At this time, Britain already had a first-class advanced fighter "Spitfire", but several advanced bombers were still under development, not to mention that even if they were finalized and put into service, they would definitely give priority to equipping the local air force, while the colonial air force would definitely be much later, not to mention the lower status of the naval aviation force (during World War II, the British naval aviation aircraft have been inferior to the air force, and the British aircraft carriers have a lot, but the results are not as good as the United States and Japan, which is not unrelated, and in the naval aviation, the status of land-based aircraft is certainly inferior to that of carrier-based aircraft. Therefore, the bombers of the British army in Singapore are generally seriously outdated (in fact, it is caused by the rapid replacement of aircraft before and after World War II, and the aircraft that was only finalized and put into service in 36 years has fallen behind in performance in 39 years)

However, among the British bombers flying from Singapore, there was also a famous aircraft of World War II, that is, the Swordfish bomber, which played a great role in the encirclement and suppression of Bismarck. However, in terms of the performance of the aircraft itself, the Swordfish bomber is miserable due to its antiquated biplane design, except for excellent horizontal maneuverability (but then again, if the biplane can't even do this parameter, it is really a waste), the combat radius is not too small, and the barely qualified bomb load, almost all other major performance parameters are miserable, especially the maximum flight speed of just over 200 km/h, which is not as good as the cruise speed of most aircraft of the same period. Not only did this mean that they would not be able to escape if they were targeted by enemy fighters, but it also made them excellent targets for anti-aircraft guns. So to speak. The reason why the Swordfish bombers were able to establish so many feats in history is largely because they faced the enemy with extremely low air defense capabilities of the German and Italian navies, or the old saying, it doesn't matter if the performance is not advanced, just enough, but the problem is that this time their opponents are not as undefended against the air as the German and Italian navies in history, but have terrifying air defense capabilities beyond the level of World War II

Compared with the Swordfish bomber, which was not in service for a long time but was designed to be called a "classic aircraft", the British Air Force stationed in Singapore was equipped with much better bomber performance, at least a monoplane with a relatively advanced design. However, this "Hampton" bomber also has a series of problems, such as weak self-defense firepower, slow speed, limited bomb load, and low bombing efficiency. The slower speed of the aircraft makes it an excellent target for anti-aircraft guns, although they are slightly better off than the Swordfish bombers

If these two aircraft are facing the warships of the current German or Italian Navy. They still have a chance to make a difference. But now they have unfortunately encountered two Chinese heavy cruisers whose air defense capabilities are beyond the times. In contrast, the much faster Japanese bombers have more than once been hit by the powerful air defense system of the task force, not to mention these dozens of target aircraft.

"This plane is so easy to fight, even I can kill three. It's even easier than training", exclaimed one of the guys who shot Jishu and was considered the worst of the ship's anti-aircraft gunners. And the large-caliber anti-aircraft guns, which have always relied only on close-huze fuses to cover the air with barrage, also have a rare opportunity to fire point fire this time, and at least the 88mm caliber anti-aircraft shells are so powerful that after being directly hit by them, the British pilots in the plane did not even have a chance to parachute, so they were crushed together with their landlines

"My God, this is a massacre!" The remaining officers and men of the British Far East Fleet all looked dead when they saw their planes falling from the sky like wild ducks shot by shotguns during a hunt, and their hopes were raised in a few minutes, and they immediately turned into even greater despair. But even so, for the honor of the British Royal Navy, they still chose to fight to the end, but the naval battle is different from the land battle, the impact of courage is not so great, although the remnants of the British Far East Fleet fought desperately, but the Cornwall, which also belongs to the Kent class heavy cruiser, only lasted less than 5 minutes, and was sunk by the fierce artillery fire of two Chinese heavy cruisers, but it is comforting that the ship's dying counterattack has achieved some results, no matter what, at least much stronger than several other warships

A 203mm large-caliber shell deviated from the original attack position, but coincidentally hit the bow of the Zhiyuan near the waterline, the violent explosion caused a certain degree of damage to the bow of the ship, especially the relatively fragile bulbous bow, although the emergency repair blocked the hole into the water, but the maximum speed of the Zhiyuan plummeted to about 31 knots, the ammunition expert's comment was "as long as the number of samples is large enough, even if it is a small probability event, it will definitely happen." ”

At this time, Ye Fei was still a pure soldier, and he only thought about killing the enemy as much as possible to make meritorious contributions, and the political impact was relatively little considered, and the Zhiyuan was injured and made him angry, and immediately ordered the fleet to approach the light cruiser who had almost completely lost power and could only squirm slowly like a snail in the direction of Singapore (the heavy cruiser Kent, which had also lost power, had sunk due to fire and explosion at this time), and planned to open fire to make up for it. However, for humanitarian considerations and to save shells, Ye Fei still asked people to send a telegram to him to sink himself, and he would let the officers and men on the ship leave safely, so that they would not die in vain.

In fact, Ye Fei originally planned to capture this warship, but due to the attrition of long-term operations and the diseases caused by the climate in the South Seas, the reduction of the task force since its departure has exceeded 300 people, of which there are more than 100 permanent attrition. What's more, if the British cheat, it will also cause the task force to suffer unnecessary losses, so it is better to sink it directly

In order to avoid unnecessary sacrifices, the arrogant British finally lowered their heads and reluctantly accepted the request of the Chinese, and Li Siping, an ammunition expert on the Zhiyuan, had learned from the dozens of British naval officers and men who rescued the actual effect of the depleted uranium shell after hitting the Kent, which made him puzzled for a while, none of the depleted uranium armor-piercing shells with unparalleled armor-piercing ability could penetrate the hull, and the countless armor-piercing blasting shells fired before were obviously much weaker than it. But on the contrary, there are frequent embarrassments that directly penetrate the hull of the ship and fall into the sea and explode, what is going on? (To be continued......)