All-people naval warfare: from patrol boats to aircraft carrier fleets

As the commander of the Chinese fleet, Ye Bai of course wanted to annihilate all the enemies without paying any casualties, but as a soldier and the commander of the first squadron, Langsdorf also knew that in actual combat, , this is almost impossible. At most, he can arrange his tactics reasonably, allocate firepower targets, and obtain the maximum results at the minimum cost.

In this naval battle, Langsdorff did just that. After successfully sinking the first battleship in the Yuntong Island fleet, Langsdorff immediately issued an order to turn the Chengde and Huanggang. The main turret once again concentrated all the firepower on the second ship, which was also the last battleship in the Yuntong Island fleet.

In the attack just now, the battleship did not suffer too serious damage. After all, according to Langsdorff's order, there was only one Baltimore-class heavy cruiser that poured firepower on it.

The firepower of three triple-mounted 55-caliber 203mm guns and six twin-mounted 38-fold caliber 127mm flat dual-purpose secondary guns is naturally terrifying for small battleships such as light cruisers and destroyers, but for those with armor values ​​as high as For a battleship with around 50,000 points, it can only scratch an itch.

What's more, in terms of design concept, although the Baltimore-class heavy cruiser was"083", it was the first heavy cruiser designed and built by the United States after the end of the Naval Treaty, and it got rid of the performance restrictions of the Navy Treaty on warships.

But for some reasons, the biggest advantage of the Baltimore-class heavy cruiser after it entered service is actually its powerful anti-aircraft firepower. The dense firepower network composed of 48 40mm cannons and 2420mm cannons is very effective for carrier-based aircraft. , it’s really like a nightmare.

If compared horizontally in traditional naval battles, the Baltimore-class heavy cruiser appears to be relatively average. It can only be regarded as an upper-middle level. Fortunately, this is a night battle. Otherwise, with just a Baltimore-class heavy cruiser, where can it be? It can contain a battleship.

However, the Baltimore-class heavy cruiser can only do this, attracting the attention of the battleship, at least otherwise the other party will unscrupulously find ways to find and attack its own main battleship, and gain more for the Chengde and Huanggang. time.

Now that the Chengde and Huanggang have freed up their hands and transferred their gun muzzles to this battleship, the situation is different. More than 20 300mm upper-caliber main guns fired a salvo, which is not what the 9 203mm guns can do. The fierce firepower that can be compared makes all the officers and soldiers on this battleship feel like they are facing a powerful enemy.

This is no exaggeration. Just now, when another Yuntong Island battleship, also a battleship class, sank into the sea with scars all over its body and fire that was not extinguished, everyone else saw it. A ship of the same class sank into the sea. All the battleships were sunk, how long can their battleship last?

Therefore, the officers and soldiers on this battleship also became fierce, and they continued to counterattack towards the place where the muzzle flashes were flashing, almost hitting the maximum rate of fire of the 406mm gun, hoping that the shells could successfully hit the opponent's battleship. To inflict heavy damage and turn defeat into victory

"boom"、"boom"、""

Boom." Under the dark night, violent explosions continued to sound in the sea. Groups of fireballs rose into the sky, lighting up the night sky and revealing the figures of some warships. Even in the sea During the day, there are lookouts or seaplanes in the air to guide and adjust the bombardment, and the hit rate of the bombardment is greatly improved. This kind of head-on fleet artillery battle also takes a very long time to determine the winner.

At night, Naturally, it will take more time. The long and fierce artillery battle is quite torture for the officers and soldiers of both fleets. It consumes a lot of physical strength and energy.

In fact, the most difficult thing on the battlefield at this moment is Those five aircraft carriers, because under night conditions, the carrier-based aircraft equipped on the aircraft carriers cannot take off at all, and naturally cannot participate in the battle. Moreover, these aircraft carriers are only equipped with partial anti-aircraft guns, and there are no large-scale anti-aircraft guns. Heavy artillery with a large caliber do not have the ability or opportunity to participate in the artillery battle. There is nothing they can do except sail the battleship to the edge of the battlefield and watch the battle silently.

This kind of psychological torture is even more unbearable..

However, the captains of these aircraft carriers have contacted Yuntong Island through radio stations and reported the current situation, claiming that they encountered a sneak attack by an unknown fleet, suffered heavy losses, and urgently needed support.

This telegram It also woke up the entire Yuntong Island senior management. There was no time for rest. They quickly convened an emergency meeting to discuss how to deal with it.

The fleet that was attacked was already half of the entire Yuntong Island fleet. They are the main force and must not make any mistakes. If they are defeated, it will be equivalent to cutting off an arm of Yuntong Island. Let’s not talk about other things for the time being. At least until the fleet’s size and strength are replenished and restored, they They can only defend Yuntong Island and are no longer able to expand. Even those resource points will be invaded by the other two forces.

Without the raw materials continuously mined from these resource points, the three parties The gap between the forces will gradually widen, and it will be more difficult to catch up again.

After contacting the aircraft carrier captains on the front line, radio waves were transmitted from Yuntong Island, and all the clouds The Tongdao battleships will contact them to confirm their current location. If they are close to the battlefield, let them set sail immediately and rush to the battlefield for support.

This is not enough. Almost all the main battleships on Yuntong Island are there. Among the warships stationed on the island or in the fleet that was attacked, and operating in the outer waters, they were at most heavy cruiser level, and there was not a single capital ship at all.

These warships rushing to support did not actually have much effect. If you want to keep these main battleships, you need to find another way.

After discussing for a long time, we have not found a more suitable way. To be honest, even if they do not care about the last half of the main fleet on Yuntong Island, they will stay on it. All were sent out to support, and it took more than a day to arrive at night and day and night. By that time, the day lilies were cold.

No one knew whether the main fleet that was attacked could persist for such a long time. After all, in In the reports of several aircraft carrier captains, they only knew that the unknown fleet that attacked them was powerful and that there were capital ships. However, due to the night conditions, they could not clearly see the specific composition of this fleet.

Without knowing the details of this mysterious fleet that suddenly attacked, no one can judge how long the main fleet on the front line can hold on, so they can only make arrangements based on the worst outcome.

In order to support the frontline fleet as quickly as possible, we can only dispatch the fastest carrier-based aircraft. Although some people in the meeting suggested that Yuntong Island is too far from the frontline battlefield and beyond the reach of carrier-based aircraft. The combat radius is so large that if carrier-based aircraft are dispatched, whether they can successfully support it or not, at least these carrier-based aircraft will definitely not be able to come back.

Therefore, these senior officials are worried that if the main fleet is not rescued, but a large number of carrier-based aircraft are folded in, the gain will not be worth the loss.

However, this statement was just put forward and was unanimously opposed by others, because to a certain extent, it is already a critical moment for the survival of Yuntong Island, so why should we care about such gains and losses.

Compared with the main battleships that are hard to find and Yuntong Island itself has no ability to build itself, these carrier-based aircraft are nothing at all. Not to mention the relatively low cost, Yuntong Island itself has the ability to build itself. If you want It is easier to replace losses.

In the view of those senior officials who retorted, as long as these hard-won main battleships can be preserved, even the loss of hundreds of carrier-based aircraft is completely worth it, not to mention that not all of the released carrier-based aircraft may be lost. Lose.

The five aircraft carriers on the front line have not been attacked so far and can be said to be intact. These carrier-based aircraft taking off from the ground airport can land directly on the five aircraft carriers after completing their support tasks. superior.

Taking a step back, even if these carrier-based aircraft cannot land on the aircraft carrier and must be lost, as long as they can successfully rescue the main battleship in the fleet, it is still worth it. Anyway, what is lost is only the fighter aircraft, which is relatively more precious. The pilot was able to parachute to escape and was rescued by a fleet warship.

In an impromptu emergency meeting, the senior officials of Yuntong Island quickly reached an agreement, which was to wait until daybreak and immediately take off carrier-based aircraft from the ground airport to target the main fleet hundreds of kilometers away. Provide air support.

However, there are still several hours before dawn, which requires that the main fleet, which is constantly being bombarded, must grit its teeth and persist until dawn, otherwise it will be useless.

After sending the telegram, the senior officials of Yuntong Island who were woken up from their sleep were completely insomniac. Naturally, they could not sleep because they were worried about the war ahead.

The survival of the main fleet is not only related to the military strength of Yuntong Island. For senior officials like them, it is also related to their rights and status. How can there be any carelessness.

Cups of coffee or strong tea were brought into the conference room. These senior officials were not going to sleep tonight. All the personnel on duty in the entire communication room, including the backup personnel, were called up to maintain contact with the frontline fleet. Always keep abreast of the development of the frontline war, especially the losses of the fleet.

Time passed by, and the senior executives of Yuntong Island in the conference room drank countless cups of coffee and strong tea. However, the development of the war on the front line was quite unfavorable.

Especially not long after they made the decision to let carrier-based aircraft from the ground airport take off for support after dawn, that is, around 4 a.m., less than 2 hours after the first squadron launched the attack, the second squadron of the main fleet The battleship finally couldn't hold on any longer, and with bursts of violent explosions, it was blown into pieces and sank into the sea..