My Italian: Chapter 635 The Great Battle of Sirte The End of the Invincible

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The gunpowder smoke on the sea gradually subsided, and the wreckage and corpses of warships floated in the sea, telling what happened just now.

Lieutenant General Steddy, who was the commander on the flagship Sovereign at the moment, frowned as he watched the scene in front of him.

Half an hour before, a group of small Italian warships had attacked them. After half an hour of firefights, they had destroyed some of the enemy ships and repelled the rest.

Although the enemy was repelled, Lieutenant General Studi knew that this was just the beginning. As long as the airship above his head followed them and his position would always be exposed to the enemy, the attacks would continue to come.

"Commander, the French have sent a telegram asking us what to do next."

At this moment the chief of staff came in with a telegram.

Stirdy used his knees to try to understand the Frenchman's intentions, only to see him speak. "Tell Lieutenant General Dufournell, we will set off immediately and continue eastward to join the Mediterranean Fleet."

In addition, I will send a telegram to Lieutenant General Dufournell in my personal name. The Italian attack at this time fully demonstrates its importance to our rendezvous with the Mediterranean fleet. Only by seizing the sea power in the Mediterranean can we curb the Italian attack. Ambition, to protect the interests of our two countries in the Mediterranean, and defeating the Italians will also be a wonderful addition to our two resumes. "

Obviously, the commander of the reinforcement fleet certainly knew the urgency of the situation, so he tried to reassure the French with public and private efforts.

Because he has already received several telegrams from Admiral Cardon, saying only one thing, when will he bring the reinforcement fleet to the battlefield.

However, it is not easy to reach the battlefield, the previous harassment is the best proof.

Soon, Lieutenant General Dufournell called back. In the telegram, he reiterated the alliance between the two countries and also expressed his concern for the Mediterranean Fleet. Obviously, Lieutenant General Dufournell also understands the importance of the Mediterranean Sea to France. Without the help of Britain, the French Mediterranean coast would not be hammered by the Italians.

Receiving Lieutenant General Dufournell's reply gave Steddy more confidence.

He glanced at the airship closely following in the sky again, and then continued to order. "Leave the Quartz and the Swift to clean up the battlefield, and we can set off."

Rescuing people is like putting out fires, let alone rescuing the Mediterranean fleet led by Admiral Cardon, which is related to the sea power of Britain and France in the Mediterranean. If he lost because of his ineffective rescue, then neither he nor Lieutenant General Dufournell would be far behind.

Of course, the road ahead is not smooth, but they must move forward bravely.

The reinforcement fleet led by Studi and Dufournell is the key point of the Sirte naval battle, which is not only clear to them, but also to the combined fleet as the opponent.

Therefore, there are three airships closely following the reinforcement fleet at any time, reporting their positions at any time. Moreover, destroyers and torpedo boats were sent to harass and delay their steps.

Of course, these are all means to treat the symptoms but not the root cause. The most important thing is to quickly defeat the Mediterranean Fleet and prevent its confluence.

At present, the battleship battle where the main forces of the two parties are located is still in the stage where you come and go. Although the Mediterranean Fleet is at a disadvantage, it can still be maintained.

But in terms of Battlecruiser fights, that's about to come to a close.

At this moment, Tukel, which is 57 kilometers east of Benghazi, is just a nameless town by the sea. But today, the residents of the small town are all standing on high ground watching the naval battle happening before their eyes.

"Did our fleet win?"

"How's the fight going?"

"Mr. Anthony, how is the battle going?"

The various voices coming from his ears did not shake the mayor Anthony in the slightest. He was staring at the movement of the sea with his binoculars. At this time, in his camera, a warship flying the flag of St. George was being besieged by two warships flying the flag of the Italian Navy.

At this moment, the besieged warship was billowing with smoke, and the two Italian warships were relentless, firing shells at it non-stop.

This is the Taranto and the Bolzano fighting against the Invincible. Invincible who is at a disadvantage at the moment, the situation is not good at all. Its No. 1 and No. 4 main turrets have been destroyed, and the secondary guns are also in a mess, with few available. What is even more deadly is that a big opening was broken on the left side of the hull. Although the gap has been blocked by the officers and soldiers on board, this also caused the Invincible battle cruiser to carry hundreds of tons of seawater, reducing the speed of the Invincible by two. Festival.

And this also created an embarrassing situation where Invincible couldn't beat and couldn't escape.

As the first battle cruiser of the British Navy and the third battle cruiser in the world, Invincible is deeply influenced by the Taranto class. It can be said that it is two concepts from the historical Invincible class. Just the strong Taranto style on his body is completely different from the original Invincible Level to the naked eye.

In the previous exchange of fire between the two battle cruisers, Major General Xinken adopted loitering tactics since he only had three battle cruisers in his hands, which ensured a high-speed exchange of fire with the enemy. Although this reduces the artillery hit rate, it also greatly increases the survival rate of one's own side.

It's just that although the idea is good, the luck is not good. Unfortunately, the Invincible was opened a big hole, causing the speed of the ship to slow down. After some brief consideration, Major General Xinken could only make the decision to abandon the Invincible.

As his opponent, Lieutenant General Gomes admires the opponent's decision to cut off his tail to survive, but he will not be satisfied with just one Invincible. After leaving two Taranto-class battle cruisers, the remaining three battle cruisers Continue to chase without giving the opponent a way out. His attempt to wipe out his opponents is already Sima Zhao's heart, and everyone knows it.

As for the abandoned Invincible, under the leadership of the captain, Colonel Dias, they tried to bite the opponent back, but they failed when the opponent was superior.

At this moment, his only hope is that under the blessing of God, he can hit the tail of the opposing warship and cause its speed to be greatly reduced. As for repelling the enemy ship, see if his own ship has only 40% firepower left, and the opponent's two ships have no firepower. Colonel Dias would not have any ideas about how to weaken the firepower of a warship of the same level.

"Counterattack, aim at the opponent's first ship Taranto and fire."

The No. 2 and No. 3 turrets of the Invincible spewed out flames, and flew towards the Taranto with the expectant eyes of the officers and men of the Invincible.

Soon their expectations turned into disappointment. They saw four tall water columns around the Taranto. The nearest water column was about 20 meters away from the Taranto. Boost the morale of the officers and soldiers on the Invincible, knowing that their shelling is a threat.

However, this kind of threat looks like a wounded man demonstrating against two strong men, and what he will receive is bound to be a head-on blow.

Sure enough, after the counterattack bombardment was completed, the two Taranto-class ships launched a hard attack. There was a roar from the two ships, and sixteen main guns sprayed flames at the same time. This was a rare formation salvo (at this time, due to the delay in communication, the salvos were all single-ship salvos, no matter how elite The navy will not train formation salvos, because the effect is close to nothing, and it will affect the firing rate of each ship).

After more than ten seconds, these shells flew towards the Invincible. Although most of them turned into water jets, two of them hit it.

A 305mm artillery shell hit the upper part of the right side of the port side. After penetrating the 152mm upper armor of the Invincible, it destroyed several sailor cabins. Fortunately, the sailors on the Invincible were busy on the ship at this time, and the cabins were empty. Therefore, this shell blasted a big hole out of the left upper side of the ship, and did no further damage, which can be regarded as innocuous.

But while this shell was innocuous, the other shell was quite deadly. This is a shell fired by the Bolsano. This 305mm armor-piercing shell directly hit the waterline above the stern of the Invincible with the harsh sound of piercing the air. The huge kinetic energy directly penetrated the waterline above the waterline. The armor, and the half-empty fuel tank behind it, eventually exploded in the boiler area of ​​the engine room.

The violent explosion directly destroyed several boilers and a lot of steam pipes, not to mention the personnel in the power cabin, which suffered heavy casualties (think of the scene where various parts and fragments fly across and cause secondary damage) .

And this blow from the Bolsano also ruined the hope of the Invincible's survival, because the power cabin was severely damaged, and the speed of the Invincible dropped directly to 12 knots. For the battle cruiser, whose speed is part of the defense, this is fatal, because slowing down the speed will improve the accuracy of the opponent, and also put himself in a desperate situation from which he cannot escape.

"Increase the rate of fire to fire at enemy ships at maximum firing rate."

As the opponents, the two Italian battle cruisers will certainly not soften their hearts in the face of such a situation of beating the dog in the water. Then the two ships broke out a wave of high-speed firepower raids (battleship artillery generally does not attack the opponent at the highest rate of fire, the reason is as follows Air-cooled machine guns with non-replaceable barrels for continuous fire).

The Invincible was shot again and again in this round of rapid fire attack, its No. 3 turret was directly destroyed, and the hull was also hit many times. It felt that the Invincible was coming to an end.

"Captain, the current loss of firepower of the warship has reached 85%, and the loss of personnel has reached 50%."

"Report, currently our warship has tilted to the left by 8 degrees, do you want to inject water to the right now?"

"There was a message from the pipe damage that the cabin was severely flooded, and the pumps were simply not enough. They could no longer control the flooding situation."

…

Bad news came ~www.mtlnovel.com~ to let Captain Dias know that it was the last moment. "Telegram to Rear Admiral Sinken that the Invincible has done its job, and God bless St. George."

After finishing speaking, he looked at everyone and said, "Everyone abandon ship, you have shed your blood for the British Empire, and I am very honored to work with you on the Invincible. Now you need to think about yourself and your family. .”

This was like a last word, which shocked the others, and everyone stepped forward to persuade Captain Dias to leave together, but he refused.

"I want to be with my beloved battleship forever."

At 17:04 pm on January 7, 1914, the Invincible sank in the Gulf of Sirte. Following the sinking of the Invincible were Captain Dias and two officers and men who refused to evacuate.

As for the evacuated 437 officers and soldiers of the Invincible, they were captured by the United Fleet and sent to a prisoner-of-war camp in Sicily, where they will wait for the end of the war.

(end of this chapter)