Chapter 592: The Trump Card

"Plop!"

There was a huge sound of falling into the water, and a Sunderland "Short" seaplane hovering in the sky near the 5th Fleet of the European Combined Fleet fell into the sea dragging flames. Now the distance between the two fleets is less than 30 nautical miles, and a nighttime decisive battle between the surface fleets is just around the corner.

However, in the night fleet battle between Britain and Germany, the role of the "Cat Eye Warrior" has been greatly reduced. Although the British and German navies also have lookouts with long-sightedness and night vision who take cod liver oil every day, radar and night reconnaissance aircraft are the magic weapons of the British and German navies in fighting night battles.

However, if there is a "magic weapon", there will be a method of restraint. The current method for radar is to use balloons to throw aluminum chaff strips, but this is of little significance in a fleet decisive battle. Because the formations of both sides are moving at high speed, where should the aluminum foil strips be thrown? And this thing interferes with the radars of both sides. As for aluminum foil balloons, they are not very useful, because no one will rely on radar alone to shoot, and flares and other things still have to be shot.

Night reconnaissance aircraft are not so lucky. The aircraft detects the ship, and the air search radar on the ship can also detect the aircraft. Moreover, both sides are now equipped with good night combat aircraft. The British have Mosquitoes, while the Germans have the He-219 known as the "mosquito killer".

"Commander, the last British reconnaissance plane has been shot down!" Colonel Wagner said to General Karls, "It seems that our He-219 is still more powerful."

"Our planes are still staring at the British fleet?" Admiral Karls asked.

"Still keeping an eye on it, the British don't have a night combat aircraft that can deal with the He-219!"

"good!"

Admiral Karls nodded and ordered: "Now form the team, Friedrich I (P class), Berlin (M class cruiser), Cologne (M class cruiser) form the 1st missile team; Teresa Maria HMS, Hamburg (M class), and Frankfurt (M class) formed the 2nd missile squadron; Kaiser Wilhelm, Hannover (M class), and Danze (M class) formed the 3rd missile squadron; Vienna (SP class) Cruiser), Z38, Z39, T61 (1940-type lightning strike ship), T62, and T63 form the 4th Thunder Strike Team; Prague (SP class), Z40, Z41, T64, T65, and T66 The No. 5 Lightning Strike Team was formed; the Riga (SP level), Z42, Z43, T67, T68, and T69 formed the 6th Thunder Strike Team. "

Because the 5th Fleet had also divided its forces before, turning some of the older cruisers, destroyers and lightning strike ships as well as three slower escort aircraft carriers into an escort detachment, protecting the landing fleet and walking slowly behind the main fleet.

The main force in the hands of Admiral Karls is 3 P-class ships, 6 M-class cruisers, 3 SP-class cruisers, 6 1936-type or 1938-type destroyers, and 9 light ships called lightning strike ships. warship.

The German "Thunder Strike Ship" is different from the Japanese "Thunder Strike Ship". The Japanese Navy is very obsessed with torpedo attacks on surface ships, especially long-distance lightning strikes. Therefore, it will equip light cruisers with a large number of torpedoes to become the so-called heavily equipped torpedo strikes. ship. The German torpedo ship is actually an enlarged torpedo boat, generally with a displacement of about 1,000 tons, equipped with a 105mm naval gun and two triple or quadruple torpedo launch tubes.

The nine lightning strike ships in the hands of Admiral Karls are the behemoth 1940 type of lightning strike ships. This type of torpedo attack ship was built in a Dutch shipyard starting in 1940. There are 12 ships in total, with a standard displacement of up to 1931 tons. They have 4 127mm high-level dual-purpose guns and 4 twin-mounted 40mm Bofors anti-aircraft guns, as well as 2 Equipped with four 533mm torpedo tubes. A recently completed modification also installed sonar-equipped depth bombs and hedgehog bombs on these 12 1940-type ships, which are not very different from destroyers.

Now that there are lightning strike ships, the German Navy naturally has night lightning strike tactics like the Japanese Navy. However, the Germans do not have the Type 93 spear torpedo like the Japanese that can hit 40,000 meters (36 knots). It is not that they have not been introduced, but the German Navy feels that it is unsafe. They would rather use safe and reliable but longer range. T1 torpedoes for close range, and leave long-distance targets to V1/V3 wireless remote-controlled missiles to deal with them - V1 missiles are currently not equipped with the navy because their rocket engines are not yet qualified, but V3 missiles using piston engines have been It is fully mature, and the guidance method has also changed from the original wired remote control to remote control using radio signals, which can make the V3 missile have a longer range, up to 30 kilometers (because the V3 flies on its own power, if you want to drag the line, 30 Kilometers of wire are a bit heavy).

The new weapons such as V1/V3 wireless remote-controlled missiles are now in the hands of the German Navy, and are also regarded as weapons similar to torpedoes. Even the methods and formations used are similar.

…

"Commander, the radar has detected targets at 171 degrees, 174 degrees, 176 degrees, 180 degrees, 183 degrees, 185 degrees... there are at least 6 detachments coming towards us quickly."

6 teams? Is this going to be struck by lightning? Admiral Tovey and the new Chief of Staff of the Home Fleet, Rear Admiral Mountbatten, who came from a royal family and whose great-grandmother was Queen Victoria, looked at each other. Everyone felt a little strange, didn't the Germans have three battlecruisers? Why did it start with lightning strike tactics?

"What's the distance?" Mountbatten asked.

"Between 33,000 and 36,000 yards."

"Admiral, one of the six squadrons should be a bombardment squadron." Mountbatten said to Tovey, "According to intelligence, the Germans have a class of battlecruisers with very weak firepower but very fast speed. We may be facing them now.

I think the Germans may divide the fleet into five torpedo columns and one bombardment column. The bombardment column will open fire at a distance of 25,000 yards (22,860 meters) to cover the torpedo squadron's charge, while their reconnaissance aircraft will drop flares and bombs, and perhaps wire-controlled glide bombs. In addition, the Germans do not have the power to confront us head-on, and they may use high speed to escape after launching torpedoes and wire-controlled bombs."

If there were no secret weapons such as wire-controlled V3 missiles, Mountbatten's analysis would be basically correct. Admiral Karls, who only had three P-class armored ships, had no power to confront the seven battleships of the British Home Fleet head-on. Using high-speed penetration to launch torpedoes and then retreat at high speed was probably the only possible tactic.

Mountbatten said: "So I suggest the same division tactics, with Hawkins, Caledon, Afrilitti, Ashanti, Bedouin, Eskimo, Gurkha, Maori as the second destroyer squadron; Infulham, Galati, Somali, Punjabi, Mashona, Nubian, Mohawk, Sikh as the third destroyer squadron; Cornwall, Cassandra, Laforet, Lance, Rane, Legion, Lightning, Lively as the fourth destroyer squadron; Cavendish as the fifth destroyer squadron. , Caradoc, Onslow, Offa, Assault, Accelerator, Tigreil, Gazelle as the 5th Destroyer Squadron; Suffolk, Queen of Egypt, Codrington, Acasta, Amigo, Acheron, Positive, Gazelle as the 6th Destroyer Squadron; Berwick, Caledon, Keith, Lizard, Beagle, Blanche, Boudica, and Northwind as the 7th Destroyer Squadron; and the remaining combat ships as the 1st Main Squadron. "

Mountbatten's plan was very simple. Didn't the Germans divide into 6 squadrons? Well, since our home fleet has many ships, we will divide it into 7 squadrons, 6 of which are destroyers, consisting of 1 heavy cruiser, 1 light cruiser and 6 destroyers, to meet the 6 German squadrons and prevent the German torpedo formation from approaching to lay mines. The 7 battleships plus another 10 light cruisers or destroyers formed the 1st squadron and hid in the back to fire.

…

"Commander, the British have also divided into 7 squadrons, one of which is cruising in the back, and the other 6 are coming towards us."

The distance between the two sides is now less than 30,000 meters, and the British fleet's squadrons naturally cannot escape the detection of the German ship-borne radar and the Fw-200C radar in the air.

"Commander, a squadron is coming towards us, very fast!"

"Commander, it should be a destroyer and cruiser squadron." Colonel Wagner, Chief of Staff of the 5th Fleet, immediately knew what the British wanted to do without thinking. "There must be a heavy cruiser in this squadron, and we can just use 280mm cannons to deal with it!"

The current P-class missile cruiser was originally an armored ship, originally used to deal with British heavy cruisers. The main gun's firepower is theoretically stronger than any British heavy cruiser, and the P-class ship's speed of 34 knots is not slower than that of a heavy cruiser. It is definitely a heavy killer!

"No, use V3 missiles!" Admiral Karls shook his head, "I can't risk losing a missile cruiser!"

"Gunner, prepare for the V3 missile launch!" The captain of the Friedrich I heard the order from Admiral Karls and immediately began to arrange the V3 missile launch.

Like most German battleships, the P-class ships are large ships with small guns, a typical waste of tonnage. However, this kind of shooting makes it convenient for the P-class ships to install the V3 missile launch system, because the P-class ships are very long, 223 meters, and have few main guns, so there is a very spacious seaplane deck between the two chimneys in the middle of the ship.

After taking away the seaplane, two V3 missile catapults were installed on the original site, and an ammunition depot that can hold 12 V3 missiles was built under the V3 missile deck (the original seaplane deck). The two cranes that originally lifted the seaplane can be used to lift the V3 island bombs in the ammunition depot and place them on the catapult.

The whole operation process is very slow and dangerous. Once the missiles placed on the catapult are hit by enemy naval guns, a disaster will occur. Therefore, the P-class missile cruiser adopts the "hit and leave" tactic, that is, approaching at high speed, and then firing two V3s at the same time, and then quickly disengaging after the V3 hits or misses, and reloading in safe waters away from enemy fire.