637 Road Long (7)

Rumble!

The shells landed accurately in the center of the barracks. ※※※※※ I ※ I ※ ※

North of Socotra Island, at the British Royal Navy's Hadib base, Private Becro, who was lying on the ground and shivering, saw an unforgettable scene in his life.

The fire exploded in the pupils, and the dust and smoke gathered into towers and climbed upwards, and the explosive impact of the spread scattered in all directions like a tsunami, and in an instant the barracks, telegraph stations, antennas, warehouses, watchtowers, etc., crumbled as if they had been swept by giants with wolf fangs.

He couldn't imagine how big the naval guns were bombarding indiscriminately, although the strategic location of this big island was extremely important, but because of the lack of domestic troops, and the only 3,000 soldiers stationed there were transferred to Salalah ten days ago, this place was already extremely empty, and now he had nothing to do except provide fuel for submarines and ships every few days.

Is this kind of place worth bombing like this?

Shells are still raining down, from heavy shells to a large number of 6-inch or even 5-inch shells, hundreds of shells per minute, which has plunged the port of Hadib, which is less than 15 square kilometers, into hell.

Time seemed to freeze, only the endless sound of explosions remained in their ears, and gradually, everyone began to go numb, and when a dozen boats rushed into the harbor, everyone even forgot to shoot back.

In fact, it was impossible to shoot at all, because behind these open boats, there was a dense crowd of 6 boats, machine gun shells instantly replaced artillery shells, whistling and shuttling in the ears, and in just 2 minutes, an assault battalion of the 6th Combat Team of the Chinese Navy boarded the dock.

By the time Bakro finally remembered to escape, hundreds of Chinese soldiers had already rushed into the oil depots deep in the base, and the four large oil depots were almost intact and snatched in front of everyone.

"Report, no radio signal."

"The raid operation was very successful, at present, the 6th battalion has now controlled the oil depot, according to the preliminary inspection, there are about 30,000 tons of heavy oil in the four oil depots, as well as 553 barrels of gasoline, and now the two companies of the 6th battalion have protected the oil depot, and the remaining troops have also begun to clear the harbor, and it is expected that all operations can be completed within two hours to prepare for the arrival of the fleet."

"Hmm."

Li Xiuyan nodded, Socotra Island and Hadib Port are of great strategic significance, the key is that the British Navy has four large oil depots here, because things are sudden, the Navy can not transfer more supply ships, how to get fuel has become the key to the success or failure of the operation, so it came up with the second battleship formation Each ship scattered with a 6 battalion to raid and seize here.

30,000 tons of heavy fuel oil and nearly 1,000 tons of gasoline have become the basis for the long-term activities of the fleet, especially the destroyers, in this area, without them, then the destroyers will face the embarrassing situation of almost running out of fuel in the Strait of Hormuz last time after the escort mission.

Because of the swiftness and unexpectedness of the action, there were no surprises at the port of Hadiib and the oil depot, as long as the fleet arrived and threw a 6-regiment here, then the British army, even if there were remnants, would be of little use.

Therefore, the timing of the arrival of the follow-up fleet has become a key.

"The convoy is still 33 nautical miles away from us and is expected to be here at 9 a.m. tomorrow."

"Troops from all ships are transferred ashore to support the 6th Squadron, and all destroyers and cruisers are scattered, pay attention to the search for submarines in the center of the sea, and must ensure the safety of the oil depots before the arrival of the convoy!" Li Xiuyan pushed the railing, walked to the bridge, and said, "In addition, report to General Xie Baozhang, everything is going well on Socotra Island, the oil depot has been delivered, and the fleet and we will arrive in Salalah the morning after tomorrow." ”

Arabian Sea, 85 nautical miles east of Salalah Port.

Two bumblebees roared past the deck, and the whirlwind brought up made Xie Baozhang, who was standing on the open-air platform of the ship island, shake the cigarette butt, and before he could see clearly that it was the rabbit cub juggling, Le Fei had already walked behind him. (Full text reading, all in. (.i. Want. Wen. Learning Network)

"Chief of Staff, the 2nd Battleship Detachment has received news, they have sunk three enemy submarines, four destroyers, and the 6th Squadron has seized the oil depot and is expected to arrive at Salalah Port at nine o'clock in the morning the day after tomorrow."

"Great."

Xie Baozhang violently extinguished his cigarette butt and quickly walked to the nautical chart in the command room, and found this strategic island located in the Aden Sea, guarding the eastern gate of the Red Sea and the Aden Sea.

In addition to the oil depot, Socotra Island is of great strategic significance, taking it while the enemy's attention is all on Ceylon and Salalah, it means that the long-term transport route from Gapo to the Arabian Peninsula is basically established, as long as the second convoy brings in the engineering corps and builds the airport as soon as possible, then the Suez Canal will be abandoned!

However, this only means that half of the mission is completed, and at present, it is still necessary to take the port of Salalah and send the 6th Army up, the pressure on Kuwait is too great, and time is running out.

"Has the squadron sent by Campbell been found?"

"Not yet."

Le Fei shook his head, pointed to the coastline of the Muscat Sultanate and said, "At present, the second destroyer squadron is searching along the coastline, but it has not appeared so far, but I estimate that they should be nearby. ”

Xie Baozhang's brows furrowed again, judging from the number of capital ships that appeared in the Indian Grand Fleet before, this formation should have two Nelson-class battleships and three old battleships, which is a big threat to the 6th battle, because the first battleship detachment is intercepting Campbell's main force, and the second battleship detachment is involved in Socotra Island, at least tomorrow morning, the transport fleet will not be able to move until it arrives, and the mothership formation is still some distance, so it becomes extremely critical to find them.

"Report, the Navy SEALs in Port Salalah telegraphed that some time ago, the British troops stationed there began to drop explosives on the deep-water pier, and now they have set up a defensive line next to the pier and are asking for immediate support."

"It's finally done!"

Xie Baozhang and Le Fei glanced at each other, and they both saw the anxiety in each other's eyes, the deep-water wharf is the winner or loser of this long expedition, if there is no wharf, then the ro-ro wheel must be connected and unloaded, and it will be delayed for at least dozens of hours in vain.

"The 2nd Destroyer Squadron is only 7 nautical miles from the harbor, and it can be reached at 2 o'clock to provide artillery support, but."

Although Le Fei didn't finish speaking, Xie Baozhang knew very well that this meant that the mobile force of the search for the enemy's detachment would be temporarily contained, and if the opponent's detachment suddenly appeared at this time, I am afraid there would be a big problem.

"Sir, I suggest that the hummingbird come out at once." Zhu Houbin stood next to him and suggested.

"Hummingbirds?"

Le Fei frowned: "The Hummingbird reconnaissance plane has a reconnaissance radius of 1 kilometer, but we are now 85 nautical miles away from there, about 155 nautical miles, and I am afraid that there will be no way back after we get out." ”

"You don't have to come back." Zhu Houbin pointed to the chart and said: "The hummingbird is a seaplane, the range is 25 kilometers, if there are two auxiliary fuel tanks under the wings, then it can reach 3 kilometers, and now it can reach Salalah Port after 4 o'clock, and the remaining fuel can be searched north along the peninsula for 3 and a half times, and 6 planes can basically cover this sea area, even if there is no enemy, it can also be broken and landed near Salalah Port and dragged away from the battlefield by destroyers." ”

This suggestion made the two nod, and Le Fei immediately pointed to the chart and said: "If we mention 26 knots now, we can reach within 25 nautical miles of Salalah Port by this time tomorrow, and this distance can basically guarantee the dispatch of carrier-based aircraft."

In addition, Socotra is only 27 nautical miles from the port of Salalah, and I think it will be enough to leave two Beijing-class battleships to allow them to go north to support, so that they can reach Salalah by 11 o'clock tonight, even if those battleships appear, there will be no problem. ”

Xie Baozhang nodded, and just as he was about to give the order, the staff officer shouted and walked in: "Sir, General Ye Zuqi reported that he has stopped the main force of the Indian Grand Fleet, but 12 cruisers have broken away from the formation and are chasing us, and they are currently fighting!" ”

"4 against 11." Le Fei took the telegram and looked at it, and said with a smile: "General Ye can do a big job this time." ”

Xie Baozhang smiled, waved his hand, and said: "Immediately telegraph to the command, the second group of transport ships can be out, and then tell General Ye that the second transport team will escort them to Socotra Island immediately after the battle, and there must be no mistake." ”

Watching the staff officers leave, Le Fei and Zhu Houbin secretly praised in their hearts, worthy of being the chief of staff, at this time, this telegram, firstly, to remind the second batch of transport, and secondly, to remind General Ye Zuqi again, will not be red-eyed because he will escort the second transport team next.

"What about the first one who was unlucky?"

"Damn it!"

Brigadier General Cotter Hu was about to be ripped off, because he thought that perhaps he would become one of the unlucky officers in the history of the Royal Navy, with a powerful 135-inch naval gun, but he was wounded without a single shot.

Thick smoke continued to pour out from the side of the second chimney, and the injury was supposed to be that the deck had been penetrated and injured the chimney, causing the smoke to gush out of the breach.

For the battleship, this injury was not fatal, but it was a bit bad, because if the smoke was not exhausted for a long time, it would be necessary to stop some of the boilers, so that the degree would drop a lot.

"Send someone to repair it immediately, it must."

Brigadier Cotter's words were still in his throat, and the two black dots that pounced again made his pupils shrink into cold stars, and shouted: "Left full rudder!" ”

Although the helmsman heard the command and his hand began to turn, this reaction was too slow compared to the 8 meters per second of the shells whistling at him, and he saw only two black dots suddenly piercing the bow at an almost vertical angle.

"Boom."

The explosion was so violent that it came out of the deck, and the thin 3-inch (76 mm) horizontal armor twisted into hemp in the explosion, and the No. 1 turret twisted rapidly in a strange position, and the 53-ton turret was destroyed by the bottom-up impact before it could show its power.

"How far is it!"

"33 meters, it will take another 1 minute to get into the shelling distance."

"Damn it!"

Looking at the Irish, which was on fire in the bow in the distance, Vice Admiral Campbell felt extremely remorseful, because he had made a major mistake, that is, he had misestimated the enemy's artillery capability.

At 18 knots and at a distance of 25 meters, it hit the Irish, which even showed the ability of the advanced Malaya in his own hands, and although the two French battleships were also equipped with a fire control system when climbing ladders, it was like scratching an itch compared to the opponent's accurate shelling ability.

The first team will have 1 minute to get into the shelling range, which means that the opponent can fire another 48 shells at the Irish, and even if the hit rate is only 5%, that is 24, which is enough to destroy the 23-ton big guy.

"Let's add the second team to 2 quarters and move closer to us."

Realizing that he had made a mistake, Campbell was the first to change, but he could no longer save the Irish.

At 1:02, 12 rounds of salvo fire, the No. 3 ship Jiangsu gave the British a bitter fruit for export and self-use, a 68-kilogram armor-piercing shell again patronized the 3-inch horizontal armor, and the armor-piercing shell drilled through the No. 3 turret in the middle, although it did not enter the ammunition depot, but successfully entered the power compartment below.

The design of the power compartment of the Irish is very flawed, the two reciprocating steam engines are not arranged separately, but are set in a large cabin, originally Britain could not taste this bitter fruit, because this is an Ottoman warship, perhaps the designer will also imagine the wonderful moment when the British capital ship's shells penetrate its armor and enter the power room, but now this mistake has killed Brigadier General Cote.

After the shell exploded, scattered shrapnel swept across the entire power compartment, not only killing dozens of soldiers inside, but also destroying all two steam engines in one fell swoop, making the Irish instantly de-motivated.

Without power, it was fatal for any battleship.

Three rounds later, when a cannonball swept through the conning tower, the lame capital ship, which had lost both command and power, was doomed to never return to Bombay, and despite the best efforts of the British sailors and Campbell's destroyer to try to tow it back, it was finally sunk by a Chinese submarine ten hours later.

After the Irish lost its threat, Ye Zuqi immediately ordered two groups to bombard the remaining two French Brittany-class battleships, and the opponent was powerless at a distance of 25 meters.

Compared to the 76 mm horizontal armor of the Irish, these two ships were fragile, and the 25 mm horizontal armor was like paper paste in front of the 68 kg heavy armor shells of the Hebei class, and in just seven minutes, the two battleships were each hit by a dozen shells.

The Brittany withdrew from the battle first, and the 2,323-ton battleship was jointly attacked by the Jiangxi and the Sichuan, especially an armor-piercing projectile from the No. 2 turret of the Jiangxi, which drilled into the bottom of the rear mast, not only destroying the mast, but also entering the boiler room, destroying at least five boilers, making him drop to 13 knots, if it wasn't for the captain's decisive withdrawal from the battle, it might have become an iron coffin like the Irish.

Although the Brittany returned to Bombay with great difficulty, it was later learned that because Socotra was occupied by China and India and Europe were completely cut off, the battleship was never repaired.

And its sister ship Provence was not so lucky, Fujian and Jiangsu three consecutive rounds of 5 shells smashed into the bow of the ship, not only caused a large amount of water, and even directly cut off the entire bow, if it were not for the watertight compartment design is good, it is estimated that it will sink directly.

But the Provence did not return to Bombay either, because the three Weiqing-class destroyers immediately joined the fight with the enemy cruisers after the two French battleships that had withdrawn from the battle, and because the two battleships were focused on guarding against the pursuit of the four Hebei-class ships, they waited until they reached 7 meters, but by this time they had already fired three Lance-3 torpedoes.

Although the Brittany avoided the torpedo, the bow broke and dropped to 6 knots, and the Provence, which could not be deflected, was still hit by a torpedo, and the violent explosion not only tore a 5-meter-long crack on the side of the side, causing the battleship to start tilting after a few minutes, but also suddenly woke up Campbell, who was still dreaming of destroying four Hebei-class ships.

Seeing that he finally closed to the first round of salvos, and the four Hebei-class ships suddenly increased to 25 knots, Campbell knew that if he continued to fight, he was afraid that he would lose it, so he made a decision to let everyone breathe a sigh of relief.

Fall back!

At 1:25, the main force of the Indian Grand Fleet began to release smoke and evacuate the battlefield after sinking two ships (including the Irish), severely damaging one, and losing two cruisers.

Not only did the main force retreat, Campbell also telegraphed to the pursuing cruisers asking for all to withdraw to Mumbai, because he knew that any effort was useless at this time, without the cover of the main forces, if the cruiser continued to go to Salalah Harbor, it would only add merit to the terrible three aircraft carriers.

Now he could only count on a fleet of two Nelson-class battleships and three old battleships, four cruisers, lurking in Bandar Abbas, on the northern shore of the Strait of Hormuz.

At 12 o'clock, Campbell gave the order for the battleship detachment to send out and bombard the port of Salalah before the arrival of the Chinese transport fleet, completely destroying all the facilities in the port.

It's just that he didn't know that the two Guam-class battleships that had just finished providing fire support for Socotra Island, were ordered to reinforce the Navy SEALs and protect the six battles were also rushing north along the coast of the Arabian Peninsula.

At 5 o'clock in the afternoon, a Hummingbird reconnaissance plane finally appeared at Cape Haard, and when the two light cruisers tracking the main force of the Indian Grand Fleet also returned the exact news of the enemy's main withdrawal to the north, everyone breathed a sigh of relief, which meant that this long journey at sea had reached the end.

。

。