The commander of the other side was also straightforward enough. After escaping for a while, he did not distance himself but faced being surrounded. Instead of continuing to waste coal and escape, he turned and started heading towards the first squadron and the second squadron.
The combined forces of the squadron were attacked.
They tried to break out directly, so they might be hit during the breakout process, but it was better than running all the time and having no way to escape in the end. You must know that if you continue for dozens of sea miles, you will reach land.
Facing the decisive breakthrough of the enemy fleet, Duan Hongxiao also directly ordered the fleet to start turning and prepare for interception operations.
This time, the Nanhai Prefecture Fleet was determined to destroy these attacking fleets, so as to deter the navy of the northern vassal town, and at the same time give Lin Ziran an explanation.
The result is not surprising!
Although the enemy fleet decisively broke through, Duan Hongxiao still personally commanded the fleet to intercept.
In the afternoon, both sides broke through and intercepted, and a small-scale naval battle broke out when the two sides came into contact with each other.
The strength gap between the two sides was too great. After only half an hour of fighting, the other party's leading cruiser, which was about 2,000 tons, had already burst into flames and completely lost its combat effectiveness. The enemy crew began to abandon the ship.
Twenty minutes later, another warship also began to fail. Even the waterline was penetrated, and a large amount of water began to enter the hull. Soon after, the enemy ship commander was forced to order the ship to be abandoned. Shortly after the ship was abandoned, the cruiser was
Slowly sink into the water.
Although the other cruiser that caught fire has not sunk yet, there is basically no possibility of saving it. It will only sink sooner or later.
At this time, the naval battle with great disparity in strength between the two sides ended.
However, although the result of this naval battle was good, the overall process made Lin Ziran not satisfied!
In a normal naval battle, our own side has an absolute advantage from beginning to end. After all, it is an entire escort fleet to encircle and destroy these two small-tonnage raiding cruisers. However, only our own warships that actually participated in the battle included four ironclads and six cruisers.
The difference in military strength is really huge!
However, although our side had an absolute advantage, the battle actually did not go as smoothly as expected.
Because these warships were all drawn from various local fleets, there were still huge problems with their coordination. At the same time, the breech-mounted rifled guns that had high hopes were not able to play the huge role they should have.
In this naval battle, the navy originally relied on the precise long range of the breech-mounted rifled naval guns, trying to hit the enemy with precise shooting of more than one thousand meters.
However, in actual combat, when shelling enemy armored targets at more than a thousand meters, the hit rate was still very low. In maritime operations, they could only rely on the experience of the gunners to carry out shelling as usual, and the hit rate of shelling was very average.
When they conducted artillery fire at a distance of two thousand meters in the early stage, they didn't even get a single hit.
We waited until we reached about 1,500 meters.
The hit rate was still very low, less than one percent.
After reaching a distance of one thousand meters, the hit rate increased slightly.
But at this time, because the distance between the two sides was too close, and the opponent adopted the tactic of straight line attack, the Nanhaizhou Fleet adopted the tactic of interception of line line.
After the opponent rushed over, a close-range melee broke out.
In fact, most of the hits achieved by both sides were within a thousand meters, or even within five or six hundred meters.
How should I put it? In this battle, the Nanhaizhou Fleet was not able to take advantage of the range advantage of the breech-mounted rifled guns. The entire battle mode was almost the same as the traditional line tactics of wooden sail smoothbore guns.
Just look at the combat distance!
Why is this happening?
Because the ships in the Nanhai Prefecture Fleet, except for a few offshore ironclads or inland river gunboats with special gun layouts, although most of the ocean-going warships have been equipped with steam engines, and some are all-steel ironclads, the gun layout is still traditional.
Cannon alongside the ship.
The naval guns used before were mainly smoothbore guns, and front-loaded rifled guns were relatively rare.
Due to their own reasons, the combat distance of these artillery pieces is generally only a few hundred meters, and they do not need any fire control system. Simply relying on the experience of the gunner is enough.
But this situation is no longer possible in the era of breech-loading rifled guns.
Even the gunners in the Nanhaizhou Fleet are mostly experienced gunners and have undergone several months of adaptive training. However, on the one hand, the time is still relatively short, and they cannot be said to be familiar with these new artillery.
, when fighting, they often unconsciously use the smoothbore cannon to aim and fight.
On the other hand, it is purely due to human limitations. Simply relying on the gunner's naked eye aiming and manual aiming based on personal experience will make it difficult to obtain effective hits at long distances.
This can be seen from the fact that the previous artillery fire from a distance of more than 1,500 meters did not achieve a hit by even a single shell.
There is also another problem, that is, the artillery currently equipped in the navy is actually temporarily modified from the army's artillery, and there are many problems such as insufficient power or even instability, malfunctions, etc.
Among them, the 100mm naval gun has high hopes from the navy, and it is also the main naval gun with the most equipment. This thing is installed on the ship by directly replacing the gun mount from the army's 100mm cannon.
Facts have proved that this gun is not suitable for naval use!
In order to control the weight of the artillery and ensure the range, the Army actually made trade-offs in the thickness of the barrel and the performance of sustainable shooting. It only fired light warheads, and the firing frequency was also greatly improved.
limit.
After it was converted to the Navy, the Navy used armor-piercing projectiles and heavier grenades. Moreover, during the battle, it fired at a relatively high rate of fire for a long time, and as a result, the gun could no longer hold up.
There turned out to be an explosion accident.
The other two 75mm and 120mm naval guns are also modified from army artillery. Although they can be used in combat, feedback from the navy is that they are still not very easy to use.
It’s not that it’s bad, it’s just that it’s awkward to use!
The only naval gun that the navy is relatively satisfied with is the 150mm naval gun, which was originally designed and developed as a naval gun. Although this gun was later used by the army as a train gun.
However, this is still a serious naval gun.
This naval gun is also the largest caliber naval gun currently used by the navy. It performed well in actual combat, with considerable power and acceptable accuracy. It was the main naval gun that severely damaged two enemy cruisers in this battle.
In fact, the Navy also has a naval gun with a larger caliber that has been produced, namely a 200mm naval gun, but this gun is currently only equipped on the Pingbo.
This large-caliber artillery has too high requirements for the layout of gun positions and requires specially designed gun positions to be deployed. It is difficult to be directly deployed on these current active warships unless the hull is extensively modified.
However, the amount of work would be too large, and the current situation does not allow too many capital ships to enter the slipway for modifications that will take at least three or four months.
Subsequently, the Navy submitted a formal report to increase the number of equipment for 150mm naval guns, and proposed to re-develop special 100mm, 120mm, and 75mm naval guns.
gun.
However, Lin Ziran made an additional request, which was to develop a fire control system for auxiliary shooting.
If you want to fully utilize the strength of the breech-loaded rifled gun, it is not feasible to rely on the gunner's experience. You must use auxiliary fire control equipment.