"Major General, the Ming Dynasty's battleship carrier is rushing towards us!"
"Major General, the Ming Army's planes are also rushing towards us!"
On the bridge of the Royal Navy's battleship HMS Malina, the voices of the chief staff officer and navigator rang in the ears of Rear Admiral Thomas Howe, commander of the Second Battleship Group.
Major General Thomas Howe is also a very experienced naval commander! When he was a teenager, he followed his father, Lord Howe, on a warship as a naval trainee. Then through his own efforts and the recommendation letter of Admiral Hood (Vice Admiral Hood's father), he successfully entered the Royal Naval College at Dartmouth. After graduating from the Naval Academy, he participated in the Napoleonic Wars and donated money to become a captain during the war... In this way, Thomas Howe relied on his own efforts, step by step, and finally struggled to become a captain. Rear Admiral of the Royal Navy!
Rao is such an experienced rear admiral, but he is a little confused at the moment. Directly in front of him, a warship that didn't know whether it was an aircraft carrier or a battleship, leading several third-class cruisers, was rushing towards him - it seemed like this meant an artillery battle!
In the sky, dozens (64) small biplanes formed four formations, and they were almost flying over the battleship USS Malina - looking at this posture, they were about to drop bombs!
On one side are planes dropping bombs, on the other side are battleships, aircraft carriers and cannons... How to deal with this? It was never taught at the Royal Naval Academy at Dartmouth, and it was never encountered during the Napoleonic Wars. It can be said that he had never thought that such a situation would happen before today!
Seeing that the Rear Admiral, who came from a well-known family but was a bit slow to react, was still in a daze, the chief staff officer of the battleship Malina reminded loudly: "Rear Admiral, the enemy plane is approaching, we should take an S-shaped evasive route!"
"Yes, yes, yes...take the S-shaped evasive route!" Major General Hao finally remembered. The S-shaped evasive route is a standard method for ships to avoid airship bombings. It should also be used to avoid aircraft bombs. Bar?
He thought for a while and then said: "Let the Willis (another Victory-class ship) use the same method... We must not let the Chinese bombs fall on the Malina and Willis." Aboard the Shili!"
"Yes, Major General!"
"As you command!"
The helmsman and flag officer of the battleship Maryna shouted in response. The battleship's first mate, an elderly gunnery expert, reminded: "Rear Admiral, taking an S-shaped avoidance route will increase the difficulty of artillery observation and aiming."
"It doesn't matter," Major General Hao said, "the enemy doesn't have many bombs to throw, it will be over in a moment!"
As soon as his voice fell, the bridge observer shouted loudly: "The enemy ship opened fire..."
Major General Hao quickly turned his head to look. In his sight, several black dots shot out of the sea like lightning, then flew suddenly over the battleship USS Malina and landed on the sea more than a hundred yards away. Major General Hao turned his attention to the "battleship carrier" that had just fired... it was still more than 10,000 yards away!
The shooting was so accurate at this distance. The Ming Navy's gunnery and range-finding skills are truly well-deserved!
"boom......"
Several more flames flickered on the bow of the distant battleship carrier, and several 300 mm caliber shells were blasted out of the muzzle again! But it still missed, but the impact point of the shell was twenty or thirty yards closer!
Isn't this too accurate?
The chief staff officer of the Malina suddenly reminded: "Airship! It must be the airship hovering above us to help them observe!"
"Damn it!" Major General Hao cursed.
At this time, the anti-aircraft guns and anti-aircraft guns on the battleship suddenly fired, making a crackling sound. At the same time, the Malina also began to move in an S-shape, twisting and turning on the sea surface to avoid bombs.
Those small biplanes in the sky seemed to be on the battlefield for the first time. When they saw two battleships twisting on the sea and firing dense anti-aircraft ammunition, they couldn't stop talking for a while, so they had to raise their altitude and fly around them. It seemed that I want to wait until they are tired of "twisting" before exploding.
However, the Malina and Willis seemed to be working tirelessly. They were twisting and turning endlessly, and they seemed to have endless amounts of anti-aircraft ammunition. This air attack seemed to be a bit overwhelming.
The twisting Malina and Willis also caused trouble for the aiming of the four 300mm cannons on the approaching battleship carrier opposite. After several rounds, the shells always fell. A hundred yards away from the two ships.
Major General Hao also breathed a sigh of relief and murmured: "That's all...the plane can't blow up, and the cannon can't hit it. Next, it's time for you yellow-skinned monkeys to taste the Royal Navy's 12-inch... The cannonballs are awesome!”
Following Major General Howe's order, when the distance between the two sides narrowed to about 10,000 yards, the 16 12-inch cannons on the Malina and Willis finally fired their first salvo.
...
"Report, distance is 9000 meters!"
"Distance, 8500 meters!"
"Distance, 8000 meters..."
When the British 12-inch shells continued to fall near the aircraft-carrying battlecruiser Shu Zhong Wang, the navigator of Shu Zhong Wang was still reporting the distance one after another, and the atmosphere on the bridge became tense. After all, the two ships in the distance are the latest British battleships. They should be equipped with 10 12-inch "full main guns" design. Without the secondary main guns to interfere with the sighting, the accuracy of shooting should be improved a lot - In recent years, with the advancement of artillery technology and various sighting methods and calculation formulas, the effective shooting distance of battleship main guns has become farther and farther, and now generally exceeds 5,000 meters, while the British new battleships have 12 The 8,000-meter gun should have a certain degree of accuracy.
After all, the Shu Zhongwang is an aircraft-carrying battlecruiser, and it does not have an armored deck. If the opponent's 12-inch shells are allowed to penetrate the flight deck and fall into the hangar below, it will easily cause a fire.
Therefore, Zhuge Dao did not dare to be too reckless. After all, he was Zhuge's military advisor, not Zhang Fei with a black face!
"That's almost it!" Zhuge Weidao took a breath, "It's time to show off our real trump card!"
"Yes, Junmen."
The fleet's chief of staff, Ma Xuchen, loudly ordered: "Order all destroyers... to start charging at full speed!"
Wang Wen, the aviation staff officer of the fleet, also picked up the speaker of the radio and loudly shouted: "So the air units pay attention...Start dropping bombs now. Remember, keep the altitude to avoid being shot down by the enemy!"
As the two men issued their orders, the situation on the sea and in the sky suddenly changed!
First, the 64 Ssangyong aircraft hovering in the sky began to lower their altitude, and then began to line up to drop bombs. These aircraft have formed 4 teams while circling, and each 2 teams bombed a victory level. It was not a swarm, but a very orderly line-up for bombing. From an altitude of 2,500 to 3,000 meters, the Ssangyong aircraft flew over the Malina and Willis in sequence, flying from the left rear, right rear, right front, and left front of the two ships... This It is a bomb delivery method specially designed to deal with S-shaped evasion. However, the effect didn't seem to be very good. The bombs fell one by one and failed one by one. The Malina and Willis were unscathed, but a lot of huge water sprays exploded.
The attention of the British and Indian naval officers and soldiers on board the Malina and Wellesley was naturally attracted by the bombs that could fall on their heads at any time.
I don’t know how long the explosion lasted. Just when Major General Hao was wondering whether these small planes in the sky were finished, someone yelled: "Cruiser...Ming Dynasty's cruiser is coming!"
cruiser?
Rear Admiral Hao was stunned for a moment, and then turned his attention to the sea. Only then did he realize that six incredibly fast cruisers (actually torpedo destroyers) had already rushed 3,000 yards away!
What do you want to do?
When Rear Admiral Howe was confused, he saw the six destroyers slightly deflecting their bows, pointing their bows at his battleship, and then each fired a bunch of torpedoes... It was really a bunch of torpedoes. !
He has never seen a cruiser that can fire so many torpedoes at once (actually only 6), and he has never seen torpedoes that can be launched from such a long distance. Moreover, these torpedoes can run very fast after entering the water. It left terrifying tracks on the sea - at least 30 of them!
30 torpedoes shot out of a fan, how to avoid it?
