Travel through the Qing Dynasty and become emperor

After Yu Chongguang received the telegram, he quickly deployed and reported to Sa Zhenbing.The radio waves immediately transmitted to the aircraft carrier Xiazi which was returning: "The enemy's main fleet is found... azimuth 156 degrees, distance 600 nautical miles... 11 warships, heading 030 degrees, speed 20 knots... 9 Lanxiang bombers have been ordered Take off and bomb."

The communications officer took the report and ran to Xia Zihao's command room.Sa Zhenbing was discussing the next step with Huang Guangrui. After reading the telegram, he suddenly stood up from his seat and said excitedly, "Old Huang, have you read this report?"

"What is this, Commander?"

"We found those two aircraft carrier teams!" Sa Zhenbing beamed with joy, feeling relaxed, and handed the telegram to Huang Guangrui as he spoke.

"You should be relieved this time." Huang Guangrui said with a soft smile, "The final suppression is coming!"

Almost at the same time that Sa Zhenbing received the telegram of the discovery of the coalition fleet, Cunningham also received an urgent telegram from Mountbatten: "My convoy was searched by a Chinese plane 9 nautical miles west of Andaman Island at 600 o'clock. The plane found it. Be alert to all Chinese sea power on the way back!"

Cunningham laughed at this, and said in his heart that this is the moment I was waiting for. If the Chinese dare to confront the tough, I will definitely make them pay a heavy price.At this moment, a lookout post reported: "90 degrees to starboard, 70 degrees elevation angle, it seems to be the light of a reconnaissance plane. Above the clouds, approach me!"

Cunningham was taken aback, and immediately ordered the battle siren to be sounded, and the crew took their positions.But the stars in the sky flickered through the gaps in the clouds, and there was no trace of the enemy plane.It turns out that Wangshao took the stars as his target.Cunningham was so angry that he yelled at the lookout post, and the nerves that had been tense just now relaxed a little bit, and was about to order to disarm the alarm, when the lookout post suddenly reported loudly: "There is still a light in that direction! No! Star!"

Cunningham did not dare to be negligent, and the order for air combat was immediately sent to all ships.Unexpectedly, the result was another false alarm.Cunningham was so angry that he dismissed the Post of Fame on the spot.

After these two false alarms, Cunningham made his own judgment after analyzing various situations: "The enemy has not yet noticed our intention, nor has it discovered our aircraft carrier team. The enemy fleet is probably performing a security mission on the sea surface. The formal response will be made after the discovery of our fleet. There is no sign that the enemy's mobile force is near me. In view of the detected situation, the enemy fleet is not the main force, and our fleet is fully capable of destroying it. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Must not be missed."

His judgment was completely wrong.It was this judgment that nearly wiped out his army a few hours later.

He immediately ordered that the aircraft carrier team change course and pursue the detected Chinese navy fleet.With an order, the officers and soldiers of the fleet are all gearing up, ready to have a real duel with the Chinese!On the water 240 nautical miles northwest of the Andaman Islands, there was a murderous scene.

At 10 o'clock in the morning, the order "All pilots, assemble!" came from the horn of the Hundred-Eyed Giant.The pilots quickly squeezed into the situation room, listening to the final instructions.A few minutes later, the pilot listened to the briefing, ran to the deck, and rushed to the waiting plane.Cunningham ordered the captain to turn the carrier into headwind and increase her speed to 21 knots.

Lightning fighter jets rolled out of the hangar on the aircraft carrier, and they were neatly arranged on the deck. The engines of the planes started, and bluish-white gas spewed out of the exhaust pipes.At this time, Captain Hobert of the Royal Navy Air Force who participated in World War II walked up to Cunningham and said goodbye to him.Cunningham wished him success, then silently watched him climb the gangway and into the cabin of his lead bomber, which was parked not far from the bridge.

At this time, an orderly reported loudly: "Sir, all aircraft are ready!"

Cunningham gave a British military salute: "Start taking off!"

At 10:30, the first Lightning fighter soared into the sky amidst cheers on the deck, and people waved their arms and hats frantically to see it off.Subsequently, eight more Lightning fighters took off, followed by dive bombers.Hobert's plane took off with the canopy closed, and he waved goodbye to those on deck as he led the group into the climb.

About 4000 meters away from the port side of the "White-Eyed Giant" are also lights shining.This is the plane of the "Hermes" aircraft carrier taking off.The task of leading the squadron fell on the shoulders of Captain Alexander, the flight captain of the "Hermes".Alexander came to the ship when the "Hermes" was about to sail to the Indian Ocean. He had not shown his skills in the Indian Ocean naval battle, but like Hobert, he was also a war-baptized officer in World War II. Known as the "brave and combative leader".

In this wave of attack aircraft, in addition to the aircraft that took off from the "Hundred-eyed Giant" and the "Hermes", there were also 36 horizontal bombers from other ships.

36 dive bombers led by Lieutenant George who took off from the "Hundred Eyes Giant" came up from the left behind the horizontal bomber group.George participated in all battles including the air raid on Bremen in World War II, and was known in the Royal Navy for his skill and bravery in combat.

At this moment, Cunningham suddenly received a report from a search plane: "10 enemy ships were found, with Andaman Island as the reference bearing 10, 240 nautical miles away from our own side, heading 150 degrees, and a speed of more than 20 knots."

When Cunningham and his staff received this telegram, it was like a bolt from the blue. They never expected that the surface troops of the Dragon Army would appear so quickly, let alone that the enemy warships had already arrived in the nearby waters waiting to ambush them.The whole situation changed drastically immediately!

The staff officer immediately found out the position of the enemy ship on the chart, estimated the distance between the two sides, and reported to Cunningham: "The enemy is exactly 200 nautical miles away from us, and this distance is within the attack circle of our aircraft. With an aircraft carrier, we are also within the attack circle of enemy aircraft."

What Cunningham was eager to know was, what was the composition of the enemy force?Are there aircraft carriers?The report of the search aircraft did not say exactly what forces the enemy included.But at this critical moment, everything is still unknown.This worried and annoyed Cunningham and his staff.

The "Hundred-Eyed Giant" immediately sent a telegram, strictly ordering the search engine: "Immediately find out the type of enemy ship and keep in contact."

Before the news was clear, Cunningham had ordered the horizontal bomber fleet ready to go to war to remove the torpedoes and replace them with 800-kilogram bombs.If search aircraft confirm the presence of aircraft carriers in the enemy fleet, that is the greatest threat to the carrier fleet.Therefore, he believes that it is necessary to be prepared to deal with it.

At 10:45, Cunningham ordered the two aircraft carriers to immediately stop the ammunition reloading work and prepare to attack the enemy ships.At the same time, the search plane reported that the enemy ship had changed its course, and the current course was 080 degrees, but the ship type was still not reported.In this regard, Cunningham has been anxious to go crazy.

After 10 minutes, the search plane finally reported: "The enemy ships are 5 cruisers and 5 destroyers."

After receiving the telegram, Cunningham breathed a sigh of relief and said triumphantly: "As I thought, there is no aircraft carrier." He handed the telegram to the chief of staff.

However, the relief brought by this news did not last long. Five minutes later, the search plane reported again: "There seems to be an aircraft carrier at the end of the enemy fleet." Everyone tensed up.The search plane sent another report: "There are two other warships in the enemy fleet, obviously cruisers. Bearing 5, 1 nautical miles away from our side, heading 2 degrees, speed 008 knots."

According to the size of the Dragon Army's force, Cunningham can now conclude that there is at least one aircraft carrier in the enemy's force.Therefore, he decided to double the number of bombers to ensure the attack effect.

Chapter 687: The Contest in the Decisive Battle

Simultaneously with his order, he telegraphed to Mountbatten at Narional Port Mannar, informing them of the new tension: "At 8:1 sharp, 5 enemy aircraft carrier, 5 cruisers and 010 destroyers were spotted. Enemy position 240 degrees , at a distance of [-] nautical miles, we are sailing towards the enemy."

At this time, all the reconnaissance planes conducting combat patrols were retracted, and the aircraft carrier team's heading was changed to 030 degrees. In order to reduce the threat of Sumatra shore-based aircraft and gain a favorable position against the Chinese fleet, the fleet's speed was increased to 30 knots.The ground crew on the aircraft carrier was busy refueling and replenishing ammunition for the aircraft that had just landed. In just one hour, an attack force composed of more than 1 aircraft could be fully prepared to attack the opponent's task force.However, within this hour, the situation of the battle took a sharp turn, and a shocking change occurred.

When the reconnaissance plane dispatched by the Dragon Army task force first reported the sight of the enemy aircraft carrier, the task force was located about 200 nautical miles northeast of the enemy aircraft carrier team.Commander-in-Chief Yu Chongguang immediately ordered the Kaiji and Huantai cruisers to advance rapidly to the southwest. Once the location of the enemy aircraft carrier was found, they would attack immediately.At this time, the aircraft carrier Chunzi, the flagship of the Dragon Army, had not yet returned to the ship because the 10 carrier-based planes sent to search for the enemy had not yet returned to the ship. Follow up after the flight.Yu Chongguang is well-known in the Imperial Navy for his wit and scheming. He believes that only by reducing the position between the enemy and ourselves to an appropriate distance, and choosing a favorable fighter to make the assault fleet take off, can the greatest battle results be achieved.Therefore, he did not rush to get his carrier plane to take off, but secretly waited for the opportunity.

At about 1:150 p.m., Yu Chongguang calculated that his fleet was still about [-] nautical miles away from the enemy fleet. He believed that the perfect opportunity to attack had come, so he ordered the carrier-based aircraft to take off.

After a deafening roar of aircraft engines, 35 Lanxiang dive bombers and 15 Swordfish torpedo planes left the USS Chunzi Aircraft Carrier, and under the escort of 10 Fenglei fighter jets, from two different heights, they first headed towards the aircraft carrier where the coalition formation was located. The waters flew away.Immediately afterwards, 33 Lanxiang dive bombers and 14 Swordfish torpedo planes on the battleships Baiyun and Lanyun took off one after another, and under the escort of 10 Fenglei fighters, they flew towards the enemy's waters.

The Dragon Army torpedo fleet approached the target at low altitude.Because of flying under the clouds, you can see targets in a wider range.At about 2:20, the Swordfish torpedo fleet spotted the enemy aircraft carrier formation.Due to cloud cover and other reasons, the Swordfish torpedo fleet has lost contact with the attack fighter fleet. Without the cover of fighter jets, Gao Zhihang, the leader of the team, still bravely led his fleet to attack the enemy fleet. .However, at this time, dozens of Lightning fighter jets that were scrambled into the air were circling at low altitude above the aircraft carrier fleet, protecting the fleet like an iron barrel.

The two sides launched a fierce exchange of fire, causing casualties to each other. When the battle was stalemate, the second wave of Swordfish torpedo aircraft flew over the enemy fleet.The 14 carrier-based aircraft were divided into two groups, ready to carry out torpedo attacks from the left and right sides of the "Hundred-eyed Giant". Failed to throw mine.Swordfish saw that the opponent's defense was tight, and immediately climbed to a height of 3000 meters to avoid the anti-aircraft artillery fired from the ship, and circled at high altitude to look for further opportunities.

The third wave of bombers flew to the predetermined sea area but did not find the enemy.Therefore, Liu Debian, who led the team, decided to conduct a square search and first flew north. This judgment was quickly proved to be correct. After more than ten minutes of searching, they finally found the enemy fleet.Liu Debian saw from his plane that the two aircraft carriers of the coalition forces were sailing in a diamond formation, heading due north, with the "Hundred-Eyed Giant" in front, the "Sports God" behind, and the rest of the escorting ships surrounding them. On all sides, a huge steel garland is formed.

Liu Debian commanded the fleet to approach from the south west, that is, from the left rear of the enemy fleet. He divided the 33 bombers into 4 groups, and targeted the nearest targets, namely the "Hundred-eyed Giant" in the west and the "Hundred-eyed Giant" in the south. The "Shenzhen" launched a concentrated attack.Prior to this, because the coalition forces had just been attacked by two batches of Swordfish torpedo planes, most of the fighter jets on combat patrols in the air were about to run out of fuel, and they landed on the ship to refuel and reload.The fighter jets still circling in the air have been attracted to the low altitude by the swordfish, thus relaxing their guard against the high altitude.In addition, there were clouds in the sky, and the bombers were hidden on the clouds, and the coalition forces failed to detect them in time.

In fact, it was this group of uninvited guests led by Liu Debian who pushed the coalition fleet into the abyss of death.

The first two torpedo plane attacks of the Dragon Army did not pose a major threat to the enemy ships, and the two aircraft carriers continued to prepare for attacking the Dragon Army task force.The planes were brought up from the hangar one by one and quickly lined up on the flight deck.

At 3:22, Cunningham received a report that all preparations were completed and the plane could take off immediately.He immediately gave the order to prepare for takeoff.

On the flight deck of the "Hundred-Eyed Giant", all the planes had been launched, and the huge aircraft carrier began to sail against the wind.As long as it starts to take off, it only takes a few minutes for all aircraft to leave the ship and take off.At this time, Cunningham was also very excited. He felt that victory was within his grasp, and the dozens of enemy torpedo planes alone could not pose a major threat to his fleet.However, he did not expect that the god of fate would not give him these few minutes.Just in the blink of an eye, something happened that left him dumbfounded.

At 3:44, the command "Start to take off" was issued from the microphone on the bridge of the Hundred Eyes Giant aircraft carrier. The flight captain waved the small white flag, and the first Lightning fighter flew off the flight deck at full power.Suddenly, Wangshao shouted: "Dive bombers!" It turned out that Liu Debian's fleet began to attack!

I saw three Lanxiang fighter planes dive vertically towards the "Hundred-Eyed Giant", and the shadow of the planes became bigger and bigger.Suddenly, many black things swayed down from under the wings.It's a bomb!The two bombs smashed straight towards the "Hundred-Eyed Giant", and immediately there was a dazzling flash, followed by the sound of a "boom" explosion as the bomb directly hit.In just a few seconds, horrific devastation was wrought. A large hole was blasted behind the elevator in the middle of the flight deck of the "Hundred-Eyed Giant", and the elevator was blown like a piece of burnt glass, collapsing towards the hangar.The steel plates of the flight deck rolled up in strange shapes, the tail of the bombed plane was upturned, and blue flames protruded from the plane, emitting thick smoke, and the fire began to spread rapidly.

Of the two bombs that hit the "Hundred-eyed Giant", one fell on the rear of the elevator in the middle, and the other fell on the rear section of the port side of the flight deck.Under normal circumstances, these two bombs would not have caused fatal damage to this huge aircraft carrier. However, the resulting explosion of gasoline and ammunition destroyed several entire sections of the ship, shook the bridge, and caused fatal damage. Pieces of it were flying all over the air.The torpedoes on the planes began to explode as the fire spread to the planes lined up on the flight deck.Shortly thereafter, the 800-kilogram bombs that had been unloaded from the plane and had not had time to be transported to the ammunition depot below also began to explode, thus making the fire even more uncontrollable.The entire hangar area became a sea of ​​flames, and the flames quickly burned towards the bridge.Due to the spread of the fire, the "Hundred-eyed Giant" completely lost its combat capability in a series of earth-shattering explosions, and its communication with the outside world was also cut off.Facing the raging fire, the chief of staff of the flagship proposed to immediately move the commander's flag to the "Hermes" aircraft carrier. Cunningham almost held back his tears and reluctantly agreed.

After Cunningham left with the command organization, only the captain, flight chief and others were left on the bridge.The captain commanded the crew of the "Hundred-Eyed Giant" to continue to work hard to control the fire, but their efforts were in vain.Because the generator stopped working, not only did the ship lose its lighting, but even the water pump used to extinguish the fire also lost its function.The fire doors of the hangar had been burned, all the chemical fire extinguishers were out of service, and explosions continued to occur on the deck, each explosion blasted through the deck and injured many people.The flight captain advised the captain to leave the bridge immediately and go to the anchor deck.With the support of the sailors, the captain climbed up the window of the bridge with difficulty.Soon, another explosion occurred in the hangar, and the shock wave from the explosion knocked the captain down on the flight deck, losing consciousness.

The flames continued to spread, increasing in intensity, and hot air rushed through the air intakes and into the lowest part of the warship, where the personnel working there began to pass out from suffocation.In order to save his subordinates, the electromechanical chief ran across the burning deck and ran up to report the situation of the engine room to the chief mate.The chief mate immediately ordered all the electromechanical personnel to come to the deck immediately.However, it was too late, and the orderly who tried to go down through the sea of ​​​​fire with this order never returned, and no one in the cabin was spared.

Casualties continued to mount, and the fire became increasingly out of control.At around 4:[-] p.m., the first officer decided to abandon the ship.The wounded began to be transferred to boats and motorboats, and many uninjured jumped into the sea, swimming away from the HMS Hundred-Eyed Giant, the proud flagship of the Royal Navy.

The captain also sent a telegram from a destroyer to Cunningham, requesting approval to sink the destroyed aircraft carrier, and soon got Cunningham's order to suspend the disposal of the aircraft carrier.After receiving this order, the captain returned to the "Hundred-eyed Giant" alone.He returned to the anchor deck that had not been affected by the fire, tied himself to the iron anchor, and waited for death to come...

In the war room of the "Hermes", Cunningham has called a meeting of all the staff to study how to deal with the "Hundred-Eyed Giant". Should he agree with the captain and sink it?Or take the risk of another battle and rush into the combat sea area to drag it out?Or leave it to fate?They knew that if the "Hundred-eyed Giant" was abandoned, the Chinese might tow it away, and it would become a proud exhibit of the Chinese.

Chapter 688: The Contest in the Final Battle

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!"