Chapter 813 July Fire 8

Flagship, in Hebei, the staff reported the battle situation more than 700 nautical miles away.

"Up to now, a total of 7 have returned the news of being hit by a torpedo. Among them, the Colombian cruiser Amera and two Peruvian destroyers were sunk, the main ship, North Korea's Pyongyang was hit by a torpedo, two of the Cuban Navy's Haimei I were hit and temporarily withdrawn from the battle, and our Yucheng was also hit. In the middle one, the port side enters the water, but it does not affect the continuation of the battle.

"Now, General Yamaki Tong has let Wei Guohao avoid it first."

"Report, General Yamaki Tong telegraphed that the enemy's capital ship appeared. It was the Campbell fleet. The outer reconnaissance ship also found two Queen Maria-class battleships and an aircraft carrier in 27 nautical miles to the north. It is expected to enter the war circle in 20 minutes!"

The news that followed shocked Zhang Zuolin's heart. In fact, when he only found two Gangut-class in the attack aircraft group just now, he realized that the enemy might be the golden cicada and deliberately came out of Gangutora to attract the carrier aircraft, while the Queen Maria-class battleship secretly went to meet Campbell.

Now Campbell suddenly has a Queen Elizabeth-class battleship, two Queen Maria-class battleships and two Nelson-class battleships, a total of 8 15-inch and 44 305mm guns. In contrast, he only has 20 14-inch guns and 18 305mm guns on his side, to The old-fashioned battleships in Colombia and other countries and another Spanish-class battleship Alfonso XIII, which had just arrived by the Cuban navy, were automatically ignored by Zhang Zuolin. The former was because there was no opportunity for the old-fashioned battleships in this level of confrontation, and the latter was only trained for a few days because half of the Cuban naval personnel, and the new The number of personnel of the Chinese navy is insufficient, so the combat effectiveness is not guaranteed.

More importantly, there should be carrier-borne torpedo planes on the aircraft carrier following the Queen Maria-class battleship, so that even if Campbell can't land at night, there is enough opportunities to launch a second wave of attack.

Thinking of this, Zhang Zuolin couldn't help looking at Sa Zhenbing with an unchanged look with a teacup, thinking about how he would deal with it at this time?

"Yang Feng did lose a move, but in fact, this is a good thing. Children who have not learned to be beaten do not know how to beat their opponents all their lives!" Seeing the eyes, Sa Zhenbing looked light-hearted and said confidently, "Jelico is a good general. He can initially master the use of the aircraft in such a short time, but he wants to eat our third battleship formation with only five capital ships, but he is dreaming for nothing!"

Sa Zhenbing intended to guide Zhang Zuolin in some naval engagement knowledge, so he immediately went to the chart and pointed to the sea near Puerto Rico and said, "There is only 30 minutes left for Campbell. In the first 20 minutes, he must not dare to fight, because he only has three battleships and must wait for two Queen Maria. The class battleship arrived, so during this period, he needed to use another mothership and a bomber from the island to drag us as much as possible.

When Queen Maria arrived, he only had 10 minutes left!

Because the attack aircraft group in Yang Feng's hand can return at that time, even if it can only be half, there are about 30 torpedo planes and dive bombers with ammunition. Although the remaining half has no ammunition, it only takes about 40 minutes to land and reload.

"That is to say, he must hit our battleship as much as possible in 10 minutes, and then try to sink it in about 20 minutes. If he has not completed the attack after the first wave of attack, he must escape immediately, or he will be attacked by me. Anti-encirclement and suppression of our planes!" Zhang Zuolin took the words and pointed to the map to say what he thought.

"That's right." Sa Zhenbing nodded with satisfaction and smiled, "Yuting is worthy of being with the Chief of Staff for a long time. Wu is much better than ordinary people. Campbell does have only 30 minutes, and he has to carry the bombing of the plane in the last 20 minutes."

"However, I don't think Campbell has the courage to finish the next 20 minutes."

"Why is this?" Zhang Zuolin was very surprised by this sentence and asked, "Is it him?"

"His courage has been exhausted in the Indian Ocean! What's more, the mission of garrison in Cape Verde is far more important to him than defeating our third team. Don't forget that the eyes of Britain and the United States are still looking at the Taiwan-class battleships in Djibouti, afraid that it will "suddenly" take a detour through Africa into the Atlantic Ocean, so without Cape Verde, their first barrier to the Atlantic will be the end. It's an egg!"

Zhang Zuolin understands that the naval battle is indeed different from that of the army. Even if one of the most powerful battleships is not used, the enemy does not dare to relax, so the chief of staff and the emperor decided to use this to use an unfinished battleship to attract the eyes of the British and the United States, and then exchange a civet cat for the prince to let two The Taiwan-level detour secretly entered the Atlantic Ocean, forcing Jellico to fight a decisive battle.

"If there is no big accident, the Second Task Force will bypass Africa and enter the Atlantic Ocean in three days at the latest."

"Since it's still so long, why didn't you go to Puerto Rico and come here? Although Yuting is stupid, looking at this heading, it should be Jamaica in front, right? Zhang Zuolin continued to ask.

"Yes, it's Jamaica." Sa Zhenbing nodded, and a cold light flashed in his eyes: "Jelko paid such a high price to send two teams to our mouths at the possibility of being completely annihated by us. Do you think he may just want to eat the third team that is not strong?"

"Fang Jin's first battleship formation is currently in Galveston Bay, we are in Panama, and the third team is in the direction of Puerto Rico." Sa Zhenbing waved his hand, marked three points on the chart, and continued to explain: "Jelico can't do it if he wants to enter Puerto Rico and the Lesser Antilles, so if he wants something else, he can only go to the Wind Strait. I guess he must have sent a team to lurk in the sea between the Cayman Islands and Cuba.

Don't forget that three submarines and multiple destroyers were found there before.

And the distance between us and Fang Jin is too long now. It will take at least 2 days to support each other. With Jellico's ability, we can naturally see such a big gap, so I speculate that he sent troops to attack Puerto Rico for cover, and the real purpose is to cut off the Yucatan Strait!"

"Cut off the Yucatan Strait?!"

Zhang Zuolin almost jumped up: "Is he crazy? Under our joint command with General Fang Jin, it is impossible to block the empty strait with a few teams!"

"Ha ha, Yuting, you're wrong. The blockade I'm talking about is not blocking. In the eyes of the navy, you only need to throw thousands of mines in the strait irregularly, and you can almost paralyze the waterway. So I'm sure he is going to mine on a large scale, and at the same time, it is possible to bombard here!"

"Mexico, Chetumal City?"

"Yes." Sa Zhenbing nodded: "He can't hit us, but the domestic situation requires him to retaliate, so he can only take Mexico and destroy an allied city, which will be very exciting!"

"Would you like to inform the Mexican political axe? Let General Lefei come to our side as well?

"Without sacrifice, there is no success!"

Sa Zhenbing shook his head and narrowed his eyes like an old fox: "Jelko seduced us to focus on Puerto Rico with two teams. In fact, he is ready to sacrifice all! He knew that as long as the Yucatan Strait was cut off, no, as long as Fang Jin was blocked in it for a few days, he would have the opportunity to wave the main force into the Caribbean to eat us, and even destroy the fortress of San Lorenzo and our navy's forward base!

The same is true for me! They attacked the third team and also gave me a chance!"

"I know, so you deliberately inserted Jamaica to the north instead of supporting the third team, that is, to cut off Jellico's fist and force him to fight near Jamaica?"

"Hehe, a decisive battle?" Sa Zhenbing picked up the teacup again and smiled: "Go to bed. We won't have a battle tonight. As for the decisive battle, we can't stop each other by relying on our four Hebei-level ships alone. At most, we can eat some side dishes. Don't forget that we are really blocked in the Gulf of Mexico. It will take at least two days to clear the mines and explore a channel again. "."

"Isn't there still an aircraft carrier battle group?"

"The aircraft carrier battle group also wants to arrive at least until tomorrow afternoon, when all the battles are over early, and I'm not going to let Lefei in, because if he comes in, Jellico will have a decisive battle after seeing our troops!

So he has another task.

As for Mexico, hehe, I'm a little sleepy. I'll go to bed first. I heard that there are some blood feuds so that I can fight more fiercely in the future!" When Sa Zhenbing stretched out, there was a report behind him at the same time: "Report, General Shanmu Tong's telegram, the exchange of fire began!"

..22:15.

"General, the Queen Maria-class battleship has arrived!"

In the bridge of the flagship Long Gate, Hitomi Yamaki, who was reminded, immediately raised her telescope and saw a change in the British fleet 20,000 meters away. The two Russian Queen Maria-class battleships quickly inserted between Malaya and Alexandra, re-lineated into a new battle line.

"Right rudder 15 degrees, close the distance, 18,000 meters!" After Hitomi Yamaki gave the order, she suddenly turned around and said, "Mr. Kono, I need you to go to the deck to command in person! Because this battle is the best opportunity to show my naval strength!"

"Hi!"

After watching his confidant go to the deck to command the gun in person, Hitomi Yamaki also took a deep breath and redeployed a new shelling sequence.

Two Yanjing-class ships dealt with the strongest Malaya at the same time, against Queen Maria, Pyongyang dealt with Catherine the Great, and two Nelson-classes were handed over to Alfonso XIII of the Cuban Navy and four old-fashioned battleships from Colombia and Peru.

Yamaki Hitomi's arrangement is selfish, because he knows that the former American Nevada class under his feet has little chance of dealing with the Queen class, because the other party's 15-inch naval gun has a longer range and greater power, so it is better to let the two Yanjing-class ships of the Xinhua Navy, which is good at long-range shelling, deal with it, not to mention 18 doors 305 Dealing with 8 doors 381, the fire projection intensity can also be exceeded.

Although the Russian Queen Maria has 12 L52/305mm naval guns, it was said to be equivalent to 8 356 mm naval guns when it was built in Russia, but in fact it could not reach it. Although it was only 2 inches smaller, the projectile and range were very different, not to mention that the one I used was still safe. It is equipped with the L50 naval gun used by the Hebei class of the Xinhua Navy, which is much more powerful.

Handing over two Nelsons to one Spanish-class and four old-fashioned battleships seems dangerous but not difficult, because the first half of the Cuban Navy's Alfonso XIII are Marines of the Xinhua Navy, and their combat effectiveness is no less than that of the first-generation dreadnoughtless ships like Nelson. What's more, what they need to do is not a fight to the death, as long as Just hold it.

As for Lin Tianping, after getting the shelling order, there is no doubt. Although he feels that Yanjing should be allowed to deal with Nelson to achieve the purpose of rapid sinking, the current formation commander is Yamaki Hitomi, not to mention that his order is also very stable and there is no big problem.

After the shelling order was quickly issued, both Campbell and Yamaki Hitomi gave the order to quickly approach.

At 22:35, the first round of volleys rushed out of the barrel of both sides at the same time.

Compared with the Queen Elizabeth-class 381mm heavy artillery, Lin Tianping knew where his advantage was, so he gave full play to the advantages of the naval gun in speed and projectile density. In the third round alone, Yanjing took the lead in reporting the results.

A 305mm armor-piercing shell hit the Queen's chimney, but this is one of the most important protected parts of the superstructure, so the shells at a distance of 16,000 meters were not fully drilled, which also showed the innate lack of the 305mm shells in dealing with the 381mm gun battleships.

The second armor-piercing shell immediately hit the Queen again. This time, it hit the horizontal deck of the lifeboat. The armor here is only 5 inches thick, and it can't resist the armor-piercing shell weighing up to 400 kilograms, but the shell is blocked outside the thick power capsule wall.

Similarly, the counterattack of the Queen Elizabeth class was also quite sharp. At 22:41, a 381mm 700kg armor-piercing shell hit the rear bridge of Yucheng. Compared with the lack of 305mm kinetic energy, the 381mm shell itself has a large mass and increased by several times when it fell, so it was immediately torn. The bridge caused the loss of two nearby anti-aircraft rapid-fire guns and air defense command towers.

Yucheng was hit and did not scare the two Yanjing-class battleships. Although the levels were different, after more than two years of fighting, the soldiers have long been used to the feeling of life and death when the battleships fought, and constantly smashed 305mm shells at the Queen.

It should be said that the two Yanjing-class and the Queen-class fight equally. The former is fast, the firepower is fierce, but the caliber of armor-piercing bullets is insufficient. It's good to deal with battleships of the same class. It's a little difficult to deal with super battleships. On the contrary, the battleship Longmen is the fiercest.

From the beginning, Hitomi Yamaki reported selfishness, but his selfishness was based on winning and not making mistakes, and no one had anything to say.

Twenty years ago, the navy was defeated by the Xinhua navy with a destructive force, and the reserve force of the Eda Island navy was destroyed. However, as an island country, it was born to be wary of the sea, which was unrarable to North Korea and other countries. Therefore, after being allowed to form a maritime self-defense force, it quickly used the equipment at hand to organize the general. The basic skills of taxi training are very solid.

On the contrary, Queen Mary expanded too quickly during the British Navy during the war, and to ensure the combat effectiveness of the front-line main warships, after a large number of 15-inch main gun capital ships were launched, most of the excellent sailors on Queen Maria were transferred to ensure the most The basic combat effectiveness can only be filled with sailors retired before the war or merchant sailors.

Compared with before the war, although the quantity and quality of the British navy are strengthening, in fact, the combat effectiveness is constantly shrinking, so the Long Gate challenged the former world's first navy at this time, which shows that Yamaki's eyes are indeed sharp.

22:38 minutes later, one minute after Yanjing hit Malaya, Nagato's 10 L50/356mm guns were fired in a volley, and the Maritime Self-Defense Force completed its first hit since joining the Xinhua United Fleet.

The Xinhua Navy will not sell its own armor-piercing shells to Japan, and even the Nagato was not equipped with special armor-piercing shells before. It was not until San Diego was attacked and captured tens of thousands of U.S. military armor-piercing shells of various calibers that the Nagato and Pyongyang obtained the matching ammunition.

Although the armor-piercing shells used by the U.S. Navy are not as good as Xinhua, they are basically at the same level as Germany.

The armor-piercing shell hit the No. 3 turret. At that time, Queen Maria just completed a volley, and the barrel returned to its original position, so it was hit the front of the turret without any reaction. Although the shell did not penetrate the front, it caused more than a dozen British gunners in the turret to be killed. 1 and No. 2 The barrel was also twisted and could not be used in the explosion.

As soon as it came up, it destroyed a quarter of the firepower, making the Queen Maria more difficult. After the remaining three turrets finished a round of unharvested counterattack, the 5.5-meter optical rangefinder and the skilled Japanese gunner hit again.

This round was fatal. According to later research, three of the 10 shells hit the target.

The first one hit the lost No. 3 turret again, causing the turret to catch fire.

The second one hit the main armor belt of the water line. The main armor belt with a thickness of 267 mm failed to block the breakthrough of the 356 mm armor-piercing shell. The shell drilled into the interior against the water line and finally exploded in the coal tank on the side after penetrating three layers of protective plates in a row.

When the early battleships arranged the coal tank, they often arranged several on the water line, which seemed to be able to rely on coal-fired to block the armor-piercing shell. In fact, it proved to be a wrong design, because after the coal-fired cabin was used for a long time, a large amount of flammable coal ash dust would accumulate. After 12 kilograms of explosives swept away, it was really half full. In the coal-fired cabin, a second explosion occurred after the coal ash was mixed with explosives, which lifted the three 120mm cannons on the side line and tore a 3-meter-long crack on the side line.

However, the real fatal thing is from the third armor-piercing shell, which once again confirms the important surname of horizontal armor.

In order to solve the common top-heavy problem of Russian battleships, the Queen Maria-class battleships only laid a layer of 76mm horizontal armor while amplifying the displacement. When the armor-piercing shell hit at a 50° angle, it was almost the same as a wooden board.

The armor-piercing shell went straight down the root of the rear bridge and finally stopped next to the No. 4 turret well. The explosion pulled open the well protective armor plate and sent the flame into the turret. At the same time, it also destroyed the whole turret and ignited the silk-wrapped projectile.

It was when the Malaya hit the Yucheng. People on the whole battlefield saw that an orange flame rushed up from the turret of the Queen Maria IV, and the 100-meter-high flame and scattering stream formed a blooming flower of death. Half a minute later, the ship was launched. Known as the pride of Russia, the British remembered the battleship that did not hesitate to offend Lenin's forced return, so it raised its bow and began to sink.

Campbell's heart was suddenly locked, and at this time, the other two groups of fighting were basically determined.

At 22:45, the Catherine finally regained face for the British navy, hitting the previously wounded Korean naval battleship Pyongyang three times in a row, and the second time hitting two special Russian low-speed heavy bullets weighing 305 mm and 460 kilograms.

At 22:50, the seriously injured Pyongyang had to withdraw from the battle.

At the same time, the Cuban navy had just arrived, and the unofficially used Alfonso XIII was hit by the No. 2 turret under the attack of two Nelsons. Although there was no big explosion like the Queen Mary, it had to retreat temporarily in order to prevent the flame from spreading to the lower ammunition depot because of the fire. There is a battle.

Queen Maria was seriously injured and sank, causing the balance to swing for a few minutes, and then magically returned to Campbell's hands. At this time, he ordered the only aircraft carrier with a carrier-borne torpedo aircraft to enter the battle.

12 of the remaining 16 latest British rhododendron torpedo planes took off, and the remaining 4 fell into the sea during takeoff for various reasons. Three of them were later learned that the engine did not start to the maximum horsepower, resulting in insufficient power to fail to take off.

At this time, Campbell had seen the victory. He immediately ordered the aircraft to attack the Nagato with all his strength, because he knew that compared with the two Yanjing-class battleships, the anti-aircraft firepower of Nagato was much weaker. If he could sink or even force the Nagato to withdraw from the battle, then his four battleships could complete the two Yan. The siege of the Beijing level.

If it hadn't been for the shrill screams of the night and howling of ghosts and wolves, he might have become the commander of the third Xinhua capital ship to sink (two losses in the imperial counterattack were considered to be sunk by the Ally) since the beginning of the war.

The second attack brigade of the aircraft carrier Wei finally arrived at the battlefield after being late for 7 minutes.

When Meng Xiaodong flew to the aircraft carrier 80 kilometers away from the battlefield without stopping for a moment, the first night owl had already pulled the sounder.

According to the post-war analysis, the second attack brigade made a mistake at that time. The Dragon Wings targeted the first two British and American aircraft carriers on the periphery behind the battleships!

The reason why it is not a mistake is that according to the order of sea battle of the Imperial Royal Navy, the first one is the enemy aircraft carrier, so it is right to attack the aircraft carrier first. The mistake was because the second attack brigade did not have much ammunition at that time, and attacking the aircraft carrier first would make it impossible to deal with the four battleships.

But it was not until later that everyone became clear that the British and American aircraft carriers did not have the ability to land at night at all, that is to say, it was a wave. After taking off at night, they were either forced to land or find an island. They did not have the ability to fight back again at all, and the British and American aircraft carriers were extremely uncoordinated, and the Hornets were also in terms of camel battle opportunities. After being slaughtered, many captains simply cancelled the fighters and filled them with torpedo planes.

These two motherships are the representatives. There is nothing on the ship at this moment, but the dragon wings do not know that they are worried that the second aircraft will launch a second wave of attack when it comes back, so the remaining 8 night owls and 12 dragon teeth have locked the first target on the aircraft carrier.

The wide deck is almost the best target for dive bombers, and the British and American simple aircraft carriers do not have much air defense strength. Therefore, when the six night owls completed the dive bombing, there was a raging fire on the wooden deck of the two aircraft carriers, and then they were hit by several fish thorns in a row, and eventually all sank.

Probably because of the anger after being fooled before, the remaining two night owls were aimed at the Catherine the Great. After two perfect dives, the hull of the Catherine the Great, which had weak air defense capabilities, raised a lot of white fog, which was a special scene after the power module was hit.

It was later confirmed that 12 of the 20 boilers on the Catherine the Great were killed by 250 kilograms of armor-piercing bullets, and the speed dropped sharply to 8 knots.

When he heard the unique scream of the night owl, Campbell's heart shivered as Sa Zhenbing said. After knowing that it was impossible to win, he simply gave up the fight and immediately ordered to turn off all light sources, accelerate the deck to extinguish the fire, and release smoke to the Virgin Islands.

The order was simple but troublesome to execute, because the Ekaterina the Great, which caught fire, flashed into a super light bulb when all the lights were out, shining in the black smoke all over the sky, and was finally hit by six fish sashimi and sank 21 nautical miles north of Puerto Rico.

When Meng Xiaodong arrived at the war zone 40 minutes later, the sea was already black and foggy. In the end, everyone had no choice but to take out several enemy destroyers and light cruisers that were being chased by destroyers.

The naval battle of Puerto Rico ended at 23:25. Although Jelico attracted all the attack aircraft of the Fifth Task Force and pulled out a gap for Campbell, he still underestimated the air defense capabilities of Xinhua fighters and ships. More than 100 Dujuan and Curtis torpedo planes sank only one old-fashioned patrol. The Western ships and four destroyers failed to hit the capital ships as hard as they imagined, which eventually led to Campbell's forced to carry out a traditional artillery battle.

Campbell was a fierce general under equal circumstances and a deserter again at a disadvantage. Even the British navy itself later said that if Campbell fought to the death after the enemy's second attack group of attack, he would sink at least one or two enemy capital ships.

But Campbell did not dare to fight, because Wei Guohao had begun to recycle the first batch of planes at that time, so he fled back to the Cape Verde base three days later in the Eastern Hidden Province.

The news of the naval battle woke up the leaders of European countries with the telegram. When everyone thought that the British-American Combined Fleet lost its Fifth Fleet on July 9, in exchange for seriously injuring two enemy capital ships and three minor injuries. After sinking five ships, it was far north of the Gulf of Honduras, 900 nautical miles away. Off the sea of the Mexican city of Cestmar at the intersection of Leeds and Mexico, 80 381 mm heavy guns with a maximum range of 32,000 meters were lifted at the same time.

In the bridge of the flagship New Mexico, Ernest. Joseph. Kim didn't know the battle situation 900 nautical miles away, nor did he know that an underwater eye was looking at him a few kilometers away, let alone that the first battleship formation of the Fifth Special Fleet of the Xinhua Empire stationed in Galveston Bay and the second battleship formation in Panama had been moving towards him at the same time.

He didn't know that in the city he was going to shell, there were still 15,000 American citizens who came here from the United States and wanted to go to South America but stayed here because the Caribbean waterway was blocked.

At 23:30, just before the crazy day was about to pass, two water reconnaissance planes sent out light signals as scheduled.

80 L45/381mm naval guns roared at the same time.

(to be continued)