Compared to the high-profile ground wars, the wars on the oceans seem to be "omitted." Starting

At 11 o'clock on the 24th, the Republic of Marine Corps began to attack Spratly Island, which was occupied by the Vietnamese Marine Corps, and it was the "Republic" aircraft carrier battle group that was on a supporting mission.

Spratly Island, located in the middle of the Spratly Islands, is the largest island controlled by Vietnam.

The "largest" is only 166 square kilometers, about the size of 30 sports fields. In the vast and vast South China Sea, it can only be regarded as a veritable "land of projectiles".

On this 0166 square kilometers of land, Vietnam has deployed more than 2500~ Marine Corps officers and soldiers!

The offensive still began with bombing, and the 011th Air Group made 84 sorties of combat aircraft during the day, dropping 348~: bombs and missiles on Spratly Island, destroying all military installations exposed to the ground.

At 13:35, the first battalion of marines landed on Spratly Island under the cover of air support.

Although the Marines also carried out the task of occupying the islands during the East China Sea War, they occupied desert islands that were unmanned. After a lapse of more than half a century, the Republican ** team once again launched a landing operation.

Compared with the "Battle of Yijiangshan Island" in the 50s of the last century, the "Battle of Spratly Island" is obviously much more brutal.

As Vietnam's most well-defended island in the Spratly Islands, most of the fortifications on Spratly Island were built below the surface. According to the statistics of the intelligence system over the years, from the "Naval Battle of the Paracel Islands" in the 80s of the last century to the present, Vietnam has transported tens of thousands of tons of cement and steel to Spratly Island, not only expanding the land area from C13 square kilometers to C166 square kilometers, but also building a very complete underground defense system.

When I go ashore. The Marines didn't have much trouble.

After the ground battle began. The problem is exposed.

Until dark. Only 2 Marine battalions went to the island. The total strength is less than 800. Heavy armament was only 8 amphibious tanks with 12 amphibious armored vehicles. Ammunition supplies are even more scarce.

The real battle was fought at night. Having escaped the bombardment in the underground fortifications, the Vietnamese army launched a fierce counterattack.

All night long. Spratly Island is filled with gunsmoke. The flames are blazing.

Facing more than 2000 ~ enemies who are "not afraid of death". The officers and men of the Inland Marine Corps, who had just rushed to the beachhead, had not gained a firm foothold, and were confined to an area of less than one square kilometer, experienced the most tragic night since the founding of the Marines of the Republic.

None of the narrow beaches are safe.

700~ More than 100 Marine officers and soldiers must hold the line of defense in 3 directions, using limited heavy weapons to fight the enemy who is frantically counterattacking.

The problems that came to light during the battle were very serious.

The first is the lack of effective suppression weapons in the Marine Corps. Although the 00-mm gun of an amphibious tank is not weak, it can only be used as direct fire; The 30mm cannon of the amphibious armored vehicle has a significantly lower lethal effect on strong fortifications and firepower, and the explosive lethality is very limited. The guns on the landing ships and landing craft are on the small side and are scarce in number; Automatic grenade launchers equipped with infantry units of the Marine Corps are less effective at suppression than heavy machine guns; Small-caliber mortars equipped with battalions of marines are not powerful enough to take up the task of large-scale fire suppression.

Like the Army's rapid assault units, the Marine Corps lacks "heavy firepower".

The second is the lack of support. During the entire battle, apart from the guns on the landing ships and landing craft, the only thing that could support the Marines was the USS Republic, which was many kilometers away. Although Lin Xiaolei did his best to ensure that at least fighter planes hovered over Spratly Island at all times and bombed the Vietnamese troops on the island according to the call of the Marine Corps, the carrier-based fighters lacked appropriate suppression ammunition, the power of ordinary bombs was too great, and it was easy to injure the officers and men of the neighboring Marine Corps, and the machine guns and rockets were too powerful to suppress them. Throughout the night, carrier-based aviation performed the most disruptive bombing to stop the Vietnamese advance to the landing grounds, rather than the close-range air support that the Marines needed most.

The limited number of carrier-based aircraft is also a big problem.

On the 24th, Zhu Ronghui flew a total of 12 sorties and provided air support to the Marine Corps. All carrier-based fighter pilots made more than two sorties, a third of them more than three. According to the general situation, the number of sorties of carrier-based aircraft pilots in 24 hours should not exceed three, and it is best to control them to less than two.

Finally, there are limited supplies and support. Although the landing ship brought one company of reinforcements ashore during the night, the most needed by the officers and men of the Marine Corps was combat materiel, especially ammunition. Late at night, Lin Xiaolei had no choice but to request long-range reinforcements, and the navy's shore-based aviation dispatched transport planes and water patrol planes to airdrop a batch of ammunition to the marines who went ashore, but most of the airdropped supplies fell into the sea, and only a small part was delivered to the marines.

If it weren't for the carrier-based fighters of the "Republic" that carried out a round of carpet bombing of the Vietnamese-occupied area on Spratly Island at dawn and drove the Vietnamese troops on the ground back to their underground fortifications with nearly 100 tons of incendiary bombs and napalm, I am afraid that the marines who had landed would have been driven into the sea by the Vietnamese troops before reinforcements arrived.

Although in the night battle, a total of more than 1,200 ~ Vietnamese troops were annihilated, and 1 officer and soldier of the Marine Corps were killed and 288 wounded, and the record was ideal, but the performance of the Marine Corps still disappointed Peng Maobang very much, and the problems exposed far exceeded those of the Lu who was fighting in Laos

Assault troops.

Compared with the battle on Spratly Island, the "Republic" also experienced a thrilling scene on the night of the 24th.

The alarm was issued at about 211 o'clock, and Hua Jianfeng contacted the shore-based patrol plane providing anti-submarine cover for the "Republic" as quickly as possible, and then sounded the combat alarm.

At that time, naval aviation dispatched 12 anti-submarine patrol aircraft, divided into 3 squadrons, which took turns to cover the "Republic".

The Vietnamese Navy has at least 2 "Kilo" class submarines operating in the South China Sea, and it has been almost 2 days since the outbreak of the war, even if these 2 submarines were active in Vietnam's coastal waters before, they should not be far from the "Republic" now.

The first place to raise the alarm was an anti-submarine patrol aircraft patrolling in a 250-degree direction.

Subsequently, an anti-submarine patrol aircraft hovering about 150 kilometers south of the fleet also sounded the alarm.

2. The magnetic anomaly detectors on the patrol planes all found submarine activity in the nearby waters, but the passive sonar dropped did not find anything.

Hua Jianfeng didn't take it lightly, he knew too well the ambush tactics of submarines.

The performance of "Kilo" has lagged behind, but in a state of sitting on the bottom of the sea or in a static suspended state, the noise is very low, and it is difficult for passive sonar to detect.

In the shortest possible time, Hua Jianfeng issued an order: First, he ordered an antisubmarine patrol plane to drop an active sonar buoy into the suspicious sea area, second, he ordered the HNA to immediately dispatch additional antisubmarine patrol planes, third, he ordered a carrier-based antisubmarine helicopter to take off immediately, and fourth, he ordered to contact the attack nuclear submarines accompanying the activities of the aircraft carrier battle group.

After dropping active sonar buoys, anti-submarine patrol aircraft first spotted a Vietnamese submarine located 170 meters west of the fleet.

It was indeed a "Kilo", and the 2 anti-submarine patrol planes worked together, and the patrol plane that first discovered the Vietnamese submarine was responsible for tracking and surveillance, and the patrol plane that arrived later was responsible for dropping anti-submarine torpedoes.

At 211:25, the first batch of 2 carrier-based anti-submarine helicopters arrived, joining the attack.

After 5 bells, the second batch of 2 anti-submarine helicopters arrived.

Under the encirclement and suppression of the 2 anti-submarine patrol planes and anti-submarine helicopters, the Vietnamese submarine did not even have a chance to launch missiles to attack the "Republic" aircraft carrier battle group, and was blown to pieces by six anti-submarine torpedoes dropped in succession.

At this time, a Vietnamese submarine lying in ambush to the south fired an anti-ship missile at the "Republic" 150 kilometers away.

As soon as the missile came out of the water, it was spotted by a patrol plane hovering over the area.

The aircraft carrier battle group "Republic" immediately sounded the air defense alarm.

The fate of the second Vietnamese submarine was not much better, and before 211 points 55 was strangled by 2 anti-submarine patrol aircraft with carrier-based anti-submarine helicopters.

Anti-ship missiles pose little threat to the USS Republic aircraft carrier battle group.

When the anti-submarine patrol plane sounded the alarm, the HJ200 early warning plane, which was hovering 1 kilometer south of the fleet, spotted the sea-skimming missile, and then the J-15B fighter jet carrying out the fleet's air defense patrol mission rushed over. Before the missile could enter the range of destruction of the fleet's long-range anti-aircraft missiles, it was shot down by an interceptor missile launched by a J15B fighter.

At 211 points, the air defense alarm was lifted.

Hua Jianfeng did not feel relaxed, who can guarantee that there is no third Vietnamese submarine in the nearby waters?

It was not until the second batch of anti-submarine patrol planes arrived in the HNA and expanded the scope of the anti-submarine search, and more than 1C anti-submarine helicopters in the fleet searched the sea area within 120 kilometers in turn, that Hua Jianfeng breathed a sigh of relief.

As the best submarine captain of the Republic Navy, Hua Jianfeng knew that it was the anti-submarine patrol plane that made great contributions.

Had it not been for the timely detection of the lurking Vietnamese submarine by the anti-submarine patrol aircraft, the "Republic" would have entered the torpedo attack range of the Vietnamese submarine without alert. It is much more difficult to intercept a torpedo than to intercept an anti-ship missile. Any good submarine captain will first consider attacking surface warships with torpedoes, and only if there is no selectivity, anti-ship missiles will be used.

The early exposure of the Vietnamese submarine is definitely related to poor maintenance.

If the submarine is degaussed in accordance with strict requirements, it will be difficult for the magnetic anomaly detector of the anti-submarine patrol aircraft to detect the "Kilo"-class submarine. In previous battles, the submarines of the Republic Navy had never been detected by enemy anomaly detectors. It is precisely for this that the anti-submarine patrol aircraft of the US Navy have eliminated the magnetic anomaly detector. Because considering that many neighboring countries have conventional submarines, the Navy of the Republic has not canceled the geomagnetic anomaly detector on the anti-submarine patrol aircraft for the time being.

This one-sided battle showed that no navy could defeat a much more powerful opponent with a few ships.

The problems exposed by the "Republic" aircraft carrier battle group are also obvious: In the absence of carrier-based fixed-wing antisubmarine patrol aircraft, the "Republic" aircraft carrier battle group can effectively deal with enemy submarines only under the cover of shore-based antisubmarine patrol aircraft. If the cover of shore-based anti-submarine patrol aircraft is left, the anti-submarine power will be significantly reduced.

Later, Hua Jianfeng wrote a report on this purpose, calling for the development of a carrier-based fixed-wing anti-submarine patrol aircraft as soon as possible.

The smoke of gunfire in the South China Sea has not dissipated with the disappearance of two Vietnamese submarines, because there are still many islands occupied by other countries!

Damn it**

In November, we will continue to guarantee 3 updates per day, and add a chapter to the 30-month ticket. (To be continued)

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