Chapter 637 The road is long 7

Boom!

The shell accurately landed in the center of the barracks.

North of Socotra Island, Private Beero, who was lying on the ground trembling at the Hadib base of the British Royal Navy, saw the most unforgettable scene of his life.

The fire exploded in the pupil, and the dust and smoke converged into a tower and continued to climb up. The diffused explosive shock wave dispersed in all directions like a tsunami. In an instant, the barracks, telegraph stations, antennas, warehouses, watchtowers, etc., just like being swept by a giant with a mace, collapsed.

He can't imagine how big the naval guns are bombarding indiscriminately. Although the strategic position of this big island is extremely important, because of the lack of domestic troops, and the only 3,000 garrison soldiers left more than a dozen days ago have also been transferred to Salalah. It is extremely empty here. Now he has to communicate with submarines every few days. The ship provides fuel, and there is nothing to do.

Is such a place worth such a bombardment?

The shells are still falling like raindrops. There are not only the heavy shells just now, but also a large number of 6-inch or even 5-inch shells. Hundreds of shells per minute make Hadibu Harbor, which is less than 15 square kilometers, feel like going to have fallen into hell.

Time seemed to freeze, leaving only endless explosions in the ear. Gradually, everyone began to numb. When more than a dozen speedboats rushed into the harbor, everyone even forgot to shoot back.

In fact, it is impossible to shoot at all, because behind these open boats, there is a dense landing ship. Machine gun bullets instantly replaced shells and roared in the ear. In just 20 minutes, a assault battalion of the Xinhua Marine Corps boarded the dock.

By the time Becero finally remembered that he was about to escape, hundreds of Xinhua soldiers had rushed into the oil depots deep in the base, and the four large oil depots were almost intact and robbed in front of everyone.

"Report, no radio signal was found."

"The raid was very successful. At present, the land battalion has controlled the oil depot. According to preliminary inspection, there are about 30,000 tons of heavy oil and 5,530 barrels of gasoline in the four oil depots. Now the two companies of the land battalion have protected the oil depot, and the remaining troops have begun to clear the harbor. It is expected that all operations can be It will end in two hours to prepare for the arrival of the fleet.

"Hmm."

Li Xiuyan nodded. Socotra Island and Hadib Port are of great strategic significance. The most important thing is that the British navy has four large oil depots here. Because of the sudden incident, the navy could not draw more supply ships. How to get fuel became the key to the victory or defeat of the operation, so I came up with the formation of the second battleship. The ships scattered and carried a land battalion, and quickly raided here.

30,000 tons of heavy oil and nearly 1,000 tons of gasoline have become the basis for the long-term activities of the fleet, especially the destroyers in this area. Without them, the destroyers will face the situation that they almost ran out of gas in the Strait of Hormuz last time after the escort mission.

Because the action was faster and unexpected, there was no accident in the port of Hadibu and the oil depot. As long as the fleet arrived and a marine regiment was launched here, the British army would not play a role even if there were remnants.

So when the subsequent fleet will arrive becomes the key.

"The transport fleet is still 330 nautical miles away from us, and it is expected to be here at 9 a.m. tomorrow."

"Deploy troops from each ship to support the marines. In addition, all destroyers and cruisers are scattered. Pay attention to the search of the sea and be careful of submarines. We must ensure the safety of the oil depot before the arrival of the transport fleet!" Li Xiuyan pushed the railing, walked into the bridge and said, "In addition, send a report to General Xie Baozhang. Everything is going well on Socotra Island. The oil depot has arrived. The fleet and we will arrive in Salalah the morning after tomorrow." -

Arabian Sea, 850 nautical miles east of the port of Salalah.

Two bumblebees roared past the deck, and the whirlwind made Xie Baozhang, who was standing on the open-air platform of the ship's island, tremble. Before he could see clearly that it was the rabbit playing juggling, Le Fei had already walked behind him.

"Chief of Staff, the second battleship detachment has received the news. They sank three enemy submarines and four destroyers. The Marines have seized the oil depot and are expected to arrive at the port of Salalah at 9 a.m. the day after tomorrow."

"That's great."

Xie Baozhang suddenly extinguished his cigarette butts and quickly walked to the chart of the command room and found this strategic island located in the Sea of Aden, guarding the Red Sea and the east gate of the Sea of Aden.

In addition to the oil depot, Socotra Island is of great strategic significance. Taking advantage of the enemy's attention in Ceylon and Salalah, it means that the long-term transportation route from Singapore to the Arabian Peninsula has been basically established. As long as the second transport team is shipped to the engineering corps as soon as possible and the airport is built early, then Su The East Canal is equivalent to being abandoned!

However, this only means that half of the mission has been completed. At present, it is still necessary to take the port of Salalah as soon as possible and send the army. The pressure on Kuwait is too great, and there is not much time.

"Have you found the squadron sent by Campbell?"

"Not yet."

Le Fei shook his head and pointed to the coastline of the Muscat Sultanate and said, "At present, the second destroyer squadron is searching along the coastline, but it hasn't appeared so far, but I guess they should be nearby."

Xie Baozhang frowned again. Judging from the number of capital ships in the previous Indian Grand Fleet, this formation should have two Nelson-class battleships and three old-fashioned battleships, which is a great threat to the landing site. Because the first battleship detachment is blocking Campbell's main force, the second battleship detachment is When it is involved in Socotra Island, at least the transport fleet will not be able to move until it arrives tomorrow morning, and the mothership formation is still some distance away, so it is extremely critical to find them as soon as possible.

"Report, the Salalah Harbor SEALs telegram, an hour ago, where the British troops stationed began to drop explosives at the deep-water wharf, and now they have established a defense line next to the wharf and asked for immediate support."

"Finally do it!"

Xie Baozhang and Le Fei looked at each other and saw the anxiety in each other's eyes. The deep-water wharf was the winner or loser of this long expedition. If there was no wharf, the roll-of-rocket would have to be connected and unloaded, which would take at least dozens of hours in vain.

"The nearest second destroyer squadron is only 70 nautical miles away from the harbor. It can be reached at full speed in 2 hours, providing artillery support, but."

Although Le Fei has not finished, Xie Baozhang is very clear that this means that the only mobile force searching for the enemy's squadron will be temporarily restrained. If the other party's squadron suddenly appears at this time, I'm afraid there will be a big problem.

"Son, I suggest that the hummingbird set out immediately." Zhu Houbin stood next to him and suggested.

"Hummingbird?"

Le Fei frowned: "The hummingbird reconnaissance aircraft has a reconnaissance radius of 1,000 kilometers, but we are now 850 nautical miles away from there, about 1550 nautical miles. I'm afraid we can't come back after departure."

"Don't come back." Zhu Houbin pointed to the chart and said, "The hummingbird is a seaplane with a range of 2,500 kilometers. If two secondary fuel tanks are hung under the wings, it can reach 3,000 kilometers. If you leave now, you can reach the port of Salalah in 4 hours. The remaining fuel can be searched north along the peninsula for 3 and a half hours, and six scattered bases. It could have covered this sea area. Even if the enemy was not found, it could finally break down to the vicinity of the port of Salalah and be towed away from the battlefield by destroyers.

This suggestion made the two nod. Le Fei immediately pointed to the chart and said, "If we speed up to 26 knots now, we can reach within 250 nautical miles of the port of Salalah at this time tomorrow. This distance can basically ensure the departure of carrier-based aircraft.

In addition, Socotra Island is only 270 nautical miles away from the port of Salalah. I think it is enough to leave two Yanjing-class battleships, which can completely allow them to go north at full speed to support, so that they can arrive in Salalah before 11 o'clock tonight. Even if those battleships appear, there will be no problem.

Xie Baozhang nodded and was about to order, but the staff shouted and came in: "Sier, General Ye Zukui reported that he has stopped the main force of the Indian Grand Fleet, but 12 fast cruisers have left the formation and are chasing us and are currently fighting!"

"4 to 11." Le Fei took the telegram and said with a smile, "General Ye can do a big job this time."

Xie Baozhang smiled and waved his hand to signal: "Immediately send a telegram to the headquarters. The second transport fleet can set off, and then tell General Ye that the second transport team will escort them to Socotra Island immediately after the battle."

Watching the staff leave, Le Fei and Zhu Houbin praised secretly that they were worthy of being the chief of staff. At this time, this telegram was sent, one of which was to remind him to arrange the second batch of transportation, and the other was to remind General Ye Zuyu again that he would not be red-eyed by escorting the second transportation team next.

"11 capital ships, which one will be the first to be unlucky?" -

"Damn it!"

Brigadier General Cotter's beard is about to be pulled out, because he thinks that he may become the most unlucky officer in the history of the Royal Navy, with 10 powerful 13.5-inch naval guns, but he was injured without a shot.

Thick smoke kept gushing out from the edge of the second chimney. It seems that the injury should be that the deck was broken through to the chimney, causing the smoke to gush out from the breach.

For battleships, this kind of injury is not fatal, but it is a little bad, because if the smoke is not discharged for a long time, it will lead to the need to stop some boilers, and the speed will drop a lot.

"Sect someone to repair it immediately, it must."

Brigadier General Kurt's words still echoed in his throat. The two black spots that rushed again made his pupils suddenly shrink into a cold star and shouted, "Left rudder!"

Although the helmsman heard the order and his hand began to turn, compared with the shells roaring 800 meters per second, this reaction speed was too slow. Only two black dots were suddenly plunged into the bow at an almost vertical angle.

"Boom."

A violent explosion rushed out from under the deck. The thin horizontal armor of only 3 inches (76 mm) was twisted into a twist in the explosion. The No. 1 turret was quickly twisted in a strange posture. The 530-ton turret was damaged by the bottom-up impact before it showed its power.

"How far is the distance!"

"33,000 meters, it will take another 10 minutes to enter the bombardment distance."

"Damn it!"

Looking at the Irish, which was on fire in the bow in the distance, Lieutenant General Campbell was extremely regretful, because he found that he had made a major mistake, that is, he miscalculated the other party's shelling ability.

18 knots, at a distance of 25,000 meters, hit the Ireland, which even exceeded the ability of the most advanced Malaya in its hand. Although the two French battleships were also equipped with a fire control system when climbing the stairs, they were like tickling compared with the opponent's accurate shelling ability.

It will take 10 minutes for the first team to enter the shelling distance, which means that the opponent can fire another 480 shells at the Irish. Even if the hit rate is only 5%, there are 24, which is enough to destroy the big guy of 23,000 tons.

"Let the second team speed up to 20 quarters and get closer to us."

Campbell, who realized that he had made a mistake, took the lead in changing, but he could no longer save the Irish.

At 10:02, in 12 rounds of volleys, the No. 3 ship Jiangsu let the British taste the bitter fruit of export. A 680 kg armor-piercing shell once again visited the 3-inch horizontal armor. The armor-piercing shell drilled in from the side of the No. 3 turret in the middle. Although it did not enter the ammunition depot, it successfully entered the power module below.

The design of the power module of the Ireland is very defective. The two reciprocating steam engines are not arranged in a compartment, but are set in a large cabin. Originally, Britain could not taste this bitter fruit, because this is an Ottoman warship. Maybe the designer will also fantasize about the beauty of when the British capital ship shell penetrates its armor into the power module. In an instant, but now this mistake has hurt Brigadier General Cotter.

After the shell exploded, the scattered shrapnel swept through the entire power module, killing not only dozens of soldiers inside, but also destroying all two steam engines in one fell swoop, making the Ireland power in an instant.

Within the absence of power, it is fatal to any battleship.

After three rounds, when a shell swept in from the conning tower, the lame capital ship, which lost its command and power at the same time, was doomed to return to Mumbai. Although the British sailors did their best, Campbell sent a destroyer to try to drag it back, but was finally sunk by a Xinhua submarine ten hours later.

After the Irish lost the threat, Ye Zukui immediately ordered two groups to bombard the remaining two French Breton-class battleships, and the opponent had no power to fight back at a distance of 25,000 meters.

Compared with the 76mm horizontal armor of the USS Ireland, the two are even more fragile. The 25mm horizontal armor is like a paper paste in front of the 680 kg heavy armored shells of the Hebei class. In just seven minutes, the two battleships were hit by more than a dozen shells.

The Brittany first withdrew from the battle. The 23,230-ton battleship was jointly attacked by Jiangxi and Sichuan. In particular, an armor-piercing shell fired from the turret of Jiangxi No. 2 drilled in from the bottom of the rear mast, which not only destroyed the mast, but also entered the boiler chamber, destroying at least five boilers, making him The speed suddenly dropped to 13 knots. If the captain hadn't withdrawn from the battle decisively, he might have become an iron coffin like the USS Ireland.

Although Brittany finally returned to Mumbai with difficulty, it was later learned that because Sokotra Island was occupied by Xinhua, India and Europe were completely cut off, and the battleship was never repaired.

And its sister ship Provence was not so lucky. Fujian and Jiangsu accidentally hit the bow with five shells in three consecutive rounds, which not only caused a large amount of water, but also directly cut off the whole bow. If it hadn't been for the design of the watertight cabin, it would have sunk directly.

But Provence also did not return to Mumbai, because the three Weiqing-class destroyers immediately accelerated from the entanglement with the enemy cruisers after discovering the two French battleships that had withdrawn from the battle. Because the two battleships were paying attention to guard against the pursuit of the four Hebei-class, they waited until they reached 7,000 meters. It was found, but by this time they had hit 30 spear three-type torpedoes.

Although Brittany avoided the torpedo, the speed dropped to 6 knots after the bow was broken, and the Provence, which could not be quickly deflected, was still hit by a torpedo. The violent explosion not only tore a 50-meter-long crack on the side, making the battleship begin to tilt after a few minutes, but also suddenly He woke up and was still dreaming of destroying four Hebei-class Campbells.

Seeing that he finally pulled close to 28,000 meters before he made the first round of slam shots, the four Hebei-class suddenly accelerated to 25 knots. Campbell knew that if he continued to fight, he would lose, so he made a decision to make everyone relieved.

Retreat!

At 10:25, the main force of the Indian Grand Fleet sank two ships (including Ireland), hit one, and lost two cruisers, and began to release smoke to evacuate the battlefield.

Not only did the main force retreat, Campbell also sent a telegram to the pursuing cruisers to withdraw to Mumbai, because he knew that any efforts at this time were useless and there was no main cover. If the cruisers continued to go to the port of Salalah, they could only add merit to the more terrible three aircraft carriers.

Now he can only count on a small fleet of two Nelson-class battleships, three old battleships and four cruisers lurking in the port of Abbas on the north shore of the Strait of Hormuz.

At 12 o'clock sharp, Campbell ordered the battleship detachment to shell the port of Salalah before the arrival of the Xinhua transport fleet and completely destroy all the facilities in the port.

It's just that he didn't know that the two Guam-class battleships that had just finished providing fire support for Socotra Island and were ordered to quickly reinforce the SEALs and protecting the landing site were also moving north along the coast of the Arabian Peninsula.

At 5 p.m. sharp, a hummingbird reconnaissance aircraft finally found the squadron at Cape Hard. In addition, when the two light cruisers tracking the main force of the Indian Grand Fleet also sent back the exact news of the enemy's main force's withdrawal to the north, everyone was relieved, which meant that the long journey on the sea had reached its end.

(to be continued)