The Rise of the Empire

"No problem, if there are more mines, I can completely block Venice!" Major Staff said without hesitation.

"My Sea Wolf will lay mines at the port in northern Sicily, and at the same time block the Strait of Messina with mines before leaving," Major Hoffman said.

"Okay, let's fight this first battle well!" Sher was as high-spirited as a lion about to fight! Then, the three warships were divided into two groups, the King Albert and the Swordfish, and headed for Taranto Bay. Sea wolves, on the other hand, headed for ports in northern Sicily.

"It seems that the Duke's fleet has found the German warship, but I don't know what the situation is now." An Italian navy said to his comrades beside him, looking at the rising sun in the mist.

"It is said that it was discovered last night. Under normal circumstances, night battles will not be carried out. Maybe the war has just started. Maybe we can participate in the encirclement and suppression of this German warship after sending these transport ships to their destinations." Another soldier said .

Before the war, the Italians tried their best to collect data from spies, the British and the French, and Duke Abziru had a general understanding of the battleship. "It is as indestructible as the ancient heavy cavalry, and we lack crossbows that can penetrate this layer of armor. This battle will inevitably be very long. In addition to suffocating the opponent with a large number of shells and then sinking it with torpedoes, we There is no better way." Therefore, the Duke is ready for long-distance pursuit and interception.

Originally, the Marco Polo armored cruiser responsible for covering the transport fleet had barely enough speed and good firepower. It had 6 6-inch guns, 10 4.7-inch guns and 4-inch side string armor. From the perspective of combat effectiveness, it is better than Yoshino I don't know where Gao went. However, with a displacement of only 4,000 tons, it is really not suitable for facing the 13,000-ton King Albert-class armored cruiser. And because the weight of the weapon armor is too heavy and the soft performance is a bit bad, it can only be used to cover the transport fleet.

Under the escort of the Marco Polo, four fleets loaded with 3,000 Italian soldiers, 2,500 horses, more than 60 artillery pieces and 2,500 tons of various supplies sailed from the port of Taranto to Tripoli. At this time, the sea fog in the distance has not yet dissipated, and the Italian naval officers and soldiers are very comfortable enjoying the beauty of the rising sun going out to sea.

They are very comfortable now. They don't have to worry about the Prince Albert, because this battleship shouldn't be here, and they don't need to worry about the attack ship, because the firepower of the Marco Polo is enough to deal with any battleship below the second-class cruiser! They even hoped that the short-sighted assault ship would appear in front of them to die!

"Look, our right side! What's that?"

"Oh my God, he seems to have suddenly emerged from the sea level! Only 3 nautical miles at most!"

"God, that's a battleship, a battleship! And it's definitely not ours!"

When a gust of sea breeze blew away a corner of the sea fog on the sea surface, two huge figures suddenly appeared in front of the Italians, with a distance of about 7 kilometers. Neither the Germans nor the Italians noticed each other at first!

"Fire now. Destroy them!" The fastest responder was the assault ship Swordfish. In the roar of Major Staff, the two gun groups at the bow were the first to tear off the cover on the gun positions. The gun jacket began to turn the muzzle. Accompanied by an orange flame, the Swordfish fired the first shot of the battle. Although the shell fell into the water 500 meters away from the Marco Polo,

But it's also the first shot!

"The Swordfish attacked the transport ship behind, and the Italian battleship was handed over to us!" Scheer's order was immediately passed through the semaphore, and the German fleet quickly disbanded the formation, and the Swordfish behind rushed like a ferocious wolf. To the Italian transport fleet, while the Prince Albert aimed its guns at the cruiser Marco Polo in the distance!

"Rush up to us to have a chance! Use torpedoes!" The Italian navy is much more qualified than their army. Lieutenant Colonel Durio, the captain of the Marco Polo, still showed great fighting spirit in the face of an overwhelming advantage. , although it is useless.

As a cruiser, the maximum speed is only 17.8 knots, not as fast as the opposite Swordfish! Even speed is a disadvantage, what kind of threat can it pose against opponents such as the King Albert? From the first round of semi-volleys fired by the armored cruiser King Albert, only 2 minutes later, the fifth round of salvos successfully hit the Italian cruiser, which was undergoing a desperate assault.

A shell weighing 227KG plunged into the middle of the cruiser's hull and fell between the two chimneys. The violent explosion directly overturned the top three gun positions. Engulfed and swept across the entire middle of the hull, after a storm of flames and steel dissipated, half of the chimney at the rear of the battleship was swept away, and a large amount of thick smoke could not be discharged from the chimney, and began to spread inside the hull , Some even poured it back, extinguishing several boilers!

At this time, the distance between the two sides was still more than 5,000 meters, and the Italian 6-inch guns and 4.7-inch guns could not play a role at this distance. They poured shells angrily, but under the rough fire control system and poor operation, these shells fell far into the water, and had no effect except to blow up water columns one by one, telling people that Italy was counterattacking.

Facing opponents of this level, the Scheer did not have much entanglement with them at all. In just ten minutes, the Prince Albert completed the first kill in his career! In the sixth and seventh rounds, the volleys hit 2 shots, and in the eighth round, the volleys hit 3 shots!

The blow that can be called a textbook hit the Italian cruiser with bruises and bruises! There were dull explosions coming from the battleship, and the painful sound of metal twisting and breaking made all the Italians lose their fighting spirit. The entire front of the hull was hit by 4 rounds of 227KG shells, which not only cut off the entire bow, The waterline part of the hull was also dug with two large holes. In a very short period of time, more than 600 tons of water entered the bow, causing the warship, which was only 4,000 tons, to have a serious head tilt, and the propellers emerged from the water from time to time!

With a loud noise, another shell pierced through the middle power compartment of the Marco Polo. This shell easily penetrated the horizontal armor, and then went all the way down, penetrating the pipelines, flues, and cabins along the way, and then It exploded close to the bilge! Under the action of more than ten kilograms of gunmetal, the high-speed debris smashed the double-layer bottom of the battleship, and a huge hole appeared in front of people. Before the remaining survivors called for help, the raging The seawater engulfed the entire boiler room!

"This battleship is finished, and we didn't even save the torpedo." Scheer said calmly.

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