stonecrandall Chapter 263
Chapter 263
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This battleship was launched in 1913 and served in the year of the 1914 World War. It was the first real battleship in the history of the Italian Navy. When it was just built, the performance of this battleship was still very advanced. It has a displacement of 20,000 tons, 4 triple-mounted 305mm caliber main guns, and a maximum speed of 24.3 knots. In 1914, this speed and firepower were considered top-notch!
However, it is now 192, and ten years have passed since the battleship was launched. The powerful parameters of the Dante at the time seem insignificant in front of the more vigorous younger generations!
Take the Hood, the flagship of the British Mediterranean Fleet, as an example. This battleship was the last battlecruiser designed by the British Empire at the end of World War I. It has 8 381mm main guns, 304 meters thick armor, a maximum speed of 30 knots, and the largest displacement in the world at that time – 41,300 tons!
Before the Bismarck Tirpitz was completed, the Hood had been the world’s largest warship for 7 years!
The performance parameters of the Hood are completely unlike those of the battleships of this era, but rather like those of the World War II period. So in the Second World War, when facing the German Bismarck-class battleships, the first thing the British Empire thought of was to send the Hood out to fight, and the reason they had such an idea was entirely because the Hood had dominated the world for too long!
So the British Empire had a mysterious confidence in this battleship, thinking that once the Hood came out, who would compete with it, they would definitely win!
As a result, the Bismarck fired a salvo, making the British Navy taste the bitter fruit of failure!
The Hood, which could be considered an advanced battleship in World War II 20 years later, was simply a nightmare for the navies of various countries in this era!
The Mediterranean Fleet of the British Sun did not only have the Hood, but also the Elizabeth-class battleships Warspite and Warrior.
Both of these battleships were deployed from the home fleet to cooperate with the Mediterranean Fleet’s actions this time!
It can be said that the strength of the Mediterranean Fleet of the British Sun at this time, whether in terms of the number of warships, the number and caliber of artillery, and the performance and tonnage of battleships, has a very obvious advantage.
This advantage was so great that the original Italian naval commander could not see any hope of winning, so he was unwilling to lead his troops to the expedition. As a result, his words were not heard by Mussolini. Mussolini still sent all of Italy’s navy to fight, wanting to organize the British Sun and the Gaul army!
However, an accidental firing in the Mediterranean completely ruined Italy’s hope!
“There was an explosion on the Dante!”
“The Dante is on fire!”
“Oh my God, a huge gap of 5X3 meters appeared on the left side of the Dante, and a large amount of sea water was pouring into it!”
“The British are firing torpedoes at us!”
“”Open fire, open fire and fight back!”
The sudden explosion of the Dante made the Italian navy panic for a while, and when they reacted, they immediately locked their hatred on the British Empire. Almost without waiting for the order from their naval commander, the Italian naval warships had already started to fire back on their own!
The matter was already very clear, but the Dante definitely could not have caught fire on its own, because everyone could see that the terrible wound on its body was caused by an external attack, and there was only one kind of weapon that could blow such a big hole in this position, and that was a torpedo!
And the trajectory of this torpedo was rushing over from the Mediterranean Fleet that had fallen. Yes, in this sea area, except for the Mediterranean Fleet on which the sun never sets, they can no longer see anyone else, nor can they see warships from any other country!
Therefore, the enemy who attacked them can be guessed with their toes!
It must be the people of the Mediterranean Fleet on which the sun never sets!
Although the Italian army is not reliable in fighting, their navy is still quite good. At least when facing such an enemy with such an advantage, the Italian navy did not choose to raise the national flag and surrender!
Instead, it resolutely gave the enemy a painful counterattack, vowing to avenge its own Dante!
The navies of various countries are basically aristocratic arms, and half of those who can join the navy are educated and knowledgeable. , they are really different from the peasants in the army.
The Italian navy launched a counterattack while accelerating and preparing to retreat. Although they were very angry, they still kept a clear mind. With their current strength, they simply did not have the capital to fight against the British Mediterranean Fleet. If the battle continued, there would be only one result, that is, their annihilation!
So the Italian navy fired fiercely, trying to force back the British Mediterranean Fleet, while turning quickly, preparing to escape! The Italians
‘ choice was wise, but the British Mediterranean Fleet on the opposite side was going to be furious!
Because of the double The distance between the two sides was too close. The Hood, the battlecruiser at the forefront, was targeted by three Italian battleships at the beginning of the war, and they fired three salvos at the Hood in turn!
Although the Italian battleships were not as advanced as the Hood, their firepower was very strong. The battleships of the dreadnought era had four or even five turrets, and the number of naval guns could easily exceed 10!
The three battleships fired three salvos, and more than 90 shells were sent to the Hood at once!
Although the Hood increased its speed to the maximum and evaded the enemy’s artillery fire in a Z-shaped maneuver, the artillery fire was too dense.���So two shells hit the Hood directly!
One of the shells hit the side armor and hit the Hood hard, making the British soldiers on the entire battleship nervous.
However, the main armor of the Hood was reinforced after all, and the 304-meter armor could withstand the 305mm caliber artillery without any problem, so this shell did not penetrate the Hood’s armor, but only left a deep dent on the armor belt.
However, the second shell of the Hood was not so lucky!
A 305mm ship hit the turret of a secondary gun at the stern of the Hood. The secondary gun armor of only 102mm could not withstand such a direct hit from such a large-caliber artillery!
So there is no doubt that this shell easily penetrated the armor of the secondary gun and entered the propellant compartment inside the turret!
When the Hood was built, the main armor on both sides was specially reinforced to deal with the enemy’s firepower threat, but the internal design had been finalized long ago, so no emergency reinforcement was carried out. Therefore, after the shell penetrated the Hood’s secondary gun armor, it quickly swept the secondary gun propellant chamber and the adjacent rear engine room!
This is not the most fatal, the most fatal is that the shell exploded at this time, and the fragments of the explosion hit the thin armor between the rear engine room and the secondary gun propellant chamber, which is only 5 mm thick!
Behind this thin layer of armor, 18.5 tons of 102 mm artillery shells are stored. Once this layer of armor is penetrated, the Hood may stage the tragedy of Bismarck’s sinking in World War II in advance, and die in sorrow 20 years in advance!
Perhaps it was the spirit of Admiral Hood, who once commanded the Mediterranean Fleet, that the Hood’s thin layer of armor miraculously blocked the fragments of the 305 shells and prevented them from being penetrated, thus avoiding a possible tragedy! The British who escaped the disaster breathed a sigh of relief, but also became ruthless!
Great!
We haven’t even started yet, and you’ve already taken the initiative to overturn the table!
In this case, don’t blame us for being ruthless!
“Raise the Queen’s flag and wipe out the enemy!”_
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