December 25, 1832, around 5:15 p.m.
On the ocean more than a hundred nautical miles west of Kwajalein Atoll, another face-to-face collision between the British Royal Navy and the Ming Dynasty Navy was about to begin. Unlike the last encounter in the narrow straits of Malacca Strait and Great Strait, this time the two warring parties met in the vast Pacific Ocean.
Although they met on the vast ocean, no one on either side thought of running away to avoid the battle - this naval battle was a rare opportunity for the British. If they did not fight now, they would wait until the Ming Dynasty's Pacific Fleet and Nanyang Fleet were completed. If they gather together, they have even less chance of winning.
For Ming Dynasty, if the main force of the British Royal Navy is let go, there will be many variables in the future landing campaign in Australia, and the current world war may also be protracted.
Although the Ming Empire is not afraid of a protracted war... the nature of the current war is actually more "imperialist" than the First World War in history. It is purely two imperialisms competing for colonies and world hegemony, so neither warring party intends to beat their opponent to death with a stick.
Ming Dynasty was too strong for Britain and could not be defeated.
To the Ming Dynasty, Great Britain was a troublemaker that divided Europe. If they were beaten to death, Europe would be unified!
Since you can't kill your opponent, that's pretty much it. There's no point in continuing to fight and waste people and money... So although both sides have long-term capital, they both want to decide a winner as soon as possible.
Of course, Admiral William Bagga, the commander of the British Australian Fleet, did not want to determine the outcome at once. He still felt that his chances of winning were a bit small. Perhaps we should let the large fleet return to India, and then let the Chinese land in Australia. We should rely on the Australian, New Zealand, British and Chinese forces with strong cavalry regiments to last. At the same time, we should use fast armored cruisers and fast aircraft-carrying armored cruisers to fight the Chinese at sea and grasp the situation. Could be bigger.
As far as William Baga knows, the British Bath Shipyard and Armstrong Shipyard have developed two fast armored cruisers with a standard displacement of 15,000 tons respectively...all equipped with 6 9.2-inch guns, the fastest It can run 25 knots or 26 knots!
When these two levels of clippers are put into service, Australia may be able to fight!
"Rumble..."
The sound of gunfire suddenly drifted into the bridge of the King William IV. It turned out that Fleet B, which was responsible for chasing and luring the enemy, was exchanging fire with the cruisers of the Ming Dynasty Pacific Fleet that had been lured over by them! It was only then that William Baga suddenly woke up. It was no longer time to consider whether to fight a decisive battle. But the prelude to the decisive battle has already begun!
William Baga immediately ordered his battleship units to start forming into groups, switching from a five-column marching formation to a bombardment battle line. Due to the generally slow speed of British battleships, the King William IV class, the Indian Emperor class, the Victory class, and the Indomitable class These four levels of battleships can only run at a speed of just over 20 knots, so it will take at least 10-15 minutes to complete the formation change.
However, at this time, the battleships of the Ming Dynasty's Pacific Fleet should still be 40,000 yards away, and there would be no exchange of fire for the time being, so William Baga had plenty of time. Thinking of this, he raised his head and looked at the "dark cloud" in the distant sky...it was still far away, so he was not in a hurry.
Thinking of this, William Baga began to issue orders: "The 11 Sovereign-class ships form the first battleship detachment. After the Sovereign-class, there are 6 Indian Emperor-class ships to form the second battleship detachment. 'The Indian Emperor-class is followed by 2 William IV ships. The König class formed the Third Battleship Division, followed by 11 Victory classes to form the Fourth Battleship Division, and finally 11 Indomitable classes formed the Fifth Battleship Division.”
This time William Baga brought out a total of 41 level 5 battleships, which was really a lot!
The Sovereign class, which was arranged by General William Bagga to take the lead, was a "former hero ship". Although their performance is outdated, the ships are still very new, so the British are not willing to retire them all. Therefore, they were modified and the Sovereign class was equipped with more powerful boilers and steam engines, allowing them to barely reach a speed of 20 knots. The four 13.5-inch cannons of the Sovereign class were also removed and replaced with two triple 10-inch cannons. The renovated Sovereign class not only has a higher speed and can keep up with the new battleships of the British Royal Navy, but the firepower of the six 10-inch rapid-fire cannons is also much stronger than the original four 13.5-inch cannons.
However, William Baga arranged for them to lead the battle not because they were strong enough, but to test and attract the enemy's firepower...commonly known as cannon fodder!
Behind the 11 cannon fodder ships is the trump card of the Royal Navy of the British Empire - 6 Indian Emperor-class ships with a standard displacement of 25,000 tons, a full displacement of nearly 30,000 tons, and 2 William IV ships with a standard displacement of 29,000 tons. King level!
The cannon fodder tests the depth of the opponent, and then immediately uses his trump card to give the opponent a head-on blow!
Following the two-level killer class are the 22 Victory-class and Indomitable-class battleships - these two classes of battleships are neither new nor old, and are not considered aces, but they are definitely the main force of the Royal Navy.
According to William Baga's plan, once the trump card is used, the opponent will most likely be in chaos. At this time, it is time for the 22 Victory-class and Indomitable-class ships to go up and fight in a group. Although the performance of these two classes of ships is not outstanding enough, fortunately, With dense artillery fire, you can win with quantity.
In addition, according to William Baga's knowledge, the main force of the approaching Ming Dynasty Pacific Fleet only has about 20 battleships... and he has 41! More than 0 is bigger than 20, so... there is still an advantage!
And if there are no accidents, there will definitely be accidents!
"Admiral, the enemy seems to have set up a horizontal formation!" At 1:30, William Baga's fleet had just completed its formation when an accident happened!
"Horizontal formation?" William Baga was stunned, "How is this possible?"
"Admiral," Chief of Staff Rear Admiral Jervis put down his telescope, then raised his finger and pointed at the column of smoke appearing in front of him, "the 12 ships... should be old Chinese battleships. After looking at them, I thought Use these battleships as cannon fodder to attract our attention."
This is what heroes think the same way!
"But why did they launch a horizontal line?" William Baga didn't quite understand.
"Perhaps... they enjoy the torpedo attacks of these old battleships to protect cruisers and destroyers? If these 12 old battleships attract the firepower of the Sovereign class, the cruisers and destroyers ambushing behind them can launch a charge. According to Intelligence...the enemy's vanguard formation includes more than 40 cruisers and destroyers, which can launch hundreds of torpedoes at a time!"
"Damn torpedoes!"
William Baga couldn't help but swear, and his face was a little ugly - in fact, the secret of the steam gas torpedo had been discovered by the British! Steam gas torpedoes are not 100% explosive. In the past year or so of submarine warfare, the British have picked up a lot of steam gas torpedoes, so they can naturally copy them. It's just that there's still a process to go from knockoffs to mass production, and they haven't been equipped with troops yet. Otherwise, the Royal Navy's pile of 1,000-ton destroyers can play a big role.
However, it is absolutely not allowed to criticize His Majesty the Emperor and question His Majesty's wise decision-making.
Thinking of this, William Baga had no choice but to give the order: "Order the first battleship squadron to turn left to seize the T position... But the distance must be calculated and don't let the enemy battleships get too close... The distance Keep it above 16,000 yards!”
"Yes, sir!"
...
"Admiral, the British monarchy has begun to change!"
At the same time, on Ming Dynasty's side, Guo Xiaobao also received a report of the enemy fleet's turn on the "Kongming", the flagship of the 103 fleet.
"Haha," Guo Xiaobao said with a smile, "Are you trying to grab the T-position?" He raised the binoculars and said while looking, "It's quite far away. It seems that he is afraid of our lightning strike tactics... Great! This distance is just right for the 'Island' class 320mm main gun to unleash its power!"
