Expedition to Europe

At the insistence of the commander of the Perth Expeditionary Force, Derek Chaplin, at nine o'clock in the morning, five Perth Expeditionary Force warships, including the "Perth", launched a fierce attack on Port Hedland.

Objectively speaking, although the "Perth" is a broken ship that is about to be retired, the ship's weapons are still good. The British also took great pains to replace the main guns on the ship when selling the "Perth" to the Perth people. The current "Perth" has four twin-mounted 203mm caliber main guns. If the secondary guns are added, the firepower of the "Perth" alone can match the entire defensive firepower of Port Hedland.

But war is not a simple conversion of numbers that can determine the outcome, and weapons are not the only factor that determines victory or defeat. People still play a key role in war.

Although the troops responsible for defending Port Hedland are of complex composition, they are basically all Hedlanders. For them, this war is a war to defend their homeland and resist the tyranny of Western Australia, so there is almost no need to mobilize for this war, and the morale of the defending troops is already extremely high.

The composition of the Perth City Expeditionary Force responsible for the attack is also complex, especially the navy members, who are basically hired by Perth City from the UK. For the sake of money, they will do what they should do, but if they are required to have high morale and strong fighting spirit, it is nitpicking.

Relatively speaking, the army of the Perth Expeditionary Force has a stronger fighting spirit, but it is not yet the landing stage, and the army is temporarily useless, so the artillery battle is only carried out between warships and coastal defense batteries.

The artillery of Port Hedland is composed of gunners from the Foreign Legion period. The backbone of this force has all participated in the World War and has rich combat experience. At the same time, they have strong will, never give up, and tacit cooperation. Especially the last point, it was fully demonstrated not long after the artillery battle began.

There are four artillery batteries in the coastal defense force, and these four artillery batteries have only 12 artillery pieces in total. It is really unreasonable to say that the firepower is strong. At this time, tactics play a very important role.

The officer in charge of commanding the artillery is Duan Chengye, an experienced artillery commander who was promoted to major during the Foreign Legion period and was responsible for commanding an artillery regiment. In order to maximize the power of the coastal defense artillery, Duan Chengye set up a command center under the breakwater to unify the command of all artillery and attack a target at the same time. In terms of target selection, Duan Chengye did not choose the "Perth" with the largest target, but chose a destroyer with a smaller tonnage.

When designing warships, armor protection is considered. Generally speaking, it is difficult for warships of the same level to sink the other side with artillery.

The main gun of the "Perth" is 203 mm, which means that the "Perth" has a certain degree of protection against the attack of 203 mm caliber artillery. If it relies on the 150 mm caliber artillery of the coastal defense battery, it is difficult to cause any major damage to the "Perth".

The destroyers are different. Whether it is the "Black Swan" or the "King George V", the guns equipped on these destroyers are also the same 150 mm, which means that the 150 mm guns of the coastal defense battery have a certain attack capability against these destroyers.

There is a factor that must be taken seriously, that is, the age of these objective conditions.

These destroyers of the Perth Expeditionary Force, even the youngest "Black Swan", have a ship age of more than 10 years, so when considering armor protection, these destroyers refer to the power of the artillery ten years ago. Compared with the current artillery, this degree of protection is greatly lagging behind.

War is the biggest driving force for the development of science and technology. During the World War, new technologies and processes appeared almost every day. The weapons equipped at the beginning of the World War were completely different from those equipped a year after the beginning. As for before and after the World War, they were two different worlds. The gap between weapons can even be described as a "generation gap". Therefore, although these destroyers also use 150mm caliber artillery, they are far behind the 150mm caliber artillery on the coastal defense fort in terms of range and power.

This gap was already apparent shortly after the battle began.

In fact, after the first two rounds of test firing, the artillery group on the coastal defense fort formed a cross-fire on the "Boddington" in the third round of salvo firing, which fully demonstrated the power of unified command and made the arrogant British naval officers and soldiers nervous.

At the 45th minute of the artillery battle, a shell fired by the No. 2 turret hit the "Boddington" near the target, affecting the propulsion system of the "Boddington" and causing the speed to drop from 25 knots to less than 15 knots.

This was simply the best target, as eye-catching as a burning torch in the dark night.

Duan Chengye immediately commanded the turrets to concentrate their attacks on the "Boddington". Although the captain of the "Boddington" tried his best, at the 55th minute, a shell fired by Hou Xing'an's gun crew in the No. 3 turret hit the chimney of the "Boddington". The collapsed chimney hit the bridge heavily, killing 12 people in the bridge, including the captain of the "Boddington". This incident caused the "Boddington" to lose its command center, just like a tender and delicious lamb walking in a dangerous wilderness, which immediately attracted more malicious eyes.

After the appearance of the optical rangefinder, naval warfare has been fundamentally subverted. In the past, distance measurement relied on the rich experience of gunners. If you want to get accurate data in the shortest time, there is no more shortcut, you can only rely on the accumulation of experience and the precipitation of years.

With the optical rangefinder, even a rookie who has just been in contact with artillery can get accurate data in the shortest time, which greatly improves the efficiency of the gun crew, especially for those targets that have lost power. It is effortless.

It takes time for the shells to hit the target from the barrel. Generally speaking, at a distance of 10,000 meters, it takes about 30 to 40 seconds for the shells to hit the target. In these 30 to 40 seconds, if the target moves at a speed of 25 knots, then in these 30 to 40 seconds, the target can run about 500 meters. Therefore, in naval battles, there are often examples where the artillery battle is carried out for an hour and nothing is gained, but if a warship loses power, it will soon be sunk.

This is the fate that the "Boddington" is facing. When the "Boddington" lost power and the command center, four shells hit the "Boddington" within two minutes. One of the shells fired by the first turret directly hit the ammunition depot of the "Boddington", which caused the 1,300-ton warship to be blown into two pieces from the middle and completely sank to the bottom of the sea within 20 seconds.

20 seconds, even if a sailor jumped off the ship in time, it is estimated that he could not swim out of the whirlpool formed by the sunken ship.

137 naval officers and soldiers were buried in the sea.

The sinking of the "Boddington" sounded the alarm for the Perth Expeditionary Fleet. No matter how arrogant Derek Chaplin was, he had to consider James Jerome's opinion at this time. After all, compared with the command of the fleet, the strategic goal of taking Port Hedland was more important. If this strategic goal was not achieved, Derek Chaplin would be responsible.

So from the 70th minute, the Perth Expeditionary Fleet finally reached a consensus, concentrated all the artillery, and began to attack the coastal defense batteries in Port Hedland from south to north.

This change immediately made Duan Chengye feel the pressure.

Even though the batteries were covered with reinforced concrete and reinforced before the war, these protective measures could not last long under the continuous attack of large-caliber naval guns.

It must be said that the British Navy is indeed experienced in combat. Once there is a unified command, the Perth Expeditionary Fleet immediately entered the right track. For a time, the No. 1 battery at the southernmost end was continuously attacked, and shells kept falling on the No. 1 battery. The dust in the sandbags of gunpowder was flying all over the sky. Even from the nearest No. 2 battery, the outline of the No. 1 battery could not be seen.

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The lethality of the shells is not just based on shrapnel, the impact will also cause serious damage to the target, especially if the person is in a relatively closed space. When being continuously attacked by the shock wave, various physical discomforts will definitely occur, and combat casualties will follow.

Duan Chengye still felt sorry for the artillerymen under his command. The purpose of the artillerymen holding on to the fort was not to shut out the Perth Expeditionary Force, but to show that Port Hedland was not powerless when facing the Perth Expeditionary Force. After achieving the goal, Duan Chengye immediately ordered the artillerymen to withdraw from the position through the underground passage under the fort.

In fact, at this time, the Perth Expeditionary Force's target of attack had already turned to the No. 3 Fort.

James Jerome still has rich experience. Under his command, the Perth Expeditionary Force no longer seeks to destroy the artillery, as long as it can make the artillery ineffective. The warships of the Perth Expeditionary Force are indeed relatively old. The shells they use will produce a lot of gunpowder smoke when they explode, which has an unexpected effect. These gunpowder smoke, together with the dust stirred up by the shells, block the gunners' sight and eventually make these artillery lose their combat effectiveness.

Today's weather is really good, there is no wind, which has also become a help for the Perth Expeditionary Force. As long as it is an artillery that is attacked, the gunpowder smoke around the artillery is everywhere and cannot be dispersed for a long time. As the counterattack firepower becomes weaker and weaker, the Perth Expeditionary Force's attack is more calm and more efficient.

At the 110th minute of the artillery battle, Duan Chengye ordered all artillery to withdraw from their positions and abandon these coastal artillery forts, and the artillery battle ended.

Duan Chengye did not order the artillery to be blown up, because these artillery forts will eventually be the property of Port Hedland.

It is estimated that the Pers Expeditionary Force would not blow up these forts, because in the eyes of the Pers Expeditionary Force, these forts are now their property.

Although the battle in the outer harbor has ended, it is just the beginning compared to this war.