readx;

Chapter 1591: The Fall of the Caspian Flotilla

The Caspian Sea, located in the vast and flat western part of Central Asia and the southeastern tip of Europe, is the natural boundary between Asia and Europe, and is also the largest inland lake in the world. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

The Caspian Flotilla was a district flotilla of the Soviet Navy, the headquarters of which was established in Astrakhan at the mouth of the Volga River, and its predecessor was the Astrakhan Territory Flotilla formed in April 1918, and in May of that year, the fleet took part in the pacification of the Equality Party rebellion in Baku and the nationalist anti-Soviet riots in Astara and Lenkoran counties. In August of the same year, the troops of the Azerbaijani anti-Soviet government, with the help of the British, seized the ships of the district flotilla in Baku. To defend Astrakhan, several destroyers and submarines were transferred from the Baltic to the Caspian Sea, as instructed by Lenin. On October 13 of that year, the Astrakhan Territory Flotilla, with sixty-eight combat ships and auxiliary vessels, was reorganized into the Astrakhan-Caspian Flotilla.

The Caspian flotilla actively supported the Red Army in crushing the White Guards and foreign armed interventionists in the North Caucasus and ensuring the safety of maritime transport. In July 1919, by decision of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Soviets, the fleet of the Astrakhan-Caspian region was combined with the fleet of the Volga region to form a unified fleet of the Volga-Caspian region. On July 5 of the following year, by order of the commander of the Soviet Navy, it was renamed the Caspian Flotilla. In mid-July, the Caspian Flotilla and the Soviet Azerbaijani Red Fleet were combined to form the Caspian Navy, and on June 27, 1931, it was reorganized into the Caspian District Fleet.

On a June day in the Caspian Sea, with a gentle breeze, nine destroyers flying the flag of the Soviet Navy made white marks on the surface of the sea and made a rapid advance towards the waters to the southeast, followed by thirty-two gunboats of 300 to 900 tons and a large number of transports, which were full of Red officers and men.

Ivanov, commander of the Caspian Flotilla, was standing on the bridge outside the conning tower of the destroyer "Kuibyshev" headed by him, and his eyes, as blue as the sea, were looking into the distance with great ambition. Originally, the Caspian Fleet had only four destroyers, but in order to strengthen the strength of the Red Army in the Caspian Sea, five destroyers were specially transferred from the Black Sea Fleet.

In order to cooperate with the operations in the Central Theater, the Supreme Command of the Soviet Army assigned Ivanov to lead the Caspian Flotilla to attack Krasnovsk, cover the landing operations of the three infantry divisions drawn from the Caucasus Military District, and open the Caspian Railway from west to east. Ivanov has been staring at the position of the commander of the Black Sea Fleet for several months, and this time from the port of Baku, the elite of the Caspian Fleet is exhausted, and Ivanov wants to use the blood of the Chinese to pave the way for him to rise.

The communications staff officer strode up to Ivanov's side: "Comrade commander, in three hours the fleet will enter the Krasnovsk Bay, and the squadron has built improvised batteries on the peninsula on both sides of the bay, and we must prepare in advance!" ”

Ivanov picked up the telescope and looked at it, the land had already appeared at the end of the telescope, and he nodded lightly: "Well, it's good!" All ships were instructed to keep an eye on the situation on the shore while advancing, and to strike back as soon as they discovered enemy shelling. ”

The fleet sailed for half an hour again, and suddenly there was a "buzzing" sound in the sky, and Ivanov's heart sank, and he quickly walked from the control tower to the bridge outside, only to see a silver reconnaissance plane constantly hovering at an altitude of two or three thousand meters, as if counting the number of ships.

Ivanov frowned, strode back to the command cabin, and ordered: "The fleet accelerates, rushes to Krasnovsk Bay as soon as possible, and finds a suitable landing site!" ”

The staff officers immediately conveyed Ivanov's order, and the commissar of the fleet, Vladimir, asked strangely: "Comrade Ivanov, what are you worried about?" ”

Ivanov restlessly walked around the command cabin, and after a while he stopped, worried: "What a mistake! I forgot about the damn air force of the other side, thinking that with the artillery fire of our fleet, it was enough to suppress the newly built batteries of the Chinese, but I forgot that the bombers of the Chinese had taught the Japanese Navy a profound lesson......"

Vladimir pointed outside: "Don't we have four destroyers with air defense?" Don't be afraid of the air raids of the squadron! ”

Ivanov shook his head again and again: "No, no, no, four air defense ships are not enough at all...... and then he said loudly to the communications staff officer: "Order the fleet, whether it is a destroyer, a gunboat, or a transport ship, to set up all the light and heavy machine guns that can be found, whether it can hit the enemy planes or not, at least it can scare them, and not let them drop bombs without scruples." ”

After the order was delivered, another quarter of an hour passed.

"Look at the sky!"

The sailors on the watchtower suddenly shouted, "A strange flock of big birds has appeared in the eastern sky!" ”

Almost all the officers of the entire fleet ran to the bridges of their respective ships, and Ivanov, after reading them, put down his binoculars and shouted:

"All sailors enter their respective combat positions, it is a Chinese plane, sound the battle alarm!"

Two minutes later, the officers and men of the Caspian Flotilla saw the dense and overwhelming group of aircraft flying towards the fleet, and except for the commander of the fleet, Ivanov, who was in a hurry, everyone else stood at their posts, dazed and at a loss. You must know that except for the four destroyers, the rest of the battleships, including the "Kuibyshev", did not have anti-aircraft installations, and the elevation angle of its cannons did not exceed 25 degrees, and the shields of the machine guns on the ships also limited the elevation angles of the machine guns to a very small angle, and they could not reach the planes in the sky.

The four destroyers with air defense capabilities were already under heavy artillery fire, and at the same time, the transports loaded with infantry were also on the decks, bridges, etc., in groups of two, one standing in front with a machine gun mount, and one half-crouching in the rear, aiming and pulling the trigger, and the guns were loud.

The five bomber squadrons of the flight regiment of the Anjia Army Air Force stationed in Krasnovsk were all equipped with Q1 attack aircraft, which had extremely protective nickel-molybdenum alloy armor and could carry 1,000 kg of bombs for ground attack. Three 12.7 mm caliber aviation machine guns are installed on the wings and tail on both sides, and a twin 23mm machine gun is also installed in the nose, especially under the fuselage and wings, aerial bombs and rockets can also be loaded, which can be said to be the trump card against sea warships.

"Hey! Lao Maozi, let you taste the power of Chinese bombs! ”

Major Zhang Rui, the leader of the 6th Bomber Squadron, muttered while piloting the fighter plane towards the destroyer "Kuibyshev" flying the battle flag, and the other party sailed forward pitifully, as if he wanted to reach the coast earlier, but Zhang Rui had no chance to give them a chance, and the plane swooped down in mid-air, and the bombardier Second Lieutenant Wang Miangang, who was sitting behind, had already been engrossed, and at the moment when the plane reached the low point, the thumb of his right hand gently pressed the bomb drop button. The moment the bomb was ejected from the magazine, the nose of the aircraft was pulled up, and the fighter roared over the mast of the destroyer, and a violent explosion immediately broke out on the deck.

"It's okay!"

Second Lieutenant Wang Miangang looked back at his results, the superstructure of the destroyer "Kuibyshev" was hit by a 250-kilogram bomb, and billowing smoke quickly enveloped the entire battleship, and its hull was not seriously damaged for the time being, but it could not sail quickly in a short time.

"Come again!"

Zhang Rui turned around in the air at seven or eight hundred meters, and suddenly heard a "crackling" sound from the fuselage, which turned out to be a machine gun bullet on a transport ship that hit the lower part of the fighter, but was bounced off by the nickel-molybdenum alloy armor plate. Zhang Rui snorted coldly, turned his head and said, "Let's kill the nasty flies first!" ”

Second Lieutenant Wang Miangang, who was sitting in the back, smiled and said, "As you wish, my sir!" ”

Zhang Rui piloted the fighter plane and flew to the sky above the transport ship that fired the machine-gun bullets, and a group of Soviet soldiers who shot into the air under the leadership of the grassroots commander became a punching bag, and the machine guns in the nose and the aviation machine guns on both wings were firing wildly, and soon several rows of neat corpses were left on the deck.

At this time, some Q1 attack planes began to throw napalm, and many transport ships were on fire, and many Soviet officers and men were instantly engulfed in flames, and countless hoarse screams came from the fire. And the napalm that was splashed in all directions stubbornly attached to the Soviet officers and men and ships, burning brightly, screaming one after another, and the situation was unbearable.

Wang Miangang, who was in charge of bombing and shooting, was not affected at all, and after aiming at the target, he used a rocket with a powerful armor-piercing ability to shoot from the bridge position of the transport ship below, and shot the transport ship in half, a large amount of sea water poured in, and the hull of the ship began to roll over, and the Red Army soldiers loaded on the ship grabbed everything that could float on the surface of the water and jumped into the sea one after another.

Seeing this, Zhang Rui smiled faintly, turned back again to look for the bad luck of the destroyer "Kuibyshev", and he swooped down unhurriedly towards the position of the turret. Wang Mian in the back just dropped a 250-kilogram armor-piercing bullet again, and this armor-piercing bullet directly pierced the front ammunition depot of the destroyer with a displacement of 2,800 tons.

After solving the "Kuibyshev" as the flagship of the fleet, Major Zhang Rui piloted the fighter plane and quickly rushed over another destroyer, this destroyer has two twin 88-mm anti-aircraft guns and eight 25-mm machine guns, and has a certain air defense capability, but in the face of the high-speed flying fighters, the continuous shooting did not hurt the opponent, and many Soviet sailors waved their fists to express their anger.

After making a big turn, Zhang Rui piloted the fighter plane and dived down again, and the rockets on both wings rushed towards the battleship, and in the huge explosion, the rockets hit the bridge and deck, bursting out with fierce fire. Five minutes later, when the fighter plane flew over the destroyer again, a huge hole had been blown out of the tail of the destroyer by a 250-kilogram armor-piercing projectile, and the "buttocks" were gulping seawater downward, and in a posture diametrically opposed to that of the "Kuibyshev", it sank to the bottom of the Caspian Sea.

If it weren't for the fact that the destroyer "Voykov", which took over the flagship, decisively raised the white flag, and then all the surviving battleships and transports raised the white flag, all the Soviet officers and men on those transports threw their guns to the bow of the ship and piled them up like a hill, otherwise it is estimated that the bombing would have continued.

Under the watchful eye of the fighters in the air, the remaining ships of the Caspian flotilla lined up and slowly headed towards the port.

When the war report arrived in Xinjing, it caused a huge sensation. The tactics of giant ships and cannons, which once flaunted their might and might, were powerless to fight back under the threat of fighter planes in the air, and this greatly touched the top military and political leaders of South China, and further strengthened the idea of building a navy that abandons battleships and takes "aircraft carriers" as the absolute core of the fleet.