Chapter 1,466 Blood and Fire Hell 2
Chapter 1466 Blood and Fire Hell 2
The first shell was a near-miss and entered the water less than 7 meters away from the Marseille. The violent explosion directly tore a crack of more than ten meters in the side line of the poor transport ship! Even a large piece of the hull's outer shell was ripped off, and the Marseille, which was already heavily loaded, tilted rapidly.
"Fill in water immediately! Open the sea valve! Fill the cabin full of ammunition with water. Don't let the German shells detonate here!" A French officer roared loudly into the sound transmission tube on the ship, but his order could never be confirmed. It was executed, because in just a few dozen seconds, a 12-inch shell accurately landed on the deck of the battleship, and then penetrated all the way, igniting thousands of tons of shells and propellants placed at the bottom of the hull!
Then, disaster occurred! The entire port area was instantly enveloped in flames! A huge fireball rose from the Marseille's berth and spread quickly around! It's expanding so fast! In less than a second, powerful shock waves and flames swept across the surrounding area of hundreds of thousands of square meters. Everything in this area, whether it was ships, buildings, mechanical facilities, etc., was in this area. The doomsday flames were blown to pieces, and fragile creatures like human bodies or horses were turned into ashes! With just one hit, a third of the port was completely destroyed!
After the shock wave swept across, the entire coverage area turned into a sea of fire. The crackling whistles and bright firelights turned the surroundings into daylight. The updraft generated by the fire even made it difficult to control the aircraft providing correction in the air. As for the pilots having to gain altitude.
"It took us about 10 minutes to complete the task that was previously scheduled to take more than an hour. The port was completely abandoned. Even flying at an altitude of several hundred meters, we could feel the heat wave coming from the ground. . We must have destroyed an arms ship just now, and the destruction of this arms ship also brought with it at least three surrounding ships! The entire berth has been destroyed, and even the breakwater and trestle next to it were blown to pieces. "A German seaplane pilot recalled the scene at that time.
"All the main guns attack the warehouses, military camps and French vehicle parking areas far away from the port, and the secondary guns continue to attack the units around the port!" With the attack progress greatly advanced due to the accident, Count Spee began to adjust the attack targets again. . The Allied fleet moved closer to the target so that the 6-inch artillery could fully exert its power!
The output of the fleet that enters full-scale shooting is so terrifying. The entire fleet is like an active volcano moving on the sea, thinking about the target in the distance and tilting the rain of destructive bullets. Every minute, more than 10 tons of ammunition were dumped in this area. The Germans used precise calculations and precise gunnery to guide the fierce artillery fire into one area after another. The originally small town and the parking lot next to it were heavily attacked, and every main gun shell could wipe out targets within thousands of square meters! Thousands of carriages and cars, and tens of thousands of lives were wiped out under the violent bombardment. The small town was quickly reduced to ruins.
After half an hour of firing with high-explosive bombs,
Count Spee decisively ordered the fleet to use incendiary bomb attacks. The shells filled with a large amount of incendiary agents fell in the target area, causing the fire to spread to all directions at a faster speed. At the beginning, the French tried to extinguish the fire. But soon, they knew that this was in vain. Blow by the sea breeze, the fire here was like an army of flames chasing north, devouring everything it could touch!
Flying shrapnel, flames and anger continued to kill the Allied officers and soldiers. In this unexpected attack, the port of Eressos and the nearby town were almost completely wiped out. Until after the war, the French did not have a clear count of how many people died in this catastrophe. In the end, they could only come up with a vague figure. In this catastrophic massacre, 9,000 to 12,000 soldiers, auxiliary personnel or other Allied officers and soldiers died on the battlefield, or lost their lives due to severe burns and poison gas. .
With the passing of these lives, the Allied Powers also lost nearly 9,000 tons of various materials, hundreds of tanks, armored vehicles, and more than 700 trucks, tractors and other materials! By the way, there are more than 200 various artillery pieces!
The French had not thought about counterattack. A 155MM long-range cannon unit deployed behind a certain hill began to attack the German fleet outside the port. Facing the German fleet's firepower like a volcanic eruption, the French's dozen 155MM cannons The firepower seems so weak, it doesn't matter even if it hits, because these artillery fire are high-explosive bombs, which have little lethality to the battleship.
"Those French artillery hidden behind the reverse slope are very annoying!" A German officer frowned slightly while looking at the firelight shining in the distance.
"It doesn't matter, these guys don't pose an essential threat to us. Don't worry about them." Count Spey said indifferently. The count's words were only half right, and the other half was because of the problem of naval gun ballistics. The Allies The guns of the Mediterranean fleet can't reach the guy hiding behind!
However, these are all trivial matters and will not prevent the German fleet from tilting the deadly rain of bullets towards the target area as planned. If nothing goes wrong, in one and a half hours, the entire area will be reduced to a sea of flames, and according to the current progress , the German fleet can leave after 20 minutes. Judging from the situation on the battlefield, it seems that not even God can stop the Germans from achieving their goals!
"Your Excellency, Commander, there is an urgent telegram from the farmer!" Just as Count Spee was enjoying his victory, a sudden encrypted telegram caused the temperature in the entire command tower to "drop sharply"! The so-called Farmer is the code name of a German airship that is wandering over the Aegean Sea, and the meaning of their existence is to search and locate all non-Allied radio signals!
"We seem to be in big trouble! Damn it!" After reading the telegram, Count Spey, who was originally in a good mood, cursed in a low voice!
"Order the fleet to stop attacking immediately, and then evacuate northward with Count Luckner's fleet!" the Count ordered loudly.
"Also, according to the frequency band we used before, send a telegram to Lieutenant General Haller of the Bavarian Air Force, saying that at dawn, we must see planes from the Second Bavarian Air Force above our heads!" A moment later , the count added.
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