Reborn South Africa as a police officer

Chapter 1558 Forced to hit the rocks
The battleship "France" with a full load displacement of 25000 tons is 168 meters long, 28 meters wide, and has a standard crew of 1108.

With such a large battleship, it is impossible to just give up. There are only 10 battleships left in France. Except for the three 18890-ton "Voltaire"-class battleships, there are only seven "Guba"-class and "Bulle"-class battleships left. Tani" class, each one cannot be easily given up.

After the accident on the "France", the two destroyers next to it immediately approached, covering and trying to help the "France".

The destroyer chasing the offshore patrol boat also turned around immediately, and the "Vicious", which was talking to the "Excellence", also immediately left. Even the "Excellence" repeatedly raised semaphores, asking the "France" for help.

It's a pity that the "France" at this time is already overwhelmed.

Compared with other countries, French warships pay more attention to the underwater protection of ships, so the French warships extended the armor below the waterline when designing.

The main armor of the Guba-class battleship is thinner than that of the British and German battleships of the same period, but the coverage is wider, and the secondary equipment of the battleship is also smaller than that of other battleships of the same period.

In addition, due to the forward stacking of the turrets, the bows of the Guba-class battleships are relatively heavy.

The damaged part of the "France" is precisely the bow.

Although the damaged location cannot be seen from the surface, because of the rapid water ingress, a vortex even appeared on the side of the "France" due to the influx of sea water into the hull.

When this situation was discovered, the destroyer "Courage" next to the "France" immediately sent a signal to the "France", reminding the officers and soldiers on board to abandon the ship immediately.

At this time, the bow of the French ship had sunk severely, and the propellers at the tail were almost out of the water. The sailors on the "French" also realized the danger. Regardless of the officer's order, they jumped into the sea to escape.

Fortunately, in Madagascar in January, the sea is not too cold.

"General, let's go, the 'France' is irreparable—" Rich Effie urged Grote to abandon the ship.

Grote's eyes were dull, his expression was numb, and he stared blankly at the twin main guns directly below the bridge without saying a word.

Knowing that the situation was critical, Rich Effie swarmed up with several officers, trying to take Grotte away from the "France".

"Let go of me—let me go—" Grote lost his mind, and murmured a few words suddenly furious: "I said let go, I am the captain of the 'France', even if the 'France' sleeps at the bottom of the sea, I And be with the 'France' forever!"

Grote struggled desperately, pushed Rich Effie away, then kicked the boatswain behind him, stooped silently to pick up his hat and put it on, and returned to his seat while holding the podium.

"Let's go, let's go, don't worry about me, I'll be with my battleship—" Grote paused, and turned to Rich Effie with a hard smile: "Tell Mary and the children, I love them -"

Damn French romance—

"Yes, General, I will definitely tell Ma'am." Rich Effie's eyes were flushed, and he stood at attention to salute Grote, and he did not forget to close the door when he left the bridge.

At the same moment, Thomas was ordering the sailors to lower the lifeboats on the bridge of the "Excellence" to participate in the rescue of the sailors who fell into the water as much as possible.

"Would it be considered a hostile act for us to join rashly at this time?" Lance, the first mate, still hated the shout of the "Vicious" just now.

"Who knows? By the way, who knows what happened just now?" The second mate, Trollope, watched the excitement with a binoculars. The sailors on the "France" were jumping into the sea like peas. Such a scene is rare.

"To sink a 25000-ton battleship, one torpedo is not enough—" Lance also suspected that it was not the "Excellence" that launched a torpedo at the "France".

At this time, the torpedoes were all steam gas torpedoes, with loud noise, obvious track, poor concealment, and not enough power. After all countries strengthened their armor against underwater attacks, German U-boats sank within an hour during World War II. The achievements of three [-]-ton battleships are no longer replicable.

"That's not necessarily the case, if it just hit the ammunition depot—" Trollope was raising the bar.

"That's not a martyrdom." Lance still thinks it's unlikely.

"Okay gentlemen, even if you don't want to help, don't make sarcastic remarks." Thomas was also helpless, and he was also curious about what happened to the "France".

At this time, two destroyers of the Indian Ocean Fleet in the distance also rushed to the rescue. To the shame of the officers and soldiers of the "Vicious", even the "Harvest" came over and threw a few lifebuoys at the drowning sailors.

At 11:25 in the morning, in just half an hour, the "France" sank slowly and completely disappeared from people's sight.

After the news came out, the whole world was shocked.

A powerful battleship with a displacement of 25000 tons sank for unknown reasons. The rescued officers and soldiers were not even sure whether the "France" was attacked. This result is really unacceptable.

Although the French Navy immediately dispatched an investigation team to investigate the cause of the sinking of the "France", the attack on Madagascar was also forced to stop.

Until now, the French government does not know the real reason for the sinking of the "France", but if it is because Madagascar used some kind of mysterious weapon to cause fatal damage to the "France", it would be terrible.

This also means that if the battleship "Kolbe" comes to the periphery of Madagascar, it may be sunk by Madagascar at any time.

Such a result is unacceptable to the French government in any case.

When the French government began to investigate the cause of the accident, Roque was also curious about the real reason for the sinking of the "France".

"I don't know—" Martin was also at a loss. At that time, there were three warships in the Indian Ocean Fleet, and the "Excellence" was less than two nautical miles away from the "France". Thomas didn't know what happened to the "France".

Two nautical miles sounds very close, but in fact it is about 3.7 kilometers. At this distance, even if the "France" exploded, it would take more than ten seconds to reach the "Excellence".

"At that time, there were three ghost submarines around the 'France', but none of these three submarines launched an attack on the 'France'." Anton's current position is the Minister of the Navy. Fleet, and War Department and Marine Corps.

What Anton didn't say was that when the "France" had an accident, although the three ghost submarines around were nominally owned by Madagascar, in fact the officers and soldiers operating the submarines were all southern Africans.

To put it bluntly, it is selling dog meat. If the attack on the "France" is really launched, then the attack is also carried out by Malagasy people, and it has nothing to do with southern Africa.

"Then what's going on, is it really an accident?" Rock sighed in admiration, this is indeed very French.

Before the World War, the French Navy established a green water naval strategy.

Since it is a green-water navy, it should not perform missions in waters more than 200 nautical miles away from the home port.

The French government probably thought that the Malagasy were easy to bully, so they decided to return to Madagascar.

It's a pity that people don't treat each other with admiration for three days. Madagascar with the support of southern Africa and Madagascar without the support of southern Africa are completely two countries.

"Even if it's not, it has to be. Just wait and see, the French will find a magical reason. The great 'France' can be killed by ammunition, it can be an operational error, or it can even run aground, but it cannot be hit. Shen." Deputy Minister Richard Brown sneered, he was originally French, and he knew the French too well.

"Why?" Martin and Barton were curious.

"Because of France's proud self-esteem, how could a powerful French battleship be sunk by the enemy?" Richard Brown dismissed it. The military prestige was achieved. If the Southern African Expeditionary Force had no outstanding performance during the World War, Southern Africa won't command the respect of Europeans either.

Rock nodded in understanding.

It is not to understand the so-called "pride" of France, but the status quo of France determines that the battleship "France" cannot be sunk by the enemy.

Thinking about the French navy, which used to be the second largest in the world, has now been far surpassed by the United States and Japan, and has been reduced to the level of competing with Italy in the Mediterranean, and you know how anxious the French are.

Don’t forget that the current international colonial system is jointly determined by the United Kingdom and France. Like the United Kingdom, France also has huge overseas interests to maintain. In Asia, North Africa, and even in the Pacific Ocean, France also has huge colonies. The blood transfusion of the colonies enabled France to struggle forward from the ruins after the World War. The current situation in France has already made many French people extremely dissatisfied. If the "France" is sunk by the enemy, then the current French government may be angry The French populace overthrew again.

"France has suspended the deployment of soldiers to Réunion, and actually stopped the conquest of Madagascar, so is it necessary for us to help Madagascar train troops?" Another deputy minister, Ford Lew, is in charge of aid to Madagascar.

Southern Africa's assistance to Madagascar is not just talking about it. The navy is too expensive to talk about. Even if it sells two aircraft carriers to Madagascar, Madagascar can't afford them. In order for Madagascar to have the strength to fight against the French expeditionary force, Rock and The result agreed by Robert was that the Ministry of National Defense of Southern Africa would send instructors to train the Madagascar troops and strengthen the Madagascar troops' mountain and jungle combat capabilities.

To put it bluntly, it is guerrilla warfare. Since it is impossible to fight a frontal battle, once the war breaks out, the sea traffic will be completely cut off, so let the French go ashore and fight guerrilla warfare with the French.

See how much the French can afford.

(End of this chapter)