novelnext Page 246
Page 246
Upon receiving further feedback from Sweden, Field Admiral Cunningham issued orders to the carrier battle group to launch the next wave of carrier-based aircraft for escort. Meanwhile, the battleships USS Washington and USS South Dakota, flying the Stars and Stripes, lined up with the Vanguard, which had returned to its post after repairs, and waited far to the west in the Great Belt Strait with the escorting cruisers and destroyers for the start of the next operation.
Just as the Royal Navy carrier-based aircraft flew over Copenhagen, and just as Colonel Moyer could clearly see the St. George flag on the British warships that came to meet them, the call that had plunged the Karlsruhe naval base into hell resounded once again from the sky.
Britannian Navy missiles and a barrage of KMFs and jets, like rain clouds in a storm, obscured the sunlight in the southern sky. Alarms blared like thunder over the Baltic Sea, and horrified cries escaped on the wind to the skies over the Stars and Stripes-covered North Sea.
Chapter 339, Section 432: The Beginning of Ragnarok (Part 2)
[022 Warm Reminder: This chapter is best enjoyed with the World of Warplanes original soundtrack "Asian Border" (Note: This is World of Warplanes, not World of Warships or World of Aircraft)]
"First attack wave report, General. We have reached the waters near Sweden and spotted the enemy fleet. Enemy positions have been reported!"
Valar was promoted from major to lieutenant colonel, but remained the leader of the signal relay team.
The destroyers' missiles followed the wakes of the armed transport planes and KMFs, chasing them through the thin clouds behind them. Under the shadows of the sky painted with the Britannian military insignia, every move at sea was clearly visible.
Four cruisers and eleven destroyers of the Royal Navy were coming from the west, while seven ships of the Swedish Navy were also entering from the east. The two fleets were busy spreading out their patrol formations from different directions, preparing to form a larger air defense array.
All the large-caliber anti-aircraft guns were turned around, and KMF watched as the jets, armed with rockets, began to dive and attack the sea at low altitude. Then the sky descended into chaos as Swedish Air Force fighter squadrons swiftly charged into their formation, targeting the visitors.
"Maintain formation! Don't panic!" Amidst the whistling of machine guns and cannons, Valar tried his best to control the emotions of the various crews. The KMF was currently locked in a fierce battle with the enemy aircraft, and any erratic movement by the transport planes would lead to a chain reaction of disasters. Moreover, missiles were flying overhead, and if something went wrong, the missiles might cause the entire fleet to explode in mid-air.
The scene before us was not as large as the locust-like British and American aircraft on land, but it was unprecedented in the Baltic Sea—the answer was very clear: from Sweden itself to the entire Northern Union, these warships must occupy a very important position.
……
British and Swedish ships at sea were still struggling to maintain control, caught in a chaotic mix of enemy dive attacks and anti-aircraft missiles, and were trying to piece together the two opposing fleets.
The missiles, under the control of the crew, plunged down from the sky like a tsunami, like seagulls preying on fish staring at the struggling ships, or like sharks smelling blood opening their bloody mouths at the damaged ships billowing smoke.
The black smoke from the 4-inch and 5.25-inch anti-aircraft guns formed dark cumulonimbus clouds with the roar of a torrential downpour. Bofors and Oerlikon's tracer rounds were fired into the sky like a Leonid meteor shower, hysterically trying to shoot down every invading enemy aircraft and missile.
Firelight and seawater splashed across the waves like boiling lava, with sparks and fragments bearing the imperial military insignia and the three-crown emblem constantly falling into the sea. Missiles and anti-aircraft shells exploded into dazzling fireworks, enough to terrify even the gods beneath the Baltic Sea.
This is why Egil, the god of the deep sea, could not protect all the creatures that lived on the land of Northern Europe.
While dodging enemy aircraft attacks, they also had to carefully navigate their ships into their assigned positions within the formation. This was a considerable challenge for the Swedish sailors, who had not been exposed to the horrors of war for a long time.
The destroyer HMS Marmo, flying a golden cross, was forced to turn hard to starboard to avoid rockets dropped by Britannia jets, but instead collided with a British destroyer without any coordination—the two ships, anchored at sea, naturally became the primary targets of the missiles.
As the two destroyers were engulfed in flames by several missiles, the missiles soon targeted the HMS Karlskrona, a destroyer named after the Swedish naval port, which was frantically fleeing through the British fleet along with the cruiser HMS Gotland.
Unfortunately, an even more tragic fate befell it than the naval port. The massive Gotland, thanks to its skilled steering and denser anti-aircraft fire, escaped the three missiles, while the smaller and lighter Karlskrona was quickly swallowed by the waves and black smoke after the deafening roar from the sky.
More than thirty missiles were mercilessly wreaking havoc at sea. Not only were the few remaining Swedes killed, but as several British destroyers were reduced to gaping holes spewing smoke and flames, the two Royal Navy cruisers, HMS Liverpool and HMS Cleopatra, also had their masts reduced to ashes by the bursts of fire the moment the missiles struck.
……
Lieutenant Colonel Varal led his squadron in a turn away from the battlefield. After sending back the crews in poor condition, he headed to the area between Rügen and Bornholm. Duke Rabinowitz personally led 25 destroyers to intercept a new wave of missile attacks and reported to them that "the enemy fleet is large and multiple attacks are needed to ensure complete annihilation, including the use of reserve fleets."
The Duke divided the expeditionary fleet into two parts. Twenty-five ships, which he personally led, lingered in the area to be the main force that would raid the Swedish and British fleets. The remaining ten ships, which served as a reserve fleet, cruised the 80-kilometer stretch of German coastal waters between Rostock and Lübeck.
It is worth mentioning that five of these ten destroyers have been specially reinforced with anti-aircraft firepower. Originally, the initial modification plan was to install a single-mounted machine gun turret on the side of each destroyer, but these ships have been fitted with twin turrets. This sortie also serves as a practical test of the feasibility of the modification plan.
For this reason, in addition to serving as a supplementary support to the main force and bombarding and harassing nearby British and Danish forces, the reserve fleet was also responsible for interfering with the North Union aircraft group coming from Western Europe and the North Sea—if they successfully got involved in the Baltic Sea, it would be a big problem.
Such concerns were not unfounded. Just as Lieutenant Colonel Varald led his squadron and missiles over the Swedish warships again, more British carrier-based aircraft arrived to provide support.
……
Field Marshal Cunningham understood that his carrier battle group was clearly not strong enough to fight against four opponents with only one fist.
For this reason, prior to today's operation, the British and American forces contacted the Danish and Swedish militaries and cleared out some of their airfields to accommodate British and American land-based air forces.
When another wave of missiles followed and flew over the British and Swedish fleet, it wasn't just sixty or seventy Seafires that came to intercept them; Royal Air Force Tempest fighters even arrived in the unsuspecting Britannian formation before the former.
Lieutenant Colonel Valar sensed the foreseeable unease, but when he tried to contact the leader of the escorting KMF, he received no further response.
Instead, the KMF pilots exclaimed in surprise, and the lieutenant colonel soon heard the "Phoenix Roar" he had heard on the European continent before—the unique roar of the Meteor fighter's jet engine.
But as that terrifying roar drew near, Valar, who had narrowly escaped death under its machine gun fire, saw a completely different, unfamiliar face.
The fuselage resembles a short, thick spindle, with wings on either side extending backwards to form a long tail boom. At the ends of the two tail booms, a vertical tail rises, and a horizontal tail connects them together. The hot air from the engine, ejected from the tail of the spindle, flows between the tail booms and under the tail fin.
Without seeing it fire, one would almost be unaware that four Hispano cannons were hidden unseen under its nose, like mysterious vampires—and what shocked Vallar even more was that the concentric circles on the wings were not those of the British or Swedes, but the three crowns of the Swedes.
This design is indeed quite different from that of a meteor, but what if this jet is the brainchild of the Swedes? What kind of adversary is it on the other side of the Baltic Sea?
……
The sea was filled with flames, ash, and lifebuoys, and the sky was covered with debris from aircraft and parachutes. All of this proved that the British and Swedes were firmly tilting the balance of the naval and air battle toward their own side.
Restrained by sea fire and storms, Royal Navy Barracuda torpedo bombers were busy flying over the Swedish coast. The rear gunner, Harry, who had previously participated in the Battle of Rügen, and the pilots ahead of him were the brave men who had dropped torpedoes to sink these bastard warships.
They watched as the Swedish Royal Air Force's SAAB 17 dive bombers flew in from the inland and joined them, heading together over the sea southwest of Bornholm Island.
Although the Swedes' own fighter jets were not up to the task of escorting the British aircraft carrier, this could not be used as a reason to allow the enemy's missile destroyers to roam freely at sea, even if the enemy was more than 200 kilometers away from the British aircraft carrier.
The attack aircraft flew from mainland Sweden to the airspace above the island, and the bright white "missile racks" were just about to be seen when they were spotted by the escort aircraft that were taking a break from their mission to harass Bornholm.
瑞典人的FFVS J22战斗机摆定各自的两挺机枪仓促应战，但梭鱼和SAAB17就完全成了被猫满天空追的老鼠——SAAB17机翼和尾部的8mm基本无法伤到这些KMF，而梭鱼的命运甚至完全仗在了像哈利这样的射手所操作双联的.30机枪手中。
The sky became chaotic, seemingly escalating into a massacre. Like a dozen or twenty bombers and torpedo bombers struggling in the sky, the captain had to grip the control stick and sway it left and right. Harry could only futilely fire his machine gun at the head of their six o'clock KMF, hoping to disrupt the enemy's vision and wait for fighters to come to the rescue or to hope that the enemy would run out of ammunition.
KMF's fierce eyes met Harry's. There was nothing more terrifying than facing fear head-on in the sky. He was so sweating that he didn't even notice the captain, who was frantically trying to catch his breath with his back to him, letting out a strange cry.
They struggled on the outskirts of the Britannian fleet, which drew all the enemy's anti-aircraft fire and air escort to this area. No one expected that at this moment, a small group of sea-blue figures would break in from the western clouds, tilting their fuselages and diving straight down towards the missile destroyers.
Ignoring the captain's observations and failing to notice the blue bird that had already dropped its bombs and was pulling up its nose, Harry decisively retracted its speed brakes, made an Immelmann swerve from beneath Harry's Barracuda, and bit right behind the KMF chasing Harry.
After the two .50 caliber machine guns in its nose stopped firing, the KMF wobbled and crashed into the sea. Only then did Harry realize the existence of this SBD bomber, which was painted with either US Navy or Marine Corps uniforms.
Harry let out a long sigh as he watched it sway from side to side. Then, along with more SBD pilots who had finished dropping their bombs, they joined the Swedes and KMF in a low-to-medium altitude battle. The captain pressed down on the Barracuda's nose and slowly descended to the altitude where the torpedoes were to be dropped.
……
"Where did these enemy planes come from?" Duke Rabinowitz, besieged by bombs and torpedoes, sensed something was wrong and quickly communicated with Colonel Cahalan, the commander of the reserve fleet in the west.
"I'm very sorry, Your Excellency!" the colonel said, his voice filled with remorse. "These American warplanes flew east after harassing us. To prevent them from detecting your location, we ordered the escort force to pursue them, but..."
"So? Did these bombers try to escape by being clever, or did you simply decide you didn't want to pursue them?!"
The Duke was furious and kept berating the indecisive colonel, who could only nod obsequiously, leaving the communications officer who had stood up to report standing there for a while.
"Colonel, something terrible has happened!" But the news that came was even more terrible than the attack on the Duke: "Another enemy fleet is sailing from north to south from the western waters of Lolland Island, Denmark!"
"What?!" The colonel's face turned pale—his reserve fleet, sailing from the west of Loran Island southwards, was right at the end of the enemy's route! "How many...how many troops do they have?"
"At least 15 warships, Your Excellency, of which more than five are large vessels."
"Quickly contact land and send more missile relay aircraft!" Kaharan returned to his position, his face pale. They understood that without relay aircraft, the new missiles with a range of over 100 kilometers in the destroyers' missile bays would be unable to function beyond their sight, not to mention the battleships that could only be severely damaged by missiles.
To fight or to retreat? He hesitated whether to fight the enemy with all his might—either to save the warship or to save the naval ports behind it, a choice he could not make.
Before the emergency relay aircraft could arrive, some sailors spotted the British battleship HMS Vanguard, whom they had met once before—she was leading a group of battleships, cruisers, and destroyers flying the Stars and Stripes, divided into three columns, as she entered the Baltic Sea.
Chapter 340, Section 433: The Beginning of Ragnarok (Part 2)
[022 Friendly Reminder: This chapter is best enjoyed with the World of Warships original soundtrack "World of Warships OST 41," yes, the one that plays on repeat when you log in.]
Colonel Cahalan hastily ordered the fleet to retreat eastward quickly, turning its back on the direction in which the Northern Allied warships were heading into the Baltic Sea, in an effort to delay the time when the two fleets would visually encounter each other.
By this time, Duke Rabinowitz had also arrived in the west upon hearing the news. Once the land-based relay aircraft were in place, the two fleets could unleash their trump card—a saturation attack on the enemy from beyond visual range—at a much lower cost.
In the sky, some shipborne KMFs were keeping watch for the warships, monitoring the distance between the two sides' warships on the sea—they regretted that while His Excellency the Duke was busy beating up the Swedish fleet, they and the colonel had overlooked such a huge threat.
The warships flying the North American flag were arranged in three columns—the Vanguard, South Dakota, and Washington battleships lined up on the far right; in the middle column, the three light cruisers from front to back were Honolulu, Brooklyn, and St. Louis, followed by the two heavy cruisers, New Orleans and San Francisco.
The battleship and cruiser columns began to veer to right in unison, while the 14 destroyers in the leftmost column, already speeding at 37 knots, formed a rushing steel ring, skimming along the Danish coast in pursuit of the Britannian Navy, which was faintly visible in the distance.
……
Flames and smoke flickered faintly in the thin mist on the distant sea. The jet engines roared overhead. Colonel Cahalan had finally received these relay aircraft, which were even more dear than his mother. Instantly, 10 warships eagerly launched more than 40 missiles and turned fiercely towards these warships flying the Stars and Stripes.
Even in Wismar, 60 kilometers away, the naval base personnel squatting in the KMF vaguely sensed that the sea not far away was being dragged into hell by Satan.
The missile's exhaust plume roared as it swept through the clouds alongside the relay aircraft, its eyes fixed on the three British and American battleships approaching. Five-inch anti-aircraft guns blasted out bursts of black smoke in the sky, blocking these calamities falling from the heavens.
They fought with all their might—the American sailors understood how important their battleships were, and the Britannian soldiers knew even better that only missiles could shake these solid monsters. The exploding missile fragments and flying anti-aircraft missile chains intertwined in the sky and between the fleet, creating another sea called fire.
Everything turned into a cruel joke for the expectant missile operators. None of them could have imagined that, along with the Vanguard, two US battleships and five cruisers would unleash their 76 five-inch anti-tank guns and a total of over 400 Bofors and Oerlikon guns.
The 40mm and 20mm tracer rounds, surging like waves, were slender and swirling, like twigs picked up by sailors and tied together with sturdy gun barrels to form a wooden palisade against the catastrophe.
Only after the last missile hit the sea were the bombardiers able to sit on the deck and take a short rest. More than 30 missiles aimed at the battleships nearly headed them down; the three Brooklyn-class battleships suffered a total of two direct hits and five near misses, and the heavy cruiser USS San Francisco was also hit on its port side.
Even the USS Washington, which had never lost any crew members in the Pacific theater, was hit by a missile that penetrated through layers of fire and struck the crane and seaplane catapult at the stern, nearly bringing the underwater propulsion system to a standstill.
On the contrary, the other 10 missiles had a better effect. They headed towards the destroyer line and three missiles hit each other, instantly blowing one of the ships in two and slamming it into the waves like a bleeding rabbit.
……
"Yes! That's it! Hold them off until His Excellency the Duke and more air support arrive!"
Colonel Kaharan was overjoyed to receive the message from the scout, but just as he was about to order the relay aircraft to return to guide the next wave of missile attacks, he could no longer make contact.
The scouts, sensing something was wrong, peered further west. Before the speeding aircraft, they saw only a trail of black smoke in the sky, and the propellers roaring like the whispers of mosquitoes, just like the Mustangs and lightning on the mainland.
Looking up at the higher sky, he finally understood. Before him were hundreds of sea-blue fighter jets painted with white star insignia, their inverted seagull-shaped wings feeling both unfamiliar and familiar.
The crew of the USS Washington were still busy putting out the fire, praying that the next missile attack would come later. Then they looked up, and everything became clear.
That was the first wave of attack, consisting of five Essex-class and two Midway-class aircraft carriers gathered off the coast of Hamburg, plus the Enterprise, totaling about 300 carrier-based aircraft. The relay aircraft that was circling back ran right into their guns.
While Colonel Cahalan was still busy raging at the belated KMF and jet fighters, the balance of the aerial battle would no longer be affected by his outburst.
The colonel had just learned that the U.S. Army Air Forces had suddenly launched a large-scale air raid on Lübeck and Wismar, and that the Mustangs and Raidens, having completed their bombing runs, were flying from the shore toward the open sea with their pylons empty—Cahalan was not willing to see the anti-aircraft ships entrusted to him by the Duke greet their first battle in this way.
The crews of each ship abandoned all tasks unrelated to responding to the air attack, including launching missiles, and pushed out all the gun turrets on the side of the ship to engage the enemy, hastily constructing a firepower network like that of the US fleet, facing the TBFs and Helldivers that slowly descended from the sky like flocks of geese, carrying torpedoes or small Tims.
In this situation, the Britannian troops simply didn't have time to launch more armed transport planes to disrupt the air and sea battle, let alone missile relay aircraft. The Panda and Corsair fighters, armed with HVAR rockets, were clearly running out of fuel before their prey even arrived, and they eagerly swooped down, pointing their noses at the chaotic missile destroyers.
The ripples from the torpedoes hitting the water traced white lines as they rose and fell. Little Tim was uprooted and thrown like a coconut tree in the typhoon, firmly blocking the sea from continuing eastward. In the chaos, the warships that had been in neat double column formation when launching missile attacks turned into toothpicks scattered on the table.
The colonel knew he might never see the Duke again. Looking at the distant Stars and Stripes, he saw that the US destroyer column had caught up with them, which was being dragged down by the bombing by carrier-based aircraft, and was turning around to release dozens of torpedoes into the sea in an instant, like releasing an orca.
Just as the ship was forced to halt its eastward retreat and turn westward to fight the American forces to the death, four Hell Divers in formation quietly flew in, targeting the colonel's bridge and positioning each of the small Tims below it at every porthole with him.
……
I peered out of the bridge window of the USS South Dakota, witnessing the disaster that belonged to the Lion and Snake flag. The behemoth beneath me, along with the USS Washington, raised their nine 16-inch main guns and launched a salvo, but the impact points were already indistinguishable.
The sea surface had long been filled with falling warheads and exploding torpedoes, and the splashing waves swayed like pine trees covered with white snow. It was impossible to distinguish what was in the rolling waves.
It was impossible to tell whether the torpedo was dropped by the TBF, because the destroyers' torpedoes were also preying on the enemy; it was impossible to tell whose warship the shell came from, because the cruisers were less than two nautical miles ahead of the USS South Dakota, and the three Brooklyn-class cruisers suppressed the roar of almost all three battleships and two heavy cruisers, spreading the 6-inch gun shells across the sea like machine guns.
……
Duke Rabinowitz, suppressing his rage, was processing the news of Colonel Cahalan's near-total annihilation and his own recent experience.
The attack on the British and Swiss fleets was actually very successful. What's even more encouraging is that it seems a Royal Navy cruiser was also on the list of victories.
As for the planes that harassed the Duke, to be fair, the Royal Navy's Barracudas, combined with the Swedes' dive bombing, and even the American SBDs, were too far away and outnumbered to cause him any real damage.
Unexpectedly, a red star insignia flew in from the southeast. That's right, the long-dormant Soviet Air Force finally couldn't resist sending a squadron of Pe-2s laden with rockets. There were even Il-2s from the Red Navy Air Force—who would have thought that the guys that the Britannian army soldiers had called "Black Death" like the Germans had done years before would fly over this time carrying torpedoes.
Of his 25 guided-missile destroyers, one is severely damaged and listing, while two others are being salvaged. If the Soviets manage to combine their attacks with those of the NATO aircraft, the Duke's losses will likely be substantial.
Right now, US warships and their carrier-based aircraft are scrambling to bombard Wismar and Lübeck, the port facilities that are under repair or already completed, with shells and bombs raining down on them like vultures devouring a camel's carcass.
Without a naval port, the warships naturally had nowhere to stay, but the Duke had no way to salvage the situation or, as some might say, no way to fix things after the fact.
These missiles, guided by relay aircraft and with a range of up to 150 kilometers, have been fired by the entire expeditionary fleet in the past few hours—more than 130 in total. Adding to this the missiles lost at sea and those looted from Swedish escort destroyers recently, the Duke and his men have almost exhausted their remaining stockpile.
Either they had to retreat to the east, or they would have to fight to the death with the US fleet and carrier-based aircraft using old missiles that could only be aimed at within visual range. Rabinowitz came up with a compromise between the two: to have the fleet spread out in formation in the waters southeast of Denmark.
This will validate the suspicions of not only naval generals: are the British and Americans particularly keen on sabotaging naval ports than the Imperial Fleet, so much so that they would not risk significant losses to engage enemy fleets?
Before the Duke's fleet could even form a double column along the Danish coast, news of the American fleet heading northeast reached him from land. The Americans wouldn't be so stubborn as to refuse to believe the horrific state of the British and Swiss warships under missile attacks, but instead of returning the way they came, they seemed to be preparing to march back towards Copenhagen, and incidentally make one last attempt to annihilate his missile destroyers.
Just then, the carrier-based aircraft returned for resupply. Before the second wave of attacks could arrive, Rabinowitz launched a preemptive strike—since the Americans didn't care about air cover and were blindly advancing, he had to be even more reckless than them.
……
Opportunity was on the Duke's side this time. Air support from the expeditionary force inland was joining the battle, while the US fleet was busy defending against air attacks and regrouping. Two out-of-line destroyers became the first targets for the Duke's 22 warships.
"Don't worry about where the enemy battleships are right away, just shoot whatever you see!" That was his order. The sailors who accompanied him at sea understood that they couldn't afford to lose in terms of momentum in this final battle.
The two columns began to disperse, and the leading ships immediately unleashed all the missiles they could still fire onto the two American destroyers. The result was predictable: before they could even turn their guns around, they were smashed over by a barrage of fire and slowly waded into the sea, sideways.
The US destroyers behind them were advancing in multi-column anti-aircraft formations of two or three ships each. Seeing that things were not going well, they turned around, seemingly preparing to flee? The Duke's sailors watched the distance warily and found that layer upon layer of smoke, even denser than cumulonimbus clouds, was beginning to obscure their view.