Another World: Naval Storm

Chapter 125: Heavy Damage to the Royal Princess

Liam was filled with grief and indignation, and wanted to kill Leo with his own hands. Now was not the time to talk about friendship. The sinking of three battlecruisers placed a huge burden on his mind. The battleship flying the Z flag chased the Moltke at a high speed of 3 knots.

"We can't go on like this!" Leo said angrily as he looked at the Royal Princess which was firing and marching behind the Moltke.

At 19:59, unwilling to be passive, Leo ordered the battlecruiser Moltke to release smoke. The huge steel ship was hidden in the moonlight and thick smoke, and moved towards the east-northeast direction.

The Moltke lowered two lifeboats filled with fuel and drifted downstream. The ignited lifeboats emitted orange flames and towering smoke columns, and the burning light was reflected in the eyes of the lookout of the Royal Princess.

"Moltke spotted! Bearing 334, distance 3900 meters!" The lookout was puzzled. Why was Moltke approaching the Royal Princess? Wasn't it running away just now?

The lookout mistakenly thought that the battlecruiser Moltke, which had hidden in the moon's shadow, was planning to fight back because of the fire on the battleship. He hurriedly reported to the main gun command tower and forecastle chart room and corrected the firing parameters in order to intercept Moltke's so-called "desperate fight".

At 20:13, the Royal Princess battlecruiser fired heavy bullets, and the 343mm main gun formed a barrage of bullets near the lifeboat. The impact force generated by the explosion directly tore the lifeboat into pieces, and the burning flames were extinguished by the splashing sea water.

The little trick bought some time for the Moltke, and everyone on the Moltke was busy. The damage control soldiers were reinforcing the watertight doors that blocked the influx of seawater; the infirmary was crowded with wounded waiting for treatment, and the dead were put into unused cabins; the main gun turrets were also busy correcting parameters, loading shells, and waiting for shelling orders.

"There aren't many shells left..." The sailor took a break from his busy schedule and put the tobacco from his cigarette directly into his mouth to chew, to refresh himself.

"Give me one too! There's nothing we can do. The shelling never stops!"

"Now our turret only has ordinary armor-piercing shells and capped armor-piercing shells. It won't last much longer!"

"If only the destroyed turret's ammunition depot hadn't been flooded with water, we could have had some of the ammunition!"

"What a nice thing to think about! If we don't inject water, we will all be blown away!" The first sailor who spoke couldn't help but retort.

"Yeah, let's go!" At this time, the ammunition hoist delivered ammunition, and the sailors operated the loading machine to push the shells into the main gun barrel.

The disappearance of the flames seemed to prove that the Royal Princess battlecruiser had hit the enemy ship, but there was no sound of any battleship explosion in the distance. The overjoyed lookout felt that something was wrong, so he leaned out of the tall observation tower and searched carefully with a telescope.

"This...this..." He finally found the Moltke 4000 meters to the left front. A cold sweat ran down his back. The lookout hurriedly grabbed the telephone to report to the control tower, but it was too late.

The Moltke's 280mm main gun opened fire in retaliation. In the first round of shelling, a 280mm ordinary pointed shell hit the Royal Princess battlecruiser. The suppressed Drake gunners used precise and deadly gunnery to tell the Royal Navy that they were no worse than the Royal Navy!

The penetration power of ordinary pointed bullets is not as good as that of APC capped armor-piercing bullets, but the Royal Princess's 229mm waterline armor cannot prevent the pointed bullets from penetrating.

The pointed bullets tore through the waterline armor and ran rampant in the boiler room of the Royal Princess, piercing four running boilers, followed by a series of explosions.

This cutting-edge battlecruiser with a full load displacement of nearly 30,000 tons was violently tossed on the sea by the explosion, and flames, black smoke and white steam spewed out of the warship's many portholes and cracks.

The Royal Princess's cruising speed dropped from 25 knots to 20 knots in an instant. Tons of sea water rushed in through the holes made by the pointed bullets. More and more blood-stained boilermen had to retreat from the boiler room, otherwise they would be swallowed by sea water and steam. The boilermen retreated to the upper deck.

The Royal Navy's quality came into play at this time. They did not forget to close the hatches one by one during the retreat, but the speed of the Royal Princess battlecruiser was still decreasing, and no one knew whether it would be paralyzed or sink.

"Commander, we hit the Royal Princess!" Colonel Koro, the captain of the Moltke, said happily, pointing in the direction of the Royal Princess.

The battlecruiser HMS Royal, enveloped in fire, smoke and steam, was clearly visible in the darkness, and everyone on the HMS Moltke cheered.

"Don't stop! Keep attacking and sink it as soon as possible!" Leo had a frown on his face. It was not the time to relax yet. The counterattack of the Moltke only reduced the cruiser speed of the Royal Princess and could not change the unfavorable situation. You have to know that there were two vicious dogs behind the Royal Princess.

Leo's words were like a bucket of cold water poured on the excited sailors' heads. Under his supervision, the sturdy Drake gunners, like clockwork machines, completed the preparations for the second round of bombardment at the fastest speed.

The gunner standing behind the sight of the main turret grabbed the telephone and gave the order to fire. Four 4mm armor-piercing shells were fired and hit the Royal Princess directly.

"Liam, are you still going to change your flagship? My old friend!"

*****

"General, the lifeboat is ready and the command center can be transferred at any time!"

"I'm not leaving. I'm going to fight Leo to the end on the Royal Princess!"

"General..."

"No need to say more!" Liam's eyes were red. "If the Royal Princess sinks again, I, Liam, will really become a disaster. I will sink every flagship I have!"

"General, it's not your fault!" Alex comforted.

"The domestic tabloids won't think so! They love to step on people when they are unlucky!" Liam said coldly, "Let the Conqueror and Thor surpass the Royal Princess and besiege the Moltke! I don't believe it won't die!"

At 19:59, on the northwest edge of Shipwreck Bay, the First Battleship Squadron, including the Colossus-class battleships Colossus and Titan, the Uranus-class battleships Uranus, the St. George-class battleships Tester and St. George; the Second Battleship Squadron, including the King George V-class battleships King, Ajax, and Centurion, the Third Battleships Iron Duke-class battleships Marlborough, Benbow, and Bharata Emperor; the Fourth Battleship Squadron, including the Berthompson-class battleships Berthomp, Reckless, and Berthompson, the St. George-class battleships Rearguard and Assault, and other world-renowned giant ships and cannons.

Marshal Jericho, the commander of the Grand Fleet, stood on the bridge of his flagship, the Titanic, looking at his fleet with great complacency, feeling a sense of having the world under his control.

"Liam, here I come!"