Travel through the Qing Dynasty and become emperor

Chapter 573 The End of the Yamato (2)
At this time, on Yamato's bridge control tower, Yamamoto 56 was listening to the report of the damage control captain: "A torpedo hit the starboard side below the island and exploded, causing damage to the boiler room and airtight compartment on the right side, and the oil tank. Water started to seep. Another hit hit the rear of the right side. The telegraph main room and the standby operating system in the bilge were flooded, and the hull had already begun to tilt! There was also a torpedo concentrated on the bow."

"Immediately fill the left cabin with water to ensure balance, and immediately drain the water in the telegraph compartment to ensure smooth communication. In addition, use a manual rudder. In short, don't forget, this is our flagship, and I will never allow it to have any major accidents! "Yamamoto 56's face was extremely gloomy. In his opinion, this is really a bad start.

Although the ship was hit by three torpedoes, there was no problem for the rough-skinned Yamato.After some adjustments, the Yamato regained its balance.But the battle is far from over. The Chinese fighter group will not let go of this behemoth that has been injured and has basically lost the ability to fight back and move.While the damage control team members on the Yamato were desperately trying to eliminate the danger, the worst thing happened.

There was a huge roar at an altitude of about 7000 meters, so that the explosion of anti-aircraft guns was difficult to cover up.The most frightening Lan Xiang dive bomber group appeared.Since this kind of bomber appeared in the Singapore counter-insurgency campaign, it has been regarded as a treasure by countries all over the world, and countries all over the world have begun to compete to manufacture their own dive bombers.But no bomber can compare to the Lanxiang fighter.After starting a war, people first regard suppressing the opponent's Lanxiang fighter as the most important tactic.Now when something that brings death appears in the sky above the United Fleet, everyone knows what it means.

At this time, above them, the Lanxiang fighter group began to dive down from an altitude of 7000 meters. They recognized two battleships at the lower left, one of which was smaller and frantically doing a zigzag evasion, while the other Larger ones appear sluggish.

"Attention all teams, attack target No. 2." They chose the smaller one because it was closer.As for the other big one.Now in the eyes of the Lanxiang team, it is no different from a dead target.

After the Battle of Singapore, in order to deal with the Second World War, the Ministry of Air Force began to make some improvements to the Lanxiang fighter. In addition to modifying some parts such as aircraft hooks and folding wings to make it suitable for aircraft carrier operations, it also increased The power of the engine, of course, is limited by technology, so this time the new engine only reached 1800 horsepower, which is enough even so. In addition, the bomb load of the aircraft has also been improved again.It can carry two 500kg bombs or four 4kg bombs, and if an external pylon is added, it can carry eight 250kg or 8 100kg bombs.

The 4th team's shooting angle adjustment has been completed, and they are about to turn their plane into a dive state, but the machine gunner in the back seat screams loudly.It turned out that the fighter planes of the first team had already started a dive attack on the opponent.Obviously, they wanted to grab the meat that was already on their lips.

The 4th team adjusted its course while cursing, and began to rush towards the big guy who seemed to have lost its fighter.After completing a beautiful left turn, the four Lanxiang fighters began to dive down, and at the same time adjusted the dive angle to 70 degrees, then pulled the speed brake, and with a screaming sound, they rushed towards the center of the warship. swooped on.

"Engine gun attack!" When rushing to 3000 meters, the four fighters pulled the triggers of the front airborne machine guns, and eight orange tracer bullets sprayed out from their cabins, and the straight ballistic trajectory pointed directly at the front elevator platform of the Yamato .

At this time, in order to avoid the sudden attack, Yamato began to recover its ability to move. Obviously, he also sensed the danger he was in, so he moved slowly with the wind, but it was too late.

After considering the wind direction and the moving speed of the opponent's target, the 4th team aligned the front sight slightly forward of the bow. Although the opponent's anti-aircraft shells kept exploding beside him, the rough-skinned Lan Xiang Did not suffer any loss.

In an instant, Team 4 had reached the standard bombing altitude of 150 meters. The pilots quickly pulled down the red bombing handle, and then pulled up the nose suddenly. After a beautiful arc, the plane began to climb upwards at high speed.

Four 500-kilogram heavy bombs penetrated straight through the Yamato's 2.5-inch armor plate and reached the bottom transmission compartment. Three minutes later, three huge pillars of fire erupted from the largest and most perfect battleship of the navy. These pillars of fire gradually gathered and turned into a huge fireball. explosion.

"The Yamato is about to sink, quickly evacuate the warship!" There were shrill shouts on the deck one after another.

"General, the escape boat is ready, you must withdraw here as soon as possible." The guard fleet commander Shintaro Hashimoto rushed to the Yamato at the first time to rescue Yamamoto 56.

Yamamoto looked blankly at the sailors running around. The hull of Yamato, known as the world's number one battleship, slowly tilted, and the steel bracket made harsh noises due to the cracking. Is this the end?Yamamoto still can't believe what is happening before his eyes.

"General, evacuate quickly, it will be too late if you don't leave." Hashimoto Shintaro was almost crying to persuade his chief.

"No! I want the battleship No. [-] of the Great Empire to live and die together." Yamamoto said stubbornly.

"General, the Yamato sank, but we still have the Maizuru ship, the Nagato ship, and the Kongo ship. These are the pride of the Great Empire, and we have not failed yet," Hashimoto Shintaro tried to persuade.

Yamamoto took one last look at the towering mast of the Yamato, sighed, and said, "Well, whether this war is won or lost, I will explain to the Emperor why the Yamato sank."

After Yamamoto left the ship, more than 3400 officers and soldiers on the Yamato fell into greater chaos. People flocked to the rear deck frantically. Many people even shot at their own people in order to save the lifeboat. It was the first time for a sailor to serve in the service, and he faced the end of being buried in the sea.Although the alert formation activated hundreds of lifeboats, due to the chaotic scene, only more than 700 officers and soldiers were rescued until the Yamato sank completely, and the rest became the funeral objects of the Yamato in despair.

Just when Yamamoto 56 left the Yamato sadly, the Chinese fighters did not stop there, and more Lanxiang fighters concentrated their forces and began to attack the battleship Nagato next to it.In just 10 minutes, huge water columns rose around the Nagato, and the sailors on the warship frantically blocked it with anti-aircraft guns, but the speed of the Lanxiang fighter was so fast that it didn't even give the anti-aircraft guns a chance to aim.

At the same time, two fighter planes quietly appeared on the starboard side of the ship like hounds, and dropped torpedoes at a distance of about 600 meters.

"Torpedo, the enemy plane has launched a torpedo!"

Faced with such a close-range torpedo attack, the helmsman in charge of the rudder was helpless. He could only watch the two torpedoes rush towards him with long white lines. Ten seconds later, two explosions appeared one after another on the starboard side of the warship. , The advanced electric-powered torpedo penetrated the Nagato's armor belt, and nearly 5000 tons of seawater surged in from the cracked place at a speed that is astounding.The damage control team had no way to close all the watertight doors. The cold sea water rushed through the pipes and hatches to the engine room at the core of the warship. The four boiling boilers that were working immediately exploded after encountering the cold sea water.

In this way, in just a few seconds, the Nagato followed the Yamato and sank into the bottom of the sea irretrievably.

After two consecutive attacks, the Chinese fleet still had no intention of stopping. They rushed to the third and fourth targets, the two formation command ships of the United Fleet, King Kong and Chicheng.Of course, in the face of the aggressive Chinese fighter planes, the United Fleet did not sit still. Most of the destroyers and cruisers moved closer to the two warships. The anti-aircraft firepower on all the warships burst into flames, and the sky was filled with bullets in an instant. The screech of scratches and shrapnel.

But at this time, the Chinese fighter planes don't seem to care about the intensive defense of the people. For them, the enemy's anti-aircraft firepower is still too small. More importantly, their biggest threat, the carrier-based fighter force, has almost been wiped out.To deal with this kind of anti-aircraft artillery, they still adopt the method at the beginning, turn off the speed brake, turn off the automatic pull-up device, and then drop the bomb at a distance of 500 meters.This tactic made the battleship unable to cope at all, and Yamamoto 56 was so anxious that he spat out a mouthful of blood on the spot and almost fainted.

In just 10 minutes, the two battleships withstood more than 20 airborne bombs and 6 electric torpedoes, and instantly turned into two huge fireballs. Among them, King Kong tilted 10 degrees in 20 minutes, Forced to retreat outside the combat area.The Chicheng exploded while burning, and then became the third battleship to sink.

Three or ten minutes later, the warhawks of the Beiyang Fleet successfully completed the first wave of air strikes and began to return, but Yamamoto knew that the Chinese would never stop there, and a bigger air strike would come soon.

Although the United Fleet suffered heavy losses from the air strikes by the Beiyang Fleet, it was not seriously damaged in general.If Yamamoto still resolutely implements his predetermined plan at this time and lets all the fleets continue to attack north, maybe there will be another chance to come back.If it really doesn't work, you can also lead the fleet to withdraw from the battle area immediately, and use the method of dispersing and breaking through to detour south. In this case, you can also throw off the opponent's attack.However, now Yamamoto made a mistake that a senior commander must never make: he hesitated.

If it is said that hesitation is not necessarily a bad thing under normal circumstances, but at this critical moment, especially when deciding the life and death of one's troops, a second of hesitation may become a fatal mistake.

(End of this chapter)