Published at 13th of February 2023 07:01:39 AM

On January 31, 1916, the World War had just ended, but thick clouds of war once again gathered in the Mediterranean. The main fleet of the German Navy's Mediterranean Fleet has assembled in Gibraltar. Also arriving at the same time was the 2nd Division of the Marine Corps.

Originally, in the plan of the German Navy, only one regiment of marines was needed to take Gibraltar. Now, Spain has joined in. In order to ensure that Gibraltar can be taken and resist the Spaniard's counterattack, it directly pulled the entire 2nd Marine Division over. Therefore, it took a little time.

After all, no matter how weak Spain is, it is still a country with a population of 20 million. Among other things, there are still 200,000 to 300,000 troops. If mobilization is carried out, it is not a problem to arm millions of troops. If too few troops are put into battle, it will not be able to withstand the Spaniard's counterattack at all.

Fortunately, Gibraltar has a narrow terrain. As long as it defends the narrow strip less than one kilometer north of Mount Takri, it can resist the Spanish attack. In such a long and narrow area, there is no need to deploy many troops. Coupled with the support of the naval artillery firepower of the German Navy, no matter how many troops Spain dispatches to counterattack, they will only be bombarded to death in the end.

On January 31, the German Foreign Ministry issued a statement stating that the Kingdom of Spain colluded with the United Kingdom, threatened the interests of the Allies, and demanded that the Kingdom of Spain withdraw from Gibraltar.

However, the Kingdom of Spain denied it, claiming that they had no collusion with Britain and refused to withdraw from Gibraltar. However, even a fool would not believe this. If Spain and Britain really didn't have a secret agreement, how did the British give Gibraltar back to them? Of course, everyone thinks this is a conspiracy by the British to trap the Spaniards. But the Spaniard didn't seem to know, and he jumped into it foolishly.

Spain's refusal gave Germany an excuse. That afternoon, the German Navy's Mediterranean Fleet launched an attack on Gibraltar.

At 2 o'clock in the afternoon, the seven capital ships of the Mediterranean Fleet smashed their hulls on the sea less than ten kilometers away from Gibraltar, and aimed their main guns at the fortress of Gibraltar.

Although, the Gibraltar Fortress also has a lot of large-caliber fortress guns, and even fortress guns with a caliber of 305mm. However, for these cutting-edge battleships equipped by the German Navy, the power of these fortress guns is too weak, and even if they are hit, they may not be able to penetrate the armor of these battleships. These capital ships of the German Navy's Mediterranean Fleet are new capital ships designed by the British after they were defeated. The defense has been greatly strengthened. Although a certain speed has been sacrificed, the impact resistance has been greatly strengthened.

After the failure of the British Navy, they finally realized their mistakes. However, it was too late. The capital ships they redesigned and built failed to help Britain rise again, but fell into the hands of Germany, which further strengthened the strength of the German navy.

"Start the attack!" On the flagship "Helgoland" battleship, Lieutenant General Maofu gave the order to fire.

This is the first battle of the Imperial Navy after the end of the World War. It is also the first battle of the establishment of the Mediterranean Fleet, and it is also the first battle after Lieutenant General Maofu became the fleet commander. Of course he wants to win a clean victory. . Only in this way can he establish prestige among the imperial navy.

Following Lieutenant Admiral Maofu's order, the three 50-caliber 380mm main guns of the battleship "Helgoland" began to roar. Armor-piercing bullets weighing more than a ton roared towards the fortress of Gibraltar.

After the battleship "Helgoland" opened fire, the other three battleships of the same level and three battlecruisers of the "Moltke class" also opened fire immediately.

For a while, the seven capital ships had a total of 72 380mm main guns, and they started shooting frantically.

Originally, the British equipped these battleships with 381mm main guns of 45 times the caliber. However, in order to be able to use the shells of other capital ships of the German Navy, the German Navy replaced the main turret and adopted a 380mm main gun with a caliber of 50 times. Although, this has somewhat affected the performance of the battleship. However, with the efforts of the designers, this impact has been minimized.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

Heavy shells smashed into the Gibraltar Fortress under the action of huge kinetic energy.

The fortress built on Mount Takri, although it has been around for many years. However, it is still very strong. Many fortresses are built on the basis of mountains and have strong defenses.

"Boom!"

A 380mm artillery shell hit a fortress, and a burst of earth and rocks flew across. However, the armor-piercing projectiles failed to penetrate the fortress, and only blew up one layer of the fortress' defense.

But the impact of the explosion of the shell shocked all the Spaniards in the fortress to death.

"Counterattack! Come back!"

Major General Donald stayed in the underground headquarters of the fortress, listening to the thunderous roar from above his head, his face was very ugly.

After leading his troops to take over Gibraltar, he originally wanted to leave here and return to his division headquarters. However, an order from Madrid made him set up the division headquarters in Gibraltar. This made him suffer so much that he couldn't tell! The Germans are so powerful, how could his troops be able to resist it? Although his unit is considered a powerful unit in the Spanish Army, compared with the elite German army, the gap is not a little bit! Not to mention, the Germans still have so many powerful capital ships to assist in the battle. If it is calculated in this way, they will have no chance of winning.

When the Spanish Army took over Gibraltar, it also included the Gibraltar Fortress. The British army did not destroy the fortress, and the whole fortress including those fortress guns were intact. In the ammunition depot, a large number of fortress artillery shells are neatly stacked. It can be said that the British deliberately left these ammunition in order to allow the Spaniards and the Germans to fight.

It's just that Major General Donald doesn't have enough artillery in his hands to unleash the power of these fortress artillery. Moreover, his artillery is all army artillery, which is quite different from the artillery of coastal defense fortresses.

"Boom! Boom!"

The fortress guns of the Gibraltar Fortress fired, but only a small number of large-caliber fortress guns fired. Moreover, the impact point was several hundred meters away from the German battleship. Such artillery, if you want to hit the German battleship, unless God shows up.