Babylonian Empire

Page 421

The escort formation stayed in Dhahran, preparing to continue the escort mission tomorrow.

At this time, the Strait of Hormuz was quiet everywhere, only the sea water was beating gently on the rocks on the shore, making a rattling sound.

Suddenly, on the calm sea, from far to near, there was a roar of marine diesel engines. A small missile boat was cutting through the water and sailing quietly until it approached Oman on the south side of the Strait of Hormuz. near the sea.

This is a "Stone Crossbow" class missile boat of the Iranian Navy, which comes from the French "Warrior" II class patrol boat. The Iranian Navy ordered it from the French Normandy Shipyard in February 1974, and the first 2 boats were built from 9 to 1977. After being completed and put into service, the delivery of the latter three boats was delayed until July 1978, 3 due to the revolution in Iran.This class of boats is 1981 meters long, 7 meters wide, 12 meters draft, 47 tons standard displacement, 7.1 tons full load displacement.The power unit is 1.9 sets of MTU-249V-275-TB4 diesel engines with a total power of 16 megawatts, four-axis propulsion, a maximum speed of 538 knots, and a maximum endurance of 91 nautical miles/9.03 knots.

This kind of small boat of more than 200 tons is very light when navigating in the Persian Gulf. Although it is enough to use a small boat with a length of more than ten meters when besieging oil tankers, in the current mission, this kind of missile boat is Just enough.

Because, although those small boats can also lay mines, they can only carry three or four mines at a time, while the Stone Crossbow-class missile boat can lay more than 20 mines at a time.

At this time, the platform behind the missile boat is already full of mines, which are old-fashioned M08 anchor mines.

There are many types of mines, and this kind of anchor mine refers to a mine fixed at a certain depth under the sea. There is a mine anchor below it, which sinks to the bottom of the water, and is used to fix the anchor mine so as not to float. .By adjusting the length of the cable, the anchor mine can be fixed at a certain depth. When a ship passes by and hits the anchor mine, it will explode.

The M08 anchor mine at this time is somewhat cartoonish in appearance, with a black spherical mine body on the top, and an explosive chamber in the lower part, which is equipped with TNT explosives and electric detonators.The upper part is empty, allowing the mine body to float. On the top of the mine body, there are five tentacles-like things. These are the trigger devices. explode.

And below, there is a cylindrical thing, which is full of mine cables, and the length needs to be set according to the specific depth. If it is too short, the mine body cannot reach the bottom of the ship and cannot be triggered. If it is too long, the anchor mine will be exposed on the water surface. was found on.

"The depth is 45 meters, ready to launch." The captain said.

Hearing the captain's order, the crew immediately got busy. They set the cable of the anchor mine properly, and then pushed it to the release slide at the rear.

"Start to release, 50 meters each." The captain then ordered.

The crew slowly pushed the mine back from the slide, and with a bang, the anchor mine slipped into the water without a trace.At the same time, the small boat started to move forward, and the crew then released the second and the third... On this night, almost all the small boats in Iran were dispatched, and along the channel, several densely packed The mine net, any ship passing through here, has a [-]% certainty that it will hit the mine

Chapter 468 The Bridgeton hits a mine

On the azure sea, sparkling, the sun shining soft light on the Persian Gulf, and white clouds floating in the sky.

The fog in the morning has cleared, and the sea is endless. It is a good weather for sailing!

A total of more than 20 cargo ships from various ports along the coast of the Persian Gulf have gathered in the scheduled assembly area and are preparing to leave the Persian Gulf again under the escort of the ships of the Peninsula Defense Force. Most of them are oil tankers over [-] tons .

Although Iran has been clamoring to attack the ships of the Arab countries that supported Iraq in the past, they have been safe and sound in the past few days, but the Iranians have been beaten up, and even if the Iranians come, they Not afraid, because on their own cargo ship, there are already several Iraqis with weapons protecting them.

Those energetic soldiers of the Iraqi Marine Corps are on the side of the ship at this time, watching the sea vigilantly. If the Iranians still have small boats coming over, they will use their own machine guns to carry out sniping at a long distance .

All the crew members are very confident that they are safe.

Lining up in a long line, at the forefront is a Sidik-class missile boat of the Saudi Navy and the frigate Ai Buha. The formation commander, Major General Talal, is in high spirits.

With the smooth progress of the escort operation, the name of Major General Talal also resounded throughout the Persian Gulf. In the mouths of all the crew members, Major General Talal became their patron saint, which made Major General Talal somewhat complacent. , Moreover, news has spread that he will be promoted to lieutenant general soon.

Major General Talal thanked the Iranians a little bit. If it wasn't for the Iranians, he would have to endure at least three to five years, or even ten or eight years, before he could be promoted.But now, if he makes a few more military exploits, or even gets promoted, it is very possible.

The radar antenna of the Ai Buha is rotating, and it is alert to the air and sea police, ready to detect the Iranian speedboats that attack again at any time. Although the radar characteristics of the speedboats are small, a large number of speedboats come to attack. Radar can still detect it.

The entire formation, like a giant dragon, slowly approached the Strait of Hormuz.

Following behind the Albuha was the 40-ton giant oil tanker "Bridgeton" from Kuwait.

"Report, our formation has entered the Strait of Hormuz." On the bridge, the first officer reported to Talal.

"Advance with vigilance and guard against Iranian small boat attacks." Talal said.

"Yes."

On the calm sea, at some point, a few Iranian speedboats would suddenly appear.In an instant, it will be a storm.

All the members of the formation are watching the surrounding sea vigilantly.

Standing on the bridge, Talal looked at the surrounding sea with a telescope.

Suddenly, Talal was attracted by a floating object on the distant sea. That object, like a huge ball, was constantly floating with the waves.

what is that?

Talal adjusted the binoculars carefully, and finally, the thing became clearer and clearer. It was a black ball with several tentacles on it.

Talal suddenly became nervous. Every soldier in the navy should be familiar with it. This kind of thing is an anchor mine!

Damn Iranians, dare to lay minefields here!

"The formation stops advancing immediately, two vehicles at full speed, and three retreat!" Talal urgently ordered.

It was an anchor mine with a cable that was extended during the mine-laying operation last night. After falling into the sea, the mine base sank to the bottom of the water, but the mine body floated to the surface of the sea.

However, this is definitely not the first.

Being able to enter the minefield and retreat completely depends on luck. Although the distance between two mines on the vast sea is tens of meters or even 200 meters in length, the probability of the hull hitting a mine is It is also quite large.Because the defense line of mines is not one.

Therefore, Talal did not order the warship to turn, but retreated at full speed.

The speed at this time was eighteen knots.

After receiving the order, the personnel in the engine room immediately manipulated the machine, the propeller began to reverse, and the engine worked at full speed.

Driving a ship on the water is definitely not as simple as driving on land. If you want to stop a thousand-ton warship and reverse the propeller, you can only slowly slow down the speed of the warship. The huge body of the warship is still moving forward. of.

And in this process, whether it can hit the mine in front, it depends on the blessing of Allah.

Ai Buha is slowing down, slowing down, under the water surface where no one can see, an M08 anchor mine is on the way of Ai Buha.

The distance between Aibuha and the anchor mine is getting closer and closer, 200 meters, 100 meters, 50 meters, 20 meters, ten meters... If it is a magnetic mine or an acoustic mine, it has already been fired and exploded.

And this is an old-fashioned anchor mine, which needs direct contact to explode.

Just one meter away from the anchor mine, the huge Ai Buha stopped, and then began to back slowly.

No one on the warship noticed that they were only one meter away from death just now.

Even a flutter of ocean currents on the bottom of the sea can blow the anchor mine to the sonar dome at the bottom of the Aibuha's bow, which is a loud bang.

However, the "Bridgeton", which followed the Aibuha, did not have such good luck.

Bridgeton is a [-]-ton oil tanker. It takes a long time to accelerate this behemoth to [-] knots, and it takes a longer time and a longer distance to stop.

It is not so easy to brake suddenly at sea.

Hearing the order from the front, the formation immediately stopped advancing, and the captain of Bridgeton couldn't help but want to curse.

The two huge propellers reversed at full speed, but the fatter hull kept rushing forward.

In order to avoid hitting the escorting ship in front, the captain had to manipulate the steering gear in his hand to make the ship change direction.

Bridgeton's hull quickly surpassed the Aibuha, and its speed was slowly decreasing.