"The French Navy must fight a decisive battle with the enemy at all costs and with the utmost determination, and strive to inflict a annihilating blow on the US Navy fleet to the Prime Minister, Minister of Defense, and Marshal Darlan of the French Republic."
Just as 12 German Type 21 U-boats were slaughtering the American fleet on the sea, with three wounded Iowa-class battleships as the core.
More than a dozen nautical miles away, the French Admiral Jean Suhr, who was commanding a battleship, three heavy cruisers, a light cruiser and eight destroyers on the battleship Provence, had 10 destroyers at first, but two French destroyers had been sunk by American torpedoes in previous battles.
Jean Sur was a very senior admiral in the French Navy, having been an admiral at the beginning of the World War in 1939.
His official position in the Combined European Fleet was the commander of the Brest Naval Base, the home port of the United European Fleet, which was originally a "German leased territory", but after the recent meeting of the leaders of the European Community, Brest's sovereignty was officially returned to France, and the commander of the base was also appointed by the French admiral.
As for how a French admiral, who served as the commander of the base, could board the battleship Provence and become the commander of a temporary combat formation, of course, the question of how to become the commander of a temporary combat formation is related to the rules of the combined fleet.
At present, the European Community has a joint fleet but not a joint navy, and the navies of all countries participating in the joint fleet maintain their own personnel systems, and only military orders and logistics are unified.
Therefore, all it took was an order from the French Admiralty, and a French rear admiral, the commander of the battleship group that had been on the Provence, immediately fell ill and disembarked, so that Sur, the admiral, would come up to take over.
Jean Sur, of course, boarded the Provence with a special mission, and he was ordered by French Prime Minister Darlan to observe the effect of "missile tactics" and report the results of the engagement to Darlan as soon as possible.
Now the effect of "missile tactics" has become clear, the Germans have completely won the sea power in the Atlantic, and the United States of America can only rely on army and shore-based aircraft to defend it.
Therefore, Marshal Darlan, who was sitting in the Chancellery in Paris, immediately gave Jean Sur an order to beat the American reservoir dogs to show the valor of the French navy When I think of the honors that the French Navy will achieve, Admiral Jean Soul, who has experienced two world wars and the French Navy downturn, can't help but be a little excited.
"The chief's radar detected that the American destroyer had launched another assault" A shout from the Provence's electronic officer brought Jean Sur back to reality.
The current battle on the sea does not seem to be particularly beneficial to the heroic and invincible French navy.
Although there was not a single battleship among the three US lightning strike formations that were engaged in the exchange of fire with the "Gensul Formation," the number of heavy cruisers was the same as that of the "Gensul Formation," that they were all three, and the number of destroyers was much more than that of the "Gensul Formation," reaching 27, and at the beginning there were 30 destroyers, and three of them were sunk, of which 20 were thunderbolt-type destroyers with strong firepower And the Provence, the main force of the "Jeansur formation", was too slow, which dragged down the Deutschland, Count Spee, and Admiral Schell, which formed an artillery formation with it.
As a result, the "Jean Sur Formation" had powerful artillery fire, but it could not close the distance between the American artillery bombardment formation consisting of three treaty heavy cruisers, the USS New Orleans, the USS Tuscaloosa, and the USS Houston.
Due to the distance, the accuracy of the shelling dropped significantly.
Although all three American heavy cruisers received a few shells, except for the Tuscaloosa, which was hit by a 340 shell fired by the Provence, which was more seriously damaged, the other two heavy cruisers were only hit by a few 203 shells, and they were not hit by the vital point.
And their shells also hit the Provence several times, one of which landed on the deck of the Provence's seaplane, shattering an AR196 to pieces and igniting a powder magazine used by seaplane catapults.
At the same time, the American destroyers took turns to attack, trying to break through the blockade line consisting of the light cruiser Glory and eight French destroyers, and fire torpedoes at the Provence. caused the bow to sink and the speed to decrease, which also affected the firing accuracy of the two main gun turrets in the bow of the Provence.
The French battleship, with a full load displacement of more than 270,000 tons, sank in the bow, caught fire amidships, and destroyed a main turret amidships, which really looked a little embarrassing.
Now the destroyers of the Americans have started a new round of charge, which is really frightening "Except for the Provence, the main guns of all the ships are aimed at the American destroyers, so as not to let them get close," Admiral Jean Sur did not dare to let the American destroyers get any closer, and hurriedly ordered the cruisers and destroyers to block them with all their might.
But what happened next was much more than Admiral Jean Suhr had anticipated.
The two dozen or so American destroyers that charged under artillery fire did not rush to the scarred Provence, but pounced on the three German heavy cruisers behind the Provence, firing about 80 K15 torpedoes at a distance of about 9,000 meters.
Although the torpedoes were fired at a relatively long distance, at a distance of 9000 meters, and at night when visibility was extremely poor, 2 K15 torpedoes hit the target.
One of them hit the stern of the heavy cruiser "Deutschland", causing water to enter the power compartment.
The other hit the bow of the Admiral Scheer, causing a large influx of seawater.
And in this process, the Americans also paid a lot of price, 3 destroyers were hit by the "German" class cruisers, and 3 German-class cruisers were now converted into heavy cruisers with 203 main guns, all of which were on fire, and their speed was also greatly reduced, becoming a live target on the sea.
"Sir, the heavy cruiser Deutschland reported that the port side of the stern was torpedoed, the power compartment was flooded, and there is a possibility of losing some power" "Sir, the bow of the Admiral Scheer heavy cruiser was torpedoed, a storage compartment was flooded, the bow sank, and the speed could drop by 5 knots."
"Damn it" made Suer listen to the staff officer's report, and beads of sweat were already floating on his forehead.
It is a shame that his fleet has battleships, and it is inextricable to fight with the heavy cruisers and destroyers of the Americans.
"Sir," the electronic officer of the Provence shouted again, "radar has detected that the American destroyer is rapidly retreating" Why did the quick retreat run out of torpedoes?
"What about the three heavy cruisers of the Americans," Jean Sur asked.
"They seem to be continuing to fight us."
Let Sur be stunned and stunned, the destroyer ran away, the heavy cruiser didn't run, what the hell did this mean Yankees "Admiral, the Little Rock can't hold on, please hurry up and board the lifeboat."
Just when Suhr was stunned, U.S.
Admiral Halsey was worried.
His new flagship, the Light Cruiser USS Little Rock, is sinking again.
Of course, it was the terrible Type 21 U-boat that sank it This Type 21 U-boat, which can sail at a high speed of 172 knots underwater, is no worse than the Reaper-2 anti-ship missile in combat efficiency when encountering enemy ships that they can pursue.
Because the high speed of the Type 21 U-boat under water made it difficult for the American destroyers to attack, they could not catch up with the Type 21 U-boat when the speed was too slow, and they drove too fast and could not use sonar.
Therefore, the best way for American ships to meet Type 21 U-boats is to rely on high speed to escape.
Halsey, however, was reluctant to carry the nearly 8,000 naval officers and men aboard the three Iowa-class battleships.
These people are the best sailors in the US Navy, and if they can be fished out, they will definitely be able to support the operation of ten light cruisers in a short period of time.
So Halsey did not decisively order a retreat after the end of the first wave of attacks by 12 German Type 21 U-boats, but ordered the light cruisers and destroyers that were not torpedoed to hurry to the rescue.
As a result, the man was not rescued, and he put himself in the second wave of attacks launched by 12 Type 21 U-boats, and almost all the American light cruisers and destroyers that were salvaging the people who had fallen into the water were hit by mines.
Even the "Little Rock" on which Halsey was riding was no exception, and it was hit by four torpedoes in a row, three large holes were opened in the underwater part of the port side, and the sea water rushed in, which had already flooded the power compartment, although it maintained its balance by urgently pouring water into the starboard side.
Free novels bring you joy and joy ---> storyskyline.net
But this only delayed the sinking of the "Little Rock".
There must have been more than 10,000 US Navy officers and men who had fallen into the water or were about to fall into the water, and Halsey had no choice but to call for help from the three lightning strike formations that were fighting hard against the "Rangsur Formation."
But when Halsey got into a small lifeboat, he suddenly wondered: once the 20-odd destroyers slowed down to save people, would they become targets for those German submarines under the water again t1706231537: