For John Cleeves, the nightmare was just the beginning. What he didn't know was that in the other direction, on the deck of the destroyer Courage, the sailors of the Qin Navy were watching helplessly.
The Harpoon anti-ship missile hit the destroyer USS Samura sailing next to them.
Huge energy instantly penetrated the destroyer's hull, and the fire suddenly enveloped the entire superstructure of the destroyer.
The horrific explosion destroyed the hull, exploded the deck, and blew off the destroyer's funnel. The destroyer Samura, which had come all the way from Dorne, began to break and sink in just half a minute.
Immediately afterwards, everyone saw the large and small anti-aircraft guns on the Qin Zhufeng destroyer not far away, pouring ammunition crazily in one direction.
The tracer bullets weaved a fire net on the sea. Within the fire net, a black shadow instantly hit the middle of the destroyer Zhufeng. The 220-kilogram warhead exploded all of a sudden, blowing away the chimney of the destroyer Zhufeng.
There are searchlights as tall as one person on both sides.
The 40mm Bofors anti-aircraft guns surrounding the searchlight were all pushed into the air by the blast of air. The sailors manning the anti-aircraft guns overturned and fell into the sea. A horrific hole appeared in the entire destroyer's hull.
The hull structure deformed and melted due to the violent combustion and explosion. The keel, which had lost its strength, began to break. Seawater poured into the interior of the destroyer along the cracks. The slender warship began to tilt and was about to sink to the bottom of the sea.
Before the sailors on the destroyer Courage could scream in surprise, further away, two Harpoon anti-ship missiles hit Qin's cruiser Miracle almost simultaneously.
Two clouds of black smoke one after the other made the entire Miracle tremble. A few seconds later, the Miracle's ammunition depot exploded. The No. 1 turret was directly blown away by the explosion, and the bow of the cruiser was propped up by the internal explosion.
It broke, broke and sank, and soon disappeared on the sea.
The cruiser Miracle, which had lost its bow, began to slow down. The explosion at the rear of the hull seemed to damage its power system. The Miracle was forced to stop on the sea soon, and was gradually left behind by the high-speed fleet.
.
This was far from over, because the Miracle, which had lost power, exploded again soon. It seemed that there was a problem near the boiler. With a dull explosion, this brand-new ship, which had only been launched for more than two years,
The cruiser capsized, leaving only the bottom floating on the sea.
These sunken warships were only some of the warships sunk by the second batch of anti-ship missiles launched by the Tang Army.
Due to poor communication, these losses could not be sent to John Cleeves in time. The commander of the combined fleet did not know that the guard fleet he deployed outside the anchorage had suffered heavy losses and could hardly fight anymore.
.
This is by no means an alarmist statement. John Cleeves deployed a total of four peripheral guard fleets, which were placed in the northeast, northwest, southeast and southwest directions.
The warning fleet deployed in the northeast is the strongest, because that is the direction where the Tang army is most likely to attack. There are 17 battleships in total, including 3 battleships.
The southeast direction is followed by 15 battleships, including two battleships; followed by the northwest direction, there are 9 battleships and one battleship stationed there; the smallest alert fleet is the southwest fleet, with 7 battleships and no battleships.
Battleship.
At the core is the main fleet, including 10 aircraft carriers, 4 battleships, and 6 patrol cruisers and destroyers.
Now, all 15 battleships deployed in the southeast direction have been almost wiped out, one battleship has been seriously injured, 2 cruisers and 4 destroyers have been sunk. There are also 2 cruisers and 5 destroyers injured...
Only one battleship in the entire fleet escaped the disaster. Now they are trying to find ways to save people and help rescue other injured battleships. There is no way to continue fighting.
The nine warships deployed in the northwest direction were under attack at this moment. The sailors on the destroyer HMS Courage were lucky enough to witness this spectacular scene: except for them, the remaining eight warships were hit one after another and caught fire.
, the scene is a spectacular one.
In the end, only the thick-skinned Qin battleship Weiwei survived the Tang army's missile attack. It was hit by three Harpoon missiles, but fortunately none of them hit the critical position.
At this point in the guard fleet deployed in the northwest, only the destroyer Courage and the seriously injured battleship Mighty are still floating on the sea. The remaining battleships... have sunk, or are sinking.
John Cleeves had probably determined the losses in the southeast direction by now. He knew that he had eight battleships wounded and about six battleships sunk.
Including the aircraft carrier that sunk the main fleet, the combined fleet has lost a large number of warships, and the situation is already very bad.
At this moment, a flash of light suddenly lit up on the distant sea, close to the sea level.
Someone happened to see this flash of light and picked up his telescope and looked over. In the eyepiece of his telescope, billowing black smoke was emitting from the side of the USS Talens aircraft carrier sailing on the sea.
At this moment, a Harpoon anti-ship missile directly hit the side of the aircraft carrier, penetrating the hull again, causing the thick smoke emitted from the side to be filled with dancing firelight.
"Director, Commander... Talens, the Talens aircraft carrier, the Talens has been hit! It is on fire..." Before he could put down the telescope in his hand, the officer yelled in the command bridge.
Got up.
No one scolded him, because after hearing his shout, everyone grabbed the telescope on their chest and looked in the direction of the Talens aircraft carrier.
They soon saw that a huge explosion blew off the deck of the Talens aircraft carrier, and all the Stuka bombers parked on the deck were blown into the sea by the explosion.
Those planes are all preparing to take off and form the third batch of attack aircraft! They have just mounted torpedoes and are waiting for the order to take off.
Now, an aircraft with a torpedo attached fell into the sea of fire on the deck, followed by another explosion, and the flames engulfed the bridge of the Talens aircraft carrier...
John Cleeves no longer dared to look. He put down his telescope, and no blood could be seen on his face. That was a Dorne aircraft carrier, another Dorne aircraft carrier!
He brought these battleships, the battleships on which the country's hope rested, and lost two aircraft carriers before he even saw the enemy! How could he explain to His Majesty the Emperor? How could he... explain to himself?
