Sukhoi cannot be said to be dissatisfied with the first two rounds of air strikes, but he must have regrets. He wants to achieve greater results and prove that the two most powerful fleets in the world can be solved with the Air Force alone. So he is determined to seize the last opportunity and get everything done before Basilev.

However, sometimes, the more anxious you are, the harder you will be. It may be that Sukhoi's impatient mood affected the performance of the pilots, or it may be that the continuous attacks made the pilots physically and mentally exhausted, and the Air Force's last attack effect was still not ideal.

The first one to launch an attack on the British was still the dive bombers. The only 12 remaining Lenin One, which could be dispatched, dived towards the five Queen-class and Counterattacks at the rear of the British fleet. The 250-kilogram aviation bombs whizzed down at an angle of nearly 60 degrees, and gorgeous white water splashes bloomed on the sea.

However, although the huge water column was scary, it was just scary. All 12 aviation bombs were thrown out, and none of them hit. The nearest one was a hundred meters away from the enemy ship. In short, the dive bomber that Sukhoi had high hopes disappointed him. He unwillingly fired the enemy ship for two rounds and then left the battlefield.

In fact, this cannot be entirely blamed on the pilot. Sukhoi himself is also responsible for this. In order to maximize the results of the battle, he allowed the remaining dive bombers to be used in a flat manner, attacking six targets in groups. To be honest, the possibility of achieving results is not high from the perspective of probability.

Maybe Sukhoi was deceived by the dive bomber's hit rate of nearly 50% in the first round of attacks. He thought that in a group of two, he could always hit a shot. Who knew that they were all zero eggs!

Of course, even if the dive bomber can still hit a 50% hit rate that is dazzling, it is unlikely that it will wipe out the enemy ships. The reason is very simple. The Queen-level horizontal defense was excellent in that era. Although the 76mm horizontal armor was not enough in World War II, the problem of blocking bombs below 300 kilograms is not particularly big.

In other words, even if each Queen-class takes one bomb, it will probably not hurt its muscles and may still maintain more than 70% of its combat effectiveness. And the Queen with 70% of its combat effectiveness is also very terrifying!

So Sukhoi's plan was wrong from the beginning. The most pragmatic approach should be to let the remaining six dive bombers attack two targets. This not only ensures the accuracy of bomb drops, but also ensures the complete killing of the enemy. It is still the same old saying. It is better to cut one finger than to hurt one finger than to hurt one. Not to mention sinking two queens with a dive bomber, even if it is sunk one!

Unfortunately, Sukhoi missed this opportunity. The dive bomber failed to cause any losses to the queen. Of course, this does not mean that Sukhoi's air force has come in vain. In fact, their attack does have extraordinary significance for the direction of this naval battle. From a certain perspective, they changed the result of the naval battle!

Why do you say that? It's very simple. The strength of both sides on the sea is half a pound and eight taels. Basilev's fleet may not get any advantage in front of the five queens. If you have to decide the winner based on your real ability, even if Basilev wins, he will probably win miserably!

The miserable victory was completely meaningless for Basilev. He also hoped that a powerful navy would support the Soviet Union's coastal defense. If it was defeated at one time, what's the difference between it and the Red Navy in history?

Basilev certainly didn't want such a result, so what Sukhoi and his young man did next was extraordinary. After the dive bomber left the battlefield in a daze, 40 torpedo planes entered the battlefield and began to repeatedly attack the five queens on the sea in four formations.

As mentioned earlier, it would be fine if the Queen-level anti-aircraft firepower was really a decoration. So the torpedo plane did not get harassed and completed the bomb drop. For a moment, white strips were drawn from the sea, and the torpedoes dropped from the air were woven into a large net. The five Queen-level fish were dyingly struggling in the net.

It should be emphasized that the performance of aviation torpedoes in this year is really not good. At least Sukhoi, who was watching the game next to him, had the urge to hit the wall. These torpedoes were either thrown off or had problems with the depth meter, and some simply went S-shaped at sea. Anyway, let's say that, 40 torpedoes hit the target without hitting a single hit!

It's outrageous, right? Sukhoi vomited blood in the cockpit, but after vomiting blood, he could only fly back to the plane. Anyway, this guy was probably thinking on the way back: "The first thing he did after he went back was to shoot the grandsons of the Military Control Commission. What kind of torpedo is this!"

Sukhoi's air force came in a mighty manner, but returned dejectedly. No matter who it was, they thought they had done useless work and did not cause any damage to the enemy. But is this really the case?

Not all, it is of course the best way to kill or kill the enemy on the battlefield. However, if you can't directly kill the enemy, it is not good to be able to interfere with the enemy to create opportunities for your teammates. For example, now, Sukhoi's Air Force has completed an assist.

As mentioned before, the Queen-class is a very perfect battleship in World War I, with strong firepower (8-door 381), fast speed (the theoretical maximum speed is 25 knots), and strong armor (the main armor belt is 330 mm to 152 mm thick. To achieve this goal at a normal displacement of 27,500 tons, it is really only a pleasing to the designer).

Anyway, if I were asked to choose the best battleship, I would definitely choose the Queen-level first. However, Agtians has weaknesses, so the Queen-level naturally cannot avoid it. And the shortcomings are very funny, it is a bit like Achilles's Heel.

The Queen-class used a new tail rudder when designing. This semicircular tail rudder was later proved to be an absolute failure, and the rudder effect was quite poor. For example, in the Battle of Jutland, when following the battle cruiser formation, the Queen-class failed to keep up when the battle patrol ahead performed two high-angle maneuvers. Later, when facing the high seas fleet alone, the War War was completely stuck due to a servo failure, which caused the ship to make two big circles in front of the high seas fleet before adjusting the direction. Fortunately, the Queen-class defense was strong enough, otherwise it would be impossible to go back.

Let me put it this way, because of the rudder, the queen-level maneuverability, especially the maneuverability when turning at a large angle, is not very good (or very bad). As we all know, when avoiding torpedoes, it is inevitable to maneuver at a large angle. Therefore, although the formations composed of the five queen-level ships were not hit by torpedoes, the formation was completely dismantled in this round of attack!

Some comrades may think that the formation is just disbanded? What's the big deal? Hehe, this question is unscrupulous at all. Since humans have bloody games like war, formation is extremely important. There are heroes like Zhao Zilong alone on the battlefield. But the results achieved are absolutely limited compared to the team.

Especially in naval battles, formation is extremely important. Even now, efficient and accurate transformation of formation at sea is the standard for assessing officers. Especially in that era when it was necessary to seize favorable shooting positions, formation was extremely important.

Let me put it this way, the US Navy War Academy did research in the 1920s and 1930s to fight against opponents with speed advantages (the US Navy's battleships are all heavy gun turtle shell ships, and they are all slowly swimming, while the potential enemies, the Royal Navy and the Japanese Navy have a large number of battle patrols or high-speed battleships. How to attack enemies with speed advantages is a major issue for the US Navy). After continuous exercises and discussions, the US Navy came to a very academic conclusion that maintaining formation and using efficient steering is the only way to fight against enemies with speed advantages.

In layman's terms, when the battle is in the Zhenghang battle (both sides travel in the same direction), when the enemy with the speed advantage accelerates to seize the T-head, the party without the speed advantage must immediately follow the steering, so as to avoid being beaten one by one.

This is the combat plan No. 1 summarized by the US Naval War Academy in 1902. It ideally solved the tactics of the enemy surrounding the bow of the fleet. However, in 1907, in the new exercise, the Blue Fleet did not choose the regular air combat, but chose the anti-aircraft war (that is, the tactics of the side with the opposite direction and the side with the speed advantage seized the T-head from the tail of the enemy fleet).

Based on this experience, the War Academy has reached another conclusion. If there is no speed advantage, if you want to avoid being beaten and explode, you must maintain a roughly parallel state with the fleet in the ground. That is to say, no matter whether the enemy surrounds the T-head from the bow or stern from the stern, if your fleet does not have speed, then follow and turn quickly, the faster the better!

It seems that the War Academy perfectly solved the long-term problem of speed, but when it comes to practice, I find that following the turn seems to be completely difficult, but it is quite difficult to do it well.

After all, not all battleships have exactly the same technical level. For example, some battleships have large turning radii, while others have small turning angles. Some take a long time and some take a short time. In this way, the battleship lines are torn to pieces.

This is a big problem. In order to solve this problem, the US Navy has formulated the No. 2 combat plan after a lot of research and discussion. In order to solve the problem of steering, this combat plan breaks down the battle line into many small columns, each small column consisting of warships with similar performance. When the fleet commander ordered the steering, each team carried out a separate steering with the actual performance of the formation. After completing the steering, it formed a complete battle line to meet the enemy.

There are two reasons for the research of the US Navy. The first formation is really important to fight, and you can't be careless at all. The second is that the steering performance of the ship is really important. Sometimes warships with poor rudder efficiency will really lose their lives.

It is obvious that these two queen-level teams are all in total. When their formation is disrupted by air strikes, it takes time to re-form. And time is really precious in naval battles! Just when the queen-level formation is in chaos, Basilev takes his main fleet to kill!

Just now, the three British battle patrols were very happy to bully four half-lame German battle patrols, ready to pick up the heads happily, but who would have thought that they would hit the iron plate in the blink of an eye and be hit by ten battleships!

The first ones to be hit were the Reputation and Counterattack. These two buns with thin skin and large fillings were really paper. The 152mm main armor was really paper in front of the 305mm and 380mm main guns. They were worn out in minutes.

First, a 305mm armor-piercing projectile opened a large hole of about 10 meters at the bow of the Reputation ship. Then the main gun of the Counterattack was swung on the front by a 380mm shell. Fortunately, the armor-piercing projectile was not of good quality, and it was blocked by the artillery shield and bounced and exploded. Otherwise, it would have cost the life of the Counterattack. However, even so, the Counterattack No. 2 turret of the Counterattack was also destroyed, and the firepower of the entire ship was lost by one-third.

After this round of artillery attacks, the three British battle patrols were shocked and turned around and ran away without saying a word. Basilev chased after him, and the shells were as hard as they didn't have money to greet the British.

It was really like rain, which scared the British people's carelessness. After five rounds of artillery bombings, the Tiger, which landed at the end, was in trouble. The Baden carried out a perfect volley. The Tiger's tail cannon was hit hard, and the weak rear half of the top of the turret was bombed.

The 380mm armor-piercing bomb easily tore open the 64mm armor, and passed the hurdle and killed the hero in the ammunition depot. With a loud bang, a bright and dazzling fireball broke out from the stern of the Tiger. The fireball rushed upwards into the sky, like a small sun!

The stern of the Tiger was completely broken and sank into the seabed within less than five minutes. The front half of the hull, which stood tenaciously on the sea surface, was in a very bad situation. The sea water poured into the Tiger hull along the fracture. Even if the captain ordered the sealing of all watertight doors, it was useless. As the engine room was completely immersed in the sea water, the Tiger's power was completely lost, and the power interruption caused the pump to stop working.

The more and more sea water was pouring, and gradually the bow of the Tiger was forced to lift up. The creaking metal sound made the scalp numb. As the angle of inclination became larger and larger, almost no one could stand on the deck.

"Abandon the ship!"

As the captain ordered the abandonment of the ship, the watermen of the wolf-run pigs rushed into the sea in a hurry. It looked like dumplings were laid. However, the order was a little late. After ordering the abandonment of the ship, the Tiger lasted for only five minutes. Five minutes later, with a bang, the battlecruiser plunged into the sea with a rolling posture.

The Tiger was shot for no more than 10 minutes until it sank, and there were very few watermen who could escape by chance. The Reputation and the Counterattack, which were slightly faster than the Tiger, were not much better than the Tiger. The two brothers were constantly hit by large-caliber shells, and flames kept coming out of the hull, and the rolling black smoke was like a geek.

After several rounds of volleys, the main gun of the Reputation was blown up. If the gunman had not ordered the injected water in time, he would have split like the Tiger. The rear half of the hull was filled with flames, and the explosions were like fried beans. Fortunately, the ammunition depot was not affected.

When the British cruiser was beaten up, the five Queens were still nervously re-forming. When they completed the formation and arrived on the battlefield, the Reputation and Counterattack were already disabled. The two brothers staggered their tails and fled from the battlefield, which means that the five Queens were about to face twice the enemy!

"call……"

Basilev sighed softly. Although he still didn't like Sukhoi, he had to admit that the boy had helped him a lot. If the Air Force had not disrupted the formation of the five queens and fought for him to eliminate the enemy's battle patrol, the subsequent battle would probably be quite difficult to fight.

Of course, it was not easy at this time. Because the five queens were strong enemies!

The first ones to exchange fire with the Queen were Bavaria and Baden. These two most advanced and elite battleships in Germany, built specifically to fight against the Queen, finally encountered their destined enemies after missing the Battle of Jutland.

To be honest, the Bavarian class has no advantage when facing the Queen. Everyone has the firepower, the Queen of Speed ​​has the advantage, and the defense against Bavaria is slightly advantageous. Overall, it is reasonable for whoever wins and loses alone.

However, war has never been a one-on-one challenge. It is undoubtedly a stupid behavior to compare the performance of a single weapon. War has always been the power of the system. The highest master is not the side where he holds a lot of advanced weapons and plays the one-on-one challenge, but the side that can unify a lot of miscellaneous weapons into a whole to exert the combat effectiveness of the system.

In a sense, if you accumulate a whole and want your life to be three thousand, it is better than high-tech that can only fight alone. I have to say that the British have an advantage in this regard. They have been using the Queen class for a long time and have fully mastered the performance of ships. On the contrary, the Russians became monks halfway, and several months of training are not enough for them to exert all the combat effectiveness of German warships.

So at the beginning of the battle, the two Bavarian ships and the two Kings following behind were suppressed by the British. The British's volleys were very accurate, and they kept taking splashes, constantly forcing Basilev's fleet to turn.

Basilev had no speed advantage at all, and was constantly forced to maneuver, which made him lose the opportunity to seize the advantageous shooting position. He did have more ships, but in the artillery battle, he was beaten less by the British.

The book said that here we have to mention the two sets of tactics summarized by the US Navy. When implementing the No. 2 combat plan, the Americans discovered that an overly large formation is sometimes a burden, and the commander's ability is limited. It is almost impossible to make a person command one or twenty warships to fight in a decisive battle line. If this is done, the possibility of mistakes will be very high!

Through research, the Americans found that a commander commands up to four warships, which is the most reasonable. After exceeding the four, the efficiency will drop greatly. Undoubtedly, Basilev encountered this problem. Ten battleships lined up in a line, and the formation was quite long. To be honest, they could not see the last marching ship from the direction of the pilot ship. In other words, Basilev, who is at the forefront of the formation, had no way to command the warships at the end of the formation, and the warships at the end of the formation said that they were participating in the war, but they were actually fighting soybeans! (To be continued)

ps: Bow to thank Comrade hzwangdd and comrade Juventus!
Chapter completed!