The flagship of the Second Indian Fleet, the battleship HMS Victory.
"Sir, General George Elliot called. The man-operated gliding bomb attack completely failed! The Ming army has a biplane that can take off from warships. They dispatched seventy or eighty of these aircraft, using the missiles installed on the aircraft. Machine guns shot down all the glide bombs.”
The low voice of the communications officer sounded in the bridge of the Victory, like a basin of cold water poured on the hearts of every British and Indian naval admirals who were looking forward to good news. However, James Hood acted very calmly. After listening to the communications officer's words, he just asked lightly: "How far are we from the enemy fleet?"
"Sir, it's less than 30 nautical miles," the navigator replied. "Our lookout post can already see the masts of the enemy ship formation!"
"Very good!" James Hood sneered. "It seems that the enemy has no way to maneuver when releasing and recovering the aircraft. This is the opportunity God has given us!"
This James Hood still somewhat understands the weaknesses of those current aircraft - the biggest problem facing aircraft is the insufficient power of the internal combustion engine, or to be more precise, the insufficient thrust-to-weight ratio. Therefore, there is no way to carry enough fuel and bombs into the sky, which means that the aircraft's range is quite limited. Now, people in Europe and the United States are actually building airplanes. However, because Western internal combustion engine technology is worse, the weight of the engines produced is too small relative to the power. The aircraft assembled with them have short legs and cannot be put into the battlefield at all. Otherwise, the Royal Navy would not have used airships to drop manned gliding bombs as their trump card.
Daming's internal combustion engines are much stronger than those in Europe and the United States because they started early, invested heavily, and had a fast-growing automobile industry to provide them with continuous development power. However, by studying the engines on the cars exported by Ming Dynasty, aircraft experts of the Royal Navy believe that if Ming Dynasty already has aircraft capable of actual combat, it can only operate within 100 kilometers of the airport.
If you fly too far, there will be no gasoline to fly back to the land. The plane can also find a flat land or road to land. But what about at sea? Whether these aircraft land on a ship or at sea, they cannot stay away from the ship.
In other words, the Ming Army's four battleships, three aircraft carriers, and one half-battleship, half-mothership monster ship are now unable to maneuver on a large scale. As long as the Royal Navy's ten battleships get close to them, they can be Sink them all!
Thinking of this, James Hood said again, "Get ready to fight! The First Battleship Division is moving forward at full speed. Now it's time to use cannons to resolve the battle! This is the real naval battle!"
"Yes, sir!"
"Junmen, the enemy's battleship formation is coming towards us!"
In the bridge of the Shu Zhongwang, the communications officer loudly reported the latest enemy situation to Zhuge Weidao, who was standing on the edge of the bridge and was preparing to watch the plane take off - the enemy's battleship was coming to attack his own aircraft carrier!
This kind of thing should be difficult to happen in World War I and World War II in history. After all, World War I was mainly fought in Europe. The main battlefield of the British-German naval confrontation was in the North Sea, which was very windy, often foggy, and the sea area was not open. World War I-level aircraft carriers and aircraft were of little use there. Moreover, the German High Seas Fleet was blocked from the beginning and did not rush out during the entire war.
By World War II, the performance of aircraft had improved, and aircraft carriers could launch fighter jets far away from enemy warships. Therefore, the sinking of an aircraft carrier by a battleship only happened once.
But now in this world war, the situation is completely different. This world war is really competing across the oceans! The Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean are the main battlefields, and the equatorial windless zone is the main battlefield among the main battlefields! In such sea conditions, when conducting large formation ocean operations, as long as there is an aircraft carrier, it must be brought along.
But at the same time, current aircraft carriers and carrier-based aircraft cannot play the leading role, because the current small wooden aircraft have too low bomb load and cannot carry out dive bombing. It is difficult to be fatal to big guys such as battleships and armored cruisers. Threats and hits all depend on character.
Therefore, the main tasks of aircraft carriers and carrier-based aircraft are still air defense, reconnaissance, and breaking diplomatic relations. After all, the combat radius of aircraft carriers is large, and the bomb load of carrier-based aircraft is lower, but it is no problem to blow up a merchant ship. In the decisive battle between the fleets, the battleships should still be on board.
And in the decisive battle between battleships, the following aircraft carrier will inevitably become the target of the opponent's attack. From this perspective, the "aircraft-carrying battle cruise torpedo boat" is still somewhat useful.
"Let Mr. Chen lead the battle patrol unit to go up!" Zhuge Weidao was still staring at the bombs that had been hung on the deck. He was about to take off to bomb the Ssangyong aircraft of the British and Indian fleets, but he shouted loudly, "Tell me Mr. Chen, we must hold back the British battleship no matter what!"
"yes!"
As Zhuge Weidao spoke, he took a loudspeaker from the captain of the Shu Zhongwang next to him and said loudly: "I am Zhuge Weidao. I order all Ssangyong aircraft to take off now! The target is the British battleship formation!" Blow me up hard!"
"Lieutenant General, the enemy's mothership has launched planes again. Those planes seem to be heading towards us!"
"Lieutenant General, the enemy's 4 battleships and 12 third-class cruisers (actually destroyers) are rushing towards us."
On the bridge of the Royal Navy battleship HMS Victory, the staff members exclaimed one after another, and the air suddenly became very tense. However, James Hood was very calm. The second battleship formation must sink all of the enemy's motherships if it was to deal with them! The rest of the battleships follow the flagship, and let's go together to meet the latest battleships of the Ming Dynasty! In addition, all ships should pay attention to air defense and shoot down any small aircraft that dare to get close! "
"Yes, sir!"
As James Hood's order was passed on, the 10 Victory-class battleships and the destroyers escorting them on the sea immediately divided into two teams. One of the teams was 8 Victory-class battleships plus a dozen destroyers, and they rushed towards Chen. Sword led 4 battlecruisers and 12 destroyers.
The other team consisted of 2 Victory-class ships and 6 destroyers, coming towards the 4 motherships and 12 destroyers led by Zhuge Weidao.
Now Chen Jian, who was commanding the four King Zhongs, was a little depressed. Of course his four King Zhongs were powerful, but the opponent's eight cutting-edge battleships also looked very powerful! With 4 against 8, it's a bit of a suspense. If we divide it into another line to intercept the other two British new battleships, it will be 3 to 8.
When he was hesitating, the voice of the communications officer had already sounded: "Headquarters, Zhuge Junmen asked us to deal with the eight British battleships in front of us with all our strength, and he will deal with the other two!"
Chen Jianxin said: "Are we going to use aircraft-carrying battlecruisers and battleships to engage in artillery battles? Or is it really brave enough to do 1 vs. 2!"
Thinking of this, he opened his throat and shouted: "Command all ships to follow this ship at full speed. Let's grab the T position!"
"yes!"
At the same time, Zhuge Weidao also used the radio to give an order to the aircraft in the sky: "Attention all carrier-based bombers, the target is the enemy's double battleship formation. Bomb the enemy battleships at all costs!"
The Ssangyong-type carrier-based seaplane not only has a spark transmitter, but also an ore radio, which can receive reports and radio.
After giving the order to the aircraft, Zhuge Weidao ordered again: "Have the second, third, and fourth detachments each send two destroyers over. In addition, they are responsible for recovering the Shu Zhongwang's aircraft!"
"Yes, Junmen!"
"Order all the destroyers belonging to the first squadron to come closer. We are going to charge the enemy's battleship!" Zhuge Weidao took a deep breath, "Now it is time to let the British know the true strength of our Ming aircraft carrier!"
"Yes! Junmen!"
(End of chapter)
