Chapter 122 Steel vs. Steel (I)

"When the Huajun Shark 42 submarine sent a telegram, Captain Xue Hailong seemed to be unable to think about what his behavior represented. From the perspective of the future, his unintentional choice of battle position could also be said to be God's will, which allowed the captain and his craft, which was extremely simple from today's perspective, to stay in a very eye-catching position in the world's naval warfare history." (China, Xu Bo, "History of Huaxing Naval Warfare")

"This maritime battle is not only one of the most grand, most intense, and most significant and decisive naval battles in human history, but also opened the prelude to the final battle of human maritime power in the 20th century. Since then, a new empire has acquired its own exclusive territory on the world maritime power map, and the traditional ocean overlord has begun to be challenged." (British, Churchill, "The Sun Never Set")

"...In this earth-shaking naval battle, behind those glittering names are countless unknown, but equally tenacious naval warriors. Whether they are winners or losers, their spirit of fighting to the end has become one of the most precious heritages in the world, and has inspired the descendants of their respective countries for generations." (Nimitz, "History of Naval War in the Twentieth Century")

"At that time, I had only one feeling: I worshiped the Bodhisattva." (Second, Xue Hailong, "Submarine? Submarine")

Xue Hailong on the other side watched the spy boat suddenly fire at the sea like crazy. He thought that a submarine had been discovered, and was also very scared.

But he soon discovered a very strange thing: that was, the other ships of the Japanese fleet seemed to be fine, and they would go as they should. Even the spy boat, after firing a few shots, turning a few times, continued to move forward.

What Xue Hailong didn't know was that the crew on these spy boats had already been on the verge of collapse and had fired casually many times before this.

Due to the highly tense operation in recent days, this decisive battle pushed people's nerves to an extreme tension. In addition, the crew of these spy boats transformed by the Japanese Navy were temporarily transferred. Many people were actually picking up the remaining personnel from each ship or the burden of falling down by other ships. The nerves were so tense that they exploded. Since the start of this voyage, these spy boats saw any signs at sea, they were smashing them over, which made the fleet nervous at the beginning, but they were too many times and eventually became numb.

Xue Hailong was appointed as the commander of the squad consisting of Shark 41, Shark 42, Shark 43 and Shark 44. But except for the four boats of his squad, he was sure that he had arrived at the ambush area, the movements of the other squad were completely shady. He even didn't know the positions of the various boats in this squad.

Everything can only be attacked according to personal initiative and judgment. To put it bluntly, it is very likely that the torpedo that you accidentally fired and sink the friend's boat.

The Japanese and Russian advance troops passed by, and two hours later, the brigade's steel warship showed its shape.

The entire battleship line of the Japanese-Russian joint fleet was divided into two groups, with a spacing of twelve nautical miles.

This was a tactic jointly formulated by Makarov and Togo Heihachiro's staff. However, there are rumors that the Tsar and his staff intervened remotely in the formation configuration of this naval battle.

The formation adopted by Russia and Japan refers to Nelson during the naval battle of Cape Trafalgar.

In that earth-shaking naval battle that changed Britain and even Europe's history, Nelson creatively divided the fleet into two teams, used mobility to launch the enemy first, attacked French warships left and right, and achieved a brilliant victory. Considering that the Chinese army had some high-speed warships and had advantages in reconnaissance, the main force of the Japanese and Russian army adopted a left and right development trend, striving to use the Russian main formation under the command of Makarov to restrain the main force of the Chinese army. On the front, Eight more new battleships of Hirahachiro Togo encircled the Chinese army from the flank, defeated part of the Chinese army with superior firepower, and then severely damaged or wiped out the enemy.

The Russian Makarov Group to the north is composed of two parallel ships.

The first ship was composed of three Duke Kutuzov-class battleships: Duke Kutuzov, Bagration, Rumentsev, and three Polodino-class battleships - Emperor Alexander III, Polodino and Eagle. Admiral Makarov was in charge of Duke Kutuzov and was personally commanded.

The second ship was the second battleship of three Peresvite-class battleships - Peresvite, Oslibya and Victory. It was followed by the second team consisting of the Prince built by France and the Lieutenant General Witgeft.

The second defense patrol team composed of four protective cruisers, Svetrana, Diamond, Baoyalin, Novik, and the second destroyer team composed of four Russian destroyers.

The Southern Group, the Navy General Hirahachiro Togo personally commanded eight Japanese battleships and formed the first team: Satsuma, Atsuyun, Mikasa, Mikasa, Asahi, No. 4, Shikishima, Shi No. 6, Shi No. 7, Fuji, and Hachishima.

The commander flag of the team and the Japanese Navy Combined Fleet Commander Hirahachiro Togo Fleet floated high on the top of the mainmast of the Satsuma.

The Satsuma-class warship is Japan's first domestically produced battleship. It is also a new warship built with the British, German and American shipbuilding technology, and has inspected the new ships that the Chinese army has served in recent years. It has integrated some feasible ideas for European and American shipbuilding, reflecting many new features. The two ships of the same class were built at the San Diego shipyard in the United States. Japanese shipbuilding experts and technicians participated in the entire process, and Italian and French experts were hired.

After completion, it was driven by a Japanese ship crew. After a brief sea trial, it crossed the Pacific Ocean and arrived at the anchorage of the Seto Inland Sea Island, Japan.

This class of warships was designed by the famous Italian designer Kunibedi, and adopted the idea of ​​a truck-type turret first proposed by the Shipbuilding Department of the Chinese Ministry of National Defense. In order to strengthen firepower, in addition to the two-center-axis double-three-five main turrets with two-head and tail, this warship also has a double-mounted main turret on both sides of the swollen part, so that ten main turrets can be fired at the same time on each side.

In terms of main guns, Japan adopted a US-made 305mm sleeve-type fastening main gun, which is 40 times the diameter, and its export kinetic energy exceeds that of the British Armstrong MKV main gun. Its turret combines the advantages of the BV modified turret on the British Fujishima-class battleship, and further improves it, strengthens top and front protection, and improves the loading speed.

Compared with the previous BV turret used by the Fuji-class, the most important improvement is to send shells and launching medicine packages directly from the ammunition and gunpowder bank to the combat room. The turret does not have to turn to the central axis to automatically load the projectiles, greatly increasing the loading speed. During training, the maximum firing rate of the Satsuma has reached 2 rounds per minute. Of course, the data in the actual combat background remains to be tested.

In addition to the main gun, this type of ship is also equipped with a large number of secondary gun firepower, with a total of four dual-mounted two-o-3 secondary turrets, twelve single-mounted one-two-omm rapid-fire cannons, and eight single-mounted seventy-six-mm rapid-fire cannons, which set the forefront of the God Cult of multiple turrets.

In terms of protection, the Satsuma uses improved Harvey nickel steel armor, with the main armor belt on the side reaching 280 mm, the deck armor 60 mm, the front of the main turret 320 mm, and the command tower 360 mm. However, the underwater protective structure seems relatively simple, and the protection of key parts is not as complex as China. The sturdiness and rationality of the watertight compartment cannot be compared with China's Guangzhou-class, and can only be considered to be fair.

If the Guangzhou-class is like a knight wrapped in a full set of Gothic plate armor, the Satsuma-class is at most a warrior wearing Japanese "Southern Barbarian Armor".

The Satsuma-class power system, due to Japan's lack of steam turbine technology, does not have enough fuel resources, and the United States also lacks steam turbine technology, this type of ship uses a 15-fired coal-fired boiler, which is still a US-made three-stage expansion steam engine with a maximum speed of only twenty knots.

Despite all these and such shortcomings, these two Satsuma-class battleships are still the most powerful weapons of the Japanese Combined Fleet and the entire Japanese-Russian Combined Fleet. These two giant ships with a standard displacement of up to 21,500 tons are the main reason why Togo Hirahachiro and Makarov dared to take the initiative to attack the Chinese Navy, which had giant ships such as the Guangzhou-class and Cheetah-class.

The first defense patrol team consisting of four Russian defense cruisers, the Oleg, Avle, Parada, Pearl and Emerald, the second destroyer team consisting of four Japanese destroyers, and the third destroyer team consisting of four other Japanese destroyers.

The third team composed of the Poltava, Petropavlosk and Navarin, which were originally part of the Second Pacific Fleet, and the armored cruiser of the Dunskoy, was commanded by Lieutenant General Rogers Twin, and was protected by six Russian destroyers and covered some auxiliary ships.

All the elites of the Japanese-Russian Navy Combined Fleet, a multi-echelon team composed of 450,000 tons of steel warships, and a huge group of ships in multiple columns, were like mountains of steel, roaring eastward.

The steel ships rolled eastward, and what was blocking them was a group of vulgar boats under the water.

In front, the Japanese airship had already started a battle with the Chinese reconnaissance airship.

A blue torch soon ignited above the blue sky.

Due to the backwardness of radio technology in Japan and Russia, the radio telegraph was too large and could not be successfully installed on the airship, so it could only rely on signal flares to warn the enemy situation. There were many different opinions within the Japanese Navy about the previous disappearance of the Second Squadron. Some said that the clouds were broken in lightning and static electricity when encountered storms and rains, some said that they were annihilated by Chinese airships, and some said that they were incited by the gods and were sent into the six reincarnations. There was no consensus.

This time, the Chinese army, who noticed that Japan and Russia had air force, were also prepared, gathered six medium-sized airships as the main battle cluster, and sent several small airships to conduct reconnaissance.

There is no big suspense about the result of the battle. Whether it is comprehensive performance, technical and tactical level, or military equipment, Japanese airships are not enemies of Chinese floating troops, and the mixed ammunition chains of Chinese equipment have made the Japanese floating troops, which lack concepts in air combat, miserable.

In the end, only four small airships serving as liaison relays escaped by chance, hid over the fleet, and used air defense firepower to survive.

On Shark 42, Xue Hailong watched the Japanese destroyer coming quickly in the periscope. He was so scared that he quickly turned off the periscope and dived quickly.

Although he was very unwilling to give up, it was broad daylight, the opponent's speed was very fast, and the surrounding anti-submarine patrols were very tight, so he was really powerless.

However, although the Chinese submarines lacked enough experience in seizing battle positions and launching attacks, they have conducted simulated attack drills many times and have some routines and tactics. On the Japanese side, the so-called anti-submarine basically relies on the staff papers of Kenji Idei and Matsuo Akiyama, and inferred based on the performance of steam engine submarines like Japan and Russia. In fact, the Chinese submarines with great performance differences are not completely prescribed to the right medicine.

The experienced Chinese submarine captain, seeing that the local backbone team was on high alert, tried several times to steal the battle positions and were forced to give up under the threat of the opponent's anti-submarine forces. Finally, he turned his attention to the Japanese and Russian rear teams.

The search for anti-submarine forces in the front two formations, coupled with the long-term tense nerves, greatly aggravated the energy loss. On these old ships behind the hall, the observers and the sailors who were mobilized were still a little lazy after all.

The secret is inevitable. The Shark 43 boat peeked into a gap, risked his life to penetrate into the anti-submarine circle from underwater, and then quickly floated up the water surface. At a depth of nine meters, it fired two torpedoes at the Russian Battleship Poltava 800 yards away, and then quickly submerged.

Russian observers soon discovered the fish tracks and immediately issued an alarm. The warship turned rapidly and got out of the battle line, but was still penetrated by a 533 mm heavy torpedo. This old ship finally showed a fragile side in front of the 533 mm (21-inch) heavy torpedo that the Chinese army submarines.

I don't know if the guide rail hit the dog's luck and did not deform due to the collision, or if the sensitivity of picy acid once again played out, the 180 kilograms of picy acid explosive filled with the torpedo thunder exploded a large hole in the front of the starboard side of the Poltava. The sea water surged in, and the entire warship made a terrible roar. Then the dead fish collapsed on the sea surface, and almost instantly tilted as much as fifteen degrees. The Russian military personnel were exploding their efforts to rescue them as if they had exploded a nest, and the light ship next to them also began to search for the enemy situation like crazy.

This time, General Makarov stabbed the hornet's nest. When he received the report, he immediately realized that he had suffered a raid from the legendary Chinese submarine force and immediately issued an order for anti-submarine operations of the entire fleet.

On the sea, Russian destroyers, with all kinds of soldiers, began to fire everywhere. Many frightened Chinese submarines simply took the trick of taking chances, basically hiding two thousand or even three thousand yards away, calculating the speed and direction of the enemy ship, and then shot a torpedo based on their feelings.

The result is also easy to imagine: all lost.

On the other side, he was also in a hurry and panic.

In the eyes of Japan and Russia, these elusive torpedoes are simply tridents of the sea god, and they are hard to defend against. After finally dodging in a mess, the anti-submarine formation has been destroyed.

At this time, several experienced captains who had been invisible and stood by finally took action.

On Shark 42, which was secretly waiting for the water, Xue Hailong gave the order, and the submarine slipped in along the battlefield position given out by the Japanese and Russian destroyers, just in time to catch up with the Japanese and Russian rear team. Xue Hailong gave orders, two heavy torpedoes rushed straight to the Peter Pavlosk armored ship, which was leading the way. Roger Stewinsky was also scared by the torpedoes. Since he set sail, he has scattered all the unduly duty sailors on the side to be wary of "Chinese torpedo toys."

However, the long-term and high-tensioned homework, especially the safe and sound at night, made the Russian sailors relax their vigilance. The Russians' rough and treacherous problem in their bones was recurred. At this time, they were a little lazy, until there was a chaos ahead, and many people were energetic again.

Xue Hailong's two torpedoes were discovered by the Russians.

Roger Stewinsky heard the terrifying roar in the soundtrack, and almost had a heart attack. The warship turned sharply, causing the warship behind to be in chaos and messed up. Unexpectedly, two more torpedoes were found on the other side: Shark 40, and they were in tune with No. 42, and they both chose this gap.

There was another chaos.

At this moment, Shark 42 used another move: a torpedo launcher at the tail of the boat. Xue Hailong didn't care that there was already a splash of water on the side of the boat, and shot the last torpedo at the turning Petropavlosk, and then dived at the fastest speed.

Almost as he dived to twenty-five meters, he had been blown up by thirty-seven-mm shells around him and splashed countless times.

Xue Hailong's torpedo was hitting the bow of the ship of the Petropavlosk. The violent explosion caused the bridge personnel, including Roger Stwinsky, to fly up and hit the ceiling. They sat on the ground again, all in a daze.

The Poltava-class warship almost instantly entered 500 tons of water, and its speed dropped sharply. It had to be covered by destroyers and spy boats to repair it.

During this chaos, the light ships around the old armored cruiser Donskoy had already run around aimlessly, firing several shots at every suspicious place, but no one noticed it, and a periscope rose from the side.

This is Shark 28, which has rushed to the scene after receiving the telegram. The previous battle position of this Shark Triple C minecraft was wrong, and finally found the target based on Xue Hailong's telegram. Captain Liu Ningbo took a look at a loophole and directly relied on the underwater speed of six knots to drill into the inner layer of the anti-submarine circle, ventured up to the periscope position, and prepared the torpedo.

Two torpedoes.

Chapter 122 Steel vs. Steel (I)
Chapter completed!