1850 American Gold Baron

Chapter 419 Decisive Battle

To be honest, Cruson didn't want to shoot at the coastal defense batteries.

In the last naval battle, Cruson had already experienced the power of the Sacramento gun.

Under normal circumstances, any admiral with a sane mind would not allow his fleet to shoot at the enemy's coastal defense artillery.

When the technological level is not much different, the caliber of shore defense guns fixed on the turret is often larger than that of naval guns, and the shooting accuracy is also higher than that of naval guns.

There was basically no advantage in the exchange of fire between naval guns and coastal defense guns, at least in the middle of the 19th century.

However, Cruson is now tasked with destroying the Pontianak port, paralyzing local maritime traffic, annihilating the enemy fleet, and regaining control of the sea.

In order to complete the mission entrusted to him by Tevez, the security fort at the mouth of the Capuas River was a hurdle that Cruson could not avoid.

The commander of the western brigade responsible for the defense of the bayou was General Kruger, commander of the Arizona Infantry Regiment.

Kruger calculated the distance between the ships of the East Indies Fleet and the coastal defense forts. Although the East Indies Fleet had already entered the range of the coastal defense forts at this time, Kruger was in no hurry to open fire.

Based on the intelligence collected and the confessions of Dutch and Indian Army prisoners of war.

Cruson was a cautious man. If he opened fire too early, Cruson would soon give up shelling the coastal defense forts in order to reduce losses.

It would then be difficult for Kruger to achieve any results.

Kruger ordered the soldiers responsible for operating the coastal defense guns to temporarily hide in the bunkers until he gave the order to fire the guns, and then bombarded the East Indies Fleet.

Cruson first sent three sail warships to bombard the coastal defense forts at the mouth of the Capuas River. Accompanied by a roar of artillery, black spherical projectiles hit the coastal defense forts like raindrops.

There was still no response from the shelled fort.

This greatly increased the confidence of the three sailing warships that were conducting fire reconnaissance. In order to improve the accuracy of the bombardment, the three sailing warships approached the fort and continued to output continuous firepower to the shore defense fort at the mouth of the Capuas River.

Under the indiscriminate bombardment of three sailing battleships of the East Indies Fleet, one fort was soon destroyed.

Soldiers at the front reported the news to Kruger.

Kruger remained motionless and still showed no sign.

Since he wanted to lure the East Indies fleet to bombard his coastal defense batteries at close range, it was inevitable to release some decoys.

California has a developed military industry, and guns and cannons can be rebuilt if they are damaged. These weapons are not the most scarce items for the Western Brigade.

After a burst of shelling, Kruger finally ordered the soldiers on one-third of the coastal defense batteries to fire back symbolically.

After seeing that the coastal defense batteries finally started to fight back, Cruson, an old fox, gave up his doubts and let the main ships come forward to participate in the bombardment.

But Cruson still had a hand, leaving 12 ships on standby as a reserve to deal with emergencies that may occur at any time.

"Cunning Cruson!"

Seeing that he was paying the price of destroying three turrets and Kruger still did not attack with his entire army, Kruger could not help but curse.

When the main force of the East India Fleet entered and was only seven or eight hundred meters away from the coastal defense forts, all the forts at the mouth of the Capuas River finally opened fire.

Revengeful artillery shells rained down on the densely packed East Indies fleet.

Compared with the naval guns of the East India Fleet, the types of shells on these coastal defense forts are much richer.

In addition to conventional solid bombs, there are also expensive explosive bombs.

Explosive bombs are expensive, but their killing effect on personnel is far beyond that of conventional solid bombs.

As long as the explosive bomb hits the deck of the East Indies Fleet ship, the crew will surely fall to pieces.

Although Cruson was mentally prepared, the powerful firepower from the coastal defense fort at the mouth of the Capuas River still caught Cruson off guard.

Cruson reacted quickly, seeing that this was a trap by the opponent, and hurriedly ordered to stop firing the opponent's shore defense batteries. Each ship turned around and sailed out of the range of the opponent's shore defense guns as quickly as possible.

I have to say that compared to the Royal Dutch East India Army, the East Indies Fleet is indeed a well-trained force.

Under such circumstances, they were still able to maintain a relatively orderly order and quickly drove out of the range of the coastal defense batteries.

"We still lack enough good artillery."

Kruger couldn't help but sigh as he watched the Dutch East India Fleet escape from the range of the naval guns.

During the brief bombardment, although the coastal defense batteries at the mouth of the Capuas River caused certain losses to the East Indies Fleet, the losses to the East Indies Fleet were not fatal.

Only two unlucky armed merchant ships of the East Indies Fleet were sunk, three sailing battleships suffered moderate or above moderate damage, and the rest of the ships were basically slightly damaged or even suffered no losses.

Such results were far from Kruger's psychological expectations.

The direction of the next war will depend on how well the fleet led by Sven performs.

As soon as the bombardment ended, Umbrella's fleet, led by two Daring-class steam battleships, rushed out of the Gaucapuas River in a menacing manner and pounced directly on the East Indies fleet that had just withdrawn.

After three months, more than 70 ships from both sides once again fought in this sea area.

Compared with the first confrontation, due to the loss of a large number of elite sailors, the combat effectiveness of the East Indies fleet has declined, but it is still a very difficult opponent.

Although all the ships in Umbrella's fleet have been equipped with new-type Sacramento guns, and the performance of the guns is a generation ahead of the opponent's, this battle is still very difficult.

The advantages at the weapons level only make up for Umbrella's shortcomings in crews.

From Krueger's perspective, Umbrella's fleet only had a slight advantage in the entire naval battle. It did not have the crushing advantage over the Dutch and Indian troops that the Western Brigade had on land.

However, as a Prussian, Crusen didn't know much about naval warfare. After all, Prussia was not a maritime power.

Seeing that the other party was clinging to the East Indies Fleet at all costs, Cruson realized that the other party wanted to completely destroy the East Indies Fleet.

The existence of the East Indies Fleet is a huge deterrent to the other side. As long as this fleet exists, even if it exists as a fleet huddled in the port, the other side cannot safely gain control of the sea.

After a full two hours of fighting, the two sides handed over each other's damaged answers.

The results achieved and the losses suffered by both sides can be said to be about equal.

However, as the casualties of the East Indies Fleet increased, the East Indies Fleet gradually became at a disadvantage.

The Umbrella fleet's advantages in weapons technology have gradually emerged.

The new naval guns equipped on the ships in Umbrella's fleet are extremely fast-firing, and their killing efficiency against personnel and ships is much higher than their traditional front-loaded smoothbore naval guns.

Seeing that the situation was unfavorable, Cruson decisively issued an order to retreat to protect the ship.

The seriously injured ship bravely undertook the post-interruption mission to buy time for the ship in good condition to retreat.

Sven also saw Crusen's intention. He ignored the broken ships that were entangled with them, and instead pursued the main force of the East Indies fleet that was escaping hastily south.

The south wind was blowing on the sea at this time, which made the East Indies fleet, which was basically sailing ships, weeping. Even God was against them.

The Umbrella Company's fleet had very high steam, and these steamships easily caught up with the East Indies Fleet ships that wanted to escape back to Batavia, and pursued these ships fiercely.

After a whole day of fighting, the naval battle that had not ended three months ago finally came to an end in the same sea area.

After losing more than half, that is, the cost of 17 ships.

Liang Yao's Umbrella fleet finally won the victory with difficulty, basically achieving the goal of annihilating the East Indies Fleet and completely gaining control of the Java Sea.

In the end, only five ships of the large East Indies Fleet fled northward without a trace.

Even Cruson himself became a prisoner of Sven.

At this point, the last card in the hands of the Dutch and Indian authorities was torn to pieces by Liang Yao.

Negotiating peace has become the only option for the Dutch and Indian authorities now.

(End of chapter)