Chapter 1309: Battleship VS Fortress
PS: The first update has arrived! Ask for a subscription, ask for a monthly pass! Thank you for the monthly pass and evaluation vote of XBEAR! Thank you book friends for the monthly passes of Mayflower 001, tree001, and Jingjia! It's the last day, ask for a monthly pass!
"Boom! Rumble! Rumble! "Eleven battleships and one battlecruiser of the Indian Ocean Fleet of the Chinese Navy, lined up in two battle lines, fired at the battleships of the Mediterranean Fleet of the British Navy! The orange-red flame shone in the muzzle of the thick main gun, like a firework blooming!
The British Navy's Mediterranean Fleet had only 6 'Devon-class' heavy cruisers, armed with three twin 210mm guns, relatively powerful! However, at a distance of 10,000 meters, these 'Devon-class' heavy cruisers still had no way to face the thick armor of the battleships! Unless they can close the combat distance to less than five thousand meters. Otherwise, even if it hits a battleship of the Chinese Navy, it will not be able to inflict fatal damage on it!
Several 'Jianghe-class' heavy cruisers of the Chinese Navy's Indian Ocean Fleet also joined in the firing, and the three triple 210-mm main guns equipped with them were superior to the British Navy's 'Devon-class' heavy cruisers in terms of firepower and power. Under such a powerful firepower, the warships of the British Navy simply could not rush to the approach of the Indian Ocean Fleet of the Chinese Navy!
"Boom!" A loud explosion came from the heavy cruiser "County Durham" of the British Navy's Mediterranean Fleet, and the bow of the heavy cruiser with a displacement of 10,000 tons was completely enveloped in smoke. A 343-mm armor-piercing projectile fired from the battleship 'Ben Bauer' hit him, and the armor-piercing projectile, weighing more than 500 kilograms, tore through the bow deck armor of the heavy cruiser 'Durham County'. Explode on the inside! The violent explosion directly tore the bow of the heavy cruiser 'Durham' to pieces. The sea rushed madly into the heavy cruiser 'Durham' in less than a minute. The heavy cruiser sank into the sea with its bow down.
When the heavy cruisers of the Mediterranean Fleet of the British Navy were surrounded by the capital ships of the Chinese Navy, the light cruisers and destroyers of the Mediterranean Fleet also launched a high-speed attack! Light cruisers and destroyers had guns that were too small to pose any threat to battleships, but they also had weapons that could pose a lethal threat to battleships. Then the heavy torpedoes carried on the battleship, the power of the heavy torpedo is much more powerful than the caliber naval guns, if a battleship is hit by a heavy cruiser, it can cause heavy damage. Or even sunk!
Fifteen light cruisers and 16 destroyers of the British Navy rushed at maximum speed to the line of battle lined up by the lead ships of the Indian Ocean Fleet of the Chinese Navy, intending to rush to a distance of about a thousand meters and then fire torpedoes. It's just that the attempts of these light cruisers and destroyers will obviously not succeed! By the time they began to charge, the 'Ningbo-class' light cruisers and 'Fuqing-class' destroyers of the Indian Ocean Fleet of the Chinese Navy had already appeared on the side of the battle line. formed a tight line of defense, blocking the direction of the attack with its own hull. At the same time, both the main and secondary guns on the battleship began to fire at the light cruisers and destroyers of the Mediterranean Fleet of the British Navy. Dense shells smashed into the Mediterranean fleet, splashing columns of water on the sea!
Light cruisers and destroyers had small tonnage and very weak armor. Almost nothing. Even if it is hit by a small-caliber naval gun, it is enough to constitute a serious injury! The Indian Ocean Fleet of the Chinese Navy, in addition to protecting the light cruisers and destroyers of the fleet of the 8th Marine Division, was engaged in the battle, much more than the light cruisers and destroyers of the Mediterranean Fleet. Under such a siege, the Mediterranean fleet suffered heavy losses. Before rushing to a distance of a thousand meters from the battle line of the Indian Ocean Fleet of the Chinese Navy, most of the battleships were heavily damaged or even sunk!
In the end, only a few light cruisers and destroyers broke through to a distance of about 1,500 meters from the battle line of the Chinese Navy. Torpedoes were fired! It's just that firing a torpedo at this distance is easily evaded by the lead ships of the Chinese Navy. Except for the sinking of a less fortunate destroyer, nothing else was achieved!
The Battle of Alvoran ended in less than an hour, the British Navy's Mediterranean Fleet was completely annihilated, all the 'Devon-class' heavy cruisers were sunk, 8 of the 15 light cruisers were sunk, and most of the remaining 7 light cruisers were heavily damaged, and then forced to surrender by the Indian Ocean Fleet of the Chinese Navy! Most of the 16 destroyers turned out to be like this! The losses paid by the Indian Ocean Fleet of the Chinese Navy were minimal, only one destroyer was sunk, two more destroyers and two light cruisers were badly damaged and had to return to Sicily for repairs. The Chinese Navy by this time had already built a small shipyard in Sicily that could carry out repairs to light warships. The other warships only suffered a little damage at most, and it did not affect the battle!
After annihilating the British Navy's Mediterranean Fleet, the Chinese Navy's Indian Ocean Fleet continued its westward advance. At 1 p.m., the Indian Ocean Fleet of the Chinese Navy appeared off the coast of Gibraltar. And by this time, the British Army and Navy's defense forces in Gibraltar were also ready for battle! In John. By the time Admiral Jericho's flagship heavy cruiser Cambridgeshire was sunk, the other ships had already sent telegrams to Gibraltar.
Chief of Staff of the Mediterranean Fleet of the British Navy, Roslyn. On the one hand, Lieutenant General Wells ordered all the troops of the Gibraltar Fortress to be ready for battle, and on the other hand, he ordered John Wills to prepare for battle. The news of Admiral Jericho's death in battle was reported to the British Admiralty! British Admiralty John Murphy When Sir Fisher learned of this, he scolded John. Admiral Jericho is an idiot. His self-seeking behavior of seeking death has buried thousands of officers and men of the British Navy's Mediterranean Fleet! You must know that after the British Royal Navy suffered several defeats, not only the loss of capital ships was too great, but also the loss of well-trained naval officers and sailors, if these officers and men of the British Navy's Mediterranean Fleet can be saved, this will have a great positive effect on the re-emergence of the British Navy! It's just that even if John. Sir Fisher's love for John. Admiral Jericho was very dissatisfied with his actions this time, but when it came to publicity, he still only had John Jerry. Admiral Jericho's propaganda as a hero who fought to the death for the glory of the British Royal Navy was the only way to inspire the Royal Navy and the British public.
The British Navy's Gibraltar Fortress, after decades of construction, has formed a complete defense system! On the southern terrace of Gibraltar, the British Navy built 5 fortified batteries here, each with a maximum caliber of 305 mm fortified guns, two per battery, in addition, each with 4 280 mm fort guns, as well as a variable number of 210 mm fortified guns, 155 mm shore defense guns, and so on! All the cannons combined, the entire fortress of Gibraltar had more than one hundred and fifty guns of 155 mm caliber! These forts built on the platform are very strong, basically they are directly hollowed out of the platform, and then the fortress cannon is placed inside! The top is limestone several meters thick, and the front is reinforced concrete, and then embedded with steel plates up to 100 mm thick, which is very strong enough to withstand the shelling of the 305 mm main gun. Of course, even a 343-mm gun could hardly penetrate the defenses of these batteries.
It's just that the hardness of limestone is not very large, and if the limestone with a thickness of several meters is fired at by the battleship's main guns, once it is hit several times, it will also be destroyed lightly! When the fortress of Gibraltar was built, the main purpose was to defend against the enemy in the front, and the world's mainstream naval guns at that time were only 305 mm main guns. And now the 305 mm guns have also lagged behind, the main guns of the super battleships are as high as more than 343 mm, the main guns of the Chinese Navy's 'Tang-class' battleships, the British Navy's 'Queen Elizabeth-class' battleships and the 'Revenge class' battleships under construction are all up to 381 mm in calibre. Such a blow was equally unbearable for the British Navy's fortress of Gibraltar!
At 1:15 p.m., about 10,000 meters from the fortress of Gibraltar, 11 battleships of the Chinese Navy began shelling the fortress of Gibraltar.
"Boom! Rumble! Rumble! "Except for the two 'Qin-class' battleships, the main guns of the remaining nine battleships were all 343 mm, and all of them fired armor-piercing shells. A total of 89 343-mm guns and 16 305-mm guns began a heavy shelling of the Gibraltar fortress!
A few minutes later, the various batteries of the Gibraltar fortress also began to counterattack. One by one, the fortress guns opened fire quickly, and one after another armor-piercing shells exploded on the sea, splashing columns of water that rushed to the sky!
The fort's turrets were highly protected and difficult to penetrate. The battleships, on the other hand, were constantly cruising on the sea, which made it difficult for the fortress's batteries to hit their targets. The artillery fire on both sides was very fierce, but they couldn't help each other for a while!
While the capital ships were engaged in artillery battles with the British Navy's fortresses, the Chinese Navy's anti-submarine formations of 'Lop Nur-class' frigates and 'Fuqing-class' destroyers were also cruising around, looking for possible submarines. In particular, the vicinity of the transport fleet of the 8th Marine Division is the focus of monitoring. If the convoy were attacked by the British Navy's submarines, it would cause serious losses! After all, to capture Gibraltar, it was up to the marines to make a landing! Otherwise, even if the main ships of the Navy uprooted all the batteries of the fortress of Gibraltar and no one landed, they would not be able to capture this place!
At this time, the Chinese Navy launched an attack on Gibraltar, which also attracted the attention of other countries. For example, the Kingdom of Spain! A Spanish army has appeared north of the fortress of Gibraltar!