On the ocean 250 nautical miles west of the Nicobar Islands, the Republican Navy's huge task force began sailing north instead. On the deck of the flagship "Qilian Mountain" with a full load displacement of more than 45,000 tons, the "Republic Army Pictorial"
Reporter Liang Dacheng was taking photos of a group of gunners who had nothing to do, when Zhu Yihang, officer of the Fleet Publicity Section, walked down the gangway outside the command tower.
"Lao Liang, when taking panoramic views, don't take pictures of the battleships equipped with antennas. Most of the photos in the two films you submitted for inspection will not pass the review." Officer Zhu shouted to Liang Dacheng.
"I know these, and I will publish them when they are declassified by the higher authorities. But you have to save those confiscated negatives and photos for me. I will treat you to a meal then." Liang Dacheng put away the camera and walked to the gangway, "Wei
Commander, are you free? I need to take some close-ups of him."
"I'm afraid not, Commander Wei is having a meeting in the war room." Director Zhu said, leaning over the deck.
"I have to go up and have a look. If they stand on the bridge outside the command tower, maybe we can capture a few shots." Liang Dacheng said and climbed up the gangway.
"Then I have to follow you. If you disturb the commander, they will scold me!" Officer Zhu asked Liang Dacheng to step in front of him. These veteran reporters with the army and the leaders of the Republican Army are all familiar with each other, and they are also familiar with it.
A person who cannot be trifled with. Located on the top of the 25-meter-high mast at the rear of the bridge, a radar antenna that is several meters square and resembles a flat iron cage is constantly rotating. It is the facility that Zhu Yihang said needs to be kept strictly confidential.
Due to its excessive size, radar is currently only equipped on battleships, aircraft carriers and large warships above the 12,000-ton "Cullen-class" air defense cruiser, and it is still kept strictly confidential.
In the radar room of the large cruiser "Li Jing" located at the forefront of the fleet, six radar soldiers are on duty, and three other trainees are also crowded in the radar room to learn radar operating techniques.
The radar technology of this era is still very immature. Vacuum diodes consume a lot of power and are very easy to heat up, making it difficult to work continuously. Vacuum electromagnetic launch tubes will become hot and red after working for several hours, and they need to be shut down to let them cool down. Generally speaking, the Republic
When the fleet is performing a mission, the radar in the fleet will be turned on or off every three hours, alternately performing air or sea searches.
It was almost 12 noon, and Master Sergeant Teng Guosheng was teaching three new noncommissioned officers how to operate air search radars. Radar soldiers are a highly technical branch. Most people cannot interpret the targets displayed on the PPI display.
After a long period of training and practice, we can quickly determine the size, quantity, height, speed and other data of the target based on the echo content.
The transmitter and receiver in the radar room make a buzzing sound, and there is nothing on the sea. There are some birds when approaching the coast or islands, which can make these amateurs excited for a while. But in the deep sea, even birds are difficult to find.
Can be seen.
"It's shift change, everyone is ready to shut down!" Teng Guosheng greeted everyone. According to regulations, the "Li Jing" radar room will shut down at 12 o'clock, and the "Dihua" air defense cruiser will take over its mission.
"Sir, what do you think this is?" Staff Sergeant Song Yisheng was about to turn off the power when he suddenly noticed a white light spot appeared on the PPI oscilloscope, but the target was moving very slowly and did not look like an airplane.
Teng Guosheng was also surprised: the target was indeed very abnormal. Such a large white spot must be a large aerial target, with an altitude of about 600 meters. Basically, the possibility of it being a flying bird could be ruled out, but its speed was not like that of an airplane.
It is somewhat similar to the hot air balloons I saw during training.
But how can a hot air balloon fly to the deep sea, and its speed must be about 15 knots per hour, which is much faster than a hot air balloon.
Teng Guosheng suspected that there was something wrong with the radar, which was quite common. So he started to check the equipment, but after checking them all, he found no faults. So he determined that the target must be an aircraft.
Teng Guosheng immediately answered the call in the duty room: "Report to the commander, bearing 162, about 110 kilometers away, an unidentified aircraft was found!"
"What on earth is it?" the staff officer on duty asked on the other end of the phone.
"It's unclear what kind of aircraft the target is. It should be a balloon or something like that," Teng Guosheng said.
The staff officer on duty thought for a while and realized that he couldn't bear the responsibility if something really happened. False alarms on the enemy are common in the navy, especially during combat. The observers will be a little nervous. Sometimes there will be four or five false alarms a day. As a result,
It was found that it was all a false alarm. Although the officers were also worried when such a situation occurred, and everyone worked in vain, no one would blame the observers for this. Otherwise, if the situation really happened one day, the observers would be under psychological pressure
If you don't dare to report it, it could really cost you your life.
The combat staff officer on duty quickly reported the situation to the captain, and at the same time notified the flagship of the newly discovered enemy situation via radio.
The battle alarm sounded, and the entire fleet immediately went on alert.
The radar on the "Qilian Mountain" was turned on. More than ten minutes later, the combat staff walked out of the radar room, "It should be an enemy airship. The British deployed five or six airships on Ceylon Island for execution.
Security mission in maritime areas.”
"Order the 'Jiangxi' to send out four fighter jets to kill it!" Wei Zihao thought for a moment before giving the order. From now on, Tovey will definitely know his whereabouts, but there is no way. The British surveillance post is on the sea.
, if you don’t kill your opponent, you will be discovered sooner or later.
We can only hope that Tovey still has the determination to maintain the face of the British Empire.
Soon, four navy carrier-based FJ-108E Falcon fighter jets took off one after another from the deck of the "Jiangxi" aircraft carrier, and then divided into two formations and quickly rushed towards the target in the southwest.
On the way to the Maldives with the main force of Fleet Z, Admiral Tovey received a telegram from General Leighton, who was in charge of the defense of Ceylon, and discovered several Republican aircraft on the ocean about 300 nautical miles southeast of Ceylon.
A British airship on duty on the sea sent a report back to the base. After that, the airship was destroyed and there was no news again.
General Leighton began to evacuate the transport fleet on the island. After the warning was issued, shipping to Colombo was immediately stopped, and about 60 ships were urgently evacuated to anchorages in some small ports in southern India.
But two days later, on March 18, there was no news of an attack on Ceylon.
Tovey, who is now hiding in the Addu Port in the Maldives, is hesitant. Since the defeat of the Sino-Japanese War of 1898-1898, the Chinese Navy has never recovered. The Republic Navy built it in 1919 and then began to rebuild it again. With rapid development and growing strength,
With its industrial strength, it took only thirteen years to complete the development process from frigates to battleships, and soon built a powerful fleet with a total tonnage exceeding France and ranking fourth in the world.
John Tovey at least still had the confidence to engage in a Jutland-style naval battle with such an "industrial fleet", just as Sir Jellicoe did when facing the German High Seas Fleet. But times have passed. Changes. Although the British Navy is also at the forefront of the world in the use of aircraft and aircraft carriers, the declining economy has still hindered the development of the Royal Navy. Compared with emerging industrial countries, the Royal Navy has a lower performance in terms of the performance of aircraft carriers and carrier-based aircraft. Its performance lags behind that of the United States, China and Japan, and its air force construction is even inferior to the German Air Force, which had just broken away from the shackles of the Treaty of Versailles for several years.
Nowadays, the aging empire on which the sun never sets can no longer maintain its position as a global hegemon. Large tracts of colonies are rapidly falling apart under the impact of the Chinese.
"Who started this damn war?!" John Tovey, who had just been promoted to admiral, hoped that the country would negotiate with Republican China as soon as possible. Perhaps only in this way could India, the jewel in Her Majesty's crown, be preserved.