682 Closed Gate (9)

2

12 July, Southwest Pacific. ※※※※※ I ※ I ※ ※

Off the coast of the Fiji Islands, 120 nautical miles.

The two dragon teeth, after passing the sinking British-class destroyer, continued to rush towards the battleship Delaware not far ahead, and the hum of the propellers also sounded a terrible shout on the deck of the Delaware.

"Enemy planes!"

"Cannonballs, Jefferson, give me cannonballs!"

"Knock knock."

Next to the 47mm rapid-fire guns, the artillerymen shouted to each other, and as soon as the shells were taken out of the magazine, they were immediately fired, and the copper shells covered the entire deck.

"Be careful."

Jefferson had just stuffed a 47mm shell into the breech, and immediately clutched his helmet and crouched down after hearing his partner's shouts, only to see two planes painted with strange dragon wings, breaking through the dense barrage and dropping torpedoes more than 1,000 meters away.

The warplanes roared overhead, and the dense agitated eggs rained down like a torrential rain, and Jefferson, who was hiding in the corner, could even see the hideous smiling face in the cockpit, and the several rapid-fire machine guns on the side of the ship did not care to shoot in the air, and sprinkled all the bullets on the snow-white wake that was speeding away.

The 22,000-ton steel behemoth began to maneuver violently, the angle of the deflected bow quickly expanded, and the stern swung violently, almost pulling out a huge U-shape from the tail track.

Jefferson counted minute by minute, until the torpedo grazed the stern and rushed into the distance, and the hanging hearts of all the sailors fell.

"Left, they left!"

Against the backdrop of a beautiful red sunset, 12 dragon's teeth that had completed their attack began to return, much to the relief of everyone in the fleet, and Jefferson sat on the deck, watching the sun dip below the horizon little by little.

"General, they left, this should be the last wave today."

Inside the flagship, Claxton breathed a sigh of relief, quietly wiped the hot sweat on his forehead, and in one day's escape, he lost 3 destroyers and 1 cruiser, the only thing to be thankful for was that among the battleships, only the Burlerophon was hit by a torpedo in the mine protection compartment, and the main hull did not receive losses.

Now that we have finally stayed up at night, we have another 3 hours to join Seymour, and then we can go to Sealand together, where to continue the fight.

"Clear the deck, regroup, I'll go rest for a while, call me in 2 hours." As Claxton left the bridge, Fletcher quietly stepped onto the deck.

Although the North Dakota was not torpedoed, the strafing from the plane's machine guns still left patches on the deck, and Fletcher's brows tightened when a sailor whose blood clotted into black was carried past him by a bullet through his neck.

To be honest, he didn't expect the threat of aircraft to be so big, for the Australian Grand Fleet, the tragic Battle of the Gulf of Panama is very far away, so everyone can only imagine from a few words, and today he knows that the "little fly" who was looked down on would be so difficult.

What worries him is that according to the number of aircraft encountered in a day, there are a total of 3 waves, and each wave does not exceed 20 aircraft, that is, it is only a light carrier that chases after him, because if it is replaced by a heavy aircraft carrier, each aircraft will be at least 50 per wave.

At this moment, the enemy's heavy mothership must know that Port Vila has been attacked, and normally speaking, after they do not intercept it on the way, they will definitely turn around and come back, but the problem is that the enemy's main force has not appeared until now, which makes people suspicious.

There are only two possibilities to explain this situation, one is that the other party is still on the way, and the second is that the commander of the other party knows that the Grand Fleet is now in a period of dispersion, and now the attack will definitely not guarantee total annihilation, so he has been hiding somewhere and waiting for the opportunity!

Thinking of this, Fletcher's eyebrows suddenly jumped, if this inference is true, then the calmness and patience of the opposing commander are too terrifying, because he actually dared to open the important Port Vila to attack by himself, just to get a chance to annihilate himself!

The night opened, the sea breeze began to strengthen, and when this thought took root in my heart and could not be dispelled, a chill suddenly crept all over my back, so when will the large fleet be concentrated?

Fiji!

Now Vice Admiral Seymour is already waiting for him in Fiji, and in three hours they will converge, when seventy percent of the forces in the fleet will be concentrated, right?

Fletcher shook his head again, it was already night, and Huagu's superior aviation power could not be brought into play at all, so he would definitely not be willing to launch a strong attack at night. 【 I want: super fast update 】

So what else is there that you have forgotten?

"Major, received a telegram from Lieutenant General Seymour, who is about 60 nautical miles west of us." After Fletcher received the telegram, he suddenly became hesitant, should he tell Lieutenant General Claxton to come over? If you lean in the past, and the other person is now somewhere in the middle, then.

After thinking about it, Fletcher walked to the captain's room, although he was reluctant to lean over, but the problem was that he was not a commander and had to follow the orders of the lieutenant admiral.

But he didn't know that at this time, 50 nautical miles to the southwest, two Guam-class battleships, with four destroyers and two electric reconnaissance ships, were also rushing towards the meeting point.

The sky is full of stars, reflecting into the sea, forming countless points of light, and the moonlight adds a bit of poetry and picturesqueness, and also makes the night full of tranquility.

It's a pity that all the sailors on the cruiser Rainbow Goddess didn't have the heart to enjoy this feeling, and the 5,600-ton hull smashed into the waves, and the lookouts on the deck all widened their eyes.

The news that the assault fleet led by Admiral Claxton had returned, and that they had also successfully shelled Port Vila, and it was said that the entire harbor had been reduced to ashes, much to everyone's delight, as this was the first time that the Australian Grand Fleet had gained the upper hand in an active attack.

However, now is not the time to celebrate, the enemy chased and killed them for a day, although it is night, but the main fleet of the Chinese must be already approaching the area, not to mention that 20 nautical miles behind them is the support fleet led by Vice Admiral Seymour, so it is necessary to be vigilant until the two fleets converge.

On the mast, Jones mobilized every nerve cell, carefully examining every phantom in the darkness, the moonlight was not very bright today, so be extra careful.

When he turned the telescope to a certain angle, several phantoms suddenly jumped into view, and when he wiped the lens with his finger to confirm the details, his mouth opened violently.

My God!

In an instant, the long phantom turned into an entity, and two huge black shadows appeared 20,000 meters away like monsters, and before he could raise the alarm, a few small black dots in the middle rushed over like lightning.

"Enemy ships!"

In the midst of the terrible shouts, countless points of fire had exploded from a distance, and a moment later the whistling of shells obscured the second-class armored cruiser.

"Report."

"The Rainbow Goddess is under attack."

"2 battleships, 20 nautical miles to the northwest, are heading towards us."

"Damn it." Seymour slammed the handrail hard, and although he knew that this kind of thing would happen sooner or later, he was still extremely angry, and his face suddenly gloomy, because the direction in which the enemy ship appeared was exactly the direction in which Claxton was coming, which meant that the enemy had been waiting for a long time.

Luckily, it was night, and they couldn't take advantage of the plane, as long as they immediately told Claxton that there was an interception, then they could evacuate separately.

"Inform Lieutenant General Claxton immediately, implement the second set of plans, don't come over, we will be here." After Seymour quickly gave the order, he immediately shouted: "Turn off all light sources, the left rudder is 20°, and the ships follow the movement of the flagship, ready to release the smoke." ”

Before he could say anything, the communications officer was already holding the phone and shouted with a pale face: "Lieutenant General, all the radio stations are out of order!" ”

"Then change one, or get another warship to contact."

"Lieutenant General, it's all!"

"What!"

Cold sweat, suddenly crawling all over everyone's vests, you don't have to think about it to know, this must be the ghost of the Chinese, otherwise how can all radios fail at the same time, if it's just the failure of the fleet, it doesn't matter, anyway, you can continue to give orders by mast lights, but the problem is that General Claxton still knows nothing and is coming with 5 capital battleships!

"The cruiser is scattered at full speed, this damn thing must have coverage!" Seymour stamped his feet and shouted: "The squadron of battleships stops turning the rudder, due north, full speed!" ”

"Fire control calculations begin."

"Turret 1 is ready."

"No. 2 and No. 3 are ready."

"Damage management ready."

“。”

Listening to the shouts, Zhou Cheng, who was standing in the center of the bridge, curled the corners of his mouth, the L45/406 super naval gun that had just been equipped with the two triple installations in the bow had been rotated in place, and he didn't need to look at him to know that the 1020 kg armor-piercing shell specially developed for the naval gun must have been stuffed into the barrel, as long as he thought about the shell of more than a ton hitting the enemy's head, everyone was excited.

Setting off at night, dividing troops at night, and then shelling Port Vila at night, it can be seen that Britain and the United States are really afraid of planes, so they need to make precise calculations before the operation, and keep the main body of the task at night as much as possible.

It's a pity that they all forgot that the empire didn't start with airplanes!

"It is reported that the enemy's No. 2 formation began to disperse, and 4 cruisers are accelerating away, and it is expected to break out of the signal jamming circle of electric ships in 10 minutes."

"The response is good." Zhou Cheng muttered, walked to the porthole and asked, "How far is the No. 1 target?" ”

"The distance is 32,000 meters, the angle is 230, and the course is due south, but they seem to have received the telegram that they have just escaped, and are turning the rudder, and at the current speed, we are expected to catch up in 10 minutes."

At 23:05, Zhou Cheng looked at the current time.

"Now, it's too late for them to do anything." The staff officer smiled, yes, with a speed of nearly 9 knots compared to the opponent, it was too late for Claxton to become a fairy!

At 23:15, Claxton, who received the telegram sent by the Rainbow Goddess, was already sweating profusely, and Fletcher next to him was also chilled, the enemy was really waiting for them here!

"General, received a telegram from Lieutenant General Seymour, and he told us immediately."

Before the staff officer could finish speaking, his pupils suddenly shrank into a cold star, because he saw that outside the porthole behind Claxton, a sudden fire flickered.

First round salvo.

The sudden shock under the feet made the sailors experience the difference between the 406 mm naval gun and the 380 mm naval gun again, don't look at the difference of only 26 mm, but the weight of the shell is 270 kg larger, which is almost the weight of a 230 mm shell, the muzzle kinetic energy has increased by 2 percent, and the effective firing range has also increased to 32000 meters, at a distance of 24000 meters, it can almost penetrate the armor of any main battleship in the Australian Grand Fleet.

Wearing a steel helmet, Jefferson endured the fatigue of a day's fighting, and had just rushed to the gun position with his comrades, when the sound of shells whistling in his ears made him freeze suddenly.

As a gunner, he did not dare to distinguish the whistling sound of all shells, but at least he could distinguish the unique roar of large-caliber naval artillery shells when they flew, but the sound in his ears at this time had never been in his memory.

Not 12 inches, not 14 inches, not 15 inches, that is.

Jefferson's face turned pale suddenly, he didn't believe that the Chinese mounted on the battleship gun would get smaller and smaller, there was no doubt that they were aimed at a super naval gun of more than 15 inches!

"Damn, tell the bridge, it is." Jefferson pushed his comrade violently, hoping that his partner would tell him the news, but before he could finish speaking, after flashing several points of light in a row, the Delaware finally fell into despair, and a huge flame suddenly burst into the stern.

At 23:25, the Zhongmeng lookout first reported the results of the battle, and an extra-heavy 406 mm armor-piercing projectile fired from the No. 3 turret hit the stern of the Delaware

In hindsight, the power of the 406 mm extra-heavy armor-piercing projectile was too amazing for the Delaware-class battleship, and the armor-piercing projectile once again penetrated the generally weak horizontal armor of this era, and after killing several gunners including Jefferson in the first place, it penetrated four layers of protective armor in a row, and then plunged headlong into the power compartment.

If it was just an explosion in the power compartment, it was nothing, and what made the divers dumbfounded later was that they actually saw a huge curved arc on the power crankshaft, you must know that this kind of power crankshaft has caught up with the arms of ordinary people, but it is such a thick all-steel crankshaft, five of which were smashed continuously, and the latter one was also smashed to show a terrible U-shaped concave.

There is no doubt that the Delaware had to sink later because of this armor-piercing bullet, after the crankshaft was damaged and exploded, the entire power compartment was messed up, and the two reciprocating steam engines lost all their functions in an instant.

Two minutes later, the Delaware, which was on fire in the stern, was hit again, and this armor-piercing projectile was equally bizarre, in fact, it had actually fallen off the warhead hood during the flight, so the trajectory did not rise to a high level, and then hit the No. 1 turret of the Delaware at a straight angle.

You can't imagine what happens when an armor-piercing projectile weighing 1020 kg hits the front of the turret with an acceleration of 810 meters per second, and the frontal armor originally designed to protect against 305 mm shells becomes a plank in an instant, and the entire turret is directly knocked out of action.

Almost at the same time, the Simon also achieved success, and the second ship it targeted, the British battleship Bellerophon, which had been hit by a fishbone during the day and was slightly damaged, was now aimed at it for the first time with a 406-mm super naval gun.

What is this?

Boxers bully small children!

The shells landed straight behind the bridge, and although it was impossible for the night lookout to see the exact point of the explosion, the light of the fire rising from the amidships of the ship could still give an approximate estimate of the damage point.

Bellerophon, which is inferior to Delaware, belongs to the first generation of battleships, to put it bluntly, it is actually worse than Hua's Jilin class, and it is impossible to block a ton of armor-piercing shells, which penetrate the horizontal armor steeply, all the way down until they reach the bilge and there is an explosion, and after the 18 kg TNT bursts, it simply tears the hull bulkhead, making the port side water enter and begin to tilt.

In just ten minutes, two battleships were heavily damaged, and I don't know if they can leave, and Claxton has no intention of continuing to fight, because the gap is too big.

At 23:32, just as Claxton ordered the release of smoke, an astonishing scene occurred.

It was caused by a round of straddle fire fired by Simon against the North Dakota, which passed the battleship's shells and directly hit the 8,600-ton cruiser Concord, which was hiding behind the battleship.

Fletcher saw this scene with his own eyes, only to see a black spot slam into the top of the bridge of the Concord in the firelight, and then the entire bridge suddenly collapsed in the flickering arc from top to bottom, and then a huge fireball exploded from under the bridge, not only blowing up the entire bridge, but also tearing a huge hole about 12 meters in diameter on the right hull of the ship neatly.

Before Fletcher and others who saw this scene understood what kind of shell could cause this kind of damage, the Omaha-class light cruiser quickly disappeared into the sea with 765 sailors, and no one dared to believe the speed, it turned out that the armor-piercing shell hit the bottom of the ship and exploded, so it not only tore a hole in the side side, but also directly smashed the keel and tore the bottom of the ship.

When the Concord sank quickly, the remaining battleships were already billowing with smoke, and the black smoke that spread became a good cover, although there was a radar that could still capture the opponent's movement trajectory, but Zhou Cheng did not order to continue the pursuit, because the Seymour support fleet on the other side was already coming.

He was not afraid of being besieged, but he was afraid that he would be too excited to startle the snake, after all, it was the middle of the night, and unless he transferred all 6 Guam-class ships, he was sure that he would not let go of a local battleship to escape.

At 23:50, after continuing to shoot a few rounds of fruitless salvos, Zhou Cheng ordered to pretend to be afraid of being flanked and left, as for the injured Delaware and Bellerophon, either the power was completely destroyed and could not leave, or the water was so serious that it could not be driven at all, and Seymour had to send destroyers to rescue the surviving officers and men on the two ships, and then sank the two battleships off the coast of Fiji.

At 1 a.m., the reunited Australian Fleet released smoke all the way south despite fatigue, but they didn't know that 20 nautical miles behind them, the radar of the Zhongmeng was spinning in circles.

In fact, the show has just begun.