Chapter 392: Bang Bang Cannon

The United Kingdom, as an old capitalist country, has begun to decline, and the scenery of the former empire on which the sun never sets is gradually fading.

This can be seen only from the British warships. With the weakening of the national strength, the speed of the British construction of new ships has been greatly delayed, so that the current main warships of the United Kingdom are still during the First World War.

Although the ships are old, the United Kingdom has adopted modernization and improvement methods to make these warships have modern combat capabilities.

For example, the Warspite has undergone large-scale modifications. For example, even the mainframe has been replaced, and in terms of weapons, it is even more so.

Although the main gun has not moved, the anti-aircraft guns have been improved many times to cope with the increasingly severe air risks.

For example, one of the most important improvements is the addition of a pom-pom.

This is an eight-mounted version of the early British MKII two-pound gun. Compared with the original two-pound gun, the main reason is to improve the heat resistance to adapt to long-term automatic fire.

If it is converted, two pounds should be about 40 mm. Compared with the 40 mm anti-aircraft gun of Bofors, its performance is actually very backward. However, it won the contract of the British Navy for no other reason, because after the First World War, the British A stockpile of up to two million two-pounder shells remained.

These cannonballs have to be used continuously and cannot be wasted.

Therefore, the British came up with an idea to change this thing into a warship's anti-aircraft gun, which took more than ten years.

When it was first born in 1921, it was installed in six sets, but the British Navy felt that it was not enough, so it added two tubes and became eight sets.

Forty millimeters of anti-aircraft guns, eight mounted, this thing, is a big guy, a total of ten tons, can only be installed on battleships, and sailors gave it a friendly title, called the Chicago piano.

It was not until 1930 that the first bang-bang gun was officially equipped on the battleship Kokang. After that, this kind of bang bang gun was mass-produced and equipped on other large warships.

Objectively speaking, the performance of the bang bang gun was very advanced when it was first born. After all, the eight barrels and the firepower are crazy.

However, it also has problems, one is that the muzzle velocity is too low and the range is limited, and the other is that it cannot launch shells equipped with proximity fuzes. With the rapid development of aircraft, it is increasingly unable to meet the needs of air defense. It was eventually replaced by the Bofors 40mm anti-aircraft gun.

But now, this kind of bang bang gun is the biggest support of the warspite, and in front of it is a Junker-88 bomber that is flying over quickly!

After discovering this warship, Bescher had no time to pull up the plane and climb up again. It would be quite stupid to pull up at this time.

This will expose the belly of the plane to the opponent, which is the easiest angle to hit, so he can only continue to fly forward at ultra-low altitude, and at the same time, enter the final bombing route.

His plan was inappropriate, but he had no other choice.

"Prepare to drop bombs." Bescher shouted loudly. At the same time, on the opposite side, the huge battleship had also opened fire.

Fire!

Not only is the Ping Ping Cannon huge, it also requires a lot of manpower. A dozen artillerymen are required for one artillery position.

And now, the huge eight-mounted gun mounts are slowly turning, and the eight 40mm gun barrels are rising rapidly. The British Navy is still in a leading position in shooting sights. Their sights quite precise.

Now, with the target in his sight, the gunner slammed the trigger.

"Bang bang bang!" A huge sound quickly sounded on the gun emplacement.

The eight cannons fired together. The sound was quite shocking. The barrels were high, and the muzzle flashed. One by one, 40mm artillery shells were fired from the bell mouth, and the entire artillery position was immediately filled with gunpowder smoke.

Compared with the shock of the bombardment, what was even more terrifying was the shell casings spit out from the side, which quickly filled the space on the side!

This eight-mounted anti-aircraft artillery fires together. As an automatic weapon, it requires automatic loading equipment. On this gun mount, there are eight heavy ammunition boxes, each box is equipped with a chain link. 140 rounds of artillery shells, at this time, the shells continue to enter the gun chamber of the anti-aircraft gun, and then throw the empty shells out.

The sound of clattering is incessant.

With the firing of the Chicago piano, the dense 40mm shells formed a terrifying storm of bullets and splashed towards the opposite side!

"Hit!" The lookout shouted loudly. From here, you can clearly see that the Junkers-88 bomber has black smoke coming out of the engine on one side!

Finally got rid of a bomber and let out a bad breath!

This kind of anti-aircraft artillery seems to have strong firepower. In fact, the performance of anti-aircraft artillery is not advanced, especially the effective slant range is still insufficient, and it lacks lethality to dive bombers and long-distance torpedo aircraft.

If the Junkers-88 dropped bombs in a dive, it could fly away safely in the opponent's barrage, but now, it can only choose to drop bombs at a very low altitude. At this time, it was unfortunately hit.

However, almost at the same time, the belly bomb bay of this Junker-88 opened, and the second PC-1000RS flew out from it!

Just after leaving the bomb bay in the belly, a flame erupted from the tail of the bomb, and the rocket booster was ignited! With the help of the speed of the carrier aircraft, it rushed towards the Warspite, which was close at hand!

The sailors looked surprised.

"Quick, quick, full left rudder!" the captain of the Warspite shouted loudly.

The bomber was turning hard, but no one cared about it. Everyone was staring at the bomb that flew over. It was a big guy. It was terrible to be hit by that kind of bomb!

At this time, the warship has accelerated to 10 knots, which is not high enough to make Warspite turn quickly!

Quick, quick turn, and you will be able to avoid the past in no time!

Everyone put their hearts in their throats. They stared closely at the flying bomb, calculating the possibility of evasion in their hearts.

No, not fast enough!

In everyone's astonished eyes, the bomb with flames trailing its tail headed straight for the bridge.

"boom!"

The armor of the bridge was not enough to withstand a one-ton bomb. With the explosion of the bomb, the entire bridge was almost bent open, and most of the naval officers above suffered casualties!

The swirling debris shattered the chimney behind, and thick smoke billowed from the bridge.

The Warspite was wounded!

At the time of the explosion, the captain, deputy captain, and first mates were killed in battle, and the well-trained navy soldiers immediately started damage control. At this time, they did not need anyone to command, they knew what to do, This is the heritage of the old navy!

Although the bang-bang cannon damaged the bomber, it failed to stop the bombing!