Chapter 1007: The Escape Journey

After receiving a telegram from the Sims group, Majifen knew the outcome of the battle, victory had become a luxury, and the only way out was to evacuate. But the actual situation was even worse than he had imagined, and the one-sided situation surprised him, and when he arrived on the USS Oklahoma, Magiffen immediately readjusted his deployment, and 4 American armored cruisers began to take destroyers to meet the lightning strikes of the guns and engines of the Allied warships, while he led the fleet that could still maintain the remaining speed to withdraw to the north, if nothing else, there was a submarine cordon, in addition to the 9 submarines of the US Navy, there were 3 French and 5 British, A whole 17 submarines!

The Tennessee, which had lost power, was abandoned, and together with the armored cruisers, he would launch a desperate charge against the Italian Navy, the American fleet began to release smoke, the destroyers were divided into arrays, and under the cover of smoke, the American fleet began to turn to high-speed detachment, and the first group of destroyers also fired torpedoes one after another. The white torpedo was withdrawn from the torpedo tube by high-pressure air, and after falling into the water, it quickly recovered to a definite depth, and then pulled out a long white line and rushed towards the target, the American destroyer fired the torpedo at a distance of 8KM, at a distance without any accuracy, but the cautious Italians still chose to dodge.

When the ships dodged the torpedoes and readjusted their course to continue the pursuit, 4 American armored cruisers led no less than 20 torpedo boats under the cover of the USS Tennessee to launch a second wave of lightning strikes! Under the cover of smoke canisters, the 4 armored cruisers did not hesitate to rush out in the middle of the least number of auxiliary warships. At the same time, they also received fire support from the tail of the American fleet, and here were three foreign trade fast battleships of the Chinese people, although the Turkish had super dreadnought. But the convoy itself was lacking, and it was almost depleted in the two wars, although it was a combined fleet, but the Italians and Spaniards obviously would not provide enough covering force for the Turks, and the American fleet found this opportunity to launch a lightning strike!

At the end of the U.S. Navy's battle line, the USS Utah, USS New York, USS Seven Provinces, and USS Athens abandoned their previous enemy and attacked the three fast battleships with all their might, and the ferocious firepower not only allowed the opponent to take care of the lightning strike formation. At the same time, he also sank two Allied destroyers next to him, so that the opponent's defense was even weaker. Tycho tried to make up for this shortcoming, sending four destroyers from the Italian fleet to reinforce them, and aiming his guns at the three ships of the American Navy who were cut off from the tail of the ship, but after all, it was a little slower!

4 Italian destroyers can only be described as a drop in the bucket. As soon as he went up, he was torn to pieces by two armored cruisers with fierce fire. The net of fire woven by 8 10-inch guns and 16 6-inch guns on the side chords of the two cruisers is a greater threat to the auxiliary warships than the capital ships! Their rate of fire is too fast! Two destroyers with a displacement of 700 tons were destroyed outside the range of the torpedoes, the other destroyer was pierced through the ammunition depot by a 10-inch shell just after firing a torpedo, and the last one tried to withdraw from the battlefield, but was caught up and sunk by a dense barrage of bullets, and the whole process took only a few minutes. THE AMERICAN ARMORED CRUISER WAS LIKE A SHARP BAYONET THAT PROVOKED THE ITALIANS' FRAGILE AUXILIARY WARSHIP DEFENSES, ALTHOUGH IN THIS MELEE ONE ARMORED CRUISER WAS DESTROYED BY POWERFUL 350MM ARMOR-PIERCING SHELLS, THE HUGE EXPLOSION FROM THE EXPLOSION OF THE AMMUNITION DEPOT NOT ONLY BLEW THE 10,000-TON ARMORED CRUISER IN TWO, BUT ALSO PULLED TWO DESTROYERS THAT WERE TOO CLOSE TO DODGE INTO THE WHIRLPOOL AS IT SANK. But their sacrifice still provided a valuable opportunity for the destroyers behind, and the 12 destroyers that followed behind launched a deadly lightning strike!

The Americans acted decisively. Like a dragon swinging its tail, the fierce blow before the evacuation made the allies a little uncomfortable. 12 destroyers fired 2 torpedoes at two battleships at a distance of 1500 meters in less than 30 minutes! The torpedo's trajectory made it impossible for the Gneisenau to dodge, and after trying to dodge eight torpedoes, two torpedoes hit the middle and rear of the hull one after another, and the hit points between the two torpedoes were only less than 10 meters apart!

The powerful American torpedo was loaded with 500 pounds of high-explosive charge, which had already reached the ceiling of the underwater defense of the Chinese foreign trade battleships! A huge water mass rose up on the side of the battleship, accompanied by the explosive impact of high-energy explosives and the squeeze of water debris, the hull plate was directly shattered, followed by the high-elastic steel plate at the back, and the outermost empty compartment was shattered after slowing down the impact of the other party, followed by the liquid tank behind, It is said that the heavy oil layer in the tank is nearly 0.6 meters thick in order to further cushion the impact of debris, but Nair used up the fuel in it because it was light and long-term sailing when it came out, and the result was that the role it should play was not started, and after the collapse of the second layer of protection, it was the third layer! After containing a large amount of seawater and debris, part of the chamber was damaged, and the seawater rushed into the crack, and the breach was further expanded by the strong water pressure.

If things come to this point, this battle-hardened fast battleship can still support it, and the advanced subdivision compartment design can be limited to a certain range even if the core compartment is flooded, but another torpedo that follows completely ruined the battleship! When the soldiers on the ship were still apprehensive because of the explosion just now, another loud bang made everyone's mood sink to the bottom! The second torpedo tore a large hole 8 meters long next to the first torpedo, and the shock wave generated by the explosives tore through the already damaged underwater defense system, not only completely destroying the outer three-story compartment, but also tearing off the last layer of armor, which was already unreliable, from the hull of the ship! , a large hole of more than ten square meters appeared, and behind him was the engine room of the battleship, a large amount of seawater poured into the interior with countless fragments, and the German officers and soldiers who were in the engine room were swallowed by the sea water before they even had time to report.

The successive attacks of two torpedoes allowed the battleship to pour at least 2,500 tons of seawater in a short time! But this is not the end, the remaining destroyers continued to attack like a fishy piranha, and soon, another torpedo hit the front of the hull, and a huge gap was opened in the lower part of the No. 2 turret, although the mine armor near the ammunition depot blocked the scattered fragments, but for the sake of safety, the Germans still ordered the ammunition depot to be filled with water, so that with the addition of water inlet and water injection, the Gneisenau added more than 1000 tons of seawater! And most of this sea water is poured on one side, and it is very clear whether this order is right or wrong, and in the end too much sea on one side finally crushes the Gneisenau!

The entire battleship poured 20 degrees, and after failing to balance the water injection, it was finally swallowed by the rolling waves! When they saw that the other side finally sank, the Americans boiled! In their eyes, this is a huge victory, but unfortunately it is only a tactical victory, Magiffin's unexpected blow did bring some losses to the Allies, but when the other side reacts, the American fleet will be shocked with rage!

The three armored cruisers that rushed up were covered by the ensuing dense fire before they even had time to evacuate, one of the main armored cruisers ended their lives in a series of explosions in less than 3 minutes, while the other two armored cruisers were besieged by the Laut and 3 Spanish-class battleships and were completely destroyed in less than 10 minutes, one of them capsized because the side of the hull was riddled with holes, the engine stalled, and there was too much water, And the other battleship was lit by the detonation of the ammunition depot! In no more than fifteen minutes, the US lightning strike formation, which was still murderous just now, was wiped out under the blow of nearly 100 main guns! Subsequently, the Allied fleet aimed its guns at the American rearguard fleet in the distance!

11 super dreadnoughts against 3 super dreadnoughts and 1 dreadnought, there is no suspense in such a battle, and at this time, the captain of the Seven Provinces, the Dutch admiral who had participated in the Second Sino-Russian War, the silent Jack, decisively pulled out the smoke screen and unexpectedly broke away from the battle column and began to chase Majifen! Without informing the commander of the fleet, the capital ship brazenly withdrew from the battle and fled from the battlefield, which has never appeared in many fierce naval battles in this World War 1! And such an act naturally brought an indelible stain to Jack, and for a time a series of the most vicious titles such as coward, coward, and spy of the Allies were used on this admiral!

"I'm willing to exchange my qiē for the survival of the Seven Provinces, what can I count as a mere reputation and imprisonment? The war is over, and we don't need to be a victim. When he returned to the harbor, he was confronted by the French officers and men who had come to arrest him, said the gray-haired admiral. What is quite surprising is that the commander of the fleet at the time, Magifin, also expressed his understanding of Jack in private, believing that the Dutch's choice in this situation was not excessive, and he did not flee the battlefield on his own, but eventually returned to his previous formation. Of course, such a thing cannot be said in public, and it is contrary to the opinion of the US government and public opinion, and although Majifen sympathizes with the Dutch, it is only sympathetic.

I have to say that the Seven Provinces does have the capital to escape from the tiger's mouth, and the heavy armor made him not suffer much damage in the fight with the Allied Super Dreadnought just now, and the speed of up to more than 25 knots also allows it to shake off the red-eyed Allied Mediterranean Fleet, in the surprise of the friendly forces next to it, under the cover of the smoke screen in the sky, the only remaining capital ship of the Dutch Navy withdrew from the battlefield with overloaded horsepower, and I don't know if it was an accident or the smoke screen was too thick, and the Allied fleet actually didn't find him, Or that they didn't focus their firepower on this battleship, and the other side pointed the blade of revenge at the remaining 4 battleships!

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