Empire Conquest -
Chapter 365 - 361 Perfect Performance
Chapter 365: Chapter 361 Perfect Performance
"When the ’Imperial Capital’ was bombed, a great fire also started on the ’Peijing’."
At first, it was indeed a "great fire."
To attract the attention of the enemy aircraft and lighten the pressure on the ’Imperial Capital,’ the captain of the ’Peijing’ adopted the suggestion of Fleet Staff Wang Jun. After the escort battleships took their positions, they lit waste tires on the flight deck, releasing dense black smoke to feign serious damage.
Because burning waste tires produces black smoke and feigning severe damage is a tactic that had never failed to deceive enemy aircraft, Imperial Navy battleships all kept some scrapped old tires, mostly from ship-borne aircraft. The damage control department would also prepare some fire-starting equipment.
In reality, there was no need for that.
At the time, a squadron of SBDs and a squadron of TBDs did not join the attack on the ’Imperial Capital’ and were searching for the ’Peijing.’
As it turned out, the sudden plumes of black smoke drew these enemy planes over.
But the enemy aircraft weren’t fooled!
The ’Peijing’ had not been attacked before, so how could it have been damaged?
With the situation at the time, the ’Peijing’ purposefully releasing smoke indeed helped the ’Imperial Capital,’ otherwise the two squadrons of enemy aircraft would have most likely vented their fury on the already heavily damaged ’Imperial Capital’ after 12:15 p.m., when their fuel was nearly exhausted.
A few more hits, whether from bombs or torpedoes, and the ’Imperial Capital’ would probably have been done for.
Comparatively speaking, the situation for the ’Peijing’ was much better than that for the ’Imperial Capital.’
Using the ’Imperial Capital’ as a shield, those ten or so minutes allowed the ’Harbor City,’ a long-range cruiser accompanying and protecting the ’Peijing,’ to maneuver into position, and a destroyer also rushed over. The High-altitude Gun batteries on the ’Peijing’ were also battle-ready.
When the Newland Plane Group arrived, the three battleships were ready for battle.
From 12:10 to 12:15 p.m., these three battleships, especially the ’Harbor City,’ conducted a textbook-level anti-aircraft defensive display.
This battle fully demonstrated the value of medium-caliber high-altitude guns.
While the enemy aircraft were still 10 kilometers away, the 130 millimeter High-altitude Guns on the three battleships fired first, forcing the densely arranged enemy aircraft to spread out.
As the enemy planes closed in, the 130 millimeter High-altitude Guns focused on intercepting high-altitude Dive Bombers.
Receiving special attention, eight SBDs were forced to disperse again, and three were shot down by High-altitude Guns during their approach, leaving the other five unable to regroup.
At the same time, four double-mounted 80 millimeter High-altitude Guns on the ’Harbor City’s’ left side were divided into two groups and began intercepting the low-altitude TBD Plane Group.
With a firing rate of 120 rounds per minute and significant power, the 80 millimeter High-altitude Guns nearly blocked all flight paths for the TBDs.
Just within two minutes, five TBDs were shot down.
As the engagement distance narrowed to four kilometers, the 40 millimeter machine guns on the three battleships joined the battle.
When the distance further decreased to two kilometers, the 20 millimeter machine guns opened fire.
As a result, none of the eight TBDs got close to the ’Peijing,’ all were shot down before they could drop their torpedoes.
According to the report later submitted, at least two TBDs crashed into the sea due to pilot error after being intercepted by the 80 millimeter High-altitude Guns.
Of the remaining five SBDs, three were shot down before they could drop their bombs, and the two that did release their bombs missed the target completely.
The three SBDs that were shot down had all entered their diving trajectories, but none managed to drop their bombs.
This point led Major Clark, who was commanding the operation, to misreport the battle results.
At the time, Major Clark had already completed his attack, his SBD was over ten kilometers away, and he personally witnessed the two squadrons’ desperate attacks. He saw five SBDs enter their bombing runs near the ’Peijing’ carrier, but only two water plumes appeared.
If all five bombs had missed, there should have been five water plumes!
Not discounting the possibility of the air bombs’ fuzes malfunctioning and failing to explode when hitting the sea, but the probability of three bomb fuzes failing at the same time was virtually zero.
The ’Peijing’ was still "burning," the thick smoke billowing up to the sky.
Indeed, Clark was convinced that the SBDs had dropped bombs that had hit the "Peijing," and it had surely inflicted heavy damage on the carrier.
Unable to guarantee the carrier’s sinking, Clark didn’t mention "sinking" in his telegram.
In fact, the raging fires aboard the "Imperial Capital" and the "Peijing" looked as if they were about to be doomed.
It was not until 12:35 that the battle was declared over.
Nearly 70 Newland ship-borne aircraft had set out, and fewer than 20 returned; all 16 "Wildcats" escorting had been shot down by "Xiaotian."
Additionally, a dozen or so SBDs and TBDs got shot down by the "Xiaotian" that flew back after the attack.
If anything, the human losses were even more devastating than those of the aircraft.
All the Newland pilots shot down who had not been killed had been taken prisoner.
By 12:40, the "great fire" aboard the "Peijing" had finally been extinguished.
But Bai Zhizhan did not immediately transfer over.
He simply ordered Zhou Yongtao to lead a group of staff officers to rush over to organize the recovery of the returning Shen Pu Plane Group, in preparation for the next attack.
Bai Zhizhan stayed put, merely to set an example.
Damage control and emergency repair work on the "Imperial Capital" were underway intensively; hundreds of damage-control personnel were desperately working, and the Fleet Commander’s staying motivated them substantially.
In reality, Bai Zhizhan was equally aware that whether there would be another attack was dubious.
It wasn’t because there weren’t enough ship-borne aircraft or because the casualties were too high.
The key was just one point, the distance was too great!
At the beginning of the engagement, the distance from the Newland 17th Special Mixed Fleet was about 400 kilometers. The Newland 17th Special Mixed Fleet had been sailing eastward, while the 41.1 Subsquad had already turned north before the attack. After the intense battle, the distance from the Newland 17th Special Mixed Fleet had widened to over 500 kilometers.
Because the "Imperial Capital" had been severely damaged, its speed had dropped to around 10 knots, so the speed of the 41.1 Subsquad was not able to increase at all.
Even if they turned now and headed east, the distance would expand to over 550 kilometers after two hours.
Moreover, Spur might not be willing to stay and continue fighting.
According to the report sent back by Zhu Huasheng, the "Wasp" was most likely going to sink.
Even if it hadn’t sunk yet, Spur would not risk another vessel for one that was doomed to sink.
Hal’s commanded Newland 16th Special Mixed Fleet had been annihilated, so for the next one or two years, the "Fenjin" would be the Newland Navy’s only fleet carrier.
What would it be worth to wipe out the 41st Special Mixed Fleet?
In a few months, the Imperial Navy would get four large carriers, while the Newland Navy’s large carriers were still in the shipyard.
Even with just one carrier, they could still make a move.
If they were without a carrier, not just Spur, not even God could pull it off.
It was obvious that Spur would most likely choose to preserve his strength.
Even if he wanted to fight to the end, Nizi wouldn’t agree.
By abandoning the "Wasp," the "Fenjin" could sail at full speed eastward, expanding the distance to about 600 kilometers away from Bai Zhizhan, who was organizing forces for a new attack.
Considering that the Newland Fleet might change its course midway, even sending the Plane Group on a one-way attack might not stand much chance of catching up with the "Fenjin."
Was it still necessary to put the pilots at risk?
Besides, the lives of several thousand officers and sailors on the six cruisers and the hundreds of shipborne air force pilots from Zhu Huasheng’s Attack Aircraft Group were still waiting for rescue.
Search the lightnovelworld.cc website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.
If you find any errors (non-standard content, ads redirect, broken links, etc..), Please let us know so we can fix it as soon as possible.
Report