627 Night Battle Warriors (9)

Is it possible to sink or damage two battleships in 15 minutes?

In fact, everyone has no bottom in their hearts, because 15 minutes is just the time from the beginning to the end, which also needs to be closer to the target to 8000 meters, which will take another 6 minutes, this is still because the starting speed of the lone class is too slow, the high speed is insufficient, and no one dares to pack a ticket to catch up with the enemy from 10000 meters in 6 minutes. 【 I want: super fast update 】

In other words, the artillery battle can only last 9 minutes, and whether it can be seriously damaged or not, it is necessary to turn around and pursue the first target.

At 3:35, after Li Xiuyan gave the order to stop firing and close the distance at full speed, the two Guam-class ships disappeared from the torrential rain and night like the Japanese ninjas hidden in the darkness in the movie, with neither sparks nor flames, and even the rumbling engine sound was drowned out by the wind.

In order to find out the opponent's intentions, Seymour ordered three destroyers of the Qi Qi class to rush over to have a look, but they were stopped by two Yangtze River-class light cruisers rushing out of the diagonal stab, although the Yangtze River class later dismantled the original 6 single-mounted 76-mm naval guns, but still had 12 152-mm main guns, 4 130-mm secondary guns and 4 quadruple 37-mm rapid-fire guns on one side.

Especially the latter, when many people see its anti-air capabilities again, they ignore its ability to deal with small water targets, the class destroyer is only 1500 tons, stuffed with boilers and installed with five steam turbines, it is no longer possible to have armor, at a distance of 5000 meters, the 37mm cannon is almost the same as the Grim Reaper, and the fire point brought by the 16 rapid-fire guns spread from the bow to the stern, although it is not enough to sink the opponent, but it kills almost everyone on the deck.

The light cruiser was not a battleship, and it had to maintain its own high-speed maneuver when dealing with targets, so after the destroyers of the latter class barely fired a torpedo, the Lancang River and Lijiang had already left their positions and circled to the right side of the battleship's main formation for protection.

3:40 a.m.!

"Light Patrol in place!"

"Guns, calculate the distance."

"Gun Group 1 is ready to go."

"Number two......."

In the shouts of the navigator, everyone in the command tower held their breath, Li Zhen stood at the window, watching the six main guns in the bow move up and down, and there was an indescribable feeling in his heart, because this meant that the shell would rush out of the barrel in the next minute, and after pre-loading a standby shell, it would only shoot 10 rounds in 9 minutes!

Boom, boom, boom, ......boom.

Columns of water and flames rose from a distance, and when they were about to close to 9,000 meters, the two Guba-class battleships had already seen themselves, and all 20 L45/305 mm heavy guns and 22 L55/138 mm secondary guns had joined the shelling.

A 305 mm shell landed on the main armor belt on the side of the Guam, the shell was almost straight at this distance, and the violent flash and explosion made Li Zhen startled, and when he turned his head to look, Li Xiuyan was still as steady as a mountain.

While secretly admiring it in his heart, Li Zhen also understood that this 8,000-meter distance was not set casually.

When my father chatted with him, he had said countless times that the real strength of the Guam-class was far from being brought into play, not because the soldiers did not know the performance of the Guam-class battleships, but because they had no chance to play at all.

When going to the Atlantic, the 31st Fleet was cautious along the way, and when it encountered enemy ships, it basically opened fire from a long distance, trying not to hurt itself so as not to lose vital speed and fall into the predicament of being surrounded.

The 12th Fleet also invested two Guam-class ships in the Battle of Panama Bay, but in the end it made a wedding dress for the Dragon Wings, but provided long-range fire support, although it also sank two old battleships, but the main merit was to slow down the opponent's escape.

And now, it's time for the Guam-level war to play!

The 350 mm inclined arrangement of the main armor belt is simply prepared for the 406 mm heavy guns that began to be tested, according to the test report on the strength of the hardened armor steel of the equipment department type V, using Hua's own 305 mm / L50 naval guns and armor-piercing shells, it must be closed to 6000 meters to have a chance to penetrate the main armor, obviously the French naval guns do not have that strength.

The important thing is that in the five-level sea conditions at night, the optical rangefinder must also shorten the distance of 8,000 meters to really play out, so Li Xiuyan will set this distance and number. 【 I want: super fast update 】

"8000 meters!"

At the same time as the chief navigator reported the numbers, the 18 L47/380mm heavy guns, which had been silent for six minutes, roared at the same time in a piercing electric sound, and a few seconds later, the two Lone-class battleships flashing dozens of artillery sparks on the side of the distant side suddenly exploded two fierce fireballs.

First round hits!

This is not a miracle, but the result of years of hard training and type fire control, as well as the multiple effects of the naval artillery follow-up system, although the sea conditions are very poor, but after the technology offsets some of the unfavorable factors, the experienced veteran gunner at this distance can even hit 5 percent!

3:43 a.m.

The flames of the two shells hit in the first round had not completely dissipated, and when the second salvo rose again, the third round was fired on time, and it was from this salvo that the incomparable tyrannical ability of the Guam-class battleship was completely discharged.

Three of the nine armor-piercing shells fired by the Medan hit the No. 2 Rangbar, and the typical heavy firepower and light armor of the Lone class battleship was only 262 mm thick on the side of the armor shell, which was impossible to block the 850 kg armor-piercing shells at such a close range.

The first armor-piercing shell hit the thick amidships on the side side and, after easily tearing through the 262 mm carburized armor, again broke through the 76 mm protective armor wrapped outside the boiler compartment, immediately after tearing 4 boilers apart, again pierced the 57 mm rear armor plate in the middle of the two boiler compartments in the hissing steam, and an explosion occurred in the second boiler compartment.

The shrapnel swept everything under the ** inflated air mass, and in the blink of an eye, the four boilers here were also completely smashed, and the steam with a temperature of up to several hundred degrees rushed out from everywhere, scalding dozens of sailors in the boiler room and the nearby cabin into bare pigs on the spot.

The second armor-piercing shell smashed through the rear bridge and swept through it, killing everyone, before it actually penetrated and landed in the sea behind the Jean Bar and exploded.

As for the third one, it was serious, it directly penetrated the No. 5 turret in the amidships, and passed through the turret shaft with a total thickness of 320 mm, and entered the electromechanical compartment behind it and exploded, a large amount of rubber and wood burned in the explosion, and this serious injury made the Barr lose half of its power, that is to say, its two rear main turrets could not be rotated, and even the ammunition could not be raised.

Combined with the loss of the No. 5 turret, the Barr lost half of its power and naval guns in this salvo, which was equivalent to a loss of four-sixths when it could not turn around and the No. 6 turret on the other side could not be used.

But the three armor-piercing shells of the Medan are not very thick armor-piercing, and the Guam hit four of them, although three of them hit the secondary parts without causing much damage, but the second of them is simply a miracle!

Because after penetrating the 300 mm armor on the front of the No. 4 turret, it actually went all the way down, all the way down the turret well deck, and after penetrating five layers of armor totaling 250 mm in a row, it exploded next to the steam engine.

So much so that after the war, the Lone Pull was salvaged, and everyone found the penetration trace of this shell, which was also incredible, because it actually penetrated a total of 550 mm of armor, and the surprising thing was that the ballistic path was only 150 mm from the ammunition bay!

Only the third round caused such damage, which was not expected by the Chinese naval officers including Li Xiuyan, but later Li Mo didn't feel too strange after getting the news, super dreadnought and dreadnought are two different things at all, there is a difference of 20,000 tons in tonnage, this is like you driving the Bismarck Dreadnought in the game, it is simply bullying!

Although the Guam class has not yet reached Bismarck's standard, it can at least seventy percent of its power, on the other hand, France was caught off guard after the world entered the era of battleships, and the Guba class just imitated the Zhonghua with an extra turret, armor and protection have never been France's strong point, when the Huangtai was beheaded by a cannon showed France's embarrassment in this regard, due to the lack of technical reserves, the internal armor and structure of the Guba-class battleship still have the shadow of the Dandong-class old battleship, which is completely a confrontation between two levels.

Every flicker in the distance made the two Guba-class battleships tremble, and they exploded after hitting violently again and again, causing countless holes of various sizes to appear in the hull

Originally, Seymour and Bernice were relieved to see that the other party focused on themselves, because it meant that the two vital large light cruisers could take the opportunity to escape, which meant that the fleet could still ensure the ability to maneuver, but after the opponent opened fire with all their might, they began to worry about themselves when they knew that the level of the original Chinese naval guns had reached such a level.

"Boom......." After the Lone Pull fired a volley again, and then the hull seemed to be struck a few times by something, and Seymour could clearly see in the flames that a black dot had penetrated through the junction between the No. 2 turret and the middle of the bridge, and despair suddenly swelled up on his face.

The ball of fire rose from under the bridge, and in the vibration of the explosion, Seymour and Bernice only felt that their whole body was thrown into the sky, and then their heads hit something hard and then slammed into the deck, and when a trace of fishy sweetness fell into the corners of their mouths, the world in front of them immediately fell into darkness.

The naval guns were still roaring desperately, and the gunners on the two Guam-class ships knew that their time was very short, so they desperately aimed at each other and fired, constantly calling for the gods and Buddhas in their hearts, blessing every discharged shell to hit and then smash each other.

The ninth and fatal round.

First of all, let the Barr be hit by an armor-piercing shell in the amidship of the hull used to store the gas tank used for the transport boat (at that time, the traffic boats used gas engines), the power of the gas explosion is not less than **, in an instant everyone swallowed up half of the deck, and the explosion tore open the nearby waterproof sealed hatch, a large amount of seawater began to enter the center of the hull, and finally turned into a torrent to swallow most of the battleship.

Thousands of tons of seawater poured in, and even the Guam class did not have such strong reserve buoyancy, so the Barr immediately tilted to the left, and the 22,189-ton hull slowly flipped over until the huge bottom of the ship was exposed.

The Guam also came to an end, although the Guam was not very lucky, except for the one that caused damage to the bridge, most of the more than 20 shells that hit the opponent did not hit the key parts, and if it was changed to a regular engagement distance, it was already extremely unlucky.

But the problem is that it's only 7,200 meters now!

Five of the nine armor-piercing shells hit directly, and a series of large holes were immediately punched in the side of the Lone Pull, two of which pierced the front of shells No. 1 and No. 3 respectively, overturning the two turrets, and the remaining three hit the waterline and mixed into the hull that had long been covered with holes.

When the tenth round of shells finally flew out of the barrel, Li Xiuyan did not wait for the results of the battle to come out, and immediately ordered all shelling to be stopped and chased after the two large heavy artillery light cruisers.

In the sea of fire outside the porthole, the overturning Rang Barr is already doomed to sink, only the Tumbler-like Lone Puller still persists, this situation makes Li Zhen a little dumbfounded, 10 rounds of shelling, 90 850 kg armor-piercing shells, and the hit has reached 41, but the other party has not been put down, this can no longer be explained by technology, it should be said that God won the Bodhisattva tonight.

However, Li Zhen and everyone don't know, in fact, the Lone Pull is finished, and an armor-piercing bullet in the ninth round rushed into the gap torn by the front shell like an eye, this shell swept all the way, changed direction after hitting the steel plate, and then continued to break through, changing direction and tearing, and then fell into the bilge and exploded, not only tearing the bottom steel plate, but also tearing a large number of cabins along the way, resulting in the sealed hatch almost completely becoming a decoration, and the reason why it still remained on the water surface was entirely because the water injection actually maintained balance at that moment, It didn't overturn immediately.

Later, the battleship held out on the surface for three hours before capsizing, but surprisingly, it was not until the next day that the 31st Fleet returned that it could still see a little sunk of the Lone Pull, which finally sank on the edge of this shallow reef at a depth of 160 meters, and was finally salvaged and dismantled ten years later.

The only pity is that Seymour escaped from Ascension again, because he was eager to pursue the two large Brave-class light cruisers, and the Yangtze River class speed advantage was obvious, and they were still needed to encounter small warships along the way, so Li Xiuyan did not let the light patrol stay to clean up the battlefield, and the Lone Pull did not capsize immediately, and the sailors who abandoned the ship were able to search the dilapidated bridge and found Seymour and three wounded officers, while Vice Admiral Bernice, who kept saying that God was on his side, was killed by the falling steel plate.

Although Seymour escaped from the Chinese guns again and returned to Australia, he suffered a severe brain injury until three months later, when it was too late.

And the sailors who fell into the water from the two battleships and the warships just now were not so lucky, although the cruiser Liverpool did its best to search and rescue, but the two battleships, one battlecruiser and one Tennessee, and several light cruisers and destroyers, a total of 4,175 sailors still disappeared in the storm.

"Is there a distance?" After retracting his gaze from the firelight that disappeared outside the porthole, Li Xiuyan immediately asked.

"The radarman said that at about 28,000 meters, the speed was maintained at 28 knots."

After receiving the report, he walked to the chart and calculated.

The speed of the Guam class has reached 30 knots at this time, this is because of the southeast wind, driving along the wind and waves can increase the speed, and the opponent has also reached 28 knots, so everyone is equal, this distance has entered the range, but Li Xiuyan did not choose to fire, because the accuracy of this distance is too poor, but the advantage of 2 knots is not too big, it is about 3640 meters per hour, and it can completely enter a better range if you want to pursue for an hour.

From here there are still 45 nautical miles to reach Noumea, which means that in an hour the two Valiant light cruisers will sail to an area 35,000 meters away from the harbor, at which point it is believed that the garrison has already received the news, so they can get 20 minutes after an hour, and if they can't kill the other side within 20 minutes, they can enter the range of shore artillery protection.

It only takes 9 minutes to hit two battleships, but it can't be applied to these two light cruisers, the heavy damage is within 8,000 meters, and within 20 minutes an hour later, you must complete the attack at a distance of 24,000 meters, and the accuracy of the ship's guns at this distance is about less than three percent, that is, you can hit 54 shells of the opponent within 20 rounds.

According to the preliminary data and intelligence sent by the military department, there is actually a lot of information, and Li Xiuyan even believes that only one can severely damage it, but the problem is that the sea conditions are very bad now, and he can't gamble.

He does not regret his decision to kill the two battleships first, although this kind of heavy artillery light cruiser has a great speed advantage, but it is relative to other countries, it is not enough for China, with its fragile defense, as long as you risk your life, a few light cruisers and destroyers can eat it, on the other hand, the threat of battleships is still very great, although the speed is slow, but the survivability is undoubted, with the strength of the Guam class, there is still no way to quickly sink them within 8000 meters.

Seeing that the Marines are about to start attacking the Solomon Islands in a few days, if they run into the area of Marine activity, it will cause a lot of trouble to the covering naval light troops, so it is necessary to take them out.

What needs to be done now is to buy more time so that you don't have to get scrambling.

"Where are the Tumen and Ussuri rivers?"

"About 23,000 meters south of our bow, three Tennessee ships are being pursued, balancing with these two Brave classes." The navigator squinted his eyes at the two arrows parallel to Noumea on the chart and said: "According to the radar data, the distance between the Tumen River is about 12,000 meters, and if we let the Tumen River and the Ussuri River interject it, it will only take twenty minutes to force them to turn."

"But then the three Tennessee ships are going to be abandoned." The staff officer smacked his lips, and seemed to be a little unwilling to let go of the three large armored cruisers of 14,500 tons.

His words drew laughter from inside the bridge, in fact, there were two Lone Class battleships and the USS Australia at the bottom, and the 31st Fleet was already a great credit this time, but who wouldn't want to be perfect.

"Inform the Tumen River and the Ussuri River to abandon their original targets and insert them diagonally into the left flank of these two large Valiant class light cruisers, force them to maneuver to the right, and delay their arrival at Noumea as long as possible, and the Lijiang and Lancangjiang will immediately set off to take over the pursuit of the three Tennessee ships, and at their speed, they can catch up and enter the artillery range in an hour."

After Li Xiuyan finished speaking, he threw down his pen, pinched his eyebrows, and suddenly turned his head and asked with a smile: "Who wants coffee?" We may not be able to sleep until tomorrow night. ”

"Hehe......."

Before everyone could answer, the communications officer had already walked over with a telegram: "Sir, I received a telegram from Admiral Xiao of the 12th Fleet, they are in the north, 20 nautical miles away from us, and he has a message for me to bring to you." ”

"What words? Read it. Li Xiuyan beckoned, lowered his head and looked at the chart, but he didn't see that the communications officer had already held back the corners of his mouth.

"General Xiao asked me to tell the chief." The communications officer licked the corners of his mouth, and suddenly raised his voice in everyone's expectation.

"Little rabbit, remember to respect the old and love the young, and leave a mouthful of soup!"

: Three, three again!

I begged for !!!

。

。 RO！ ~！