Although the "Thonburi" has an advantage in the caliber of artillery, it does not mean that this shallow water heavy gunboat has the ability of long-range artillery warfare, and her 4.5-meter rangefinder is an outdated product of Japan's imitation of the British Navy, and it is difficult to track and determine long-range high-speed moving targets.

Although the Japanese-made 203-mm guns have a range of 6,000 meters more than the French 138-mm guns, the Siam Navy is not able to give full play to the performance of this kind of artillery in the current combat situation.

Lieutenant Commander Wei Fengan was full of blind confidence in his battleship, and in order to cover the attack of the mine-striking ship, the [Thonburi] carried out two single-shot shelling with the front main gun at a limit distance of 20,000 meters from the enemy.

The captain was disappointed that the landing point was at least half a kilometer away from the target, and it was clear that there was a problem with the aiming and ranging of the firing azimuth disk.

"The goal has suddenly picked up speed and is being recalculated." The gunners took the phone and explained to the captain.

"Well, what a cunning enemy." The captain nodded in acceptance.

At this time, the speed of the two lightning strike ships has been raised to the maximum, although the speed of this type of lightning strike ship can be as high as 32.5 knots when launched, but after long-term use, the machinery can not avoid wear and tear, although after quite careful maintenance, but now the speed can only be maintained at about 30 knots.

This is already a fairly high speed for a warship with a full load of 400 tons, and in order to avoid the attack of the destroyer, the thunderbolt also made two large-angle turns, and the waves splashed by the bow even hit the decks on both sides of the bridge, pouring the operators standing next to the single-engine torpedo tubes on both sides from head to toe.

Of course, the French destroyers had long since discovered the operation of the Siamese Mine, and they did not regard the slower Thonburi as their number one target from the beginning. Lieutenant Commander Totti had already planned in his heart that he only needed to take out these two nasty minestrike ships, and the rest was fat in his mouth.

They had not been so unlucky earlier, and before receiving a telegram from the headquarters, they had encountered only one Siamese freighter, which turned out to be an offshore freighter of less than 300 tons, loaded with groceries destined for the island of Crane, and the French sailors searched the ship without finding any valuable cargo, and after catching all the crew into the lifeboat, they sank the merchant ship with a salvo.

Then, as if they had encountered a curse, they walked around the sea, but did not find a single target to attack, and encountered either Philippine or Dutch East India ships, making people feel that all Siamese cargo ships had disappeared from the sea.

If it weren't for the news of this Siamese naval formation from the headquarters, Lieutenant Commander Totti would have considered whether to take a risk and rush into Bangkok Bay with his men.

There was no need for the captain to command at all, and all four turrets of the destroyer had already begun to shoot at the Siamese mineship, a game they had long been tired of playing with the Italian Navy in the Mediterranean, and the Italian torpedo boats were much more cunning than the two warships in front of them.

The French are very familiar with the performance parameters of Italian equipment, and know that the range of the Italian's 533-mm torpedoes can reach a maximum of about 12,000 kilometers, but if you want to get a hit, you can only use the high speed gear, and the range will be shortened to 3,000 meters.

The lightning strike ships in front of them must be close to within a kilometer for a salvo before they can pose a little threat to the [Mogador] class of more than 35 knots.

The Siamese Minestrike Ships were brave, but they had not experienced real naval battles and had no experience in using torpedoes in real combat. The two mine-striking ships were resolutely attacking the enemy in the face of the precise and fierce fire of the French destroyers, following the methods taught to them by the instructors who had returned from training in Italy.

The Mogador's twin main gun uses the latest automatic loader, and due to design flaws, the failure rate has always been high. Historically, because of the defeat of France, the French Navy stopped testing her improvements.

However, everything has changed now, and the French Navy has obtained full use data in the Mediterranean Sea, replaced this set of ammunition mechanism with a more powerful motor, and installed manpower auxiliary equipment inside the turret, which has basically solved the problem of reloading failures that were once a headache.

At this time, the four electric twin turrets were spraying 138 mm shells at the Siamese Mine Strike ship at a rate of one round every six seconds, and if the eight guns were fired alternately, there would be no gap at all.

The French sailors were experienced in actual combat, and three minutes after the bombardment began, a shell fired from the second turret of Mogador hit the bridge of the Rayong head-on at a distance of 6 thousand meters. Because it was a lightly armored target, the French chose a high-explosive grenade with a charge of four kilograms, and the violent explosion completely destroyed the wooden bridge, and at the same time, the storm and debris from the explosion instantly emptied the forward deck.

The power compartment of the [Rayong] did not know what was happening on the bridge, so it still drove the lightning strike ship forward according to the navigation data given by the original bridge. At this time, only half of the wheelhouse was left in the forward deck building, and the personnel inside had long been torn to pieces, and a large fire broke out on the foredeck, and then the gunners who ignited the 76-mm main gun stacked on the deck of the cartridges, coupled with the wind pressure generated when sailing at high speeds, the flames began to spread rapidly along the cabin towards the rear.

The Mogador judged that the mine-striking ship had lost its combat capability, and immediately turned its guns and cooperated with the Volta to pour fire on the Songkhla.

The captain of the Songkhla had just witnessed the tragedy that had happened to the Rayong, and when the French destroyer's fire was concentrated on him, the captain's confidence in continuing to approach was seriously shaken.

So under the order of the captain, the torpedo tubes on both sides of the bridge of the [Rayong] fired two torpedoes at the French destroyer, and then quickly reversed course and shot the two twin launch tubes in the amidships, and then the lightning strike ship began to retreat at the top speed in the direction of the [Thonburi].

Because the attack was too hasty, the [Songkhla] did not set the front angle of the torpedo at all, and because it had not yet entered the effective attack distance, this round of torpedoes was doomed to fail.

The French destroyers were not prepared to let go of the fleeing enemy ship, and the two warships staggered left and right, using the four main guns in the front to tilt the [Songkhla] into a rain of bullets.

The Songkhla maneuvered left and right in an attempt to avoid enemy shelling, but this slowed her flight. Originally, the French destroyer was faster than her, and the distance between the two sides began to close rapidly.

The Minestrike tried to return fire with two 76mm single-barreled guns in her rear in an attempt to interfere with the French destroyer's pursuit, but because the gun crew was too tight, the shelling was not only intermittent, but also landed far from the target.

At 4:37 p.m., two 138-mm shells hit the amidships of the Songkhla almost simultaneously, one of which destroyed the 76-mm gun emplacement there, smashed the radio room, and killed all the sailors on the nearby deck.

Another shell drilled into the lower power compartment and exploded between two high-pressure steam boilers, and the shock wave tore through the bilge deck, broke the keel of the minehunter, tore through the thin hull. The lightning strike broke into two with a violent metal crackling sound, and the two sections of hull tilted towards the middle and began to sink rapidly. The four-hundred-ton mine ship sank so quickly that in the end no one survived.

While the two mine-striking ships were fighting to the death with the French destroyers, the Thonburi was certainly not idle. It's not that she wants to watch her colleagues die, it's because during this time, she has encountered a more difficult opponent.

"Keep shooting! Don't stop! Vifonan roared loudly.

"The front cannon is being loaded! Sir. The gunslinger replied.

"What's the shelling..."As soon as Wei Fengan said this, a loud bang came from outside the armored control tower, and then the hull of the [Thonburi] began to tilt rapidly to the left.

"Near-missed!" The first mate reported loudly that there was a torrential rain outside the conning tower, the sound of a column of water splashed onto the deck from the shelling.

"Order all units to report the damage!" Wei Fengan held on to the pillar on the side of the conning tower, stabilizing his figure, and the hull of the ship was slowly regaining its balance.

"There are some cracks in the hull of the bilge side, the water ingress is not very serious, and the sailors are being organized to plug it." The boatswain's voice came from the brass intercom tube.

"Very well, it's all up to you, make sure to plug all the cracks, boatswain." Vifonan commanded.

"Hasn't the main gun been reloaded? How's the target situation? The first mate turned to look at the gunner.

"Loading is underway, and the vibrations in front have caused some mechanical failures, which are being worked out in an effort to resolve." Sweat was streaming down the gunner's face.

"I don't understand, the enemy is also a heavy gunboat, but the rate of fire is obviously much faster than ours." The gunslinger said.

"I have never seen this ship, when the French were equipped with shallow water heavy gunboats, we don't even know anything about it." The first mate's face was full of dissatisfaction.

Of course, the officers of Thonburi could not have found the answer in their memories, because the warship that was engaged in the artillery battle with them did not belong to the French Navy at all, and until yesterday she still had a proud rice flag hanging on her mast, and even now she has not had time to cover the brass sign of the Erebus [Dark Realm] in the stern.

PS: It's a little late, but it's still over.

Thank you for your understanding and support, and thank you for your monthly passes and tips.

Thank you. (To be continued.) )