Chapter 1,185 Bombing 1
Chapter 1185 Bombing 1
The British bomber detachment was in a very good position. They had the sun behind them and were heading in the same direction as the German fleet. Before starting the bombing, the huge fleet was divided into four small groups to launch an air attack. Three of the squadrons targeted Hipper's flagship, while the other squadron targeted the light cruiser.
"16 O-400 bombers, carrying 20 500-pound bombs and 24 250-pound bombs. We should be able to achieve some results, right?" Lieutenant Colonel Henry looked at his most proud bomber unit and whispered.
As the second wave of British bombers approached their target, the entire German fleet's anti-aircraft artillery fired for the first time in actual combat! There are a total of 18 88MM anti-aircraft guns, 46 2-pound guns, and a huge number of 12.7MM machine guns on the five warships, one large, four small, and four small. 88MM anti-aircraft guns and 2-pound machine guns are generally placed on the deck, while a large number of machine guns are placed in all places with good shooting ranges. For example, on the top of the main turret, on the mast, or on the front and rear decks of the battleship...
Many of the heavy machine guns were taken out of the warehouse before being fired. A squad of twelve people would use a double gun rack, two machine guns, boxes of bullets, and sights just like an army machine gun team in a few minutes. Complete the hypothesis and then aim the machine gun into the air under the guidance of the officer holding the binoculars. As for how it actually works. Let’s wait for actual combat test!
The roar of guns resounded throughout the warship, and the 88MM gun crew fired wildly at targets in the air. With the efforts of a 10-man gun crew that worked together, each gun fired at a rate of more than 10 rounds per minute. Orange flames erupted from the muzzle, a brass cartridge case was quickly thrown out, and then the auxiliary loading device located next to the breech pushed another shell into the barrel.
The shooting of the 2-pound gun and the 12.7MM machine gun is simpler. The former can theoretically fire 8 shells per second, while the rate of fire of the latter is more than ten rounds. A 1-meter-long fire snake erupted from the muzzle of the 2-pound gun. The magazine drum on the side of the gun was burned out almost instantly. More than a dozen people lined up in a row to transport the shells from the ammunition compartment below. In just a few minutes, yellow and orange shell casings were already piled up next to the artillery!
When the British flew in, more than three digits of anti-aircraft artillery and machine gun anti-air fire really frightened the British. Especially Hipper's flagship performed very well in this air defense battle, with dozens of artillery pieces. And machine guns even project more than one ton of ammunition into the air every minute! Hundreds of shells and bullets flew in the air, forming a funnel-shaped barrage. This barrage swayed in the air as the battleship moved, like the scythe of death, harvesting any object that dared to get close to it. Shells poured into the sky like a tidal wave. It’s even more beautiful than the grandest fireworks display in the festival, but beneath the gorgeous flames lies death!
"As we approached the target, shells flew above, below and beside us, and from time to time shells exploded all around us.
We could barely hear each other's voices, shrapnel and flames were flying around us, and for a moment we seemed to have entered a world of flames. "A British pilot at that time described the scene with lingering fear.
Faced with the intensity of anti-aircraft firepower they had never seen before, the first group of British bombers gave up. They began to climb, then flew over from a relatively safe altitude of more than 800 meters, and then dropped bombs downwards in a covering manner. (The effective shooting height of the 12.7MM machine gun is very limited. At this height, only the 88MM gun and the 2-pound gun pose a threat)
"Full right rudder!" The huge fast battleship Weimar drew a huge arc on the sea. The four rudders were pushed to the maximum, and even the hull tilted 10 degrees to the right, like a giant whale. It left a huge track on the sea. During this evasion, relying on the deterrence of anti-aircraft firepower, none of the dozens of bombs hit. Waves of water pillars once again surrounded this huge battleship. But just like the first time, it was of no use...
"They're flying back again!" A moment later, the lookout at the top of the mast discovered that the first wave of attacking planes had returned again, and this time, Hipper felt that something bad had happened, because Hipper discovered that these planes were directly They dispersed, gave up their original formation bombing, and rushed towards the Weimar from all directions! In order to deal with the scattered bombers, the Weimar's anti-aircraft firepower was also forced to disperse, and the long-range dense barrage instantly became fragmented. Facts have proved that such anti-aircraft firepower is concentrated together, and it is okay to intimidate, but after being dispersed, even You can't even intimidate your opponents!
"We can't stop them!" A German naval soldier who was laboriously operating a 2-pound cannon looked at the approaching British bomber with some panic. The British bomber, which had thrown away part of its load, quickly jumped from the stern position. After getting close to a certain level, the four Vickers machine guns on the nose of the aircraft sprayed out deadly fire snakes, and flakes of bullets began to spray the deck. Bullets like locusts jumped between the deck and the hull, occasionally harvesting the lives of those unlucky ones. After the anti-aircraft fire was dispersed, a British aircraft finally passed by at a height of 300 meters, and then dropped a 500-pound bomb on the rear deck of the Weimar!
How powerful is a 500-pound bomb? If the bomb weight itself is converted into kilograms, it is 227KG. However, such a bomb that is not too heavy actually contains more than 130KG of explosives! What is this concept? If converted into a 15-inch armor-piercing bullet, it would be about 4 to 5 rounds. If calculated based on British large-charge grenades, it would also be more than 2 rounds!
The grenade dropped from a height of 300 meters easily penetrated the uppermost deck, and then exploded in the upper cabin of the hull! A huge fireball directly lifted up the entire deck within a radius of dozens of square meters! A large hole with a diameter of more than 3 meters appeared in the rear of the battleship Weimar. The huge explosion power pushed the shrapnel and penetrated the middle deck below the upper deck! Many fragments even fell to the lower deck before being blocked by the main horizontal armor!
Countless debris swept through a large number of cabins on the two decks, and also wiped out many anti-aircraft machine guns deployed in the open air! Although the core layer was not penetrated, the energy after the explosion of hundreds of kilograms of picric acid explosives was still terrifying. Several passages more than 20 meters long at the rear of the entire hull and the adjacent cabins turned into a sea of fire in an instant. Bombs cause more fires than artillery shells!
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