Chapter 2595 The Tired American Fleet
Of course, this deceleration does not mean reducing it to the bottom and going straight to death! After all, this is too fake, and no one wants to die. The speed is just controlled within a range, so that the Americans feel that they have a chance to catch up, but they are just a little bit unable to catch up! This requires actor-level acting talent! As for what if it was hit by a cannonball and then slowed down while falling like this? Major General Moore's answer was simple. This is war, and sacrifices are inevitable. If it's not possible, just throw it away... What else?
"Let's get started!" The battleship Sea Mist, which is at the end of the queue, is ready to complete its mission, and then leave its life to the God of War to decide! With a dull explosion, a huge column of smoke rose from the rear deck of the Sea Fog, mixed with fire! From a distance, it was obvious that he had been hit by a heavy artillery shell!
"What the hell? What happened? Which battleship hit the target?" In the distance, the smoke column that suddenly rose in the night was so conspicuous that many people saw it. At this time, at least three battleships were heading towards the target. The designs are the New Mexico, the Tennessee, and the New York. Who got the hit? I don’t know, but it’s a hit anyway! This hit made Americans themselves feel very lonely! But then they became happy, because the last battleship that was hit seemed to be slowing down? !
"Your Excellency, Commander, we hit an enemy fast battleship! It slowed down!" an officer excitedly reported to Benson.
"Very good, catch up and kill it!" Benson nodded with satisfaction as he looked at the smoke column rising from the stern of the ship in the distance, and his mood became better. If he could sink another fast Japanese navy, In terms of battleships, then the battle situation tonight can be considered roughly even.
"The fleet speeds up again!" Benson thought for a while and added another order. However, with the issuance of this order, some warships in the US fleet quit!
"Your Excellency, Captain, the boiler is overloaded and there are some problems with the steam pipes. The strange noises coming from inside the pipes from time to time make me feel uneasy." An officer reported to Captain Daniel of the USS New York.
"Keep on holding on. If we reduce the steam supply to the boiler at this time, the battleship will slow down. We will be thrown away by the main fleet." Colonel Daniel frowned and said. Just two minutes ago, Benson gave the order to speed up again. This put great pressure on the American battleships that served before the New York. After all, the battleships before New York all used steam engines!
If the standard for a true dreadnought is to be powered by a unified large-caliber main gun and a steam turbine, then the German Nassau-class battleships and Helgoland-class battleships in history are not very qualified. After all, they use steam engines. As for the Americans, the New York-class battleships, known as the first-class super-dreadnoughts of the U.S. Navy, also use steam engines! This makes this class of battleship a little embarrassed! You can understand what it feels like to equip an F15 fighter jet with two J79 turbojet engines!
But now, it has been floating on the sea for more than a month. The maintenance condition of the New York-class battleship was not very good to begin with. After the previous long-term high-speed chase battle,
The power system is extremely tired. If you continue to persist, not only the boilers and steam engines will be unable to bear it, but also people will be unable to bear it. Because of the lack of maintenance of the machinery and the failure to remove the marine organisms attached to the bottom of the ship, American stokers need to make greater efforts. Only then can you run at a higher speed! During the war, both the British and German navies had stokers die from overwork, and the Americans were no exception. On the New York, four stokers fainted from exhaustion, and two of them were in very serious condition. good!
This is true for the newly commissioned battleship New York, let alone other earlier battleships! So something unexpected and reasonable happened. A steam pipeline on the USS Wyoming was finally damaged due to excessive air pressure. A large amount of high-temperature and high-pressure steam poured into a cabin, killing two of them. U.S. Navy personnel, which in turn led to an unstoppable decrease in speed. The captains of early American dreadnoughts, who already felt that something was wrong, began to warn Benson through telegrams and semaphores!
"The battleships behind can't stand it. Due to maintenance and technical problems, battleships using steam engines are not suitable for participating in this kind of sustained high-speed pursuit battle." Magiffin told Benson.
"What kind of warships are there? Damn it, at the most critical moment, our warship fell off the chain. I really don't know what the Navy Department did!" Benson was also very unhappy after hearing the news. This time, he called the U.S. Navy Department He was also scolded.
"The battleships before the New York class are not suitable for continued pursuit. If you want to be safer, then you should also add the Oklahoma, which is the last capital ship of us and other countries to use steam engines. "Mgiffin said.
"If this is the case, we will only have 7 battleships left." Benson was caught in a dilemma. His fleet only had 13 battleships in total, 3 of which were dreadnoughts, and there were 3 super-dreadnoughts using steam engines. ships, that’s 6 ships. And if all these warships are to be temporarily withdrawn from the battle, then he will only have 7 ships in his hands, which is almost 1V1 with the opponent. And when the numbers are equal, Americans don't dare to fight against the Japanese! Because the Fuso class is too strong!
"I feel that we should stop chasing. We have gone too far. The situation has begun to exceed our expectations. From the moment we met the enemy to now, we have been chasing for more than 2 and a half hours!" A wave of uneasiness emerged. Maggie Fen's heart.
"Stop the pursuit? Just 3 hours ago we lost an entire squadron, a dreadnought and 3 pre-dreadnoughts were sunk, transport ships and army positions were also shelled, and now we are just destroying We lost two Japanese pre-dreadnoughts. If we can't work harder, then we have obviously failed in this battle. I am not worried about the loss of the fleet or my personal reputation, because the strong industrial capabilities of the countries can control the battle. Make up for the damage. What I'm worried about is the impact tonight's battle will have on the morale of the nations." Benson sighed and said.
"This is the first time that Hezhong has engaged in a large-scale naval battle with a powerful country far away from home. No matter how difficult it is, we must persevere, because if we fail, Hezhong will leave a considerable gap. Psychological shadow, we will lose our ambition to compete in the world! Do you understand what I mean? What we need to face now is not a simple military issue, but a political issue!" Benson said seriously.
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I recommend a new book by the same author Si Zhe, "Empire: Colonial Struggle for Hegemony", which rarely writes about the foreign history of Portugal in the early days of the Great Voyage. Interested readers can take a look~~~!