Chapter 604 Two years to two days
Shilonggang Port, 10 kilometers away from the sea.
The unknown small port, originally a special wharf for Singaporean fishermen, is located in the Johor Strait in the northeast of Singapore Island. From here to the east is the plentiful Gulf of Siam and the South China Sea.
Standing on the heavy cruiser Dalian, He Ping seemed to smell the smoke from the big island of Singapore in the distance. As an old captain of the Imperial Royal Navy, he felt a little regret in his heart.
The Dalian-class heavy cruisers, which were once the pride of the navy and had made great achievements, are finally old. In the imperial counterattack, they could not save the aging Shaohua. In just a few months, they were demoted by the navy. If the remnants of the 254mm naval guns were not still alive, they might even be directly removed.
New technologies, new concepts and new tactics appear at an overwhelming speed. Ten years ago, except for the emperor who spent a lot of money on aviation development and even made the navy jealous, no one would have thought that the sky would dominate the war today. When planes and the young generation of navy rose fiercely and rapidly, their generation People have finally reached the last moment.
At the age of 48, he was even ready to retire, but the war suddenly came, otherwise I'm afraid he couldn't imagine how funny it would be to take off his military uniform and take his grandson home.
Let the naval guns go crazy in this huge war!
He Ping turned his head, and six warships completely modified on the basis of crazy artillery warfare showed ferociousness in the morning.
This is Yasha!
It is said that Yasha is a sea patrol general under the command of the Dragon Prince, who can set off thousands of huge waves to help.
Today, the new Yasha can't set off a terrible wave, but it can also bring endless fear to the enemy from the sea!
Three Fire Dragon-class fire support ships improved from the original Duke-class, and three Hellfire-class fire support ships improved by the old North Star. Originally, the size of the Yasha Squadron should have been ten, but because Simmons later provided many of the warships were unqualified, there are only six at present.
The fire support ship is the product of the navy's new tactic of "from sea to land" after the emperor proposed a decisive overseas strategy. Due to the different bottoms of the two-class warships, there are some slight differences in military equipment.
The first thing to change is the appearance. If you hold photos of two old battleships at this time, you will definitely not connect the six warships in front of you with them, because they have long been wrong.
The front bridge and the front mast were merged, and the two chimneys were placed side by side to the bridge. As for the original secondary gun, rear mast and rear bridge, they have all been flattened to stuff more turrets.
Fire Dragon-class (formerly Duke-class battleship), with 7 triple 152mm/L52 guns, front two rear five backpack layout, Hellfire class (former Arctic star battleships, three repurchased from Chile) has 6, the first two and rear four layouts, six support ships have a total of 117 152mm guns, Each gun has 900 ammunition. Because the naval gun itself is more powerful than the army's of the same caliber gun, and the mechanically powered firing speed is twice that of the army, the designers have calculated that in the same unit time, the firepower strength of the six ships exceeds that of 24 armored division artillery battalions.
Although the power is huge, such a huge number of naval guns and modifications have seriously damaged the original structure of the warship. The thick armor has been removed. The turret is only an anti-fragment ordinary steel plate. The ammunition compartment adopts a large compartment layout. Each of the two turrets share an ammunition compartment, all of which are to reduce weight and stuff more. Turrets and shells.
Finally, the designers also specially learned that Europe has installed a two-meter-wide anti-toise empty cabin for the six support ship's side water lines, and the interior uses steel pipes as a bracket, which not only increases the buoyancy, reduces the roll during volley, but also improves the ability to attack under waterproofing.
It should be said that this is not a warship at all, but a maritime mobile fire support platform. It is a dangerous gunpowder barrel. The fragile structure makes no naval captain willing to lead it, so the commanding the six support ships are all reservists and veterans who have recently been recalled after retirement, and the establishment also belongs to the sea. The military and marines are only managed by the navy.
It is said that when the six fire support ships were modified and tested, the navy agreed that this was Xinhua's multi-turret monster! Good monster, the British have a heavy artillery mosquito ship, and we have a fire support ship, which is more perverted than looking at who!" Emperor Li smiled when he commented afterwards and personally named it "Marine Yasha Fire Support Squadron".
The sun rose little by little. The British Far East Fleet Fuhe, the Crown-class first-class armored cruisers Ariadne and Argo Hero were all hit by submarines and stranded on the island of Berkan at the west exit of the Johor Strait three hours ago. It is said that the Marines are ready to salvage after the war to see if they can serve as a new fire support. Ship aid platform.
At this time, there was no Allied [***] ship around the Singapore fortress, so the two escorted Dalian-class heavy patrol sailors were crowded on the deck. When they saw 117 52-fold tubes erected at the same time, they all felt their scalp numb. They thought that they would be at a speed of at least six per minute. When the cannonball is fired, the electric current is covered with vests along the spine, and the whole body is numb.
The bottom exhaust expansion bomb with a range of 40 kilometers was stuffed into the gun. The gunners were excitedly waiting for the order to fire, but strangely, as the sun rose little by little, the order had not been issued, and even two hummingbirds in the sky were not seen in the sky except for fire reconnaissance and guidance. Any plane.
Is the Air Force on holiday?
While everyone was dumbfounded, Bukit Zhimashan bunkers, and Lieutenant General Phillips, who was covered with dirt, also frowned secretly.
What's going on?
Are the overwhelming planes yesterday all hallucinations?!
After thinking about it, he went deep into the mountain, the central fortress of Bukit Zhima Mountain, which was protected by thick soil and cement steel bars. But when he appeared in the sun, he stayed up all night in the trenches around him. The soldiers who prevented the landing of Xinhua could hardly believe that this was the emperor who had always appeared in a neat and clean noble image. Vice Admiral. Home.
At this time, Phillips was more like a beggar. His military uniform was torn by several big holes, hanging like a cloth strip, and the black and white could hardly be recognized as a white navy uniform.
Yesterday, he was dug out of the ruins of the explosion by the staff and soldiers. If it hadn't been for everyone's hard to save him, he would have suffocated to death. Compared with the uniform, his eyes made everyone more worried, and his pupils were so lax that there was almost no divine light.
Everyone knows that the usually amiable lieutenant general suffered the most painful blow in his life. His fleet was extinguished in just an hour, and last night, the formation led by the battleship Fuhe was also sunk and stranded. And with pride, nearly half of the fortress known as the eastern Gibraltar was destroyed in just one day. If the fortress of Bukit Chima Mountain had not been built in the back of the mountain, in addition to the thick cement steel and the mountain barrier, I'm afraid it would have been bombed by the kind of large bomb dropped by the enemy's aircraft.
The figures just been counted tell you that in just one day, the number of Singapore fortress garrison with 38,233 people in the navy, with more than 5,000 casualties, nearly 300 aircraft will be destroyed, and half of the remaining more than 100 warships, large and small, have been sunk. Either it is damaged, or the rest is because the channel is blocked, or it is stranded, but even if it can be rushed out, I'm afraid that the sea of Malacca is already full of warships of the Royal Navy of the Xinhua Empire.
Although yesterday's blow was heavy, Lieutenant General Phillips still did not think that Singapore would collapse quickly. He believed that his soldiers that yesterday's huge casualties were due to insufficient estimation of the aircraft, or did not expect it at all, so he had readjusted the defense deployment and could be used in the cover of the night. All the anti-aircraft guns have been transferred to the vicinity of Bukit Chima Mountain Fortress. As long as Xinhua can't break through the fortress in the mountain in one day, it can't be said that it has occupied Singapore Island in one day.
Looking at the crisscrossed trenches and a large number of anti-aircraft positions around him, Lieutenant General Phillips took a deep breath, and his lax eyes gradually converged under the stimulation of the sun. It was impossible to defend for two years, but it could be done for another period of time.
The telegram asking for help believes that both the Indian Grand Fleet and the Prime Minister's Office have received it, so we must hold on for a while.
Lieutenant General Phillips raised his head, and the hot sun that gradually moved to the top of his head made him feel much warmer. At this time, the whole of Singapore was silent. Except for a water reconnaissance plane that appeared from time to time, yesterday's roaring death did not appear.
What's going on?!
Lieutenant General Phillips frowned and thought hard. The lack of intelligence made him unable to make a judgment, but he always felt that there was a great disaster in his heart.
Just as he and the staff officer were studying why the Xinhua plane had not come so far, it was blown up for a day, and because he was afraid that the enemy army could not hold on the soldiers who attacked at night, the sun shone on his body, and his eyelids involuntarily drooped down. More of them took the opportunity to walk out of the bunker and curled up all night, shouting. After absorbing the air and wandering for a day before death, everyone found that the salty taste brought by the sea breeze was so fresh.
Dozens of Indian chefs in headscarves pushed the cart and began to provide lunch for the soldiers. Everyone put down their guns one after another and sat on the edge of the trench in twos and threes, enjoying a rare moment of relaxation.
Suddenly!
Just as a soldier raised his head to drink a cup, a dense black dot suddenly appeared in the afterglow. Before he could react, Wuji knew that Mashan was surrounded by endless shells.
"Rumble."
The soldiers rolled and crawled to avoid the bunkers and trenches, but the falling shells were so dense that they seemed to have been plowed around the position in just one minute.
The shells roared down. Before the Indian chef pushing the cart to shout, he was submerged by five cannonballs that fell in a row. When the smoke dissipated, there were only one crater left, and nothing was missing.
Cannonball, explosion or cannonball and explosion!
Endless!
Have you ever seen a picture of a rainstorm hitting a calm pond? At this time, Bukit Zhima Mountain was the surface of the lake, and the shells turned into raindrops and poured down violently.
A fireball is connected to a fireball, and a crater is next to a bullet pit. After a moment, the fireball and the crater are even indistinguishable, and they are completely connected.
In the sky, the two hummingbirds can no longer command, because no matter from which angle you look at it, there are explosions and fires around Bukit Zhima Mountain.
Dozens of anti-aircraft artillery positions were arranged overnight. Without even seeing the enemy's shadow, they were submerged by hundreds of shells that fell at the same time. The armored vehicles were bombed with only fragments. In just ten minutes, the two-meter-deep trench was filled with mud caused by the explosion, and countless soldiers were buried under the mound. Some soldiers The soldier was ready to crawl out in a panic, but only a little of his body was shredded by the shrapnel swept over.
The wailing and screams drifted in the explosion. None of the soldiers who had just walked out of the fortress and bunker to catch their breath would encounter so many, such dense shells.
No, it should be said that it is covered by bullet rain!
At the beginning, the explosions that could be distinguished one after another could not be heard in the end. The whole Bukit Zhima Mountain was filled with shells and explosions. The soldiers could only subconsciously hold their heads and lie in the deep trenches. Either they were not torn apart by the shells or buried.
Lieutenant General Phillips's newly restored confidence was severely damaged again. He couldn't believe the fact in front of him. When he tried his best to defend the enemy and continued to launch an attack from the sky, he didn't expect that it was a cannonball roaring this time!
What's more crazy is that how many warships need to fire at the same time with such dense shells? As a naval officer, he knows very well that so many shells and explosions in front of him need at least more than 100 guns to fire at the same time. Does Xinhua arrange at least ten light cruisers to bombard here? But the problem is that the 152mm naval gun can't hit here at all!
Because the Bukit Chima Mountain Fortress is 20 kilometers away from the sea no matter from which direction. In addition, it should be separated from the seaside shoals, that is to say, unless it is more than 305 mm and has a heavy gun with a range of more than 25,000 meters, other naval guns should not be threatened.
But the problem is that experience tells him that the roaring and exploding fire show that these are all 152mm shells. How can it fly so far? Still so dense?
God, what kind of cannon is it?
"Five, hit hard!"
Just when Lieutenant General Phillips and the British soldiers were overwhelmed by artillery fire, the two Dalian-class heavy patrols burst into cheers. The six fire support ships next to them cheered when they saw someone. The bigger they were, the more energetic they threw shells 30 kilometers away at a speed of 900 pieces per minute. Even He Ping had experienced a lot. In the field of naval battle, the captain of the captain of the sea battle, in the face of such a fierce shelling, he couldn't help but feel cold in the bottom of his heart, and the corners of his eyes only twitched.
"I'm afraid the British army can't even pick up the scum, right?"
Two hours!
120 minutes of excitement and pleasure for the sailors, but it was as long as a nightmare for the British army in Bukit Chima Mountain. 84,240 high-explosive bombs swept over the main plug of only 20 square kilometers like a hurricane, with an average of 4,212 dropped per square kilometers!
Calculated at 50 kilograms of each 152mm bottom exhaust range bomb, the total projected shell was 4,212 tons in 2 hours, which is 10 times the total tonnage of the air force dropped in a day yesterday!
When the shelling temporarily fell behind, the pilots on the two hummingbirds only saw that the crisscrossed trenches and tunnels were almost completely filled, all the fortifications exposed to the Wuji Zhima Mountain were destroyed, the trees were blown off, and the top of the mountain seemed to have been cut off a thin layer.
Lieutenant General Phillips stood stupidly in the gas window. The hellish scene outside made him almost unable to control himself. His fingers that grabbed the cracks in the wall almost bleed. The surviving soldiers outside began to dig the soil hard, hoping to save the buried partners.
The body, spread across the earth, splashed with broken limbs and broken arms. A soldier who had just drilled out of the thick soil landed on the ground with a gun and looked around, and his eyes were lifeless.
The buzzing noise came from above his head. He looked at the sky numbly, and 12 huge airships were slowly coming.
No one knew what he was thinking at that time. Everyone only saw that he raised his gun almost numbly, didn't aim, didn't squat, and just stood, shooting one shot after another.
After losing all the anti-aircraft positions, on the hippo airship at an altitude of 1,300 meters, the bomber did not even look at this tickling attack, and slowly opened the bottom hatch, revealing two or two groups, stacked side by side, four giant bombs up to 5 meters long, nicknamed "Little Fatty".
1800kg extra-heavy armor-piercing high-explosive bomb!
This is a super bomb that cannot be loaded by any aircraft at present. Only with a load of 10 tons, and the ammunition compartment has been specially improved for it. The hippo-class airship with a special reinforced hanger can be carried.
The airship, in groups of two, passed over the fortress of Mount Chima in Bukit.
The first wave of 8 "little fat men" took the lead in drilling out of the magazine. The black spots kept magnifying in the soldier's eyes, and the heavy bullets fell to the ground almost vertically, and then.
The fire rose to the sky, hundreds of meters high. The wind roaring around along the center of the explosion was more severe than the most violent sea hurricane. Several big trees that needed two people to hold were overturned.
The earth shook violently and was considered indestructible. Even the Bukit Chima Mountain Fortress, which had not shaken at all with such fierce shells just now, seemed to be experiencing a terrible earthquake, but it seemed to have become a boat on the tip of the waves, shaking repeatedly in a series of explosions.
A piece of rubble that fell beside him did not startle the already dull Lieutenant General Phillips. The soldier who stood alone in front of the position and was just pulling the trigger just now disappeared after being swallowed by a naked-eye-visible explosion diffusion fire circle.
It should be said that the airship's bomb-drop efficiency is really very low, and the hit accuracy is even more terrible, but after all, it is a "little fat man" of 1,800 kilograms!
Every time the "little fat man" falls, a huge crater with a depth of 10 meters and a diameter of 30 meters will appear around the fortress. When one of them is also the only "little fat man" out of 48 that hits the main body of the Bukit Zhima Mountain Fortress, it effortlessly penetrates the thick soil and smashes the cement that is extremely weak to it. Layer, when there was an explosion inside the fortress, a disaster occurred.
Bukit Zhima Mountain seemed to be sed by something from the inside. First, the mountain in the center of the explosion arched and then exploded around under pressure like a volcanic eruption. When the flames and air waves rushed out of the air windows and vents of the fortress, the whole western section was like a balloon filled with water but continuously pierced. The body structure began to collapse inward.
When the airship slowly disappeared from the horizon, Lieutenant General Phillips climbed out of the guard. After wandering around, he saw that panic and despair had covered everyone's faces. Suddenly, a trace of bitterness rose from the corners of his mouth, and his cheeks were even hot.
Two years have become two days!
What a contrast and ridicule this is!
(to be continued)