"Damn, they surrendered too quickly! We didn't even have a chance to fire! Major Stafford said angrily. Just when www.biquge.info the cruiser Marco Polo was still struggling on the sea, and the Italian Navy had not given up protecting its army colleagues, the transport ship Zara, carrying 3,000 Italian troops, first lowered the national flag and raised the white flag!

"Captain, what are we going to do? We can't go to Turkey with a few thousand captives, can we? If we let them go, then maybe in the afternoon, they will go to North Africa on another ship. An officer next to him was also a little depressed, after the battleships loaded with supplies, artillery and horses were sunk, all the supplies on them were gone, but what about the 3,000 Italian Army? Just sink the ship, and then shoot it to death? This must not be done like this!

In fact, during World War 1, the naval battlefield was still very gentlemanly, for example, when the Count of Luckner took too many prisoners, he used the captured ship to let these prisoners go, and as long as the other party said that he would not reveal the Count's whereabouts when he was at sea. Another example is the German assault ship, which also gives an extra salary ...... when the captured personnel are released.

Therefore, it is definitely not possible to press these people directly into the water, but if you put them back like this, doesn't that mean that you are working in vain? Stave is unwilling!

"We're going to have to make these Italians pay something!" Stafford muttered to himself.

"They seem to be engineering troops, maybe they can't fight, but if we can take some of them, then we can build a port in Turkey faster!" An officer next to him said.

"So be it. We need to hurry. Just as Major Stafford agreed to this suggestion, Scheer once again signaled that one of the ships transporting munitions and supplies had sunk by itself, and that the other three ships had given up resistance in the hopelessness of resistance, and that these ships naturally could not be wasted, and that Scheer intended to seal the port of Taranto with these ships and mines!

"Arrange for personnel to take over the ship, the Prince Albert will provide fire cover, and we will sink these three ships into the channel of the port of Taranto!" Scheer had an order conveyed by telegram.

Most of the captured Italians left in lifeboats, some were taken to the Swordfish, while others were forced by German soldiers to operate three transports back to Taranto and block the harbor with sunken ships, an old but very useful method!

"O busy port of Taranto! Looks like we've come to the right place this time! When the morning fog had cleared, Scheer's fleet reached the outskirts of the port of Taranto. At this time, another fleet sailed out of the harbor under the guidance of the ship, and this time they hit the muzzle of Scheer's gun!

"It seems that we don't have to sink the ship ourselves, just sink them! Now fire! "Under the astonished gaze of the Italians, the Scheer fleet launched the first round of attacks! The King Albert armored cruiser was responsible for suppressing the turrets on both sides of the harbor, while the Swordfish rushed straight over and attacked the fleet struggling to get out of port at a distance of less than 2,000 meters!

"We started shooting at 1800 meters and gradually approached, even to a distance of 500 meters! In the end, our 150mm guns basically fired at the opponent's head! The Italian ship was very sturdy, the first ship was a coal carrier, it was a large ship with about 8,000 tons of deadweight ton, the draft was already very deep, the reserve buoyancy was insufficient, and it took us less than 5 minutes to solve it. Only two holes were made in its side, which quickly capsized, and in the end only half of the stern was left exposed. ”

"The second target was supposed to be a ship transporting ammunition, and when he spotted us, he tried his best to dodge, but unfortunately, a cannonball from nowhere hit the ship's ammunition directly, and a loud thunderous sound resounded throughout the battlefield. The shock wave from the explosion formed a visible wave of air that spread out in all directions! The scene was so terrible that the violent explosion even tore a troop carrier behind it to shreds! It was a terrible scene, God, and you will forgive us for our carelessness, right? ”

"The fourth and fifth ships did not make any further attempt to break out of the harbor, they retreated into the harbor, and on the way back, they blocked the torpedo boats that wanted to get out. There was chaos along the entire shipping lane. In Staf's diary, a few strokes sketched the chaos of the time, with the Italian being blocked at the door of his house and beaten up in a completely unsuspecting manner.

The chaotic battlefield situation tilted the scales of victory in favor of the German fleet. There were no large warships in the port of Taranto, and the torpedo boats couldn't get out, so the only thing to rely on was the shore defense batteries!

Just when the Swordfish attack ship was blocking the port of Taranto to kill the convoy of transport ships preparing to leave the port, and was already preparing to be super-god, the cruiser Prince Albert was also suppressing the batteries outside the port of Taranto. The Italians did not expect a war to break out on their doorstep, and even less did they expect that the fleet of the "Turks" would directly attack the military port. The naval battery garrison was not fully manned, and even fewer were able to reach the gun emplacements in a hurry.

As a result, the truly powerful large-caliber shore defense guns did not work, and those 6-inch and 4.7-inch guns were the main force of resistance. Although the shells fired by these cannons have no real effect. Scattered shells fell into the water, while some of the hapless gun emplacements were suppressed by the fierce naval guns before they could fire a few shots.

"Forget it, save some shells, let's attack the two outfitted battleships directly!" Scheer was very disappointed with the performance of the Italians, their shore guns were simply not worth wasting their precious shells to suppress, and the two outfitting battleships were blocked by the breakwater, and only one or two exposed masts could be seen, but the tower crane next to it marked the position of the other.

After calculating the distance in combination with the height of the tower crane, the 8 10-inch main guns slowly rotated, and began to cover the two battleships next to the tower crane according to the situation of prior reconnaissance! The distance between the two sides is 8,500 meters, although the distance is a little farther, but this time it is a fixed target!

"Fire!" The 4 barrels shrank back sharply, and the shells with a total weight of 1 ton flew out of the barrel at a speed of nearly 800 meters per second, accompanied by a piercing whistling sound and fell around the target like a doomsday meteorite! A cannonball smashed directly into the bottom of a tower crane, like a hot knife cutting butter, and the tower crane more than 30 meters high was directly blown off!

The third is more present~~~! Ask for subscription, ask for tips~~~! (To be continued.) )