Battle of the Third Reich

According to the current situation, for the German navy fleet, the initiative to develop the battlefield situation has been completely in their hands.

Just as they predicted before the war, this will be an overwhelming battle without suspense.

The only question left now is how to win the greatest benefit for the Third Reich in this victory, but this is also the most troublesome issue for all captains.

Because the education and training they received before and their subordinates are how to defeat the enemy, how to let the enemy sink to the bottom of the sea, but this time the problem before them is how to defeat the enemy while not letting those enemies sinking.

At the pre-war meeting, General Lütjens informed all warship commanders about the operation, and emphasized that the victory of this operation would be very important for this war, for the navy, and for the Third Reich. Significant significance. The ultimate goal of this mission is not to destroy that British fleet, but to capture this British fleet.

As soon as the commander-in-chief finished, the gorgeous commander's conference room on Admiral Sher exploded. At first, the captains doubted whether there was a problem with their ears. When they determined that each other's hearing was not malfunctioning, the captains could not help but worry about the mental state of Commander Lütjens.

Lütjens is either stupid or crazy. Anyway, the two must be the same, because no sober navy officer would make such ridiculous suggestions.

For these captains, it is not impossible to defeat a British surface fleet after careful preparation plans, adequate intelligence support, and forces above the enemy, plus some necessary luck. It's easy to defeat the enemy, just send them all to the bottom of the sea, but captive. . . . This is another matter entirely.

It took Lütjens two minutes to calm down the emotional captains. This situation is really rare in the extremely disciplined and obedient German Navy.

Looking at the expressions of surprise and doubt in his subordinates, Lütjens knew that the battle target he had just issued was indeed too shocking.

Lütjens first reprimanded the rude manners in front of the captains who had no military training, and then began to explain slowly to them the reason why the commander issued this goal.

As a result, he successfully set off another storm in his small conference room.

When the captains learned from the commander-in-chief what the cargo was on the British fleet, everyone was stunned.

Where is a fleet, it is simply the floating treasury of the British Empire.

Gold, jewelry, marketable securities, various foreign currencies, antiques, artworks, the total value of these goods is incalculable.

According to preliminary information from the headquarters, the total value of gold and jewelry alone exceeded 3 billion pounds. Although there is no definite information on the amount of securities and foreign currencies, it should not be less than 500 million pounds.

The value of those antiques and works of art cannot be estimated, including most of the national treasures that have been stolen from the world in the British Museum for more than 200 years. The value of these things cannot be measured by money. It can be said that Every piece is priceless.

As for those artworks, they are private collections of members of the British royal family, and many of them have never appeared before the eyes of the world. The British royal family's greed for works of art is as famous as the royal army's looting nature. One can imagine how amazing the number of works of art will be.

The command department’s accounting department failed to calculate the exact value of this treasure after the enthusiastic enquiries of the generals and marshals. However, according to their preliminary estimates, the total value of these goods will exceed 5 billion pounds.

I heard that the accountant minister had submitted the above report to the generals and marshals. At that time, he was admitted to the hospital because of emotional excitement. It was really a pitiful person.

One can imagine how shocked the elite captains of the German navy were when they heard this number.

The real purpose of the German navy's operation was to **** the treasures from the British, which excited the captains' calmness.

The following words from Lütjens pushed those captains from excitement to enthusiasm. The great head of state personally ordered that if the German navy can complete the mission this time, 30% of the trophies will be left to the German navy as construction funds, and all the officers and soldiers participating in the war will also receive a percentage of this batch of treasures One as a reward.

Thirty percent of the five billion pounds, a full 1.5 billion pounds, this figure can make the entire German navy crazy.

The generals of the Naval Command may laugh out even when dreaming. With this fund, the navy can build as many new warships, destroyers, cruisers, and battleships as it wants. The history of Marshal Redell's shirtless shirtless battle with the Army Air Force at the cabinet meeting will be gone.

The reappearance of the German navy in the forest of the world's navy will no longer be empty words, and the time for the navy to turn over is finally coming.

And the one-hundred-percent bonus made the morale of those captains mention the peak. Even if the 50 million pounds are evenly distributed, each person can be divided into at least two or three thousand pounds, not to mention that the captains know that this It is impossible to evenly distribute bonuses, and it is only practical to distribute bonuses in the army according to rank.

Even so, the captains estimated that their soldiers would not get less than a thousand pounds per person.

This is enough to make those sailors ecstatic, know that this money was definitely not a small amount in 1940. In the German countryside, having a thousand pounds, even the last rich man, is enough to buy a good farm or a group of excellent animals.

Although the pay of the German navy is fairly generous, it is still a luxury for ordinary sailors to save such a sum of money.

The situation in the meeting immediately began to reverse, leaving all German naval officers with only one word left in their minds. . . . "Robbery".

In any case, we must **** all the treasures from the British completely and completely, otherwise the bonuses, funds and everything will be empty talk. The commitment of the head of state aroused the desires of all the captains, and they now know clearly that they want to realize those desires only by their own efforts.

In the eyes of these captains, capturing enemy ships is no longer an unachievable task, but a task that must be achieved.

So, these drooling navy officers gathered together to discuss carefully how to achieve this goal. The collective power was fully reflected at this time, especially under the impetus of the real gold and silver, the thoughts of those officers changed He was particularly keen, and loopholes in the command and naval headquarters plans were found, and many of the ideas that captains came up with were added.

The final result was the first blatant military plan for the purpose of robbery in the history of the German Navy.

Now that the plan is in progress, it has entered the most critical link.

Although the first step operation did not achieve the expected effect of the German navy, it did not cause any particular trouble for the continuation of the plan. After all, the captains had done all possible accidents when planning the details of the operation. Preparation.

The German fleet originally wanted to disrupt the formation of the British fleet with a sudden bombardment, and then dispatched all of them to apply a lethal blow to the enemy's chaotic fleet.

It now appears that the British Royal Navy really has something to be proud of. Although the fleet was caught off guard, it still maintained a neat formation, and the Germans' goals were not achieved.

In order to ensure that long-range bombardment of the British fleet will not cause fatal damage to those warships, this may sound a bit funny, but it is indeed the case, the horizontal armor of those cruisers under the large-angle shelling of German large-caliber artillery hardly has any Defensive ability, that layer of steel plate with a thickness of more than thirty millimeters is as fragile as a piece of paper in front of hundreds of armor-piercing warheads.

In order to protect the German treasures on those ships (the money has been placed in the German treasury by the captains), the German Navy was very painstaking. All the guns were filled with ordinary grenades during the first bombardment. Not an armor-piercing projectile.

Although the kinetic energy left behind by those grenades flying over a distance of 15,000 kilometers is still terrifying, this can be seen from the end of the Orion tail tower. But after all, those British warships are not armorless merchant ships, so as expected by the German navy, these armor-piercing grenades did not cause any significant damage to those ships.

Now that the battle has entered the stage of hot talk, the fleets of the two sides have finally started to meet each other.

The Gneisenau fired first, at a distance of less than seven kilometers, and the trajectory of the shells was almost level. Indeed, Gneisenau is conducting a flat shot, with the goal being the flagship of the British fleet, York.

The Scharnhorst fired immediately after the Gneisenau, and the target was also that poor flagship. In the next moment, the bridge of the USS York exploded in front of the German navy officers and soldiers. The massive steel building with four floors was turned into a huge ball of fire. The German sailors could clearly see the explosion The resulting smoke and flames, the U.S. York Bridge projected huge pieces of steel into the surrounding air and suspected that it was twisting the struggling British officers and soldiers.

The German navy's first flat-shot attack was intimidating, and the USS York suffered an unbearable major blow just one second before preparing to shoot at the German fleet.

Under the carefully targeted volley of two elite German battleships, her bridge was completely destroyed.

Eight heavy armor-piercing shells directly hit the building, turning it into a pile of twisted burning metal debris.

The compass bridge at the highest level and the armored main gun command post have been blown away without a trace. The battle bridge at the lower level has been torn in half, half twisted out of the ship’s outboard, and the other half collapsed In the nautical bridge on the next floor.

The large terraces on both sides of the bridge protruding from the bridge have been distorted by the huge force produced by the explosion. The two sides of the battleship bridge were simply torn off the bridge, where complex steel pipes are now exposed. Bridge support structure.

But those thick steel tubes no longer seem to be able to play any supporting role, because the internal structure of the bridge has been completely destroyed at the moment when the armor-piercing shells hit, as evidenced by the collapse of the bridge.

Although the cruiser-class bridge protection is indeed too thin in front of the large-caliber armor-piercing projectile that specifically deals with the battleship side armor, but even the Germans did not expect to get such a result, so the morale of the German Navy is in that Instantly reached its peak.

The York, who had taken the first level by the German Navy in the first round, mourned and continued on the original course. Since the last command issued by the bridge was to turn to the right, the turbine still not knowing what happened above continued to execute this command.

The turret of the York was ready for final shooting before being shot on the bridge. The gunners, who were also unaware of the status quo, fired the British navy for the first time in the battle against the German fleet.

But although the British gunners are well-trained and experienced, the effect of the first and only volley of the USS York in this naval battle is really frustrating.

The four 203-mm shells were inserted into the water at a distance of five or six hundred meters from the targets that the gunners aimed at. Although they also stirred up huge water columns of tens of meters in height, these water columns have no other than a little ornamental value. Any use.

The frustrated British gunner wanted to continue firing the next round of shells, but strangely the artillery command post never sent out the corrected target parameters.

The kind of violent shock felt in the turret at first showed that the battleship was shot, but no one knew the damage of the battleship, and the bridge did not send any information. This really worried the sailors who were staying in the closed turret.

But the next second, the German Navy used a large-caliber shell to liberate these soldiers from the uneasiness.

With a loud noise, the 203mm mkii type a main turret of York became a **** full of steel fragments and hot flames.

The weak protection of the mkii turret has never stopped being accused from the day of its birth, but the British Navy’s bureaucrats have no interest in remedying this fatal weakness.

The British Navy finally paid a blood price for this. The German shells penetrated from the front of the turret and penetrated only 25 mm thick frontal armor. Then they traversed the entire gun room and exploded in the commander’s command room. Before the call was given out, it became a burnt black body full of holes.

Due to the loss of York, she turned her body slowly in front of the German fleet, exposing the entire side of the hull to the front of two German battleships.

The Scharnhorst seized this rare opportunity to kill all the former main guns of the York with two front main turrets neatly. The Gneisenau started the work of digging holes in the remaining superstructure of the York without losing time.

While two horrifying German battleships ravished the British fleet flagship, Germany's newest heavy cruiser, Prince Eugen, encountered the first crisis since her birth. The cause of the crisis was the two British outpost destroyers.

The British destroyer Defender and Pleasure are two D-class destroyers of more than 1,300 tons. They are responsible for anti-submarine missions in this transport operation.

They were originally designed as anti-submarine destroyers, and the British Admiralty did not expect them to fight large German warships.

This time they were put on the front line of a large surface fleet battle, which was forced by the situation, because when they found the German warship appeared in front of them, the two sides were only less than five kilometers away.

The Defender and the Pleasant were completely in a difficult position to ride a tiger. It seemed impossible to turn around and escape in front of the German battleship, and rushing into the crossfire was just like suicide.

The captains of these two destroyers are not lacking courage, let alone cowards. For years, the Royal Navy's edification has deeply rooted in their minds that the Royal Navy never feared any enemy. They are willing to sacrifice their lives for the honor of the British Royal Navy and the final victory.

But the current situation is really special. Shooting at this distance is also a waste of effort. They do not expect the two 120mm front main guns on their ships to cause any damage to the side armor of the Scharnhorst class battle cruiser around 350mm. .

(British people always like to use their own standards to classify warships of other countries. In their eyes, the main guns and defense levels of the Scharnhorst class can only be regarded as battlecruisers, but the Germans do not think so. The battleships are classified as battleships. To be honest, I also think that these two battleships should actually be regarded as the earliest high-speed battleships. So in this book, the two sides will call these two battleships differently, the author's language.)

The only threat to the two battlecruisers now is the eight 533mm torpedoes on the destroyer.

However, although five kilometers is a very short distance for the sea artillery battle, it is still a little farther for launching torpedoes.

It's not that the torpedo's range can't be reached, but this distance can't guarantee the torpedo's hit rate.

Both captains have the faith to fight for the British Empire to the last breath, but they are more willing to leave the enemy more damage before they die.

Just when the two captains were hesitant, the flagship order came, and the flagship ordered them to attack the German fleet and fire torpedoes at the Germans.

The flagship command further strengthened the determination of the captain of the destroyer, so after the two sides exchanged opinions with the signal lights, the two destroyers violently raised the speed to the maximum speed and rushed side by side toward the German fleet.

As they began their final assault, Prince Eugen and Admiral Sher followed immediately in front of the British fleet.

But this could no longer shake the determination of the two desperate British destroyers.

The Defender and Pleasure have increased their speed to an astonishing 35 knots, and the waves spurred by the bow splashed onto the deck. None of the British sailors expressed any opinion on the command of their captain. They and their commanders stayed calmly in their respective posts, staring at the German fleet with two eyes, full of determination and enemies. Contempt, with a conviction of mortal assault on a powerful enemy.

However, they expected that the German fleet's interception of artillery against them had not appeared, as if the Germans had not found them at all.

Maybe the German fleet's attention was put on the cruisers behind, maybe the Germans didn't take the assault of these two destroyers at all.

Although this is a bit of an unpretentious taste, it is simply too deceiving, but it is not a good thing for them. The captains hope that this situation will continue until they reach the attack distance, maybe they are really Able to attack successfully.

However, these two destroyers found that their targets had crossed their own routes, and they would not be able to achieve the best angle of attack without changing their course.

And at this time, Prince Eugen appeared in front of the two destroyers with the swaggering skull flag.

The two destroyers basically turned the attack target into the brand new German warship in front of them without much consideration.

Maybe it's because she is in a more vulnerable position, maybe it seems that she is also a very valuable target, maybe it's because she is a new ship, sinking her can better fight the morale of the Germans, maybe it's because of Europe Prince Root’s painting is so attractive, maybe for that arrogant pirate flag, maybe. . . .

No one can know the real thoughts of the two destroyer captains at that time. All they can know now is that these two captains made a fatal mistake. They picked one of the most terrifying opponents and caught a pair of the most Horrible enemies.

The destroyer has successfully shortened the distance between the two sides to one thousand meters. The Defender and the Pleasant see that they have reached the attack distance. The two destroyers fiercely beat the steering wheel to make a beautiful cross-transposition. The tail of the destroyer suddenly A rounded double s track was drawn.

At the moment when the destroyer's body leaned against Prince Eugen, sixteen 533mm torpedoes were shot out of the torpedo tubes, and then plunged into the sea to rush towards the German battleship.

When the torpedoes were launched, the two destroyers took a long breath, and the German heavy cruiser was finished. No ship could escape the concentrated attack of 16 torpedoes at this distance.

Probably because the offense was too smooth, they suddenly felt that they might still be able to do something. So these two guys who had been stunned by blood had given up their plans to retreat and continued to rush towards Prince Eugen. They might also want to shell Prince Eugen up close.

It seems that the German fleet only realized the threat of the two British destroyers at this time, and the intercepting artillery finally appeared around the two warships.

The violent artillery fire exploded countless large and small water columns around the destroyer. The two small warships began to avoid orbit. They flexibly shuttled through the German artillery fire. With their four poor 120mm main guns, they returned to the German fleet.

Prince Eugen was still the same, she continued to traverse the other's route directly in front of the two destroyers.

If someone pays attention at that time, they will find a very interesting scene. The artillery that desperately intercepted the destroyer was all fired by the Grensenno in front of the Prince Eugen and the Admiral Sher in the rear. The defensive artillery on Prince Eugen, which was the target of the British destroyer, was as unresponsive as it was asleep.

"Quick, quick, quick command fire, it's close enough!"

Randolph stood happily standing on the compass bridge and shouted.

"Wait a little longer and get closer, we give these two idiot destroyers a fatal blow."

Feng. Captain Hertz answered faintly.

These two guys who also feel good about themselves did not enter the well-protected armored command tower of the battleship at the beginning of the artillery battle like the other battleship captains.

In order to show their courage and fearlessness, the two continued to stand upright on the open deck of the Prince Eugen, causing other officers and sailors to stay with the open ship at the risk of being wiped out with them. The bridge controls the operation of the warship.

In fact, the German fleet had already discovered the kind of overwhelming assault that the two destroyers launched against themselves.

The reason for not being able to intercept them sounds stupid. Due to the misunderstanding of the target allocation of several warships, they all thought that the two destroyers were the targets of the other battleship. There was no warship intercepting them within a thousand kilometers.

When the German fleet discovered this stupid mistake, the two destroyers had already fired torpedoes. Even more absurd is that because of that stupid reason, no warship ever paid attention to them, which led to no German sailors discovering that the British had completed torpedo attacks.

The same is true of Prince Eugen. She had focused all her attention on the British cruisers before she realized that the two destroyers were her own, before she turned her attention and became interested in them.

In Feng. In the eyes of Hertz and Randolph, the actions of these two British destroyers were very interesting. They had the courage to dare to provoke a powerful warship like themselves. This really made these two guys suddenly feel a little inexplicable excitement.

Since the enemy sent a challenge letter, they felt that if they did not accept it, it seemed that it did not conform to the tradition of knights, so Feng. Hertz gave the order to wipe out the two arrogant boats with all her might.

In order to give Randolph a deeper impression of the strength of his battleship. Feng. Hertz decided to wait until the two destroyers approached 500 meters before firing. At this distance, the attack of Prince Eugen would tear the two destroyers into pieces in an instant. The scene seemed to be very exciting.

But now Feng. Hertz suddenly doubted whether his plan would succeed.

He felt that the two destroyers might not be close to 500 meters.

I really saw a ghost. No warship was interested in those two destroyers just now. How can I wait until I want to clean them up? Everyone seems to be interested in them.

Previously, none of the ships fired, but now it is all right. Almost the entire fleet is firing at those two ships. Did they rob business like this? Feng. Hertz couldn't help feeling a little depressed.

"Captain! Torpedo! A torpedo was found on the starboard side and was coming towards us."

The first officer on the side of the bridge suddenly roared wildly.

"God, there are, there are torpedoes, there are three. No, there are four! God, I can't count!" The first officer continued to roar there, and a trace of despair began to reveal in his voice.

"where is it!"

Feng. Hertz hurried to the starboard side of the bridge and stared in panic at the sea.

"Where, I can't see it at all."

"Where did the torpedo come from?"

"Are these two destroyers? Who of you saw them launching torpedoes?"

For a while, everyone on the bridge ran to the lookout, and they yelled in full as they searched the sea nervously.

There was only the helmsman left in the middle of the bridge, holding the steering wheel and crying

"Captain! Where should I turn! Order quickly!"

Feng. Hertz and Randolph are now the same as the helmsman. The two men looked at the scene in front of them with tears in their faces. Now they can't help anything no matter what they do.

More than a dozen torpedo trails crisscrossed the sea less than 500 meters away from Prince Eugen. Those white trails shone like diamonds under the blazing afternoon sun, and were heading towards Prince Eugen’s huge The direction of the hull extended rapidly.

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