HMS Dark, a shallow water heavy gunboat of the British Royal Navy, with a full load of 8,400 tons, was equipped with a formidable fifteen-inch (381 mm) twin turret, as well as two 150 mm and four 76 mm secondary guns, most of the hull was covered with four-inch thick armor, and the armor of the armored conning tower was 13 inches thick, which was already the same standard as a battleship.

But it was such a behemoth, but the draft was controlled at about 3.56 meters, and her mission was to project battleship-sized heavy artillery fire on the shore or at sea targets in shallow waters near the coast.

Why this heavy gunboat of the Royal Navy appeared on the battlefield in the Gulf of Siam is a long story.

The experience of the [Dark Realm] during this period of time is almost comparable to the legendary story, and I can only briefly talk about it here.

After escaping the destruction of the home fleet, the warship remained in Portsmouth Harbour, where it was reinforced with anti-aircraft weapons. After the end of the war, the Royal Navy began to gather its forces and begin preparations for reconstruction, while sending some units that were still capable of fighting to the colonies to deter some of the groups that were on the rise, and to strengthen the control of the local control over these areas.

The Dark World was sent to Singapore, where the sea conditions were suitable for this kind of shallow gunboat activity, and the two fifteen-inch cannons above her were enough to deter the surrounding group of Xiaoxiao.

The warship sailed from mainland China through Gibraltar into the Mediterranean, before the war between Italy and Greece, and the ship docked off the coast of the port of Athens, and the crew visited the Parthenon under the captain's guidance. They then went to the island of Cyprus, where they monitored the movements of the Turkish Navy for several days, and conducted a live-fire demonstration outside Port Said, leveling a hill with their main guns in front of a group of Arab sheikhs.

After crossing the Suez Canal, the Dark Realm was incorporated into a convoy and then crossed the Gulf of Aden to Mumbai, an important port in British India. However, at this time, the journey of this warship was not over, and after a few days of luxurious life in India and a relaxed tired spirit, the [Dark Realm] continued to set sail. This time they no longer berthed at any ports, but skirted the Indian subcontinent along the coast, across the Bay of Bengal, into the Strait of Malacca, and finally to the port of Singapore. By the time the shallow gunship, which looked like a mini battleship, slowly sailed into the naval berth in Singapore Harbour, more than a month had passed since the day they set off.

This voyage was an unforgettable experience for the sailors on the Dark Realm, and it had a huge impact on their future development, as the young sailors recruited after the war were trained to become true sea men from a big boy who had just left his parents.

How could the British not get involved in the war between France and Siam, because weakening Siam's military strength is also a very advantageous thing for the current British Empire. As for the thoughts and decisions of the British Empire, I will talk about them in detail later, and here I will only talk about the participation of the [Dark Realm] in the war.

At about ten o'clock in the morning, the commander of the Far East Fleet of the Royal Navy, Charles Murphy. Admiral Forbes received a telegram from Whitehall, London, and the Dark Realm was ordered to anchor and set off immediately.

"Take this as an opportunity to show the power of the British Empire, and do it." The admiral said this to the captain of the ship, Colonel Marcell, on the phone.

Marcel knew that there would be no written version of the order, that there would be no archives in the Admiralty, and that if something happened along the way, the truth would be firmly concealed. However, it is also a shortcut to promotion, a personal test for the commander, and if successful, he will have the full trust of his superiors and earn a valuable favor.

The colonel is already fifty years old, and if he does not work harder, he may not have the opportunity to rise, and he is still as ambitious as when he was young, but he does not want to serve the navy for thirty-two years and be honorably discharged with the rank of colonel.

The speed of the Dark Realm makes it impossible for her to engage in a disruptive engagement, and that overwhelming firepower is intended for some solid target, such as a coastal fort or a port city.

Britain and Siam did not go to war, of course, it is impossible to attack each other's ports in a grand manner, how to say that the basic face of the British Empire still has to be preserved. This time it was the French who came out, how could the British waste this pretense, the [Dark Realm] hung the glorious tricolor flag on the mast, and turned into a gunboat of the French Navy.

The original mission of the [Dark Realm] was to shell the Sattahip Naval Base and destroy the infrastructure of the port as much as possible, so as to ensure that the port would not be able to operate normally for at least two weeks. Of course, this task will not be possible with this ship alone, when the two super destroyers of the French Navy will be responsible for the protection of the shelling.

The original plan seemed to be quite thorough, but the [Dark Realm] had to increase its horsepower to run to the meeting place at the scheduled time, and just met with the two destroyers, the order from above came again, this time it was for her to fight a naval battle.

Although the decisive assault of the mine-striking ships failed, they succeeded in directing the course of the two destroyers to the southeast. The sluggish Thonburi was still on her course, and the shallow gunboat was dropping 200 millimeter shells at the French destroyer more than 10,000 meters away at a salvo every two minutes.

Because of the increased speed of the French destroyers, the Dark Realm was left far behind, the third unrecognizable ship in front of the Siamese Navy.

The target of the [Dark Boundary] was the [Thonburi] from the beginning, and he was like a heavy infantryman, persistently and firmly slowly approaching the target.

By the time Thonburi noticed the never-before-seen warship, the Dark Realm had already taken aim and calculated, firing the first salvo of the naval battle.

The sailors on the Dark Realm were well-trained, showing the qualities of an old maritime power, and although the two sides were more than 10,000 meters apart, the first round of firing only deviated from the target by less than 300 feet, and the huge column of water smashed into the back deck of the [Thonburi].

At first, the Thonburi did not understand what was attacking itself, and it could be inferred from the water column that the caliber was definitely more than 300 millimeters. Vifonan was frightened at the time, he thought it was the French battleship shooting at him, and after receiving the lookout's description, Vifonan suddenly realized that the unknown ship in the distance was actually a shallow water heavy gunboat.

At this moment, [Thonburi] has no other way to retreat, only to make a last fight, and Wei Feng is already very clear that in this situation, the possibility of [Thonburi] escaping safely is zero. Since it is destined to not be able to escape, then no matter what, you have to get back an interest, even if you can't sink the opponent, at least you can bite off a piece of meat.

The officers in command of the tower also saw that it was difficult for the twin cannons of [Thonburi] to hit the super destroyer that was racing at high speed, so the [Dark Realm], which was also slow, became the best target for revenge in front of them. The Siamese had clearly made a terribly wrong choice, and of course they paid the price for it.

The Siamese Navy's heavy gunboats turned their course in order to bring out all the firepower of the two main turrets in the front and rear, which was the most common tactic in naval warfare, as was the case with the T-shaped crosshair.

There was no such problem on the British side, because the [Dark World] only had one main gun in the bow, and in the eyes of the British navy veterans, the actions of the Siamese showed themselves weak flanks, and they were simply asking for their own death.

The Dark Realm unceremoniously fired a sixth salvo, and because of the opponent's turn, the ranging was slightly wrong, but it still fired a pinch bomb, and the huge column of dyed water was less than 500 feet from the side of the [Thonburi], and the Siamese sailors standing on the port deck at that time were all in a cold sweat.

The huge underwater shock wave slammed into the 2.5-inch side armor plates of the Thonburi, and a harsh metal twisting sound echoed in the aisles of the lower deck. Only then did Wei Fengan realize that he had made a serious mistake, his battleship's armor simply could not withstand the blow of this kind of fire from the opposite side, he readjusted the course and pointed the bow of the ship at the [Dark Realm], and then began to fight back with all his might.

The Japanese-made 203 mm gun was the main gun used on heavy cruisers, and with auxiliary machinery such as loaders, it was possible to obtain a fairly good rate of fire. However, the volume and space of the [Thonburi] was limited, so it could only be reloaded manually, and the rate of fire soon slowed down with the physical consumption of the gunners.

At this time, the super destroyer of the French Navy had already eliminated the [Rayong] that had been burned into a ball of fireball, and began to adjust its course to approach [Thonburi] from the southeast at high speed, and Vifonan had to order the warship to turn again and try to attack the French destroyer with its tail artillery.

The [Dark Realm] and [Mogador]-class destroyers have completed the semi-encirclement of the [Thonburi], and this shallow-water heavy gunboat has become a turtle in an urn.

The results of the Royal Navy's training were finally shown, and in the ninth salvo, an armor-piercing grenade hit the starboard deck of the Thonburi, penetrating the 30 mm layer of armor, and then continued to smash through the second deck, and finally exploded on the lower deck next to the side of the mine protection bulkhead.

The shallow-water gunboat looked like a festive firework at the time, spewing flames and debris upwards, and a 20-millimeter single-barreled gun and two sailors were thrown sixty feet into the air before falling into the sea on the side of the ship with all sorts of debris and debris.

The hull of the Thonburi tilted forward sharply, and the speed of the ship began to slow down rapidly.

"At the time we didn't know what was going on on that boat, and I got what I said from a rescued Siamese sailor. The shell blew a large hole in the bottom side of the warship, and the sea water quickly filled the adjacent compartment, while it also smashed a spare oil tank on the side of the second deck, leaking tons of diesel fuel all over the second deck and the bottom bilge, and causing all the engines on the starboard side to shut down. You know that diesel does not burn easily, but if you encounter a martyred ammunition, such as a machine shell, the result will be "bang" .... The inside of the boat will be transformed into a giant oven. Marcel recalled in an interview with Siamese media after the war.

"The Thonburi is a great warship, and my Dark Realm gave her a pretty fatal blow at the time." The retired vice admiral specifically emphasized.

No one knew where the fire started, and soon the entire warship was shrouded in gray and black smoke. The sailors on deck were simply unable to extinguish the fire under such circumstances, and soon they were forced into the sea by the scorching heat. Sailors in the lower cabins scrambled to climb onto deck through the exit of the aft deck, many of whom were badly burned by this time.

Both the French and British warships stopped firing, because everyone could see that the warship was finished, and it was not worth wasting ammunition on her.

Because they were worried that the main gun ammunition depot of [Thonburi] might be destroyed, several captains did not want their warships and men to take risks, so the three warships anchored in the sea three kilometers away from the [Thonburi], and coldly watched the hellish scene in front of them.

No one knows exactly when the warship sank, except that when the Thonburi disappeared from the sea, a sunset appeared in the western sky.

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