The ship anchored during air defense operations, completely giving up its maneuverability, and stopped motionless on the sea to explode at will... This operation is to be postponed until the aircraft is hanging in the future when no one understands air defense. In an era when bombs and torpedoes hit warships, people will definitely think of them as fools.
But now, Military Advisor Zhuge has his own plan, who dares not to listen?
The sea was calm, the Port Arthur was rising and falling gently, and nineteen white airships had formed a bombing formation, one after another, preparing to launch a line-up bombing.
In fact, according to Shimazu Qi Liang's order, the number one target of these Japanese airships today should be the Hanwu Emperor. However, after Saigo Yoshihei Takamori personally went to have a "dog fight" with Guan Tianpei, the "Flying Samurai" who replaced him and led the team felt that the Port Arthur was now a man, no, a ship, blocking the Jueying Island and In the waterway between the Immortal Platform on the other side is a "valiant ship". The man who piloted the ship must be the most courageous warrior in the Ming Navy, so it is worth bombing.
Since there were no radios on board these Japanese airships, and there were no lights or semaphores for dispatching and commanding, they could only form formations following the principle of following the "lead boat". The method of determining the lead boat is based on the number. All airships have Arabic numerals at the tail, starting from 01 and ending at 20. Xixiang was on boat No. 01, so the leading boat at the beginning was the "Xixiang boat". When the lead boat discovers that the airship is blocking the way ahead, it will rush forward to resist it. When the airships behind see it, they will regard the No. 02 boat as the new leader boat. Everyone will follow it and line up to fly and bomb. The order of queuing is according to the number, from small to large.
This tactic seems very rigid, but for an airship that does not have a radio and cannot be commanded by semaphore or light language, it can only be rigid.
So when the 02 boat rushed towards the Lushun, the other 18 airships came with it. At best, they were called "queuing up to drop bombs," at worst, they were fueling themselves to death.
At this moment, the tense atmosphere was rising in the bridge of the Port Arthur on the sea. The Indomitable's air defense was badly beaten last time! As for the Lushun, the Indomitable also has the same problem - it was not designed with air defense in mind, and the artillery fire angles it is equipped with are limited, which really makes it impossible for the enemy's airship to reach its head. . The temporarily deployed gunmen are also in an unprotected state, and they can kill many with a near miss...
So for Zhuge Weidao, there is only one chance!
He held a telescope in one hand and picked up a telephone receiver in the other. He looked at the Japanese airship getting closer and closer to him, with a confident smile on his lips: "Turn on all the speakers on the starboard side... Attention everyone on the starboard side, I It was Captain Zhuge Weidao. All 45mm guns and 13mm guns were fired in a concentrated salvo. The target was the enemy's leader boat. Fire again after hearing my order!"
Don't underestimate his call, this is the most advanced battlefield communication command system in the world today!
Through this system, the bridge can directly issue orders to all units on the ship, and can uniformly command the firepower of the entire ship. In addition, through the radio station on the ship, it can also be organized and coordinated with other ships and even airships in the sky.
In a fleet battle, relying on this system, the entire fleet's capital ships can focus their fire to bombard an enemy ship!
Xiaoshuting app
Zhuge pointed toward the telescope, covered the voice receiver on the phone receiver with his free hand, and then asked loudly: "Report the distance!"
"2800 meters..."
"2500 meters!"
"2000 meters!"
"1500 meters!"
"1000 meters!"
As the captain made distance reports one after another, the air in the bridge of the Lushun almost solidified. After all, there were 19 airships approaching. If they were allowed to drop bombs, the Lushun would be doomed.
Zhuge Weidao stretched his neck to look at the height of those airships. Their height dropped rapidly. From at least more than a thousand meters at the beginning, it was now less than 200 meters, and it was still falling rapidly... ....
"500 meters..."
When Zhuge Weidao heard this number, he finally took a deep breath and shouted into the phone in his hand: "Fire!"
Eleven 45mm rapid-fire guns and 30 13mm guns roared at the same time!
41 rounds of lethal ammunition whizzed towards the airship several hundred meters away - even though there was not much ammunition, they were all aimed! Moreover, the 30 Taiwanese gunners are all "sharp gunners" with extremely accurate marksmanship! If he hadn't boarded the ship, the fire under his feet would have been undulating, and the firepower of 30 salvos would have set the airship on fire from 1,500 meters away.
It's only 500 meters away now, how could it be missed?
I saw dozens of flames (the flames of tracer bullets) rushing toward the unlucky airship in the sky like precisely guided lightning. But just moments later, an unknown number of shells and bullets hit the huge airship. Air chamber. This is a hydrogen boat! The airbags in the air cabin are filled with hydrogen that can be burned by a little spark. Therefore, almost at the same time as it was hit, the airship burned extremely violently, and the huge air cabin of the airship directly turned into a fireball in the sky. Soon, the dazzling, blazing fireball swallowed up the entire airship at a speed visible to the naked eye. Then the flames burned into a ball, and slowly fell into the sea in front of people's astonished eyes, just like a sun shot down by Hou Yi.
"bingo!"
The bridge of the Port Arthur suddenly burst into cheers.
Zhuge Weidao had no intention of cheering with them. He hurriedly picked up the phone receiver and loudly ordered: "Attention, everyone on the starboard side, the target is the enemy's second airship, aim... five, four, three, two, One, fire!”
This time he didn't wait for the airship to get closer than 500 meters - the Japanese were not stupid. When they saw the airship in front of them turning into balls of fire, why didn't they run away quickly? So he counted five and immediately gave the order to fire.
It was still the concentrated fire of eleven 45mm guns and 30 13mm guns, it was still a hit without any suspense, it was still a ball of fire!
"Attention everyone on the starboard side, the target is the enemy's third airship..."
Zhuge Weidao kept up his efforts and continued to direct the fire!
I don’t know whether it was difficult for the airship to turn around, or whether the Japanese airships were dumbfounded. Anyway, the Japanese airships in the sky did not turn around immediately, but bumped into them one after another!
What greeted them was, of course, the powerful anti-aircraft firepower of the Port Arthur!
In the sky, fireballs exploded one after another, and then fell into the sea one after another. However, these fireballs that crashed into the sea were getting further and further away from the Port Arthur. From the first one being less than 500 meters away, by the time the eighth fireball crashed into the sea, the distance had reached about 1,500 meters. And the height of these fireballs was getting higher and higher... By the time the ninth airship entered Zhuge Weidao's sight, it had already risen to more than 1,000 meters.
Obviously, these Japanese airships have been saving themselves since they discovered that something was wrong. However, it is not easy for the airships to change direction, and it is not easy to switch from descending to ascending, so eight of them were shot down by the Lushun in a row.
In order to get to the sky faster, the ninth airship directly threw away its bombs. The following airships also followed the same example and all dropped their bombs to reduce weight. The airships that dropped the bombs all jumped into the sky at once. The Lushun's anti-aircraft firepower was a bit weak, but they could not threaten the Lushun and the Ming army fleet in the Jueying base.
"Sir," Wang Wen's voice rang out, "The Japanese pirates' airship seems to have withdrawn... Do we want to pursue it?"
"No more chasing, just let them go back!"
Zhuge Weidao let them go back, except that they couldn't be hit or caught up, just to teach the British air defense... Air defense relies on precision! High firepower density is a waste of ammunition. If you fire accurately, one or two rounds will be enough.
After these airships, which were like frightened birds, receded, Zhuge Weidao raised his telescope and looked for the two airships jumping up and down in the sky... The "dog fight" of the airships was really disappointing. What an eye-opener!
I wonder if someone will design a "combat airship" in the future?
