Chapter 843 Crushing from the Sky (Second update, please subscribe)

It turns out that the Ming Dynasty is just like this!

When this thought came to Baron Radario's mind, he didn't know.

There is a kind of airship called the Ming Dynasty airship and airships from other countries.

Ming Dynasty was the first country to use airships for military purposes!

As the founder, Daming must have his own unique secrets. However, many people can't think of this at this time.

"Check the bombsight!"

When the airship was about to fly over the Montevideo Harbor, Ma Guangming, commander of the 5th Aerial Wing, shouted to the gunner.

Bombsight!

Different from the visual aiming in the past, two years ago, after years of research, the mechanical sight was finally developed. Although its structure is extremely simple and consists of only two iron plates, its bombing accuracy is still extremely high when used for low-altitude bombing.

In fact, in terms of structural principle, it is very similar to the "Mark Twain" bombing sight used by Doolittle during the World War II bombing of Tokyo. It is just two pieces of iron. This new sight is not only highly accurate, but also easy to use. For low-altitude bombing at 1,500 feet, this sight is even more accurate than the high-degree Knowlton sight.

Perhaps, during World War II, bombing at an altitude of 1,500 feet, or 457 meters, was low altitude, but in 1876...it was definitely high altitude!

And what orders have the floating troops received now?

It was the first time that an airship was used to bomb a warship.

"Don't worry, sir, there will be no problem!"

They are just two iron rulers. What is there to check? The most important thing is to check the bomb delivery system.

Compared with their counterparts in European countries, the Ming Dynasty's floating forces not only had bombing sights, but also had specially designed bombing systems. The bomb would be dropped the moment the aimer pressed the button.

The sight and the bomb delivery system complement each other. Without this bomb delivery system, it would be impossible to carry out precision bombing by manpower delivery as in the past.

"Open the bomb bay!"

When the bomb bay was opened, dozens of bombs hanging on the bomb racks were left to be blown by the breeze.

At this time, the enemy's warships have come into view, and the target is just ahead!

Staring at the target on the sea, Ma Guangming's lips curled up and a fanatical smile appeared on his face.

"See? The Brazilians are still pressurizing the boiler!"

Not to mention this era, even in the steam turbine era a hundred years later, during World War II, warships of various countries needed to take several hours to complete pressurization, and that was with a hot furnace. If the boiler was completely cooled, it would even take more than ten hours.

In fact, the Brazilian warships are also hot boilers. If they discovered targets at sea, they would have enough time to pressurize the boilers. But now they are facing airships from the sky, which directly means that they have no time to complete the pressurization.

Just as the boilermen of the Brazilian Navy were desperately shoveling coal into the furnace, the airship had already flown over the fleet.

"What are they going to do?"

The Brazilian naval officers and soldiers on the warship had already seen the open cabins of the airships, and they could even see the bombs in the cabins with high-powered binoculars.

That should be a bomb!

At the same time, seeing that Ma Guangming, who had already flown over the Brazilian fleet, could clearly see the "Rio de Janeiro" which was very similar to the Nanhua, he swallowed his saliva! If this battleship could be sunk by an airship, then the Ming Dynasty's floating force would become famous.

In the past few years, as countries have been equipped with airships, airships no longer seem to be a secret. Everyone knows that this big ship looks big, but it can't carry many bombs. What's more, it can only blow up infantry and fortresses, but it is impossible to blow up warships.

And now?

The Brazilian warships were right under his eyes.

The gunner, wearing his military cap backwards, aimed at the target on the sea through the bombing sight. Smoke was coming out of the chimney of the "Rio de Janeiro". Viewed from an altitude of nearly 500 meters, the 100-meter-long warship looked very small.

100 meters long, 17 meters wide...

The gunner, repeating this number in his mind, finally pressed the bomb button.

In an instant, several aerial bombs weighing 200 kilograms were dropped from the bomb bay. At the moment the bomb was dropped, the edge of its tail fin rubbed against the air and vibrated, making a "hissing" sound that cut through the air. This sound sounded harsh and thrilling.

"They're dropping bombs!"

The Brazilian naval officers and soldiers on the deck were all shouting in fear.

Not only the Rio Janeiro, but also the Riachuelo, Aquidaba and São Paulo. There were airships dropping bombs over each warship. When dropping bombs, the airships' speed was not fast, only a few tens of kilometers. One bomb after another fell from the sky.

"God bless you, the airship's bombing accuracy is not very high..."

Almost at the moment when this idea emerged in the minds of those naval officers, huge water columns suddenly exploded near the warship, and at the same time a bomb accurately hit the "Rio de Janeiro".

The 200-kilogram bomb did not explode immediately after hitting the deck, but instead smashed through the oak deck and directly into the cabin - warships of this era did not have horizontal armor.

When the bomb crashed below the deck, the Brazilian sailors in the cabin even saw the bomb with horror.

The black bomb looks so scary!

Suddenly, before they could scream, the bomb exploded!

The power of the hundreds of kilograms of explosives inside the bomb was extremely shocking, almost directly blowing the entire front deck of the "Rio de Janeiro" into the sky. The Brazilian sailors in the cabin were even directly vaporized in the violent explosion, and the smoke from the explosion burst out of the porthole like fireworks at a festival.

"Oh my God!"

Baron Radario opened his eyes wide in horror. Just when he couldn't believe what he saw, a bomb hit his "Riachuelo" accurately. Although the bomb didn't penetrate the deck, it created a huge fireball on the deck. The smoke and flames flew everywhere with the blast wave, not only igniting the canvas ropes, but also blowing up the twin ten-inch turrets in the middle of the ship, leaving corpses everywhere. The top cover of the left turret was blown directly into the sky, and the inside of the turret was full of corpses. The two ten-inch guns lost their combat effectiveness before they even had time to play a role.

Immediately afterwards, the airships flying in the sky began to drop bombs again and again. The airships in the sky were like a huge air fleet. They lined up in neat columns and continuously dropped bombs to the ground.

Hundreds of heavy aerial bombs fell!

In the first wave of air strikes, the airship troops had a total of 200 200-kilogram armor-piercing bombs, 12 of which hit the target!

Although the hit rate was only 6%, the damage caused to the Brazilian fleet was unimaginable. At least in the naval battles of this era, no fleet had ever suffered such heavy losses at the very beginning of the battle.

A bomb hit the front deck of the "Rio de Janeiro", blowing the front deck and secondary guns directly into the sky. Two bombs hit the building under the bridge of the "São Paulo", exploded on the spot, and directly blew the captain and senior officers on the bridge into the sky.

As for the fleet, the left turret of the "Riachuelo" was hit, and the people on the flagship were all staggering. Two other bombs fell on the deck of the "Akidaba", one penetrated the deck, exploded in the coal bunker, and then caused a fire, and the other bomb exploded directly on the rear deck.

As for the "Sete de Setembro", which is known as the pride of the Brazilian shipbuilding industry, a bomb hit directly amidships. The violent explosion not only blew up the warship, but also ignited the coal in the coal bunker, directly causing a fire...

(End of this chapter)