Empire Conquest
Chapter 364 - 360: Suffering Heavy Damage

Chapter 364: Chapter 360: Suffering Heavy Damage

Just after 12 p.m., when the "Black Fish" class destroyer, on northern alert, sent out a warning signal, Bai Zhizhan suddenly realized the truth.

But it was too late.

If one had to point out Bai Zhizhan’s greatest blunder, it was the underestimation of the distance.

But that’s not entirely accurate.

The crux of the matter was that the emergency deployment of fighter planes had reported back only after 12:15 p.m., claiming to have discovered the eastward-moving Newland 17th Special Mixed Fleet about 200 kilometers east of the 41.2 Subsquad, and had visually identified two "York" class fleet carriers.

In other words, before the "Black Fish" sounded the alarm, Bai Zhizhan merely believed that the Newland 17th Special Mixed Fleet was to the east, without knowing how far exactly.

This distance was far too close!

If the 41.2 Subsquad had not reduced its speed during the night, it would probably have been only 100 kilometers away from the Newland 17th Special Mixed Fleet.

More than ten minutes later, after receiving the telegram from the emergency-deployed fighters, Bai Zhizhan immediately realized that Spur might not be aware that the 41.2 Subsquad was operating independently and thus might assume that the two "Imperial Capital" class carriers were accompanied by heavy cruisers.

Naturally, he would think that the carriers were located behind the heavy cruisers.

The reason was simple: the 41st Special Mixed Fleet had recently acquired four new long-range cruisers, so there was no need for the heavy cruisers to provide close protection for the carriers.

When organizing the attack, Spur might be tempted to play it clever.

To avoid detection, he would send the attack plane group to fly south or north first, then make a dash towards the area where the 41st Special Mixed Fleet was located.

As long as Spur was convinced that the distance to the 41.1 Subsquad did not exceed 300 kilometers, the threat might not necessarily come from the east!

The lucky part was that the eight "Xiaotian" fighters that had taken off urgently hadn’t yet departed.

Upon the destroyer’s detection of an approaching plane group from the northeast, Bai Zhizhan immediately made adjustments and sent all of the urgently-launched fighters to intercept.

The number of enemy planes, however, was simply too great.

There were 16 escort fighters.

These "Wildcats," as if their eggs were being squeezed, all went berserk, and even their flight performance seemed to improve slightly.

Indeed, it was Major Clark’s first attack squadron in command.

Having flown for over two hours and passed the return-turning point, these escort fighters had less than a quarter of their fuel remaining when they encountered the "Xiaotian."

This reduction in weight translated to several hundred kilograms.

Conversely, the "Xiaotian" fighters that took off urgently were almost fully loaded, and even if they weren’t carrying auxiliary fuel tanks, their internal tanks were full.

With such a give and take, Xiaotian pilots naturally felt the "Wildcats" were even more fierce.

While the "Wildcats" tangled with the "Xiaotian," the "Dreadnought" and the "Destroyer" initiated their assault, with the "Imperial Capital" being the prime target.

The "Peijing" lagged about 30 kilometers behind.

Since the "Imperial Capital" was up front and first spotted by the enemy planes, the incoming squadron from the north made a beeline directly for the "Imperial Capital."

Two SBD squadrons and two TBD squadrons.

With just a few minutes to respond, the "Zhucheng" long-range cruiser, providing direct cover for the "Imperial Capital," only managed to maneuver to the left front of the "Imperial Capital," unable to reach its left side. However, the air defense cover it provided was crucial.

The "Zhucheng" was not only armed with thirty-two 130mm high-altitude guns but also sixteen 80mm medium-caliber high-altitude guns.

When engaging enemy planes at medium to long ranges, the 80mm high-altitude guns operated more efficiently.

A faster rate of fire allowed for the creation of a denser barrage.

Regarding the power, it actually wasn’t much different; after all, no carrier aircraft could continue to fly after being hit by an 80mm shell.

In addition, the high-altitude firepower of the "Imperial Capital" was also extremely fierce.

Although it had not yet been equipped with 80mm high-altitude guns, during the last return to port for maintenance, the number of 40mm high-altitude guns on both sides of the flight deck, on the outboard deck, had been increased to 40.

If it were not for the fact that the center of gravity was near the critical point of capsizing, installing more high-altitude guns would have deteriorated the stability performance; otherwise, dozens more would have been added.

One must say, the initial design redundancy being too low was already one of the most serious flaws of the "Imperial Capital" class.

At the same time, the 40mm high-altitude guns of the "Longjiang" class had been increased to 64, with as many as 10 mounted on the port side outboard deck alone.

Anyway, the "Imperial Capital" attracted the majority of enemy planes.

During the battle, which lasted more than ten minutes, the "Imperial Capital" and the "Zhucheng" shot down more than a dozen enemy planes and forced a dozen others to drop their bombs or torpedoes prematurely.

Unfortunately, it still couldn’t escape its fate.

Two SBDs dropped their bombs before being shot down, and all hit the target.

One of them landed on the front end of the flight deck, almost grazing the forward elevator, plunging into the hangar, and exploding inside the hangar.

Just this one bomb had already robbed the "Imperial Capital" of its combat capability.

The two catapults were destroyed, the elevator was wrecked, and the front end of the flight deck was also blasted with a hole more than 20 meters in diameter.

One must mention, the hangar armor deck played a crucial role.

Although the armor plate was shattered, it blocked the majority of the shockwave and hot gases, with only a few compartments directly beneath the explosion being damaged, preventing the fire from spreading throughout the ship.

Actually, this was thanks to the damage control systems of the "Imperial Capital" class.

Once in combat status, the damage control systems would close all fuel lines leading to the flight deck and pump high-pressure nitrogen into them. Although the high temperature from the explosion still ignited flammable materials in the hangar, such as rubber hoses and uncleaned oil fluids, there was no fuel leakage, and the fire was quickly brought under control, thus avoiding more severe secondary disasters.

Not to mention anything else, the damage control system first used on the "Imperial Capital" class was undoubtedly a trump card of the Imperial Navy.

To put it fairly, during the war, this damage control system, which was beyond its time, at least two decades ahead, saved no less than ten fleet carriers!

In addition, the "Imperial Capital" was very lucky.

Another bomb landed in the middle of the flight deck, right next to the island, and after penetrating the flight deck to hit the hangar deck below, it did not explode!

Had this 500-pound air bomb exploded, all the officers and sailors inside the island would have been injured.

At the time, Bai Zhizhan was inside the Command Bridge.

Since the position of the Command Bridge was already low, the impact would have been more severe, and it was very likely that Bai Zhizhan and the other headquarters personnel would have been seriously wounded.

The "Imperial Capital" also took a torpedo hit, but the point of impact was less than 3 meters below the waterline, almost 3 meters shallower than the typical depth setting.

This resulted in a decent protective effect from the downward extension of the side armor belt.

Although the side belt armor of the "Imperial Capital" was only designed against 8-inch armor-piercing bullets and was not thick, the armor plate itself had sufficient strength.

This also proved that the Main Armor Belt extending down to the bottom of the ship had a certain torpedo defense effect.

Unfortunately, the good luck did not last until the end of the battle.

The second torpedo hit the "Imperial Capital" in the stern, directly blowing away the two propellers on the left side and causing damage to the shaft system.

Although this hit was not enough to sink the "Imperial Capital," it would still mean a half-year stay at the shipyard.

For any ship, damage to the propulsion system is difficult to repair because the shaft system runs through half of the ship’s body, making the repair extraordinarily challenging.