[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-the-rise-of-australasia":3,"chapter-the-rise-of-australasia-the-rise-of-australasia-chapter-947":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"english","The Rise Of Australasia",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},1597044,2064,"Chapter 943: 702","the-rise-of-australasia-chapter-947",947,"\u003Cp>Chapter 943: 702\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Clearly, the enemy wanted to catch him in a pincer move, exposing weaknesses in their haste.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But unfortunately, he didn’t have many good options. After most of the airplanes were damaged, anti-aircraft weapons on the warships were the only thing that could limit the enemy airplanes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>To better defend against enemy airplanes, the fleet became more dispersed and used anti-aircraft weapons to focus their attack on the enemy’s airplanes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Spreading out was meant to lower the bombers’ chances of hitting their targets. After all, a warship’s size is both big and small—it’s not easy to aim at for high-speed airplanes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As long as the bombs didn’t hit critical areas of the warships, the threat wasn’t so high.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Dispersing the warships would increase the chances of bombs falling into the sea.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>However, the problem was that if the fleet dispersed, it would inevitably be at a disadvantage in naval warfare.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The enemy fleet was also close at hand; a too scattered formation would not hold an advantage in a sea battle.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Especially if the enemy’s warships were in battle formation, one’s own more dispersed fleet could easily fall into a disadvantageous position.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So, should he deal with the enemy fleet or the airplanes overhead?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After careful consideration, the Commander of the United States Pacific Fleet still decided to focus his attention on the enemy fleet.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After all, the United States had airplanes too, and it had already been proven that the current airplanes did not pose as great a threat to warships.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Unless they were unlucky enough for bombs to fall on deck, right in front of the navy soldiers, airplane damage to warships wasn’t usually fatal.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But the enemy fleet was a different story.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Americans also had certain intelligence. The Pacific fleet before them was a joint force of the Australasian Fleet and the British Indian Ocean Fleet, with a total tonnage and number of main battleships surpassing that of the United States Pacific Fleet.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If they found themselves at a disadvantage in a sea battle right from the start, the naval fight was doomed to fail.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As for the airplanes overhead, dispatching some personnel with anti-aircraft weapons to chase them off and prevent the enemy planes from getting too close to the warships was sufficient.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This is what the United States fleet commander thought, and his orders were issued accordingly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Under the commander’s orders, the United States Pacific Fleet quickly moved into action, forming a combat formation for a sea battle, waiting for the enemy fleet’s approach.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With naval superiority, the forces of Larasia wouldn’t shy away from a decisive naval engagement.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>More importantly, according to intelligence, the fleet of battlecruisers dispatched by the Atlantic United Fleet was not far from the battlefield.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even if a large-scale naval battle broke out with the United States Pacific Fleet now, the advantage was entirely with Larasia; there was nothing to worry about.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Both navies were arranging their battle formations, while the airplanes had already begun their own actions.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Although the naval forces were several kilometers apart, for the airplanes, this distance was merely a blink of an eye.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Once the bombers approached the United States fleet, they immediately dropped a large number of bombs, naturally at the United States fleet’s decks and command towers.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And of course, the flagship where the United States fleet commander was located became the bombers’ primary target.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As the United States fleet commander had anticipated, most of the bombs did not hit the warships’ decks and facilities, but fell into the ocean not far from the warships.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>However, the Larasian Air Force was clearly well-trained, as several bombs hit the deck of a battleship.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Boom! Boom, boom!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With the explosion of the bombs, one side of the battleship’s turret was directly ignited.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The chain explosions affected the entire deck and left almost no survivors among the United States Navy soldiers on this battleship.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But that wasn’t the worst of it. The explosion blew a huge hole in the side of the deck, deforming the steel-built deck and causing a crack in the hull through which sea water was pouring into the battleship, quickly causing it to list.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Damn, a battleship silenced just like that?” the United States fleet commander watched helplessly, but at that moment, there was no way to remedy the situation.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Such severe damage could only be repaired at a shipyard, but under the current circumstances, it was impossible for the battleship to make it there.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It could only be said that the battleship’s captain was indeed unlucky to have had the turret affected by the bomb’s blast.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For a warship, the two most dangerous places are the turret and the ammunition depot. Both places store a large number of shells, and if unfortunately ignited by the enemy’s shell or bomb, the resulting chain explosions are a fatal blow to a warship.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The fact that this battleship was critically damaged in an instant was not the severest issue. Above the United States fleet, several bombers were still seeking targets.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Although not every bomber could achieve its objective, the sight of such predators circling overhead was a significant blow to the morale of the United States Navy soldiers.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The good news was that the bombing run soon ended, and the loss to the United States’ main warships was limited to that one battleship.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The remainder was the sinking of one light cruiser and one destroyer, which could be considered fortunate in the grand scheme of things for the main fleet.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>However, the United States fleet commander did not breathe a sigh of relief, because the real sea battle had just begun.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Compared to the threat from the airplanes in the sky, if they couldn’t resolve the enemy navy ahead, the only fate for this Pacific fleet might well be capture.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The idea that all the warships could be sunk was utterly impossible.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After all, nobody is foolish enough not to consider fleeing when suffering heavy damage.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Whew!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He exhaled deeply.\u003C\u002Fp>",999,"2026-06-06T09:31:57.565Z",1,"novelbin.me","e31313394d81e9f7e90bf454ce1262e804127f43c601d759af81c845b0f3ee25","the-rise-of-australasia-chapter-948","the-rise-of-australasia-chapter-946",1367,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fthe-rise-of-australasia-cover.jpg"]