Australian Storm 1876

  Chapter 277 Sea Fighting with Bayonet

   "Peng Peng Peng..."

   Three consecutive flares were fired, pushing back the darkness and illuminating a nearby sea. The smuggling fleet hidden in the night disappeared and was completely exposed in front of the "Cuckoo" warship.

  It’s just that the situation seems a bit wrong. On the sea, the 1,150-ton iron-clad ship "Lupperf" is covering the two three-masted galleons to pass through the barrier, full of sails and galloping towards Lucky Bay at a speed of about 11 knots.

  At this speed, it takes only one and a half hours to reach Lucky Bay.

  The emergency situation report from Samarinda indicated that there should be at least one second-class sailing battleship "Netherlands Giant". Where is he?

  I don’t have time to deal with these things now, we must stop the small landing team trying to break through.

After the small mixed formation composed of three ships was exposed, thicker black smoke emerged from the chimney of "Lüpef", and the bilge boiler had already begun to accelerate at full speed, actively facing the lonely "Cuckoo", trying to Protect two three-masted galleons from crossing the blockade.

The "Cuckoo" began to accelerate for the first time, and launched a red and two green flares into the dark night sky. The flares flew high into the night sky and exploded like fireworks, 20 nautical miles away. Can be seen.

  This is an agreed signal. One red flare represents one **** ship, and two green flares represent two freighters.

The light hull of the "Cuckoo", which is less than 1,000 tons, quickly accelerated to more than 20 knots under the impetus of strong power. It rushed towards the enemy ship on the sea, and quickly shortened the distance between the two to 2.5 nautical miles. Within.

According to the summary of previous combat experience, the main lethality of the high-speed cruiser comes from the 95mm Miss Australia artillery. This type of artillery has a low hit rate on targets beyond 2.5 nautical miles during high-speed rushing, and must rush to within two nautical miles. The flat gun barrel blasted fiercely, forming a dense barrage coverage, and the hit rate went up straight.

  As for a German-made 239mm main gun equipped on the bow, the hit rate is almost infinitely equal to 0 in the case of a single battle. This also has to be flattened after the distance is close to increase the hit rate.

  Both sides are light ships without armor protection. In the event of a last resort, the "Cuckoo" will not resort to a bayonet attack at sea.

  So the "Cuckoo" did not take the lead in firing, but drawn a clear arc on the sea, trying to bypass the **** to intercept the Dutch three-masted sailing cargo ship.

The Dutch three-masted sailing cargo ship was traveling on the sea with heavy cargo. The main sails and auxiliary sails were all opened to feed the sea breeze, and the energy for milking was suppressed, which was about 11 knots. The two ships changed directions. Obliquely stab one after another and fled.

   "Boom boom..."

  The iron-clad ship "Lüpef" left the small formation to take the initiative to meet it, and took the lead in firing guns. The high water column exploded more than 220 yards in front of the "Cuckoo", with a breath of death rushing towards her face.

  This is the two 150mm secondary guns equipped by the "Lüpev" ironclad ship. They showed extraordinary skill at the first shot, and the accuracy of the bombing point was quite high.

  Originally, it was due to the night battle. When it was discovered, the distance between the two parties was already very close, no more than 3.5 nautical miles.

  Secondly, the Dutch have been prepared, otherwise it would not be possible to fight so accurately in a hasty.

  "Cuckoo" discovered that the opponent might have missed a near-missing bullet, which is a very serious threat to the enemy. He immediately turned the direction and opened the distance between the two, bypassing a larger arc-shaped track, trying to use the high speed to get rid of the entanglement of the "Lüpef" ironclad ship, and directly stab the chrysanthemums of the two three-masted sailing cargo ships.

  Sure enough, in the second round of bombardment, the "Lüpev" ironclad shell fired a distance of more than 600 yards, losing the threat to the "Cuckoo".

  The distance between the two was not shortened but widened. The "Cuckoo" obviously did not want to entangle with the other party. The main goal was still to hit the cargo ship and chose to avoid the enemy's head-on battle.

  This is because both are crispy ships without armor, and no one can stand a heavy blow.

At this moment, both sides have reached the highest speed. The ironclad ship "Lüpef" chased the 23-knot "Cuckoo" at a speed of 16 knots. It was obviously unable to do so. Although several rounds of shells were fired like a vent, it still could not stop the "Cuckoo" from pocketing. Arrived in front of the freighter's route.

   Seeing that the opponent's speed advantage is too obvious, the Dutch "Lupperf" ironclad ship can only send a signal to the freighter to return to the formation, further reducing the speed and implementing the same step-by-step personal protection, always topping the front of the three-masted sailing freighter to drive away the enemy ship.

  The two sides chased on the sea for more than 10 minutes and fired more than a dozen rounds of shells at each other. Due to the drastic changes in each other’s positions, they did not miss any near-misses.

   just now

  Five flare flares, one red and four green, suddenly rose on the deep night sea in the distance. The distance was about ten nautical miles away, which meant that another Dutch landing formation was trying to break through.

  At this point, the intention of the Dutch landing formation has been completely exposed.

  These Dutch people are really chicken thieves, knowing that there are not many ships in the Moresby Police District, and there are only two ships in the normal blockade, and no more than three at most.

Therefore, the Dutch divided the formation of eight ships into two. If a small formation of three ships in the front is found to be able to fight and go, attracting the ships of the Moresby Police District to pursue the encirclement and suppression, another five ships The large formation can sneak across the blockade while in chaos, carrying reinforcements and artillery ammunition to Lucky Bay, which is a broken arm to survive.

  For the landing formation, the most important thing is to safely send more than 1,200 reinforcement soldiers ashore, followed by expensive artillery and ammunition, and then logistics.

  It is obvious that the two three-masted sail cargo ships in the small Dutch fleet transport more than 900 tons of logistical equipment, even if it is completely lost, it is irrelevant to the overall situation.

  If both formations are discovered, then with the firepower of the **** ships, it is impossible for the blockade ships to keep all the ships, the big deal is to hurt each other and rush!

  There are also self-defense artillery on the three-masted sail freighter. Although it is not a professional warship with weak firepower, it can make the opponent a little bit jealous and dare not get too close.

  This presents a problem for the Moresby blockade fleet, which one should be intercepted?

Although the "Cuckoo" blocked the course of the course and forced the opponent to turn, it was obviously anxious after the flare was launched in the distance. It turned abruptly and obviously went straight in, giving up the game and preparing to fight the bayonet with the opponent.

After a few minutes

At a distance of 2.2 nautical miles, the iron-clad ship "Lüpef" was the first to fire a near miss. The main and secondary artillery blasted fiercely together. Each round ejected 5 artillery shells at a rate of 13 rounds per minute (main and secondary artillery). The speed of launching is different), the firepower is poured out, and the sea surface is boiled.

The "Cuckoo" rushed forward in the face of the artillery fire, marking a clear zigzag track on the sea. A few minutes later, when it approached a distance of 1.8 nautical miles, it began to fire violently. The main and secondary guns were all flattened. volley.

  In an instant

The "Cuckoo" is like a fire-breathing monster madly pouring out artillery fire. A German-made 239mm main gun and four 95mm Miss Australia shot out 55-58 rounds per minute in a rush. The 239mm main gun can fire two heavy shells per minute, and the other firepower is all contributed by the four Miss Australia.

  The two sides went from 1.8 nautical miles to 1.2 nautical miles.

The ironclad ship "Lüpef" was hit by no fewer than 6 95mm shells. The sail masts ignited a raging fire. The surface of the ship was blown into a scorched mess. The main guns with crazy output of firepower, and the secondary guns all misfired. It's like being ravaged by cruelty.

The "Cuckoo" was not easy. It was hit by two 150mm shells one after another. One hit the bow of the ship, blasting the sharpened bow into a large pit measuring 1 meter 2 by 0.9 meter, and flying iron filings. Sweeping the main gun position, a **** storm was set off, and the 12-man squad controlling the main gun had seven dead and two severely wounded, and the remaining three were slightly injured.

   Coincidentally, a fragment of an artillery shell blasted the glass of the bridge and directly killed the steerer. Several officers received various scratches, and the blood reflected on the steerer's platform.

Another 150mm shell pierced the chimney and exploded. Thick smoke filled the deck, causing several deaths and injuries in the boiler room. The shell fragments pierced two high-pressure steam pipes, and the speed of the ship suddenly slowed down. Down, it can only maintain a speed of 15 knots.

  The captain of the "Cuckoo" Li Sixian wiped the blood on his face, immediately took over the steering wheel and yelled to fire, returning the enemy with the most violent firepower.

From 1.2 nautical miles to 800 yards, more than 170 rounds were poured out from the 95mm artillery on the "Cuckoo", of which about 30 rounds hit the "Lüpev" ironclad ship, which was bombed like a rag doll. .

  The blazing fire light reflected half of the sky, and also reflected the horrified look of two Dutch sailing cargo ships. One cargo ship hit the white flag and surrendered, and the other turned the bow of the ship to run away.

At this time, the "Haiyan" led by Geng Baogui sailed out of the darkness at high speed, and was less than 1.5 nautical miles from the escaping crazy cargo ship. After leveling the gun barrels, it fired a violent salvo, and it shot 160 in just 4 minutes. Several shells were fired into a large torch burning on the sea.

The "Haiyan" did not slow down and drew an arc trace. Through the light signal, the "Cuckoo" was ordered to immediately settle the battlefield, participate in the encirclement and suppression of another Dutch formation, and then drove in the direction of the signal, and soon submerged into the boundless. In the night.

The "Cuckoo" that received the order immediately sailed to the vicinity of the surrendered three-masted cargo ship, and ordered the other party to put away the mainmast, adjuncts and all other sails on the ship, put down the small sampans to participate in the rescue of the drowning soldiers and crew, staying in place and not allowed to leave , Otherwise you will be at your own risk.

  After issuing a series of orders, the "Cuckoo" immediately turned around and rushed towards the direction of the rumble of cannons ahead.

  The captive cargo ship does not care about it. Even if it escapes, there is no loss. As long as the logistics is not transported to Lucky Bay, it is impossible to cause any substantial harm.

  Speaking of salvaging these survivors who fell into the water in the night, don’t even think about it for an hour or two. The battle ahead is raging. How can the "Cuckoo" have so much time to delay here?

  (End of this chapter)