Battle of the Third Reich Chapter 537: Sunset

The Royal Navy’s shallow-water heavy gunship [Dark World], with a full load of 8,400 tons, is equipped with an intimidating 15-inch (381 mm) twin turret, and also has two 150 Millimeters and four 76-millimeter secondary guns, most of the hull is covered with four inches of armor, and the armor thickness of the armored control tower has reached 13 inches. This standard is already the same as that of a battleship. ````

But it is such a behemoth whose draft is controlled at about 3.56 meters. Her mission is to deliver battleship-class heavy artillery fire at shallow water near the coast to targets on shore or at sea.

Why did this Royal Navy’s heavy gunship appear on the battlefield in the Gulf of Siam? This is a long story.

The experience of the [Dark World] during this time is almost comparable to the legendary story. I can only briefly talk about it here.

After the warship escaped the battle of the destruction of the home fleet, it stayed in Portsmouth, where it received enhanced anti-aircraft weapons modification. After the end of the war, the Royal Navy began to gather its forces on hand and began preparations for reconstruction. At the same time, it sent some units with combat capabilities to major colonies to deter some eager organizations and strengthen the local presence in these areas. Control.

The Dark Boundary was sent to Singapore, where the sea conditions were very suitable for this kind of shallow-water gunboat activity. The two 15-inch cannons above her were also sufficient to deter the surrounding group of Xiaoxiao.

This warship departed from the mainland and passed through Gibraltar into the Mediterranean Sea. At that time, Italy and Greece had not yet started war. The ship was parked outside the port of Athens. The crew also visited Parthenon under the leadership of the captain. Temple. Then they went to the island of Cyprus, monitored the operations of the Turkish navy for a few days, and performed a live-fire show outside Port Said. In front of a group of Arab chiefs, they flattened a hill with main artillery.

After crossing the Suez Canal, the [Dark World] was incorporated into a transport fleet, and then passed through the Gulf of Aden to Mumbai, an important port in British India. But at this time the journey of this warship is not over yet. After a few days of extravagant life in India, after relaxing the tired spirit, the [Dark World] continued to set sail. This time they no longer anchored at any ports, but along the coast bypassed the Indian subcontinent, crossed the Bay of Bengal, entered the Strait of Malacca, and finally reached the Port of Singapore. By the time this shallow-water gunboat, like a mini battleship, slowly entered the naval berth in Singapore Harbor, more than a month had passed since the day they set off.

This voyage is an unforgettable experience for the sailors on the [Dark World]. It has a huge impact on their future life development. The young sailors recruited after the war on the ship, Yu Gang A big boy who had left his parents was trained to become a real seaman.

How could the British not enter into the war between France and Siam, because the weakening of Siam’s military strength is also a very beneficial thing for the current British Empire. As for the ideas and decisions of the British Empire, I will talk about them in detail later, and I will only talk about the [Dark World] battle.

At around ten o'clock in the morning, Admiral Charles Forbes, Commander of the Royal Navy's Far East Fleet, received a telegram from London's Whitehall, and the [Dark Circle] was ordered to immediately set off anchor.

"Take this as an opportunity to show off the power of the British Empire, do it well." The admiral said to Captain Marcel over the phone.

Machel knew that there would be no written version of this order, nor would it be kept on file in the Admiralty. If an accident happened midway, the truth would be firmly covered. However, this is also a shortcut to promotion, and is a personal test of the commander. If he succeeds, he will gain the full trust of his superiors and earn a valuable favor.

The colonel is already fifty years old. If he doesn’t work hard, there may be no chance of rising. He still has the same vigorous ambition as when he was young, but he doesn’t want to serve the Navy after thirty-two years. The rank of a navy colonel was honorably retired. Meteor Valkyrie

The speed of the [Dark World] made her unable to engage in destructive engagements. The overwhelming firepower was prepared for some solid targets, such as coastal defense fortresses or port cities.

Britain and Siam did not go to war. Of course, it is impossible to attack each other's port grandiosely. How to say the basic face of the British Empire still needs to be preserved. This time it was the French in their early days. How could the British waste this pretense, [Dark World] hung the tricolor flag of glory on the mast, and turned into a gunboat of the French Navy.

[The Dark World] The original mission was to bombard the Sattahip Naval Base, destroy the port’s infrastructure as much as possible, and ensure that the port cannot be used normally for at least two weeks. Of course, it is impossible to accomplish this task with this ship alone. At that time, the two super destroyers of the French Navy will take on the role of **** during the shelling.

The original plan seemed quite comprehensive. The [Dark World] ran to the assembly location within the scheduled time after adding enough horsepower. Just after meeting with the two destroyers, the above command came again, this time it turned out to be She went to fight at sea.

Although the decisive assault of the lightning strike ship failed, they successfully steered the course of the two destroyers to the southeast. The slow-moving USS Thonburi was still on her original course. The shallow-water gunboat was throwing a two-hundred-millimeter-caliber at the French destroyer more than 10,000 meters away at a speed of a salvo every two minutes. Cannonball.

Because the French destroyer increased its speed, the [Dark World] was thrown far behind, the third ship unrecognizable in front of the Siamese Navy.

The target of the [Dark Boundary] was targeted at the [Thon Buri] from the very beginning. He was like a heavy armored infantry, slowly approaching the target with persistence and determination.

When [Thon Buri] noticed this warship that had never been seen before, the [Dark World] had completed its aim and calculation, and launched the first round of salvo in this naval battle.

The sailors on the [Dark World] were well-trained and showed the qualities of a veteran maritime power. Although the two sides were separated by more than 10,000 meters, the first round of shooting only deviated from the target by less than 300 feet. The jet of water smashed head and face on the rear deck of [Thonburi].

At first, the [Thonburi] didn’t understand what was actually attacking itself. From the water column, it can be inferred that the exit diameter definitely exceeded 300 millimeters. Wei Feng An was terribly scared at the time. He thought it was a French battleship shooting at him. After receiving the description report from the watchman, Wei Feng An suddenly realized that the unknown ship in the distance was actually another one. Shallow water heavy gunship.

At this moment, [Thon Buri] has no other way of retreat. There is only one last fight. Weifeng An already knows very clearly in his heart that under this situation, the possibility of [Thon Buri] escape safely is zero. Since he was destined to be unable to run away, he would get back a sum of interest no matter what, even if he could not sink his opponent, he could at least bite a piece of meat.

The officers in the command tower also saw that [Thon Buri]’s twin guns could hardly hit the super destroyer at high speed, so the same slow [Dark World] became the best in front of them. Retaliation target. The Siamese obviously made an extremely wrong choice, and of course they paid a corresponding price for it.

The Siamese Navy’s heavy artillery boats turned their course in order to display all the firepower of the front and rear main turrets. This is the most commonly used tactic in naval battles. The horizontal head of the T-shaped head refers to this situation.

The British did not have this problem at all, because the [Dark World] only had a main gun on the bow. In the eyes of the British navy veterans, the Siamese’s actions revealed their weak flanks. Is seeking a dead end.

The [Dark World] unceremoniously fired a sixth round of salvos. Due to the turning of the opponent, there was a slight error in the range measurement. As a result, it still shot a crossed bullet. The huge dyed water column was far away from [Thon Buri] The side of the number was less than five hundred feet, and the Siamese sailors standing on the port deck at the time were all in a cold sweat.

The huge underwater shock wave hits the 2.5-inch side armor plate of the Thonburi, and the harsh metal distortion echoes in the aisle on the bottom deck. Wei Fengan realized that he had made a serious mistake. His battleship armor simply couldn't withstand the fire from the opposite side. He re-adjusted his course and pointed the bow to [Dark World], and then began to fight back with all his strength. Book Fairy

The Japanese-made 203mm gun is the main gun used on heavy cruisers. Through auxiliary machinery such as a loader, a fairly good rate of fire can be obtained. However, the volume of the Thonburi is limited, so it can only be loaded manually. The rate of fire soon slows down with the physical exhaustion of the gunner. On the other hand, the British Dark Boundary has a full set of turrets. Auxiliary equipment, coupled with well-trained officers and soldiers, the rate of fire has always been maintained at one and a half minutes without any change.

At this time, the French Navy’s super destroyer has already eliminated the [Rayong] that burned into a ball of fire, and began to adjust its course from the southeast to [Thonburi] approaching at high speed. Weifeng An had to order the warship to turn again, trying Attack the French destroyer with the rear artillery.

The [Dark World] and [Mogador] class destroyers have completed the half-siege of [Thonburi], and this shallow-water heavy gunboat has become a turtle in the urn.

The results of the Royal Navy’s training were finally revealed. In the ninth round of the salvo, an armor-piercing grenade hit the starboard deck of the Thonburi, penetrating the armor of only 30 mm. After that, it continued to smash through the second deck, and finally exploded on the bottom deck next to the lightning barrier.

This shallow-water heavy gunboat looked like a festive firework at the time, spewing flames and debris upwards. A 20mm single-barreled gun and two sailors were thrown into the sky 60 feet high, and then followed All kinds of debris and debris fell into the sea on the side of the ship.

The hull of the [Thonburi] leaned forward sharply, and its speed began to slow down rapidly.

"At the time, we didn’t know what happened on that ship. What I said was from the mouth of a rescued Siamese sailor. The shell blasted a big hole in the bottom side of the warship. ~IndoMTL.com~ Seawater quickly filled the adjacent compartments, and at the same time it cracked a spare oil tank on the side of the second deck, and tons of diesel leaked out, flowing on the second deck and the bilge. It’s everywhere, and it caused all the engines on the starboard side to stop. You know that diesel is not easy to burn, but if you encounter a smashed ammunition, such as a machine shell, the result will be "bang"... this one The inside of the ship will become a huge oven.” Marcel recalled in an interview with Siamese media after the war.

"[Thonburi] is a very good warship, and my [Dark World] gave her a very fatal blow." The retired lieutenant admiral specifically emphasized.

No one knew where the fire started, and soon the entire warship was shrouded in gray and black smoke. The sailors on the deck were unable to carry out fire fighting under such circumstances, and soon they were forced into the sea by the scalding heat wave. The sailors in the lower cabin scrambled to climb onto the deck from the exit of the stern deck, and many of them had been severely burned at this time.

The French and British ships invariably stopped shooting, because everyone could see that this warship was finished, and it was not worth continuing to waste ammunition on her.

Because of fear that [Thon Buri] main artillery ammunition might be smashed, several captains did not want to let their warships and men take risks, so the three warships were parked at a distance of three kilometers from [Thon Buri] On the sea outside, staring coldly at this scene like hell.

No one can tell exactly when this warship sank. I just remember that after the [Thonburi] disappeared from the sea, there was a sunset glow in the western sky.

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Thank you all. (To be continued.)