Chapter 456: Sound at Sea (4)
The Sahr had no idea that the Allies would be able to fly so far, so their attention was mainly on the sea, and for air defense it was almost the same as being undefended. It wasn't until the Imperial Chinese Navy's carrier-based aircraft group was in the air that Thar was surprised to discover their existence.
Without giving the Sahr any time to react, the flight formations that had already been assigned tasks immediately split up and flew towards the various airfields in the nearby area, and the bombing soon began. Before the scrambling Thar Air Force could take off, more than 2,000 planes of various types parked at the airport were devastated.
The task of the Chinese Air Force is to prevent the land-based Thar Air Force from posing a threat to the naval fleet, so their first wave of attacks is mainly concentrated on the opponent's airfield, and the large-scale bombing campaign has caused the Saar Empire's native air force to be devastated within half an hour before it can fight, and the Sahr Air Force planes that have escaped the attack are only three or two kittens left, which can no longer pose any threat to the Chinese Navy fleet.
The attack of carrier-based aircraft was not over, and the sixteen 'Zhonghua'-class battleships and twenty-four 'Wanghai'-class heavy cruisers of the Imperial Chinese Navy had already approached Omar Beach, which was only seventeen kilometers away from Pools Harbor, avoiding the coastal batteries of Pools Harbor, and the coastal defense force of the Saar Empire was not outstanding.
In such an era when the concept of landing operations was still very vague, the main direction of coastal defense of various countries was the defense of seaports, and the main force of defense was coastal batteries. The Sar Empire's defensive thinking is no exception, and for a beach area like Omar Beach, which is very easy to land, the defensive force can be described as quite weak.
The Imperial Chinese Army quickly boarded the 60-ton displacement of the flat landing craft, and a large number of landing ships rushed towards the beach under the operation of the sailors. There are two kinds of landing ships in the Chinese Empire, in addition to the flat-bottomed landing craft that transports personnel, the other is an eight-ton tracked landing vehicle. In addition to carrying 25 heavily armed soldiers, this vehicle can also be equipped with machine guns and small-caliber artillery for self-defense, and the tactical use is very mobile and flexible.
Because there was no time to draw Marines from the Eastern Ocean, the landing force did not have the Weasel 1 light tank that could carry out amphibious operations, and the Grizzly 1 medium tank equipped by the Army was more powerful, but it did not have amphibious combat capability, but these more powerful and heavier tanks were not unable to participate in combat.
Because the Imperial Chinese Navy also has another kind of large landing ship, that is, the 'Jade' class medium landing ship, this kind of landing ship is nearly 50 meters long, up to 10 meters wide, and has a maximum speed of 11 knots, which can carry two Grizzly 1 medium tanks or 60 soldiers, which is enough to quickly transport a large number of personnel and equipment to the coast.
This kind of landing ship is a flat-bottomed design, with a flat port suspension bridge to replace the normal bow bow, after arriving at the beach, it can be put down as a bridge structure, which is convenient for soldiers to land in battle, and at the same time, in order to facilitate activities in shallow water, the landing ship adopts a push-water thruster, and the propeller is installed in the ship, like a water pump, the water is sucked in from the bottom of the ship, and then discharged backwards to push the ship forward, so as to avoid the damage to the propeller by hard objects such as stones and sand in the shallow water area.
At this time, more than a dozen such landing ships rushed towards the coast, and under the jaw-dropping gaze of the Sahr soldiers, these landing ships with a displacement of thousands of tons rushed straight to the beach, the bow hatch slowly opened, the drawbridge was lowered, and the Grizzly 1 vehicles quickly drove onto the coast.
Under the blow of the chariots, the weakened Saar defenders quickly retreated. Taking advantage of the fact that the Sahr reinforcements could not move for a while, the landing ships and two kinds of landing craft shuttled back and forth, quickly transporting a large number of soldiers, combat vehicles, and various war materials to the beach, and the two divisions of the army and all their equipment were quickly transported ashore.
Seeing that the Imperial Chinese Army had landed, the Saar Army stationed in Pools Harbour was the strength of five corps of the Royal Janissary Legion, with a total number of 250,000 men, and seeing that the Imperial Chinese Army had landed, the Saar Army immediately sent two corps of troops to Omar Beach in an attempt to intercept the attack of the Imperial Chinese Army. It's a pity that the Saar people have forgotten that it is no longer the era of pure land force duels, not to mention that this road is close to the coastline, so the Saar army has not been smooth from the beginning.
First of all, the Exocet reconnaissance planes that took off in turn to carry out battlefield reconnaissance discovered the movements of the Saar Army, and after discovering the whereabouts of the other party, they immediately reported to the fleet, and Sun Xiaohu quickly ordered a large number of carrier-based planes to take off to attack. Since a large number of Swordfish attack planes were attacking various important targets in Pools Harbour and had no time to take care of them, more than 100 Sailfish fighters and 20 Exocet reconnaissance planes took part in the interception of the Saar Army.
A large number of fighters relied on the 12.7 mm machine guns on the planes to dive and strafe in turn over the Sahr army, killing and wounding a large number of Saar soldiers, and then the eight 'Shannan' class battleships and eight 'Zhonghua' class battleships that heard the news also began to attack the ground with their huge main guns. The huge explosions and the rain of bullets fired by the planes caused the Saar army to suffer heavy losses, and before they could see the face of the opposing landing force, their casualties had already exceeded half.
This way of fighting made the Saar people very uncomfortable, and before the Saar Imperial War Department sent reinforcements, the landing force of the Chinese Empire had already taken advantage of the opportunity of the other side's large number of land forces, resulting in the emptiness of the capital's troops, and carried out another port landing in Pools Harbor.
The minesweepers were the first to strike, and they quickly carved out a safe area on the main channel of Pools Harbour. Under the bombardment of planes and naval guns, the two coastal batteries outside Pools Harbor were blown to pieces, and those old coastal artillery soon lost their ability to resist.
The Saar army soon found out helplessly that in the absence of naval and air superiority, although they had a numerical advantage, they had no possibility of victory. After four hours of fierce fighting, the two divisions of the Chinese Army that landed on Omar Beach had already routed the two armies of the Saar Empire, which had been killed and wounded, and advanced to the outskirts of Poolshaven, where it was possible to cut off the enemy's retreat at any time.
Seeing this situation, the Saar Empire government knew that it was impossible to do so, so it had to let the remaining Royal Praetorian Legion troops cover the royal family and government offices to withdraw from Pools Harbour and move to Nottingburg in the north, and at the same time issued a mobilization order to the Saar Empire land forces, hoping to drive the other side out of Pools Harbour as soon as possible.
The hasty retreat of the Thar army only had time to evacuate the royal family and government personnel, and a large number of civilians and the wealth accumulated by the royal family for thousands of years were reluctantly abandoned. Entering Pools Harbour, the Imperial Chinese Army soon took full control of the area, and the fleet command issued a strict order that all Saar residents must stay in their homes and not go out on the streets, otherwise they would be killed by the patrolling soldiers as rebels.
After stabilizing the situation, several troops that had already been assigned to the task rushed to several important places according to the plan, this time the Chinese Empire sent such a large battle, not to completely occupy this place, but simply to make a fortune, Fang Xiaoyu valued the most is the world's highest gold reserves of the Saar Empire, so the target area of these troops includes the Sahr Palace and the location of several important treasury of the Saar National Bank.
The Saar Empire stored nearly 80,000 tons of gold in Pools Port, most of which was deposited in a large number of banks on Poole Street, one of the world's three major financial centers, and a large number of treasured jewels were stored in the imperial palace.
It is impossible to ship so many things back to China, not only is there not so many ships to transport, but the main thing is that the security is not guaranteed, and the amount of treasure alone is so huge, once the Sahr leak the news, even a few of their allies will probably snatch it privately.
Sun Xiaohu didn't think about using a transport ship to transport these riches back, he still used Fang Xiaoyu's old method, the treasures of the palace were all concentrated in several large rooms, and a batch of teleportation badges specially put on him by Shang Xiaoyu were placed in them.
The same goes for the bank's gold, which they didn't move after blowing up the vault, but put the badge in the vault and then closed it all in. A day later, when the badges were taken, the unsuspecting soldiers were surprised to find that all the treasures in these places had been lost.
The Imperial Chinese Army did not stay in Pools Harbor for long, and Sun Xiaohu knew very well that the troops carried by the fleet were insufficient, and he could not rely on these army units at hand to capture the island country of the Thar Empire, and now that he had made enough profits, it was time to go back and help the Allied fleet.
After a busy day, all the landed troops shrank back to the port, and the Imperial Chinese Army re-boarded the ship with a large number of other looted supplies, which would be divided equally among all the officers and men of the Navy and Army who participated in the battle. Some of the heavy cruisers and destroyers covered the transport fleet towards the port of Ceuta, while the main fleet sailed eastward, approaching the area where a fierce naval battle was taking place, relying on the coordinates obtained from the Allied fleet.
Since the Saar Empire was only equipped with its own research and development, it was equivalent to the first generation of wireless telegraphs that had been eliminated by the Chinese Empire, and its power was too small, resulting in its actual communication range of only about 200 kilometers, and it was difficult to receive signals beyond this distance. Therefore, Marshal Jericho did not know that the port of Pools had been sacked at this time, and he was still concentrating on his naval battle.