Chapter 309 I never expected that the Ming Navy’s trump card would be them!

"Major General, the Ming Dynasty's battleship carrier is rushing towards us!"

"Major General, the Ming Army's planes are also rushing towards us!"

On the bridge of the Royal Navy battleship HMS Malina, the voices of the chief staff officer and navigator rang in the ears of Rear Admiral Thomas Howe, commander of the Second Battleship Group.

Rear Admiral Thomas Howe is also a very experienced naval commander! He followed his father, Lord Howe, on a warship as a naval trainee when he was a teenager, and then through his own efforts, he and Admiral Hood (Vice Admiral Hood’s father)

With a letter of recommendation, he successfully entered the Royal Naval Academy at Dartmouth. After graduating from the Naval Academy, he participated in the Napoleonic Wars and also donated money to become a captain during the war. In this way, Thomas Howe relied on his own efforts

, step by step, and finally became a rear admiral of the British Royal Navy!

Rao is such an experienced rear admiral, and he is a little confused at the moment. Directly in front of him is a warship that is not sure whether it is an aircraft carrier or a battleship, and is leading a few third-class cruisers towards him - look at this meaning

It's an artillery battle!

In the sky, dozens (64) small biplanes formed four formations, and they were almost flying over the USS Malina where they were - looking at this posture, they were about to drop bombs!

How to deal with planes dropping bombs on one side and battleships, aircraft carriers firing cannons on the other? This was never taught at the Royal Naval Academy at Dartmouth, and it was never encountered during the Napoleonic Wars. It can be said that he had never thought about it before today.

This is what happens!

Seeing that the Rear Admiral, who came from a well-known family but was a bit slow to react, was still in a daze, the chief staff officer of the battleship Malina reminded loudly: "Rear Admiral, the enemy's plane is approaching, we should take an S-shaped evasive route!"

"Yes, yes, yes, take the S-shaped evasive route!" Major General Hao finally remembered. The S-shaped evasive route is a standard method for ships to avoid airship bombings. It should also be used to avoid aircraft bombs, right?

He thought for a while and then said: "Let the Wellesley (another Victory-class ship) use the same method. We must not let the Chinese bombs fall on the Malina and the Wellesley!"

"Yes, Major General!"

"As you command!"

The helmsman and flag officer of the battleship Malina responded loudly. The battleship's first mate, an elderly gunnery expert, reminded: "Rear Admiral, taking an S-shaped avoidance route will increase the difficulty of artillery observation and aiming.

.”

"It doesn't matter," Major General Hao said, "the enemy doesn't have many bombs to throw, it will be over in a moment!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the bridge observer shouted loudly: "The enemy ship has opened fire!"

Rear Admiral Hao quickly turned his head to look. In his sight, several black dots rushed from the sea like lightning, then flew suddenly over the battleship USS Malina and landed on the sea more than a hundred yards away. Rear Admiral Hao again

Turn your attention to the "battleship carrier" that fired just now. It's still more than 10,000 yards away!

To be able to shoot so accurately at this distance shows that the Ming Navy's gunnery and range-finding skills are truly well-deserved!

"boom"

Several more flames flickered on the bow of the distant battleship carrier, and several 300mm caliber shells were blasted out of the muzzle again! However, they still missed, but the impact point of the shells was two seconds closer.

Thirty yards!

Isn’t this too accurate?

The chief staff officer of the Malina suddenly reminded: "Airship! It must be the airship hovering above us to help them observe!"

"Damn it!" Major General Hao cursed.

At this time, the anti-aircraft guns and anti-aircraft guns on the battleship suddenly fired, and there was a loud crackle. At the same time, the Malina also began to move in an S-shape, twisting around on the sea to avoid bombs.

Those small biplanes in the sky seemed to be on the battlefield for the first time. When they saw two battleships twisting on the sea and firing dense anti-aircraft ammunition, they couldn't stop talking for a while, so they had to raise their altitude and fly around them. It seemed that

I want to wait until they get tired of "twisting" before exploding.

However, the Malina and the Willis seemed to be working tirelessly. They were twisting and turning endlessly, and they seemed to have endless firepower of various anti-aircraft ammunition. This air attack seemed to be a bit unstoppable.

The twisting Malina and Willis also caused trouble for the aiming of the four 300mm cannons on the approaching battleship carrier opposite. After several rounds, the shells kept falling.

A hundred yards away from the two ships.

Major General Howe also breathed a sigh of relief and murmured: "That's all. Planes can't blow up, and cannons can't hit them. Next, it's time to let you yellow-skinned monkeys have a taste of the power of the Royal Navy's 12-inch cannon shells!"

Following Major General Howe's order, when the distance between the two sides narrowed to about 10,000 yards, the 16 12-inch cannons on the Malina and Willis finally fired their first salvo.

"Report, distance is 9000 meters!"

"Distance, 8500 meters!"

"Distance, 8000 meters."

When the British 12-inch shells continued to fall near the aircraft-carrying battlecruiser Shu Zhong Wang, the navigator of Shu Zhong Wang was still reporting the distance one after another, and the atmosphere on the bridge became tense.

After all, the two ships in the distance are the latest British battleships. They should have adopted a "full main gun" design of 10 12-inch guns. Without the secondary main guns to interfere with the sighting, the accuracy of shooting should be improved a lot -

In recent years, with the advancement of artillery technology, various sighting methods, and calculation formulas, the effective shooting distance of battleship main guns has become farther and farther, and now generally exceeds 5,000 meters, while the British new battleships have 12

The 8,000-meter gun should have a certain degree of accuracy.

After all, the Shu Zhongwang is an aircraft-carrying battlecruiser, and it does not have an armored deck. If the opponent's 12-inch shells are allowed to penetrate the flight deck and fall into the hangar below, it will easily cause a fire.

Therefore, Zhuge Dao did not dare to be too reckless. After all, he was Zhuge's military advisor, not Zhang Fei with a black face!

"That's almost it!" Zhuge Weidao took a breath, "It's time to show off our real trump card!"

"Yes, Junmen."

The fleet's chief of staff Ma Xuchen loudly ordered: "Order all destroyers to start charging at full speed!"

Wang Wen, the aviation staff officer of the fleet, also picked up the loudspeaker of the radio and shouted: "So air units pay attention. Start dropping bombs now. Remember, keep the altitude to avoid being shot down by the enemy!"

As the two men issued their orders, the situation on the sea and in the sky suddenly changed!

First, the 64 SsangYong aircraft hovering in the sky began to lower their altitude, and then began to line up to drop bombs. During the hovering process, these aircraft had formed 4 teams, and each 2 teams bombed a victory level. It was not a swarm, but very orderly.

The ground lined up for bombing. The Ssangyong aircraft flew over the Malina and Willis in sequence from an altitude of 2,500 to 3,000 meters, flying from the left rear, right rear, right front, and left front of the two ships. This is

A bomb-dropping method specially designed to deal with S-shaped evasion. However, the effect does not seem to be very good. The bombs fell one by one and missed one by one. The Malina and Willis were unscathed. The huge

The water column made a lot of splashes.

The attention of the British and Indian naval officers and soldiers on board the Malina and Wellesley was naturally attracted by the bombs that could fall on their heads at any time.

I don’t know how long the explosion lasted. Just when Major General Hao was wondering whether these small planes in the sky were finished, someone yelled: "Cruiser Mingguo's cruiser is coming!"

cruiser?

Rear Admiral Hao was stunned for a moment, and then turned his attention to the sea. Only then did he realize that six incredibly fast cruisers (actually torpedo destroyers) had already rushed 3,000 yards away!

What do you want to do?

When Rear Admiral Howe was confused, he saw the six destroyers slightly deflecting their bows, pointing their bows at his battleship, and then each fired a bunch of torpedoes. It was really a bunch of torpedoes!

He has never seen a cruiser that can fire so many torpedoes at once (actually only 6), and he has never seen torpedoes that can be launched at such a long distance. Moreover, these torpedoes can run very fast after entering the water, and they can also

It left terrifying tracks on the sea—at least 30 of them!

30 torpedoes shot out of a fan, how to avoid it?
Chapter completed!