No one expected that the first battle of the naval battle in the World War was actually initiated by the Turkish Navy on its own initiative, and on the night of the official declaration of war between the two sides, the fast battleship Sultan Selim I and the armored cruiser Fatik (the former dreadnought armored cruiser of the German King class, purchased from China. They left the port of Faw, crossed the Persian Gulf and sailed out to sea, and their destination was Karachi, the largest port in British India, where a large number of ships loaded with grain, cotton, and other supplies were gathered, as well as a huge fuel warehouse.

Karachi was a purely civilian port, but as the port of Faw gradually became capable of accommodating the large German-Turkish fleet, the British felt it necessary to choose a port close to the Persian Gulf as a base for the blockade. Further northwest, only the port of Karachi can accommodate these steel monsters, but from an economic point of view, the port of Karachi is irreplaceable as the largest grain and cotton export port in British India, and it is impossible to use it as a pure military port, so under the tugs of all parties, the military transformation of the port of Karachi seems to be quite slow.

"According to our intelligence, Karachi only has the ability to anchor the fleet, not the ability to overhaul the dreadnoughts, and its defense is very weak, but it has four old 9.2-inch naval guns converted into shore guns, and a 6-inch gun shore gun battery, and no mines. Because the British were afraid that these mines would blow up their precious merchant ships. Al Barsha said with a smile.

"We don't have to be afraid of these shore fire forces at all, the 9.2-inch guns can't even count the armored cruiser Fatik, our main target is here!" Pointing to a location on the map, Al Barsha said, "This is the British's heavy oil depot." Only if we can destroy them, then this port will not make any sense for the British Navy. The second target is here, this is the whole port warehouse, where there are tens of thousands of tons of grain and other supplies, as for the third target? I think if we could intercept a few merchant ships, then our lives would be greatly improved. "Al Barsha is clearly confident in this operation, because in his opinion. There doesn't seem to be any force nearby that can stop them!

It would be impossible to say that the British did not have the slightest preparation in the port of Karachi, and the former Daring Daring of London, which was at this time carrying out coal refueling operations, was going to cover a fleet of ships transporting grain to Alexandria. Before the Italian navy joined the Allied fighting, the British had to seize the time to provide more supplies for the British army in North Africa. And in order to defend against the Turks' attack ships, the British decided to provide an escort for this convoy, and the escort was the British quasi-dreadnought London. It has a displacement of up to 14,000 tons. It has 4 12-inch 45L main guns and 4 9.2-inch secondary main guns, and the whole ship has a large width of 9-inch armor belts, which has good seaworthiness and a speed of more than 20 knots. Escorted by the London, the British believed that nothing would happen to any non-capital ship of Germany and Turkey!

"It would be a waste to hand over such a good warship to the Turks, who are only worthy of the former dreadnoughts of less than 10,000 tons. The Germans had not yet arrived in the Middle East, and General Goodnow would soon be in the port of Karachi, and the South Africa and its fleet could well be said to be locked in the Persian Gulf. We are not in any danger this time. The captain of the London said to his men with a swear.

The British captain also had a point, if Albasha knew that Goodnow's fleet had sailed for the Middle East before the war began. Maybe he really didn't dare to come out casually, but the British did a bit of a good job of secrecy, and the Turks didn't find out the whereabouts of this fleet at all, so Albarsha, who thought it was safe, came out with the fleet, and he thought that it was not far from the Persian Gulf, and if he drove away at full speed, he would soon be able to go back, and it would be safe to see the entrance to the Persian Gulf. And just when the British captain was making a fool's errand, Al Barsha's fleet was already approaching the port of Karachi, and Al Barsha could already see the lighthouse of the port of Karachi!

The huge body of the Sultan Selim I gradually appeared above the sea level. The star-moon period hanging high on the top of the mast made all the British people in Karachi Harbor feel cold on their necks like the Ottoman scimitars of the time! "Am I dazzled, God? How did the Turks come here? I remember that there were also such ships in the fleet of the British Empire. At this time, an Englishman was still hoping that he was wrong, but in fact, he didn't want to think about it, why couldn't the Turks come when they were so close? SOON, THE 9 OF 350MM HEAVY GUNS ON THE SULTAN SELIM I MADE THEIR STAND WITH PRACTICAL ACTIONS!

The three large triple turrets slowly turned to the side side, and the rangefinder quickly transmitted the distance and bearing to the fire control room according to the distant references, which then adjusted the guns according to the calculated firing elements. Because the main objective was to attack the heavy oil depot in the port, the accuracy of the shelling would be very high in the face of this huge and immobile thing, and in case the British deployed a mine array outside the port, the Selim I launched an attack at a distance of 15KM from the target!

Rumble! With a loud sound like thunder, three huge fireballs erupted from the side of the Selim I ship at the same time, and three 14-inch shells weighing 635KG flew out of the barrel at a speed of more than twice the speed of sound, and after dozens of seconds, the three shells fell in turn not far from the heavy oil warehouse. As much as 42.5KG of picric acid explosives loaded in the shell were detonated under the action of the fuse and collision, and at the moment of the explosion, hundreds of kilograms of scorching shrapnel mixed with flames covered everything around it indiscriminately, and a wooden house 50 meters away from the explosion point was reduced to a pile of firewood by the violent shock wave in an instant, no, it was a pile of burning firewood, the high combusticity of picric acid multiplied the power of the high-explosive bomb, and they ignited everything that could be touched, from wood and human body to steel!

The sudden bombardment plunged the entire port into chaos in an instant, and the merchant ships in the harbor never thought that the war would be so close to them! I didn't expect that just this little thing of myself could make a fast battleship worry about it! And with the beginning of the attack on Selim I, the armored cruiser Fatik also began to shoot at British transports that had escaped from the port. There was no way, the accuracy and range of the old 11-inch 40L gun were not satisfactory, and they could only find close targets to hit.

For the Turks, the beginning of the battle can be described as relaxed and pleasant, after years of training, 15KM outside to hit the super-large pre-marked fixed target is no problem, in the third round of salvo, there are two shells fell to the target area, one of the shells fell on the pipeline, directly exploded hundreds of meters of the pipeline into a twisted twist, the yellow-green flame produced after the explosion of picric acid explosives quickly ignited the heavy oil in the pipeline, the viscous heavy oil splashed around under the huge impact, Ignited more places! During this time, the Fatik sank one with 11-inch guns and one with 6-inch guns, and forced to land one.

Just when the old armored cruiser was on the rise, a loud noise from the harbor stunned the Turks! According to the prior intelligence, the British will not have large-caliber naval guns here, and judging from the sound just now and the splash of shells, this should be a 12-inch naval gun! That is, there is a British dreadnought in the harbor or a former dreadnought? This news made the heart of Al Barsha, who was shelling in the distance, tighten!

Al Barsha came to the port of Karachi and wanted to make a time difference, and then take advantage of it and leave, and really didn't plan to fight face-to-face with the British Royal Navy! If it were according to the style of the Turks in the past, maybe it would have been a direct call, but it was obvious that Albasha, who had received several years of systematic training in China, would not be so surprised, and soon, he saw the clues.

The opponent's shells were very scattered, and there was no accuracy at all, that is to say, the opponent's range was very close, and the observation conditions were not good, not to mention the fight against Selim I, and even the closer Fatik did not form a straddle fire. It's very likely that the other party is just a former dreadnought, even if it is? There are not many warships in service in the Royal Navy that can single-handedly challenge Selim I, and if you get to the Middle East, there should be none, and Al Barsha doesn't mind adding another ship to his record if he completes the mission!

"Keep attacking, hit the oil depot first, then the warehouse!" After a while, Albasha, who understood together, ordered, Suhou, the attack speed of the Selim I has increased significantly, and after getting a hit, replace the three shots with a salvo in time! Every 30 seconds or so, 9 14-inch guns will burst into a roar, and within a minute, 10 tons of ammunition will be tilted on the oil depot and cargo yard of Karachi Port, whether it is heavy oil or cotton and grain stacked in the warehouse, they will directly turn into a ball of flames under the blow of picric acid high-explosive shells, and the fire extinguishing facilities in the port are simply not enough, accompanied by a shell hitting a huge oil storage tank! A loud bang resounded throughout the port area, and then thousands of tons of fuel oil were left out of the tanks, ignited by the flames, and spread through the port like lava flows, devouring everything they could touch! By now, anyone knows that the port of Karachi is over, and at least the port facilities will not be able to supply the capital ships for half a year!

At the same time, just when Selim I turned the entire Karachi port into a sea of fire, the London finally rushed out, and his target was the Fatiq, who was happily hunting the transport ship outside the port, 4 12-inch naval guns spewed angry tongues of fire, and huge shells flew to distant targets, and because of the sight problem, the Fatik did not find the battleship that rushed out at the first time, and for a while, this old cruiser that had experienced several battles was covered by the opponent's gunfire!

The second is more ~~~ I hope book friends can like it~~~. (To be continued......)