PDLP Chapter 160: Victory at the Battle of Cymbrica
Chapter 160: Victory at the Battle of Cymbrica
"Let all the officers and soldiers who can be evacuated leave. They shouldn't be buried with the Reckless!"
The doomsday scene came into view, and the captain rushed into the cockpit against the escaping crowd. Here he looked around with nostalgia and raised a pistol to his temple.
"No one was wrong in this naval battle. Not Liam, not Marshal Jericho, and not tens of thousands of officers and soldiers of the Royal Navy. The ones who deserve the most blame are the designers. They have ruined the century-old honor of the Royal Navy!"
The last words of the captain of the HMS Reckless were deafening. Although the designers of the Talen shipyard defended themselves after the war, the world's naval personnel believed that there were big problems with the designers of the Talen dreadnought, and some major avoidable design flaws were blatantly ignored.
The frontal armor of the turret of the Berthon-class battleship is 280mm, and the gun mount is 330mm. The twin 280mm main guns of the Nassau-class battleship have a penetration depth of only 212mm at a distance of meters. Under normal circumstances, the Drake armor-piercing shells cannot penetrate the frontal armor of the turret of the Reckless. Fortresses are always breached from the weakest point. When the bullet position is the top armor of the turret, no matter how thick the frontal armor is, it is useless.
The top armor of the Reckless's turret is 64mm thick. It was originally designed with horizontal armor to deal with the Drakes' 280mm armor-piercing shells, but in order to save armor and reduce tonnage, the Talen designers designed the top armor into a frontally inclined armor.
This is not the inclined armor of the famous T-34 tank in Leo's previous life, but a whole piece of steel plate with its front side tilted. When the 280mm armor-piercing bullet hit the top armor, it coincidentally formed a nearly vertical angle with the inclined surface.
The 64mm armor of the turret could not stop the 280mm armor-piercing shells at all. The Drak armor-piercing shells exploded in the turret, and the fire spread into the propellant depot, and the picric acid propellant inside was ignited by the fire.
Even though the firefighting equipment was fully activated and the damage control team worked hard to rescue, the fire could not be put out and burned in the sea water. Ten seconds later, the most undesirable situation occurred. The explosion of the ammunition depot dealt a heavy blow to the Reckless.
In less than a minute, the huge ship weighing tons that was originally floating on the sea disappeared on the surface of the North Sea, leaving only more than a hundred remaining soldiers still thinking about everything about the Reckless.
At 8:33, in the southeast of the Skagerrak Strait in the North Sea, Marshal Jellicoe, commander-in-chief of the Grand Fleet, received Liam's telegram.
The situation is as follows: the three battlecruisers HMS Sanaa Tiger, HMS Indefatigable and HMS Flinders sank, the fast battleship HMS Queen Elizabeth and the battlecruiser HMS Otillo suffered heavy damage, the Royal Navy drained the finances of the Kingdom of Talen, and the fast fleet that cost hundreds of tons of gold to build lost half of it in less than twenty-four hours. Except for two Queen Elizabeth-class battleships and one Barbary Lion battlecruiser, the only ship left in the huge fast fleet was the battlecruiser HMS Indomitable, which was not fit to be reused.
"Report the current losses of the Grand Fleet!" Jericho's voice was hoarse. The high spirits of the Grand Fleet were blown away in the cold wind of the North Sea. The pride of the Royal Navy was no longer the same from today on.
The words spoken by Chief of the Fleet Staff McGrath on the Grand Fleet's flagship, the Iron Duke, were like a cold wind sweeping through the command tower, making people shiver.
"The Ajax and the Reckless sank, and the Titan was severely damaged and had to withdraw from the battle!"
"What are our results?"
"Three old-style pre-dreadnoughts of the Draco Empire sunk! Several others were severely damaged..."
Before Mai Jia finished speaking, everyone in the Command Tower had a sad face. No one had expected that an operation that was intended to weaken and annihilate the First Scouting Fleet, cut off the claws of the Ocean Fleet from invading the North Sea and the coastline of the Kingdom of Taren, and save the Kingdom of Taren from danger and the honor of the Royal Navy would fail.
How could a sea battle like a duel between knights, a fight of all-out strength, be defeated for no apparent reason? The great fleet hadn't even used its full strength yet?
Three battlecruisers and one battleship were lost, and another battlecruiser and two battleships lost their combat effectiveness. In addition to the ambiguous result of Liam's fleet sinking two battlecruisers of the First Scouting Fleet, there were also three pre-dreadnoughts that were not worth showing off. The famous fleet could not even show off more results to whitewash itself.
"This naval battle humiliated not only the Royal Navy, but also the Kingdom of Taren. What kind of face is that? The terrible thing is that the Taren Empire's reliance on world domination has been interrupted. How can Taren maintain its vast colonies without a navy?"
Mai Jia, the fifty-year-old chief of staff of the Grand Fleet, held on to the loss report, his desperate expression telling of his unwillingness.
The Kingdom of Talen rose from the sea, relying on a fleet that dominated the world to build its empire. In this cold North Sea, in the Skagerrak Strait, the century-old honor of the Royal Navy was trampled under the feet of the Drakes?
"Cheer up! It's not time to be discouraged. We still have seven fast battleships and nineteen battleships. In various ports and shipyards in our country, we still have three Queen Elizabeth-class battleships, five Monarch-class battleships, and three Renown-class battleships. We also have the latest super-dreadnoughts under construction!"
Marshal Jericho slowly stood up, took the report from Mai Jia and tore it to pieces in front of everyone.
"The battle isn't over yet, and it's still unknown who will win! Because of my responsibility, I can't risk my large fleet to fight!" Jericho was a little sad and angry. If possible, he would rather die here now.
"We agree that the First Battlecruiser Squadron may return. The squadrons of the Grand Fleet do not have to follow the flagship. Each squadron must turn left and return home!" Jericho looked old in an instant, and he raised his arm and waved it down, issuing his final order. After this battle, he would leave the Royal Navy he loved. He wanted to preserve the vitality of the Royal Navy and take his children home.
Marshal Jericho's orders were hung on the main mast of the Iron Duke. Following the order, the battle line maintained by the grand fleet was instantly broken, and six small formations began to turn.
"Damn it, the cowardly Talen people actually want to escape?! Don't they care about the honor of the Royal Navy?" In the sight of the Ocean Fleet's lookout, the Talen battleships were beginning to make dangerous turns under the Ocean Fleet's precise and intensive rain of bullets, and the Ocean Fleet had just reopened the engagement distance, which gave the Grand Fleet time to keep a safe distance.
Giving up the evenly matched battle line confrontation, they would rather take a few more shells and disperse and turn. It is obvious who will win this naval battle.
"Victory? Victory!" the lookout on the Caesar said in disbelief, and then he was picked up by his comrades, and cheers resounded across the entire sea.
"Victory! Commander!" Hearing the shouts outside, the King's deputy captain Nicholas shouted excitedly to Admiral Leon.