Chapter 624: The Battle of Nassau
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"Boom! Boom! Boom! ”
The three aircraft carriers USS Antietam, USS Princeton, and USS Shangri-La were torpedoed one after another. Pen | fun | pavilion www. biquge。 info╔╗ The Antietam was hit by six torpedoes at the same time, and the 20,000-ton giant ship exploded violently, leaving only a third of the hull in an instant. As a huge mushroom cloud rises into the sky, smoke obscures the sky. The Princeton and Shangri-La were attacked by no less than 10 torpedoes, and the Shangri-La was hit by 17 aerial bombs one after another, and the entire island was razed to the ground, and the deck was full of deep pits left by the explosion of the bombs, and the flames rose several meters high.
At 12:31 p.m., Nimitz's flagship aircraft carrier, the USS Enterprise, was attacked by eleven torpedoes, but nine of them were intercepted by a heavy cruiser and four destroyers who were hurrying to stop the difference. The heavy cruiser Ligon hit five mines and saw that it was about to sink. The other four destroyers were sunk on the spot, and hundreds of officers and men on board did not survive.
Two other torpedoes hit the USS Enterprise, and although it was a fatal hit, the USS Enterprise was badly tilted, and the captain tried unsuccessfully to inject water on the other side to balance the battleship. As a result, the USS Enterprise lost the ability to launch and recover fighters.
Nimitz, who commanded operations inside the inclined USS Enterprise, ordered all U.S. interceptors to return to the vicinity of the carrier. He has keenly discovered the advantage of the fast speed of the Chinese Imperial aircraft, and it is useless to blindly follow the opponent's ass to chase after him, it is better to surround the aircraft carrier and use the advantage of horizontal maneuver to defend.
Nimitz's strategy worked. The U.S. F6F Hellcat carrier-based aircraft quickly returned to defense, intercepted the plane of the Chinese Emperor in front of the aircraft carrier, and then cooperated with the anti-aircraft fire of the aircraft carrier and nearby warships, and quickly achieved results, more than a dozen of the Chinese Emperor's Wildcat and Osprey fighters were shot down one after another, and even a B2 Mustang tactical bomber was wounded and forced to leave the battle sequence and return directly.
At 12:50 p.m., the aircraft carrier Tarawa, besieged by more than a dozen Ospreys and Mustangs, accumulated four medium mines. Thirteen bombs, the last of which penetrated the oil depot under the starboard island of the ship, causing a large explosion and causing the Tarawa to be dismembered into five or six parts and sink instantly. ╔╗
Five minutes later, the second wave of attacks ended, and the Chinese Empire lost 22 aircraft. After sinking four US aircraft carriers, he returned home victoriously.
Although the USS Enterprise, where Nimitz was located, did not sink in the first place, the fire on it could not be extinguished. Nimitz nevertheless ordered the aircraft carrier to be abandoned. Transfer to the USS Wasp.
At 1:10 a.m., there was a big explosion on the aircraft carrier Enterprise, but it still did not sink. There was a sea of fire on the aircraft carrier, the flames were scorching, the smoke covered the sky and the sea, and a huge black mushroom cloud could be seen over it for hundreds of kilometers.
There are only five aircraft carriers left, and the maximum number of aircraft carried is only 300. At this time, there were still more than 200 aircraft in the hangars of the five aircraft carriers. And there are still more than 150 planes hovering in the sky waiting to land, and more than 50 planes cannot land on the deck of an aircraft carrier full of planes. The only fate that awaits them is to fall into the sea.
At the same time, 80 Buffalo bombers sent out by Nimitz were ambushed by Imperial Chinese aircraft in the airspace nineteen nautical miles away from Luo Qidong's aircraft carrier battle group. Twenty F6 Wildcat ships suddenly swooped down from above the clouds. The group of American planes that were caught off guard were quickly shot down by half of the planes.
Some of the remaining U.S. planes turned around and fled, while the other dozen or so continued to risk their lives to rush toward the Chinese Empire's aircraft carriers Wudangshan and Emeishan, hoping to sink them to save the day.
However, to their sorrow, the aircraft carriers of the Chinese Empire did not fight independently, and there was never a shortage of flower messengers by her side, and hundreds of Vulcan dense arrays on the six Chinese Aegis air defense heavy cruisers formed a powerful anti-aircraft fire network, and more than a dozen American Buffalo bombers were all shot down.
Due to the need to protect the aircraft carrier, the 20 Wildcat ships chased after a certain distance before turning back.
Eighty buffaloes when I went there, and only nine when I came back. Nimitz's heart was bleeding, and after recovering more than 100 planes from the second wave of return, Nimitz ordered the return and reported the situation to the new White House.
However, the roof leak happened to rain overnight. The news of the US military attack on San Juan quickly aroused the anger of the Chinese Empire, and Emperor Wang Chenhao directly issued an operational order to the 183rd Air Wing of the Chinese Empire stationed in Havana and Guantanamo, ordering the Cubana de Cubana Air Wing to quickly attack and find and destroy the US fleet that attacked San Juan at all costs.
At about 9 a.m., six reconnaissance planes of the Cubana de Aviación Wing coordinated with the radar station at Guantanamo to locate the Nimitz fleet. Soon, 200 J-11 Condor fighters, 150 A5 Meteor strike planes, 40 B2 Mustang bombers, and 16 H7 Flying Fortress bombers took off from seven airfields on the island of Cuba and gathered to pounce on the Nimiz fleet at about 11 a.m.
At 1:20 p.m., the Cubana de Aviación arrived at the target area, but only the wreckage of the sunken aircraft carrier of the American fleet remained. The air was filled with the strong smell of gunsmoke, sea, and corpses, and you could feel that there was a fierce battle taking place here.
Soon, the Cubana de Aviación received the latest information from the Havana Base Command that the U.S. fleet was withdrawing north and had now reached the vicinity of Nassau Island, less than 40 nautical miles from the position of the Cubana de Aviación Wing. So the Cubana de Aviación quickly turned north and chased it all the way.
At 1:55 p.m., the Nimitz fleet, which was retreating toward Florida, appeared in the line of sight of Colonel Zhang Qiang, commander of the Cubana de Aviación wing.
"The first squadron is responsible for containment, and the second and third squadrons give me the firepower to greet their aircraft carrier!"
"The first squadron understands!"
"The second squadron understands!"
"The third squadron understands!"
After receiving the order, the first squadron concentrated all 200 Jian-11 fighters, divided them into three echelons, and rushed towards the Nimitz fleet in a three-stage combat method. ╔╗
Nimitz was going crazy. At this time, he was bent on escaping back to Florida and keeping the only remaining fleet, but the Chinese Emperor chased after him all the way, which made Nimitz and other American officers and soldiers panic.
After receiving the order, more than 100 remaining F6F Hellcat fighters took off in an emergency to intercept the first squadron of the Cubana de Aviación Wing. Although the land-based J-11 fighter and the sea-based F6 Wildcat carrier-based fighter essentially belong to different derivatives of the same model, the F6 naval battle has to take off and land on the deck of the aircraft carrier. Therefore, its small size, strong engine, fast speed, fierce firepower, focus on maritime penetration and offensive capabilities, and all performance exceeds that of J-11. However, because the J-11 takes off and lands on land, it does not need to be as harsh as the navy, and it is inferior to the F6 ship battle in terms of speed and firepower, but it emphasizes the performance of aerial combat. Whether it is vertical lifting or horizontal maneuvering, its performance is relatively balanced.
And in the face of the US military's F6F Hellcat carrier-based fighter. The F6 Wildcat ship battle speed is too fast, but it is a knife to kill chickens. The relative slower speed of the J-11 makes the horizontal maneuvering more flexible, which makes the J-11 more suitable than the F6 Wildcat when facing Hellcat.
The 200 Jian-11 aircraft group was divided into three airspace echelons of high, medium and low to launch an attack, and the US F6F Hellcat fighters had only about 100 planes, and their air combat combat capabilities were not as good as the other side.
Of course. The original strength of the US fighters was not so weak, for the US pilots at this moment. They have been tortured by the previous waves of the Chinese Imperial Air Force to the point of madness, and they have been pressed by the Chinese Emperor all these years. Originally, the shadow of not being able to defeat the Chinese emperor was shrouded over their heads, but after this day's fierce fighting, the US pilots were unable to exert 30 percent of their combat effectiveness in terms of psychological quality and physical exhaustion. ╔╗
In this case, they were engaged with the well-trained Cubana de Aviación wing, and were at a disadvantage in the quantity and quality of their fighters, so naturally they were quickly disrupted and their casualties increased dramatically.
Zhang Qiang saw that the 1st Squadron had pinned down the US interceptors, so he urged the 2nd Squadron and the 3rd Squadron to quickly launch an attack.
At 2:07 p.m., 150 A5 fighters of the 2nd Squadron were divided into five attack echelons and swooped down from a high altitude one after another. In order to avoid the blows of the US fleet's anti-aircraft fire, the A5 strike aircraft group first appeared at an altitude that was difficult for the US ships' firepower to reach, and then approached the US ships at ultra-low altitudes along the sea level.
When the pilot locked onto the target, he first pressed the rocket launch button, and one rocket after another instantly roared to the US ship's air defense position. After a rocket attack, the US officers and men on the US ship's air defense gun position will basically be killed. Immediately after that, the pilot will pull the fighter plane higher and use powerful cannon fire to attack the bridge, control tower and other positions of the US ship, paralyzing the US ship's air defense command system.
When the firepower of the attack group suppressed the anti-aircraft fire of the US ships, the 40 B2 Mustang bombers and 16 H7 Flying Fortress bombers of the third squadron in the sky had enough opportunities to start dropping bombs on the US ships from a safe altitude with high accuracy.
Forty Mustang tactical bombers targeted the USS Wasp and Yorktown, and soon dropped more than a hundred aerial bombs, of which 25 hit the USS Wasp and 17 hit the Yorktown. After the Wasp and Yorktown were attacked, a fire broke out on the deck. Two of the 200-kilogram bombs pierced the four decks of the aircraft carrier Yorktown and exploded in the engine room, causing the Yorktown aircraft carrier to lose power instantly. The explosion soon caused a fire inside the Yorktown, and suffocating smoke quickly filled the entire aircraft carrier, forcing the American forces to abandon the Yorktown.
The Wasp aircraft carrier was not having a good time, although it was not sunk after 25 aerial bombs, and the Björk City resisted the beating, but the violent explosion caused most of the Wasp Island to be blown up, and the flight deck was in a sea of fire, and Nimitz was also injured. ╔╗
The sixteen H7 Flying Fortress strategic bombers are the most terrifying, and the huge bomb load of the aircraft is not at all comparable to that of the B2 Mustang bomber. And the most important thing is that the aerial bombs carried by the H7 bombers are all giant aerial bombs weighing 900 kilograms to 1.5 tons, and their explosive yield is extremely terrifying.
At 2:09 a.m., a 1.5-ton aerial bomb struck the bridge of the USS Franklin, starting above the bridge on the seventh floor and penetrating three floors underground (below the horizontal deck) before exploding.
There was a loud "boom", like a thunderbolt on a sunny day, and the explosion sound exceeded the explosion sound of ordinary aerial bombs by more than 100 times. People can feel obvious discomfort in their ears from tens of kilometers away. The huge explosion force was even more terrifying, and in an instant, the ship island of the USS Franklin was blown to pieces, and hundreds of US officers and soldiers were instantly lifted hundreds of meters into the air by the huge explosion shock wave, and the next second they were engulfed by the ensuing flames, and the thousands of degrees of heat instantly vaporized these flesh and blood bodies at the same time along with the steel, and the blood mist made the flames emit a more bewitching blood-red light.
When a huge mushroom cloud rose up, the horizontal shock wave had already torn the 23,000-ton aircraft carrier Franklin in half, and the sea water poured violently into it. The USS Franklin sank in less than 15 seconds, leaving more than 3,400 U.S. officers and sailors on board, but none of them survived.
Soon, the two aircraft carriers Valiant and the Oriscani were of the same fate, and they were severely damaged by several heavy aerial bombs, although not as tragic as the Franklin. But it is also inevitable to sink the fate.
At 2:17 p.m., the USS Wasp was fatally damaged by the explosion of a 950-kilogram bomb. The hull is heavily tilted to the right. and sank five minutes later. Nimitz was wounded again and was rushed by his men and transferred to a destroyer.
The Cubana de Aviación destroyed the last five aircraft carriers of the Nimitz fleet, but the Nimigians fleet had dozens of other warships. At this time, only a few H7 bombers of the third squadron still had a few aerial bombs left, and considering that the aircraft carrier Yorktown had been heavily damaged, Zhang Qiang judged that it would soon sink. Not going to waste bombs on the Yorktown, he ordered several H7 bombers to summon the last few aerial bombs to the largest battleship of the Nimitz fleet, the Montana.
The USS Montana is the fourth ship of the Washington-class super-battleships that the U.S. Maritime Self-Defense Force began construction after participating in World War II. It is equipped with four triple 18-inch cannons and has a speed of 29 knots. The super battleship with a displacement of 73,000 tons is the largest first-class battleship built by the US military since the Sino-US war, and is an important symbol of the US Navy's return to world maritime hegemony.
Previously, the planes of the Chinese Empire had always focused on attacking US aircraft carriers, so dozens of US capital ships such as the USS Montana did not suffer much damage.
At 2:27 p.m., four H7 bombers approached the battleship Montana under the cover of fire from more than 30 Jian-11 fighters and dropped one 1.2-ton and three 900-kilogram aerial bombs.
A 900-kilogram bomb landed on the island of the battleship Montana and exploded violently, instantly leveling the entire huge island of more than 10 stories high, and another 900-kilogram bomb landed near the No. 2 main gun turret, and the huge explosion shock wave overturned the main gun turret weighing more than 2,000 tons, and the 18-inch caliber cannon twisted into a twisted shape in the huge torque. The third 900-kilogram bomb failed to hit the Montana and landed on the sea on the port side of the Montana, but although the bomb became a close-in bomb, its huge explosive force still cracked many openings in the 400-millimeter-thick armor on the side of the Montana, and seawater seeped into the ship through the cracks.
The deadliest was the 1.2-ton aerial bomb, which landed between the stern turrets of the Montana No. 3 and No. 4. The inertial acceleration of the 1.2-ton bomb as it fell was terrifying, smashing through four horizontal armor decks of the battleship Montana one after another, and then exploding above the engine room.
In an instant, it was as if an eleventh magnitude earthquake had occurred on the battleship Montana, and in the midst of the huge tremor, a thunderbolt sounded from the sky, stirring up a shock wave hundreds of meters high, and the smoke and flames soared into the sky. The Montana's third and fourth main gun turrets were simultaneously lifted to an altitude of more than a hundred meters, and then fell to the sea on both sides. The explosion soon caused an ammunition depot under the No. 3 and No. 4 guns, causing a series of detonations.
In the blink of an eye, countless bright lights burst out from the battleship Montana, with loud noises, and shards of steel and torn corpses flew wildly in the sky. A super battleship of more than 70,000 tons disintegrated in less than two minutes and sank at a speed that could be seen in the explosion, and more than 4,000 US officers and men on the ship were all killed in the sea, and none of them were spared.
Seeing the remarkable results of the battle, Zhang Qiang ordered the J-11 squadron to dive and attack for several rounds, killing hundreds of American officers and soldiers with powerful machine gun fire before returning home.
During the entire battle, the Cubana de Aviación only paid a small price for the downing of six J-11 fighters and two A5 fighter planes, and the result was the sinking of one US super battleship and four aircraft carriers, and the heavy damage to the aircraft carrier Yorktown, causing more than 15,000 casualties to the Nimitz fleet, and winning a great victory.
The only pity is that the Yorktown aircraft carrier did not sink in the end, but staggered back to Florida, which made the culprit of the entire San Juan incident - only 21 of the 22 aircraft carriers of the Nimitz fleet sank, escaping the murderer of the Yorktown, which became a regret for the Chinese Empire.
While the Nimitz fleet was battered and fled back to Florida, an unprecedented air battle over San Juan came to an end.
Although the Chinese Empire's air force near the Caribbean Sea came to reinforce one after another, the number of bombers of the American army was too large at the beginning, so that the San Juan base and even the city of San Juan were bombed on an unprecedented scale.
By the end of the air raid at 5 p.m., the Caribbean Fleet of the Chinese Empire in the port of San Juan had sunk thirty-seven warships, including two super battleships, two battle cruisers, four fast battleships, three air defense heavy cruisers, seven light cruisers, seventeen destroyers and two amphibious assault ships. Most of the military facilities in the base were destroyed, a total of 1,633 soldiers were killed, and more than 3,000 base personnel were injured to varying degrees.
Although the U.S. military managed to destroy more than 1,700 aircraft at the San Juan base, mostly old propeller aircraft, San Juan lost more than 200 jets, but that was shot down in air combat. The US military, on the other hand, paid a huge price for the near-total annihilation of a huge aircraft carrier battle group, losing more than 4,600 aircraft, including more than 2,400 long-range bombers that took off from the US mainland.
When Roosevelt learned of this result, his bowels were blue with remorse. In his opinion, in the entire San Juan sneak attack, as the side of the sneak attacker, the losses of the US army were greater than the losses of the Chinese emperor. What made him even more unsettling was that he felt as if he had provoked a ferocious lion. (To be continued) RQ