Chapter 223 Naval Battle (6)

"Damn it!"

The huge explosion caused the entire battleship to shake violently, and the people on the bridge fell to the ground in embarrassment.

Pullman Cook's forehead hit the floor hard, and hot liquid flowed from his forehead. But he didn't bother to wipe it, struggled to get up, shook his somewhat dazed head, and noticed that the speed of the battleship had dropped significantly. "Report damage!"

The deputy captain immediately contacted the power room and learned that the No. 3 boiler room was damaged, and the hot high-pressure steam instantly cooked the more than ten boiler soldiers inside. This is not the worst. A large amount of seawater poured into the broken compartment, causing the warpth warship to tilt slightly. Fortunately, this level of damage would not kill a fully loaded battleship with a displacement of more than 30,000 tons. The damage control team is working hard to plug the cracks.

But Pullman Cook couldn't be happy at all, and ordered with a gloomy face. "Asking for help from the mainland, we need air support!!" He had already seen that his own anti-aircraft firepower was too weak and could not prevent the opponent's fighter planes at all.

This situation is quite unfavorable for them. Even if they want to escape from the battleship, they cannot escape by plane; now the only hope is for their own planes to come and drive away these enemy planes. But now they were hundreds of kilometers away from the mainland, and there was no time or distance for reinforcements; he could only pray for a miracle. For example, the German army is running out of fuel or something. "Damn, why is this happening?! This is not the naval battle I know at all!"

After all, the British Empire relied on large ships and large guns to rule the oceans for centuries, and the large ship and large gun doctrine was also the mainstream idea in the development of navies around the world before World War II. Everyone agrees that to win a naval battle, you must have a battleship with a larger tonnage than your opponent, carry more artillery, and have artillery with a larger caliber (more powerful and longer range) than the opponent. This was the decisive victory in naval battles of that era. The only way to do it. The Battle of Jutland in World War I also pushed this theory of "big ship and big gun victory doctrine" to its zenith.

Of course, there is no shortage of visionaries in the British Empire, and some people strongly advocate the development of carrier-based aircraft. Unfortunately, with the huge hulls and large-caliber main guns of the battleships, no one is optimistic about the prospects of carrier-based aircraft. Aircraft are in the UK In the eyes of the Royal Navy, it was nothing more than a tool for reconnaissance and bombardment calibration for the fleet.

But reality always likes to slap people in the face. Before Pullman Cook could figure out how an air raid from an aircraft carrier could carry such a heavy bomb and last for so long, a staff officer looked horrified. shouted. "Captain! They are attacking again!"

The success of the first round of attacks greatly encouraged the German pilots. In addition, the Crown Prince was angry at being hit. They were all gearing up and wanted to rush down and tear the British into pieces.

"Boobies Group B, Sea Mouse Group B; start attacking."

Five more Stukas and five FW-190Ts swooped down and rushed towards the Warspite, whose speed had been reduced to only a dozen knots. After the first round of attacks, the originally not very dense anti-aircraft firepower on the Warspite was reduced. There are very few left, and there are holes everywhere.

The corner of Pullman Cook's mouth twitched slightly, and he ordered with an ugly expression. "Order the anti-aircraft artillery to intercept with all your strength!" Now all we can count on are these unsatisfactory anti-aircraft artillery.

Because the bomb dropped by the Stuka had just hit the Warspite, almost all air defense positions were subconsciously aimed at the swooping Stuka.

At this moment, the sailors on the watchtower of the Warspite were horrified to find that four torpedo planes flew steadily towards the Warspite in a row at a sea-skimming altitude, and dropped torpedoes one after another; four white tracks went straight 's attack on the Warspite.

The frightened sailor quickly picked up the communicator and shouted hysterically. "Bridge, starboard torpedo! Starboard torpedo!!"

"Full left rudder!!" Pullman Cook's voice was full of desperate tremors, because he had already foreseen that he could not avoid the torpedoes.

"Boom!" Sure enough, a few seconds later, a huge water column spewed out from the starboard side of the Warspite, and everyone in the bridge was shaken violently and fell to the floor.

Pullman Cook struggled to get up, but there was another loud bang and another huge shake that caused his whole face to hit the floor. There was a soft clicking sound from the bridge of his nose, and the severe pain made him unable to hold back tears. In addition, the back and forth collision made him dizzy, and he no longer had the energy to get up.

However, the emergency third explosion proved that he made the right choice not to continue struggling. The third shock directly threw the people huddled on the floor more than one meter high, and then slammed them to the ground. .

Everyone in the bridge was thrown to pieces, and they could only listen in despair as the battleship made a terrifying creaking sound, and the ship's hull quickly tilted to the side.

Of the four torpedoes dropped, three hit the starboard side of Warspite. The torpedoes with a fixed depth of 5 meters dug three large holes below the waterline.

This old-fashioned battleship designed before World War I has extremely poor mine protection, and the thick armor is above the waterline. According to the original design idea, the battleship armor is used to prevent the opponent's battleships from bombarding. As for the incoming torpedo boats, there are other escorts Ship protection makes it difficult for torpedo boats to get close to battleships.

Therefore, at the beginning of the design, it was never thought that aircraft would drop torpedoes so close to the battleship.

Seeing the Warspite's hull capsize and sink into the sea due to excessive tilt, the German pilots let out loud cheers.

They finally experienced what His Highness said about them creating new history; the big ships and big guns were ultimately no match for the ravages of carrier-based aircraft. After twenty years of hard work, the German Navy finally had the strength to challenge the hegemony of the sea.

The remaining British warships were completely in chaos. You have to know that the anti-aircraft guns equipped on these warships are all pom-pom guns, and because of the weight of the guns, the small size of the destroyers can't even bear the quadruple version of the pom-pom gun, so they can only be equipped with twin or single guns; most of the cruisers are only quadruple guns.

How could such anti-aircraft firepower defend against the attack of German fighter planes?

The British fleet, which understood this, fled in all directions, but the fastest destroyer among them had a speed of 35 knots, which was converted to 82 kilometers per hour, and the slow Stuka in the sky also had a speed of 400 kilometers per hour.

The remaining Stukas and FW-190Ts chased after the warships, sinking two heavy cruisers and a battlecruiser in one fell swoop, and returned home in dismay after throwing away all their bombs and torpedoes.

The British warships that had finally escaped did not dare to go to Iceland, and fled to the mainland with their tails between their legs.

Yannick asked amid the cheers of the crowd. "How much did we lose?"

The air commander said respectfully. "Your Highness, we lost three Stukas and four FW-190Ts. There should be pilots who survived. I have contacted the fleet to send seaplanes to search. Your Highness, let's go back quickly, your injury is important."

"Okay, triumph!"