The fire of the British field artillery group was very conspicuous, and the three gunboat planes discovered the position of the 18th Regiment of the Royal Artillery from a distance.

At first, the British were not sure why the large seaplanes of the Ming army came here, and should they not go on a sea search mission?

"Hey! Get rid of them! "Someone shouted towards the anti-aircraft machine-gun platoon not far away.

"Wow, blah, bh-"

The twin Vickers heavy machine guns opened fire, and a 7.7mm machine gun round mixed with tracer bullets fired diagonally into the sky, splashing at the blue-gray painted four-engine aircraft.

The British machine gunners didn't actually plan to shoot it down, and everyone knew that the chances of taking down these big things with machine guns alone were slim to none.

However, unexpectedly, the three planes ignored the incoming bullet rain, but unhurriedly and calmly deflected the course slightly, and turned the fuselage side towards the British position.

The British soldiers with binoculars or rangefinders noticed the difference - the barrels and barrels of guns sticking out of the side openings of the engine room?

Before they could react, the shells and bullets slashed as the muzzle flickered.

An 80mm anti-explosive bomb that fell from the sky landed impartially in a corner of the air defense position, and in the explosion, the flying fragments immediately knocked down several machine gunners who were firing from anti-aircraft machine guns.

The 12.8mm machine gun bullets were just as horrifying, splashing clouds of dust on the ground and sending flesh and blood flying from the unlucky eggs that were hit.

"Don't stand! Get down! ”

"Look for cover!"

The astonished British soldiers had no choice but to flee in confusion for cover, or lie down with their heads in their hands.

In order to minimize the backseat stroke, the old 12-style mountain gun carried by the 32 seaplane has a shortened barrel, which makes its muzzle velocity lower and the trajectory more curved, but it has little negative impact on the low-altitude hovering gunboat.

Bullets shot into the sky, but it was difficult to effectively damage the massive four-engine aircraft.

In the face of the Ming gunboats and planes that were circling in circles at a low altitude of 400 meters and wantonly bombarding, the British anti-aircraft machine gun platoon tried its best but was still unable to do anything, and suffered heavy casualties.

The excited gunboat crew enjoyed the reckless killing, pouring shells and bullets over the heads of the enemy below.

After the British anti-aircraft fire was defeated, they reversed course and went straight to the artillery position.

The British artillerymen lay on the ground, crouched in the potholes, and hid in the bushes, watching as the planes rained down terrifying fire as they circled leisurely.

One Austin truck after another was smashed into debris by 12.8mm bullets, and the armor-piercing incendiary bombs ignited the trucks, causing them to burst into flames, which quickly spread into a blazing fireball.

More than a dozen QF25-pounder howitzers were also bombed in a neat arrangement, although they were fixed targets, but the 80mm anti-explosive bombs could not be guaranteed to be destroyed if they did not hit directly, and how difficult it was to accurately bombard from an airplane.

At this time, the gunboats of the Ming army, which had been raging for a while, also encountered hard stubble.

The three remaining Erlikon Ms-cal.60 20mm anti-aircraft guns that had been deployed at the airfield were towed by Dutch and Indian military trucks.

The roaring Dutch officers were shouting and urging the reluctant native soldiers to open fire immediately.

"Knock knock—knock knock—"

The power of the 20mm cannon is not comparable to that of large-caliber machine guns, the kinetic energy of the former muzzle is 30,000 joules upward, and the shell has a charge, and the damage effect is much stronger than that of the bullet.

The gunboat plane, which had been hit by a sudden and powerful blow, suddenly lost its previous momentum and quickly accelerated in a straight line away from the anti-aircraft fire.

"I'm on fire! By his grandma's! These guys have cannon !! ”

Engine No. 3 on the right flank of the Roc 2 was hit and caught fire, sending flames and smoke out, and in addition to the bullet holes on the fuselage that had been hit by the previous bullets, there were now several watermelon-sized holes.

The other two gunboats also wanted to try their hand at the battle, so the two sides launched a round of battle between heaven and earth.

Despite the timidity of the indigenous soldiers, the three anti-aircraft guns were able to attack the target in unison under the command of several non-commissioned officers and officers, and one of the gunboats was fired at one of the gunboats.

Because such a target is not like a small and fast single-engine aircraft, the Ming army's gunboat aircraft based on four-engine seaplanes are large and slow, no different from live targets.

In just a few seconds, six or seven 20mm high-explosive bombs tore the Dapeng No. 4 to pieces, and the crew members in the cabin were also injured one after another, covered in blood.

The frightened pilot made a wrong decision, he quickly turned the steering wheel to steer the plane, and the huge plane tilted sharply to the left side.

This directly increased the amount of time that one's side was exposed to enemy fire, and the three anti-aircraft guns fired a total of sixty shells from the time they opened their firing to the time they ran out of magazines, and the bulky Dapeng No. 4 took more than a dozen of them from beginning to end.

The internal steel cables and hydraulic mechanisms partially failed, and the fuel tank on the left wing also burst into flames in an instant, dragging a large puff of black smoke to the north.

At the same time, the Roc 3 fired at the anti-aircraft guns with all their might, and the gunners maneuvered the machine guns and artillery to rain down countless ammunition on them.

The sudden explosion on the ground and the dust kicked up by the bullets terrified the demoralized Dutch and Indian soldiers, and some of them ran away, and then many more fled.

The angry and frightened Dutchman, though shouting and scolding, was honest with his legs, and he also ran quickly into the distance.

The Roc 2, which was the first to be attacked and moved away, was very unlucky, and although it escaped the range of anti-aircraft fire, it was about to fly out of land when it encountered a CW-21 fighter that had just completed a reconnaissance mission.

The Dutch pilot's eyes lit up, unwilling to let go of the wounded fish, and immediately launched an attack from the direction of the gunboat at six o'clock.

After several rounds of strafing, the battered and scarred Dapeng 2 had only one engine still functioning, and had to make a forced landing on Bangka Island.

The appearance of the gunboat units was completely unexpected by the BDA coalition forces and disrupted their deployment.

The 13th Infantry Brigade originally planned to seize the time to besiege the paratroopers of the Ming army, which had not yet gained a firm foothold, but now it was disturbed by such a pass, and had to abandon this plan and reorganize the formation.

Major General Dominic is still a little distressed - although the two planes have been destroyed and one has been injured, there is still one that is hovering over the Ming army, like a guardian bird sheltering the ground troops.

Hey, once they've built a complete position, it's going to be hard to defeat them.

But they don't have the weapons to deal with this thing, and the anti-aircraft machine gun is too limited.

At 14:21 in the afternoon of the same day, the second wave of the first regiment and three battalions of paratroopers arrived, and the white umbrella flowers once again bloomed over the old port oil field.

The fighters and bombers that came with him dropped bombs on the British positions, and then repeatedly dived-strafed-pulled, making the officers and men of the 13th Brigade even more embarrassed.

Aerial reconnaissance showed that there were no other enemy troops within a radius of 100 miles, and in order to reduce the enemy's transportation capacity, roads and railways were also attacked by the Ming army.

Therefore, Lei Jiecheng decided to take the initiative in the evening to repel the enemy in front of him and eliminate their threat to the oil field.

Compared to the 1st Paratrooper Regiment, which was hindered, the 2nd Paratrooper Regiment, which carried out the same airborne operation against the Balikpapan oil field in Borneo, was much smoother.

The local defenders were shocked by such a large-scale airborne operation, and were immediately beaten to the ground by the elite Ming paratroopers.

In just two hours, the area of the production wells and the refinery were cleared and almost intact, but the Dutch and Indian forces used artillery to bombard the storage tanks before the defeat, causing most of the crude oil stocks to fall into flames.

However, the local defenders were quickly routed by the 2nd Paratrooper Regiment in pursuit, and the reconnaissance platoon captured a large number of people, including several officers who had given the order for sabotage.

At the same time, in the sea 40km south of Singapore......

Dozens of transports loaded with Ming landing troops were heading straight for the old port at a speed of 11 knots, escorted by a detachment flotilla.

'Oh?' Capture six of the enemy's major and above', they are very smooth. ”

"Did the person who gave the order to open fire catch it? Damn, hundreds of thousands of tons of oil, it must be severely punished! ”

In the officers' cafeteria of the heavy cruiser Wuyishan, the officers were enthusiastically discussing the progress of the battle in the Old Port and Balikpapan.

"It stands to reason that I have to be sentenced to death, after all, I have warned it a few days ago."

"This so-called 'don't say anything unpredictable', you don't believe in evil, you have to go against my Ming, who will die if he doesn't die?"

The officer's canteen is elegantly decorated, with each large chandelier made of brass and aluminium alloy surrounded by six square lantern-shaped tubes.

Dark blankets were laid on the floor, carved ebony tables were filled with dishes, and dishes were all white-glazed.

Upstream!

In fact, this kind of decoration is still a small thing compared to the battleship, judging by the circumference of the wind, or the Longshuo that he has been on is more luxurious and elegant.

With its limited displacement and somewhat cramped interior, the Longshuo is still so luxurious, it is hard to imagine what the two Yongle-class ships that are about to be completed for sea trials will look like.

It is said that there are also ship-borne Guandi Temple and ship-borne Mazu Temple, as well as separately arranged royal rooms for the emperor to stay.

"Zhou Kexing, do you say it? How can it be reasonable not to take warnings seriously......"

"Well, when you come out to mix, you have to talk about credit, and if you say that you will be severely punished, you will be severely punished, and you will ......" Zhou Changfeng didn't say the second half of the famous sentence, and grabbed a chopstick dish in his hand, reminding: "We can't do this, it's a little paralyzing and careless." ”

Obviously, this is a war zone, and as a result, the Ming Navy, which thinks that it has an overwhelming advantage, is still so comfortable that it doesn't feel like going to war at all.

Countless historical lessons have proved that this will inevitably lead to great losses.

"Afraid of what?" The deputy of the Wuyishan said lightly: "We are the kings on this sea, the artillery fleet and the air attack fleet are cruising in the Java Sea, if the Dutch army dares to leave the port, they will be surrounded and annihilated immediately." ”

Zhou Changfeng shrugged his shoulders, "This is not good, even if you kill chickens with a knife, you have to take it seriously, otherwise you may be pecked by chickens." ”

Zhou's worries were not unreasonable, and his instincts told him that the next battle would never be so easy.

The Dutch refused to give in and surrender their colonies, and they would have resisted as hard as they could, and God knows what their charged blow would be.

To the east of the Old Port is Bangka Island, and if you want to land at the Old Port through the estuary, you have to pass through the Bangka Strait between Sumudara Island and Bangka Island.

The Ming fleet would enter the Bangka Strait in the second half of the night before calmly landing at the mouth of the river.

As the sun sets in the west, a light cruiser and four destroyers are making final preparations in the port of Tanjung Bulu in Batavia.

Colonel Karel Dolman stood in the bridge of the light cruiser of the Java, his mind already drifting far away, and the setting sun shone on the sea and stretched his shadow long through the glass window.

Historically, as rear admiral commander of the fleet of the Royal Dutch Navy in East Indo-Dutch, he led the fleet in a brave struggle against the enemy.

Karel Dolmann was a special general - never victorious, never victorious, but remembered by the Dutch so much that later aircraft carriers were named after him.

Today, Karel had not yet been promoted to rear admiral, and tired of the boring days of sitting in an office at a naval base on his home turf, applied for a transfer to command a cruiser in the Far East.

In a place that many people avoid, there are people who take the initiative to go? Rightfully so, his application was quickly approved.

Now, according to the plan planned by the BDA coalition naval command, the coalition forces should carry out a surprise attack on the Ming army that is about to land, reduce its strength, and delay its progress.

Because there was an impossible, huge fleet cruising in the Java Sea, and planes patrolling the sky, the coalition forces planned to operate at night and leave the port at night to surprise the Ming landing fleet.

According to the plan, the assault fleet would pull anchor after sunset and set sail to the Bangka Strait at high speed to intercept the Ming fleet that had just entered there.

Five destroyers were on assault duty, and one light cruiser was on a supporting cover role, and the commander was naturally in charge of the operation.

When the last corner of the sun also disappeared above the horizon, the fleet officially set sail, gradually increasing to a high speed of 29 knots and heading straight northwest.

However, not long after, the destroyer Iverson suddenly suffered a mechanical failure, and one of the steam turbines stopped and the speed was reduced to 19 knots, so it had to leave the fleet and return on its own.

After more than six hours of galloping, the quietly approaching fleet entered the Bangka Strait, where its speed was reduced to 26 knots, and two hours later it was only a quarter of an hour away from the mouth of the river.

Five warships sailed quickly in a single column, with the flagship Java at the head, followed by four destroyers.

The Dutch sailors were in a state of apprehension, excited and uneasy, some were setting torpedo fuses, some were checking their bolts, and some were already resting their hands on anti-aircraft gun shells.

At 5:13 a.m. on March 27, the watchpost of the Java Light Patrol suddenly saw a ship appear in the direction of ten o'clock, followed by the second and third......

"Identify enemy ship models!"

"Sir, it's a destroyer, it may be the Wenchang class, or it may be the Dinghai class."

Colonel Karel was noncommittal, and after a few seconds, he commanded in a deep voice: "Lift the radio silence, trapezoidal formation, attack!" ”

Immediately, telegraph and light signals transmitted the same order to the other four destroyers, and Karel gave the same order as in history.

"I will attack, (all ships) will follow me (Ik val aan, volg mij)!"

(End of chapter)