Poor General Merritt and his hundreds of thousands of troops, as well as tens of thousands of American militiamen who were armed and waiting to defend their homeland, stared longingly at the blue waves of the Caribbean Sea and waited for two days and two nights without seeing the invaders.
traces of.
It was first guessed that the enemy would land in Miami, but the remaining warriors in Miami had dug trenches around their homes, and no Spanish came. Then they guessed that they would storm Tampa, and the entire Tampa city circle was evacuated. As a result,
Still being pretentious, he then guessed it would be in Jacksonville, but it was still a false alarm. At this time, the garrison in Pensacola immediately became nervous. For a time, there was a roar of wind and panic, and even a returning fishing boat on the sea was blocked.
Mistaking it for a Spanish warship, it was bombarded, causing mass panic in the city. Unfortunately, after suffering in panic for four days, the people of Pensacola still did not wait for the invaders.
The entire United States was confused. The newspapers were full of articles all day long discussing where the Spaniards were going. It was time to make a bet. Why did they just wait and see no one? Could it be that they have all sunk into the weird legend of Bermuda?
?However, just when all parties were confused, suddenly a piece of bad news exploded over the heads of the American people like a bolt from the blue. An American merchant ship returning to Boston from Rio de Janeiro sent back a telegram, discovering the fleet of the Four Nations in the waters east of Virginia.
President Arison was immediately frightened by this bad news. Even though he had no military acumen, he now understood what the coalition's goal was. He was not prepared to have a long-winded decisive battle with the US military in Florida, so he simply rushed to the United States.
The northern industrial zone is coming.
You must know that they came with the army. Once the enemy lands in the north, the consequences...
He couldn't help but shudder. He couldn't imagine that just one bombardment in New York would set the country's economy back for several years. The impact has not completely subsided until now. If New York was directly occupied by the enemy, it would really be a disaster.
It's like stabbing a knife in the heart of America.
"Quick, order Mahan to leave the harbor immediately to fight!" His Excellency the President shouted at the top of his lungs in the White House.
Hampton Anchorage.
The shrill battle sirens rang throughout the military port. Even workers at the nearby Newport News Shipyard were frightened to stop their work and looked anxiously in the direction of the military port. Countless American sailors hurriedly boarded their warships.
, then all the battleship boilers were fired up and the diesel engines started. After a long period of tossing, three battleships, one large armored cruiser, four medium armored cruisers, and six protected cruisers, led by the battleship USS Killshark,
Under the escort of twenty high-speed destroyers, it accelerated while heading for the exit of Chesapeco Bay.
The former Dean of the Annapolis Naval Academy, the founder of Sea Power Theory, and the newly promoted Major General Mahan, who was appointed at the critical moment, frowned in his command room and looked at the outlet of the Chesapeake Bay in the distance, with two newly built buildings on the left and right.
The fortress loomed in the early morning fog. In fact, he was an excellent military theorist, but commanding fleet operations was not a book. He was still very clear about this. However, at this time, all the outstanding generals of the U.S. Navy were basically sinking.
Caribbean. At least he still has a loud enough sign.
"Frank, where do you think the enemy will choose to land?" Major General Mahan said with a melancholy expression. The order he received was to intercept the enemy at sea, but the problem is that he doesn't know where the enemy is now. Where is their purpose?
, New York, Philadelphia, Boston? Without knowing their purpose, there is no way to intercept them on the vast sea.
"Alfred, have you ever thought about what if their target is Washington?" Chadwick, the former commander and now chief of staff, said. Although he has rich combat experience, after all, that battle put the United States in a desperate situation.
In the great sea battle, he was actually suspected of escaping, and as the fleet commander he was criticized by public opinion.
Mahan took a breath of air and exclaimed: "Then they should arrive in front of our door."
As soon as the two crows finished speaking, they heard the battle alarm sounding from the fortress in the distance almost simultaneously.
Outside the Chesapeake Bay, six battleships, dozens of cruisers, and destroyers menacingly blocked the door of the Atlantic Fleet like a pack of wolves ready to hunt. Countless black holes pointed at the U.S. military fortresses on both sides at the same time.
The large number of small destroyer bow torpedo launchers are aimed directly at the exit of the bay. Any warship that dares to come out will face countless torpedoes.
Mahan, who climbed up to the top of the mast himself, saw this scene with his binoculars. He was completely dumbfounded. What a waste of time. With his current strength, I am afraid he is not even half of the opponent, especially those who are more than thirty years old.
There are a destroyer, a dozen cruisers, and a total of more than 200 torpedo tubes. Just washing the ground with torpedoes is enough to block the entire exit, not to mention that the opponent has almost twice as many warships as our own.
"No, where are the two latest German diesel battleships and landing ships?" the chief of staff, who also climbed to the top of the mast, asked the fleet commander. In fact, what the US military is most afraid of now is those two legendary ships.
Battleship.
Now the six battleships outside the Chesapeake Bay are all old-fashioned, including of course the USS Massachusetts, which is unforgettable for Americans. Even the armored cruisers are mostly old-fashioned, and the two most cutting-edge German battleships are also old-fashioned.
The unforgettable Princess Astrias and her sister ships were nowhere to be seen.
"This fleet is just here to blockade us. I'm afraid those cutting-edge warships have already arrived in Delaware Bay at this time. Send a report to the Navy Department and ask them to inform the president that the enemy's target is Philadelphia!" Mahan said with a wry smile.
His telegram has not yet been delivered to Arison. It is centered on the German battleships Friedrich III and Wilhelm II, including the Spanish Navy Princess Astrias, Oquendo, and Columbus.
The Chinese Royal Navy's Haining, the Haihe armored cruiser, twelve Viper-class destroyers, and a fleet of twelve landing ships have appeared outside the Delaware Bay. There are two coastal defense fortresses on the left and right of the entrance.
In the midst of panic, battle sirens rang across the sea. Countless recruits who had never experienced the battlefield rushed to the gun emplacements in panic and hurriedly began to aim the cannons at the enemy ships.
However, what surprised the defenders was that the enemy did not attack immediately. Instead, from a small merchant ship at the end, a strange thing was lowered with a crane. It looked like a big dragonfly wearing shoes. However,
The next scene left Americans stunned, because the big dragonfly suddenly started moving on the sea, and then became faster and faster, and finally flew directly.
"Your Excellency, General, this seaplane will provide calibration for your naval guns. They will send back the location report of the impact point of the artillery shells. Although it is not as effective as on land, it can still provide some help."
On board the Lieutenant III, a Chinese naval staff officer said to Tirpitz.
"Major, thank you for your help." Tirpitz said while curiously looking at the seaplane flying overhead. To be honest, the airplane invented by Yang Feng during this period has indeed been praised as amazing in the world, but
This was the first time he saw this magical machine that could fly.
The seaplane quickly flew over the bay, and then seven large warships formed a formation and immediately aimed at the two fortresses and began bombarding them. It was a bombardment rather than an artillery battle. It was a purely unilateral bombardment. As each cannon sprayed,
Flames broke out, and the two small fortresses were completely submerged by artillery fire.
Needless to say, the five original Swedish ships of the Princess Astraas have a combined total of thirty-six 240 main guns with a firing range that exceeds that of any coastal defense artillery of this era. These two US military fortresses are the most recent.
The hastily completed ones are not even as powerful as the two in New York. They don't even have the 330 cannon with the longest range and the most power. Of course, even the 330 cannon cannot be compared with the 240 cannon produced in Bofors.
The shells fired from the side fell exhausted into the sea even several kilometers away from the five warships.
The German Friedrich III-class battleships have nothing in common with the original ones in history. This kind of battleship uses four 7,000-horsepower diesel engines. Its speed has reached the standard of a dreadnought, with a maximum speed of 22 knots.
Because the gun uses imported Bofors alloy steel, it becomes four angular-arranged 280 rapid-fire front main guns and two 240 rapid-fire tail guns, as well as fourteen 150 rapid-fire secondary guns.
, not to mention the main gun, even the range of the secondary battery exceeds that of the 240 coastal defense artillery mainly used by the US military. This is a purely destructive artillery battle.
It is true that naval guns cannot defeat coastal defense guns, but if the coastal defense guns cannot reach the warships, that is another matter. What's more, these warships have been equipped with large-caliber piercing bombs, and the concrete outside the fortress cannot stop this at all.
There are things equipped with time-delay fuses, as well as insidiously mixed poison gas bombs and white phosphorus incendiary bombs. There are also aircraft overhead to provide calibration, and there are the latest rangefinders on the ship. This sea-land bombardment continues.
In less than an hour, it ended with the defeat of the defenders of the two fortresses.
Immediately afterwards, two landing ships moved forward to seize the beach at the same time, and then the two thousand infantry inside rushed out to occupy the two fortresses, and placed a large number of explosives inside. Just as the fleet sailed into Delaware Bay, with two blasts
There was an explosion like the earth was shattering, and the two fortresses that the Americans had worked so hard to build were completely turned into countless fragments and sprayed into the sky. The Delaware Bay completely opened its door to the invaders, and the huge fleet sailed toward them in a mighty manner.
Philadelphia.
After this horrific news reached Philadelphia, the city immediately fell into desperate panic. (To be continued...)