After discovering the enemy's subcontinental fleet, the battleship Yandi commanded by Song Wei immediately sent a wireless telegram to Liu Da in the distance, informing them of the enemy's fleet's location.
Liu Da is currently off the coast of Momeng Port. After receiving the telegram from Song Wei, he immediately leaned on the command table and searched for the specific location of the subcontinental fleet on the map.
He laughed when he saw it. This time, the commander of the Continental Fleet was indeed a little clever and actually played the game of darkness.
It turns out that Paul Rofkin was not given the money in vain. In order to hide his fleet as much as possible, he actually parked the fleet behind a small island more than 200 kilometers south of Mumbai.
The commander-in-chief wanted to take advantage of the shadow of the island and the darkness to block the reconnaissance of Liu's fleet.
If based on the current technology of the Qing Dynasty, only reconnaissance ships are looking for traces of the Indian Ocean Fleet, then Liu Da may really have missed the opportunity to discover the British Indian Ocean Fleet.
But these people never imagined that the Yandi battleship was equipped with a radar system that was nearly 80 years more advanced than the current Qing Dynasty plane.
Under the constant scanning of radar, the hiding place that was once a good place is now nowhere to be found.
After Liu Da knew the direction of the enemy fleet, he immediately handed over the command of the army to Liu Min, the captain of the battleship Anhui.
Let Liu Ming lead the two Sovereign-class battleships, Anhui and Liuqiu, as well as other ironclads and cruisers in the fleet, to continue to perform blockade missions outside Mumbai.
However, Liu Da led the three Iowa-class battleships Huangdi, Qin Shihuang, and Han Gaozu to leave the team and headed south to rendezvous with the Yandi battleship.
Because Liu Da was afraid that the subcontinental fleet would disappear again as time went by, the three Iowa-class battleships moved forward at almost full speed that night.
At around five o'clock in the morning, the three Iowa-class battleships led by Liu Da finally reunited with the battleship Yandi.
After the four Iowa-class battleships merged, Liu Datong took over the command of the fleet, and the fleet approached the British Indian Ocean Fleet at full speed.
At the beginning, because the warship pairs on both sides were about 100 kilometers apart, the patrol ships of the subcontinental fleet had not yet discovered Liu Da and the others.
However, as the four Iowa-class battleships got closer and closer to the British Indian Ocean Fleet, the patrol ships on alert outside the subcontinental fleet finally discovered these four behemoths.
Because the Iowa-class battleships were so huge, and the sky was starting to get brighter, enemy patrol ships had already discovered these four battleships fifteen or six kilometers away.
When the patrol ship saw these four warships, they were immediately frightened and trembled with fear. They did not expect that they would be caught by the other party despite hiding so safely.
At this critical moment, the patrol ship immediately reported to the fleet at full speed that the enemy warship had been discovered.
At this time, Paul Rofkin had just woken up from a good night's sleep. He was going to order the fleet to set sail early because he had some premonitions that if he stayed in one place for a long time, he might be discovered by the enemy.
Unexpectedly, as soon as he arrived at the bridge of the warship, he received the semaphore "Goodbye" from the patrol ship, and discovered four powerful enemy battleships 50 kilometers to the north.
After Paul Rofkin received the news, the coffee cup in his hand fell to the ground.
Now what Paul Rofkin is thinking about is how to escape the pursuit of these four battleships.
Paul Rofkin thought for a while, and immediately ordered all the warships to start lighting fires, and then ordered the cruisers to dispatch immediately and head to the north to attack with torpedoes to delay the attack of the Nanyang Navy.
There was nothing Paul Rofkin could do about it. Compared to a cruiser that could quickly light a fire and set sail, a battleship would probably need at least more than an hour from lighting a fire to leaving the dock.
Based on the time and distance it takes for a patrol ship to discover an enemy warship and then return to report it, the opponent's battleship may have already put its cannon to its forehead before his main ironclad ship leaves the docking station.
The person who performed this mission was the commander of the Fleet Cruise Squadron—Rear Admiral George Solti.
After George Solti received the order from the headquarters, he knew that this time it might be a disaster.
Because in this era, the attack efficiency of torpedoes is very low, and the range of torpedoes is also very limited. Before their cruiser can reach the enemy's battleship, it may have been sunk by the opponent's naval gun. This is completely a one-time attack.
suicidal attack.
But knowing that this time was a disaster, the major general still did not hesitate.
He led his ship "Edgar" and four other new cruisers to quickly break away from the main force of the Indian Ocean Fleet and sail north quickly.
The cruiser that Rear Admiral George Solti was aboard was considered a very advanced warship in naval history.
It has a displacement of 7467 tons, main armament: 10 152mm, 2 233mm guns, size: 118m×18.2m×7.2m, machinery: twin propellers, three expansion engines.
The most important thing is that this warship can sail at a speed of 18 knots for a long time, which was already considered the best among cruisers at the time.
It can be said that it is unique among cruisers of this era that can reach an economic speed of 18 knots.
This level of cruiser can be said to have played a major role in the Indian Ocean Fleet. If its main guns were not as powerful as those of the ironclads, and its armor was not as thick as those of the ironclads, it could almost be the flagship of the Indian Ocean Fleet.
Rear Admiral George Solti took five cruisers and drove north for 50 minutes when he saw the faint smoke rising from the sea level in the distance.
The cruiser commander knew that the incoming enemy battleship was in that direction, so Rear Admiral George Solti ordered all cruisers to increase their speed to the fastest and perform forced ventilation at the same time.
Although forced ventilation can cause serious damage to boilers and pipes, we can no longer worry about it so much.
Rear Admiral George Solti has only one idea in his mind now, which is to quickly approach the enemy's battleship and then use torpedoes to disrupt the enemy's formation and slow down the enemy's forward speed.
After Rear Admiral George Solti gave this order, thick black smoke immediately came out of the smokestacks of the five cruisers, and the five cruisers suddenly accelerated and speeded across the sea.
Major General George Solti did not know that his wishful thinking had been completely exposed on Liu Da's radar screen.
On the battleship Kaiser, Liu Da had clearly seen every move of the other party. Since the other party came to die, he would give them a ride.
Liu Da immediately ordered the four Iowa-class battleships to draw a beautiful arc on the sea, and then aimed all sides at the incoming enemy warships.
At this time, Major General George Solti had no idea that his plot had been discovered and that the enemy warships were now waiting for them to come and die.
The cruiser fleet led by Major General George Solti quickly approached Liu Da's four Iowa-class battleships.
After more than ten minutes, they finally clearly saw the enemy's situation.
Major General George Solti held a telescope and felt cold in his hands and feet after seeing Liu Da's formation.
The situation now is very obvious. Your actions have exposed the other party, and they are waiting for you to die.
But Rear Admiral George Solti could not sit still and wait for death. He immediately issued a semaphore and asked all cruisers to maneuver in a serpentine manner and quickly approach the four battleships.
Rear Admiral George Solti wanted to advance in this way to avoid the continuous bombardment of the powerful main guns of the opponent's four battleships.
According to his idea, although the main guns of current battleships are powerful, their shooting accuracy is very poor. Once his cruiser performs a snake maneuver, the opponent's shooting efficiency should be very low at such a long distance.
However, Liu Da's four Iowa-class battleships were equipped with modern gun-sighting radars, so the luck in Rear Admiral George Solti's heart was completely shattered.
Although Liu Da's four battleships were said to have aimed their cannons at the five incoming cruisers, it did not mean that they were already quietly waiting for the other party to arrive on the sea.
The Iowa-class battleships led by Liu Da have now increased their speed to the maximum. These four battleships quickly increased their speed to 30 knots, then cut through the waves on the sea, and passed away from the British cruiser fleet in a beautiful arc.
The front moved to the opponent's back.
Rear Admiral George Solti saw this situation in the telescope, and his face turned white. He never thought that such a huge battleship could be so heavy and cumbersome, and could achieve such speed.
After Liu Da's four Iowa-class battleships moved to the opponent's flank, they immediately used their main guns to bombard the area.
However, because these four Iowa-class battleships are traveling at full speed, even though they have gun sighting radars, their shooting efficiency is still greatly reduced. Therefore, in the first three rounds of shooting, the main guns of the four Iowa-class battleships did not fire.
Results.
Rear Admiral George Solti's cruiser fleet also completed the turn again and began to try again to approach Liu Da's four Iowa-class battleships.
But how could Liu Da let the opponent's cruiser get close to him?
Therefore, Liu Da's fleet once again drew an arc on the sea, once again widening the distance between the two sides, and then aimed a concentrated fire attack at the cruiser "Edgar" directly ahead.
The effect of the shelling this time was very good. A 406 mm caliber shell hit the front deck of the opponent's flagship. This immediately cut off a large piece of the cruiser's front deck, and also made the cruiser's
The forward main gun was completely disabled and its speed was reduced from 24 knots to 18 knots.
At this time, the flagship could not keep up with the other cruisers. Seeing this situation, Rear Admiral George Solti immediately handed over his command to the captain of another cruiser, Colonel George.
[Get red envelopes by reading books] Follow the public account [Book Friends Base Camp] and get up to 888 cash red envelopes by reading books!
Major General George Solti had just handed over command when another violent explosion occurred in front of the flagship "Edgar".