After struggling for more than ten minutes, first the boiler of the "King George V" exploded violently. First, high-temperature steam sprayed out from the gaps between the rear of the hull and the deck, and then the King George V-class ship
The first battleship took hundreds of British sailors and plunged into the seabed thousands of meters deep.
Subsequently, the "His Majesty the Emperor of India", the last of the Iron Duke-class battleships, also rolled over, exposing the bottom of the ship that was covered with parasites. Although it did not sink immediately, it was still hopeless.
As for the other three British battleships, the "Iron Duke" barely maintained its general balance through water injection. However, according to the current water inflow rate, it is difficult to regain sufficient buoyancy through its own ability. Without the help of external forces,
Sinking is also inevitable;
The situation of "Malaya" was slightly better. Since most of the torpedoes hit its front, the damage to the boiler compartment of this battleship was not very serious. After a short period of repairs, although there was a lot of water, it was finally
Part of the power has been restored, and it is estimated that after a period of emergency repairs, it should be able to float on the sea, and maybe even drive at a slow speed.
The situation of the "Warspite" is not optimistic. Its entire stern was almost blown to pieces. Although the boiler compartment has not exploded yet, the high-temperature steam generated by the water in the boiler compartment has claimed the lives of many sailors on the ship.
The remaining sailors were moving along the gangway to the lifeboat. Two destroyers were also parked not far away, using several high-pressure water hoses on the ship to spray seawater onto the hull of the "Warspite" in the hope that it would survive.
can reduce the possibility of it exploding.
The planes in the sky increased their altitude one after another. After circling around the British battleship formation, these guys who had done bad things and admired them finally left collectively. What replaced them were two
Federal Navy reconnaissance planes flying higher, they are slowly
Hovering over the battleship formation, when the homeless British seaplanes tried to climb up to approach, the two planes would continue to climb higher, and when the British seaplanes had no choice but to fly away, these two planes again
It will lower to a fixed height and continue to circle around the fleet.
The remaining 15 destroyers in the battleship formation were basically unscathed. However, the big brothers they protected had already suffered 2 deaths and 3 injuries. In order to make up for their incompetence, these destroyer captains ignored the danger and forced their way closer to the ship that was about to sink or sink.
The exploding battleship. Desperate efforts to rescue those companions on the battleship.
Just as these destroyers were in a mess, frantically trying to rescue the three staggering battleships, one destroyer suddenly sounded the battle alarm, and the entire ship ran forward at high speed like a horse that was suddenly whipped.
.And all its starboard guns began to fire on the sea.
On the starboard side of the "Iron Duke", four very obvious white tracks are approaching the Iron Duke at a very high speed, and the destroyer is trying to use its body to block these four tracks for the flagship of the fleet.
A deadly torpedo.
Although the destroyer tried its best and stood between the torpedoes and the Iron Duke, the fixed depth of these four 533mm heavy-duty magnetic detonation torpedoes launched from the submarine was very deep, basically reaching 9 to 10 meters, while the destroyer
It only had a draft of 3 or 4 inches, so it was obviously impossible to detonate these torpedoes. In this way, the British naval officers and soldiers on the destroyer watched helplessly.
Four torpedoes passed through the bottom of the destroyer's hull calmly. Then, the British support fleet flagship "Iron Duke" located more than 100 meters to the left of the destroyer suddenly "jumped" from the sea, and then fell heavily to the sea.
The battleship fell into the water and the huge waves caused by the torpedo explosion almost knocked the destroyer more than 100 meters away to the sea.
As the huge waves surged and receded, the keel of the "Iron Duke" could no longer withstand such a powerful twisting force and broke instantly. The British Royal Navy's flagship of the Home Fleet in World War I was like
Like a wooden ship, it broke into three pieces, spraying water mist and steam, and sank into the seawater of the Bay of Bengal.
This cruel scene extremely stimulated the British officers and soldiers on these destroyers. They shuttled back and forth in the sea like crazy, randomly throwing depth bombs into the water, and prayed to God to let their bombs fall on the ship.
The despicable federal submarines are around, but God seems not to be in the service area, so their remote prayers are not received.
As for this God, he lived too far away, so far away that even mobile phone signals were often not covered, and he was reluctant to spend money to install a signal amplifier. On May 31, 1920, his old man asked him to
Two devout believers were disappointed. One was Earl David Beatty, who was carried aboard by brave British sailors.
After destroying the destroyer, he woke up from a coma and kept praying to God, asking God to send heavy rain to prevent federal planes from continuing to attack his battle patrol detachment, because he knew in his heart that the return of these planes did not mean that the attack was completed.
They will continue to load the torpedoes and launch a second or even third air attack.
Just as the destroyers were circling like crazy around the only two severely disabled battleships, David Beatty's battlecruiser squadron rushed back and looked at the "Malaya" still struggling on the sea.
With the "Warspite" about to sink, everyone on board the battle cruiser squadron was unwilling to speak. The navy fell directly from the world's largest navy to a state of being slaughtered by others, which made these naval officers and soldiers feel like they were in a dream.
Faced with such a situation, David Beattie had no choice but to reluctantly abandon the "Warspite" and "Malaya", and ordered the remaining main fleet to mix with the battle cruiser squadron and return to Colombo Port together.
However, the captain and officers and soldiers on the "Malaya" were unwilling to abandon the ship. After many attempts to persuade him to no avail, Count David Beatty relented and asked a battle cruiser to tow it with a steel cable.
The Malaya, which was recovering part of its power and beginning to desperately save itself, was surrounded by other destroyers and cruisers. The entire fleet returned westward at a speed of 10 knots.
On the cruiser "Cornwall", the temporary flagship of the fleet, David Beattie and several captains of the battle cruiser squadron were sitting in the conference room converted from the officers' mess, discussing how to deal with another possible attack by federal aircraft.
attack.
According to David Beatty's idea, the fleet cannot escape the tracking of those haunting submarines, and it is still a long time before dark. The battlecruiser fleet is likely to be attacked by federal air forces. At this time, what should be done
It is to abandon the "Malaya" and use the speed of the battle cruiser fleet to strive for a safe withdrawal to Colombo Port. Now the main battle
All the battleships have been lost. The only ones that can pose a real threat to the South China Sea Federation in this area are these three battle cruisers and these dozens of cruisers and destroyers. If another accident occurs to the battle cruiser, then the entire east of the Indian Ocean will be destroyed.
There are no British warships capable of restricting the South China Sea Federation, and even encircling India's ports is a problem.
After Earl David Beatty's earnest persuasion, several battlecruiser captains and the captain of the "Malaya" finally agreed to abandon the "Malaya" and allow the fleet to return home at a faster speed.
Earl David Betty immediately ordered to transfer the officers and soldiers on the "Malaya" to other warships, and then left three destroyers. After transferring all the personnel, they used torpedoes to sink the "Malaya", and the entire
The fleet increased its speed to 25 knots.
After towing the "Malaya" and discussing the final solution, when the decision was made to abandon the "Malaya", it was already 12 noon, and the battle cruiser regrouped and prepared to abandon the "Malaya"
"At the same time, at the front of the fleet, the two destroyers suddenly sounded the battle alarm again and began to accelerate and make snake-like maneuvers. Needless to say, all the officers and soldiers of the battle patrol fleet knew immediately that the federal submarine launched again.
A torpedo struck.
8 neat white tracks rushed from the left front of the battle cruiser fleet towards the middle of the entire fleet at high speed. Due to the re-formation, the speed of the entire fleet was still maintained below 10 knots. After a sudden torpedo attack, the fleet's ships
Not only do you need to increase your speed to avoid torpedoes, but you also need to pay attention to the distance and direction between each other to prevent collisions. (To be continued...)
