Chapter 682 Closed 9

27/12/27, Southwest Pacific Ocean.

Off the coast of the Fiji Islands, 120 nautical miles.

Two dragon teeth, after passing over the sinking head of the British W-class destroyer, continued to rush to the battleship Delaware not far ahead. In the hum of the propeller, there was also a sad shout on the deck of the Delaware.

"Enemy aircraft!"

"Cannonball, Jefferson, give me the cannonball!"

"Don-Don-Don."

Next to the 47mm single-pill shotgun, the artillery shouted at each other. As soon as the shells were taken out of the ammunition depot, they were immediately fired, and the copper shells covered the entire deck.

"Be careful."

Jefferson had just stuffed a 47mm shell into the gun. After hearing the shouts of his partners, he immediately hugged his helmet and squatted down. He only saw two planes with strange dragon wings, breaking through the dense barrage and dropping torpedoes more than 1,000 meters away.

The fighter roared over his head, and the dense eggs spilled down like a rainstorm. Jefferson, who was hiding in the corner, could even see the ferocious smiling face in the cockpit. Several rapid-fire machine guns on the side of the ship could not shoot in the air, and all the bullets were sprinkled on the snow-white tail that was coming.

The 22,000-ton steel beast began to maneuver violently, and the angle of the deflected bow was rapidly enlarged. The stern swayed violently. Judging from the trail at the tail, it almost pulled out a huge U-shaped shape.

Jefferson counted minute by minute until the torpedo brushed the stern of the ship and rushed into the distance, and the hanging hearts of all the sailors fell back.

"They left, they left!"

In the beautiful dizzy red background, the 12 dragon teeth that had completed the attack began to return, which relieved everyone in the fleet. Jefferson sat down on the deck and watched the sun sinking under the horizon little by little.

"General, they have left. This should be the last wave today."

In the flagship, Clarkston breathed a sigh of relief and quietly wiped the sweat on his forehead. In a day's escape, he lost three destroyers and a cruiser. The only thing worthwhile is that only the Berlophon was hit by a torpedo in the lightning compartment, and the main hull did not receive any loss.

Now it's finally night. In another 3 hours, we can meet Seymour, and then we can go to New Zealand together and continue to fight.

"Clean up the deck and rearrange. I'll take a break and call me in 2 hours." While Clackston left the bridge, Fletcher quietly walked to the deck.

Although North Dakota was not hit by a torpedo, the shot from the plane's machine gun still left a piece of mottled on the deck. When a sailor whose neck was pierced by a bullet and his blood condensed into a black block was carried past, Fletcher's eyebrows tightened even tighter.

To be honest, he didn't expect the threat of the aircraft to be so great. For the Australian Grand Fleet, the tragic naval battle in the Gulf of Panama was very far away, so everyone could only imagine it from a word, and today he knew that the "little fly" that was despised would be so difficult to deal with.

What worries him more is that according to the number of times he encountered aircraft in a day, there are a total of 3 waves, each wave does not exceed 20, that is to say, it is only a light carrier chasing himself, because if it is replaced by a heavy aircraft carrier, each wave will be at least more than 50 aircraft.

At this moment, the enemy's heavy mother ship must know that Port Vila has been attacked. Generally speaking, if they do not intercept it on the road, they will definitely turn back, but the problem is that the enemy's main force has not appeared so far, which makes life suspicious.

There are only two possibilities to explain this situation. One is that the other party is still on the way, and the other is that the other party's commander knows that the Grand Fleet is in a period of dispersion, and now the attack must not guarantee total annihronization, so he has been hiding somewhere waiting for the opportunity!

Thinking of this, Fletcher's eyebrows suddenly beat wildly. If this inference is true, the calmness and patience of the other commander are terrible, because he dares to open the important Port of Vera to let himself attack, just to get a chance to completely annihet himself!

The night opened and the sea breeze began to strengthen. When this idea could not disperse in the heart, the chill suddenly filled the back. So when will the big fleet gather?

Fiji!

Now Lieutenant General Seymour has been waiting for him in Fiji, and it will meet in three hours. At that time, 70% of the forces in the fleet will be concentrated, isn't it?

Fletcher shook his head quickly again. It's night now, and Xinhua's most advantageous aviation power can't be exerted at all, so he will certainly not be willing to launch a strong attack at night.

What else do you forget?

"Major, I received a telegram from Lieutenant General Seymour. He is about 60 nautical miles west of us." After Fletcher took over the telegram, he suddenly became hesitant. Should he inform Lieutenant General Clarkston to lean over? If you lean over and the other party is now in a certain position in the middle, then.

After thinking about it, Fletcher still walked to the captain's room. Although he was reluctant to lean over, the problem was that he was not the commander and had to obey the orders of the lieutenant general.

But he didn't know that at this time, 50 nautical miles southwest, two Guam-class battleships with four destroyers and two electronic reconnaissance ships were also rushing to the intersection.

===== The sky is full of stars, and the reflection enters the sea, forming countless light spots. The moonlight adds a little poetry and painting, which also makes the night full of tranquility.

Unfortunately, all the sailors on the Rainbow Goddess cruiser were not in the mood to enjoy this feeling. The 5,600 tons of ship smashed the waves, and the watchmen on the deck all opened their eyes wide.

The assault fleet led by General Clarkston returned and successfully shelled Port Vila. It is said that the whole seaport has turned into ashes. This news makes everyone happy, because this is the first time that the Australian Grand Fleet has gained an advantage in the active attack.

However, it is not the time to celebrate. The enemy chased them one day. Although it is night, the main fleet of the Chinese people must be approaching the area. What's more, 20 nautical miles behind them is the support fleet led by Lieutenant General Seymour, so we must be vigilant until the two fleets meet. Together.

On the mast, Jones mobilized every nerve cell and carefully checked every shadow in the dark. The moonlight is not very bright today, so you should be extra careful.

When he turned the telescope to a certain angle, several shadows suddenly jumped into his eyes. After wiping the lens with his fingers to confirm in detail, his mouth suddenly opened.

God!

In an instant, the long shadow turned into an entity, and the two huge shadows appeared 20,000 meters away like monsters. Not before he could sound the alarm, a few small black spots in the middle rushed over like lightning.

"Enemy ship!"

In the sad shouts, countless fire points had exploded from a distance, and a moment later, the roar of shells covered the second-class armored cruiser.

"Report."

"The Rainbow Goddess was attacked."

"Two battleships, 20 nautical miles northwest, are coming to us."

"Damn it." Seymour smashed the handrail fiercely. Although he knew that this kind of thing would happen sooner or later, he was still extremely angry and his face suddenly gloomed, because the direction of the enemy ship was officially the direction Clarkston was coming, which means that the enemy had been waiting for a long time.

Fortunately, it's night, and they can't give full play to the advantage of the plane. As long as they immediately tell Clarkston that there is an interception, they can evacuate separately.

"Notice General Clarkston immediately to implement the second set of plans. Don't come over, we will be there." After speeding the order, Seymour immediately shouted, "Turn off all light sources, the left rudder is 20°, and the ships follow the flagship movement, ready to release smoke away."

Before he could say it, the communications officer had already taken the phone and shouted with a pale face: "Lt. Lieutenant General, all the radio stations are out of work!"

"Then change one, or let other warships contact."

"Mt. Gen., it's all!"

"What!"

Cold sweat, immediately covered everyone's vests, and you don't have to think about it. This must be a ghost of the Chinese. Otherwise, how can all the radios fail at the same time? It doesn't matter if the fleet just fails. Anyway, you can rely on the mast lamp to continue to pass the order, but the problem is that General Clarkston knows nothing and is carrying 5 A main battleship is coming!

"The cruiser is scattered at full speed. This damn thing must have coverage!" Seymour stamped his feet and shouted, "The battleship squadron stopped turning the rudder, right north, full speed!"

===== "Fire control calculation begins."

"The No. 1 turret is ready."

"The 2nd and 3rd are ready."

"The damage management is ready."

"

Listening to a shout, Zhou Cheng, who was standing in the middle of the bridge, bent the corners of his mouth. The two triple-equipped L45/406 super gun has been rotated in place. You don't need to look at him and know that the 1020 kg armor-piercing shell specially developed for the naval gun must have been stuffed into the gun. Just think about more than one ton. The shell hit the enemy's head, and everyone was excited.

Starting at night, spliting troops at night, and then shelling Port Vila at night, it can be seen that Britain and the United States are really afraid of the plane, so they need precision calculation before the operation to keep the main body of the mission at night as much as possible.

Unfortunately, they all forgot that the empire did not start by plane!

"Report that the enemy's 2nd formation began to disperse, and four cruisers are accelerating to leave. It is expected to leave the electronic ship signal interference circle in 10 minutes."

"The reaction is very fast." Zhou Cheng muttered, walked to the porthole and asked, "How far is the No. 1 target?"

"The distance is 32,000 meters, the angle is 230, heading due south, but they seem to have received the telegram that just escaped and are turning the rudder. At the current speed, we are expected to catch up in 10 minutes."

23:05, Zhou Cheng looked at the current time.

"Now, it's too late for them to do anything." The staff officer smiled. Yes, when the speed was nearly 9 knots faster than his opponent, it was too late for Clarkston to become a fairy!

At 23:15, Clarkston, who received the last telegram from the Rainbow Goddess, was already sweating profusely, and Fletcher next to him was also chilled. The enemy was really waiting for them here!

"General, I received a telegram from Lieutenant General Seymour, and he asked us to do it immediately."

Before the staff officer finished speaking, his pupil suddenly shrank into a little cold star, because he saw that the fire suddenly flashed outside the porthole behind Clarkston.

At 24,000 meters, the two Guam class made the first round of slam shots.

The sudden vibration from the feet made the sailors experience the difference between the 406mm naval gun and the 380mm naval gun again. Although there is only a gap of 26mm, the weight of the shell is 270 kg, which is almost the weight of a 230mm shell. The kinetic energy of the muzzle has increased by 20%, effectively firing. The range has also increased to 32,000 meters, and at a distance of 24,000 meters, it can almost penetrate the armor of any of the main battleships in the Australian Grand Fleet.

Jefferson, wearing a helmet, endured the fatigue of the day. As soon as he rushed to the gun position with his comrades-in-arms, the roar of shells from his ear suddenly froze him.

As a gunner, he did not dare to say that he could distinguish the roar of all the shells, but at least he could distinguish the unique roar of large-caliber naval shells when flying, but the sound in his ears had never been remembered at this time.

Not 12 inches, not 14 inches, not 15 inches, that's it.

Jefferson's face suddenly turned pale. He didn't believe that the Chinese cannons on battleships would become smaller and smaller. There was no doubt that they were aimed at a new super gun of more than 15 inches!

"Fed, tell the bridge, this is it." Jefferson suddenly pushed his comrade-in-arms, hoping that his partner could tell him the news, but he had not finished. After flashing several light spots in a row, the Delaware finally fell into despair, and the stern of the ship suddenly rushed into a huge flame.

At 23:25, the Zhongmeng lookout first reported the results. An extra-heavy 406mm armor-piercing shell shot from the No. 3 turret hit the stern of the USS Delaware and learned that the power of the 406mm extra-heavy armor-piercing shell was really amazing for the Delaware-class battleships, and the armor-piercing bullet drilled through again. The generally weak horizontal armor of this era, after killing several gunners, including Jefferson, at the first time, penetrated four layers of protective armor in a row, and the last head plunged into the power module.

If it was just an explosion in the power cabin, it was nothing. What made the divers stunned later was that they actually saw a huge arc on the power crankshaft. You know, this power crankshaft was about to catch up with the ordinary man's arm, but it was such a thick all-steel crankshaft that five were broken continuously, and finally One of them was also smashed to show a terrible U-shaped concave.

There is no doubt that the Delaware had to sink because of this armor-piercing bullet. After the crankshaft was damaged and exploded, the whole power module was messed up, and the two reciprocating steam engines lost all their functions in an instant.

2 minutes later, the stern of the stern of the s was hit again. This armor-piercing shell was also strange. In fact, the warhead hood had fallen off during the flight, so the trajectory did not rise to the highest, and finally hit the turret of the USS Delaware's bow 1 at a straight angle.

You can't imagine what will happen when an armor-piercing shell weighing 1020 kg hits the front of the turret at an acceleration of 810 meters per second. The front armor originally designed to prevent 305mm shells became a wooden board in an instant, and finally the whole turret was directly hit and crooked. It has lost its function.

Almost at the same time, Simon also achieved results. The British battleship Bleropon, the No. 2 ship it aimed at, was slightly injured by a fish stab during the day, and now it is the first 406mm super gun to be aimed at it.

What is this?

Boxers bully children!

The shell fell straight behind the bridge. Although it was impossible for the lookout to see the exact explosion point at night, the fire from the warp can still roughly estimate the injured part.

Bellelophon, which is worse than Delaware, belongs to the first generation of new battleships. To put it bluntly, it is worse than Xinhua's Jilin class. It is impossible to block a ton of armor-piercing shells. The armor-piercing shells penetrated horizontal armor and did not explode all the way down until it reached the bottom cabin. After the 18 kg TNT exploded, It simply tore up the bulkhead of the hull, causing the port water to begin to tilt.

In just ten minutes, two battleships were hit hard. I don't know if they could leave. Clarkston had no intention to continue fighting, because the gap was really too big.

At 23:32, just as Clarkston ordered the release of smoke, the most amazing scene appeared.

This was caused by a round of crossfire launched by Simon against North Dakota. It crossed the shells of the battleship and directly hit the 8,600-ton cruiser ConCord hiding behind the battleship.

Fletcher saw this scene with his own eyes. He only saw a black spot suddenly hit the top of the Concod bridge in the firelight, and then the whole bridge suddenly collapsed from top to bottom in the flashing arc flower, and then a huge fireball burst from under the bridge, which not only blew up the whole bridge, but also crisply. A huge hole about 12 meters in diameter was torn on the right hull.

Before Fletcher and others saw this scene to understand what shell could cause such damage, the Omaha-class light cruiser quickly disappeared on the sea with 765 sailors. No one could believe it. It turned out that the armor-piercing shell hit the bottom of the ship before the big explosion occurred, so no He only tore the hole on the side, and directly broke the keel and tore the bottom of the boat.

When the Concod sank quickly, the remaining warships were already full of smoke, and the scattered black smoke became the best cover. Although there was radar to capture the opponent's movement trajectory, Zhou Cheng did not order to continue the pursuit, because the Seymour support fleet on the other side was about to arrive.

He is not afraid of being besieged, but afraid that he will be too excited to startle the snake. After all, it is midnight. Unless all six Guam-class ships are transferred, he is sure not to let a local battleship escape.

23:50 points, after continuing to shoot a few rounds of fruitless volleys, Zhou Cheng ordered to pretend to be afraid of attack and leave. As for the injured Delaware and the Berlophon, either the power was completely destroyed, or the water was serious and could not be opened at all. Finally, Seymour had to send a destroyer to save the surviving officers and soldiers on the two ships. After that, the two battleships sank themselves off the coast of Fiji.

At 1 a.m., the reconfluence of the Australian fleet ran all the way south with smoke despite fatigue, but they did not know that the radar of Zhongmeng was spinning in circles 20 nautical miles behind them.

In fact, the good show has just been staged.

(to be continued)