"Da da da!" A fighter jet passed over the battleship USS Maryland. Although, compared to the 33,000-ton "Maryland" battleship, this fighter is like a fly. However, the officers and soldiers of the U.S. Navy on the battleship felt like they were facing a formidable enemy.
"Boom boom boom!" The anti-aircraft guns fired continuously, and the shells exploded in the air, leaving clouds of black smoke.
However, that fighter jet easily broke through the blockade of the US anti-aircraft firepower.
Aircraft guns of this era do not have proximity fuzes. If you want to hit the target, you need to hit it directly with the shell. It is conceivable how low such a hit rate will be.
The bullets of the aviation machine guns of the German fighter jets strafed the air defense positions, shooting out sparks one by one.
Occasionally, American sailors were shot and fell to the deck screaming.
Several fighter jets launched an attack on the battleship 'Maryland', which immediately attracted the anti-aircraft firepower on the battleship.
Because of the lack of experience in air defense, the deployment of the anti-aircraft firepower on these battleships is unreasonable, which makes their air defense network have great loopholes. These loopholes will have a fatal impact on the battleships of the US Navy.
When the U.S. air defense firepower was attracted by the German fighter jets, the German bombers and torpedo planes immediately followed up and launched an attack.
A small team of four dive bombers began to dive one thousand meters above the battleship 'Maryland'. Because of the structure of the body, they cannot dive at a large angle. But even then, the hit rate is much higher than horizontal bombing.
In the air five hundred meters away from the battleship 'Maryland', these dive bombers dropped bombs, and then changed their dive course. Four aviation armor-piercing bombs weighing 500 kilograms hit the battleship 'Maryland' in a parabola.
"God! Bomb. Dodge!"
The U.S. sailors who saw this scene yelled, and under their reminder, the "Maryland" made an emergency turn.
However, for a huge battleship, it is not so easy to complete an emergency turn.
Of the four bombs, two fell into the sea. The other two hit the battleship 'Maryland' successfully.
The deck armor of the battleship 'Maryland' is only 89 mm, which is simply unable to resist the aviation armor-piercing projectile under the huge kinetic energy.
The deck armor was directly torn, and the bomb exploded inside the battleship.
Huge flames rushed out from below the deck, and the cabin below had been blasted into a mess.
However, this is not fatal to the battleship "Maryland". The truly deadly attack came from the torpedo attack aircraft of the German Navy.
While the 'Maryland' was evading bombers in the sky, four torpedo attack aircraft, carrying 450 mm medium torpedoes, rushed towards the battleship 'Maryland'.
They dropped torpedoes less than 500 meters away from the battleship 'Maryland', and four torpedoes rushed towards the battleship 'Maryland' at high speed. When the sailors on the battleship discovered these torpedoes, it was too late to dodge them.
"Boom! Boom! Boom!"
Explosions sounded one after another on the side of the battleship 'Maryland'.
Among the four torpedoes, three scored hits. The other one, because of a problem with the depth determination, got under the belly of the battleship 'Maryland'.
Although the armor of the battleship "Maryland" is very late, the thickest part of the waterline armor reaches 340 mm, and the weakest part is 200 mm.
However, they still failed to resist these torpedoes.
The torpedo that hit the midship was not able to tear the waterline armor of the battleship 'Maryland'. However, the two torpedoes that hit the rear of the stern successfully tore apart the waterline armor of the battleship 'Maryland', blasting two large holes.
Sea water frantically poured into the battleship 'Maryland' from these two big holes.
The damage control personnel of the battleship 'Maryland' immediately carried out damage control, but unfortunately, they could not plug the loophole, and could only choose to close the adjacent watertight compartment. This caused the battleship 'Maryland', which had a lot of water, to tilt to a certain extent.
However, such injuries are not fatal to the battleship "Maryland" with a displacement of more than 30,000 tons. If you withdraw from the battle in time, you only need to lie in the dock for a month or two to repair it.
However, this is in the middle of a fierce battle. How could those carrier-based aircraft of the German Navy miss this good opportunity?
Subsequently, the carrier-based aircraft of the German Navy once again launched a siege on the battleship 'Maryland'. In ten minutes, the battleship "Maryland" suffered four aviation armor-piercing shells and four medium torpedoes. This was completely unbearable damage to the battleship 'Maryland', which had already suffered heavy damage.
Soon, the battleship 'Maryland' was too seriously injured to be worth rescuing.
Under such circumstances, the captain of the battleship "Maryland" issued an order to abandon the ship. A few minutes later, the battleship 'Maryland' sank into the sea, becoming the first battleship to be sunk in this naval battle.
The battleship 'Colorado' was also besieged by carrier-based aircraft of the German Navy at this moment. However, their luck seemed to be better, and they only suffered one bomb during the battle.
However, neither Admiral Henry Mayo nor Lieutenant General Henry Wilson had a smile on their faces. Instead, they were full of sadness. Because now, their fleet is facing overwhelming attacks from the German Navy's carrier-based aircraft. This time, the entire US fleet can be said to be in crisis. If you are not careful, it may be destroyed.
"General, the battleship 'Maryland' has been sunk!" A staff officer reported.
Admiral Henry Mayo was shocked and remained silent for a few seconds before saying: "I understand! Order all ships to do their best to defend themselves against air. Burning Coal ordered the fleet to turn around and leave this sea area!"
Facing the attack of the German navy's carrier-based aircraft force, they seem to have no other way except passive defense. As for wanting to escape from this sea area, that is even more delusional. The speed of the fleet is only more than 20 knots, which is far from being comparable to the German carrier-based aircraft. Therefore, they could not escape at all this time.
The huge capital ships of the U.S. Navy are in danger in front of the toy-like carrier-based aircraft of the German Navy. It seems that it will be a matter of time before warships are hit and sunk continuously.
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