Nan Ming Sun Never Sets

Chapter 705 Denmark Strait

This naval battle started when the Ming Navy detected the information that the Xiqing Navy was planning to send a fleet to attack the transport ships and escort fleet of the Ming Dynasty operating in this area by taking advantage of the bad walrus hydrology.

The Xiqing Navy originally only expected to encounter the frigates of Ming Dynasty, but never thought that they might face the real capital ship configuration.

In addition to the battleship Shanghai, the fleet led by the commander of the Atlantic Fleet Galdan also includes the 46000-ton battleship Guangxi (Jiangnan class), two 33000-ton battleships Molucca and British Columbia (Java class) ). The 15000-ton heavy cruisers Dangkou and Pingkou (Zhengkou class), the 17500-ton heavy cruisers Renhuang and Renshu (Rende class), and the 2600-ton frigates Lianzhou, Shaozhou, Huizhou, Anqing, Huaian, Hejian, Qujing (Jinan class).

Not to mention the Shanghai, which can be called a big stick, but the Guangxi uses three triple-mounted 400mm main guns. The main guns carried by the Molucca and British Columbia are four double-mounted 400mm main guns. Both main guns use the same 45 caliber barrel.This can be regarded as a very mature and durable equipment in the Ming Navy's barrel weapons.

The battle line formed by these four battleships launched an unimaginably terrible bombardment towards the Xiqing Navy in the sea fog.Although the rate of fire of a cannon of this caliber is slow, the slower it is, the more frightened the sailors on the Xiqing ship feel.They seemed to be waiting for their own death. When the main guns of the Ming Navy battleship roared and the shells hit, they might die with the explosion at any time.

Piotroz is now haunted by fear just like his sailors.

"Belarus No. 1 boiler room was hit and exploded, and the speed will be reduced to 9 knots!"

"The main turret of the Romania was destroyed and the aircraft hangar cannot be used!"

"Commander, the Ukraine has taken on water!"

"We may lose the Bulgaria!"

Sentences from the reports of his subordinates made Piotroz feel like he was in a nightmare.

"Why? At a position of more than 1 yards, they were able to hit us so accurately?" Piotroz faintly sensed something, and he believed that there must be a reason for the Ming Navy's shelling to become so terrifying.

And Galdan also deeply realized how terrifying the power of battleships equipped with advanced fire control systems in artillery battles.

"Almost every shelling we have can form a straddle shot. No matter how the enemy maneuvers on the sea, we can hit them with 2-3 rounds in one salvo." Ding Quan was also amazed by such an attack.

Although the Ming Navy also conducts target shooting training from time to time, there is no chance of truly hitting the enemy's moving battleships like this. The naval gunnery elites practice hard, and it is precisely for this kind of day.

Galdan ordered: "Cruiser formation, start attacking ships scattered outside the enemy's main formation, and beware of them escaping."

In fact, some Qing army cruisers and frigates have already thought of running away.Several battleships and battle cruisers were beaten so badly, which they did not expect.

Piotroz also ordered his fleet to frantically fight back against the Ming navy, but their attack power was much weaker than that of Daming.Even for the Ukrainian and Belarus battleships with the largest tonnage, the main guns of these two battleships are actually 360mm, which is not enough to deal with the thick horizontal armor of several Ming battleships.

"Frigate, go up to me and shoot out all your torpedoes!"

The [-] to [-]-ton frigates of the Qing army also had the ability to destroy large ships. The frigates were generally equipped with torpedoes. These torpedoes were very large in caliber and powerful.Once the torpedo attack hits the enemy ship successfully, it will definitely cause great damage to the enemy ship.At this moment, Piotroz had already fully unleashed his ruthlessness. Even if he suffered an epic defeat here today, he would not be able to let the Ming Navy retreat like this.

He had to make the Ming Navy pay a huge price. Any battleship of the Ming Dynasty had thousands of officers and soldiers on it. As long as she was sunk, it would bring unprecedented casualties to the Ming Army.

At this moment, Galdan was on guard against any changes from the enemy.Before Piotrotz ordered the frigate formation to step forward and step up to enter the torpedo launch position, Galdan had ordered the heavy patrol formation and escort formation of the fleet to start besieging and killing the more vulnerable cruisers and frigates of the opponent.

The heavy cruiser Renshu was the first to win the battle. This ship was quite large. She faced a light cruiser, and before she entered the torpedo firing position, she launched a dazzling straddle attack on the light cruiser. In the round of shelling, eight of the nine shells actually hit the enemy, causing heavy damage to the light cruiser, and even lying on the sea surface, not far from the fate of sinking to the bottom of the sea.

And the smaller frigates, when facing the heavy patrol of the Ming Navy, have little resistance. The rate of fire of 205mm shells is much faster than that of 400mm and 520mm cannons. Basically, if a frigate is hit like this, there will be big problems.Especially in the case of the Zhengkou-class and Rende-class heavy cruiser bombardments with multiple near misses, it was almost not long after the fight, and several Xiqing cruisers and frigates suffered heavy losses.

Xiqing did not have a good way to deal with the Ming Dynasty heavy cruiser. Because of the lack of firepower, the Xiqing Navy had to let its five heavy cruisers also be in the battle line formation to launch bombardment against the Ming Navy's battle line. .

"Damn it, the sea is so high that the waves are hitting the ship so hard that it can't stabilize, and our shelling can't hit the opponent at all." The gunner of the Xiqing Navy shouted with red eyes.

Immediately after the 520mm shell fell down, the entire turret penetrated and exploded like a large crater hit by a meteorite, and all the sailors inside were spared.

When Piotroz saw that the bow of the Romania had been completely broken and sank into the sea in a distorted shape, he closed his eyes in pain.

"It's over... it's over..."

"Perhaps from the very beginning, this empire has no chance. Xiqing is only stronger than European countries, but facing the real power in the world, it is so small and fragile."

Eleven minutes later, the command tower of the flagship Ukrainian of the Xiqing Navy was destroyed by a 11mm shell, and the superstructure of the entire battleship began to collapse. Together with the illusory bubble of the Western Qing Empire, it sank all the way to the bottom of the cold North Sea.

(End of this chapter)