Chapter 388: Mediterranean Storm (7)
PS: Supplement 3, ask for tickets and subscription support, thank you......
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At 10:04, all ten armored cruisers of the Italian-Austrian fleet were destroyed, either sinking, or paralyzed on the surface of the sea and turned into huge torches, and the most intact Amalfi was also like a dead fish, burning across the sea, completely losing its combat effectiveness. The only two former dreadnoughts left by the Chinese capital ships, the Vittorio Emmanuel and the Roma, but they are also on fire all over their bodies and will not last long.
"The light ships went out and made the way for the capital ships. The capital ship carried out the hammer plan and copied it to the rear of the Allied fleet......" Gao Yujie saw that it was almost over, so he issued a new order to his subordinates. At this time, he began to have people inform the British and French warships and order them to continue to resist.
The French were okay, their two dreadnoughts and five ex-dreadnoughts faced the same five dreadnoughts and two dreadnoughts, and the two sides were not much different in combat effectiveness, while the British were miserable, and they were all dreadnoughts or even super-dreadnoughts.
Lying groove Nima, Lao Tzu was pitted by the Chinese!
Admiral Milne, commander of the British Mediterranean Fleet, had a green face, and at first he really didn't react, well, the deployment of the Allied fleet could not be relied on on the Chinese, that could only be said to be his own bad luck. But now, after the Chinese fleet had defeated the opponent's patrol, it actually informed itself that they were going to make a detour, outflanking the back of the Italian-Austrian fleet, and asking them to resist. If he can't react at this time, he will be in the navy for decades.
In the current situation, this tactic of the Chinese really has nothing to blame, and it is the most effective way to kill the other side in one breath. As an old fritter in the naval world, Milne undoubtedly knows this very well, and if it were him, he would make the same choice. But letting him make this "anvil" by himself made him want to cry without tears.
I wanted to be a professional pit teammate in the British Empire for a thousand years, but I didn't expect that today I overturned in the gutter and was pitted by my teammates. Nima, fifteen, oh no, now fourteen former dreadnoughts, to block the opponent's four super dreadnoughts and five dreadnoughts, it is not an exaggeration to say that it is a lot of pressure.
"Damn, you must resist it! The Royal Navy of the British Empire will not back down! The light ships rushed forward and charged, and the lightning strikes disrupted the opponent's array......" Milne hurriedly issued a series of commands.
The Italian-Austrian fleet has already rushed up, and it is too late for the British to be this "anvil" now, and if the battle line is disbanded, the consequences will definitely be even worse. Even if Yiao only wants to break through now, and has no dead heart, but when he breaks through, he will be happy to overturn a few British ships. Once the former dreadnoughts lose their formation, when facing the super dreadnoughts, they will have no power to resist at all.
Besides, even if the British fleet released the water and let the main force of Italy and Austria escape, it would not be China that was most anxious anyway, and the safety of the Mediterranean route had nothing to do with China, and the most active in this plan was the British themselves. And at that time, the Chinese can completely shift the blame, and at that time, Milne, who has lost the face of the British Empire and damaged the cabinet's strategic plan, I am afraid that there is only a dishonorable retirement road to go. Therefore, whether it is for the interests of the country or for his personal future, Admiral Milne cannot release water at the moment, and does not dare to release water.
So Milne is itching with hatred now, and this feeling of having to jump into it knowing that it is a pit makes him feel bad.
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"Hahaha, order the light ships to take the lead, charge at full speed, and disrupt the opponent's formation!" Admiral Yankel, commander of the Austro-Hungarian fleet, now had a feeling of high spirits.
Although he had received bad news that three of his old cruisers had been destroyed, he had also sunk three of the opponent's former dreadnoughts, well, the Rapid also had the help of the Italians, but it was mainly my Austro-Hungarian. It looks like a three-to-three draw, but how can those three old cruisers of the last century be compared to the former dreadnoughts that only entered service in this century? Uh, what fast class has been downgraded to a loading cruiser? So what does it matter?
Seeing the British light ships rushing desperately, the same kind of Italian and Austrian fleet also rushed forward, and at the same time, the secondary guns of the dreadnoughts also began to shoot at these targets, although limited by the angle of fire, only a small part of the secondary guns played, but the dreadnought's observation system and stability are not comparable to the light ships, and their hit rate is much higher.
The former dreadnoughts of the British are also desperately trying to help their light ships, speaking of which, they have more secondary guns than dreadnoughts, but they are gun guns, and the firing range and pitch angle are very narrow, so although they are now sideways against the enemy, the position is superior, but the effect is even inferior to that of the other party.
......At this time, the Strait of Kithera was full of continuous cannon fire and gunsmoke, and the British and French fleets and the Italian-Austrian fleets were desperately firing at each other, and a total of nearly 200 ships were fighting fiercely here, and from time to time warships were hit by indiscriminate shells. In less than ten minutes of the fierce battle, twenty or thirty "torches" had already appeared on the sea, and as the distance between the two sides approached, the hit rate became higher and higher.
"Hit!" shouted from the Duncan, whose salvo had hit the side of Italy's Cayo Duilio super-dreadnought accurately. But it soon became clear that the 12-inch shell had no effect at all, failing to penetrate the Cayo-Duilio's heavy main armor belt, and exploding directly on the side of the ship, causing no damage except to blow a few craters out of the hull.
At this time, I only heard a heavy shell whistling in, and hit the Duncan, which was still proud just now. The Duncan's main armor belt was only 178 mm thick at its thickest point, and the 14-inch armor-piercing bullet from Andrea Doria pierced through without any suspense, and then plunged headlong into the secondary ammunition depot. Then, with a loud bang, the Duncan erupted like a volcano, spewing flames and all kinds of wreckage.
The Albemarle, which was of the same class as it, was even worse, suffering 2 Austro-Hungarian 390-mm special meals, and the entire bridge was wiped out, and the command team inside was finished with nonsense, and a rear main gun was also mounted, and the Dreadnought and the Non-Rejection also received one shot each, which had already caused a fire.
Of course, the "anvils" are not only being beaten, and the situation on the French side is much better. The France and Paris faced the Italian Queen Magritte and Queen Elena, two former dreadnoughts, although the Lone class is nothing in the dreadnoughts, but there is no problem in facing the two former dreadnoughts.
The two Italian dreadnoughts had a very fatal weakness, that is, their firepower was too poor, they only had two 12-inch guns, two single turrets, one in front and one behind. That's right, two, instead of the four main guns that are common in former dreadnoughts. And now they are facing the enemy in the bow, what can one main gun do? There is no threat at all, but they are beaten violently by two lonely ships. The Lone Class is now sideboard against the enemy, capable of firing 10 12-inch guns at the same time. As soon as the two "Italian queens" entered the firing range, they were beaten violently. Within 15 minutes of the exchange of fire, the two queens changed into new clothes made of flames and smoke.
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At this time, if you look at it from the sky, the British and French fleets of the Entente countries have already fought with the Italian-Austrian fleets trying to break through, and shells of various calibers are constantly flying in arcs in the sky towards each other. And in the relatively calm north of the strait, the main forces of the Chinese fleet were galloping in a diagonal line towards the rear of the Allied fleet.
"Hurry up, hurry up, we'll win if we get to the rear!" Gao Yujie kept urging his subordinates, and the Chinese capital ship at this time had already soared to a top speed of 27 knots. In front of them was a forward group of cruisers and destroyers, responsible for clearing the light ships of the Italian-Austrian fleet.
"Buzz buzz ......" And at this moment, there was a faint roar of engines in the sky.
Gao Yujie looked up and saw a dense group of fighters flying from the south and entering the battlefield. At this time, the Italian-Austrian fleet also discovered this group of aircraft, and their six temporary aircraft carriers also hurriedly took off to meet the enemy. True, most of the temporary aircraft carriers of Italy and Austria carried fighters, and there were pitiful attack aircraft. That's why they didn't let the planes go into battle just now.
This is mainly due to the fact that the temporary aircraft carriers of Italy and Austria are relatively small. They are not as extravagant as Britain and the United States, and they are converted into tens of thousands of tons of luxury cruise ships, which are relatively cheap cargo ships of one to twenty thousand tons. Due to the narrow deck of such a temporary aircraft carrier, lighter fighters can take off and land normally, but it is difficult for heavier bombers and torpedo planes to take off and land. Therefore, they simply let these temporary aircraft carriers act as bodyguards for the capital ships to protect the sky of the fleet. Attack or something, let the capital ship do it on its own.
In fact, their thinking has not yet turned a corner, although Italy was slapped in the face by the Japanese carrier-based aircraft last time, many of their upper echelons still think that carrier-based aircraft are only a great threat to thin-skinned aircraft carriers and light ships, and they are still useless for capital ships. In this case, why not simply fully equip the fighters and suppress the opponent's attack aircraft, why spend money on building a large aircraft carrier?
It has to be said that this viewpoint of the two countries is not completely unreasonable, and the role of aircraft carriers in the bathtub of the Mediterranean Sea is indeed not as obvious as in the ocean, and shore-based aircraft are enough to cover a large area, so what do they need professional aircraft carriers for? Of course, the main reason is that there is a lack of funds, and the top leaders of the two countries are all big ships and giant artillery parties, and they are reluctant to spend too much money on aircraft carriers, a new type of warship with an unknown future.
"Damn, there is still our Hyberao, Chengfei's gang of bastards, they are all in the eyes of money......" Air Commander Chu Wangyuan glanced at the Italian-Austrian fighters in front of him, and found that there was actually a squadron or so of Hyberau in the Austro-Hungarian group, and I don't know if it was exported before, or if they copied it themselves. This made him very unhappy, and he felt like his left hand was hitting his right hand.
He quickly threw this unhappiness out of his mind, and immediately gave an order to his subordinates: "Fighter formation, suppress the opponent's fighters, and seize air supremacy......"
Six squadrons of 108 J-5 "Skuas" fighters immediately swooped down with a strange scream, and there were more than 120 fighters on the other side, a total of three types, in addition to China's Haiberao, there were two similar knockoffs, Italy's FiatG. 40 and Aviatik D of Austria-Hungary. VI., although they are somewhat different from Hyberau in appearance, everyone can see that they are related by blood, the same airtight cockpit, the same non-retractable nose wheels with fairing, and the same short and fat fuselage.
Although the number of opponents was larger, the Chinese pilots were not afraid at all. Now China's shrike and sea shrike have taken a back seat, and when they were training in China, they did not play with sea shrike, and they are very familiar with the performance of this aircraft. The performance of the skua is completely shrried.
The Italist Hyberau Extremely Knock-off Cargo was in the air at 4,000 meters, and to be honest, both the Allies and the Allies were very satisfied with this kind of aircraft. Even if they get a scaled-down version of performance, it's much better than what they made themselves.
However, the "Skuas" had no idea of fighting with enemy planes at all, and took advantage of their superiority in speed and climb rate to directly play energy air combat. They swooped down directly from an altitude of 8,000 meters, firmly encased their chosen targets in the scope, and only pressed the launch button after the two sides had narrowed the distance to 300 meters, and some pilots who thought they were bullish even pulled the firing distance to within 100 meters.
"Dada...... The two 20-mm cannons in the bow of the "Skua" and the four 12-mm machine guns on the wings immediately opened fire at the same time....... The fighters of the two sides staggered, and after the Chinese fighters dived down, they immediately broke away at high speed, and then quickly pulled up in the distance and rose to a high altitude, ready to repeat this tactic again.
At this time, dog fighting was still prevalent in the European air theater, and the Italian and Austrian pilots were extremely unsuitable for this kind of rogue tactics of one-hit detachment. In the first round of firefighting alone, more than 20 fighters were beaten, and not a single hair of the Chinese fighters was lost. But they can't help it, others don't play dog fights with you at all, and you can't catch up with you, what do you say? But you can't wait stupidly, you have to chase if you can't catch up, it's better than being beaten on the spot, so the Italian and Austrian fighters were immediately divided into several three-plane formations, each staring at one and chasing it.
With the addition of Chinese fighters, the air on the battlefield also ignited the flames of war. Although the Chinese attack aircraft group was still circling around the periphery and did not dare to come, the Italian-Austrian ships did not dare to slack off, and their anti-aircraft artillery immediately began to prepare to meet the attack from the air.
Just when the attention of both sides was attracted by the fierce battle at sea and in the air, at this time, several periscopes silently appeared on the sea behind the Italian-Austrian fleet.
They were the Chinese submarines that had been minelaying in the Aegean Sea in front, and after the harassment stopped, they followed this fleet all the way here. In the beginning, the Italian-Austrian fleet was heavily guarded, with light ships surrounding it to protect the capital ships. They didn't dare to take the lead, they just followed in the sea with sonar.
Now the two sides are fighting fiercely, and most of the light ships of the Ito-Austrian fleet have been transferred to the front to charge, or they will rush to the north to deal with the Chinese fleet, and now the anti-submarine capability of the Italian-Austrian fleet has been greatly reduced. If the submarines don't do something, how can they be worthy of the wake of the past few days?