The main ships of the Japanese fleet were frequently hit by torpedoes in a short period of time, which made them quickly realize the problem: submarines!
Although the Ming fleet on the opposite side kept firing torpedoes, and the torpedo launchers on the decks of destroyers and cruisers kept banging, and one huge torpedo after another jumped into the water and rushed over, but the Japanese army was firing
There were just as many torpedoes in the past, or even more, but only one battleship of the Ming Dynasty was hit by a torpedo. What's more, when facing the enemy fleet, torpedoes were distributed in sectors, with six torpedoes in a sector, and several sectors forming a torpedo.
The barrage continues to spread with distance, which can increase the hit rate. The distance between torpedoes fired from several kilometers away is already very large. How could it happen that the Yamashiro was hit by two torpedoes almost at the same time? This is obviously
It was fired from a close range. The distance was so close that it was very reliable and it could hit without hitting the fan. This is basically a submarine!
The first to discover the problem were the Japanese officers and soldiers on the Yamashiro. They got in and out of the fire and thick smoke, some dragged water pipes to put out the fire, some pulled out the wounded from under the steel plates of the tower that had been smashed, and several others were arrested.
He stood on the deck railing, stood on tiptoes, pointed into the water and shouted:
"Submarine! Submarine! Look, submarine!!!"
Sure enough, in the explosion of the wreckage of a cruiser in the distance, two short pipes were lined up side by side, one thick and one thin, flashing across the water more than thirty meters away, dragging a small white wave. Then,
Hidden into darkness.
The first few Japanese sailors who discovered it shouted and waved their arms, signaling the machine gun crew on the tower to fire into the water. But there were explosions and gunfire everywhere, and they couldn't hear what they were shouting at all.
At this time, another shell hit the tower, directly opening a big hole in the armor. A large number of steel plates, pipelines, shrapnel and hot air waves swept half of the deck. The deck of the Yamashiro was suddenly filled with new corpses.
Among them was a junior officer, covered in blood and flesh, dragging his half-broken calf, insisting on climbing up the gangway, gritting his teeth.
A full five minutes later, the report that the submarine periscope was found nearby reached the command room of the Yamashiro. The Yamashiro immediately notified the flagship Mutsu with a signal light.
The Ming submarines might be involved in sneaking around, which was also expected by the Japanese. The Mutsu immediately signaled and ordered the nearby "destroyer teams" to conduct anti-submarine warfare. At the same time, it ordered each ship to distance itself and increase its speed. It wanted to rely on the warship's
Speed advantage, get rid of the submarine.
…
The overall movements of the Japanese fleet were immediately caught by the Ming fleet. In the command room of the Changping, the commander immediately knew that they had discovered a submarine. The fleet commander immediately sent an order, ordering his own destroyer fleet and light cruiser fleet to concentrate their firepower
, bombarded the Japanese destroyers, making them unable to conduct anti-submarine warfare.
The Japanese destroyers shuttled among the giant ships, using sonar to search for the submarine with difficulty amidst the dense sounds of warship engines and deafening gunfire. This was almost in vain. Finally, a destroyer captured the submarine.
Hearing the sound, he immediately slowed down and began to circle, trying to use sonar to determine the specific location. The air in the sky roared immediately, and shells from the 4-inch and 5-inch destroyer main guns continued to fall, and the Japanese destroyer was suddenly surrounded by a column of water.
What kind of anti-submarine is this? Not to mention that you can’t hear anything in this water column forest. Even if you hear it, you will never survive the moment when the submarine is bombed and sunk. This Japanese destroyer has no choice but to speed up and leave the place of death.
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The entire Japanese fleet was accelerating. At this time, the overall speed had risen to 16 or 17 knots. Takasu Shiro ordered to maintain this speed. This speed was enough to get rid of the underwater submarine, but not too fast, causing the shooting platform to
Unstable, affecting hit rate.
After the Japanese fleet accelerated, the Ming fleet also accelerated. The two sides continued to maintain parallel positions and shelled each other, but their hit rate dropped a bit.
…
Immediately afterwards, something unexpected by the Japanese happened. After about forty minutes, a huge water column rose on the port side of the Yamashiro. The Yamashiro hit the third torpedo. Immediately afterwards, another torpedo
A column of water rose up on the same side, and Yamashiro was hit by another torpedo.
The officers and soldiers of the entire Ming fleet were fighting fiercely at their respective posts. Each warship was trying its best to look at its "specific opponent". In addition, it was dark again, and there were fireballs and flashes everywhere. Not many people found the Shancheng.
What's going on? Only the Yamashiro's "specific opponent", the Tokunaga directly opposite it, could see everything clearly.
At this time, the cheers on the Tokunaga were already loud, the whistles, and the stamping of feet on the steel plates resounded throughout the ship. At the same time, it fired another salvo, four 16-inch shells (four twin-mounted
For the turret, only use the cannon on one side of the turret for each salvo, and use the cannon on the other side for the next salvo. Therefore, only half of the main guns are fired for each salvo) to slam it over.
A moment later, three water columns rose up immediately in front of the Yamashiro, and then a fourth shell exploded on the front deck of the Yamashiro. The No. 2 turret of the Yamashiro was finally penetrated, and the strange-shaped steel plates turned outwards, forming a large mass.
Flames spurted out. Four propellant charges in the turret were ignited, and flames swept half of the front deck.
The turret has always been the thickest armored part of a battleship, and there is nothing more dangerous than being penetrated by the turret. There is propellant in the turret, and there is an elevator below that leads to the ammunition depot. Once the ammunition depot is ignited,
A big explosion called a "martyrdom explosion" will occur throughout the ship. It would be good if only one or two people on a battleship with one or two thousand people can survive.
But the Yamashiro did not die in the explosion. Either the fire door leading to the lower ammunition depot was tightly closed, or they were flooding the ammunition depot. Soon, the situation became clear. The Yamashiro was rapidly turning to the left, and at the same time the ship
The bow sank into the water very quickly. This was not only caused by the water intrusion of the four torpedoes, but apparently they were also flooding the ammunition depot.
Yamashiro's disproportionately tall tower became its most fatal liability at this time. It was severely top-heavy, and the large amount of water in its flanks caused by four torpedoes had already made it teetering. At this time, water was added to the other side.
The balance cannot keep up. Overturning may happen at any time.
At this time, the Yamashiro hung out all the signal flags. This is "full of flags", which is the highest courtesy for a warship. It is equivalent to a soldier putting on his formal dress and all his medals and swords.
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The captain of the Tokunaga on the opposite side watched all this and already knew what the Yamashiro was planning to do. The captain of the Yamashiro planned to die on the ship. But even so, the captain of the Tokunaga calmly ordered to continue shooting and sink the Yamashiro.
until.
The deck of the Yamashiro was already a sea of fire. After a while, countless Japanese sailors rushed to jump into the water. Obviously, the order to abandon the ship had been issued. But just five minutes later, the Yamashiro quickly rolled over, and the tall
The tower hit the water heavily, and the two main gun turrets slid down from the deck and rushed into the sea. In the blink of an eye, only the round bottom of the majestic ship was now exposed on the sea.
"We sank the Yamashiro!!!"
On the battleship Tokunaga and on the two adjacent battleships, cheers resounded throughout the sky. Within two hours after the main battleship battle between the two armies, the Japanese Yamashiro was sunk first.
…
Takasu Shiro's flagship, the Mutsu, was in front of the Yamashiro at the moment, and the battle positions of the two battleships were next to each other. Takasu Shiro's eyes almost widened as he watched the Yamashiro roll over.
This time it was obvious that two torpedoes hit almost the same place in succession. It was actually a submarine! He didn't understand that after running at a speed of 17 knots for forty minutes, the Ming submarine still hadn't been thrown away. The submarine was in the water.
At a slow speed of up to 6 knots, it is impossible to catch up with the fleet.
There is no other explanation except that the blind cat encountered a dead mouse and encountered another submarine of the Ming army.
Takasu continued to order, and the entire fleet increased its speed again, this time to 20 knots.
But it's too late. Now the Mutsu has been hit by two torpedoes and has been flooded with hundreds of tons of seawater. The flagship itself can't even reach a speed of 20 knots. There is also Mogami, who is in the beginning of the cruiser "face-to-face battle"
He was severely beaten and bruised, and he was hit by another torpedo, and now he has become a "short board" holding him back.
Now it is equivalent to saying that the entire fleet is towed here by the flagship.
Takasu Shiro quickly weighed it and thought that the problem was not too serious. Even if it could only be driven to this speed, it would be more than enough to get rid of the submarine again.
Almost an hour later, the cruel truth slapped him in the face again.
Takasu saw a water column several stories high rising up from the starboard side of the Ise ahead of him. Before he could react, there was another water column. A few seconds later, there was another water column.
Takasu Shiro's eyes were staring straight, his mouth was half open, he couldn't believe what he saw.
In just a few seconds, three torpedoes were hit in succession on the right side of the Yishi! And the direction of the torpedoes this time was the right side! This is the direction with its back to the Ming army fleet. Unless the Ming army's torpedoes can turn, otherwise
There is absolutely no way such a thing could happen!
This was done by a submarine!
The Japanese staff officers in the command room were also dumbfounded. They really could not imagine that such a thing would happen. It was clear that either the Ming army had used submarines to set up a dragnet that intercepted the Japanese fleet three times in three hours - of course this was not the case.
It's very possible, either there are one or several high-speed submarines that can cruise at an underwater speed of more than ten knots and always bite the Japanese fleet!
…
The Ise in front was hit by three torpedoes at almost the same position, and sea water suddenly poured in. At that time, the hull of the Ise tilted to the right, and its speed slowed down.
Then, the Ming battleship Yanping on the opposite side fired a salvo, and a row of 15-inch shells covered her head and face. In an instant, another shell exploded on the Yishi, and a secondary battery was lifted several meters high and hit heavily.