The intelligence of the city of Dre Dawa was obviously lagging behind, although there was a telegraph and a rear connection, but the source of the information was from the Arabs of British Somaliland, who had been in the city of Dre Dawa for several days, and this period was long enough for the next move of the British Royal Navy.

The waters off the Port of Mogadishu.

The East African Navy has long been in a state of combat readiness, warship patrols have become normalized, and Mogadishu's naval strength is not strong.

There are only three gunboats as the main combat ships, but the entire Somali coastline is almost two thousand kilometers long.

"Galaadh sent back news that seventeen minutes ago a British fleet sailed through the waters near Galaad, and they were coming in the direction of our port of Mogadishu, according to the report of Galaad town, a total of thirteen warships, including four first-class ironclads and five second-class ironclads, they were violently and directly bypassing the waters of Galaad."

Alex: "Send it directly to Bagamoyo, we need reinforcements, and in the event of an emergency, our Mogadishu Navy can't afford to take on this level of interdiction." ”

At this time, the patience of the East African Navy was extremely tested, although the Navy Headquarters said in advance that it would be vigilant against the British Navy, but at present Britain has not declared war on East Africa.

This is like the US military exercise in the South China Sea of the Far Eastern Empire in the previous life, you can't be sure whether its purpose is really a "military exercise", so you must not be impulsive at this time, but you must not relax your vigilance!

"Don't get too close to the British warships, let's see if we can expel them." Commander Acrylic of the Navy in the city of Mogadishu.

……

At three o'clock in the afternoon, Alex led his "small" formation, waited for the rabbits, and successfully intercepted the British Royal Navy fleet in the north, but the situation did not look very good.

"Come to Soor, are these East African monkey-driven ships the main combat ships of the East African Navy?"

Philair likes to refer to East Africans as East African monkeys, because he sees the "apes" in uncivilized areas of Africa as a group of monkeys that cannot be integrated into civilization, even though East Africans are largely part of the Germans.

"Don't underestimate the East Africans, although their ship-building technology has been backward, but the combat effectiveness between the ironclad ships tests the commander's military ability to a great extent, and the East African Navy inherits the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire still has merit in shipbuilding technology." Lysol said.

"And now we have not encountered the main force of the East African Navy, according to intelligence, the main naval force of East Africa is in the waters of the former Sultanate of Zanzibar, there are currently more than a dozen ironclad ships, although the quality is uneven, but it can also bring us a certain threat."

There is a huge disparity in the strength of the East African Navy compared with the British Royal Navy, and many first-class ironclad ships in East Africa are actually second-class ironclad ships in the UK.

First of all, in terms of tonnage, the British fleet that went to East Africa this time had a tonnage of more than 6,000 tons of its main ships, four of which were more than 8,000 tons.

The largest tonnage of ironclad ships in East Africa is only more than 7,000 tons, and there are only three, and the lowest tonnage is not much higher than that of East African gunboats, only more than 1,000 tons.

The displacement of gunboats in East Africa is less than 1,000 tons, and in the United Kingdom, this kind of naval equipment, that is, the Rendaul gunboat, rose rapidly in the 70s of the 19th century, but quickly declined in the 90s and withdrew from the naval arena.

The history of this type of gunboat as an alternative is very short, it has only been glorious for less than two decades, but it is currently the most technologically mature domestic warship in East Africa.

But it is simply nonsense to want to confront the capital ship of the British Royal Navy, which has a displacement of at least more than 8,000 tons.

In the original history, that is, the naval battle between the Far Eastern Empire and Japan in 1879, the "mosquito ships", that is, the Rendale gunboats, were not at all the enemy of the ironclad ships.

Britain was also armed with a large number of these cheap "gunboats", but mainly in the colonies.

As for the main combat ships of the British Royal Navy, that is, various types of ironclads, they are mainly deployed in the British mainland waters in the North Atlantic, or in the Mediterranean Sea, which are also the two most important areas of British maritime supremacy.

And East Africa is also similar to the idea, ironclad ships are the main maritime force to ensure national security, so the East African Navy ironclad ships are basically distributed in the eastern seas, with the port of Bagamoyo, Pemba Island and Zanzibar as the main core.

At the same time, the cities of Mombasa, Tanga, and Pemba (one of the pure military ports in East Africa) constituted the outer maritime defense, while the port of Mogadishu was not even a periphery, and its strength was not as good as that of the South Ryukyu Islands colony in East Africa.

This was the main reason why Acrylic did not have any hope of expelling the British navy, because his three gunboats were not enough for the British ocean-going fleet.

"Give these East African monkeys a little shock, and just destroy them!"

Grafton, commander-in-chief of the Royal Navy Expeditionary Force, ordered.

Because of the fact that it has been detected by the East African Navy, there is no need to cover up this expedition, so it is logical to destroy this inconspicuous small gunboat formation.

With Grafton's order, the main turret of the British Navy's "Grey Fox" turned its guns directly and aimed in the direction of the gunboats in East Africa.

Accompanied by a huge "roar", a huge wave was stirred up directly next to the East African gunboat.

Alex's command ship suddenly felt a jolt, his ears seemed to lose hearing in an instant, and the crew staggered.

"Damn, this is the real war, hurry up and fight back!"

But the British were not going to give Alex a chance, and after the first shot, the muzzles were quickly calibrated, and this time the shells landed closer to Alex's command ship.

The gunboats of East Africa seemed to be in a state of turmoil in an instant, and at this time the British "Giant" also joined the battlefield.

With the continuous sound of artillery fire, Alex's heart sank, the strength of the two sides is no longer on the same level at all, and at this time it is not the opponent of the British at all.

He shouted: "Give the other two warships an order, we will withdraw to our home port, and it is important to flee for our lives at this time, and not to make unnecessary sacrifices." ”

Relying on the batteries in Mogadishu, it may be possible to maneuver with the British, but if you do this at sea, it will only be a dead end.

Britain only dispatched two ironclad ships, and the East African Mogadishu Navy was already beaten to the ground, and Alex could not even give full play to his command ability in the storm.

The Mogadishu Navy used the main guns to slow down the British warships by maneuvering around the sea to avoid the British Royal Navy's artillery fire.

But in the face of the huge disparity, these were in vain, and at 3:12 p.m., the "Gray Fox" successfully hit the "Andres" gunboat in the Middle East and Africa with one shot after the fifth preview.

A large hole was instantly blown open in the wall of the "Andrés", and seawater instantly poured into the ship's cabin, and the "Andris" began to roll over.

Alex had a little luck, as his ship and another managed to escape range and quickly move closer to his home port in Mogadishu.

But evasion could not escape the doomed fate, and the Royal Navy quickly followed suit and began shelling the port of Mogadishu.

The port of Mogadishu suffered heavy losses and a large number of unshipped ships were badly damaged, but fortunately this is the old port of Mogadishu, which is mainly used for military purposes.

After the artillery fire, the Mogadishu city shore defense artillery defense system began to react, so that the British could not approach the port area again and reduce the losses.

After confirming that the East African warships in the port area could not move again, the British left directly and headed for the south of East Africa.

(End of chapter)