gneisenau" fired a "cross-fire" at the "Hood".

"Damn it!" Vice Admiral Holland took a breath of cold air. "Cross-fire" means that the landing point of the shells is scattered around the front, back, left and right of the ship. This shows that the enemy ship's firepower has "caught" the "Hood", and when to hit is a matter of probability.

Moreover, the "Gneisenau" has now been replaced with a 380mm main gun. If it hits the "Hood", it will be a big trouble.

Vice Admiral Holland had already begun to retreat at this time. His mission was to lure the enemy. Now that he has not lured the "Bismarck", he has only lured a "Gneisenau" and it can be regarded as completing the mission.

So he ordered the fleet to turn left 200 degrees and prepare to turn around and escape. But within 1 minute of the order being issued, the 10,000-ton light cruiser "Edinburgh", which had run to the north of the "Hood" because of the entanglement with the German patrol squadron, suddenly sent a message that terrified him: an unidentified fleet appeared 25 nautical miles to the north, with more than 20 ships, and was moving south quickly!

There were actually 20 German ships in the north! Holland suddenly had a premonition that he was doomed. He now knew that there was a German battleship to his south, the "Gneisenau" with only 6 guns, so the remaining two "Bismarcks" would probably go around to the north. Now it was just right to attack the "Gneisenau" from the north and south!

"Turn right 250 degrees!" Vice Admiral Holland, who was a little desperate, ordered to turn again. This time he would not go to the north, but to break out to the southwest.

"Send a telegram to the Nelson, telling us that our fleet is in a tough battle. Please go south immediately to reinforce!"

Then Vice Admiral Holland ordered the radio station to send a distress telegram to the Nelson. Now the A Fleet, with the Nelson as its flagship, is less than 60 nautical miles away from the Shetland Islands. If they drive faster, they can arrive in 3 hours...

Unfortunately, the Hood doesn't have 3 hours to wait.

Due to the back and forth turns, the firepower of the Hood and the Prince of Wales was not fully utilized. The German fleet on the opposite side was still intact, and the distance between the two ships quickly approached the German fleet to about 13,000 meters. At this time, the fire on the Hood was still not extinguished, and it became a good target in the dark.

At 1:15 a.m. on June 11, the Gneisenau fired its 10th salvo, and the Prince Eugen and Lutzow fired their 18th and 16th salvos. One shell fired by each of the three ships hit the Hood almost at the same time, and all hit the deck. Among them, a 380mm main gun shell fired by the Gneisenau hit the lifeboat deck behind the main mast of the Hood.

No one knew what was ignited, but a lot of smoke suddenly came out of the lifeboat deck and a very dull explosion sounded. Although the sound was not very loud, it was very intense, and the back half of the Hood was immediately covered by black smoke. Then a violent explosion occurred on the Hood. The explosion occurred in the middle and rear part of the hull. Almost in an instant, the entire warship was engulfed in smoke and flames...