"This can't be a deliberate trap set by the Italians, right?" Finally, half an hour later, the Rheinland spotted the Bora in the distance, and because of the light and a little luck, when the Rheinland spotted the Bora, the distance between the two sides was less than 18KM! And the Bora was really patient, and did not rush to fire after the opponent entered the firing range, and when the opponent was ready to turn and evacuate, the Bora fired the first salvo!

Nine 10-inch guns spewed out tongues of fire, and shells weighing up to 260 kg were quickly collected from the breeches, and before that, the four seaplanes that were ejected from the Bora had also taken off. Unlike German seaplanes, these three seaplanes were carrying small bombs, and it was unlikely that they would sink each other, but it was okay to cause some interference.

"It's still quite accurate, it's been more than ten years, and the Italian Navy hasn't been abandoned." Looking at the shells that landed not far from the back of the hull, Hansen said with a gloomy face. If nothing else, this battleship should be the heavy cruiser Bora of the Italian Navy, which is equipped with a seaplane, and has a chance to find himself first. Based on the problems within the German Navy, Hansen knew that this battleship was definitely not a match for himself, and the entire German East African Fleet did not seem to have any existence with which he could fight alone. So in this case, it is better to evacuate as much as possible! Of course, as a qualified German naval officer, he was the first to send the news of the encounter with the Italian fleet.

"Retreat at full speed! Don't stay here for long! "Within a few minutes of Hansen's order. The Rheinland's power output was raised to a notch again, with all 10 oil-fired boilers running at full speed and high-temperature and high-pressure steam being sent to the engine room. Four gas turbines produced a powerful thrust of up to 110,000 horsepower, and the speed of the entire battleship was quickly increased to about 30 knots. The distance between the two sides is also slowly widening, although the Bora is constantly shooting, but because both sides are sailing at high speed, and the distance is a little remote, it has never been able to form a collapse shot, and the hit is even more far away.

However, the shell missed. Just because the bomb won't hit! Three seaplanes staggered over. Adhering to the tradition of the anti-aircraft artillery coffee table of the German Navy in World War 2 (such as the world-famous 37 hand-pulled machine on the Bismarck. The performance of the German naval anti-aircraft guns in this plane is still relatively good, at least for now, not to mention. The Rhine came alone, not to mention the rush to escape, and did not care about these three planes.

A seaplane flew through the sparse artillery fire and carried out a forward dive bombardment 400 meters above the Rhine. Two bombs that looked like black dots slid down the wings. Poof, a bomb fell into the sea close to the side of the Rhine's hull, the Germans didn't care at first, but then a muffled sound made the ship shake slightly, although the 100KG high-explosive bomb is not much, but it is much more than a 10-inch grenade, this near-miss bomb exploded at a depth of 5 meters, just avoiding the main armor of the Rhine's side chord. The energy generated by the detonation of the high-energy explosives squeezes the shrapnel and seawater towards the hull, and the outer hull plate and empty compartment are the first to penetrate. Then there is the liquid tank. Fortunately, the Germans' TDS armor was quite good, and the last layer of armor barely blocked the attack, but it also caused water to enter several compartments.

"It doesn't matter, the power equipment was not destroyed." Hansen felt a slight shock to the hull of the ship and then returned to normal, and his heart widened at the moment. Looking at the Bora who was gradually being distanced, his face showed a wry smile, he didn't know whether to congratulate himself on his luck or not, he was going to go out to hunt rabbits, but he really met a tiger that he was a little unexpected. Just when he was glad to have escaped, a bomb dropped by another plane almost blew up Hansen's lungs!

The bomb landed at the base of the chimney of the Rhine, where several flues converged and then exhausted smoke through the upper chimney of Guò, and this high-explosive bomb exploded and directly destroyed most of the flue, billowing smoke and flames spread in the cabin after losing their restraints, and even part of the exhaust gas poured into the power compartment causing the two boilers to go out! As a result, the output power decreases dramatically. The speed dropped by more than two knots!

"Prepare to fight, or win, or die with the banner held high! Get all the seaplanes out and I'm going to see how much the Italians have grown over the years! "AT THIS TIME, THE FOUR SEAPLANES THAT TOOK OFF FROM THE POLA HAD DROPPED ALL THEIR BOMBS, AND THERE WERE NO WEAPONS EXCEPT FOR TWO 50MM MACHINE GUNS, ONE OF WHICH WAS DAMAGED BY ANTI-AIRCRAFT FIRE AND MADE A SHAKY FORCED LANDING ON THE SEA. So when the Rheinland released all the 4 seaplanes that could be used. In the air, the Germans had the upper hand, and although the German seaplanes were not equipped with bombs, they still rushed forward without fear of death, and used the 20mm machine gun in the bow to strafe the deck of the Bora.

THEN THE 9 175MM GUNS ON THE RHINE ALSO ROARED, AND THE ADVANTAGE OF THE FASTER RATE OF FIRE OF THE GERMAN BATTLESHIP'S GUNS WAS REFLECTED AT THIS MOMENT, AND IN JUST ONE MINUTE, THE RHINE FIRED 6 SALVOS! The Pola was enveloped in dense water, and two near-miss bombs even landed less than 10 meters away from the battleship. "After all, it's just a sheep, and you dare to attack a lion?!" Although the rate of fire of the Bora was relatively slow, as the distance narrowed, the thick water columns of tens of meters high from the 10-inch guns still terrified the Germans. The orange muzzle flames were poured from time to time, and heavy shells flew directly over the two battleships.

The Germans released smoke while dodging, and after gaining air supremacy, the Germans completely abandoned using their ship's rangefinder to correct the design parameters, and instead relied entirely on seaplanes to guide the artillery, while they hid their bodies in the smoke. Although the aviation shooting technology was not mature at this time, the Germans originally wanted to get rid of time, and once the power compartment was restored a little, they immediately flashed people.

BUT PERHAPS IT WAS THE GERMANS WHO DID NOT HAVE IT, A 175MM SHELL LANDED BEHIND TURRET NO. 3 ON THE BOLA, WHERE HAPPENED TO BE A CATAPULT, AND A DRONE WAS PLACED ON IT, AND THE SHELL WEIGHING MORE THAN 100 KILOGRAMS TORE THE BIPLANE SEAPLANE TO PIECES, AND THEN DESTROYED THE CATAPULT AND WENT ALL THE WAY DOWN, TEARING OPEN THE UPPER DECK UNTIL THE MAIN HORIZONTAL ARMOR BLOCKED IT. Behind the fire, a small fire burned on the aft deck. However, there is not much trouble other than affecting the viewing.

In the face of the Rhine, which was incarnated as a squid, the Bora did not have a very good way, and the accuracy of the shelling was not as good as before, and several shells fell around the target sparsely. But the good luck of the Germans was here, just when the battle was in a stalemate, the buzz from the sky made Hansen completely despair, and under the cover of 3 fighters, 7 bombers with 250KG bombs came over!

"The sea attack of the Italian naval aviation is still very orderly, 3 fighters immediately dived after dealing with our seaplanes, and then used machine guns and small bombs to suppress our air defense, when our anti-aircraft artillery was exhausted, 7 bombers divided into two groups from the left and right directions to carry out dive bombing of our ship one by one, and after the first wave of attacks, the bombers who completed the bombing did not evacuate, and also joined the suppression of anti-aircraft artillery, The strafing of more than a dozen machine guns and machine guns completely suppressed our exposed anti-aircraft rapid-fire guns, so that the four bombers behind them barely met with decent resistance when they dropped their bombs! "This is how a rescued German ensign after the war said about the first battle of Italian naval aviation.

In fact, in the first round of dive bombing, the fate of the Rhine was already doomed, a 250KG high-explosive bomb hit the tail of the battleship, and the violent explosion directly destroyed the fragile horizontal armor in the upper part of the transmission shaft compartment (here the horizontal armor is not as good as the main horizontal armor in the armor box. Directly blew off one of the propeller shafts, and the vibration caused some malfunctions in the stern wheelhouse. A 250KG bomb from the next four dive bombers hit the ship's amidships, and the shrapnel and flames from the explosion directly destroyed several very important steam pipes. The last near-miss shot opened a large hole of several square meters in the underwater part of the starboard side of the hull, and under the action of more than 100 kilograms of high-explosive charge, the underwater defense system of the Rheinland was completely destroyed by high-temperature and high-pressure bubbles and high-speed shrapnel. In just a few minutes, hundreds of tons of seawater poured in.

The Rhine, which was damaged and the hull was broken, was finally exposed to the muzzle of the Bora after the smoke screen dissipated, and the 9 170MM guns could not beat the 9 10-inch guns after all, and the accuracy of the Italians rose rapidly in the case of good observation and aiming conditions, and the Rhine was successfully clamped 15KM away in only 3 test firings, and the fourth salvo caused a close miss, and the fifth salvo was hit, and a 260KG armor-piercing shell directly penetrated the No. 2 gun mount of the Rhine, The hardened layer of the cap and the outer layer of the armor shattered at the same time, leaving a round warhead to hit the non-hardened layer behind. With a loud bang, it finally entered the dressing room under the turret and ignited more than ten medicine packs inside!

With a loud bang, a column of smoke nearly 100 meters long rose from the front of the hull, and a violent shock wave began to spread towards the No. 1 and No. 3 turrets. Numerous shrapnel and armor fragments swept across the entire foredeck. In the midst of a series of explosions, the No. 1 turret failed due to the vibration. And the No. 3 turret also had a gun barrel smashed by a steel plate weighing hundreds of kilograms, and the entire battleship lost 7% of its firepower in an instant! The entire foredeck became a sea of fire, the angle of inclination of the battleship increased, and it was only a matter of time before it sank.

Just as the Italians were about to kill the dog and completely eliminate the Rhine, medium-range bombers from German East Africa appeared in the air. "Now that we have achieved our goal, and we have earned a light cruiser for nothing, then let's go, I don't have the idea of fighting the opponent's land-based aviation." After receiving the report, Iyakino ordered the Sicily to release four fighters to cover the evacuation of the fleet, and at the same time began to recover the first batch of released aircraft, and then evacuated to the open sea with the Bora.

Thanks to the book friend zhouyu1976, hukaikaka for the reward~~~, and the book friend Orphein for the monthly pass support ~~~~. (To be continued......)