Chapter 477 Royal Ark

When the top of the bridge of the "Prince of Wales" was hit by a heavy bomb, the two fleets also launched an artillery battle on the North Sea east of the Shetland Islands.

Admiral Gunther Lütjens, wearing a straight military uniform and white gloves, stood in the bridge of the "Bismarck" with an impeccable posture, as if he was about to be inspected by His Majesty the Kaiser.

Two "Bismarck" class ships, one "Scharnhorst" class ship and two "Admiral Hipper" class ships were lined up, with 22 380mm heavy guns and 1 heavy cruiser main gun all aimed at the north. The rapidly approaching British fleet.

Everyone held their breath and concentrated, and no one even noticed the fierce sea and air battle going on in Lerwick Port not far away.

After wandering around the port of Lerwick for two hours, I finally waited for the bombers flying from Bergen and Stavanger. Just when I thought I could make a triumphant return, a huge British fleet actually appeared in Germany. In front of a high seas fleet.

The main force of this British fleet is a Nelson-class battleship, a Prestige-class battlecruiser (Repulse), a King George V-class battleship, plus an outdated Revenge-class battleship (Ramillis) . A total of 16 15-inch guns, 10 14-inch guns, and 9 16-inch guns.

In terms of firepower, it far exceeds the fleet commanded by Admiral Lütjens, but it is daytime now! Moreover, the sea surface where the battle took place was only three to four hundred kilometers away from Bergen and Stavanger.

As long as the German fleet can hold on for another two hours, the 24 Ju88s, 24 S.M.79s, 16 Fokker Zeros and 16 Fw-190s that took off from Stavanger will fly over to give the British battleships a hard time. Yes.

Moreover, the previous record of the "Gneisenno" (possibly the "Eugen" or the "Lützow") sinking the "Hood" also gave Admiral Gunther Lütjens a lot of confidence. . He knew that in theory, the 380mm main gun of the "Gneisenno" would be difficult to deal with the armor of the "Hood", let alone penetrate the ammunition magazine with one shot. Therefore, the results achieved by the "Gneisenno" were most likely caused by cutting corners and using substandard armor steel plates.

If the armor steel plate of "Hood" is unqualified, then other British battleships may have the same problem, so Gunther Lütjens wanted to try his luck. If another shot blows up the "Nelson", then the control of the North Sea and the Norwegian Sea will almost be obtained.

"Seize the T-head position, target the Nelson, and concentrate your firepower!"

Gunther Lütjens gave the order. Because the maximum speed of the "Nelson" class is only 23 knots, and the "Revenge" class is only 21.5 knots. Therefore, the speed of the British fleet can only be maintained at 21.5 knots. The speed of the German fleet was as high as 29 knots, a difference of 7.5 knots, so there was no problem in grabbing a T-shaped position.

However, the "Nelson", the leader of the British fleet, was not easy to deal with. Although its speed was relatively slow, it had a 16-inch main gun and strong armor.

"Distance 28,000 meters."

"Course southeast, 20 degrees to the left, and start calculating the bombardment of Zhuyuan."

"The order of formation: Nelson vs. Bismarck, King George V vs. Tirpitz, Renown vs. Gneisenno, Ramillies vs. Admiral Hipper (actually Eugen Prince)..."

At the same time, in the bridge of the battleship "Nelson", the gunnery staff had laid out the bombardment plan and stood in front of the console with a phone in hand, waiting for Admiral Tovey to issue the final order.

Tovey picked up the telescope, but instead of looking at the enemy ships on the sea, he was looking up at the sky. He was looking for the carrier-based air groups sent by the "Ark Royal" and the "Formidable" - the SBD dive bombers and TBD torpedo bombers on these two aircraft carriers were the aces of the home fleet!

Admiral Tovey does not expect these 41 SBDs and TBDs to sink a German battleship. This requirement is really too high. After all, there are now more than a dozen Fokker Zeros escorting the German fleet, and they will not let British aircraft drop bombs and torpedoes comfortably.

However, there is still hope for damage. As long as a German battleship can be severely damaged and slowed down by the bombing, Fleet A can avenge the "Hood".

"Admiral," the Nelson's radar officer suddenly shouted excitedly, "the radar has detected a group of unidentified aircraft, more than 50 in the northwest direction!"

"That's our plane, they came just in time!" Tovey clapped his hands and ordered loudly, "We are now turning with the German fleet, keeping the distance at 23,000 meters, and we cannot let them grab the T-shaped formation under any circumstances. head!"

After the painful lesson of the "Hood" last night, Admiral Tovey now does not dare to get too close to the German battleships, let alone let the "Nelson" use the bow to attack the enemy.

"Admiral! The radar has detected enemy planes, more than 50 in number, flying from the northwest, 80 kilometers away!"

The search radar on the "Bismarck" had also discovered the incoming British aircraft at this time. General Gunther Lütjens frowned. We were about to have an artillery battle with the British now, and we couldn't set up an air defense formation. These British planes arrived at the right time.

But Gunther Lütjens had no other options now. He couldn't run away. Because the British fleet chose to turn at the same time as the German fleet at a distance of 23,000 meters, the two sides were now sailing in parallel. Even if the German fleet wanted to break away, it had to exchange fire while using speed to shake off the other side, and it couldn't turn around and give its butt to the other side. Therefore, Lütjens had to order the direct cover aircraft group to block the British aircraft, and at the same time ordered the fleet to maintain a maximum speed of 29 knots, ready to turn again to seize the T-head position at any time.

…

"Lieutenant Hessman, at two o'clock, the target is found!"

Just as the British carrier-based aircraft approached the main force of the German High Seas Fleet, little Hessman, who was the commander-in-chief of the first air strike assault wave of the German aircraft carrier part, heard a good news from the headset that made him feel comfortable.

Because he was driving a fighter, it was very inconvenient to serve as the commander-in-chief. Originally, Major Max was going to arrange someone else to be the commander-in-chief. It was because he argued that he was able to command this wave of air strikes as the acting commander of the 1st Carrier Aircraft Squadron according to convention.

But who knew that after the first assault wave flew over the location where the British fleet was found, they circled for a long time and still couldn't find the British aircraft carrier. This made little Hessman very anxious. If he returned empty-handed in the end, it would be a bit embarrassing.

Fortunately, Hessman's baby son had good luck. After drilling out of a thick cloud, a British fleet suddenly appeared on the sea.

"1 aircraft carrier, 1 cruiser, and 6 destroyers!"

"Found it, found it!"

A cheer came from the headset.

Little Hessman also shouted excitedly: "God bless Germany! It's our turn...!"

Seeing the Fokker Zero and Fokker 99 coming out of the clouds, Somerville's eyes almost fell out.

He was not surprised by these suddenly appearing German planes. The radar on the "Royal Ark" had already discovered them. Otherwise, the Ark Royal would not have hidden under a large cloud (the Formidable hid under another cloud under the protection of several other cruisers and destroyers).

But he did not expect that there would be a Fokker 99 carrier-based dive bomber among the German planes that came to bomb!

This is a carrier-based aircraft! And according to intelligence, there is no Fokker 99 in the German shore-based aviation force, only two aircraft carriers and carrier-based aircraft training bases have Fokker 99!

Now that the Fokker 99 appears here, it means that there must be a German aircraft carrier nearby, and it is the "only" aircraft carrier - if it can be found and sunk, the Royal Navy can continue to control the sea with the advantage of aircraft carriers!

"Send a telegram to the Coastal Air Command and ask them to send aircraft to search the waters 300-400 nautical miles east of us!"

Just as Somerville loudly ordered the communications officer on the Ark Royal, a fierce air battle had already begun over the aircraft carrier. Because the radar had detected the incoming enemy planes in advance, Somerville naturally sent out all 12 Seafires in his hands. In addition, the British Coastal Air and Sea Command sent 8 P-51s to cover the Ark Royal.

But how could 12 Seafires and 8 P-51s piloted by rookie pilots stop 24 Fokker Zeros piloted by ace pilots?

"Open the jets, and fight quickly!" Little Hessman did not intend to dawdle with these 20 enemy planes, and ordered all Fokker Zero pilots to "take medicine" for the engines right away. After turning on the jet combustion system, the 24 Fokker Zeros suddenly accelerated, like 24 tigers with wings, and swooped down on the British planes on the opposite side, and soon shot down several Seafires and P-51s.

Just as the Fokker Zeros were chasing the Seafires and P-51s, 36 Fokker Zeros also began to break through.

Although British surface ships have been continuously strengthening their anti-aircraft firepower over the past year or so, the 40mm caliber anti-aircraft guns selected by the British Admiralty for their ships are "ping-pong guns" with a fast firing rate but a short range. Moreover, their large-caliber anti-aircraft guns also do not have radio proximity fuses, so they are not a big threat to dive bombers such as the Fokker 99. The anti-aircraft firepower network fired by the ship-borne anti-aircraft guns cannot stop the Fokker 99's attack at all!

The first 250 kg armor-piercing bomb dropped by Lieutenant Hans Ulrich Rudel accurately hit the armored deck of the "Ark Royal"...