The Rise of the Empire

Chapter 760: Caught off guard

At this time, the defensive number was as dazzling as a light bulb in the night. Even if Harris chose to release the smoke screen, the pillar of fire rising into the sky still pointed out his location. Scharnhorst has straddled the Defense, and the mechanical ballistic computer produced by the Bavarian Precision Machinery Company accurately described the opponent's track. The cannonballs came one after another like eyes.

   "Pointless struggle, quickly solve them!" Su Xiong said impatiently looking at the sea torch moving in the distance. In the next 5 minutes, the Defense was never able to escape Scharnhorst’s shelling. Under a half-volley attack that averaged every half a minute, the battleship was hit by 7 rounds of 350mm shells. When it came out of the smoke, this battleship had been beaten to pieces!

"The engine room on the right side of the battleship has been damaged. Water has entered the boiler room on the left. 4 boilers have been turned off. The hull has suffered serious water ingress. The main turret in the bow has been tilted by 10 degrees." A series of desperate news came. , Let Harris know that the deadline for himself and the defense number has arrived. So at the last moment, he gave an order to make him regret for life! All transport fleets quickly pass through the strait!

And just after the telegram was sent, the armored cruiser Defense finally reached its limit. One shell hit the side of the battleship. This shell successfully penetrated the main armor belt that was less than 6 inches thick, and then plunged into the boiler. Among the neat rows of boilers in Tibet, after a dazzling white flash, a series of explosions sounded from the boiler compartment on the right. The explosion of the shells directly smashed 4 boilers. The high-temperature and high-pressure steam with a temperature of more than 200 degrees rushed out of the broken pipe, and when it met the cold air outside, it formed patches of white mist. The turbulent flames and steam were mixed with shrapnel. Sweeping everything in the cabin, successive explosions shattered the next door of the cabin.

All British naval personnel who tried to put out fires or repair battleships were swallowed by flames and high temperatures. Countless shrapnel leaped and harvested people’s lives in small cabins. Mutilated bodies and dark red snow were all over the ground. The entire battleship became a Shura field from the middle section.

Although the Defense was still floating on the sea, all its power was lost at this moment. The battleship was tilted at 25 degrees, and the artillery had no firing boundary. Of course, it was useless to have a firing boundary. In order to prevent the flames from spreading to the ammunition depot, the British had already sent ammunition early The reservoir has been filled with water, so now the defense number is a salted fish, which was dealt with only 10 minutes after the start of the war.

Compared with the defensive ship, which is already a bit old, the newly launched 5,000-ton light cruiser of the Melbourne has a longer life span. The bloodline is of course the defensive is longer. In terms of defensive power, both ships are It was a life that was penetrated, and at this time the Melbourne's high sensitivity and proper smoke protection made him live longer. Of course, not being lighted up at first is also one of the reasons.

  This cruiser is in the form of a ship in a dense water column at a high speed of 23 knots. Smoke bursts from the smoke canister, forming a moving wall of smoke around the battleship. This caused a lot of trouble for the shooting of the Gneisenau. The British had a counterattack. At this time, the cruiser Sydney was following with four 700-ton destroyers from behind. These destroyers originally from the Far East Squadron were the only chance for the British to come back!

   "Keep some distance away, time is on our side." Raidel said as he looked at the British light cruiser hidden in the smoke in the distance. If it were normal, even if Ryder chose to evade temporarily under the idea of ​​protecting the ship, he would be very depressed, because the opponent's cruisers and destroyers were buying time for the transport fleet.

  But as Raidel, the admiral who was made a "small brother" by Rupresit will naturally not ignore this problem, so even if he is not as mature as his later generations, he has already considered this problem!

The two German fast battleships began to turn slowly, and then increased the speed appropriately, and opened the distance. Anyway, you can't use the smoke cans all the time. When the smoke is gone, you are dead, so there is the Raider who is arranged first. In no hurry, he went round with two British light cruisers. Although the prey in front of him was very good, Rydell knew that his warship was more precious! For the sake of a few troop transport ships, let your own battleship have an accident.

  At this time, the veteran Su Xiong was obviously more ruthless than Raidel, of course, in the eyes of the British, it was even less of a thing.... Your two light cruisers are protected by smoke, I can't move you. But your transport fleet is not covered by smoke, right? How far can the transport fleet with a normal speed of only 9 knots go out this time? And it's still time to queue across the strait!

   "Bypassing the two light cruisers first, we will directly attack the British transport fleet with our main guns!" Su Xiong ordered. At this time, two German fast battleships were outside the strait, relying on 350MM artillery and a 6-meter body type rangefinder ~ lightnovelpub.net~ In the case of high visibility and good sea conditions, it is possible to hit a target of 18 kilometers. At this time, because the German fleet did not choose to be in the narrow strait, it was possible to bypass the opponent and kill the troop carrier at a long distance by relying on the same speed as the light cruiser.

  Boom! The main gun of Scharnhorst roared again. Ten seconds later, a huge flame burst out from the side of a transport ship 13 kilometers away. The entire side was torn off by a large piece, even water. The hull panels below the line were torn apart. The turbulent sea water rushed in, not only enlarged the damage opening, but even penetrated several adjacent watertight compartments!

  Gneisenau was not to be outdone, and in the next round of its shots, a troop carrier in the queue preparing to pass through the strait was turned into a burning torch. Unlike the TNT explosives used in armor-piercing bombs, the picric acid explosives used in high-explosive bombs are simply a big killer for such undefended ships. They have excellent combustibility and can produce toxic smoke. What is better than picric acid ?

  In front of the two super fearless, the merchant ship on the opposite side is as helpless as a lamb to be slaughtered! Although the two ultra-fearless attacks on the transport ships were not long, six transport ships were severely injured or sent to the seabed one after another. At this moment, the seaplane flying in the air can clearly see the struggling on the sea. The crowd falling into the water.

   "There are probably thousands of people, right?" The pilot of the Kingfisher seaplane slapped his lips.

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