Travel through the Qing Dynasty and become emperor

Chapter 703 The Final Blow (1)
At this time, Alexander suggested sending a surface force to bombard the Andaman Islands at night, destroying the coastal defense first, and then sending a follow-up fleet.After some research, Mountbatten finally adopted this suggestion and ordered the Indian Ocean Second Raider Force, which is closest to Andaman and has high-speed ships, to carry out this task.He also decided to postpone the Andaman landing operation until after the Chinese task force was wiped out.According to these decisions, he issued the following order at 13:10: "First, use plan C to attack the enemy fleet; second, the landing force sends some ships to bombard and destroy the air base on Andaman Island tonight; third, Landing operations on Andaman Island are suspended."

Mountbatten's "use of plan C to attack the enemy's fleet" here is to gather all the naval forces in the Indian Ocean to fight a decisive battle with the enemy's fleet to determine the final control of the Indian Ocean.According to Mountbatten's order, while the Second Squadron went to bombard Andaman Island, the landing convoys turned around and sailed towards the middle line of China and India in the eastern sea. "

At this time, Mountbatten received another more unfavorable telegram: the "George V" was shot and caught fire.It seems that this battleship can't be counted on, but Mountbatten still refuses to let it go. He believes that the first offensive force and the fifth offensive force are not too far away from the enemy fleet, and the possibility of a decisive battle at night still exists. Night battles are not only a magic weapon handed down by the British Navy, but also at night, the Dragon Army's carrier-based aircraft can't play a role, and one's own side is completely sure of defeating the opponent.Therefore, he sent another telegram at 19:15: "First, the mixed formation of enemy special forces is moving eastward; second, all ministries near the Andaman Sea must rush to capture the island; third, the joint fleet headquarters will be dispatched in the early morning Arrive at the target water area at 3 o'clock, with a heading of 90 degrees and a speed of 20 knots; fourth, the mobile force, landing force and advance force must quickly launch a counterattack against the enemy fleet."

Mountbatten and his staff are really like gamblers who have lost their eyes. They are desperate to capture the opponent's fleet on this night and carry out a decisive battle at night.On the other hand, Yu Chongguang led the task force and was moving eastward. He made this statement in his telegram to the commander-in-chief: "On the one hand, I think that night battles with enemy forces that may be superior should not be taken at risk; On the other hand, I wish not to be too far from the Andaman Islands the next morning. My troops should be placed in such a position as to facilitate the pursuit of the retreating enemy and to smash the enemy's attack on the Andaman Islands. Besides, the nearby sea may be There are enemy warships operating together with its landing formation, and there is also the possibility of a second enemy fleet appearing in the northwest sea."

Later, when Mountbatten knew that the task force had sprinted eastward, and that there was little chance of contact with it before dawn, the last hope of carrying out the night fleet battle was slowly extinguished.

After giving up the idea of ​​​​night battles, everyone in Mountbatten and his staff clearly realized that the battle had been defeated, but none of the staff suggested that the battle should be suspended.Instead, they all desperately try to salvage something from failure, like a drowning man grabbing for straws before dying. Therefore, various remedies have been proposed.An aviation staff officer suggested to use the small number of aircraft on the heavy cruisers "Cumberland" and "Cornwall", plus landing craft and all seaplanes on the light cruisers to form an air force, and then go to Attack the dragon fleet.The gunnery staff advocated that, according to the original plan, the heavy cruisers of the mobile force would intensify the night bombardment of the air base on Andaman Island.He believed that if a sufficient number of warships equipped with large-caliber artillery could be used, a powerful blow could be dealt to the enemy's air force on Andaman Island, and it would be immobilized for at least a day.Another staff officer proposed a plan, which was simply absurd.The plan called for all cruisers, approaching the Andaman Islands in broad daylight, to bombard the island's airbase with their main guns.Unexpectedly, Chief of Staff Exeter agreed with this plan very much, and immediately compiled it into a document and submitted it to Mountbatten.

After reading the plan, Mountbatten calmly listened to Exeter's whimsical explanation.Then, he said kindly: "You must have studied at the Naval Staff College. Looking at the history of the Navy, it is not appropriate to use naval ships to attack ground forces."

Exeter replied awkwardly: "Yes, I know."

Mountbatten went on to say: "Your suggestion violates the most basic principles of the navy. It is too late to conduct such a battle now, and this battle is coming to an end. When playing chess, regardless of life and death, blindly fighting will cause a full board. If you lose, you will lose everything."

The chief of staff, Alexander, was not so restrained. He reprimanded loudly: "You should understand how absurd it is to attack a land fortress with the artillery of the fleet. Right now, the enemy not only still has a strong carrier-based aircraft strength, but also has a very strong land-based aviation force, using the island's intact airfield. Even a powerful heavy cruiser can be defeated by enemy aviation and submarine forces before it can launch an effective bombardment. If the island attacking force can wait a little longer , we'd better wait until the Second Air Fleet of the Admiralty arrives."

Alexander went on to say: "Also, although we lost all of our aircraft carriers in this battle, the Royal Navy still has 8 aircraft carriers, including those that are about to be completed and put into use. So in future battles, we will still There is hope."

He then said sharply: "In a game of chess, the game is already lost, and you have to fight hard again and again. Only a fool with no brains will do such a thing!"

Exeter was speechless after being reprimanded, and even Mountbatten's face was a little ugly. It seemed that these words were not only for Exeter, but also for himself.

Alexander had long considered the situation irreversible, and now had nothing to do but retreat and flee eastward.Therefore, he immediately drafted a telegram regarding the termination of the fighting.The entangled Mountbatten was very sad at this time, and he could not give any reason to object, so he had no choice but to approve the telegram.As soon as the telegram was sent out, he got the latest news from Cunningham's fleet. Most of Cunningham's fleet was wiped out. He led the remaining cruiser, two destroyers and a minesweeper to kill a bloody road and was heading to the Sailing to the west, it is not known whether it has escaped the attack range of the Chinese warship.

Mountbatten shed tears like thunder, and murmured, "It's over, it's over."

Alexander also said sadly: "Commander-in-Chief, the Chinese are too powerful. We are no match at all. Let's retreat quickly. If they launch another round of air strikes, our entire army will be wiped out."

Mountbatten immediately ordered all the remnants and defeated generals to gather in the waters near Mannar, and at the same time sent a search plane to find the whereabouts of the mobile unit. At 12:5, several troops joined forces in the sea area specified by Mountbatten.However, this was not at all the victorious and joyous Grand Master that the fleets were looking forward to.Mountbatten's two best aircraft carriers are gone, and they have lost 2 aircraft.To make matters worse, 332 highly skilled and experienced combatants died in battle.Among them: 2197 people on the "Hundred Eyes Giant", 263 people on the "Prince Wilson", 416 people on the "George V", and about 718 people on the "Hermes".

On Mountbatten's new flagship, the officers felt ashamed and ashamed in the face of this combat outcome!
However, the battle was not completely over yet. Cunningham, with his cruiser "Kent" and several remnants of defeated soldiers, had just cut a bloody path from the Dragon Army battleship and fled in a panic.After receiving the order to retreat from the headquarters, he fled desperately to the Mannar military port in case of an amnesty.However, more than half of Kent's power facilities were blown up, and it could only sail at a speed of 11 knots. Cunningham was anxious and paced back and forth in the command room, but he didn't know that the danger was slowly approaching.

The No. 188 submarine cruising on the bottom of the Indian Ocean has just received an urgent telegram from Yu Chongguang: "During the battle, our bombers severely damaged a British heavy cruiser and are now floating on the ocean surface 150 nautical miles northeast of Andaman Island. .make your subs run after them and sink them."

From the monitoring of the radio by the translation officer, the ship commander Tian Shijie already had a relatively clear understanding of the entire situation of the Andaman Battle.He knew that the enemy navy had lost its opportunity to capture Andaman, but he did not disclose what he heard and his personal views to the crew.This order gave him a much-deserved opportunity to wipe out the last remaining sea power of the enemy in the Indian Ocean in a final battle.He immediately conveyed the order he had just received to all officers and men on board.

After hearing the order conveyed by Tian Shijie, some people on the boat cheered happily, but some people trembled because of nervousness.He summoned his staff in the officers' conference room and instructed them to come up with a detailed plan of attack.Afterwards, he returned to the bridge by himself, sat in his seat, and seriously considered whether he could discover and capture the battleship, and how to sink this big guy.

Tian Shijie estimated that there must be strict security around the damaged battleship. Not only will there be destroyers escorting it, but there will also be aircraft patrolling in the air.Therefore, he may not be able to get into position to sink an enemy ship.With sunken eyes and deep eyes, Tian Shijie sat on the bridge for several hours, thinking about solutions to the problem.He didn't have much creative talent, but he had some of the qualities of a submarine captain, with the infinite patience of a cat stalking mice.

The submarine was not equipped with radar yet, so what Tian Shijie relied on was his eyesight and his pair of good 12cm binoculars.In order to be able to see the prey clearly, he needs a little light, but in order to prevent his submarine from being discovered, the sky cannot be too bright.Therefore, dawn is the best time to approach enemy ships.

(End of this chapter)