The Rise of the Third Reich

At 7:55 p.m., the battlecruiser "Hood" and the heavy cruiser "Norfolk", as well as two destroyers serving as escorts, formed two columns (one column on the left, consisting of "Hood" and "Norfolk") "K"; one column on the right consists of two "Tribal" class destroyers). Four warships, guided by the lights of an old V-class destroyer (escort) hiding on the edge of the battlefield and equipped with radar, headed towards the battleship "Scharnhorst".

Like the "Scharnhorst", the "Hood", the "Norfolk" and the two "Tribal" class ships also implemented blackout and moved forward quietly in darkness.

At the same time, Lieutenant General Whitworth, the commander of the British Fleet G, also dispatched a detachment composed of the light cruiser "Southampton" and four destroyers, 30,000 meters away on the right side of the "Hood", and The "Hood" formation moved in parallel - they also implemented blackout.

According to radar reconnaissance and calculations, the "Scharnhorst" will pass between the "Hood" detachment and the "Southampton" detachment. At that time, the "Southbankton" detachment will approach and launch torpedoes.

In addition, the formation composed of the heavy cruiser "Cornwall" and the light cruiser "Sheffield" (the formation that followed the "Scharnhorst" all the way) turned on the lights and followed the "Scharnhorst" from a distance. The "Scharnhorst" also kept using lights to signal the "Hood" in the darkness, informing the other party of the location of the "Scharnhorst".

"Target distance 22,000, speed 28, heading 160 (south-southeast), heading towards our ship!"

In the command tower of the "Scharnhorst", the staff loudly announced the position of the "Hood" observed by the radar. Everyone else held their breath, just waiting for the captain, Rear Admiral Leifman, to give the order to open fire.

The tonnage and armor of the "Hood" are there, and sinking is theoretically impossible. Therefore, the "Scharnhorst"'s tactic tonight is to only seek damage, and then lead the "Hood" in circles to create opportunities for the ambushing submarine.

If there is no victory after 2 o'clock tomorrow morning, then the only choice is to leave and rendezvous with the "Sedlitz". After all, tonight's ambush battle was deduced by the staff of the Naval Command through war games. It is difficult to say whether it will be effective or not.

At 8:11 p.m., when the distance between the "Hood" formation and the "Scharnhorst" approached 13,000 meters, Lieutenant General Whitworth on the "Hood" ordered to open fire, first a destroyer Ordered to fire flares. However, because it relied on its ship's radar for guidance, "the flare was not fired accurately and landed on the right rear of the Scharnhorst. The pale white light only barely illuminated the stern of the Scharnhorst." Then the Hood's cannons roared, but the impact was far off.

"Fire now!"

Rear Admiral Leifman immediately gave the order to fire. The "Hood" opened fire and exposed the target. Therefore, the flare fired by the "Scharnhorst" accurately illuminated the "Hood". In an instant, the dark sky turned into daylight. The noble "Hood" revealed its majestic body on the vast sea.

Soon the gunnery commander on the "Scharnhorst" accurately and quickly measured the distance to the "Hood" and ordered a "volley of rapid fire." The artillery opened fire immediately.

The "Hood" also quickly found the target because of the muzzle flash of "Shane". Its eight 15-inch cannons and the eight 8-inch cannons of the heavy cruiser "Norfolk" that followed it also began to roar at the same time.

At 8:20, when the "Scharnhorst" fired its fourth salvo at a distance of 10,000 meters, it achieved a "cross-fire" against the "Hood". After another 5 minutes, the "Scharnhorst" fired its fifth salvo. This time a 280mm caliber shell hit the "Hood"! The impact point was the midship deck on the starboard side. It did not penetrate the "Hood"'s main armor deck, which was tens of millimeters thick, but hit an ammunition box on the "Hood" that stored 4-inch anti-aircraft gun shells.

This kind of ammunition box should have been installed under the main armor deck, but because the "Hood" had been acting as the ambassador of the Royal Navy for twenty years before the outbreak of the World War, it was quite busy and did not have much time to modify it. The most recent major modification was in the late 1920s and early 1930s. After that, there were minor repairs and the installation of some anti-aircraft guns. The ammunition boxes of these additional anti-aircraft guns were installed on the armored deck. As a result, it was hit by a 280mm artillery shell, and the 4-inch anti-aircraft artillery shell stored inside was exploded, and a fire broke out on the spot!

"Hit!"

Everyone in the command tower of the "Scharnhorst" cheered. Although they also couldn't understand how the "Hood", which was said to be strongly armored, could be easily caught on fire by a 280mm shell.

But the reality is there! This is God blessing Germany!

"Send a signal to the submarine!" Lieutenant General Marshall shouted excitedly, "We have hit the Hood! The Hood is on fire!"

It was actually set on fire!

Everyone in the command tower of the "Hood" was livid. The majestic "Hood" was now being beaten up by a battleship like the "Scharnhorst", which relied on speed to survive!

Isn’t this too shameless?

"Lieutenant General," a staff officer suddenly shouted, "the damage control captain reported that the temporary anti-aircraft gun ammunition box on the starboard side was hit, causing a fire!"

"Understood, let the damage control control the fire!" Lieutenant General Whitworth said calmly, "This little damage can't do anything to the 'Hood', so we don't have to worry about it."

If an ammunition box storing 4-inch shells catches fire, it is true that the "Hood" cannot be capsized, but it is not easy to put out the fire, because this temporarily installed ammunition box cannot be filled with water to extinguish the fire, and the fire can only be extinguished by spraying seawater from a rubber pipe to cool down the fire. . Therefore, the "Hood" can only continue to be a "torch at sea" for the time being.

"Boom boom..."

At this time, with a loud noise, the "Hood" suddenly shook again! People in the command tower staggered for a while, and then they heard someone shouting: "Sir, damage control report, the lifeboat deck near the after mainmast was hit by a bullet and on fire!"

"Got it!" Lieutenant General Whitworth was still not worried at all. A small injury could not do anything to "Hood". "Ignore it and focus on dealing with the Scharnhorst! Today, we will leave it on the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean forever!"

I don’t know if the British Royal Navy Vice Admiral’s determination moved God. Just 2 minutes later, the "Hood"'s fifth salvo hit a cross-fire.

Later, a huge 15-inch shell was suddenly loaded on the bow of the "Scharnhorst"!

"boom!"

Along with the loud noise, the Scharnhorst shook violently as if it had been kicked by Poseidon. Everyone in the command tower desperately grabbed the handrails to steady themselves.

"Find the damage!" Lieutenant General Machar yelled.

The damage was soon discovered. The No. 1 fuel tank on the bow of the "Scharnhorst" was damaged and cracked, fuel leaked, and the bow of the ship took in a lot of water and sank!

"What the hell!" Marshal and Leifman's hearts suddenly became anxious. A large amount of water entering the bow of the ship will inevitably cause the speed to drop. Moreover, the sinking of the bow will slightly affect the shooting accuracy of the two main gun towers.

"Let the damage control begin draining water immediately!" Reifman gave an order, and then focused his attention on the "Hood".

The opponent now is the "Hood" with high speed, and he can't just leave when he wants!

At this time, he discovered that the fire on the "Hood" was burning brightly. Not only was the port side amidships burning, but the rear of the mainmast was also burning. The "Hood" that was on fire became a very eye-catching target. The "Scharnhorst" fired its 8th and 10th salvos, and two more 280mm shells hit the target. One hit the stern deck of the "Hood" and one hit the armor belt amidships, but it did not seem to cause much damage.

"It would be great if instead of Scharnhorst, it was Bismarck!" Reifman thought to himself, "In that case, the Hood might have been sunk!"

Just as he was thinking of this, an earth-shattering explosion suddenly sounded, and the "Scharnhorst" hull trembled violently several times.

Apparently, the Scharnhorst had been hit again.

Bad news soon came. This time, the boiler room on the waterline was hit. The shell penetrated a steam pipe leading to the engine room. This means that the battleship's speed will drop significantly!

The livid-faced Leifman looked at the equally livid-faced Machar, and then Machar said: "Send Marshal Redl a message and tell him the damage to the Scharnhorst. And inform the Supreme Commander of the Navy. Ministry: Our ship will persist to the end!”

…

"Oh, God! Our Scharnhorst is slowing down! Its speed is falling quickly..."

U-47 is in a Type IX submarine under the sea (historically, this number belonged to a Type VIIB submarine, but in this time and space, the number of IX boats owned by the German Navy has more than tripled. U-47 The number belonged to a Type IX ocean-going submarine) Captain Günter Prien inside suddenly heard his first mate Heinrich shouting.

"What's wrong?" Captain Günter Prien looked at Lieutenant Heinrich who was observing with the periscope.

"It's the Scharnhorst. It was hit and lost speed. It looks like it's less than 10 knots. It's going to be the end of it."

"Don't talk nonsense!" Günter Prien walked over, snatched the periscope away, and then put his eyeballs on it. In the circular field of vision, you can vaguely see the dark giant ship slowly coming towards you. Through the scale on the periscope lens, Günter Prien estimated the speed of the "Scharnhorst".

"7 knots!" Günter Prien said very calmly, "But it will not be destroyed. Its sinkability is very good." He paused, "Now the 'Hood' and the heavy cruiser It should be firing around it...but this is also our opportunity, we are following it, and now that it has slowed down, we can just keep up."