Chapter 376 The Sun Never Sets on the Sinking of the Empire 3
Chapter 376 The Sinking of the Empire on which the Sun Never Sets 3
"Quickly, organize a counterattack!" As a senior naval general, Cunningham calmly gave the order.
"Boom boom boom boom..."
"Dong dong dong dong..." The rapid-fire guns, secondary guns and other relatively smart weapons of each ship began to bombard the water indiscriminately.
"Boom -" a huge explosion stirred up a water column more than ten meters high, and a torpedo was hit.
"Boom -" In the midst of this chaos, the battleship USS Barham was hit by another torpedo. Cunningham was a little angry, "What's going on? No torpedo traces were found?"
"Report to the general, the German torpedo suddenly emerged from the water 100 meters away from the battleship. We have no way of guarding against it." A staff officer came over quickly and explained.
"Boom -" Another torpedo hit the battleship Barham. Boom, boom, boom, and on the sea in front and behind, other battleships, aircraft carriers and heavy cruisers seemed to be having a hard time, being hit by torpedoes continuously.
middle.
At this moment, a black "strange fish" suddenly appeared on the sea about 500 meters away from the left side of the battleship Barham. The strange fish emerged from the water and almost without pause, two torpedoes came out of it.
It flew out of the mouth and approached the Barham at a speed of 90 kilometers per hour.
"Oh my God, the Germans are crazy!" A British sailor looked at this scene in stunned silence and forgot to report it.
"Right side, 2 torpedoes!" the gun sighter on the battleship shouted loudly.
However, at a distance of 500 meters, the British only have 30 seconds to react, and no matter how clever the cannon is, they cannot react. Besides, when the torpedo is within 200 meters of the battleship, no weapons except the anti-aircraft machine guns installed on the side of the ship will work.
.
"Boom! Boom -" the torpedoes exploded in the middle of the Barham. These two torpedoes were launched by German Navy Captain Karl Tonide at the risk of death. Due to the short reaction time and time to counterattack, the Barham
The machine gun on the starboard side did not stop these two big guys.
The explosion of these two torpedoes almost knocked Admiral Cunningham to the ground on the deck.
"Fight back, fight back!" Cunningham was a little anxious. The German's fearless close attack made him panic.
"General, our battleship is too big and not very flexible." A staff officer had already seen the crisis and reminded him.
"Quickly, let the destroyers come back and drive away these nasty guys!" Cunningham ordered again.
"General, it's too late." A staff officer saw the right side of the ship beginning to tilt downward, and stepped forward to hold Cunningham.
It was indeed too late. When two torpedoes exploded on the starboard side of Barham, Carl Tonide's submarine launched two more torpedoes. The explosion of the previous two torpedoes threw the resistance personnel on the starboard side high into the air, and everyone
Before he came to his senses, he couldn't organize an effective interception at all.
"Boom! Boom!" Before the staff member could finish his words, the Barham heard a loud noise again, and the explosion of one of the torpedoes was very dull. Apparently, the torpedo had penetrated into the belly of the Barham.
At this time, Cunningham also knew that it was impossible, because no matter in front or behind him, several heavy warships were emitting billowing smoke, and their hulls were tilting violently. From the time they were attacked to now, they were only less than
Three minutes.
"Today, God abandoned Britain!" A somewhat desperate Cunningham suddenly thought of such a sentence.
"Boom!" At this moment, another battleship in Cunningham's field of vision suddenly burst into flames, followed by an earth-shattering explosion, the sound of which was several levels higher than that of a torpedo attack.
"If you can't hold on, abandon ship." How could Cunningham not know that the ammunition compartment of the battleship in front of him had been detonated, and not many of the nearly 2,000 officers and soldiers on board could survive the explosion.
"Yes." Robert Norman signaled the guards to help Admiral Cunningham near the lifeboat, then turned around to inform. In fact, Robert Norman did not need to inform the people at various positions on the battleship, in addition to the secondary guns and rapid-fire guns.
In addition to trying hard to fight back, most of the other people have gathered on the deck, waiting for orders from above.
Speaking of which, Cunningham had the best luck in this attack that lasted only a quarter of an hour. Because in Carl Tonide's attack, Barham was the focus of the attack, and it was Carl Tonide himself.
However, the Barham, which was hit by nearly 10 torpedoes, only tilted slowly and sank slowly. It did not explode or catch fire like other battleships. Therefore, in addition to the sinking of the battleship itself, the Barham suffered no losses.
Except for the nearly 200 officers and soldiers, Cunningham himself and the senior officers of the Mediterranean Fleet were mostly fine.
However, the losses of the entire Mediterranean fleet were very huge. 2 battleships, 2 aircraft carriers, and 4 heavy cruisers were silent. 2,870 British naval personnel died and more than 1,300 were injured. The Germans only paid 3 submarines for sinking and 2 submarines.
The price was 180 soldiers wounded and killed.
The victory in the naval battle in the Strait of Gibraltar was like a "drinking trip" before the expedition. Carl Tonde's fearless attack and the huge results made the German navy feel proud again, making Germany already proud.
High morale surged again by a few percentage points.
As soon as Hitler received news of the victory in the Battle of Gibraltar, he made an exception and promoted Colonel Carl Tonid, who was injured in the battle, to brigadier general.
However, this naval battle, which seemed to be a great victory for Germany, was not worth mentioning in the eyes of Wu Aihua in Eastern China. First of all, the thinking habits of the British "boss" have not changed. Although their formation is unimpeachable,
But the combat effectiveness is actually very good. In a word, Britain is old. Historically, Britain finally won World War II not because the British knew how to fight, but because Hitler made several fatal strategic mistakes;
Secondly, judging from the performance of the Germans, the bravery and precision of the attack are worthy of recognition, but in terms of tactics, it is just that; since they have decided to attack the enemy warships without fear of death, there should not be separate formations during the attack.
Phenomenon.
At this time, if the Germans resumed the "gun battle formation" of the 19th century, the effect might be better. The 20 submarines were divided into 10 teams, with 2 teams covering, and the remaining 8 teams attacked 4 battleships and aircraft carriers on the left and right sides.
Launch torpedoes, so that 8 torpedoes will hit any one of the large warships at the same time. When 4 large and super large warships were destructively attacked, the British simply could not organize a decent resistance, and Germany could
It is possible that not so many submarines were lost.
At the same time, after this attack is over, the submarines can continue to sail in a z-shaped formation along the strait until they return to the Atlantic Ocean or deep into the Mediterranean Sea. As for warships such as British heavy cruisers along the way, they can take advantage of the opportunity to make sneak attacks.
, if the opportunity is not good, just run away.
Although China's "Youlong" submarine is not fast underwater, it is faster than submarines of the same era; and it is actually very difficult for surface ships in this era to destroy submarines. Mines? Depth bombs? Artillery strikes? The effect may not be
Okay. During World War II in history, many large warships from various countries were ambushed and sunk by submarines, and the losses of submarines were mainly caused in the later stages of the war. At least in 1941, submarines were still invincible weapons.
Therefore, Wu Aihua felt that Germany's war losses were too high.
Submarine warfare is different from conventional warfare. Submarine warfare is about capturing fighter planes and planning before the war. Since both of these are fine, the results should be great. And how can capturing fighter planes be so easy?
…
Starting at 1 a.m. on March 12, 1941, the Luftwaffe dispatched 3,000 combat aircraft (including 1,800 bombers) in three batches to conduct unprecedented bombings on all moving targets in the British mainland and along the English Channel!
The United Kingdom also dispatched thousands of combat aircraft to intercept the attack. However, the latest "Eagle Dragon 1" fighter aircraft equipped by the German Air Force taught the British a hard lesson on what a fighter aircraft is.
In the entire air battle, although Germany only dispatched 600 "Eagle Dragon 1" fighters, with only 200 in each batch, when faced with more than 400 German fighters, the "Eagle Dragon 1" showed outstanding performance.
The good combat performance, speed, dexterity, firepower, aiming, and communication completely overwhelmed the British aircraft. In every aerial battle, the British losses were more than 10 times that of the Germans.
"Oh my God, how come the German planes are so powerful!" On the first day alone, the British lost 1,200 planes. Churchill sighed feebly after seeing this number.
"According to our intelligence, this new type of fighter jet of the Germans is said to come from Eastern China." said General Algernon Porter, Chief of Staff of the Royal Air Force.
"Chinese? Can they build such a powerful aircraft?" Although Churchill was a good politician, his understanding of Eastern China basically stayed at the level of ten or twenty years ago.
"In 1937, Chinese aircraft were more powerful than Japanese aircraft; in the spring of 1938, the Chinese Air Force almost wiped out the Japanese Third Flying Group. Now, another two years have passed." General Algernon Porter
said.
"Compared with American aircraft, in what aspects are Chinese aircraft better?" Churchill asked a technical question.
"Speed, firepower, protection, aiming. In terms of speed, the Chinese aircraft can reach 750 kilometers, and even more than 900 kilometers when diving; while our aircraft can reach less than 600 kilometers; in terms of firepower, the Chinese aircraft have two 20mm cannons
Cannon; protection, Chinese aircraft protect pilots very well, one or two shells can hardly kill the pilot; and aiming is the specialty of Chinese aircraft, almost as soon as the Chinese aircraft fires, almost one of our aircraft is hit, and we
To hit an aircraft made by the Chinese, it would take at least five seconds of continuous shooting."
"What do Americans say to this?" Churchill asked.
"U.S. military aviation experts studied the Chinese aircraft this afternoon and believe that it will take at least 12 months to build an aircraft equivalent to it, and it will take at least 36 months to completely exceed it." Algernon Poe
Ter said.
"Can we still wait 12 months? Or, under the indiscriminate bombing of the Germans, can we persist for 12 months?" Churchill said angrily.