Chapter 450 The fleet battle—begins! (Please subscribe, please vote)

December 25, 1832, around 5:15 pm.

On the ocean more than a hundred nautical miles west of Kwajalein Atoll, another face-to-face collision between the British Royal Navy and the Ming Dynasty Navy is about to begin. Different from the last narrow encounter in the Strait of Malacca and the Strait of Great Britain, this time

The two warring parties met on the vast Pacific Ocean.

Although they met on the vast ocean, neither of the two warring parties thought of running away to avoid the battle - this naval battle was a rare opportunity for the British. If they did not fight now, they would wait until the Ming Dynasty's Pacific Fleet and Nanyang Fleet were completed.

If they gather together, they will have no chance of winning.

For Ming Dynasty, if the main force of the British Royal Navy is let go, there will be many variables in the future landing campaign in Australia, and the current world war may also be protracted.

Although the Ming Empire is not afraid of a protracted war, the nature of the current war is actually more "imperialist" than the First World War in history. It is purely two imperialisms competing for colonies and world hegemony, so the two warring parties

They have no intention of beating their opponents to death with a stick.

The Ming Dynasty was too strong for Britain and could not be defeated.

To the Ming Dynasty, Great Britain was the bastard who divided Europe. If it were beaten to death, Europe would be unified!

Since you can't defeat your opponent, that's pretty much it. There's no point in continuing to fight and waste people and money. So although both sides have long-term capital, they both want to decide the outcome as soon as possible.

Of course, Admiral William Bagga, the commander of the British Australian Grand Fleet, did not want to decide the outcome. He still felt that the chances of winning were a bit small. Perhaps the Grand Fleet should be allowed to return to India, and then the Chinese should be allowed to land in Australia, relying on the powerful

The Australian, New Zealand and British troops of the Cavalry Corps and the Chinese are durable, and at the same time, they use fast armored cruisers and fast aircraft-carrying armored cruisers to engage in sea-breaking engagements with the Chinese, so they can be more certain.

As far as William Baga knows, the British Bath Shipyard and Armstrong Shipyard have developed two fast armored cruisers with a standard displacement of 15,000 tons respectively. Both are equipped with 6 9.2-inch guns and can run as fast as 25 knots.

, verse 26!

When these two levels of clippers are put into service, Australia may be able to break the war!

"Rumble"

The sound of gunfire suddenly drifted into the bridge of the King William IV. It turned out that the B fleet, which was responsible for chasing and luring the enemy, was exchanging fire with the cruisers of the Ming Dynasty's Pacific Fleet that had been attracted by them! It was only then that William Baga suddenly

Wake up, now is no longer the time to consider whether to fight a decisive battle. Instead, the prelude to the decisive battle has begun!

William Baga immediately ordered his battleship units to start forming into groups, switching from a five-row marching formation to a bombardment battle line. Since the speed of British battleships was generally slow, the King William IV class, the Emperor of India class, the Victory class, and the Indomitable class

Battleships of these four levels can only run at a speed of just over 20 knots, so it will take at least 10-15 minutes to complete the formation change.

However, at this time, the battleships of the Ming Dynasty's Pacific Fleet should still be 40,000 yards away, and there would be no exchange of fire for the time being, so William Baga had plenty of time. Thinking of this, he looked up and looked at the "dark cloud" in the distant sky. Still

It's far away and there's no rush at all.

Thinking of this, William Baga began to issue orders: "The 11 Sovereign class ships form the first battleship squadron. After the Sovereign class are 6 Indian Emperor class ships to form the second battleship squadron. The Indian Emperor class is followed by 2 William IV ships.

The König class formed the Third Battleship Division, followed by 11 Victory classes to form the Fourth Battleship Division, and finally 11 Indomitus classes formed the Fifth Battleship Division."

This time William Baga brought out a total of 41 level 5 battleships, which was really a lot!

The Sovereign class, which was arranged by General William Bagga to lead the battle, is a "former hero ship". Although their performance is outdated, their age is still very new, so the British are not willing to retire them all. Therefore,

They were remodeled, and the Sovereign class was equipped with more powerful boilers and steam engines, allowing them to barely reach a speed of 20 knots. The Sovereign class's four 13.5-inch retractable guns were also removed and replaced with two triplex

Equipped with 10-inch cannons. The reconstructed Sovereign class not only has a higher speed and can keep up with the British Royal Navy's new battleships, but the firepower of the six 10-inch rapid-fire cannons is also much stronger than the original four 13.5-inch cannons.

many.

However, William Baga arranged for them to lead the battle not because they were strong enough, but to test and attract the enemy's firepower, commonly known as cannon fodder!

Behind the 11 cannon fodder ships is the trump card of the Royal Navy of the British Empire - 6 Indian Emperor-class ships with a standard displacement of 25,000 tons, a full displacement of nearly 30,000 tons, and 2 William IV ships with a standard displacement of 29,000 tons.

King level!

The cannon fodder tests the depth of the opponent, and then immediately uses his trump card to give the opponent a head-on blow!

Following the two-class killer class are the 22 Victory-class and Indomitable-class battleships - these two classes of battleships are neither new nor old, and are not considered aces, but they are definitely the main force of the Royal Navy.

According to William Baga's plan, once the trump card is used, the opponent will most likely be in chaos. At this time, it is time for the 22 Victory-class and Indomitable-class ships to go up and fight in a group. Although the performance of these two classes of ships is not outstanding enough, fortunately,

With dense artillery fire, you can win with quantity.

In addition, as far as William Baga knows, the main force of the approaching Ming Dynasty Pacific Fleet only has about 20 battleships. And he has 41!

More than 40 is bigger than 20, so there are still advantages!

And if there are no accidents, there will definitely be accidents!

"Admiral, the enemy seems to have formed a horizontal formation!"

At 5:30, William Baga's fleet had just finished setting up, when an accident happened!

"Horizontal formation?" William Baga was stunned, "How is this possible?"

"Admiral," Chief of Staff Rear Admiral Jervis put down his telescope, then raised his finger and pointed at the horizontal column of smoke appearing in front of him. "The 12 ships should be old Chinese battleships. After seeing them, they want to use these battleships as cannon fodder."

Get our attention."

This is what heroes think the same way!

"But why did they launch a horizontal line?" William Baga didn't quite understand.

"Perhaps. They enjoy the torpedo attacks of these old battleships to protect cruisers and destroyers? If these 12 old battleships attract the firepower of the Sovereign class and the cruisers ambushing behind them, the destroyers can launch a charge and based on the intelligence of the enemy's vanguard formation

There are more than 40 cruisers and destroyers in it, and they can launch hundreds of torpedoes at a time!"

"Damn torpedoes!"

William Baga couldn't help swearing, and his face was a little ugly - in fact, the secret of the steam gas torpedo has been discovered by the British! Steam gas torpedoes are not 100% sure to explode. In the past year,

In more than a year of submarine warfare, the British have picked up a lot of steam gas torpedoes, so they can naturally copy them. It’s just that there is still a process for mass production of knock-off products, and they are not yet equipped with troops. Otherwise, the pile of 1,000 torpedoes in the Royal Navy

A ton-class destroyer can play a big role.

However, it is absolutely not allowed to criticize His Majesty the Emperor and question His Majesty's wise decision-making.

Thinking of this, William Baga had no choice but to give the order: "Order the first battleship detachment to turn left to seize the T position, but the distance must be calculated well, don't let the enemy battleships get too close, and keep it above 16,000 yards!"

"Yes, sir!"

"Admiral, the British monarchy has begun to change!"

At the same time, on Ming Dynasty's side, Guo Xiaobao also received a report on the enemy fleet's turn on the "Kongming", the flagship of the 103 fleet.

"Haha," Guo Xiaobao said with a smile, "Are you trying to grab the T-position?" He raised the binoculars and said while looking, "It's quite far away. It seems that they are afraid of our lightning strike tactics. Very good! This distance

Just enough to unleash the power of the 'Island' class 320mm main gun!"
Chapter completed!