afterglow
Chapter 637 of Chapter 64 Constantinople, the League of Nations Military Police; the Maui Stalemate
Chapter 637 Chapter Constantinople, League of Nations Military Police; Maui Stalemate
The naval battle lasted until 2:40, when the Royal Navy's diversionary fleet began to retreat after a fierce fight. Of the original three heavy cruisers, only the Wichita was still barely floating on the sea, but only one 8-inch main gun turret was still firing.
At this time, the German army received a warning message sent back by the U-525 submarine - the British fleet had basically got rid of the obstacles of floating ice and was coming quickly.
Vice Admiral Oscar Kleinkamp, commander of the German attack fleet, decided to call it a day and ordered a retreat.
The four British and American battleships were not that scary. The King George V class had a maximum speed of 29 knots, and the South Dakota class had a maximum speed of 27.5 knots, neither of which could catch up with the Max class, which could reach a maximum speed of 30 knots.
Vice Admiral Oscar Claykamp was more worried about the two Glorious-class armored aircraft carriers, as the threat posed by their carrier-based aircraft should not be underestimated.
If you are accidentally hit by a torpedo and your speed decreases, you will be caught up by enemy ships, which would be a big loss!
It is said that the British Army has replaced its aircraft carriers with a new type of single-wing bomber - the Barracuda, instead of the previous bi-winged Albacore.
Upon discovering that the Royal Navy was facing a formidable enemy and had dispatched such a large fleet at once to intercept its own attack fleet, the Workers' Navy Command temporarily changed its mind and ordered the attack fleet not to advance alone and to avoid engaging in combat with the Royal Navy fleet.
"It's time for us to go. The fleet should withdraw from the battle and increase the speed." Vice Admiral Oscar Claykamp gave the order.
"What a pity, Comrade Commander, the cruiser is about to sink." Someone said regretfully.
"Never mind, the sub will take care of it."
"clear."
Out of humanitarian concerns, the German destroyers dropped most of the lifeboats into the sea before retreating.
However, such behavior is more symbolic, because if you fall into the water at such a high latitude, it may only take a few minutes to cause death from hypothermia, and even if you survive, you will most likely have to undergo amputation.
The German fleet was not satisfied. When they launched the attack, everyone speculated that they would probably go to the Arctic Ocean to deal a heavy blow to the enemy, but they did not expect that they would have to retreat after such a boring one-sided chopping of melons and vegetables.
The Max-class' 406mm main gun fires 1045kg German-style light shells, which have excellent vertical penetration but poor horizontal penetration, ensuring that they can penetrate the main armor belt of the King George V-class at a distance of 26km. The latter is powerless unless they hope to hit the horizontal armor weaknesses by lob shots.
The officers were also quite regretful. If only two King George V-class ships came to intercept, there would be nothing to be afraid of. The Max and Enkers would use their huge cannons to send them to the bottom of the Arctic Ocean. Unfortunately, this time the British were like a dog whose tail was stepped on. They reacted so violently that they even brought two South Dakota-class ships of the US military.
Soon, the German attack fleet began to turn and regroup.
The severely damaged Wichita heavy cruiser now has a speed of only 9 knots. It is riddled with holes from 406mm and 203mm armor-piercing shells on the top, bottom, and left and right. Wisps of black smoke are coming out of every hole.
The U-580 submarine, which had been observing secretly, found that this was a good time for a surprise attack, so at 2:52 it fired all six torpedoes from the bow of the submarine at the Wichita.
The G7e electric torpedo does not emit exhaust gas and produce bubbles like thermal-powered torpedoes, so its whereabouts are more covert. It is a powerful weapon for German submarine hunting operations. Its disadvantage is that the warhead is too lightly charged, only 200 kg. It should be noted that the Ming Dynasty Type 512 350mm torpedo is charged with as much as kg of explosives.
However, the Wichita was already seriously damaged, and three of the six torpedoes hit the target, which became the last straw that broke the camel's back... three iron ingots.
The Wichita sank in less than fifty seconds, and only one of the more than 800 crew members survived.
Under the bright white night, all kinds of broken debris floated on the sea, frozen corpses were mixed among the floating ice, and the leaking heavy oil contaminated the clean sea water...
In the end, only two destroyers of the containment fleet survived, and the remaining three cruisers and three destroyers were buried forever in the deep seabed more than a thousand meters deep.
Soon, the Barracuda bombers from the Indomitable successfully caught up with the German attack fleet retreating southward. The Peak, whose chimney was damaged in the previous battle, attracted most of the attacks and she was hit by a torpedo on the left side of the hull.
The Allied strike fleet pursued relentlessly and was later hit by multiple bombs and torpedoes. The distance between the two sides continued to narrow, and in another two hours they would be within the range of the battleship's main guns.
Fortunately, the German fleet was now very close to Trondheim, and a large number of shore-based aircraft appeared over the fleet to provide cover, so the Allied strike fleet gave up the pursuit with regret.
The naval battle west of the Soroa Islands was now completely over, and the sacrifice of the Allied containment fleet seemed to be in vain.
Some people criticized Admiral Andrew Cunningham's instructions, believing that this was tantamount to suicide - how could a cruiser compete with a battleship? Avoiding the battle in time was the right choice.
The latter just calmly replied: "Fearlessness is the most important tradition of the Royal Navy. Cowardly escape means the decline of the British Empire."
The interception and counter-interception of the Arctic route came to a temporary end. The British and American Joint Chiefs of Staff evaluated the feasibility of landing on the eastern coast of the Black Sea via Constantinople and approved this idea.
Given that existing transport capacity and manpower are basically full, it is impossible to devote too many resources to the landing operation on the eastern coast of the Black Sea. However, this plan does have considerable appeal - being closer to Baku, the efficiency of strategic bombing on oil fields will be greatly increased.
After comprehensive consideration, Britain and the United States decided to rob Peter to repair Paul. They transferred two US infantry divisions from the Italian theater where the situation was stable and the pressure was not great, plus a Canadian infantry division, a Canadian armored brigade, and a British engineer brigade, for a total force of about 2.
Operation codename: COD.
Under the escort of a joint fleet composed of the Italian Royal Navy and the British Royal Navy, the transport fleet carrying the advance troops crossed the azure Aegean Sea, and soon, the world's longed-for city would come into view.
On July 7, the US Army's 17th "Thunderbird" Infantry Division entered Constantinople.
Several Vickers armored vehicles painted with white "LN" letters were parked beside the road at the edge of the port area, and more than a dozen International League gendarmes greeted the passing American troops.
Hagia Sophia still stands in this ancient city with a history of more than 1,600 years. Constantinople, with its Mediterranean climate, has hot and dry summers, and many stalls selling cold drinks can be seen on the streets.
After the end of the European war, the Allies severely punished the Ottoman Empire, and large tracts of land in the western part of the Anatolian Peninsula were forcibly ceded to Greece.
The northwestern Çanakkale region and Constantinople were designated as international condominiums and governed by an administrative body established by the League of Nations.
【Picture】
If the League of Nations in history existed in name only after the outbreak of the war, the League of Nations today still has a lot of presence. After all, it really has "territory" under its control, and has taxes, a parliament, trial temporary laws, and even a law and order maintenance force - the League of Nations Military Police. The Land Military Police has 25 military police companies and an aviation team, a small number of service aircraft, some old Vickers M27 armored vehicles and Renault NC-1600 tanks, and a total of about people.
海上宪兵部队下辖四个巡逻艇中队和一个炮艇中队,拥有16艘英制42长吨级巡逻艇和3艘英制200长吨级炮艇,计约500人。
In addition to formal dress, the League of Nations military police also wore service uniforms that also served as field uniforms. The uniforms were neatly cut and looked beautiful and elegant. The typical dress style was an open-collar service uniform, a British Tommy helmet or a wide-brimmed hat, and a Lebel rifle or Madsen light machine gun on the shoulder.
Interestingly, this armed force does not give priority to recruiting personnel in international condominiums, but sets up recruitment offices in major powers. The basic monthly salary for soldiers is 18 pounds, and the basic monthly salary for officers is 40 pounds. After serving for five years, they can obtain permanent residency. However, the demand is so small, so it is not very noticeable.
According to the personnel roster, there were at least 200 Chinese military police serving on the day the US military entered Constantinople.
On July 7, after transiting in Constantinople, the main Allied force left the strait by ship, crossed the Black Sea and arrived at the eastern port city of Poti.
The local garrison consisted of only one Russian division and a training team from the Red Eagle Corps, and was unable to resist the aggressive Allied landing forces.
The carrier-based aircraft launched by the Skyhawk destroyed the coastal defense artillery and launched fierce air strikes on deep-lying roads and bridges, blocking the movement of Russian reinforcements.
The Veneto and Littorio carried out continuous bombardment on the beach and shallow depths, destroying a large number of fortifications and causing chaos in Russian communications.
The fierce fighting lasted until the next morning. Another Russian infantry division that came to reinforce also lost many trucks and tracked tractors due to air strikes, causing heavy artillery to fall behind. The division was subsequently repelled by the rampaging Canadian armored brigade.
The Allies thus gained a foothold in Poti and within the next week expanded their control to a triangular plain about 80 kilometers wide from north to south.
During this period, the German army tried to use the Hs293 remote-controlled glide bomb in its counterattack. This was an experimental model that had not yet been equipped with a rocket power unit and had a shorter range.
On July 7, three missiles were fired for the first time, one hit the target and one was a dud. Although this was the first time that guided weapons were used in actual combat, the effect was not good.
On August 8, the German army learned from the previous day's experience and fired the remaining 1 missiles in succession, hitting 7 and leaving 3 dud, damaging the Littorio and sinking a freighter.
Because the main body of the Hs293 glide bomb warhead is based on the SC500 conventional bomb, the explosive power is sufficient, but the penetration ability is weak. If the PD500 armor-piercing bomb is used instead, I am afraid that the Littorio will be in great danger.
After ensuring the safety of the landing site, the Allies immediately started large-scale construction. British and American engineering troops used an existing civilian airport and a field airport in Poti as a basis, expanded the runway to a length that allowed heavy bombers to take off and land, and selected sites to start construction of two new field airports.
This move by Britain and the United States is obvious. In time, the key Baku oil fields will inevitably be subjected to more intense bombing.
On the one hand, the German army dispatched several mountain infantry divisions to the Caucasus region as reinforcements, and on the other hand, it formed a new army group, preparing to go south to the Balkans to capture Constantinople by land and take care of Greece in the process.
The top leaders of the German Social Democratic Party have always been reluctant to get involved in the chaos of the Balkans, and they also do not want to open an extra front.
Now Britain and the United States are using Constantinople to open up a new battlefield, which directly prompted the German top leaders to decide to liberate this complex region known as a powder keg.
Almost on the same day that the Littorio was hit by a glide bomb, North Carolina, far away on the Big Island of Hawaii, was raided by the Ming army.
That night, the Ming Navy quietly arrived at the waters south of the Oshima Island on an ocean-going submarine with its deck guns removed, carrying two midget submarines led by Captain Wang Chang. The two submarines then sailed at a low speed towards the anchorage of the US fleet under their own power.
The North Carolina was chosen as the primary target because of its closest distance. The two midget submarines fired a total of four torpedoes at a close distance of only more than 23 meters apart. One minute later at 42:448, the North Carolina was hit on the left side of the hull by three ㎜ light torpedoes.
In fact, the original intention of this raid was to attack the Enterprise or Bunker Hill. However, because the voyage deviated too far, the Ming army's midget submarine failed to find either of them, so it simply settled for the next best thing and attacked the nearest battleship.
Because the North Carolina was not in combat mode, some of its cabins did not have their watertight doors closed, and continuous water ingress caused it to tilt severely. However, after the captain realized what was happening, he ordered reverse water injection, which restored the balance.
After a simple repair of the breach, the North Carolina had to return to the San Diego Naval Base for repairs.
Lieutenant Commander Dillon, the destroyer's duty commander that night, was accused of drunkenness and negligence by a military court and was subsequently dismissed.
Two months have passed since the Battle of Kahului in late April, and these days have been extremely torturous for Zhou Changfeng.
Although ground fighting on Maui continued, it was on a very small scale, often only at the squad or platoon level, or at most at the battalion or company level.
Initially, he had hoped that the U.S. military would be bold and reckless, so that he would have a chance to find the right moment to annihilate part of the enemy. However, the U.S. military was very patient in building a strong stronghold and fighting a stupid battle, which made him extremely uncomfortable.
Up to now, there are more than 50,000 Ming troops landing on the island, and there are about 60,000 American troops facing them. For the time being, neither side is confident of breaking the deadlock and can only confront each other day after day.
The Ming Air Force has never recovered since it suspended its offensive in late April. An air war of attrition is carried out every day, and almost all supplies are used up as soon as they are replenished. It is simply impossible to accumulate the supplies needed for large-scale attacks.
In the endless war of attrition, the old fighter planes of the Hawaiian Ming Army Air Force were almost completely lost, and now they are basically equipped with all Type 36 J-type and G-type fighter planes.
The same was true for the U.S. military. The P-40Es lost by the Army Air Force were gradually replaced by P-51A/B/C Mustangs, and the F4F Wildcats lost by the Marine Corps Air Force were gradually replaced by F4U Corsairs.
Such internal changes made the battle in the sky more severe. The old birds could still cope with it and were barely able to remain calm, but the rookies who were fighting for the first time could not cope with it.
At several airports on Oahu, you can see some young new faces every few days. They are newly graduated warrant officer pilots who have been recruited to Hawaii. Most of them can't last more than ten sorties.
Although this is an archipelago, it is no different from a mainland battlefield, and there is still a great risk if you are shot down and fall into the water.
"So, Your Excellency, I'm afraid you still have to consider the method of attack, otherwise this deadlock cannot be broken." This was the eighth time that Zhao Hanfeng gave Zhou Changfeng his advice this month.
(End of this chapter)
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