Compared with the panic of the British people, the British government is not worried at all. The key is that they believe in the four mine curtains too much. Although this thing does not really work, it is at least effective in the short term. The efficiency of the Chinese minesweeper fleet
No matter how high it is, it is impossible to clear out the mine channel in a short time. ≈∞
Especially in the English Channel, from Lands End to Brest, France, more than 50,000 mines stretch for more than 200 kilometers to guard the door of Britain. This mine has a width of 60 kilometers. I want to clear out a channel in the middle.
The passage is not an easy task, not to mention that there are not only mines here, but behind this mine belt there are hundreds of submarines and hundreds of destroyers and torpedo boats including France. These wolves on the surface and underwater can attack at any time.
Entering hidden mine passages to attack minesweepers, the British government believes that it is impossible for the Chinese navy to break through this mine curtain without breaking out of teeth.
Of course, this mine curtain will definitely not work against carrier-based aircraft.
So when a total of two hundred carrier-based aircraft, including those on the two Dingzhen aircraft carriers, appeared at Plymouth Naval Port, British Prime Minister Asquith and a group of cabinet ministers in London could only sigh and face the air
They really have no choice but to attack the enemy. Anyway, even if the bombing is not carried out by carrier-based aircraft, it is Liberator heavy bombers. Let them go! Besides, there are no warships to bomb in Plymouth Naval Port. Now, except for those destroyers and torpedo boats, the remaining British naval forces are only a few.
The steam-powered battleships were picked up from the garbage dump, such as Lao Junquan and so on.
Of course, those carrier-based aircraft would definitely have no interest in bombing the battleship Sovereign in Plymouth Naval Port, but Plymouth Naval Shipyard could not escape bad luck. This is the largest battleship construction base in the UK. In half an hour, a full two
Hundreds of 250 kilogram-class aerial bombs. Although the ground air defense forces fought hard and shot down four carrier-based aircraft, one-third of the bombs were still accurately dropped on the docks by these dive-dropping Eagles.
, this bombing alone caused the Plymouth Royal Naval Dockyard to lose a quarter of its shipbuilding capacity.
But this point is meaningless. Even if they don't bomb, the British don't have enough steel to build new battleships, and they don't have enough workers, let alone enough funds. Even if they build them, they don't have enough fuel. Now the British
The supply of crude oil has been completely cut off, and what is left must be used by destroyers and torpedo boats and submarines in the English Channel.
In the English Channel, on the Royal Navy destroyer HMS Bellona. The captain, Major Cunningham, looked at the sky with a look of sorrow and indignation. A huge formation of nearly two hundred bombers covered the sky. These bombers were flying south. Naturally, he understood this very well.
The bastard just dropped the bomb at Plymouth Naval Port.
"Fire!" he said sullenly to the gunner of a 25mm anti-aircraft gun next to him.
"But Captain, we can't reach them at all," the gunner said weakly.
"I said fire!" Major Cunningham roared rudely. The gunner was startled and quickly aimed at the sky and fired. Of course, this was just a waste of shells. These Eagles were flying at an altitude of five thousand meters.
It was impossible for the 25mm anti-aircraft gun to damage them. The dense gunfire was like a salute to see them off. However, Major Cunningham's spirit was still admirable. Soon, those high-ranking officers were on several destroyers near him.
The cannons also roared one after another, showing the unyielding spirit of the British Empire to the invaders.
Their behavior angered the Chinese pilots in the sky. These pilots had just blown up their hometown into a sea of fire and were in a happy mood. How could these guys endure the provocation below? Those who had already flown over were like that. In the end
More than forty Eagles all pounced down in front of them. Although the bombs were gone, it was not stressful to shoot the open gun emplacements with large-caliber machine guns. The dense bullets instantly beat the gunners on the destroyers to pieces.
Flying sideways, Major Cunningham watched with grief and anger as the gunner's head was blown open by a bullet, frightening all the other crew members to hide in the cabin, and he was the only one standing bravely on the deck.
Fortunately, those Eagles didn't have a lot of fuel, so they didn't have time to fight with them, so they flew away immediately after showing off their majesty.
"Go away, you yellow-skinned monkeys!" Major Cunningham roared angrily at the retreating carrier-based aircraft group. What he didn't know was that just sixty kilometers away at this time, two super battleships, Huaxia and Yanhuang,
The huge fleet headed by it is slowly sailing into the secret safe passage in the minefield.
Because there was no aerial reconnaissance capability, the Chinese fleet was not discovered by a British submarine hiding underwater until it was nearly 30 kilometers deep into the minefield. The bad news was telegraphed as quickly as possible to the battleship HMS Hood, the flagship of the British fleet at sea.
Of course, this was a steam-powered Sovereign-class ship that had been decommissioned and returned to service. The bad news then spread to the Admiralty in London. First Sea Lord Mooks was dumbfounded.
"Spies, there must be Chinese spies in our Admiralty. These traitors to the British Empire must be found. I will hang them!" The Marshal's roar immediately sounded in the Admiralty. Of course, the roar is a roar. The top priority now is
He was not looking for a spy. Before notifying the Prime Minister of the matter, he issued an order to the fleet in the English Channel in the name of the supreme commander of the navy to block the Chinese fleet at all costs.
After receiving this order, the entire English Channel was in chaos. Destroyers and torpedo boats rushed towards the exit of the minefield. At the same time, dozens of submarines hidden under the water of the channel also rushed towards the Chinese fleet.
In their opinion, such a large number of submarines would have to sink several Chinese battleships in an underwater attack. If they could sink a super battleship, it would be considered immortal. Therefore, almost all submarines were directed at the two super battleships.
Unfortunately, what they didn't know was that their whereabouts had long been monitored by the Chinese sonar troops on the opposite side. Before the submarines could reach attack range, seaplanes took off one after another behind the fleet.
Regardless of battleships, battle cruisers, or even heavy cruisers, they all carry seaplanes, and the main task of these seaplanes is anti-submarine warfare. Even the Hongwu-class battle cruisers carry two of them. Each seaplane can carry four 50-kilogram missiles.
At this time, the submarines of Britain and France only had hundreds of tons of primary cargo, and fifty kilograms was enough. After taking off, the seaplane dropped the depth bomb into the sea according to the position of the British submarine indicated by the battleship below.
Nearly two hundred depth charges instantly destroyed the British wolves waiting for an ambush.
This was not over yet. Before the surviving British submarines could wake up from their fear, destroyers rushed up one after another at a high speed of thirty-seven knots, and then used catapults to continuously launch bombs into the British submarine ambush area.
After these destroyers passed by, the British wolves had turned into oil and garbage all over the sea. More than forty submarines were sunk under this brutal anti-submarine firepower. In fact, they did not know
What's more, this is because there is no runway for the carrier-based anti-submarine aircraft to take off, otherwise they would suffer even more brutal attacks.
After the British submarines were almost completely wiped out, the Chinese fleet continued to sail forward, and at this time the British torpedo boats were dispatched. These small torpedo boats had such a shallow draft that they did not need to care about mines. They could not touch the water four or five meters below.
Anchor mines in the depths, in fact, these torpedo boats are the most deadly opponents, especially when hundreds of them rush up together, it is even more troublesome. Almost all small and medium-caliber naval guns in the fleet are aimed at the torpedo boats rushing up from both sides.
, dense shells roared out, smashing the small boats to pieces like a violent storm.
Especially those twin 37 cannons designed for anti-aircraft, dealing with such speedboats was like a massacre, and the speed of over a hundred rounds per minute made the British desperate.
However, despite the desperate attacks by the British speedboat crews, a few were still successful. One torpedo boat that escaped interception even fired two torpedoes at the battleship Hua Xia.
Lin Yongsheng stared motionlessly at the torpedo tracks approaching rapidly on the sea surface. At the same time, the sailing Huaxia quickly took evasive measures, and then a escorting light cruiser rushed forward to block the torpedoes for the flagship, but the cruiser
Still a little late, one of the two torpedoes missed, and the other hit the Huaxia ship right in the middle.
Seeing the flames exploding on the waterline of the Huaxia, the remaining British people on the sea almost cheered at the same time, but unfortunately, everyone was dumbfounded. This giant ship with a displacement of 40,000 tons only jumped slightly.
, and then continued sailing as if nothing had happened, even the speed was not affected in any way.
Hitting the super battleship Huaxia was the best result the British torpedo boat fleet could achieve. There were a total of two hundred torpedo boats participating in this wolf attack. In the end, less than thirty of them desperately escaped from this maritime cemetery. The others
All of them were turned into pieces, and the results they gained were only the sinking of two destroyers, damage to two light cruisers, and the torpedo that hit the Huaxia that the British remembered for a century.
Next to go into battle is the British destroyer fleet. Because of the draft problem, they dare not enter the minefield to attack like the torpedo boats. All British destroyers are blocked on both sides of the exit of the channel, preparing to use dense torpedoes.
It dealt a fatal blow to the Chinese, but unfortunately, they didn't bother to play with them at all, because at this time, the refueled and reloaded bomber group arrived, and torpedo attack aircraft were also added. (To be continued, please search Piaotian Literature,