761 West Wind Flame (7)

Mozambique Channel. ※※※※※ I ※ I ※ ※

A strong southwesterly wind howled across the strait, and a fleet took advantage of the churning waves to move quickly.

The waves several meters high made the Shock with a full displacement of 35,000 tons, like a canned food box pinched in the palm of the hand of a running child, jolting and making a creaking sound after the friction of steel, and the swell was a ** washing the deck.

The Shock is the third British Prestige-class battlecruiser, and next to it is the fourth ship, the Roar, the first two of which are currently in the Caribbean to cooperate with the United States in defending against the Chinese Navy that could break through the Panama Canal.

All 4 prestige classes were built in early 1914, and the initial combat targets were the German De Fringer class and Mackensen class, but after China entered the war in 1916 and completed the counterattack in one fell swoop, it began to carry out extensive modifications, mainly to greatly increase the armor thickness and protection capacity, so that the vertical main armor belt increased from 6 inches to 8 inches, and the horizontal armor was also increased from the original 3 inches to 5 inches, and the watertight compartment was also improved. And before delivery, the problems exposed in Jutland such as turret fireproof hatches were also modified.

In Hill's opinion, if it weren't for the fact that there were only 3 twin L42/15-inch naval guns, the prestige class could already be regarded as the main battleship, and this class of battlecruisers was also the first British battleship to use a steam turbine instead of the old reciprocating steam engine, which allowed it to reach a speed of 26 knots and could sail at a speed of more than 20 knots for a long time.

Whether in the Pacific or the Atlantic, the use of battle cruisers is not perfect, so Europe believes that this kind of warships should be quickly phased out in order to save military costs to build multi-battleships, but Hill does not think so, because as of now, battle cruisers are still the only kind of capital ships that can reach the battlefield at a relatively fast speed and can carry out long-distance support and long-term operations.

In fact, in his opinion, China's faster battleships are all variants of battlecruisers, but Li Mo has better power than British and European technology, so he can be equipped with thick armor.

Behind the two battlecruisers were the two Avenger-class battleships, the King and the Resistance, and the two Spaniard-sized battleships were swaying as if they were overturning the sea.

Looking at the two Spanish-class battleships churning in the waves, Hill felt that maybe it was a big mistake to take them with him!

First of all, this kind of battleship is too small, with 8 L50/305 mm naval guns, but the full load displacement is less than 16,000 tons, from the calm mirror-like Mediterranean Sea to the stormy southern Indian Ocean, the weakness of poor seaworthiness has been magnified several times, and the serious thing is that its endurance is too problematic, and it must be resupplied in front of the Mozambique port to continue north.

But the problem is that he doesn't want to stop, because he knows very well that as long as the fleet docks at the port, it will definitely be discovered by the pervasive Chinese spies, but if the coal is not refueled, even if the 2 Spanish-class ships sail to the Seychelles, they will face a shortage of coal on the return trip, should they let them refuel in the port of Mozambique, or will they arrive in the Seychelles first?

Before Hill could think of a countermeasure, the sound of hurried footsteps came to his ears.

"General, General Campbell's telegram!"

"Campbell? Damn, is he crazy? Hill jumped up from his chair, and according to the previous plan, both he and Campbell had to keep the radio silent until they reached the Seychelles, so as not to be exposed to the Chinese reconnaissance ship's surveillance.

But now it's a day!

Could it be .......

The staff officer nodded emphatically: "They have been attacked by Chinese planes!" ”

"Damn it!"

There was a curse and howl in the open cabin, and the bulky Schott 184 began to descend rapidly, and when it tried to lower its altitude to dodge, Yang Siyuan had already piloted the bumblebee over its head, and the seaplane was loaded headlong into the sea before it could struggle. (Full text reading, all in. (.i. Want. Wen. Learning Network)

Siyuan took a sip fiercely, when will it be the turn of the sky to spread these wooden racks.

"Eight o'clock, 6 planes, three teams to kill them!"

When the aftermath was still echoing in his ears, Yang Siyuan had already rushed towards the enemy plane with 4 hornets, and the 6 camels that were dangling on the sea and trying to sneak attack immediately scattered in fright when they saw the hornets.

Yang Siyuan bit one very easily, but he didn't expect this guy to be quite cunning, and he actually flew towards a cruiser, trying to use the anti-aircraft fire on the cruiser to help escape. Clusters of smoke began to explode from all sides, and Yang Siyuan roared down with a bumblebee like a goshawk that had seen its prey, and when it was less than a kilometer away from the camel, he pressed the trigger.

A 25mm cannon, a millimeter machine gun, splashed the bullet at the opponent like water, and instantly cut off the camel's tail.

Seeing that his plane was hit, the artillery fire on the cruiser became more frenzied, and Yang Siyuan did not dare to stay longer, and immediately pulled up the plane and broke away from the main fleet of the huge Indian Grand Fleet below.

"Attack planes are coming! Attack aircraft are coming! ”

"A team, drive the remaining camels away!"

"Second team, third team, strafe the rapid-fire guns on the deck and protect the attack aircraft!"

"Pennsylvania, I saw Pennsylvania, that's mine!" On the radio, the shouts of his comrades-in-arms sounded, Yang Siyuan turned his head to look, and the two dragon teeth had already been aimed at the American battleship Pennsylvania, which had three chimneys in the center and four twin L45/381 mm heavy guns, and immediately shouted: "Follow me, strafe the deck, and disperse their firepower!" ”

Under his leadership, the wingman roared down from the sky with him, and the machine gun aimed at the wide deck of the Pennsylvania and swept violently, and the steel deck and superstructure suddenly sparked wildly, in order to protect themselves, the American sailors on the deck had to divide part of their firepower to aim at Yang Siyuan.

The two dragon teeth, which had been supported, quickly passed through the dense air defense net, and when the Pennsylvania became bigger and bigger in front of them, the two "fish bones" finally broke free from the pylon under the belly of the aircraft and smashed a splash on the sea.

"Torpedo!"

The American sailors had no time to deal with the dragon's teeth, and almost all of their rapid-fire fire was aimed at the front of the torpedo, and the huge hull erupted into a hissing roar and began to twist violently.

"Boom......."

Yang Siyuan, who had just pulled up the plane, only heard a loud noise behind him, and turned his head to see that a huge column of water had risen on the right side of the huge battleship USS Pennsylvania, and it could be clearly seen from his position that the thick anti-torpedo compartment bulging out on the right side had been opened, and a whirlpool was formed at the wound, which was a unique sign of water ingress into the hull.

"General, the Pennsylvania has been hit!"

Inside the bridge of the flagship, the Malaya, Campbell's eyes twitched wildly, and he didn't expect that just after encountering enemy aircraft, one of the two important American Pennsylvania-class battleships was hit.

"The USS Pennsylvania reported that the starboard anti-torpedo compartment was damaged, several of the internal compartments were flooded, and Captain Davis had ordered the watertight hatch to be closed nearby, but the seawater still poured into the No. 4 boiler room, and a quarter of the power had been lost, and the speed had dropped to 17 knots! Presently....... ”

"Damn, it's the Royalist, the Royalist was hit with two torpedoes, and the deck was tilted!"

Before the staff officer could finish his report, Cameron shouted again, and Campbell walked to the porthole and raised his binoculars to see that the bow of the Linxian-class cruiser Royalist was on fire, and the deck began to tilt to the left.

"Airplanes! Be careful! ”

The battle was so fierce that the Chinese planes shuttled through the ships over and over again, and the cannons and shells were constantly sprinkled on the warships, both the observer and the commander began to feel overwhelmed, and Campbell and Cameron, who were checking the situation, did not understand what was going on, and a scream sounded behind them, and a bumblebee on the port side of the city rolled and swooped down from top to bottom, and the two were thrown to the ground by the soldiers.

"Bell, bell......."

On the thick bulkhead of the bridge, there was a drum-like crash, and the porthole glass was scattered and shattered in the strafing, and a lookout who was standing at the window without any preparation was hit in the neck by fragments of a 25-mm shell, and blood gushed out of his neck.

"God, Will is hurt! Come on, come on! ”

"Damn, starboard, two torpedo machines! God, they were just covering the torpedo machine! ”

"Left full rudder."

"Deck report!"

"Sir, we avoided it, we avoided it! The torpedo didn't hit ......, damn it, two more came! ”

"General, we must find a way, we can't be passively bombed like this! In this way, all warships will suffer. Cameron lowered his head and walked over to Campbell.

"I know that they have less than 60 torpedo planes, and we still have a chance!" Campbell shouted loudly: "Short, order Commodore Alex to lead the 2nd Light Patrol Formation to protect the remaining three American capital ships!" ”

"Santos, signal, the formation shrinks, we ......."

"Boom......."

"General, the torpedo that hit us hit the Blake."

When Campbell gave the order, the Malaya was lucky to avoid a torpedo again, but the Blake on the other side was unlucky, and the torpedo grazed the deflected bow of the Malaya and hit the starboard unsuspecting first-class armored cruiser, because the cruiser did not have the battleship's anti-torpedo compartment, so the 150-kilogram "fish bone" easily tore a crack about 2 meters in diameter in the stern of the cruiser.

Due to the proximity of the distance, Campbell and the officers on the bridge could clearly see that the Blake was starting to enter the water and slow down, and just when everyone was worried about whether the Blake would survive, the staff officer shouted again in horror: "Damn it, General, they are all going to the Americans!" God, do they have a grudge against the Americans?! ”

As soon as the enemy came, the dragon wings, who had been attacking freely in small dispersions, gathered for the first time, and 17 dragon teeth that had not yet dropped bombs roared from all directions towards the remaining American Pennsylvania battleship USS Arizona, and two Northampton-class heavy cruisers USS Northampton and USS Chester.

"Concentrate all your firepower and order the air defense support of the fifth cruiser formation!"

Seeing the heavy enemy attacking, the four American Brooklyn-class light cruisers and two old cruisers protecting the three ships continued to fire like crazy, and the Hornet, which served as the cover of the battlefield, also continued to pass over the American formation, sweeping dense bullets to the deck to divert fire.

The oncoming blazing artillery fire not only did not make the dragon wings feel frightened, but aroused their ambition to win, and the 17 dragon teeth resounded at the same time with crazy screams, like the phoenixes in the fire in Eastern mythology, braving the dragon teeth woven by anti-aircraft shells of various calibers into layers of impermeable deadly fire nets, rushing towards the three ships in the center.

A dragon's tooth was the first to drop a torpedo, and when it pulled up, a ruthless 47mm shell hit the belly of the plane, and the billowing smoke swallowed the entire fighter plane in an instant, and before the American sailors could aim at the next one, they saw it crash headlong into the upper deck of the light cruiser Nashville regardless of life and death!

"God, are they crazy?"

The American captain held his head and stared blankly at the fire-covered fighter planes crashing into him, and before he could understand why these pilots were so fanatical, a white umbrella flower suddenly appeared in the sky, and the dragon teeth that had lost their operation with inertia and hundreds of kilograms of gasoline slammed into the stern deck of the Brooklyn-class light cruiser.

The orange and black fire suddenly flooded the entire aft deck, and the flames began to spread along the deck, and the billowing black smoke almost obscured the observation of Campbell and the others, until it was sunk, and the light cruiser did not fire another shell.

Before the officers and men of the Grand Fleet could come out of the shock, several more dragon's teeth dropped torpedoes, with four L45/381 mm heavy guns, and the heavy cruiser Chester, whose firepower was equivalent to that of a battleship, suddenly turned to the left, and although it avoided three "fish bones", the fourth one still accurately hit the weak stern.

Anyone who saw this scene knew that the Chinese aviation torpedo charge far exceeded that of any Entente country, and the exploding water mass swept over the deck, instantly swept several untouched American sailors into the sea, and the stern of the Chester began to emit thick smoke, and the speed dropped as soon as it fell.

After seeing that the Chester was shot, a dragon tooth that was preparing for the second wave of attack behind it actually pulled up with a torpedo, and then ignored the shells and fire points around it, and rushed around the Arizona again!

This scene made Cameron almost pull his hair, what did he want to do? Playing maneuvering with such a heavy torpedo, aren't you afraid of death ?!

"God!"

Since all the Chinese planes were concentrated on the side of the American formation, the Malaya, which was no longer threatening, could calmly see the crazy torpedo frenzy.

This dragon's tooth finally hit the torpedo, and it was his torpedo that made the Arizona tremble, and Campbell saw with his own eyes that two clouds of black and red smoke rose from behind the side of the ship on the other side of the ship that was blocked from view almost simultaneously, and then a cloud of white smoke also came out of nowhere, although it was a short time, but it still made everyone's hearts sink to the bottom of the Indian Ocean!

Because, that is the unique performance of the ship's boiler room after flooding!

"General, did you find out? The Chinese never attack a warship that has already been hit, what do they want to do? ”

"yes, what do they want to do?"

Cameron's words made a sound of surprise resounded in the bridge, at this time, everyone found that as long as the warship that was hit would not be attacked by a second wave, this is very strange, because the warship that was hit was undoubtedly fragile, and the success rate of being hit again was much higher than attacking those intact warships, and the threat was much smaller, and it was easy to get battle merits!

So why do Chinese pilots still pick the hard bones that are intact? Campbell was also stunned at first, but when he saw the slanting sunset, he immediately understood, and shouted violently: "Dick, contact the remaining ships in the Y1 and Y2 formations, and let them come and meet us at full speed at once." ”

"Tonight, we'll need them for protection!" The sound made the eyes around suddenly become more and more .......

Dignified!!

: Guarantee, beg!

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。 RO！ ~！