The Rise of the Empire

"Let the light cruiser Sydney cover the transport convoy as it passes, and the Melbourne and Defense will stand by outside the entrance." After thinking about it, he decided to be more cautious. "By the way, send a signal to those ships, ask them if they have discovered other large warships, and ask them to wait aside."

Soon, the clearly-coded radio waves were sent out, and the other party seemed to be very understanding. Slowing down, turning and sending a call back, he obeyed and said that he had not seen any other large ships.

"Maybe it was a false alarm." Colonel Harris wiped away the cold sweat and then picked up a cup of coffee. He had not rested since last night and was in high tension. Now he needed to refresh himself.

However, just after taking a sip of coffee and picking up the beef burger at hand, before taking a bite, a nimble figure passed by the window. He quickly threw away the bread in his hand and ran to the observation window of the control tower. It was a seaplane, no, two! And definitely not a Royal Navy model!

"We may be in big trouble!" An ominous premonition lingered in Harris's mind, but he didn't know where this danger came from!

As if in response to Harris's premonition, a transport ship located at the back of the fleet was suddenly enveloped by water columns as high as tens of meters! The sound of shells entering the water and violent explosions plunged the entire fleet into chaos. There were Royal Navy personnel on all the transport ships, and these personnel naturally knew that this was an attack from a large-caliber naval gun!

The opponent's first round of shooting was very accurate and hit the target directly! But what surprised Harris was that the target was not found in the Defense's rangefinder!

"Have the Sydney and the destroyers come over quickly, we are in big trouble!" Harris immediately ordered, and at the same time the huge Defense began to turn, and with him was the light cruiser Melbourne.

In just 20 seconds, the second salvo arrived as scheduled! This time, the opponent directly hit the poor transport ship. Like an egg smashed by a heavy hammer, the superstructure of the transport ship with a displacement of 5,000 tons was directly blown to pieces! Like a giant beast with its head cut off.

The hit transport ship dragged thick black smoke and flames in an attempt to avoid Death's deadly scythe, but just 10 seconds later, another round of shells fell. This time, Harris could observe two hits, one being At the stern, Harris could clearly see that half of the stern had been cut off. The transport ship soon listed astern. But before the other party could struggle, a shell landed straight on the already messy deck like the Sword of Damocles. The shell penetrated at least three decks and exploded at the bottom of the cabin, and here There is also a large amount of ammunition carried by the transport ship.

boom! With an earth-shattering noise, the entire transport ship was torn into pieces by the violent explosion. A huge fireball rose into the sky from the sea, and then a huge mushroom cloud pushed the broken hull parts into the air. After gradually cooling, , forming a smoke column more than 150 meters high. The falling fragments scattered all over the fleet, and almost everyone was stunned!

"Damn it, we can't see the attacker!" the gunner of the defense armored cruiser roared angrily. Judging from the frequency of the opponent's shelling, this is definitely not something that a warship can fire. There is no distance between the two rounds of shells. In 10 seconds, even a half salvo is impossible to achieve, because the swing period of the battleship must be considered when the artillery fires. Without that battleship, the swing period would only be 10 seconds!

But the tragedy is,

Not a single British warship was found. The Defense has turned its bow and rushed over. It is as brave as a warrior who swears to defend his loved ones to the death, but he finds that the enemy is invisible!

"They are behind those merchant ships!" At this time, a telegram from the Melbourne pointed the direction to Harris. The opponent was not found from the Defense's perspective, but from another direction, the Melbourne found the target.

"Use the secondary guns to warn those merchant ships to stay out of the way!" The 7.5-inch cannon of the Defense opened fire. The shells falling far away made the merchant ships sandwiched between the two fleets immediately understand what was happening, and the latter quickly hid aside. The attacker is revealed with his back to the rising sun!

"God, what did I see?" A British naval officer looked at the vague figure in the combined rangefinder and said in fear. The opponent's offensive position is very good, with the sun behind him, which is definitely a big trouble for optical rangefinders. This made it very difficult for the British to judge ship type and distance. At this time, the distance between the two sides was about 15 kilometers, which was very difficult for the Defense, which only had a 9-inch rangefinder and a 9.2-inch main gun!

"That's definitely a dreadnought! Who can tell me how the Germans came over? Did they fly over from the North Sea?" At this time, Colonel Harris's anger towards the British Empire's intelligence agency had reached an unprecedented level. An armored cruiser and 2 light cruisers fighting 2 dreadnoughts? What are you thinking about?

"Kill these battleships first, and leave those merchant ships to the auxiliary cruisers and mines." At this time, looking at the Defense and Melbourne approaching quickly in the distance, and the Sydney slightly behind, Su Xiong ordered the fleet to turn the muzzles Target the British battleships.

Otherwise, Raeder is really a staff officer. Under his design, the German fleet obtained the best situation to engage the enemy. With the sun behind it, it was difficult for the fleet to be locked by the opponent's optical instruments, and it began to use the ships in front. The fleet blocking its own figure allows the fleet to enter a moderate combat distance, 15 kilometers, which is already within the optimal range of the 350MM naval gun, and this distance is at the edge of the range for the defender, and even if Even if it hits, it's impossible to penetrate. As for lightning strikes? You have to rush at least another 10 kilometers to have a chance of hitting...

Scharnhorst was in front and Gneisenau was behind. The two super-dreadnought fast battleships chose Defense and Melbourne respectively. The huge turret pointed at the target with the guidance of the rangefinder, accompanied by a roar. It sounded again, and the thick and long 350MML45 artillery jumped back violently, and four shells weighing more than 600 kilograms flew out of the barrel!

The Defense is also an old ship, having fought for the British Empire for at least 8 years! Insufficient boiler pressure and aging pipes have always plagued this second-line warship. Therefore, its body bones are not that flexible, and the result of being inflexible is to be hit!

A shell hit the defense like a brick. This shell hit the twin 7.5-inch secondary battery turret on the port side of the defense. The fragile armor was easily penetrated like iron sheet, and a 7.5-inch gun was fired. After being blown into pieces, the flames generated by the violent explosion directly ignited the spare shells in the tail compartment of the turret. With a loud noise, a fire dragon more than 20 meters soared into the sky! Fortunately, the fire door of this turret is closed...

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