The Sun Never Sets In Spain

After receiving the semaphore command, the Victoria quickly turned the rudder and turned her left side directly in the direction of the shell.

In the narrow gun room, the sailor stuffed the 229mm heavy artillery shells from the barrels of the 229mm heavy artillery. As the main gun on the Victoria, this artillery was equipped with only four guns, two on each side, which was extremely powerful.

The defenders of Palermo Port saw the Victoria turning, and obviously felt threatened. As soon as the gunner had loaded the ammunition, another round of their firing roared.

This time the opponent fired three rounds, two of which sank into the nearby waters, and one hit the Victoria's gun chamber impartially.

"Boom!!" Accompanied by a loud noise.

The sailor in the gun room was horrified to find...Huh, it doesn't seem to have any effect?

If it was a naval battle of later generations, it would definitely be finished if it was hit on this vital part, but the ironclad ships of this year are really skinny, and if they don't break the defense, then they don't break the defense.

Especially for the iron armored ship in the waist gun room, the gun room is the focus of protection. The thickness of the armor in this area of ​​the Victoria has reached as much as 130mm!

As long as they haven't opened the firing window, even if the port troops have fired all the shells, they will not be hurt at all.

The recovered sailors quickly opened the window and pushed the heavy artillery out halfway.

The opponent had just finished firing a round, and it was in the midst of firepower, so it was serious to suppress it quickly.

"Boom! Boom!" "Boom..."

The 229mm artillery headed, followed by 203mm and 160mm artillery, fired sequentially from left to right.

The cannonball traversed a beautiful arc in the air, and then fell heavily into the harbor.

Only a few violent explosions were heard, followed by smoke and fire.

Looking at this battle, most of it ignited combustible materials such as cotton.

Accompanied by the flames, there are many people in the distance going back and forth. Although they can't hear the sound after a few hundred meters, they must be crying.

The gunners were very proud to see this. They were sure that they had hit the target, otherwise they would have received the third round of shelling.

Lieutenant Morales saw clearly on the Numancia. He was not too happy. With 20 shots fired, it was natural to hit a static target at close range.

He was a little bit distressed. He just didn't know who was awkward and hit a huge merchant ship on the dock that was unloading cargo.

The merchant ship was about 90 meters long, about the same size as the iron-clad ship under his feet, but it was a civilian ship after all.

Through the telescope, Morales saw that the ship was a British merchant ship with an English name.

I just hope that the crew inside can be smart. If they stay in the boat without running, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will have one more job.

After confirming that the defensive firepower of the port was destroyed, Morales ordered the fleet to wait in place for 8 minutes to give unrelated personnel a chance to evacuate.

During this period, even the soldiers in the harbor almost ran away. After all, who would stay and die? You don't even have artillery. Can you fight warships with rifles?

Morales and the others were afraid of hurting too many innocent people, so they acquiesced in this behavior. Anyway, Kpi didn't expect it to be done by killing.

Eight minutes passed in a flash. In the empty port, the fleet spread out, each aimed at the target and started shooting.

You hit the lighthouse, I hit the pier, and he hit the office. Without interference, the fleet destroyed most of the buildings in the port in less than half an hour.

This was not enough. Morales counted the Italian-named merchant ships and fired on them, destroying Italy's transportation capacity as much as possible.

In fact, neutral ships in the ports of hostile countries can also be destroyed, and no one can tell if it is reasonable in a war.

The prohibition of attacking neutral ships means that they are prohibited from attacking on the high seas. If they are destroyed in the port, then Italy must be held responsible for ineffective protection.

But it is one thing to be reasonable, and it is another thing to be unhappy with neutral countries. Italy’s main trading partners are European powers such as Britain, France, Austria and Hungary.

After doing all this, the harassment fleet drove away, leaving the port of Palermo in ruins.

And Sicily's garrison fleet is also long overdue, looking at the mess, it feels like weeping.

It's hard to say that the timing is so coincidental that it was not their intention.

The coastline of Italy is too long and narrow, and there are too many places to guard.

The Italian government originally thought that Spain's main attack direction would be Northern Italy, which has a more developed economy and industry, and most of its fleets were deployed in Genoa and Venice.

The defensive forces on the large fringe island of Sicily will inevitably be a little empty. Even if they come out in full force against the harassment fleet, they may not have been able to fight it. It is helpless for them to avoid fighting.

Unlike during World War II, the navy can still send air force if it can't fight, which can always bring some threats.

During this period, if the navy can't fight it, it's all over. At present, there is no land-based weapon that can break through the defenses of iron-clad ships.

After destroying Palermo, the fleet returned to Rome after more than a day's voyage. On the road, it sank two old and broken offshore patrol ships. The two little ones saw the fleet flee, but still Failed to run, was overtaken and sent into the sea.

When the warship was parked in Rome, all the sailors were exhausted. It was not good if there was no naval base. It took a long time to perform a mission.

The mission was fairly smooth this time, but the next time the opponent is prepared, the difficulty of a long-distance raid will be greatly increased.

After all, it was just a harassment task. It was a bit too much to say that they were welcomed by heroes, but they were also considered to be a big show in front of their colleagues.

The first mission can destroy one of Italy's main ports, which is undoubtedly quite good.

The attack on Palermo quickly spread to the Western Mediterranean countries. The newspapers of various countries once again expressed doubts about Italy's national capabilities. After being so easily destroyed an important port, does this country really have a future?

In the case of both land and sea blooming, in the British salon, the odds of winning or losing between Spain and Italy have reached 1.3 and 2.7, which is enough to show how optimistic Italy is.

Other than that, there was no more reaction. After all, it was just an episode in the war. The bombing of ports in most wars was inevitable, and no one except the belligerent countries would pay much attention.

Instead, the British lodged a diplomatic protest, demanding compensation from the merchant ship.

In addition, on the merchant ship that was sunk during loading and unloading, there were two unlucky men sleeping in the cabin and had no time to escape. They were the captain and the second officer of the merchant ship. The British also asked for them. Compensation in accordance with the status.

Spain certainly didn't want to make a loss, and asked them to go to Italy. After several communications, Italy and Spain each lost half of it.