Chapter 1581 Torpedo Boat vs Battleship (New book release, please support)
There were not many stars in the sky at this early morning, and the moon was obscured by dark clouds. The sea was pitch black. As the wind and waves died down, sea fog rose up, like the River Styx. In the hazy sea fog, hundreds of beams of light moved back and forth.
With the position exposed, Fisher ordered the fleet to turn on the searchlights. The searchlights of the Combined Fleet would sweep across the sea from time to time to prevent submarine attacks.
Submarines, which are one of their biggest threats.
When the destroyers and light cruisers on the periphery used searchlights to search the sea surface, they did not realize that at this time, they were like a bright light in the dark night, exposing their own existence.
“There they are!”
Lin Xianyu pointed at the lamppost that was moving in the distance with some excitement.
That’s right!
It’s the lights of the Combined Fleet!
"Be careful of the searchlights, avoid them..."
Why choose torpedo boats for night attacks?
Because the 21-meter-long torpedo boat is maneuverable and can perfectly avoid searchlights when sailing at night, in past exercises, it has more than once inflicted heavy damage on the enemy in troubled waters.
And more importantly... no one would have thought that they would encounter a torpedo boat here. After all, this sea area is far away from the mainland - a full three or four hundred nautical miles, and even the nearest island is several hundred nautical miles away.
No one could have expected that a torpedo boat would appear here. It was a surprise attack.
"I'll take the helm myself!"
After finally determining the location of the Anglo-American fleet, Lin Xianyu took over the position of helmsman. As he operated the steering wheel, he was sweating in his heart. In fact, cold sweat kept pouring out of his back.
Not fear, but tension.
He didn't know why he was so nervous, but he was sure that he was not afraid of death.
The time is now!
This is the moment they have been waiting for!
As the speedboat approached the fleet, the sea was so quiet that it was a little scary. The only sound was the wind blowing on the mast and the vibration of the engine. In the waves, the officers and soldiers of the torpedo boat unit had long forgotten the horror of death, and slowly, they seemed to merge with the torpedo boat.
The only thing he was thinking about was how to defeat the enemy in front of him.
There was a layer of sea fog covering the sea, which perfectly concealed the small torpedo boats. They were like ghosts on the sea, constantly approaching the fleet. They were in groups of two speedboats, sailing in the sea fog, carefully avoiding the light beams.
In the darkness between the beams of light, the torpedo boats sailed carefully with their flexible maneuverability. The rolling waves broke up their tracks. Even when passing the outer destroyers, the British sailors on the destroyers did not notice the torpedo boats passing by.
After all, in the dark, people's eyes will naturally follow the light.
"Calm down...Calm down, just calm down!"
Lin Xianyu, who was operating the steering wheel, suddenly turned the steering wheel, and a beam of light swept almost past the position of the torpedo boat.
With the help of the light beam moving back and forth, Lin Xianyu saw the outline of a warship in the distance. After vaguely seeing the four turrets in front and back, he followed without hesitation. He did not need to look for other targets because it must be a large ship.
Just sinking one large ship is enough!
However, he did not engage the enemy from the side. He tried to seize the bow position. According to the common sense of torpedo attack, it is most effective to launch a torpedo head-on at the enemy ship. At this time, no matter whether the enemy ship turns left or right, there is no room for dodging, so if there is a chance, attack head-on.
Not only Lin Xianyu was looking for a suitable position, but other torpedo boats were also. Under the cover of sea fog and twilight, they were sailing among the vast fleet of the British and American Combined Fleet, always looking for the right time to attack.
Head-on firing is the best launching position, but it requires a suitable launching time, especially in this kind of formation combat, it is difficult to ensure that every torpedo boat can grab the right position for the battle. Therefore, the most suitable offensive position now is a fan-shaped flank attack, which requires them to get as close to the enemy ship as possible.
This moonless night is always filled with too many legendary stories. At 3:45, Adam, who was operating the searchlight on the battleship "Victory", followed the light with his eyes. Although he seemed very focused, he did not notice that a torpedo boat had arrived.
"God bless you!"
While praying, Lin Xianyu's eyes were fixed on the bow of the enemy ship in front of him. He finally found the right position.
Behind the four torpedo tubes, the torpedo officers' eyes were also fixed on the enemy ships ahead.
Just a few minutes later, the Yu 037 driven by Lin Xianyu was only 300 meters away from the oncoming enemy ship, and another torpedo boat was following closely behind him.
"Sir, three hundred meters!"
"Prepare!"
Lin Xianyu shouted loudly. Although it was the early morning when the stars and the moon were dim and the air was filled with sea fog, looking at the beams of light emitted by the searchlights of the British and American joint fleet, Lin Xianyu's eyes were cold... Now is the time!
"Number one is complete, number two is complete..."
As the command to fire the four torpedo tubes sounded, the rangefinder on the command bridge shouted again.
"The distance is two hundred and fifty!"
"Left one! Fire! Right one! Fire!"
As two commands were given in succession, accompanied by two muffled sounds of propellants, two electric torpedoes, propelled by the propellants, jumped out of the torpedo tubes like dragons entering the sea. The moment they entered the sea, the two torpedoes first rushed up two balls of water on the sea surface, and then drove towards the enemy ship less than 200 meters ahead, without any track. This is the biggest advantage of electric torpedoes.
"Full left!"
At the moment of launching two torpedoes, Lin Xianyu gave another order and turned the steering wheel suddenly. The speedboat, which was originally rushing straight towards the enemy ship, suddenly threw up a ball of sea waste several meters high and drove towards the rear almost sticking to the enemy ship.
It was the explosion of the torpedo firing and the waves caused by the torpedo boats turning at full rudder that exposed its existence. The British sailors who discovered these torpedo boats could hardly believe their eyes. Even though they didn't believe it, when they reacted and wanted to operate the machine guns to counter, they found that the distance was too close, so they could not attack the torpedo boat that was almost sticking to them.
"Torpedo boat spotted!"
"Torpedo boat!"
The battleship "Victory" was filled with the sailors' shouting at the top of their lungs. When they were shouting, they had no idea that two torpedoes were approaching right in front of them. However, the Royal Navy's excellent training came in handy at this time. The sailors operating the searchlights changed direction almost at the same time and swept towards the sea.
"Did they fire their torpedoes?"
"They haven't launched yet..."
Just as the officer on duty in the command tower was reporting to the captain, suddenly, the bow of the "Victory" suddenly lifted up, accompanied by a loud bang, and a huge column of water rose into the air in front of the left side of the bow.
Got hit!
Before they could react, there was suddenly another violent shock in front of the battleship, and a violent explosion occurred in the lower middle part behind the bow. Two torpedoes hit the bow of the "Victory" battleship directly. The two torpedoes almost blew off its entire bow. Seawater poured into the fleet in an instant, and the British did not even have time to do damage control. First, the ammunition depot was swallowed up, and then the entire boiler room was completely submerged in seawater. Then there was another explosion at the bow, and the bow of the "Victory" was hit by the third torpedo again.
The three explosions that sounded behind him only caused a shout of "Hurray" to be heard on the torpedo boat Yu 037. At this time, Yu 037 and Yu 046 were no longer elves in the dark night. Under the strong light of the searchlight, everything on the two boats was seen clearly.
But what was clearer was the "Victory" next to them. Its bow was almost blown off. In just a blink of an eye, the surging sea water caused the bow to sink severely.
"Torpedo boat! How could there be a torpedo boat?"
When the British and Americans in the fleet were astonished, they saw that the two torpedo boats had already rushed towards other warships. Lin Xianyu, who was driving the torpedo boat towards the next target, ignored the rain of bullets coming from all directions.
Although the strong light of the searchlight made everything on the boat very bright, there was only one feeling left in his heart: he and this high-speed torpedo boat were the only ones left between the sky and the sea.
The water columns caused by the exploding shells continuously splashed sea water onto his body, but the cool sea water could not extinguish the heat in Lin Xianyu's heart. When the explosion sounded behind him, the brightest smile appeared on his face - he had completed his mission and sunk a battleship.
"Concentrate fire on the port side and shoot at the torpedo boat!"
The gunner in the command tower of the "Royalty" shouted loudly. Everyone in the command tower looked at the two torpedo boats nervously. He and everyone else were full of surprise. How could there be torpedo boats?
This place is thousands of kilometers away from the mainland. How could a small boat that looks only a few dozen feet long get here?
In all their plans, torpedo boats were not taken into consideration, because as we all know, those small boats cannot travel that far... Torpedo boats are used in coastal areas.
"There must be other torpedo boats, there must be more than two..."
At this moment, a scream came from the microphone, "Two torpedo boats spotted on the starboard side..."
It took only one or two minutes from the discovery to the explosion of two huge water columns on the starboard side of the "Royalty". It was not until this time that the officers and soldiers of the Royal Navy and the US Navy realized what they had encountered - a torpedo boat ambush group!
But at this time, it was too late.
Like a tiger pouncing on a sheep, Lin Xianyu, who was driving a torpedo boat, noticed the aircraft carrier right in front of him. Although he could not distinguish the ship number, he still rushed straight over and fired two torpedoes head-on at a distance of 400 meters amid the hail of bullets.
The two torpedoes that flew out of the tube flew directly towards the aircraft carrier under the sea. Although there were no more torpedoes, Lin Xianyu still shouted loudly.
"Attack the next one."
"Sir, no torpedoes!"
"I know. Let's go and attract firepower..."
When Lin Xianyu was driving the torpedo boat towards another target, a large column of water suddenly exploded from the bow of the aircraft carrier. In the violent explosion, the aircraft carrier, which was converted from a merchant ship, did not even have time to struggle before it began to take on serious water.
"The Victory has been sunk!"
"The Dignity was hit by a torpedo! It's taking on a lot of water..."
"besides……"
As soon as he arrived at the command tower, Fisher learned one bad news after another. These news made him frown. He walked to the window of the command tower and looked at the sea. The sound of cannons was endless, and huge water columns continued to rise. Every large water column rising into the air meant that a torpedo had hit the target.
With the help of the gunfire and searchlights, we could clearly see the torpedo boats shuttling back and forth on the sea like ghosts. In the three or four foot high waves, several fast-attacking torpedo boats were pushed into the air by the waves, and then slammed into the sea.
The small torpedo boats were moving quickly between the waves. Although the exploding water columns kept exploding near them, they seemed to have no effect on them at all. On the sea, the torpedo boats that launched torpedoes did not dodge immediately, but danced in the rain of bullets. Yes, they were dancing, and they were showing off their dancing moves!
No one knew which torpedo boat still had torpedoes and which one did not. All the torpedo boats became targets of the gunners. The gunners of the secondary guns, small-caliber rapid-fire guns, and mast guns kept aiming at the torpedo boats and ordered them to fire shells.
But the torpedo boats that swarmed in seemed to have no end. They launched attacks again and again. Occasionally, a shell hit a torpedo boat. Although the torpedo boat was blown into pieces and turned into torches on the sea, none of the gunners cheered at all, because the torpedo boats were still attacking them, and they might be hit by a torpedo in the next moment.
What's even worse is that they couldn't find any trace of the torpedoes at all. Many times, as long as a torpedo boat approached the launching position, the captains would panic and order an emergency turn of the rudder, but just as they were turning the rudder, the side exploded without any warning.
In order to avoid the attack of the torpedo boats, the neat team turned into a swarm. The messy formation gave the torpedo boats a better chance. Just when the formation of the combined fleet fell into chaos, dozens of torpedo boats that arrived later, like Jing Ke wielding the sword to stab the King of Qin, suddenly stabbed in.
They nimbly avoided the beams of searchlights and even the shells fired by enemy ships, and rushed towards the most valuable targets.
In this fleeting time, there was more than just a moment of that day, but the entire sky and sea seemed to be covered in flames, reaching a temperature that could melt stone and burn steel.
The sea was boiling. Amid the deafening explosions of artillery shells and the roar of torpedoes, battleships, aircraft carriers and armored cruisers, under the successive attacks of torpedo boats, turned into violent explosions and slowly sank to the bottom of the deep sea.
Despite this, the British and American sailors on the combined fleet still held their posts, braving the smoke and flames, facing the threat of death, and never flinching. Their faces, reflected by the firelight, showed a calm and resolute look, as if they were determined to face the judgment of fate.
The exploding shells, the roar of torpedoes, the shouts of sailors, these sounds intertwined on the sea, composing their symphony with their lives...which was actually just their final swan song.
The new book "I am a tyrant in Ming Dynasty" has been released. I beg you to continue to support me! Thank you! ! ! I have set up a book club: 739209015. Welcome everyone to join and discuss the plot of the new book.
(End of this chapter)
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