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Text Chapter 611, Naval Battle (3)

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    Because the Goeben and Yewwood did not sink suddenly like the Invincible, the sailors still had time to leave the sinking ships.  However, considering that the Indomitable and the Bulldog were still fighting the German Moltke in the other direction, the British only left one destroyer to rescue the sailors wearing life jackets floating on the sea. Of course,  Another mission of this destroyer is to replenish its guns with torpedoes if the Yew has not sunk after rescuing all those who fell into the water.  But there are too many people floating on the sea. There were more than 400 people on board the Yewwood, and more than 100 people died in the battle. But now there are still more than 200 people on the lifeboats and on the sea.  These people were rescued on board first, and then it was the Germans' turn.  It's just that the destroyer is too small, with a displacement of just 1,200 tons, but the German Goben is much larger, with a total of 1,400 sailors. Although many were killed in the battle, the remaining  The number of people who came down still exceeded the 800 people in the novel.  Let's not talk about getting all these people on board. Will these guys try to rob the ship dishonestly? There is simply no room for so many people on a small destroyer, especially when this destroyer  After rescuing more than two hundred British crew members, the ship was already somewhat overloaded.  "Well, we are gentlemen, and we still have to abide by the rules. So, we threw all the lifeboats to them and let them stay in the lifeboats. After our fleet returns victoriously, there will naturally be free space.  " Harry, the captain of the Iris, thought this way, so he gave the order: "Throw all the lifeboats to those Germans and let them stay there for now." Then he frowned and looked at it.  German sailors wearing life jackets floating on the sea.  "Damn, it's already the end of September. The water temperature in this sea area is not very high. If a person soaks in such sea water, he will be dead in half an hour at most, no no, twenty-five minutes at most." Harry said.  Thinking about it, he then ordered: "Let's pick up the Germans who were soaked in the water first and let them squeeze on the deck" So hundreds more people were picked up aboard the Iris. At this time  The deck was already crowded with people, some of whom even used belts to hang themselves outside the deck railings, and the gun barrels and masts were also full of Germans.  Today's Iris destroyer has definitely met the requirements of the Baixiang Kingdom's military parade in later generations, and has become a cheating destroyer. ?¡­ ?When the British cruisers rushed back, the battle was actually coming to an end.  Although the Indomitable lost a large part of its bow and was unable to travel at high speeds, its firepower was still intact, while the Moltke lost its steering gear, making it impossible to control at all, and its rudder was stuck.  In one position, you can only circle in place.  In this way, when it was engaged in an artillery battle with the Indomitable, the Indomitable could always find a suitable position, face the Moltke with its side, and exert all its firepower. As for the Moltke, its movements were completely  It's involuntary.  Therefore, in the artillery battle, Moltke was no match at all.  During the cross-fire, its turret was first knocked off, and then an armor-piercing shell penetrated its main armor, destroying two boilers and losing a quarter of its power.  Fifteen minutes later, Indomitable's shells hit Moltke again and caused a fire. Because the fire was difficult to control and had a tendency to spread to the main ammunition depot, the Germans had to pour water into the main ammunition depot.  The result was, of course, that although the ammunition depot exploded and the danger of sending the battleship to the bottom of the sea was immediately avoided, Moltke also lost all its main gun firepower.  After discovering that the German's main gun had misfired, the Indomitable even narrowed the distance and fired fiercely at the Moltke.  In the next twenty minutes, the Moltke was hit three times. One of the near-misses caused water to enter the starboard side of the Moltke, while the other two shells completely destroyed the Moltke's power system.  The giant ship was completely paralyzed on the sea.  By this time, fighting has no meaning.  It would have been better to stop shooting and give the Germans some time to escape from the doomed battleship in a very gentlemanly manner. But at this time, they received news that the Invincible had been sunk.  So "Since the Germans did not raise the white flag to surrender, then continue shooting!" The captain of the Indomitable issued such an order.  Of course, this order is completely legal. If the Germans raise the white flag, the British, who have always been gentlemanly, will definitely cease fire. However, now the British are firing on all cylinders, and their main and secondary guns are firing at the Germans.  Hello, who can come out and raise a white flag?  Now that the Germans have no power to resist, their main and secondary guns have all become mute.  The Indomitable simply approached to a distance of one thousand meters, aiming its main gun at the Moltke's waterline and firing continuously. At this short distance, the hit rate was high.?It was like being hit in the head with a gun.  The Indomitable's secondary guns were hitting the Moltke's bridge indiscriminately.  At this time, the cruiser Bulldog and the destroyer Hausen also joined in, firing wildly at the Moltke with their respective artillery.  Under such firepower, it was impossible to have anyone on the deck, and it became impossible to hang the white flag on the mast or abandon the ship.  The destroyer Hausen also fired several torpedoes at Moltke at a very close distance. Under such a blow, the Moltke began to tilt rapidly. In just twenty minutes, it had already tilted for nearly 30 years.  Spend.  The Germans had to abandon the ship and escape under fire.  Because such a tilt means that the warship will soon turn upside down. The speed of the ship tilting and flipping will always get faster and faster. By then, someone will definitely be able to escape.  So, braving the constant British artillery fire, the German sailors poured out of the cabin wearing life jackets, hoping to jump into the sea, and then their bodies were blown away by the shells that hit their heads and faces.  After another ten minutes, the deck of the Moltke was almost perpendicular to the sea surface.  Then it turned suddenly, flipped over, and landed on the sea, causing huge waves.  The British stopped shooting, and everyone looked attentively at the huge ship that was about to sink, watching its ocher-red bottom reflecting the gleaming light in the sun.  But the dozen or so people who were lucky enough to escape from this battleship were like the five strong men in Saint Seiya, or the Germans like Tom Cat who could not die no matter what, did not have such leisurely feelings. They were struggling to move towards  Swim far away, because it won't take long for this ship to sink. And once such a large warship sinks, it will create a huge whirlpool on the sea and sweep away everything floating on the nearby sea.  Drag them all to the bottom of the sea.  A few minutes later, the Moltke's bow began to sink, and at the same time its stern also broke away from the water and slowly stood up, except that the two huge turrets at the stern were gone.  The battleship's turret is buckled to the hull by its own gravity, so when the hull is turned over, the turret sinks first.  This is also the reason why in many cases, the hull wreckage and turrets of sunk warships are not in the same position.  At this time, a sound like a dozen trains sounding their whistles came from the warship. It was the sound made when the air in the hull was discharged from various gaps in the hull under water pressure.  At this time, another creaking sound also sounded. This was the sound made by the ship's keel as it was slowly twisted.  At this time, the stern of the ship has been raised very high, and the huge gravity is twisting the keel.  When the stern was raised to about 30 degrees, the ship made a loud clicking sound, and the entire hull was folded in two from the middle.  The battleship that was broken into two parts sank to the bottom of the sea within two minutes, leaving a large whirlpool in the sea and dragging down the two German sailors who had not had time to swim too far.  But, at least these two are still not as good as the Five Little Strong or Tom Cat.  ¡­ On the evening of the day when the battle took place, The Times published a special extra: ¡°My heroic navy annihilates the German attack fleet.¡±  In this report, the British Royal Navy's bravery and Nelson's spirit of fighting the enemy were highly praised, especially Rear Admiral Hood and his Invincible, who dealt a fatal blow to two enemy ships.  Later, it was sunk by the final shell, which would have more or less the flavor of Lord Nelson.  But more importantly, the threat posed by the German attack fleet was removed.  Although the Germans still have some so-called special cruisers disguised as merchant ships that continue to carry out attack missions.  But those special cruisers are essentially just merchant ships equipped with cannons. At most, they can attack some individual merchant ships. When facing a merchant fleet escorted by warships, they have no combat effectiveness at all.  .  At least, now there is no need to use battleships and battlecruisers on the routes.  Coupled with the use of radio direction finders, these attack ships were constantly found and sunk one after another.  The British route seemed entirely safe again.  It was at this time that the British and French forces finally repelled the German army on the Marne River.  The British and French, who had large colonies and could produce large amounts of rubber, began to produce full-body chemical protective clothing themselves and used mustard gas on the battlefield many times.  Of course, the Germans also responded unceremoniously with mustard gas.  However, the Germans have always lacked enough rubber, which makes the proportion of full-body chemical protective suits equipped by the German army significantly lower than that of the British and French.  Therefore, the results of the gas war were obviously not favorable to Germany.  If it hadn't been for something that happened later, maybe the British and French would have planned to use mustard gas to open a road all the way to Berlin.
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