If you want to install radar, you have to have it. The Southern African Navy installed radar on warships 20 years ago. Now radar has evolved from meter waves to decimeter waves. Fire control radars have begun to appear. However,
It also lacks computer assistance and is not a complete fire control radar.
The Japanese also have radar, but it will take time to apply the radar in actual combat. The "Seagull" can always detect the Japanese fleet in advance. The secret lies in the use of search radar.
If you fall behind, you will be beaten. This is an eternal truth. Isoroku Yamamoto has no idea what kind of battle he is about to face.
Since torpedo planes and bombers in southern Africa did not need to face interception by Japanese carrier-based fighters, torpedo planes and bombers could launch attacks from the most comfortable positions.
The maximum range of a torpedo is 20,000 meters. In fact, the effect of launching a torpedo at a distance of 20,000 meters is not good. The farther away the torpedo is from the Japanese warship, the higher the hit rate.
The Japanese combined fleet is now like a tiger whose teeth have been pulled out and can only be beaten passively.
The torpedo planes in southern Africa launched torpedoes outside the Japanese anti-aircraft fire network. It didn't matter whether they could hit the target. Anyway, there were a lot of torpedoes. Go back and install the torpedoes and then come back and beat the old master to death with random punches. If you use too many torpedoes, you will always be safe.
If a torpedo can hit the target, it's a matter of probability.
Bombers do not need to face intensive anti-aircraft fire dives. No matter how high the bomb is dropped from, the warships below have to make a zigzag to avoid it.
Never mind the issue of whether a 100kg aerial bomb can penetrate the thick deck of a battleship. A 50kg aerial bomb may be a little worse. A 100kg aerial bomb can at least deal with anti-aircraft weapons with weak armor or even no armor protection.
The unprotected anti-aircraft machine gunners of the Japanese army were unlucky. Near misses could also cause damage to them. If a bomb failed to land on the warship, a metal storm would be waiting for them.
Like the US military, the first wave of torpedo attacks by the Southern African Navy had no effect.
The difference is that all the first wave of torpedo planes of the US military were shot down, but none of the first wave of torpedo planes of the Southern African Navy were damaged.
Compared with the torpedo aircraft commanders of the US military, the commanders of the southern African torpedo aircraft were very cautious and did not approach the Japanese fleet at all, so the Japanese air defense firepower was naturally unable to be used.
Captain Ge Zhiyong, commander of the carrier-based fighter squadron from Luo City, was not satisfied with this result.
"Lopez, don't you dare to fly a little further? Attacking like this has no effect except wasting torpedoes." Ge Zhiyong directly laughed at the torpedo squadron commander Lopez through the intercom.
Lopez and Ge Zhiyong are both from Los Angeles. Their families are neighbors. They wore crotchless pants to get along. After graduating from high school, they entered the Air Force Academy at the same time. Five years ago, they entered the Southern African Navy at the same time.
The organization of the Southern African army is similar to that of the United Kingdom. Most of the members of a unit are from the same region, and many of them are even relatives. This way, the troops will stick to each other during combat, and no one will abandon their family members.
"Stop talking nonsense, if you swoop down and strafe to help me draw firepower, I will launch an attack on the Japanese at the closest distance." Lopez retorted, who can't say sarcastic remarks without taking it too seriously when watching the fun? He's a mule or a horse.
Pull it out and slide it around.
The roar of laughter from several other squadron commanders came from the earphones. The pilots were not actually afraid of death, but were afraid of meaningless death.
At this point, the Japanese made the same mistake as the Germans in their estimation of the United States and southern Africa.
Southern Africans and Americans are really not afraid of death if they have money.
The torpedo plane was hit and the pilot, who was unable to fly back to the base, crashed the plane into the Japanese aircraft carrier.
Without the protection of fighter jets, U.S. torpedo plane pilots knew that it would be difficult to pass through the interception of the "Zero" and the Japanese fleet's anti-aircraft firepower network, but they still rushed towards the Japanese ship formation.
The first two waves of U.S. torpedo aircraft formations, a total of 24 aircraft, were all shot down after completing their attacks on the Japanese warship formations.
Earlier, the Southern African Army launched brutal hand-to-hand combat with the Japanese in the tropical jungles of the Malay Peninsula, forcing the Japanese to the point where they turned into human bombs.
The U.S.-Philippine coalition forces on the Bataan Peninsula fought until the last moment when they ran out of ammunition and food before being forced to surrender.
All this proves that southern Africans and Americans definitely do not lack courage. On the contrary, the Japanese army showed lack of courage when fighting the southern African army.
The courage of the Japanese is usually displayed most vividly when facing weak enemies, especially when facing women and children.
Yamamoto Isoroku was frightened and angry at this time. The main fleet he led had lost air protection. Bombers from Southern Africa were conducting horizontal bombings above the fleet. The warships had to make roundabout maneuvers to avoid aerial bombs falling from the sky.
For battleships with a displacement of tens of thousands of tons, aerial bombs have little effect, and even torpedoes cannot cause fatal damage to the battleship.
However, for light cruisers and destroyers that lack protection, either aerial bombs or torpedoes may directly sink them.
It is inevitable that a hundred secrets will be lost. A Japanese destroyer was accidentally hit by a red-headed torpedo while avoiding an aerial bomb.
The explosive part weighing 800 kilograms directly tore the destroyer from the middle and rear. The tail of the destroyer flew about five meters high and hit the water heavily. The sailors had no chance to escape and were dragged by the vortex formed by the sinking destroyer.
Into the bottom of the sea.
Immediately afterwards, another light cruiser was hit, and a huge gap was opened in the Japanese fleet's anti-aircraft firepower.
A Southern African "Sea Harrier" bomber broke through the Japanese air defense firepower network and accurately hit the front deck of the Japanese battleship "Mutsu" with a 500-kilogram aerial bomb at a nearly 90-degree vertical angle.
The violent explosion wiped out all the anti-aircraft weapons on the front deck of the "Mutsu". The No. 1 turret was seriously damaged, and the steering rudder of the No. 2 turret failed. In just two minutes, the fire caused by the explosion began to spread to the belly of the hull.
Lieutenant Colonel Yota Matsushita, who was directing the firefighting on the front deck, accidentally slipped and fell into the sea.
At this time, the "Mutsu" was surrounded by fierce smoke, and more torpedo planes and bombers swarmed in.
The heavy cruiser "Mogami" moved closer to the "Mutsu" and helped the "Mutsu" put out the fire.
At this time, the wind and waves were high, and the "Mogami" accidentally collided with the "Mutsu". The "Mutsu" made the situation worse, and a large hole was knocked out of the side of the "Mogami".
At 12:25, ten "Sea Harriers" were divided into two teams and launched an attack on the "Mutsu". Four "Sea Harriers" carrying aerial bombs dived toward the "Mutsuzo" from the air, and six "Sea Harriers" carrying torpedoes dived towards the "Mutsuzo".
"Harrier" clings to the sea and approaches "Mutsu".
The "Mutsu" went all out and avoided most of the bombs from the air, but it was still hit by two 200 kilogram aerial bombs one after another.
One of the bombs hit the bridge of the "Mutsu". Colonel Kogure Gunji, who was commanding the battle on the bridge, and all the officers on the bridge were killed. The "Mutsu" lost its command system and its communication system was also blown up.
, lost contact with other warships.
Without command, the "Mutsu" was like a headless giant bear, losing its ability to dodge aerial bombs and torpedoes.
Soon "Mutsu" was hit by two 533 torpedoes, losing the ability to move and turn. About thirty minutes later, Yamamoto Isoroku ordered the ship to be abandoned.
"Mutsu" is the second ship of the "Nagato" class battleship. The famous BIG7 has always been listed as one of the priority targets that must be sunk by the Southern African Navy.
Now the Southern African Navy finally got what it wanted, but the "Mutsu" did not sink immediately. Next, there are "Nagato" and the more powerful "Yamato" waiting for the Southern African Navy to harvest.
At the same time that "Mutsu" was hit, the battleship "Yamashiro" was also hit by a bomb.
Fortunately, the bomb did not cause fatal damage to the "Yamashiro" and the "Yamashiro" was still able to fight.
Yamamoto Isoroku ordered "Yamashiro" to break away from the formation and return home, because at this time, the speed of "Yamashiro" could no longer keep up with the speed of the formation. Yamamoto Isoroku had not given up attacking Guam at this time. His order was given to "Yamashiro"
Come the catastrophe.
If it were within the combined fleet formation, the "Yamashiro" might be able to survive. Compared with the "Yamashiro", the "Yamato" and "Nagato" are more tempting to the naval aviation forces in Southern Africa.
The "Yamashiro" broke away from the formation and returned to the west. Not long after it left the battlefield, it was targeted by the "ghost" submarine wandering outside the battlefield looking for opportunities.
Although the performance of the "Ghost" submarine is powerful, in this level of naval battle, the "Ghost" is basically useless.
The role of submarines is extremely limited. The economic speed of the fleet formation is 15 knots, which is already higher than the fastest speed of ordinary submarines.
The first person to discover the Yamashiro was the East India submarine No. 031.
The captain of the 031 submarine was not in a hurry to take action, but called for help from other submarines. Next to the "Yamashiro" was the destroyer "Liangfeng", which is the tenth ship of Japan's Shiro-class destroyers.
The "mountain city" that was out of the battle was severely flooded and could only sail at a speed of about 13 knots. At this speed, the "Ghost" submarine could keep up.
The first to attack the "mountain city" was the submarine No. 017 that came later.
The timing of the 017 submarine launching torpedoes was very clever. It happened to be on the same line as "Liangfeng", and "Mountain City" was between 017 and "Liangfeng".
The length of the battleship "Yamashiro" is 215 meters, while the length of the "Liangfeng" is only 111 meters. The huge body of the "Yamashiro" completely cuts off the "Liangfeng"'s field of vision, resulting in the "Liangfeng" having no chance of torpedo attacks.
Any preparation.
The 017 submarine fired three torpedoes in succession. When the torpedoes dragged a white water line across the sea, they were immediately spotted by the observers of the "Yamashiro".
The "Yamashiro" moved forward at full speed and made an obvious turn, successfully dodging the torpedoes.
The unprepared "Liangfeng" was unlucky. A torpedo narrowly missed the tail of "Yamashiro" and hit the "Liangfeng" just in time.
The violent explosion of the torpedo directly blew the "Liangfeng" into two pieces and sank in less than a minute. The "Yamashiro" lost its only protection.
The next three "Ghost" submarines fired a total of 16 torpedoes at the "Yamashiro", and the "Yamashiro" was hit by 9 of them.
At 3:12, after an earth-shattering explosion, the fully loaded "Yamashiro" with a displacement of 33,800 tons sank, becoming the first battleship sunk in the Battle of Guam.
"Yamashiro" was the first battleship sunk, but it was not the first large battleship. Before "Yamashiro" sank, the aircraft carrier "Hiryū" had already been sunk, and it was sunk by the Japanese destroyer.
After being hit by a torpedo plane, the "Flying Dragon" was unable to take off and land fighter planes, and the "Flying Dragon" lost its combat capability in a short period of time.
"Hiryu" is a medium-sized fleet aircraft carrier, an improved version of the Soryu-class aircraft carrier.
Like the "Sangryu" class aircraft carrier, the "Hiryu" also has serious problems such as excessive armament, unstable center of gravity, and insufficient structural strength.
During the construction process, the drawings of the "Flying Dragon" were revised several times. The armor protection was enhanced, the displacement was increased by 2,000 tons, and the ship island was also changed from the right side to the left side. This is not a good design. Research by the Southern African Navy shows that
Once pilots encounter trouble during landing, they tend to turn left due to habitual reasons. The island superstructure on the port side causes twice as many landing accidents as on the starboard side.
This conclusion is normal, just as a car driver will subconsciously turn the steering wheel to the left to avoid the driver's seat and accept the impact when a frontal collision is about to occur. Therefore, the co-pilot position is the most dangerous.
Japanese aircraft carriers have installed a wooden floor on the steel deck to improve the performance of the flight deck. This has many benefits, but it also makes it difficult to control the fire once it catches fire and the fire will spread quickly.
When the torpedo plane hit the deck of the "Flying Dragon", there were more than 20 torpedo planes and bombers parked on the deck of the "Flying Dragon". They were prepared to attack the coalition fleet, but the Japanese reconnaissance planes were not powerful enough. Until now,
The location of the coalition fleet was not found, and the captain of the "Flying Dragon" did not dare to retract the torpedo planes and bombers to the belly position. In that case, it would take at least half an hour to use the elevator to raise the torpedo planes and bombers.
An aircraft carrier battle, let alone half an hour, is already very deadly in five minutes. In another time and space, after the Japanese lost the Battle of Midway, they attributed the main reason for the defeat to the "five minutes of fate."
This is actually an excuse for the Japanese to cover up their defeat and save face. There is no so-called "Five Minutes of Destiny". Give the Japanese another five years and they will not be able to win. Even if the United States loses Midway, the Pacific Fleet will be able to defeat it in at most half a year.
To regain its strength, Japan will lose as long as it loses once.
After a fire broke out on the deck, the sailors of the "Flying Dragon" tried their best to put out the fire. A nearby Japanese cruiser and a destroyer also came to help.
In order not to cause greater losses, the captain of the "Flying Dragon" ordered all six torpedo planes that were relatively close to the fire scene to be pushed into the sea. This did not save the fate of the "Flying Dragon".
At this time, the "Flying Dragon" was billowing with smoke, which could be seen more than ten miles away.
More bombers and torpedo planes swarmed in. A 500-kilogram bomb dropped by a "Sea Harrier" directly penetrated the deck of the "Flying Dragon" and exploded inside the "Flying Dragon". This explosion caused the "Flying Dragon" to be damaged by more than a month.
Hundreds of people died and high-quality aviation fuel stored in the oil depot was ignited.
At 12:40, the fire on the "Hiryu" was completely out of control. Chuichi Nagumo ordered the ship to be abandoned and ordered the destroyer to launch torpedoes to sink the "Hiryu".
