At the insistence of Derek Chaplin, commander of the Path Expeditionary Force, at 9 a.m., five Path Expeditionary Force warships, including the Path, launched a fierce attack on the port of Hedland. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

Objectively speaking, although the "Pass" is a broken ship that is about to be decommissioned, the armament on the ship is still good, and the British have also taken great pains to replace the main guns on the ship when they sold the "Pass" to the Passers, and now the "Pass" has four twin 203 mm caliber main guns, and if the secondary guns are added, the firepower of the warship "Pass" alone can withstand all the defensive firepower of the port of Hedland.

However, victory or defeat can be decided by simply converting numbers, and weapons are not the only factor that determines victory or defeat, and it is people who play a key role in war.

Although the composition of the troops responsible for defending Port Hedland is complex, they are now basically Hedlanders, and this war is a war for them to defend their homeland and resist the tyranny of Western Australia, so this war hardly requires mobilization, and the morale of the defending troops is already extremely high.

The composition of the expeditionary force in the city of Pass, which is responsible for the attack, is also complicated, especially the members of the navy, who are basically hired from the British in the city of Pass, and for the sake of money, they will do what they have to do, but if they ask for high morale and strong will to fight, it is nitpicking.

Comparatively speaking, the land forces of the Paz Expeditionary Force were more willing to fight, but it was not yet at the landing stage, and the land forces were temporarily useless, so the artillery battle was only fought between the warships and the shore defense batteries.

The artillery of Port Hedland is a unit composed of gunners during the Foreign Legion period, and the backbone of this unit has all participated in world wars, has rich combat experience, and has the advantages of tenacious will, never admit defeat, tacit cooperation, etc., especially the last point, which was vividly demonstrated not long after the beginning of the artillery battle.

There are four batteries in the coastal defense forces, and these four batteries have a total of only 12 guns, and it is really unreasonable to say that the firepower is strong, and at this time the tactics are very important.

The officer in charge of commanding the artillery was called Duan Chengye, an experienced artillery commander who had been promoted to major during his time in the Foreign Legion and was responsible for commanding an artillery regiment. In order to maximize the power of the coastal defense battery, Duan Chengye set up a command center under the anti-wave to command all the artillery in a unified manner, and launched an attack on one target at the same time, and in terms of target selection, Duan Chengye did not choose the "Pas" with the largest target, but chose a destroyer with a smaller tonnage.

When designing warships, armor protection is considered, and in general, it is difficult for a warship of the same class to sink the opponent with artillery.

The main gun of the "Pass" is 203 mm, which means that the "Pass" has a certain protection capability against the attack of 203 mm guns, and if it relies on the 150 mm guns of the coastal defense battery, it is difficult to cause any major damage to the "Pass".

Those destroyers are different, whether it is the "Black Swan" or the "George V", the guns on these destroyers are also equipped with the same 150 mm, which means that the 150 mm guns of the shore defense batteries have a certain attack capability against these destroyers.

There is one factor that must be taken into account, and that is the age of the existence of these objective conditions.

These destroyers of the Paz Expeditionary Force, even the youngest "Black Swan", are more than 10 years old, so when considering armor protection, these destroyers refer to the power of the guns of ten years ago, and compared with the current artillery, this degree of protection lags far behind.

War is the biggest driving force for the development of science and technology, during the world war, there are new technologies and new processes almost every day, the weapons equipped at the beginning of the world war and the weapons equipped a year after the start of the world war have been completely different, as for the world war before and after the world war, it is simply two different worlds, the gap between weapons can even be described as a "generation difference", so although these destroyers also use 150 mm caliber guns, but whether it is in range or in power, There is a huge gap between them and the 150 mm caliber guns on the shore defense batteries.

This disparity became apparent soon after the battle began.

As a matter of fact, after the first two rounds of test firing, the artillery group on the shore defense batteries formed a straddle fire on the "Beddington" during the third round of salvo fire, which fully demonstrated the power of unified command and also made the arrogant British officers and men suddenly nervous.

In the 45th minute of the artillery battle, a shell fired from the No. 2 battery formed a near-miss near the "Potdington", and the propulsion unit of the "Beddington" was affected, and the speed suddenly dropped from 25 knots to less than 15 knots.

It's simply the best target, as striking as a torch burning in the dark.

Duan Chengye immediately commanded the battery to concentrate on attacking the "Bowlington", although the captain of the "Bowlington" tried his best, and finally in the 55th minute, a shell fired by the Hou Xing'an artillery crew in the third battery hit the chimney of the "Bowlington", and the collapsed chimney smashed heavily on the bridge, resulting in the death of 12 people on the bridge, including the captain of the "Bowlington". Immediately attracted more malicious eyes.

After the advent of optical rangefinders, naval warfare has been fundamentally subverted, the previous range, relying on the rich experience of the gunners, want to get accurate data in the shortest possible time, there are no more shortcuts, can only rely on the accumulation of experience and the precipitation of years.

With an optical rangefinder, even a newcomer who has not been in contact with artillery for a long time can get accurate data in the shortest possible time, which greatly increases the efficiency of the artillery crew, especially against those targets that have lost power, which is simply effortless.

It takes time for a shell to hit the target from the discharge, and in general, at a distance of 10,000 meters, it takes about thirty or forty seconds for the shell to hit the target. In these thirty or forty seconds, if the target is moving at a speed of 25 knots, then in these thirty or forty seconds, the target can run a distance of about 500 meters, so in naval battles there are often artillery battles that are carried out in a small fashion and get nothing, but if a certain warship loses power, then it will soon be sunk.

The "Potdington" was facing such a fate, when the "Potdington" lost power and lost its command center, within two minutes, four shells hit the "Potdington", of which one of the shells fired from the first battery directly hit the ammunition depot of the "Potdington", which caused the 1,300-ton warship to be blown in two directly from the middle, and completely sank to the bottom of the sea within 20 seconds.

In 20 seconds, even if a sailor jumps ship in time, it is estimated that he will not be able to swim in the whirlpool formed by the sunken ship.

137 Navy officers and sailors died at the bottom of the sea.

The sinking of the "Potdington" sounded the alarm bell for the Paz expeditionary fleet, and even if Derek Chaplin was arrogant, he had to consider James Jerome's opinion at this time, after all, the strategic goal of taking Port Hedland was more important than the command of the fleet, and if this strategic goal could not be achieved, Derek Chaplin would be responsible.

Thus, from the 70th minute, the Paz expeditionary fleet finally reached a consensus, concentrated all its artillery, and began to attack the shore defense batteries of Port Hedland from south to north.

This change immediately made Duan Chengye feel the pressure.

Even though the forts were covered with reinforced concrete roofs and reinforced before the war, these means of protection could not last long under the continuous attack of large-caliber naval guns.

It has to be said that the British navy is indeed experienced in combat, once there is a unified command, the Paz expeditionary force fleet will immediately enter the right track, for a time the southernmost No. 1 battery was continuously attacked, shells kept falling on the No. 1 battery, the dust in the sandbags of gunsmoke was flying all over the sky, even from the nearest No. 2 battery, the outline of the No. 1 battery could not be seen.

The lethality of artillery shells does not only rely on shrapnel, and the impact will also cause serious damage to the target, especially if the person is in a relatively closed space, when the shock wave continues to attack, there will definitely be all kinds of physical discomfort, and combat attrition will also occur.

Duan Chengye still felt sorry for the artillerymen under his command, and the purpose of the artillerymen holding the fort was not to keep the Paz Expeditionary Force out, but to show that Hedland Harbor was not powerless in the face of the Passe Expeditionary Force, and after achieving the goal, Duan Chengye immediately ordered the artillerymen to withdraw from their positions through the underground passage under the fort.

In fact, at this time, the target of the Paz expeditionary force had already taken the turn of the third battery.

James Jerome still has a lot of experience, under his command, the Paz Expeditionary Force does not seek to destroy the batteries, as long as the purpose of making the batteries ineffective, these warships of the Passes Expeditionary Force are indeed relatively old, and the shells they use will produce a lot of gunpowder smoke when they explode, which has an unexpected effect, and these gunsmoke and the dust raised by the shells at the same time, play a role in blocking the gunners' view, and finally make these batteries ineffective.

Today's weather is indeed good, there is no wind, which has also become the help of the Path Expeditionary Force, as long as it is the attacked battery, the smoke around the fort is everywhere and cannot be dispersed for a long time, as the counterattack fire is getting weaker and weaker, the attack of the Path Expeditionary Force is more calm and more efficient.

In the 110th minute of the artillery battle, Duan Chengye ordered all the artillery to withdraw from their positions and abandon these coastal defense batteries, and the artillery battle ended.

Duan Chengye did not order the batteries to be blown up, as they would eventually remain the property of Port Hedland.

It is estimated that the Paz Expeditionary Force will not blow up these batteries either, because in the opinion of the Paz Expeditionary Force, these batteries are now also their property.

Although the battle that took place in the outer harbor has ended, it has only just begun in relation to this war.

(To be continued.) )