Volume 1: The Empire Awakens Chapter 34: Burying the Sea Giant (Part 1)
The three men could hardly believe what they saw. At this moment, even the most staunch "big ships and big guns" advocates might have doubted whether the battleships could survive future naval battles.
The violent vibration of the seaplane quickly brought the three men back to their senses, and they immediately marked the location of the torpedo impact point on the drawing.
At this time, the third group of "Penguins" gave up the bombing of the "Dongting Lake".
The four bombers circled half a circle over the sea and swooped down from the northeast towards the Jiading heavy cruiser anchored northeast of the Dongting Lake battleship.
The four bombers formed a formation and quickly approached the Jiading. Obviously, the pilots on the four bombers were a little excited, as they also saw the scene at the beginning.
When they reached the point where the torpedoes entered the water, the four bombers turned right at the same time, but only three torpedoes were dropped. The torpedo on the belly of the third "Gannel" in the formation could not be dropped at all!
"Pull it up, pull it up quickly——"
Hao Dongjue suddenly shouted loudly.
Tan Renhao was shocked. When he turned his eyes to look at the "Pangu" that did not drop the torpedo, the fighter plane just like a stupid goose, tilted its fuselage and plunged towards the sea.
"Oh, it's over!"
As soon as Hao Dongjue finished his voice, the "Tangu" crashed headfirst into the sea. The wooden right wing broke off immediately, and then the fuselage fell into the sea, raising a cloud of white waves.
"The turning angle was too large, and the pilot had no time to adapt to the heavier Swordfish torpedo. By the time he reacted, it was too late!"
Tan Renhao patted his companion on the shoulder. Fortunately, the "Penguin" had an open cockpit. The moment the plane entered the water, the pilot successfully escaped and did not sink to the bottom of the sea with the fighter plane.
Just at the moment the pilot surfaced, the "Jiading" heavy cruiser, which was more than a thousand meters away from the crash site, was hit by a torpedo near the amidships engine room. The powerful destructive force generated by the explosion of 250 kilograms of yellow explosive instantly tore the warship with a displacement of more than 8,000 tons into two halves.
When the water column produced by the explosion fell on the sea, the warship that was blown into two pieces quickly disappeared into two huge whirlpools. Except for some scattered light debris still floating on the sea, in less than five minutes, this heavy cruiser that had fought for the empire in the north and south and participated in the three major battles of the First World War, the Battle of Yamato, the Battle of Colombo, and the Battle of the Cape of Good Hope, and had made great achievements, completely disappeared from the sea.
The three young officers were stunned, and even the two pilots in front could hardly believe their eyes.
In the past, only the heavy torpedoes carried by destroyers could inflict severe damage on large warships such as heavy cruisers, and it took several torpedoes to sink a heavy cruiser.
This time, an aerial torpedo dropped by the naval aviation sent the large battleship to the bottom of the sea and blew it into two pieces.
Obviously, the power of the new torpedoes equipped by the naval aviation force has exceeded everyone's imagination.
"Dive bombers are coming!"
As soon as the captain in front gave a reminder, the three people behind immediately looked up above the seaplane. Twelve small black dots were divided into three groups. These were twelve dive bombers carrying 500-kilogram aerial bombs.
These bombers adopted exactly the same strategy as the torpedo bombers, forming small formations of four and then dropping bombs in three batches.
Because the Jiading heavy cruiser had been sunk, three batches of dive bombers launched an "attack" on the Dongting Lake battleship. The "Pelicans" made an extremely harsh whistling sound when diving. The first batch of four "Pelicans" dived down from an altitude of more than 3,000 meters at an almost vertical angle.
When they were about 500 meters away from the sea surface, the four "Pelicans" pulled up their noses almost at the same time, and then four small black dots separated from the belly of the aircraft.
Those were four 500-kilogram-class armor-piercing shells.
When these four bombs separated from the dive bombers, they already had a speed of nearly 300 knots, and when they fell on the battleship, their speed would be close to 400 knots.
One of the first four bombs hit the No. 1 turret on the battleship Dongting Lake, and the other three were near misses.
Because the turret had been dismantled (mainly because the gun on it could still be used), the bomb penetrated directly into the hull.
At the moment the bomb exploded, the bow of the "Dongting Lake" battleship shook violently, as if a huge spring was installed underneath. The bow of the battleship was almost lifted out of the water. At the same time, a huge wave of fire rushed out from the seat ring of the No. 1 turret, rising hundreds of meters high.
Tan Renhao also keenly noticed that the powerful destructive force generated by the explosion almost completely destroyed the No. 1 turret, and also damaged the hull structure on both sides, leaving a crack at least half a meter wide.
If the "Dongting Lake" was not intended to be "sunk", such structural damage would be enough to completely scrap the battleship.
At this time, the "Dongting Lake" battleship also began to sink slowly. Obviously, the armor-piercing shell had damaged the keel of the battleship, and it is even possible that it had completely penetrated the bottom of the battleship, causing a large amount of seawater to pour in.
Tan Renhao immediately recorded these two points, which was an important basis for proving that aerial bombs could sink warships.
Another two batches of eight "Pelicans" also began to dive one after another, and three bombs hit the "Dongting Lake" one after another. The other five bombs fell within a distance of less than 20 meters on both sides of the battleship.
The three bombs hit the battleship's bridge, the middle power compartment, and the quarter deck respectively.
The battleship's bridge was almost completely destroyed. If there were people inside, I'm afraid no one would survive.
The bomb that hit the power compartment penetrated directly into the three decks above and exploded after entering the bottom cabin. Its enormous power blew away almost all the external facilities above it, leaving a huge hole in the middle of the battleship.
The bomb that hit the battleship's rear deck did not explode, which must have been because the detonator was destroyed.
When twelve horizontal bombers dropped bombs from an altitude of 3,000 meters, two-thirds of the surface of the "Dongting Lake" battleship had sunk below the water surface, with the stern raised high.
As a result, the twenty-four 250-kilogram aerial bombs became a funeral salute for this huge battleship.
