The Rise Of Australasia

Chapter 943: 702

Clearly, the enemy wanted to catch him in a pincer move, exposing weaknesses in their haste.

But unfortunately, he didn’t have many good options. After most of the airplanes were damaged, anti-aircraft weapons on the warships were the only thing that could limit the enemy airplanes.

To better defend against enemy airplanes, the fleet became more dispersed and used anti-aircraft weapons to focus their attack on the enemy’s airplanes.

Spreading out was meant to lower the bombers’ chances of hitting their targets. After all, a warship’s size is both big and small—it’s not easy to aim at for high-speed airplanes.

As long as the bombs didn’t hit critical areas of the warships, the threat wasn’t so high.

Dispersing the warships would increase the chances of bombs falling into the sea.

However, the problem was that if the fleet dispersed, it would inevitably be at a disadvantage in naval warfare.

The enemy fleet was also close at hand; a too scattered formation would not hold an advantage in a sea battle.

Especially if the enemy’s warships were in battle formation, one’s own more dispersed fleet could easily fall into a disadvantageous position.

So, should he deal with the enemy fleet or the airplanes overhead?

After careful consideration, the Commander of the United States Pacific Fleet still decided to focus his attention on the enemy fleet.

After all, the United States had airplanes too, and it had already been proven that the current airplanes did not pose as great a threat to warships.

Unless they were unlucky enough for bombs to fall on deck, right in front of the navy soldiers, airplane damage to warships wasn’t usually fatal.

But the enemy fleet was a different story.

The Americans also had certain intelligence. The Pacific fleet before them was a joint force of the Australasian Fleet and the British Indian Ocean Fleet, with a total tonnage and number of main battleships surpassing that of the United States Pacific Fleet.

If they found themselves at a disadvantage in a sea battle right from the start, the naval fight was doomed to fail.

As for the airplanes overhead, dispatching some personnel with anti-aircraft weapons to chase them off and prevent the enemy planes from getting too close to the warships was sufficient.

This is what the United States fleet commander thought, and his orders were issued accordingly.

Under the commander’s orders, the United States Pacific Fleet quickly moved into action, forming a combat formation for a sea battle, waiting for the enemy fleet’s approach.

With naval superiority, the forces of Larasia wouldn’t shy away from a decisive naval engagement.

More importantly, according to intelligence, the fleet of battlecruisers dispatched by the Atlantic United Fleet was not far from the battlefield.

Even if a large-scale naval battle broke out with the United States Pacific Fleet now, the advantage was entirely with Larasia; there was nothing to worry about.

Both navies were arranging their battle formations, while the airplanes had already begun their own actions.

Although the naval forces were several kilometers apart, for the airplanes, this distance was merely a blink of an eye.

Once the bombers approached the United States fleet, they immediately dropped a large number of bombs, naturally at the United States fleet’s decks and command towers.

And of course, the flagship where the United States fleet commander was located became the bombers’ primary target.

As the United States fleet commander had anticipated, most of the bombs did not hit the warships’ decks and facilities, but fell into the ocean not far from the warships.

However, the Larasian Air Force was clearly well-trained, as several bombs hit the deck of a battleship.

Boom! Boom, boom!

With the explosion of the bombs, one side of the battleship’s turret was directly ignited.

The chain explosions affected the entire deck and left almost no survivors among the United States Navy soldiers on this battleship.

But that wasn’t the worst of it. The explosion blew a huge hole in the side of the deck, deforming the steel-built deck and causing a crack in the hull through which sea water was pouring into the battleship, quickly causing it to list.

“Damn, a battleship silenced just like that?” the United States fleet commander watched helplessly, but at that moment, there was no way to remedy the situation.

Such severe damage could only be repaired at a shipyard, but under the current circumstances, it was impossible for the battleship to make it there.

It could only be said that the battleship’s captain was indeed unlucky to have had the turret affected by the bomb’s blast.

For a warship, the two most dangerous places are the turret and the ammunition depot. Both places store a large number of shells, and if unfortunately ignited by the enemy’s shell or bomb, the resulting chain explosions are a fatal blow to a warship.

The fact that this battleship was critically damaged in an instant was not the severest issue. Above the United States fleet, several bombers were still seeking targets.

Although not every bomber could achieve its objective, the sight of such predators circling overhead was a significant blow to the morale of the United States Navy soldiers.

The good news was that the bombing run soon ended, and the loss to the United States’ main warships was limited to that one battleship.

The remainder was the sinking of one light cruiser and one destroyer, which could be considered fortunate in the grand scheme of things for the main fleet.

However, the United States fleet commander did not breathe a sigh of relief, because the real sea battle had just begun.

Compared to the threat from the airplanes in the sky, if they couldn’t resolve the enemy navy ahead, the only fate for this Pacific fleet might well be capture.

The idea that all the warships could be sunk was utterly impossible.

After all, nobody is foolish enough not to consider fleeing when suffering heavy damage.

Whew!

He exhaled deeply.