Chapter 1018 The Difference Between Real Battlefields
The USS Duncan, where Vice Admiral Ives was stationed, was still being bombed by enemy planes.
Perhaps in order to exert pressure, the French army has increased the intensity of the bombing, shifting from bombing only the "Duncan" to other warships.
Two nautical miles away, the battleship HMS Exmouth, a ship of the same class, was being attacked by more than ten bombers.
The French pilots seemed to have experience. They first used fighter jets to accurately "clear" the few air defenses on the warships, such as machine guns and "bang bang" cannons, and then the bombers could bomb them with confidence.
But soon, Major General Ives realized that their purpose was not just that.
Just when Major General Elvis was being bombed to pieces, a group of planes flew in the sky, almost covering half of the sky in the west.
Major General Elvis was shocked. The French actually had so many planes?
When I looked closely, I found that they were old "Caproni" bombers, about 30 of them, and because of their fuselages, they looked like a very large lineup.
But then he thought about it, and Major General Elvis' pupils dilated unconsciously:
"Caproni" bomber means torpedo.
Without the cover of the Camel fighters, the anti-aircraft firepower on the warships would have been destroyed by enemy aircraft, which meant that the fleet would be unable to withstand the attack of the Caproni.
Sure enough, the next second the "Caproni" bombers lowered their altitude. They flew almost close to the sea surface, searching for their targets in groups of two.
After flying steadily for a distance, they released torpedoes into the water one after another, and bright white water lines instantly appeared in the sea.
At the same time, the French fleet also launched a counterattack:
The battleships in the rear opened fire at full power, firing shells at the British fleet one after another. One round was followed by another. They did not consider whether they hit the target or not, but only wanted to fire the shells around the fleet.
Water columns tens of meters high suddenly rushed out from the British fleet. The water quickly evaporated under the heat of the shells, and waves of water mist were raised in the air, interfering with the British army's vision.
At the same time, the French destroyers approached the British fleet at high speed, firing while advancing to cover the torpedo boats rushing towards the British fleet.
This is the most classic harassment tactic of the French "Green Water Navy", and Lieutenant General Ives has seen it countless times during combat.
"Counterattack!" Vice Admiral Ives shouted, "Organize defense, be careful to avoid torpedoes!"
Normally, the British fleet could handle it easily.
The counterattack tactic is that the battleships change course to keep a distance from the enemy torpedo boats, while continuously bombarding with artillery. The destroyers move back and forth between the two, using artillery to physically "expel" these torpedo boats that are like flies.
Although the enemy torpedo boats are fast, they are still helpless under this attack and can only give up the attack. Otherwise, they may be almost destroyed before they reach the target battleship.
But this time is different.
Major General Ives felt he was under attack from all sides:
Enemy bombers were dive-bombing overhead, making terrifying whistling sounds as they dived down again and again, then dropping bombs with precision.
Enemy fighter planes strafed us at close range. After firing their machine guns and cannons, they turned their targets to the lookouts and signalmen on the mast.
There are also torpedoes dropped by "Caproni" bombers underwater, which are constantly approaching the target.
On the sea, the enemy fleet launched an attack...
Then Major General Elvis suddenly discovered that there were new fighter planes with inverted gull wings dropping torpedoes into the water.
God, what are these?
Major General Elvis felt that he was surrounded by enemy bullets, bombs and torpedoes, and there was no way to escape. His only choice was to take the bombs or catch the torpedoes with his hands.
“Boom boom!”
“Boom boom boom!”
…
With loud explosions, towering columns of water rose from the sea again.
The whole world was in chaos. The originally neat formation became independent and the warships avoided each other on their own. They could not communicate or command each other. Although they were still in the same sea area, they were like a pile of scattered sand.
Major General Ives climbed up from the shock of the explosion. The surroundings were in a mess. The "Exmouth" was hit by a torpedo, and the ship tilted slightly and slowly stopped.
Then, two inverted gull-wing "torpedo planes" appeared in sight. They approached from the left side of the "Exmouth" and released two torpedoes in succession.
(Note: During World War II, a tactic was developed for torpedo attacks on warships: attack the side of the target ship that was flooding, which would accelerate its loss of balance and sinking. Otherwise, if the other side was attacked to balance the flooding, it might be possible to save the ship and even maintain its combat effectiveness.)
"Boom boom!" Two more loud noises.
The "Exmouth" was completely beyond saving. Amid the harsh sound of steel pulling, the hull tilted more and more seriously and the speed became faster and faster, and finally it collapsed into the sea, stirring up tsunami-like waves.
The sailors on the ship fell out one by one like beans being dumped out, screaming, calling for help and crying.
Then suddenly everything was gone, leaving only the wreckage of the warship slowly sinking into the water. The huge propeller at the tail was still spinning in the air, as if grasping the last hope of survival, but eventually it disappeared on the sea.
Major General Ives was stunned.
A battleship, a battleship with a standard displacement of 13,600 tons, enough to threaten a small country, was sunk so easily that it didn't even have much chance to open fire.
Then several more cruisers and destroyers were hit by torpedoes.
That was an attack launched by French torpedo boats.
With a loud bang, a destroyer was hit by the main gun of the enemy battleship. The superstructure instantly burst into flames and debris flew everywhere.
Major General Ives muttered to himself: "Damn it, this isn't war, this isn't fair!"
He seemed to want to say that naval battles should be ship-to-ship and gun-to-gun. Introducing air power is shameless cheating. This is not how naval battles should be!
"General!" The first mate stumbled up, holding a telegram in his hand:
"Orders from London. The Prime Minister orders you to attack Malta Airport."
"He also said that this is the key to our army's victory, please hold on."
"Our army is already organizing reinforcements. It's a powerful fleet of dreadnoughts. Our goal is to destroy the French Navy!"
Ives didn't answer the telegram. He was stunned for a moment, then he laughed:
"Destroy the French Navy? They're still thinking about destroying the French Navy?"
"What were these bastards thinking? They should come here and see this."
"The Royal Navy is finished, everything is over, Britain is finished!"
…
This isn't actually the fault of the London Command.
The battlefield was developing and changing too quickly, and the fragmentary words in the telegram made it difficult for the command center to truly understand the gap in strength on the battlefield.
(End of this chapter)
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