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在驱逐舰对抗中，超驱的战斗力优势还是非常明显的。
下面是1941年6月英国驱逐舰在叙利亚海岸与法国超驱交战的案例。英军占据兵力优势，但法国超驱的炮术占据明显的优势，依靠远程炮火打败了作战经验丰富的英军。
The French division had returned to Sidon when, at 1325, Guépard sighted destroyer masts to the southwest.11 These belonged to Janus. Jackal followed about a mile off her starboard quarter and Hotspur a mile behind Jackal. Isis was operating inshore two miles south of Hotspur. Tothill sighted the French as they turned west at 1329. Under his rules of engagement the British commander could not fire first. Nonetheless, he rang up full speed and headed toward the intruders, without closing up his formation. Tothill was an experienced captain on a veteran ship that had fought off Norway and in surface actions against the Italians, including the Battle of Matapan. He anticipated there would be time to concentrate while the French closed range.12 (See table 8.1.)
Table 8.1Engagement off Sidon, 9 June 1941, 1335–1445
Conditions: Fair weather with brisk wind and small chop, good visibility
| British ships—
| (Commander J. A. W. Tothill): DD: JanusD4 (F), JackalD1, Isis, Hotspur
| French ships—
| 3rd Scout Division (Captain Raymond Gervais de Lafond): DL: GuépardD1 (F), Valmy
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De Lafond surprised Tothill, however, when his ships loosed their first salvo from sixteen thousand yards. Guépard judged that her rounds, marked by green splashes, fell four hundred yards under, while the Valmy’s red-dyed shells fell six hundred yards over. Both destroyers were on for deflection, and their second broadsides straddled. Nonetheless, Janus continued to close, while Jackal steamed to fall in astern and Hotspur remained farther back. Janus replied at 1335 from fifteen thousand yards. One of Valmy’s men later recalled, “The slender silhouettes of [the enemy] ships . . . were illuminated by momentary flashes, six here, four there. With greater anxiety than after our own salvos we mentally counted the time. Sharp cracking sounds, white geysers; they were far away. The enemy opened very short.”13 (See map 8.1, inset.)
The French, now shooting five rounds a minute, pressed west, while the straggling British line assumed a parallel heading. Then, at 1343, with the range at ten thousand yards, Guépard struck Janus three times. One shell blew a hole in the aft deck; another exploded outside the captain’s sea cabin, killing everyone on the bridge except Tothill; and the third slammed into no. 1 boiler room, slaughtering crewmen and destroying the saturated-steam line. With steam escaping and no. 2 boiler out of action, Janus drifted to a stop. Then two more shells piled in, one of which exploded in no. 1 boiler room. Rolling on the swell, Janus dropped smoke floats and worked her guns under local control. Guépard, [url=]steaming west at twenty-two knots, projected a torpedo toward this target, at an estimated range of nine thousand yards.[/url]
At this juncture Jackal overhauled Janus and wrapped smoke around her stricken sister. Jackal then turned to port and at 1350 sent three torpedoes churning on a long run north. Hotspur remained out of effective range.
At 1354 the French ships ceased fire and simultaneously turned east. A few minutes later de Lafond sighted Isis speeding north to join the fight and, with the odds once again out of balance, and with half of his precious supply of ammunition already expended, the French captain turned north.
[/url][url=]Jackal followed at full speed, zigzagging to present a difficult target. Hotspur came next, twenty-five hundred yards astern, while Isis trailed well off Hotspur’s starboard quarter. Jackal’s dogged perseverance impressed her enemy. “That bloodhound—Jackal—clung to us . . . shooting with perfect precision and regularity her six-fold salvos.”[/url]14 At 1414 the French altered course to the northeast, straight for Beirut, still twenty miles distant, and started to lay black funnel and white chemical smoke. However, this provided little concealment. With Jackal following thirteen thousand yards behind, de Lafond ordered his gunners to back her off with concentrated salvos. Shortly thereafter a 5.45-inch shell exploded on Jackal’s upper deck, igniting a small blaze in the tiller flat (that is, the steering machinery room, over the rudder) and wounding one man. The French ceased fire at 1420 and increased speed to twenty-four knots.
At 1421 Jackal’s gunfire finally told: a shell rattled into Guépard’s crew quarters. This did little damage, but a few yards one way or the other would have been a different story. The French emitted more smoke and increased speed to thirty knots. However, the smoke failed to conceal, so at 1433 de Lafond turned again and flung a few salvos at Jackal before resuming course for Beirut. This maneuver succeeded in opening the range, and Jackal broke off the chase at 1446. She had expended 611 4.7-inch rounds. In addition to being hit once, Guépard had suffered minor splinter damage.
Kimberly towed Janus to Haifa, where she burned out of control until 0500 the next day. The Admiralty concluded that Tothill should have kept his force concentrated, though it conceded that the French “produced long range gunnery of an accuracy considerably above our destroyer standard.” In fact, it was even more impressive in light of the limitations of the French weapons.15
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发表于 2016-3-3 20:02
楼主
发表于 2016-3-14 16:12
