69novels Chapter 590
Chapter 590
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At 6:50 in the morning of January 4, 1928, the sky had just brightened and white mist was rising from the sea.
A huge white warship cut through the waves, breaking the tranquility of the sea.
“Can the seaplane take off?”
Lütjens put down the telescope and asked the captain beside him with a frown.
“There is no problem with takeoff, but the fog is gathering over the sea. I am worried that the seaplane will not be able to detect the enemy’s intelligence, and it will be difficult to find our position when returning.……”
Captain Ernst hesitated and said,”What he meant was to wait until the sun rises and the fog on the sea dissipates before sending out seaplanes to scout the enemy’s position.”
“We can’t wait that long. Calculating the time, the British should have reached the designated sea area by now. If we can’t detect their position as soon as possible, we are likely to meet at sea!”
Although Lütjens was not afraid of fighting a ship-to-ship naval battle with the British, the main task of this battle was to cover the attack of the aircraft carrier battle group. The main attack mission was carried out by the aircraft on the aircraft carrier battle group, not by them.
“Report!”
At this moment, a soldier seemed to have discovered something and shouted:”Seven bright spots were found about 50 kilometers northwest of our ship. It may be the enemy fleet!”
“Seven targets?”
Lütjens and Captain Ernst exchanged a glance. The intelligence they received was that the British had dispatched five battleships, in addition to several cruisers and destroyers.
The seven targets found by the radar could be the British fleet!
“Take off the seaplane immediately and go for reconnaissance. Also, have the Scharnhorst move westward to fill the gap in the northwest defense of our fleet!”
Although it has not been completely confirmed whether the target found by the radar is an enemy, Lütjens has already made plans for the worst!
“Notify the fleet to speed up, increase all speeds to over 25 knots, and maintain combat readiness!”
The battle of battleships is a dual confrontation of maneuverability and firepower. Whoever has more flexible maneuverability can occupy the best firing position, which is the traditional T-head grabbing in naval battles!
If they can seize the T-head first, then they can concentrate the firepower of several battleships to deal with an enemy battleship, thereby paralyzing an enemy main battleship in the shortest time, forcing the enemy to reduce its personnel at the beginning of the war!
Of course, this tactic was mainly a tactic before World War II.
The main reason for this tactic was that the naval fleets of various countries adopted a single column formation.
The battleships were arranged in a vertical row, so that the battleships in front blocked the firing range of the battleships behind.
If the enemy ran to the front and swung horizontally, only the main gun in front of the first battleship in the entire column could fire and attack, and the guns of the fleet behind could not fire.
This led to a huge gap in firepower between the two sides, allowing one side to exert its greatest firepower, while the other side was completely passive and had almost no ability to fight back!
There are many classic naval battles of grabbing the T-head, the most famous of which is It was the Battle of Tsushima in 1905. The Combined Fleet of Jiaoben was almost annihilated because it successfully seized the T-head.
And the words of Heihachiro Togo before the war,”The rise and fall of the Empire depends on this battle”, also became a classic picture for later generations!
However, by the time of World War II, naval battles did not necessarily have to be fought at the T-head. After all, all countries had deployed their main guns in the front. Basically, battleships of all countries had at least two turrets at the bow. If there were triple turrets, there would be six main guns in the front, that is, Even if it is a twin-gun turret, there are at least 4 main guns in the front.
In this case, the firepower at the bow of the battleship is already strong enough, so unless there is a melee like the Battle of Jutland where both sides dispatch dozens of battleships, otherwise, there is no need to fight for the T-head in a single battle between battleships!
After all, when the battleship is facing the enemy sideways, the side of the ship is completely exposed to the enemy’s firepower, and the attack surface will be greatly increased, which may backfire, not only failing to gain an advantage, but also killing oneself.
……
The target discovered by the Bismarck’s radar was indeed the British fleet, but Lütjens’s estimate was wrong.
The five large targets in the British fleet were indeed their battleships, which was not wrong, but the other two were not cruisers, but two aircraft carriers.
The two aircraft carriers were the Hermes and the White-eyed Giant, both of which were built by the British after World War I. They were early aircraft carriers with a strong experimental nature.
Of course, the British did not entrust the main task of the naval battle to the two aircraft carriers like Hans did. The main purpose of dispatching these two aircraft carriers was to provide intelligence support to the navy’s fleet.
After all, the carrier-based aircraft on the aircraft carriers are more in number and can detect a wider range. In naval battles, intelligence is extremely important. Whoever can discover the enemy first can have the initiative in the battle!
And the British obviously hope to keep the initiative firmly in their hands!
Of course, both the Hermes and the Titan had torpedo planes. This torpedo plane named Swordfish was the latest torpedo plane developed by the British Navy. Its performance was top-notch in this era and it had excellent anti-ship capabilities. Historically
, the Swordfish torpedo plane also performed well in World War II and participated in almost all the Royal Navy’s maritime operations. If there was an opportunity, the Hermes and the Titan could also dispatch Swordfish torpedo planes to help their fleets attack the enemy.
At this time, although the British Navy’s fleet did not discover the German fleet, Holland smelled danger.
“Let the aircraft carrier take off fighter planes to conduct reconnaissance immediately. If our intelligence is correct, the German army should be in this sea area now, and we may encounter them soon!”
Holdland rubbed his hands excitedly. He was already full of confidence when he went to battle with five battleships, but he met two aircraft carriers heading south from the north on the way. The Navy Headquarters ordered these two aircraft carriers to join their fleet, which greatly enhanced their strength and gave them intelligence reconnaissance capabilities far exceeding those of the German army.
This greatly increased the confidence in Holdland’s heart. He felt that with the help of these two aircraft carriers, as long as his fleet discovered the German army, it would be able to annihilate it!
And once the German fleet was annihilated, his name would be famous within a day. He swept the entire British homeland and became a household name hero!
Buzz!
The sound from the air broke Major General Holland’s dream. He raised his head and looked at the plane in the air with a slightly unhappy look, but he was curious in his heart: The speed of the aircraft carrier is good. Just after the order was given, the fighter plane took off so quickly. This efficiency is much faster than before!
However, after staring at the plane in the air for a while, he realized that something was wrong!
Why is this plane flying in the opposite direction?