Chapter 853: The Battle of Amami II
readx; In the dark night, more than a dozen warships of the 25th Squadron approached rapidly, and at this time Yang Kunlin had already ordered the fleet to enter a combat state, and the speed of each ship had been increased from the cruising speed of 16 knots to the wartime speed of 25 knots. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info
Sailing at high speed in the waves, the Fuliang was violently bumpy, and Chen Ranbing on the bridge was already dressed in full attire at this time, holding the railing with his hands with white gloves in order to keep his body stable in the bumps. At this time, the waves seem to be getting bigger and bigger, and the speed of the ship is very high, so that the Fuliang, a cruiser with a combat displacement of more than 8,500 tons, is up and down violently, and if you want to maintain a smooth sailing in the waves tonight, only those aircraft carriers and battleships with a height of tens of thousands of tons can maintain a stable sailing, and those destroyers and cruisers of several thousand tons will inevitably be greatly turbulent, and if the ship-building technology is not up to standard, it is very likely that the hull will break.
Of course, this situation is not too much of a problem for warships with extremely high technical requirements, not to mention that the wind and waves at this time are still within the acceptable range, even if the Atlantic Ocean is more windy and waves, especially the North Sea between Britain and Germany, the strength of the warship is enough to resist the huge wind and waves, and even open fire in the violent wind and waves.
Of course, as for the hit rate, it depends on luck.
"Sir, the radar has spotted four more enemy ships!" At this time, Captain Pei Ao didn't know when he walked into the bridge.
Chen Ranbing listened: "Is it a transport ship?" ”
"Although the radar cannot identify the specific ship type, judging from the speed of the enemy ships up to 20 knots, these four enemy ships in the northeast direction should be warships, and they are relatively small, they should be destroyers or cruisers!" Captain Pei Ao said: "With the addition of these four, the number of enemy ships that have been discovered has reached sixteen!" ”
Chen Ranbing said: "This is definitely not an ordinary transport fleet, the escort warships have reached as many as six, and there must be more enemy warships behind, the radar room continues to maintain vigilance and attention!" ”
Time passed little by little, and at 4:08 a.m., the Fuliang was already close to the flotilla about 10 nautical miles away, and if this distance was daylight, then the lookouts on the warship would be able to spot the enemy ships more than 10 nautical miles away, but now the sky was still dark, and the visual distance could not reach far at all, and all reconnaissance and even fire control guidance had to rely on radar.
At 4:12 a.m., the Zipan discovered and reported that another wave of enemy fleets had been spotted fifteen nautical miles away at one o'clock from the Zipan, and it was preliminarily determined that it had at least twenty or more enemy ships!
After getting this report, Yang Kunlin knew that he had caught a big fish this time, and it was a powerful big fish.
"Such a large fleet, including at least twenty transport ships and at least ten escort ships. Moreover, the back and north are in a blank area of reconnaissance, and our army is not sure whether there are more enemy ships in this area! "A colonel marked the chart with various tools.
Yang Kunlin said: "Immediately report the relevant situation to the mobile fleet!" ”
After Yang Kunlin said this, he pondered and continued: "Order the 27th Expulsion Detachment to turn to the southwest and continue to investigate!" ”
As the distance between the two sides became closer and closer, Yang Kunlin became more and more calm, he had already noticed that the scale of the fleet on the opposite side was huge, and the escort force of such a large fleet would definitely not be less, and it was very likely that there would be a capital ship of the navy.
Although its 25th squadron was not weak, its main force was only one Sehiro, two light cruisers and six destroyers. It is difficult to eat such a large enemy fleet, and even if you don't get it right, you may even break your own teeth.
"When will reinforcements from the Mobile Fleet arrive?" Yang Kunlin said.
When he discovered the large formation, Yang Kunlin had already reported to the mobile fleet, and the mobile fleet had already sent some ships to reinforce it.
"According to the report of the Mobile Fleet Command, the ships Diyu, Yaodi, Fuyan, and Funing are already on their way to our fleet, and they are expected to appear twenty nautical miles south of our fleet at five o'clock in the morning. In addition, the carrier-based aircraft units of the fleet are ready and will take off at dawn. ”
Yang Kunlin nodded after hearing this: "With the follow-up support of carrier-based aviation, with the support of ships such as the Emperor Yu, it shouldn't be a problem to leave this enemy fleet behind!" ”
Yang Kunlin didn't know that at this time, behind the two formations of Ben, there was a larger fleet, and it could be seen in the faint starlight that there were huge warships in the fleet, and the sixteen-inch naval guns loomed in the dark night!
At 4:30 in the morning, Chen Ranbing looked at the dark sea outside, silently calculating the distance between the two sides in his heart.
And Pei Ao beside him said: "Sir, now we are less than ten nautical miles away from the enemy!" ”
Chen Ranbing took a deep breath, nodded and said, "It's time, order all units to enter the battle state immediately!" ”
After the order was issued, the radar fire control type on the Fuliang, the fire control officer was nervously inputting various data into the fire control computer according to the instructions of the fire control radar, and after half a minute, the gunnery officer put down the phone, and then said with a serious expression: "Attention all artillery groups, fire!" ”
With the order of the artillery commander, the nine six-inch main guns on the Fuliang opened fire in unison, and the nine six-inch main guns on the three turrets carried out a salvo at extremely small intervals, although this salvo was aimed at a warship of several thousand tons that caught the enemy ship, but the specific target of the salvo was different, and the front and rear landing points would be dozens of meters apart, so the shooting was to increase the hit rate.
On the mast of the Fuliang, the lookout stood at the top, using a huge telescope to watch the nine shells form a path of light and fly into the distant sea.
After a long flight of the shells, one of the shells suddenly exploded, and then emitted a violent light, and the flares fired by the six-inch main gun fell like the sun on the sky above the opposite fleet, making the ship on the sea appear for the first time.
In the next moment, other shells fell on the surface of the sea one after another, setting off a huge column of water.
The first volley, unsurprisingly, missed! However, Chen Ranbing didn't care about this, because in actual combat, it is rare to be able to hit in the first round of salvo fire, and even cross-firing is very difficult to form, in this era when the hit rate of the main gun in naval warfare is only a single digit, it is often necessary to carry out multiple rounds of salvo fire, and it is only after firing hundreds of shells that it can achieve an effective hit. In the Second Sino-Chinese Naval Battle, the battleships of the two countries fought a night battle for eight hours, and the Chinese navy fired more than 500 16-inch shells at a very close distance, and only managed to achieve less than 10 hits, and the hit rate was only 3 percent.
Chen Ranbing didn't care about these, many of the shells fired by his Fuliang in the first round were flares, and the flares landed in the sky over the enemy fleet, which could not only provide accurate shell landing points for their own side, but also allow their own optical fire control system to play a role.
Although the radar fire control system has been extremely useful in these years, the optical system is still more accurate when necessary.
Soon, after obtaining the preliminary data on the landing point of the shells, the Fuliang fired another salvo, and another nine shells fell into the enemy fleet, and this time the Fuliang's main guns were aimed at one of the enemy ships that looked like a destroyer.
The Fuliang's six-inch main guns were so fast that there was no pause in the continuous salvo, and the shells made obvious bullet marks in the air, flying like meteors over the enemy fleet.
On the Nachi, Yamano Ikawa hurriedly walked into the bridge: "Where is the enemy ship and how far is it?" ”
As a classic treaty-type cruiser in the Chinese Navy, although it has been in service for many years, it is still in service in the Navy like the treaty-type heavy cruisers in the Chinese Navy and the cruisers such as the Shiguang, and it is also the main heavy cruiser.
Nakasa, who was next to him, replied: "The enemy ship is in the southwest sea of our side, about thirteen nautical miles away, and the destroyers on the periphery of our fleet have been attacked by fierce fire from enemy ships!" ”
Yamanogawa Osa immediately said: "This ship immediately turns to the left seventy degrees to support friendly forces!" ”
With the opening of the Fuliang, it was officially announced that this naval battle had begun, and Colonel Chen Ranbing on the Fuliang and Yamanoigawa Daisa on the Nazhi would not have thought that the battle between them was just a starting point of this big war, and a larger-scale naval battle was about to begin.
On the Fuliang, the lookout on the mast was nervously observing the enemy ships in the distance through the binoculars, and he could clearly see the shells falling around the enemy ships, but none of them hit.
"Why didn't you hit yet! Didn't those gunners have enough to eat! The lookout was anxious.
Then a minute later, he suddenly looked overjoyed: "Hit, hit!" ”
On the bridge, the artillery staff officer immediately reported to Chen Ranbing: "Hit the enemy ship with one shot!" ”
At the same time, on the distant sea, a destroyer called "Ben" was already burning at this time, and a six-inch high-explosive bomb of the Fuliang accurately hit the bridge of this destroyer, and the flames of the explosion were even visible to people several nautical miles away.
After the enemy ship was hit, a fire broke out, and these fires were more effective than the flares constantly fired by the Fuliang, almost exposing the entire enemy ship to the fire of the Fuliang, and the Fuliang did not even need to be guided by the fire control radar, and could use the optical fire control system to accurately send shells to the enemy ship.
Soon, the second shell hit the enemy ship again, and the fire of the explosion became even stronger!
At the same time, the counterattack firepower of this warship also fell around the Fuliang one after another, setting off a column of water. Although there is no good fire control radar on my side, and the sea conditions are relatively complicated at this time, this does not prevent this warship from launching a counterattack against the Fuliang!
When the Fuliang engaged the enemy ships, the other ships of the 25th Squadron were already approaching one after another, and then opened fire one after another, and the fierce exchange of fire with the oncoming escort fleet was launched.
At the same time, in the southeast sea area of the warring sea above, the 24th Squadron headed by the Emperor Yu was rushing to the 21st Squadron, which was farther away, and the three aircraft carriers were already brightly lit, and they were already ignoring the lighting control at this time, because they had to carry out intense fighter plane rearmament work, a large number of fighters were refueling and reloading on the deck, and more planes were doing maintenance work in the hangar and were successively raised to the deck through elevators.
They just waited for the dawn to strike!
And in the northeastern seas of the warring sea, the main escort fleet of Ben has also received the news and is heading towards the warring sea area at high speed.
On the Amami Islands and the Ryukyu Islands, the shore-based air force of Ben has already received the news, and it is also making intense preparations, just waiting for the dawn to attack!
The first large-scale naval and air battle of the Third Sino-Chinese War is about to be in full swing!