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Chapter 464 Sino-American Atlantic Naval Battle XIII

The U.S. bomber group, divided into more than 20 detachments, broke through the smoke and fog, swooped down from a high altitude, looked for the warships of the Imperial Chinese Navy, and waited for an opportunity to attack. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

The fighters of the Imperial Chinese Naval Air Force constantly shot down American bombers, but the number of opponents was too large, and more than 2,000 American fighters provided cover. After paying a heavy price of more than 500 bombers, the remaining 500 bombers successfully descended to an altitude of 800 to 1,000 meters and discovered the surface combat ships of the Imperial Chinese Navy.

At this time, the Aegis air defense cruisers and air defense destroyers of the Imperial Chinese Navy were already in full array, and the shipboard anti-aircraft Vulcan Phalanx, anti-aircraft guns, anti-aircraft machine guns, and other weapons were already in place.

With a "poof", the commander of the Imperial Chinese Navy, who was standing next to the anti-aircraft weapon, drew his command knife, and pointed the blade at the enemy fighters and bombers that entered the firing range.

"Shoot!"

With the commander's order, the fleet of the Chinese Imperial Navy opened full anti-aircraft fire, and countless shells shot into the dim sky, sending out dense streamers.

"Bang bang bang!"

Anti-aircraft shells exploded at a set height, bursting into red-and-white fireworks. Even if the US plane was not hit by the shell, the shock wave of the explosion shook the US plane from side to side, and the fragments of the shell were wrapped in high-speed kinetic energy to penetrate the shell of the nearby US plane, killing and injuring the pilot and damaging the structure of the plane, causing the plane to malfunction.

In the face of the anti-aircraft artillery attack of the Imperial Chinese Navy, the US pilots were still mentally prepared, because they had seen the anti-aircraft artillery of the US Navy.

However, when they tried to dodge the anti-aircraft guns and further reduce their altitude, they encountered anti-aircraft weapons that terrified them even more.

"Doot toot!"

The Vulcan Phalanx on the Aegis air defense cruiser of the Imperial Chinese Navy opened fire violently, because the Vulcan Phalanx used the multi-barreled structure of the Gatling machine gun, and the high-speed rotation of the barrel changed the firing sound of the small-caliber shells, neither anti-aircraft guns nor heavy machine guns, but the characteristic long string of "beep" sounds.

In an instant, even more dense small-caliber anti-aircraft shells were fired into the sky, and as long as they were in the area locked by the Vulcan Phalanx, whether it was US fighters or bombers, they could not be avoided. At the same time, due to the slow speed of the O-100 bombers of the US army, it was difficult to avoid the intensive anti-aircraft fire strikes, and the losses were heavy.

"Boom, boom!" A large number of US fighters and bombers evaded the blows of anti-aircraft guns after all great efforts, but they were hit by the powerful fire of the Vulcan Dense Array, dragging long flames and black smoke from the sky and falling into the sea.

In just a few minutes, the US bombers of various detachments lost more than 300 planes, and the US fighters escorting them also lost more than 400 planes.

In order to cover the bombers from diving to attack the surface warships of the Imperial Chinese Navy, the US fighter group dived down, skimmed the sea, approached the surface combat ships of the Imperial Chinese Navy, and strafed the air defense forces of the Imperial Chinese Navy above, suppressing the anti-aircraft fire of the Imperial Chinese Navy.

The anti-aircraft artillery and anti-aircraft machine guns on the light cruisers and destroyers of the Imperial Chinese Navy were all in the open air, protected by only one anti-shield and could only provide limited protection for anti-aircraft artillery. After paying a certain price, the US fighter jets opened fire on the verge of firing, causing a large number of casualties among the officers and men of the Imperial Chinese Navy. For this reason, the air defense forces of the Imperial Chinese Navy had no choice but to allocate a part of their anti-aircraft firepower to deal with the approaching US fighters plundering the sea, so that the anti-aircraft firepower used to deal with the US bombers at high altitudes was correspondingly weakened.

The large number of US fighters attracted the anti-aircraft fire of the Imperial Chinese Navy, and finally provided cover for the US bomber group, allowing it to fly over the combat ships of the Imperial Chinese Navy to drop bombs.

At six o'clock in the evening, after the US military had suffered huge losses, more than 100 bombers of the seven air groups had made bomb drops, but because of the small power of the aerial bombs they carried, they failed to inflict a fatal attack on the surface combat ships of the Imperial Chinese Navy.

More than 100 US bombers were immediately hit by the air defense phalanx of the Imperial Chinese Navy and exploded and crashed into the sea. Seeing that the US military had paid such a high price, it had not achieved the expected results, so more than half of the more than 50 bombers of the remaining three air groups immediately chose to flee.

At 6:04 a.m., 17 US bombers suddenly climbed to an altitude of 3,000 meters and then dived down vertically. These 17 bombers were composed of a group of American pilots who were not afraid of death, and as the last killer weapon of Operation Reaper, they were ready to die together with the warships of the Imperial Chinese Navy.

The only weakness of the anti-aircraft fire network of the fleet of the Imperial Chinese Navy is the lack of vertical anti-aircraft fire, and there is an air defense hole in the zero-point airspace directly above the shipyard. This is mainly due to the fact that when the propeller aircraft of this period flew vertically downward, the pilot could not withstand the effects of hypergravity, and the brain would be in a state of temporary shock. This phenomenon is regarded by international pilots as a death maneuver, and no one will do it unless they have the intention of dying. At the same time, the anti-aircraft artillery of this era also did not have the ability to fire vertically to the air at 90 degrees, so this loophole existed in the air defense system of the warships of the Imperial Chinese Navy.

The pilots of these 17 US bombers were all experienced veterans, who, as the commanders of the entire Reaper Commando, had been observing the anti-aircraft fire network of the Imperial Chinese Navy on the periphery before finally discovering this air defense loophole.

Under the leadership of Captain Colonel Howard, these American pilots, with a certain heart of death, secretly flew over the battleships of the Imperial Chinese Navy, and then carried out a suicide attack with a vertical dive.

However, despite the fact that the Imperial Chinese Navy warships had this air defense loophole, it was still very difficult for American pilots to complete this vertical dive ramming maneuver. In addition to accurately flying to the location of the anti-aircraft fire hole, it is also necessary to accurately judge the dive time.

Howard's time was fifteen seconds, beyond which the brain would go into shock, in which case the plane would lose control. Airplanes in this era did not have stable rudders, and once human control was lost, the steering wheel of the aircraft would spin, and the aircraft would rotate on its own and deviate from course. In that case, it would not be possible to accurately hit the fatal parts of the warship, and the meaning of a suicide attack would be lost.

However, Howard formulated the plan according to his own physical endurance, and the experience and physical endurance of other US military pilots were high and low with each other, and as a result, there were less than three people who could really do it like Howard, and the others did not turn on the fuse of the bomb too early during the dive, and blew themselves up before they even hit it. Then there was the fact that the coma passed out of time, causing the plane to deviate from its position and fail to hit the battleship's vital position.

Howard personally piloted a bomber straight to the Zhu Yuanzhang, the flagship of the Combined Fleet of the Imperial Chinese Navy. The battleship Zhu Yuanzhang's anti-aircraft dense array was in full swing, and the dense shells formed a dense defensive network over the ship's island.

With a loud "boom", the bomber carrying 800 kg of aerial bombs exploded at the moment of impact. At the beginning of the design of the Ming-class battleships, in terms of the protection of the conning tower, the front and side protection have always been the strongest, followed by the top, and the rear is the weakest because of the blocking of the ship island, because it is impossible for the enemy ship's shells to turn around and hit the back of the conning tower. However, Howard's bomber crashed into this junction, and Li Dingxin and other officers of the fleet command, who were studying tactics in the command tower, were caught off guard, and everyone from Li Dingxin and below was injured by the explosion, more than a dozen of them were seriously injured, and Li Dingxin also fainted. The protection of the front bridge was very weak, and the explosion killed more than 30 officers in the front bridge and injured hundreds of others.

The sudden suicide attack immediately frightened the officers and men of the Chinese Empire who were on the air defense mission on the ship, but fortunately, Li Dingxin and other important personnel were not in danger of their lives, otherwise the officers and men who served in the air defense would have died and could not atone for their crimes.

Then, several other warships were also attacked by US bombers one after another, among which the battleships Li Shimin and Zhao Kuangyin were severely damaged, and the hull of the ship caught fire, with hundreds of casualties. Several other battleships were slightly damaged.

The suicide attack of the US military surprised everyone in the Chinese Imperial Navy and Air Force, and they did not expect that there were some tough guys among the Americans who were greedy for life and afraid of death. Fortunately, there are not many people who don't want to die, otherwise the Imperial Chinese Navy will be in trouble this time.

The morale of the U.S. Navy and Air Force in the fierce battle also improved somewhat, but this was only a flash in the pan, winning some praise for the U.S. Navy, but it had little impact on the situation on the battlefield as a whole, and the defeat of the U.S. Navy was already a foregone conclusion.

At 6:25 a.m., the three super battleships of the US capital ships, the USS Maine, the USS Missouri, and the USS Ohio, were severely damaged. Among them, the main guns of the battleship Missouri were all destroyed, and it was completely incapacitated. If it weren't for the fact that the armor of this super-battleship was thick enough, it would have been sunk long ago. Although it did not sink, the superstructure of the battleship Missouri was almost completely destroyed, and two-thirds of the American troops on board were killed, becoming a large iron mountain floating on the sea. The battleships Maine and Ohio, on the other hand, were hit by more than a dozen large-caliber shells in a row, and the hull of the second ship was flooded in large quantities and forced to withdraw from the battle.

At the same time, the Imperial Chinese Navy successively sank the US battleships USS North Dakota, USS Florida, USS Wyoming, and USS Arkansas, as well as more than a dozen US cruisers and destroyers. The U.S. ships USS Mississippi, USS Idaho, USS Tennessee, USS Nebraska, USS Georgia, USS New Jersey, USS South Carolina, USS Michigan, and USS Delaware fled. The battlefield left ships such as the USS South Dakota, the USS Montana, the USS Indiana, the USS Massachusetts, the USS Oregon, and the USS Chilshaji.

As the sun set, the naval aviation of the Chinese Empire returned one after another. After half an hour of harassment of the Imperial Chinese Navy, the US fighter group saw that it could not bargain and retreated one after another after paying the price of several hundred fighters being shot down.

At about 7:20 p.m., after the US battleship USS Oregon was beaten by the Imperial Chinese Navy, more than 20 large-caliber shells were hit on the hull, the entire battleship was engulfed in flames and smoke, and more than 2,700 US officers and men on the ship were sunk along with the battleship in a tragic and heroic situation.

By this time of the battle, there were less than five U.S. capital ships left, and they were scarred. The battlefield was littered with the wreckage of American warships, the corpses of American soldiers everywhere, and the defeat of the US Navy was assured.

At about half past seven, the remnants of the American warships were ready to escape, but they were surrounded by the Chinese Imperial Navy and could not run if they wanted to. With the surrender of the USS South Dakota, several other US warships also raised their white flags and surrendered.

At this point, the naval battle between China and the United States in the Atlantic came to an end. In the end, the main force of the U.S. Navy, the oceanic fleet, was severely damaged, and the Imperial Chinese Navy won a complete victory.

In this battle, the Chinese Imperial Navy only lost one battle cruiser, six cruisers and nine hunting ships, as well as 1,211 fighters and bombers, and paid the price of more than 3,000 casualties. The U.S. Navy lost 22 battleships, 11 battle cruisers, 21 cruisers, and more than 40 destroyers, as well as more than 4,230 fighters and bombers, and more than 33,000 U.S. troops were killed.

After this war, the entire main fleet of the United States Navy was severely damaged, although the Chinese Imperial Navy failed to completely annihilate the main force of the United States Navy, but the remnants of the United States Navy could no longer fight, the Chinese Imperial Navy gained sea supremacy, and the East Coast of the United States will be bullied by the Chinese Emperor like a woman who has stripped naked.

At the same time as the decisive battle between the Chinese and American navies, in the Caribbean Sea northeast of the Gulf of Mexico, an aircraft carrier fleet of the Chinese Empire encountered the aircraft carrier fleet of the United States, and the result was that the route of the Imperial Chinese Navy to transport planes from San Juan to Bermuda was exposed.

The Chinese Empire's aircraft carrier fleet consisted of a group of transport carriers, which were responsible for transporting a group of combat aircraft from the San Juan base to Bermuda to supplement the fighter consumption of Wang Jiancheng's aircraft carrier battle group.

The U.S. aircraft carrier fleet went north to support the Eberly fleet in a decisive battle, and was attacked by a cruiser detachment of the Imperial Chinese Navy on the way, but the U.S. naval commander successfully escaped the attack at the expense of an escort destroyer fleet. Not only that, but the US aircraft carrier fleet, in order to avoid the interception and attack of the Imperial Chinese Navy, accidentally entered a secret route from San Juan to Bermuda and discovered the route of the Imperial Chinese transport planes. U.S. commanders believed that the Chinese Empire must have amassed a large number of planes in San Juan, but because the Bermuda airport had not yet been repaired, it could not be directly airlifted there. In order to alleviate the operational pressure of the US Air Force on the front line, the US military commander decided to boldly attack the San Juan Air Force Base of the Chinese Empire in Puerto Rico, intending to wipe out the fighter group of the Chinese Imperial Air Force on the ground.

At noon on 5 July, the US Navy's aircraft carrier fleet, after discovering the route of the Imperial Chinese Navy's secret transport planes, dispatched the 108 fighters of the first attack wave group at 12:17 p.m., carrying small aerial bombs, to take off from five aircraft carriers at the same time, and the 108 carrier-based planes under the leadership of Captain George set off to attack San Juan. Vice Admiral Sheffield ordered reconnaissance planes to search the waters to the east and south, for fear of being attacked by the Imperial Chinese Navy. At the same time, the 2nd Strike Wave aircraft was brought to the flight deck, ready to attack the fleet of the Imperial Chinese Navy inside the San Juan base. However, two US reconnaissance planes suddenly broke down, and their take-off time was delayed by half an hour, and one of the two reconnaissance planes that had already taken off broke down again and returned halfway home, and this plane should have just searched the airspace over the 17 th Escort Aircraft Carrier Fleet of the Imperial Chinese Navy, which was serving as the protection of the route, thus laying the root cause for the US fleet.

At the same time, after losing the target of the US aircraft carrier fleet, the Imperial Chinese Navy also dared to get nervous and sent a large number of reconnaissance planes and submarines to search.

At half past eleven, a cat demon reconnaissance plane sent back a report that "a US aircraft carrier had been discovered," and the San Juan Base Command was greatly nervous and immediately ordered the escort aircraft carrier fleet of Rear Admiral Ye Zaima, who was serving as an escort nearby, to immediately react and prepare to attack the US aircraft carrier.

Unexpectedly, the Chinese Imperial Navy's electronic warfare ship Pipa Jing in the Caribbean Sea, which was originally responsible for eavesdropping on US military communications along the Gulf of Mexico, accidentally searched for the radio communications of the US fleet, and quickly deciphered the "PNP-5" communication code of the US Navy's aircraft carrier fleet, thus knowing the plans of the US aircraft carrier fleet well.

At about half past one, American carrier-based aircraft launched a fierce attack on San Juan. All the fighters of the Imperial Chinese Air Force stationed in San Juan also took to the skies to meet the invading US fighters.

Faced with several times the interception of the Chinese Imperial Air Force fighter group, the US attack plane group saw that the Chinese Empire had already prepared for it and that the sneak attack plan had failed, so after paying the price of more than a dozen fighters being shot down, the US attack plane group fled in a hurry.

After only chasing the defense for a while, the Air Force of the San Juan Base of the Chinese Empire stopped the pursuit and caused the US attack plane group to escape.

At two o'clock in the afternoon, the first attack wave group of the US military returned home.

At the same time, Rear Admiral Ye Zaima ordered the aircraft carriers Nushan and Yaoshan to take to the air and rush to the Sheffield fleet 150 nautical miles away. On the route, the aircraft carrier Funiushan, which was responsible for the transportation mission, also took off 40 Cat Demon ship battles, carrying torpedoes to attack the US fleet. At the same time, 60 H1N1 bombers took off from the San Juan base and appeared in the sky over the Sheffield fleet. The bomber groups of the Chinese Empire formed a tandem attack formation and pounced on the American aircraft carriers.

The US fighter planes frantically intercepted and killed, and the US ship's anti-aircraft artillery opened heavy fire, and soon shot down seven bombers. However, soon the first wave of fighter groups of the Imperial Chinese Naval Air Force arrived and engaged in a fierce struggle with the US fighters, covering the bombers to drop a large number of aerial bombs, which immediately severely damaged the US aircraft carriers USS Assault and USS Lexington, and the aircraft carrier USS Raider was sunk on the spot.

After half an hour of fierce fighting, the US naval aviation paid a heavy price and finally drove out the attack aircraft group of the Chinese Empire. Of course, in fact, the attack aircraft group of the Chinese Empire had already completed the bombing mission and took the initiative to return home.

Believing that there were Imperial Chinese aircraft carriers nearby, Vice Admiral Sheffield decided to devote his energies to dealing with the nearby Imperial Chinese aircraft carriers, but he still did not find out the location of the Imperial Chinese Navy aircraft carriers. So I had to change the course first, looking for and dodging at the same time.

Sheffield ordered the Intrepid, which was already loaded with aerial bombs, to be taken off the hangar by the aircraft already loaded with aerial bombs on deck, and to replace them with torpedoes for attacking the ship.

At this time, Sheffield received a telegram from a reconnaissance plane that had delayed its take-off, saying that 10 Chinese imperial ships had been spotted in the sea 140 nautical miles from the US fleet. Sheffield ordered the reconnaissance aircraft to continue to find out whether the enemy fleet had aircraft carriers. Just as Sheffield was waiting for the results of the reconnaissance aircraft, the alarm sounded again in the air.

More than 40 Chinese Imperial Navy fighters that took off from the aircraft carrier Funiushan carried torpedoes and pounced on Sheffield's fleet.

Sheffield ordered the ships to stop loading torpedoes, unload torpedoes and take to the skies for dogfight. There was chaos on the deck of the American aircraft carrier, and in order to gain time, the unloaded torpedoes were piled up on the deck.

The original U.S. fighter jets needed to be refueled, and Sheffield was in a dilemma. However, fortunately, because the US fleet sailed away from the original route, the search for these 40 fighters of the Chinese Emperor took a lot of time, and the time in the air had reached a critical point. As a result, the torpedoes dropped in a hurry were either too far away or intercepted by the US escort destroyers, and failed to cause damage to the US troops.

However, these forty fighters made Sheffield very nervous, and he knew that there must be an aircraft carrier of the Imperial Chinese Navy in the other direction.

After a false alarm, all the operations of the US military aircraft were completed. Sheffield ordered the fleet to sail north at a speed of 26 knots to avoid the Chinese Imperial planes attacking again, and prepared to attack the aircraft carriers of the Imperial Chinese Navy with all its might.

At three o'clock in the afternoon, the Sheffield fleet was spotted by a formation of 10 kitten fighters with small bombs that had taken off from the San Juan base. Unfortunately, they are running out of fuel, and there are no fighter escorts.

At around 3:40, 28 Imperial Chinese fighters from the Yaoshan and Yorktown followed one after another and attacked the Franklin and Ticonderoga. However, during the attack on the Sheffield fleet, it suffered heavy losses, losing 20 planes, and none of the torpedoes dropped by the Chinese Emperor fighters hit.

Just as the U.S. fighter jets were busy driving away the fighters of the Chinese Emperor at a low altitude, 33 Cat Demon fighters that took off from the Yaoshan appeared in the sky above the Sheffield fleet. At this time, the American warship was turning around and turning to the windward direction, in an extremely vulnerable situation, with only a few Newport fighters parked.

When the first air defense US fighter in shifts flew off the flight deck. The Yaoshan's 33 "Cat Demon" fighters were divided into two squadrons to attack the USS Franklin and USS Ticonderoga respectively, followed by 17 "Thunderbolt" fighters that took off from the USS Funiu Hill to attack the Franklin aircraft carrier. The two US aircraft carriers turned into two fireballs in an instant, and the planes, fuel, and ammunition stacked in the hangar caused a large explosion, and the flames soared into the sky, and in just five minutes, the two US aircraft carriers were completely blown up.

On the other side, on the way to the Imperial Chinese aircraft carrier, the group of US bombers that had taken off earlier spotted a group of fighters of the Imperial Chinese Navy that were returning home, and quietly followed them. Because of this, the U.S. bomber group successfully found the Funiu Mountain and immediately launched an attack. Six bombs hit the Funiu Mountain, causing serious damage. However, although the Funiushan was damaged, it was restored to navigation under the vigorous repair efforts of the crew of the Chinese Emperor.

Vice Admiral Sheffield and his staff transferred to the cruiser USS Newport and began to gather the remnants of the fleet and organize aircraft for revenge.

At 4:10 a.m., 60 US "Newport 17" fighters dropped aerial bombs, took off from the Ticonderoga with torpedoes, and launched a second attack on the wounded Funiu Mountain. The Funiushan was not so lucky this time, it was hit by two torpedoes, two large holes were opened near the port side, and the rudder was crushed.

Rear Admiral Ye Zaima was seriously wounded, and the command of the aircraft carrier fleet was interrupted for a time.

At 4:45 a.m., the Chinese Emperor's reconnaissance plane spotted the US aircraft carrier Ticonderoga, and Ye Zaima immediately ordered 30 "Cat Demon" fighters of the Yaoshan and Nushan aircraft carriers to take off with torpedoes and attack the Ticonderoga.

At 5:27, the Chinese Emperor had planned to abandon the aircraft carrier Funiushan, but it did not sink, so Rear Admiral Ye Zaima ordered all the officers and men of the ship to return to the ship and tried to tow it by tugboat to the port of San Juan.

At half past five, the attack aircraft group of the USS Yaoshan successfully attacked the Ticonderoga, which was left of the American forces. The Ticonderoga was immediately hit by four 300-kilogram aerial bombs, and the ship was in flames. More than 2,000 US officers and men perished at sea with the ship.

By 6 p.m., the destroyed US aircraft carriers USS Striker, USS Lexington, and Franklin had sunk one after another.

During the night, the U.S. forces were forced to abandon the destroyed aircraft carrier Intrepid, and in order to prevent the aircraft carrier from falling into enemy hands, Sheffield ordered the U.S. destroyer to fire a torpedo to sink it.

At ten o'clock in the evening, the irretrievable aircraft carrier Ticonderoga was sunk by a torpedo fired by an American destroyer.

At dawn the next day, the planes of the Chinese Emperor bombed the wounded cruiser Newport and the four destroyers escorting the cruiser. The USS Newport was bombed and sunk to the bottom of the sea, and only one U.S. destroyer escaped the disaster and struggled to return to the U.S. base in the Gulf of Mexico.

At nine o'clock in the morning of the next day, the US submarine No. 168 accidentally discovered the Funiushan, and immediately launched four torpedoes, two hit the Funiushan, one hit the escorting Chinese Imperial Navy DD-142 destroyer, and the other hit the tugboat, and the three ships sank one after another.

The Imperial Chinese Navy once again paid the price of an aircraft carrier, and finally completely wiped out the US aircraft carrier fleet.