It was a very favorable naval battle for the Italian Navy, which had 4 battleships, and the only ones left for the British were the Hood and the Warrior. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

Moreover, the Italian Navy also had submarines in the nearby waters to help disrupt the British, and the formation was also more favorable to the Italians.

Battleships are probably the most spectacular super war machines ever built in the era of naval warfare when humans relied on artillery to attack each other.

With a full load displacement of more than 45,000 tons, the Veneto-class battleships were no less than Germany's proud Bismarck-class battleships.

The length of the ship is 240 meters, and it is almost 33 meters wide; With a draft of 10 meters, it is definitely a terrifying monster.

Such a huge battleship was powered by 8 boilers, 4 steam turbines. The output of the main engine is a full 130,000 horsepower.

With four propellers and 130,000 horsepower, the ship's top speed reached 30 knots.

Compared with the battleships of other countries in the world during the same period, the Italian battleships are definitely advanced in other aspects except for the obvious lack of endurance.

In fact, it is mainly because the Italian Navy has positioned itself as a Mediterranean Navy from the beginning, so the endurance requirements are very low.

With Italy, an unsinkable aircraft carrier and supply ship in the Mediterranean, the Italian Navy believes that they do not need such a useless indicator as endurance.

On the contrary, unlike the French battleships, the Italian new battleships were equipped with 381 mm guns, and their firepower was significantly stronger.

Obviously, the targeting of the Italian and French navies is not the same. The French had always been allies of the British, so they had always targeted the weaker Italian and German navies.

However, the Italian and German navies have always regarded Britain as their defense object, and required their warships to have the ability to challenge the British navy as much as possible.

This insistence has brought the two sides to the same level of firepower in today's naval battle.

"Boom!" The huge naval guns rose and fell with the waves on the sea, and with the huge recoil after firing, the cannon shrank back a short section in smoke.

Watching his own battleship open fire on the enemy, the commander of the Italian Navy had a satisfied smile on his face.

It has to be said that the combat effectiveness of the Italian Navy is much higher than that of the Italian Army.

Just like the Russian army, which has a higher naval combat effectiveness, a well-educated naval unit is often able to burst into greater combat power in battle.

Compared with the whole of World War II, the performance of the Italian Navy and Air Force was indeed better than that of the Army.

"Soon, our battleships will bite the tail of the British, and today it is possible to sink more than two British warships and weaken them in Gibraltar!" He stood proudly on the bridge and boasted to the German officers.

Having the upper hand, the Italian Navy fiercely shelled the British navy, but unfortunately the accuracy of their attacks was not very good, and two shelling in a row did not hit any targets.

The British were busy dodging the nearby torpedoes, and the accuracy of the shelling was not high, and after three rounds of shelling, they also did not hit anything......

Well, if you have to say what they hit, both sides hit one thing - the sea.

The heavy artillery bombardment was fought 7 rounds in one go, and neither side was able to achieve any results, and the distance was also shortened at this time, because the Determination, which could not run fast, dragged the entire British H fleet back.

With this wounded battleship, the British fleet could only fight and retreat, unable to maintain the distance it should have from the Italian fleet.

Seeing that the Italian Navy had caught up, the time had come to about 19 o'clock at this time.

It was obviously too late to take off the Swordfish attack aircraft on the USS Ark Royal at this time.

If they are entangled, these planes will not be able to return until the sky has darkened a little...... This is a very risky one.

At the same time, while the battleship Resolve was in motion, the scouts were once again spotting the torpedoes fired at the battleship Resolve at the lookout post of the destroyer beside it.

The Italian submariners found themselves a little naïve in their desire to expand their gains.

When the opponent is obviously vigilant, the success rate of forcibly attacking the opponent's warship is very low.

After figuring this out, the submarines of the Italian Navy turned around and began to attack the Determination, which had been injured and had difficulty moving!

The battleship Determination, which was originally forgotten and slowly retreated, was unlucky this time.

"Torpedo! Torpedo! "On the destroyer that followed the battleship Determination, the shouting became faster and faster.

Unfortunately, they could not do anything but watch the torpedoes rushing in the distance and rush towards the battleship behind them.

Because the torpedoes were fixed at a fixed depth before they were fired, they were not worried about hitting destroyers with a shallower draft.

Soon, with a loud bang, the torpedo fired by the Italian Navy submarine hit the bow of the battleship Resolve again.

This explosion caused a large amount of water ingress into the battleship Resolve, and the huge shattering reduced the speed of the battleship Resolve's speed to less than 5 knots.

Seeing that the Resolve could no longer be saved, Somerville finally decided to let his H Fleet stop the loss.

He gave the order to abandon the battleship Determination, and told the seamen on the battleship Determination to stop the emergency repairs and abandon the ship to escape.

"Let the crew of the Resolve abandon the ship! In this case, it will drag down the H fleet and put the entire fleet in danger. Somerville felt like his heart was bleeding.

Surviving with a broken arm requires great courage and perseverance. Although it is correct to survive, the pain of a broken arm is still real.

Although the naval soldiers on the Resolve were reluctant, they still carried out the order with certainty.

The well-trained soldiers unscrewed the sea valve, and then, with tears in their eyes, left the warship they had fought and boarded the destroyer that fled not far away.

It is a pity that, apparently, the Italian Navy did not intend to miss such a good opportunity, and two cruisers with destroyers killed nearby and began shelling the British Navy to save people.

On the other side, Somerville had ordered the fleet to speed up and concentrate fire on the Italian battleships that were immediately behind.

Because of the difference in speed between the two sides, the distance was widened little by little. Behind the Italian fleet were two older battleships, and the overall speed of the fleet at random was not fast.

The British were left behind by the faster battlecruiser HMS Hood and the battleship Warrior, which were faster than the Italians.

"Boom!" With another loud bang, the battlecruiser Hood once again fired its own shells.

The shell crossed a great distance, swept over the sea and landed on the deck behind the side secondary guns of the battleship Veneto of the Italian Navy.

The force of the impact smashed the wooden deck at once, and even deformed the battery of a 90-mm anti-aircraft gun on the side.

Then the shell exploded, causing the entire hull of the battleship Veneto to tremble.

The huge tremor caused everyone on the bridge to stagger, and it took a long time to stabilize their figures.

"We were hit! The hull is damaged! An Italian officer screamed loudly.

The fact that the Veneto was hit and smoke rose scared the commander of the Italian fleet.

He feared that the British navy's superior combat effectiveness would cause the Italian navy to suffer more losses in the course of the pursuit.

Looking at the black smoke and flames rising from the side of his battleship, he hesitated to glance at the German officer beside him: "If we continue to pursue, it seems that there will be trouble." ”

Seeing that the German officer with an earthy face did not speak, the Italian admiral hurriedly ordered a method that he considered safe: "Turn the fleet and annihilate the British destroyer fleet!" ”

Where was the British destroyer, it was just two destroyers responsible for rescuing the officers and men of the battleship Resolve who had fallen into the water.

As a result, the two hapless destroyers had just rescued more than 700 sailors on the Resolve when they found themselves surrounded by dozens of warships of the Italian Navy.

"Accelerate! Launch a torpedo and fight with these Italians! "This is the first reaction of many people on the destroyer of the British Navy.

They are invincible in the Royal Navy of the British Empire, and they will fight to the end, even if they are at a disadvantage!

This is what General Nelson told them a hundred years ago, remembered by them for a hundred years and persisted for a hundred years!

As a result, for all these hundred years, the navy of the British Empire has never admitted defeat, and more than twenty years ago they have just defeated the German High Seas Fleet!

"What are you kidding? If it's just our two destroyers, then what if we die here? The British captain clenched his fists and spoke to his men.

He looked at the sailors and soldiers on the battleship Determination who were waiting for rescue in the distance: "Our ship is full of soldiers on the Determination...... What will they do when they fight? ”

yes, what about the overboard soldiers on the battleship Determination, who had just been fished out of the water?

Everyone stopped talking, everyone looked at their captain, who reluctantly let go of his fist: "Hang up the white flag, let's surrender!" ”

"A clear telegram was sent requesting the assistance of the Italian Navy in the rescue of the overboard." He finally added an order to rescue.

At 19:10, the Battle of Oran ended, and the Royal Navy's H Fleet returned to Gibraltar after breaking away from the battle.

During the naval battle, one more cruiser was sunk and two destroyers were captured on the battleship HMS Resolve of the British Royal Navy.

The battleship Veneto of the Italian Navy was wounded, and the Brittany of the French Navy was seriously wounded, and it can be said that the Axis Navy, under the command of Li Le, achieved a victory.