"Yes, the airship reported that there are at least twelve old battleships, one large cruiser, one Warrior-class cruiser and three escort-class destroyers in Kwajalein Atoll, as well as some torpedo boats and gunboats."
"Twelve old battleships? These are big fish!" George Elliot raised his eyebrows. Old battleships...are also battleships! Since the Battle of Kii Waterway a few years ago, the British Empire has suffered losses time and time again in previous conflicts with the Ming Empire, and has never truly gained a single victory. So much so that the Ming Dynasty became more and more confident, and the people of the Ming Dynasty who originally did not support a world war now began to support their country's war. The morale of the people on the British side is getting lower and lower... Now it is about to fight a decisive sea battle, but the morale of the troops is still very low.
The night battle on Guadalcanal a few days ago further damaged morale. Although General William Bagga had ordered an attack, the news of the defeat was still spreading among the warships. .
If the fleet can fight a turnaround in Kwajalein Atoll under such circumstances...sinking ten or eight battleships, then the morale of the military will immediately rise!
In addition, this battleship has its benefits as it ages. The air defense of old battleships is relatively weak and their speed is slow. Pigeon aircraft are enough to deal with them.
Thinking of this, George Elliot asked again: "Have you discovered the Ming Dynasty's aircraft-carrying battleship? How many aircraft are there at the airport on Kwajalein Atoll?"
"There is no Ming-made aircraft carrier, and there are only a few planes at the airport on Kwajalein Atoll, and they are seaplanes."
George Elliot took a breath and finally made up his mind, so he turned to the aviation staff: "Are the carrier-based aircraft ready?"
"Okay, the first wave of 72 Pigeon aircraft, 36 of them are equipped with a 100-pound high-explosive bomb, and 36 are equipped with a 100-pound armor-piercing bomb." The fleet's aviation staff paused for a moment, thought for a moment, " Should we change them all to armor-piercing bullets?”
The D Fleet of the British Australian Fleet commanded by George Elliot is now the vanguard of the entire Australian Grand Fleet of the Royal Navy, concentrating some of the aircraft-carrying armored cruisers of the Australian Grand Fleet. And the task William Baga gave him was to "blow up, blow up, blow up"...blow up whatever he caught around Kwajalein Atoll! Various facilities on Kwajalein Atoll, the Ming Dynasty Navy fleet parked in the lagoon, and the Ming Dynasty Navy fleet coming to help. Explode whatever comes! Explode until there is nothing left to explode, nothing more to explode, and nothing more to explode.
Wait until the D fleet is finished blowing up...or let people blow it up! William Baga will command the two fleets A and C, which have merged the four cruiser divisions of BEGH (of which only a few destroyers are left in the B division) and all or part of the warships of the D division (including ship-borne aircraft mounted cruisers). Come up and fight the decisive battle.
"No need," George Elliot looked at his watch, and then glanced at the excited looks in the bridge, "No need to waste time, just blow it up one more time and you'll have everything... ...Remember, planes carrying high-explosive bombs should give priority to destroying airports! And planes carrying armor-piercing bombs should give priority to attacking the enemy's large surface ships! Tell the pilots below that the British Empire needs each of them to fulfill their duties!"
"yes!"
Amidst the roar, the bow of the aircraft-carrying armored cruiser shuttled in the wind, and the howling deck wind blew the skin on the wings of the pigeon aircraft, which looked a bit similar to the spread wings of a flying bird. . ….
As the flight commander waved the flag, a pigeon aircraft at the end of the flight deck had turned its in-line engine to the maximum. The sear holding the aircraft suddenly released, and the pigeon aircraft roared towards He reached the end of the deck, then "fluttered" a few times, jumped up, and escaped the gravity discovered by King Zhuge Wuzhong...
As the "Fighting Pigeons" took off one after another, in less than a minute, the pigeon planes had already left the deck. The flight deck, which had been as crowded as the busiest subway in London just now, suddenly became a little emptier—— Half of the aircraft were missing, and the remaining half belonged to the second assault wave. They originally folded their wings and huddled on the aircraft decks at the stern of the aircraft-carrying ships.
Now that the first attack wave has taken off, they can finally be pushed out
Come and load the bombs and fly out to blow up Kwajalein Atoll too.
Since the pigeon aircraft has a very short range and a combat radius of less than a kilometer when fully fueled and loaded with bombs, it is basically a deck defender. Therefore, one of their attack waves can only go back and forth, leaving space for the second attack wave. It doesn't take long either. The ground crew on the deck must seize the time to push out the second wave of planes, hang up bombs and fill up the tank with fuel...and then must rush out the second assault wave before the first wave of planes come back. Otherwise, the first wave of pigeon planes would not be able to land.
This really can't be wasted for a moment!
Because there was no delay, the ground crew on the deck came as quickly as possible. In the past few days, when designing the aircraft-carrying armored cruiser, the speed of deck operations was also fully taken into consideration. Therefore, the ammunition depot and the aircraft's fuel depot were installed directly in the deck superstructure on the side. Sometimes, for the convenience of operation, the deck personnel will pull the bombs out of the warehouse and place them under the deck building...
Of course, the scene of George Elliot's D fleet "flying pigeons" could not be hidden from the Ming Dynasty naval aviation's seaplanes and airships hovering over the Kwajalein Atoll... because the range of the "pigeon planes" was too close. Therefore, Fleet D can only "let go" when it reaches the edge of Kwajalein Atoll. If there is a mountaintop tens to hundreds of meters high on Kwajalein Atoll, you can see the aircraft-carrying armored cruiser on the sea directly from the mountain with a telescope.
Therefore, the news that the British fleet was "letting go" was immediately sent via telegram to the Pacific Fleet flagship "Nanking" which had just left Pearl Harbor.
The "Nanjing" has a standard displacement of tons and a full load displacement of tons. It is equipped with a 10,000-horsepower fuel-steam turbine power system. Its top speed can reach knots. It also has the world's most advanced and most powerful long- and short-wave radio stations. , in fact, it is just a headquarters that can move on the sea plus a sea hotel...it will definitely make the headquarters staff, including Zhuge Weidao, have a pleasant "journey".
While Zhuge Weidao was leaning on the railing and looking at the sea view, Zhuge Yangyang, the chief of staff of the Pacific Fleet who was of the same clan as him and about the same age but a generation younger, came up with the telegram he had just received.
"Military gate, the British aircraft carriers have arrived near Kwajalein Atoll. There are a total of them, all of which are aircraft-carrying armored cruisers... They are currently launching carrier-based aircraft to prepare to bomb Kwajalein Atoll!"
"Where is our aircraft carrier?" Zhuge Weidao immediately turned around and walked towards the combat command center of the "Nanjing" while asking Zhuge Yangyang, "How far is it from Kwajalein Atoll?"
"There are still close to 300 kilometers!" Zhuge Yangyang said, "It's a bit out of reach! Moreover, there is only one Shu Zhongwang airborne aircraft battlecruiser in the second battleship fleet... In total, it can only carry less than one carrier aircraft, less A little bit."
Daluoluo
