Reborn South Africa as a police officer

Chapter 2275 Gustav Cannon
After the order to evacuate was issued, it quickly turned into an irreparable rout.

The air fleet led by Nagumo Chuichi consists of 4 aircraft carriers, 2 battleships, 2 heavy cruisers, 1 light cruiser, 12 destroyers, and 5 supply ships.

In the previous battle, three of the four aircraft carriers were sunk, all the cruisers were wiped out, only 12 of the 8 destroyers remained, and the 2 battleships were intact. Unfortunately, they have not played any role since the outbreak of the battle.

At least it did not play the role expected by the Japanese army.

At this time, it was getting late and night fell, and the United Fleet hoped to use the night to escape.

The pilots of the Allied Forces launched continuous attacks on the combined fleet in a relay manner, and the combined fleet was always monitored by reconnaissance planes from the Indian Ocean Fleet.

In order to reduce losses, Nagumo ordered the fleet to disperse, which gave the Allied pilots more opportunities.

At [-]:[-], the battleship "Haruna", which was fleeing frantically, was besieged by US fighter planes.

So far, the U.S. military has only sunk one "Xianghe" aircraft carrier, and the other losses of the Japanese combined fleet were caused by the Southern African Air Force.

This result was a bit poor. Halsey and the US military pilots were very angry, and the "Haruna" became the target of the US military's anger.

The "Haruna" battleship is the third ship of the Japanese "King Kong" class battleship, and it is also the first batch of so-called super dreadnought battleships in Japan. The No. 1 "King Kong" of this class was built in the United Kingdom. Both "Kirishima" and "Kirishima" were built in Japan. The Kawasaki Shipyard that built the "Haruna" had an extreme incident in which the person in charge committed suicide because of lagging behind in progress.

The "Haruna" was built in 1912, exactly 30 years ago.

In the past 30 years, naval technology has advanced by leaps and bounds, and the role of battleships has been continuously weakened. Japan carried out two large-scale modernizations on "Haruna" in 1920 and 1933, mainly to strengthen the armor and power respectively, but the anti-aircraft weapons did not. How much to increase. .

This is also normal. Within the scope of East Asia, there is no country that can pose a threat to "Haruna", so naturally there is no need to add too many anti-aircraft artillery.

Now fighting the United States and southern Africa, this has become the Achilles heel of "Haruna".

It was still Captain Best who led the team to launch the first attack on the "Haruna".

After a bomb sank the "Xianghe", Captain Best has become the idol of US military pilots, and his achievements are worthy of a US Congressional Medal.

This time, Captain Best was in bad luck. The torpedo formation led by him fired a total of four torpedoes, but failed to hit "Haruna". "Haruna" was still frantically fleeing at a top speed of 30 knots.

The second wave of attacks was still launched by the US military.

The luck of the "Haruna" was all exhausted in the previous wave of attacks. This time, the "Haruna" was hit by two torpedoes, and its speed quickly dropped to less than 15 knots.

Immediately afterwards, "Haruna" was attacked for the third time. This wave of attacks came from the air. "Haruna" was hit by at least 6 aerial bombs. The fire began to spread to the interior of the hull. The torch floats on the sea.

This is not over yet, the torpedo plane that took off from the "Enterprise" launched a fourth wave of attack on the "Haruna", and after being hit by three torpedoes again, the "Haruna" finally sank to the bottom of the sea.

While the U.S. Army was besieging the Haruna, southern African pilots were hunting the Kaga.

(Sorry, the Yutou code word is dizzy. I made a mistake in the last chapter. Canglong has been sunk in Manila. The last remaining aircraft carrier of the United Fleet is Kaga.)
The "Kaga" aircraft carrier was refitted with a battleship. The three-layer flight deck is its biggest feature. When it was built, the "Kaga" carried only a pitiful 60 aircraft. In 1934, Japan upgraded the "Kaga" , the number of carrier-based aircraft increased to 90.

When Nagumo Chuichi ordered the fleet to evacuate, "Kaga" had lost all its fighters and attack aircraft, leaving only 27 99 carrier-based bombers, which are often called 99 carrier bombers.

Before 1936, Japan's carrier-based bombers were still old-fashioned biplanes with extremely backward performance.

In 36, the Japanese Navy put forward the development requirement of "metal monoplane dive bomber", so there were 99 ship bombers.

For the Japanese Navy, the 99 Ship Explosion is a bomber with excellent performance, with a maximum speed of 430, a maximum altitude of 10500, and a cruising range of 1350 kilometers. Compared with the old biplane bombers, the performance has a qualitative leap.

However, compared with the "Sea Harrier" in southern Africa, there is still a big gap between the 99 ship explosion, which is mainly reflected in the bomb load.

南部非洲的“海鹞”和99舰爆采用的发动机都是1200马力，不过“海鹞”可以携带1200公斤炸弹，99舰爆的最大载弹量不超过500公斤。

In this way, the problem arises. The horsepower of the engines is almost the same. Why is there such a big gap in the ammunition load?
That's a question for Mitsubishi.

The "Kaga" with a full load displacement of 43600 tons has a maximum speed of only 28 knots.

In the previous stage of combat, "Kaga" was also frantically attacked by Allied pilots. The hull was hit many times, and the speed dropped to less than 20 knots.

At least 40 "Sea Harriers" participated in the siege of the "Kaga". The "Kaga" sank quickly after being hit by 13 aerial bombs and six torpedoes. Of the crew, only 1750 survived the battle.

So far, the four aircraft carriers of the Japanese Air Force Fleet have all sunk.

All the luck of the air fleet went to the battleship "Kirishima".

The captain of the "Kirishima" was very smart. After Nagumo Chuichi gave the order to retreat, the "Kirishima" did not return directly to Kure Army Port, but left the battlefield southward with the help of night, and then turned to return to the Japanese mainland.

This decision is wise. The Southern African Navy and the U.S. Navy did not let go of the "Kirishima". They were still looking for the "Kirishima" after nightfall, and were forced to stop until 11 o'clock at night.

Like the aviation fleet led by Nagumo Chuichi, the main fleet led by Yamamoto 56 was also frantically attacked by the Southern African Air Force.

Strictly speaking, the Japanese aircraft carrier is not a big threat to the southern African navy. After all, there is a difference in the performance of the carrier-based aircraft and the gap between the pilots. It is difficult for the Japanese aircraft carrier to pose a real threat to the southern African navy.

Capital fleets are different.

Don't forget that the Japanese main fleet has super battleships like "Yamato". For the southern African navy, "Yamato" is not only a threat, but also an honor.

Captain Best's sinking of Shokaku deserves a Congressional Medal.

If there is any lucky person in the Southern African Navy who can sink the "Yamato", then the Federal Government of Southern Africa will cast a one-ton trophy for him alone.

Needless to say, it must be pure gold.

After the "Mutsu" overturned, the Southern African Air Force targeted the "Yamato" as the main target of its attack.

However, the "Yamato" with a full load displacement of 11 tons is not so easy to deal with, and there are other Japanese warships next to it to provide protection for the "Yamato". The first two waves of attacks on the "Yamato" all failed. Damage was done, and [-] torpedo planes and bombers were lost.

This loss is unacceptable to Tang Li. Japan can use well-trained pilots to fly kamikaze fighters as cannon fodder. Southern Africa is not so luxurious, and every pilot is precious.

At this time, the main fleet led by Yamamoto 56 still had more than 40 warships, including five battleships, including the most powerful "Yamato" and "Nagato" in the Japanese army.

"The battle is enough for now. We have won the victory. The Japanese have lost the ability to attack Guam. Now we can go back and have a good sleep." Halsey was satisfied, and the U.S. Navy he led sank a Japanese ship. The aircraft carrier and a battleship let out a bad breath.

"It would be great if 'Yamato' could be sunk—" Tang Li slightly regretted that the southern African navy also gained a lot, including 3 aircraft carriers, 3 battleships, 2 seaplane carriers, and more than 20 other large and small ships The warships and the United Fleet were severely damaged after this battle, and it is still unknown whether they can restore their peak strength.

Most likely it is impossible.

It took Japan nearly 1903 years to build the current combined fleet from the establishment of the combined fleet in 40 to the present.

In the past 40 years, Japan's annual military expenditure has been heavily tilted towards the navy, and it has only accumulated to the current scale before the outbreak of World War II. Reconstruction is completely impossible, and Japan has lost its opportunity.

When the Japanese Combined Fleet was established, it had the support of the United Kingdom, and after the last World War, Japan received assistance from the United States. If it were not for the scrap steel from the United States, Japan would not have been able to build ten battleships at all.

Now Japan and the United States are in a state of war, and the trade between the two countries has been completely cut off. If Japan wants to obtain resources, it depends on war plunder, and it will not take much.

If the countries in the Far East have developed industries, where can the Japanese come to the top?

Iron ore is available in Australia, but the Japanese are out of reach.

There is oil in the East India, and the Japanese can only look at the ocean and sigh.

Now what the Japanese military has to consider is not how to land on Borneo, but how to prepare for the Allied counterattack against the Philippines.

Well, the counterattack against the Philippines will have to wait, and now the focus of the world's attention is still on the Russian battlefield.

The victory in the Battle of Moscow did not bring fundamental changes to Russia, and the damage caused by the "Great Cleansing" has not been fully repaired, as evidenced by the defeat in the Battle of Kharkov.

The Battle of Kharkov was the Russians' initiative to launch a counterattack against the Germans.

The Germans were not idle after the spring blossoms, and this time the battle broke out in the Crimean Peninsula.

The Crimean Peninsula is the Crimea Peninsula, and there is a tsarist-era resort on the island, which was built on a huge fortress.

Compared with the famous Liege Fortress and the Maginot Line of Defense, the fortresses on the Crimean Peninsula are not inferior. Its main defensive position stretches for 360 kilometers, and there are 12 fortresses. The largest "Maxim- "Gorky I" fortress, which has twin 44mm caliber fortress guns with a range of 305 kilometers.

The appearance of the turret of the fortress gun resembles the main gun of a battleship. It is completely wrapped by armor plates with a thickness of 200 to 300 mm. There are 3 layers of permanent fortifications under the turret, and the thickness of each layer of permanent concrete reaches about 4 meters.

The underground of the fortresses is connected by railways. All the turrets of the fortresses are sunken and have an absolute advantage in firing range. In theory, it is impossible to conduct a ground attack on the defense zone. The ammunition depot of the fortress is located 30 meters underground, which can be described as foolproof.

The Russian troops stationed on the Crimean Peninsula can land around the Black Sea at any time, seriously threatening the threat of the German southern front.

The Germans launched an attack on the Crimean Peninsula last winter, which ended in a total defeat of the German army.

Now that the mustache is determined to remove the threat from the Crimean Peninsula, Admiral Manstein led the German 11th Army and the Romanian Mountain Force launched a second offensive to the Crimean Peninsula in April.

With the experience of the last disastrous defeat, Manstein came prepared this time. Not only did he have the support of the German aviation under his command, but he also mobilized a powerful artillery unit.

In order to break through the "Maxim-Gorky I", Manstein transferred three cannons, namely the fixed mortar "Gamma Equipment" with a caliber of 420 mm, and the self-propelled mortar with a caliber of 610 mm "" Karl Equipment", and the train cannon "Gustav Cannon" with a caliber of up to 800 mm.

420 mm and 610 mm are understandable, and 800 mm is beyond the scope of ordinary people's understanding of artillery.

The "Gustav Cannon" weighs more than 1344 tons. It took 25 train wagons and 2000 labor to install it, and it took 42 days to complete the installation.

This cannon is really unprecedented. The whole cannon is 4 stories high, 20 feet wide, and 140 feet long. The length of the shell reaches 4.6 meters, and the range is 48 kilometers. It requires the close cooperation of 500 people to operate it.

The "Gustav Cannon" shell weighed 7100 kilograms, and the "Carl" shell weighed 2200 kilograms. In addition, there were more than 200 German artillery companies to assist in the battle, and the Germans dispatched more than 1300 artillery pieces.

The battle broke out on April [-]th, and the German army launched the largest artillery bombardment campaign since World War II.

The "Gustav" was so powerful that it broke down the fortresses carefully arranged by the Russians one by one. The armor-piercing projectile weighing 7100 kilograms directly penetrated the 8000-mm protective layer and hit the ammunition depot located 30 meters underground, causing shocks throughout the island. The big explosion cut off the ammunition supply of the northern fortress group.

The German aviation was dispatched frantically, bombing the Russian positions with a frequency of 1000 sorties per day.

The living quarters of the Russians were devastated, and the troops had to retreat to the central positions.

The firing frequency of "Gustav" is 15 minutes, and even then it can only fire 14 shells per day.

The faster-firing 420mm "Gamma Cannon" carried out carpet bombardment around the fortress, and the 1000 kg artillery shells completely destroyed all roads and railway networks around the fortress, and the position of "Maxim-Gorky I" was completely isolated.

On the 15th, the German army launched a general attack on "Maxim-Gorky I". In this battle, the German army used 280mm rocket launchers to destroy the double-mounted 305mm fortress guns on the "Maxim-Gorky I" position. Totally destroyed.

At the beginning of the war, the rocket launcher was still a top secret for the German army, and the Germans did not have rocket launcher related technology.

The industrial capability of the Germans is not comparable to that of the Japanese. Japan has been researching radar for more than ten years and has made almost no progress. Germany has technical reserves in rockets, and von Braun and his team are still very powerful.

(End of this chapter)