Chapter 61: More Than Flies

What is more than flies?

You can think about Journey to the West, in short, it is something annoying, and it can make people dizzy!

The British Navy entered the Java Sea, an outpost in the South Pacific, through the Strait of Malacca. The humid weather here made the officers and men of the Navy stationed in India somewhat uncomfortable, not because it was too wet, but because it was too hot.

Unlike in India, the weather is immediately followed by a fiery sun after a burst of rain. Although the officers and soldiers stationed in India are not so familiar with the weather, when the fiery red sun appears, it is a sign that something more annoying than flies will appear.

A huge fleet appeared in the Java Sea, and the warships tried to protect the low-level offensive and defensive transports in the formation of the warships. Now when they face those flies, they will not be as careless as the Japanese fleet, after all, the British Navy knows that those things that are more than flies require people to pay enough vigilance.

When the rain clouds left the last drop of rain on the warship, it began to rise into the sky with lighter, and it was the "Eagle Eye" reconnaissance and command airship that gave this sea area to the sun to appear in the sky along with the sun.

In the first moments when the fleet was exposed to the sun, they had already radioed the news to nearby groups. The hordes of "Benlei II", with a much longer range than the Tomcat heavy air superiority, had been waiting for a long time to linger beyond the storm clouds, waiting for the sun to appear before launching a saturation attack on the British fleet.

However, to the displeasure of the British, these planes dropped their torpedoes at the maximum range, and all of their torpedoes were no longer simply black-headed torpedoes copied from the British.

The world's first thermodynamic torpedo was a steam gas torpedo made by American engineer Levitt in 1904. The torpedo used a combustion chamber of Levitt's own invention, replacing the cold engine with a heat-powered engine, reaching a speed of 35 knots and a range of 2740 meters.

At present, the air-dropped torpedoes equipped by the Navy of the Chinese National Defense Forces are precisely the improved products of this steam gas torpedo - the Thornfish, with a speed of 38 knots and a maximum effective range of 4,000 meters.

In the turquoise waters, the British Navy fleet was lined up in a circular anti-aircraft formation, and the "Tomcat" heavy air superiority fighters on the two "improvised aircraft carriers" were like crazy and were catapulted into the sky.

This kind of fighter with a short range is on land, when the airport is only 50~100 kilometers away from the front line, it does not show its shortcomings of too short range, and in land and air combat, their maneuverability and speed are very advantageous in the aircraft at that time.

Now, when they pounced on the "Sea Mine II" attack plane group that was attacking from afar at sea, a group of "Sea Sabers" that could accompany the escort of the Mine attack planes appeared above them not far away, and immediately swooped down on them to launch an attack.

The "Tomcat" fighters, which were far inferior in number to the "Saber of the Sea", had to turn around and become entangled with the Saber of the Sea. Through the contest between Tang Yunyang and Richthofen, everyone must have seen that the "Sea Sabre" is faster than the "Tomcat" heavy air supremacy fighter in terms of speed, but in terms of maneuverability, it is inferior to this kind of aircraft, which is originally slower than it.

Although their maneuverability is slightly better, the pilots of the Chinese National Defense Forces, who have long studied the "Tomcat" heavy fighters thoroughly, will not take them into their eyes. After a dive attack, he immediately accelerated away, and then relied on his climb rate to regain the air combat advantage.

They act like an eagle catching a chicken, and even if they miss, they have the opportunity to attack again. But it rarely fought with the "Tomcat" heavy air superiority fighters.

The opportunity for air combat is lost in an instant, and the confrontation with the "sea saber" makes it completely impossible for the Tomcat attack aircraft to block the air defense of the "sea mine." Even if it is said that an occasional plane that is included in the formation of the Benlei attack plane, it will also be subjected to concentrated fire from the on-board machine guns of the Benlei attack plane, which is also lined up in a circular anti-aircraft formation.

Sitting in the cockpit protected by armor, the pilots of the "Tomcat" heavy air superiority fighter should not have felt overly worried, but the navy stationed in India, in order to increase the time of the "Tomcat" heavy air superiority fighter, actually took the first measure to remove the bathtub-shaped bulletproof armor.

The machine gunner in the back seat of the series of Ben Lei attack aircraft fired desperately at the "Tomcat" heavy fighter plane that was diving down in the sky, and the machine gunners of the other planes acted as well.

In order to enhance the ability to protect, the Ben Thunder attack Yang still maintained the formation of a three-plane crew even when launching a sea-skimming attack. A squad of 6 aircraft, a squadron of 18 aircraft. In the face of the huge British fleet, they could form a wave of offensive.

The two sides fired at each other at a distance that was getting closer and closer, and the British Tomcat heavy air superiority fighter was attacked by 18 machine guns, and the density of fire was predictable. In the midst of the rain of bullets, the British pilots skillfully made the plane around as if it were a samba.

At the same time, the pilot tried his best to keep the nose of the plane pointing steady, and if possible, the pilot hoped that he would have a target in the midst of this mortal dive, and of course if he was lucky enough to escape from the dense fire of a dozen machine guns, he would surely shout "Long live God".

However, war is war, and it only shows the luck of individual people with more cruelty.

When the first 25-millimeter shell of the Tomcat heavy air superiority fighter flew away from the muzzle, a series of machine-gun bullets swept through the fuselage of the Tomcat, not only causing damage and flames to the aircraft, but also the pilot himself was pierced through the chest by a large-caliber machine gun bullet.

But he died comfortingly, at least he saw the thing that made his death worthwhile, the only thing that made him smile comfortingly. The bullets and shells fired by the "Tomcat" heavy air superiority fighter accurately hit a Benlei attack plane.

In his blood-soaked eyes, he could see the violent explosion of artillery shells, shattering the cockpit made of bulletproof glass of the Benlei attack aircraft, the machine gunner's body leaning back, and the 12.7 mm machine gun had long been missing.

The "Benlei II" attack plane stretched out its wings, which had been hit and had already ignited a flame, like a child thrown into the arms of a mother, and flew into the waves of the sea, and a large white wave rose.

Nevertheless, the attacked "Benlei II" group flew towards the warship without stopping. Those who are familiar with airplane-to-ship combat must have some doubts: Why do these planes skim the sea, and are they still worried about the attack of radar-guided weapons in this era when there is no radar?

Of course not, just as the Benlei attack planes were approaching the range of the torpedo attack at an altitude of sea-skimming flight, the "swifts," which had accelerated like lightning, swept not far in front of them, and the sea immediately fell into a layer of faint white smoke.

Although it could not completely hide the sight of the gunners on the warships that were still firing guns, the plane, which was originally only as big as a fly, became even more indistinct at this time.

On the British website, the sharpest anti-aircraft equipment is the twin-mounted "raindrop" 12.7mm machine gun sold to them by the MPM military industrial group when they were in France. However, the maximum range of this machine gun is only about 1,500 meters, and when the enemy plane flies through the sea in the smoke, the dense bullets will quickly fall into the sea due to the problem of firing angle.

In particular, most of the "raindrop systems" of British warships are installed on the deck because of the focus on air defense, so that the low-fire range is insinuated. The sailors on the British warships had to look with fear at the torpedoes that were rushing from the sea, like a grim reaper growing out of the sea.

And when the warship was attacked by more than a dozen torpedoes, it had to frantically turn the rudder, turn the rudder, turn the rudder...... The result of this was not only unbearable for the engines of the warships, but also for the nerves of all commanders and sailors.

Everyone at all times has to carry out a hot air battle, and also guard against the sudden movement of the warship's big rudder angle. Not only the commander of the fleet, but also the commander of the fleet or every officer has begun to worry about when the morale of the entire fleet will collapse with such continuous attacks by the other side.

As batches of Ben Mines continued to arrive, the "Tomcat" heavy air supremacy fighters had multiple accidents due to frequent landings. And there are no problems with the planes of the opposing side.

They all came from the field airfield in the waters off the island of Java, and under the coordination and command of the "Eagle Eye" reconnaissance and command airships in the air, they were like a swarm of tireless flies, circling around the British expeditionary fleet. As soon as they are allowed to get into the air, swarms of Benmine-type attack aircraft will drop torpedoes.

Of course, due to the skill of the army pilots attacking ships, the low hit rate of the torpedoes they fired was worrying. By nightfall on the first day of the war, no more than 100 torpedoes had been thrown, but only three had hit, a cruiser had been sunk, and an armed transport had been sunk, and nothing else had been gained, and the price they had paid was as much as eight Benlei attack aircraft.

But as the attack began on the first day, as soon as it was dawn, a large number of planes flew in from all directions. During the previous day's attack, the crew, who had been left with a psychological shadow, heard the hum of the plane in their ears from early in the morning, and saw the plane that would dive down like crazy at some point.

"These guys are like a swarm of annoying flies, always following you, no matter where you go, you will always see them ......!"

In the face of hordes of nearby enemy planes, when the Tomcats were exhausted, the fleet had no better way than to constantly take refuge in the clouds of the storm and make this hot and humid voyage.