For the first time, Lukins witnessed the ferocity and irresistibility of modern warfare, but the repeated heavy blows had already made him numb. He only glanced back twice, then stubbornly turned around and commanded the rest. The battleships pushed forward with all their strength.
Mountbatten could no longer relax. No matter how much he looked down on the Germans in his heart, after all, everyone was in the same boat now. He had no choice but to help these poor guys out of trouble and try to achieve certain results in this naval battle.
To be honest, no matter how much they hate the Germans, these naval officers from Britain, the United States and other countries, and even do so in disguise, deep down, they hate the Chinese and even all people of color even more, and their camp is very clear. They need the Germans to be the first to stimulate the Chinese, and use Zhu Bin's black hands to weaken the Germans, so as to gain a breathing space for their own country and prevent the Germans from fully hegemony, but they do not want to see Germany It is also not in their interests to be knocked down by a real slap and completely unable to turn over!
Lukins made up his mind and showed his wisdom and decisiveness as a general. Mountbatten was considered a rising star and no longer hid his abilities. He dutifully gave correct advice: "General! It should be our attack that stimulated the Chinese. , or our attack direction is not wrong, but our judgment on their defense is still insufficient. Now it seems that our own strength alone is not enough to exhaust their strength. We should take the initiative to move closer to the left wing and seek a joint attack , and asked the right wing to speed up the advance in order to complete a complete encirclement!"
"Okay! Just pass the order according to your judgment!"
Admiral Lukins was very kind and agreed simply. In fact, he had no other good idea. The original plan was to wait for the German main fleet, which was lagging behind, to wait for the forces on both wings to engage the enemy, and then rush forward to exert a heavy blow. It should never become an opponent as soon as it came up. The first choice to advance is the current loss. It was definitely not what he wanted to see.
The plan has been disrupted, so we can only try to get back on track according to the disrupted rhythm.
Zhu Bin's ultra-long-range anti-ship missile strike was already determined in the plan. Therefore, many escort ships, such as destroyers and light cruisers, only retain the minimum number of manpower to operate the ships. In addition to anti-aircraft firepower and torpedoes, Outside the launch group. Even the naval guns are turned on semi-automatic firing as much as possible, in order to prevent being attacked by missiles and later unable to escape - to put it bluntly, these have already been prepared to be used as cannon fodder.
The Germans are not stupid. They certainly don¡¯t want to use their precious strength as bait. The Italians are regarded as the first choice, but there is no choice. Zhu Bin was not fooled, his vision was too accurate and his attack was too dark!
Lukins didn¡¯t know that the main attack formation of battleships on the left wing had suffered a heavy blow, and the number of losses was not much smaller than theirs. Before the reconnaissance planes sent out could reveal the information, the high-level intelligence over there was handed over. Several planes desperately broke through the obstruction and passed the news that they had suffered a heavy air attack to the core fleet.
When he heard that such a large group of battleships had been lost, Lukins was stunned on the spot! In other words, the opponent is basically using a two-pronged approach to attack two targets at the same time, instead of concentrating on dealing with him alone!
"How dare they?!" Lukins' first reaction was that he didn't believe how powerful the Chinese navy is. The previous investigation clearly showed that the number of warships, judging from the size of the world's navy today, can only serve as an attack force in one direction. How dare you divide your forces? !
Mountbatten frowned and said depressedly: "Perhaps our previous judgment was biased! The Chinese are stronger than we thought! There must be some new changes that we have not figured out before! Well. Maybe it is. The special attack gunboats that harassed us along the way?¡±
Lukins wanted to spit on his face, sir, what is a bias in judgment! It's just because you guys didn't do your intelligence work well! How difficult are the Chinese people to deal with? Don¡¯t you guys who have suffered a lot know?
An absurd thought suddenly flashed through his mind: "Could it be that these English-speaking bastards deliberately ignored the changes in the Chinese people and let Germany suffer a big loss and weaken our strength by the way?"
It¡¯s just that this year it disappeared in a blink of an eye. The top priority was not to pursue the so-called truth at all. He had to find a way to get out of this bad situation and turn the tide of the war!
Admiral Lukins gave an unequivocal order: "Tell General Cunningham that no matter how much their losses are, they must move closer to us immediately and form a new joint combat array to outflank us! We have already paid such a heavy price, and we must not let this happen." give up halfway!"
"yes!"
Mountbatten acted as a loyal mouthpiece, relaying the Admiral's orders meticulously, and then calmly and secretly figured out how to deal with the changes.? situation.
He did not tell the Germans not to hope that they would consume all the Chinese missiles so quickly. It seems that they are expensive, but the Chinese have definitely more missiles than they imagined! The reason why we made the plan to concentrate all the navy in one battle was not because of arrogance, but because we were forced to make the worst plan out of desperation!
Privately, both the British and American navies can confirm that in fact, even if the world's maritime power is concentrated, the best thing is to fight the Chinese and lose both sides. After that, there is no better way to deal with China's remaining three fleets¡ª¡ªthe weapons gap is enough to level everything!
They did not tell the Germans that in fact, in the previous battles, the Chinese did not seem to use their full strength. Their fighting methods were eclectic and changed frequently, making it impossible to guess where the bottom line was. Thinking about such an opponent is a headache. If they hadn't lost their fighting spirit after being beaten, how could they have surrendered to the Germans!
After all, the Germans are too naive, far inferior to the shamelessness and bottom line of the old gangsters. Lukins thought he could hold on until the arrival of the American aircraft carrier formation on the right, but he didn't know that he was actually learning that the battle was over. At the beginning, when the German army was attacked first, Spruance immediately ordered that the fleet continue to speed up and sail forward. The Germans who were monitoring them had long been confused and lost the orders that came one after another - the order. The planes couldn't find the fleet at all.
So, when Admiral Lukins needed help the most, they were a thousand kilometers away from the main battlefield. Unless the battleship could fly, it would be too late!
On the contrary, it was General Cunningham on the left who led the fleet to maneuver closer to the right. The large crescent-shaped arc array that already existed appeared to be extremely thin because a large piece of it was cut off in the middle. However, with his best efforts, he used Zhu Bin's opportunity to shrink them, and the cruising one on the left was The strength gathered back and was again in front of the battleship. It formed a powerful outer support arc, thickened by two layers, and barely connected with the Lukins fleet to form an encirclement with a width of 200 kilometers in the middle!
It seems that Zhu Bin¡¯s fleet has been surrounded, but everyone knows this encirclement. It's like a thin net trapping a whale shark. Its strength and toughness are completely unreliable. All it takes is a slight shake from the scary guy, and the net will surely fall apart!
But after all, they were trapped. Without hesitation, Cunningham and Lukins ordered all the ships to give up their roundabouts and charge inward with all their strength. As long as you can reach your opponent in the first place, you don't have to worry about not having a chance to attack. This was their original strategy!
Such an offensive strategy comes at a high cost, which is enough to put the senior navies around the world to shame, and will make future generations lament it!
Looking at the holographic screen, hundreds of enemy multinational ships were surrounded by hundreds of enemy ships on the vast Atlantic Ocean. Zhu Bin turned the destroyers at least a hundred meters long and 1,000-ton destroyers to 70,000-ton battleships into the world's largest arrows, splitting the cold waves at full speed, aiming directly at the main fleet in the core area. He was very nervous and even beaming with excitement: "This is so cool! The Germans really have great courage. I like it!"
The moment he had been waiting for for a long time had finally arrived! Ten years of hard work were extraordinary, and now it was finally the moment of the epic battle involving a thousand ships, which he had been preparing for for a long time. The spectacular sight you most wanted to see became a reality!
Chen Shaokuan and others could not understand his strange thinking, but were shocked by his opponent's crazy behavior! The densely packed steel giants, which almost covered the sea surface and totaled millions of tons, were lined up in front of us like fishing boats collectively going out to sea. It was as majestic and shocking as the confrontation between millions of armies in history. In comparison, In terms of numbers, the ocean fleet is far behind its opponents!
It is said that too many ants kill an elephant. No matter how bad the enemy ship is, it can still release life-threatening torpedoes. Hundreds or thousands of them gather together. Even if the ocean-going fleet is covered with hands, how many killing moves can it catch?
Questions were quickly answered by Zhu Bin¡¯s practical actions!
On the right, four "Kunlun Ships" and one "Xuanzhou" guided-missile destroyer suddenly accelerated out of the formation, leaving the escorting ships behind. Driven by nuclear power, the sharp bows fiercely split the rushing waves, shaped like The sharp sword pierced directly towards the top of the arc of the enemy ship formation!
When they reached a distance of 100 kilometers, the five warships released a wave of cruise missiles at the same time, targeting the enemy destroyers and light cruisers charging at the forefront one by one. They did not seek to completely sink them, but only to damage them. Shockingly, within ten minutes, they were created. There were forty or fifty iconic units emitting billowing smoke.
Immediately afterwards, the 36 heavy guns of the four ships were all tilted horizontally, all replaced with bottom row extended-range shells. When approaching 70 kilometers, they opened fire first. The precision-guided shells crossed across the sky, creating an earth-shattering roar and passing by. Above the heads of the chaotic escort ships, an incredibly dense strike formation was formed, slamming into the rear.?In the battleship formation!
quick! allow! ruthless!
With the unprecedented advanced technology, the effect of the Kunlun ship's main gun was absolutely unimaginable by the navy of this era. After aiming for a long time, the fastest joint bombardment suddenly broke out. In just three rounds, more than a hundred shells were fired, causing a hit. Just now The battleship "Imperial", which had not been in service for long, was the first to bear the brunt. It was hit by an armor-piercing projectile on the deck, which kicked off the destruction!
The Italians were completely stunned!
They have never participated in such an explosive, fierce, and violent naval battle! Even the "Veneto-class" battleships, the most powerful maritime force with a mere endurance of less than 5,000 nautical miles, were designed to dominate the Mediterranean. They thought they would fight against the strongest enemy in history in the Atlantic. Face-to-face PK!
The overwhelming 420mm shells and dense explosions produced water columns that stood like skyscrapers. The turbulent waves were pushed into an even more violent state. One wave after another, they slapped hard on the battleship. The rumbling explosions and crashing sounds made the ship even more violent. Their soldiers who were used to a stable life mistakenly thought that the end of the world was coming. Not to mention the will to fight, those who could keep their hands from shaking at their posts were considered strong!
Counterattack? I don¡¯t know where the enemy is!
The dense explosion of artillery shells made Cunningham feel as if he had returned to decades ago. At that time, the navy was still orthodox, and large-caliber main guns were still the protagonists of the show, with deafening roars, air waves rising from the air, filled with gunpowder smoke, and boiling sea water. These are the most exciting and brilliant moments in a Navy's life!
Every traditional and outstanding British naval admiral will not refuse or be afraid of such a battle. They are eager to lead a powerful navy, travel across the oceans, and sweep away their opponents! But I absolutely don¡¯t like today¡¯s vulgarity and shamelessness of using missiles to kill the enemy from hundreds of kilometers away!
"What a pity! That's not the fleet of the British Empire!"
The enemy ship¡¯s amazing main gun range has been determined. Cunningham sighed with infinite emotion, and issued instructions to let the warships continue to maintain their course, charge towards the enemy, and advance!
So, the next half hour. It became a special performance of the Kunlun ship's unilateral firepower output!
Kindness, in the war between countries, has never been a popular word. Zhu Bin, who finally caught an unprecedented opportunity, resolutely erased its existence from his dictionary!
The four Kunlun ships entered a non-stop battle mode from the first salvo. Under intelligent fire control joint operation, the thirty-six main guns consistently aimed at a single target. According to the maximum rate of fire that the medicine chamber and barrel can withstand, and on the basis of ensuring cooling and cleaning operations, throw as many shells as far as possible!
With every salvo, at least a dozen tons of propellant are turned into driving force and rush out of the muzzle. The heavy hull is enough to offset all the recoil, maintaining long-term stability, and the vibration of the barrel is not enough to cause excessive damage. angle changes. Every salvo is under strict control, and the first shot that hits becomes the first shot of focused fire. After that, there were hundreds of consecutive punches!
A rumble of explosions erupted from the core of the Italian formation. Within ten minutes, the "Imperial" took a total of 23 rounds of heavy armor-piercing shells! She was the weakest armored warship among similar warships. She could not withstand the terrifying blow with excessive lethality. The superstructure on the deck was almost wiped out by the bombing. Three water-bombing bombs were exquisitely blasted into the weak armored area on the waterline, and penetrated into the power compartment and triggered a fire. After a series of big explosions, the body tilted and entered the countdown to sinking!
Following closely behind is the "Roma". As the third ship of the "Veneto class", it did not have time to participate in the battle after it was launched. Today is the first trip. The name represents the history and culture of the Italians, but it cannot stand like their Colosseum for thousands of years. It is just Within five minutes after the first shell fell, the 420mm shell that was forced to a distance of 45 kilometers tore off all the steel outer coverings. The bridge was completely blown to pieces, and the main turret was uprooted. From a wide angle on the deck, The falling shell even penetrated all the way to the bottom cabin. He was hit by 18 shells and completely perished!
At this time, the outer destroyer group is less than 20 kilometers away from the Kunlun ship, entering the perfect sea area for torpedo attack, and may even form a curve to outflank it from three sides!
The commander of the squadron who was at the forefront was overjoyed. Just as he was about to order all the torpedoes to be released in order to succeed in the group attack, the secondary battery of the Kunlun ship opened fire!
Their secondary guns are 203mm triple turrets! Four turrets with 12 guns and 55 times the barrel ensure that the range is far enough and the rate of fire is fast enough. At a distance of 20 kilometers, with extremely high-precision fire control, each turret can deal with a target alone and carry out terrifying intensive strikes! The maximum delivery capacity of 12 rounds per minute per door ensures that as long as you fire, those who are targeted will have no way to survive!
Four Kunlun ships and an accompanying "Xuanzhou" ship formed theThe team staggered close to the enemy ship's reverse arc array, and all the artillery exploded at the same time!
16 triple secondary turrets, plus an electromagnetic reconnection double 127 cannon, suddenly turned into an erupting volcano! In the blink of an eye, the vicious armor-piercing shells enveloped the enemy ship that had struggled to survive the first wave of missile attacks! After a cloud of explosion smoke rose, more than a dozen enemy ships were riddled with holes and were in tatters!
And this did not affect the salvo of the main gun! Their attack has just reached its first peak!
Since its completion, the "Kunlun Ship" has not had the opportunity to fire at full power. Today is a rare opportunity for them to fully unleash their lethality since they entered the service. Perhaps, in decades of service, we will not encounter it a second time. Therefore, all the officers and soldiers devoted almost all their strength to the operational battle!
On the sea, it looks like four active volcanoes erupting! Every minute, dozens of tons of steel ammunition were thrown out. After just twenty minutes, each battleship was actually lighter than a light destroyer! All the muzzles were burned red, and along the way, thick smoke gathered into a large and spectacular cloud over the sea!
Frontally, the escort group that had just opened its stance was swept away! The third battleship "Tolirio" lasted less than ten minutes and was officially disarmed.
However, compared to her companions in front, she had a 381mm gun with a caliber of 50 times. She fired two volleys at any rate. She hit two completely inaccurate explosions at the maximum range, but was hit seven times by the volleys with astonishing accuracy. Everything is broken!
At the critical moment when the five Kunlun ships officially entered the 30-kilometer combat range and were about to face the enemy's main force, they suddenly turned left with their amazing maneuverability and charged diagonally towards the weak area where the two formations intersected. , and pushed hard towards the flank of the main German army!