The smoke of gunfire on the sea gradually subsided, and the wreckage and corpses of warships floated in the water, telling the story of what had just happened.

At this moment, Lieutenant General Stedi, who was the commander on the flagship Sovereign, frowned as he looked at the scene in front of him.

Half an hour earlier, a small Italian warship had attacked them, and after half an hour of firefighting, they had destroyed some of the enemy ships, while the rest of the enemy had been repulsed.

Although they repelled the enemy, Lieutenant General Stedi knew that this was only the beginning, and as long as the airship overhead followed them and his position was always exposed to the enemy's eyes, then the attacks would continue to flow.

"Commander, the French have sent a telegram asking about our next move."

At this time, the chief of staff walked in with a telegram.

Stady knew the Frenchman's intentions on his knees, only to see him speak. "Tell Vice Admiral Dufornell that we will set off at once and continue east to join the Mediterranean Fleet."

In addition, I sent a telegram in my own name to Vice Admiral Dufornell, saying that the attack of the Italians at this time fully illustrates its importance to our convergence with the Mediterranean fleet, and that only by seizing sea power in the Mediterranean can the ambitions of the Italians be curbed and the interests of our two countries in the Mediterranean can be safeguarded, and the defeat of the Italians will be a wonderful stroke on the resumes of both of us. ”

It was clear that the commander of the reinforcement fleet, of course, knew the urgency of the situation, so he tried to reassure the French, both public and private.

For he had already received several telegrams from Admiral Carden, saying only one thing, when he would be able to arrive on the battlefield with reinforcements.

However, it is not easy to reach the battlefield, as evidenced by the previous attacks.

Soon, Vice Admiral Dufornell called back, in which he reaffirmed the alliance between the two countries and also expressed concern for the Mediterranean fleet. It is clear that the lieutenant general Dufornell also understood the importance of the Mediterranean to France, and without the help of Britain, the French Mediterranean coast must not be hammered by the Italians.

Getting Lieutenant General Dufornell's reply made Stedi even more confident.

He glanced again at the airship that was following closely in the sky, and then continued to command. "Leave the Quartz and Swift to clean up the battlefield, and we're ready to go."

Saving people is like fighting fires, not to mention rescuing the Mediterranean Fleet led by Admiral Carden, which is related to the sea power of Britain and France in the Mediterranean. If he loses because of his poor rescue, then neither he nor the Lieutenant General Dufornell will be good.

Of course, the road ahead will not be easy, but they must move forward.

The reinforcement fleet led by Stedey and Dufornell was the key point in the Battle of Sirte, which was well known not only to them, but also to the combined fleet as an adversary.

Therefore, the reinforcement fleet is closely followed by three airships at all times, and its location is reported at any time. They also sent destroyers and torpedo boats to attack and harass them, delaying their footsteps.

Of course, these are all palliative measures, and the most important thing is to quickly defeat the Mediterranean Fleet and prevent its convergence.

And at present, the battleship duel where the main forces of the two sides are located is still in the stage of back and forth, although the Mediterranean Fleet is at a disadvantage, it can still be maintained.

But when it comes to battle patrol battles, it's almost time to decide.

At the moment, 57 kilometres east of Benghazi, Tukel is just a nameless town by the sea. Today, however, the townspeople are all standing on high and watching the battle unfold before their eyes.

"Did our fleet win?"

"How's the fight going?"

"Mr. Anthony, how's the battle going?"

The various voices in his ears did not shake the mayor Anthony in the slightest, and he was holding a telescope to keep an eye on the movement of the sea. At this time, in his shot, a battleship flying the flag of San Giorgio is being beaten by two battleships flying the flag of the Italian Navy.

At this moment, the besieged battleship was billowing with thick smoke, and the two Italian battleships were unrelenting, constantly firing shells at it.

This is the Taranto and the Bolzano in front of the Invincible. Invincible, who is at a disadvantage at the moment, the situation is not good at all. Its main turrets No. 1 and No. 4 have been destroyed, and the secondary guns are in shambles, leaving few available. What's even more deadly is that a large hole has been broken on the left side of the hull, although the gap has been plugged by the officers and soldiers on the ship, but this has also caused the Invincible battle cruiser to carry hundreds of tons of seawater, reducing the speed of the Invincible by two knots.

And this also creates an embarrassing situation where invincible can't beat and can't run.

As the first battle cruiser of the British Navy and the third in the world, the Invincible was heavily influenced by the Taranto class, and it can be said that it is two different concepts from the historical Invincible class. Just the strong Taranto style on his body is very different from the original invincible level to the naked eye.

In the previous exchange of fire between the two battle patrols, Rear Admiral Sinken, in view of the fact that he only had three battle cruisers in his hands, used the tactics of loitring to ensure that he exchanged fire with the enemy at high speed. This reduces the accuracy of the artillery, but it also increases your chances of survival.

It's just that although the idea is good, but there is some bad luck, and the Invincible is unfortunately opened a big hole, causing the ship's speed to be reduced. After some brief reflection, Rear Admiral Sinquen could only take the decision to abandon the Invincible.

As his opponent, Vice Admiral Gomez admired the opponent's decision to survive, but he was not satisfied with just one Invincible, and after leaving two Taranto-class Battlecruisers, the remaining three Battlecruisers continued to pursue the opponent without giving them a way to live. His attempt to completely annihilate his opponent is already Sima Zhao's heart, and everyone knows it.

As for the abandoned Invincible, under the leadership of the captain Colonel Dias, it tried to bite the opponent a few times, but it did not succeed in the case of the opponent's great superiority, but caused the Invincible to suffer a lot of losses under the opponent's intensive firepower.

At the moment, his only hope was that it would be best to hit the tail of the opposing ship with God's favor and cause its speed to be greatly reduced, and as for repelling the enemy ship, seeing that his own ship had only 40% of its firepower left, and the opponent's two ships of the same level of firepower that had not been weakened much, Colonel Dias would not have any thoughts.

"Counterattack, aim at the enemy's lead ship, the Taranto, and open fire."

The second and third batteries of the Invincible immediately erupted in flames, and flew towards the Taranto with the expectant eyes of the officers and men of the Invincible.

Soon their expectations turned into disappointment, and they saw four tall water columns emerging around the Taranto, the nearest of which was about 20 meters away from the Taranto, which was considered a close miss, which barely boosted the morale of the officers and men on the Invincible, knowing that their shelling was a threat.

However, this threat, which looks like a wounded man demonstrating against two strong men, must be greeted with a head-on attack.

Sure enough, after the counter-artillery bombardment was completed, the two Taranto-class ships launched a heavy attack. I saw a roar of the two ships, and the sixteen main guns spewed flames at the same time, which was a rare formation salvo (at this time, because of the delay in communication, the salvo was a salvo of a single ship, and no matter how elite the navy was, it would not train the formation salvo, because the effect was close to nothing, but it would affect the rate of fire of each ship).

More than a dozen seconds later, the shells flew into the Invincible, and although most of them turned into columns of water, two of them hit it.

A 305-mm shell hit the upper part of the port side on the right side, and after penetrating the upper armor of the invincible 152 mm, it destroyed several sailors' cabins, but fortunately the sailors on the Invincible were busy on the ship at this time, and there was no one in the cabins at all. So the shell blew a big hole in the left side of the boat, and there was no further damage, so it was insignificant.

But while this shell was innocuous and the other was quite deadly. This is a cannonball fired by the Bolzano, this 305mm armor-piercing shell with a piercing sound directly hit the waterline above the stern of the Invincible, and the huge kinetic energy directly penetrated the armor above the waterline and the fuel tank behind it, which was already half-empty, and finally exploded in the boiler area of the power room.

The violent explosion directly destroyed several boilers, destroyed a lot of steam pipes, and at the same time, the people in the power compartment suffered heavy casualties (think of the scene of secondary injuries caused by various parts flying sideways).

And this blow from the Bolsano also ruined the Invincible's hope of survival, because the power compartment suffered a heavy blow, so that the speed of the Invincible dropped directly to 12 knots. For a Warpatrol where speed is part of the protection, this is a personal life, because slowing down will increase the accuracy of the opponent and put yourself in a desperate situation from which you cannot escape.

"Increase the rate of fire and fire at enemy ships with the maximum frequency of fire."

The two Italian battle cruisers, as opponents, certainly did not relent, and then a wave of high-velocity fire broke out between the two ships (the battleship guns generally do not attack the opponent at the highest rate of fire, just like the continuous fire of an air-cooled machine gun that cannot change the barrel).

The Invincible was shot one after another in this round of firepower, its No. 3 turret was directly destroyed, and the hull of the ship was also hit many times, feeling that the Invincible was about to come to an end.

"Captain, at the moment the loss of firepower of the battleship has reached 85%, and the loss of personnel has reached 50%."

"Report, at the moment our battleship has been tilted 8 degrees to the left, now whether to fill the right with water."

"The news came from the pipe damage that the water in the cabin was serious, the pumping machine was simply not enough, and they could no longer control the water ingress."

……

Bad news came one after another, letting Captain Dias know that it was the last moment. "Send a telegram to Rear Admiral Sinken telling him that the Invincible has completed its mission and may God bless St. George."

After speaking, he looked at the crowd, "Abandon the ship, you have shed all your blood for the British Empire, and I am very honored to work with you on the Invincible." Now you need to think about yourselves, for your families. ”

These words were like last words, which shocked the others, and everyone stepped forward to persuade Captain Dias to leave with them, but he refused.

"I want to be with my beloved battleship all the time."

At 17:04 p.m. on January 7, 1914, the Invincible sank in the Bay of Sirte. The sinking of the Invincible was accompanied by Captain Dias and two officers and men who refused to evacuate.

As for the 437 officers and men of the Invincible, they were captured by the Combined Fleet and sent to a prisoner of war camp in Sicily, where they would wait for the end of the war.

(End of chapter)