RM Vol 3: For a World without Boundary – Chapter 21-5: The Hunt for Bismarck (Part 5)

RM Vol 3: For a World without Boundary – Chapter 21-5: The Hunt for Bismarck (Part 5)

The second battle between the Reichsmarine and the Royal Navy starts with the HMS Suffolk and HMS Norfolk sailing ahead at flank speed, their intention is clear in that they are trying to create a crossfire, cutting off the path forward of the RMS Bismarck and RMS Prinz Eugen. And as the pair of County-class heavy cruiser is making headway, the capital ships of the Royal Navy squadron, the HMS Hood and HMS Prince of Wales, immediately steers hard starboard, sailing at best speed towards the Bismarck herself.

While this maneuver is generally frowned upon, it makes it so that only the front turrets of their capital ships can fire, Vice Admiral Holland doesn't have much of a choice. The capability of the newer Reichsmarine vessels has been largely unconfirmed, words floated around that they're paper tigers but with no concrete evidence, the Royal Navy has given Home Fleet the explicit order to force them to show their hands. For all intents and purposes, getting to know your enemy firsthand is a good thing. But it's also ill-advised when you only have word-of-mouth and unconfirmed spy reports as your baseline to act on. The missing Fifth Destroyer Squadron could act as a consequence of carrying out this nonsensical order and the total collapse of their radio system is nothing but an ill-omen. The state of the sea is also a troubling matter, a storm is approaching and the waves aren't as calm as they used to be. It will no doubt hamper their ability to score accurate hits.

Nonetheless, orders are orders, and as a Vice Admiral of the Erusean Royal Navy, Holland will see it through. This means that Holland has no choice but to seize this chance when Bismarck is left with only a singular escort, and to engage in open combat, even though the fear of the unknown is biting at his ankle. To minimize the risk, Holland can only bank on closing the gap, making it so that Bismarck can't perform plunging fire with its 380mm guns (If you believe what the Royal Navy intelligence said). Even if the report about her caliber is false, the Bismarck is still confirmed to have 12 guns in three quadruple turrets. That's an obscene amount of firepower nonetheless and the Hood and Prince of Wales are sailing straight into it.

After the first maneuver was done by vessels of the Royal Navy, more specifically those of Holland's Capital Squadron, Admiral Tallulah responds by ordering Bismarck's CIC to work on firing solutions for not one, not two, but three vessels at the same time. Having complete faith in the technological advantage and the honed experience of months, even years, at sea of Bismarck's crew, Tallulah believes that they can achieve a feat that will go down into history.

And when you thought the situation of this Royal Navy Capital Squadron couldn't get any worse, well, that's where you're wrong. HMS Suffolk, in her attempt to cut across Bismarck in a T-bone maneuver, had flashed the Bismarck with her perfect broadside. Had it been any other vessel, scoring a perfect hit on a cruiser at a distance of 21 km, and in her first salvo at that, would have been nigh impossible. Yet, RMS Bismarck is anything but normal for anything short of the 30 km range is target practice in front of her guns. That's the blessing of a modern fire control system for you. But of course, Bismarck can still use her guns to engage targets past 30 km, though the efficiency of such is known only to Yggdrasil herself. On a side note, an accuracy test was conducted with Bismarck's main guns engaging a battleship-sized target at extreme range and in calm weather. Over five days, with an extremely low hit rate, Bismarck fails to sink the target ship, demonstrating that a ship, armed with the most powerful guns and the best possible technology, could not fire accurately at an enemy ship while remaining out of range of an enemy with a similar technological level (This enemy is hypothesized to be the Imperial Japanese Navy). The Reichsmarine soon learned that shell dispersion was not something fire control, no matter how advanced, could solve.

Back to the topic at hand, Suffolk is gone, reduced to atoms. The four 432mm superheavy shells scored direct hits on her beautiful broadside, served on a silver plate. The hits to the citadel completely eliminated her structural integrity as the shells exploded center mass. The combined blast of not just the four shells, but also the fuel to run the Suffolk and her stowed munitions, was nothing short of a volcanic eruption in the middle of the ocean. Black smoke and flame billowing out into the sky as what's left of her hull sink beneath the surface in less than a minute. The Suffolk is lost with all hands. Many have tried to find her wreck years later, but to be honest with you all, what's even left to find?

And while Vice-Admiral Holland's squadron is still rearing from the devasting opening move of the Bismarck, the Belkan vessels aren't about to let it up just yet. Bismarck starts unleashing a withering hail of shells from her secondary 150mm turrets on the hastily evading Norfolk. And despite the long travel times measuring in seconds for the smaller calibers, the sheer amount of rounds in the air, thanks to the autoloading systems, ensure that many High Capacity explosive shells hit true despite the ongoing maneuver of the Norfolk. Despite her supposed protection against light cruiser caliber guns, Norfolk is being pummeled into a smothering mess as her superstructure is set on fire. Hell, the entire ship is blackened due to the obscene amount of hits the Bismarck's secondaries are scoring on her. With her sister ship all but disappeared into the bottom of the ocean and Norfolk herself coming under threat of being burned to death, her Captain is stuck between a rock and a hard place. Either trying to attack a beast of a battleship in vain or saving what's left of his vessel. The Norfolk's Captain makes the only sound decision at the moment, to abandon his task and get the Hell out of Dodge. He is willing to face court martial for his dereliction of duty but the lives of his men are much more important.

With the Norfolk slowly limping out of range, Admiral Tallulah chooses not to beat the battered dog, at least not yet. Instead, she orders the secondaries to target the Hood. And together with the eight 203mm aboard the Prinz Eugen, they start setting off fires and incapacitating the weakly protected secondary armaments of the Hood. Slowly but surely, they're overwhelming the damage control party of the Royal Navy flagship.

Left with no other choice now that closing the distance has backfired on him so badly, Vice Admiral Holland orders the front turrets to fire at will. That they have but the outcome left much to be desired as all four 381mm fall short of the Bismarck. The damage to Hood's stability has been severed, causing her guns to go off the rail by at least a kilometer. The gunnery station will try to compensate for the dispersion but Holland isn't hopeful that they will be able to do that in time. The fact that the Prince of Wales has also been silent all the while doesn't contribute much confidence to Holland. The Royal Navy battleship is still reorganizing its command structure while fighting off the growing internal fire. Holland has instructed his XO to help coordinate the firefighting effort aboard Wales from the Hood with little to no obvious effect. At this rate, Wales will be lost due to intensive fire rather than being struck again by Bismarck.

Suffice to say, the situation is very, very dire for the Royal Navy Squadron. And with communication gone, they're on their own with the beast that is the Belkan Reichsmarine.