558 Empire Counterattack (Counter-Bombardment)

Thirty nautical miles away from the Hebrides, Sa Zhenbing stepped into the Heilongjiang's No. 3 turret, a twin-mounted turret between two chimneys, with its doors half-closed, but the gunners were already in place. 【 I want: super fast update 】

"Don't blink, play well, remember to help me open two more holes." Sa Zhenbing smiled and saluted the artillery squad.

"Yes, Captain!"

Simple words, a simple military salute, but the soldiers of the artillery squad are full of enthusiasm, and also let everyone understand that the hard battle is coming.

As Sa Zhenbing walked out of the turret, the hatch suddenly locked, except for the whirring ventilation fan passage in the corner, the turret with the same frontal thickness and muzzle entered a state of imminent battle, and the cold muzzle pointed to the north, everyone believed that as long as the voice of the gun commander sounded, it would strike a fatal blow to the enemy.

Sa Zhenbing continued to walk towards the two turrets in the stern, although smoke had already appeared in the distance in the sky, and although several hornets had already whistled towards it, it did not disrupt his steps.

Still firm and calm.

This is self-confidence, the self-confidence of the captain of the Imperial battleship brought from the Beiyang Tube, and the stability established through several sea battles!

Even if the enemy had appeared from afar, he still did not hurry and followed his own habits to personally cheer up the artillery squad before the battle, because every captain of the Chinese ship knew that if the ship's artillery could not be hit accurately, then even if you had thick armor, it would be useless.

As more and more capital ships are launched, a large number of experienced veteran non-commissioned officers will be transferred to the battleship to lead young people, which can pass on the experience and lessons of the navy, but it will inevitably make the combat capability of the old warships decline slightly.

However, Sa Zhenbing is not worried about these, even if there is only one old gunner, the Heilongjiang will not be afraid, and there will be no chaos, this is the advantage of BGI.

After inspecting the five turrets, Sa Zhenbing returned to the Command Tower, which was sealed with the sound of a clattering door, which meant that the battle was about to begin.

Sa Zhenbing walked up to the communications officer, took the telephone from his hand, and said in a slow and calm voice: "The commander's side has already started, and the Fujian has already overturned a ship, so that the bastards who originally wanted to sneak attack us on the hundreds of people on it went to meet their god lord!" ”

"Now, here comes our opponent."

"It's four American battleships! It's about the same size as us, and there are more cannons than us combined, but they still can't compare to us! ”

"Because, we are strong!"

"Strong!" In the Heilongjiang and Jilin, more than 1,700 officers and soldiers shouted in unison, and Sa Zhenbing's pre-war encouragement made the entire team fanatical, and several veteran gunners simply rolled up their sleeves and scolded.

"Isn't it just four! Back in the day, when one fought two, the Yankees were still playing with torpedo boats! ”

The shell was fiercely stuffed into the gun chamber, and the fire controller in the turret began to report the data to the fire control room through the ** rangefinder, and then the data fed back would be transmitted to the ears of the deputy squad leader, and the rear turret began to rotate, and the muzzle of the gun rose little by little.

The soldiers were full of enthusiasm, but Sa Zhenbing did not dare to have any optimism, according to the previous Fujian was hit at 19,000 meters, the accuracy of the shells of the South Carolina-class battleships equipped with rangefinders and primary fire control was still quite high, and it had reached the level of the Chinese Navy in the naval battle of Xibilu Island that year.

Four South Carolina-class ships, that is, 32 305 mm naval guns, and only 20 in their own hands, plus they are two to one, it is impossible for their side to disperse the already small firepower and engage two ships at the same time, they must fight one by one, which means that before they can beat one to the point that they lose the threat, they have to face the unscrupulous bombardment of another American battleship.

"Captain, 25000 meters, they began to deflect to the right."

"To the right? Hum! Sa Zhen sneered, the Yankees still have the courage to enter the Hebrides to the left, but are ready to cut the outer corner to challenge themselves, it seems that the cowboys really think they are easy to bully.

"Then I'll teach you a lesson first, how speed is critical!" After Sa Zhenbing finished muttering to himself, he raised his right hand: "Left, 20 degrees, speed 24 knots, keep parallel." 【 I want: super fast update ]"

Although the Jilin-class did not change the boiler, the steam turbine reacted more than the reciprocating steam engine after all, and after a while, the two Jilin-class accelerated to a height of 24 knots, and the bow split the sea water and quickly approached the four South Carolina-class.

At 6:32 a.m., just ten minutes after the Fujian overturned the Renault to the east, the Heilongjiang and Jilin began to accelerate towards the American battleship formation, while Sa Zhenbing ordered the light cruisers and destroyers to deal with the remaining American protective cruisers and the British seaplane carrier.

At 6:40 a.m., when the American commander saw that the Jilin, which was much faster than the South Carolina-class 19 knots, ordered a left turn and pulled back to the bow, preparing to force its way in front of the two Jilin-class ships and heading south to Caledonia, which was only 70 nautical miles away.

"25,000 meters!" The navigator blushed and shouted.

Sa Zhenbing subconsciously shook his head and didn't choose to fire, because he was a light 305mm shell, which was about the same distance as a waste, so he had to continue to close the distance.

"Keep left!" Sa Zhenbing gave the order.

Jin Wei drove the war eagle and looked down at the sky over the Hebrides, and from his point of view, he could only see that the four American battleships were slightly biased due south, while the two Jilin-class ships were to the left of the Yankees, and the bow of the ship was also speeding south after making a small circle like a spinning top.

From the point of view of time and distance, when the U.S. fleet arrived 20,000 meters in front of the bow of the two Jilin-class ships, the Heilongjiang and the Jilin could also complete the maneuver to the right.

Seeing this opponent who was about to fight to the death getting closer and closer, Jin Wei only felt that his heart was in his throat, and at this moment, the headphones suddenly sounded, startling him.

"02, 03, 04 immediately go to the east, cooperate with the fleet to bite the American heavy patrol, they are going to divide their forces and escape!"

Yes, the result of the Renault capsizing after only three 356mm shells made Claxton realize that the gap between the two sides was too great, especially since the results of the first two naval battles had proved that neither the heavy cruiser nor the battle cruiser could be the opponent of the battlefleet, so if it continued to maintain such a neat formation, none of the remaining three heavy cruisers would be able to escape.

So he gave the order to disband the formation, let the remaining three heavy cruisers break through from three directions, and then converge in Noumea.

It should be said that Claxton is a good commander, and when the experience and ability of American sailors are inferior, and the equipment is also very different, he still quickly finds some external conditions to make up for the gap, for example, at this time, the opponent only has two, and he has three, so he thinks that as long as he runs in three directions, so few can break through successfully.

But he still didn't know too much about the Hebei class, or too little about the R system that had just been equipped on the Hebei class, that is, the power of the naval gun follow-up system that was renamed by Emperor Li Da.

When Gu Junhuo also gave the order to split up the pursuit, the Jiangsu had already begun to turn left to pursue the flagship St. Louis that was about to flee into the Hebrides, but before it was aiming at the Columbus, if it was common sense, the naval guns must quickly turn to the St. Louis, because according to the convention, the turret control motor cannot be synchronized, so the rapid deflection of the bow will affect the firing angle of the gun.

However, the naval gun follow-up system solves this big problem, after its own speed, deflection angle and the speed and angle of the target are locked, the gyroscope and synchronous motor of the control turret will automatically aim at the target, no matter how it rotates, the turret will always be aimed at the enemy.

To put it simply, when you run and start turning right, you suddenly see a beautiful woman on your left, and your head will lock steadily onto the target with your eyes, even if your body and eyes are in the same direction.

For the gunners of the Jiangsu, the Columbus was the big beauty, and just a few seconds before the two front guns were about to lose their firing angle due to rotation, the Jiangsu fired a salvo at the Columbus.

The recoil of the 12 L50/356 mm guns helped the Jiangsu to turn quickly, but for the Columbus, a mistaken shot in this salvo killed him.

It was one of the three high-explosive shells fired by the No. 2 turret of the Jiangsu!

It's a high-explosive shell, that's right.

Because the No. 2 turret made a mistake at that time, and the squad leader in the ammunition compartment was counting how many armor-piercing shells were left, several soldiers did not pay attention and fired the wrong shells, and sent three 580-kilogram high-explosive shells into the bomb winch.

When three high-explosive shells were stuffed into the barrel, the gun squad leader above almost had the idea of rushing down to kill people, at this time the only thing he could do was to make a mistake and make a mistake, because it is impossible to give you time to change the shells on the battlefield where every minute counts, so it is better to shoot it out.

But he probably never imagined that one of the lightweight, ballistic high-explosive shells would accidentally burrow straight under the horizontal deck between the Columbus 2nd turret and the conning tower.

The position between the conning tower and the rear turret is the key protective part, even if it is a thin-skinned and large-stuffed battle patrol, it will not be missed, if this is a 305-mm high-explosive shell, then there is no chance of penetrating the deck at all, even if it is an armor-piercing projectile with a small chance, but the designer probably would not have thought that penetrating here is a shell that weighs nearly 200 kg more than the 305-mm armor-piercing projectile.

The high-explosive shell was not armor-piercing at all, but smashed the deck and entered the lower level, and the 220 kg of high N loaded inside the shell showed terrible destructive power, not only blowing up the entire No. 2 turret, but also blowing up half of the conning tower and the fire control room below, killing all the people inside.

That is, the Columbus lost its brain.

Looking at the billowing flames on the bridge in front of the Columbus, Claxton fell into complete despair, losing his brain to re-cruise, let alone dealing with enemy battleships, even the destroyers with strange speed would give it a mortal threat.

Sure enough, after seeing the tragic situation of the Columbus, he didn't even wait for Gu Junhuo to give an order, he was experienced, and the three Weiqing-class destroyers of the two Hebei class suddenly accelerated, and they slyly formed a 20-degree angle along the bow of the Columbus, and were divided into three positions in front and rear to assault, because the Columbus temporarily lost command at this time, and the smoke after the explosion of the bridge blocked the sight of the observer on the cage mast, so wait until the three destroyers appear at 10,000 meters according to the habit to issue an alarm.

But with the exception of the No. 1 main gun and a few self-discovered secondary guns, the other gun positions were not warned, and the observer could only watch in despair as the three destroyers turned sharply five thousand meters away, and thirty Torpedoes of the Lance II rushed at a speed of 42 knots towards the Columbus, which lacked command and did not even make evasive moves.

The USS Columbus was probably the worst capital ship in the three naval battles, and no one even knows how many torpedoes it was hit afterward, because whether it was the officers and men of the Chinese Navy or the two American heavy cruisers that were desperately escaping, they could only see wave after wave of explosions blowing up from the Columbus, and the hull was torn apart again and again.

Later, a Hornet pilot who was monitoring the sky reported that he had seen at least 11 explosions.

That is, the 22,000-ton heavy cruiser was hit in a row by 11 spear modifications with a charge of 450 kg and a speed of 42 knots, no wonder the pilot later described it to his partner.

"After the explosion, I couldn't tell the shape of it."

No one can testify to whether this sentence is true, because by the time Jin Wei, who had been sent to prepare to monitor it, arrived over the battlefield, the Columbus had disappeared into the sea, leaving only a large whirlpool.

Jin Wei drove the plane around the whirlpool twice, and a worrying news sounded in the earphones.

"The No. 3 turret of the Heilongjiang was hit and exploded!"

"The goal ......." The gunner of the Heilongjiang, who stared at the Michigan with red eyes and bombarded himself, causing the explosion of the No. 3 turret, gritted his teeth and gave an order: "Oregon!" ”

Thundered.......

With his voice, the remaining eight main guns on the Heilongjiang once again fired the 13th salvo at the first target, the Oregon, and the trajectory at a distance of 16,000 meters has become straight, aiming at almost all the waterline and superstructure, and the experienced artillery squad at this distance can even hit 4 percent.

The Heilongjiang artillery squad was that experienced man, and three of the eight armor-piercing shells hit the Oregon at the same time, two hit the chimney, and the other directly penetrated the waterline.

But the USS Oregon and the USS Michigan responded with a salvo at the same time, and although only two of the sixteen armor-piercing shells hit, they all burrowed into the amidships of the hull that were clearly targeted after the smoke.

A minute later, Heilongjiang fired another salvo, this time five shells swept through all the opponent's superstructure, but at the same time, one of the sixteen shells from the Oregon and the Michigan, which was not attacked and could be aimed slowly, also smashed the Heilongjiang command tower.

Although there was no drill command tower behind the armor-piercing bullet, the violent explosion and vibration still caused the death of the three staff officers in the command tower, and the captain Sa Zhenbing was also knocked down, and his arm smashed on the leg of the navigation table, and the flesh and blood were blurred.

When the Heilongjiang fired the 16th salvo and swept the two turrets of the Oregon bow, a shell from the Michigan, which was not under pressure and was getting more and more accurate, passed through the bridge of the Heilongjiang Seafaring Ship, causing the death of all 20 people in the bridge at that time, including the chief sailor.

Looking at the billowing black smoke gushing out of the front bridge, the gun control tower on the rear bridge quickly took over the shelling of the whole ship, and the deputy gun commander who commanded the artillery battle for the first time shed tears and shouted his first order in a crying voice.

"Completely cripple the Oregon!"

The guns began another salvo, and the shells rushed at the enemy with a roar, and then plunged into the waterline and caused a large explosion.

In the sky, Zhu Houbin held the joystick with trembling hands, he knew that the naval battle would be fierce, and he had imagined that the two Jilin-class ships that were inferior in numbers would fight very hard, but he didn't know that this bombardment battle was so tragic.

The Imperial gunners are undoubtedly excellent, whether it is the Oregon targeted by the Heilongjiang, or the South Carolina against the Jilin, almost none of them have the power to fight back, but the problem is that the two Michigan and Massachusetts, which are not threatened and can calmly counterattack.

The artillery battle continued, the two fleets maintained a constant speed of 18 knots, and on the parallel channel at a distance of 16,000 meters, they bombarded each other with a single sword, and the fire continued to rise from the ships of both sides, and the shells pierced through each other with scorching heat.

Such a close distance means that both sides can penetrate the opponent's armor, so at this time, it is no longer about tactics, but about the will of the soldiers!

The old gunner wept, looked at the black smoke bridge outside the porthole, remembered the captain who had come to encourage them before the war, tears fell silently from his cheeks, and his eyes were already red like beasts, and when the shells were reloaded, he had shifted the muzzle of the guns from the burning Oregon and aimed at the Michigan.

The vengeful cannonball rushed out of the muzzle with a screeching roar, and the scorching cannonball burrowed into the 12-inch thick command tower of the Oregon, and at the same time, a black dot in the eye magnified sharply, and then a violent explosion was heard in the ear.

When the little soldier cried and stood up from the corpses of his comrades a few minutes later, the reserve squad had already rushed into the turret with only one main gun left, the broken barrel rotated with the turret, the little soldier refused to leave, stubbornly wiped his face and couldn't tell whether it was blood or tears, and fired the latter shell at the Michigan.

The cannonball accurately hit the opponent's No. 3 turret, and a violent explosion erupted from the turret, and the little soldier sat down in the turret with a smirk, silently shedding tears, erasing the blood stains on the faces of the old squad leader and his comrades.

No one expected that this confrontation would be so tragic, and even afterwards Li Mo couldn't figure out why the inexperienced American sailors would fight so tenaciously, until he later learned that because the South Carolina class was the first type of battleship in the United States, the US Navy attached great importance to it and mobilized almost all experienced and good sailors to it.

It can be said that the Heilongjiang and Jilin are almost single-handedly picking up the elite cowboys of the US Navy!

When the Heilongjiang had already deviated, Sa Zhenbing, who had regained his feet, immediately ordered to inject water to the port side to maintain balance, but he did not let the Heilongjiang withdraw from the battle, and continued to bombard the Michigan with the only two remaining turrets.

Can the disadvantage be reversed?

At this time, Sa Zhenbing's heart was already bottomless, whether it was Heilongjiang or Jilin, they were all scarred, but the Michigan and Massachusetts, which had not been targeted before, did not suffer much loss, and they could still maintain at least six main guns and 18 knots of speed.

The smoke and the red-eyed eyes didn't notice, and the columns of smoke in the distance were getting thicker and thicker.

After chopping melons and vegetables to deal with the three American protective cruisers and the British seaplane carrier, the captains of the light cruisers and destroyers rushed back to the central battlefield with their battleships, their eyes were red almost at the same time.

"Grandma!"

"Kill!"

---

: I took my daughter to the playground in the morning, and I promised her to go around, Khan, sorry, it's over!

。

。 RO！ ~！