Southeast Asian seas.

Tonight the sky is sunny and calm.

There were white clouds floating in the sky, a crescent moon looming among the clouds, and fragments of moonlight sprinkled down, making the originally blue sea look particularly eerie at this time.

At night.

Three steamers rowed across the silent sea and headed west.

"Alawasu bless you with peace."

On the side of a destroyer in the front row of the fleet, the Navy Cao Chang Kikube Jiro sat next to the anti-aircraft gun, looking at the crescent moon reflected in the calm sea, and prayed silently in his heart.

Jiro Kikube is a Cao commander, with fifteen men under his command, commanding a triple 96-type 25-caliber anti-aircraft gun, similar to the commander of the army's horse manure.

He is the most junior officer of the devil.

Although naval officers have always been well paid, much better than horse manure, after all, the navy has a lot of money and eats a destroyer every year, but in the later stage of this great expansion, it is just a larger cannon fodder.

However, compared with the average cannon fodder, Kikube is a bit brainy.

In the news, the empire inflicted heavy losses and repelled the navy of the American ghost animals, shrank its forces from the Republic of China to occupy the crown of the empire on which the sun never sets, occupied Southeast Asia, expanded a large number of territories for the empire for the locusts, and seized a huge amount of materials.

But he was completely unconvinced.

With such a big victory, there are still no pieces of the empire that have been bombed? The locust palace was blown to ashes.

Although the Empire vigorously denied these news, and the news mainly came from photographs dropped by the enemy, the sights and stories of the large number of recruits proved that the Empire was suffering from a terrible bombardment.

Even if it's not true that the Locust Palace was burned down, it is estimated that it is not much better.

And.

Victories and the need to transport supplies at night, using destroyers and fast transport ships? Forget about the light control during the voyage, and when you sail at high speed at night, even the anti-collision fog lights are the darkest!

Or in the waters of Southeast Asia, this sea area known as the racetrack of the Imperial Combined Fleet.

Therefore, the voyage must be very dangerous.

The flotilla strengthened its air defense before departure, deployed a large number of anti-aircraft guns, and put their air defense groups on standby at night, ready to respond to air attacks, judging from the fact that the enemy should attack from the air.

But this big night.

Jiro Kikube looked at the sky.

At this time, the clouds obscured the moonlight, lost its only light, and the whole sea seemed dark and silent, except for the noise of the fleet's engines and the sound of cutting through the sea.

"I can't see it at night, how can I attack?"

Jiro Kikube didn't understand.

The planes can't see their fleet, how can they attack?

····

At the same time.

In the sky, an 'Air Police 1' was flying at a high speed of 7,000 meters.

"The devil fleet was found, the distance was one hundred and fifty kilometers, the number was three, the course was due west, the speed was seventeen knots, and the specific location was being calculated..."

The Air Police 1 is based on the latest four-engine transport aircraft, similar to the later E1 early warning aircraft of the United States, and the most notable feature is an oval-shaped, thick antenna disk on the back.

Yes, the oval shape and thick antenna disk are very different from the E2's near-round and thin antenna disk.

After all, the current radar antenna technology is far from reaching the level of later generations.

Fortunately, the clutter filtering technology has been strengthened by the system, and the radar antenna has also been strengthened to a certain extent, and the performance is close to the top radar in the early sixties.

"It's a nice day."

After receiving the report of the enemy situation reported by the radar attendant, the commander of the early warning aircraft sighed with emotion.

Today, the wind and waves were calm, and the sea clutter was extremely low, so they not only discovered the enemy's fleet at a hundred and fifty kilometers, but even calculated the number of enemies, as well as the coordinates of the route.

If the weather is bad, it will take 100 kilometers to calculate.

"Heaven is beautiful."

The AWACS aircraft is a synthesis of top science and technology, and the overall scientific and technological level is the same as that of the 01-class destroyer.

College students in this period, the quality is not said.

"Report to Natuna Base."

The captain then ordered.

Unlike thick data links, the current AWACS aircraft are still very primitive and can only transmit information manually through the radio.

"Yes."

Ten seconds later, the radio waves carried the message to the base.

"We continue to track the target."

The captain's tone was laid-back.

······

"Let's go."

Three minutes later, at Natuna Airport, with the roar of huge propellers, four air-launched Styx anti-ship missiles 'Sea Hawk-1' suspended under five wings flew in the direction of the devil's fleet.

The reason why it was so fast was because Natuna, although it was a new base, was always on combat readiness duty.

The ground crew was prepared for war 24 hours a day, ensuring that the 10 missile attack planes could take off at any time, and the pilots and crews were also on standby at any time.

The cruising speed of the new four-engine transport plane is 540 kilometers, and although it carries four missiles at this time, it actually does not carry much weight, so it can maintain a cruising speed of more than 500 per hour.

In less than half an hour, a group of five missile attack planes arrived within 30 kilometers of the devil's fleet.

At this distance, the devils without radar will naturally not be able to detect the arrival of the attack aircraft group, and as for the sound, the noise level of the new five-page propeller is relatively low, and it cannot be observed at a distance of 30 kilometers.

"Determine the target location."

In the group of attack aircraft, the captain gave the order.

In the era when there was no data link, no GPS, and no integrated chips, the missile offensive was actually very primitive.

The guidance mode of the Styx missile is the front and middle autopilot, and the terminal active radar homing guidance.

In layman's terms, it is necessary to set the approximate position of the target on the missile's autopilot, so that after the missile flies to the target, the radar will automatically turn on to search for the target and guide the missile to the target.

Therefore, the specific location of the target, the target route and other data are needed.

Five minutes later, the first 'Osprey' spewed flames from its tail and flew towards the Devil's fleet thirty kilometers away, followed by the second and third Devil's fleet.

From the sky, it looks like a meteor swarm falling.

Beautiful and dangerous.

······

"What's that?"

When the first 'Osprey' engine ignited, the dazzling fire immediately attracted the attention of the devil.

At an altitude of seven thousand meters and a distance of thirty kilometers, the sound on the sea could not be transmitted so far, but the firelight, especially the tail flame of the missile, was as bright as a blazing light, which immediately attracted the attention of Jiro Kikube.

"Shooting stars?"

The devil on duty on the side guessed.

Immediately after, the second, third, and fourth missiles ignited, swaying and rushing towards the devil flotilla.

"Something is wrong."

Jiro Kikube's keen gap is not right:

"It's not a meteor, it's a rocket."

He had seen meteors, with completely different appearances and different trajectories, and as an anti-aircraft gun commander, he had a full sense of space, and he could see that these 'rockets' were coming at his own destroyers.

Also recognized it as a rocket.

Although the devil pulls his crotch, there are still rockets, but the technology is just a little worse.

"Enemy attack."

At the same time, the commander of the flotilla, the captain of the destroyer where Jiro Kikube was located, also gave the order:

"Prepare air defense."

According to the telegram sent back by the previously sunken flotilla, the devils already knew that this was the means of attack of the Independence Regiment.

"Quick, quick, fast..."

After receiving the order, one anti-aircraft gun after another immediately began to operate.

The destroyers in the front row began to turn, aiming their flanks in the direction of the 'flames' in order to exert the strongest anti-aircraft fire.

The devils on the anti-aircraft gun position also acted in an orderly manner, some of the devils shook the direction machine and aimed the anti-aircraft gun at the target, the mechanic urgently inspected the anti-aircraft gun, and the two loaders also held the magazine on standby.

"It's too fast."

As the commander of the single artillery, Jiro Kikube held a telescope and stared closely at the incoming rockets, his eyes were solemn, and the cold sweat behind his back began to fall drop by drop.

As a subsonic missile, the Styx has a cruising speed of just over 900 kilometers, but in this period, it is already an incredible speed.

"It's a big problem."

Jiro Kikube couldn't quickly judge the speed of these weird rockets, and he didn't understand why the rockets could fly so far for a while, but he knew that they were in big trouble.

This speed has clearly exceeded the capabilities of their air defenses.

Thirty kilometers, for a missile with a speed of 900 kilometers per hour, it only takes two minutes, the devil is not ready, and the first one is already less than five kilometers away from the fleet at this time.

Inside the navigation system, the autopilot continues to work, the active radar is turned on, and the search for a predetermined target begins.

When the radar confirms the target, the autopilot is turned off, and the radar guides the missile to begin to reduce the altitude and rush towards the target, at this time, the missile is only three kilometers away from the devil's fleet.

At this time, anti-aircraft guns already around began to fire.

"Yaga, a bunch of idiots."

The local Jiro, who was still looking for an opportunity, suddenly scolded:

"Why not equip an air defense commander?"

Although he is only a Cao Chang, he has also experienced many actual battles, fought many times with American ghost animal planes, and has rich combat experience, so he knows very well that although there are a lot of problems in the air defense of imperial warships.

What weapons are of poor quality, the rate of fire of anti-aircraft guns is insufficient, and so on.

However, the most troublesome problem is the lack of unified command, and the various anti-aircraft guns are fighting separately, and they are simply unable to form an effective firepower network. The already poor weapons have not yet been able to exert their unified strength, and the air defense will naturally be in shambles.

"Shoot."

Jiro Kikube also commanded his anti-aircraft gun to start firing at an incoming 'rocket'.

Dadada···· The muzzle of the Type 96 triple 25-mm anti-aircraft gun burst into fierce fireworks, and one shell after another flew towards the target, trying to intercept the 'Osprey' missile flying at high speed.

Air defense in this period relied on the stacking of projectiles, replacing accuracy with quantity.

"Reload, hurry up."

After a point of fire, the missile was still flying at high speed, and it was not affected in the slightest, and Jiro Kikube howled hysterically.

It's a pity that the Type 96 multi-mounted anti-aircraft gun, which is known as the 'shame of air defense', is too stretched, and although the data on paper is good, the design problem is very fatal.

The Type 96 anti-aircraft gun was supplied with magazines, each magazine had 15 rounds, a total of 45 rounds, so that a few shells could be fired in one point, and six loaders were equipped for this purpose.

In addition, this 'shame of air defense' reloading is extremely cumbersome, the process is complicated and time-consuming, and it cannot be fired during the magazine change.

This is fatal for air defense.

Not to mention that there are still problems with command. Even if the devils deliberately strengthened the number of anti-aircraft guns, the firepower network was still sparse.

"Damn, why don't you change your clothes."

When the rocket was still more than 300 meters away from the destroyer, Jiro Kikube still hadn't finished reloading here, and he shouted in despair.

In fact, the empire already has a more advanced Type 98 anti-aircraft gun, which solves most of the problems of Type 96.

But.

The ninety-eight style was developed by horse manure!

Boom...

The first missile accurately hit the flank of the devil destroyer, and the thin armor of the destroyer simply could not withstand the warhead of five hundred kilograms, and the entire side was directly on this section.

Jiro Kikube was also shattered in the explosion.

"Even if you replace the Type 98 anti-aircraft gun, you can't stop it, the enemy's weapons are too fast."

This was Jiro Kikube's last realization.

A flotilla of five missile attack planes, 20 missiles, and three ships sank in Southeast Asian waters with 15,000 tons of supplies, and none of the devils on board survived.

·····

Early the next morning.

Subcontinent.

"The fleet is out of touch."

Gangcun sighed.

This is already the eleventh wave of transport fleets, but none of them broke through the enemy blockade.

"It's a pity."

Yamamoto sighed too.

He had expected the Eleventh Flotilla to arrive. After all, this time the flotilla was the smallest, but the ships were advanced and fast, and they could quickly pass through the enemy blockade line in the darkness of night.

"There is no way to get the fuse of artillery shells from China, so we have to find another way to solve the problem of artillery shells."

Gangcun quickly changed the subject.

If you continue to discuss, you will be involved in the independent group, which is not to be talked about at all, this topic, the two of them have nothing else except sighing repeatedly.

The No. 11 flotilla was loaded mainly with artillery fuses.

Thanks to the foundation left by the British, the industrial facilities in the subcontinent were actually good, and they were not damaged during the occupation of the locusts, and they were able to directly produce all kinds of small and medium-caliber shells, but they could not produce shell fuses.

So the two intend to transport the fuze domestically.

It's a pity.

"We figured out how to make it ourselves, and the British still left some technicians here."

Yamamoto picked up the topic.

They are unable to manufacture fuses on a large scale, not completely impossible to manufacture.