The Rise of the Empire

At this time, the Defense was as dazzling as a light bulb in the dark night. Even if Harris chose to release the smoke screen, the pillar of fire rising into the sky still pointed out his position. The Scharnhorst had formed a straddle attack on the Defense, and the mechanical ballistic computer produced by the Bavarian Precision Machinery Company accurately described the opponent's trajectory. The shells came one after another like eyes.

"It's a pointless struggle, deal with them quickly!" Su Xiong said impatiently while looking at the sea torch moving in the distance. In the next five minutes, the Defense was still unable to avoid the Scharnhorst's bombardment. Under the semi-volley attack, which averaged once every half a minute, the battleship was hit by seven 350MM shells in succession. When another When it came out of the smoke, the battleship had been beaten to a pulp!

"The engine room on the right side of the battleship has been damaged, the boiler room on the left side has been flooded, and four boilers have stalled. The hull has been severely flooded and has tilted 10 degrees. The main turret on the bow cannot be used." A series of desperate news came. , letting Harris know that his and the Defense's time has come. So at the last moment, he issued an order that he would regret for the rest of his life! The entire transport fleet quickly passed through the strait!

Just after this telegram was sent, the defense armored cruiser finally reached its limit. A shell hit the side of the battleship. This shell successfully penetrated the main armor belt, which was only 6 inches thick, and then plunged into the boiler. Among the neatly arranged rows of boilers in the hideout, after a dazzling white flash, a series of explosions came from the entire right boiler room. The explosion of the shell directly shattered the four boilers. High-temperature and high-pressure steam with a temperature of more than 200 degrees rushed out from the broken pipes. When it met the cold air outside, it formed patches of white mist. The raging flames and steam were mixed with shrapnel. Sweeping through everything in the cabin, one after another explosions shattered the walls of each cabin.

All British naval personnel who tried to extinguish the fire or repair the warship were swallowed up by the flames and high temperatures. Countless shrapnel kept jumping in the small cabin, harvesting people's lives. Mutilated corpses and dark red snow were everywhere. The entire battleship turned into a Shura field from the middle to the back.

Although the Defense is still floating on the sea, all power is lost at this moment. The battleship is tilted 25 degrees, and the artillery has no firing range at all. Of course, it is useless if there is a firing range. In order to prevent the flames from spreading to the ammunition depot, the British have already loaded the ammunition early The reservoir has been filled with water, so now the Defense is just a salty fish, one that was taken care of in just 10 minutes after the war started.

Compared to the Defense, which is already somewhat old, the Melbourne, a newly launched 5,000-ton light cruiser, has lived longer. Of course, the defense bar is longer, but in terms of defense, both ships have a longer lifespan. It was his life that was penetrated, and at this time, the Melbourne's high sensitivity and proper smoke screen protection allowed him to live longer. Of course, not being lit at the beginning was also one of the reasons.

The cruiser swung through the dense water column at a high speed of 23 knots, and streams of smoke erupted from the smoke cans, forming a moving smoke wall around the battleship. This caused great trouble for the Gneisenau's firing. The British still have the backing to counterattack. At this time, the cruiser Sydney is following from behind with four 700-ton destroyers. These destroyers originally from the Far East Squadron are the only chance for the British to make a comeback!

"Put some distance, time is on our side." Redel said, looking at the British light cruiser hidden in the smoke in the distance. Under normal circumstances, even if Redel chose to evade temporarily in order to save the ship, he would be very depressed.

Because the opponent's cruisers and destroyers are buying time for the transport fleet.

But as Redl, the naval admiral whom Ruppresit called "the younger brother" would naturally not ignore this issue. Therefore, even though he was far less mature than later generations, he had already considered this issue!

The two German fast battleships began to turn slowly, then increased their speed appropriately and distanced themselves. Anyway, you can't use the smoke canister all the time. When the smoke disappears, you will be dead, so Redel made the first move. He was not in a hurry, and leisurely circled with the two British light cruisers. Although the prey in front of him was very good, Redel knew that his battleship was more valuable! It's not a crime to let something happen to one's warships for the sake of a few troop transport ships!

At this time, the experienced Su Xiong was obviously more ruthless than Redel. Of course, in the eyes of the British, he was even less of a thing... Your two light cruisers are protected by smoke, so I can't touch you. But your transport fleet is not smoke-shielded, right? How far can the transport fleet with a normal speed of only 9 knots travel at this time? And that’s even when queuing up to cross the strait!

"First bypass the two light cruisers, and we will directly attack the British transport fleet with our main guns!" Su Xiong ordered. At this time, two German fast battleships were outside the strait. Relying on the 350MM artillery and the 6-meter body rangefinder, it was possible to hit a target 18 kilometers away when the visibility was high and the sea conditions were good. At this time, because the German fleet did not choose to be in the narrow strait, it was possible to rely on the same speed as the light cruiser to bypass the opponent and then bombard the troop carrier from a long distance.

boom! The Scharnhorst's main gun roared again, and more than ten seconds later, a huge flame suddenly burst out from the side of a transport ship 13 kilometers away, and a large piece of the entire side was torn off, and even the water was The hull plating below the line was torn apart. The turbulent seawater surged in, not only further widening the damage, it even penetrated several adjacent watertight compartments!

Gneisenau was not to be outdone, and in the next round of shots, it turned a troop transport in formation to pass through the strait into a burning torch. Unlike the TNT explosive used in armor-piercing bombs, the picric acid explosive used in high-explosive bombs is simply a killer for such undefended ships. It has excellent flammability and can produce toxic smoke. What else is better than picric acid? ?

In front of the two super-dreadnoughts, the merchant ship on the opposite side was as helpless as a lamb waiting to be slaughtered! Although the attacks by the two super-dreadnoughts on the transport ships did not last long, they had already seriously injured 6 transport ships one after another or sent them to the bottom of the sea. At this moment, the seaplanes flying in the sky could clearly see the people struggling on the sea. People drowning.

"There are probably thousands of people here, right?" the pilot of the Kingfisher seaplane said, smacking his lips.

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