The heavy cruiser USS Minneapolis had a hull of 180 meters, but the displacement of this battleship was only 10,000 tons. In other words www.biquge.info with a large amount of equipment and weapons installed in such a long hull and a speed of more than 32 knots, the only solution is to reduce the weight of the armor. Ships with reduced defense will inevitably be hit hard when attacked.

The USS Minneapolis had a large number of anti-aircraft weapons, many of which were added after the outbreak of war when the U.S. Navy saw the powerful strike capabilities of air power. These weapons have successfully shot down several Ming fighters in previous battles, but they have also exposed themselves because of their excellent performance.

If the Ming attack aircraft group wants to attack the US aircraft carriers located in the inner circle, it needs to pass through the sky above those air defense warships on the periphery. The anti-aircraft weapons equipped on these warships are not ornaments, they are all weapons that pose a deadly threat to the Ming fighters.

If Wu Hao wants to open up the situation for the second attack wave in the future, the best way is to pry a fatal gap in this circular formation. The USS Minneapolis, located on the periphery of the formation, became the preferred target. Who put him at the node?

Four dive bombers roared down into the sky, greatly distracting the Minneapolis and the ships around it. After the Minneapolis narrowly escaped the fatal blow of these four bombs. Before they could breathe a sigh of relief, the crew was startled by the frightened exclamation of the lookout.

"Torpedo !!"

In order to knock out the defense node of the USS Minneapolis, Daming Naval Airlines invested heavy troops. In addition to the four dive bombers, six torpedo planes responded to each other, forming a crossfire.

The pilots of Daming HNA, especially those on the aircraft carrier, are elite and well-trained. On weekdays, I don't know how many times I've trained to cooperate with attacks like this. In addition, these pilots are basically old birds, and the level of performance is very high.

After the Minneapolis narrowly dodged the bomb attack, before the soaring water columns fell, the six torpedoes had already pulled out a white track and rushed towards it in a fan-shaped high-speed manner.

Although the captain of the Minneapolis turned the rudder with all his might, trying to reduce the impact area by pointing the bow of the ship towards the high-speed attack of the torpedo group, it was too late. This is a battleship with a length of one hundred and eighty meters, not a motorcycle of one meter eight. Want to quickly turn where is it so easy?

The northernmost of the six torpedoes sped past the bow of the USS Minneapolis, but it did not run away.

Because at this moment, the huge 59th Task Force has formed a huge air defense formation, and the many warships are not far away from each other, and they are arranged in close proximity to each other. The torpedo surprisingly ran four kilometers in the sea and then crashed straight into a U.S. destroyer whose attention was all focused on the sky.

The hapless destroyer USS O'Byrne was instantly torn apart by the sheer force of the torpedo's waterline armor. Tons of turbulent sea water poured into the bilge of the warship, and it didn't take much time to turn the battleship into an iron lump filled with seawater. The O'Byrne wasn't the only one unlucky in this attack.

The second torpedo also misses the Minneapolis, which sped by only a few meters away from the bow of the heavy cruiser. If the captain of the USS Minneapolis had known what the torpedo was going to do next, he might have chosen to have his ship hit.

The second torpedo flew out and ran into the sea for a full eleven kilometers in one go, almost reaching the limit of its range. But the torpedo crashed into an aircraft carrier before it was about to fail and sink!

At that time, the unlucky Qishaye was originally in a more core area, but he didn't expect that he would be mistakenly hit by the auxiliary car one day. The torpedo hit the boiler room, tearing the armor and causing a large amount of seawater to pour into the boiler room. In addition to killing numerous stokers, it also caused the aircraft carrier Qishaye to stall sharply.

Because it is an aviation torpedo, its power is not as strong as that of heavy torpedoes used in warships and submarines. Therefore, the injuries of the Qishaye were not light, but they were not fatal. After emergency repairs, it is still possible to return to the dock for repair at a low speed. It was inevitable that he would have to stay in the dockyard for a few months, but he was able to stay.

However, there is a fierce battle now, and this is a battlefield!

It would take at least an hour or two for the Qishaye, which had slowed down rapidly, to drain the bilge and carry out damage management operations. But where will Daming Hainan Airlines give this fat that has obviously slowed down and become an excellent target ship to escape?

Third, fourth and fifth torpedoes accurately hit the heavy cruiser USS Minneapolis. The ultra-thinly armored cruiser unexpectedly stirred up three huge columns of white water on its starboard side, which were higher than its own mast. The water column was filled with flames and black smoke.

With a standard displacement of 10,000 tons and a hull length of 180 meters, the USS Minneapolis was unable to resist the attack of three torpedoes. In the midst of the flames and smoke, the heavy cruiser soon flooded and tilted, and a fire broke out on the battleship.

Although more than 700 officers and men on the ship desperately rescued their warship, they were powerless to recover. Twenty-five minutes later, the Minneapolis capsized and sank after too much water. Because the captain gave the order to abandon the ship in advance, about 300 people were killed and missing in the battle. Most of the officers and soldiers were able to escape.

However, this is not the end of the attack. There was also a sixth torpedo at that time.

The USS Minneapolis was less than half a nautical mile away from the USS Wasp, which was hit with three bombs. After a series of maneuvers to evade dive bomber attacks, the two battleships were already close to each other.

The sixth torpedo, which had scurried past the stern of the USS Minneapolis, did not go far before it crashed into the USS Wasp, which was undergoing emergency damage. The Wasp aircraft carrier has weak armor due to its small tonnage, especially the waterline armor, which has little resistance. The torpedo easily destroyed the boiler compartment, causing the USS Wasp to lose most of its power supply, and the ship's damage rescue was immediately ineffective.

Because most of the power supply was suddenly lost, and the surrounding friendly ships were too busy to take care of themselves, they couldn't come to support at all. The fire on the Wasp eventually spiraled out of control. Many of the damage management team members were swallowed up by the sudden explosion of the oil depot and ammunition depot, and these damage management team members wearing asbestos suits quickly turned to ashes in the heat of thousands of degrees Celsius.

The Wasp detonated at the ammunition depot was like a giant fireworks ship, constantly firing cannon battles on the sea. The thick black smoke reached thousands of meters into the sky!

By the time the acting chief engineer gave the order to abandon the ship, the battered aircraft carrier had become a living hell. The 2,100-strong aircraft carrier had most of its crew in the bilge, unable to escape due to the fire. In the end, only about 400 crew members were able to escape.

However, although the USS Wasp even began to burn steel, it did not sink immediately. It lasted for about two hours before finally capsizing and sinking to the bottom of the sea.

It is absolutely the first time in the history of naval warfare that six torpedoes in one attack wave can achieve such an impressive result. All the pilots of the torpedo formations that launched the attack were rewarded with a good service medal!

Not only the USS Minneapolis, but several cruisers and destroyers around the battleship were also dealt a powerful blow.

The bomb dropping level of the elite pilots of Daming Hainan Airlines is very high. Moreover, they are so bold that many times the pilots of dive bombers have to lower the altitude to within 600 meters or even 500 meters before choosing to drop bombs. And the torpedo machine always throws torpedoes when it is close to 800 meters.

In a short period of more than 10 minutes, a number of US warships were hit one after another, and a big gap was opened in the air defense circle of the 59th task force.

Subsequently, Wu Hao briefly understood the number of fighters that had not yet attacked. Orders were given to attack the Chishayer, which had been hit by a torpedo stall, and the Tarawa not far from the Chishayer.

At this time, there were only 14 dive bombers and 19 torpedo planes left in the Ming fighters that were not shot down and still had attack capabilities. After a simple coordination, Wu Hao focused the attack on the Qishaye aircraft carrier, which had significantly reduced speed and emitted black smoke.

Although it is not known why the aircraft carrier suddenly smoked and slowed down, the pilots of Daming Hainan Airlines would not let go of this good opportunity.

"This attack was careless." Wu Hao drove his fighter plane to hover in the sky and observe the battlefield, but he was faintly lost in his heart.

He did not expect that the Americans would go crazy and get so many air defense fighters, and that the battleship air defense circle had brought a lot of losses to his attack aircraft formation. In particular, the performance of those air defense fighters with a large number was very good, resulting in many Ming attack planes being shot down before they could enter the air defense circle of the Americans.

As a result, the results of the attack aircraft group led by Wu Hao have become smaller. Now although a heavy damage was given to an aircraft carrier, a heavy cruiser and several destroyers. But compared to the sheer number of attack aircraft and the number of highly qualified pilots and the battle-loss ratio, such an outcome is unacceptable. Of course, the losses of the Fighting Falcon on the escort mission were not large, after all, they were not the main target and they were all old birds.

Wu Hao, who was unwilling to return to the sea, stared at the sea below with wide eyes, expecting that this last wave of attacks would bring a few more surprising results. (To be continued.) )