"All the main guns are aimed at the Minotaur, and I'm going to sink it in the shortest time possible." When Albarsha issued this order before the battle, the officials of the entire control tower were stunned, and they even wondered if their commander had scared the British stupid. With the Fatik's four 11-inch guns, which don't even have the ability to interfere with the South Africa, can they still let the South Africa attack itself like a target? Isn't that too dangerous?

"Execute, there is a saying in the old East that it is better to cut off one finger than to hurt ten fingers. We can't destroy the South Africa, we might as well choose the much weaker Minotaur. Believe me, the Minotaur will not last a quarter of an hour under our attack, and if the British do not react at the first time and retreat, then we can succeed. Al Barsha said loudly, his tone full of confidence and excitement. We're going to have the Minotaur bury the glorious Fatik! That's it! ”

The Turkish fleet soon turned to the northwest, and the British fleet also turned to catch up, the speed of both sides remained around 15 knots, too high speed and continuous change of direction angle for the shelling is very unfavorable, so the two sides gradually got closer, and then the two fleets were almost parallel, began to slowly close the distance, and finally, at a distance of 17KM, the South Africa's 9 heavy guns fired the first round and a half salvo of the capital ship engagement of the First World War! Five huge fireballs erupted from the muzzle of the cannon and flew towards the Selim I, which was more than ten kilometers away!

"Let's get a little closer, and concentrate our fire on the Minotaur!" Al Barsha once again emphasized the target, and a drop of cold sweat fell from his head. I have to say that the British artillery skills are still very good, and the third round and a half salvo have already formed a straddle fire, so Al Barsha ordered the battleship to turn right and get closer to the Luojing point by half a point! After the South Africa fired a fifth round and a half volley. Selim I is finally no longer silent! A loud thunderous sound came from a distance, and 5 shells like meteorites flew towards the British fleet, and at this time, probably in order to better play the firepower of the 234MM gun, the Minotaur also deviated slightly to the right, and when the Turks opened fire, the distance between the two had been shortened to 14KM!

"Well done!" Suddenly, a huge fireball slammed into the selim I's broadside armor belt. The blow was so hard that the smoke and flames from the explosion of the shells covered almost the entire foremast, and the British cheered excitedly. Thankfully they got the first hit of the day. "Doesn't seem to be a problem?" A minute later, when the smoke cleared, the Turkish sultan was still sailing at high speed on the sea, his nine guns spewing deadly flames like a three-headed cerberus. Shortly after the South Africa hit, the Minotaur in the back was finally straddled by the Sultan! Four columns of water enveloped the most elite cruiser of the British Empire. And at this distance, the straddle shot means that the opponent can switch to the potency shot when he is very open. The opponent's rate of fire will be brought to the limit!

Shell lifting, loading, charging, locking, aiming, firing! When the Minotaur was covered. The gunners on the Selim I seemed to be integrated into the weapons, and they operated the guns as fast as they could, firing rapidly at a rate of nearly 25 seconds, and at this time, the Minotaur finally felt a hint of danger after being straddled! And before that, it was using 8 9.2-inch guns to easily attack the Fatik at a long distance!

"Did the Turks hit the wrong target?" Looking at the rising column of water around him, the captain of the Minotaur hesitated, he could hardly imagine that the other party actually ignored the attack of the South Africa and couldn't pass with him, is this a bit cheap? The British captain didn't think about evading it. But soon, the South Africa made a second hit. A cannonball slammed into Selim I's turret No. 2, covering turret No. 2 in a cloud of flames. And this gave confidence to the British. "As long as the South Africa fights well, the Turkish warships will soon lose their combat effectiveness." A fluke spread on the Minotaur.

"Damn! It was actually bounced off! Huaxia's warships are really sturdy. "From the Minotaur's point of view, the shell should have exploded on the turret, but on the South Africa, Goodnow saw very clearly that the shell exploded on the sea. The effect is not as good as the first shell! Two consecutive hits were poor, which made Goodnow start to have some worries about the outcome of today's engagement.

"Stay close until we can penetrate its armor!" Goodnow said through gritted teeth. If you can't do it from a long distance, then get close and stay close until you can penetrate it! This is undoubtedly a fight for life in Goodnow's opinion, but he believes that his subordinates are more skilled and can get a head start! The distance between the entire British fleet and the Turkish fleet is even closer! And the distance is closer, not only your accuracy can go up, but the accuracy of the other party will also improve!

"Oh God, what's wrong!" Suddenly, a huge fireball pierced the bow of the Minotaur at an almost horizontal angle like a sharp arrow, and the armored cruiser, which weighed nearly 15,000 tons, seemed to be slammed by a giant hand. The slender knife-like flying scissors sank to the bottom of the water violently, and then began to recover with difficulty, boom! Just as it was beginning to slowly recover, the sound of an explosion coming from the right side of the bow of the ship made everyone's hearts sink. A large amount of seawater poured into the bow from the gap on the other side, and a 635kg armor-piercing projectile successfully pierced the unprotected bow part of the Minotaur, and in despair, it eventually exploded at the bottom of the hull, and the shock wave from the explosion not only opened a large hole in the side of the hull, but also destroyed the watertight system of the bow. The battleship had a serious first roll in a short period of time, and the draft at the bow of the ship increased by about 2 meters in 2 minutes!

If the Minotaur three minutes ago was as agile and ferocious as a cheetah, and now this cheetah's head has the other party fiercely coming, although it is not deadly, but it makes him show his decline, the water in the bow is already on the verge of uncontrollable state, although the pumping machine is trying to pump the seawater out, but the loss of the watertight system makes the water intake of this battleship greater than the amount of pumping. Just as the Minotaur was trying to slow down to lower the bow of the ship into the water, another shell flew in from a distance. And this time, this shell directly destroyed the Minotaur's bow main gun! The turret, which weighed hundreds of tons, was knocked open, and the shell successfully penetrated through the top. It then runs through the upper deck and eventually through the gun mount, exploding below the main deck!

Two loud bangs made the British on the Minotaur feel death for the first time, and the second shell destroyed not only the Minotaur's bow gun, but also the power supply room behind the main turret. In an instant, the entire front half of the hull completely lost its power supply. Even the pumping machine didn't work anymore, after two shots. The Minotaur lost half of its firepower, (the other turret was unusable due to a power outage.) And the water ingress in the bow of the ship was completely out of control, and the speed of the main battleship was reduced from 16 knots to about 12 knots!

"Damn it. Let the Minotaur withdraw from the battle, I should have thought a long time ago that the contest between male lions should not be involved in hyenas! At this time, Goodnow finally understood the Turkish plan, but will it be a little too late to retreat at this time? Shortly after the Selim I cleanly smashed the Minotaur. The South Africa hit the Sultan in the tail with a third hit. The shell successfully penetrated the already fragile stern protection and opened a large hole in the waterline, but because of the dome armor behind it to keep the water back, and at the same time there was a complete watertight system, this time the water inlet was not much, and it was controlled after pouring more than 100 tons of seawater.

The South Africa's successive hits gave the Minotaur a glimmer of hope as it struggled to adjust its course and head off into the distance. The slender hull swayed and struggled. At the same time, the light cruisers also rushed up and began to release smoke screens to cover the evacuation of the Minotaur. "We can get out of here alive eventually. We're going to be partying in Mumbai and we're glad we survived this firefight. An officer shouted encouragement to his soldiers.

The massive hull of the Minotaur slowly disappeared into the smoke. Just when the British thought they could finally get out of danger, a third 350MM shell flew through the air with a piercing screech, cutting into the middle and rear of the Minotaur's hull like a scythe of death! The shell pierced through three levels of water, smashing the Minotaur's fragile horizontal armor like butter, and eventually detonating the explosives in the Minotaur's boiler room! Rumble! With a loud bang, a column of smoke mixed with white mist rose from the Minotaur! And with this pillar of smoke as a reference, the Minotaur can no longer hide its shape!

"The battleship has lost power, our power system has been destroyed!" Goodeno looked gloomily at the telegram from the Minotaur. "Order the light cruiser to prepare for the transfer of the remaining personnel." At this time, when he gave this order, he knew that the Minotaur was already the result of death, the right compartment in the bow had been flooded, the power supply in the front was interrupted, and the power was completely lost, and now it was almost impossible to tow it back! And I don't seem to be able to do anything about it. I can only slam the iron turtle on the opposite side again and again!

Shortly after the Minotaur was hit for the third time, the South Africa hit the Selim I twice in a row, one of which penetrated through the upper deck, but was then blocked by the main horizontal armor, and although the powerful shells destroyed several compartments and caused a small fire, it did not have much effect on the hull, and the fifth hit misplaced a whole piece of armor, and a crack of nearly one square meter appeared near the waterline in the middle of the hull.

"The Minotaur is finished, and His Majesty the Sultan can leave." As the distance got closer, the South Africa's 6-inch guns also began to shoot high-explosive shells at the opponent. Although there is no big problem with the hull structure of the Selim I, the flames and smoke still make the dreadnought look very embarrassed, and at this time, the information from the Fatik made Al Barsha finally decide to leave, judging from the situation just now, the power of the Minotaur has been destroyed, and the bow of the ship is seriously flooded, even if it is towed back for repair, it is not of much significance, although it is very close to the port of Karachi, but the port of Karachi at this time has become a sea of fire, and it is impossible to moor the battleship at all, so the result of the Minotaur is certain, which will eventually sink under the waves of the Indian Ocean!

"Tell the brothers, let them live well, and I hope we can meet again after the war." Looking at the Fatik that was set on fire by the Minotaur, Albasha ordered, and before leaving, the Sultan gave the Minotaur another hard blow, the shell penetrated directly through the middle and rear of the hull, completely destroying two of the four propeller shafts, and at the same time, the shock wave generated by the explosion mixed with shrapnel pierced the double bottom of the Minotaur, and a huge gap appeared at the bottom of the hull, so that the sinking of the Minotaur became completely irreversible. 4 shells, this armored cruiser with a displacement of 15,000 tons was completely destroyed!

"The Minotaur was the first large warship lost by the British Empire in the World War, and became the first sacrifice on the altar of war, and then, less than 5 minutes after the sinking of the Minotaur, the Fatik was sunk by the angry South Africa, and for the Selim I who caused all this, General Goodnow had no other way but to let the other side evacuate under the cover of a smoke screen at a high speed of 24 knots." A British officer wrote so in his diary.

The Turkish Navy paralyzed the port of Karachi, one of the largest British ports in India, at the cost of losing an armored cruiser, and destroyed one of the last British cruisers. The British never expected that the first heel they planted would actually be yin by the Turks. This makes the British who have always been arrogant embarrassed.

"We have lost nearly 10,000 tons of fuel, the fire area of the port of Karachi is as high as 60%, more than a dozen ships of various kinds have been affected, burned or damaged, the grain and cotton transportation throughout northern India has been greatly hit, and most importantly, we have lost a potential base that can effectively contain the German-Turkish fleet, and if the German fleet successfully reaches the Persian Gulf, then the situation in the entire Indian Ocean will become very serious."

"In this engagement, we hit the opponent at least 5 times, but the effect was not obvious, we could hurt them but not destroy them. It's not even possible to keep the opponent. Before the Queen Elizabeth-class fast battleships entered service, it was a very frustrating thing to say that our most powerful weapons could not be used against our opponents. Even if we deploy four fast battleships in the Indian Ocean, we will still not be able to effectively contain the attack of the other side, and even if we have formed a local advantage, the other side can still calmly escape. "The first thing Goodnow, as a qualified general, did not defend himself after the war, but to sort out the lessons of the battle and pass them on to the Admiralty, and as for himself, he could only say that he was resigned to fate.

Thanks to the book friend zhouyu1976 for the tip~~~. Present a 4000-word chapter, I hope you will support a lot ~~~. (To be continued......)