Chapter 35: The Battle of Hamburg
At 10:00 am, the sound of defense sirens suddenly spread across the city of Hamburg. 150 aircraft of the Royal Navy flew through the sky above the city.
As Arthur ordered, all non-fighter planes have their bombs and torpedos replaced with anti-land explosives. The airplanes target Ironblood's military ports, barracks, and airports.
Some Ironblood air fighters attempted to intercept them. Alas, they lack the number and formation due to their emergency launches. The air fighters of the Royal Navy that escort the bombers quickly shoot down the incoming air fighters.
The dropped bombs left nothing but scattered pieces of buildings, vehicle explosions, and burned unfortunate souls.
Citizens are evacuating to a shelter as the bombing takes place.
"Scheiße, there must be air carriers nearby, can someone find their locations, NOW," said a field commander.
Besides the panicking troops in Hamburg, swarms of phone call ring at the Ironblood HQ.
"Multiple officers are stuck in debris."
"Fallen pieces of building obstruct the exit of the facility."
"Fires in research facilities are burning down the critical documents and experiment samples."
Numerous other emergency calls reporting different incidents and requesting immediate assistance.
Ironblood HQ has been in complete chaos as well for both humans and Manjuus, in different ways than Hamburg.
FDG walks into the communication room in person, "Calm down, I will issue the necessary order for each report. Officers remain in your post. Manjuus, go deliver messages, supplies, and ammunition."
Seeing the commander's presence, all personnel stabilize their voices and reply to the phone as FDG ordered.
Prinz Eugen calls Graf Zeppelin, "Graf, the HQ discovered the enemy air carriers' location, they are at 300 km northwestern ocean."
Graf Zeppelin looks at the destruction caused by the Royal Navy's air bombers. Scorching fires, black smoke, and hellish screaming spread across the military facilities and personnel in Hamburg.
"As if the end of the world is coming, schön," said Graf Zeppelin.
Another carrier Kansen, Peter Strasser, walks next to Graf Zeppelin, "We don't have time for sightseeing, stop those aircrafts."
"Of course, we are the ones who draw the picture of the world's end," said Graf Zeppelin.
Ironblood air fighters begin to chase the aircraft of the Royal Navy.
An hour has passed since the Royal Navy's siege to Hamburg.
Graf Zeppelin and Peter Strasser confirmed the air carriers of the Royal Navy in their sights. They projected the live screen from one of their planes.
Some of the "heavier," Kansens like Prinz Eugen and Graf Zeppelin remain normal and focus on their tasks. However, the light cruisers and destroyers look at the pictures captured from Ironblood aircraft with furious expressions.
Even Peter Strasser, who owns a fair volume of hills, senses pressures coming from the combined force of the sisters of Illustrious-class.
The "mountains" of three sisters of Illustrious-class make many Ironblood Kansens feel like watching three titans standing together. Anyone who dares to approach them will be eliminated like a pest.
Watching Ironblood vanguards eager to destroy their enemies, "No, could they be aiming…" said Peter Strasser.
Graf Zeppelin notices Peter Strasser's pale face, "what is the matter?"
"Hope I can make it in time… HQ, this is Peter Strasser…"
Prinz Eugen leads a vanguard moving forward to attack the air carriers of the Royal Navy. Considering their position, she anticipated there must be vanguards of Royal Navy or other Kansens nearby, waiting to ambush. Therefore, she moves slowly and cautiously so she can fire in any direction when her enemies come for her.
"Ugh, I can't stand this speed anymore. That's it, I will make those…those… heavy carriers pay for their arrogance," said Z24, one of the vanguards who follows Prinz Eugen.
Z24 raises her speed to maximum and charges toward the position of Illustrious. Besides Z24, other destroyers and light-cruisers started to ignore orders and scattered charge toward the same position.
Their disobedience fuels Prinz Eugen with anger, "halt, all of you. How dare you disobey orders in Ironblood."
Alas, no one listens to Prinz Eugen.
"Those cocky carriers think they can win because they have those… massive bags. Unforgivable," said Admiral Hipper. She boosts her speed as well.
"No, not even you as well," said Prinz Eugen.
As she also ignites her boosters, a Kansen swiftly dashes to her front and blocks her way.
"You shouldn't go too deep, it's a trap," said the Kansen.
"Heinrich…"
The Kansen in front of her, Prinz Heinrich, shows an awkward smile, "I know, you must have felt really frustrated with our vanguards, right?"
Prinz Eugen ceases her boosters. She doesn't want to confront a fellow member of Ironblood.
Seeing only Prinz Heinrich is around, Prize Eugen asks her, "You are not stopping others?"
"I wish we could, but the Royal Navy's taunt must have been highly effective. We probably underestimated how deep our light-armored Kansens hold complexes to their bodies."
As Prinz Heinrich finishes her sentence, Peter Strasser's voice rises from her receiver, "Heinrich, did you find Eugen?"
"Yes, boss. Did you force the enemy carriers away?"
"We managed to shoot down some of their aircrafts and they retreated. The HQ ordered us to patrol around Hamburg in case they come again."
They quickly return to Hamburg to help the personnel clear the disasters.
An hour ago, at the 300 km northwestern ocean of Hamburg.
Illustrious, Victorious, and Formidable have been directing the flying aircraft to drop the bombs and engage enemy aircraft as Arthur instructed.
Besides the operation of air bombing, Arthur ordered them to face the direction of Hamburg. They are free to stand straight or do any pose they feel comfortable with, as long as they can keep facing the direction.
Illustrious and her sisters do not fully understand the meaning of their standing in this position, but fortunately, they can easily fulfill his orders.
Illustrious slightly raises her head to watch the sky while holding her hat to keep it from being blown away.
Victorious decides to stand straight and close her eyes to feel the nice, cool breeze of the wind.
Formidable practices the gesture of an elegant lady by trying to bow while slightly raising her skirt without exposing too much of her skin.
After finding their desired gestures, all of them close their eyes to direct their aircrafts.
Illustrious glance at the sounds of explosions on the ground.
Combining those sounds with the crumbling buildings, vehicle explosions, and human screamings, the entire bombing run seems as if she is attending to an opera.
Each sound alone only makes a noisy and annoying distraction. However, when all of them combined together through the bombing, their sounds chain to form a piece of music.
The sisters of Illustrious-class play as the musician while their commander plays the orchestra conductor.
Perhaps she should join Arthur's afternoon tea parties more often.
Suddenly, a green color flare rises to the sky. According to Arthur's arrangements, a vanguard of King George's fleet must have discovered the charging enemies toward Illustrious and her sisters.
"Incoming enemies spotted, sisters. We shall move as ordered," said Illustrious.
"Understood," replied Victorious and Formidable.
They recall all of their flying aircraft and start to fall back to Point A2, the position where Arthur's commanding ship and his escorts stay.
While they are falling back, King George, Howe, and several destroyers stall the incoming enemies.
Arthur predicted more than 90% of the incoming enemies will be either light-cruisers or destroyers, therefore King George V and Howe have equipped Triple 406mm Mk 6 that are loaded with HE shells. These shells deal bonus damage to light-armor Kansens and ignite them.
Thanks to artillery observer Manjuus' keen calculations, most of the shells landed direct hits to the charging Kansens.
After 30 minutes of the cycles of firing, cooling, and reloading. Both King George V and Howe's ammunition became low.
"Firing these many shells should be enough, all units, cease engaging and fall back to Point A2 as ordered," said King George V
Howe and the vanguards begin moving toward Point A2.