【Extra History】狩獵俾斯麥----強大的英國皇家海軍胡德號戰列艦

HMS Hood和Prince of Wales 沿著Bismarck和Destiny的路途奔奔而來 本集是由WARGAMING贊助 下載《世界的戰艦》 並使用優惠碼EXTRA1 連結在描述中 當我們離開的時候 英國人終於找到了Bismarck戰艦 和重型航空母艦Prince Eugen 他們沿著澳大利亞的路途奔奔而來 航空母艦Admiral Tovey和其他航空母艦 仍然有數百公里的距離 明顯地 沿著Hood 沿著Royal Navy 沿著Prince of Wales的路途奔奔而來 是唯一能阻止巨型航空母艦的 但為了了解發生了什麼 我們必須瞭解1941年Royal Navy的狀況 以及國際戰爭的限制 如何阻擋了他們的航空發展 為此 讓我轉移到WARGAMING的軍事專家 Richard Cutland 隨著世界大戰後 一系列的海洋協議限制了海洋發展 以防止國際軍事競爭 最初 這些協議限制了新艦艇的數量 並限制了新艦艇的尺寸和裝備 但後來的協議 完全削減了新艦艇的建造可能性 結果 在國際戰爭期間 英國被迫要更新舊艦艇 而不是建造新艦艇 例如 HMS Hood看起來很強大 對於外界的觀察者來說 British Admirals was well aware of its main drawback a weak horizontal defence especially at deck 25 which was only 76mm thick Plans to strengthen the horizontal armour had been developed back in 1927 but these works were postponed due to financial problems In the end, they never happened at all and this made the ship vulnerable to long-range plunging fire that fell directly down on its deck These treaties also constrained new battleships like Prince of Wales to quite conservative designs Their armament consisted of two 4-gun turrets and one 2-gun turret all in a 14-inch calibre that complied with treaty limitations Meanwhile, Germany was quietly violating these treaties with ships like Bismarck that had 15-inch guns So even though Prince of Wales was brand new it was underpowered at launch In addition, the brand new Prince of Wales had teething problems Sea trials revealed that her revolutionary quadruple gun turrets were prone to break down under strain and this problem hadn't yet been fixed when she deployed with Hood However, Prince of Wales was more technologically advanced than the Hood particularly since she had modern range finders and crucially, both Hood and Prince of Wales were fast and speed was what the Royal Navy needed in an interception force Back to you, Dan Thank you, Mr. Cutland So that's the situation The capable but vulnerable Hood and untested Prince of Wales are about to take on the largest and most modern warships on earth 24th of May, 0537 hours The Denmark Strait Our British sailors have gotten little sleep knowing that they would intercept the Bismarck at dawn On the Prince of Wales civilian contractors have worked through the night repairing its turret guns whose hydraulic systems are acting up Most of the Prince of Wales' crew are fresh recruits and they're nervous But the presence of the Hood stills their jitters Just then, a lookout on Hood sees smoke on the horizon The Bismarck and the Prinz Eugen Admiral Holland sends a ciphered message to the rest of the fleet From Hood, enemy in sight Am engaging But Holland's running almost parallel to the enemy The four ships converging slowly as they head southwest That's no good Not only does he need to get between Bismarck and the Atlantic but the Hood's thin deck armor will be vulnerable to plunging fire unless he gets within nine miles By cutting a path directly toward the Germans he'll close the distance as fast as possible and be harder to hit but it'll also halve his firepower since his rear turrets can't join the fight But there's nothing for it The Bismarck could still evade Holland turns to an interception course and orders full speed ahead At 0552 hours Holland orders Prince of Wales to target the lead ship But the gunnery officer on the Prince of Wales working with more modern optics makes a startling realization The Hood has targeted the wrong ship Bismarck and Prince Eugen have similar silhouettes and the Germans have defied convention by sending the lighter armored heavy cruiser first He tries to communicate this to the Hood but it's too late The Hood opens fire wreathing the vessel in dirty brown smoke Seeing this, the desperate gunnery officer defies the Hood's order targets the Bismarck and fires On both ships the gunnery officers look at their watches waiting Fifty seconds later pillars of water leap up in front of the German ships The salvoes fall short Worse still one of the guns in Prince of Wales' B turret malfunctions taking it out of the action Both ships are readjusting their aim when flashes of light run up and down the German ships A long-range artillery duel has begun Two minutes later a shell from Prince Eugen crashes into the Hood's upper deck detonating an ammunition locker It burns with pink flames anti-aircraft shells cooking off in bunches like firecrackers On the Hood's bridge the crew can hear the screams of their burning shipmates coming through the voice pipes Admiral Holland keeps calm but then huge columns of water leap into the air ahead of the bow and he finally realizes that he's been shooting at the wrong ship He hastily sends the order to re-target the Bismarck and orders a turn to port in order to bring his aft turrets to bear It will expose him side-on with the enemy but with luck the Hood's turn will pass just inside the nine-mile mark and shield him from plunging fire The turn comes just in time Bismarck's next salvo thunders down right where the Hood had been headed With all fire concentrated on Hood Prince of Wales has been free to get range on the Bismarck and scores at least one hit But her intricate four-gun turrets aren't holding up to the strain and every few salvos another gun goes out of action It follows Hood into the turn facing the German ship's side-on A salvo from Bismarck brackets the Hood shells landing on either side of the vessel The Prince of Wales' commander Captain Leach knows that once a ship is bracketed the enemy has you He sees the Bismarck's guns flash in double time and trains his binoculars on the Hood to see the result A shell plunges down on Hood's deck just aft of the main mast and disappears Two seconds later the middle of the Hood erupts like a Roman candle spraying flames hundreds of feet in the air As Leach looks on, horrified a colossal explosion tears the ship in two The stern rising up out of the water as the bow sails forward under its own momentum Yellow smoke blankets the carnage In all the smoke the Hood's bridge crew don't know where they've been hit or how badly Bodies begin raining down on the bridge thumping off the roof and landing on the wings From below the helmsman reports through a voice pipe that the steering isn't answering The ship begins to list first to port and then capsizing 45 degrees to starboard There's no need for an evacuation order The crew lines up single file at the port side hatch waiting their turn to scramble out The squadron's navigating officer stands aside letting Junior Seaman go first One crewman glances back He sees Admiral Holland still sitting in his command chair going down with his ship Seconds later the sailor steps off the Hood and into the freezing water of the Denmark Strait Above him he sees the majestic lines of the Hood sinking in a V formation A turret fires a last defiant salvo before it slips into the water and then the suction pulls him under On the Prince of Wales Captain Leach orders an evasive maneuver to avoid colliding with Hood's rapidly sinking stern It disappears underwater as they pass Nothing remains of the Royal Navy's largest and most famous ship except a burning debris field It is now one malfunctioning ship against two and Leach has sailed right into the Hood's former position The Germans barely have to adjust their range finders But just then a salvo from Prince of Wales straddles Bismarck Leach nods approval Now that Prince of Wales has the correct range she can... Bang! One compartment below the bridge the navigation officer hears a crash above him He shouts into the voice pipe asking if everything's all right At first there's no answer And then a stream of blood dribbles out staining his charts Leach gets unsteadily to his feet One of the Bismarck's shells has hit the bridge and passed through without exploding His entire bridge crew lies dead except for two wounded officers For three hellish minutes shells pound the Prince of Wales The armor belt takes multiple hits The boat deck catches fire In one of the turret magazines a shell punches through the deck and lands still live next to a sailor's foot The magazine crew is told to hang on to it until ordnance disposal arrives But they're not waiting They lift the shell up out of the turret and gingerly carry it across the deck amid a full-scale battle With a sigh of relief they pitch it over the side Captain Leach knows he's been outfought He turns to withdraw making smoke to cover his retreat The Bismarck, curiously, does not follow Keeping well out of range Leach brings the mauled Prince of Wales around to join the cruisers shadowing Bismarck He signals the Admiralty Hood has blown up One hour after the hood's sinking a destroyer arrives to look for survivors On deck they have rafts life belts and blankets lined up and ready The medical crew is prepared to treat hundreds Instead, they pull three oil-slicked survivors out of the water Three out of a crew of 1,418 10, 22 hours, the Admiralty Faces are grim in the Admiralty's war room 200 feet below the streets of London The shock of losing the hood is compounded by the knowledge that German battleships were now in position to prey on vital convoys But as the news settles in bleak horror gives way to determined rage The phone rings It's Prime Minister Churchill with a personal order for every able ship in the Atlantic It is direct and to the point Admiralty cipher officers broadcast the order wide The aircraft carrier Ark Royal receives the signal at Gibraltar and begins to unpack its torpedo bombers Tovy's home fleet receives the message as they race to join the stricken Prince of Wales The battleship Rodney headed for a refit in Boston gets the signal and slowly turns its 16-inch guns back toward Europe The airwaves are thick with this one message Sink the Bismarck