Chapter 2776: Bombing of prince harbour

The bureaucrats of the Continental Congress also felt that they had done a good deed, and the disputes within the army were alleviated with a single order.
Little do they know that this approach is like raising soup to stop boiling, sawing arrows to heal injuries, and the contradictions that have been temporarily covered up will sooner or later erupt again, causing more serious consequences.
…
Like most port cities, Prince Port is located on a long and narrow peninsula, surrounded by the sea on three sides and leading to the interior on one side.
On May 3, the Feijin Army Corps under the command of Earl Winthrop cut off the main traffic route from Prince Port to the inland, and the Feijin Navy Fleet blocked the sea lanes of Prince Port under the command of General William Howe.
On May 5th, Earl Winthrop sent a letter to General Gates, asking him to surrender and avoid unnecessary sacrifices.
General Gates categorically refused to surrender, and on the same day he visited the front line in person and delivered a morale-boosting pre-war speech, vowing to stand firm and co-exist and die with Prince Port!
Your Excellency General's attitude is very firm, and the speech can be called impassioned, but this can not make up the strength gap between the enemy and us, nor can it really eliminate the blow to the morale of the lower-level officers and soldiers caused by the repeated running of the Continental Congress representatives.
In fact, General Gates knew in his heart that the generosity declaration on the battlefield was somewhat of a show, but in fact he did not have full confidence in defending Prince Port.
Judging from the comparison of the forces between the enemy and ours, it seems that the defensive side has a great advantage against the 30,000 troops on the defensive side with 20,000 troops on the offensive side?
However, it is not.
The 20,000 Marcos under the command of Earl Winthrop are all the real rulers of Fei, well-equipped and well-trained, and they are well-deserved elite divisions.
The 20,000 army that General Gates brought from Forge Valley, although received the training of the famous Far East general Vigraf in the winter, the quality has been significantly improved, but there is still a certain gap compared with the real regular army of Fiji.
The gap in equipment levels between the two sides is even greater.
The War of Independence has been fought for a whole year, and the Continental Army has yet to solve the most basic shortage of guns and ammunition. Of General Gates’s 20,000 soldiers, only half are equipped with rifles, and the rest can only take cold weapons such as bows, crossbows, swords, etc. Make do.
There is a serious shortage of guns. There are only more than 300 heavy weapons such as artillery, which is less than half of the enemy's. If the large-caliber naval guns of the Feizhen Navy are included, the firepower gap is even greater.
According to General Gates’ own deduction, if the Continental Army Southern Corps confronted the enemy on the plains outside Princeport, facing the fierce firepower of the Fijian line rifle phalanx and the cannon, it would have to collapse after two hours. .
So, does the Continental Army have any troops with better equipment and greater combat effectiveness?
Really!
The cavalry division stationed in House Town has a new rifle equipment rate of more than 70%. Coupled with the advantages of the cavalry in mobility and impact, it is suitable to deal with the Fijian line infantry. It stands to reason that it should become General Gates. A trump card in the hand that determines the outcome.
It is a pity that the direct commander of this force is Gates’ dead opponent Isaac Hooker, and the officer class has been infiltrated into a sieve by cultists, only obedient to Hooker, and General Gates can’t get past Hu. Ke directly dispatched the cavalry division, which was very inefficient in command.
At the thought of Hooker's cavalry division, General Gates couldn't help but get angry.
It's all because of the blind command of the literati and bureaucrats of the Continental Congress, which delayed his plan to rectify and reorganize the cavalry division, otherwise the current situation would not be so embarrassing.
Considering that the cavalry divisions in House Town did not necessarily obey the command, General Gates had no confidence to take the initiative to attack, seeking a head-on confrontation with the Winthrop Corps, and taking a defensive approach became the only countermeasure.
The question is can you hold it?
After a round of emergency repairs, the urban defense facilities of Prince Port barely reached the defense level of Freeport, which was incomparable to Midgard.
Feizhen’s greatest strength was not the army, but the naval fleet. The reason why Freeport and Midgard Port fell one after another was mainly because they could not withstand the heavy artillery bombardment of the Royal Navy fleet under the command of General William Howe.
Nowadays, the giant fleet has appeared magnificently in the bay of Prince Port. The battleships set up cannons, and the muzzle of the black hole pointed to the port area. Both Freeport and Midgard Port could not stand it. What is the difference in the fate of Prince Port?
What is really different is that the residents of Port-Prince are more miserable than their compatriots in Freeport and Midgard.
When Feichen's army attacked Midgard and Freeport, it was mainly bombarded by warships. The psychological intimidation to the residents of the city was far greater than the substantial damage. However, this time is different. Follow the Earl of Winthrop to attack south. In addition to the Royal Fleet in Prince Port... there are also four HNA Wings!
As far as siege wars are concerned, the killing efficiency of artillery and warships has to be slightly backward, and it is the Air Force bombing team that mounts the heavy incendiary bomb!
In the afternoon of May 5th, Earl Winthrop learned that General Gates refused to surrender, and decided to give this ignorant fellow a little bit of color—the color of fire and blood.
At 2:30 in the afternoon, General William Howe received instructions from the Governor and immediately ordered the fleet to bombard the Port of Princes wharf area.
At the same time, a total of 404 giant crows carrying aerial bombs took off from the motherships of their respective squadrons and flew in clusters over the urban area of ​​Prince Port. "Fire glue" bombs were dropped on the shops on both sides of the street and the houses in residential areas. After the explosion, flames skyrocketed. Numerous wooden buildings were lit, billowing black smoke and clouding the sun above the city.
Until night fell, Feizhen’s HNA troops had been on duty for four rounds of bombing missions. Incendiary bombs dropped to the downtown area of ​​Prince Port totaled 320,000 pounds, turning half of the city into a purgatory on earth. Residents were burned to death and burned more than a thousand people, and the resulting property damage and psychological deterrence were even greater than that.
Charles Gates did not personally experience the "Freeport Defense War" in the fall of 1626, and he was also absent from the two subsequent "Forge Valley Defense Wars" that broke out. This led to a serious lack of understanding of the Fiji Vacuum Army. Air defense measures were taken in Prince Port ahead of time, and he was caught off guard by this dark and dark bombing.
The Parliament building where the Continental Army Command was located was also bombed, forcing General Gates to lead his staff in the basement to hide in the dark until the bombing outside subsided before returning to the surface.
The parliament building is a very sturdy stone building. After being bombarded indiscriminately, the doors, windows, tables and chairs were all burnt up, and the walls were darkened by thick smoke, but they still stood tall. The latest chapter address of Master Qiao An: https://EbookFREE.me/book/102085.htmlMaster Qiao’s reading address: https://EbookFREE.me/read/102085/Master Qiao An txt download address: https://EbookFREE.me/down/102085.htmlMaster Qiao An’s mobile phone reading: https://m.EbookFREE.me/read/102085/ For the convenience of reading next time, you can click "Favorites" below to record the reading record of this time (Chapter 2776 Bombing of Prince Port), and you can see it next time you open the bookshelf! If you like "Master Qiao An", please recommend this book to your friends (QQ, blog, WeChat, etc.), thank you stand by! (EbookFREE.me)