"That aircraft carrier is dying, don't care! One team is going to deal with the Warrior, and four teams are going to fight the other with me! The formation commander ordered.

As soon as he gave the order, the 28 torpedo planes immediately divided into two teams, one on the left and one on the right, and rushed towards their respective targets.

The YH-7-1-2 of the first team of the seventh detachment took the lead, leading the remaining more than a dozen torpedo planes straight towards the Warrior.

The incoming 102mm high-explosive shells continued to explode in the rear of the group, but some shells also detonated a little earlier, so they affected the Ming torpedo formation that was flying at high speed.

The larger fuselage of the twin-engine aircraft also invisibly increased the probability of being hit by fragments, and the vertical tail of the No. 717 aircraft diagonally behind was torn off by nearly half, and the horizontal tail was also in tatters.

"The rudder is broken, the 717 rudder is damaged, try to disengage!"

The whole plane fell uncontrollably downward, barely steady, and the pilot almost broke the control stick to make the plane very awkwardly turn.

The torpedo pilots could see what was going on in the sky near the group—countless clouds of white gunpowder and gray-black smoke took up half of the sky, and a trail of machine gun tracer bullets flew by.

Below, the big fish struggled, turning to make evasive maneuvers, drawing serpentine white tracks out of the blue sea.

"Further on is the range of their machine guns!"

"According to the usual essentials, don't be uncompromising, if it doesn't work, pull closer and directly aim at the bow of the enemy ship."

"Two thousand meters!"

Several torpedo planes flew very low, almost as if they were flying close to the surface of the sea.

Tang Cheng, the pilot of No. 712, glanced at the speedometer and saw that the index was approaching 360km/h - this is also the extreme speed of the Type 37 torpedo plane when flying at low altitude.

The 11 planes were further subdivided into two groups, half attacking the starboard side from the right front and the other half attacking the starboard side from the right rear, thus flanking the battleship.

At 8:16, No. 712, which was flying at the forefront, braved a dense barrage of incoming artillery shells to reach a distance of 800 meters before dropping a torpedo.

After falling dozens of meters from the air, the Type 33 aviation torpedo fell smoothly into the water, and the wooden boxes at both ends of the head and tail were broken and detached one after another, and the engine started smoothly.

It quickly ascended to a preset depth and, corrected by gyroscopes, rushed forward at high speed at a speed of 44 knots.

There was a snow-white track on the sea, but the Warrior was now making a sharp turn to the right, avoiding the four torpedoes rushing towards her stern, so the course would inevitably intersect with the torpedoes on this side.

The Royal Navy officers and men aboard the battleship Warrior were naturally aware of the situation, and the massive battleship writhed as best they could to evade it.

The sailors on the side of the board rushed forward by inertia, and one of them stumbled and almost fell.

But they were about to stabilize their bodies when they saw that the white streak was already approaching the side of the battleship.

"It's coming!!"

"Beware!"

The officers screamed, but before they could finish shouting "watch out", the earth-shattering impact came from underfoot.

"Knock !!"

The terrifying explosion set off a column of water tens of meters high, and the sailors in the starboard center of the Warrior enjoyed a cool head-to-toe open-air shower for free.

Thanks to the research and practice of the Military Gezhi Institute, the Ming army has been equipped with mixed explosives specially for underwater blasting three years ago, and there is a natural difference between exploding in the air and exploding in the water, in order to obtain greater power in the case of the same volume or weight, it is called the 36 special explosive.

This explosive, also known as Qin's explosive, is composed of 32% black sokin, 51.5% TNT, 4% Terr, 12% aluminum powder, and 0.5% paraffin as a passivating agent.

Compared to ordinary TNT, this expensive hybrid explosive has superior underwater blasting performance, significantly increasing the energy contained in underwater shock waves and bubbles, and its TNT equivalent can be close to 140%.

The Type 33 aviation torpedo, loaded with 250kg of Type 36 special explosives, greatly exceeded the original expectations of the British designers.

The explosives formed a huge pressure of more than 40,000 standard atmospheres in a very short time, and the powerful shock wave and high-energy bubbles easily shredded the underwater protection system of the British warship!

The internal structure of the battleship Warrior was twisted and deformed in an instant, and the shattered steel fragments flew inward at a considerable speed, even piercing the longitudinal walls inside.

Immediately, the raging sea water poured into it.

"Captain, we've been hit!"

"The boiler compartment No. 4 and the sailor's living compartment are flooded! We've got a power outage here! ”

"Block! Damage management detachment, you ......"

"Knock !!"

Just half a minute later, the Warrior was torpedoed again.

And on the other side of the battlefield, the situation of the Prestige is not optimistic.

In the face of the menacing Ming torpedo planes, the captain of the ship, Colonel Charlie, was able to deal calmly at first, but after being attacked by multiple torpedoes, he could no longer remain calm.

He asked the helmsman to go to the side and take the helm himself.

Under his control, this modernized old warship evaded torpedoes at high speed, and the giant ship of more than 30,000 tons was as agile as a destroyer in his hands.

After dodging 12 torpedoes in a row, the Prestige's luck finally ran out.

The British sailors watched in horror as the white track approached quickly, but could not do anything about it, for the battleship was evading two torpedoes coming from the left front.

Now you can only choose one of the two, two or one? Colonel Charlie did not hesitate to choose the latter.

"Stay calm! Deal with the shock! ”

Exactly ten seconds later, with a roar, a column of water rose into the air.

At this time, a torpedo plane had just finished dropping a torpedo and was about to turn and evacuate, but it was suddenly hit by a 40mm high-explosive bomb at the wing root of the left wing.

The explosion instantly damaged the wing structure, and the wing fuel tank caught fire, but it still lasted more than ten seconds before breaking. The plane, which had broken its wings, immediately flipped to the left and fell into the sea.

The sailors on the port side of the battlecruiser Prestige cheered in unison, but immediately after that one of the officers shouted: "Torpedo attack!" ”

The torpedo fired by the downed Type 37 torpedo approached at high speed, and the Prestige made a sharp left turn.

The torpedo swept past the front of the hull, but ended up being slightly faster.

Before the Prestige had completely thrown off the stern, the torpedo struck the stern at a small angle of incidence.

The expected violent tremors did not come, and after a brief moment of consternation, the sailors burst into laughter again.

But how do you laugh now?

Just four minutes later, the Prestige was hit by two torpedoes in succession.

The bow below the waterline was almost blown to shreds, the drag increased sharply, and the speed of the ship was greatly reduced.

"Oh hoo! Medium! ”

"It's so unreasonable, my invention was so well predicted, and I was actually dodged by these guys."

"Assemble, return."

The commander of the torpedo formation of the Ming army looked back at the British fleet struggling on the sea, and said to the navigator easily: "Three coffin nails have been nailed to them, who should come to the last one?" ”

The third wave of air raids basically pronounced the death sentence of Fleet A, and although the three giant ships are still floating on the surface, it can be said that they are equivalent to sunken ships.

The USS Eagle was previously incapacitated, with a speed of only 9 knots;

The battleship Warrior was hit by 4 torpedoes, and the speed dropped to 15 knots;

The battlecruiser Prestige was hit with 3 torpedoes, and the speed dropped to 20 knots.

The atmosphere of despair and emotions quickly spread among the officers and men of Fleet A, and some people began to curse the Far Eastern Air Force.

At this time, the time was only 8:17.

In fact, the Ming fleet was already approaching the battlefield, and the sailors of the 14th artillery fleet could even clearly see the black smoke that went straight into the sky.

But the situation has come for the battleship captains to scold their mothers - the aircraft carrier Amaichi Sagaki began to fly its own carrier-based aircraft?

Damn, these guys are going to pick up the leak!

The low aircraft capacity and speed of the Tianshiyuan class was the product of the "small aircraft carrier" faction of the Ming Navy, who believed that aircraft carriers should play a supporting role - providing the fleet with a longer reconnaissance range, and using carrier-based aircraft to protect their own fleet and harass the enemy fleet.

As for the decisive battle? That's the mission of the battleship!

In the face of the interrogation messages from other warships, the captain of the Amaichi Sagaki said solemnly: "The enemy ships can still effectively fight back now, and if they are hit, the gains will outweigh the losses, and it is natural that they should be weakened a little more." ”

The ground crew and the pilots were grinning, and they couldn't help but laugh at the thought of what kind of depressed expressions those battleship crews would have been.

12 dive bombers and 11 torpedo planes hurriedly formed a formation and could not wait to pounce on the British fleet that was close at hand.

The battleships of Fleet A were still doing their best to resist the incoming Ming fleet, and the light cruiser Grain Goddess was the bravest, fighting hard after being hit directly by a bomb in the bow and causing dozens of casualties.

Lieutenant General Lancelot had come to terms with the reality, lamenting: "We made a wrong decision, maybe we shouldn't have come to the East." ”

Fleet A had no possibility of escaping, and the lookout post reported that the Ming fleet was approaching in the northeast, and the distance between the two sides was about thirty kilometers.

The difficulty of the fourth wave of air raids was much lower than before, and the pilots of the carrier-based aircraft of the Amamichi Sagaki did not miss a good opportunity to beat the water dogs.

The three mortally wounded British warships were no longer able to make flexible and effective evasive maneuvers, and the Royal Navy officers and men could hardly watch as the torpedoes collided.

In less than a quarter of an hour, the USS Eagle was hit by two 250kg bombs and one 448mm torpedo, the Prestige was hit by two bombs and three torpedoes, and the Warrior was hit by four torpedoes.

After the order to abandon the ship was given, the sailors on the deck of the battleship Warrior began to hurriedly blow their life jackets, and the lifeboats were also taken down and thrown into the sea.

The lower cabins were ringing with bells, the lights were flickering on and off, and the narrow passages were packed.

It didn't take long for the deck to be in a mess, full of sailors as far as the eye could see, and there were many wounded soldiers and corpses lying on the ground.

As the damage management department stopped its efforts, hundreds of tons of seawater poured in through the massive holes that had been torn open on both sides of the ship's hull.

The amplitude of inclination intensified, and it was difficult for the officers and men to stand, so they could only bow and squat and lower their center of gravity to barely stabilize their figures.

Some of the brave British anti-aircraft gunners were still manipulating the thump guns and anti-aircraft machine guns, but the "thump" and "thump" gunfire were now more like an ensemble of tragic sonatas.

Not long after the Warrior's capsizing, the battered Prestige followed in her footsteps.

"Abandon the battleship, raise the signal flag, deploy the lifeboat, and evacuate everyone in an orderly manner......"

After announcing the order to abandon the ship, Colonel Charlie took a deep look at the southern skyline in the distance - until now, not even a single plane of the Far East Air Force had appeared.

Frustrated and disappointed, he gripped the rudder and tried to sink with the ship, but Vice Admiral Lancelot beckoned, and the two officers rushed over and dragged the captain away without saying a word.

When they came to the deck, the commander, the captain and the others all saw the situation at sea level in the distance - the Ming fleet of dozens of warships was heading towards this side.

The Ming carrier-based planes that had completed the attack did not leave, but climbed to an altitude of 1,600 meters and circled, completely ignoring the anti-aircraft fire of several destroyers, and leisurely watched the spectacular scene of the sinking of three huge ships.

On February 27, at 9:03 a.m. East 8th Sector time, the Prestige-class battlecruiser No. 1 capsized.

She was only a month behind her sister ship, the Counter-Attack, which sank to the icy depths of the North Sea, leaving the once-invincible Royal Navy with only high-speed capital ship left.

More than 1,000 British sailors who had been evacuated struggled in the sea, where a thick layer of black, viscous oil floated here, and the smell was disgusting.

Those lifeboats could not carry so many people, and many had to pull on the edge of the lifeboats and wait for rescue.

In the sky, the Ming pilots witnessed the sinking of the two capital ships with pleasure, they chatted excitedly, and the radio channels were full of exclamations.

"Hey, who dropped that bullet that landed on the Prestige earlier? Accurate. ”

"Tsk, it's really sinking for them."

"Hahaha, from now on, I see who dares to say that planes can't sink big ships!"

Given that it was not far from the coast and that the Ming fleet was approaching, the remaining British warships did not rescue the man who had fallen overboard.

Led by the Light Cruiser of the Grain Goddess, the rest of the destroyers quickly increased to their maximum speed and fled at high speed towards the south.

The aircraft carrier Eagle was the most tenacious, she still floated crookedly on the surface of the sea.

Before leaving, the F-class destroyer Foxhound hurriedly thundered her.

"Puff-puff-puff-puff-"

The Foxhound fired four 533mm torpedoes in one go to ensure 100% destruction of the Eagle and avoid being captured by the approaching Ming army.

Later, after a series of roars, the dilapidated Eagle split in two from the middle. After just forty seconds, it was gone, leaving only countless floating fragments.

At the front-line headquarters in the western part of the outskirts of Kuala Terengganu, the telegraphers and communications staff officers received more than a dozen telegrams one after another.

Perimeter Wind has long been unable to wait, and there is no need to wait - the British fleet will definitely run away after an air attack and will not pose a threat.

Just as he was about to give the order to launch a forcible crossing and a general attack on the enemy in front of him, Zhao Hanfeng, who was rarely dancing with his eyebrows, walked over quickly.

"What a victory! The enemy fleet was almost completely annihilated! ”

Hearing the news, Zhou Changfeng just commented lightly: "This can be said to be a milestone battle." ”

(End of chapter)