Another World: Naval Storm

Chapter 148: Battle of Simbrica 2

After the construction of the Invincible-class battlecruisers began in 1908, although the Talen Admiralty believed that the existing number of battlecruisers could not meet future combat needs and requested to continue building 3-5 battlecruisers, the landlords did not have much surplus food, so the Talen government only approved the construction of 3 ships on the grounds that the battlecruisers were too expensive. Listen to how Versailles this is.

Construction of one of the ships began that year, and the construction of the remaining two ships was postponed to 1910 because part of the funds were diverted to the construction of dreadnoughts, leaving insufficient funds for battlecruiser construction.

At this time, the Admiralty remembered Flinders, which was established under the imperial order. On September 1900, 9, King Talen signed a decree announcing the establishment of the Flinders Federation on January 17, 1901, thus becoming the second dominion of the Talen Federation after the North Dominion of Canada, that is, it changed from a province of the Talen Kingdom to a member state.

Although Flinders was independent in name, he was loyal to the Kingdom of Taren. After all, the Kingdom of Taren was still the British Empire at that time, and most of the local people were descendants of the Taren people. As the saying goes, "brothers fight tigers together, and fathers and sons fight together in battle." Therefore, Flinders became the number one good son of the father of the Kingdom of Taren, and followed Taren to participate in all the wars launched by the Kingdom of Taren.

The father gave his son a benefit, so the son was ecstatic. In this way, the fourth Invincible-class ship was named Flinders, and Flinders only needed to pay a small amount of money to get this honor. Both parties were satisfied with the transaction.

In order to ensure the profits of the capitalists, the shipyard cut corners, resulting in a pitifully small armor coverage area of ​​Flinders' 152mm waterline belt, a reduced number of watertight compartments, and the replacement of watertight compartment bulkheads with weaker plates. It is unknown whether they can withstand the impact of flames and sea water.

The Battle of Simbrica told people the answer. Seawater rushed in through the holes made by armor-piercing shells. As time went on, the seawater overflowed several watertight compartments. The damage control team was unable to effectively organize the spread of the seawater. The seawater gradually occupied one compartment after another, and the Flinders tilted more than ten degrees to the left.

It was not the Moltke and the von der Bella. Luck did not come to the Flinders. At 7:35, the captain had no choice but to give the order to abandon ship. At this time, the deck of the Flinders was only a stone's throw away from the sea.

At 7:39, a destroyer named Talen fired several torpedoes at the Flinders, which sank into the sea in less than two minutes.

The sinking of the Flinders was just the beginning, and the battle continued. In another battle group, 37 battleships from the two main fleets took turns firing at a distance, and the naval battle became more and more intense.

Since the beginning of the war, the Talen Grand Fleet has suffered two disasters against the Drakes. The destruction of the Sturdy Fleet not only broke the legend of the Royal Navy but also caused heavy losses to the Grand Fleet, but the Talens believed that the Drakes lost 2 battlecruisers and 2 armored cruisers, while they lost 3 battlecruisers and 1 armored cruiser, which should be considered a draw.

The second was the Battle of Shipwreck Bay, where the sinking of three battlecruisers, Lion, Queen Mary and Tiger, and two dreadnoughts almost broke the backbone of the Royal Navy.

After the Battle of Shipwreck Bay, the Grand Fleet fell into extreme decline. The four battlecruisers that were sent to the Mediterranean to participate in the suppression of the Ottoman Empire were urgently recalled to replenish Liam's fleet. The three newly commissioned Queen Elizabeth-class ships were also strengthened to Liam's First Battlecruiser Squadron.

The Liam fleet has recovered its strength, but the originally large fleet with a large number of soldiers and generals can only rely on twenty-one battleships to hold on.

Compared with the 17 battleships of the Ocean Fleet, the difference in number between the two sides was not big, and the quality made the Talens even less confident. That's right! The advantage of four ships made the Talens feel uncertain, and this was the result of the Drake Navy's desperate efforts.

Marshal Jericho counted the main forces of the Grand Fleet with great worry. The first dreadnought of Talen, the Glory battleship, was already very old. It was hastily launched to catch up with the progress of the Drakes. Its sighting and power systems were outdated and could no longer be used. Compared with the Drake battleships of the same level, the armor of the Berthomp-class and St. George-class battleships was too weak. The only thing worth mentioning was their large-caliber main guns. The Uranus-class battleships did not have any obvious shortcomings, but sometimes mediocrity was the biggest sin.

In the naval arms race triggered by the Drake Empire, dreadnoughts were of paramount importance. From the first dreadnought HMS Glory to the Berthoven class and then to the St. George class, the Royal Navy started building seven ships.

But what was the result? They were all beaten by the Drake Empire's Dreadnought-class battleships in terms of attack and defense. The Dreadnought battleship only used 8 280mm main guns on the side, relying on the advantages of rapid firing, shell stability and deep penetration to suppress the Tarunns who had more main guns and caliber.

As for the 300mm main armor along the waterline and the 85mm horizontal armor, they were far beyond the reach of the Talen people.

This advantage has been maintained, one step faster and one step faster. The appearance of the second dreadnought of the Drak Empire, the Helgoland class, made the Tarun people panic.

The Tarun people hurriedly improved the Uranus-class battleship into the Giant-class battleship to compete with the Helgoland-class battleship.

The weapon system of the Titan-class battleship is in the same vein as the Uranus-class, but the main gun's firing range has been improved and the performance of the 305mm main gun has also been improved.

In order to cope with the threat of the 305mm main guns of the Helgoland-class battleships, the armor thickness of the main waterline armor belt, longitudinal watertight compartments, ammunition depot protection and gun mounts of the Goliath-class battleships was slightly increased.

However, it is a pipe dream for these limited improvements in protection to deal with the 305mm main guns, while the 350mm waterline main armor of the Helgoland-class battleships can easily deal with the 305mm main guns of the Talens.

When the naval arms race entered a white-hot stage, the unwilling Tarun Kingdom successively designed and started construction of three new dreadnoughts, namely the Guardian class, the King George V class and the Iron Duke class. In order to have the advantage of main gun caliber, the main gun caliber of these three battleships exceeded 305mm. The people of Tarun had high hopes for them and affectionately called these battleships super dreadnoughts.

The first Guardian-class battleships to enter service were the first to use the more powerful 343mm main guns. The five main turrets were arranged along the longitudinal center axis of the ship. The main armor at the waterline was 305, and the central fire control system was based on a ballistic computer to improve the accuracy of the ship's gun firing.

The King George V-class battleships maintained the 305mm waterline main armor while strengthening the upper side armor belt. Starting from this class, all battleships, battlecruisers and other main battleships of the Royal Navy were equipped with central fire control systems.