Early in the morning, in the waters northeast of Wonsan Port, the large cruiser "Kirov", which was the most suitable for maritime assault ships in the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, writhed desperately while firing wildly into the air with the ship's large and small anti-aircraft guns, and the attacker was the Japanese naval aviation, which the crew was most reluctant to encounter—these air samurai had first-class piloting skills and considerable experience in naval warfare, and from the armistice in 1937 to the beginning of 1942, they were re-involved in the Russo-Japanese War. With the birth of the Type 99 carrier-based bomber and the Type Zero carrier-based fighter, especially the emergence of the latter, the strength of the Japanese naval aviation has steadily stepped up to a new level. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

After successfully sinking two Japanese light ships, the "Kirov" shelled the Korean port of Wonsan, where the Japanese troops were stationed, as planned, and then quickly withdrew to the northeast. Just as the Russian warship was moving at full speed, a Zero fighter with a simple silhouette and a light attitude spotted it, and in less than 30 minutes, 16 carrier-based attack planes flew in from the southeast and launched an attack on the "Kirov" without hesitation.

As a result, this Soviet and Russian cruiser fired at the air with all its might, and at the same time fought the kung fu of Ling Bo Weibu. Under the guidance of the optical sights, the anti-aircraft fire on the ship roared furiously, the rate of fire of the single 100 mm guns and the twin 37 mm guns had been raised to the limit, the four 20 mm machine guns scrambled to spray long tongues of fire, and strings of dark red guns and shells filled any airspace where enemy planes were approaching......

In the line of sight, the eight 99 ships carrying aerial bombs under their bellies exploded in groups of twos and twos, buzzing like flies staring at food, and their flight altitude was more than 2,000 meters, which was difficult for small-caliber air defense weapons to reach, and it was difficult for large-caliber artillery to accurately capture their movements. When the sustained anti-aircraft fire of the Soviet and Russian warships weakened, they lost no time in diving down. Although the normal bomb load of this new carrier-based aircraft is only 250 kilograms, and the bomb load is not even as good as the Ju-17 that the Germans put into production more than 20 years ago, they are superior in fast flight speed and high bombing accuracy, and with the continuous improvement of ammunition technology, the power of aerial bombs of the same weight has increased by more than 60% compared with 1934.

The Soviet and Russian officers and men on the "Kirov," together with Rear Admiral Kane, a special military adviser specially appointed by the Soviet Russian government, quickly saw the power of the 99 shipbuilding. Four groups of carrier-based bombers took turns to dive down, bravely and cunningly penetrated the anti-aircraft fire network of the Soviet and Russian warships, and smashed the black bombs one after another, and the slender "Kirov" had to struggle to pass through the columns of water stirred up by the bombs. Since joining the war, the raiding ship commanded by Colonel Cherov has encountered several air attacks by enemy fighters, but they have been evaded by relying on high-speed maneuvering tactics, and the battleship has suffered only minor injuries in front and behind, and has lost more than 10 officers and men. This time, the good fortune seemed to have come to an end, and in less than a minute and a half of time, the battleship ate two near-misses, and many crew members were killed in the anti-aircraft gun emplacements alone......

As soon as the 99 ship-based attack ended, eight Type 97 carrier-based attack planes loaded with torpedoes also launched an attack in pairs, and they swayed left and right at a low altitude several tens of meters above sea level to evade anti-aircraft fire. At this moment, whether it is the officers and sailors watching the battle on the bridge and deck, or the gunners fighting on the antiaircraft gun position, they all hope to shoot down these slow targets as soon as possible, but the ship-based anti-aircraft artillery under the command of the Russian-made fire control system has not played much more efficient than in the usual training and exercises, hundreds of antiaircraft shells and bullets have been fired into the air, but not a single Japanese fighter plane has been shot down.

The Kirov class, which has been strengthened by air defense, is ultimately superior in firepower to those companions who have been cruising in the northern seas all year round, and the Japanese pilots have played the trick of stepping on the blade with their superb skills, but they have also been unable to find the best attack position under the hindrance of the opponent's artillery fire. As time passed, the enemy's anti-aircraft fire did not weaken, but the fuel on board was not enough for them to carry the 850-kilogram torpedo to continue to wander here. Soon after, a group of 97 ships dropped torpedoes more than 2,000 meters away on the port side of the battleship, and these torpedoes had the same graceful posture as a swimmer, and the white splash made every opponent nervous.

"Left full rudder! Turn to 30! Colonel Cherov shouted with all his might.

"Left full rudder! Turn to 30! The first mate immediately repeated, the alarm bell sounded in the ship, and in a short time, the 10,000-ton hull leaned to one side at high speed, and the sharp bow cut a deep hole in the overlapping sea surface to show its good maneuverability.

"A torpedo was found on the starboard side! Distance 2000! ”

The shouts of the lookouts attracted people's attention from the port side of the battleship to the other side, and it turned out that while the battleship was busy avoiding the attack of the first group of torpedo planes, another group of 97 ships quietly launched their torpedoes from the opposite direction, and the white wave marks produced by the high-speed movement of the torpedoes were clearly visible on the sea surface 2,000 meters away, and they attacked the turning Soviet and Russian warships at a very fast speed.

At this moment, a 97 ship's attack, which had just finished throwing a torpedo and was turning in the starboard direction, was suddenly hit by the ship's antiaircraft artillery fire, and the attacker in the air suddenly lost control, and before its engine could stop, its fuselage rolled and fell into the sea at a small angle. The 3-ton torpedo machine smashed a water column on the sea that was much higher than when the torpedo entered the water, but the Soviet and Russian crews had no time to celebrate at this time, although this attack ship had a more sophisticated anti-sinking design than ordinary cruisers, but it was not used to compete with enemy torpedoes since its inception - even if a torpedo is not sinkable, it is inevitable that the navigation ability will be greatly damaged, which is absolutely fatal for a warship with surface attack as its combat mission.

In the era before the development of electronic computers, when enemy planes dropped torpedoes nearby, officers did not have enough time to accurately calculate how to avoid the opposing party, and the commander's personal experience and intuitive judgment were particularly important. The experienced Major General Kane quickly gave advice based on the distance and trajectory of the two groups of torpedoes: "Turn right with full rudders, two compass points, and then return to the rudder forward!" ”

Colonel Cherov had no reason to doubt the intentions of the foreign partner, and he immediately accepted the suggestion and gave the order to the first mate at the helm. As a result, the slender battleship had just recovered from turning to one side at full speed, and then fell back into a state of leaning to the other side. If you stand at a high altitude, you will notice that its wake is a large and irregular S, and it is this curve that allows it to successfully avoid all the torpedoes that come its way, and even the closest one to it glides over the surface of the sea twenty or thirty meters away.

After surviving the life-and-death situation, hundreds of crew members finally breathed a sigh of relief. Colonel Cherov and Rear Admiral Kane looked at each other with relief, but the report from the radar room immediately pulled everyone back from heaven to this purgatory battlefield - the radar detected two enemy ships approaching from the east, and their positions were very good for intercepting the "Kirov".

The officers on the bridge subconsciously raised their binoculars, but they could not see the trace of the enemy ship in their sight, not even the column of smoke. At the same time, more than 20 nautical miles away, the Japanese heavy cruiser "Sanzao" was ejecting a biplane on board the ship, and I saw that this two-seater water reconnaissance plane flew several tens of meters low at the altitude of the sea, and then slowly climbed up, and flew westward, and within a single cigarette of smoke, the pilot of the reconnaissance plane reported to the "Sanzao" by radio: "Twenty-six nautical miles west of the mothership, an enemy ship was discovered, smoke was coming out of the front of the hull, the speed was about 25 knots, and the course was 45 degrees north-east. ”

The "Sanya" immediately replied: "Carry out close reconnaissance of enemy ships and report the situation at any time." ”

Immediately afterwards, the "Sanjia" sent a flag signal to the accompanying wingmen: follow the ship's advance and prepare for an artillery battle.

Traveling with the "Sanjia" is the "Gagu" heavy cruiser that survived the Pacific War, after this old ship has been modernized, the tonnage has increased by nearly 40%, and the defense has been greatly improved at the same time, the maximum speed has been reduced from 35 knots to 33 knots, which seems to be a little unable to keep up with the footsteps of the younger generations, but the occupied area of the empire spans thousands of kilometers from north to south, and the navy has to station naval combat power in the distant Indian Ocean and Australian waters at the same time, There are not many ships deployed in the waters of East Asia that are suitable for arresting Soviet and Russian attack ships, and once an aircraft carrier is dispatched, it must call in light and heavy cruisers and destroyers to escort it, and the remaining mobile combat power is even more stretched. Fortunately, in such a long semi-enclosed sea area as the Sea of Japan, absolute speed does not mean absolute superiority, as long as the position can be jammed in advance, the 33-knots "Kagu" is fully capable of cooperating with the "Sanji" to block the cunning enemy ships, and then the "Sanji" with five twin 203-mm guns will take out the opponent, and even in the case of fighting alone, the "Kagu", which is equipped with a new 203-mm main gun and a 610-mm caliber torpedo, has every chance to fight with the opponent.

Traveling several nautical miles to the west, the "Sanji", which served as the command ship of the detachment, issued an order to the "Gagu": Our ship will continue to go west, and your ship will turn to the north, and cooperate in flanking the enemy ship.

Just as the two Japanese heavy cruisers were in a posture ready to smash the Soviet and Russian warships, a second wave of carrier-based aircraft flew in from the direction of the Japanese archipelago, and their number increased by nearly half compared with the previous wave. Seeing that the naval air force was about to stake this feat, the officers and men of the "Sanjia" and "Gagu" could not help but feel a little frustrated, but the rain clouds that could drift from the north and the latest report of the reconnaissance plane rekindled their hope: The enemy ships adjusted their course and fled north with all their might, intending to hide in the rain clouds to escape the air attack.

(End of chapter)