dognovel Chapter 54: Toothless Tigers Besiege the Battleship Fuso
Chapter 54: Toothless Tigers Besiege the Battleship Fuso
"Once the target fleet has been located, each squadron will launch an attack according to the original plan. First, attack the enemy's battleships, then the cruisers. Be sure to eliminate as much of the enemy's anti-aircraft artillery as possible."
"First Squadron understands!"
"Second Squadron understands!"
"Squadron Three understands!"
Replies from the squadron leaders came from the captain's machine.
Then we saw a squadron of fighter planes launching a dive attack on the Fuso fleet that was sailing at full speed below.
When the pirate fleet broke out of the clouds, the view suddenly became clear.
The entire Fuso fleet also appeared before them.
At the forefront of the fleet were two Fuso-class battleships.
The Yamashiro was in front, and the still smoking and damaged battleship Fuso was behind.
Behind the two battleships was a cruiser fleet, totaling 5 ships.
Among them are two Myoko-class heavy cruisers, two Tenryu-class light cruisers, and one Kuma-class light cruiser.
The number of destroyers is even greater, totaling 8.
This fleet consists of two battleships, two heavy cruisers, three light cruisers, and eight destroyers. In Dongzhou, it is definitely an extremely powerful maritime force.
And this is only a part of the ships of the entire Fuso Navy.
The number of battleships of various types alone exceeded 10, which was absolutely a desperate number for the weak navy of the ancient country.
"Enemy aircraft spotted from the rear."
"Enemy planes are attacking!"
The appearance of the F4U Corsair fleet shocked the entire Fuso fleet.
"Hmph, can an ant really shake an elephant? Order all ships to move closer to me, form an anti-aircraft formation, and shoot down all these annoying flies."
Major General Takizo Kojima looked at the fleet of aircraft approaching them at high speed and did not take it too seriously.
These little things couldn't cause any trouble to their giant ships, but they were indeed annoying.
"Boom boom boom..."
“Boom boom boom…”
When the fleet approached from the rear, the anti-aircraft guns of the destroyers and cruisers along the way opened fire.
It is precisely because the Fuso Navy does not attach much importance to air defense, so the number of anti-aircraft guns on these warships is actually not large.
Take the largest battleship Fuso for example, its only anti-aircraft firepower was four single-barreled 4mm anti-aircraft guns.
The Myoko-class heavy cruiser was also a treaty-class cruiser, and its anti-aircraft firepower was only enhanced during the modification 35 years later.
The strongest anti-aircraft firepower now is the four 4mm high-altitude secondary guns.
The F4U fighter planes had increased their speed to 600 kilometers per hour in a dive, basically ignoring the anti-aircraft firepower of the Fuso fleet.
In particular, the 12 Corsair fighters of the First Squadron, which were at the forefront, formed small formations of four aircraft and attacked the damaged Fuso battleship from different directions.
“Boom boom boom…”
Faced with the anti-aircraft shells that kept exploding around him, Li Ping, the captain of a squadron, remained very calm. As long as he was not extremely unlucky, he would basically not be hit by the anti-aircraft shells.
He passed through layer after layer of air defense nets, and the illegal buildings of the Fuso battleship continued to magnify in his sight.
However, his target was not the illegal building, but the only two 76mm anti-aircraft guns on the side.
At this time, his altitude had dropped to about 1800 meters, and his speed still remained above 450 kilometers per hour.
7 km....6 km........3 km......
Li Ping's eyes focused and he immediately pressed the launch button.
Two HVAR 127mm air-to-air rockets on each side whizzed out from the short rails and headed straight towards the 76mm anti-aircraft turret that was spewing shells.
The armor-piercing HVAR rocket has a penetration depth of 160 mm, but the turret armor of the Fuso-class battleship anti-aircraft gun is 203 mm, which is difficult to penetrate unless the armor is weak.
The same is true.
Four rockets exploded one after another near the turret, two of which hit the turret more accurately.
Although it did not penetrate the turret armor, its armor was dented.
I don’t know if the turret’s transmission mechanism was damaged, causing the turret to be unable to turn, and even the elevation and depression devices of the gun barrel cannot be used.
Although the anti-aircraft gun turret was not destroyed, it was rendered useless.
The three fighter planes following Li Ping also launched attacks on another secondary gun.
After being hit by six rockets in succession, the anti-aircraft gun was blown away in a violent explosion.
Faced with a large number of rocket attacks, the Fuso became even more miserable, and the heavy armor of the illegal building became bumpy.
"Baga, shoot them down, shoot them down for me."
This time, Kojima Takizo was completely enraged, but it was just a rage of helplessness.
Their anti-aircraft firepower was too poor to pose any threat to the high-speed, highly maneuverable and heavily armored F4U Corsair.
Under the siege of 12 F4U Corsair fighters, the Fuso battleship was completely turned into a toothless tiger.
The only four 4mm anti-aircraft guns were all removed.
The same situation happened to another ship, the Yamashiro. The only four 4mm anti-aircraft guns on the ship were either destroyed or could no longer be used.
The remaining 12 F4U fighters attacked the two Myoko-class heavy cruisers respectively.
All fighter planes are committed to the goal of destroying the enemy's anti-aircraft artillery.
And they successfully completed their goal.
The two Fuso-class battleships and the two Myoko-class heavy cruisers lost all their anti-aircraft firepower.
After completing the mission, the fleet began to leave one after another.
Looking at the departing F4U Corsair fighters, Kojima Takizo cursed, "Damn flies! They can only destroy our small-caliber artillery. They can't deal with our heavy armor at all."
The Fuso looks very miserable, but it is only on the surface. These external injuries can be repaired in just a month or so.
However, this is also a shame in the eyes of Takizo Kojima.
After he returns, he will definitely suggest to the General Staff that all warships be equipped with dense anti-aircraft artillery so as to drive away these annoying flies.
Just a few minutes later, dense swarms of fighter planes appeared in the sky behind the fleet.
"We've spotted a fleet of planes to the side and rear. There are a lot of them, at least hundreds of them."
"damn it!"
Major General Takizo Kojima thought that the people coming this time were the same F4U pirates from before, so he did not panic. He just cursed and his face was full of anger.
The best description is that it is not very harmful but extremely insulting.
Unfortunately, the fighter planes that arrived this time were enough to cause fatal damage to them.
36 SBD dive bombers flew at the front of the fleet at an altitude of 3000 meters.
All SBD dive bombers carried a 907 kg armor-piercing bomb and two 46 kg small high-explosive bombs mounted under the wings.
In fact, when choosing a naval dive bomber, he originally wanted the more advanced SB2C Helldiver, but the shore-based aviation force did not have a high opinion of this fighter.
The reason is the same as that of the American pilots, that is, the controllability is too poor.
Although the SBD Dauntless dive bomber is a bit slow, its maximum speed is only over 420 kilometers per hour.
But its reliability and handling are all very good.
In addition, they were facing the Fuso Navy, which had weak anti-aircraft firepower and poor fighter performance, so the SBD Dreadnought was completely sufficient.
36 SBD Dauntless dive bombers were divided into several formations and flew directly towards the battleships Fuso and Yamashiro.
The scattered anti-aircraft artillery along the way posed no threat to them at all.
When a formation flew over the battleship Fuso, it immediately dived at the embarrassed battleship Fuso.
Kojima Takizo wanted to cry now. Why did these planes target the battleship Fuso as soon as they arrived?
At this time, he also discovered that the attacking fighter jets were different, but he did not think that these planes could pose a threat.
Although the Fuso maintained a speed of 22 knots, the ship no longer had any anti-aircraft firepower.
The destroyers and cruisers on the periphery were gradually approaching, but they had not yet formed an air defense formation.
So for the SBD dive bomber, it was no different from target shooting.
"Chirp..."
When the Dreadnought dive bomber aimed its crosshairs at the battleship Fuso, it pulled up hard at an altitude of about 650 meters.
As the dive bomber pulled up, the 907mm bomb in the belly of the aircraft also fell straight towards the battleship Fuso.
"Left rudder to avoid!"
The first bomb hit the battleship Fuso and exploded near the hole in its tail.
The armor-piercing bomb penetrated several layers of armor plates and exploded violently inside the cabin.
Flames shot up into the sky along the hole created by the explosion, and the entire battleship shook in the explosion.
The No. 6 turret at the rear was blown away in the violent explosion, and the barrel of the No. 5 turret was also greatly bent.
This bomb immediately caused significant damage to the Fuso battleship.
Soon, thick smoke began to rise from the tail of the Fuso-class battleship, which also caused some trouble to the SBD aircraft group that launched the subsequent attack.
As bombs fell one after another, the Fuso battleship, despite its tough skin and strong body, could hardly withstand it.
It was hit by three bombs in succession.
One of the bombs exploded near the chimney, directly blasting a large hole in the chimney, and toxic black smoke spread out from the hole.
Another bomb fell into the hole in the tail, blowing away one of the tail propellers.
This also directly slowed down the speed of the Fuso battleship, and it was even unable to complete the turn.
The Fuso was severely damaged and became the target of the fighter planes' main attack.
However, at this time, the destroyers and cruisers on the periphery came over one after another, wanting to use their anti-aircraft artillery to drive away the fighter planes that were besieging the Fuso battleship.
The SBD Dauntless dive bombers, which had already completed their bombing, now used the 46 kg bombs carried under their wings to deal with these destroyers and light cruisers.
These ships had light armor, and 46 kg bombs were enough to destroy their anti-aircraft guns.
However, the Dreadnought dive bomber was just an appetizer, the real culinary delight was already here.
They were TBM-3 Avenger torpedo bombers flying from low altitude.
The aerial torpedoes they carry are the deadly weapons that can truly kill battleships.
It is still somewhat difficult to use dive bombers to sink thick-skinned battleships.