Author notes:
I am back! And thankfully, I managed to get the new chapter out before Christmas, phew~!
There have been questions about the next combined arms operation so, as a certain shady priest would put it... REJOICE~! The much anticipated combined arms action is coming... soonish? XD
Now then, I must extend congratulations and salute to ThrilledAxis, now a proper Sergeant of the Reich. Let's give them a round of applause, everyone!
Lastly, I hope you all have been enjoying the story thus far and, on behalf of my mom, I wish you all a Jolly, Merry, and Shoggothy Christmas and an early New Year! Be advised that the next chapter would come out on the 25th of Christmas at the earliest or the 26th of December if nothing delay my writing.
Love and Hope, everyone!
P.S: Due to the possibility of my rendered images being censored on Webnovel and Imgur, I've created an album on Google Photos. It's on there that every new image from here on out will be posted. Hopefully, it won't be much trouble for you guys and gals to check out the link.
Enjoy!
https://photos.app.goo.gl/waZgkRa3UQhqKQBi9
P.S.S: Kaboom, baby~!
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With Taranto still being on the dark side of the Earth currently, one can even see it ablaze in outer space. Truly, the amount of incendiary bombs dropped by the B-40s has been much, much overkill for a harbor that is, while no doubt large for the current period, is still on a smaller scale when compared to the ones in Belka. Regardless, the sudden firebombing has woken up the Sardegnians, sending them either burning to fine crisps or acting like headless chickens.
"E-Enemy air attack! Enemy air attack! Commence AA fire!"
What's left of the triple-As the Sardegnians still have available are directed upward, firing blindly while searchlights try to acquire a target... Any target, to be exact. Tracers light up the scorching night sky but unfortunately...
"Stop! Stop! You're firing at the dock!"
Yeah, the situation is very sub-optimal for the Sardegnian AA crews. Good luck spotting something flying at 14 kilometers in the air, much less shooting at any of them.
Yet, the guns and searchlights frantically do their best to stave off the inevitable. Even still, the bombs just keep on falling, and these bombs are not the dumb bombs that were dropped on the harbor earlier.
Cutting through the upper decks like a hot knife through butter, a bunker-busting JDAM quickly finds purchase in the aft magazine of the RN Vittorio Veneto, the flagship of Sardegna's Alexander Fleet. The combined explosion from a 1000 kg JDAM and the magazine for the C-turret's 381mm guns completely shear off 1/3 of the Littorio-class battleship. The major explosion lit up a large swath of the sea as smoke and flame billowed out high into the air, mixing with the ongoing burning of Taranto itself. Without being able to get underway, the flagship of the fleet is now sinking aft first in the bay, much to the horror of the remaining vessels in the harbor.
"What in God's name was that!?"
"W-We need to get out of here! We're sitting ducks!"
"All remaining vessels! Break harbor and sail out to open water, now!"
"Sir! The Conte di Cavour is still stuck in drydock!"
"We can't save her! She was bombed and without an entire engine compartment when she was drydocked!"
"I don't care whether you have full supplies or not. Just get your ass out of Taranto!"
"That barge over there! Move it! I know you want to get out of here but that battleship is valuable!"
Scenes like that are a dime in dozens at whatever crews that were in charge of the night shift of these warships struggle to get their vessels underway. The chaotic mess of a harbor easily induced further anarchy when, in their haste, a Sardegnian destroyer lost control and ram one of its own. The speeding vessel cuts the other's nose off as both sides suffer catastrophic damage.
Fortunately or soon to be unfortunately for the other Sardegnian ships, nearly half of them manage to make it out of the death trap of a bay. The other ships are either still stuck in the bay or are bombed and incapacitated or sinking. Leading the formation of the survivor is none other than the last Littorio-class battleship of the Alexander Fleet, the Littorio herself. Pushing forth at flank speed alongside the other light cruisers and destroyers in the formation, Littorio barely goes 2 kilometers away from Taranto when disaster strikes.
Previously laid down by Group 3 of the 509th Bomber Wing, the 200 CAPTOR mines are now anchored to the ocean floor and completely block the naval access point in and out of Taranto. A CAPTOR mine is a nifty piece of equipment, conjured up as a way of reducing the cost of a minefield while upping the chance of a sure-kill or crippling strike on an enemy target. It uses a 533mm Mk48 torpedo contained in an aluminum shell and can be placed by either aircraft, submarine, or surface vessel. The CAPTOR, once placed, can last anywhere from weeks to months underwater. The mine uses Reliable Acoustic Path (RAP) sound propagation to passively identify and track the difference between hostile and friendly signatures. Once the CAPTOR identifies an enemy, the torpedo leaves its casing, activating passive/active acoustic homing, snake, or circle search to find and destroy the target. And because the torpedo from a CAPTOR will be attacking a vessel from deep underwater, it will most certainly bypass the thick anti-torpedo protection that is common on most battleships.
And the Littorio and her cohorts just sailed right in the middle of those death traps.
With an entire convoy steaming their way, the CAPTOR mines are activated one by one. Very soon, the first batch of the mines launched their warheads right below the unsuspecting vessels. It's not until the torpedoes rise to near point-blank range that the sonar operators aboard the Sardegnian warships wisen up and panickedly shout. But by then, it's too late to even turn the steering wheels, much less maneuvering out of the way of a homing torpedo. Explosions rumble beneath the surface as all torpedoes strike true at their targets. The detonations occur right below their keels, blasting them open and making holes that are impossible to patch up. Every single ship was hit, Littorio included, with water hungrily goffer up the vessels from below as the crews struggled to seal the bulkheads. By now, all vessels are flooded majorly, slowing down their speed in the middle of a deadly minefield.
And that means there's a second batch of torpedoes incoming. Only this time, the damage is much more severe than the last. By striking at the keels of these warships once again, the 533mm torpedoes ensure that structural failure is now a given for every single ship. The few battleships in the formation collapse inward, the weight of their gun barbettes and conning tower have proved to be too much with their entire lower deck blasted open. The lighter destroyers and cruisers though just flip onto their sides or break down into pieces completely.
On her part as the most modern battleship in the Papal Navy, Littorio's famed Pugliese torpedo defense system certainly failed to live up to its creator's ambitious vision. The riveted joint that connected the interior torpedo bulkhead to the bottom of the hull of the Littorio-class was not strong enough to sustain the tremendous shear loadings associated with direct contact explosions. The joints failed even in cases of non-contact explosions, which prevented the hollow drum of the Pugliese system (the drum ran the length of the torpedo defense system, and was designed to collapse to contain the explosive pressure of a torpedo hit) from collapsing as designed and resulted in even more massive flooding. This, together with her collapsing structural integrity, makes Littorio plunge beneath the waves even faster than most of the ships in her sinking formation.
How ironic.
By the time the ordnance stops falling down and shooting up, Taranto and the entire Alexander Fleet are gone, either up in flame or dining with Neptune. 33 warships, of which there were 6 battleships, 101 anti-aircraft guns, and 193 machine guns... All gone in the span of not just a single day, but a mere few hours. When morning does come, the fire in the harbor is still going strong. The flame goes as far as spilling into open water where oil, debris, and munition from sinking ships feed it even further. Thus creating the world's first and truest phenomenon that is dubbed as:
A Sea of Fire.
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"This is Group 1 Leader to all elements. Confirmed successful ordinance delivery from Group 1 to 3, we're RTB-in at this time. Group 4, Enola May, up next will be your solo. We'll be waiting for the footage back at K-Town with breakfast and coffee at the ready."
"This is Enola May, I sure hope your coffee is actual drinkable coffee this time around, not just some caffeinated soda drink. Else the thing you will be seeing is your ass twerking to the beat." The pilot of the Enola May warned jokingly, earning herself a roaring laughter from the other end before the comms link went inactive.
Turning to her crew, the pilot/chief says. "Alright, we're diverting to that naval alcove now. Offensive system officer, please prep the Cloudmakers for deployment."
"You got it, chief."
Pulling away from their circular pattern above Taranto, the Enola May flies due Southeast while the rest of the 509th return to Belka. Other than the singular Polar Bear bomber, the AO is still pretty active with the naval air wings still flying combat missions all over Sardegna. The hubbub will last to the break of dawn at the very least.
After flying for around twenty minutes, the Enola May reaches the mission zone. "Alright, you all know what to do."
"Roger Roger. The targeting pod is hot and bomb bays are opening... You can ease her in now, chief."
Without further word, the pilot commands Enola May to fly a stable path directly above the targeted naval base. Said naval base is a deep water port, built directly into a cavern system. Intel suggested that there will be no less than six vessels of different kinds there at all times so it's a highly valuable mark to destroy. Taking it out means there will be one less port for Sardegna to project its power.
Using the Sniper targeting pod that is installed beneath the cockpit fuselage, the offensive system officer directs a laser marker, putting it innocuously above the hidden base. Despite there exist layers of dirt, rock, and reinforced concrete protecting it, the bombs will be guided, penetrated, and landed smack dab in the middle of the hideout. That's not an if, but a certainty.
"Bombs out in 3..." The officer rests a finger on the release button. "2... 1... One away... Two away... Closing the bays."
The two 20000 kilograms of bombs fall one by one before deploying their guidance kits, pointing the tip of their noses toward the invisible red marker down below. "We got good guidance on both bombs. Now let's wait for these Cloudmakers to leave up to their names."
"Roger that. Let's swing Enola around for a good look."
Being dropped at the maximum altitude a B-40 Polar Bear can climb to, the Cloudmakers can easily break the supersonic barrier. Their names are derived from the fact that just before they break that esteemed border, the bombs are covered up in misty clouds. That and the fact that when a Cloudmaker detonates, it generates a mushroom cloud that rivals that of a tactical WMD. Arguably, deploying Cloudmakers will be much cheaper than using actual WMDs. However, their size and weight are the only limiting factors, being that they're only deployable by Polar Bears. The 30-kiloton Orkan Torpedo that was used to decimate the Erusean Home Fleet was both lighter and much easier to field on multiple platforms than the Cloudmakers.
There are pros and cons for everything, but right now, it's better to focus on the fact that our Cloudmakers just broke the sound barrier. They're fast on track to deliver a good nogging to the Sardegnians below.
Before the sonic booming can even be heard by anyone, the first bomb, the Big-bada-boom, punches through the thick layers of soil and concrete roofing like nobody's business. It's followed by Wipeout Whitney, the second bomb, a mere second later. The two bombs collectively create a small earthquake when they hit the ground, but they are not done yet, not even close.
Big-bada-boom pierces through the roof first, and before the debris and dirt from above can even come pouring down, the bomb makes a purchase with an unlucky Sardegnian submarine. The newly constructed Brin-class submarine is cleaved in half when the Big-bada-boom goes from her conning tower and through the bottom of her hull before finally hitting the shallow seafloor below. Wipeout Whitney though, goes for a much gentler journey, tentatively, hitting and penetrating through the floors of a barrack. The sheer kinetic force of Whitney causes the barrack to collapse on itself. But before the Sardegnians even have the chance to register what's happening, the bombs explode when their programmable fuzes activate the detonators.
In the confined space of the cavern system, the two bombs detonate into earth-shattering blasts. First, the combined shockwave obliterates any non-reinforced objects, which include human bodies, in the entire naval base before quaking the very foundation of the entire area, causing countless fractures and crevices to form, weakening the structural integrity of the entire base. Then comes the blast itself that destroys buildings, supporting pillars, and even the munitions that are stored in the vicinity. In particular, Big-bada-boom explodes the torpedoes of the Brin-class submarine, causing further chain reactions that quickly spread over to other docked vessels. The numerous explosions, when added up with the deterioration of the base's foundation and roofing, make the entire site collapse atop itself.
The roof comes down first, with tons upon tons of material crushing whatever's still left beneath them. Then, due to Big-bada-boom detonating right at the seafloor, the foundation starts sliding down into the sea due to the added weight, having lost whatever footing it used to have. The landslide then spills into the dock, engulfing the heavily damaged or destroyed ships before running into the open sea, thus completely sealing the cavern system. In short, the entire Sardegnian base is buried alive. It has to be said, however, that most if not all the humans inside the base have perished due to the initial shockwave as they're in a very confined space. Thus sparing them from the fate of being buried alive, lucky them.
From high above, what's left of the base is just a smoldering indiscernible landmass. Indeed, while the explosion isn't as spectacular as when the Cloudmakers explode above ground, the underground movement effect is still a sight to behold that one wouldn't dare to miss out on. Only when they are not on the receiving end though.
"That's a confirmed total destruction. And we've caught it on Ultra HD too. Yeah, I think we're done here, chief."
"Yeah, I can see the good effect, alright. The bastards didn't even stand a chance." The pilot commented. "Rather, being deep below ground gave them no chance at all to survive the Cloudmakers. Alright, radio this in. Enola May is RTB-ing after a successful bomb run. Now we got something to brag with the others back home."
Surprisingly, it's the co-pilot that adds. "This is but a slight warning for Sardegna. No doubt we will be flying many trips later."
"Then it's a good thing my recorder can be made into a permanent feature then." The defensive system officer smirked.
"As long as it doesn't interfere with any of the Enola's systems." The flight engineer warned.
"Say, you think we will be able to engage any enemy patrol fighters or something." The defensive officer asked in a hopeful tone.
Unfortunately for him, the return flight will be an uneventful one, save for the banters they have. After all, not a single aircraft that the Sardegnians have can reach their altitude, much less try to intercept them.