Chapter 222: Encountering the Enemy

In Mudros Bay on Lemuas Island, the sea breeze is blowing, the sun is rising, and the waves are floating on the sea. It looks peaceful, and there is no trace of war at all.

The Trikupis and King George, as well as two destroyer warships, were quietly moored in the naval port.

On the deck of the battleship Trikupis, the crew was doing morning cleaning work. Soldiers were busy cleaning the deck with mops and brushes.

"Sir, the Xianlin telegraphed that the Ottoman fleet has been discovered." The breathless correspondent had no time to pay attention to etiquette and ran straight to the fleet commander Kontoriotis.

Contoriotis, who was having breakfast, changed his face after hearing this. He dropped his knife and fork, walked quickly to the correspondent, received the telegram, carefully confirmed the contents of the telegram, and then said with a serious face: "Sound the alarm." , all members gather together and go to support immediately.”

The correspondent immediately walked into the communication room next to the bridge to send a telegram, while Contoriotis walked back and forth in the bridge, considering the purpose of the Ottoman fleet that suddenly appeared.

The behavior of the Ottoman fleet puzzled him. The Greek destroyers could reach a maximum speed of 26 knots. As far as he knew, the Ottoman fleet was in disrepair and its speed had dropped seriously. It was impossible to catch up with the two Greek destroyers.

The Greek destroyers are all cutting-edge warships that have been in service within three years. If such a warship is bent on escaping, it is impossible for the old warships of the Ottoman Empire to catch up, let alone sink it.

However, the enemy dispatched the entire fleet with great fanfare, and the target was very clear, which were two destroyers patrolling the Ottoman coastal area.

The two Invincible-class battlecruisers of the Greek Navy were purchased from the United Kingdom. Since they are outsourced warships, their performance and parameters are certainly no secret.

At present, Turkey has ordered two super-dreadnoughts from the UK. The Ottomans must have understood the situation of the Invincible-class battlecruisers when choosing warships.

So now the Ottomans wisely gave up the idea of ​​dealing with Greek battle cruisers, and aimed directly at Greek destroyers.

The eight 1,500-ton destroyers were all built by Greek shipyards. Naturally, the Ottomans did not understand their true performance.

In fact, important parameters such as the maximum speed of warships are very secret military secrets. Naturally, the Ottomans would not know the speed of the Greek destroyers.

In order to reduce fuel consumption, warships usually sail at cruising speed. Unless under special circumstances, warship commanders generally do not allow sailing at the highest speed.

If the ship sails at the highest speed for a long time, it will cause irreversible damage to the warship.

Therefore, the maximum speed of a warship will not be known unless it is a coincidence.

Thinking of this, Kontoriotis felt happy. The enemy had made a mistake, and this was an opportunity for the Greek fleet.

Although Ramizbey, who was under pressure, racked his brains and seemed to come up with a plan to solve the dilemma of the Ottoman navy, this improvised behavior still had obvious omissions.

Thinking of this, Kontoriotis immediately walked into the communication cabin and instructed the communication soldier: "Send power to the Xianlin and let them hold off the Ottoman fleet and create time for the main fleet."

The opposing sides invariably used decoy tactics.

The Ottoman fleet used a ship with the intention of dealing with patrolling Greek destroyers.

The Greek side used two destroyers as bait, but the purpose was the main fleet of the Ottoman Empire.

After 20 minutes of preparation, the entire fleet sailed towards the sea area where the incident occurred at a high speed of 20 knots.

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On the vast sea, the situation of the Xinlin and Ramdo was miserable.

Since receiving the telegram from the flagship, the two destroyers with the mission of decoy did not dare to directly throw away the Ottoman fleet at high speed. They have maintained a cruising speed of 12 knots and maintained a certain distance from the Ottoman fleet.

"boom"

Several more shells exploded around the Xinlin, causing water columns to rise into the sky.

The Xianlin's hull suddenly shook violently, causing the entire crew to stagger.

Staff Sergeant Hrum watched in panic as a white water column appeared on the starboard side of the ship, and shouted into the microphone: "Near Missile"

Colonel Chris's heart sank in the command cabin. The violent turmoil of the ship made the unprepared Colonel Chris tilt his body. The embarrassed Colonel Chris didn't even bother to straighten his hat and shouted into the microphone: "All departments report damage." Condition"

But he cursed secretly in his heart: "Damn Ottomans, what a blessing."

After several rounds of shelling, Captain Chris has figured out the strength of Turkey on the opposite side. In terms of gunnery alone, it is really a mess.

There have been several rounds of shelling, and the pattern of each round of shelling is that there is no pattern.

The cannonballs landed in a mess, not at all like the standard of gunnery a regular navy should have.

So far, this near miss is the best result of the Ottoman fleet.

"No abnormalities in the engine room"

"No abnormality in the boiler room"

"The steering gear compartment is slightly flooded and is being repaired."

The recovery coming from the microphone made Colonel Chris calm down a little.

The formation of two destroyers fled to the northwest, with the purpose of cooperating with the commander's decoy plan, to lure the Ottoman fleet away from the Dardanelles Strait as much as possible, and create opportunities for the main fleet.

In the command cabin of the battleship Barbaros Hayreddin, Ramizbey, holding a telescope, looked at the two Greek destroyers surrounded by the exploding water column with a gloomy face.

After an hour of negotiations, Ramizbey also felt that he was in a difficult situation.

The tonnage of the Greek destroyer reached 1,500 tons of displacement. The four destroyers in the Ottoman Navy fleet had a tonnage of only three or four hundred tons, which was no match for the Greek destroyer.

The two battleships and the armored cruiser Misidiye that could threaten the Greek destroyer could not catch up with the Greek destroyer.

In Ramizbey's view, a destroyer with a tonnage of 1,500 tons can be called a light cruiser.

"Torpedo at the stern, target, enemy battleship," Colonel Chris said in a deep voice.

At present, the distance between the two sides does not exceed 3,000 yards, and they have entered the attack range of the torpedo.

This was a very risky move. If it weren't for the poor gunnery of the Ottoman Navy, which gave Captain Chris confidence, under normal circumstances, anyone who dared to do this would definitely be a madman.

The two triple-mounted 450mm torpedo tubes at the stern of the Xianlin began to rotate slowly.

"Target locked, azimuth 50 degrees right, target speed 11 knots, distance 3000, set depth 1 meter"

"Launch preparation completed"

"Launch interval 3 seconds"

"Launch"

Under the push of high-pressure gas, 6 fish rushed out of the launch tube in less than 30 seconds, flew out of the ship and fell into the sea.

The fish that penetrated the sea surface, the engine drove the propeller to start rotating, pulling out six white tracks on the sea surface.

Captain Chris didn't want the enemy fleet to fire at him so comfortably, and he also wanted to cause some trouble for the other side, so he wanted to use fish to disrupt the enemy's formation.