"Could this be a trap deliberately set by the Italians?" Finally, half an hour later, the Rhine spotted the Pola in the distance. Due to light problems and a little bit of luck, when the Rhine spotted the Pola, the two sides were far apart.

It was already less than 18km! And the Pola was really patient and did not rush to fire after the opponent came within the range. When the opponent was about to turn and evacuate, the Pola fired the first round of salvo!

Nine 10-inch heavy guns spurted out streams of flames, and shells weighing 260kg were quickly accumulated from the barrel. Before that, four seaplanes ejected from the Pola had also taken off. And Germany

Seaplanes are different. These three seaplanes carry small bombs. It is unlikely that they will sink each other, but it is still okay to cause some interference.

"The shooting is quite accurate. After more than ten years, the Italian Navy has not been abandoned." Looking at the cannonballs that landed not far behind the hull, Hansen said with a gloomy face. If nothing goes wrong, this battleship

It should be the heavy cruiser Pola of the Italian Navy. It is equipped with a seaplane, so there is a chance that it will find itself first. According to the German Navy

Due to internal problems within the army, Hansen knew that this battleship was definitely not something he could match, and the entire German East African Fleet seemed to have no one that could challenge it. So in this case, it was better to evacuate as soon as possible! Of course,

As a qualified German naval officer, he still immediately sent out the news of encountering the Italian fleet.

"Retreat at full speed! Don't stay here for long!" After Hansen gave the order, within just a few minutes, the power output of the Rhein increased to another level. All 10 oil-fired boilers began to operate at full speed, and high-temperature and high-pressure steam was sent to the engine room.

.4 gas turbines generate up to 110,000

With the powerful thrust of the horsepower, the speed of the entire battleship quickly increased to about 30 knots. The distance between the two sides was also slowly widening. Although the Pola was constantly shooting, because both sides were sailing at high speed, and the distance was a bit far away

, has never been able to form a knockout shot, and the hit is even further out of reach.

But the artillery shell failed to hit. It does not mean that the bomb did not hit! Three seaplanes flew over staggeringly, adhering to the tradition of the German naval anti-aircraft artillery coffee table in World War II (such as the world-famous 37 handheld machine on the Bismarck

.) In this dimension, the performance of the German naval anti-aircraft guns is still relatively high, at least for now, not to mention. The Rhein came alone, not to mention eager to escape, and did not pay attention to these three aircraft.

A seaplane passed through the sparse artillery fire and conducted a forward dive bombing 400 meters above the Rhine. Two black dot-like bombs slid down from the wings. With a pop, one shot

The bomb fell into the sea close to the side of the Rhine's hull. The Germans did not pay attention at first, but the subsequent muffled sound made the ship sway slightly. Although the 100kg high-explosive bomb had a small charge

, but it is much more than a 10-inch grenade. This near miss exploded 5 meters underwater, just avoiding the main side armor of the Rhine. The energy generated after the high explosive detonated squeezed the shrapnel and

The sea water rushed towards the hull, and the outer hull plates and empty compartments were penetrated first. Then the liquid tanks. Fortunately, the German TDS armor was quite strong, and the last layer of armor barely blocked the attack, but it also damaged several compartments.

Water ingress.

"It doesn't matter, the power equipment has not been destroyed." Hansen felt the ship's hull trembled slightly and then returned to normal, and his heart felt relieved. Looking at the Pola that was gradually being pulled away, a wry smile appeared on his face. He didn't know how to be thankful for himself.

Hansen was not lucky. He originally planned to go out to hunt rabbits, but he encountered a tiger. Just when he was lucky to escape, a bomb dropped by another plane almost caused Hansen to lose his lungs.

They were all furious!

This bomb landed at the root of the Rhein's chimney, where several flues converged and then exhaust smoke through the upper chimney. After the high-explosive bomb exploded, it directly destroyed most of the flue, with thick smoke and flames.

After losing its restraint, it spread in the cabin, and even part of the exhaust gas poured back into the power cabin, causing two boilers to stall! This caused a sudden drop in output power. The speed dropped by more than two knots!

"Prepare to fight, or win, or fight to the death with the battle flag high! Release all the seaplanes, I want to see how much progress the Italians have made over the years!" At this time, four aircraft took off from the Pola.

The seaplane had dropped all its bombs and had no weapons except two 50mm machine guns, one of which had

Damaged by anti-aircraft fire, it made a shaky emergency landing on the sea. So when the Rhein released all four available seaplanes, the Germans had the upper hand in the air. Although the German seaplanes were not equipped with bombs, they still

He rushed forward without fear of death and strafed the deck of the Pola with the 20mm machine gun on the nose.

Then the nine 175mm cannons on the Rhein also roared. The advantage of the German warship's faster artillery fire was reflected at this moment. In just one minute, the Rhein fired 6 salvos! A series of dense water generals.

The Pola was wrapped up, and two near-misses even landed less than 10 meters away from the battleship.

"It's just a sheep after all, how dare you attack a lion?!" Although the Pola's firing rate was slow, as the distance got closer, the 10-inch artillery blasted out thick missiles that were tens of meters high.

The water column still frightened Germany. Orange muzzle flames flickered out from time to time, and heavy shells flew directly at the two battleships.

The Germans released smoke while dodging. After gaining control of the air, the Germans completely gave up using the ship's rangefinder to correct the design parameters. Instead, they relied entirely on seaplanes to guide the artillery, while hiding their bodies in the smoke.

Although the aviation technology at this time was not yet mature, the Germans originally wanted to escape time and evade as soon as the power module regained some recovery.

But maybe it was because the Germans were trying to survive. A 175mm shell landed behind the No. 3 turret of the Pola. There happened to be a catapult with a drone on it. The shell weighing more than 100 kilograms easily hit this aircraft.

Biplane seaplane torn into pieces

Then it destroyed the catapult and went all the way down, tearing open the upper deck until it was blocked by the main horizontal armor. After the fire on one side, a medium-sized fire spot burned on the rear deck. However, in addition to affecting the view,

Not too much trouble out of sight.

Facing the Rhein that turned into a squid, the Pola had no good solution. The accuracy of the artillery fire was not as good as before, and a few shells sparsely landed around the target. But the Germans' good luck stopped here.

When the battle reached a stalemate, Hansen was completely driven into despair by the buzzing sound coming from the horizon. Under the cover of 3 fighter jets, 7 bombers came over with 250kg bombs!

"The Italian naval aviation's sea attack was very methodical. The three fighter jets immediately dived after taking out our seaplanes, and then used machine guns and small bombs to suppress our air defense. After our anti-aircraft guns were exhausted,

At that time, seven bombers were divided into two groups and launched dive bombings from the left and right directions one after another. At the end of the first wave of attacks,

After the bombing was over, the bombers that had dropped their bombs did not evacuate, but also joined in the suppression of the anti-aircraft artillery. The fire from more than a dozen machine guns and machine guns completely suppressed our exposed anti-aircraft rapid-fire artillery, so that the four bombers behind dropped bombs.

There was almost no decent resistance!" A German second lieutenant who was rescued after the war commented on the first battle of Italian naval aviation.

In fact, the fate of the Rhine was already sealed in the first round of dive bombing. A 250kg high-explosive bomb hit the rear of the battleship. The violent explosion directly destroyed the fragile horizontal armor on the upper part of the transmission shaft compartment (the horizontal armor here is not as good as the armor).

The main horizontal armor in the box.) directly broke one of the drive shafts, and the resulting vibration also caused some malfunctions in the stern wheelhouse. Then one of the four dive bombers

A 250kg bomb hit the middle of the hull. The shrapnel and flames generated by the explosion directly destroyed several very important steam pipelines. The last near-missed bomb opened a large hole of several square meters in the underwater part of the starboard side of the hull. At 100

Under the influence of many kilograms of high explosives, the underwater defense system of the Rhine was completely destroyed by high-temperature, high-pressure bubbles and high-speed shrapnel. In just a few minutes, hundreds of tons of seawater poured in.

The Rhine, whose power was severely damaged and the hull was badly damaged, was finally exposed to the Pola's gun muzzle after the smoke cleared. After all, the nine 170mm cannons could not defeat the nine 10-inch cannons. Under the condition of good sighting conditions

, the accuracy of the Italians increased rapidly, and they successfully caught the Rheinland 15km away in just three attempts. The fourth salvo fired.

It caused a near miss, and the fifth salvo hit. A 260kg armor-piercing round directly penetrated the No. 2 gun mount of the Rhein. The hardened cap and the hardened layer of the outer armor were shattered at the same time, leaving a round warhead that hit the

On the non-hardened layer at the back. With a loud noise, it finally entered the dressing room under the turret, and ignited more than ten medicine packages inside!

Accompanied by a loud noise, a nearly 100-meter-long smoke column rose from the front of the hull, and violent shock waves began to spread to No. 1 and No. 3 turrets. Countless shrapnel and armor fragments swept across the entire front deck. After a series of explosions,

In, No. 1 turret because

The vibration failed. A barrel of the No. 3 turret was also smashed by a steel plate weighing hundreds of kilograms. The entire battleship lost 70% of its firepower in an instant! The entire front deck became a sea of ​​​​fire, and the tilt angle of the battleship increased by 10%.

It is only a matter of time before it increases and sinks.

Just when the Italians were about to kill the dog and completely eliminate the Rhine, medium-range bombers from German East Africa appeared in the sky. "Since we have achieved our goal and gained a light cruiser in vain, then let's

Let's go, I have no intention of fighting with the opponent's land-based aviation." After receiving the report, Iiakino ordered the Sicily to release four fighter jets to cover the evacuation of the fleet, and at the same time began to recover the first batch of released aircraft, and then fought with the wave

Pull the boat and evacuate to the open sea together.
Chapter completed!