Chapter 736: Naval Battle (6)

In the temporary combat headquarters in Washington, the atmosphere in the room was extremely depressing, as if it would explode if not careful. Everyone's face was terribly gloomy, and there was deep worry and shock between their eyebrows.

Because just now, they received the last telegram from the Atlantic Fleet.

"The fleet is sinking!"

Seeing this telegram, everyone in the command center was shocked. What kind of words is this? !

It is understandable and acceptable that one or two warships, or even many warships were sunk. Everyone was mentally prepared for this. After all, the German warships were all cutting-edge warships, and most of their main warships, except for one "Washington", were antiques. They were definitely not as good as the German warships in performance, and it was normal to have losses.

But what does it mean that the fleet sank? !

Could it be that the entire fleet suffered a devastating blow? !

This is also exaggerated, right? !

After that, no matter how hard they tried to contact, the Atlantic Fleet never responded, and everyone's heart was covered with a layer of haze. Could it be that the entire fleet was sunk as the telegram said? !

"How could this happen?!" The Atlantic Fleet came into contact with the German Fleet 20 minutes ago. In just 20 minutes, the Atlantic Fleet was completely wiped out? !

"How is this possible?!" As the saying goes, "a century-old navy", to build a truly powerful navy fleet, it takes a long time of training and experience; how could the German Navy develop so powerful in just over a decade? !

"Lieutenant General Ingersoll sent a message saying that the German Navy was equipped with advanced radars, and the first round of shelling fired many near misses."

"But even if it is advanced, it is impossible to sink a fleet in such a short time?" I'm afraid no one would believe it! What's more, it was four German battleships that fired at their fleet. With four battleships to sink a fleet, even if their fleet stood still and let him shoot, it would not be completely sunk in 20 minutes.

"Is there any ship nearby that we can rush to rescue?" Let's not talk about how the German army sank all of its fleet. Since the fleet sank, there must be many people who fell into the water; the ship can be rebuilt if it is lost, but it is not easy to train a qualified sailor, so save as many as you can.

Looking at the dazzling flames bursting out from the American fleet in the distance, cheers broke out in the German fleet.

Rear Admiral Bachmann thought of his father who participated in the Battle of Jutland in the last war, and his eyes were a little wet.

In that famous naval battle, the German High Seas Fleet deployed 99 large and small warships, while the British deployed 155 large and small warships (British and Australian joint navy). In the naval battle, the number of the backbone forces of the British fleet, such as pre-dreadnoughts, super-dreadnoughts, battlecruisers, and battleships, was far greater than that of Germany. No matter how Germany developed, it still could not catch up with Britain, but Germany became the only fleet in the ocean that could compete with the Royal Navy.

The guns of British warships have a faster firing rate and a higher speed than German warships, but the armor protection of German warships is perfect, and the armor penetration rate of shells is higher than that of British warships.

In the Battle of Jutland, the German army sank 14 British warships at the cost of losing 6 ships, which can be said to be a tactical winner. However, looking at the entire Battle of Jutland, with the number and quality of warships on both sides being equal, the German army actually had no chance to cause fatal damage to the British army. The only chance was probably to lure Beatty's fleet into the trap, but it was a pity that Beatty did not take the bait, causing the German army to lose the only good opportunity. After the Battle of Jutland, the German Navy had almost no sea activities, and finally gradually lost the initiative at sea.

Failure to completely defeat the British fleet has become a lifelong regret for our fathers. Now the former maritime overlord, the British Empire, has long surrendered to Germany; they can even annihilate dozens of the other side's warships at the cost of zero casualties, which is simply a miracle!

At this time, the adjutant came to report. "General, there are many American sailors drowning on the sea, you see..." The unexpected torpedo attack caused many American sailors to sink into the deep sea with the warship before they could abandon the ship; but many escaped, and at this time, tens of thousands of American sailors were floating on the sea.

Rear Admiral Bachmann calmed down his excitement and said slowly. "What does your highness's 'special order for fighting against the United States' say? These New World bastards are not worthy of the treatment of knights. Let them fend for themselves here. Don't worry about them and keep moving forward."

"Yes!"

In this way, the German fleet ignored the American sailors struggling in the sea and continued to move forward. At dawn the next day, it arrived at a sea area more than 100 kilometers away from the US coastline. "Report, there are many ships in the American cargo channel 40 kilometers away."

"Order the Scharnhorst to lead the first cruiser formation to hunt, and the rest of the warships to prepare for air defense." To deal with these ordinary freighters, sending a battleship is simply a butcher knife, and sending a destroyer is more than enough. However, he heard that there were destroyers escorting these waterways because their submarines were hunting along the east coast. In order to deal with these destroyers cleanly, Rear Admiral Bachmann dispatched the Scharnhorst and several cruisers.

The cargo ships coming and going on the waterway did not recognize the warships rushing from afar for a while. The first to discover them were the destroyers escorting near the waterway.

"Oh my God! That's a German battleship!!" The sailors on the destroyer were stunned by several German battleships coming straight at them from a distance. How could the German battleships appear here? ! As the distance got closer and closer, they also saw clearly that the other side was a battlecruiser and several cruisers, which was not something that their small destroyers could deal with at all. "Quick! Request support! Prepare to launch torpedoes!"

Although they knew that their old-fashioned destroyers were no match for the other side's battlecruisers and cruisers, they couldn't abandon the freighters on the channel and run away. The US destroyers could only bite the bullet and open fire, and hastily prepared to launch torpedoes. But the German warships obviously did not intend to give them a chance to resist. The US destroyers did fight back, but they really had no way to get close to the fatal distance of launching torpedoes. From the 280mm main gun to the 88mm secondary gun, a fierce fire, several destroyers rushing over were submerged in a burst of flames.

The cargo ships on the channel were so scared that they almost peed their pants when they saw this. They accelerated to get away from these evil spirits, but the speed of these cargo ships was only a dozen knots at most. How could they possibly outrun the warships that could travel at a speed of over 30 knots? !

Soon, the German hunting formation rushed into the channel and began to slaughter these merchant ships without armor protection.