"Boom! Boom! Boom..."

An M-class reconnaissance cruiser, Berlin, sailing in front of the USS Frederick I missile cruiser, fired the first shot of the "Celtic Sea Night Battle" in the early morning of May 3. The two turrets at the head of the USS Berlin fired four 150mm flares under the guidance of the fire-control radar.

"Discover the target!"

When four flares emitting dazzling light appeared above the British 5th Team. In the missile operation room located on the top of the bridge of Frederick I, someone immediately shouted: "Direction 125, distance 18,700, aim immediately!"

The aiming work cannot be done in the missile operation room. This is the responsibility of the personnel on the missile deck. They will aim the missile at the corresponding position and adjust the elevation angle according to the parameters reported by the missile observation/operation officer.

"The directional degree is 125, the distance is 18700, and the aiming of No. 1 is completed!"

"The directional degree is 125, the distance is 18700, and the aiming of No. 2 is completed!"

The voice of the missile deck commander came from the lifter. The operating commander in the operating room (two operators were responsible for two missiles, one of whom was the operation commander) immediately issued an order: "Flaunch No. 1 and No. 2."

After receiving the order, the operator on the missile deck immediately activated the engine at the tail of the V3 missile, the propeller rotated quickly, and the indicator light at the tail of the missile was also turned on. Immediately afterwards, someone pressed the button of the No. 1 catapult, and saw that the No. 1 bomb was ejected into the air by a sound of the canopy, and then pressed the No. 2 catapult to fire the No. 2 bomb into the air.

These two missiles are actually a large **********. After being launched, the two operators located in the operating room can use remote control handles to control them to hit targets 18,700 meters away.

The target was a rather old heavy cruiser, Cavendish. This class of cruisers was designed in 1915. At that time, there was no concept of a heavy cruiser. The British Royal Navy designed this 10,000-ton ship equipped with a 7.5-inch (190.5mm) main gun to deal with the German attack ship. However, such an attack ship (the P-class was originally an attack ship) was definitely not something it could deal with, and the P-class also madly fired two overpowered anti-ship missiles at it.

Although the range of the v3 line-controlled missile is not large, the final model of the German Navy can only fly 30,000 meters with its own power. However, its size and weight have reached an amazing level, with a total flight weight of 2.2 tons, and the warhead loaded up to 850 kilograms of explosives!

The reason why it is caused is that the missile is not very convenient to load during combat, and it is not easy to call for a speed of fire. It can only pursue great power and strive to achieve one shot sinking.

Just when the two V3s flew at a speed of 360 kilometers per hour (theoretically, they could fly 600 kilometers, but they were so fast that they were difficult to control at night, so the speed of the V3 in the night battle was reduced to 360 kilometers per hour) and flew towards the unlucky Cavendish, the British heavy cruiser also fired a flare at Frederick I.

"O God, it's a battle cruiser!"

As soon as Colonel Jackson, the captain of the Cavendish, saw the Frederick I, who was illuminated by the flares, was immediately shocked by its huge hull with a standard displacement of 24,000 tons. Such a big guy is obviously not something that a 10,000-ton heavy cruiser can handle, but the 5th team he led is now considered to have completed the mission. As long as he finds the German battlecruiser and uses the flares to illuminate it, the seven British battleships behind will naturally remove it.

"Col. Two glowing UFOs are flying over!"

Colonel Jackson was just about to order the destroyers in the team to release smoke to cover the retreat of the Cavendish when he heard UFOs coming.

What is this? Colonel Jackson held up his telescope and searched in the night sky for a while, and saw two unknown things flashing faint red light, flying towards him at a speed of about three to four hundred kilometers per hour.

"It's a torpedo plane!" The colonel didn't know there were missiles, only torpedo attack planes, "Shoot them down!"

As soon as he said his order, the ping-pong cannon on the port side of the Cavendish had already started. However, it was not easy to shoot down the V3 missile. Because the missile body was slender and the area of ​​the front was very small, and it was impossible to lose control by killing the pilot. Moreover, the missile body of the V3 missile was very strong, and the armor-piercing warhead in front of the front could not penetrate at all, and it would not make much sense to hit. The metal wings were relatively short and not easy to hit.

The most fatal thing is a 1,000-horsepower liquid-cooled engine and propeller installed on the back of the bullet body, which was produced by Mercedes-Benz.

However, since there is no need to consider the heat dissipation issue (the V3 only flies for a few minutes, so it is not afraid of high temperatures), the engine is wrapped in a steel shell very tightly. Unless it is directly hit by a 40mm shell, it is difficult to destroy it with shrapnel. Therefore, it is very difficult to fire a V3 missile.

Moreover, even if the V3 engine or propeller is destroyed, it does not mean that the missile falls. Because inertia will continue to push it to glide for a distance, and even if it can still slide on the water surface or underwater after falling into the water, it is very likely to hit the underwater part of the target ship directly. This is equivalent to being hit by a powerful torpedo. Shortly after this weapon is put into use, many V3 operators discovered this trick. They will deliberately let the V3 slide into the water when approaching the target ship to attack the underwater part of the target.

The ping-pong cannon on the Cavendish ended up shooting down any V3 missiles. Instead, one of the two V3s hit the port side of the heavy cruiser at a speed of 360 kilometers per hour, penetrated 3-inch armored steel plates on the spot, and then suddenly exploded inside the old cruiser with dome armor.

Although this V3 did not penetrate the dome armor (because of the slow flight speed), the 850 kg ********** still turned the old ship into sea fireworks and floating torches. It also scared Admiral John Coloning Tovey, who was commanding the battle on the Queen Elizabeth.

"Cavendish was hit by a torpedo!" Admiral Tovey exclaimed, "Damn, the Germans also have 'spear' torpedoes!"

The Japanese had already used the terrifying 93 spear torpedo on the Pacific and Indian Ocean battlefields. Admiral Tovey naturally knew the power of this Japanese torpedo with a long range and excellent concealment. So now when he saw the Cavendish heavy cruiser being exploded without firing the main gun of the enemy battle cruiser, he immediately thought of the 93 spear torpedo.

"Boom! Boom!"

Before General Tovey could come to his senses, there were two loud noises, and then two huge floating fireballs were added to the sea.

"It was the Berwick and Hawkins... and two more heavy cruisers were severely damaged!"

Admiral Tovey was already a little confused. How much effort did he do? The three heavy cruisers were severely injured... Well, it seems that this would be a severe injury to the point where it was beyond help.

"Hurry, get out of here at full speed!"

Seeing the sneak attack successful, General Karls did not even allow Frederick I to finish the attack with 6 280mm main guns, and immediately ordered the escape at full speed. The British must have battleships in this sea area. Frederick I could not beat others without using a V3 missile.

He now found that the six 280mm cannons of the P-class missile cruiser are really a bit useless. They can't beat the battleships, and they have to be fired for a while before they can sink the heavy cruiser. Think about it, the V3 missile is more useful.

"Commander, the Germans seem to be running away!"

The radar on the Elizabeth quickly discovered that all six German teams on the sea were running away... But why did they run? Could it be that they were sneak attacking and leaving?

"Commander, do you want to chase after me?"

Chase? Are you going to catch up and get torpedoes? General Tovey thought about it, but he felt that he had to chase it. Otherwise, these German ships would have the possibility of launching torpedoes in Cork Bay. The fleet B that was mined there was no opponent.

"Just chase them slowly and drive them away." Admiral Tovey ordered, "Remember not to get too close, be careful of the German spear torpedo!"

But Tovey's fleet chased him out for less than 10 minutes, and the radar officer loudly reported: "Commander, the enemy has turned around and returned!"

“Returned?”

Admiral Tovey was stunned. Did he want to release torpedoes again?

General Tovey thought for a while and gritted his teeth and said, "Order all the Destroyers to move closer to the 1st Team, lead the Germans here, and let them taste the power of the main guns of the battleship!"

No matter how powerful the spear torpedo is, it can be more powerful than the main guns of the battleship? There are 7 British battleships here, including 5 Queen Elizabeth-class and 1 Lamilis, both with 8 15-inch cannons, and the other counterattack has 6 15-inch cannons, with a total of 54 15-inch (380mm) cannons. Such firepower is barely enough for the European Combined Fleet to fight a decisive battle. It is not possible for three German battlecruisers with only 280mm cannons to deal with! As long as they can concentrate their firepower and sink one, the remaining German ships will most likely have to escape in shame.

"Commander, the British want to lead us to the muzzle of their battleship."

John Tovey's idea was seen through by Colonel Wagner, chief of staff of the 5th Fleet of the European Union Fleet.

"This is also our chance!" said Carls, the commander of the fleet. "We have 6 v3s that can be launched. They can fly 100 meters per second, and it only takes 200 seconds to hit targets 20,000 meters away... During this period, the British battleships have made up 5-6 volleys. They should not hit us, but now it is at night. But if our 6 v3s are shot, we can hit at least 2. If we hit 1 battleship, we will have to deal with it even if we don't sink!" (To be continued.)
Chapter completed!