Chapter 622 Unparalleled Night Battle 4

March 19th, Solomon Sea.

23 Fleet, flagship, light cruiser Yellow River.

The stars reflected in the sea, and Yuehua was smashed by the V-shaped bow in the waves. More than 10,000 tons of hulls were ups and downs, but there was no light.

In the bridge, Lan Jianshu stood next to him with his arms in his arms. As the staff pointed to the charts to discuss the calculation, his eyebrows frowned more and more tightly.

After receiving the mission, it started from Guam. The fleet has been searching here for nearly 8 days, but it still has nothing, but it can't be blamed, because this is a broken and crazy sea. From the Solomon Islands to the south, thousands of islands are intertucked, trying to be thousands of miles long in this area. Finding the enemy in the area is no different from looking for a needle in a haystack.

Although the imperial counterattack was also carried out here, at that time, the British and the United States were full of momentum, and the goal was big and obvious, but now the United Kingdom and the United States no longer dare to fight head-on, so from several sneak attacks, they all fought and ran away. They didn't even care whether the results were achieved or not, just blindly attacking.

A fleet of 8 new battleships, 11 old-fashioned battleships, nearly 80 cruisers, destroyers and possibly submarines, if they are not restrained to disturb them without restrictions, I'm afraid that all previous efforts will be in vain.

More importantly, there are two mysterious capital ships in the hands of the enemy. The main purpose of the 23rd Fleet is to figure out the type. As long as the two fast capital ships are destroyed, the British and American Southwest Fleet can only withdraw back to Australia again.

The proud British Royal Navy began to play the attack war regardless of face, and the empire naturally had to play with them, and the night was not a British patent.

12 fleets, 31 fleets and 23 fleets, four Guam-class and two Jilin-class battleships, the former is coming from Honolulu and Zhoushan respectively, while the two Jilin-class ships of the 23rd Fleet are currently in Nauru.

As an old man in Beiyang, Lan Jianshu is not very revealing among so many generals, but he is very smovery woven in cruisers and destroyer tactics, thanks to his continuous service in the patrol, and he knows the important surnames of light warships in the fleet.

Walking to the porthole, the fleet under control could only see vague shadows, and the two large destroyers on both sides in front of him hooked the corners of his mouth.

These are the two Chongming Island-class destroyers that have just been launched and delivered. They are the product of the bidding for a new generation of naval destroyers after the Weiqing-class.

The ability of the Weiqing-class destroyer is very satisfactory to the navy, but it is only 2,500 tons, and the main light cruiser of the navy is more than 10,000 tons, so it has long wanted a small intermediate cruiser, but the plan has been put on hold.

Until now, the emergence of Chongming Island-class destroyers has blocked this gap, with a standard displacement of 3,500 tons and a full load of 4,200 tons, which is close to the standards of national protective cruisers. It is equipped with three double 130mm high-level dual-purpose rapid-fire guns, four quadruple 37mm and 8 double 25mm. Machine guns, two sets of five-link 550mm large torpedo launchers, 20 mines, and the anti-submarine capability is also much better than that of the Weiqing level.

Four supercharged boilers and two gear variable-speed steam turbines, with a maximum speed of 35 knots, a range of 4500 nautical miles/15 knots, and 7500 nautical miles/10 knots.

Because the body size is more than twice that of the Weiqing level, the endurance and survival ability have been greatly improved, and there are ten more torpedoes, but the speed is 2 knots lower than that of the Weiqing level after deceleration. This is not that the power is not good, but that the navy feels that 35 knots is enough, and there is no need to pursue higher speed, so the displacement is mostly It is used to improve survival rate, airworthiness and strengthen long-term deployment capacity at seas.

Although the Chongming Island-class destroyer can be very good, the price is relatively expensive, and now it is wartime, and the number is a very important indicator, so the number of construction of this new destroyers is not much. At present, the navy is still the Weiqing class, which is cheap, light and faster to build faster.

The destroyers of the Imperial Navy have developed to the fourth generation, and the total number has also grown from more than a dozen when the navy was first established to 60 now. By this time next year, the number will double.

Because two Jilin-class ships are moving south from Nauru with two Yangtze River-class, the 23rd fleet is incomplete at this time, with only two light patrols, two Chongming Island-class destroyers and six Weiqing-class destroyers.

Lan Jianshu is not worried about meeting the main battleships in the Allied Southwest Fleet. In fact, if those warships with a speed of about 20 knots appear in front of them now, they can only add merit to themselves. What really need to be careful is the two unknown mysterious warships with about 26 knots.

It has a 380mm main gun. If it can still exceed 26 knots, it is basically similar to the Guam class. Even if I pull up all these forces now, I can't keep the other party, because it is impossible for the capital ship to move alone, and there will certainly be similar light patrols and high-speed destroyers to protect around.

What kind of warships are these two? When Lan Jianshu was also thinking about the two mysterious warships that suddenly appeared in the Pacific Ocean, the rapid footsteps came from behind.

"Report, I received a telegram from S33. Half an hour ago, they encountered an unknown fleet. Due to the long distance, the other party's speed remained at 23 knots, so it could not be intercepted."

The sound suddenly made the air in the bridge hot. Lan Jianshu hurried to the chart and asked, "Where did you find it?" Can you determine the type of warship?

"Here it is."

The correspondent pointed to Ende Island in the easternmost part of the Solomon Islands: "It is 210 nautical miles away from us. We are now 25 knots. If they continue to maintain a speed of 23 knots, they can encounter it in three and a half hours. The encounter point is likely to be Guadalcana."

"In addition, according to the SS captain, he found at least 3 capital ships, 5 light cruisers and 6 large destroyers, one of which is very similar to the tireless-class battlecruiser Australia, and the other two are unknown, but the shadow length is at least 235 meters!"

"235 meters!"

This number, not to mention the staff around him, even Lan Jianshu's pupil suddenly shrank.

The submarine is limited by the height of the periscope, and it is impossible to distinguish the types of ships at night, so these underwater wolves use the simplest way to screen the target, that is, to observe the length of the silhouette of the ship.

Generally speaking, the longer the length, the larger the tonnage of the ship. In order to exercise their eyesight, these guys usually use the warships in their fleet to observe and practice their eyesight from different distances when they have nothing to do, so the data they provide is more credible.

Since it is credible, it is a big problem!

235 meters.

This is not a joke. The largest Guam class in the Imperial Navy is only a little more than 220 meters long. The newly commissioned Western Qin class heavy aircraft carrier is only 260 meters, only 25 meters longer than this guy.

This number immediately made the officers outline the appearance of two super battleships close to the Guam class in their minds. Everyone couldn't help swallowing. Not to mention the 23 fleets with incomplete combat effectiveness, even if two Jilin-class ships join in, they are not necessarily opponents of the other side, because the other side also has a war patrol, which can Control your own light cruisers and destroyers.

Lan Jianshu's brain quickly rotated. In the Southwest Fleet of the Allied Powers, the maximum speed of the three Belle Lophon class is 20 knots. The Neptune was built later and installed a higher-power boiler, with a speed of 21 knots, two French Lone (Colbe class) at 20 knots, and two American The start time of the Delaware class is about the same as that of Neptune, so it has also reached 21 knots.

That is to say, they are indeed the targets they are looking for!

"Hmm."

Lan Jianshu snorted coldly, scared away the tension of the people around him, and said, "It happens that we are looking for it. I'd like to see which two dogs!"

Group.

Our ship Huanghe, Yarlung Zangbojiang, Chongming Island and Penghu Island are the first team, Xue Rengui, Wang Xuance and Wu Qi are the second team, and Sun Bin, Leyi and Xiang Yu are the third team.

Ordered the second and third teams to spread 40 kilometers to the left and right wings and rush to the vicinity of Guadalcana at full speed to wait for the signal.

Right rudder 15°.

31 knots at full speed, the radar will be turned on after an hour and a half, and all of them will enter the battle at the same time!" -

On the battlecruiser Australia, Seymour looked up at the dark sky and breathed a sigh of relief.

"Where is the S1 fleet?"

"We are on standby on Rennell Island. We will come when we arrive at Guadalcana Island and make sure there is no danger nearby."

Seymour slipped his finger on the chart and found the island 150 kilometers south of Guadalcana, and his heart was finally much more stable.

In addition to harassing Xinhua, his main task this time was to provide supplies to the 80,000 garrisons on the Solomon Islands, so he rushed here immediately after the attack off the coast of Peru.

The S1 fleet is a transport team composed of five large fast cargo ships, with a speed of 16 knots. They set out from Brisbane and arrived here carefully all the way. Now it's almost the last breath.

Looking up, far outside the sea level is Guadalcana, the most important island in the Solomon Islands. He dares not take it lightly for this sea area that makes Clarkston and the U.S. Mobile Fleet sink into the sand. What's more, the Xinhua Marine Corps is gathering in Rabaul. Judging from the current situation, Solomon Islands at the latest at the beginning of next month. The defensive battle will begin.

After losing the containment of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, the Southwest Fleet alone can no longer contain Xinhua's forced offensive. When it is impossible to attack the decisive battle head-on, it is the only two things that can be done at present to use the new high-speed warship to carry out maritime attacks and use the island battle to consume Xinhua's strength.

Seymour looked around, and the agreement finally broke the exclusive speed advantage of Xinhua. 30 large destroyers with a speed of 30 knots, five 26-kion cruisers, and the two narrow and huge shadows that could reach up to 27 knots gave the possibility of implementing the battle plan.

"General, E21 telegram, two Xinhua light cruisers and two unknown small warships were found to be coming to Guadalcanal."

Semore took the telegram and flashed a chill in his eyes: "Our prey is here, ordering Gloucester, Newcastle and the destroyers to leave.

Accelerate, 25 knots!" -

"Can you confirm where the radio wave came from?"

"The specific location cannot be determined, but it must be sent from near Guadalcanal, either the British and American troops on the island or."

Before the electronic officer finished speaking, Lan Jianshu interrupted him and said urgently, "Did the radar find it?"

"Searching, but."

On the Yellow River, the radar rotated in circles, and the electronic officer stared at it. It seemed that the twisted screen did not dare to blink. A drop of sweat oozed out of the vest and wet the vest in the blink of an eye.

clutter.

The geomagnetic clutter of the earth itself has a great impact on the radar. In addition, there are many nearby islands, so the detection surname of the radar can be reduced by a lot. This is not something that anyone can solve. We must wait until technological progress can automatically filter these clutter, but now, he must find out the possible dots in this dazzling flash. .

After listening to the words of the electronic officer, Lan Jianshu also frowned.

To be honest, the appearance of radar has indeed changed the mode of night war, but the surname of the radar is certainly not satisfactory at this moment. Fortunately, he was prepared to arrange a double lookout. Although the distance is very short with the naked eye in this island shadow compensation place, it is always more intuitive than the radar below.

On the mast, on the watchtower, there were Xinhua sailors with binoculars everywhere, which relieved everyone, but just as he was about to let the second and third teams lurking in the distance join the search, a bright and dazzling fire suddenly appeared in the eastern sky.

At that moment, it seemed that the dark room was suddenly stuffed into a high-wattage light bulb, and almost all the watchers felt that their eyes were flashed by something. In those ten seconds, they could not see anything except this dazzling incendiary bomb.

"Faled!" Lan Jianshu's heart suddenly sank. He didn't expect that he was found out first. There was only one possibility in this situation!

"Turn on all the searchlights, there are submarines nearby!"

"Guns, determine the target position!"

In Lan Jianshu's shout, the lookouts who had regained their eyesight aimed at the east one after another, and a high-power searchlight began to sweep the sea. After a while, a large bubble was found, and two Chongming Island-class destroyers immediately surrounded them.

But at this moment, the electronic officer holding the phone shouted violently: "Ten o'clock! The radar found that five targets were approaching quickly!"

"Boom."

Almost at the same time of shouting, two cruisers and three destroyers from the north of Guadalcana began to fire. Because the distance was only 8,000 meters, the water column kept surging up from the four warships.

A moment later, the two 152mm main guns and 130mm secondary guns on the two Yangtze River-class light patrols took the lead in roaring, and the dense shells tore up the night sky with a scorching and dazzling red light.

Lan Jianshu raised his telescope. In the distance were two Bristol-class light cruisers and three W-class destroyers. The cruisers had two 152mm main guns and 10 102mm secondary guns. The fire strength was slightly stronger than that of the Weiqing class, but it was not as good as the Chongming Island class, let alone the Yangtze River class, so a few minutes Sparks appeared on the last two light cruisers and three destroyers.

The powerful artillery of the Yangtze River-class fire made it difficult for the opponent to fight. A few minutes later, a W-class destroyer was hit by artillery fire, and the remaining four warships fired three flash bombs again and began to release smoke to retreat.

But these three flares made Lan Jianshu suddenly shrink their pupils. No one will hit the flare when escaping. This is only one possibility to provide coordinates in the distance!

Because, being within the range of the flares, just like you standing in a brightly lit room and looking at the dark night outside, it is blurred, and it is amazing that the line of sight can reach three to five thousand meters.

"Report, three o'clock position, nine ships, speed 25 knots, is approaching me quickly!" The electronic officer shouted while wiping a cold sweat, and the radar finally gave its power at the most critical moment.

Lan Jianshu suddenly turned his head and looked at the chaos in the south. He finally knew why several British attacks would target small warships that should be more flexible on their side. They must have used this method to send faster cruisers or destroyers to shoot flares in the opposite direction at close range. After the main battlefield is illuminated, it provides fire guidance for the capital ships farther away.

Britain is indeed not comparable to the United States. It soon found a way to use night and high-speed warships to attract attention, and then use long-range shelling by capital ships.

Unfortunately, the British don't know about radar!

"Left rudder, don't chase the cruiser!"

"Order the second and third teams to take a detour behind the capital ship!"

"Lighting bomb, in the south, three rapid shots!"

"Don-Don-Don."

When three identical lights popped up in the distance, Seymour first felt a pain in his eyes, and then experienced the taste of Lan Jianshu just now. He didn't expect the other commander to notice the direction of his appearance so quickly.

But it doesn't matter. The opponents are just two light cruisers and two small cruisers. They are enough to tear them apart!

"Fire!" -

In the dark, the sudden explosion of the fire made Lan Jianshu's eyes widened, 1,2,3. The four fire points should be the Australian. It has four double-loaded main guns, and the two 1,2 in the back!

Two turrets?!

How is this possible? How can a 235-meter-long capital ship have only two turrets? And judging from the size of the fire, the 380mm main gun is correct, but it is definitely not a triple.

That is to say, this guy has only installed two double-loaded 308mm main gun. Why is it so long with such a small number? For the highway? It is possible that its displacement should not exceed 20,000 tons!

In an instant, Lan Jianshu's brain kept rolling. When the sound of shells from the explosion came to his ears, he could finally be sure that these were the two big guys equipped with 380mm main guns!

Two weird big guys.

"Right rudder 25°, speed 30 knots, out of the range of the opponent's naval gun, inform Chongming Island and Penghu Island to temporarily release the submarine and keep pace with me."

"Destroyer!"

Originally, Seymour was very happy to see the enemy's four cruisers begin to retreat, but then a sad shout made him nervous.

He only saw a few small dots in the dark suddenly electrocuting from far behind him. He knew very well that the Xinhua torpedo was powerful, so he immediately ordered the light cruiser and destroyer to intercept it, and the secondary guns on the three capital ships also began to fire at each other.

"Left rudder, speed up, let's get out of here!" Seeing two groups of destroyers rushing out of the darkness, Seymour realized that they were already prepared, so he simply accelerated to leave. As long as the other party was lured from Guadalcanal, the S1 fleet could come.

1 a.m. sharp.

Just as Seymour ordered the three capital ships to accelerate and leave, the second and third teams of the 23rd Fleet had rushed within 10,000 meters, so Lan Jianshu ordered 12 flares in a row, and the two mysterious warships finally revealed their prototypes.

Narrow and long, narrow, three chimneys, with two double 380mm (15-inch) naval guns, and at least 16 to 18 secondary guns.

"Boom, boom."

Two dazzling fireballs lit up from the other side of the enemy, and two British W-class destroyers were hit by torpedoes fired by the second and third teams, which made Seymour even more unintentional to fight and immediately ordered the release of smoke to leave.

The already dark sea was suddenly filled with smoke. At this time, the electronic officer finally had the opportunity to show his skills and asked, "Sir, the radar can still catch them. The speed of the two large warships has been calculated. It's 27 knots. Do you want to stop it?"

"No, 380mm gun, we can't stop it. Let's wait for the arrival of the 31st Fleet and the 12th Fleet." Lan Jianshu shook his head and couldn't help muttering in his heart, what kind of warship is this?!

(to be continued)