October 2, 9:37.
The fast fleet chasing the British finally saw the shadow of the German ship.
This lone German ship looked devastated and miserable, and was stumbling away to the southeast.
This is the German battlecruiser Von der Tann.
Two hours ago, it was turned into a torch by the British HMS Indomitable during a battle.
Although the fire has been extinguished, many equipments have been damaged and the speed has dropped to Section 15.
Because he was afraid that a fire would ignite the ammunition depot, the captain ordered the ammunition depot to be filled with water.
As a result, only the rear main gun was left usable.
"It's the Vondertann."
Rear Admiral Thomas identified it and said: "It has almost lost its combat effectiveness.
Let the Malaya and the Valiant stay and sink it.
Well, send four more destroyers to cooperate.
The fleet continues to move forward.
Yes, report to Lord Jericho that our army sank the German battlecruiser Von der Tann."
"Yes, Your Excellency."
The adjutant quickly went to deliver the order.
As for "Vondertann has not been sunk yet", he would not say it, because it is just a matter of time.
Does it matter whether there are more minutes or less?
9:55.
The Thomas fleet encountered three more German destroyers.
These were also damaged ships in the previous battle and fell behind due to the decrease in speed.
Thomas naturally didn't want to waste time on these little guys.
He ordered a few light ships to kill them, and he led his team to continue the pursuit.
Because there were always German planes nearby, the British seaplanes could not hit them.
They only dared to hover near the fleet and did not dare to go too far away, so the detection efficiency was extremely low.
However, an airplane is an airplane after all, and its observation range in the sky is still larger than that of a warship on the sea.
As soon as the British army launched an attack on the three German destroyers, the aircraft reported that the German fleet was sighted in the eleven o'clock direction of the fleet.
Judging from the number of smoke columns, there were at least more than 30 ships.
The distance was about 45 kilometers and they were moving at about 10 knots.
Speed southbound.
Captured the main force of the German army Thomas' energy suddenly rose up.
He ordered the pursuit at full speed and reported the situation to the main force behind.
As for why the German army's speed was only 10 knots, Thomas didn't think much about it.
He thought it must be a problem with the power system of a certain battleship.
However, at this time, in order to achieve better reconnaissance results, the seaplane slightly left the protective circle of anti-aircraft fire.
In less than two minutes, two German planes hovering nearby spotted the opportunity and pounced directly on them.
The seaplane was so frightened that it swooped down towards the fleet.
The British ships on the sea fired their guns and fired away the two German planes.
The seaplane was saved, but a large piece of skin was cut off from the wing by bullets.
It made a very thrilling emergency landing on the sea.
When the pilot climbed out of the plane, his face was pale and he refused to say anything.
Go up again.
Pilots are not fools either.
How could they do such a thing that would obviously lead to death?
Are you kidding me?
Free novels bring you joy and joy ---> storyskyline.net
The performance of this "Spanro" type seaplane is so bad.
Compared with Ertoku's ar6, it's just like Xiang.
It's like a target when it goes up, and it can't fight back at all.
No, whoever is willing to do this kind of death thing, I won't do it anyway.
It's okay if we go up there.
Then give us a better plane.
Thomas thought about it and no longer insisted on sending a plane to take risks.
Because just during the pursuit, the plane in his hand suffered heavy losses, and now only two are still flying.
Anyway, the German ship has been found, so there is no need to lose it in vain.
Although this aircraft is cheap, training pilots is not easy. 10:32.
The lookout reported that the main German fleet had been sighted, but they had now fled south and were turning to the west.
Thomas smiled proudly: "It seems that they know that they can't escape.
They can just fight with us if they want.
I'm afraid they will continue to escape."
He breathed a sigh of relief.
The task assigned by Jericho was completed. .
"All light cruisers and destroyers prepare for lightning strikes to hold back the Germans," Thomas ordered.
"Besides, let the Malaya and the Valiant catch up quickly, it will take so long to break the ship."
Thomas was not stupid enough to use his own strength to fight the main force of the German army, he just needed to hold them back. 10:40.
The Malaya and the Valiant finally arrived.
They had just encountered a small problem when they "executed" the Vondertann.
They originally thought that it would take less than a few minutes to sink a mostly disabled warship, but it didn't.
To think that the Germans actually built such a perverted ship.
It took them 29 rounds of 381mm heavy guns and 6 torpedoes to send the half-broken ship to the bottom of the sea.
Moreover, the counterattack of the Vondertann before its death was also very powerful.
Although they only had two rear main guns left, their shooting was extremely accurate.
The Valiant actually received two 280mm shells, blowing up the seaplane catapult and A 152mm secondary gun.
There was also an unlucky destroyer whose bridge was blown off by a single shot, which also caused a large number of sailor casualties and had to withdraw from the battle.
The light cruiser squadron that was responsible for "executing" the three injured destroyers did not go well either.
Seeing that they could not escape, the three destroyers turned around and tried their best.
They fired all torpedoes at the pursuing British ships and used The remaining artillery pieces fought back desperately.
In the final result, although all three German destroyers were destroyed, the British side did not take advantage.
A light cruiser and a destroyer were sunk by torpedoes, and a light cruiser was so bombed that it could no longer take care of itself and was seriously injured and paralyzed on the sea. , the two destroyers also took several shots.
This is simply a loss-making business.
He was actually pecked hard by the cooked duck.
Thomas almost fainted after hearing these two pieces of news.
But fortunately, for the huge local fleet, this loss is nothing.
Thomas now has 5 fast battleships, 10 light cruisers, and 50 destroyers.
The horizontal head position of the word blocks the German army and creates opportunities for the main fleet. 11:17.
The British fast fleet successfully inserted in front of the German fleet.
Both sides sent light ships, preparing to use lightning strikes to force the other side to change direction. 11:25.
Light ships from both sides began to exchange fire.
But at this moment, a huge roar suddenly came from the sky.
In the northwest sky, a large group of aircraft with the Iron Cross emblem almost blocked the sun.
They were like a dark cloud, rushing toward the British fleet with murderous intent.
Free novels bring you joy and joy ---> storyskyline.net
The Luftwaffe fleet arrived.
In fact, they should have arrived earlier, but because this was the first time the German army had conducted sea and air coordination, there were many loopholes in the command and coordination, and many embarrassing things happened.
Because these fleets were not commanded by Scheer, but were commanded by Commander Rendell at Oberlo Airport, the fleets were initially located in the wrong place due to factors such as delayed intelligence.
When they rushed to the predetermined location aggressively, they only found a sea of water.
Later, after many contacts between the two parties, they finally found the correct coordinates.
At this time, they discovered to their embarrassment that they had deviated from the sea area where the British fleet was located by more than 100 kilometers.
"Damn, it's a German plane" Seeing the dark aircraft approaching from the northwest, Major General Thomas's face suddenly turned green.
"Fleet-wide air defense array," he shouted at the top of his lungs.
Coach, this is a foul!
Er Dezi didn't abide by the rules.
We agreed not to lead such a trickster in the naval battle.
Thomas doesn't think these planes can pose much of a threat to his battleships, but his current opponents are not just planes.
Dozens of German battleships are still ahead.
If they are entangled by these planes and disrupt their formation, they will be defeated.
It would be dangerous if the German battleship took the opportunity to attack violently.
Isn't this the case in the recent Russian-Turkish Black Sea battle?
Turkish aircraft broke up the Russian fleet formation and were then violently beaten by Turkish battleships.
More importantly, the light ships sent out do not have strong air defense capabilities and armor, so it is very dangerous to face such high-density air attacks.
But those light ships had just been dispersed.
How could they gather the warships in a short while?
No matter how fast they were, it was impossible to compete with the aircraft.
The first ones to launch the attack were fighter jets.
Because there were no British aircraft in the nearby airspace, the German fighter group changed its plan and began to attack the warships directly.
Knowing that the British army only had a few dozen seaplanes and no fighter jets, most German fighter jets carried two 50kg bombs.
The 198 fighter jets were divided into two waves.
Those carrying small bombs began to swoop to attack the light ships.
They also knew that such bombs were useless against battleships.
Even if they hit, it would be a waste.
But those light ships were different.
Their weak armor But those who can't carry 50 kilograms of bombs, especially those destroyers, just one shot is enough for them to drink a pot.
Those fighter jets that did not carry bombs targeted five battleships.
They were preparing to use machine guns and cannons to wash the decks.
Although the armor of the battleships was thick, not every place had armor, such as the superstructure.
Some equipment has no armor protection, and some small-caliber artillery is even arranged in the open without a roof.
This time the Germans sent all He15 fighter jets.
They were models produced by the Germans after introducing a complete set of J-2 drawings and making some modifications.
A more powerful engine was installed, and the original 7 mm machine gun was replaced by a 7.92 mm machine gun, but the original 20 mm machine gun continued to be retained.
"Da da da da da da" The 20mm machine gun and the 7.92mm machine gun caused a bloody storm on the deck of the British ship.
The British sailors operated the anti-aircraft weapons on the ship and fought back desperately, but it was difficult for the enemy planes in front of them to attack from all directions.
On the contrary, these anti-aircraft firepower suffered heavy losses.
On the other side, 120 fighter jets launched dive bombings on British light ships, and the 50 kilogram bombs they carried fell like raindrops.
At the same time, the German light ships that rushed over did not watch the show.
They also joined the attack
.
: