Chapter 168
On the battleship Provence.
Lieutenant General Mitchell, commander of the French Far East Fleet, stood at the railing of the command tower, feeling the sea breeze, his eyes staring at the ocean in the distance in a daze.
A lieutenant colonel officer came to his side and asked,"Commander, you seem to have something on your mind?"
Lieutenant General Mitchell came back to his senses after hearing this.
Then he nodded and said,"Yes, the coalition forces in Bangkok have lost contact, and we in Singapore have also been electronically interfered with.
And until now, we have not been interfered with, but we still can't contact them. Do you know what this means?"
The lieutenant colonel officer was stunned for a moment, and after a moment, he didn't know what he thought of, his face changed slightly and said,"Either they have encountered the same situation as us.
Or they have been......No, this is absolutely impossible. This should not be possible......."
""Alas!"
Lieutenant General Mitchell sighed,"We underestimated the Ares Group.
We didn't expect that Siam would side with them.
Our army must be facing heavy siege now.
Otherwise, we wouldn't be unable to pass on any news until now.
The situation must be very bad.
I'm afraid we will suffer another Waterloo in the Far East this time." The
Battle of Waterloo is an eternal pain for a Frenchman.
Mitchell now uses Waterloo to describe the current situation.
It can be seen how pessimistic he is about the current situation.
"Report, a large fleet has been found behind the fleet, including two battleships, light and heavy cruisers, and more than 15 destroyers. The destroyer Hunter, which is patrolling behind us, is under fire.
The enemy fleet is now less than 27 nautical miles away."
At this time, a signalman ran over, his face full of panic, and even his voice was trembling.
"What?"
After hearing this, Vice Admiral Mitchell was shocked, as was the lieutenant colonel officer beside him, the captain of the Promise.
This news was too shocking.
Two battleships, more than 15 cruisers and destroyers.
The scale has exceeded their Far East Fleet.
And this unknown enemy fleet actually has two battleships, one more than them.
"Are you sure it's a battleship? Which country is it from? How could there be a battleship in Asia except us?
Could it be an American? No way, they can't attack us."
The officer was not clear about these situations.
He didn't know anything because the destroyer that encountered this fleet had been sunk.
"The entire fleet accelerated forward and immediately launched seaplanes to conduct reconnaissance.
Contact the English Far East Fleet immediately and ask them to support us immediately. The Gulf of Siam is a trap and we cannot continue to move north."
This fleet appeared behind them, and it was clear without much thought that it was coming for them.
And the other side had already been eyeing them.
Obviously, they saw that they only had one battleship.
So they wanted to pick on the weak.
If they were eliminated, they would only need to block the Strait of the Gulf of Siam, and the English Far East Fleet would be trapped.
Thinking of this, he broke out in a cold sweat.
If this is really the case, the consequences will be disastrous.
The Far East Fleet may be in danger of destruction.
If they unite with the English Fleet, they still have a chance to defeat the other side, and the chance is great.
But now that they are separated, the situation is hard to say.
He calmed down and knew that no matter where this fleet came from, it must be related to the mysterious Ares Group.
However, a bad news came again
"Report, our radio is out of service, all ships' radios are being jammed, and now we are unable to send or receive any radio signals."
"boom....."
A thunderclap exploded from Vice Admiral Mitchell's mind, and his face turned pale instantly.
He knew that their situation was dangerous now, and the situation of the English Far East Fleet might not be much better.
But I would rather die than let my friend die.
Now I can't take care of the English Far East Fleet.
For them, the most important thing is how to escape.
But the speed of the Promis battleship is too slow.
The maximum speed is 20 knots.
If the opponent does not have a battleship, it would be okay, they can just turn around and beat the opponent.
If they turn around now, they will be like a sheep walking into a tiger's mouth.
But at this speed, they probably can't escape even if they want to.
Now Vice Admiral Mitchell doesn't know what to do.
It's not right to run, it's not right to fight, and surrender is even more impossible.
But he made a decision soon.
"Immediately head north at the fastest speed to join the English Far East Fleet."
But even if they want to run, they will definitely not be able to escape.
The Ares Navy's battleship fleet is much faster than theirs. The speed of the Iowa-class battleships exceeds 30 knots.
The overall speed is a full 10 knots faster than the French fleet, which is kilometers per hour.
How could they get away?
Besides, the fleet has already started.
In two hours, the Ares battleship fleet caught up with the French Far East First Fleet.
Both sides have entered the visual range, more than 40 kilometers apart.
Both sides can see each other. (To read the exciting novels, go to Faloo Novel Network!)
On the Ares fleet side, two Iowa-class battleships rushed to the front, four Baltimore-class heavy cruisers followed closely on the left and right, and more than 12 Cleveland-class light cruisers and Gearing-class destroyers followed behind.
The fleet is even larger than theirs.
When the French saw the two Iowa-class battleships, they were all Spartan.
"God, is this their battleship?"
Through the fixed high-power telescope, Vice Admiral Mitchell could clearly see the enemy's two Iowa-class battleships.[]
Although we don't know the specific tonnage of the other side and the specific caliber of the main gun.
But it is definitely larger than their Promise battleship.
Even the Nelson-class battleship of England is not as large as the battleship of the other side.
So it means that the tonnage of the other side's battleship is probably more than 50,000 tons.
And the caliber of the main gun is obviously larger than their 340 mm caliber.
At least more than 380 mm.
On the Iowa-class battleship Borneo,
Captain Colonel Walson glanced at the officer next to him and said,"Is this distance enough?"
The officer immediately understood what Walson meant.
He shook his head and said,"40 kilometers, too reluctant, we need to continue to move closer by more than 5 kilometers."
Although the maximum range of the 50-caliber 406mm main gun of the Iowa-class battleship MK7 can reach 42 kilometers.
But this is only the maximum range.
Its effective range is 38 kilometers.
Even if the Iowa-class battleship is equipped with advanced Hawkeye fire control radar and optical firing director.
The hit rate at this distance will not be too high.
Within a range of 20 kilometers, the probability of achieving a first-round cross-fire or hit is relatively high.
However, even at a distance of 38 kilometers, the hit rate will be much higher than that of the original Battle of Jutland.
After the Hawkeye fire control radar system was miniaturized, its performance became more reliable, and with the addition of transistor-based general-purpose electronic computers, the specific hit rate can only be known through actual combat.
However, this also gave the two Iowa-class battleships the ability to fight in all weather conditions.
"Keep approaching, and shoot immediately when you are within 35 kilometers.
The Navy will be here soon, and we must disrupt their formation so that they cannot pose a threat to the Navy."
Besides that, the captain still has some selfish motives.
This is a rare opportunity for them to fight, and the Provence is a good opponent.
If they wait for the Navy to arrive, they probably won't even get a bite of soup.
"General, the enemy is approaching our ship at high speed. They are too fast."
Needless to say, Vice Admiral Mitchell also saw it.
At this moment, his face was also very ugly.
"Let the torpedo squadron block the enemy's attack. All ships are ready for battle, enter the range, and start free firing immediately."
The torpedo squadron is a few small
, high-speed destroyers. These ships are small in size and fast in speed, and can quickly approach enemy ships and launch torpedo attacks.
However, this behavior is almost certain to kill them.
Not to mention that the enemy's main battleships have fierce firepower.
The protective net formed by those light and heavy cruisers and destroyers makes it impossible for these destroyers to get close.
This order is to let them be cannon fodder and buy time for them to escape.
Looking at the several French destroyers rushing towards them, the captain of the Borneo smiled contemptuously.
"Let the Third Cruiser Squadron greet them."
The third cruiser was a cruiser fleet composed of Baltimore-class heavy cruisers and Cleveland-class light cruisers.
For such small boats, they are more suitable with their faster firing rates.
The distance between the two sides was getting closer and closer.
When several French small destroyers were less than 20 kilometers away from the fleet, four Baltimore-class heavy cruisers opened fire. The
Baltimore-class heavy cruisers have a full load displacement of 17,000 tons, a maximum speed of 33 knots, and are equipped with 9 203mm naval guns.
They are also equipped with various types of radars, and their weapons are connected to the fire control system.
The naval guns they are equipped with not only have a fast firing rate, but also have quite good accuracy.
In the first round of salvos, an unlucky destroyer was hit by two 203mm armor-piercing shells at the same time.
Looking at the flames coming out of the destroyers, the hearts of the French fleet sank to the bottom.
One of the destroyers was hit by a cross-fire.
The hit rate stunned the French fleet.