Macho Wars

The captain, chief mate and others were forced to stand on the terrace to command, feeling the cold sea breeze blowing wildly on their faces, and their hearts collapsed for a while.

Fortunately, their sacrifices are valuable. After some debugging, the radar started up smoothly on the sixth day.Dragon prepared to use airplanes during the day and radar at night to ensure that their fleet, carrying more than 15,000 marines, would not encounter enemies they could not defeat.

In the next few days, everything went smoothly.

The ocean routes are not completely safe. Both the Eastern Qin Navy and the Federal Navy are active in this area, and Firawi’s rebel fleet will also send people to ambush.

As they got closer and closer to the Far East Coast, the communicator finally received an encrypted telegram from the local side, deciphered it and handed it to Dragun.

After seeing the telegram, Dragon frowned again.

"It's really beeping, can't there be some good news?"

"Who are you scolding?" Enfia squinted and waited for Dragon.

"Look at this."

Hand over the deciphered telegram to Enfia, and seeing the above content, Enfia was also taken aback.

"Far East Garrison civil strife, Tarrance coup?"

"Admiral Harvey passed away from illness three days ago. His death is so messy!"

The current chaos in Tarrance is not a simple confrontation between the two sides, but a multi-party melee.The bureaucrats of Tarrance’s old nobles diverged due to internal disagreements. As a result, at this sensitive moment, an anti-government group militants successfully entered the government building with a homemade bomb and bombed the congressmen who were in a meeting. A quarter died, and the intensified conflict instantly exploded.

The death of General Harvey led to the empire’s Far East garrison without a leader, some of which were also involved in the Tarrans civil strife.

Seeing this telegram, Dragon felt emotionally. Sure enough, history is similar. Whenever people are in trouble, there will always be a passing bomber, kindly behind the "historical process"... Kick!

In short, Tarrance ended up in chaos before Dragon arrived, and the surrounding countries that had already settled down also became restless.There is even news that the Federal Navy appeared in the coast of Tarrance, ready to move forward.

The only good news is that the Eighth Division currently stationed at Hongshi Port is not involved because it is far away, and is still willing to obey the orders of the central government.

But they encountered another embarrassing problem. The naval fleet of the Empire stationed in Redstone Harbor stated that they did not want to make the same choice as the Army's mud legs. They took refuge in Firavi and aimed their guns on the shore. Compatriots.

This fleet stationed in the Far East has a total of seventeen battleships. Although two battleships are not the latest generation of cutting-edge warships, they also have a combat power that cannot be underestimated.

After studying the map, Dragon decided that it was not a good choice to go straight to the coast of Tarrance. If possible, they had better avoid fighting with the Federal Navy.Therefore, Redstone Port, located in the former Sapphire Principality, has become a very good landing point.

But if the amphibious fleet wants to land there, they must eliminate the rebel fleet in the way.

Chapter 492: Air Attack on Redstone Port

From an intelligence point of view, the 8th Division of the former Central Military Region currently stationed in Hongshigang has voluntarily retreated inland, hiding out of the range of naval guns, while the rebellious naval fleet is hesitant to leave or stay. Undecided.Dragon inferred that the navy commander was not bargaining with Firavi at the moment.

At the beginning, Dragon was still wondering why the army would go to the central government in Redstone Harbor, while the navy went to support Firavi. This was the opposite of the situation in other parts of the empire.

To know the current situation of the empire, more than 60% of the army units of the three major local military regions have pledged allegiance to Firavi, and less than 30% are standing in the center. The remaining cats and dogs are still waiting.

This directly led to the serious shortage of the central army that retreated to the coastal areas. Howard had to urgently mobilize a part of the colonial army to reinforce the homeland. The colonial government also responded to the call and launched a large-scale conscription to make up for the central army's weakness.

In contrast, almost the entire middle and high levels of the navy have fallen to the center, so it can be said to have an overwhelming advantage on the sea. Firavi can only let his fleet go south first and try to avoid contact with the ocean. The fleet heads to head.

So out of curiosity, Dragon got the relevant information about the commander of the Redstone Harbor Garrison Fleet, and learned that the man was named Marco Roswell, a 55-year-old Rear Admiral.

When Dragun saw this person’s surname, he couldn’t help but was stunned on the spot, and tried to remember it. It seemed to be the same as the surname of the 71st division commander Banning who had pitted him at the Dolo Mountain Fortress. It turns out that he is really a relative of Banning, the brother of the old patriarch of the Roswell family, and Banning's uncle.

However, it is said that this person has a poor relationship with his brother. Dragon speculates that Firavi may be able to persuade this guy to take refuge in himself on the condition that he recognizes Marco as the Marquis of New Roswell.

The Eighth Division of the Army is relatively simple. The current commander of the Eighth Division is Howard's second son-in-law, or a student he pulled up with one hand, of course, he wants to mix with the father-in-law of Enzhongrushan!

After Dragon figured out the situation in Redstone Harbor, he quickly made a decision.With the existing combat ships of the amphibious fleet, a surprise attack on Marko's garrison fleet.

Several navy captains who accompanied Dragoon to provide escorts expressed opposition to this bold idea.Although the overall number of the amphibious fleet is more than twice that of the garrison fleet, the 17 opposing ships are all combat ships, and there are two battleships. The overall firepower of the entire fleet is initially estimated to be three times or even higher than that of the amphibious fleet!

Therefore, they suggested that Dragon, don't think about going to death.

But they didn't know that from the very beginning, Dragoon was not prepared to engage in a regular naval gun battle with the enemy, but was prepared to rely mainly on aviation and severely damage the enemy by air strikes.

On their side of the three aircraft carriers, the Radiance has a fleet of fifteen carrier-based fighters, torpedo planes, and dive bombers. The four backup planes are all dive bombers. The Lexington and Saratoga are also sailing. Previously, it temporarily adjusted the configuration of its own carrier aircraft, and all switched to dive bombers, each with a squadron of fifteen.The hangar couldn't fit so much, so it was moored on the deck.

The reason why he brought so many bombers was that Dragon wanted to strengthen the ground attack capability as much as possible. When they arrived in the Far East, the air force could go ashore to provide fire support for ground forces.

As for air defense, a group of 15 fighters is enough. After all, in this era, the aircraft is the only one in their Marine Corps. Just to deal with the big and slow live targets of airships, there is actually no need for full-time air superiority. machine.

Since the navy refused to participate in this kind of combat plan that seemed extremely "unwise" to them, the amphibious fleet decided to go it alone.Anyway, they are preparing to use carrier-based aircraft as the main attack method. As long as the position of the warship is determined in advance, they can launch surprise attacks from the enemy's line of sight.

So when the Amphibious Fleet was still 120 kilometers away from Redstone Port, it released all 15 warships for reconnaissance. It didn’t take 40 minutes to bring back an important message to Dragon—garrison. The fleet is still in the port.

The reconnaissance plane didn't dare to get too close because it was worried that it would startle the snake, but at least it can be confirmed that there are more than ten warships in the harbor, and it seems that they are carrying out supply operations.

Not long afterwards, other reconnaissance planes that dispersed were also discovered separately. Not all the resident fleets were in the harbor. At least three Tiger Shark-class second-class destroyers were patrolling the waters near the harbor.But their warning distance is not large, that is, within 50 or 60 kilometers of the surrounding area.

After confirming the situation, Dragon was ready to seize this rare opportunity, but Enfia suggested to wait. It is best to wait for the rebellious garrison fleet to leave Redstone Harbor before launching an attack.After all, they have to use Redstone Harbor next to sink all the rebel warships in the harbor. It would be a waste of time to clean up.

Dragoon did make sense to think about it, but he immediately thought of another question, which was the actual combat capability of the aviation team.The three aircraft carriers have a total of five flight groups, including the rotation reserve group, there are a total of 200 pilots.But among these pilots, only one-fifth of them have actual combat experience, and the rest are recruits who have just graduated from aviation school. They practiced while walking along the way and barely mastered bombing skills.

If you ask these pilots to hit fixed targets, they will not necessarily hit 100%. When the enemy comes out of the port and becomes a moving target, then you can do it. Is it hard to be sincere?

Therefore, Dragon weighed repeatedly and decided not to give up this rare opportunity. Moreover, the area of ​​Redstone Harbor is not small. Even if the 17 warships of the mutiny fleet are sunk, it is impossible to block the entire harbor area. They can still Then used.

In this way, Dragon finalized the battle, and the personnel on the three aircraft carriers immediately entered the fighting state. One fighter plane was sent to the deck by a lift to quickly carry out replenishment operations.

The accompanying naval fleet noticed the actions of the aircraft carrier and immediately sent a communication to inquire about the intentions of this side.After learning that they were going to carry out an air raid on Redstone Harbor, the captains were all shocked and speechless.

"Is that Dragoon crazy?"

"Does he want to let his hands go down and die?"

Although the navy knows about aircraft, it obviously lacks sufficient understanding of this new weapon and the war potential it possesses, so it can only be regarded as an excellent detection weapon.

They don’t believe that this small bug-like flying vehicle alone can pose a threat to the huge and thick-skinned battleship, so they are not optimistic about this attack, thinking that it can only cause a certain degree of harassment to the enemies in the harbor. .But since they are still nearly a hundred kilometers away from Redstone Port, far beyond the enemy's attack range, they have not prevented Dragoon from being arbitrary.

After all, the Navy also wants to see how far the aircraft can do it?

Chapter 493

At the Red Rock Harbor Naval Base, the garrison fleet commander Marco was standing in the bridge of the flagship Prince, looking at the fleet in the port that was undergoing replenishment operations.

Just yesterday, he finally negotiated terms with the Western Empire. As long as he could pull the Far East garrison fleet back and swear allegiance to Firavi, the emperor recognized him as the orthodox Marquis of Roswell and was promoted to two levels. The rank of admiral, he served as commander-in-chief of the Ocean Fleet.

In order to negotiate terms, Marco, knowing that he should leave the Far East as soon as possible, still let the fleet stand still, and waited five more days.During this period, I was worried that the Eighth Division, which was evacuated to the inland, would sneak attack at night, so it stayed at sea until the conditions were negotiated before returning to Hong Kong for emergency supplies. A lot of time was wasted.

But judging from the current results, Marco thinks it's all worthwhile.In order to win over his fleet, Philavi paid a lot of money.

There is an old saying that it is better to call it a chicken head than an oxtail.

Marco felt that if he took the fleet to the center, he would get some verbal praise at most. He was still just a rear admiral, and he might even be unnecessarily involved because of his stupid nephew.