Chapter 221 Naval Battle (4)

Before World War II, and even for quite a long time after, the doctrine of big guns and big ships was basically the mainstream thought of all countries. The air force of aircraft carriers and carrier-based aircraft was considered to be an auxiliary tool for fleet decisive battles with battleships and heavy cruisers rather than the main force.

Therefore, the warships of various countries paid limited attention to air defense, including the United States. Until the Pearl Harbor attack, the main anti-aircraft firepower of the US warships was still the old single-barrel 5-inch manual loading gun + the 28mm Chicago organ with a fast firing rate + 7 machine guns, and the number was extremely touching.

Although the Warspite has undergone two modernizations, there has been no major change in anti-aircraft firepower. The main force of air defense is still 4 8-mounted 40mm automated pom-pom guns. The gun mount movement adopts electric mode, and there is also a director operation, which can move synchronously with the director to achieve the maximum concentration of firepower. Each gun has a huge ammunition box with 140 shells. The initial firepower is simply amazing, and continuous shooting can last for 73 seconds.

This thing sounds awesome at first glance, with an 8-barreled gun, and once it fires, it will be an airtight fire network, right?

But in fact, it is not the case at all.

Pom pom is just its common name. The pom pom gun refers to the 40mm 39-caliber anti-aircraft gun. The model name in the military is QF 2 pound MkVIII, which is the Navy's eight-pound rapid-fire gun.

40mm 39-caliber, that is, the length of the barrel is just over one and a half meters; while the famous 40mm Bofors anti-aircraft gun is 60-caliber, nearly twice that of the pom pom gun.

You should know that basically no matter what kind of gun it is, without considering the shells, there are only two factors that determine its range and power: caliber and bore. The longer the barrel, the more favorable it is for the high-pressure gas in the barrel to act on the shells, making the initial velocity of the shells greater and the range longer.

The pom-pom cannon, with a barrel length of just over one and a half meters, naturally has a very tricky initial velocity and an extremely strange trajectory; the projectile dispersion area is very large, and it is impossible to continuously and accurately track a target. Therefore, the original design of eight barrels firing alternately to maintain the continuity of firepower was cancelled. In order to ensure that the target is hit, the density of firepower delivered in one shot can only be increased. Use quantity to make up for the lack of accuracy. The eight-barrel pom-pom cannon has eight barrels firing shells at the same time, and each barrel has a firing rate of two rounds per second, which can only produce a scattered barrage of bullets, and cannot produce the kind of bullet wall originally envisioned in the design.

And after firing 140 shells, it is useless. It takes more than a few minutes to refill the ammunition box. Therefore, there are more than a dozen gunners in the eight-barrel version, who are responsible for carrying shells, shooting, communication, and reloading ammunition.

As for why the British used such a bad anti-aircraft gun, one is that they paid limited attention to air defense, and the other is that this kind of shells were produced in large quantities during the First World War, with hundreds of millions of rounds. If they wanted to replace them all, they really didn't have that much money.

However, Pullman Cook was not too worried. As a naval veteran who had experienced the last war, he did not think that these German naval aviation forces could cause any substantial damage to his fleet.

The ship under his feet was a battleship. Under the deck was an armored steel plate more than ten centimeters thick. These armors were designed to ensure the safety of the warship during large-caliber artillery battles! Then there were countless watertight compartments and steel plate partitions below, and the ammunition depot was protected by reinforced armor. This battleship could be said to be a steel fortress floating on the sea - how could it be sunk by a small carrier-based aircraft?

"Full speed and full advance!" He only wanted to find the German fleet and annihilate it now! "Send a telegram to the mainland, please send a reconnaissance plane to search for the location of the German fleet."

In the sky, Yannick watched the British fleet turn and muttered in confusion. "Are they going to find our fleet?" The commander of this fleet is Shen Jingbing! Their fleet was 200 kilometers away. Even if the British fleet was speeding at 30 knots, it would take more than three hours to chase them. Moreover, these guys didn't have any reconnaissance planes. How could they find a fleet in the vast ocean?

Just then he saw a lot of white smoke coming out of the British warships below. Just as he was wondering what was going on, a bunch of black clouds suddenly exploded in the distant sky.

"!!" It turned out that the anti-aircraft guns of the British fleet started firing.

But Yannick was not very scared.

If it was a battleship against a battleship, he might really be scared. But now it was a fleet against a battleship. He knew how inefficient the current anti-aircraft guns were. According to later statistics, during World War II, an average of 88mm guns shot down an aircraft every 8,500 rounds. 105mm caliber guns shot down an aircraft every 6,000 rounds, and 128 caliber guns shot down an aircraft every 4,200 rounds. Because larger caliber guns fire larger caliber shells, the explosion in the air is more powerful, and the killing effect on passing bombers is better.

The most important thing is that there is no anti-aircraft weapon radio proximity fuse now. If he is unlucky enough to be hit by anti-aircraft guns, he may not be alive now.

"Attack begins, target the Warspite!" The air commander gave the order to attack. "Boobies Group A, Sea Shrike Group A! Start attacking!"

"Understood!"

"Received!"

With the roar of the engine, four Stukas and five FW-190Ts dived down and rushed towards the largest Warspite below.

"Huh?" Why are there only four Stukas? Yannick patted Basel on the shoulder. "Basel, which group are we in?" I just heard that he was Booby No. 5, so he should be in Group A? "We are also in Group A, right? Why don't you go down?"

Basel was shocked. "Your Highness, you are not asking me to go down and attack? It's dangerous enough here, I can't take any more risks!"

"I now order you to dive immediately and drop the bomb on that damn battleship! Otherwise, I will sentence you to retreat at the last minute!!"

In daily life, many people often hear or say this sentence "I'm here now!" This sentence seems to have become an inescapable curse.

I'm already sleepy halfway through a boring and uninteresting movie, holding the movie ticket in my hand, and I don't want to spend the money I spent. "I'm here now!" No matter how bad the movie is, I have to finish it to make it worth the money I spent.

When traveling, there are queues at scenic spots, and there are crowds of people everywhere. "Since we're here!" We have to go in even if there are many people at the scenic spot, so as to justify the round trip fee and accommodation fee.

They have also spent irreversible time and money, and are also unwilling to see these efforts go unrewarded, and they have also chosen to bite the bullet and force themselves to continue doing things they don't want to do in their hearts.

And Yannick is now in such a crazy state. Although he didn't realize it, this is a battlefield after all. As an ordinary person who is on the battlefield for the first time, his adrenaline has already soared to the limit, making him completely forget what fear is, and he wants to drive the fighter plane down himself.