Chapter 1648 is desperate
The tonnage of the Haihan Majesty-class battleships is more than 1,700 tons, which is almost half the size of the "San Diego". The maximum number of naval guns deployed on a single side of the ship can reach twenty-five, which is fully twice as many as the "San Diego". As for the performance and power of the naval guns, Haihan's side has a clear advantage. Two majestic-class battleships sandwiched "San Diego" from the left and right sides, and then bombarded it head-on and face-to-face.
There are still some tactics that need to be paid attention to in such a naval and artillery bombardment battle. For example, the Haihan battleship's tactics are to focus fire on the opponent's gun position first, striving to weaken or even eliminate the opponent's counterattack capability in the shortest possible time. If you are lucky, If it hits the powder barrel near the gun position, it will get twice the result with half the effort. As for the Spanish side, the only thing they can do now is to pray that they will not be hit by artillery shells at the next moment, so that they will have the opportunity to fire at the enemy again.
The twelve-pounder guns deployed on the deck of the Majestic-class battleships mainly fire grapeshot, targeting the deck personnel of the enemy ship, while the large-caliber naval guns deployed on the lower deck are used to attack and destroy the opponent's gun emplacements and Hull. In a very short exchange of fire, the shells fired by the battleship Haihan destroyed more than half of the guns on the "San Diego". Several very large gaps were blown up on the hull, as if a piece had been bitten off by some monster. Similar.
Juan was lucky to be alive. He didn't even have any injuries on his body and could still command the battle. But the people around him were not so lucky. Two of his adjutants were unfortunately shot and killed in the enemy ship's gunfire. . Therefore, he could only temporarily promote his orderlies to adjutants and let them convey his orders. It's just that at this time, there were too many casualties on the "San Diego", many posts on the ship were unmanned, and the situation was about to get out of control.
However, at this time, Juan was already red-eyed and did not think about how to evacuate the battlefield. He just ordered the remaining crew members on the ship to fill the position of the naval guns as much as possible and continue to fire at the enemy ships at all costs.
But converting fighting determination into combat effectiveness cannot only be achieved with a burst of blood. Although most of the Spaniards on the "San Diego" are not afraid of death, the current situation of the ship is not enough to support them. determined to fight. Of the more than twenty artillery pieces on the ship, less than ten can still maintain normal operations at this time. Perhaps after two or three more rounds of bombardment by the enemy ships on both sides, the remaining firepower output will come to an end.
Sure enough, the remaining artillery pieces were soon called out by the Haihan battleship and turned into dumb cannons. Juan knew that this battle would be inevitable, so he ordered the distribution of muskets to the crew in preparation for the final resistance. But at this time, as if a miracle occurred, the two Majesty-class battleships took the initiative to sail away from the "San Diego".
"This must be God hearing our prayers!" Some crew members were puzzled by this sight and could only attribute it to a miracle.
But Juan doesn't think so. He has never heard that the Haihan people have any special religious beliefs. Can praying to God really have an effect on these vicious pagans? Then he had already prayed once before the war. God should help him defeat them early, instead of waiting until the last desperate moment to show his power. Moreover, Juan had a vague premonition that the departure of these two warships may not mean that the "San Diego" was out of trouble. Although this place is not far from the Port of Manila, there is no way to get shore defense firepower. As a cover, the other party has no reason to let him go.
Sure enough, Juan's premonition was immediately verified, because a crew member discovered that the demonic black battleship was coming quickly from behind the "San Diego", and saw that the distance between the two ships was shortening at a speed visible to the naked eye. . It seemed that the two Haihan battleships left voluntarily just now, just to free up positions that were easier to attack for this ironclad ship.
This ironclad ship that left a deep impression on Juan never really joined the battle group in today's battle. Instead, it cruised around the periphery, cooperating with other Haihan warships to carry out the final attack on those Spanish sailing ships that had fallen behind or were seriously damaged. One blow. Obviously, its current target is the "San Diego".
If the "San Diego" was intact, Juan might try to give it a try. After all, the coast of Manila Port could be vaguely seen in front of him. If he struggled and rushed into the port, he would have a high chance of being rescued. But at this time, the "San Diego" was completely devastated, more than half of the crew were killed or injured, and the artillery on the ship had completely lost the ability to continue fighting. What else could Juan use to resist the enemy ships that were pursuing him one after another?
"Aim at the stern rudder of the ship in front and hit until they can't move away."
On the "Black Shark", Wu Sen issued the order with a stern face. Today, according to Wang Tom's deployment, he has killed several Spanish sailing ships, but in comparison, the flagship of the Manila Fleet is definitely the most important. Wang Tom's order to him was to keep the ship instead of sinking it. Wu Sen understood that this was probably Wang Tom's intention to capture the important people on the ship, so he did not intend to take direct action. As for whether the important people on the ship are still alive at this time, that is not a problem that Wu Sen needs to worry about. Life and death are determined by fate. If the target that Tom Wang wants to capture fails to survive this disaster, it is also destined.
After the "Black Shark" caught up with the "San Diego", it stayed behind the starboard side of the ship, about two hundred meters away, and let both the front and rear naval guns fire at the stern rudder. After only two rounds, a shell directly hit the tail rudder, knocking off about two-thirds of the entire rudder, and the ability to turn flexibly at sea was suddenly lost.
Then the "Black Shark" suddenly accelerated and caught up with the "San Diego" in a parallel position. Two naval guns focused fire on its main mast. This time eight shells were used, hitting the bottom of the mast where it connected to the hull. As the main mast slowly fell amidst the roar of gunfire, the "San Diego" also lost most of the power for its forward movement. Its speed quickly dropped to a level close to zero, and it was left only two meters away from the Port of Manila. On the surface of the sea.
Although it was very close to the harbor, this distance was a distance that the "San Diego" could no longer complete. Juan watched the ship slowly stop, but the black warship had already passed quickly from the starboard side of the "San Diego" to pursue a Spanish sailing ship in front.
Escape? The flagship has lost its forward momentum. If it lowers the lifeboat and rows to the coast, it will not be able to reach the shore for a while. Fight? There are no artillery on the ship, so we just rely on issuing these muskets to the crew to shoot at the enemy's armored ships. It would be faster to order everyone to swallow their guns and commit suicide.
If he had died on the ship before, Juan would no longer have to worry about whether to fight or surrender. But now that the surviving crew members on the ship were looking at him, waiting for him to give orders, Juan hesitated. Of course he could order a fight to the death, but for the "San Diego", a fight to the death was meaningless in the end. The Haihan people didn't even need to get close to the ship. They just needed to fire a few more cannons from a distance, make a few big holes in the hull, and let the ship sink slowly to break down all means of resistance. As for why the Haihan people showed mercy, Juan knew very well that the other party just wanted to capture the commander of the "San Diego" alive. An expedition-class warship slowly approached the "San Diego". Someone on the ship held a tin trumpet and shouted in Spanish, asking all personnel on the "San Diego" to immediately put down their weapons and surrender. They would disarm and not kill the injured. will be treated. Otherwise, what awaits them is the fate of being completely sunk.
After all, people have a desire to survive. Once the battle is over and the defeated party knows that it is possible to continue to live, the will to resist is often not so firm. This is the current situation on the "San Diego". All surviving crew members are gathered on the deck, waiting for the verdict of fate - a word from Commander Juan will determine their next life or death.
Juan looked around and saw hope and unwillingness in the eyes of these familiar crew members, but lacked the determination to fight. He knew that there was nothing he could do to save himself. These crew members wanted to live, not for this time of the Spanish Empire. Defeated and buried.
Juan took a deep breath and announced his decision to everyone: "Do as they say! We surrender..."
After saying this, Juan sat down on a box of cold shells, his head drooped and never gave any other orders. The few boxes of chain ammunition that were just shipped to the ship last night had no time to be used in the battle, and the battle was already over. Juan only felt that his mood was colder than the cold steel. Although he had anticipated the outcome of defeat before the war, when the moment came, he still found it difficult to accept it.
The combat goals that Juan set before the war were to destroy or severely damage the armored sailing ship, and to delay the attack of the Haihan fleet. However, after this battle, neither goal was achieved, and the one who suffered heavy losses was The Manila Fleet under his command. Although the fleet has tried its best to fight, Juan had to admit that the gap between the two sides in ship performance and weapons and equipment cannot be made up by fighting determination. His fleet has been in a passive state throughout the entire battle. It can be said that I didn't see any chance of winning at all.
Since the last battle off the coast of Sanya, Juan has actually been preparing for war, but the preparations he can do are limited by many objective conditions. The size of the fleet entering combat at home this time is far smaller than that of the previous raid on Sanya. , so defeat is actually expected. It was just such a clean and complete defeat that Juan couldn't help but feel desperate. He even doubted whether the enemy's weaknesses he thought really existed, why the Haihan fleet was not at all unfamiliar with fighting in unfamiliar waters, and why the opponent was fighting in unfamiliar waters today. The battle distance was widened throughout the battle, completely giving the Manila fleet no chance to use chain bombs.
The number of ships that the Manila fleet finally fled back to the port was only half of the number when it set off, and all of them had varying degrees of damage. The remaining combat effectiveness could only be greatly reduced. On the sea outside Manila Port, the Haihan fleet had begun to clean up the battlefield, and more than 200 prisoners were fished out of the sea alone.
This naval battle was very intense, but it did not last long. It took less than two hours from the arrival of the Manila fleet at the fishing port of Pasay Town to the time when Tom Wang ordered the troops to retreat. Haihan's "Black Shark" took the greatest credit. The number of enemy ships damaged and sunk in this battle reached double digits. Although most of them were last-minute hits, they all completed the task extremely well. In particular, the pursuit of the Manila fleet flagship "San Diego" was flawless, allowing Hayhan to capture its fleet commander Juan Luis.
According to incomplete statistics after the war, the Haihan Navy destroyed a total of eleven enemy ships in this battle and captured as many as 500 enemy crew members. As for the number of casualties of the Manila fleet in this battle, preliminary estimates are at least five to seven hundred. Although several ships were still able to barely sail on the sea when they were captured, Haihan plundered all the people and materials on board and sank them all into the sea. These Spanish sailing ships need major repairs before they can be put back into use. Tom Wang is not interested in taking them all the way back to Sanya for repairs.
Haihan's battle damage situation was naturally much better than that of the Spaniards, but casualties were inevitable. A total of thirty-five sailors were killed in the battle, and more than 140 were injured to varying degrees. It was also the battle with the highest number of casualties for the Haihan Navy in the past year. However, in the view of senior generals such as Wang Tom, this casualty number is still within an acceptable range. After all, during the battle between the two sides, there were many close-range naval gunfire operations, so casualties were certainly inevitable.
The damage situation to the ships was a bit grim. Two expedition-class warships suffered serious hull damage during the artillery battle and basically lost their ability to continue fighting. They had to return to port to wait for repairs. Seven other combat ships, including a Majestic-class battleship, were damaged to varying degrees, which had a certain impact on their combat effectiveness.
But the good news is that this battle almost broke the backbone of the Manila fleet. The local Spanish army has no other organic maritime weapons available. The Haihan fleet should not have similar combat missions in the future. The stage for the next performance will be handed over to Haihan Army.
The captured Spanish prisoners were transported to the Port of Cavite at noon that day. The former station has now become a place where they were imprisoned. This can be regarded as a great irony for the Spanish. Here, Juan finally met his opponents, Haihan Defense Minister Yan Chujie, and Navy Commander Wang Tom. However, this was not an equal dialogue between the generals of the two countries, but a front-line interrogation of the defeated prisoners by the victors.
(End of chapter)