Empire Conquest

Chapter 590 - 586 Precision Bombing

The most shocking news that Bai Zhizhan received came from several Tiaoman Air Force generals.

Just this afternoon, the Tiaoman Air Force confirmed the victories they had achieved two days earlier. In the northwest of Malta, they had sunk the Bulan Royal Navy’s "Prince of Wales" battleship and the "Reputation" battlecruiser, and had also heavily damaged the "Royal Ark," almost crippling the Bulan Royal Navy’s Land Heart Sea Fleet.

The key was that the victories were achieved using long-range bombers.

That morning, the Tiaoman Air Force had timely received reliable intelligence that the Bulan Land Heart Sea Fleet would be heading northwest of Malta to protect a convoy en route to Malta and to bomb several field airports on Sicily, preventing the Tiaoman Air Force and Raleigh Air Force from deploying forces to Sicily.

Land Heart Sea Fleet’s decision to approach Malta at that time was largely related to the weather.

For several consecutive days, the sea area to the south of the Raleigh Kingdom had been covered in dense clouds, with the cloud base not even reaching 1,000 meters, and occasional thunderstorms. While the conditions didn’t prevent ship-borne aircraft from taking off, attacking battleships on the sea in such adverse weather conditions was highly challenging.

Before this, the Land Heart Sea Fleet had transported troops and supplies to Malta several times under the cover of bad weather.

Moreover, they had employed their shipborne air force to bomb field airports in Sicily and Tunisia, ensuring that they would maintain control of the airspace over the battlefield after the fleet had withdrawn.

The use of this tactic was out of necessity.

Because with only one fleet carrier, even without considering other factors, they had to think about the carrier’s maintenance, so it was not possible to keep the carrier near Malta at all times.

In the battle for Malta, the primary value of the Bulan Fleet was to suppress the opponent’s air force through surprise attacks.

Clearly, this was a typical operation.

The critical point was that weather experts had boldly predicted a two-hour window of clear skies that afternoon, sufficient to mount an aerial attack on the Bulan Fleet.

Additionally, the Tiaoman Air Force seized this crucial opportunity.

That afternoon, the Tiaoman Air Force deployed more than 40 long-range bombers, and without fighter escorts, launched a surprise attack on the Land Heart Sea Fleet operating northwest of Malta.

Frankly, it was time for Land Heart Sea Fleet to meet its doom.

Because for the previous half a day, the sea had been calm, not even a harassment attack, let alone a major assault. The weather continued to be overcast, so at noon, the captain of the "Prince of Wales" ordered the switching off of the air-search radar that should’ve been active. More unfortunately, the "Reputation," which was supposed to be on alert duty in the afternoon, failed to activate its radar at the designated time due to a generator problem. As a result, around 3 p.m., not a single radar within the Land Heart Sea Fleet was operational.

Furthermore, the altitude of the fighter aircraft performing air defense patrol was all below 1,000 meters.

The reason was quite simple; the cloud base was barely 1,000 meters, with a thickness of over 4,000 meters, so patrolling above the cloud layer was pointless.

Since it was impossible to see the battleships through the cloud, even if bombers were dropping bombs from above the clouds, they posed little threat to the fleet.

When the Tiaoman Air Force’s long-range bombers arrived, there wasn’t a single air defense fighter in the high altitudes!

Of course, luck was the real key factor.

To put it bluntly, if the clouds had not cleared, the Tiaoman long-range bombers would only have flown over and circled above the Land Heart Sea Fleet.

Because they hadn’t spotted any Bulan ships, launching an attack was out of the question.

Before the attack, the Tiaoman Air Force had determined the general operational area of the Land Heart Sea Fleet based on the bombings that morning but was unclear about its exact location. The weather was so terrible that the Tiaoman Air Force had not dispatched reconnaissance aircraft to search for the Land Heart Sea Fleet in the morning.

It was under these uncertain circumstances that the Tiaoman Air Force directly sent out the bomber group.

The crucial part was that the bombers flew in the right direction!

Around 2:50 p.m., the two advance long-range bombers spotted the Land Heart Sea Fleet—precisely, one of its light cruisers.

About 15 minutes later, these two bombers almost simultaneously spotted the "Prince of Wales."

At that time, the "Prince of Wales" was returning from its forward alert position, and the "Reputation" that was taking its place was also hurrying towards the forward alert area.

Around 3:15 p.m., the "Reputation" was also spotted.

Until this point, the soldiers and officers on the Bulan battleships had not detected the long-range bombers of the Tiaoman Air Force. After all, compared to battleships, bombers were much smaller in size.

Furthermore, the weather had still not significantly improved, with only the clouds being not as dense.

In fact, it was two long-range bomber pilots who spotted the battleships on the sea through a gap in the clouds and made an accurate judgement.

Another 15 minutes passed, and a decisive change in the weather occurred.

Under the influence of sudden northerly winds, the clouds that had been gathering over the Land Heart Sea began to disperse, allowing sunlight to shine onto the sea surface.

At 3:35 p.m., the first squadron of twelve long-range bombers arrived.

Since they were long-range bombers, they flew at altitudes above 5000 meters, and the eight bombers tasked with the attack each carried three 1000-kilogram radio-controlled bombs.

Indeed, this was also the maximum payload of the He-177 twin-engine long-range bomber.

Among the Tiaoman Air Force’s bombers, only the He-177 could take off from southern Locke with three 1000-kilogram bombs, attacking ships operating near Malta. Other bombers either had too small a payload or insufficient range.

Additionally, the engines used for "Divine Eagle" were sourced from the He-177’s DB610, only they had been simplified in design to improve reliability.

These eight bombers concentrated their attack on the two closest main battleships.

It was the first to be exposed, the very tempting "Prince of Wales" and the "Reputation."

For the officers and men on the two main battleships, this moment was almost one of despair.

Although both main battleships’ large-caliber high-altitude guns could shoot beyond 10,000 meters, enemy aircraft at 10 kilometers were already nearly at the extreme range of the high-altitude guns.

Even if they could fire the shells that far, they had no chance of hitting their targets accurately.

What was more important was that the hit rate of the radio-controlled bombs was shockingly high.

Out of 24, 17 hit!

Actually, it was only a matter of a few minutes before the "Prince of Wales" and the "Reputation" were hit by multiple bombs in rapid succession.

Even main battleships displacing tens of thousands of tons could not withstand the destruction caused by 1000-kilogram aviation armor-piercing bombs.

Around 3:42 p.m., the "Reputation" suffered a huge explosion and quickly capsized soon after.

However, the battleship did not immediately sink after capsizing but drifted on the sea surface until it completely sank after nightfall.

A minute later, the "Prince of Wales" experienced several violent explosions in succession.

Before 3:50 p.m., this Bulan Royal Navy’s pride, the fast battleship, disappeared from the surface with more than a thousand officers and men.

At that time, the smoke from the explosion had not yet dispersed, and the soldiers and officers on the nearby battleships could not see clearly.

It wasn’t until decades later that an expedition found the wreckage of the "Prince of Wales," proving that the battleship had already broken into three parts before sinking.

In less than 10 minutes, two main battleships and more than 2,000 officers and men were lost, with only seven surviving.

Six of them were lookouts, and the other was an officer who had taken a break to smoke on deck.

Before the "Prince of Wales" sank, the "Royal Ark" positioned behind had also been struck.