Episode 97 Unprecedented victory

Half an hour later, the first attack wave group returned to the carrier formation, and the second attack wave group had already flown over Okinawa Island and began to swarm Naha Harbor and concentrate on bombing the battleship Hiei.

The battleship Hiei began its final desperate struggle. All the guns of the ship, regardless of caliber, were firing frantically at the air, and the anti-aircraft guns around the military port were even more ping-pong ground-to-air bombardment. But the number of planes of the Ming army was too many, a dive bomber group, a torpedo bomber group, a fighter group, three groups with a total of a hundred or dozens of aircraft, and they swarmed like a wasp swarm.

Anti-aircraft guns were not an effective anti-aircraft weapon in the first place. The truly effective anti-aircraft weapon is fighter jets, but now there is no base in Okinawa. Relying only on anti-aircraft guns, the efficiency is too low. Moreover, the battleships and the port guns of various calibers combined were only a hundred.

More importantly, at this time, the concept of "air defense" was far less in place than in World War II. Half of the land-based artillery in Naha Port is shore defense guns, with a large caliber, a long range, and a very slow rate of fire. The effect is quite poor. What really worked was the two dozen or so specialized anti-aircraft guns.

At this time, the Ming army had already experienced several attacks on ships, and had already initially practiced the feeling, and the first few battles always made the fastest progress. Each battle sums up the lessons of the previous battle, and the tactics can always be greatly improved. Now, the cooperation of the three types of aircraft of the Ming army has been quite skilled, fighter strafing and suppressing anti-aircraft artillery fire + dive bombers dropping bombs at high altitude, attracting all artillery fire to the high altitude, and then the torpedo bombers suddenly kill from low altitudes, and the fighters strafe and suppress the enemy's artillery fire, throwing deadly torpedoes.

Both the artillery of the Hiei and the artillery of the Naha Naval Port participated in the actual battle for the first time. And the pilots of the Ming army are now veterans. Attacks on ships, which have been fought several times before; The attack on ground anti-aircraft artillery is even more proficient, and it has been practiced countless times on the Qing army in the war of reunification.

Especially in this attack on the ship, the Hiei was still moored in the harbor, and did not sail at high speed, nor did it do S-shaped evasive maneuvers, so it was a completely stationary target. Within ten minutes of the attack, the Hiei had been hit by four bombs, and smoke was billowing from the deck. At this time, the anti-aircraft artillery crews in the surrounding ports also suffered heavy casualties, and several guns were directly hit by bombs and exploded into a pile of scrap metal. Although the rest of the artillery crew did not hit directly, the members of the artillery crew also suffered heavy casualties in the bomb shock wave, shrapnel, and fighter strafing. As a result, the rate of fire and accuracy of anti-aircraft guns were greatly reduced.

Seeing that the land-based anti-aircraft guns were almost suppressed, the group leader ordered the torpedo planes to enter the battlefield and go into the attack.

……

A large group of torpedo planes came down from a nearby height, pressed against the sea in the harbor, and threw torpedoes at the flanks of the long battleships in the face of dense machine gun fire. The Hiei did not move, did not evade, and did not have high technical requirements for the crew of the torpedo machine. If in a naval battle, they had to be very close to throw torpedoes, otherwise the hit rate would be low. But now, they can drop torpedoes from a long distance, even a kilometer or two away, and then pull them up early, greatly avoiding being hit by warship fire.

In the blink of an eye, more than a dozen torpedoes were thrown into the water, dragging a dense white line and rushing towards the Hiei. At this time, the captain of the Hiei urgently ordered to start sailing and untie the cable, but it was too late. This 30,000-ton behemoth is not a car, and it is not said that it can be started from a start. Just over a minute later, the first torpedo covered a distance of more than a thousand meters and crashed into the flank of the Hiei.

The earth shook and the mountains shook with a big explosion, a white column of water several stories high, and the huge battleship trembled, and it seemed that there was no big problem. Black smoke began to erupt from the chimney, and the white waves at the tail became bigger and bigger, and gradually, the huge body slowly moved forward.

The battleship drove up.

But it was too late. A dozen seconds later, the second torpedo hit the battleship's frontal waterline armor. A few seconds later, the third and fourth torpedoes, almost simultaneously hit the middle waterline armor and the stern of the battleship.

Unlike ship-based torpedoes, aviation torpedoes are smaller in size and less powerful. The battleship, despite four torpedoes in a row, did not hit the same position. Two torpedoes hit the main armor belt in the middle part and did not penetrate. A torpedo hit the front armor, causing water ingress, but the damage was not too serious. But the fourth torpedo hit the stern, presumably blowing up the propeller, and the giant ship stopped just starting.

Captain Hiei condescended from the bridge, desperately looking at the torpedo trails in the sea, knowing that there was no way back. He gave the order to abandon the ship, then took off his binoculars and slowly returned to his cabin.

Fifth, sixth, and seventh torpedoes hit the Hiei one after another. The battleship finally began to tilt and roll on its side in a series of large explosions. The high-altitude dive bombers did not stop for a moment, and the bombs were still dropping like dumplings. With columns of water around and explosions on the ship, the Hiei battleship has become a hellish ship with fire and smoke. The surrounding waters were crowded with Japanese sailors who had jumped from their boats, screaming and scrambling to swim to shore. At the same time, no less than ten torpedoes were rushing here.

In a series of explosions, the Hiei was hit by several more torpedoes. In fact, by this time it had already been destroyed. But these torpedoes accelerated the speed at which it rolled over and sank. After the waterfall-like dense column of water fell, I saw that the huge ship had sunk and run aground, its huge body turned on its side at 45 degrees, and half of the main gun turret was submerged in the water. Smoke was still rising from the exposed bridge, and fire was spewing out of the windows and cracks that had been blown out.

……

At this time, there was already cheers in the headphones of the Ming army group. The team leader couldn't suppress his excitement and shouted:

"Brethren, we are on our way back! …… Well done everyone! Attaboy!! What a job——!!! ”

"Oh————!!!"

"Hooray——!!!

"Hahaha......"

"Cool, ———"

The planes of the three groups of the second attack wave rose to a high altitude to reorganize and return in formation towards the sunset, which had gradually sunk to the west. The fighters excitedly did the victorious tumbling, "juggling" around the bomber group, and vented the excitement in their chests. And the team leader didn't scold, just laughed with everyone. The whole fleet did not look like a returning troop, but like a group of bachelors who had just come out of a tavern.

They really have reason to be ecstatic. Two days after the start of the war, the Japanese battleship was sunk. Moreover, this huge battle was not made by their own battlefleet, but by their small aircraft. All the losses, only one dive bomber, two torpedo bombers, one fighter. At the cost of four single-engine small aircraft, a 30,000-ton battleship was sunk. This is not only in the Ming army, but even in the history of the world's navy, it is the first time in the world.

Flying out of sight of Okinawa, the group began to go silent. Because it is necessary to hide the direction of their return, to hide the position of the aircraft carrier formation. Soon it will be dark, and then the aircraft carrier formation will enter a covert voyage all night.

But when the second attack wave landed on the deck at about half past six in the evening, the commander of the Tianshu detachment could not contain his ecstasy and decided to send a telegram to report the good news to Nanjing.

……

As the sun sets, bathed in the last afterglow of the sunset, Nanjing has also entered the lights of thousands of homes at this time. The good news entered the Purple Mountain Fortress, and suddenly, the entire command was plunged into cheers and applause. Both the army and the navy were now engulfed in the ecstasy of the day.

Amid boiling applause, several carts pushed champagne into the hall.