My Italian: Chapter 633 Great Battle of Sirte Lightning Strike

"Order the lightning strike formation to attack and disrupt the enemy's rhythm."

Facing the crisis in his own battleship formation, Carden decisively played the lightning strike card.

At the same time a telegram was sent from the flagship Orion to the entire fleet.

"The British Empire needs everyone to do their job!"

That's right, at this time Carden uttered Nelson's famous quotes that every British naval officer and soldier knew. Perhaps in his heart he also hoped that he could be like Nelson and win his own Trafalgar naval battle.

And this telegram also opened the bloodiest scene in this naval battle!

More than 30 destroyers and torpedo boats of various types launched a charge against the combined fleet not far away!

The movement of more than 30 small warships is not small at all, and the United Fleet is not blind, how can they not see it, let alone the United Fleet has a reconnaissance weapon airship.

In the sea area of ​​this battle, the Italian airship force has four airships of various types in the sky closely watching every move on the battlefield.

So before the lightning strike formation rushed out, Leifer had already received the news.

"Sure enough, this is the trick!"

Looking at the lightning strike formation rushing towards one's side like a swimming dragon. It is impossible to say that it is not afraid, the torpedo is the product of a small and large, a giant ship of 20,000 to 30,000 tons, it only needs one torpedo hit to be traumatized. If it is attacked by three or four torpedoes, no matter how powerful a battleship is, it will not be able to withstand it.

Of course, the torpedo has such great power, but there are also many shortcomings. Its short range and obvious trajectory make it impossible to use it as a conventional tactic.

"Fleet to evade, concentrate all firepower to attack the opponent's destroyers and torpedo boats, pay attention to maintaining formation, all cruisers and destroyers intercept! Target enemy ships!" Lefer issued a series of orders within a few seconds.

Following Laifer's order, the battleship formation that was bombarding the opponent adjusted its target and opened fire on the incoming enemy lightning strike formation.

At this time, the roar of the large-caliber artillery sounded again, and countless shells hit the enemy ship.

"Boom!"

A 305mm large-caliber artillery shell accurately hit a charging torpedo boat, and the violent explosion caused the torpedo boat to disappear directly on the sea. As for the personnel, there is no need to think too much, I can only pray that the other party rests in peace in heaven.

However, the loss of a torpedo boat did not deter the charging lightning strike formation.

As the formation commander, Lieutenant Colonel Bennett issued an order on his flagship Custer. "The formation increased its speed to the highest level, and launched a lightning strike to the enemy's rear half of the battleships."

Lieutenant Colonel Bennett has a lot of lightning strike experience at first glance, and knows how to use lightning strike tactics to maximize the effect. Initiating lightning strikes only on the second half of the battleships not only increases the success rate, but also causes the opponent's battle formation to be out of line, so as to find the most favorable opportunity for one's own formation. It can be said that an expert will know if there is one as soon as he makes a move.

However, it is not easy for Colonel Bennett to achieve his goal, because in addition to the baptism of the battleship artillery, there is also the opponent's interception.

It wasn't until the lightning strike formation increased their speed that they saw a group of warships from the opponent appear in front of them. This was the opponent formation that came to intercept them.

"Rush over."

Seeing the opponent's intercepting formation, Colonel Bennett ordered the formation to rush over.

Facing the enemy ships rushing head-on, the warships responsible for intercepting them will not be soft-hearted.

The interception formation headed by four Piedmont-class cruisers, two Verona-class cruisers, and sixteen destroyers showed the enemy what powerful interception firepower is. A large number of 105 and 150 mm naval guns are a one-shot attack on the incoming enemy ships.

The first to be hit by the disaster was the larger warships in the lightning strike formation. Among them, the No. 13 Moresby, a tribal-class destroyer, was hit by successive 150mm shells and stopped on the spot.

"We will avenge the Moresby, full power."

Seeing that the friendly ships were stopped, Lieutenant Colonel Bennett couldn't take care of it at this time, and kept making the ships increase their speed.

At this time, for the ships performing the lightning strike mission, the only thing they can rely on at present is speed. Any counterattack at this time is futile, because the deck is bumpy at a speed of up to 30 knots. At this time, you can hit a target 500 meters away with naval guns, which is God's favor. And now I can't turn back, I can only speed up and speed up, any hesitation is harmful.

And the ships that performed the lightning strike mission also understood this truth, so they rushed towards their target with red eyes regardless.

"Boom boom boom!"

Although the British destroyers charged against the rain of bullets regardless of their efforts, the intercepting opponents were unwilling to give them a chance, and the shells continued to take out hits as the distance approached.

"The Countercurrent was sunk."

"The Pelicans stalled."

"The Petal is on fire."

"..."

One after another, bad news continued to reach the flagship Custer, but Lieutenant Colonel Bennett was completely indifferent to it. He only had his own target, the United Force, in his eyes.

Even if his battleship was hit by multiple shells, there were already casualties, which didn't make him frown.

The lightning strike formation suffered huge casualties, gritted their teeth and rushed towards the enemy target.

"It's close."

"Closer."

As the distance approached, the watchman exclaimed. "It's already three kilometers away."

"No, we need to get closer." Lieutenant Colonel Bennett certainly understood what the lookout meant. The torpedo was already within an effective range when it entered a distance of 3,000 meters. But this is only the effective range, and its hit rate will be very low, and Lieutenant Colonel Bennett wants to give the target a hard time.

Custer's rush towards the United Force immediately attracted the attention of the surrounding warships.

"Open fire and kill this enemy ship."

At this moment the United Force also spotted this threat. Then the ship's small and medium-caliber artillery continued to fire at it, and the Dreadnought and Teghoff next to it also noticed him and also gave fire support.

While attacking the Custer under artillery fire, he continued to charge with his head covered.

"Two thousand five hundred meters."

"Two kilometers."

At this moment, the lookout who reported the count was trembling because there were too many artillery fires around. If they are not careful, they will die here.

"Launch a torpedo."

The torpedo operator finally heard the order to launch from the lieutenant colonel, and six torpedoes jumped into the sea, and the next thing was to flee for his life. In fact, Lieutenant Colonel Bennett wanted to get closer, but there were too many bullets falling around him, and he didn't dare to continue gambling.

"Pay attention to the torpedo at three o'clock."

At this time, the thermal power torpedoes used by all countries, the traces of this torpedo are very obvious and easy to be observed.

So after the watchman saw the white line coming towards him, he immediately raised the alarm.

In the face of the torpedo attack, several warships were immediately busy. They either slowed down to avoid, or accelerated to leave. Only the United Force was a bit difficult, because the five torpedoes were mainly aimed at it.

"Accelerate, increase the speed to 20 knots."

Colonel Constanti, the captain of the United Force, immediately issued an order.

At this moment, the United Force was only at 17 knots. Looking at the rapidly approaching torpedo, Colonel Constanti found it impossible to completely avoid the torpedo.

"Turn right quickly, fast."

At this moment, he can only choose the least harmful method, which is to use the bow of the boat to catch the thunder. At his urging, the United Force made a sharp right turn.

At this moment the torpedo was very close to the United Force. UU Reading www. uukanshu.com

"Crash preparation."

Seeing that the torpedo was about to strike, the navigator immediately warned loudly.

At this moment, two torpedoes passed by the left side of the ship, and one torpedo passed by the right side of the ship. However, there were still two torpedoes that could not be avoided, and one directly hit the left side of the bow. There was a loud bang from the left side of the bow, and a two-meter hole was directly blown out of the bow. Seawater is poured directly into the cabin along the big hole.

"Close the hatch quickly, close the hatch quickly."

Several hatches connected to the bow were constantly closed to avoid being swept by sea water.

Huh, there's another torpedo?

Sorry, it's gone since I heard the bang. Torpedoes are not 100% effective, nor do they have a low failure rate.

Since hearing the sound of an explosion, the officers and soldiers on the United Force cheered. They all thought it represented good luck.

And after some rush repairs and inspections, the United Force can continue to fight, but with five or six hundred tons of seawater, and the cost of reducing the maximum speed by two knots.

In this lightning strike mission, only four ships were launched, and only one ship, the Custer, returned alive in the end.

The battle will continue next.

(end of this chapter)