dognovel Chapter 183 Ambush the Far East Fleet, War Restarts
Chapter 183 Ambush the Far East Fleet, War Restarts
John's Far East Fleet was not aware that Fuso's anti-submarine formation could no longer reach Qionghai, and all of them sank in the waters near the Ryukyu Islands.
At this moment, they were still conducting a dragnet anti-submarine search towards Qionghai under the leadership of Major General Harvey, deputy commander of the Far East Fleet.
Of course, their dragnet only targets a few waterways.
Otherwise, with current sonar technology, it would take about a hundred anti-submarine ships to complete a dragnet search of Java and Qionghai.
In this era when anti-submarine means are still immature, the possibility of them finding a Hurricane-class attack nuclear submarine in the ocean is almost zero.
Major General Harvey also understood this.
But he had to find the Fuxing Army's submarine hidden in Qionghai.
If he finds it, he can wash away the shame that the Renaissance Army brought to John's Empire.
Then he will become a hero of the entire John Empire and his future career will be bright.
It was precisely because of the motivation of interests that Major General Harvey carried out this mission with extreme seriousness and did not miss any opportunity.
"General, we have completed the search of this sea area. Apart from some clutter, we have found no trace of the Restoration Army submarine."
Major General Harvey was very upset when he heard this. He punched the table hard, causing the pen on the table to jump up.
"Damn bugs, they must be hiding. They're not even on this channel."
"General, these yellow monkeys don't have the courage to face us, so should we continue searching forward?
If we go further, we will reach the ancient kingdom of Qionghai."
Major General Harvey snorted coldly and said, "Why not? Even if we have to turn the entire ocean upside down, we'll find them.
"Where are the Fuso people? Why haven't they made any movement? Where have they gone yet?"
"I have been trying to contact them for several hours but have not received any response."
Upon hearing this, Major General Harvey frowned.
It’s not a good thing to not be able to contact anyone at this time.
Thinking of this, he immediately said to his men, "Go, contact the Fuso Navy directly and have them head south as quickly as possible. Don't waste precious time on the road."
"Yes, General!"
An hour later, the staff officer found Major General Harvey with a grim expression.
"General, we have received a reply from the Fuso Navy."
Seeing the staff officer's expression, Major General Harvey's heart sank.
Obviously this is not good news.
He had a premonition that something must have happened to this Fuso anti-submarine formation.
"What did the telegram say?"
“They were attacked by a submarine of the Restoration Army in the waters near the Ryukyu Islands and were completely wiped out.
And the Fuso people also revealed an important news to us.
The torpedoes launched by the Restoration Army's submarines appear to have the ability to track ships.
No matter how the Fuso ships maneuver, they cannot avoid the attacks of these torpedoes."
Major General Harvey was stunned when he heard the contents of the telegram.
Then he fell into deep thought.
This telegram reveals a lot of information.
The scale of Fuso's anti-submarine formation this time is not small.
One heavy cruiser, four light cruisers and eight destroyers.
Although the Japanese have poor anti-submarine technology and no anti-submarine experience, the size of this fleet is there.
The submarines of the Restoration Army Navy not only ambushed this anti-submarine formation, but also sank all 13 warships of this fleet.
And it seems that the Fuso people did not sink any submarines of the Restoration Army.
If there were any results, the Japanese would not have mentioned anything in the telegram.
Plus the torpedoes that have the ability to track the direction of the ship's movement.
This also made Major General Harvey's expression particularly solemn.
“It seems that this opponent is a little beyond our expectations.
Tell all the soldiers this news and let them know how powerful the enemy we are facing this time is."
Major General Harvey was well aware of the mentality of these low-level soldiers.
They generally looked down on the Fusion Army's submarines and believed that the submarines could not threaten them.
The Japanese taught them a bitter lesson: anyone who underestimates these submarines will pay a heavy price.
At the same time, Major General Harvey also wanted to let all soldiers know that the torpedoes launched by the Renaissance Army's submarines have tracking capabilities.
Let everyone be vigilant enough.
"We can only rely on ourselves this time, keep moving forward!"
Under the command of Major General Harvey, the Far East Fleet's anti-submarine formation continued to move forward.
Four hours later, they also crossed the eleven-dash line of Qionghai and entered the Qionghai waters.
When they entered the Qionghai waters, it meant that they had entered the countdown to their destruction.
After the three submarines of the first squadron completed the replenishment through the submarine mother ship, they have been waiting for the arrival of the Far East Fleet in the southernmost waters of Qionghai.
However, when the Far East Fleet entered the Qionghai waters, Captain Zhang Yunjie did not immediately order an attack.
He had also received news from the First Fleet.
Three more submarines will arrive in their waters in three days.
They needed to wait for the arrival of these three submarines before launching an attack together.
In this battle, the Far East Fleet's entire anti-submarine fleet must be kept in Qionghai, leaving them no chance to escape.
So Zhang Yunjie led the other two submarines to continue sailing northward with the Far East Fleet.
Major General Harvey didn't know that the Renaissance Army submarine they had been looking for was actually following them.
......
After three consecutive days of no results, Major General Harvey gradually lost his patience.
"Why? Is it because we haven't encountered them, or are they deliberately avoiding us? Or have they already headed north to encircle and annihilate the Fuso fleet?"
At this moment, he had countless unanswered questions in his mind.
The fleet continued to head north and continued searching along the original route.
But he knew that the possibility of finding the submarine this time was very small.
But they didn't know that at this moment, six Hurricane-class attack nuclear submarines had already gathered in front of them and set up a dragnet here.
At night, the moon over Qionghai is exceptionally bright.
The light of the bright moon penetrates the clouds and the sea fog, pouring a silver glow onto the sea, forming a bright path.
“Wow…”
The intrusion of a giant ship smashed this bright sea route into pieces.
In the hazy moonlight, it is not difficult to see that this is the Repulse battlecruiser, one of the main ships of the Far East Fleet.
HMS Repulse was the second ship of the Renown-class battlecruiser.
Built before the last world war.
However, it underwent an upgrade after the war, strengthening its armor and bringing its tonnage to tons.
The main weapons are three 381mm twin main guns and 17 102mm secondary guns.
It is also equipped with 40 16mm anti-aircraft guns and 20 16mm anti-aircraft guns.
Compared with the ships of the Fuso Navy, John's warships still attach great importance to air defense capabilities.
In addition, the John Imperial Navy possesses the most advanced anti-submarine technology in the world.
Therefore, John's Far East Fleet is still very strong in air defense and anti-submarine capabilities.
On both sides of the Repulse battlecruiser were three cruisers.
They are the Hawkins heavy cruiser and two Emerald-class light cruisers.
The six destroyers are in an inverted C shape, vaguely enclosing the four warships in the middle.
This formation is also intended to prevent the Repulse battlecruiser from being attacked by the first wave.
If the Renaissance Army's submarines want to attack them, they must destroy the outermost destroyers.
"First, knock off their turtle shells, and then you can eat their meat."
Faced with John Navy's formation, the detachment commander, Colonel Zhang Yunjie, was not polite at all.
When the agreed time for launching the attack arrived, the UH-1101 submarine decisively opened fire.
A MK35 heavy torpedo shot out from the torpedo tube and headed directly towards a W-class destroyer nearly 1 nautical mile away.
Against a destroyer of this type that weighs only over 2000 tons when fully loaded, basically one heavy torpedo can end the battle.
Without a size of three to five thousand tons and dense watertight compartments, it would be almost impossible to withstand it.
The torpedo travels at a maximum speed of 2 knots at a depth of about 27 meters below the sea surface.
At this time, the passive sonar has vaguely locked onto it.
When the distance was only a few hundred meters, the active sonar device was activated, and a beam of active sonar was directly directed towards the W-class destroyer.
At this moment, an alarm sounded in the hydrophone room of the W-class destroyer.
The ship's sonar alarm system detected the signal and sounded an alarm.
"We were detected by active sonar. The Renaissance Army submarine was on our port side. It was very close, only about 500 meters away."
This news immediately caused a sensation on the entire W-class destroyer.
There is a big difference between active sonar and passive sonar.
Passive sonar does not emit any signals but is only used to receive noise radiation or sonar signals.
It is also because of this that passive sonar has good concealment and is often used for long-distance detection and covert surveillance.
Just like the Hurricane-class attack nuclear submarine has been following the Far East Fleet without being discovered, it relies on passive sonar.
The passive sonar detection range of the Hurricane-class attack nuclear submarine is about 10 nautical miles.
Active sonar needs to emit signals to detect fixed targets or close-range targets.
It's like shining a flashlight on someone in the dark.
When you turn on the flashlight in the dark, people around you can see you.
Therefore, submarines will only briefly turn on active sonar for detection and obtain detailed information when launching an attack.
If the Hurricane-class attack nuclear submarine carries other torpedoes instead of MK35 torpedoes, it will also need to turn on active sonar to illuminate and obtain specific target data before launching an attack.
But the MK35 torpedo is equipped with active sonar, so there is no need for this, and the attack can be launched more covertly.
The abnormality of the W-class destroyer also attracted the attention of the entire fleet.
In an instant, all the warships lit up their lights, and beams of searchlights shone towards the W-class destroyer.