An enemy plane?

Seeing that the situation was not good, Colonel Thorp hurriedly ordered the ship-based searchlight to be turned on.

The "Revenge" is equipped with 9 high-power searchlights with a diameter of 1,000 mm, which are evenly distributed in the front and rear bridge-class positions. If they are turned on together, the outline of the warship will inevitably be fully displayed. The strong light column may also expose the surrounding ships. The experienced Colonel Thorpe certainly would not do such a stupid thing. He clearly instructed his subordinates to only use the two searchlights on the rear bridge.

In a moment, two strong lights pierced the night sky, and in just a short while, the intruders locked in the sky above the fleet. The gray-green camouflage paint that the Germans favored was enough to make the US and British naval officers and soldiers feel disgusted, not to mention that the Henkel-28 has a high appearance recognition.

"It's a German plane! Sir! Order to open fire?"

Facing the urgent inquiry from the staff officer, Colonel Thorpe bizarrely chose to remain silent. After a moment, the nearby American warships opened fire first, Thorpe nodded and said, "Send the order and fire the anti-aircraft guns freely!"

The flagship of this detachment fleet is the USS Massachusetts.

In this time and space, the Allied Forces won the First World War. The United States did not participate in the war from beginning to end, but was worried about the aggressive expansion of the German Empire and its allies around the world. After the war, it gradually became the core force to contain and fight against the Allied Forces. The second wave of the international naval shipbuilding competition was ten years ahead of the old time and space. From the late 10s to the mid-to-late 20s, a large number of warships moved from design platforms to shipbuilding platforms, and then sailed to the ocean. The South Dakota-class battleships of the US Navy were born under such an era. Because they were not restricted by the arms treaty at that time, the Americans were in the Colorado-class

A big step has been taken on the basis, and the standard displacement of over 40,000 tons has been achieved on the South Dakota class. Its main guns are used in the Colorado class 16-inch (406mm), but the number has increased from 8 to 12, returning to the four triple main gun configurations used in the Pennsylvania class. It should be noted that the German Navy's 46,000-ton German battleship still uses four double 16-inch main guns, while the British Navy's 45,000-ton British class uses three triple 16-inch main guns. Even if the main gun fire rate of the warship is taken into consideration, the South Dakota class's firepower output intensity still wins!

When the mighty and domineering South Dakota-class battleship first appeared before the world, even the most picky naval experts had to impress the superb level of the US shipbuilding industry, and the Americans' extensive and arrogant style was vividly reflected on this super battleship. In addition to its unprecedentedly powerful weapon configuration, the auxiliary firepower of the South Dakota-class is also stunning. The bridge and the decks of each floor are loaded with 10 dual-mounted 5-inch high-level dual-purpose guns, 16 quad-mounted 40 mm anti-aircraft guns and 40 single-mounted 20 mm machine guns. The scene with many gun barrels is like an alien hedgehog.

On the sea, dense shells and guns fired by various ships wove an invisible fire net in the air. Henkel-28, flying at a low altitude, shuttled between a series of light spots with a clever figure, not only safe and sound, but also caused the US ship artillery fire to almost hit friendly ships.

After a while, people's eyes caught a Henkel-28, which had been quietly wandering over the landing ship group. After being locked by a searchlight, they easily avoided the artillery fire of the escort ship and flew northward.

Watching two German water reconnaissance planes escape into the vast night sky, Captain Thorpe Ye Ranwuyu. Such fierce anti-aircraft artillery fire failed to capture the German water reconnaissance planes. This result is really shameful. Fortunately, they are just reconnaissance planes. If an enemy bomber carrying aviation bombs or even aviation torpedoes were found at night and then launched low-altitude bombing, how terrible would it have?

The artillery fire gradually subsided, and the "Massachusetts" finally replied to the "Revenge": the flagship command has been received, and the German Ocean Fleet is moving nearby, and all detached fleets should concentrate their forces and be cautious.

I didn't say I agreed or disagree. Such a reply made me confused.

Colonel Thorpe frowned and thought for a while, and asked his subordinates to send another signal to the "Massachusetts": the emergency repair of this ship can only maintain a speed of 4 knots, and request to temporarily leave the fleet and catch up as soon as possible after the emergency repair is completed.

This time, the American battleship's reply came quickly: agree to your ship's request, and your ship will select some British ships to stay for escort.

"Cunning American!" Thorpe cursed angrily. He ordered the correspondents to send orders to the three British destroyers operating nearby, allowing them to stay to escort the same result, but he made a fuss in the middle.

After about a cup of tea, more than 20 warships and more than 30 landing ships belonging to the dispatched fleet sailed away from the once boiling sea, leaving only the damaged "Revenge" and three British destroyers. The dark sea surface suddenly fell silent.

Colonel Thorpe returned to the combat bridge from the bridge observation deck, and the busy officers saluted him one after another.

Colonel Thorpe pretended to be relaxed and opened his hands to everyone: "Gentlemen, today seems to be a day of unlucky, but there is no need to be discouraged. The war has just begun, and there are many opportunities to make achievements later."

The atmosphere eased a little. At this time, a staff officer who was answering the phone turned his head and said, "Col. The damage management team reported that the watertight cabin b-, b-24 was lost, and someone was trapped inside. They were organizing rescue. In addition, our drainage system was operating normally, the lightning protection cabin was damaged and not expanded, and the right angle of the hull was controlled within 4 degrees."

Colonel Thorpe immediately ordered: "Immediately dispatch all the reserve teams to support the loss management team."

The officers in the combat bridge returned to their busy pace, but Captain Thorp became an idle man. He first paced back and forth in front of the porthole, then walked to the cabin door and smoked a cigarette. The speed of 4 knots was very slow, and the three destroyers who were left to escort kept circling around it. After about half an hour, one of the destroyers found a target of a suspected submarine nearby, so he rushed forward and bombed it with a deep-water bomb, but except for the tense atmosphere, he did not achieve any substantial results.

After several twists and turns, Colonel Thorpe was a little upset, and a very bad premonition arose in his heart: What was the intention of the two German carrier-based reconnaissance aircraft appearing here? Did they come from the German Ocean Fleet reported by the flagship? Did they detect the damage of the "Revenge"? Will the unpredictable German Ocean Fleet follow?

Thinking of this, Colonel Thorp shuddered. He left the battle bridge and went to the navigation room. He thought about the navigation chart. The Second Detachment Fleet was still more than 80 nautical miles away. It would take more than two hours for the battleship to arrive at full speed. Once the "Revenge" was attacked, the First Detachment Fleet had to turn back to rescue.

Thinking about it, Colonel Thorpe decided to take the initiative to deploy defense and eject two "oz" water reconnaissance aircraft from the ship for circular patrol and reconnaissance of the surrounding waters.

At this moment, von Oldenburg and his staff officers did not know that the "Revenge" had left the fleet. The report of the reconnaissance pilots made them know the size of the enemy's dispatched fleet. With the strength of two Count Tirpitz-class battlecruisers, it was difficult to defeat an opponent with four large battleships and three medium cruisers in a head-on naval battle. Night battles, surprise attacks and quick battles were the only chance to win and escape unsuccessfully, so two destroyers were dispatched to storm.

Former reconnaissance, when the enemy fleet was discovered, the flares were launched to help the sighting range of "Earl Tirpitz" and "Prince Heinrich". At the beginning of design and construction, the Earl Tirpitz-class battlecruiser was not equipped with radar, and only after it was put into service was installed, the Lorentz-i-type carrier-based pulse detector. This relatively primitive electronic detection equipment had a maximum detection distance of 20 kilometers in actual measurement, and could only warn without the accuracy required for fire control. Therefore, night combat still followed the traditional mode.

A few minutes later, the radar soldier of the "Earl of Tirpitz" found an abnormal echo on the display screen of the detector and immediately reported the situation to the bridge.

"What? Four ships were detected, and it was initially judged to be a large warship and three small warships?"

After hearing the report, William August felt surprised at first, and then couldn't hide his inner joy. An enemy main ship was left behind due to injury? He actually made himself face a huge advantage?

A sudden joy flashed by, and the instinct of the naval commander made William August cautious: Could this be the enemy's trap? Or the combat alert force organized by the enemy? Can the enemy's radar detection equipment be warning in advance?

Before William August thought carefully, the 1930-grade destroyer T-709, which was risking his life, also reported by radio: Four enemy ships were detected 10 kilometers ahead, to test attacks or raids with all their might?

The commander quickly assigned the staff officer to contact the radar soldiers in the communication room to confirm the distance between the ship and the enemy's large warships.

The staff officer quickly got a reply from the radar troop: "The distance calculated by the detector is 15,000 meters, and there may actually be an error of several hundred meters!"

After weighing the trade-offs for a while, William August made a resolute decision: "Let our outpost continue to advance, and all of them will launch a raid in five minutes!"

Radio waves are invisible and colorless and cannot be observed by the naked eye, but specialized electronic equipment has keen detection capabilities. The radio monitoring instrument of the "Revenge" captured strong radio signals at the first time. According to technical means, the signal source is in the nearby waters.

This abnormality increased Colonel Thorpe's concerns, and he immediately ordered the communications officer to contact the escort destroyers and the reconnaissance aircraft that had been sent to conduct reconnaissance in the southwest direction where the suspicious radio signal was transmitted.

A few minutes later, an "otter" was the first to send a radio signal: an unidentified ship was found on the southwest sea and requested a flare to be projected.

Colonel Thorpe made an active choice without hesitation.
Chapter completed!