This explosion was not that the cruiser was hit again, but that the torpedo installed on the bow of the "Edgar" exploded.
The power of torpedoes is still very great. Once these two torpedoes exploded, the keel of the "Edgar" was immediately deformed, and then the 7,000-ton giant ship began to break into two sections.
Seeing this situation, Rear Admiral George Solti hurriedly ordered the warship to abandon the ship, and then hurriedly got into the lifeboat with his staff and sailed towards the warship next to it.
At this time, the four Iowa-class battleships led by Liu Da did not stop attacking.
In another round of shelling, a shell hit the hull of the cruiser Edgar. This caused the tilted battleship to immediately suffer another heavy damage and sank to the bottom of the sea within a few minutes.
.
Next, the four Iowa-class battleships continued to maintain their shooting frequency. After this adjustment, their shooting accuracy increased several steps, and almost every salvo was able to hit one ship.
warship.
Except for the Edgar, the enemy's cruise fleet was all small warships of four to five thousand tons. They were hit by 406 mm caliber shells and almost immediately broke into two sections.
After more than ten minutes of fighting, this small encounter ended.
The result of the battle was that the battleships led by Liu Da were unscathed, while the enemy's cruise fleet was completely annihilated.
Liu Da looked at all the opponent's warships in the telescope and all disappeared above the sea. He immediately issued an order asking the warships to change course and go straight to the main force of the enemy's fleet.
Just after Liu Da issued the order, a staff officer next to him hesitated for a moment, and then asked: "Commander, there are still many enemy sailors on the sea. If we leave, they may not have a chance to survive."
After hearing this, Liu Da put down the telescope, turned around and glared at the staff officer, "We don't have time to take care of them now. We will wait until the mission is completed. If their life is good, we will come to rescue them. If their life is not good, let them go."
Meet the King of Hell."
The staff officer had already noticed that Liu Da was a little unhappy and did not dare to interrupt. He lowered his head and went about his own business.
Then these four Iowa-class battleships accelerated again and headed towards the main force of the Indian Ocean Fleet.
At this time, the main force of the Indian Ocean Fleet led by Lieutenant General Paul Rofkin has finally finished firing. Now, with three ironclad ships as the core, they are slowly driving towards the depths of the ocean at a speed of 8 to 10 knots.
But their retreat was still too late. Before the fleet could pick up speed, the battleship pair led by Liu Da had already appeared behind them.
When Lieutenant General Paul Rufkin discovered that the opponent's strategic fleet had caught up, he took a telescope and saw the opponent's battleships running like flying, and knew that he could not escape.
So the lieutenant general made a prompt decision, and all the warships immediately turned around to seize the "T" position, with the ironclad as the core, and other light warships forming protection around the ironclad. If necessary, they could attack forward and attack the opponent with torpedoes.
But his plan was in vain. Liu Da didn't want to engage in close combat with them at all. Instead, he used the excellent speed of the Iowa-class battleships to cruise around the periphery of the Indian Ocean Fleet.
Lieutenant General Paul Rofkin saw that several parties were not yet fighting, so he began to be in a passive position. He immediately ordered several cruisers to pressurize and ventilate and approach the enemy battleships as quickly as possible.
However, the Iowa-class battleships led by Liu Da are not comparable to today's warships. Their speed has now reached the maximum speed of 30 knots, speeding across the sea, and quickly threw away several approaching cruisers.
After this chase, the four Iowa battleships led by Liu Da successfully got behind the enemy's armored ship.
By this time, Liu Da's strategic preparations had been completed, so Liu Da ordered his battleships to focus their fire on the opponent's three ironclad ships.
The first salvo fired across three enemy armored ships.
In the second salvo, a 406 mm caliber gun hit the rear of the opponent's armored ship, causing the originally slow armored ship to slow down to about 8 knots on the spot.
As soon as Liu Da saw an opportunity, he ordered all artillery fire to concentrate on attacking the armored ship, which had greatly reduced its speed.
After two more rounds of shelling, the ironclad ship was hit by two 406mm-caliber shells. It was broken into several pieces on the spot and sank to the bottom of the sea.
With the sinking of this ironclad ship, the death knell of the British Indian Ocean Fleet began to ring.
Liu Da took advantage of the speed and bombardment distance of the Iowa-class battleships to hang the fleet from a distance. After more than an hour of bombardment, the fronts of the enemy fleet's three ironclads were sunk.
The commander of the Subcontinental Fleet, Lieutenant General Paul Rofokin, was also killed on the spot by another shelling.
There were still seven or eight remaining light warships. Seeing this situation, they no longer wanted to fight, so they scattered in all directions and fled to the deep sea.
Liu D did not want to let these warships escape, so he ordered four weeks of Ahua-class battleships to separate and chase these enemy cruisers.
After several more hours of pursuit, Liu Da's four Ahua-class battleships reunited through radio contact and gathered together for the final time. In this pursuit, they sank a total of six cruisers.
At this point, except for one or two fast warships in the British Indian Ocean Fleet, the fronts of other warships were sunk.
Liu Da rejoined the Iowa-class battleships, and then turned around and headed north. This time Liu Da had a tolerant heart. Along the way, he found enemy sailors who had fallen into the water and rescued them.
In this way, Liu Da took in nearly 1,000 more sailors along the way.
The fleet led by Liu Da returned to the sea off Mumbai and reunited with other warships. It was already the evening of another day.
Naturally, the attack could not be continued that night, so Liu Da ordered the cruiser to guard the perimeter while other officers and soldiers rested in preparation for the next day's battle.
At this time, the return of four giant ships had been discovered in the harbor. Governor Victor Bruce already understood the result of the victory when he saw that the four enemy warships had returned but not his own fleet.
That night, the bad news that the subcontinental fleet was completely wiped out reached the mainland again.
After the Prime Minister, the Marquess of Salisbury, received the news that the subcontinental fleet had been completely wiped out and the port of Mumbai was in danger, he immediately realized that this naval battle might not develop in the direction he hoped for.
He immediately summoned the Minister of the Navy, the Chief of Naval Staff and others to hold an emergency meeting at the Prime Minister's residence.
The main direction of their discussion at this meeting was whether to continue sending the expedition fleet to the Far East?
Lord Admiralty George.
After learning about the situation, Lord Hamilton strongly suggested to the Prime Minister to speed up the expedition fleet immediately, hoping to seize the opportunity to fight the enemy decisively before the Port of Mumbai was breached.
After hearing the navy's opinions, the Marquis of Salisbury was noncommittal. He thought for a while and then asked: "How confident is the navy of defeating the opponent's fleet, especially destroying the enemy's four giant ships?"
Lord Hamilton thought for a while and was silent for a long time before saying: "The navy believes that it can defeat the enemy, but according to the information currently obtained, the top speed of the four giant ships can reach 30 knots, so if the situation is
Under unfavorable circumstances, if the other party escapes, it may not be possible to intercept them."
After hearing this, the Marquis of Salisbury became a little unhappy, "This time, in order to deal with the Nanyang Navy in the Far East, half of the elites of the British Empire were handed over to the expeditionary fleet. If the Nanyang Navy cannot be completely destroyed, let
They have a chance to breathe, but they are still a huge obstacle to the empire's development in the Far East, so in the name of the imperial prime minister, I request the navy to do its best to destroy all enemy warships."
Lord Hamilton replied with some helplessness: "Your Excellency, Prime Minister, I cannot guarantee you, because according to intelligence, these four warships are too advanced and have exceeded our country's shipbuilding level."
The Prime Minister's eyes shone when he heard this, and then asked: "If we capture it, can we imitate this warship?"
Because the Prime Minister has always believed that his country's shipbuilding level is the best in the world, he did not expect that in other parts of the world, warships that are much stronger than their current warships have appeared. This makes the Prime Minister feel that there is a dark cloud.
It shrouded the entire Geely sky.
"Your Excellency Prime Minister, we dare not make a guarantee before seeing this battleship, but the appearance of this battleship alone has given us a lot of inspiration. Now our new-level battleship has entered the design stage.
."
"Well, let's not mention the issue of battleships now, and let's talk about the threats from the Far East."
"Have we, the Navy Department, reached an agreement to allow the Far East Fleet to move forward?"
"Your Excellency Prime Minister, our Admiralty has reached an agreement that in order to eliminate the maritime threat to the British Empire, we must act."
When Lord Hamilton said this, he felt a mountain-like pressure in his heart. In recent years, with the rise of will in Europe, their navy has begun to catch up, which has challenged its position as the number one maritime power.
.
As a result, before things could be suppressed on this side, another naval power appeared in the Far East. If the Nanyang Navy was not wiped out this time, they would face the challenges of two maritime powers.
At that time, I am afraid that Europe and the Far East, the two centers of gravity, will be attacked at the same time.
Therefore, the navy has made up its mind to use this expedition to eliminate the weaker Nanyang Navy in the Far East and prevent it from rising.
After the situation in the Nanyang Navy is settled, we can concentrate our efforts on competing with European competitors.