.

However, the British were not so lucky. Their battleships usually value air defense. This is not because the British did not pay enough attention to the Air Force, but because they handed over most air defense tasks to the Air Force. There is nothing worth objecting to the objection. The speed of the aircraft is far greater than that of the battleships. Of course, only aircraft can restrain the aircraft, and battleships cannot fly into the sky.

However, this led to the British not considering protection too much when designing battleships, especially air defense. Instead, they emphasized speed and firepower. For the British, the vast colonies made them necessary for this type of battleship. As for protection, British warships have always attacked others, and their own warships do not need anything.

So it is not surprising that British warships had problems shortly after the German air force began to drop bombs. This time, the first one to create was the "never sinking warship" - the "Prince of Wales", which was much the same as the German "never sinking warship". The British warships were really the same, but although they could not compare to Germany's William III, the "Prince of Wales" was still one of the most advanced battleships in the world at that time.

The ship belongs to the "George V" class and started service in 1912; platoon of 5490 (over 40580)

Size 7.1 meters, width 31.3, draft 8.

10 main guns:

Secondary gun

Anti-aircraft gun mm anti-aircraft gun 32 seats. 20mm anti-aircraft gun

Design power 0c force

Design Speed ​​Festival

Design crew 00-

When the German bomber formation flew to the British fleet to appeal, thousands of anti-aircraft guns from all battleships opened fire together. The military bomber formations that were trying to disperse were reduced to reduce the bombing accuracy of German aircraft. However, because the fleet was in a maneuverable state, it was impossible to organize an air defense formation, and the firepower could not threaten the German bomber at high altitudes.

The German bomber group ignored the risk of being hit and calmly began to drop bombs. At an altitude of 8,000 meters, the German bomber group was at a low altitude to improve hit accuracy. Unfortunately, the Prince of Wales was positioned as a standard throwing point by the German bomber captain as a standard throwing point.

At this time, the radar of the "Prince of Wales" had failed. On the radar screen, there were highlights of the aircraft everywhere. According to the radar analysis report, at least 100 German four heavy bombers were approaching. Captain Major General Kandnan ordered the air defense alarm to be sounded. Prepare to defend air with all their strength and start evading bombs in the z-shaped shape.

Before the alarm sounded, countless German bombers rumbled over their heads and the bombs fell down. At that time, Ou Galeg, a reporter from the London Daily Express who went out to sea with the Prince of Wales, was on the deck. He recalled.

"The explosions were deafening, and the ship was shaking violently. The hull was surrounded by water columns dozens of meters high. We were like we were surrounded by shells. I grabbed the table tightly. I prayed not to be hit. Captain Kandnan stood on the high bridge, fearless in the face of danger. While commanding the battle calmly, he used his superb ability to control the ship, drove the "Prince of Wales" to the full rudder, dodging left and right in the rain of bullets at a speed of 29 nautical miles per hour, and bombed the German army with the speed of 29 nautical miles per hour.

Author's note: This passage explains that this reporter is simply making up. Generally speaking, Cambridge is not suitable as a command site because its location is very prominent and is too dangerous for observation. The construction of seals is generally on tight protection of the command tower, and it is absolutely impossible to be seen by a military reporter.

While commanding the battle, they also have superb skills in the ship control, which confuses the functions of the captain and the driver. Generally speaking, in battle, the captain only needs to judge how to carry out the battle. As for the specific shooting steps and how to avoid these details, there are special personnel responsible for it, so the captain does not need to worry about it.

However, a large number of bombs finally found the Prince of Wales. Two bombs fell from the sky and soon hit the port side of the ship, destroying the port side of the carrier-based hangar. With a loud noise, the hangar was blown to pieces, and the ship's ship hull vibrated violently, and the ignited fire immediately enveloped the entire deck.

Unlike the British Air Force, the bombs used by the Germans this time were only incendiary bombs. This bomb could easily ignite a fire, with a temperature of up to 1,600, and the steel could melt. In addition, poisonous white phosphorus and other substances were added to the bombs. Those British damage tubes were poisoned to the ground during the rescue process, and the people on the Prince of Wales were burning more and more intense.

Captain Kandnan shouted loudly: "Hurry up and organize the fire to be put out!" The first batch of bombers had just passed by, and the second batch of bombers followed one after another. Unlike the British cluster bombing, the German planes were divided into several batches and bombed in turn. This was also because the British fleet formation was very wide and could bomb calmly.

Sometimes more than a hundred German bombers followed closely behind and attacked starboard. Captain Kandnan immediately ordered the gunners to concentrate their firepower and shoot in front of the right.

The fire on the air had affected part of the air defense firepower, so the blocking firepower was very weak and it was impossible to effectively deter German bombers.

German bombers began to lower their altitude again, from 6,000 to 4,000, and corrected the drop angle in the cracks of the shells regardless of their lives. One bomber was shot by artillery fire, blooming in the night sky like a ball of fireworks, and then made a dull explosion sound and exploded in the air. Another aircraft immediately followed was hit by an engine, but the existence of the 4 engine had no effect. They still dropped the bomb as if nothing had happened, and then crawled to the sky with difficulty.

I have to say that Captain Kandnan of the Prince of Wales has superb skills in land control. After the hull was injured, she resolutely decided to leave the queue. In this way, if the bomber formations want to attack themselves, they will not be able to attack other land battleships at the same time. In this way, German bombers have only two choices.

First, continue to attack your injured battleship

The second is to give up on yourself and still focus on attacking the battleship formation.

If the Germans chose the first option, the sinking of the Prince of Wales would be inevitable, but the corresponding fleet could avoid several bombings, which is still cost-effective.

Captain Kandnan believes that German bombers will most likely not adopt this option, but choose the second option, give up on themselves and attack the British battleship formation. After all, the main task of the Luftwaffe is to attack the British battleship formation to relieve the pressure on the two "William III" class battleships. Create an opportunity for escape for these two German ships, rather than sinking one or two British battleships.

Captain Kandnan's guess was correct. The German bomber indeed let the Prince of Wales go and attacked other British battleships. The attacks received by the Prince of Wales were immediately reduced a lot. The anti-aircraft gunners were inspired by Captain Kandnan and fired wildly at the air, and the fire net composed of shells became even more dense.

Behind the battleship "Prince of Wales", one German bomber after another was hit, and the explosion disintegrated, flying around like festival fireworks. On the ocean below, one battleship after another was shot. The explosion released a pillar of fire more than ten meters high, and the starry sea was reflected red.

After the second batch of German bombers flew past, the sky on the "Prince of Wales" was temporarily calm, but Captain Kandnan still had to work hard to return the warship to the fleet. After all, the power of a battleship was limited, and the protection of the ground under construction was much better than the protection of the ship itself.

As the "Prince of Wales" entered the formation, the captains of the battleships broke the radio silence one after another. They performed wonderfully on the "Prince of Wales". At this time, there was no need to keep the radio silence. Frequent radios were like a torch, attracting the attention of the whole world.

However, these radios were also heard by the commander-in-chief of the Luftwaffe. After learning that the great Luftwaffe could not destroy a wounded battleship, the commander-in-chief of the Luftwaffe began to curse the commander-in-chief of the air force in this operation. After that, they destroyed the bullshit "not-sinking battleship". After being stimulated, the Luftwaffe, who was angry, began to bomb the "Prince of Wales".

After a brief break, at 210 a.m., 100 German bombers launched a new round of attacks. The "Prince of Wales" had put out the fire and hid in the center of the battleship formation. This place can be said to be the safest place, but in front of the Air Force, no place is safe.

Although the "Prince of Wales" is still very strong in defense against artillery fire, it still cannot withstand the attack of German aircraft. In fact, no one can resist such an attack. A four-engine bomber was hit by air defense fire, fell from the sky with black smoke, and then aimed at the "Prince of Wales" and began to dive. Although it was also hit by the artillery fire that was rapidly turning around, it still carried more than a dozen tons of fuel and more than a dozen tons of bombs hit the middle of the hull. With a loud bang, the "Prince of Wales" seemed like a wounded giant whale, and suddenly turned the rudder, and the bow of the ship dragged the flames and smoke screen and turned left sharply.

Subsequent attacks followed one after another. Dozens of German bombers aimed at the giant ship and began to attack one after another. The gunners could not deal with so many aircraft. The "Prince of Wales" hit four heavy shells one after another, and explosions occurred one after another. Fire and black smoke covered the hull, and the side gradually tilted.

Seeing the enemy's attack firepower fiercely, Captain Kandnan used his same trick again. The "Prince of Wales" left the fleet sequence and was preparing to use this method to escape again. However, this time the Luftwaffe was determined to send the "Prince of Wales" to the bottom of the sea. The remaining bombers were just artillery fire from other battleships, flying over the "Prince of Wales" and began to hover and drop bombs.

The Prince of Wales was fighting desperately with its thick armor and dense air defense fire. What shocked Captain Kandnan was that under the attack of German bombers, the Prince of Wales began to show signs of sinking, facing the upcoming end. He was shocked, depressed, and a little surprised. He could not believe in any case that the giant warships with a length of 200 meters and a displacement of tens of thousands of tons could not deal with those small aircraft like flies!

At 243 in the morning, the remaining 87 German bombers sent intensive bombing formations without caring about it.

The firepower of the ship was aimed at the "Prince of Wales" and began to intensively drop bombs.

The British sailors hurriedly took their place and quickly organized anti-aircraft fire to attack the German aircraft formation. All the 10,360-meter caliber main guns of the ship were replaced with anti-aircraft shells. However, in order to make up for the insufficient air cover of the battleship group, the British Navy developed the main gun with air ammunition.

The shells were filled with countless steel balls, and when the main gun fired, it would explode within time. The steel balls immediately spread out, reaching the temperature of the cannon, which was the best to deal with the air target. The 360mm c shot exploded at a height of 360mm c, and then scattered into hundreds of sub-compartment bullets as dense as hail. The sky was filled with death areas, and the flying steel balls blew the German bombers apart. However, the Germans still seemed to have not seen each other and firmly carried out their mission to find themselves - the "Prince of Wales"!

The captain of the "Prince of Wales", Captain Kandan, found that something was wrong, and shouted to the megaphone: "Go to avoid the enemy bombs in the shape of Z!" The giant ship turned his rudder urgently and avoided the first few bombs. However, two bombs still hit the tail of the warship.

Two explosions like landslides and cracks caused the huge warship to shake violently. The explosion of air waves caused the ground water column and smoke to wrap the flying and shattered limbs, and rushed to a height of hundreds of meters.

The Prince of Wales was suddenly trapped like a wild horse running on the ground and suddenly slowed down, from 25 knots to 14 knots, and someone was on the deck from the cannon mount.

An officer climbed to the bridge command tower and reported to Captain Kandan the damage to the warship: a bomb destroyed the left spiral shaft, causing the steering to fail; another bomb hit the steam turbine, and steam erupted everywhere in the engine compartment; sea water poured in from the wound at the tail of the ship. Because the bullet hole was too big and it was impossible to lose, the sailors in the engine compartment had to withdraw.

Captain Kandnan sighed helplessly and had to raise a black signal ball that "lost control" and the battleship lost control. He rushed to the spot.

Seeing the attacks that made the air raid troops organize more fiercely.

German aircraft took turns to fight and launched attacks again and again. 322. The German aircraft formation flew over the last round of attack. 106 German bombers launched a crazy air attack on the greatly slowed down "Prince of Wales". Six bombs, most of the artillery on the deck were blown up, and the power system was paralyzed and failed. The gunners had to concentrate next to the remaining anti-aircraft guns, pull the barrels with iron ropes and ropes, and tenaciously shoot at the whistling German aircraft.

A German plane was hit and caught fire. The pilot seemed unable to pull the nose up and flew away, causing the plane to fly straight to the starboard side of the warship. The Prince of Wales had no time to dodge. The plane dragged thick smoke and fire hit the deck, and a loud bang, causing a big explosion. The raging fire immediately engulfed the soldiers who could not dodge and the entire right ship's side.

The warship was a little overwhelmed. The ship surface tilted rapidly, and soon exceeded 45 degrees of maneuverability, becoming an excellent target for death. The German aircraft following behind saw this and threw bombs even more crazily, resolutely accelerating the death of the behemoth.

At 326 points, the "Prince of Wales" finally could not withstand such a terrible attack and sank into the seabed. There were only 316 survivors on the ship, and Captain Kandnan also sank with the Love Ship. However, the Germans were not happy for a long time. 345. After most of the British fleet's salvos, Fitre II suddenly made a huge explosion. The turret in the front was hit, and the explosion exploded the turret at the head of the ship. The entire ship was tilted by 15 degrees, and the firepower and speed: amplitude decreased.

Looking back at the commander of the Luftwaffe commander to change the bombing targets. Without this order, there would undoubtedly be no doubt that the British battleship formation would need to continue to deal with the German bomber formation. For at least one hour, the British battleship formation would not be able to organize an orderly shooting sequence.

However, after concentrated attacks on the "Prince of Wales", the shooting targets of the two giant German ships were repeated on the "Prince of Wales". Although this accelerated the sinking of the "Prince of Wales", at the same time, the British battleship formation also received a breathing time and organized more orderly, which played an extremely important role in the future battle situation.

According to the memories of the survivors on William III and Fitre II, within an hour at three o'clock, the attacks began to become very threatening, and several turrets were hit one after another, and two turrets of the Strength II were hit and lost their combat effectiveness.

Obviously, without this wrong command, the "Fetle II" would not have suffered such a serious blow.
Chapter completed!