() The flagship of this Japanese expedition fleet is the Matsushima, and the fleet commander is Togo Heihachiro, who has just been promoted to rear admiral.
The Matsushima ship is a dome-armored cruiser built by the Japanese Navy to deal with the iron armor of the Dingyuan and Zhenyuan ships. A total of three ships of the same class were built: Matsushima, Itsukushima and Hashidate. Matsushima and Itsukushima
The ship was built at the Mediterranean Shipyard in France and was completed in 1891.
The Hashidate was built at the Yokosuka Naval Shipyard in Japan and was launched in 1891. These three ships were named after three famous attractions in Japan: "Matsushima, Itsukushima Shrine, and Amanohashidate", so they are also called the Three Views.
However, the Hashidate has been lost in the last landing fleet, and now only the Matsushima and Itsukushima are left.
This time, Matsushima served as the flagship, and Itsukushima also followed the expedition. In addition, there were four armored cruisers and six wooden cruisers including "Naniwa", "Takachiho", "Hiei" and "Kongo".riben zheng fu
They were cruel. Except for a few old gunboats that stayed at home to guard the country, the rest of the main warships were dispatched in full force, vowing to pull out the thorn in Taiwan's throat.
Togo Heihachiro learned the lessons of the previous two times and did not take the follow-up troop transport ships with him. Instead, he left all the troop transport ships in Ryukyu and only led a formation of 12 combat ships to kill Taiwan. He no longer took the shortest route.
, instead chose to go south around the Yaeyama Islands, and then head west towards Hualien Port. Without the drag of the troop transport ship, the fleet's speed was also increased to 15 knots.
At around 10 o'clock at night on June 17, the Dongxiang fleet approached the waters near Hateruma Island, only 100 nautical miles away from Hualien. At the current speed, it could reach Hualien Port before dawn and launch an attack.
According to Dongxiang's plan, the fleet should launch an artillery bombardment on Hualien before dawn, and then send the "Rijin" back to notify the troop transport fleet to set off and rendezvous with its own attack fleet in Hualien. By then, its own attack fleet should have already
After completely destroying the defense of Hualien Port, the army divisions will land here and then occupy all of Taiwan. Regarding his arrangement, Dongxiang felt that he could not be more careful. It was not so strenuous to occupy North Korea, Lushun, and Weihai. Then
However, the port was guarded by hundreds of thousands of Qing troops. The island of Taiwan in front of us was estimated to have only tens of thousands of soldiers and not many ships. But why did the first two attacks fail?
If Kazuyama Shiki and Katsura Izumi knew better, they would definitely go up and give Dongxiang a beating. If they could have foreseen the danger, how could these two senior generals of the Japanese Navy sink to the bottom of the sea in such frustration? Isn't it because we didn't know?
Just when Togo Heihachiro passed Hateruma Island, the westernmost island of the Yaeyama Islands, at night in accordance with the attack plan, he did not know that from the moment his fleet appeared in Ryukyu to the time it was assembled and set off, it was constantly being blocked by the port.
The submarines outside were monitored and reported to Taiwan's general staff.
Now his fleet is followed by several Taiwanese submarines. They use antennas dragged on the water to send all information about the Dongxiang fleet to Taiwan. At this time, just a few nautical miles ahead, under the sea, more than 50 dark submarines
The big guys were silently waiting for his fleet to enter the ambush circle. These dark big guys all stared out of the sea and searched around.
Since it is a night voyage, every ship in the fleet has night navigation lights on. In the era without radar navigation, night navigation lights are necessary equipment for night formation navigation. If the lights are not turned on, the formation of the fleet and the distance will be affected.
There is no guarantee. It is very likely that you will crash into the ship before you can deceive the enemy.
Although in the sea, dozens of small lights cannot attract the attention of people far away, but in the periscope that is purposefully looking for targets, those are the eyes of night prey, small and bright.
"Order each ship to launch an attack at 11 o'clock. There are still 15 minutes left. Each ship will adjust its attack position and assign targets in the order of the enemy." In an underwater submarine, the first submarine brigade that has participated in two ambush battles
Captain Wu Mingjie was staring into the periscope and issuing combat orders to the deputy captain beside him.
The night formation of the Dongxiang fleet is a long snake formation. This formation is simple and easy to carry out. It is just suitable for formation travel at night, and the distance between ships is also easier to control. The fleet is headed by the Japanese protective cruiser "Naniwa"
", this cruiser that has been in service for ten years is known for its speed in the Japanese fleet. This time it went out with the Togo fleet together with its sister ship "Takachiho", and took on important positions at the head and tail of the fleet.
At this time, in the command tower of the "Naniwa", Rentaro Funaki, who replaced Togo Heihachiro as the captain, was looking at the chart and asking the helmsman about the current speed from time to time to determine his position. Since it was the leader of the fleet, the route and
The speed must be accurate. If there is a slight deviation, the entire fleet will make mistakes along with it.
"Boom..." Suddenly, the entire hull was thrown up, and then there was a loud noise, and a fireball appeared on the port side of the bow. At the same time as the "Naniwa" caught fire, in the fleet behind it,
"Itsukushima", "Matsushima", "Hiei", "Takachiho", and "Kongo" all erupted with fireballs almost at the same time, some at the bow, some at the stern, and some in succession.
A fireball. Only the two wooden cruisers at the rear of the fleet were not attacked. I don’t know if the torpedo missed the target, or because the hull was made of wood and the draft was relatively shallow, it escaped the torpedo attack.
"Takachiho" and "Itsukushima" were both directly hit by more than two torpedoes, and the entire port side was basically blown open. When the hull exploded, it had already rolled over, and it was basically hopeless. "Naniwa" and "Naniwa"
The flagship "Matsushima" was hit by only one torpedo. Although there was a fire on the ship, there were no signs of sinking.
The "Hiei" was immediately broken into two pieces and was sinking into the seawater in the flames. The remaining wooden cruisers were basically broken and their keels were blown to pieces. Even the whole body could not be found. The surface of the sea
All that was left was a pile of burning wood and debris.
At this time, Togo Heihachiro, who was standing on the flagship Matsushima, finally understood how the previous two landing fleets disappeared. However, most of his fleet was lost in an instant, and the rest was basically burning. Togo himself also felt,
He would not be much luckier than the previous two seniors. However, as the fleet commander, Dongxiang still tried to calm down and issued orders to the fleet officials in the command tower for self-rescue and reporting the enemy's location.
The location of the enemy? It was pitch black on the sea. Except for the burning ships of his own fleet, the surroundings were as dark as death. The lookouts held telescopes and widened their eyes. They did not see a trace of light or the shadow of the ship. Only the sea breeze and the fleet
The screams of the crew.
The two wooden cruisers that had not been hit by torpedoes were speeding up to catch up, trying to get close to the flagship, and asked the "Matsushima" in a semaphore if they wanted to change the flagship. However, they did not wait for the answer from the "Matsushima".
The two wooden cruisers were destroyed by a violent explosion.
Seeing the two cruisers exploding like firecrackers right in front of him, Dongxiang knew that this time he was finished, the fleet was finished, and Japan's fate was finished. He straightened his clothes, took out his command knife, and knelt in front of the bridge.
Using the standard posture of a Japanese samurai, he completed his mission.
