What the hell is a private enterprise?

Chapter 264 A Decisive White Flag

The moment Tang Wen entered the Sofia's radar, he knew that the mixed fleet had arrived.

However, he wasn't worried about the weak escort ships. He left them all to the ship girls to do as they pleased and continued to implement the plan to cover Scharnhorst's advance.

Now, he is having a headache about what to do with the Dubre.

After crossing Natal, Tirpitz headed to the Caribbean Sea and reached the coast of Venezuela.

Behind them, the Dubre was carefully suspended.

The Dubre had intended to try to communicate with the Tirpitz, but the latter ignored it and shook it off, so the Dubre followed at a leisurely distance.

News of the engagement reached the Dubrev by a 30-minute delay, accompanied by operational orders to launch missiles at the Tirpitz formation.

The Dubreuil had eight Exocet missiles, so its firepower was not bad.

Feeling that there was no major problem, the Dubre hesitated for almost an hour, and after exchanging telegrams with the mainland for half a day, it finally obeyed the order and launched four missiles at Tirpitz, two on each of the two cruisers, and then immediately prepared to escape.

Upon detecting the missile, Tirpitz activated the smoke generator, and the two cruisers immediately prepared to approach and enter the smoke, but this did not succeed.

The Tirpitz took three hits from the Flying Fish, which severely damaged its superstructure and reduced its health to half. The Hipper dodged one, but the second hit the turret and caused it to explode. The Blücher, however, was fortunate enough to avoid all of them thanks to the smoke cover.

For a missile that is nearly 30 kilometers away, this result is quite good.

However, after damage control was used, the two warships were almost completely restored.

Based on the situation at the time, Tang Wen believed that it was unnecessary to turn around and pursue the Dubreuil, and instead ordered them to continue forward so that the USS George would not have made a wasted trip.

Who knew that after discovering there was no retaliation, the Dubreuil became incredibly audacious and tricked the Tirpitz formation over the radio, claiming that the northbound squadron had been completely sunk and demanding that they stop and turn back to Guyana with him.

The Tirpitz fleet ignored the warning and instead fired four shells from turrets 3 and 4, just to warn the little guy.

Two heavy cruisers followed closely behind, firing shells incessantly at a rate of fire increased by 5 seconds. They used only their stern turrets to create an extraordinary display of force, firing nearly 50 high-explosive shells in just one minute.

Although it had reached its maximum range of 33 kilometers, its unique ultra-high accuracy caught the Dubre off guard, causing it to be hit by a total of 14 203 mm shells, instantly paralyzing it and forcing it to surrender.

Perhaps fearing that Tirpitz wouldn't know, they deliberately broadcast it continuously on multiple public frequencies, ensuring that it could be received throughout the Atlantic.

Tang Wen was dumbfounded. Just moments ago, the Dubre had boldly launched Exocet missiles at the Tirpitz, and after taking a single salvo, it surrendered so readily.
"...This ship formally surrenders to the Second Fleet. Please immediately cease attacks and, in accordance with international law...protect the safety of our personnel. We promise not to scuttle, but have the right to protect classified documents from loss..."

Listening to the formally formatted statement on the radio, Tang Wen strongly suspected that it had been written a long time ago.

After repeating this several times, it was discovered that the Second Fleet had ceased fire, and the USS Dubreuil even added a sentence:
"...If necessary, our ship's command personnel may board the ship by helicopter to sign the peace surrender agreement."

"..."

After a long while, the Tirpitz finally responded:

"We accept your surrender, but there's no time for prisoners. Stay put!"

The fleet continued its operation. Captain Bertrand of the Dubreuil breathed a sigh of relief, patted his chest with lingering fear as he watched the damage control team battling the fire.

"How fortunate! Thanks to my timely intervention, a precious destroyer was saved!"

The others were also deeply concerned, as they had not expected that a World War II heavy cruiser could have such terrifying accuracy at a range of thirty kilometers.

Within a minute, they experienced what it meant to be bombarded like rain. The surrounding sea was filled with dense spray of water. A few seconds later, the Dubrev would have been blown to bits.

After receiving a response, the Dubre, located 30 kilometers away, actually stopped, raised a white flag, and began to treat the damage on the spot.

Tang Wen:......

Meanwhile, news of the Dubreuil's surrender not only reached the ears of its allies, but was also heard on radios on the surrounding shore and on nearby cargo ships, causing shock and spreading rapidly.

It was only at this point that the outside world learned that the Second Fleet had engaged in combat.

……

At 14:55 p.m., B1B was on the runway for takeoff.

The beyond-visual-range attack from the Sofia arrived, and at Dalton's request, it was all concentrated on the most conspicuous Gleisenau to avoid signal interference.

Four harpoons approached from low altitude. Although all three warships launched seaplanes, none of them successfully intercepted them.

Two harpoons struck the upper deck, and to avoid them, the Gneisenau had to turn sideways to take several shells. The close-range 406mm shells were also quite deadly, severely damaging the battlecruiser's hull. [14390/50900]

The Gresenau's health has also dropped to a dangerous level.

But at that moment, the Iowa was in danger.

Knowing in advance that there were two warships in the smoke cloud behind it, the USS Iowa tilted at an angle in an attempt to use maneuverability to prevent its rudder from being destroyed.

However, this was to no avail. The Bismarck and Scharnhorst continued to fire, with their ten forward-facing main guns firing wildly. Finally, a 283mm shell landed near the stern, resulting in a near miss.

The Iowa's right propeller instantly deformed and jammed, one of its rudders was destroyed, and the entire warship began to veer uncontrollably to the right.

The engine room immediately corrected the course to left, and although the course was maintained, the speed inevitably dropped sharply to 20 knots.

Facing the Scharnhorst charging at 43.3 knots, the two ships are now only 5000 meters apart, with a relative speed of over 20 knots.

Dalton watched helplessly as the Iowa suddenly slowed down, his spirits plummeting.

It's over, it's really over.

If the Iowa sinks, it means the entire fleet will be wiped out!

He looked at Edwin, meeting a pair of bloodshot eyes as wide as a bull's.

"We can't run away anymore."

"We have nowhere to run."

Edwin's words were conveyed through his eyes. Dalton looked at the others around him, showing no anger or sadness, but simply calmly watching him, a calm undercurrent of explosive emotion brewing within.

Now that things have come to this, Dalton has no face to return to Hong Kong.

"I command, hard to port, target Gleisenau."

Sink him, rescue Iowa, then save Wisconsin.

Dalton did not shout to stir up emotions, but the crew immediately obeyed orders and began to carry out instructions.

The remaining turrets, number 1 and 3, began to rotate. By this time, the pure white exterior of the turrets was already filled with traces of various explosions, but it looked even more majestic.

From the sky, it looked as if Iowa and New Jersey had planned to turn in opposite directions, one after the other.

With the roar of the 16-inch naval guns, the USS New Jersey fired six shells in a T-formation.

The electronic and optical sighting systems are almost completely ineffective. The current guidance system is a fully functional Phalanx SPG-60 radar, which is difficult to guide but not unusable.

Sensing the danger it was in, the USS Glaisenau did not return to face the bow, but instead increased its sideways angle and fired three torpedoes at the USS New Jersey before attempting to right itself.

However, a 406mm armor-piercing shell penetrated from below the bow, grazing the edge of the armor belt and entering the No. 1 turret.

The captain of the Gneisenau was filled with ringing in his ears.

【-twenty four】

[890/50900]

Unlike the three Iowa-class destroyers, the Gneisenau's ammunition compartments were filled with high-explosive shells, providing a considerable amount of secondary detonation power.

[0/50900]

【Our battleship is sinking! 】

This was the first time Dalton had seen the Gneisenau's... turrets since the engagement began.

As the smoke generator's effect wore off, and before it finally dissipated, the flying No. 1 turret drew everyone's attention.

The Gleisenau's secondary explosion began in the forward ammunition compartment, which was blown in two. The remaining ammunition and fuel were detonated together, creating a powerful explosion cloud.

In the shockwave of the explosion, the traces of the three torpedoes were completely obscured.

(End of this chapter)