Travel through the Qing Dynasty and become emperor

Chapter 701 The Contest in the Decisive Battle (2)
The atmosphere of the discussion was full of drama.Especially Captain Nolan, he was very impulsive in his speech.The chief staff officer was filled with grief and indignation, ashamed beyond words, and burst into tears on the spot.Many were also in tears.Nolan cried bitterly: "We can't use the Royal Navy's own torpedoes to sink the warships of the British Empire!"

His words seemed to turn the room into a vacuum, and almost all the staff officers had their throats choked up, and they couldn't even breathe.Cunningham may be crying in his heart, but there are no tears in his eyes.Only he could make the decision to abandon ship, and the decision was too painful for him to cry.He finally spoke, with a slow and heavy tone: "I myself was the captain of the 'Hundred Eyed Giant', and now I must order it to be sunk. I regret this very much!"

Then he said: "For the sinking of the 'Hundred-Eyed Giant' with our own torpedoes, I will personally apologize to the Commander-in-Chief!"

At 4:50, Cunningham issued an order to sink the "Hundred-eyed Giant", and the signal officer immediately conveyed the order to the captain of the 4th Destroyer Fleet. Fleet Zhang ordered his four destroyers to prepare to attack the "Hundred-eyed Giant". Launch torpedoes.At this time, the sea was foggy, and the fire on the "Hundred-Eyed Giant" seemed to have extinguished itself.In the thick fog, the "Hundred-Eyed Giant" was faintly visible, just like an ink painting by a Chinese painter.

The captain sent several representatives in small boats to persuade the captain of the "Hundred-eyed Giant" not to commit suicide. They said: "The aircraft carrier will be sunk by the Royal Navy's own torpedoes instead of being sunk by enemy torpedoes, so its captain No need to go down with it." But the captain would not listen.Finally, the captain himself boarded the ship and ordered him to disembark, and he obeyed.

Ten minutes later, three destroyers surrounded and fired three torpedoes at the "Hundred-Eyed Giant".There was an explosion on the starboard side, and the bow of the "Hundred Eyed Giant" began to sink.Everyone on the destroyer shouted: "'Hundred-eyed Giant', never sink!"

After 20 minutes, the aircraft carrier shook its huge body, sank slowly, and was finally submerged by sea water.Immediately, there was a violent explosion underwater, and every nearby destroyer felt a powerful shock.The Royal Navy's proud "Hundred-Eyed Giant" disappeared, and huge foam turned up on the sea.In the last battle of the aircraft carrier, 263 people on board died.

After the Dragon Army fleet destroyed the "Hundred-Eyed Giant", it immediately launched an attack on the aircraft carrier "Hermes".In contrast, the "Sports God" did not last as long as the flagship "Hundred-Eyed Giant".At the same time, 9 Dragon Army fighter planes swooped down on it, each dropping a bomb.The first three bombs all missed, sending a column of water around the Hermes without causing any damage, but four of the next six bombs hit the front, midsection and In the rear section, the bomb that hit the bow closest to the ship landed right next to the bridge, and hit a small refueling truck parked there, causing the entire bridge and surrounding deck areas to catch fire, killing and injuring many coalition sailors.The captain and others in the ship's command center were killed instantly.Lieutenant Colonel Marbury, the veteran officer who had survived the catastrophe, immediately took command of the ship.

A fire broke out on the ship immediately, and the crew tried desperately to stop the spread of the fire, but failed. The entire warship was completely surrounded by fire, and there was almost no place to hide.Most of the personnel including Cunningham, Nolan, and Marbury had to withdraw to the starboard boat deck for shelter.

While the crew of the "Hermes" was trying to control the fire on the ship, an uninvited guest quietly appeared beside the "Hermes".The uninvited guest was Long Jun's shark-hunting submarine No. 188.

On the blue sea a few nautical miles away from the "Hermes" aircraft carrier, the periscope of the No. 188 submarine left a white trail.Lieutenant Colonel Tian Shijie has been tracking the aircraft carrier in the periscope for nearly three hours.When the aircraft carrier gradually came to a stop, he could see it very clearly. The hull of the aircraft carrier was stable, the hull seemed undamaged, and the fire and smoke on the ship seemed to be under control.There was a small boat on the sea in front of the bow, and someone was trying to throw a towline up, and many people were busy on the front deck.

In front of Tian Shijie, there were 3 alternative attack targets: the damaged "Hermes" aircraft carrier and its two escort warships, the two escort warships were about 2 nautical miles in front of the aircraft carrier.After some thinking, Tian Shijie decided to deal with that big guy first, and blow up that aircraft carrier, lest the other party's crew repair it or drag it away.So, he cautiously observed in depth with the periscope, and made a detour to the starboard side of the aircraft carrier near the bridge, looking for an opportunity to attack. At 2:5, the No. 10 submarine had entered 188 meters away from the aircraft carrier. Tian Shijie clearly saw the burning fire and busy personnel on the ship from the periscope, and had entered the best launch position.

"Let go!" Following Tian Shijie's order, the first torpedo galloped out of the launch tube.A few seconds later, the second and third torpedoes were launched successively.Tian Shijie was sure that all three torpedoes would hit.However, this is just his wishful thinking.In fact, two torpedoes missed, and only one shot straight at the Hermes.At this time, the sailors of the "Sports God" saw the white trail of the torpedo speeding with their own eyes, thinking that the aircraft carrier would be doomed, so they held their breaths and prayed silently.Perhaps their prayers had come true. Although the torpedo hit the hull of the "Sports God", it did not explode.The body of the torpedo broke in two, its warhead sank into the water, but the rear half surfaced like a huge piece of cork.

Several coalition sailors who escaped from the "Sports God" were treading water near the floating torpedo body. When they saw a floating object suddenly appearing, they immediately swam towards the god-given "life raft", and grabbed it gratefully. live it.One of them climbed up and rode on it.Seeing their companions riding Chinese torpedoes as horses, these drowning people wanted to laugh but couldn't, and for a moment they forgot the crisis in front of them.

After launching 188 torpedoes on the 3th, it was immediately caught by the S-class destroyer of the coalition escorting the "Hermes".The captain, Lieutenant Colonel Bondy, skillfully commanded his destroyer and attacked No. 188 with depth charges.In this case, No. 188 fled left and right, trying to evade with all his strength.The destroyer clung to No. 188 and carried out continuous depth charge attacks.Although the depth charges did not hit 188 directly, several bombs exploded very close to the sub, causing several small leaks in the sub.In order to escape the search by the surface ships, Tian Shijie decided to take a risk and ordered the submarine to stop and lurk.

As soon as the dive stopped, the crew heard a strange noise from above the submarine, as if someone was dragging a chain on the boat.Then, there was the sound of two heavy objects hitting on the deck.The sonar reported with a straight hand: "The sound of the propeller is displayed everywhere on the indicator." It turned out that it was the S-class destroyer passing above the submarine at this time.

"Stand by and turn off all engines." Tian Shijie ordered in a low voice.

Everyone held their breath, for fear that even a small sound would alert the destroyer. As the sea was shrouded in thick fog and gunpowder smoke, Dragon Army fighters in the air attacked wave after wave. The S-class destroyer didn't have the heart to search for No. 188. After wandering around for a while, he left. Only then did No. 188 escape the opponent's attack.

While the S-class was chasing No. 188, Cunningham and Nolan had been transferred to other ships on the "Hermes", and Marbury led the firefighters to continue to fight against the ever-spreading fire.However, in the face of raging flames, their efforts became more and more powerless.The flammable paint brought the fire to all parts of the ship, triggering a chain explosion of bombs and torpedoes scattered in the ammunition depot and hangar. The steel plates were thrown into the sea like dry wood.

In the patient cabin of the "Hermes", a young second lieutenant and several medical soldiers were fighting, and the fire blocked their connection with other parts of the ship.The second lieutenant ordered a medic to find a way to find a way to move the wounded to a safe place.After searching for it, the health soldier reported to the second lieutenant that all passages were blocked.The second lieutenant said: "Okay, let God judge everything." Then he closed his eyes helplessly.At this time, a veteran non-commissioned officer ran over and said to the second lieutenant: "We can't just wait for death, we can go out through the porthole."

The sergeant's words reminded the second lieutenant, and he immediately asked the medical soldiers to push the wounded out of the porthole.At this time, the ceiling was already on fire, and they braved the fire to push the wounded through the porthole, and they did not escape until all the wounded escaped.The fire on the ship is getting bigger and bigger, and the time is getting tighter and tighter.Continue to fight or abandon ship?In this extremely critical moment, Marbury must make a decision.But this is a very difficult decision.He was a pilot, and he didn't know much about ships, especially the complicated operation technology of this large aircraft carrier, let alone this one that was severely damaged.

But Marbury believes that naval aviation with rich actual combat experience is a valuable asset, and their role in future wars will be greater than this injured aircraft carrier.Under the control of this belief, he prepared to take the pilots to leave the "Hermes" and fight again.Facing the irreparable "Hermes", Marbury ordered the pilots and ground crew to leave the aircraft carrier as much as possible.

At 5:40, after giving the order to abandon the ship, he himself jumped into the sea and swam towards a destroyer.He explained to Cunningham himself: "Although we have been taught that Royal Navy personnel should not leave the ship even in the most dangerous situation, I have made the decision to abandon ship. Because I think these skilled Pilots can't be replenished when they die, they should be kept so that they can fight again in the future. I think this will serve the empire better. I also think that the fate of the ship is best left to the captain or to take over after his death His commander decides."

(End of this chapter)