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Text Chapter 1056 The fall of the German Navy!  (Down)

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    "Come on! Boys, it's our turn!"

    The distance of forty-five kilometers was enough for the "Ark Royal" aircraft carrier to respond. The experienced captain, Commodore Callis, immediately ordered to turn the rudder to the 070 course so that the bow of the ship faced the wind.  The 20 "Sea Spitfires" that had been prepared took the lead in taking off. Due to time constraints, the fighters rushed towards the German fleet with almost no formation.

    Pang Xun's plane was lined up behind the dive bomber. When the last "Yaksha U" left the deck, Major Esmond in the front seat immediately increased the accelerator and released the brakes.  Driven by a 2,000-horsepower twin Mustang engine, the "Osprey U" carrying a 730-kilogram British-made aviation torpedo and six British-made 27KG rockets soared into the sky with only a 97-meter runway.

    After taking to the sky, Pang Xun immediately turned on the camera and pointed it in the direction of the fighter jet.  At this time, the first wave of "Sea Spitfires" that took off had already blocked the German JU87D4 dive bombers. Although the Stuka was famous for its rampage in Europe, it was obviously not a good carrier-based attack aircraft.  On the contrary, in addition to the tail hook problem that often causes landing damage, the "Sea Spitfire" has very strong combat capabilities. Its two 20mm cannons and four 7.62mm machine guns are very lethal.

    With their numerical advantage, the "Sea Spitfires" quickly separated the JU87D4s one by one, and the sky was filled with chasing and fighting fighters.  But what surprised Pang Xun was that he didn't see a German escort fighter.  "Colonel, have you seen German fighter jets?" "No, they must be hiding nearby." Esmond was also puzzled, and suspiciously ordered all planes to increase their vigilance.  But until all the "Yaksha U" and "Osprey U" took off, the German fighter jets were still missing.

    By this time, the "Sea Spitfire" had shot down nearly half of the JU87D4 dive bombers.  The rest were also beaten to death by the anti-aircraft guns of the battleship "Prince of Wales" and three destroyers.  Seeing this, Major Esmond decided to attack the opponent's aircraft carrier along the route of the German aircraft, so he asked Major General Callis to send eight "Sea Spitfires" to escort.

    Brigadier General Kallis agreed to his request and gave all 43 attack aircraft (one Yaksha U failed to take off due to malfunction) under his command, requiring that the aircraft carrier "Zeppelin", which threatened the most, be attacked first.  But everyone doesn't know that if they don't cross the sky over Iceland, but take the strait north, they will first see the "Bismarck" class battleships quickly heading south.  But as Major Esmond said at the naval hearing afterwards: "Even if I discovered Bismarck first, I would not attack. Because my first target is Zeppelin." As a world-class navy, the British  It is clear that the aircraft carrier must be killed first to ensure maximum safety for our fleet.

    Just ten minutes after Pang Xun left the random group, 20 FI-167s slowly appeared on the sea level.

    At this time, the remaining 12 Spitfires were still killing the last few JU87D4 dive bombers. Although the radar of the "Prince of Wales" gave an early warning and directed the fighter jets to intercept, the FI-167's strong low-altitude performance ensured that it would not be discovered when it was discovered.  Already less than 25 kilometers away from the target.  At this time of crisis.  The background of the British and German navies finally emerged. The British pilots immediately sent out 8 aircraft to intercept. At the same time, 4 destroyers quickly rushed into the middle of the aircraft carrier and torpedo planes.  However, FI-167 had clearly seen the "Ark Royal" which was making evasive maneuvers and had no fighter cover in the sky, but still rigidly dealt with the battleship first.

    The FI-167 biplane torpedo aircraft is equivalent to the British "Swordfish" torpedo aircraft. It has good low-altitude performance but poor maneuverability.  When they see the "Sea Fire", they disperse immediately.  However, as a cutting-edge battleship, the "Prince of Wales" still has very strong air defense capabilities. Its 16 133mm high-level and flat dual-purpose guns quickly built a long-range barrier with barrage.  More importantly, after the United Kingdom purchased "Zhengzhou-made" 40mm and 25mm anti-aircraft guns and patents from China, it has changed the original 8 quadruple-mounted bang-bang guns into 20 twin 40mm anti-aircraft guns and 16 single  Equipped with a 25mm rapid-fire cannon.  The prototypes of these two Zhengzhou-made anti-aircraft guns are both derived from the famous Bofors drawings.  Because the production equipment was three years earlier than Bofors and had better performance, it was exported to Poland, Norway and other countries as early as 1935.  Squeeze Bofors into the corner.  Now it almost dominates the field of small-caliber anti-aircraft guns. Even the U.S. Navy purchased the patent for the L60 model in 1938. After the Cape Town Conference, it purchased the more powerful L70 model.  Up to now, including self-produced and imitated guns, there have been sales records of 100,000 units, and 60,000 units of the 25mm rapid-fire cannon produced in Zhengzhou have been sold, becoming a true "barrier for air defense in all countries."

    The dense projectiles ejected by the 56 "Made in Zhengzhou" aircraft formed a sharp metal barrier over the battleship, and several FI-167s were shot down in an instant.  However, the German pilots were still very experienced. Most of them had long-term combat experience with the British, so they still found a gap and launched six torpedoes at the "Prince of Wales".  Although the captain tried his best to dodge, he still caught three of them, causing the warship with a load of more than 40,000 tons to continuously circle on the sea.

    If another warship were to take three torpedoes, it would definitely tilt, but the "Prince of Wales" did not.  Its super underwater multi-layer "sandwich" structure preventsThe torpedo compartment effectively reduces the continuous destructive power of torpedoes. The hull¡¯s displacement capacity of 2,400 tons per hour ranks first in the world!

    But no matter what, the decelerated "Prince of Wales" still withdrew from the ensuing battle.

    After severely damaging the battleship, the remaining four FI-167s thought of attacking the aircraft carrier, but it was too late and were shot down by the returning "Sea Spitfire" and intensive anti-aircraft artillery.  Of the 36 German attack aircraft that flew out, only 5 managed to escape pursuit.

    But they have nowhere to land!

    Just when the German attack fleet was returning, Major Esmond led the fleet to find the aircraft carrier "Zeppelin" and the heavy cruiser "L¨¹tzow" which were towed 20 nautical miles behind the "Bismarck".  Without any hesitation, the "Sea Spitfire" took the lead to rush forward and stop the 10 BF109Ts. The attack fleet also detoured to the north and attacked the two ships along the separated airspace.

    Compared with the anti-aircraft firepower of the "Prince of Wales", the anti-aircraft firepower of the German ship was more than a little weaker.  In particular, the much-criticized 37mm handheld machine cannot compete with "Made in Zhengzhou".  What surprised Pang Xun the most was.  The "Zeppelin" aircraft carrier is actually equipped with 16 150mm naval guns for sea combat!  You know, no matter how large the tonnage of the battleship is, every inch of space is very precious. Because the aircraft carrier has a wide deck, it is difficult to arrange anti-aircraft guns. The German Navy actually used hundreds of tons of tonnage to install heavy artillery. It is really shocking to them.  I lament that the German Navy has been so severely emasculated since the last naval defeat!  So much so that it seriously lags behind the world's naval trends.

    12 105mm anti-aircraft guns, 22 37mm handguns and 28 20mm rapid-fire cannons could not stop the swarming "Yaksha U" and "Osprey U".

    6:20 am.  The first "Yaksha U" dive bomber broke through the defense circle and could withstand the armored deck of 500-pound bombs, but it could not stop the 800KG aviation armor-piercing bombs imported from China.  The bomb easily penetrated the amidships deck and exploded deep into the hangar.  The violent explosion made the invincible Germans on the ground taste the bitter pill of backward thinking and technology. The closed and poor ventilation system further increased the power of the bomb.  Pang Xun's camera clearly recorded the bomb hitting its target.  Then there was the spectacular sight of flames shooting out of the sides of the lower deck.

    Seeing that the "Zeppelin" was hit, the BF109T frantically wanted to rush into the battle circle to chase down the attacking group of aircraft. However, faced with the interception of the much more powerful "Sea Spitfire", many were shot down instead.

    After the first bomb hit, the attack became much easier. In just five minutes, the "Zeppelin" received four heavy bombs.  The explosion twisted the deck.  There were corpses and blood spots everywhere, and flames roared back and forth in the closed hangar, engulfing more German sailors.  "Let's go!" Major Esmond shouted as the dive bombers left, and led the "Osprey U" attack aircraft to launch torpedo attacks on the two ships from multiple angles.  The 730kg British Airways torpedo was not powerful enough.  However, the "Zeppelin" and the "L¨¹tzow" still received 4 torpedoes each, and the torpedo dropped by Pang Xun hit the bow of the latter ship.  Causing water ingress and stalling.

    Although the two ships finally maintained a balance, they were attacked by a swarm of British and American patrols the next morning and eventually sank.

    Pang Xun and the others did not stay because there were still two "Bismarck" class battleships waiting for them.  Just in the attack fleet, 9 aircraft were lost.  When returning after severely damaging the performance of two German battleships, the long-wave radar of the "Tirpitz" discovered two approaching targets.

    ¡°They said it was a cruiser.¡± Captain Lindemann of the Bismarck conveyed the news to L¨¹tjens.

    The Germans, who have the most sophisticated machining technology in the world, are lagging behind in electronic technology.  The long-wave radar installed on the two ships has a short detection range, especially for sea searches. It never exceeds 20 kilometers even in the best weather, and it is impossible to identify the type of ship by the strength of the signal source, so the "Tirpitz"  The radar operator on board the ship judged that the other party was a cruiser based entirely on experience.

    But in fact, these two ships were the battleship "Rodney" and the heavy cruiser "Norfolk" of the Royal Navy's First Mobile Fleet, and when the "Tirpitz" discovered them, it based on the updated  Advanced radar readings determined that the Bismarck was on the opposite side.

    "Heading 310, full speed, ready for battle." L¨¹tjens maneuvered first.  Beep beep beep the "Bismarck" sounded the battle alarm, and the eight SKC34 main guns quickly turned towards the British ship.  At this time, Vice Admiral Holland on the "Rodney" also adjusted the course from 240 to 280, and immediately called the two "King George V-class" battleships in the south to come as soon as possible.

    Ten minutes later, when the two sides were close to 15 kilometers, the optical sight reported that there was a speed difference between the front and rear of the British fleet. One of the ships had an unusually long front deck.  L¨¹tjens immediately realized that this was not a cruiser, but the battleship "Rodney" with all its main guns in the front.

    The Germans once laughed at the "Rodney" as the largest shallow-water heavy gunship in the world, but in fact, as one of the seven pre-war battleships, the "Rodney"Although the gun of the ??? is not as good as that of the Colorado and Nagato, its protective capabilities are the strongest among the BIG7.

    L¨¹tjens was not careless, because he had studied the "Rodney" in detail and knew that even if it was 2 vs. 1, his SKC34 main gun might not be able to cut through the opponent's heavy armor.  Besides, this sea area was too dangerous. He didn't want to waste time on a "slow turtle", so he simply accelerated south.  "Damn it! Damn it!" This made Holland furious. The problem was that his two "King George V" ships were still 40 nautical miles away.  The carrier-based aircraft has just completed its attack wave and is returning. As for the "Norfolk", it is on heavy patrol.  Even if it goes up, it won't be enough for others to fight.

    "I think the British should ask the empire to equip it with Mercedes." On the two "Bismarcks", the junior officers mocked the "Rodney" that was no longer visible. Even the sailors on the deck relaxed and looked towards  Whistling in the distance.  Only L¨¹tjens on the bridge felt cold, because he had received news that the "Zeppelin" and the "L¨¹tzow" were attacked by British carrier-based aircraft and had become severely flooded and stalled significantly.

    This means that the opponent¡¯s attack fleet is probably already on its way back.  Including the time for reloading and refueling, the opponent can rejoin the battle in up to an hour and a half.

    This time is only enough for him to run 45 nautical miles.

    "Gentlemen, we are in trouble." L¨¹tjens did not hide the failure behind: "Start now, increase the deck lookout personnel, let the Tirpitz distance from us, and prepare all anti-aircraft guns  Enemy ship!" As soon as he requested to strengthen air defense, the "Tirpitz" in front once again signaled that an enemy ship had been discovered.

    Lindemann and others frowned.  Who is on the other side at this time?

    "The artillery radar is ready, the No. 1 turret is in place, the No. 2"

    Appearing in the distance was the U.S. Navy¡¯s 4th Task Force led by Kincaid.  On the battleship "North Carolina", we traveled for several days and nights.  Kincaid, who looked tired and had bloodshot eyes, patted his arm gently: "Heading 303, open the shooting window for C turret." As an academic in the U.S. Navy, Kincaid has a gentle temperament and does not like to shout loudly, and he does not smoke.  drink wine.  So Halsey always scolded him, calling him a "non-smoking and alcoholic bastard."  But this "bastard" Lieutenant General.  However, he won Roosevelt's trust and gave him command of the two most powerful battleships in the U.S. Navy.

    Kincaid, who had better radar than the Germans, turned ahead of time.  Turning the bow 57 degrees to the left allowed him to unleash the firepower of all three turrets.  At this time, L¨¹tjens was still wondering who was on the other side.  "Three turrets! It's North Carolina, it's Americans!"

    After approaching 17 kilometers, the masthead lookout finally confirmed the model of the battleship on the opposite side.

    Captain Lindemann and Chief of Staff Kurt looked at each other. They never expected that they would encounter North Carolina.  L¨¹tjens was also stunned for a moment, and subconsciously looked at his watch until he was sure that the watch was not broken, he turned to look at the navigation chart.  There is only one possibility: the Americans passed by in a straight line at a speed of more than 24 knots!  Not to mention how much pressure maintaining a speed of 24 knots for more than 2,000 kilometers would put on the main engine, just penetrating dozens of U-boats deployed by D?nitz between Canada and Greenland without being discovered is shocking enough.  .

    It¡¯s too late to say anything.

    18 MK6 406mm main guns have been rapidly raised.  "Fire!" Just after entering 16 kilometers, two North Carolina ships opened fire first.

    Although the U.S. Navy's MK6 406mm naval gun is not as abnormal as the later MK7, it is much stronger than the "Cream Cannon" of the "Rodney".  Moreover, the US military has been equipped with running radar, so in the first salvo, the shells landed one kilometer in front of the two "Bismarcks".

    In order to avoid the embarrassment of only being able to use half of the firepower, and worrying about the "Rodney" behind him, L¨¹tjens ordered to turn right, evading towards the Labrador Sea, while giving full play to the firepower of all the main guns.  In this way, the two fleets formed a wild goose-wing pursuit formation, with all bows pointing toward the Canadian coast.

    Then, L¨¹tjens ordered to slow down to 27 knots and fired at the leading "North Carolina".

    "Boom, boom, boom" The rumbling sound of artillery once again sang a loud symphony of steel. The 34 main guns of both sides tested the other side's armor over and over again.

    The American cowboys were sweating profusely and fired six rounds of volleys in a short period of time. However, before receiving the news of the hit, the "North Carolina" was hit in the head!

    In just the third round, the "Bismarck" opened a big hole in North Carolina's rear island.

    "We've been hit, we've been hit! Zone D, penetrating damage! I need to cut off the power here immediately." Colonel Robben, covered in blood, held the deck phone tightly and reported the damage to the bridge.  Kincaid's expression changed slightly, and he began to worry about whether he could withstand Bismarck's SKC34 main gun.  His concerns were justified because of the hasty design and naval treaty restrictions that made it difficult to achieve high altitude.?, U.S. designers devoted too much tonnage to the main engine and ended up having to juggle an aircraft that was increasingly a threat to horizontal armor defense.  So the defense is poor.  Except for the command tower and the front of the turret, the important waterline main armor belt is completely designed to protect the 356mm main gun.  This is why the Navy was dissatisfied and built the "South Dakota" class instead.

    Even though everyone was filled with rage to avenge the 22nd Task Force, the fledgling navy rookies on the two ships also shuddered. In the quiet island, one could even hear the heartbeat clearly, facing the extraordinary precision.  German artillery fire, the officers turned all their attention to their commander.

    "Cut off the power supply in area D, send people to check the injuries, and the rest will continue the attack." In order not to let everyone see his nervousness.  Kincaid slowly lowered his arms and put his hands into his pockets and clenched them into fists.

    The two North Carolina ships continued to fire.

    At 7:31, good news finally came after the ninth round of volleys.  The lookout reported that a shell from the "North Carolina" accurately hit the Bismarck's No. 3 turret.  Although the MK6 main gun is not yet equipped with the newly developed extra-heavy artillery shells in the United States, the "Bismarck"'s poor turret defense capabilities were completely exposed in this attack.  Because the distance at this time is 15 kilometers, the trajectory of the 406mm armor-piercing projectile is already relatively steep.  Therefore, it easily penetrated the 180mm top cover of the turret, causing the entire turret to be destroyed in the explosion.

    "The turret, the German's weak point is the turret!" Kincaid's staff immediately caught this weakness.  But when they ordered all the artillery to aim at the turrets, the battleships under their feet trembled violently again. Bismarck's counterattack was still so sharp and unstoppable.

    The artillery battle has entered a fever pitch, relying on optical fire control and veterans who have been trained for longer.  L¨¹tjens's fleet continuously hit the two North Carolinas, and high-speed flicks repeatedly ravaged the opponent's pitiful main armor belt.  But Kincaid refused to give up and refused any suggestion to withdraw from the artillery battle. Even if the "Washington" reported that the entire mizzen mast had been blown off, he refused to retreat.  Because he knows.  As long as we persist a little longer, British carrier-based aircraft will come to help.

    The red-eyed American sailors went crazy and used all their weapons.  Even the harmless 127mm secondary cannon fired desperately.  All aiming equipment locked the coordinates to the Bismarck's turret.  The MK6 main gun began to exert its power, and in just half an hour, it destroyed three turrets in succession, which made L¨¹tjens more and more disheartened.  What made him even more incredible was that the U.S. Navy was unexpectedly tenacious!  In German propaganda, American soldiers always appear as "Hollywood boys", but what about now?  The two North Carolina ships were obviously beaten until they were covered in smoke, but they still pursued them.

    At this time, L¨¹tjens¡¯ situation was also very bad. North Carolina¡¯s protection had problems, but its artillery was better than him.  Although the Bismarck has greater tonnage and stronger protection, the weakness of the main gun is getting bigger and bigger.

    "Enemy plane!"

    L¨¹tjens didn¡¯t want to fight, so he ordered the release of smoke in an attempt to speed up his escape, but before he could get rid of Kincaid, a group of British attack aircraft flew in from the east, making all his efforts in vain.

    "There." Pang Xun, who had arrived after refueling and hanging bombs, patted Esmond's shoulder hard and pointed at the four battleships emitting billowing black smoke.  Taking advantage of the opportunity of his descent, he also used a camera to capture this precious video.

    In the video, dense water columns continue to rise around the four battleships, forming a huge water column forest.  And the tragic scene made even him take a breath.  The Stars and Stripes on the "North Carolina" were gone, and the three secondary guns on the starboard side were missing. The hull looked like several pieces had been bitten off, and large sections of broken pipelines were exposed in the charred holes.  The "Washington" even lost the island, the top of the chimney was flattened, and the deck tilted several degrees.  Looking at the Germans, they were not much better either. The "Bismarck" lost a turret, and the upper deck was as messy as if it had been gnawed by dogs. German sailors were everywhere running to put out the fire, and the "Tirpitz" behind it was even more damaged.  The two turrets were spitting out billowing black smoke. If it hadn't been for the high speed of 28 knots, I'm afraid the entire warship would have been wrapped in smoke.

    Seeing the attacking group of aircraft, Kincaid finally relaxed and couldn't help but wipe the sweat with his sleeves, allowing the two ships to avoid and stop the bombardment.

    "Pang! Did you pray?" At this time, Major Esmond interrupted the filming and shouted loudly.

    "I am Buddhist!"

    "Okay, pray to your God for me! It's mine!" Major Esmond shouted excitedly. After leading his wingman in a circle, he quickly dropped to an altitude of 100 meters, and then slowly dropped to less than 100 meters.  At an ultra-low altitude of 50 meters, it rushed towards the bow of the Bismarck.

    "Watch him!"

    There was chaos on the deck of the Bismarck.  The bow lookout watched in horror as two Osprey Us rushed towards him.  The navigator on the island also saw Esmond, so he quickly turned the steering wheel to try to avoid it.  Huge landThe ship turned rapidly on the sea.  But as Pang Xun said, the Bismarck-class hull is too long!  Even if the Germans designed it to be very flexible, it would not be faster than an airplane.

    Six or seven 37mm hand-held aircraft and 20mm rapid-fire cannons aimed at Esmond and sprayed shells, but the experienced British Navy ace pilot still gritted his teeth and persisted until 1,000 meters before letting Pang Xun and his wingman drop the torpedo.  The two torpedoes rushed toward the battleship with white waves. When the torpedo fired by the wingman missed the stern of the ship, the one fired by Pang Xun hit the steering wheel at the stern of the ship.

    "Boom!"

    Even if the power is small, the cavity effect produced by the torpedo explosion will increase the potential energy.  Although Pang Xun's fixed camera could only capture the water column covering the stern of the ship.  But it was later proven that the torpedo not only damaged the underwater compartment, but also damaged the Bismarck's rudder.

    In order to slow down the opponent as much as possible, the other British pilots also tried their best. Pang Xun, who returned to high altitude, also recorded these moments.  Dive bombers roared down in formation, and torpedo attack aircraft scattered in all directions.  Two formations plunged into the air defense circle filled with bullets.  The two "Bismarcks" were helpless at this time. The previous artillery battle had caused them to lose nearly half of their decks of anti-aircraft guns, so they could not stop the attacks of so many aircraft in turn.

    Twenty minutes later, when the last Osprey U broke away from the battle circle, the "Bismarck" received an 800kg armor-piercing bomb and 4 torpedoes, and the Tirpitz was also hit by 5 torpedoes.  The speed of both ships began to decrease rapidly.

    L¨¹tjens tried to make a final save. Since Kincaid was busy saving his North Carolina from catching up, he ordered the release of smoke and called a nearby German submarine to help, trying to escape pursuit while taking advantage of the enemy's attack.  But he didn't succeed.  Fearing that he would escape again, Edmonds and Pang Xun's "Osprey U" stayed in the sky.  Monitoring every move of the German ship, Pang Xun also photographed the entire naval battle.

    At 9:11 a.m., the "Rodney" joined two George V-class battleships, taking over from Kincaid, who was extinguishing the fire and restoring balance, and caught up from behind.  Facing the German ship that had been seriously flooded and lost half of its firepower, Lieutenant General Holland asked the three ships to move 2,000 meters apart to disperse the enemy ship's firepower, and then launched an attack 20,000 meters away.

    The trapped German ship showed no sign of weakness. With the steering gear malfunctioning and serious flooding, it slowly turned left with great difficulty, facing the British ship sideways and fired back.  Knowing that the "Rodney" was difficult to deal with, L¨¹tjens ordered all firepower to be aimed at the second-placed "King George V".  The sophisticated German artillery once again showed its amazing strength, hitting the "King George V" repeatedly. In just a few minutes, the battleship was covered in smoke.  However, due to the release of the third-ranked "Duke of York", the latter took advantage of its small gun and fast speed and hit one point with intensive artillery fire to destroy the main guns of the "Bismarck" and "Tirpitz"  Fire director.

    At this time, several other British light and heavy cruisers also quickly circled to the right side of the German ship, forming an angle with the battleship, and constantly adjusted their positions to obtain the best position.  The two "Bismarcks" that were clumsy due to serious injuries were unable to cope with the encirclement. In just half an hour, all the remaining five main gun turrets were destroyed one by one by the "Rodney"'s nine main guns.  Seeing this scene, Pang Xun knew that Bismarck was finished.  The two Bismarcks were like wounded tigers surrounded by wolves!  He stared at the enemy with bloody eyes and launched fierce attacks again and again, but he was repeatedly scarred by the sharp claws and continued to bleed.  Even if the residual power still exists, even if it is the largest tonnage in Europe, even if the Germans have the best armor in the world, no warship can withstand such a fierce siege.

    The German sailors who insisted on fighting still fought back tenaciously with bloodshot eyes, but L¨¹tjens knew that he could not survive, so he sent a final telegram to Berlin: "The ship is unmanageable, and I will fight until the last shell."

    Hitler, who was far away in Berlin, was silent for a long time and sent a reply: "Show your courage, the whole German people are with you!"

    At 10 o'clock in the morning, after the two "North Carolina" class battleships urgently treated their injuries, they slowly caught up from behind, which also heralded the official start of the final battle to encircle and annihilate the German ship.

    ?According to Kincaid later, he originally did not want to participate in the final siege, but the officers and sailors insisted.  Because everyone believed that the hard work of breaking open the hard shell of the "Bismarck" was entirely completed by them and the two American battleships.  If you sit back and watch the British stuff all the final fruits of victory into their pockets, it will definitely be a big blow to the confidence of the U.S. Navy.  So after regaining balance, he immediately contacted Horant and asked to join the battle circle.

    At this time, the two "Bismarcks" had no ability to fight back, because all 16 main guns had been destroyed, so Holland took the initiative to give up part of the credit, let Kincaid line up behind the queue, and also let all five battleships move closer to  Extremely close to 3,600 meters, and then use the main gun to aim at the German ship and "strafe" it horizontally!  44 main guns (North Carolina damaged)??a turret) fired a volley.  The heavy artillery shells were denser than raindrops. The superstructure of the German ship was rolling in flames and the black smoke was rolling beyond recognition. All the pipes in the cabin were blown up, the air mist filled the cabin, and seawater poured into the cabin crazily. After the steel plate cracked, you could actually see the cracks.  Thin red live wire.  Rivers of blood flowed from the once arrogant "Bismarck".  There were explosions and burning everywhere, and there were corpses everywhere.

    It¡¯s incredible!  Faced with such an ultra-dense main gun bombardment, there were actually some secondary guns on the two German ships that were fighting back tenaciously.

    Walter, a German sailor who was later rescued, described the scene at that time: "I was very scared. All of us knew that we would not survive. There were explosions everywhere, and high-pressure steam rolled back and forth in each cabin. I saw through the narrow air holes,  The deck had been flattened. Many familiar people could only see a foot or a few pieces of flesh. At this time, Heinz asked me for a cigarette. I thought he was also scared, but he was not. He was smoking.  , just rushed out. The shells exploded next to him, but he was not injured. He rushed to the rapid-fire gun 100 yards away. There, he opened the gun bolt, asked Karl to help him load the shells, and then fired at the British  We all knew it was in vain, but his courage inspired everyone, and finally we ran to the stern of the ship together, sang Heil Germany, and jumped into the freezing water together. I remember, about  Five or eight hundred people jumped into the sea, but very few survived"

    The Germans¡¯ outdated concept of comprehensive protection, excellent dome armor design, and closely spaced watertight compartments only increased the pain of the sailors.  Facing the close-range bombardment of five battleships, the two "Bismarcks" were like abandoned babies without help, moaning and trembling under the gunfire.  What happened on the Mississippi a few days ago was returned to Germany a thousand times over.  According to declassified British and American documents afterwards, during the close range bombardment that lasted for 85 minutes, the five battleships fired a total of 1,141 main gun shells at the German ship!  The heavy cruiser and secondary battery also fired 3156 shells!

    No battleship can continue to survive in this situation, and the miracle of not sinking in the parallel world has not appeared, because no matter how powerful the dome armor and multi-layer compartments are, they cannot stop the close range bombardment of more than a dozen MK6s.

    At 12:07, the "Tirpitz" took the lead in an internal explosion. After the bow broke off, it quickly disappeared on the sea. A few minutes later, the "Bismarck" also began to sink slowly.  Because the two North Carolinas were seriously flooded, Holland was worried about being attacked by German submarines, so he led the main force to protect Kincaid and retreated to the United Kingdom. Only a few destroyers were left to monitor and salvage the drowned German sailors. Finally, he let the "Norfolk"  The heavy patrol led 15 British and American destroyers across the strait to pursue the injured "Zeppelin" and "L¨¹tzow".

    At 1:10 pm, seeing the "Bismarck" sinking slowly, the British destroyer "Maori" used four torpedoes to send it to the bottom of the sea forever. Only less than 300 of the more than 4,000 German officers and soldiers on the two ships were rescued.  , all senior officers, including L¨¹tjens, were killed.

    At about 11 o'clock in the morning the next day, the British and American cruisers discovered the seriously injured "Zeppelin" and "L¨¹tzow" in the north of Iceland. After a moderately fierce exchange of fire, the German sailors, who could not escape, opened the sea valve and opened the sea valve.  Two warships sank deep in the Arctic Ocean.  At the same time, the two "Scharnhorst" class battlecruisers that had been waiting for L¨¹tjens in the Atlantic Ocean abandoned their planned plans and returned to the French port of Brest after learning the news.

    In order to encircle and destroy the German ships, Britain and the United States also paid a heavy price. A total of four ships were sunk and six more were injured.  Among them, the most seriously injured "North Carolina" and "Washington" stayed in the dock for half a year. A total of 5,312 soldiers died, of which 4,427 were American soldiers.  The angry US military finally vented all its frustrations on the two Shanes. The day after they returned to port, Admiral Henry Arnold dispatched 400 B17 and B24 bombers to attack the two ships and the port of Brest.  Continuous air strikes.  In a full 19 hours of indiscriminate bombing, the entire port of Brest was razed to the ground.  The two ships were also seriously injured and did not return to the German naval combat order until early 1943.

    On the evening of November 19, Churchill officially announced the sinking of the German fleet in London, saying that this was a turning point in the war.  The whole of Britain burst into cheers. The British, who had been tortured by bombs and the army's continuous failures and were almost losing confidence, could finally breathe a long sigh of relief.  Because in the past few years, the huge "Bismarck" has been considered unsinkable and the biggest threat to the British mainland.

    On the contrary, Germany is in great sorrow.  But what made the German navy people such as Raeder even more angry was that although Hitler vowed in subsequent speeches to rebuild the navy and build more powerful battleships to fight the enemy, he ordered the termination of the two H39 battleships and the "Peter" after a month.  -The construction of the "Strasser" aircraft carrier diverted resources into building more much-needed U-boats.

    Facing the powerful British and American navies, the German navy, which fought to the death, was emasculated by itself in front of its own eyes.

      Later Yang Qiu wrote this paragraph in his memoirs: "That day was a turning point in the Atlantic Ocean, because there was no longer a German navy. Although in the following year, German submarines sank 11 million tons of ships  , the Allied forces are also trapped on the ground, but the least of my worries is a stalemate."
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