Chapter 478 Who Owns the Sea Power?

"Boom, boom, boom..."

The bombs fell one after another on the armored deck of the "Ark Royal" aircraft carrier, and then turned into hot fireballs, devouring everything around them. It was unknown what was ignited, and a fire broke out on the deck of the aircraft carrier. However, the weakness of the 250 kg bomb's insufficient penetration ability was immediately revealed. Although the accuracy of these Fokker 99 bombings exceeded 60%, no bomb could penetrate the core cabin and hangar armor of the "Ark Royal". The power of the bombs falling from high altitude and exploding only severely damaged the armored deck of the "Ark Royal", making it impossible for aircraft to take off and land on it, and did not cause fatal damage to the aircraft carrier.

"I am Lieutenant Hessman, the commander-in-chief of the air raid," Little Hessman had led 24 escort fighters to clear the direct cover aircraft over the "Ark Royal", and finally had the energy to command the bombing. "Stop attacking the aircraft carrier, the new target is the cruiser!"

He had discovered that the 250 kg bomb dropped by the Fokker 99 was unlikely to sink the "Ark Royal", so he ordered the remaining Fokker 99s to drop the bombs on the light cruiser "Fiji" escorting the "Ark Royal".

After hearing his order, the 14 Fokker 99s that had not yet dropped their bombs immediately turned their noses and dived towards the 8,000-ton light cruiser one after another. One of the 16 planes was hit and shot down, and 10 of the bombs dropped by the remaining 15 planes hit the "Fiji", and 2 were near misses. The 250 kg aerial bombs, which had no effect on armored aircraft carriers, were very powerful when attacking light cruisers. After being hit by 10 bombs, the Fiji quickly turned into a sea of ​​fire. Three minutes later, the fire spread to the ammunition depot at the bow of the Fiji, exploding the 6-inch shells inside. With a loud bang, the cruiser broke into two sections and sank into the sea in a very short time.

However, the attack on the Ark Royal did not end there. After the attack on the Fokker 99 ended, Hirschmann Jr. ordered 19 Fokker Zeros to escort the 33 Fokker 99s that had completed the attack (3 of them were shot down) back, and he and the remaining Fokker Zeros (one of them was also lost) stayed in the air near the Ark Royal to serve as escorts for the 24 S.M.79s and 16 escorting Fokker Zeros that were on their way. They came from Stavanger, 820 kilometers away from the location of the Ark Royal, and needed to fly continuously for 2 and a half hours. Moreover, they took off 45 minutes later than the time when Hessman took off from the Seydlitz, so it would take another hour to arrive.

While Hessman was slowly waiting for the S.M.79 to arrive, two major events happened in the Shetland Islands.

First, the Prince of Wales was bombed to pieces and finally ran aground in Lerwick Harbor. This 38,000-ton battleship was bombed by two waves of aircraft, a total of 170 or 80 Ju88s and S.M.79s. It was hit by 4 1,000-kilogram bombs and 6 500-kilogram bombs, 2 of the 3 main gun turrets were blown off, and the bow without any armor was almost blown to pieces. A large amount of seawater poured in, causing serious water inflow to the bow. In addition, the battleship's command tower was also hit by a 1,000-kilogram bomb. Except for the captain John Leech who was seriously injured, all the others in the command tower were killed. Finally, the chief engineer took over the command temporarily, and barely drove the battleship to Lerwick Beach and ran aground, and then all the crew members abandoned the ship and left.

And another big thing is happening now!

"Torpedo! Dodge!"

Another three TBD torpedo bombers dropped three 450 kg aerial torpedoes in the dense anti-aircraft fire like raindrops. Because of the gun battle with the four battleships of the British Home Fleet, the German First High Seas Fleet could not form an air defense formation, and it was impossible to cover it with the 24 direct-cover aircraft in the air. These direct-cover aircraft can only focus on protecting the middle and high altitudes to prevent SBD dive bombers from dropping 1,000-pound bombs. As for the TBD torpedo attack aircraft, it was dealt with by anti-aircraft guns. The result was that the "Bismarck" was hit by a torpedo 5 minutes ago, and now it was broken through the anti-aircraft fire network by three TBDs (Bismarck's anti-aircraft guns also shot down 6 TBDs).

Three black barracuda-like shadows, dragging white wakes from the blue waves, rushed towards the stern of the battleship "Bismarck". Captain Lindemann personally steered the ship and dodged two of them, but one torpedo still hit the burly body of the "Bismarck". The ship, with a full load displacement of more than 50,000 tons, just trembled for a moment and continued to move forward as if it was unscathed. While sailing forward, it also bombarded the battleship "Nelson" 23,000 meters away with 8 380mm naval guns.

Just when the people in the command tower were proud of the sturdiness of the "Bismarck", Colonel Lindemann suddenly shouted: "Admiral! The rudder seems to be out of order..."

"Rudder failure?" Gunther Lütjens was startled by Lindemann's words, "Then where are we heading now?"

"The current course is southwest..."

"Are we heading to the British mainland?" Gunther Lütjens asked.

The Bismarck's navigator replied: "Admiral, if we do not change our course, the fleet will sail to Holland."

"Then go at full speed and get rid of the British fleet!" Gunther Lütjens gritted his teeth and looked at the "Nelson" in the distance with some reluctance. Because of its speed advantage, the German fleet has always occupied a favorable position and can focus on 22 380mm heavy guns and 1 heavy gun to bombard the "Nelson", while the British fleet can only fight back with 6 16-inch cannons. Therefore, the advantage in the artillery battle was entirely on the side of the German fleet. The "Nelson" had been hit by several bullets. Although it was not "stricken to the soul" like the "Hood", it was still beaten and was on fire. If we could fight for a few more hours, we might be able to sink the "Nelson".

But now, we can only let the "Nelson" go and withdraw from the battle with our tail between our legs. Of course, it is not possible to run all the way to the Netherlands. After withdrawing from the battle, the "Bismarck" will be towed by the "Tirpitz" to change its course, and then withdraw to Wilhelmshaven for overhaul.

"Admiral, it seems the Germans have escaped?"

On the "Nelson", Admiral Tovey, commander of the British Home Fleet, watched the German fleet speed away and let out a sigh of relief.

"How is the condition of the Prince of Wales?" Admiral Tovey asked.

"Heavily damaged and stranded on Lerwick Beach... 2 main gun turrets were blown off, and the bow of the ship was almost blown apart. The damage was very heavy!"

In fact, it is almost as good as sinking in battle, and the "Prince of Wales" was stranded in Lerwick, which is very close to Bergen and Stavanger. German planes will definitely continue to come for air raids, and sooner or later it will be completely destroyed. Blow up.

"After all, it didn't sink. We have completed the mission." Admiral Tovey smiled bitterly, "However, we lost the 'Reputation' and the 'Hood' in this battle, and the 'Prince of Wales' was severely damaged and ran aground. The result of the battle was only one German mothership, really..."

Before he finished speaking, the communications officer spoke in a tone that sounded like a funeral: "Admiral, telegram from Fleet C, the 'Ark Royal' was attacked by an S.M.79 torpedo bomber again and hit 3 torpedoes. It’s ****18 degrees now, a lot of water has entered the engine room, and the main engine has stopped running. Now Lieutenant General Somerville is organizing manpower to make full efforts to repair..."

"What?" Admiral Tovey opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but nothing came out. He knows... the local fleet will most likely lose the "Ark Royal"! Because the Germans will not let go of an aircraft carrier that loses power.

Reputation, Hood, Prince of Wales, and now Ark Royal! In addition, the fierce air battles in these two or three days cost the UK at least thousands of aircraft and hundreds of pilots... What a heavy loss!

Without these important warships, the balance of naval strength between Britain and Germany has reversed in the North Sea, Norwegian Sea and English Channel. If the United States did not enter the war soon, Britain would lose the war.

"Vice Admiral, I suggest that the fleet headquarters be transferred." Colonel Scott walked into the command tower with a sad face. His trousers were soaked. It was obvious that he had just walked in the water.

"Can't you close the gap?" Lieutenant General Somerville looked at Scott and asked.

Scott shook his head, "The damage pipe is blocked as much as possible, but there is no power, the water pump cannot operate, and there is always more and more sea water..."

It is impossible to completely seal the breach. This requires major repairs at the shipyard. At sea, it can only be blocked haphazardly. Seawater will still flow into the breach, but less of it will come in. If the pump works, then as long as more water escapes than leaks in, the ship will not sink.

"Now we can only inject water to maintain balance and completely seal the engine room." Captain Scott said, "Then let other warships tow it back to Scotland... If the Germans launch another attack, the 'Royal Ark' will be completely finished! "

"They will definitely come again!" Lieutenant General Somerville smiled bitterly, "Let's arrange for most of the people to evacuate. As long as the war is not over, we still need these outstanding naval personnel."

Somerville's guess was not wrong. Just as he left the "Ark Royal", the Stavanger base sent hundreds of bombers, torpedo planes and fighter jets to form an attack group, heading in the direction of the "Ark Royal" It's coming. At the same time, two German motherships commanded by Helmut Heyer also took the risk of sending a second assault wave. Under the attack of these two waves of German attack aircraft, at 10:13 am on June 11, the aircraft carrier "Ark Royal" overturned and sank to the bottom of the sea.