Chapter 1,229 Lightning Strike at Sea
Chapter 1229 Lightning Strike at Sea
"Thud, tut, tut." The originally smooth shooting sound of the large-caliber machine gun suddenly stopped. With the sound of the machine gun locking, Captain Harley shook his head helplessly. Just after he shot down the third British bomber today, the six 12.7MM machine guns finally ran out of ammunition. All 3,000 rounds of ammunition were consumed. Under the attack of him and his brothers, this bomber formation was almost destroyed. Even if there were some lucky escapees, the bombs were thrown away early.
However, just as Captain Harley was about to report his victory results to the field station, another small group of aircraft quickly passed by from a distance. "Damn it! There are so many British people here today. All planes with remaining ammunition can attack on their own." Captain Harley gave the order to attack freely, but two of the six planes in the team were damaged and were forced to attack. Returning, only 2 planes and a little ammunition were left.
"Their direction seems to be flying towards the port of Burgas. The British seem to be targeting our navy this time." The telegraph operator in the back seat said.
"No matter what, the battle here has nothing to do with us. We have already sent out their movements. It depends on how Count Lucknar responds. If you are lucky, your colleagues in Bulgaria may provide support. If If I remember correctly, the Panther Squadron should be at the border between Bulgaria and Romania." Harley said with a sigh. However, what Captain Harley didn't expect was that this morning's battle was just the beginning for him. After flying back for an hour, he didn't have time to return to the pilot's lounge for a cup of hot coffee and a meal. With extra meals. Two burgers and a bottle of water were given to me by the staff next to me, and then a group of ground staff rushed up as quickly as possible to refuel, reload, and perform maintenance on the aircraft. Harley, which had only been on the ground for less than 50 minutes, once again He was pushed onto the plane and participated in another air battle. Of course, this is a story later, so let’s not mention it for the moment. Let us first focus on the British C fleet.
Group C was very miserable. When it was "smuggling" north, it encountered the Night Scythe Squadron patrolling the air. Group C was divided into two parts. One part was the 15 bombers of the Crow Squadron, which happened to collide with Captain Harley's group. The other one was luckier and slipped past the 12 bombers of the Seagull Squadron.
"We lost more than half of our attack power before the fight even started, and there's no one left!" Commander of Group C, Lieutenant Colonel Velen, felt as if thousands of mythical beasts were running through his heart. The opponent's interception force was not strong, with only 6 interceptor planes in succession. As a result, these guys shot down at least 9 bombers, damaging 2 of them, and forced the remaining 4 to throw away their bombs and run away! We haven't encountered the enemy yet, but half of our output has been lost. What a mess! Lieutenant Colonel Wei Lun's heart is bleeding!
But the only thing that comforted Velen was that from the time Captain Harley's fleet left until they encountered Count Luckner's fleet sailing on the sea, there were no aircraft to interfere. Maybe it's the so-called good luck. There were actually some deviations in their route, and it was precisely because of this deviation that the British fleet just caught the German fleet that had just left the port...
"It seems that our luck is not bad, brothers, let's take action!" Lieutenant Colonel Velen issued the attack order, and the 12 bombers were divided into four squads and launched an attack formation.
"It's a bomber! The British are coming." Earl Luckner, who had already learned about the British Air Force's attack through radio waves, was not nervous about the arrival of the British. After all, there were only 12 aircraft. If he wanted to use these aircraft to severely damage his fleet, he could only Talk about overthinking. After the British bombers were discovered at the lookout post, the Count's flagship Sultan Osman I had time to release four aircraft from the deck! The next two armored cruisers do not have this ability. Because there are relatively few seaplanes, only the Reshadier has two, and the Redbeard Varedin has none.
The 88MM anti-thunder cannon, 50MM rapid-fire cannon and machine guns on the battleship were quickly mobilized, and the three battleships appropriately distanced themselves to facilitate dodge. The count's flagship was at the forefront, followed by two armored cruisers. The situation of the British is indeed very bad. Among the 12 aircraft, there are only 6 torpedoes and 6 bombs. Facing moving targets, the bomb hit rate is relatively miserable, and the only thing they can really rely on is torpedoes.
"This is really a boring battle!" Lieutenant Colonel Velen said sadly. The so-called boring means that it is difficult for both sides to do anything to each other. "Concentrate your firepower to attack the battleship in the middle of the queue!" Lieutenant Colonel Velen ordered.
"Isn't it that fast battleship?" asked the radio operator in the back seat.
"It's difficult for us to hit it!" There are 4 seaplanes escorting the Earl's flagship, and the speed can easily reach more than 25 knots. You must know that the cruising speed of the FB27 bomber with bombs is 90 kilometers per hour. Not as fast as a car on the highway….
After a brief exchange, in addition to three bombers being assigned to attack the Sultan Osman I to contain the four seaplanes, the remaining nine bombers all aimed at the Redbeard Varedin armored cruiser in the middle!
In the 5 minutes it took to disengage, the battleship experienced its darkest moment. Just as the British expected, facing an armored cruiser with a speed of more than 17 knots, horizontal bombing by a small number of aircraft was really not effective, and the hit was totally unpredictable. As fate would have it, none of the three bombs landed within 70 meters of the battleship... The water column that exploded seemed more dangerous, but it only wet the deck of the armored cruiser.
What is really dangerous is the cross attack of 6 torpedo planes! The sturdy FB27 bombers and O-400 ignored the small water pipe machine gun on the seaplane. The at least five 7.7MM machine guns on each British bomber were not enough to deal with the Tracers, but driving these guys away was easy. ! 6 bombers entered the bombing route at almost perfect angles!
When the altitude of the aircraft dropped to 50 meters, the air pressure caused by the sudden drop of the huge fuselage even pushed the sea water to one side. With the roar of their engines, two groups of British aircraft quickly approached the target at a speed of 97 kilometers per hour!
"Release the torpedoes!" After all, there are no time travelers on the British side. They know that the hit rate of cross lightning strikes will be better, but they don't know how to hit them. At this time, they can only rely on the so-called tacit understanding. However, this time, the so-called tacit understanding did not exist at all. The British bomber on the left string was the first to drop the torpedoes. Three torpedoes fell into the water in a fret shape, pulling out three straight white tracks!
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