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 You Dou has lowered the hit rate, there are still hits. Not to mention that although the difference in strength between the two parties seems not big, it is just a matter of two ships versus three ships, the gap is actually very big. Because although the Indefatigable is
The follow-up model of the Invincible class, but in fact it can only be regarded as a follow-up improved version of the Invincible class. Its performance can only be regarded as slightly improved, because it is a response to the insufficient number of Invincible class battle cruisers built by Germany and Italy.
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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, one with 305mm main guns, and two Milan-class battlecruisers 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 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 cruiser being outfitted enters service will the Mediterranean Fleet compete with the Italian battle cruiser 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.
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After all, the time when the war broke out was quite coincidental, and the large number of main battleships built by Britain 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
At that time, it was no longer empty talk that the British Empire's navy punched the German navy and kicked 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 Hinken, when fighting an opponent with a disadvantaged battle cruiser, he could only think of a tactical solution. However, because the Italians 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 and then reinforce the fleet..."
"Boom!"
Just when Rear Admiral Hinken was about to further increase the speed to reduce the hit rate of both sides and prolong his defeat for more time, he only heard a huge explosion from the Indomitable on the side.
At this moment, Major General Xinken felt nervous and quickly said, "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 the defense of artillery shells, but the defense effect against torpedoes is not good.
As for the threat of underwater bombs? Well, this is indeed a great threat to battleships, but if you look at the history of naval battles, how many instances of underwater bombs can you find? On the contrary, countless battleships have been 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 ask this question will 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?
What? 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. (One more thing to mention here is that in order to maximize the effect of this kind of water bomb during the naval holiday, the Japanese Navy also specially developed the famous Nine
A type of armor-piercing projectile. It is specially equipped with naval guns of 203 mm and above. Japan has not seen much water bombing effect in World War II. It seems that this kind of artillery shell 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, it is the most damaging way to hit the warship. Its effect is comparable to that of a torpedo. The reason is that it bypasses the heavy
The armor 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 are underwater bombs, it will definitely cause serious damage to the enemy ship (this is why underwater 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 exploded a 2.4 in the hull.
×4.3 meters large hole. 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 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 Indomitable's speed to drop significantly, directly from 23 knots to 12 knots. This speed was undoubtedly a death sentence for the current Indomitable.
"Major General, this is a telegram from the Indomitable."
When Rear Admiral Hinken received the telegram from the Indomitable, his eyes darkened. In addition to the specific loss of the Indomitable, there was also a message from the captain of the Indomitable requesting 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 slow down the enemy and buy time for the only remaining Indefatigable in the formation.
Looking at the telegram in front of him at this moment, Major General Hinken knew that his plan had failed. No matter whether he cited bad luck or bad luck as the reason, it could not change the fact that his plan to delay the enemy battle patrol had 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, he could only hope for more blessings, and leaving the Indefatigable would be nothing more than a blessing.
Consuming the opponent's ammunition too much will not help the outcome at all.
Subsequently, the Indefatigable accelerated its sailing north, while the Indomitable could only sail east slowly.
As for the actions of the British battle patrol, Lieutenant General Gomes, his opponent, was all watching. As for the Indefatigable and leaving the Indefatigable, Lieutenant General Gomes did not take it to heart now. Because
The opponent only has one battle cruiser left, and is unable 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 first deal with the Indomitable in front of them. In addition, power the Taranto and Bolsano to make them go faster. We also need to rush to assist the main fleet to take down the enemy as soon as possible."
