My Italy

Captain Diaz's farewell telegram was quickly transmitted to Major General Hinken via radio waves. At this time, the Major General was not having a good time either.

Although Yu Dou has lowered his hit rate, there are still hits. Not to mention that although the strength gap between the two parties seems not big, it is just a matter of two ships versus three ships, but in fact the gap is very big. Because although the Invincible is a follow-up model of the Invincible-class, it can actually only be regarded as a follow-up improved model of the Invincible-class. Its performance can only be regarded as slightly improved, because it is aimed at the Invincible-class whose numbers are not enough to fight against the war between Germany and Italy. Response measures to the number of patrol construction.

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

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

This is also the reason why Rear Admiral Hinken can only use wandering tactics. Traditional face-to-face artillery battles cannot be fought at all. He can only use this to slow down the opponent and win a good situation for the battleship formation.

In fact, the British Empire is not without its existence that can compete with the Milan class. The three Lion-class battle cruisers it has in service are also equipped with 343mm main guns. However, the British need to prioritize ensuring the advantages of the local fleet, so they can only first Let the Mediterranean Fleet use the Invincible class and the Tireless class to top it off.

Only after the Tiger-class battle cruisers being outfitted enter service will the Mediterranean Fleet compete with the Italian battle cruisers in terms of quantity and quality. However, the Tiger-class battle cruiser will not enter service until the end of the year at the earliest, so it is just an empty talk now.

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 UK in 2010 and 2011 have 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 no longer be empty talk for the British Empire Navy to punch the German Navy and kick the Italian-Austrian Fleet.

However, no one expected the time when the war would come, so none of the participating countries had to be fully prepared.

For Major General Xinken, when fighting an opponent with a disadvantaged battle cruiser, he could only think of a tactical solution. However, because the Italian concealed the maximum speed of the battle cruiser, his battle became more difficult.

However, the news that the Invincible was sunk made his situation even worse. Two enemy battle cruisers took action, 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 when Major General Hinken was about to further increase the speed to reduce the hit rate of both parties and prolong his defeat for more time, he only heard a huge explosion from the Indomitable on the side.

At this moment, Major General Xin Ken felt nervous and spoke quickly. "Send a telegram to ask what's going on with the Indomitable?"

At this moment, the boiler room under the waterline behind the starboard side of the Indomitable was in a mess. A 350mm 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, has a battleship waterline The following armor is only 1.4 meters at most. Any more is impossible, because it has little effect but increases the displacement of the battleship.

The threat below the waterline comes more from torpedoes than artillery shells. The armor focuses more on defense against artillery shells, but the defense against torpedoes is not effective.

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

In order to prevent special cases, warships are required to add hundreds or thousands of tons of armor. Anyone who dares to raise this issue will definitely be thrown out of the window by the navies of various countries. Do you know how many warships the navy has? Do you know how much this will increase the cost of building warships? Compared with the increased shipbuilding costs, compared with the losses of warships caused by special cases such as underwater bombs, 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 your own bad luck. (I would like to mention here that during the naval holiday period, the Japanese Navy later developed the famous Type 91 armor-piercing projectile in order to maximize the effect of water bombs. It was specially equipped with naval guns of 203 mm or above. I didn’t see how many Japanese fired during World War II. Water bombing effect, it seems that this kind of cannonball that pursues water bombing does not have the desired effect.)

As for why this underwater bomb is specifically mentioned, it is because besides directly hitting the warship ammunition depot, this is the most damaging way to hit the warship, and its effect is comparable to that of a torpedo. The reason is that it bypasses the heavy armor and directly hits the underwater hull. Coupled with the assistance of sea water, the damage effect is naturally amazing (this torpedo is an effective one).

Therefore, as long as there is a water bomb, it will definitely cause serious damage to the enemy ship (this is why water bombs are so famous).

The damage effect of the Indomitable hit by a 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 hell on earth, and also blasted a large hole of 2.4 × 4.3 meters in the hull. The huge gap caused seawater to pour into the cabin of the Indomitable from this gap at a speed of several tons per second.

At the same time, the seawater also extinguished the boilers that were not destroyed, so the officers and soldiers in the boiler room of the Indomitable who survived a hellish scene on earth experienced another world of ice and fire, with cold seawater under their legs and scalding hot bodies. water vapor. At the same time, a strange smell permeated the entire cabin. The clever 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 Indomitable's speed to drop significantly, directly from 23 knots to 12 knots. This speed is undoubtedly a death sentence for the current Indomitable.

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

When Major General Hinken received the telegram from the Indomitable, he only felt his eyes darken. Because in addition to the specific losses of the Indomitable, there is also information that the captain of the Indomitable asked his warship to stay to stop the enemy.

It was obvious that the Indomitable knew that it could not run away, and hoped to use itself to hold back the enemy and buy time for the only remaining Indefatigable in the formation.

Looking at the telegram in front of him, Major General Hinken knew that his plan had failed. Regardless of whether he cited bad luck or bad luck as the reason, it could not change the fact that his plan to delay the enemy's battle patrol failed.

At this moment, he needed to make a choice quickly whether to stay with the Indomitable until the last moment, to flee elsewhere, or to rush to the main force of the fleet.

"Order, the formation is now divided, the Indomitable sails eastward, and the Indefatigable sails north."

Rear Admiral Hinken made a decision quickly. He decided to take the remaining Indefatigable to the main fleet to increase the strength of the main fleet. As for the Indomitable, it can only hope for good fortune. If the Indefatigable remains, it will only consume more of the opponent's ammunition, which will not help the outcome at all.

Subsequently, the Indefatigable accelerated its sailing north, while the Indomitable could only sail east slowly.

Lieutenant General Gomes, his opponent, saw all the actions of the British battle patrol. Lieutenant General Gomes does not take the Indefatigable to heart now. Because the opponent only has one battle cruiser left, there is no way to implement any effective tactics.

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

"Tell them not to be too ambitious, and give priority to solving the Indomitable in front of them. In addition, power the Taranto and Bolsano to make them faster. We also have to rush to assist the main fleet to take down the enemy as soon as possible."

"As you command!"