Volume 1: The Empire Awakens Chapter 33: Demonstration of Strength (Part 2)
During the three days, Ji Xiaobin took Tan Renhao and his men to investigate the situation in the surrounding waters, and kept in touch with the fleet and bomber units. He also sent the new data to the bomber units twice a day to ensure that there would be no mistakes during the bombing process.
After three days, Tan Renhao also mastered a lot of knowledge, especially the impact of hydrology, weather and other factors on naval battles.
This can be said to be very critical. In the military academy, Tan Renhao only learned theoretical knowledge, but now, he can understand this knowledge better from actual operations. At the same time, skilled operations are more critical.
On the fourth day, which was the day of the bombing, Tan Renhao and his team collected information for the last time in the morning and returned to the "Bolanghe" cruiser at noon.
After lunch, he came to the quarterdeck.
The seaplane that brought them here was parked next to the cruiser's rear deck, and the two pilots were leaning against the deck railing smoking.
Hao Dongjue immediately went up and started chatting with the two pilots, as they had a common language.
Chang Jianxin was preparing equipment for observation. Anyway, he liked to find something to do when he had nothing to do, so he couldn't just sit there doing nothing.
Tan Renhao felt a little nervous.
He didn't know why he felt nervous, maybe he was worried about the future.
"Lieutenant, you look a little nervous!"
Ji Xiaobin seemed to appear suddenly behind Tan Renhao. "There's nothing to worry about. We have made the most comprehensive preparations. If we can't even deal with two dead fish warships, then there is no reason for the Fifth Fleet to exist."
Tan Renhao smiled awkwardly, took two deep breaths, and slowly calmed himself down.
Ji Xiaobin looked at his watch.
"You will board the seaplane in half an hour, and the bombing will begin in an hour. Is that ok?"
Tan Renhao quickly shook his head.
"Don't worry, I'm fine."
Ji Xiaobin patted him on the shoulder.
"Keep calm. No matter what the situation is, stay calm. This is the best way. Do you understand?"
Tan Renhao smiled awkwardly. Compared to Colonel Ji Xiaobin, he was too young.
Twenty-five minutes later, Tan Renhao brought Chang Jianxin and called Hao Dongjue, who was still chatting with the two pilots, to board the seaplane.
The two pilots also boarded the plane immediately.
After letting the engine idle for two minutes, the seaplane slowly separated from the "Bolanghe" light cruiser, and then began to glide and accelerate on the sea. When it reached a speed of 80 knots, the seaplane left the water like a clumsy swan and rose into the air.
"Sir, we will fly at an altitude of 500 meters."
The captain was a staff sergeant. He pointed to the battleship "Dongting Lake" below him and said, "We will circle about 2,000 meters away. If you have any other requirements, you can tell me in time."
"Can't you fly closer?"
Tan Renhao frowned slightly and shouted at the top of his voice.
"This is the minimum safety distance specified. However, you can fly a little higher."
"Then fly higher!"
Tan Renhao patted the captain, the sergeant, on the shoulder and said, "It's best to reach an altitude of 1,000 meters. The clouds are very high today and won't block our sight."
The seaplane climbed to an altitude of one thousand meters, and then circled in a circular channel with a radius of about two thousand meters with the "Dongting Lake" battleship as the center.
Tan Renhao and the other two quickly prepared equipment for observation and recording.
Each of them had a pair of binoculars, and the other three had a clip with a hardwood board on it, on which were pinned the side and top-down views of the battleship Dongting Lake and the heavy cruiser Jiading.
In order to ensure that the results of the observations have no major errors, the three people will observe the impact points of the bombs and the impact points of the torpedoes respectively, and then compare and analyze the conclusions drawn by the three people, so that a more accurate conclusion can be drawn.
Time passed quickly, and when the sergeant captain reminded the three men that a bomber formation had appeared, they immediately looked towards the southwest sky.
Dozens of densely packed small black dots were like a group of mosquitoes, and the bomber formation was approaching rapidly. Then, more than a dozen "Gannet" torpedo bombers began to lower their altitude, while the other two types of bombers began to climb.
According to the bombing plan, the torpedoes would be dropped first by the torpedo bombers carrying the least fuel, followed by the dive bombers, and finally the level bombers.
"here we go!"
Hao Dongjue had the best eyesight among the three, and he reminded his two companions.
On the sea , twelve "Penguins" were divided into three formations and swooped down on the battleship "Dongting Lake" at a height almost close to the sea surface.
The pilots on these twelve bombers had all undergone special training.
The first group of four bombers accurately dropped four torpedoes at the predetermined entry points, and then four not-so-obvious torpedo trails appeared on the sea.
The second group of four bombers followed in and dropped four more torpedoes.
However, this time only three wakes appeared on the sea.
Tan Renhao observed the point where the torpedo entered the water again, then turned and looked at Hao Dongjue next to him.
"A torpedo must have hit the rocks on the sea floor!"
Hao Dongjue looked a little unhappy because it was he who suggested lowering the flight altitude to reduce the diving depth of the torpedo after entering the water.
Tan Renhao quickly recorded this. Even though it was not very glorious, he would not avoid the problem.
For a Swordfish flying at 35 knots on an aircraft carrier, the distance of 1,500 meters only takes two and a half minutes at most.
When the torpedo entered the water, Chang Jianxin had already pressed the stopwatch on his hand. At the same time, he was whispering the time. Only when there were five seconds left did he shout it out loud.
"Five...four...three...two..."
Before Chang Jianxin could count to "one", the "Dongting Lake" on the sea suddenly shook violently. Two huge white water columns shot up from the middle of the left side of the battleship. The battleship weighing tens of thousands of tons was almost lifted out of the water and then smashed down. Then two violent explosions were heard almost simultaneously, and the seaplane also shook slightly.
Just as the three young officers were astonished, the battleship suddenly shook violently again, and then a third column of water rose into the air. The battleship groaned like a wounded whale, and the violent explosion almost drowned out the roar of the seaplane's engine.
