763 West Wind Flame (9)

On the night of the first day of the Lunar New Year, when the family was officially reunited, the command center of the General Staff of the Ministry of National Defense in Beijing was already busy because of the battle between the Indian Ocean and Paris, which were opened almost at the same time. 【 I want: super fast update 】

Chen Ping patted the snowflakes on his body, handed over his coat to the guards, and walked into the conference room, finding that Duan Qirui and Tang Shaoyi were also here, and after saying hello, he turned to Long Guozhang with a black face.

"Hehe, something happened?"

With such a face, Commander Long naturally couldn't hide it, took the hot water handed by the secretary, and deliberately stabbed the scar with a joke.

"Damn, Campbell is too cunning, and he is as timid as a chicken, he was scared back by one of our submarines, and he actually wanted to take the Maldives route!" Commander Long bit his cigar, handed the telegram he had just received to Chen Ping, and scolded: "Wang Balamb, this time it will take a lot of effort and effort, and it will not be possible to ...... it." ”

"I can't make sure Hill ran away, right?" Chen Ping finished reading the telegram and said with a smile: "How can people say that he is also a famous general in the British Navy, do you think that Chinese cabbage will make dumplings at every turn." ”

"It's a fart, but it's just a little troublesome." Long Guozhang said fiercely: "After a while, I will let the 74th fleet turn west from Perth across the Indian Ocean to the island of Madagascar to guard, 2 light carriers, 2 cruisers and 8 destroyers, and when the South African fleet comes back, I will disgust him!" ”

"You old ruffian!" Tang Shaoyi was really troubled by Long Guozhang's flawed character, and said with a smile: "It's not enough to be able to beat one, it's the only one!" ”

"Hehe, I think Campbell has already made up his mind to go to the Maldives, after all, he has been watching us for so long, and he has some research, and he knows that going south along the African coast will be surrounded, so he has made up his mind to at least keep one!" Duan Qirui is not as old as Tang Shaoyi, he doesn't dare to comment on Long Guozhang, and he admires Campbell's choice.

"How's it going?"

"Gu Junhuo led the 71st fleet about 120 nautical miles behind Campbell, as long as he waited until tomorrow morning to launch an attack, but there were seven aircraft lost this afternoon, if the back was too much consumption on Campbell, he had to watch Hill flee back!"

"What about the detachment?"

"The 72nd and 73rd fleets were previously pincer-shaped behind Campbell, and as Campbell turned, the 72nd fleet was now close to him, and the 73rd fleet was 70 nautical miles away, but some of the warships of the two sub-fleets were still on the way." Speaking of business, Long Guozhang also became extremely serious, and continued: "In the past, the only way to stop Campbell was to let the 72nd Fleet attack, but most of the reinforcements we gave to the Seventh Fleet were on the road and had not yet turned, originally we wanted to wait until the early hours of the morning, but now it seems that it is ......." ”

Chen Ping understood what Long Guozhang meant, in order to intercept the Indian Grand Fleet, the Admiralty temporarily incorporated all the forces in the Indian Ocean except for the four Hebei-class ships of the Second Fleet into the Seventh Fleet. ※※※※※ I ※ I ※ ※

The 71st fleet is the heavy aircraft carrier formation of Nanchu, with one aircraft carrier, 2 light cruisers and 6 destroyers, the 72nd fleet and the 73rd fleet will be integrated into 3 light cruisers and 10 destroyers according to the arrangement, and the 74th fleet is a formation of 2 light carriers from Perth.

In terms of strength, the strengthened Seventh Fleet is sure enough to entangle the Indian Grand Fleet and wait for the arrival of the 21st Fleet from Gapo, but the problem is that Campbell suddenly broke through from Bombay without any warning in advance, and the Navy's forces in the Indian Ocean are already very scattered, with blocked doors and patrols and escorts, and it is unrealistic to want to assemble in such a short time.

So far, the 72nd fleet, which is close to Campbell, has only 2 light cruisers and 6 destroyers, while the 73rd fleet has only 1 light cruiser and 5 destroyers, and the rest are still on the way.

If Campbell does not divert course, then the pursuing ships will all be in position in four hours at a later time, and then they can launch a night attack in the early hours of the morning, but the problem is that Campbell has diverted, whether he was frightened by the submarine or not, there is no doubt about the diversion.

As a result, ships that had previously ordered to pursue the African coastline had to re-course, creating a brief vacuum gap. Of course, the reason for this problem is not that Campbell is cunning, nor is it that he can pinch and calculate, but because the Navy's previous plan was calculated together with the South African fleet, and now the change of course forces the fleet to decide to take out Cambe first, but in this way, the South African fleet led by the two prestige classes may escape back to South Africa, or even escape back to the Atlantic Ocean and return to Europe.

Although Long Guozhang just planned to turn the 74th Fleet around, it is undoubtedly a fantasy to rely on the 74th Fleet, which adds up to only 2 motherships with 30 aircraft, to stop the South African Fleet composed of 6 capital ships and 4 cruisers with strengthened air defense.

From this point of view, Campbell's expectation of turning to the Maldives has been achieved, at least it will take at least 2 hours to reorganize and formulate an interception plan, and if it is daytime, it is better to say that the 71 fleet can be blocked by an aircraft carrier attack for 2 hours, but now it is .......

Chen Ping took a deep breath: "What is Gu Junhuo going to do?" ”

Long Guozhang glanced at Duan Qirui and Tang Shaoyi, snapped the cigar butt, and said fiercely: "He said, in 2 hours, you have to snatch it back!" And it is recommended that the 21 fleet leave Campbell alone. ”

"Hehe, he's guts."

Long Guozhang walked to the map and said: "Campbell can arrive at the attack range of Gandao bombers sooner or later tomorrow morning, we can rely on bombers and aircraft carriers to intercept during the day, and then attack with destroyers at night, Gu Junhuo said that he is 50% sure that Campbell will stay in the Maldives!" ”

"5 percent is not small, but the price is ......, can you think about it?" After Chen Ping read the map, he suddenly quipped: "Aren't you afraid that Gu Junhuo will exhaust your family?" ”

"Think about it, I can't bear to catch the wolf, I can pull a prestige-level scrap iron back, and I will gamble to the death!" Long Guozhang gritted his teeth, but after finishing speaking, he suddenly glanced at Tang Shaoyi, and his shoulders quickly collapsed: "Hehe, besides, isn't there still a prime minister, and you won't see our navy becoming poor, right?" ”

Shao Yi hurriedly raised his hand and scolded with a smile: "You old ruffian, I can tell you, unless there are major changes, otherwise your navy will not want to get an extra budget!" ”

"No, Prime Minister, you see that this Englishman Hood has been launched, and I heard that there are two ships of the same class, and the five ships they built for the French will be delivered in April, this is not ......."

Without waiting for Long Guozhang to finish speaking, Chen Ping smiled and said: "Okay, go and inform the 21st fleet first, give up intercepting Campbell, and immediately rush to the Seychelles at full speed!" ”

This sentence made Tang Shaoyi's heart sink, he couldn't understand the words of the three military officers before, but he finally knew this sentence, if he wanted to rely on an aircraft carrier and some cruiser destroyers to intercept the Indian Grand Fleet, he would definitely pay a lot of price, but he didn't expect that at this time, Chen Ping actually took the initiative to let the 21st Fleet give up intercepting the Seychelles at full speed, so he immediately said: "Yuanshou, isn't this too risky?" Moreover, the 21st fleet also needs to pass through the Maldives Islands all the way south, so it will not delay time to intercept it. ”

"No, it's delayed!"

Duan Qirui said instead of Chen Ping: "We can't defeat Campbell tonight, and we can't even finish it tomorrow, so as long as he can keep some of the ships, the South African fleet will definitely not turn around, but if the 21st fleet appears in the Maldives in 2 days to participate in the interception, then he will immediately send a telegram to Hill to let him leave!"

Campbell chose the Maldives route, he must have made up his mind not to give us a chance to surround him, and Yuan Shou gave him a big slap! Deliberately taking advantage of Hill's eagerness to rescue Campbell, didn't he not want to be surrounded? Then we will divide and break it directly as he wishes! ”

"But...... The 2 capital ships of the United Kingdom are equipped with 380 mm cannons, and there are 2 more Spanish classes, and only 4 Hebei class ships can keep them? Tang Shaoyi was a little worried.

"We'll have to find out if I can stay or not, but I'm sure at least Hill won't be able to escape completely!"

On the night of the 21st, at 1 a.m.

On the light cruiser Lancangjiang, the flagship of the 72nd Fleet, the radar rotated in circles in the sea breeze, and the reflected radar waves were finally fed back to the screen on the operation console of the fire control cabin through wires, forming ripples.

At the edge of the ripples, some small dots appear and disappear, and the fire control calculator next to him is using a mechanical computer to calculate the data detected by the radar.

A few minutes later, when the electric officer grabbed the phone, the telephone light in the bridge turned on at the same time, and the navigator quickly grabbed the phone, and after a while, he turned his head and said: "The distance is 37,400 meters, the course is southeast, and the speed is 16 knots ......." ”

Lying on the chart table, Gao Xianshen, commander of the 72nd Fleet and captain of the Lancang River, raised his head after hearing this, and asked with a glint under his thick eyebrows: "Tang Sheng, have they arrived?" ”

"It's already here."

Gao Xianshen turned his head to look, outside the window, the 4 destroyers that had just arrived were slowly being incorporated into the lineup, and now there was only one light patrol left before it arrived, but even if it arrived, it would not be of much help, because the enemy in front of him was indeed a little tricky for the 72nd Fleet.

He was not afraid of destroyer cruisers, but the 10 main battleships were very dangerous, with more than 80 large-caliber heavy guns, and light cruisers and destroyers would either be killed or injured as long as they were hit by a single shell, so they had to make good use of their speed.

And the only thing that can fight them on their own is the Lance-3 oxygen torpedo!

Both the Weiqing and Yangtze classes used zigzag quintuple 550mm launchers, and the 12 ships had a total of 120 ready shells and 120 spare bombs, but the cruisers had to attract fire to cover the assault, so only 10 destroyers were actually put into attack.

The Lance III has a range of 15,000 meters at 47 knots and 21,000 meters at 40 knots.

47 knots seems to be very good, but every minute is 1450 meters, if launched at 15000 meters, it means that it will take at least 10 minutes to hit the enemy, so long is enough for a battleship of tens of thousands of tons to complete the evasion of the rudder. Therefore, in order to achieve a high hit rate, it is necessary to compress the distance close to 6,000 meters, which leaves only 4 minutes for the opponent, and the short time for a battleship of more than 20,000 tons to complete a large rudder is basically between three or four minutes.

But 6000 meters is already dangerous for destroyers, because there is a fleet opposite.

Figuratively speaking, the fleet is like a hedgehog with a large number of rapid-fire secondary guns, so in order to attack safely, in addition to diverting part of the opponent's firepower, it is also necessary to choose the angle and point of attack.

So where is the first point of attack?

Gao Xianshen's eyes were fixed on the left rear of the Indian Grand Fleet opposite, and ...... behind the four French cruisers, the only remaining American battleships intact were the USS Northampton and the British Ireland!

"First team, right side containment."

"Second team, focus, 210 directions!"

"Cruiser, accelerate ......."

"Let's go get in the way!"

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