Chapter 551 The Empire's Counterattack

"Quick, turret No. 3!"

"Close the ammunition compartment!"

"Ship bridge, it is recommended to inject water into the ammunition compartment."

"Be careful, everyone, pay attention to the bullets, and rush with me!"

Recalling the thrilling explosion from outside the thick armored wall, Qiming hung up the phone, put on a fireproof mask and put on a helmet. The cat ran to the corridor of the back bridge. Seeing that his pipe damage team was ready, he immediately picked up the water dragon skin pipe, looked at the smoke-filled sea, took two deep breaths and rushed. To the No. 3 turret that has caught fire.

Dandong is a meritorious ship. It has not only participated in the naval battle of Xibilu Island, but also made several achievements, so no one expected that it was himself who was injured first.

The fire has covered the entire No. 3 turret. If the fire continues to spread, it will threaten the ammunition depot below, so he just reported to the bridge and asked to inject water into the ammunition depot.

It is not a trivial matter to inject water into the ammunition compartment, because it will increase the weight of the warship by nearly 100 tons, which will not only affect the balance of the warship, but also lead to the readjustment of gun shooting, but also seriously affect the speed.

But now no one has any other way. The fierce fire shows that the turret should have been filled with shells at that time, which ignited the fast-burning propellant. If the water cannot be injected in time, once the ammunition depot under the turret is affected, it will be a major event of the ship's destruction.

The bridge finally agreed with the captain's suggestion and began to inject water into the No. 3 ammunition depot. At the same time, the water column also rushed out of the leather tube held by Qiming's hand, and aimed at the burning No. 3 turret desperately.

When several water dragons sprayed water on the No. 3 turret crazily, the deck under his feet suddenly shook, and then there was a rumbling sound of gunfire. Everyone looked up and saw that the two triple 254mm naval guns of the bow fired in a volley again. The target was the USS Australia, which had just hit the No. 3 turret.

In order to ensure the safety of the damaged sailors exposed on the rear deck, the Dandong has turned to the enemy with the bow. The advantage of this is that it will not affect the shooting angle of the two turrets of the bow, but also prevent the enemy from continuing to aim at the fire and smoking No. 3 turret.

This is the wisdom of cohesion after many actual combat, not only because it is necessary to provide a safe environment for the personnel on the deck, but also because after any warship catches fire, it will often attract the enemy's continuous attack on the place, and the bow against the enemy can also reduce the area of the bullet.

Of course, this can only be done when cruisers are engaged in battle, because cruisers are more often entangled. If they are replaced by battleships, unless they can't insist that they must leave the team immediately to save themselves, otherwise they can't leave the vital front at will.

So everyone said that the battleships were full of nerves and dared to raise their middle fingers at the roaring shells.

The six main guns of the Dandong bow continued to fire at a speed of one per minute, but the effect was really not very good. In addition to the fact that the hit rate was not high because both sides maintained a distance of 15,000 meters at this time and accelerated to 22 knots, it was also because the 254mm shell was a little light.

Qi Ming didn't know this until the last time he chatted with the old gunner that the weight of the shell was very important.

The greater the weight of the shell, the more stable the flying ammunition, especially when the speed exceeds 20 knots and the distance is more than 10,000 meters, it is crucial to stabilize the trajectory, which is also one of the reasons why countries continue to increase their caliber after entering long-range artillery warfare.

In the naval battle of Sibilou Island that year, none of the Russian [***] ships could reach this speed, so the 254mm gun could maintain good accuracy at the low speed of the ship. At this time, the opponent was two battlecruisers with the fastest speed of 25 knots. Originally The Dalian-class gun is dozens of millimeters smaller than the other side, the shell is nearly 100 kilograms lighter, and it is in a high-speed state, so it is not surprising that the accuracy of the hit has been greatly reduced.

The constantly vibrating deck shows that the gunners have worked hard, but unless it is to slow down or close the distance, the hit rate is really difficult to guarantee, but the problem is that the threat of the opponent's 305mm heavy gun will become greater after the slowdown.

Thinking of this, Qiming turned his head and looked at the lonely Hong Kong surrounded by five armored cruisers in the distance. He couldn't help sighing in his heart. If the Shanghai was also there at this time, the two battlecruisers would probably be worse than the Dandong.

More far away, two Yangtze-class light patrols are besieging and suppressing three British protected cruisers, but no one dares to let them help in such a fierce artillery battle. You know, their armor is not as good as half of that of the Dalian class, and a 254 shell can hit them hard.

As the external fire was extinguished, the water dragon drilled into the turret. When Qiming walked into the turret, he found that the front armor had been cut through a hole, and the inner wall had bursted radially.

Fortunately, the British armor-piercing shells did not have a delay device. After forcibly breaking through the turret, they did not continue to drill down. Otherwise, I am afraid that the ammunition depot would be threatened, but because there was no delay device, the shrapnel and broken inner wall exploded and swept the inside, so the whole artillery comrades-in-arms were torn to pieces by a violent explosion.

"Turtle son!" Qiming's eyes were red, and his fist hit the bulkhead fiercely.

Obviously, this gun can no longer be used, which shows that the reserve gun squad has no hope of revenge, and can only hope for the front main gun that is still firing.

At this moment, a loud noise suddenly came from outside the turret. Qiming was slightly stunned. Was it a successful revenge?!

Thinking of this, he and his friends rushed out of the damaged turret and saw thick smoke rolling up on an armored cruiser surrounding the Hong Kong in the distance. The violent explosion spread from the bow to the stern, flooding the nearly 10,000 tons of warship almost instantly!

"Well done!"

"Kold these turtle sons!"

The sailors waved their fists excitedly. Although this was not the Australian battle patrol that had just hit them, if the Hong Kong could take this opportunity to quickly rush out of the encirclement, the whole situation would change.

But the idea just came up, and everyone was disappointed again, because another fearless British cruiser quickly made up for the gap of its partners and blocked the road to here with its body again!

"Damn it, the commander of the other party is too cunning!" Behind him, a sailor shouted and made everyone nod repeatedly. Obviously, the British commander was a very powerful role. He knew that even if all five armored cruisers were lost, as long as they could sink two Dalian-class ships, the winner of this naval battle would still be Britain!

Just as everyone sighed that the battleship was separated again, an evacuation siren suddenly sounded on the deck, which stunned everyone, because it meant that all non-combatants must evacuate the deck!

Why is this kind of alarm issued at this time?

Just as everyone was stunned, they only saw that the warship suddenly began to deflect, gradually forming parallel to the two British war patrols, and kept approaching!

"I'm going to work hard!"

This kind of maneuver adjustment suddenly made everyone feel that blood suddenly surged into their brains. Although many people did not understand why the Shanghai suddenly chose to fight when it was coming, it is very clear that if they did not return to the thick armor as soon as possible, the secondary guns that began to rage after getting closer would tear themselves apart. People!

"Report, Harbin and Dandong began to move." After the staff reported, he looked at the four cruisers in front of him and asked quietly, "Captain, is it too early? The Shanghai will arrive in an hour, and the destroyer can arrive in 20 minutes at most. In addition, they can also arrive. The staff looked at the fighter hovering outside the porthole.

Ning Xiaochuan waved his hand. He knew that the plane was useful and that the emperor was slowly transforming for the navy, but there was no torpedo light. He could only tickle through his boots, and he was too wrong before.

After the battle, he had been using wandering tactics because of the lack of a battleship. Even if he was surrounded by five cruisers, he was not in a hurry, because he knew that as long as the Shanghai and the destroyer arrived, the battle would be won.

But unexpectedly, Dandong was injured first. The loss of a turret is not very serious, but it is definitely bad news to inject water into the ammunition compartment to suppress explosion, which means that there will be hundreds of tons of seawater in Dandong. In the early mid-term improvement, the speed was barely increased to 25 knots because the hull was too small. Now there are a large number of The ingress of water will inevitably cause the speed to slow down a lot.

Cruisers that have lost their speed are toothless tigers, whether they are heavy patrols or battle patrols, so the battle must be solved as soon as possible, otherwise the two heavy patrols will be in danger.

At this time, he knew that there was still a big gap between himself and Ji Rushan, Le Fei and even the rising star Li Xiuyan. After being promoted from a light cruiser to a battleship, his thoughts had been stuck on the commanding cruiser, and he could never put on the posture of risking his life to fight a decisive battle, even if he was still considering whether to Continue to delay and wait for the arrival of Shanghai.

And Dandong's first hit was undoubtedly a loud slap. He believed that if the first few were there, he would have risked his life to fight fiercely, because he led the battleship!

If the battleship loses its fierceness, it will not be called a battleship!

After the war, many people discussed whether Ning Xiaochuan was under the right command at that time, but many people thought that his strategy was right, because the plan was clear to focus on attacking the enemy's mobile forces, rather than sinking several cruisers, so in the case of one less fast battleship, his delaying tactics were not too wrong. It's just bad luck.

But at this time, Ning Xiaochuan still blamed the Dandong fire on his own conservatism, but it was this sudden awakening that showed the power of the new fast battleship.

Ning Xiaochuan pulled his collar fiercely, and the button cracked and landed on the deck. He looked at the armored cruiser who was desperately blocking him, with a sneer on the corners of his mouth.

What can you do if you understand the tactics of the lower Si to the upper Si in the horse racing story of Dian Tianji? What about being proficient in Chinese culture? In those years, you failed to rob Dutch New Guinea in the naval battle of Sibilu Island, but today you are still doomed to fail!

Because in the face of absolute strength, it is useless to carry Sun Tzu's military tactics well!

"Right rudder!"

"Guns, pay attention to the allocation of firepower channels, and get ready to fight with multiple targets!"

"Navigation, inform all lookouts, pay attention to the torpedoes, all rapid-fire guns are ready to intercept the torpedoes!"

After giving a series of orders, Ning Xiaochuan looked at his watch, then suddenly leaned forward and held the armrest: "Go up and let them see how we did!"

"Yes!"

With the officers shouting in unison, the depression after the battle was suddenly swept away. The Hong Kong instantly became like a grinning Velociraptor. The hull of more than 26,000 tons suddenly shook, and the four steam turbines in the power compartment roared wildly, raising the fastest speed in just a few minutes.

The Hong Kong, which suddenly accelerated and rushed, stunned the four surrounded cruisers one after another, but before they could figure out why the opponent who had kept a distance suddenly died, the dense shells had fallen.

"One, two artillery squad, Nepal!"

"Cannon Class 3, Sparta!"

In the shouting of the gunnery, the three triple turrets rotated rapidly, and the turrets that had just been consistent began to stagger to both sides. With the shock of the hull, nine L50/305mm heavy guns roared to both sides at the same time, and a group of shining turrets kept exploding on both sides of the hull.

The sudden outbreak of the Hong Kong caught the British cruisers off guard. The first thing they suffered was the Nepal, which was aimed at by two main guns. This 9,000-ton armored cruiser adheres to the British cruiser tradition. It has only two single 234mm main guns, but it has a large number of 152mm rapid-fire guns and a large range. Force.

This configuration used to be definitely a good warship for global patrols and escorts, but at this time, the weakness of too few main guns was exposed. In the face of the Yanjing, which was armed to the teeth and suddenly burst out, it had no power to fight back at all.

In just the third round, the fast approaching Hong Kong made a cross-fire, and then a 305mm armor-piercing shell successfully penetrated into its stern. The power of the delay fuse was fully exerted. The thin 150mm armor could not stop the tearing of the armor-piercing shell at all the way. The shell not only broke through the main armor belt, but also all the way He broke through three compartments one after another, and finally crashed into the most critical dome and entered the power module.

12 kg of TNT exploded and expanded from the center of the shell, and scattered shrapnel swept across the huge reciprocating steam engine, not only making a jingling noise, but also instantly destroying the weak gears and other components. Then the expanded smoke suddenly rose and roared out along the hole along the way.

In the blink of an eye, a flame rushed out of the stern of the Nepal, and the power of the heavy armor-piercing shell was undoubtedly revealed. It not only drilled through the armor with a total thickness of 270 mm, but also made Nepal lose its speed in one fell swoop.

After seeing the black smoke from the Nepal, the gun commander did not use the traditional artillery tactics to strengthen the wound, but quickly turned the meritorious No. 2 turret to the other side, and once again concentrated six main guns to bombard the second target Sparta.

As the distance continued to get closer, the shells began to become more and more accurate. After two rounds, the No. 1 turret pointing to Nepal was meritorious again. At a distance of 8,000 meters, three armor-piercing shells almost at the same time, the waterline entered the hull along the main armor belt, which was the reason why Nepal really sank in the end.

No matter which country's design, the armor is one of the most concentrated places, because there are vital boilers here.

Three armor-piercing bullets rushed into the boiler chamber at the same time, which was fatal to the warship. When the shell penetrated several boilers all the way or even torn directly, the hot steam mixed with the explosion, killing all the British sailors in the area in an instant.

In addition to the explosion of the boiler and the leakage of steam, the Nepal wing was also torn through three shocking cracks. A huge amount of seawater was poured into the hull, and the deck began to tilt rapidly. Finally, the British captain had to pour water to the other side before it barely floated on the sea.

At this time, it was only five minutes after Ning Xiaochuan's decisive battle.

After seeing the tragedy of Nepal, the gun commander who commanded the artillery battle immediately gave up the cruiser, which was doomed to sink, and aimed all the muzzles at the second target, Sparta.

The continuous explosions on the partners made the other three cruisers shocked. The sailors went crazy and poured all the shells on the Hong Kong, which was also crazy like a bull.

Although these rains, mainly composed of 152mm guns, could not really hurt the Hong Kong, due to the rapid proximity, it still caused a lot of damage to the underprotected superstructure.

At this time, the Hong Kong deputy gunners who killed the red eyes almost poured shells on the other side against the rain of bullets. The 130mm naval gun was equipped with semi-armor-piercing shells, and its power was greatly increased, and it could even penetrate the opponent's 152mm main armor belt at a distance of 10,000 meters.

A regiment exploded and exploded from the Hong Kong and three British cruisers at the same time. This kind of tragedy made the pilots in the eight bumblebees on standby in the sky all congested. It was the first time for these proud sons of heaven to see such a fierce artillery battle, and some people were even about to bite their teeth. If it weren't for the dragon tooth attack aircraft. I believe that they will not sit back and watch their partners torn apart by the roaring shells.

But no matter how fierce the second gun is, it is the main gun that will finally solve the problem!

The cold bow hit the waves and quickly rushed to the front of the No. 3 and No. 4 target armored cruisers that were ready to cross the door. Seeing that the distance had entered within 10,000 meters, if they did not turn, they would probably repeat the scene of Havana overseas.

But is it a war at this time? Once the bow is seriously damaged, I'm afraid I will lose my speed and become a lamb to be slaughtered.

Just as everyone's eyes were focused on Ning Xiaochuan, he suddenly shouted: "The rudder on the right!"

Hearing the sound, the helmsman suddenly hit the steering wheel to the bottom, and the Hong Kong began to tilt to the right sharply. At this time, the main gun could not fire except for a few secondary guns, so the whole warship was baptized and was washed with shells from head to toe by the remaining three British cruisers.

But this is only the last achievement of the British cruiser captains. When the Hong Kong quickly regained its balance, the two herringbone-shaped cross-blocked cruisers had been exposed to the muzzle of the nine main guns that had turned to the left.

"Fire!"

In the roar of the gun commander, the deck shook violently, and tens of thousands of tons of bodies moved horizontally for several meters.

The distance of 8 kilometers made the nine main guns fully play a tyrannical side. In the first round, they hit the No. 3 target St. George, but it was a luck bullet in the second round that caused fatal damage to the sister ship of the same class as Nepal.

This shell hit by the No. 2 turret has actually deviated from the target and landed on the sea 15 meters away from the St. George. However, because it was a delayed fuse, the armor-piercing shell did not explode immediately, but with the help of buoyancy after drilling into the bottom of the sea, it turned around and penetrated. The torpedo protective wall under the main armor belt.

The armor-piercing shell that can't be blocked by the main armor belt, and the torpedo protective wall is even less likely to block such a violent attack. Even if the barrier of seawater leads to a great reduction in penetration, this near-lost bullet still penetrated the bottom of the ship and exploded in the ballast water-tight cabin.

Water is incompressible, so the explosion in the sea will produce a violent cavity effect, which is why the torpedo makes the navy smell so strange. Although this armor-piercing shell is not as powerful as a torpedo, the sea water in the ballast tank still expands rapidly after being squeezed, directly tearing the penetrating wound. A few meters.

A hole with a diameter of several meters in the bottom of the ship announced the death penalty of St. George. When the fourth round of s shot, its hull was violently disconnected from the middle, like the sharp arrow in the dragon claw section of the flying blood cloud dragon claw flag.

Eleven minutes!

Two cruisers sank and crippled, which made Seymour's eyes, who was leading the two war patrols to bombard the Dalian-class heavy patrol, fall out. He never thought that the battlecruiser in the name of battleships in the Xinhua Royal Navy would be so powerful, and he didn't expect that the commander of the other side would suddenly explode.

The former commander of the Far East Fleet once saw that Xinhua would seize Dutch Guinea in the Battle of Sibiru Island and sent cruisers to fight for it, but he failed to succeed because he was a step slower. Therefore, he has been studying his opponents since that time. After many years of summary, he is very clear that if he wants to defeat Xinhua, he must There is a price to pay!

The Dalian-class heavy patrol may not be the most brilliant in the Xinhua Navy, but it is very important for the Nanyang Fleet (note, the second fleet is called internally), especially because their Pacific Fleet has added four Hebei-class battleships in a row, so after handing over the two Dalian-class to the Nanyang Fleet, it has four Dalians. The mobility of the New China Southern Ocean Fleet of the class and two Yanjing-class war patrols (both Britain and the United States think that Yanjing-class is a war patrol) is much stronger, so if two Dalian-class and that Yanjing-class can be killed here, the mobility of the New China South-Ocean Fleet will be reduced by half!

Originally, this was an excellent opportunity, because he didn't know why the other party did not bring a fast destroyer, which gave himself a good opportunity to block the battleship. He only needed to solve the two Dalian-class as soon as possible, and then he could quickly turn around and attack.

Even if you pay all five armored cruisers, the price is only worth it!

But he never thought that the battlecruiser was so powerful. Obviously, its superstructure had been beaten like a dog by its own armored cruisers, but the main armor belt and important parts were not damaged at all. Could it be said that it has a speed of at least 27 knots while the armor can maintain the battleship? The thickness?

This is impossible?!

Seymour really wanted to turn around with two war patrols to intercept the furious Xinhua war patrol, but at this time he couldn't stop.

With the two Dalian-class heavy patrols taking the initiative to close the distance to 12,000 meters, the battle situation has almost solidified in an instant. This distance means that both sides can cause fatal damage to each other, so he must try his best to deal with the opponent in front of him.

Seymour clenched his fists. These two heavy patrols were too difficult to deal with. They did not have advantages in equipment, but they made up for them with excellent soldier quality and experience. For example, the one that was just hit turned to the bow immediately after the fire, covering the ignition point of the stern, making the gunner We lost the best coordinates.

And now, they seem to be crazy, and the roaring frequency of the 254mm naval gun has greatly exceeded his imagination.

Just as he was thinking about how to quickly solve the quick turn of the two heavy patrols, the good news finally came. Australia made contributions again. A 305mm shell hit the position of the Dandong No. 3 turret that had just been damaged again. This time, it did not hit the turret but plunged into the horizontal deck outside the turret, although However, it failed to penetrate the other party's power module in the end, but the explosion under the turret was very violent, and it directly lifted the turret base.

Then the second shell hit its stern line, causing its stern to start to enter water quickly. Coupled with the sea water previously injected into the ammunition compartment, the speed of Dandong quickly dropped to 18 knots.

At the same time, the flagship inscrucibility also completed a key blow. Two 305mm shells passed through the bow of another heavy cruiser at the same time, lifting half of the other side's bow, and the sea began to spread in.

At the same time, he hit the other side's two heavy patrols, so that Seymour saw the opportunity to win back the unfavorable situation, and immediately ordered to close the distance again in an attempt to completely solve the opponent's problem by taking advantage of the other party's deceleration.

But he may never have thought that it was this order that caused the Australia to stay at the bottom of the sea.

20 minutes after Ning Xiaochuan ordered a strong attack, USS Australia took the lead in making contributions to completely solve Dandong, but unexpectedly, the two main guns of the bow of the USS Dandong fired a perfect volley, and three armor-piercing bullets penetrated into the body of USS Australia at the same time.

Although the 254mm armor-piercing ammunition is only 8 kg, the armor-piercing power and the 305mm brothers on the Hong Kong can't be the same (because 254 was not a capital ship gun at that time, it was a transitional model, so it did not deliberately improve the deconstruction and rifuge, and the caliber power was not fully exerted), but one of them was still The work penetrated the thin armored belt and drilled into the boiler compartment and exploded. Although the tireless class (Australia and New Zealand both belong to this level of war patrol) adopted the power compartment design, it still caused 8 boilers to lose their function, making the speed quickly drop to 16 knots.

At this time, four fierce figures suddenly appeared on the sea where the visibility was greatly reduced after the thick smoke. After seeing the four destroyers finally arrived, Ning Xiaochuan seemed to be weak and immediately ordered a torpedo attack to protect the heavy patrol retreat.

The speed of 37 knots made the Weiqing-class destroyer have the ability to be stunned by this era. While the Australian barely hit Dandong again, the four destroyers have been inserted between the two sides at high speed and quickly hit forty spear II torpedoes.

Forty torpedoes with a speed of 43 knots and a maximum range of 6,000 meters did scare Seymour. He almost stood in the bridge one by one with the captains skillfully to avoid them. Although the inseverance finally avoided all the torpedoes, the Australia, which had slowed down and was taken care of, was not so good. Yes, although the captain tried his best to fire with a quick-fire gun, three torpedoes broke through the blockade and hit the battlecruiser with a displacement of 20,000 tons.

The 450kg-loaded Spear Type 2 torpedo is not as perverted as the Type 3 oxygen torpedo in the final secret test, but it is fatal to the war patrol with thin skin and large filling and weak armor protection.

The huge water mass, which suddenly broke out from the bottom of the water, was wrapped in the huge tear produced by the explosion. Unexpectedly, the hull of the USS Australia was completely out of the sea. Before falling, the hull was suddenly broken into three pieces. In the end, no one more than 900 officers and soldiers on the whole warship escaped.

Seymour stared at the break of the Australian, and only felt that he was beginning to feel cold all over. Especially when he saw the ship suddenly lose his temper and changed the situation, the Xinhua War Patrol, which was on fire, began to run at a speed of at least 27 knots. Without thinking about it, he did not return to Australia, but to South Africa's order to retreat.

This order saved the insevere. If he fled to Australia, Ning Xiaochuan may continue to pursue, but it penetrated into the Indian Ocean, which is the British sphere of influence, so that the latter has to consider the loss once he continues to pursue.

Because the two heavy patrols are injured at this moment, especially whether the Dandong can go back is still a problem. The destroyer also ran for more than an hour in a row, and the power group was overloaded. In addition, the loading of torpedoes at sea needs to slow down and remain stable. In addition, there is not only the British fleet in the direction of South Africa, but also on the island of Madagascar. A small French fleet, so he finally had to order to stop the pursuit.

"Report."

"The Third Huffle Fleet War Report, sank the battlecruiser Australia, sank four armored cruisers, four protective cruisers, the inscruisers in the enemy and the armored cruiser Hawke entered the Indian Ocean and fled in the direction of South Africa."

"Shanghai, Harbin is slightly injured, Dandong is being rescued, and nothing else is lost."

After narrating the content of the report, the hatchway of the command tower, which had been closed for several hours, finally opened. Ning Xiaochuan walked to the deck, looked at the broken deck, and lighted a cigarette with his slightly trembling right hand.

The two light cruisers that killed the four British protective cruisers in the distance began to approach the British cruisers that had not yet sunk and began to rescue the prisoners. This is the practice of the navy. In addition to the Japanese in those years, almost all the enemy naval sailors were respected by Xinhua. Of course, they must also The special prisoner-of-war camp waited until the end of the war.

Looking at the Shanghai rushing with thick smoke dozens of nautical miles away, Ning Xiaochuan pinched his eyebrows. This was not an excellent naval battle. In fact, if it hadn't been for his hesitation, if it hadn't been for the huge advantage and explosive attack power of the first revealing fast battleship, he would have almost lost the naval battle. .

At this time, he couldn't help thinking of the other two naval battles across the big island of Australia. He didn't know what happened to Xiao Tianzhi and Gu Junhuo, the two guys who also commanded the formation for the first time. He hoped that they would not hand over their bleak war report.

(to be continued)