My Italian

The latest website: Captain Dias's farewell telegram was quickly transmitted to Major General Sinken via radio waves. At this time, the major general was also having a hard time.

Although Yuto has lowered the hit rate, there are still cases of hits. Not to mention that although the two parties seem to have little difference in strength, it is a matter of two ships versus three ships, but in fact the gap is very large. Because although the Indefatigable is a follow-up model of the Invincible, it can only be regarded as a follow-up improvement of the Invincible, and its performance can only be regarded as a slight improvement, because it is aimed at the Invincible. Measures to respond to the number of inspections.

As for the Invincible, as the second ship of the Invincible class, its performance is even worse than that of the Indefatigable.

So it is actually a confrontation between two battlecruisers equipped with 305mm main guns and two Milan-class battlecruisers with 305mm main guns and two 350mm main guns. This is at a complete disadvantage, and there is no way to fight.

This is also the reason why Major General Xinken can only use the tactics of fighting. The traditional face-to-face artillery battle cannot be fought at all. He can only use this to slow down the opponent's footsteps and win a good situation for the battleship formation.

In fact, the British Empire is not without existence that can compete with the Milan class. The three Lion-class battlecruisers in service are also equipped with 343mm main guns. Let the Mediterranean Fleet use the Invincible and Indefatigable first.

Only after the Tiger-class battle cruiser being outfitted enters service, the Mediterranean Fleet will compete with the Italian battle cruiser in terms of quantity and quality. However, the earliest Tiger-class battlecruisers will be in service at the end of the year, so now it is just empty talk.

In the final analysis, the time when the war broke out was relatively coincidental, so that a large number of main warships built by the United Kingdom in 2010 and 2011 had not yet completed their service. If it can wait another year or two, its naval strength will be greatly supplemented. By that time, it will not be empty talk for the British Empire Navy to punch the German Navy and kick the Italian-Austrian Combined Fleet.

However, no one thought of the time when the war would come, so it was not necessary for all participating countries to fully prepare.

As for Major General Xinken, the only way to confront opponents with the disadvantaged Battle Cruiser is to find a way tactically. However, because the Italian concealed the top speed of the battlecruiser, his battle became more difficult.

However, the news that the Invincible was sunk made his situation worse. The enemy's two battle cruisers made their move, and everyone knew what this meant.

"Order the formation to increase the speed to 24 knots, we just need to hold on, then the reinforcement fleet..."

"Boom!"

Just as Major General Xinken was planning to further increase the speed of the ship to reduce the hit rate of the two sides and extend the time for his defeat, he only heard a huge explosion sound from the Indomitable on the side.

At this moment, Major General Xinken's heart tightened, and he quickly spoke. "Send a telegram to ask what's going on with the Invincible?"

At this moment, the boiler room under the waterline behind the starboard side of the Indomitable was in a mess. A 350mm artillery shell fired from the Florence hit the hull of the Indomitable 2.5 meters below the waterline in the form of a water bomb.

You must know that most of the armor of warships in various countries is above the waterline, and there is less armor below the waterline. It would be good to extend the armor to one meter below the waterline. Even Italy, which pays great attention to waterline defense, the waterline of warships The following armor is only 1.4 meters at most. No amount of it would be possible, because it would have little effect but would increase the displacement of the battleship.

The threat below the waterline comes more from torpedoes than shells, and the armor focuses more on defense against shells. As for the defense against torpedoes, the defense effect is not good.

As for the threat of water bombs? Well, this is indeed a great threat to warships, but if you look through the history of naval warfare, how many water bombs can you find? On the contrary, countless warships were sunk by various bombardments, torpedoes, etc.

In order to prevent special cases from adding hundreds of thousands of tons of armor to warships, anyone who dares to raise this question will definitely be thrown out of the window by the navies of various countries. Do you know how many warships the navy has, and how much this will increase the construction cost of warships? Compared with the loss of warships caused by the special case of underwater bombs, the increased cost of shipbuilding, navies of various countries are more willing to gamble on luck.

As for what to do if you lose the bet, you can only blame yourself for your bad luck. (One more thing to mention here, the Japanese Navy later developed the famous Type 91 armor-piercing projectile in order to obtain the best effect of this kind of water projectile during the Navy holiday period. It is specially equipped with naval guns above 203 mm. I have not seen how many wars Japan fired in World War II. The effect of water bombs, it seems that this kind of shells that pursue water bombs did not produce the desired effect.)

As for why this water bomb is specifically used as an issue, it is because this is the most damaging way to hit a warship other than directly hitting the warship's ammunition depot, and its effect is comparable to that of a torpedo. The reason is that it bypasses the heavy armor and hits the underwater hull directly. Coupled with the help of sea water, the damage effect is naturally amazing (this torpedo is an effect).

So as long as there is an underwater bomb, it must be a serious damage to the enemy ship (this is why the underwater bomb is so famous).

The damage effect of the Indomitable, which was hit by the water bomb, was equally astonishing. The shell directly penetrated the hull and exploded in the boiler room. The huge explosion directly turned the entire boiler room into a **** on earth, and at the same time, a large hole of 2.4 x 4.3 meters was blown out in the hull. The huge gap caused sea water to be poured into the Indomitable's cabin through the gap at a rate of several tons per second.

At the same time, the seawater will also pour out the boilers that have not been destroyed, so the officers and soldiers in the boiler room of the Indomitable who survived the scene of purgatory on earth have experienced a double day of ice and fire. water vapor. At the same time, a strange smell permeated the entire cabin, and the smart man immediately knew what it was, and tried to take as few breaths as possible.

The boiler room was severely damaged, which immediately caused the speed of the Indomitable to drop sharply, from 23 knots all the way to 12 knots. For the current Indomitable, this speed is undoubtedly a death sentence.

"Major General, this is a telegram from the Indomitable."

When Rear Admiral Sinken received the telegram from the Indomitable, his eyes turned dark. Because in addition to the specific loss of the Indomitable, there is also the information that the captain of the Indomitable asked his warship to stay to block the enemy.

Obviously, the Indomitable knew it couldn't run away, and hoped to use itself to hold back the enemy's footsteps and buy time for the only remaining Indefatigable in the formation.

Looking at the telegram in front of him at this moment, Major General Xinken knew that his plan had failed. Regardless of whether he used bad luck or bad luck as an excuse, it couldn't change his plan to delay the enemy's battle patrol to fail.

At this moment, he needs to make a quick choice whether to stay with the Indomitable until the last moment, or flee to other places, or run to the main force of the fleet.

"Order, now the formation is dismantled, the Indomitable is sailing east, and the Indefatigable is sailing north."

Rear Admiral Xinken quickly made a decision~www.wuxiaspot.com~He decided to take the only remaining Indefatigable to the main fleet to increase the strength of the main fleet. As for the Indomitable, they can only ask for blessings, and if the Indefatigable stays, it will only consume more ammunition of the opponent, and it will not help the result at all.

Afterwards, the Indefatigable speeded up and sailed north, while the Indomitable could only sail eastward slowly.

Lieutenant General Gomes, his opponent, saw all the actions of the British battle cruiser. For the Indefatigable, which left the Indomitable, Lieutenant General Gomes does not take it seriously. Because the opponent has only one Battlecruiser left, there is no way to implement any effective tactics.

"Your Excellency, Lieutenant General, the Florence and the Fiume have sent telegrams asking about our next move."

"Tell them, don't be too ambitious, and give priority to solving the Indomitable in front of you. In addition, power the Taranto and the Bolzano to make them faster, and we have to rush to assist the main fleet to take down the enemy as soon as possible."

"Obey!"

(end of this chapter)