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Bournemouth, an important port city in the south of England, is Portsmouth, the largest military port of the British Navy, sixty kilometers east of here. It's just that that's history. After the main force of the Chinese Navy marched into the English Channel, the British Navy, in order to preserve its strength, had already left the Portsmouth military port and went to the North Sea to avoid a decisive battle with the Chinese Navy.

The Chinese navy chose Bournemouth as the target of attack, which has well-developed port facilities and is not particularly well defended, making it a good landing site. Compared to the Portsmouth military port, the defenses here are much weaker! Therefore, when the Chinese navy appeared off Bournemouth, the British and Germans would surely have chosen this place as a landing site because of China. This was also in line with the Squadron's hope that both the British and Germans would focus on the southern coast of England so that the Squadron could land lightly in Bristol Bay!

At 7:20 a.m. on 25 June, four 'Tang-class' battleships and five 'Han-class' battleships of the Chinese Navy, as well as 13 'Dreadnought-type' battleships captured from the U.S. Navy, sailed to the sea just over 10 kilometers from Bournemouth. Four 'Emeishan-class' aircraft carriers also followed behind the fleet, less than twenty kilometers from the coast. Around these battleships and aircraft carriers, there were light cruisers and destroyers. On the periphery, dozens of 'Lop Nur-class' frigates roamed around like hounds, searching for traces of submarines of the British Navy that might be preserved. A fleet of several heavy cruisers, several light cruisers, and twelve Lop Nur-class frigates had already crossed the St. George's Strait and began hunting down the British Navy submarines in the St. George's Strait and the Irish Sea. Prepare for the upcoming landing operation!

The arrival of the Chinese Navy. Nervous to the British defenders at Bournemouth. Responsible for the British Army stationed in Bournemouth. In total, there were two corps of more than 100,000 men, commanded by Lieutenant General Antonio of the British Army. However, the huge battleships on the sea made these British soldiers very panicked, and they had no confidence to hold Bournemouth at all!

"Come, send a telegram to Admiral Hamilton, the main force of the Chinese Navy has appeared in Bournemouth, and it is very likely that they will land in Bournemouth. We need reinforcements! If we can't withstand the Chinese attack, we will blow up Bournemouth's port facilities at the first time! Lieutenant General Antonio ordered! In order to avoid the British port being used by the Chinese Navy, the British have planted a lot of explosives in the port, as long as the Chinese launch a landing operation, they will detonate these explosives, not only to kill the landing squadron, but also to completely blow up the entire port, so that the Chinese can not use these port facilities, delay the landing speed of the squadron, and win time for the transfer of the British Army. As for the losses caused. Then you don't have to think about it at all, if you don't even have a country. Even if these port facilities are intact, what is the use?

The signal corps soon sent the order of Major General Antonio to London. And the news that the squadron was about to land in Bournemouth also caused a shock to the British authorities. As early as when Liang Cheng, the Chinese ambassador to Germany, made harsh remarks, the British side was worried that China would not give Germany face and would continue to land in Britain. I didn't expect that the landing of the squadron would come so quickly!

At this time, the 2nd Army Corps of the German Army was embarking ships from Calais, passing through the Guò Dover Strait and landing in Britain. It is expected that the German Army will not be able to land on British soil until the afternoon at the earliest. If the squadron lands first, then the Germans will be too late!

Therefore, Admiral Hamilton ordered Major General Antonio to hold Bournemouth and prevent the squadron from landing at Bournemouth, no matter what method he used. At the same time, Admiral Hamilton also gave the order to transfer most of the two million British Army to the southern coast of England, where they had to resist the landing of the squadron before the German Army could grasp the situation. Otherwise, it's all empty talk!

"Start attacking, let those Britons taste our awes!" On the battleship 'Tang Gaozu', Marshal Li Dingxin, commander of the Chinese Navy's home fleet, gave the order to attack, and the four 'Tang-class' battleships lined up on the sea, only ten kilometers away from Bournemouth, and the three triple 381-mm main guns on the battleship were already aimed at the shore. The other five 'Han-class' battleships were slightly behind the four 'Tang-class' battleships, but the three triple 343-mm guns on these 'Han-class' battleships were just as powerful. As for the six 'Hanshin-class' fast battleships of the Chinese Navy that made great contributions in the naval battle of the Bahamas, they did not participate in the attack on Bournemouth, they had another mission!

"Boom! Rumble! Rumble! "A thunderous roar sounded on the sea, orange-red flames flashed in the thick muzzle, and the huge recoil generated by the salvo of the main guns made the battleship 'Tang Gaozu' move half a meter away on the sea surface. Nine high-explosive bombs, weighing more than 700 kilograms, roared toward the coast 10 kilometers away. Ten seconds later, the shells exploded on the shore, and between them were orange-red fireballs that rose on the coast, like small mushroom clouds. After the battleship 'Tang Gaozu' opened fire, the other three of the four Tang-class battleships also opened fire and began to bombard the positions of the British Army with their main guns. The rest of the battleships, including 5 'Han-class' battleships and 13 captured 'dreadnought' battleships of the US Navy, also opened fire, and for a time, the coast of Bournemouth was completely covered in gunsmoke!

"Boom!" A 381-millimeter high-explosive bomb exploded on the coast, and after a burst of flying sand and rocks, a large crater with a diameter of about ten meters appeared on the ground, and all life was killed in the violent explosion within a radius of several tens of meters around. Countless British Army soldiers were torn to shreds in the explosion. No matter how strong the fortifications they had built before, they were still no different from papier-mâché in the midst of such heavy shelling.

"General, our losses are very heavy, the regiment deployed on the coast of the 112th Division has already suffered more than half of the casualties, and they are asking for a retreat!" A staff officer reported to Lieutenant General Antonio.

"Allow them to retreat! Order the artillery of the fortress to launch a counterattack! Lieutenant General Antonio ordered!

"Yes, General!" The staff officer nodded, even though he thought that the counterattack of the fortress artillery might be a mantis arm, but since Lieutenant General Antonio gave the order, he could only obey it.

On the hillside of Bournemouth's harbor, there is a fortress group built by the British Navy more than ten years ago, the whole fortress group consists of three batteries, and a total of nearly 100 shore defense guns of more than 155 mm caliber are installed, especially after the British Navy suffered a series of heavy defeats, the British Navy strengthened the defense of the coast, and the fortress in Bournemouth also added several large-caliber coastal defense guns. In addition, the British Navy has once again strengthened the defense of the southern coastal areas of the United Kingdom, and at this moment the fortress in Bournemouth has a total of 6 343mm coastal defense guns, 8 305mm coastal defense guns, 18 210mm coastal defense guns, and dozens of other caliber shore defense guns! In terms of firepower alone, the firepower of this fortress group is also very powerful, but the main body of the fortress was built more than ten years ago, and it can only defend against 305 mm battleship main guns at most, and there is nothing to be done about larger caliber main guns and heavy aerial bombs falling overhead!

At 7:44 a.m. on June 25, the British Navy's shore defense artillery began to counterattack, and the forts on the edge of Bournemouth Harbour began firing at the sea! Hundreds of coastal defense guns of various calibers shelled fiercely, forming a column of rushing water on the sea surface! Surprise those capital ships of the Chinese Navy who are firing at Bournemouth!

"Can't the Brit hold it back? Order all ships, change armor-piercing shells, and knock out the British fortress first! In addition, send a telegram to General Chen, and let the carrier-based aircraft go out and blow up the fortress of the British! "On the battleship 'Tang Gaozu', Marshal Li Dingxin, commander of the home fleet, gave an order!

A few minutes later, the battleship 'Tang Gaozu' took the lead in firing at the British Navy's coastal defense fortress, and the 381-mm armor-piercing projectile weighed more than 800 kilograms, and firing at a distance of 10,000 meters was enough to penetrate the fort with two or three meters thick reinforced concrete.

"Boom! Rumble! Rumble! Several explosions rang out one after another, and I saw that the British Navy's coastal forts were completely enveloped in gunsmoke, and after the smoke cleared, several large craters had appeared on the battery. However, because there was no target, the shore defense artillery of the British Navy was not destroyed. But even so, the shock wave generated by the explosion of the shells also killed the coastal defense artillery of the British Navy in several batteries. However, then new artillery substitutes came in and continued to fire! When the country was facing life and death, they still showed great courage and fought against the powerful squadron without fear of death! Of course, this kind of courage is certainly commendable, but at the same time, does it not also express the sorrow of a country?

"Buzz!" The sound of hornets fluttering like a swarm of hornets sounded over the waters of Bournemouth, and in the sky, a group of dozens of warplanes was approaching the coast. In the group, except for some of the escort F5B "Puffin" fighters, the rest are all H5D "Fish Eagle" dive bombers, which carry special heavy aerial bombs weighing 600 kg to deal with strong fortresses! (To be continued......)