It's better to conquer them than to command the steel torrent

Chapter 250 | A Pot of Porridge
The Catherine was the lead ship of this class of battleships, launched at the Nikolayev shipyard, and was essentially a product that incorporated a large amount of Italian technology.

The Britons and Ivanross maintained a good honeymoon relationship during the interwar period; however, the former were unwilling to provide technical guidance on capital ships.

Fortunately, the Italians were willing to cooperate, so the two sides quickly reached an agreement.

Despite employing many mature Italic technologies, the Catherine-class destroyers still retained a distinctively Ivanrosian design.

It has a long forecastle design, with two 406mm triple guns forward and one aft, a standard displacement of 4.6 tons, three-shaft propulsion, and a designed maximum speed of 28 knots, which is actually slightly lower.

A few years ago, the ambitious Veronica ordered the construction of four ships at the same time, but such steel behemoths were clearly beyond Ivanros's industrial capacity and could not meet such ambitious requirements. Whether it was the high-quality armor plates on the sides or the large-caliber barrels required for the main guns, they were too time-consuming and laborious to build.

It took almost the entire nation's resources to complete the first ship on schedule, thus winning Veronica's favor.

The second ship was also basically completed, but the factory had not yet delivered the triple main guns for the stern turret. Veronica ordered that they be completed as soon as possible, but one of the guns suffered a serious barrel explosion during a test firing.

It is obvious that the Catherine is the only one to carry the show, representing the new force of the Ivan Russian Navy. In order to demonstrate the supreme glory of the Third Rome, Veronica personally approved the ship to sail across the ocean to show off its military might.

result……

This small fleet of Ivanross had come from afar and, due to poor intelligence communication, approached the battle zone, quickly noticing something amiss.

Why are the British retreating?

Under Cunningham's cautious command, the Royal Navy strike fleet began an orderly retreat, disengaging from the battle to the north.

Five minutes later, the American fleet also noticed the suddenly appearing unidentified fleet. At this time, the two sides were too far apart, and even with the help of binoculars, they could only vaguely see the silhouettes of the ships and could not determine their type or class.

Admiral Ernest King made a decisive decision in a very short time—the four destroyer squadrons with the better positions immediately launched an attack.

Immediately, seven or eight destroyer squadrons and several light cruisers coordinated to accelerate the pursuit, with the 24th destroyer squadron leading the charge, its flagship USS Duncan taking the lead at a top speed of 35 knots.

And so, at dusk when the Atlantic Ocean was bathed in molten gold, an incredibly fierce battle royale suddenly erupted!

Before the sun had even set, visibility was already less than satisfactory. It was unclear which ship fired the first flare, but it triggered a flurry of more flares to rise into the sky.

A blinding white orb floated in the dim sky as dozens of US destroyers pursued the Royal Navy from multiple directions, firing their guns and launching torpedoes at distances ranging from tens of kilometers to just a few kilometers.

Above the deep water, shells of different calibers flew back and forth in the air, while below the surface, slender heavy warships used torpedoes to move nimbly...

Because the Queen Elizabeth and Rodney battleships were slow-moving, with a top speed of only around 20 knots, they had difficulty making a flexible retreat.

To avoid being surrounded and killed by US destroyers, the Royal Navy destroyers and light cruisers, despite being outnumbered, bravely fought back, and the two sides engaged in fierce combat!
Due to a lack of night combat training and experience, and the chaotic nature of the actual combat situation, the US destroyers that launched multiple attacks gradually dispersed, losing their organized encirclement and becoming disorganized.

It's a complete mess!

The destroyer USS Stark had finally secured a superb torpedo firing position and was poised to launch a salvo of torpedoes at the enemy battleship USS Nelson, which was six or seven kilometers away. However, at the crucial moment, the friendly ship USS Duncan, caught in concentrated enemy fire, made a sharp turn to evade and ended up ramming into Stark. Stark was forced to swerve and missed its chance to launch a salvo of torpedoes.

Even worse, the USS Fitch mistook the unfortunate USS Anderson for an enemy ship and opened fire for several minutes. Multiple shells hit the bridge, resulting in casualties among the captain and more than ten other crew members of the USS Anderson!
The fierce battle continued into the night.

Suddenly, Admiral Kim noticed a large ball of flame rising in the distance, clearly visible for more than ten nautical miles around. He also heard cheers coming from the radio channel, which sounded like an enemy battleship had exploded.

"God bless America! Commander! We've destroyed a twin-furnace battleship!"

"Two smokestacks? It might be an Elizabeth-class destroyer."

After comprehensively analyzing the current situation, and considering that the attack by their own destroyers was quite chaotic and had already achieved some results, Admiral Kim did not delay and ordered a retreat.

At 19:37, the battleship HMS Barham capsized due to massive flooding after being hit by three 533mm torpedoes.

By this point in the battle, most of the destroyers had actually exhausted their torpedoes, and it would be difficult to achieve any significant results if the chaotic fighting continued.

Even with the retreat order issued through a combination of radio, signal lights, and light signals, some warships still failed to receive the order in time and found themselves in the dangerous situation of fighting alone.

Fortunately, the Britons were also intimidated by the Americans' reckless fighting style, fearing that the Americans would continue to fight to the death, so they hurriedly withdrew from the battle.

During the battle, Ivanros's fleet played a completely insignificant role.

Due to communication difficulties and the inability to effectively coordinate with the Royal Navy fleet, the Catherine's mighty guns only symbolically fired a few half-salvos. Moreover, due to poor visibility, the accuracy was extremely poor, serving no purpose other than wasting precious barrel life and ammunition worth enough to arm thousands of army conscripts.

Seeing the Britons hastily withdraw from the battle, the Ivan-Russians had no choice but to follow suit.

But then the nightmare began.

Around midnight, a large number of seaplanes that had taken off from the Boston and Portland Naval Air Stations finally arrived.

Despite the lack of radar-assisted search, the American pilots believed that the enemy fleet would likely retreat towards Halifax, so they located the enemy fleet in the darkness of the night.

The renowned PBY Catalina seaplane boasts excellent overall performance, with a range comparable to that of a strategic bomber, eliminating any concerns about loiter time. It can also carry two Mk13 aerial torpedoes, although this 'airship' has a relatively slow cruising speed.

At midnight, a Catalina aircraft spotted something amiss by the reflected moonlight and flew over the fleet, dropping aerial flares that instantly revealed countless warships on the dark sea.

Subsequently, the Catalina reported its coordinates, summoning more friendly aircraft.

Squadrons of Catalina approached the Royal Navy fleet from all angles, then launched torpedoes from afar, tearing the thick darkness of the Atlantic Ocean to shreds with the trails of various tracer bullets of different thicknesses!

(End of this chapter)