Chapter 628 Night Battle Unparalleled 10

The torrential rain, the roaring wind, and the constantly churning waves make tonight's South Pacific as manic and restless as the mythical and legend of the third prince in the sea.

On the sea, there is no other sound except the crackling raindrops and the wind.

But in this kind of ghost weather where the captains will curse twice, the two long and narrow shadows are like homeless dogs. Despite the warp bumping in the waves, they still maintain a very high speed, with the sea water washed along the bow from time to time, galloping south.

In the kitchen, Carol can't speak with the washbasin in his arms. Even if he has been a veteran who has served for two years, he is tossed to death by this kind of ghostly weather. I can't imagine how the guys above have persisted until now, and I don't understand how the Chinese found the fleet on this night. You know, at this time There is a warship passing through 3,000 meters away, and it can't be seen clearly at all, let alone fighting in such weather.

In the dull sound of the engine hissing, Carol put down the basin full of filth and carefully walked to the porthole. The bean-sized raindrops hit the porthole, making the world outside the warship more chaotic. In fact, even if the glass was clear, he could not see anything, because at this time, the warship still maintained light control, except for close proximity. Outside the waves, he couldn't see the world hundreds of meters away.

The only thing I know is that the heart-wrenking and trembling explosions and the roar of shells seem to be gone, which means that the enemy should have been dumped.

He is just a cook, but he still has confidence in his Brave. In fact, as early as he boarded the warship and began the sea test, he heard from those officers that this new warship had run out of a 28 knots of high speed, but it has been soaked in the sea for more than two months since its departure, and the speed will drop a little.

Although it is very bumpy, as long as you can get rid of the enemy, it doesn't matter how hard it is. And it's night now, and you don't have to worry about the Chinese plane, so as long as you can insist on returning to Nouméa, it will be safe.

After feeling safe, it seemed that his body was much more comfortable. Carol poured a mouthful of cold water to make his stomach more comfortable and began to prepare breakfast materials, because when it came to Nouméa, it must be morning. One night's consumption would make everyone hungry. The guy above protected his life, so he was ready to make a rich meal. Please take a look at them.

While busy, Carol couldn't help thinking of his previous partners and didn't know what happened to them. They didn't know if they could escape from the enemy's terrible gunfire. What worried him more was Lieutenant General Seymour on the French battleship.

He is a good officer, but he should not be with the French. He should be brave, because no one can catch up with him.

"Boom."

Before he finished thinking about it, the sudden sound of gunfire made his hands tremble and catch up with him? How can it be? No one can catch up with Britain's fastest warship!

Carol quickly put down the things in his hand and quickly ran to the porthole. As soon as his cheeks were pasted to the cold window, the scene in front of him stunned him.

I only saw that countless fires, like electric lights in London at night, kept lighting up from the darkness in the distance. In the rumbling sound of cannons, countless columns of water have appeared on the rolling sea, and moreover.

Keep extending to your side!

God.

How can it be!

Boom!

The world exploded at that moment. Carol's eyes only saw the porthole in front of the cabin suddenly explode. A red ball of fire got into the kitchen from there, and then there was a violent explosion.

"Carool."

"Carool, are you all wrong!"

Carol, who was shocked by the explosion shock wave, seemed to feel that he was going to die. He lay on the cold deck and felt paralyzed and unable to move. It was not until several partners pushed open the hatchway and rushed into the kitchen in the thick smoke of smoke that he regained his strength and shouted, "I'm here, come and help me, help me!"

After the two sailors opened the scattered decorations, they checked Carol by the firelight and shouted, "Carool, you black-hearted cook, it's okay. Don't worry, you're okay. Get up and get out of here."

"Are you all right? God, that's great."

Carol quickly stood up and shook his hands and feet to find that he was really fine. He quickly drew a cross on his chest, but before he finished reading, he suddenly felt that his feet were suddenly tilted, and everything in the cabin slid to the left. The three of them quickly grabbed the nearest fixed object to maintain balance. After a few minutes, the warship recovered. After rebalancing, they raised their heads, but their eyes were more deeply frightened.

They have been at sea for so many years. They are not idiots. Just now, it happened when the warships maneuvered violently. In the case of a 15-inch cannon, they have to maneuver like this, which only shows that the enemy is faster than themselves, and the shells are more accurate than themselves, so forcing Brave to rely on maneuver to get rid of being covered by shells. Fate.

It is possible to hit accurately, because there are many cannons in the other side, and there will always be a few hits in the covering shell, but it is possible that the warship is faster than Brave?

The three of them were shocked, but now nothing is more important than extinguishing the fire in the cabin first, so they immediately began to put out the fire. Seeing that the last ignition seedling was about to be extinguished, several black spots hit here again.

"Boom."

This time, Carol knew that he was really going to die, because after the explosion lifted him up, he pushed him back fiercely, and then his back seemed to be penetrated by something. He lowered his head and saw that a pipe had come out of his chest.

"Captain, four cabins underneath have been tundered, but the problem is not big and it has not entered."

"Boom."

The first officer's report was not over yet, and several fireballs soared from the front deck. The officers were so scared that they quickly lowered their heads. When the smoke dissipated, Captain Jefferson immediately shouted, "25°, turn left! Release the smoke!"

Jefferson had no other choice but to continue to turn left. Although it would be farther and farther away from Numea, there was only one idea left in his mind at this time, that is, how fast he ran!

Jefferson, like all captains, never thought that the speed of Xinhua warships would be so fast. Although I had heard of some Xinhua warships speed before, they were limited to destroyers. Even if there were some legends that cruisers could run 30 knots and battleships could run 28 knots, no one had seen it with their own eyes.

Now he has finally learned the speed advantage of the other party, but this is not what worries him most, because it can be heard from the sound of naval guns that two light cruisers are firing in the distance. What scares him is that he did not expect that the other party's hit rate could remain so high under such sea conditions!

Fifteen minutes, they penetrated their cabins. If they continue to fight, they may hit more critical positions, and their shell armor piercing ability is obviously beyond imagination.

He knows very well how fragile the defense of the brave-class large cruiser is. To put it bluntly, this kind of warship is suitable for raids and is not used to bombard the enemy at all.

On the other hand, although the main gun is still firing at a speed of one round per minute, and the secondary gun has also joined in, in the bumps of the wind and waves, not to mention firing, even the rudder wheel is difficult to hold it firmly. It has been played for nearly 15 minutes, and there is no fire rising in the distance.

If there is no battleship pursuit behind, Jefferson will definitely order to close up the range to exert the advantage of heavy artillery. Although the two brave-class will certainly be seriously injured in this way, the two light patrols will definitely be finished, but now he dare not, because there are still two Guam-class battleships behind him. If the speed down is closer to face the battle, do it. At least 15,000 meters of distance will be lost before the enemy is dropped. As long as the Xinhua battleship has a speed of 25 knots, it can catch up.

At the thought of being aimed at by two battleships of more than 40,000 tons with 18 15-inch guns, Jefferson had no confidence, so he had to turn left again and try to distance him by maneuver and night.

The smokers of the stern and the tern began to gush out of black smoke. In an flash, the visibility on the sea became lower, and even the two mast lights, which were no more than 1,000 meters apart, became blurred. If you cooperate with the novice, you may have to worry about whether you will bump into each other.

The Brave in the sharp turn was very unstable. Under the undulating waves, the hull of the ship was like a small sailboat in the wind. The waves rushed up along the port side and almost swept a sailor away.

"The distance is 12,600 meters, the left rudder is 25 degrees, the target is rapidly deflected, and the artillery ruler!"

On the Ussuri River, the radar is fixed in the direction of the enemy ship, and the radio waves continue to provide the angle and attitude of the target. In the early days, the speed and distance cannot be automatically calculated by continuous scanning and then according to the small gap that the target on the screen for a period of time, the speed and distance must be manually calculated. Number.

This calculation will not be very accurate, but it is not a big deal for light cruisers in rapid navigation, because their shells never need to be shot accurately, as long as they aim at a certain direction, and then stagger the elevation of the four triple main guns, and then use a speed of 72 pieces per minute to cover the target in a large area. Okay, as for whether you can hit it in the end, you need to see if the Bodhisattva is better than God.

While reporting the calculated data to the turret, the fire control team sent a telegram to the battleship formation behind and its partners who were chasing Tennessee, guiding them to concentrate on chasing while maintaining silence.

No one knows that unconsciously, the Xinhua Navy has actually completed the most primitive information network combat mode. This mode first appeared in the British air battle described in World War II and the famous movie "The Eagle Over London". In fact, there were warships equipped with radar, and the middle line of the strait was Britain. The Air Force provides a mode of early warning guidance.

With the large-scale equipment of radio and radar, Xinhua has also had such capabilities, but they themselves have not realized it.

The squad leader fixed himself to the armrest with a belt. He was not surprised to see the rapid and automatic rotation of the turret, because these were all completed by the gun follow-up system controlled by the fire control group. When the muzzle was also raised to a certain angle, he immediately began to verify the shelling provided by the fire control group. Whether Zhu Yuan is in place, and then let them start filling ammunition and open fire.

After years of exploration and improvement, Xinhua has been able to load the 152mm naval gun at any angle between 0-35° under the condition of sub-loading. In short, when the target is within 15,000 meters, the barrel can be locked directly without the same as before. After fighting, return to the zero angle to load and fire again, that is to say, within this distance, you can carry out high-speed coverage of the whole target!

However, the bullet-name filling technology on heavy artillery above 300mm has not been able to make a breakthrough, mainly because the heavy artillery shell is too heavy and too large. Unless it is a fully automatic loader, the semi-automatic manpower cannot be done in some places.

Technological progress has made the warships become a whole, no longer like the previous guns, ranging and ranging. The only regret is that those scientists have not invented a way to stand firmly in this kind of sea mobility. If you don't use a belt to help fix it, you may be honored to bump into each other.

The naval gun is still firing shells like running water at a speed of 6 per minute. In fact, at this time, the gunners are completely blind. Even the rangefinder of the shelling command tower at the top of the bridge can only see the occasional flashing fire, mainly relying on radar and mechanical computers.

Boom.

After another string of shells were fired, the squad leader finally saw a large fire explode in the dark in the distance. From the turret rangefinder, it was faintly visible that it should have hit the lifeboat on the deck or the small-caliber rapid-fire ammunition depot. Although it was not fatal, it provided the best for the two light patrol rangefinders. Coordinates.

In an instant, a new coordinate came from the phone. After the monitor calculated quickly, he was really required to aim at the firelight.

"Gain fire!"——

"Cut the cable, cut it off!"

The sergeant stamped his feet and took the axe from the side. The idiot also understood what an obvious target the fire was in the dark, so he immediately cut the cable of the traffic boat, but before he raised the axe, a big surge made his feet unstable, and his whole body slid away.

"Damn it, let me do it." Seeing this, the second sailor immediately grabbed the axe on the deck. Someone next to him hugged his waist to prevent him from wrestling again. After he cut a rope with a few axes and was ready to cut it down, the explosion suddenly exploded from his side.

Several shells instantly submerged the small traffic boat parking platform, and the wooden lifeboat next to it began to burn. Although this combustion will not really hurt the warship, the problem is that the firelight will attract more shells.

Captain Jefferson quickly raised his telescope and rushed to the starboard side. He only saw that the two Xinhua cruisers in the distance did not seem to know what love shells were. They still emitted light spots, and the light spots were always kept parallel to their starboard side, which showed that they not only aimed at and locked themselves, but also could see clearly. The mobile route to two brave-class large light cruisers in the dark.

"How is this possible?!"

Captain Jefferson rubbed his eyes hard. He really doubted whether he was dazzled. If it weren't for the cannons exposed by his opponent, the lookout with the best eyesight could not see anything 5,000 meters away at this time. What on earth did those Chinese track themselves through?!

"Turn left for 15 degrees and let the Glorious speed up the fire!"

Captain Jefferson pointed to the USS Glory behind him and shouted, but before he could see the fire put out, a sad shout suddenly came from the port side.

"Cannonball!"

"Avoid!"

Suddenly, everyone saw that countless fire points in front of them exploded in an instant, and hundreds of shells flooded the mobile line in the blink of an eye. The helmsman had to turn the rudder desperately to avoid it. The two brave groups began to maneuver in the storm, and the speed instantly dropped to 22 knots--

"Report that the 12th Fleet has stopped three Tennessees in the exchange of fire. Lijiang and Lancangjiang have left their hands. At present, they have been plugged in front of the British and are intercepting."

"Report, the first target turned eastward again, and the maneuver reduced their speed to 22 knots."

"22 sections!" Li Xiuyan snorted coldly, put down the pen in his hand, raised his body in front of the chart, and sneered, "It can't run away!"

Hearing this, the officers nodded. After the 12th Fleet arrived in time to take over the task of chasing Tennessee, the four light patrols of the 31st Fleet were completely freed. Now they are blocked in front and right. Unless the British are willing to fight, they can only continue to turn to the right and east.

Britain can never fight a decisive battle. Their rangefinders are already weak. Although the heavy artillery is amazingly powerful, the speed is slow. Eight guns can't form a covering shooting. What's more, looking at the ship type, we know that this kind of heavy artillery light patrol is very unstable in the wind and waves. If you want to destroy the four light patrols, you must pull them closer to 8,000 meters and slow down. It can only be exerted in 18 sections.

They should know that there are battleships chasing after them and falling to 18 knots unless they can kill four flexible light cruisers in 10 minutes, but this kind of thing can't even be done by the Guam class.

"What's the distance?"

"It's 24,000 meters now. If the first target keeps the current speed, it will be closer to 22,000 meters in 10 minutes."

As soon as the captain finished speaking, the gun staff immediately handed the distance and angle calculated by the fire control room according to the radar signal to Li Xiuyan, and frowned, "22,000 meters, will it be too far? In this kind of weather, unless there are obvious coordinates, there is no way to guarantee a hit, and once fired, we will lose speed.

"You see, its bow has now turned to the east, so it will not be able to return to Noumea for a lifetime, so it must need a maneuver turn. Now four light patrols have blocked it. He thinks it is impossible to complete the steering under such circumstances, but if the right side chases Tumenjiang and Usurijiang in parallel. If the speed is slowed down, then there will be a neutral.

"Hur, do you mean to take the initiative to slow down and give it a chance to turn the rudder?"

"Yes."

Li Xiuyan focused on his head: "When turning sharply, the speed will be lost a lot at once, and it takes about 2 minutes for the 230-meter-long hull to complete a 90° turn. Even if the boiler pressure remains at its highest, it will take 3 minutes to accelerate again after deceleration, that is to say, it takes 5 minutes at a speed of 20 knots. If we Only use the bow of the ship to fire 6 main guns, 6 rounds of 72 shells can be fired in 5 minutes, and the speed will not be lost too much. If all of them are aimed at the target ship, it is worth a bet.

"But the rangefinder can't find an accurate reference target. On 22,000 meters, the flare can only let us see the shadow, and there is no way to locate it at all?"

"That's very simple." Li Xiuyan hooked the corners of his mouth and swept at the gun commander: "I remember that there was a base of incendiary bomb on each of the four light patrols, right?"

Yes!

Everyone's eyes suddenly lit up. Because they need to be often surnamed to support the land, the new incendiary bombs have been distributed to each light patrol. Although it is a naval mission this time, there is also a base. The base of each light patrol is 48 ammunition, and the four light patrols are 1,152, which can be completed in 8 minutes. As long as you can hit 10-20 pieces, this kind of fire that can't be extinguished by heavy rain is the best coordinate in the dark!

"Order Tumenjiang and Usurijiang to start slowing down after 5 minutes." Li Xiuyan looked at his watch and sneered, "There are still 9 minutes left. Let's start the countdown!"

"Yes."

After a while, the 12 main guns of the bows of the two Guam-class battleships began to rise slowly, and one thick and heavy shells were stuffed into the gun. In order to save time and shoot as many shells as possible, the gun commander even violated the regulations and ordered to upgrade a ready-fire first--

"Ban."

Captain Jefferson, who tried his best to avoid the shells, suddenly felt that his pupils were stabbed, because in an instant, the sea seemed to have been splashed with fire oil. All the soldiers stared and opened their mouths wide, only to see the sea as if it was burning. After the shells fell into the water, a flame would gush out of the water, and then exploded. Spreading around, like a fire lotus rising from the bottom of the sea, it is very strange in the night.

The sailors began to whisper, not understanding what was scattered around, but Captain Jefferson's face had begun to change, and the sea could not be extinguished flames. If it exploded on the hull, wouldn't it be?

Before he finished thinking about it, a few explosions verified his idea. He only saw two shells accurately fall on the front deck of Brave. The burst shells brought a mass of sparks, and in the blink of an eye, the whole front deck seemed to burn.

"Damn it, put out the fire!"

Dozens of sailors rushed up in the shouts of the officers, but no one expected that the shells that followed would wrap them in, and the fire devoured the sailors in an instant.

The flames kept rising along the clothes and along the body. Even in the heavy rain, they could not be extinguished. Even some sailors brought leather pipes to charge, and they could only let the flames float and penetrate everywhere along the sea.

"What the hell is this!" Captain Jefferson cursed, but at this moment, everyone seemed to hear the sound of nature.

"Captain, they slowed down!"

Jefferson, who raised the telescope, only saw that the two burning cruisers on the right had somehow slowed down a little and had been dragged at least 4,000 meters behind, so that a huge gap appeared between them and their partners in front of them.

"Great, right rudder!"

"Focus all your firepower and don't let them have a chance to get close!"

It seemed that there was hope of life. The two brave-class heavy artillery cruisers burst out with all their enthusiasm, and the bow, which quickly deflected to the left, was even dragged out of the water by the waves.

Eight 15-inch heavy guns and all the secondary guns fired together. The soldiers knew that if they did not block the other party, there would be no hope to go home once the gap was blocked again, so they all roared.

But they didn't know that in the dark, the two gods of death had opened their nets.

"5, 4."

The voice of the gun chief echoed in the horn, and everyone's heart was suspended. Even Li Xiuyan begged God to worship Buddha from the bottom of his heart. Looking at the two not-so-obvious fire masses in the distance, he knew that what was most needed at this time was luck.

"1, fire!"

In the dark, 12 regiments of flames suddenly exploded from the bow, and the huge recoil made the hull of more than 40,000 tons suddenly stagnate, just like a high-speed car crashing into the iron wall, which made the military ship tilt. If it hadn't been informed in advance that it would fire at full speed, maybe someone would have flown out directly. .

"Second round!"

"The third round!"

"Fourth round!"

The artillery squad did their best, and each round of shelling was even crushed for 50 seconds. Now they only need more shells, covering, covering and covering!

"Boom~!"

It seemed that he heard the shouts in the hearts of the soldiers. When the sixth round of shells rushed out of the barrel, and the seventh round had just been filled with the barrel and raised again, the gorgeous flames in the distance made everyone feel that the blood suddenly surged into the brain, and then his whole body shuddered.

The beautiful orange fire hundreds of meters high rose from the dark sea, and even the pouring rain could not stop it. It not only lit up the whole sea and filled the two battleships with cheers, but also made all the people who saw this scene on the four light patrols numb.

They fired thousands of shells before to open a few small flowers. Unexpectedly, the Guam-class battleship only used one shell, which directly turned the target No. 2 Glorious into an explosive barrel.

Captain Jefferson walked out of the bridge and let the rainstorm hit his whole body. He stared at the Glorious that was lit like a huge fireworks. He could not feel the temperature at all.

You don't have to look at it to know that the shell penetrated the weak or even the horizontal deck and drilled into the ammunition depot. Even if the latest monarch-class battleship is pulled here, the damage is enough to be fatal, not to mention the fragile large light cruiser.

In the eyes, the explosion extended along the stern to the tern, and then the hull broke from the middle of the third chimney. The harsh sound of steel tear made all the sailors on the Brave tremble.

The two torn hulls, scattered like petals, hit the sea again, stirring up countless whirlpools and waves. Before the enemy's next round of shells arrived, 892 sailors disappeared into the manic and cold sea.

"Captain, they are surrounded again!" The captain stood at the door of the open cabin of the bridge and shouted loudly, but Jefferson seemed not to hear it at all. When the four light patrols repeatedly baptized the Brave with shells again regardless of cost, he walked into the bridge with a pale face and looked at the navigation bell.

There is still an hour before dawn, but Brave is doomed to not be able to return to Nouméa!

"Turn off the engine, white flares, turn on all the lights, we." Captain Jefferson looked around, looked at a pair of eyes full of fear, and sighed: "GIV give up!"

At 4:51 a.m. on March 25, the British leader, the large heavy artillery cruiser Brave, which had just arrived in Australia for less than 30 days, fired three white flares, turned on all the lights, hung a white flag, and turned off the engine.

At 5:50, when the two Guam-class battleships arrived, the remaining 873 sailors of the Brave had left the deck, and the sea valve opened and began to inject water into the ship.

No one disturbs them. This is a tradition of the navy.

Looking at the slowly sinking warship, Li Xiuyan and all the officers and soldiers of the 31st Fleet were relieved. This time, they could cheer to their heart's content, because!

Night and weather, the roaring dragon can no longer be trapped!

(to be continued)