allonlinenovel Chapter 185: The Far East Anti-Submarine Fleet Was Completely Annihilated
Chapter 185: The Far East Anti-Submarine Fleet Was Completely Annihilated
In the southern waters of Qionghai, a sea battle royale is taking place.
The light cruiser Enterprise was working hard to heat its boiler, but the speed increase was still very slow.
The ship's speed is still less than 25 knots at this point in the battle.
To increase the speed to above 30 knots, the boiler temperature must be high enough, and it will take at least an hour.
This is also a big disadvantage of steam boilers, that is, the speed is too slow.
So this also gave the UH-1101 attack nuclear submarine the opportunity to catch up with it.
Compared with the Enterprise light cruiser, the attack nuclear submarine's speed is much faster.
After the UH-1101 submarine chased the Enterprise for two hours, the gap between the two sides had narrowed to about 1 nautical mile.
"Torpedo tubes 5 and 6, launch!"
Soon, two MK35 torpedoes were fired from the torpedo tubes.
Thus, a strange scene formed in this sea area.
An anti-submarine cruiser was running in front, a torpedo was chasing behind the cruiser, and an attack nuclear submarine was following behind.
After more than ten minutes, the gap between the torpedoes and the cruisers was narrowing.
At this time, the light cruiser Enterprise also discovered this scene.
John, the navy sailor on the ship, reacted quickly.
Then one depth charge after another was thrown backwards through the tail rail.
As the depth charge exploded in the sea, a column of water suddenly rose into the sky.
The huge shock wave also caused great interference to the torpedo.
One of the MK35 torpedoes was hit by a depth charge at a close distance, causing the torpedo to be damaged, its speed to slow down, and eventually it stopped moving forward.
Another torpedo was blown out of the sea in the huge explosion, and then fell heavily on the sea surface.
The impact also caused problems with the internal electronic components, resulting in the loss of tracking capabilities.
At this time, the speed of the Enterprise light cruiser had increased to 27 knots, and the distance between the two sides was gradually widening.
Zhang Yunjie, aboard the UH1101 nuclear attack submarine, lamented, "One of our torpedoes still escaped. This torpedo is useful, but a little slow. Otherwise, we could still catch up."
No need to chase, go back!"
However, just as they were about to go back, a violent explosion suddenly occurred in the Enterprise, a light cruiser that was speeding through the waves.
Two MK35 torpedoes hit the Enterprise's port front and midship underwater.
This sudden change not only confused John and the other sailors on the Enterprise, but also puzzled Zhang Yunjie.
"You said two torpedoes hit the cruiser John?"
In response to the captain's question, the sonar operator nodded heavily and said, "I heard it correctly. It was hit by a torpedo. The explosion sounded very similar to our MK35 torpedo. It was from a friendly submarine."
"But there are no submarines deployed in this direction."
Before the war, the positions of each submarine were fixed.
How could a submarine get ahead of them?
The submarine that attacked the Enterprise was indeed not from the First Squadron, nor was it even a Hurricane-class attack nuclear submarine.
Instead, it is the Nautilus attack nuclear submarine, which is 90% similar to the Hurricane-class attack nuclear submarine.
The Hurricane-class attack nuclear submarine was designed based on this nuclear submarine.
The reason why it appears here is naturally related to Jiang Hua.
At that time, he wanted to build a Nautilus attack nuclear submarine for fun to see what the big differences were between the two submarines.
However, the slipway at the naval base in Qidong Province was full and there was no space for construction.
So he built one on the slipway of the No. 3 branch base.
It just happened to catch up with the ambush against the Far East Fleet.
So the Nautilus attack nuclear submarine went to the battlefield for the purpose of sea trial, and then went north with other submarines to return home.
Unexpectedly, they saw a cruiser sailing at high speed while walking on the road.
So the submarine captain raised the periscope and took a look.
He recognized the brightly lit Enterprise light cruiser at a glance.
It understood that this was the escaped John warship, so while waiting for them to come over, it directly launched two MK35 torpedoes with tracking and guidance capabilities, directly damaging the Enterprise light cruiser.
Two more torpedoes were then fired, sending it directly into the sea.
At this time, the Nautilus attack nuclear submarine also completed its rendezvous with the UH1101 attack nuclear submarine.
The situation is different on the other side.
Compared to the Emerald-class light cruisers, which are known for their maneuverability, the Repulse battlecruiser's speed increases even more slowly.
So before its speed is increased, it cannot outrun the Hurricane-class attack nuclear submarine.
At this time, a Hurricane-class attack nuclear submarine had already run ahead of them and occupied a T-shaped attack formation.
This submarine was the UH1102 submarine that intercepted the destroyer USS Walpole.
"Captain, the enemy battlecruiser has entered our attack position."
"Okay, turn on active sonar for positioning!"
As the captain gave the order, the active sonar was turned on and an acoustic signal was emitted to the Repulse battlecruiser.
After a moment, the signal feedback came back.
Various information such as the distance, position, course, speed, etc. of the Repulse were clearly displayed.
"Fire all six torpedoes, with each torpedo fired five seconds apart."
The UH1102 attack nuclear submarine, which had completed torpedo loading, fired all six heavy torpedoes again in just half a minute.
At a depth of about 6 meters from the sea surface, MK35 heavy torpedoes shuttled through like black fish, heading straight for the Repulse battlecruiser less than 1 kilometer away.
A distance of several hundred meters is only a little over a minute for a torpedo traveling at 27 knots.
When the first torpedo was less than 100 meters away from the Repulse battlecruiser, they had not yet noticed the torpedo approaching at a rapid speed.
At this moment, they simply turned off the lights and sailed. The lookout on the ship was like a blind man and could not see anything.
This was also the order issued by Major General Harvey.
During the last World War, Major General Harvey participated in anti-submarine operations.
The target of the operation at that time was the Hans Navy submarine force.
At night, as long as the lights are turned off, the submarine cannot detect them.
What's more, he kept the lights on while running away. Isn't that courting death?
It was precisely because he did not know that the Fusion Army's submarine launch relied on a combination of sonar and acoustic homing torpedoes that he issued such an order.
The first torpedo pierced the Repulse's torpedo belt.
After all, the Repulse was just a high-speed battlecruiser that sacrificed armor for speed.
Therefore, their anti-torpedo armor belt is actually not thick and cannot defend against heavy torpedoes with a caliber of 533 mm.
Accompanied by an explosion, the powerful torpedo directly tore open the underwater anti-torpedo armor belt and tore a large hole more than one meter long on the internal armor. The seawater rushed back into the bottom of the ship through this gap.
The sailors of John's Empire are indeed the most elite sailors in the world, and their damage control personnel react very quickly.
But no matter how fast they controlled the damage, they could not withstand the heavy bombardment of torpedoes.
While they were still dealing with the damage from the first torpedo, the second torpedo arrived.
This torpedo hit the middle and rear torpedo armor belt of the Repulse battlecruiser. If it had been a little further forward, it would have hit their ammunition depot.
This wave of explosions not only destroyed this section of the mine-proof armor belt, but also affected their boiler room, causing multiple pipes to burst.
Extremely hot steam gushed out, directly steaming several nearby John sailors to death, without even giving them much time to react.
The boiler room was damaged, which directly led to a decrease in the speed of the Repulse battlecruiser.
But this is just the beginning.
One torpedo after another continued to explode in the underwater part of the Repulse battlecruiser.
One of them even hit the rear oar of the Repulse battlecruiser.
One oar was blown away and the other was blown crooked.
The Repulse battlecruiser could only rely on inertia to sail on the sea, and its speed was getting slower and slower.
These violent explosions occurred in less than a minute.
Although this series of explosions was not fatal to the huge Repulse, it completely paralyzed it at sea.
The disabled Repulse battlecruiser became the target of another Hurricane-class attack nuclear submarine.
A salvo of four MK4 heavy torpedoes was also very deadly to the Repulse battlecruiser, which was already taking on heavy water.
The Repulse, weighing over 800 tons, took ten torpedoes weighing over kilograms.
One of the torpedoes penetrated the cabin and exploded, creating a huge hole in the bottom of the cabin.
This amount of water ingress cannot be saved by damage control.
Fire and thick smoke filled the interior of the Repulse battlecruiser, which was severely flooded and was tilting rapidly.
In less than two minutes, the tilt had reached more than 30 degrees.
And this was when the Repulse battlecruiser was injecting water into the other side to maintain balance.
From this we can see how much water the Repulse battlecruiser took on.
At this moment, Major General Harvey's face was unusually calm, because he already knew his future fate.
Facing the several officers on board who were looking at him anxiously, he waved his hand and said, "You all go to the lifeboats to survive. I want to stay with the battlecruiser Repulse."
Several officers looked at each other. One of them wanted to say something, but his instinct for survival prevented him from saying it.
Then they hurriedly left the bridge and ran quickly towards the nearest lifeboat.
After three minutes, the Repulse battlecruiser finally couldn't hold on any longer and capsized directly onto the sea.
Its sinking also marked the end of the Far East Fleet.
The Hawkins heavy cruiser suffered a fuel pipeline explosion while facing siege from a Hurricane-class attack nuclear submarine.
Under the fierce chain reaction explosion, the last ship of the Far East anti-submarine fleet also sank in the waters south of Qionghai.
The Far East Fleet's anti-submarine formation was completely wiped out.
The sinking of a battlecruiser, a heavy cruiser, two light cruisers and six destroyers, a total of ten ships, was also a heavy blow to the Far East Fleet.
When the Straits Settlements Governor's Office received the last telegram sent back by the battlecruiser Repulse, the Governor Sir Fulton's face was full of disbelief.