Therefore, Du Kaishan decided to lay mines only in key areas. The remaining mines were laid by aircraft in the air and placed in the Laotieshan Waterway, an important channel for Japanese naval ships to enter and exit the Bohai Sea. It is close to the open sea, and even if the minefield drifts
, and it doesn’t have much to do with it.
And it is close to the Japanese naval base in Lushun. If the Japanese naval fleet is really bombed, the Japanese naval minesweeping force stationed in Lushun will completely abandon the entire Bohai Sea and the South Manchuria and Shandong coasts that they still control, whether they like it or not.
The minefield must be cleared out as soon as possible.
Although the Japanese will definitely clean up the Laotieshan waterway after this battle, for Du Kaishan, this is nothing. How long the minefield there lasts does not matter to him, as long as he can
Just play a role in this battle.
When laying mines, Du Kaishan worked hard to allow the Japanese navy's light ship group to arrive at the landing site unscathed. The landing fleet arrived at the planned landing area unimpeded and without a single hair being damaged.
The large ships behind that provided fire support were even more fearless.
Because there are some dogmas about it, the Japanese Navy, which has been accustomed to the conventions of international naval warfare, believes that when most countries deploy mines, they are deployed in waterways. Few people will deploy mines endlessly, who knows where the ships will be.
An empty sea area where you can park.
Except for special cases like the Seto Inland Sea and narrow straits, any sea area is vast. If a complete closure method is adopted, how many mines are needed to fill the entire sea area? No country in the world will do this
Such a stupid thing to do.
Therefore, after seeing that the waterway was clear and unobstructed, the last little, almost trivial worries of the Japanese navy leaders who commanded this operation completely disappeared. And rigidly, he has always been perfect in executing orders for a second.
, the Japanese navy is not out of shape at all.
The several large ships participating in the war this time carried out fire support in the direction of Qikou. The position was exactly the same as the last time the Japanese navy's large ships opened fire. It was Du Kaishan's painstaking calculation and the Japanese navy's contempt for the alliance.
And carelessness, coupled with rigid execution, directly led to the heavy losses of the Japanese Navy.
Unexpectedly, the Japanese navy, which was facing an opponent in front of them, had racked its brains to deal with itself. The large ships participating in the war were bombed by the minefields laid by Du Kaishan, causing heavy losses. Two of the three battleships were sunk on the spot, and one was sunk.
The ship was damaged, and it would not be an exaggeration to say that the entire army was destroyed.
The first winning bidder was the battleship Yamashiro, which served as the flagship of the Japanese naval operation. It struck a mine and sank so quickly that people were unable to react. Not only did it become the first warship of destroyer or above that the entire Japanese navy lost on the Chinese battlefield, it also
This resulted in another rather serious consequence.
Almost all the senior commanders dispatched by the Japanese Navy, including the Chinese fleet commander Admiral Nobutake Kondo, who was responsible for commanding the operation, followed the battleship and sank into the Bohai Bay. In other words, the entire dispatched
The Japanese Navy Fleet Command and the senior staff on board the flagship were almost overwhelmed.
Originally, according to the practice of the world's navies, reserve commanders would be selected according to their ranks before each battle. This would prevent the entire fleet from falling into chaos due to lack of command due to problems with the flagship or the death of the commander. Even if the superiors did not designate, but
The fleet commander responsible for command will usually temporarily designate a successor.
But this time, the Japanese Navy believed that this operation was just a bombardment operation without any risks. Therefore, it was very exceptional and did not designate anyone to serve as the backup commander. And the rapid sinking of the battleship Yamashiro also
So quickly that Nobutake Kondo didn't have time to appoint a successor, so he went to Bohai Dragon King's place to be a guest.
The Yamashiro was sunk by a mine, which can be said to have wiped out all the brains of the Japanese Navy's command system in this battle. It almost plunged the Japanese Navy's follow-up operations into chaos. Fortunately, the Yuise was only seriously injured by the bombing.
, and Lieutenant General Chiaki Matsuda, who served as commander of the 4th Air Force consisting of the Ise and Hyuga, and his 4th Air Force headquarters are still alive.
It should be said that this man who once served as the captain of the Hyuga and Yamato and is called a geek in the navy is indeed quite decisive. After taking over the command without any orders from his superiors, he ordered
Each ship remains stationary and activates all anti-aircraft firepower to prevent the enemy from taking advantage of troubled waters.
The naval aviation force that was supporting the landfall of the army was ordered to immediately return to the large warship parking area to cover the main force of the fleet here, in addition to leaving some to continue to cover the front-line combat ships. Now two battleships have been lost, and the remaining ones are half disabled.
Our flagship battleship Ise and heavy cruiser Maya must not be lost again.
At the same time, he sent a message to the Lushun Naval Base, asking them to immediately send minesweepers to clear mines. As for other warships in front that were covering the landing fleet, he also issued the same order. The ships in front were strictly prohibited from retreating, and they were required to wait until the army completed the landing.
, stationed on site until ordered.
It's just that although this man is unusually decisive, whether the development of the situation can give him the face to persist until the minesweeper Lushun arrives all the way is another matter. Just when this man has just given the order,
In less than five minutes, the Anti-Alliance airmen, who had just dropped their bombs and flew away, flew back again under the cover of a group of fighter jets.
This formation far exceeds the number of aircraft that were dispatched to resist the alliance last time, but it is obviously not as simple as the last time. Adhering to the attitude of taking advantage of your illness to kill you, they came up with real aerial bombs and rockets.
, taking turns to carry out air attacks on Japanese ships that had to wait quietly because they were trapped in a minefield.
Because the Japanese naval vessels in the minefield did not know how many mines were around them, they were unable to maneuver and did not dare to take any evasive actions. They could only launch anti-aircraft fire with all their strength and fight back desperately. They tried to drive them away with intensive anti-aircraft fire.
These guys are adding insult to injury.
But the group of anti-alliance bombers that pounced this time had obviously undergone special tactical drills. In addition to the fighter jets desperately entangled the Japanese fighter jets and a fierce air battle broke out in the sky, the first batch of Blenheim bombers pounced.
group, or first use rockets to attack the anti-aircraft firepower of Japanese naval ships.
Or it passed the Japanese warship from the bow at low altitude and high speed, and dropped the BTAB cluster bomb, which was originally used for anti-tank combat and has shown its power on the Baoding battlefield. Compared with rockets, it is more effective for Japanese naval ships.
of anti-aircraft firepower, and the threat of PTAB cluster bombs is even more deadly.
Although the power of this cluster bomb cannot sink a warship, it is basically unable to cause fatal damage to the warship. However, the dense rain of bombs is lethal to the basically unprotected Japanese naval ship anti-aircraft emplacements.
It was extremely shocking. The bombs that were flying everywhere, weighing only 1.5 kilograms, caused heavy casualties to the personnel on the anti-aircraft gun emplacements on the warship, and even directly destroyed a large number of anti-aircraft guns.
Unless it is a super ship like the Ise, other Japanese warships, especially light ships such as destroyers and coastal defense ships, as long as they are hit by such cluster bombs, it means that all the anti-aircraft firepower of the warship, plus the superstructure, will
They will all be beaten into silence.
The anti-aircraft guns were silenced, and even the radio communication equipment was destroyed, which meant that the last layer of protection for Japanese naval ships was torn away. For those bombers that actually carried bombs, it was difficult to deal with these bombers that did not dare to maneuver.
Ships of all sizes are easy to handle.
After all the PTAB cluster bomb boxes were dropped and all the rockets mounted under the wings on both sides were exhausted, the cover group left at high speed. The SBD dive bombers, loaded with aerial bombs, roared down from high altitude, like
Like target practice, bombs were dropped one after another at the Japanese naval ships that were just sitting on the sea and lost the cover of anti-aircraft fire.
The excellent performance of this kind of bomb on the Baoding battlefield made Du Kaishan, who was always quick to accept new things, fall in love with this weapon. Under his firm request, the aviation force after painstaking study and drills,
Eventually, a set of tactics was formed to use this anti-tank bomb for anti-ship warfare.
Bombers carrying cluster bombs choose to enter on the windward side, and pass by the Japanese warships longitudinally at low altitude from the bow or stern of the ship, which has a relatively low air defense fire density. After the plane reaches the chimney in the middle of the warship, the bomb box is opened.
Try to drop as many bombs as possible on the Japanese ships. The point is not to destroy the entire ship, but to target the Japanese ships' basically unprotected anti-aircraft artillery groups.
This tactic was proposed by Du Kaishan and implemented by the aviation force. Although only one Japanese submarine was directly lost to this bomb, it also exerted considerable power. When a bomber loaded with this bomb swept longitudinally at high speed,
After passing the Japanese warship and dropping the PTAB bombs it carried like a goddess scattering flowers, the Japanese warship was in a mess.
The ship's anti-aircraft firepower was basically silenced. Most of the sighting and communication equipment exposed to the outside were destroyed. There were even several transport ships and ships that were hit by these small bombs that were all-pervasive and had certain armor-piercing capabilities.
The chimney may have penetrated the deck into the engine room and exploded.
It was these small, inconspicuous bombs that paralyzed the entire engine system, causing the ship to be paralyzed on the sea and unable to move. If it fell into the ammunition storage compartment and exploded, it might even trigger a chain reaction.
, blowing up and sinking the warship.
Unfortunately, the submarine was detonated with depth charges. The entire small ship was directly blown up to the sky by the huge power of more than a dozen depth charges. A transport ship filled with ammunition was also blown up because of
The artillery shells carried were drilled into the cargo hold by this kind of bomb and detonated, causing a fireworks display.
Faced with the surprise attack by the Anti-Alliance aviation force and the adoption of various attack methods, Lieutenant General Matsuda Chiaki, who was crying without tears, had no choice but to order all surviving ships to withdraw at full speed immediately after losing three destroyers and several transport ships.
Bohai Bay. As for the minefields, Lieutenant General Matsuda Chiaki couldn't care less.
What else can we do? Maybe we can save a few ships if we forcefully rush out. If we continue to stay here, there will be mines everywhere when maneuvering, and the risk of hitting mines is even greater. If we don’t maneuver, we might be hit by the resistance forces above us.
The bombers were all taken away. My own fighter group was entangled by the enemy and could not be rescued even if I tried to rescue them.
Looking at the swaying ships that were bombed on the sea, Chiaki Matsuda hated the decision of the Military Command to refuse to mobilize aircraft carriers to participate in the war. At this time, even if there was only one aircraft carrier parked in the Bohai Strait, cooperating with the land-based air force to fight together, there would be