Chapter 731: The Spear of the German Navy

“Boom boom boom…

December 9, 14:40.

The rumbling sound of artillery sounded on the North Atlantic Ocean 300 nautical miles west of Iceland, but it was not the battleship's main gun that fired, but the anti-aircraft gun on the battleship.

Comrade Bulganin looked up at the dazzling white light outside the bridge and narrowed his eyes involuntarily. There are German planes circling in the sky now and dropping flares! The anti-aircraft firepower on the Soviet Union, 10 other battleships, and other cruisers and destroyers protecting the battleships were fully activated, weaving a fire net over the battleships. From time to time, German aircraft were hit and caught fire!

However, the flares continued to be dropped, covering the fast-moving battleship in an uncomfortable white light.

What did Nazi imperialism want to do? What's the conspiracy?

Bulganin turned his head and looked at Kuznetsov, who looked heroic and stood upright, as if he was a naval god.

"Comrade Military Commissar, the enemy may want to launch an air attack!" Kuznetsov said, "But please don't worry, we have been prepared. All ships are equipped with jammers provided by the Americans, which can interfere with remote-controlled gliding. The bomb's radio signal, so this Nazi weapon is no threat to us now."

The "radio jammers" Kuznetsov calls actually do nothing. The Jewish beauty Hedy Lamarr, who became famous because of her nakedness, is now an honorary Aryan and a baroness of the Kingdom of Croatia-Hungary - her husband is an Austrian arms tycoon, who is also an honorary Aryan, and is also a baroness for helping the Kingdom of Croatia-Hungary. Constructed arsenal and was made a baron by King Otto (Habsburg). Therefore, the spread spectrum technology (frequency hopping technology) mastered by Hedy Lamarr did not flow to the United Kingdom and the United States.

Therefore, American scientists still do not know the communication technology principles of the German radio-controlled bombs, and naturally they have no way to develop an effective jamming device. The radio jammers provided by the Americans can only interfere with radio signals in a single band, which is actually just a psychological comfort.

However, the Germans' remote-controlled gliding bombs were not dropped because the battleship was a high-speed moving target, and the flares hanging on the parachutes could not follow the movement of the battleship. Therefore, the battleship was only occasionally illuminated and sailed in darkness most of the time. It was difficult for the operator aboard the Ju288 bomber to find targets on the water.

"The enemy wants to determine the order of our formations," Admiral Ingersoll corrected after learning the conversation between Bulganin and Kuznetsov through an interpreter, "and then they can decide the order of the bombardment."

Now the two fleets have met on a narrow road at sea! Although the ship-borne sea search radars of both sides have not yet discovered each other, both sides are followed by seaplane carriers that can carry medium and large seaplanes. The Germans released He-115 and Bv-138C long-range seaplanes. The Americans released Catalina seaplanes, and the British also had several Sunderland "Short" seaplanes available.

So when the two fleets were still more than 100 nautical miles apart, both sides had already discovered each other's position. However, radar detection alone cannot determine the opponent's ship type and queue order, so the German He-115 seaplane will take the risk of lowering its altitude to release flares.

…

"Your Excellency, Marshal, the enemy's battleships and battlecruisers seem to have formed two columns, advancing in parallel." In the bridge of the battleship Hindenburg, Lieutenant General William Messer said with the report he had just received, "One column consists of 2 South Dakota-class ships and 4 Soviet-class ships, and the other column consists of 3 King George V-class ships and 2 Kronshtadt-class ships."

"What is the specific queue order?" Admiral Lütjens asked.

"The first column has two South Dakota-class ships in the front, and four Soviet-class ships in the back. The second column has three King George V-class ships in the front, and two Kronshtadt-class ships in the back."

"Is this to facilitate unified sighting?" Lütjens said to himself, "The Soviet-class and Kronstadt-class were originally equipped with the Soviet Union's own radar and fire control systems, which should be very bad. Although they replaced American goods in New York, it is impossible for the Soviets to master American goods so quickly... So the solution is to have one South Dakota class and one King George V class responsible for observation. "

His analysis was completely correct. The Soviet optical sighting equipment, fire control equipment and radar were very poor. So they replaced them with the best American products in New York. However, the quality of the Soviet sailors was not high and it was impossible to master American equipment so quickly (these two types of equipment are very different, even the sizes are different, one is metric and the other is Imperial). Fortunately, this problem has little impact on naval battles. The tactics of unified sighting and concentrated firepower can be adopted. In this way, as long as the South Dakota class and King George V class find the target accurately, the Soviet class and Kronshtadt class can hit it. ——In fact, the European Combined Fleet also does this when focusing fire.

"We will fight with four columns!" Lütjens thought for a moment and said, "The first squadron is led by Hindenburg as the flagship, and the order is Admiral Hipper, Ludendorff, Hindenburg, Veneto, Littorio, Roma, and Empire, to deal with 4 Soviet-class and 2 South Dakota-class ships; the second squadron is led by Bismarck as the flagship, and the order is Prinz Eugen, Tirpitz, Bismarck, Jean Bart, Napoleon (Clemenceau), Barbarossa (O-class), and Schlieffen (O-class); The third squadron, with Gneisenau as the flagship, is in the order of Blücher, Gneisenau, Dunkerque, Europaburg (Strasbourg), Kaiser Wilhelm II (P-class), Friedrich I (P-class), Theresa Maria (P-class).

In addition, a heavy cruiser squadron is formed, with Lützow as the flagship, and in the order of Lützow, Foch, Colbert, Fiume, Gorisia, and Pola. "

"Marshal, let the heavy cruiser squadron take the lead?" Vice Admiral Messer asked.

"No, go hand in hand." Lütjens said with a smile, "Our Admiral Hipper-class heavy cruisers are often mistaken for battleships, which is just right to confuse the enemy."

The German Admiral Hipper-class heavy cruisers are huge in size, with superstructures very similar to the Bismarck-class, and turrets are also 4 twin-mounted. Therefore, they are often mistaken in past battles. The German Navy also discovered this, so they liked to put the Admiral Hipper class at the head of the battleship formation to lure the enemy fleet to fire first - this is very advantageous in fleet artillery battles, because if the wrong target is found, several rounds of shells will be fired empty, and it takes time to re-aim and shoot, which will delay the time when the German battleships are hit by the enemy.

So the cunning Marshal Lütjens arranged four columns advancing in parallel today, and the leading ships were all Admiral Hipper class heavy cruisers that looked very similar to the Bismarck class, the purpose was to confuse the enemy.

"The vanguard arranged reconnaissance cruisers and light cruisers?" Lieutenant General Messer was a little worried, "The enemy is likely to send out heavy cruisers, and they have an advantage in the number of heavy cruisers."

Heavy cruisers must be more in the United Kingdom, the United States and the Soviet Union. After all, Germany was restricted during the interwar period, and the naval reconstruction started late, and only four heavy cruisers were built. France and Italy also had few heavy cruisers, 7 each before the war. After the war broke out, the Italian Zara heavy cruiser sank. Therefore, the total number of heavy cruisers in Germany, Italy and France is 13.

The United States had 18 heavy cruisers before the war, Britain had 15 heavy cruisers, and the Soviet Union had 7 heavy cruisers, with a total of 40! Although Britain and the United States lost 11 heavy cruisers after the war, and some American heavy cruisers went to the Pacific. But in the Atlantic, Britain, the United States and the Soviet Union still had as many as 23 heavy cruisers.

"Use torpedo boats to deal with them!" Lütjens had already planned, "We spent a lot of money to get the T-93 torpedo from the RB people, and now it's time to play a role."

The T-93 torpedo is the famous Japanese Type 93 torpedo, also known as the spear torpedo. With a large caliber of 610mm and a weight of 2.7 tons, it also has an ultra-long range and can fire 20,000 meters away at a speed of 48 knots! Moreover, the warhead charge is as high as 490 kilograms. As long as one is hit, even a battleship will be severely damaged.

This sharp torpedo was noticed by the German Navy personnel at the end of 1941 when the Emperor Friedrich I missile cruiser went to fight with the RB Combined Fleet.

Soon someone realized the value of this super torpedo and put forward a request for introduction. However, Hessmann was reluctant to introduce it at first because he had heard of the notoriety of this torpedo being unsafe.

But he soon changed his mind, because at this time the German and Italian navies had a type of ship that was very suitable for using 93 lance torpedoes - torpedo boats (also known as torpedo boats)! Germany has the T series, and Italy has the famous Constellation series. They are all small ships ranging from a few hundred tons to more than a thousand tons (Germany's T series also built a big guy of more than 2,000 tons, basically a destroyer). The power of 533mm or 450mm torpedoes is really limited, so the German Navy has been looking for powerful torpedoes to equip torpedo boats. Developing V-type missile boats based on torpedo boats is one way, and replacing torpedo boats with RB's 93 Lance torpedoes is another way.

So from the beginning of 1942, Germany exchanged some technologies of V3 manned missiles and remote-controlled glide bombs (excluding spread spectrum communication technology) for the technology of 93 Lance torpedoes. In addition, some T-type torpedo boats were upgraded. From the third quarter of 1942, T-type torpedo boats equipped with T-93 torpedoes appeared in the European Combined Fleet.

Note: The five German aircraft carriers did not follow, and they and some light cruisers and destroyers stayed on standby in the Atlantic Ocean 200-300 nautical miles southwest of Iceland.