"Baga, it's a cross-shot ...... In the third round, he hit a straddle shot!! ”

When the third salvo of shells fired from the main guns of several American heavy cruisers landed around the heavy cruiser Chokai, Mikawa was simply stunned. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

Because the U.S. Navy, which has always been considered to have poor artillery skills and is not good at night fighting, actually fired a straddle fire so quickly!

Or at night with extremely poor visibility, or at a distance of 22,000 meters, and not yet flares!

"Baga, is it shame and courage?" Mikawa Junichi, who did not know much about the situation in Britain and the United States (he had repaired French at the University of the Sea, served as a naval attache in France, and was proficient in the navies of various countries on the European continent), immediately thought of a group of American observers with strips of cloth wrapped around their heads, chewing carrots and swallowing cod liver oil, and practicing their cat-eye skills day and night -- it must have been the bacteriological bombs dropped by the army's red deer on the west coast of the United States, so that the American young master soldiers knew that they had to work hard!

"It's a fire control electric detective! It is a very advanced fire control electric detector! "Kamishige is a German fan of the Japanese Navy, and he is also younger than Mikawa Gunichi, so he also knows more about the most advanced electronic technology, and knows that many German radar technologies have made leaps and bounds in 1943!

The progress of German radar was mainly due to the fact that Britain itself became a member of the Axis powers. Germany obtained the full set of "allogeneic coupling between cavities of multi-cavity magnetrons" technology transferred by the United Kingdom (Germany had previously reversed the imitation of the seized multi-cavity high-energy magnetrons, but the performance was still not as good as the original British goods), and the alternating teeth of the magnetron could be bundled together to restrict its stability. As a result, the output power of 50KW at 3000MHz was obtained, which greatly improved the performance of microwave radar. made it possible to create high-performance airborne radars and fire control radars.

Moreover, Germany also cooperated with Britain to develop a shipborne fire control radar, which Germany called the FuMo274 artillery control radar - this is actually the famous British 274 radar in history, and the research and development of this radar was nearing completion before the British mainland succumbed.

But because Britain actually lost the war and was useless, Germany financed the cooperation and ordered a large number of FuMo274 radars and multi-cavity high-energy magnetrons from British factories.

However, when Britain exported the technology of "allogeneic coupling between multi-cavity magnetron cavities" to Germany, it put forward additional conditions: before the signing of the Anglo-Japanese peace treaty, it was not allowed to transfer to Japan the technology of "allogeneic coupling between multi-cavity magnetron cavities" and other advanced technologies with military applications originating from Britain.

Therefore, Japan did not receive the most advanced radar technology from the British, but even without the "careful eye" of the British, it would be impossible for the Japanese Navy to upgrade the electric reconnaissance on a large scale. Because the No. 13 electric probe (anti-air), No. 22 electric probe (anti-sea) and No. 31 electric probe (fire control) that the Japanese Navy is now equipped with are all "advanced equipment" developed with the help of Germany, and many German electronic components and equipment are used on them, and a lot of valuable funds were spent on it, and the full equipment was completed in the second half of 1943. How is it possible to change hands and scrap them again and then import radars produced in Britain and Germany?

However, some German naval generals made a proposal to the Japanese military delegation to immediately upgrade the radar system!

Because through the communication with their British counterparts, they already know that the United States also obtained the full set of British radar technology, and it got it earlier than Germany. In 1941, he obtained the technology of "allogeneic coupling between multi-cavity magnetron cavities", and also completed industrial imitation (laboratory imitation is easy, but industrial production is difficult). Therefore, it is very likely that the United States has developed a fire control radar with far superior performance to the No. 31 electric probe.

Kamishitoku knew about this opinion in the first half of 1943, but he couldn't do anything about it (he was a big sa, not a minister), and now seeing the Americans play the first round of straddle shots, he immediately understood what was going on.

"Your Excellency Commander, please disband the formation, order all ships to charge, and launch a lightning attack!" Shen Zhongde knew that the formation artillery battle was definitely not an opponent, so he suggested charging and releasing mines.

"Now disband the formation, and the ships will charge." Mikawa immediately made a decision, "The Torikai made an evasive maneuver and fired back at the same time. ”

In accordance with his order, eight cruisers (4 heavy and 4 light cruisers), including "Aoba", "Kinugasa", "Kako", "Furutaka", "Tenryu", "Yubari", "Kawauchi", and "Isuzu", immediately turned around and began to charge at the maximum speed that each could reach.

However, the heavy cruiser Chokai did not rush with it, but ran an S-shaped evasive maneuver at high speed on the sea. This is because there are no 93 oxygen torpedoes on board the Bird Sea, and it is impossible to launch mines to attack American ships at a distance of more than 10,000 meters.

Moreover, the "Sea of Birds" has been locked by the fire control radar of the American fleet, and dozens of 203mm naval guns are bombarded at each other, and it is impossible to get close to each other.

And the purpose of firing and bombarding enemy ships while carrying out S-shaped evasion is not to hit -- Japan's No. 31 electric detector has poor performance and cannot distinguish between water injection and ships, so it must be used in conjunction with light measurement, and its efficiency at night is very poor. However, even if the 10 203mm guns of the Torikai were fired indiscriminately, it would cause some interference to the American fleet and help other ships get closer.

However, the S-shaped evasive maneuver of the Torikai did not help, and only 2 minutes after the first span fired by the American fleet, the chart room under the bridge of the Torikai was hit by a 203mm shell, killing all the staff officers inside and causing a fire. Now the "Sea of Birds" became a sea target that attracted artillery shells, and the Americans could hit it even without a fire control radar.

In the next 5 minutes, the heavy cruiser Chokai received eight more 203mm shells, two main turrets were destroyed, the starboard waterline was pierced into the water, causing the ship to tilt to the right, and a steam pipe was damaged by the vibration of the shell explosion, causing the Tokai's speed to drop to less than 15 knots.

At this point, everyone knew that the heavy cruiser Torikai was probably going to end, and everyone in the bridge was dumbfounded -- the night battle that the Japanese Navy was proud of was now completely defeated by the Americans, and could the Jet-1 operation still be won? Only Shen Shigetoku, who had made a plan for tonight's adventure, was still shouting hoarsely: "The battle has just begun, the Navy still has Type 93 torpedoes, and the Great Japanese Navy will win!" ”

I don't know if his roar played a role, but at this moment, a dazzling fireball suddenly rose on the sea surface about tens of thousands of meters outside the starboard side of the Torikai, and then a second and third fireball. That was supposed to be the 93 torpedo fired by the 3rd destroyer squadron that hit the target!

At the same time, the main American fleet no longer shelled the Torikai, much to the relief of the people on the already badly damaged Japanese heavy cruiser.

"It's the destroyer squadron that has done it!" At this time, Shen Zhongde became very excited again, and shouted loudly, "Now look at the lightning strike of the cruiser...... Rumble! ”

Before he could finish speaking, a huge fireball appeared on the sea less than 6,000 meters in front of the left side of the Torikai, accompanied by a series of terrifying roars.

At this time, even Shen Chongde was stunned, because in that position it should be a Japanese cruiser that was charging and preparing to release mines!

"It's the Eagle!"

After a few minutes, someone suddenly shouted: "Your Excellency Commander, the Furutaka reports that it was hit by an enemy ship on the port side torpedo deck...... 4 Type 93 torpedoes were killed, and the whole ship was on fire! ”

The most worrying thing happened!

It turned out that the commander of the 51.7th Group of the United States, Rear Admiral Wright, had already noticed that eight Japanese cruisers were approaching to release spear torpedoes, so when he saw that the Torikai was almost beaten, he immediately ordered all ships to fire freely to prevent the Japanese ships from approaching.

At the same time, he also ordered the 14 destroyers under his command to launch a charge - they also went to throw torpedoes, but at this time the Americans did not have any good mines, and the cruisers and destroyers were installed with unsatisfactory Mk11 torpedoes, with a diameter of 533mm, 34 energy-saving and 9140 meters, which could not compete with the Japanese 93 oxygen torpedoes at all, and could only scare the Japanese.

However, the Japanese 93 oxygen torpedo also had a fatal flaw - it was too unsafe, almost dangerous to itself and to the enemy!

Therefore, the 93 torpedo placed in the torpedo tube is usually not oxygenated, and all ships equipped with 93 torpedoes have an oxygen generator, and the torpedo will be oxygenated before launch. And the 93 torpedo, which has been refueled with oxygen, is very dangerous and can easily be hit and detonated.

In order to increase the power of the 93 torpedo, the Japanese Navy modified the torpedo tubes from the traditional middle deck fixed type to the upper deck rotary type, and made a structure of four launch tubes placed on the decks on both sides of the ship's amidships. The Furutaka had 2 of these deadly torpedo tubes, and as a result, one of them was hit by an American shell before the torpedo was fired...... Obviously, it is very unreliable to load a 10,000-ton (the standard displacement of the Furutaka is 8700 tons) heavy cruisers with 93 torpedoes.

However, the other 7 cruisers that charged with the Furutaka successfully fired their torpedoes, and dozens of 93 torpedoes (now except for the Kaohsiung-class heavy cruisers, all Japanese first-class destroyers and cruisers are equipped with 93 torpedoes, and most of the submarines have also been replaced with 93 torpedoes of the submarine version of the 95 torpedo) silently like underwater ghosts, with an ultra-high speed of 50 knots, swooped down on several American cruisers that were doing evasive maneuvers 10,000 meters away. After only 7 minutes, three dazzling balls of fire suddenly rose on the dark sea.

The fierce battle at sea, which later historians called the "First Battle of Midway", has finally reached its climax!