Volume 4: Hot! The whole world is a warring state Chapter 774 The Army Can Land
Twenty-four white-headed torpedoes propelled by high-pressure air slowly swam towards the sixteen heavy cruisers of the Western Austrian coalition that were gradually forming a unified formation at a speed of eight knots (14.4 kilometers per hour).
The main guns of the sixteen heavy cruisers slowed down their firing rate. Some soldiers in the turrets, urged by their respective gunners, quickly ran to the machine gun positions on the side of the ship and began to fire at the sea surface in panic along with the secondary guns and machine guns that were already roaring wildly. For a moment, the entire sea surface was dotted with white spots, and everywhere there were traces of bullets or small shells hitting the sea surface violently.
Whitehead torpedoes are too slow, and because they release a lot of air as they move forward, their tracks are very obvious. Once they are illuminated by searchlights, they have nowhere to hide. Therefore, although these whitehead torpedoes theoretically only need more than three minutes to reach the target over a short distance of 800 meters, ten torpedoes were exploded in just three minutes.
Of the remaining 14 torpedoes, eight failed to hit the target due to the angle of their course or the evasion of the enemy ships, and passed through the gaps between the 16 heavy cruisers, and were either blown up by the machine guns on the other side of the heavy cruisers with the cooperation of the searchlights of the battleships behind, or the high-pressure air in the power compartment was released, and the entire torpedo stopped dead.
However, thanks to the 800-meter ultra-close range of torpedoes, thanks to the fact that it was night and the visibility was poor, thanks to the fact that the 16 coalition heavy cruisers were too densely packed together, thanks to the fact that some of these heavy cruisers were already seriously injured and had slow rotation... In the end, six of the 24 torpedoes fired in the first round still hit the target, with an overall hit rate of 25%.
“Boom~!”
Huge explosions sounded below the waterline of the three heavy cruisers. Then the allied soldiers were horrified to see a large amount of seawater rushing into the cabins of the three heavy cruisers, the Rachaman, the Murcia, and the Ankara. After that, the three heavy cruisers began to tilt at a speed visible to the naked eye.
At 00:52 on the 17th, two Spanish heavy cruisers and one Ottoman heavy cruiser were hit by two torpedoes each, and it seemed that they were doomed. At this time, the six Ming Navy destroyers that had finished the first round of attacks had almost all turned around and were preparing to continue firing torpedoes from the torpedo tubes on the other side of the hull.
The reason why we say almost rather than all is that, on the easternmost side of the six destroyers, the Shunqing destroyer was firing a torpedo for the second time using the torpedo tube on the same side.
"The depth is five meters, right?"
"That's right, it's five meters. I've asked you this three times. Captain, you're being too long-winded! If we don't fire it out, we'll lose the angle."
"Ah~" 23-year-old Major Zheng Chenggong touched his head in embarrassment: "Such a valuable thing must be handled with caution. All right, listen to my command, four pierheads, all fired!"
Because it was at the edge of the queue, during the more than ten-minute charge, Zheng Chenggong's Shunqing, like the Foshan on the other side, was the least targeted by enemy artillery. After more than ten minutes of charge, the biggest threat was a towering water column stirred up by a battleship's heavy artillery that hit the Shunqing head-on - this was nothing for the navy soldiers who had trained at sea for many years and experienced the baptism of storms many times.
However, now that there are only seven warships left in the detachment and three enemy heavy cruisers have been hit, the Shunqing is starting to have a hard time. Zheng Chenggong clearly felt that his Shunqing was now being illuminated by the enemy's searchlights more and more frequently. The morale of the Spanish and Ottoman soldiers, who were furious because their friendly ships were sunk, automatically rose to full strength, and the frequency of shooting also increased significantly. Specifically on the Shunqing, although the 150 gun and the 75 gun did not hit directly, their landing points were getting closer and closer to the Shunqing. And because the Shunqing was only seven or eight hundred meters away from the nearest enemy heavy cruiser, the hull of the Shunqing was now full of small craters caused by enemy machine guns.
"Alas, I may die in this battle. But please God, at least let me live for five minutes. If I can see the enemy battleship being hit by the torpedo I launched, I will die without regrets!"
But just at this time, because of the enemy's fury and the intensity of firepower further increased, and Shunqing was the slowest to turn because of the second round of torpedoes, it became the target of the enemy's concentrated fire. Suddenly, Zheng Chenggong and his crew felt the pressure all over their bodies relieved!
During the initial charge, the Qiongzhou, which had fallen behind, slowed down significantly after being hit by three shots and caught up with the ship, and was pulling the ship sideways in preparation for launching torpedoes.
The ship was the largest, and it was ready to launch torpedoes. Who else should they attack if not you? Suddenly, almost all the coalition heavy cruisers poured their firepower on the Qiongzhou.
A distance of 800 meters was the distance of hand-to-hand combat for a heavy cruiser. Not to mention the concentrated fire attack of 13 heavy cruisers at this time? In just a few short breaths, the Qiongzhou was hit by more than ten shells and thousands of machine gun bullets. Then the 3,000-ton Qiongzhou was disintegrated in an instant.
At 00:53 on the 17th, a huge explosion occurred inside the Qiongzhou, with the entire ship filled with thick smoke and the bridge almost disappearing. The entire ship broke into two and quickly sank.
"Youan!"
"Captain!"
Amid the cries of grief from the crews of the remaining six ships of the Third Squadron, more than 150 people on the Qiongzhou all died heroically!
…
"Sir, the enemy's first round of torpedo attacks has been completed. We have sunk one light cruiser and six destroyers. But our Rachaman, Murcia, and Ankara are probably no longer safe."
"Hey, I remember that these three heavy cruisers were actually seriously damaged in the naval battle during the day, right?"
"Yes."
"Whatever. If we go back, we won't be able to fight for a few months. This won't have much impact on our current combat capability. Order the heavy cruisers ahead to sink the remaining six enemy destroyers. Also send out lifeboats to pick up the personnel from the three heavy cruisers."
"yes!"
Just as the communications officer was about to turn around and leave, he suddenly heard two dull explosions not far away.
"What's going on? We're so close, and that heavy cruiser was hit by a torpedo again?"
Before Garcia could leave the command tower, another staff officer slammed open the hatch and said, "Sir, the Queen Isabella has been hit!"
"What? How is this possible?"
While the Spanish officers and soldiers on the Fernando V were extremely shocked, on the other side, on the badly damaged Shunqing, there was jubilation.
Wiping away the tears that flowed from Dong Zhining's heroic death, Zheng Chenggong said, "Send a telegram to the other five ships to fire the second round of torpedoes immediately. Without observing the results of the battle, retreat!"
"yes!"
Soon, the remaining six warships of the Ming army fired 24 white-headed torpedoes at the same time, and then the five ships of Shunqing, Zhaoqing, Kuizhou, Baoning and Luzhou began to increase their speed to the maximum, preparing to leave the battlefield.
The only exception is the Foshan.
During the first round of the charge, the destroyers used the torpedo tubes on the left side of the ship to launch torpedoes. However, the four wahoos of the Foshan were all installed on the right side, so they could not be launched. After circling back, when the other five ships had completed their mission and began to retreat, the Foshan still had things to do.
"Set depth to five meters, fire!"
Amid the hissing sounds, Feng Jingdi clearly felt that his Foshan was much more relaxed. Then he looked at the huge enemy battleship in the distance with regret: "It's a pity that I can't see the spectacular scene of the enemy ship being hit like Zheng Chenggong did. Forget it, retreat..."
Before he could finish his sentence, a huge shell hit the thin body of the Foshan directly: this was a 305 main gun fired at a close range of 1,300 meters away by the furious Vice Admiral Garcia after the Queen Isabella was hit by a torpedo, forcing all battleships to take the risk of accidentally hitting friendly ships.
At fifty-four minutes, the Foshan sank.
The five Ming destroyers that were galloping at full speed were not able to escape. After the distance between the two sides was widened again, the Spanish battleships could fire at full speed without any scruples. In the end, the Zhaoqing and Kuizhou were also sunk one after another.
Although the Ming army suffered heavy losses, Spain's losses continued to expand. The 24 white-headed torpedoes fired by the Ming army hit two heavy cruisers again, and four of them hit the same heavy cruiser. Then the Ottoman heavy cruiser named Istanbul, with a displacement of 5,000 tons, sank without any temper.
Feng Jingdi's Foshan fired four wahoo shells, but because the Spanish were already prepared, his luck was not as good as Zheng Chenggong's. In the end, only one of the four wahoo shells hit the old battleship Duke.
"Sir, the enemy has retreated. We have sunk one light cruiser and nine destroyers." The young staff officer said with a sad face, "In tonight's battle, we had five heavy cruisers and two battleships hit by torpedoes. Among the five heavy cruisers, one sank directly, and three were too seriously damaged to be saved. Among the two battleships, the Duke was hit by a bullet and took on about 1,300 tons of water. Although the speed has been further reduced, there will be no big problem returning to Colombo. It's just that the Queen, the Queen..."
"What happened to the Queen? Tell me, Martinez. It doesn't matter."
"The Chinese are very insidious and despicable. Their torpedoes are set to a depth of five meters underwater, which happens to be the draft depth of our battleships in this area. The Duke was only hit by one torpedo, and the heavy armor below the waterline offset most of the damage, so although a lot of water was taken in, it was not a big problem. However, the Queen was hit by two torpedoes in a row in close proximity. In addition to a large amount of water taking in, the keel, the keel in the middle and rear of the hull, was damaged."
"God..." Upon hearing such bad news, Garcia had no choice but to stroke his forehead with his hand.
"Where is our destroyer flotilla?"
"They are on their way. The nearest one is more than 20 kilometers away."
"Inform them of our situation here and ask them to find the remaining three destroyers tonight. I want to annihilate this small fleet!"
"Yes." After a while, Martinez turned back and asked, "Sir, we found a small number of Chinese sailors on the sea. May I ask?"
"..." After a long silence, Garcia still did not cross the line: "As a navy, anyone may fall into the sea and wait for others to rescue him one day. Rescue him and bring him back to Colombo. I have a lot of questions to ask them."
"Got it. And the Queen?"
"In addition to Ferdinand V, the founding monarch of Spain also includes Queen Isabella. So, find a way to tow it back. Even if the keel is damaged, it would be a good idea to build a fixed artillery position in Colombo."
"Understood. I will follow your orders, sir."
…
At six o'clock in the morning on the 17th, Zhu Youdong, who had returned to Yangon Port in advance after the main fleet naval battle on the afternoon of the 16th, was awakened by Fang Zhenghua. Then he saw Inukai Touji, who was only in his 50s and had black hair with occasional white hair yesterday, but now was almost completely gray and had bloodshot eyes.
After bowing his head heavily, Inukai Tōji said with a choked voice, "Your Majesty, the army can land now."
