Munitions Empire

"They're turning around! They're fleeing into the distance..." said a pilot from the cockpit of a Stuka Dive Bomber that had run out of bombs, staring at the enemy warship below.

Through the headphones, came the voice of a pilot from another plane, "This is easier than expected, they're not making evasive maneuvers!"

"I told you the instructor was overestimating them! They've never seen planes before, how could they possibly have practiced evasive maneuvers?" Meanwhile, other pilots joined in with the ridicule.

In reality, during the age of sail warships, the navies of various countries did have some corresponding tactics, but the generational change in warships led these tactics to become extinct.

The Great Tang Group developed the ironclad warship, which, whether in terms of speed, defense, or firepower, significantly surpassed previous ships, making naval battles seem like a chasing game.

After various countries had re-equipped their fleets with the new ironclads, they didn't fully grasp the tactics suited for these modern warships.

To put it simply, they weren't quite proficient in using the new warships and hadn't completely adapted to modern naval warfare. This included the naval battles between the Poplar Kingdom and the Songmu Kingdom, where both sides suffered great losses because their tactics were essentially rigid.

Everyone would just charge forward and exchange fire directly with the enemy at close range, much like the strategies of the sail ship era.

In such an environment, naval combat tactics had actually regressed, and within a very short period, everyone seemed to have forgotten what naval battles used to look like.

Yet another warship was hit and caught fire, crippled and waiting to sink—after it exploded, the entire hull began to tilt to one side, the warship's listing past the point of no return.

Soon, the masks of the warship fell sideways into the sea, the bodies on deck along with debris all slid into the water, and the underside of the hull emerged above the surface, surprisingly not yet covered with many barnacles.

Shireck had been continuously producing warships at full capacity, with their shipyards churning out Shireck Destroyers, a simplified copy of those made by Great Tang's industry.

These warships, being somewhat stronger in firepower, were favored by various countries. Everyone was frantically purchasing them, and the numbers in use even exceeded that of the Great Tang Group's simplified destroyers.

New warships had just been built, and before barnacles even had the chance to grow, they were sunk here, a truly regrettable and painful loss.

If all this steel could be sent to Tang Country, perhaps dozens more tanks could be produced, it seems another armored battalion could be armed.

Not far from this capsizing warship, another, larger cruiser was also slowly sinking.

Compared to Shireck's destroyers, Shireck's cruisers appeared to be a bit sturdier. It wasn't capsizing or breaking apart, just sinking slowly, nothing more.

Unlike the dramatic explosions and twisted fractures of other ships, this warship was quite fortunate. Its ammunition depot did not detonate, and the power chambers were relatively intact.

It was only that the side of the hull had been blown open with a hole, and seawater was pouring in, with no one to stop the inevitable, as everyone on board had already abandoned ship and jumped into the sea.

The sea was littered with sailors who had gone overboard, some clumped together, others scattered about.

Fortunately, modern warships sinking do not release vast amounts of oil, so swallowing a mouthful of seawater wouldn't be enough to make one vomit up their last meal.

A Butcher Fighter began to dive, and the sailors floating in the sea could finally hear the roar of the plane's engine and the sound of cutting through the air during the dive.

Even without a siren, a diving plane still makes a sound. It's just not as piercing, not as terrifying, that's all.

This Butcher Fighter angled its nose towards a warship, then began a ferocious strafing run. The shells from its machine gun stretched from the warship's stern all the way to the bow.

A group of soldiers on deck, who had been working their rifle bolts, were enveloped by the dual streams of machine gun fire and thrown into disarray in an instant.

The soldiers lucky enough not to be killed were trembling with fear, watching helplessly as their companion, whose arm had been blown off by the machine gun bullets, fell to the deck, screaming in pain.

The wood splinters sent flying by the machine gun bullets when they hit the deck were deadly, and one soldier, with fragments of wood embedded in his face and blood all over, stumbled around the deck crying out in agony.

The bodies hanging on the ship's railings were swept away by the waves, and there were still people desperately calling for help, unsure if they were injured themselves or if it was their comrades who had been hit.

The Shireck sailors, who'd been scared out of their wits, staggered to their feet, hurriedly picked up a Shireck Mark I rifle that had fallen nearby, ignored the seawater on their faces, worked the bolt, and aimed the rifle into the sky.

Aggravated by the recent strafing, their anger had now overcome their fear. They had forgotten what it was to be scared and, with reckless abandon, sought to shoot down an enemy plane to vent their frustration.

Alas, by the time he aimed his weapon at the sky once again, the Butcher Fighter that had strafed him had already drifted away, beginning to climb.

"Bang!" He pulled the trigger at the decreasingly visible target in the distance, trying to hit a plane that was already far away, relying solely on instinct while standing on the shaking deck of a warship.

Unfortunately, all of this ultimately proved to be in vain; he didn't see his bullets hit their mark, nor did he see the distant plane encounter any issues.

Just as he was intently observing to confirm whether his shot had any effect, another Butcher Fighter behind him began its second strafing run.

The continuous machine gun fire hit the deck, splintering wood chips around. The Shireck soldiers who heard the noise turned their heads just in time to see rows of bullet holes extending toward their feet.

Having no time to react, the soldier just stood there, as splinters of wood riddled his body like a sieve.

His body fell rigidly, along with the other corpses next to him, piling up on the blood-soaked deck.

As it turned out, having soldiers take up single-shot rifles to fight airplanes on the deck was not a good idea. Though occasionally, a lucky shot might leave a hole in an aircraft, it was utterly meaningless for the overall battle.

But the struggle had to go on. The soldiers standing on the deck were not thinking about shooting down all the aircraft to win the victory, but rather to make their own warship seem tougher, discouraging the planes from attacking them to bomb other ships instead.

It was just like when facing a cheetah; you didn't need to be faster than the cheetah, you just had to outpace your companions...

"Boom!" Another Stuka Dive Bomber dove down, dropping bombs on the deck awash with blood and strewn with bodies.

Two seconds later, a massive explosion blew away half of the bridge, and the warship's smokestack collapsed to one side. Another warship was thus cut off from the fleet, slowing down gradually until it came to a final halt, lying motionless and slowly sinking in the sea.

Compared to the bombs that hit warships, there were actually more bombs lost at sea. After all, training is training, and actual combat is something entirely different.

The fact that pilots with only bombing training managed such brilliant results on their first naval attack wasn't so much a testament to their strength as it was to the weakness of their opponents.

How does the saying go? "It's all about outshining your peers": When navy commanders had yet to learn how to maneuver in an S-pattern, a high bombing hit rate was hardly surprising.

However, there were still some smart individuals. One Shireck Destroyer quickly began to turn, but it was unclear whether it was to leave the fleet or simply to confuse the adversaries in the sky.

By turning, the Shireck Destroyer avoided a bomb headed for it. After the bomb splashed into the water, the Shireck Destroyer changed course again with another turn!

It wasn't apparent during the first turn, but after two consecutive maneuvers, the dive bombers' pilots noticed the pattern: the enemy had instinctively innovated a way to dodge bombs.
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Although its speed was low and there wasn't much anti-aircraft protection, these two successive maneuvers still reflected the intense survival instincts of the captain-commander on the destroyer.

However, this quick-witted move by the Shireck Destroyer was not a widespread phenomenon. Most of the Shireck ships within the surprise-attacked fleet still acted confused and passive, like sitting ducks.

Thus, the subsequent Stuka Dive Bombers, concerned with efficiency, abandoned the agile destroyer and rushed toward those seemingly stunned targets.

Soon, another warship caught fire and exploded, and some of its shrapnel even landed on the deck of a nearby ship.

This first historical air-to-sea battle in the world was clearly a resounding victory for the Air Force: so far not a single aircraft had been shot down, yet seven or eight warships had been sunk!

The soldiers in the water looked up at the sky, watching enemy planes circle their warships like vultures, feeling indescribable emotions.

As for their own fate, it was uncertain, since they didn't even know if any vessel would come to pick them up.

Drifting at sea for too long, even those who could swim would eventually perish—they had no sufficient life-saving equipment, as the small boats from the warships had already sunk with the ships to the ocean floor.

Before long, sharks would arrive to gnaw at the bodies floating on the surface. Then they would be attracted to the living people bobbing in the water, attempting to upgrade their meals.

"Help! Save me! I don't want to die!" Finally, someone cracked under the pressure and started to cry out. Waving their hands at the sky, they hoped someone would notice them in the water.

Though the chances were slim, at least they could... have that one in a million chance to survive.