Chapter 520 Have you seen it?

Nanqi (Saigon), 50 nautical miles away from the entrance of the Mekong River.

When the first ray of sunshine rose in the morning, Lieutenant General Spey took over the bridge again, and a telegram came a few minutes later.

"The Lie said to rise."

This secret telegram excited Spee and all the officers of the German Far East Fleet. Compared with sinking a few merchant ships, the heavy blow or even sinking [***] ship is obviously more anticipated.

While the beeping whistle sounded from the Schernhorst deck, Spee ordered to turn left, covering the coastline and facing the French Far East Fleet.

The siren, the sailors who had been waiting for a night, quickly rushed into the battle position, and heavy shells were quickly stuffed into the gun.

Sharnhorst-class armored cruisers were once the pride of Germany. Although they are old now, they still have great deterrence, especially the 210mm/L40 guns with eight shots reaching 3 pieces per minute, in addition to the battlecruisers (Note, the Dalian class has been included in the battlecrus by various countries) In addition, the most powerful existence.

In addition to a double gun on the stern, there are also four single-barre guns in the middle of the gun, so that when shooting to one side, six guns can be played at the same time, plus three 150mm naval guns on each side, nine heavy guns can be aimed at the enemy at the same time.

And the 88mm rapid-fire gun arranged on the 10 decks will be the best killer against enemy torpedo ships.

So this time, Spee changed the traditional tactics of using Emden and Nuremberg as the forwards, directly allowing Shannhorst and Gneisenau as the forwards, and allowing the two protective cruisers to be scattered on both wings to protect.

If he is in peacetime, he dares not use this tactic, because it means that once he encounters the enemy, the two main armored cruisers will be quickly entangled by the enemy, which is extremely unwise when it is impossible to get supplement.

But today he has changed, because he has stronger intelligence support than the French, and he is just going to teach the French a good lesson with naval guns, instead of avoiding the war and running away.

When he finished everything, Shi Pei turned around and looked at the Gneisenau behind his eyes. The officers who knew him well knew that the lieutenant general would look at him like this every time he went on a mission, because his two sons were there.

10:15, off the coast of Vietnam, ten nautical miles west of Fugui Island.

A blue and white frigate hangs the French Far East Fleet far away, which makes all the French admirals extremely dissatisfied, but there is nothing they can do. France is no longer unable to take into account the power of the Far East. Last night, the news came that the fortress has been captured, and the despicable Germans are rushing desperately towards France. Go!

So when everyone saw the two cargo ships that were hit with scars by the Germans, everyone was indignant, and according to the captain, they saw the flash of large-caliber naval guns.

Large caliber naval gun!

The term

represents at least 152 mm in Europe. Except for the two small German cruisers that chased them, there are only two German warships in the Far East that can take out large-caliber guns!

Attacking merchant ships with large armored cruisers, these Germans are so despicable!

So they set out almost without thinking about it. They wanted to use two German main armored cruisers to avenge the domestic border that was being slaughtered!

The red eye sockets widened every French sailor. As they were about to enter the war zone, the unique torpedo ship support ship in the fleet began to put down four 300-ton torpedo boats, which was a unique "secret weapon" in France.

The four small boats scattered quickly reassured the French sailors a lot. Although these little guys can only move offshore, they are very fast. With their scattered patrols, the Germans may not be able to escape.

As the four small torpedo ships fanward into the distance, the sailors on the Marseille Qu were nervously busy, and the unique forward protruding bow with the appearance of a 19th century collision angle split the sea and sailed along Fugui Island.

Suddenly!

Several black fogs rose from the sky, which made the French sailors nervous. Is it a merchant ship or a German?

"Trpedo ship!"

A rapid shout came from the bridge of the USS Schernhorst. Lieutenant General Spee, who was counting with a compass, jumped up. After grabbing the telescope, he saw that two French torpedoes had appeared 15,000 yards away.

This is the maximum range of the main gun of Shannhorst. The most important anti-torpedo ship 88mm rapid-fire gun can't reach the other party at this distance, which means that it is exposed!

"Report, the Chinese have sent information that four British cruisers are chasing us 80 miles behind us and are expected to arrive in three and a half hours!"

"Accelerate, rush up!"

Lieutenant General Spee did not hesitate. The pursuers behind him were rushing over. He was not sure to escape under the joint hands of eight British and French cruisers, so he had to solve the battle within two hours!

Schernhorst began to accelerate, and the maximum speed of 23.5 knots made it very flexible. At this time, the two French torpedo ships had begun to turn and flee.

"General, do you need shelling?"

"No!" Spee shook his head. Only the bow main gun could threaten at this distance, but firing would affect the speed, and this distance was similar to wasting shells, so it was better to chase with all his strength until he saw the main force of the French.

"Report, the Chinese sent a congratulatory letter."

"Congratulations letter?"

It's about to start. What's the congratulatory letter at this time? What the hell is that arsonist doing?

In a wry smile, Spee took the telegram, but only took a glance, and the nearly armored general jumped up under everyone's gaze. Yes! Jump up!

It is said that the fortress has been broken, and millions of German soldiers are rushing to the French border. The arrogant French are at a loss!

"Immediately spread this news to every soldier's ears! Let everyone know that we are winning!"

"Yes!"

The communications officer took the order and left. A few minutes later, all the sailors on the four German warships shouted excitedly. What could make them happier than hearing the victory of the motherland thousands of miles away?

This "timely" telegram immediately filled the German sailors with fighting spirit. The army's robes have opened the door to victory. What about the navy?

Following the torpedo ship, at 10:40, both fleets found each other. One was to take revenge, and the other was to shoot the first shot of the navy, which almost instantly turned into two blood-red bullfights.

"Left rudder!"

"15,000 yards."

"13,000 yards!"

"Fire!"

Lieutenant General Spee stood in the bridge, like a straight pine. When Shannhorst and Gneisenau turned across the huge hull, six 210mm naval guns roared at the same time.

Almost at the same time, the 190mm main gun on the opposite Marsai Qu and Sully also hissed at the same time. A fireballs crossed 12,000 meters into the void, pushing the hot shells out of the gun barrel.

Although the Glorious class was only five years before the Shannhorst class was launched, and the displacement was 9,800 tons, in this changing era, they are still too old. Affected by the new doctrine's pursuit of high speed and light weight, the armor in the thickest part of the ship is only 152 mm, and they are only equipped with two doors 1 The 90mm main gun and 12 152mm profile guns, because the angle of fire of the naval gun is too small, the distance of 12,000 meters is extremely difficult.

In the face of faster updates, more Schahnhorst-class cannons, only lasted for five minutes, and fell into full passivity under the bombardment of 30 210mm shells per minute in Germany. In the thunderous sound and rising column of water, the former main gun of Gneisenau took the lead in opening up the situation.

A 210mm shell successfully drilled into the thin 152mm dome between the second and third chimneys of the Marseille Qu could not be stopped at all. A fireball rushed up from under the deck. This scene allowed the young preparation of the Xinhua Coast Guard to watch the battle in the distance and had not seen the actual combat power of the fleet's heavy artillery. The sailors were stunned.)

The power and depth of the German armor-piercing bullets are not as powerful and deep as the armor-piercing shells used by the Xinhua Navy, but they are the second country after Xinhua to use delayed fuses.

The biggest advantage of the delayed fuse is that it can allow armor-piercing drill armor to enter the interior of the hull and explode. The previous trigger fuse often explodes as soon as it touches the armor, which cannot kill the internal structure of the ship to the greatest extent.

However, the processing requirements of armor-piercing bullets using this kind of fuse are relatively high, and the cost has also increased significantly, so Germany has just made a breakthrough.

Later, according to the escaped French boiler tank sailors, at that time, they only heard a continuous banging sound from the overhead deck. Before they were prepared, the sealed boiler bay dome was smashed through, a huge shell drilled in, and then there was a big explosion.

The swept shrapnel destroyed four boilers, causing the speed of the Marseille Song to suddenly drop to 13 knots, which was equivalent to the death penalty in the naval battle.

Sure enough, after seeing the sudden deceleration of the Marseille Song, they studied a large number of actual combat experience of the Royal Navy of the Xinhua Empire, and also held dozens of actual combat exercises with Xinhua. The German [***] officials immediately caught this flaw. Shannhorst and Gneisenau concentrated all their firepower on the Marseille Song. On the number.

At 11:20, the 10,000-ton armored cruiser, named after the famous song of the French Revolution, was finally unable to support the most dangerous deck tilt in naval battles after being drilled by 210mm armor-piercing bullets.

The loss of the Marseille Curse caused the French fleet to use nearly half of its firepower. When the two Schernhorst-class cruisers re-transferred their muzzle, the French fleet could not support it.

At 11:50, in the case of severe damage to the flagship Marseille, the Suri raised its flagship flag, but the flag sounded the death knell for them, because at this time, the winner, gave the order to take the initiative to close the distance.

The rapidly deflected bow, with a speed of 23 knots, quickly pulled the distance between the two fleets to 8,000 yards. At this distance, the German cruiser gun with a three-meter optical rangefinder has a greater advantage, and almost every time it shoots does not fail.

The final contribution was still the main gun of the Gneisenau, which was commanded by Spee's eldest son. After the 21st volley, the two armor-piercing bullets fired by this gun drilled through the front deck of the Suri at the same time, especially an armor-piercing shell drilled from the waterline belt, and directly smashed the bow main gun. The explosion caused by the ammunition depot made Germany experience a second kill experienced by Xinhua sailors in the Battle of West Bilu Island.

The violent explosion broke the bow of the Suri, and thousands of tons of seawater poured into the hull, causing it not only to lose its speed, but also began to sink slowly with the bow.

In about an hour, the two core armored cruisers of the French Far East Fleet completely lost their combat effectiveness, which made Spee happy for his son and ordered to approach again and rushed within 3,000 yards.

This distance is not only the main gun, but even the rapid-fire gun is enough to cause fatal damage. The extremely fast 88mm rapid-fire gun played an advantage. In the end, Spee ordered all the shells to be concentrated in the waterline position.

At 12:20, under the nearly rainstorm of intense fire, the Marseille Qu and Sully finally capsized, revealing a smooth bottom of the ship. Later statistics, as many as 700 sailors died on the two ships. Although the rest were finally rescued by the Xinhua Naval Coast Guard frigates watching the battle in the name of humanity, Because Xinhua has not yet intervened in the war, according to the Chinese legislation, they will be detained until the end of the war.

The overturning of the two capital ships scared the remaining two French protected cruisers. They immediately gave up their entanglement with Emden and Nuremberg and retreated to Jinlan Bay.

Spee did not order to continue the pursuit. It was not that he did not want to expand the results, but that the pursuit would waste precious time and was likely to be blocked by the British Far East Fleet.

However, the two protective cruisers ran away, which does not mean that they can't grab the battle. Captain Mueller has long been coveted the mother of the fat duck-like torpedo ship that watched the battle from afar. After cooperating with the Nuremberg to avoid the four French torpedoes, he successfully narrowed the distance of 5,000 yards.

Dense shells made the sea monster created by the French take the opportunity of new learning for only three minutes, and then a big explosion occurred because it hit the ammunition depot of the reserve torpedo.

At 12:40, Spee left the remaining three French torpedoes and ordered to turn southeast.

The blazing flame ignited from the torpedo ship's mothership, and the whole warship was like cooked prawns. The hull quickly softened in the flames, and the cracks torn by the explosion were even more deadly. Under the cold sea water and high temperature, the torpedo ship sank to the bottom of the sea before the British fleet arrived -

At 13:50, the huge explosion from the sky made Lieutenant General Phillips, who personally led four Devon-class armored cruisers to support him, jump. In fact, from the moment of departure, he always felt something was wrong. Generally speaking, what Spee should do at this moment was to quickly take a detour home from South America, instead of running to the South China Sea. You should know that although the French fleet is weak, there is also a powerful British Far East fleet here.

But the explosion made him temporarily put aside his thoughts and ordered the four ships to immediately prepare for battle to support the French, but the scene that soon appeared on the sea made him eyebroken.

I only saw that the three small French torpedo ships on the sea were full of sailors, while a huge bottom of the ship was exposed in the distance, and there was a huge whirlpool caused by the sinking of a large ship.

Don't think about it, Felix knew what had happened. The French fleet was ambushed!

Only the Xinhua Empire can destroy the French in one fell swoop here, but the patrol ship of the Xinhua Empire, which was helping to rescue at the scene, showed that they did not do it.

Then there is only Spee left!

Lieutenant General Felix had almost no thought and issued an inquiry flag to the blue and white patrol ship.

"Report, the British asked us where the Germans went."

"German? Did you see it?" The old captain blinked his eyes, as if he was stunned. The officers and the soldiers who were saving the French sailors who fell into the water all laughed when they heard the questioning, and then shook their heads together.

The neat and uniform shaking of the head suddenly retracted back to pull his big hand, which made the French sailors crack. Is it possible that the Chinese are ready not to save themselves?

"Tell the British that I didn't see it!"

(to be continued)