Chapter 954: Saint Nazaire
Overall, the Spanish is not bad, after all, it was built relatively late, and some more advanced technologies were used, such as all-oil small boilers and new steam turbines. In terms of armor protection, the Spaniard's side chord has a 12-inch 16-degree inclination angle, and the height is also half a meter higher than that of the Moltke. The head and tail armor belts are enough to withstand the attack of 6-inch guns. At the same time, the protection of the secondary gun is also better, but there is no gun gallery, so the protection of the non-key parts is poorer. Because it had to fight in the Atlantic, the endurance and stability requirements were higher than those of the Moltke, and the displacement of this class of battleships eventually reached 28,000 tons. The maximum speed is 26.5 knots. Although the ability to die is not as good as the foreign trade battleships of Huaxia, but in the case of heavy losses of the fast battleships on both sides, the mid-range cargo is almost dead, and the high-end cargo will not be easy to shoot, these 3 fast battleships are still quite threatening!
In the British fleet, except for the Queen Elizabeth class, which can stabilize the three Spanish-class battleships, the remaining new Amsterdam-class fast battleships of the Dutch and the only two remaining battlecruisers of the British are no match for the three Spanish-class fast battleships. Of course...... There are still quite a few of the Entente fleets that can pick them out. But the Iron Tortoise and the Revenge class of the United States are too slow, and as long as the Spaniards do not seek their own death, the probability of being killed in the vast Atlantic Ocean is really not very large. As for the Queen Elizabeth-class battleships? The speed was a little worse, and it was impossible for the British to easily transfer such an important battleship! …。
The three Spanish-class battleships were like agile jaguars, unable to go head-to-head with behemoths such as lions and elephants, but could easily cull hyenas and wolves with the advantage of high speed. More importantly, the Spanish fleet had the best opportunity because the Entente bloc was unaware of Spain's mutations, and even thought that such a small country would not dare to take the initiative to challenge the Entente bloc, or that they underestimated Spain's determination to defend its colonies. And when Spain finally declared war on the Entente. The Spanish fleet will have arrived in attack positions and is ready to attack Saint-Nazaire!
August 10, 1917. The world is in chaos again. At 8 a.m. on the same day, the Spanish ambassador to the United Kingdom, on behalf of his country, demanded the return of Gibraltar to the British. And this, naturally, was rejected by the British government. At 10 a.m., the Spanish delegates presented a declaration of war, claiming that Spain and the Entente were already at war. And at 12 noon on the same day, three huge figures appeared in the sea near Saint-Nazaire! The Spanish flag, decorated in red and yellow, is unfurled in the wind. I want the other party to show who I am. And at this time, the French in the port of Saint-Nazaire had not yet received the news that the two countries had gone to war!
The strategy of declaring war first and then moving immediately envisioned in the history of the book 2 war was smashed, but this plane was perfectly copied by the Spaniards. When 3 Spanish-class battleships appeared outside the harbor, aiming their huge 14-inch guns at the port facilities and docks in the distance. The French were stunned, they really did not expect that the port of Saint-Nazaire would be attacked by the opposing large warships! And what is even more tragic is that not only the port of Saint-Nazaire is powerless to resist such an attack, but even all the warships on the entire west coast of France together cannot deal with these 3 super dreadnoughts! All the French first-line large and medium-sized ships are in the Mediterranean, and this blow of the Spaniards almost chose the most vulnerable henchmen of the French Navy to come hard! …。
"Leave the supplies on the batteries and the warehouses alone, and concentrate your fire on Dry Dock 3, where there's a big guy. The best time to take out a battleship is while he's repairing it! Count Spee suggested aloud. The fledgling Houthi also ordered the España and Alfonso XIII to concentrate their fire on the Brestany in dry dock No. 3, following the advice of Count Spee. A minute later. The Alfonso XIII fired the first shot of Spain's entry into the war! Four huge fireballs erupted from the muzzle, and a shell weighing 600+ kg came out of the muzzle with an initial velocity of more than twice the speed of sound and flew towards a distant target! …。
Half a minute later, four huge plumes of smoke rose into the air. After a simple correction, the two battleships began the second salvo. For a time the entire dry dock No. 3 was covered with flames and the shock wave from the explosion, and the French did not even have a chance to release the smoke screen cover. Several and 12-inch shore guns began to fire at the Spanish fleet in the distance. However, it was immediately suppressed by the main guns of the James I. Without interference, the two Spanish capital ships quickly achieved the result, and a shell hit the side chord of the Brestani, penetrating the hull from the upper deck and igniting the various flammable and explosive materials remaining in the cabin. The skyrocketing fire rose from the hull of the ship in an instant, and the flames and black smoke mixed with various debris flew into the air under the action of the updraft, and several shells hit the poor battleship in succession, under the repeated impact. The Brestany had already tilted at a small angle, and the equipment used to fix the hull had suffered some losses from the ferocious shelling. And that's just the beginning! …。
Another shell hit the tower crane next to the dock...... The powerful semi-armor-piercing projectile easily blew the tower crane dozens of meters high into two sections, and the hundreds of tons of steel smashed towards the battleship Brestany in the dock under the action of its own gravity! It was more deadly than any cannonball, like dominoes, and the weight of hundreds of tons of steel slammed down on the flagship of the French Navy. Under the action of huge thrust, the battleship finally collapsed and crashed into the sidewall of the dock next to it, and the battleship weighing more than 20,000 tons smashed straight into the sidewall of the dock more than 200 meters long. The violent impact even knocked more than a dozen tons of steel plates into the air! Tons of concrete blocks were knocked down. smashed on the inclined hull. Accompanied by a violent impact, the huge hull twisted and broke under the action of a strong external force. The entire target area was soon enveloped in flying debris and smoke. A tsunami-like sound was then heard in the distance from Dock 3. When Count Spee and the others heard the thunderous sound. Almost everyone knows that the ship is finished!
"It's time for the warehouse and the berths below." For the success of the shelling just now, Count Spee was very satisfied, the first task was completed, then the rest was to fight as much as possible, in the face of the merchant ships of various tonnages moored in the harbor and the mountains of various supplies piled up on the warehouse, the three Spanish battleships showed their fatal fangs! The French were not indifferent, and while shelling the Brestani, an old armored cruiser of the French Navy with 4 destroyers tried to launch a lightning strike on the Spanish fleet outside the harbor, but soon, in less than ten minutes, the James I let the French Navy know what it means to chop melons and vegetables! The French armored cruiser did not even have time to bring the opposing side into the range of its main guns. Three 14-inch shells were hit, one of which directly penetrated the ammunition depot of the poor battleship. With a violent explosion, a fire dragon tens of meters high erupted from the amidship of the battleship. And the remaining destroyers were directly hit by secondary guns and anti-lightning guns. In the end, he was unwilling to turn into a pile of wreckage. By this point, there was nothing left to stop the presence of the Spanish fleet, except for a few shore guns! …。
Faced with a fixed surface target, the accuracy of the three Spanish-class fast battleships was surprisingly high, and under the projection of more than 10 tons per minute, the entire port of Saint-Nazaire was quickly turned into a sea of fire. The ship anchored at the berth broke its anchor chain and tried to sail out of the port without guidance, but this attempt to escape proved to be an even more stupid approach, with a cargo ship with a displacement of at least 15,000 tons struggling to get out of the berth, and even crashing a speedboat in the process of rushing to escape. As it slowly navigated the main channel, the España, which had been attacking on land, suddenly aimed its guns at the merchant ship. …。
"Very well, in this position, as long as he is sunk, the passage in and out of the port of Saint-Nazaire will not be unobstructed for several months." Count Spee was waiting for this opportunity, and simply destroying supplies and port equipment could not completely render this port useless, after all, in the face of the world's first-class port, the three Spanish-class battleships still had fewer shells. The Spanish class had 100 rounds of ammunition per gun, only half of which were high-explosive and semi-armor-piercing shells used to attack targets on shore. And you can't use all the non-armor-piercing shells, after all, some of them will have to be left to deal with the possible Allied fleets. Armor-piercing shells for fighting battleships...... Semi-armor-piercing rounds are more effective. So when making the plan, Count Spee gave each gun an indicator of 25 to 30 rounds, and when it was over, it was gone! …。
Gently I went, just as I came gently, what a meaningful poem, the Spaniards came gently, but when they left, they left all over the ground! The entire port of Saint-Nazaire was baptized by thousands of large-caliber shells and medium-caliber artillery and did not want to recover within 2 months. As for the amount of materials lost in the port warehouse, it is calculated in 10,000 tons. The sudden entry of the Spaniards into the war caught the Entente by surprise, and after the first blow, the Spaniards did not think of going back at all, but turned to the northwest and rushed towards the North Atlantic transportation line that was related to the life and death of the Entente! And along with these steel behemoths rushed to the North Atlantic, there were more than a dozen light cruisers of various kinds and camouflaged assault ships. and at least 20 ocean-going submarines. They will stab the deadly and fragile veins of the Entente!
"It won't be long before we can hit the sea transport of the Entente hard. Before the U.S. fleet enters the Atlantic, we will be the most powerful presence here! Count Spee assured the Houthis that for the time being, it seemed that there was really nothing left in the whole ocean to stop them!
Thank you for the monthly pass support of zhouyu1976 and f663026 ~~~~. Recently, the subscription is not ideal~~~~. Ask for subscription, ask for support-!.