Captain Dias's farewell telegram soon reached Rear Admiral Sinken via radio waves, and the Rear Admiral was not having a good time.

Although the game has reduced the hit rate, there are also cases of hits. Not to mention that although the difference in strength between the two sides seems to be not big, it is a matter of two ships versus three, but in fact the gap is very large. Because although the Indefatigable is a follow-up model of the Invincible class, it can actually only be regarded as a follow-up improvement of the Invincible class, and its performance can only be regarded as a slight improvement, because it is a response to the fact that the number of the Invincible class is not enough to fight, and the number of German and Italian battle cruisers is built.

As for the Indomitable, as the second ship of the Invincible class, it is even worse than the Indefatigable in terms of performance.

So in fact, two combat cruisers equipped with 305 mm guns are a confrontation with one 305 mm guns and two Milan-class battle cruisers with 350 mm guns. This is at a complete disadvantage, and it is impossible to fight at all.

This is also the reason why Rear Admiral Sinken can only use the tactics of loitering, the traditional face-to-face artillery battle cannot be fought at all, and can only be used to drag the opponent's pace and win a good situation for the battleship formation.

In fact, the British Empire is not without the existence of being able to compete with the Milan class, and the three Lion-class battle cruisers in its service are also equipped with 343 mm main guns, but Britain needs to give priority to ensuring the superiority of the home fleet, so it can only let the Mediterranean Fleet use the Invincible class and the Indefatigable class first.

Only after the outfitting Tiger-class battle cruisers entered service could the Mediterranean Fleet compete with the Italian battle cruisers in terms of quantity and quality. However, the earliest service of the Tiger-level battle patrol will be at the end of the year, so now it is just an empty word.

In the final analysis, the timing of the outbreak of the war was relatively coincidental, so that a large number of capital warships built by Britain in 10 or 11 have not yet completed their service work. If it can wait another year or two, then its naval strength will be greatly replenished. At that time, it will not be an empty phrase for the British Imperial Navy to punch the German Navy and kick the Italian-Austrian Combined Fleet.

However, no one expected the time of the war, so the participating countries were not fully prepared.

And for Major General Sinken, the battle patrol with a disadvantage can only find a way to deal with the opponent tactically. However, because the Italians concealed the top speed of the battle cruiser, it made his fight more difficult.

However, the news of the sinking of the Invincible will make his situation even worse. The enemy's two battle cruisers were free, and everyone knew what this meant.

"Order the formation to increase the speed to 24 knots, we just need to hold on, then the reinforcement fleet ......"

"Boom!"

Just as Major General Sinken was about to increase his speed further to reduce the probability of two sides and prolong his defeat for more time, he heard a loud explosion from the Indomitable Horn on the side.

At this moment, Major General Sinken's heart tightened, and he hurriedly spoke. "Send a telegram to ask the Indomitable what's going on?"

At this moment, in the boiler compartment behind the waterline of the right side of the Indomitable ship, a 350-millimeter shell fired from the Florence hit the hull 2.5 meters below the waterline in the form of a water bullet.

You must know that at present, most of the armor of warships in various countries is above the waterline, and there is less armor under the waterline, and it is good to extend the armor to one meter below the waterline, even if it is Italy, which pays considerable attention to the defense of the waterline, the armor below the waterline of the battleship is only 1.4 meters at most. More is impossible, because this does not have much effect, but rather increases the displacement of the battleship.

Threats below the waterline come more from torpedoes than from artillery shells, and armor focuses more on the defense against artillery shells, as for the defense against torpedoes, it is not very effective.

As for the threat of an underwater bullet? Okay, it's a great threat to warships, but if you look at the history of naval warfare, how many places can you find that there are bullets in the water? On the contrary, there are countless battleships sunk by various shelling, torpedoes, etc.

In order to prevent special cases of adding hundreds or thousands of tons of armor to warships, anyone who dares to ask this question will definitely be thrown out of the window by the navies of various countries. Do you know how many warships there are in the navy, and how much this will increase the cost of building warships? The increased cost of building ships is more willing to gamble on luck than the loss of warships caused by such a special case as a bullet in the water.

As for what to do if you lose your bet, you can only blame yourself for bad luck. (One more thing to mention here is that the Japanese Navy later specially developed the famous Type 91 armor-piercing bullet in order to maximize the effect of this underwater bullet during the naval holiday.) Specially equipped with naval guns of more than 203 mm. I haven't seen much of the effect of underwater bullets fired by Japan in World War II, and it seems that this kind of artillery shell that pursues underwater bullets has not produced the desired effect. ）

As for why this underwater bullet is specifically used to talk about it, because this is a way to hit the battleship with the greatest damage in addition to directly hitting the warship's ammunition depot, and its effect is comparable to that of a torpedo. The reason is that it bypasses the heavy armor and hits the underwater hull directly, coupled with the help of seawater, the damage effect is naturally amazing (this torpedo is an effect).

So as long as there is a bullet in the water, it must be a heavy damage to the enemy ship (which is why the bullet in the water is so famous).

The damage of the Indomitable hit by an underwater bullet was equally striking, as the shell exploded in the boiler compartment after a direct penetration of the hull. The huge explosion directly turned the entire boiler room into hell on earth, and at the same time blew a large hole of 2.4×4.3 meters in the hull of the ship. The huge breach caused seawater to pour from this gap into the Indomitable hold at a rate of several tons per second.

At the same time, the seawater also extinguished the boiler that had not been destroyed, so the officers and soldiers of the Unyielding Boiler Room who survived the scene of purgatory on earth experienced a double heaven of ice and fire, with cold sea water under their legs and hot water vapor on their bodies. At the same time, a strange smell permeated the entire cabin, and the Clever Man immediately knew what it was, and tried to take as few puffs as possible.

The boiler compartment was severely damaged, and the speed of the Indomitable was immediately reduced from 23 knots to 12 knots. This speed is undoubtedly a death sentence for the current Unyielding Number.

"Major General, this is a telegram from the Unyielding Number."

When Major General Sinken received the telegram from Unyielding, he felt only blackened. Because in addition to the specific losses of the Indomitable, there is also information that the captain of the Indomitable asked his battleship to stay behind to block the enemy.

Obviously, this is the Indomitable Horn knowing that he can't run, hoping to use himself to hold back the enemy's footsteps and buy time for the only remaining Intrepitious Horn in the formation.

Looking at the telegram in front of him at this moment, Major General Sinken knew that his plan had failed. Regardless of bad luck or bad luck, it could not be changed that his plan to delay the enemy patrol had failed.

At this moment, whether to stay and hold on to the Indomitable until the last moment, or to run away, or to run to the main force of the fleet, he needs to make a choice quickly.

"Order, now the formation is disassembled, the Indomitable sails eastward, and the Indefatigable sails north."

Rear Admiral Sinken quickly made a decision, he decided to rush to the main fleet with the only remaining Indefatigable and increase the strength of the main fleet. As for the Unyielding One, it can only ask for more blessings, and the Perseverance is only to consume more ammunition from the other side, which will not help the result at all.

The Indomitable then sped up to the north, while the Indomitable could only slow eastward.

As for the actions of the British war patrol, Lieutenant General Gomes, as its opponent, was all in the eyes. As for the Tireless Striker, who left the Indomitable, Lieutenant General Gomes does not take it to heart now. Because the opponent only has one battle cruiser left, there is no way to execute any effective tactics.

"Your Excellency, the Florence and the Fum have sent a telegram asking about our next move."

"Tell them not to be too ambitious, and to give priority to solving the unyielding number in front of them. In addition, send electricity to the Taranto and the Bolzano to make them hurry, and we have to rush to assist the main fleet to take down the enemy as soon as possible. ”

"Yes!"

(End of chapter)