"South Africa is abandoning ship?" Betty looked at the telegram from South Africa and said with some surprise. At this time, he really paid attention to the battleship, which was struggling in third place on the battle line, the main gun in the bow was almost submerged by the sea, and the large amount of water ingress and hull losses had made it impossible for him to keep up with the actions of the fleet, and even the operation was very difficult. With the exception of the stern gun, which occasionally fired a few shells, the remaining 6 guns were all destroyed. If the war had ended by this time, there would still be a chance to rescue, but now, it is clear that the other side will not give up this opportunity to beat the water dogs.

"Damn, it's only been less than 20 minutes, what the hell is going on?" Betty angrily looked at the Julius Caesar, who was showing her might! By this time, he had not yet seen that this battleship was not a foreign trade warship of Huaxia, but an upgraded version of it. On a battlefield full of bullets, the explosion of shells and the jets of water made it even more difficult to distinguish the Julius Caesar from other ships.

"Get the South Africa out of the battle column, and we'll cover it." Betty really didn't want to end the first battle in the Mediterranean, and he still had a glimmer of illusions that he could save the battered battleship. A group of destroyers and light cruisers on standby rushed up, and they began to release smoke and torpedoes to cover the fleet's retreat, but it was clear that the Allied fleet would not let the other side go so smoothly, and the auxiliary warships of both sides soon became entangled, and the secondary guns of the capital ships began to attack the opposing mine-striking ships.

"The South Africa is too slow right now, they're going to drag us to death." As the captain of the Australia, Rear Admiral Moore said anxiously. The South Africa is still maneuverable. But the speed is less than 15 knots, and the opponent can easily catch up with him. You can't beat 4 to 4, and 3 to 4 is even more difficult!

"How far is Admiral Thomas's main fleet?" Betty ignored Major General Moore. Instead, he asked.

"It's going to take at least 1 hour to get there!" The staff officer replied.

"An hour?" Betty hesitated, obviously, this time was a bit long, it was difficult for the South Africa to hold on for such a long time, and just when he was undecided, there was another loud bang on the South Africa!

This time the shell hit the South Africa's power compartment, at a distance of 15 meters. The 15-inch shell fell into the water and began to sink as it continued to move forward, after the shell hit the South Africa's sidechord like a torpedo. He had already avoided the protection of the main armor belt, directly tore through the hull, and easily penetrated several layers of lightning protection walls, and finally broke through the underwater protection of the power compartment, plunged into the port boiler room, and exploded in the power compartment! In a very short period of time. Five boilers were destroyed one after the other. The bound high-temperature and high-pressure steam instantly filled the entire engine room, and explosions came and went. Deadly steam reaps the lives of the crew. At the same time, the energy generated by the explosion further tore the breach in the hull, and under the action of strong water pressure, tons of seawater poured into the compartment, completely flooding the power compartment on the warring side in a short time. Let the battleship further increase the water intake while losing half of its power!

"The battleship has suffered a serious left and head tilt, and has lost its general power and almost all of its power supply, and we have no power to recover. Again request to abandon the ship. Soon, Betty received a second telegram from the South Africa requesting to abandon the ship. Under one blow after another. The South Africa has completely lost its chance of survival, the battleship's water ingress is uncontrollable, and the power compartment is half destroyed, even if there is a truce now, the probability of the battleship returning alive is not very high. What's more, there is a group of warships attacking frantically behind.

"Evacuate the fleet at full speed and abandon the South Africa!" Betty decisively gave the order to retreat, but this time, this order seemed to be a little late, because when the sinking of the South Africa was a foregone conclusion, the Julius Caesar aimed its guns at the Canada in fourth place, and just before Betty gave the order to retreat, the dense rain of bullets had already covered the Canada! Together with the Gnaisenau, the Julius Caesar rained down deadly bullets on the ship.

Although there was the cover of torpedoes and smoke, the Canada was still knocked hard a few times in the process of retreating, and a 15-inch gun shell hit the rear turret, this time because of the problem of a good angle, the frontal armor of the turret successfully blocked the shell, but the fragments produced after the explosion of the shell still destroyed the 2 main guns, one of the main guns was directly broken in two by a fragment, and the other main gun was also seriously damaged. AND TWO 350MM SHELLS ALSO HIT THE CANADIAN'S SIDE CHORD AND STERN, THE ONE THAT HIT THE SIDE CHORD WAS HIT BY THE TANK, AND THE SHELL THAT HIT THE STERN CAUSED A CERTAIN AMOUNT OF WATER INGRESS.

The battle between the two sides lasted only more than half an hour, and Betty lost a capital ship in a daze, which is a real confusion, Betty still hasn't figured it out, the warships used by both sides are brothers, why is the gap so big? The details of the damage to the South Africa could not have been told to Betty by telegram, so Betty never understood why the other party's warships were so strong. Three times five divided by two scrapped the South African number? It's incomprehensible! However, Betty didn't know how the South Africa sank, but she still reported the situation to Thomas, and the three capital ships were each damaged, and the South Africa sank. On the side of the Allies, it was similar, except for the battleship that was in third place, and the situation of the other three battleships was half as good as that of the British fleet.

"It's greasy!" After receiving Betty's telegram, Thomas immediately smelled a hint of conspiracy, compared with Betty, Thomas's biggest advantage is that he can comprehensively analyze all aspects of intelligence, and he is very familiar with the performance of Australia-class fast battleships and quite confident. ACCORDING TO THE FOLLOW-UP INTELLIGENCE, THERE ARE NOT MANY AUSTRALIAN-CLASS BULLETS, ALTHOUGH THE SITUATION IS MORE TRAGIC AND MANY SHELLS ARE SMASHED ON THE BOW OF THE SHIP, BUT EVEN SO, THE DAMAGE CAUSED BY THE 350MM HEAVY GUN WILL NOT MAKE SUCH A BATTLESHIP HIT HARD, AND HE ALSO NOTICED TWO KEY POINTS, ONE IS THAT THE HORIZONTAL ARMOR ON THE TOP OF THE NO. 2 TURRET IS PENETRATED, AND THE OTHER IS THAT THE SIDE CHORD IS SUSPECTED TO BE PENETRATED.

The foreign trade warships of the Huaxia Republic are very conscientious. The protection is very good, especially the turret protection, both horizontally and vertically, and although it may be disabled by a 350 heavy gun hit, it will definitely not be easily penetrated. In the same way, based on the situation at the time, the distance between the two sides was relatively far, and the lateral chord armor should also be in the immunity zone, and there should not be a suspected breakdown. IF THERE IS ONLY ONE TIME, IT CAN BE EXPLAINED BY CHANCE, BUT IF IT APPEARS TWICE, IT CAN ONLY EXPLAIN ONE PROBLEM, THE OTHER SIDE IS NOT USING A 350MM HEAVY GUN, BUT A MORE POWERFUL WEAPON!

And judging from the combat situation, the performance of the other 6 warships can be described as decent in the end, although some have a slight advantage, and some have suffered a little loss, but the gap is not large. Why is this battleship so combat-effective? Go up and turn your head and beat the South Africa half to death? After comparison, it can be found that the combat effectiveness of this battleship is not at all a grade compared with other warships!

"There is only one warship in the Allied fleet that has the ability to defeat the South Africa in a short period of time!" Thomas said in his heart. "And this battleship should be an expanded version of the South Africa from a pedigree." "They are very similar in appearance, and if they are disguised, they will not be visible at all during the engagement! Or that no one thought that the Italians would give the best ships in their hands to the Germans! ”

"It's too insidious! When did Tycho and Spee become so cunning? Thomas finally figured out why Betty was so confused about what she was going to lose. The battleship has been dropped! There is a lion hidden in a pack of wolves, and the South Africa just happened to be right with this lion, so it's no wonder if it wasn't beaten! That's the guy who hit the New Mexico hard! Obviously, Betty was unlucky enough to be pretended to be a pig and a tiger!

"It's bad luck to lose a capital ship at the beginning." Thomas glanced at the calm sea and said, but no matter how bad it is, the battle will still go on, and it can be expected that the main fleet of the Allies will also come this time, and the fate of the Mediterranean, and even the trend of the war will be seen in this battle! Although Thomas is steady, he can definitely stand up to it when he should be desperate!

The destruction of a capital ship at the beginning made Thomas's situation a little embarrassing, in order to deal with the Caesar the Great and the other 4 fast battleships, Thomas had to give two R-class battleships to Betty if he wanted to gain an advantage, the two capital ships named Revenge and Royal Oak were equipped with 8 15-inch naval guns, but from the performance point of view, the same 15-inch carrier, the revenge class performed not as well as the Caesar the Great, in the battle with Hipper, Two Queen-class battleships and two Dutch battleships fought together for nearly an hour to sink the two German Superdreadnoughts. So in Thomas's view, even if the two revenge battleships are in Betty's hands, the situation of 5 against 5 is a tie. The R-class is stronger than the super-dreadnought, and the Julius Caesar is stronger than the R-class battleships, and the overall battle situation is likely to be a stalemate.

Thomas soon joined Betty's fleet. Looking at the huge fleet that appeared in the distance, Lin Yongsheng had no idea of continuing the pursuit, and moved directly in the direction of the main fleet. The first wave of contacts took place, and the Allies had a strategic advantage by stratagem. According to previous estimates, the other side has at least 16 warships, so now the two sides are finally equal in numbers. But there is still a certain gap in quality, after all, there are 3 Dreadnoughts on your side, and only 1 on the other side! And the other side also has 2 15-inch capital ships. There is also the advantage of the opponent's auxiliary warships, overall, your side is still at a loss, and if you are not careful, you will be doomed!

Thanks to the book friend zhouyu1976 for the tip, and the book friend JhonnyRidden for the monthly pass support ~~~. (To be continued......)