Under the concentrated attack of two German battle patrols, the sea surface around the "Hood" was like a forest. The towering tower bridge was repeatedly wet by the splashed sea water, and the huge hull was also shaking under the waves. Before the birth of the longitudinal stabilizer, the warships could not accurately aim under such sea conditions. The technological innovation brought about magical changes. The "Perfect Battleship" "Hood" built by the British spent a lot of money to fire steadily in the rain of bullets. The shells flew nearly 20,000 meters, and most of them were shot at the target. Moreover, three rounds of alternating shooting completed the calibration. The second round of volleys formed a cross-fire at the enemy ships. The fifth round of volleys was hit. The haze of the British main battleships that failed to hit the Flanders and the Faroe Islands 19 years ago has since been wiped out!

After winning the last war, the rigorous and diligent Germans not only did not enter the warehouse without weapons, but horses were put into the south mountain. The entire country's admiral for force and military expansion reached an unprecedented peak. The proportion of national defense funds to government expenditures has been at a very high level for a long time, but there are few voices of protests against excessive military spending and demanding the reduction of troops. Germany's Earl Tirpitz-class battle patrol was only a few months away from the British Admiral's construction. The latter's high amount and high price are already shocking. The former's standard displacement is only 1,000 tons more than the latter, and a single ship

The cost is 124% of the latter. You should know that in more than ten years after the war, Germany's shipbuilding industry comprehensively surpassed Britain, and reduced energy consumption and cost accordingly through economies of scale. With almost a difference in tonnage, the technical content and material quality of the Count Tirpitz-level are evident. In the attack on the Hood, the Count Tirpitz and Prince Heinrich completed the shooting with two rounds of alternate shooting, and formed a spurt in the 3rd and 4th rounds of volleys, respectively, which put great pressure on the other side in terms of technical performance and mental psychology.

In the fifth round of volley, the "Earl of Tirpitz" scored a hit before the enemy, but it made the Germans regretful. The British were glad that the armor-piercing projectile that hit the tail of the "Hood" passed directly through the ship. Apart from leaving a pair of holes on the walls of the two sides, it did not cause substantial damage to the British war patrol.

About two minutes later, it was the turn of the "Hood" to test the strength and luck of the "Earl of Tirpitz". Learning from the painful lessons from the previous war, the British Navy studied ammunition technology after the war, and the armor-piercing bombs equipped by its main warships were no longer as sensitive as before. In a row of four consecutive rounds of cross-fires, the first hit of the target was a "double-click": one shot hit the position between the bridge and the main chimney on the starboard side of the German ship, and the bounce point was about 40 cm higher than the waterline. This is the key protection area of ​​the German battle patrol, and the thickest part of the protective armor. According to the idea of ​​the German engineer, it can completely withstand the long-range shelling of the 16-inch naval gun, and the fact is indeed the case; one shot hit

The starboard deck, the bounce point is about four meters away from the side of the main turret of No. 3, almost killed more than 2,000 officers and soldiers of the "Earl of Tirpitz". Fortunately, the shipbuilding engineers carefully listened to the suggestions of the navy generals during the design stage and had a full prediction of the trend of long-distance artillery battles in the fleet. Therefore, three horizontal decks were set up to weaken the kinetic energy of the shells layer by layer and blocked them outside the deadly areas such as ammunition depots and power chambers. Therefore, the explosion inside the ship caused by this British armor-piercing shell seemed fierce, and the surging flames and thick smoke caused the illusion that the warship was severely damaged. In fact, it was just some irrelevant cabins and some lines were damaged. Only two anti-aircraft artillery on the starboard side lost their normal combat power...

Seeing the enemy flagship black smoke rolling, the British fleet suddenly burst into boiling. In the battle bridge of the "Hood", a staff officer said ecstaticly: "I hit it! We hit it! Damn 'Tirpitz', you're done this time!"

Dudley Pound stood among his subordinates without saying a word. Like everyone, he hoped to see the scene of the German warship capsized and sunk in a violent explosion. However, rational thinking told him that even if this situation occurred, it was unlikely that the German new battle cruiser would be now, and the British battle cruiser would not be as fragile as the British battle patrol during the last war!

Sure enough, the flames of the main gun fire continued to flash on the German battle patrol that was hit. In a blink of an eye, heavy shells came in a salvo, forming a cross-fire at the "Hood". One of the shots fell near the side, which was a near-range bomb that could damage the hull.

In a blink of an eye, the second German battle patrol fire roared, and one of them hit the starboard side of the "Hood". A large black hole was blown open between the two decks. A double-equipped secondary turret was directly destroyed. Another secondary turret located on the upper deck was seriously damaged. A small amount of ammunition exploded caused a small fire. The rising smoke column could be seen dozens of nautical miles away...

The two German battle patrols fought fiercely with the Hood, and the other British battle patrol, Rodney, did not act quietly as a spectator. Its attack target was locked as the "Prince Heinrich" in the corresponding position. With almost no interference from outside, Rodney was able to use its artillery level calmly. Three rounds of alternate shooting were able to find the shooting elements, the fourth round of shooting achieved cross-fire damage, the fifth round of volleys caused close loss to the enemy ship, the seventh round of cross-fire hit, the eighth round of cross-fire hit, the ninth and tenth round of volleys fell, and the eleventh round of volleys achieved the third hit. More than a moment since the battle started, Rodney was like an excellent crossbowman, attacking and weakening the enemy with precise long-range shots one after another.

In just five or six minutes apart, the "Prince Heinrich" was hit by three direct hits and four or five near-burn loss. This was a harsh test of the protection capabilities of the Count Tirpits-class battlecruiser. Its thick main armor belt successfully resolved a direct strike, and the near-burn loss only caused a slight leakage in some oil storage tanks. The real blow was that two 16-inch shells hit the deck and superstructure hit the base of the main bridge, penetrated the armor on the side of the bridge, killed all the officers and soldiers in the navigation room in seconds, cut off a large number of communication lines, and almost sent the officers in the battle bridge back to their hometown;

The second shot hit the second deck at the bottom of the rear chimney, easily breaking through the deck and the hole-hole armor plate that protects the smoke exhaust passage. It almost exploded through the armor partition used to protect the No. 3 boiler group. The huge shock caused by the explosion caused the German ship's right turbine to malfunction. Therefore, in the next twenty minutes, the "Prince Heinrich" and even the entire German fleet had to reduce the speed to about 15 knots, which almost forced William August and his fleet into a desperate situation. Fortunately, the first wave of carrier-based aircraft from the "Emperor Carl" arrived at the battlefield in time, solving the urgent needs of its own fleet.

The surface ships designed and built in the mid-to-late 1920s have greatly increased their importance to air defense capabilities than the early warships. The British Admiral-class battlecruiser is no exception. Its 16-inch main gun is equipped with shotguns that can be used for air shooting, and the 5.5-inch caliber (140mm) dual-mounted secondary gun is high and flat. In addition, it is equipped with a large number of dedicated 4-inch caliber (102mm) single-mounted anti-aircraft guns, 2-pound (40mm) anti-aircraft guns, and 0.5-inch (12.7mm) quad-mounted machine guns. All combatants have received regular air defense training and live ammunition drills.

The British fleet has good air defense capabilities, and the German carrier-based aircraft's attack capabilities against ships are also unambiguous. The most daunting weapon is the ju-17 carrier-based dive bomber known as the "Harves of Thor". This weapon, which was regarded as a magic weapon for defeating the enemy by the German Navy, has never been exported to any country since its official service in 1928, and only a few pilots of the Allied Powers were fortunate to get the opportunity to fly them. It is precisely because of its high confidentiality of performance and its outstanding performance in many joint naval exercises that the ju-17 was covered with a mysterious veil in the eyes of the world.

German aircraft carriers, which attach importance to protection and survivability, have a unit capacity that is significantly inferior to that of US and British aircraft carriers. The 20,000-ton Allied class is standardly equipped with 52 carrier-based aircraft and 4 spare aircraft, while the US independent class with the same tonnage can carry 72 carrier-based aircraft. The first wave of fighters sent by the "Emperor Carl" has a total of 18. For reconnaissance and escort, Albarot H-25 fighters account for 8, with the remaining 6 ju-17 bombers and 4 ik-22t torpedoes.

Seeing the enemy aircraft group attack, the British fleet quickly adjusted its formation. Cruisers and destroyers discharged circular air defense circles around the two battle patrols to prevent enemy torpedo bombing their main battleships at low altitudes. However, this conventional defense method is basically ineffective against the ju-17 that dived from high altitude. Six ju-17s were seen in groups of two, using their famous skills above the British heads. These dive bombers roared down from a thousand meters in an osprey-preyed attitude, passed through the British fleet's air defense fire network, and smashed the armor-piercing bombs weighing 500 kilograms toward the target. Their power and power were so fierce that the British were simply desperate!

Six heavy armor-piercing bombs, a single one was enough to cause the 44,000-ton British battle patrol to suffer a severe blow or even a catastrophe. The "Hood" and "Rodney" had to drive at full speed and repeatedly use the sudden turn to avoid enemy aircraft attacks. The dense anti-aircraft artillery also played an effective interference role in the technical and psychological aspects. None of the six bombs hit, and four torpedo aircraft were shot down by the British ship during a forced attack, and the remaining three failed to achieve results.
Chapter completed!