"God! It's hitting us! Brace for impact!"
The British Navy officers and sailors aboard HMS Indomitable watched helplessly as the torpedo struck the battleship's side. Although the warship made an emergency evasive maneuver, the distance was too short and the torpedo too fast for them to react in time.
Boom!
A medium torpedo struck HMS Indomitable's port side. Its waterline armor, only 228 millimeters thick, was ripped open in the violent explosion as easily as paper.
British Navy battleships had always prized firepower and speed while neglecting defense. Not only dreadnoughts, but even the earlier Pre-dreadnoughts had been built according to this same philosophy.
As a result, British Navy battleships had remarkably poor resistance to damage.
When the torpedo exploded, the Royal Navy sailors aboard HMS Indomitable were thrown sprawling in every direction. The unluckier ones were even shaken overboard, their fate unknown.
Although HMS Indomitable seemed rather fortunate to have been hit by only one torpedo, that alone was enough to make them suffer. The gaping hole torn open by the explosion allowed seawater to rush in wildly. Even after the damage-control crews exhausted every effort, they could not plug the breach. With no other choice, they sealed the Watertight Compartments. Yet so much water had already flooded in that the warship developed a noticeable list, reducing her speed.
Before HMS Indomitable's captain could breathe a sigh of relief, four Bombers launched another attack on them. Carrying Aerial Bombs, the four Bombers attacked from an altitude of over a thousand meters. Due to their airframe design, they could not dive at a steep angle and instead swooped diagonally down upon HMS Indomitable.
When they were roughly five hundred meters above the sea, the four Bombers released their bombs, then pulled away from their attack runs.
Boom! Boom!
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