bookcurios Chapter 859: Battle of Leyte Gulf
Chapter 859: Battle of Leyte Gulf
On November 1944, 11, the Japanese Southern Fleet, consisting of the battleships Fuso and Yamashiro, the heavy cruiser Mogami and four destroyers, entered the Surigao Strait.
Since the Southern Fleet and the Central Fleet strictly followed the radio silence, they were unable to coordinate with the other fleets. When the Southern Fleet entered the Surigao Strait, the other two fleets were far away from them, at least several hours away.
As soon as the Southern Fleet entered the Surigao Strait, they found themselves in a trap.
The M Army's Seventh Fleet, consisting of 6 battleships, 8 cruisers, 29 destroyers and 39 torpedo boats, had been waiting here for a long time.
When enemies meet, they are extremely jealous of each other. The flexible torpedo boats launched the first attack. The 13 torpedo boat teams of the M Army fired dozens of torpedoes at the Japanese, but none of them hit. Moreover, one of their own torpedo boats hit a reef and sank.
The more frustrated the more courageous.
The three destroyers of the 54th Destroyer Squadron of the M Army fired 3 torpedoes at the Japanese Southern Fleet at a distance of 8000 meters. Finally, one torpedo hit the Fuso battleship, which lost power after 27 minutes.
While the iron was hot, the second part of the destroyers of the 54th Destroyer Squadron continued to fire torpedoes, and the destroyers Yamagumo and Izumo were sunk.
Seeing that the situation was not right, the battleship Yamashiro immediately turned left and joined the other two fleets.
At this time, the commander of the Yamashiro took advantage of the cover of darkness and fled away.
As a result, they accidentally ran into an independent column aircraft carrier formation that was firing torpedoes and artillery shells from a distance.
When Chen Shaokuan was feeling depressed about not being able to go to the front line to fight directly, he discovered that the Japanese warships were actually ramming into him, and he laughed excitedly.
"Comrades, you have to testify for me that it was the Japanese who rushed over, not us who took the initiative to fight! I did not violate the orders of the Chief of Staff and the Commander! The formation is ready to meet the enemy!
As a typical battleship, the Yamashiro adheres to the principle of "caliber is justice". The ship is 215 meters long, 28 meters wide, and has a displacement of 3 tons.
The speed is 23 knots and the crew is 1200 people.
武器装备包括：6座双联装356毫米主炮、12门单装152毫米副炮、4门单装76毫米高射炮、6座单装533毫米鱼雷发射管。
而陈绍宽这边光战列舰都有三艘，每艘装备9座三联装406毫米/45倍口径主炮、20座双联装38倍口径127毫米高平两用炮。
The commander of the Yamashiro thought he had escaped, but then he saw an aircraft carrier formation right in front of him and felt like the sky was falling.
It was thought that the battleship would sink the Shancheng directly with a single salvo, but unexpectedly Chen Shaokuan ordered aircraft carriers, battleships, cruisers, and even submarines to launch a fierce attack on the Shancheng.
The Japanese soldiers on the Yamashiro seemed to have seen the end of the world. Countless torpedoes, artillery shells, and planes attacked them one after another.
They seemed to have an illusion that the enemies were not trying to kill them, but to "play" with them.
After half an hour, the Yamashiro slowly sank.
Chen Shaokuan clapped his hands in satisfaction. He thought that this naval battle had achieved some results and the trip was worthwhile.
"Send a telegram to the Supreme Command. The First Fleet of the Independent Column Navy has sunk an enemy battleship. We suffered no damage!"
This telegram finally made Li Yunlong feel at ease, and he instructed them to return to China as soon as possible to show off their power.
After the Battle of Leyte Gulf, the Japanese naval forces were basically destroyed, and the few small sampans left were only enough to cruise near the coast.
The First Fleet of the Independent Column Navy sailed northward along the coastline and finally arrived in Lushun fifteen days later.
Li Yunlong and Wang Meng were stunned when they saw the aircraft carrier formation they had been longing for in Port Arthur, especially Li Yunlong who was controlled for three minutes.
"Mengzi, this is our warship! It's much more majestic than the Japanese gunboat!"
"Of course, this is an aircraft carrier with ninety planes on board, which is equivalent to one of our aviation divisions!"
"Go up and have a look!"
Chen Shaokuan trotted along, introducing the structure, functions and power of the aircraft carrier, and Li Yunlong was stunned when he heard it.
"Commander Chen, can our First Fleet fully exert its combat effectiveness now?"
"No problem. When we sail from Country M, the instructors from Country M are basically useless. We have to rely on ourselves."
Wang Meng was very excited when he saw the mighty warships. But compared with the United States and Britain, their fleets were still very weak.
If we want to gain more say in future games, we must have a strong navy.
Just to protect its own little piece of land, it needs at least five aircraft carrier formations, one in the Far East, one in the Yellow Sea, one in the East China Sea, one in the South China Sea, and one in the Southeast Asian naval base.
Therefore, there is still a long way to go.
"Okay, now you have two tasks.
First, we will immediately replicate the shipyard equipment and engineering technicians we brought back, starting with the easy ones and then moving on to the difficult ones! In addition, we will build shipyards in Shanghai, Huludao, and Wuhan.
Second, all ships will have two sets of personnel, and all personnel will be trained and ready to receive new warships at any time."
Chen Shaokuan saluted, which meant he had accepted the job.
At this time, more than 500 researchers from the Ship Research Institute also disembarked and were directly assigned to different locations according to the type of ship.
More than a thousand shipyard technicians were also assigned to different shipyards along with the researchers from the Ship Research Institute.
In addition, the aircraft production lines and automobile production lines originally purchased from Country M were also rolled off the production line from Port Arthur and directly transported to Shenyang to establish a second aircraft manufacturing center.
Wang Meng now wants to take advantage of the good relationship with Country M and the restoration of sea transportation lines to purchase as much manufacturing equipment as possible.
Now that the huge war machine of Country M is running at full capacity, the prices of civilian equipment have dropped to the lowest point in history. Therefore, Nicholas is like a super buyer, shopping like crazy in Country M and throughout Europe.
Do you want steel mill equipment? Yes!
Do you want the equipment for the automobile factory? Yes!
Do you want garment factory equipment? Yes!
Do you want underwear factory equipment? Yes!
Do you want equipment for a rubber factory? To make condoms? Yes!
After returning to Pingshun, Wang Meng was pulled to the Materials Research Institute by Lin Shubing.
"Shubing, is there any progress on the new materials?"
"Well! You try it!"
After Lin Shubing finished speaking, he put a very light helmet on Wang Meng's head.
"I think it should be about right! How's the bulletproof effect?"
"Very good. Kevlar has low density, high strength, good toughness, high temperature resistance, and is easy to process. It has no other problems except that it is expensive. Its strength is five times that of steel of the same quality, and its density is only one-fifth of that of steel.
Kevlar helmets can effectively prevent damage from artillery shell fragments and absorb damage from shrapnel. We have also tried direct fire from 9mm pistols and found that they can completely withstand it.
There are also bulletproof vests made of Kevlar material, which are even more unique and do not affect the movement speed of infantry at all."