Regardless of Dönitz's evaluation, Wegener's strategy still achieved great success. Since the route of the main force of the Home Fleet was not kept secret from senior German naval admirals like Dönitz, this allowed him to move as many as possible in advance.
The submarines were arranged to operate in nearby waters, and after the naval battle occurred, they had time to order them.
They rushed to the outbreak site in time and were able to quickly form a numerical advantage. Coupled with the launch of new torpedoes, the American and British navies were stunned. By the way, after Germany tasted the sweetness of using new weapons in large quantities at one time,
This is basically the case now, which has caused far greater losses to the Allies than in history.
Although he knew that his strategy would incidentally destroy the best surface ships and the most qualified officers and soldiers of the Home Fleet, Wegener did not regret it at all, because in his view, the conservatism of the Home Fleet's surface ships was not only
Not only because of Redel's personal will, but more importantly because of those who have experienced
The veteran navy of World War I generally had a similar mentality to him. If they were not eliminated together, the German Navy would not be able to achieve rebirth. For this purpose, he would not hesitate to sacrifice some innocent people. For those who had once
For Wegener, who was forced to retire early by Raeder and his henchmen, this realization had already occurred
In addition, Wegener knew very well that although Mustache's prestige is now at its peak, there are still many people who oppose him in the country, and there are especially many such people in the surface fleet of the mainland fleet. They dare not openly confront Mustache.
They bullied him for his lack of professional knowledge and secretly held him back. For example, the close-range anti-aircraft guns used on the Bismarck-class battleships were actually "37-hand guns that could only be fired manually."
"Pull the plane". This thing's anti-tank (of course it's an early one) is pretty good, but it's a big joke if it's used for air defense. Not to mention the increasingly faster monoplanes, even the old biplanes, it's
You need incredible luck to hit it, and thanks to Hu Weidong who pointed it out unceremoniously during the secret cooperation with China, otherwise Mustache would have been kept in the dark. And the two Bismarck-class battleships would have definitely been tricked by him.
In fact, Wegener didn't like mustaches either, but he knew that since World War II reached the current situation, Germany and its allies were already fighting to the death. If the whole country could not work together, then Germany would definitely lose the war. And by then all Germany
Everyone will become a victim. Therefore, as long as Mustache's performance proves that he can lead Germany to victory, Wegener will continue to firmly support him, and even be willing to be a hawk to remove those obstacles for him.
Wegener's conspiracy succeeded, but Admiral Ernest Joseph King had to change the flagship in embarrassment. Because the "Iowa", the best battleship of the US military and even the Allies, was also hit by a German torpedo
Hit, and there are far more than one, no matter how strong the Iowa-class battleship is, it cannot withstand it. If Admiral Ernest Joseph King does not change ships as soon as possible,
I'm afraid it will have to be buried under the sea with it. When Ernest Joseph King left the ship, two more torpedoes hit the battleship Iowa, which was already very seriously injured, almost at the same time. The huge shock almost
Admiral Ernest Joseph King, who was already quite young, somersaulted directly into the sea. Fortunately, the sailor beside him reacted quickly enough to catch him.
Seeing the frightened look on the admiral's face, the sailor asked with concern, "Your Excellency, admiral, are you okay?"
"No, I'm fine." Admiral Ernest Joseph King forced out a smile and replied, but his heart was already full of turmoil. Just now he saw really clearly that one of the enemy's torpedoes was supposed to miss the target.
It came out, but it turned a corner! It hit the Iowa and gave her a fatal blow. What on earth was going on?
Although it is not known how the Germans did this, this kind of trackable torpedo is suspected to have caused disaster to Allied ships, especially those battleships selected as the main attack targets. In the Allied fleet
Shortly after the USS Iowa's flagship sank, her sister ship USS New Jersey quickly followed suit. A total of 11 heavy torpedoes hit the fully loaded platoon ship.
The giant battleship with a water volume of more than 55,000 tons was completely destroyed and sank forever in the waves of the North Atlantic. Only 16 of the 1,851 officers and men on the ship survived. Fortunately, Admiral Ernest Joseph King was nearby when he changed ships.
He chose a cruiser, otherwise with the terrifying sinking speed of the USS New Jersey, he might not have a chance to escape at all.
Before the battleship New Jersey sank, Admiral Ernest Joseph King, who was fully aware of the threat posed by enemy submarines because he discovered that enemy torpedoes had the ability to guide, gritted his teeth and issued an order to the Air Force to do whatever it took.
Find the cost first
And destroyed the enemy's submarines, and even many fighter jets that came to help were temporarily equipped with depth bombs to serve as anti-submarine aircraft. As a result, the Allies achieved the largest anti-submarine results since the outbreak of World War II, sinking no less than 40 German ships in one battle.
Human teardrop-shaped submarine.[
However, Admiral Ernest Joseph King's order also caused the battle balance in the sky to tilt rapidly. The Luftwaffe, which gradually gained air supremacy, had spare power, which naturally caused more and more damage to Allied aircraft and anti-submarine ships.
The attack began to rapidly weaken the Allied anti-submarine capabilities, which ultimately resulted in the Allied fleet being unable to destroy all German submarines.
, and let some of them comfortably shoot out the torpedoes, and the torpedo hydraulic loading system that Germany introduced along with the teardrop-shaped submarine also showed great value that cannot be ignored in this battle. If it is still the same as before, every reloading
The old system takes 10-20 minutes to launch a torpedo. After one torpedo is fired, you can basically just act as a spectator.
Therefore, it is conceivable how huge the Allied losses were in this battle. According to later public information, in this "Battle of the North Sea", all 6 battleships of the US Navy were sunk, in addition to 2 heavy cruisers.
, 1 light cruiser and 2 destroyers may have been misidentified or happened to appear in the line of torpedoes.
(Historically, German naval surface ships have had embarrassing incidents of misidentification. The periscope has a small field of view, so it is easier to make a mistake. If sonar is used, the possibility of making a mistake is even greater.)
, 11 destroyers were sunk by Luftwaffe aircraft, and as many as 13,640 people were killed and missing.