Imperial Overlord

On the USS Beales destroyer, Captain Jack frowned as he looked at the distant Japanese fleet. There was information that the main Japanese fleet had returned, but he still could not see any hope of victory.

The Japanese fleet had a berth on Midway, but it was large enough to stay there to support the Japanese warships on Kauai and Midway.

The intelligence did not tell them that the Japanese army left two cruisers and more than ten destroyers here.

At this moment, the US fleet can only bite the bullet and use the most primitive naval combat method to fight a battle that they are not very good at.

"Get all the gun positions ready! The battle is about to start!" He loudly ordered his men to prepare for an upright naval battle.

A naval battle 100 years ago might have looked like this, with both sides lining up and then using cannons to decide who was the victor.

Following his orders, the gunners of the U.S. Navy opened their breech blocks, loaded the shells, and prepared for battle.

This American destroyer is actually the latest destroyer of this era, because it has only been launched for 20 days.

The Fletcher-class destroyer is a new type of destroyer designed and completed by the United States in 1940. According to the historical process, it will not be mass-produced until around 1942.

However, the great success of the German Navy in the Atlantic has forced the United States to seriously consider whether its anti-submarine and air defense capabilities are sufficient.

As a result, they began to build large-scale Fletcher-class destroyers to replace the old destroyers in their own navy.

Those eliminated destroyers were paid to the British to fight back against the German Navy, while the U.S. Navy served 20 Fletcher-class destroyers in one go.

With the Pearl Harbor incident and the outbreak of the Pacific Naval War, the United States immediately accelerated the production of Fletcher-class destroyers, and now at least 20 new warships have been produced!

And these newly born warships have become the new pillars of the US Navy destroyer family.

The most important weapon of the Fletcher-class destroyer is its main gun, which consists of five 127mm high-level dual-purpose naval guns and their fire control devices.

The configuration of 5 artillery pieces was almost the mainstream configuration among destroyers at that time, and it can be said that the firepower was not weak.

It's a pity that this kind of artillery works well against air strikes and enemy destroyers, but it is relatively weak against enemy cruisers.

After all, this kind of artillery has to undertake the dual tasks of hitting surface ships and long-distance air targets, so it is necessary to emphasize the rate of fire, and the caliber cannot be made too large.

The U.S. Navy divides naval guns into two types: flat-firing naval guns and high-level dual-purpose naval guns. The former refers to naval guns whose maximum elevation angle does not exceed 35 degrees and mainly attack surface targets.

The latter refers to naval guns with a maximum elevation angle of 85 degrees or 85 degrees, which can simultaneously undertake both sea strikes and air defense tasks, and the Mk12 127mm 38-caliber naval guns equipped on the Fletcher-class destroyers belong to the latter.

In terms of turret layout, Fletcher-class destroyers maintain the style commonly used by third and fourth-generation destroyers. All main guns are arranged along the centerline of the hull to ensure maximum firepower on one side.

The gun positions are called gun positions 51, 52, 53, 54 and 55 from front to back. Among them, gun positions 51 and 52 are located on the top of the bow deck and the fore deck house respectively, in a piggyback structure, and gun positions 53 and 54 are in the The top and rear of the rear deckhouse are in a back-to-back layout. The No. 55 gun position is on the aft deck, and the No. 54 gun position is a piggyback structure.

Except for the No. 53 gun position in the middle of the hull, the firing field is 140 degrees to the left and right, and the firing field of the other gun positions is 330 degrees.

Each turret in the Fletcher class is equipped with a Mk2-type ammunition lift, which lifts ammunition through two closed ducts, is powered by electricity, and is semi-automatically controlled to deliver ammunition to the turret at a rate of 24 to 30 rounds per minute.

In addition, the device is equipped with an automatic fuze setting device, which can complete the fuze setting before the projectile is sent into the turret.

Each main artillery has 350 rounds of ammunition, and the whole ship has 1,750 rounds of ammunition, which has a strong continuous combat capability.

At the same time as the captain ordered, the Oerlikon cannons and Bofors anti-aircraft guns for air defense on the ship also entered a combat state, and the torpedo tubes were also loaded.

The combat alarm on the ship was humming, and everyone was extremely nervous. Everyone stared at the black smoke that could already be seen on the sea and swallowed the saliva from their mouths.

Because in the direction of the black smoke, the destroyers and cruisers of the Japanese naval fleet are coming. Although the tonnage of the participating ships is not large, it is still exciting. The naval battle is about to kick off.

"Can you fire? The rangefinder shows that the enemy has entered the shooting distance!"

Although not as precise as the huge gun rangefinders on battleships, the fire control systems on destroyers are also very sophisticated and effective for this era.

Since the precise instrument showed that the enemy had entered the range, there was no reason to continue to endure.

The captain nodded and said, "Fire! Then adjust the shooting angle and try to hit the enemy's target!"

"Fire!" Grabbing the phone in his hand, the officer in charge of the artillery gave his order loudly.

"Fire!" The gunner who received the order also shouted the order, the switch was pressed, and the 127mm caliber gun spewed hot flames.

"Boom!" With a loud bang, the American destroyer opened fire at almost the farthest range, and the shell flew a long distance and landed directly in front of the Japanese destroyer, stirring up a high column of water.

"Boom!" The destroyer's artillery fires very fast~www.wuxiaspot.com~ There is no need to fire the second gun after a long preparation like a battleship.

Therefore, immediately after the first shell was fired, other artillery positions on the American destroyer immediately fired the second shell.

From the Japanese navy's point of view, just after the first shell was dropped, the second shell had already flown in front of us.

The shell still fell into the sea directly in front of the Japanese navy ship, causing a second water column to shoot into the sky.

The naval battle broke out like this. The U.S. military kept firing, but the Japanese navy was very quiet. The destroyer was still accelerating forward, but the artillery position did not make any noise.

"Are they panicking with such hasty firing? Or are they emboldening themselves? The naive U.S. Navy... We, the Imperial Japanese Navy, disdain to fight like this." According to his command knife, the ship on the Japanese Navy destroyer Long sneered and hummed.

------------

There are two more updates later, you can watch it tomorrow morning.