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Now, the 203mm main guns of Prince Eugen were pointed at the distant Swedish territory on their broadsides—this was true of all the ships in the fleet, from battleships to destroyers; their mission was to help the Northern Alliance forces on both sides of the Øresund Strait hold this crucial point.
"Calling the Littorio, please respond." After making all the necessary arrangements, Admiral Marchar, captain of the Prinz Eugen, radioed the Italian battleship closely following behind him, "What is the status of your radar?"
"The Littorio has lost contact. The Italy is here to reply to you, sir." The battleship's captain corrected his mistake in calling the ship by name with a touch of humor. "Our attempt to restart the radar a minute ago failed. There are still problems with transmitting and receiving electromagnetic waves, but we just contacted the Veneto. They have managed to get the radar back to normal after restarting it."
Marshal sighed helplessly, and was about to say something more when he heard a voice coming from the flagship Richelieu over the radio.
"We have just received information from friendly land forces in Laholm Bay that a formation of Britannian armed transport planes is approaching the Kattegat Strait at low altitude, which is very likely the lead missile of enemy anti-ship missiles. Air support is on its way, and the entire fleet's air defenses are ready."
……
As the saying goes, with great power comes great responsibility, so it seems quite normal that we would see Valar again on a newly modified armed transport plane.
From ordinary bombing mission command to carrier-based missile relay testing, and now engineers are loading modified carrier-based missiles into the cabins of armed transport aircraft to carry out a dangerous and uncertain combat operation.
Today, while the squadron was carrying out a bombing mission over the Swedish interior, Colonel Varar led six armed transport planes loaded with missiles among them. Then, following orders from his superiors, he attempted to launch a low-altitude raid from east to west along the river valleys in the strait against the main US fleet. After all, there's an old saying that having many skills is never a burden, and all of this is enough to write a memoir.
The Swedes and their allies in Laholm Bay were caught off guard by the sheer skill and speed of their actions. The American carrier-based aircraft did not have time to turn back and give chase. Six aircraft, with negligible damage, broke through the air defense network.
"Huh? Where's the aircraft carrier? Are the Americans switching to launching their planes from destroyers?" However, when they flew over the strait, they didn't even see the Fletcher-class destroyers that had fallen behind, but they did manage to catch two approaching Sky-Dwellers.
"Yo yo yo yo, look, an unexpected bonus." As the double column of ships on the sea gradually became clearer, it was as if His Majesty the Emperor had bestowed upon him the battleships of District 45. "Our orders included attacking battleships, right? Let's start with these three!"
"Four, sir! Four battleships!" At that moment, the captain of a wingman shouted to him, "Didn't you see the two that look similar in the middle?"
"Four ships? In the middle?!" Valar exclaimed in surprise, staring again at the four ships in a column far from the coast, counting forward from the Richelieu at the end of the fleet, "The largest one is hiding at the back, two identical-looking ones, what else?"
"Where's the one in the lead? Are you ignoring the battleships of the District 45 people?" The wingman's tone was almost questioning Valar's judgment as the leader.
"Bullshit!" The colonel immediately flew into a rage. "Can't you see the difference in size between the people at the front and the back?"
"Do you just believe your first impression or do you analyze it carefully, my dear sir?" The wingman who was talking back to him seemed to be a veteran who had participated in the attack on HMS King George V. "Back then, those two fake British battleships were causing trouble off the coast of Rügen Island every day. I clearly remember the size and outline of the two ships compared to the destroyers of District 45!"
The colonel, reminded of this, vaguely recalled several scenes from a month ago when the expeditionary fleet and the American and British fleets clashed at sea between Denmark and Germany. It seemed that two of the unnamed battleships from District 45 were quite different in size—indeed, the South Dakota was one-sixth shorter than the Vanguard, but its main gun caliber was an inch larger.
Are there really only four battleships in front of them? Such big news will definitely be told to the generals when they get back, but right now, their six-plane formation with 24 missiles must do something.
“If the size and combat power of the District 45’s warships are directly proportional,” the wingman continued, offering his suggestion. “Colonel, to use the District 45’s fighting habits as an analogy: rather than exhausting all their efforts to figure out how to deal with one Lancelot, they would prioritize figuring out how to destroy ten thousand Sunderland or one thousand Gloucester.”
……
"They're spreading out, General... They've dropped bombs? Rockets? Or missiles?"
The officers on the bridge of the Prinz Eugen and the Marshal could at least see the movements of those birds, which were even bigger than B-29s.
Of the six armed transport planes, one veered to the left to chase after the destroyers further ahead. Soon, two of the remaining five, still facing its own position, launched a total of eight missiles straight at it.
A deafening roar of gunfire erupted at sea, while the Prinz Eugen and the two Veneto-class destroyers, newly equipped with British-made large-caliber anti-aircraft guns, were already firing furiously. However, a double column formation was not a circular formation designed for air defense, and by this point, it was too late to change course; each ship seemed to be using its own unique methods to save itself.
The lone armed transport plane seemed to be conducting a "one-plane-against-multiple-ships" test mission, with its four missiles aimed at two French destroyers. The HMS Terrible, running at full speed behind the fellow Fantasy-class destroyer, faced two missiles that were about to penetrate all anti-aircraft fire at high speed. It managed to use its high speed of 40 knots and a near-rolling full-steering maneuver to make the missiles graze overhead and miss their targets.
However, the USS Sam, a Buran-class destroyer, was not so lucky as to be targeted by both missiles. The air defenses of nearby friendly ships opened fire with full force but only managed to shoot down one of them. The other missile, which slipped through the defenses, aimed at her waterline. Immediately afterward, a nearly ten-meter-high wave was ejected by the explosion, which forcefully capsized the small ship with a full load displacement of less than 2000 tons.
"Hold the helm steady!" The cannons clanged, but General Marshal, facing an extremely urgent situation, ordered the helmsman to keep turning to starboard, gambling by turning the Prinz Eugen's entire hull to a near 90-degree angle, aiming it at the direction from which the missiles were flying so that he could launch a cannon attack.
"2100 meters!"
"1500 meters!"
"700 meters!"
Missiles fell one after another between the barrage of Bofors and Oerlikon, crashing into the sea. At this critical moment, the last missile narrowly passed through the gap between the radar mast and funnel of the Prinz Eugen and crashed into the water as a meteor. Not a single one of the eight missiles landed near this heavy cruiser, not even within 10 meters.
But tragedy still struck, behind Prince Eugen's tail.
As the German sailors breathed a sigh of relief, they forgot about the three armed transport planes that hadn't yet dropped their bombs—one of which was destroyed by anti-aircraft fire just as it dropped its first bomb, while the other two managed to launch all their bombs. As a result, the nine missiles that were attacking the Italian battleship exploded almost instantly around a triple 152mm secondary gun turret on its port side.
When General Marshal finished taking stock of the ship's condition and came out of the bridge to look, the entire port side of the Littorio was covered with thick smoke, which was set off by the faint flames. The secondary gun turrets even blocked the bridge windows of the battleship.
On board the ship, facing the opaque smoke wall, the German sailors could only imagine the terrible state of the anti-aircraft gun crews on the deck. The only visible damage they could discern were the scattered fragments and debris on the deck, the huge black spots on the side armor of the ship, and the deformations that were barely perceptible to the naked eye.
On the Richelieu, the fleet commander's orders continued to be heard. The severely listing Samfong had already evacuated its crew with the help of two destroyers of the same class. As for the Italy, it was accompanied by the Leipzig and was busy fighting the fire while turning towards the North Sea. What was left for the other warships was a cold but helpless message: "The entire fleet continues with its original mission."
……
Will Colonel Valard be punished for this half-hearted operation? Even if he is, it will be insignificant, because everyone makes mistakes due to their inner emotions, even generals.
A few months earlier, when the land and air forces launched a fierce attack on Kiel, photos sent from the front lines showed a "battleship" serving as a fixed gun emplacement amidst the port ruins. This gave Count Hohenzollern, who was leading his troops to besiege Hamburg from the north, quite a shock. It could even be said that the expeditionary force did not fail to reach Kiel, but rather did not dare to.
So today, while Colonel Valard led his team to besiege the Prinz Eugen and the Italian, another group of four armed transport planes carrying the same missiles, led by an even more radical leader, suicidally charged through the heavy interception of the American and British allies, resulting in the annihilation of the entire force, and dropped missiles on the behemoth in Kiel harbor.
Less than half an hour later, Field Marshal Manstein, who was in charge of the defense of Kiel, sent a telegram to Eisenhower stating that "the heavy cruiser HMS Hipper, which is serving as a floating gun emplacement, has been hit by three missiles from the Britannian forces, and its bow has cracked and is taking on water again."
From Americans and British to French and Germans, many had some questions about the details of the battle. But what about the Britannian Expeditionary Force itself?
Duke Rabinowitz compiled the reports on the two air raids and handed them to Elizabeth. The princess and her brother, who was her deputy, did not heed Caronville's advice to hold their meeting behind closed doors, and still openly reminisced about the events in the main conference room of the command center.
Sitting on one side was Marshal Sophia, the commander of the Sky Fleet, all by herself; while on the other side sat Count Hohenzollern, Trosa, and a group of generals and officers who had shared joys and sorrows with the princess for several months; as for Marshal Manslit, he naturally followed closely behind like a hungry worm that had caught a whiff of the aroma.
"Let me emphasize the plan to launch a strong attack on the Øresund Strait defenses one last time, Marshal." Elizabeth suppressed her emotions and threw the report in her hand in front of Sofia. "I only need you to allocate 10 ships from your total of more than 80 ships in the Sky Fleet, and distribute them equally among Helsingborg and Malmö. Then your ship guns only need to be aimed at everything inside and outside the cities."
"As for the threats you are concerned about from the North Union at sea and in the air, there will be the Duke Rabinowitz's navy, which has already completed its rest and recuperation, and their anti-ship missiles, as well as air power specially transferred from the southern front of Germany to ensure this. The battlefield is a place where the division of labor is clear, and we each perform our duties, but at the same time I will not allow anyone to hold the group back, for any reason or excuse."
Looking at the Sky Fleet Commander, who had been spouting conservative theories for the past few days and refusing to go all out, and then glancing at Manslitt's displeasure at being indirectly insulted—not just the princess, but almost every general present wanted to fire hadron cannons from their eyes. What a powerful statement, "Unity is strength!"
“I agree to your proposal, Your Highness.” Sophia finally stood up, bowed respectfully, and handed the items back.
"What is this?" Manslit grinned. "We're about to attack Poland and fight the Soviets. The action plan is all set, and you're already turning around and siding with the Nordic countries?"
"Shut up, you piece of trash! Did you hear me? 10 ships!" Kylier cursed on the spot. "Are you ignoring the judgment of Marshal Sofia, a professional, or are all your men just pieces of trash that can't even be properly supported with over 70 skyships?"
“Today I’ll teach you what a real ‘Elizabethan promise’ is, Marshal.” Elizabeth smiled disdainfully as she pronounced her name. “Back then, when we thought the Soviets were the only ones opposing us on Rügen Island, the Swedes unexpectedly sent spies to our faces; when we thought the Soviet ships were going to fight us to the death, the Americans unexpectedly sent bombers to our faces; and just hours before we realized the Soviet threat was exaggerated, the British unexpectedly sent jets to our faces.”
"And now that you've come to believe that I'm only focusing my efforts on the south of Germany without limit, it's necessary for everyone, including Marshal Sofia, to deliver a surprise attack on the North American forces in the Baltic Sea. You call that going back on your word? The correct explanation is that all's fair in war. My dear Marshal, you don't think that your blatant troop buildup on the Oder River will terrify the Soviets and Poles, do you?"
"I'm also puzzled. As a loyal servant of my brother Schneizel, why would you compete with the honest Sky Fleet Commander for a job? Oh, the marriage alliance that was agreed upon with the Federation was ruined because of ZERO's 'Elizabethan promise,' right? Sigh, I really wanted to help my brother with some manpower management. At this time, it would be better for you to stay by his side and share the burden of the Federation. Why are you here all alone...?"
Chapter 387, Section 491: The Ship's Share
"Notify the entire fleet that the Northern Alliance forces stationed in the Øresund Strait have sent intelligence that the Britannian naval fleet is assembling on a large scale in the southern waters of Sweden, while there are signs of another large-scale deployment of so-called 'sky ships' inland."
"All carrier-based aircraft squadrons are hereby ordered: fighter squadrons shall uniformly carry HVAR rockets, and torpedo bomber and dive bomber squadrons shall prioritize carrying 'Little Tim' missiles. The priority target is the Britannian Air Fleet. When appropriate, each squadron may decide on its own support operations in the Øresund Strait."
The Princeton, Randolph, and Wasp, three US aircraft carriers that missed the Battle of Southern Scandinavia, are now in the sea northwest of Hamburg, where they are fortunate enough to join two Midway-class carriers in sending their carrier-based aircraft to the Baltic Sea battlefield on the cold North Sea winds.
But this is also unfortunate. Unlike the five Essex-class carriers in the Kattegat Strait, their carrier-based aircraft face a range two to three times longer, meaning it will take them half an hour to reach the urgent airspace over Copenhagen.
During this period, all the worst-case scenarios could become reality.
……
When the radar station on the Danish coast relayed the information to the entire Nordic battlefield, the first to panic were not the ground defenders of Malmö and Helsingborg—the Richelieu, which had been calmly bombarding the inland enemy positions with its naval guns just over an hour earlier, suddenly found itself churning at full speed underwater, propelled by its propellers, heading north.
Given that the 380mm main guns cannot fire at air targets, this is certainly not desertion, and the fleet's mission has never been to engage in direct confrontation with airships.
Two months ago, the Britannians used three Skyships to launch a surprise attack on the aircraft carriers. The escorting cruisers and destroyers could only use all their anti-aircraft guns to fight the air, and together with the carrier-based aircraft, they forced the enemy to leave empty-handed after they dared not turn off their shields.
Today, they face a full 10 Skyships and 19 missile destroyers standing guard at sea—even a seagull could smell that countless meteors were about to fall from the sky and engulf the sea.
"If the last time was the goddess of war's final favor to us, does that mean that every missile the enemy launches next will fall on our heads?" General Marshal and his Prinz Eugen pondered this question as they were among the warships retreating north together.
"Missiles are coming!" The anti-aircraft gun crews on the heavy cruiser were the first to issue a warning. As the air raid sirens sounded on the shore and the jet engines roared, a dark shadow in the sky led countless missiles as they plummeted from the sky, crashing down on the battleship Veneto in front of the Prinz Eugen.
"Anti-impact stance!" The general led the crew on the bridge, some crouching low, others pressed against the bulkheads, anxiously feeling the missiles exploding in front of them, or landing one after another on the bow and stern of the Prinz Eugen. The raging waves shook the 18,000-ton heavy cruiser like a brown bear scratching at a wooden door.
"Ship damage? Report!"
After the first wave of fierce attacks subsided, the general wanted to look around and observe the battlefield, but found that it was pitch black outside the porthole.
The entire deck of the Prinz Eugen was covered in charcoal—under the relentless bombardment, no German sailor had time to count how many missiles had landed on the Veneto sailing ahead of them. The thick smoke billowing from the battleship's wake was filled with the charred residue of steel and the acrid smell of exploding anti-aircraft gun ammunition.
The Britannians must have been desperate. Their missiles must have been eager to taste the sinking of battleships after their cruisers; otherwise, there's no reasonable explanation for such a costly and concentrated attack.
The missile relay aircraft had already flown away and would surely return a second time, but the Veneto began to slow down at this critical juncture. Had it not been for Prinz Eugen's helmsman's premonition of trouble and timely helm change, and the German sailors on board using signal flares to guide the Richelieu, which was also lost in the black smoke, it would have been a collision that only compounded the disaster.
As they passed by the sides of the Veneto, Prince Eugen and Richelieu saw a scene of devastation that was almost a mirror image of the previous day's attack on the Italiano. A large section of the superstructure in the center of the ship, including the two funnels, had collapsed in different directions, leaving only the relatively intact bridge and the two main gun turrets on the foredeck, which were now showing their painful, grotesque state.
Fortunately, the missiles and the shells fired by the battleships were not the same type of weapon; otherwise, what would have remained for the German and French sailors might have been a sunken ship that broke in two and sank into the sea as the ammunition magazine was breached and exploded.
It wasn't until then that the US carrier-based aircraft in the Kattegat Strait finally arrived, taking over the duties from the land-based air force.
But a truly greater threat has only just begun to loom over them.
The military and civilians on Danish soil have seen the Skyships, whose silhouettes are comparable to any US aircraft carrier. These behemoths have flaunted their weaponry more than once, appearing overhead in twos and threes.
……
"Simons reports to Marshal Sofia that the first echelon has assembled in the airspace near Malmö, and the second echelon is continuing toward Helsingborg. Everything is proceeding smoothly according to plan."
Today, approaching this vital airspace of the Baltic Sea were ten airships in two squadrons, four of which were Rogers-class destroyers with a wingspan of 400 meters. Just as General Simmons, who was leading the squadron, was reporting the situation to his superiors, and as the civilians of Copenhagen watched in terror as the behemoths swarmed down from the sky, their dozen or so cannons began aiming at the ground beneath their hulls.
The five airships flew in a double column around Malmö, but they did not immediately target the positions inside and outside the city, even though the concentrated fire from the anti-aircraft gun positions inside and outside the city made them temporarily afraid to turn off the shields beneath them.
On the seaward side of the city, the Danish-operated Z-class destroyers and the Swedish-built American-made escort destroyers were blocked from passing by the Veneto and her entourage because they were there.
"Light them up." Looking at the small boats preparing to flee, General Simmons simply tossed out the order with the force of a coin toss. Eleven- and twelve-inch shells rained down on the slender destroyer in double digits, showing absolutely no mercy to the ship or its sailors.
Like several giant hoes smashing into the sea, striking the fleeing Z29, the towering waves it generated were like a grinding mill, tearing it and another escort destroyer apart and shredding it in the sea, painfully sinking into the ocean behind the fleeing Danish and Swedish sailors.
"Should we continue pursuing them, General?" the adjutant asked Simmons.
"Let them escape; we need to focus on shelling the city. What's the situation with the second wave?"
"They've reached the front of the battleships from District 45, but they've reported that the black smoke from the burning ships is too thick to guarantee accurate aiming and a hit. What's your next step...?"
"Did these helmsmen get their jobs on roller skates? Why are they flying straight into that huge cloud of black smoke? Besides, would it take that long to circle those battleships for such a small thing? Even if the airships aren't agile, they shouldn't be unable to catch up with the warships on the water, right?"
"Please calm down, General, it's just... Oh no! American planes! The second wave is under attack!"
"Calm down!" Simmons looked at his adjutant's helpless expression with displeasure. "Marshal Sofia believes that the veterans of the expeditionary force can protect us. Don't you believe in the significance of our training over the past few days?!"
The general's statement was not without reason. In the distance, amidst the chaotic melee between KMFs and fighters, several dive bomber formations took advantage of the confusion to drop bombs over the Skyships—this was the standard posture for precision bombing by Area 45 pilots, and a simple answer to how Skyships deploy shields in air combat.
"No matter what, lock the shields directly above the hull, top priority!" Marshal Sofia had been giving these instructions for the past few days, and the crew had done so. The dive bombers' bombing runs from above were thus wasted, like fireworks on the green glass.
However, their good fortune was short-lived. Just as the five ships above Malmö were still focused on the fleeing British troops in the city, the sound that terrified the airship crew the most came—a roar like lightning, a collapse like a cliff. If the levitation device flashing green light under the hull of the airship was hit, it would be an irreversible disaster.
"It's falling!" the adjutant exclaimed in horror, grabbing the general's arm and pointing to the distant sky where, amidst the chaos of battle, a Calian-class ship suddenly lurched backward, trailing sparks and ball lightning as it plummeted from the sky.
"It must be luck, right?" Seeing this, Simmons finally felt a little uneasy. "Didn't the Marshal say that the people of Sector 45 don't know the secret of the Skyship's structure?"
But reality was ruthlessly slapping him in the face. The American fighter jets that had been dogfighting around the second echelon suddenly began to dive and pull up sharply below the various airships, launching rockets from their wings along with the anti-aircraft guns still roaring on the ground and at sea.
"Another ship lost! We're in trouble now, General. We need to get the second wave back immediately!"
Simmons was in a daze, about to give the order, unaware that he was about to be in grave danger—"General! Enemy aircraft are approaching from the west, and the escorting KMFs are about to be overwhelmed!"
Yes, those were carrier-based aircraft from Midway and Princeton, like a polished spear, slashing at the flanks of the Skyship's escort fleet, which was overwhelmed by the sheer number of attacks.
Only then did the general order the entire team to retreat. At that moment, a four-plane formation of F8F aircraft began to circle the Rogers-class, which served as his flagship, amidst the billowing smoke and flames. They intermittently fired machine guns, scattering ammunition belts onto the Skyship's shield net, which was far from being watertight.
"What's this guy up to? Shield control team! Keep an eye on that group of enemy aircraft!"
"It's too late, General!"
Caught off guard, four F8Fs slipped through the gaps in the KMF's pursuit and shields, flying in sideways. More than ten HVAR rockets were launched from under the wings of the four aircraft, and several explosions left a crack between the Skyship's turret and levitation device, flashing with thick smoke and fire.
"They've damaged the power supply to the levitation device, sir! The anti-gravity system is starting to malfunction!"
Still reeling from the explosion, Simmons stared in astonishment out of the bridge window at the ever-widening crack, from which countless fragments, sparkling with fire, fell. The green light of the levitation device flickered like a dying bulb, and the main body of the Skyship began to slowly tilt toward the side of the wound.
In the moments before he plummeted into the sky, the general saw only outside. Amidst the still-combat-filled formation of aircraft, two TBF bombers slowly approached his flagship. After confirming with their machine guns that there were no shields blocking their path, they ignited the engines of the small Tim rockets under their fuselages.
……
"Get out of there quickly! Hurry!" Zulu IX was still leading the fighter pilots on the Midway, while the Britannians in front of him had been replaced.
General Simmons's Rogers-class aircraft, under the final blow of two small Tims, snapped in two with a deafening roar, and countless sparks rained down into the sea from between the wings and above the heads of Zulu 9 and the others.
The massive hull crashed through the sea, creating waves tens of meters high. Drops of Baltic Sea water slapped against the propellers and vertical stabilizers of the F8F fighter jet, pulling it off the sea surface and sending it back into the sky.
“Regroup, we have other tasks.” Zulu 9 led the team, barely managing to climb back to 4000 meters. The people they needed to help were higher up—about nine Helldiver bombers that had escaped the air battle, and the Britannian missile destroyers were still wreaking havoc. They needed at least a warning.
"Stay together!" Following closely behind the nose of the Hell Diver as it swooped down and its deployed airbrakes, Zulu 9 and the others' Panda fighters followed. Before the Aviation KMF could intercept them, they flew away as several 500-pound bombs exploded between the destroyer's deck and the sea surface.
They believed that more American warplanes that had escaped would soon arrive to cause trouble. Before heading back, this group of pilots could do one more thing: use their remaining machine guns and cannons to annoy the Britannians who were about to occupy Malmö.
Why is it disgusting? Because the city has no value left for defense. Rather than letting the British army continue to struggle in the open ruins, it is better to cross the Channel as soon as possible and regroup.
Meanwhile, civilian ships and warships off the coast of Copenhagen were rushing to bring back British troops from Malmö, and even a submarine could bring back a few wounded British officers.
On the north side of the canal that runs through the city, next to the Little Mermaid statue, Riva, who used to watch German sailors draw the Little Mermaid with her playmates, looked at the unacceptable scene before her and her mother.
The submarine painted with the Little Mermaid returned, carrying several wounded British soldiers. The submarine's conning tower was stained with the wounded soldiers' blood, and the Little Mermaid's eyes were smudged, as if she were crying.