Before the two task force ground bombers reached the target, the third task force had reached the outside of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and was lined up, waiting for the moment when the battle began.

Haiti was the first independent republic in the Americas, and the country that was enslaved by Spain and France was freed from French rule in the early 19th century and established a republic. But Haiti didn't really gain independence because of this. Port-au-Prince is still home to French warships, and the country has been the scene of several major wars in its 100-year history, before being occupied by the United States after World War I. At this time, Port-au-Prince was a standard military port, and after the defeat of France, the American army took over Port-au-Prince, and all the French ships that did not surrender to the Central Powers were concentrated here.

"General, the seaplane has departed."

Chang Zhixin glanced at the reconnaissance planes that had just taken off from the battleship." Get ready for battle, the time is almost up, and as soon as the seaplane determines the direction of the target, the shelling begins! ”

Five large battleships were on the front line, and the cruiser formation and destroyer formation did not keep up for the time being. Unlike the last bombardment of Panama City, Port-au-Prince is a fortified port. The U.S. military deployed a large number of ground defense artillery here in a few months, and even released the French sailors who had been concentrated in the detention area. Chang Jiexin had already obtained information at that time, the American and French armies had increased their defensive level, and it was quite good for the fleet to be able to approach Port-au-Prince under the cover of night, and it was necessary for the battleships to destroy the enemy's defensive base first, and then let the cruisers and destroyers go up. Finally, the U.S. and French fleets in the interior of the port were defeated.

The roar of the nine main guns of the "Nanning" broke the silence of the ground before dawn, and immediately after, the guns of the other four battleships also burst into flames. The first round of shelling was basically tentative, and the main goal was to accurately map the impact point so that the subsequent shelling would be more accurate.

Distance. The seaplanes that had already flown over the harbor first dropped flares, and then the shells smashed into the US ground and shore defense artillery positions. The officer of the seaplane ground gun school quickly calculated the ground offset distance of the projectile point, and told the battleship ground gun commander through the radio that the ground shelling parameters needed to be modified.

Two minutes later, before the U.S. military counterattack was organized. Five battleships fired a second salvo, each against one target, capable of destroying five shore gun positions at once. This round of ground shelling was much more accurate, almost all of the ground artillery shells fell within the accurate range, and the US artillery positions deployed north of Port-au-Prince were immediately enveloped in a sea of fire.

The shelling continues. After the battleship formation turned, it began shelling the American artillery positions south of the harbor. The U.S. forces also responded, and from time to time shells fell on the sea near the battleship, but the U.S. counterattack was very weak and lacked sufficient accuracy to pose a threat to the battleship.

Chang Jianxin has been using binoculars to observe the battle ahead. Within fifteen minutes, the U.S. artillery positions were largely destroyed. The battleship is extremely powerful in firing huge bombs, even more powerful than all aerial bombs.

"Let the cruiser go up." Chang Jianxin put down the binoculars, "The destroyer doesn't need to be on for the time being, in addition, contact the other ships, we should attack those French warships in the interior of the port."

After the battleship formation successfully suppressed the American ground and shore defense artillery at a long distance, the cruiser formation rushed forward and continued to suppress the American ground and shore defense artillery positions, and dealt with the American artillery hidden in the permanent fortifications one by one. As a matter of fact. After the destruction of the US ground and shore defense artillery positions, it is difficult for the US ground artillery to pose a threat to the warships on the sea. The battleship's ground guns have a range of about 20 nautical miles when striking on the ground, and the heavy guns on the cruisers can also shoot shells, while the range of the ground guns deployed by the US troops in the permanent fortifications is less than 10 nautical miles.

"General. The bomber group is approaching."

Chang recommended the new this is nodding. He opened fire ten minutes earlier than the scheduled time, and the 1st Task Force ground bombers arrived ten minutes later than the scheduled time, resulting in a 20° clock time difference. These bombers were going to deal with the U.S. airfield in the middle of Hispaniola. And not to bomb Port-au-Prince. Chang Jianxin was a little worried that the bomber group would not be able to arrive at the airfield in time to starve, maybe the US military fighters had already taken off. Maybe the American anti-aircraft guns are ready . But now he didn't have time to worry about the ground bomber group of the 1st Task Force. He was first worried about the French warships in the harbor.

At the time of the surrender of France to Germany, there were a large number of French warships in the Atlantic. Mediterranean Operations. Most of these warships did not surrender to Germany, but left the front line under the "escort" of the British and American navies, first to French ports in the Caribbean, and finally to Port-au-Prince. In order to prevent the French sailors from mutiny, after the US military took control of Haiti, the French sailors were put under centralized custody, or house arrest, and even some senior officers and generals were put under house arrest by the US military. It was not until the Tang Imperial Navy reached Panama and occupied the Panama Canal that the American military realized that they did not have a strong enough fleet in the Caribbean to deal with the Tang Imperial fleet that came from afar. It was in this context that the U.S. military took into account the French warships in Port-au-Prince.

Most of these French battleships, which had been parked in Port-au-Prince for nearly a year, could not be started immediately, and some of the important spare parts on the battleships, such as the main guns on cruisers and battleships, were removed. It was used as a shore defense gun. In addition, the fleet was also short of ammunition, and for several months the US military has been trying to restore this fleet to combat effectiveness. The ships could be repaired, but the United States did not have enough sailors to control them, and the American naval officers and men were not very familiar with the French ships. As a result, the U.S. military had to release the French naval officers and men who had been placed under house arrest and signed a "contract" with the French officers and men to continue to use the warships, and the U.S. Navy to bear the cost of their personnel and supplies.

It was by no means an easy task to restore the combat effectiveness of these French "legacy" ships. If you don't say anything else, it's hard to find the main guns on those battleships. Moreover, the caliber of the main artillery ground is not unified with that of the US Navy, how to solve the ammunition problem? Many warships do not even have the ability to sail out of the port, how can they still carry out combat missions? In any case, this fleet is a threat, and it may not be very dangerous to the First Fleet, but it can pose a great threat to landing fleets and convoys that lack cover. Therefore, when Tan Renhao planned to enter the Caribbean, he put the destruction of the French fleet in the interior of Port-au-Prince in the first place.

Bombers are definitely the most effective force against warships in the interior of the port. This has been proven many times in previous battles. The problem is that Task Force 1 and Task Force 2 need to deal with more than a dozen airfields deployed by U.S. forces in the Caribbean. It is not enough to send all the bombers out, how can there be any strength to organize bombers against the inland fleet in Port-au-Prince? If the movement is slow, the French fleet is likely to leave Port-au-Prince and go to another port in the Petite Andrés Islands. Leave the First Fleet Air Force ground strike range and then come out against the transport convoy . The consequences would be unimaginable.

Chang Zhixin offered to shell Port-au-Prince and use the ground cannons of Task Force 3 to destroy the French battleships. In desperation, Tan Renhao had no choice but to adopt this suggestion, and in order to ensure the safety of the Third Task Force, the First Task Force will dispatch bombers to blow up the US airfield on the nearby islands and seize air supremacy, so that the Third Task Force can bombard Port-au-Prince with peace of mind without worrying about whether US bombers will appear overhead.

"General, a message from the bombers swarm. The US ground bombers have taken off, asking us to be vigilant, and the escort fighters are pursuing the US bombers."

"Let the cruiser formations withdraw and switch to air defense operations." Chang Jianxin has long expected this." Battleship formations continued to shell battleships in the interior of the harbor. The destroyer formation should withdraw to the outside of Gonave Island first, don't crowd into the bay! ”

The fleet quickly adjusted, the destroyer formation was quickly withdrawn, and the cruiser formation returned to the rear of the battleship formation. After the air defense battle alarm was issued, all the warships' ground radars closely monitored the surrounding ground sky. And the barrels of the anti-aircraft guns, which had not worked before, also raised their heads, staring at every plane in the sky.

Chang Jianxin did not give the order to stop the shelling. Those French battleships were hiding from the shelling in the narrow harbor, if he stopped now. The enemy will counterattack, and in the battleship ground artillery battle, it is necessary to press the enemy to fight, not to give the enemy a chance to breathe, as long as the enemy is pressed to fight, then the French battleship on the ground cannon can not pose a threat to the third task force ground battleship.

"General, we hit a battleship!"

Chang Zhixin just nodded slightly, this is a battle without any fairness. After the defeat of the French expeditionary fleet, there were no decent warships left in the French Navy . Originally, the French Navy's ground battleships were inferior to the Imperial Navy in terms of performance, and now it is often recommended to use five of the most powerful "New Provincial Capital" class to bombard Port-au-Prince, can those French battleships that are almost paralyzed in the harbor still make any decent resistance?

"General, we hit a cruiser . The target is exploding and sinking."

Chang Jiexin picked up the binoculars, and in the harbor, a cruiser that had not had time to rush onto the shallows was burning, and it was still exploding violently. The shell must have hit the cruiser's vital parts. Probably near the ■ section, it went straight through the sea, hit the battleship below the waterline, and exploded inside the ship. For that cruiser, the blow was so brutal that even the battleship could not withstand a massive armor-piercing projectile hitting directly below the waterline. Not to mention a cruiser with a displacement of no more than a few thousand tons .

The other four battleships also sent reports one after another, and the accuracy of the battleship's ground shelling was quite high when striking the almost stationary French battleships. None of the five battleships used radar to guide the shelling, and the shelling parameters were provided by the lookouts, as well as the forward ground artillery school aircraft, which was much more accurate than radar guidance.

"General, the unidentified aircraft group is rapidly approaching."

Chang Zhixin put down the binoculars." Have you asked? ”

Members hand-played

"I asked, but the other party didn't answer."

"Prepare for air defense operations. The formation continues to maintain the current route, the speed is increased to 24, pay attention to the course when and when turning, don't huddle together! ”

The distance between the five battleships quickly widened, and the cruisers located to the west of the formation also quickly dispersed. The battleships are speeding up, which reduces the accuracy of the main artillery ground shelling, but when facing the bomber ground, the battleship must sail as high speed as possible, so as to effectively avoid the bomber ground attack.

There were not many U.S. bombers on arrival, and there were a large number of "peregrine falcons" chasing these U.S. bombers who came to attack the 3rd Task Force. For the officers and men of the 3rd Task Force, this was almost an air defense combat training. U.S. bombers are their ideal targets. During the battle, the anti-aircraft gunners even had time to distinguish between friend and foe and try to avoid shooting down their own fighters.

Fifteen minutes later, the American bomber group was routed, and only one cruiser was strafed by the American troops, killing four anti-aircraft gunners and wounding more than a dozen others, while the other ships suffered no casualties.

"Keep the shelling, let the cruisers go up too, all ships floating on the surface of the sea are within the striking range." Chang Jianxin gave the final order to fight.

The fleet regrouped again, and the cruisers were killed in small groups of three, and then the destroyers, which had previously withdrawn to the outskirts, were also killed, and the area of shelling soon spread from the port to the city, and Port-au-Prince was soon enveloped in fire.

Chang Jianxin didn't stop other warships from firing at the city, anyway, there were a lot of U.S. troops living there, so how many could be killed. The shelling continued from before dawn until noon. By the end of the bombardment, the whole of Port-au-Prince was in ruins, not a single ship was still able to float on the sea, and even those that had washed up on the beach at the beginning of the battle had been blown to scrap metal by shells.

After thinking that it was almost over, Chang Zhixin ordered the fleet to withdraw from the battle. After nearly six hours of shelling, Task Force 3 had consumed a third of its ammunition, and before heading to the landing grounds, they needed to go to the Swan Islands anchorage to rendezvous with the supply fleet and replenish the fleet. Chang Jiexin was very satisfied with the shelling, and in his opinion, a few hours of shelling was enough to withstand several days of bombing.