The Sun Never Sets In Spain

Fortunately, it seemed that the fire deterrence just now had an effect, and the "V" on the left and right stopped forward.

It's not surprising that they reacted like this. The wooden boat is very fragile in front of such crossfire. The overall shape is "V", but it is a straight line when reflected on a single boat.

This angle makes it difficult for them to project firepower on the decoy fleet. If they charge forcibly, the casualties will be very heavy.

The former Spanish Invincible Fleet was wiped out because of its two T-shaped encounters with the British Fleet.

The dominance of this T-shape will not change until 3-10 years later, when the main firepower of the warship will shift from the side to the fore and aft ends.

Like the British ravaged ship and the clear Dingyuan ship, they all have similar designs.

The reason for this change is that the speed of the ironclad ships is much faster than that of the sailing battleships of the past, the time for stance on both sides is reduced, and the time for swimming and melee is increased.

As a result, more and more attention has been paid to the front and rear main guns with large collision angles and large turning angles. With the help of Alfonso, the traverser, the ships currently under construction in Spain are of this design.

But on this battlefield, Spanish and Italian ships are still mainstream old ironclad ships, and their shooting angles are quite limited.

There are not many warships equipped with horns. Only the Victoria on the Spanish side has horns, and only 2 ships on the Italian side are equipped with horns.

After comprehensive considerations, Badoglio believes that close combat is a choice that hurts both sides. It is safest to take the conventional battle line tactics if one has the advantage of troops.

Badoglio's order was issued, and the assault momentum of the iron armored group in the middle was stagnated.

Rodriguez and the others on the opposite side were relieved to see that the iron armor was slowing down.

The artillery of Spanish battleships poses a relatively limited threat to ironclad ships. Only artillery with a caliber of 203mm and above can break the defense smoothly. Like the 14 160mm artillery on the Victoria, it is not painful or itchy to hit it. If you rely on the 160mm gun alone, you may get a hit. Several shots, find the weak point of the opposite armor to break it.

If the other party is not afraid of casualties, they will not be able to stop it.

When the distance between the two sides narrowed to 1500 meters, the advance of the Italian ships had completely stopped. They began to slowly turn to the left, in the same direction as the Spanish battleships-Italy took the battle line of the same course.

The choice of the direction of the battle line also shows the attitude of the belligerent to the battle. If it is a cross course or even an opposite course, the loss of the participant will be relatively small. Will catch up.

But Badoglio obviously felt that he was already overwhelmed by the crowd, so he chose a more adventurous tactic.

…Actually, there is no risk, because Spain is indeed at a complete disadvantage.

This disadvantage was undoubtedly revealed in the subsequent fights. In order to maintain speed, Italy’s wooden ships and Spain are mainly high-speed cruisers, and the firepower between them is not strong, and it is not decisive for this battle. effect.

However, the ironclad ships used 2 ships to fight 7 ships, and the Victoria used firepower for speed, and the firepower output was only about 3/5 of the normal ironclad ships.

Within 20 minutes of fighting, the Victoria was shot in multiple places and even a mast was destroyed.

The Numancia has better protection and better luck. It is not a big problem for the time being, but they also know that to continue, it is only a matter of time for the entire fleet to be here.

"It's time to continue to escape." Rodriguez thought.

Now the distance between the two sides is more than 1,000 meters, which is not far away, but there is no problem in running. He has this confidence-at most, a few cruisers in the melee will be left behind.

These wooden boats themselves have only served the last few years, and it is not a pity that they will be dismantled and used for other purposes if they are not sunk.

Moreover, the cruiser will be out of war for a long time, and it is absolutely impossible to save it back.

The only problem is the precious sailor, now I can only pin my hopes on the Geneva Convention...

After making up their minds, the two ironclad ships stopped shelling and began to move forward.

The interruption of one of the Victoria’s masts caused a lot of drag on its speed, but his original speed was 13 knots, and his steam engine and the remaining two masts could run at 11 knots, but From the Clippers alone in the Mediterranean, it became just an ordinary fast ironclad ship.

Italy quickly noticed their actions and began to sail diagonally trying to get closer, and the pouring of artillery fire became more intense.

This caused some trouble for Spain, and even caused a slight confusion in the formation. This exposed a cruiser to the Italian firepower net. This hapless cruiser was hit with 4 shells within 5 minutes. Water leaks and eventually rolls over.

Rodriguez noticed that some crew members had successfully escaped and floated on the sea to wave to them. As the commander of the fleet, he really couldn't see such a scene, and had no choice but to change the bow from the stern.

At this time, an unexpected thing happened.

The Palestine was a coastal defense ironclad ship ordered by Italy from France. It had participated in and survived the Lissajous battle with the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

As a coastal defense ship, its speed is quite different from other ironclad ships. When the Italian ironclad narrowed the distance with Spain, it fell behind.

The other ironclad ships had already passed through the chaos arena on the edge of the battlefield, but it fell into it, and was blocked by one of its own cruisers.

Because of the obscuration of battlefield smoke, he chose a wrong path.

The cruiser that stopped it was only 25 meters away. At such a close distance, the Pallas could sink it with a few cannons, but it couldn’t kill its teammates...

The Pallas was slowly turning, and the Spanish cruiser Driggs discovered this excellent opportunity, a lonely ironclad ship in stagnation!

Although it is not an iron armored ship, it is equipped with a collision angle and is fully capable of causing damage to an iron armored ship!

"Boom" Deglis shot out of the smoke and slammed into the side of the Paleste. There was a huge muffled noise due to the combination of gold and iron.

Pallas is 60 meters long and is considered a small one among the ironclad ships, but the De Gris that hit it is even smaller, only 35 meters! It looks like an antelope hits a rhino!

But the record was very significant. The impact caused the turning Palles to lose control of the direction.

After shaking it twice at random like a drunk man, it collided with the previous cruiser that had been in the way.

This put the Palouse into further chaos.

When it stretched a little farther, the slower De Gries pursued victory and slammed into its starboard side.

Several consecutive impacts made the Pallas tilted severely. Under the action of momentum and the seawater that rushed into the breach, it could no longer maintain balance on the sea surface, and slowly tipped to the left...