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Text Chapter 610, Naval Battle (2)

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    Seeing that the Goeben began to speed away and the Indomitable lost its bow, its navigation ability was greatly affected and it was impossible to pursue.  Rear Admiral Hood immediately ordered the battlecruiser Invincible to stop attacking the German battlecruiser Moltke and instead pursue Goeben.  At this time, the Invincible had already taken advantage of the damage to the Moltke's steering gear to seize the leading position.  (That is, use the side of the ship to block the opponent's bow direction. In this way, the enemy ship can only fire the artillery in the bow direction, and all the artillery of one's own warship can fire at the opponent. In this way, a single ship can almost double the opponent's  Firepower advantage, if it is a fleet confrontation, the advantage gained will be even greater if the T-head position is seized) and two more shells hit the Moltke in the previous salvo, one of which was knocked out.  One of Moltke's chimneys also caused a fire, and another shell damaged the steering device of Moltke's A turret, causing Moltke's A turret to completely lose its combat effectiveness.  It can be said that if the attack continues, Moltke will soon completely lose its combat effectiveness.  But now, in Rear Admiral Hood's view, it is no longer possible for the Moltke to escape.  It was only a matter of time before it was sunk.  In contrast, pursuing the Goeben was a more important matter.  Therefore, he ordered the Indomitable, whose speed had been greatly reduced, the cruiser Bulldog, which had just extinguished the fire but lost a turret, and the destroyer Hausen to stay and continue to attack the Moltke, which had lost its controllability and had its power severely damaged.  , he took other warships to chase the Goeben.  Because of the loss of the C turret, the Goben's rearward firepower is now only one-half of its previous strength. During the escape process, it can only fire two shells at a time.  With such a density of firepower, coupled with the fact that the Goeben had now accelerated to about 26 knots, the hull was shaking violently. To continue firing at this time was almost just to scare people.  However, the condition of the chasing Invincible is not necessarily particularly good. In order to obtain high speed, the boiler of the Invincible is already running at overload. At the speed of 26 knots, the Invincible is also unstable, although the firepower density is higher than that of Goben.  The number was twice as high, but the hit rate was still ridiculously bad.  Now the distance between the two warships is about 15,000 meters. At such a distance, at a high speed of 26 knots, it would be strange to have a good hit rate when shooting at a target at a distance of 15,000 meters.  Therefore, the Invincible fired ten salvos in a row, but failed to obtain even a single cross-fire.  The top speed of the Goben is slightly higher than that of the Invincible. At this time, this advantage is gradually showing. Now the distance between him and the Invincible is slowly increasing. If the situation continues, the Goben will escape.  The chances of getting out should be pretty good.  The Germans also had two cruisers. Not long ago, when the British cruisers attacked the German battlecruisers, they bravely stood up and started an artillery battle with the British cruisers.  Even when the Invincible began to pursue the Goeben, they tried to attack the Invincible to cover the Goeben.  However, there are more cruisers on the British side. Now there are four cruisers and four destroyers following the Invincible. Therefore, the heroic actions of the German cruisers have not achieved any results. Although in terms of single ship performance, the German cruisers seem  It is a little better than the British cruiser, but such a small advantage cannot make up for the absolute disadvantage in quantity.  Under the fire of four British cruisers, four destroyers, and the secondary guns of the Invincible, these two cruisers soon turned into blazing torches paralyzed on the sea.  However, Major General Hood was not willing to let the Goeben escape like this. Although he had won the battle by this time, the Germans lost two cruisers and a battlecruiser. Well, although these three ships have not sunk yet,  But it's only a matter of time.  Moreover, the Goeben has also been seriously damaged, and after losing the cruiser it was cooperating with, it may have no choice but to find a way to secretly escape back to the German port. Its fuel is probably not enough to support it in escaping all the way back at high speed, so  It will definitely use radio to communicate with the mainland many times. In this way, another British search fleet will most likely be able to catch up with it and eliminate it.  However, watching the prey escape from the mouth is not the style of Major General Hood. Although he can no longer catch up, although the hit rate of artillery fire is very low, as long as he is shooting, there is always a chance of hitting. Besides, God  Bless the king, maybe you can get a hit or two?  It seems that God is indeed blessing Britain. When the distance between the two sides has widened to 18,000 meters, the Invincible actually scored a hit while sailing at high speed.  At that time, the Goben's D turret had just fired two shells, and the fire of the shells had just extinguished. The observation post discovered that a small spark exploded a little to the left of its D turret. This was the impact of the shell and the penetration.  It was generated when the steel plate was penetrated, and then more flames came out from that position. Obviously, the guy just now knocked out the German D turret.  This shell was not the most deadly. Another shell fell on the stern of the Goeben.The ship's side was no more than three meters into the sea, and then exploded violently.  Sometimes, for a warship, a near-miss like this is more terrifying than a direct hit. This shell blew out one of the Goben's propellers, causing it to lose half of its power and pulling apart the hull.  A big hole was opened, and sea water quickly poured in.  "Well done!" Major General Hood couldn't help shouting, "You guys are really good!" However, as the saying goes, when Major General Hood shouted, heavy artillery shells were heard in the sky.  The last two shells fired before the German D turret was destroyed fell Later, Lieutenant Colonel Giggs, the commander of the cruiser Yorkshire, described that scene in his memoirs.  "At that time, our ship was the closest to the Invincible, and our distance was only about 600 meters. I saw a sudden fireball rising from the A turret of the Invincible. Obviously, this was the result of the enemy's armor-piercing projectile hitting it. Then, I  I saw long tongues of flame coming out from where the A turret was penetrated, and from the muzzle of the cannon. At that time, I thought: 'It's broken, this must be the propellant in the A turret being ignited.  Now, the A turret was going to be completely destroyed. 'But at the time, I didn't expect what would happen next. About ten seconds after the explosion, there was another violent explosion on the Invincible.  The air waves even shook our warship. I saw the entire Invincible suddenly broke into two pieces, and then sank quickly. Although it only took a few minutes from the explosion to the complete sinking.  The rescue order was given, butthe ship sank too fast, and there was not even a single survivor on the entire warship" Based on this description, later generations inferred that this was probably because the officers and soldiers of the A turret did not  The passage from turret A to the main ammunition depot was closed, and more ammunition packages were illegally stored in the turret.  So when the German shell hit turret A, it detonated the propellant pack in the turret, and then the flames poured into the main ammunition depot along the open channel to the main ammunition depot, and caused the main ammunition depot to explode.  Ku's death.  After the sinking of the Invincible, the cruiser "Purple Shirt" raised the command flag, and the captain, Lieutenant Colonel Egil, issued an order to sink the German warship at all costs.  After losing the main battlecruiser Invincible and fleet commander Rear Admiral Hood, British cruisers and destroyers continued to attack the Goeben.  If it were in a normal state, the battlecruiser Goeben would not be afraid of these little things.  What battlecruisers are best at is bullying these little things.  And even if there are too many small things, the speed of the Goben can ensure that he can escape unscathed.  However, the current situation of the Goben is not ideal.  His C turret and D turret were all destroyed, which not only caused him to lose nearly half of his firepower, but also gave the warship a huge firepower blind spot.  If the enemy attacked from these directions, he would have to rely on limited secondary batteries to protect himself.  At the same time, the near-missed bomb caused it to lose nearly half of its power and also caused a large amount of water intrusion.  This also makes it impossible for him to rely on his own speed to avoid the enemy's pursuit.  Soon the British cruisers followed.  Since it was impossible to escape, the Goeben began to turn, hoping to bombard the cruisers with the main gun located at the bow. However, the turning performance of this battlecruiser was not good. After losing a propeller, it also entered  This is especially true after drinking a lot of water.  In comparison, the smaller British cruisers and destroyers were naturally more flexible, so they quickly reached the blind spot of the Goben's main gun. The cruiser was the first to move forward and fire at the German secondary guns.  Another advantage of the battlecruiser is that it is larger, so it is more stable as a shooting platform.  When firing against British cruisers with secondary guns, their shooting accuracy will be higher.  Soon, the Purple Shirt was hit by several shells, the A turret was destroyed, the warship caught fire, and Captain Egil was seriously injured.  However, the cruiser did not withdraw from the battle, but continued to approach a closer position, opening fire on the Germans, while also attracting firepower to provide cover for the battle of other friendly ships.  The Yorkshire, which was following closely near the Purple Shirt, also poured all its firepower on the German gun positions.  Soon, a complete firepower blind spot was opened.  Of course, during this period, the Purple Shirt took several more severe shots, the C turret also flew into the sky, and a large amount of water entered the hull, so that it tilted to the port side by more than ten degrees.  But his mission was accomplished, and the destroyers launched their final assault.  They rushed in from the blind spot of the Goben's firepower and launched a large number of torpedoes at a very close range.  The Goben, which had difficulty moving, was hit by seven or eight fish and mines in succession.  Even a thick-skinned battleship cannot withstand such a blow.  A few minutes later, the Germans gave the order to abandon the ship, and half an hour later, the battlecruiser Goeben sank.  Just when this battlecruiser sankLess than two minutes later, the oil depot of the cruiser USS Purple Shirt exploded, and the acting captain immediately issued an order to abandon the ship.
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