On January 31, 1916, not long after World War ended, thick clouds of war once again gathered on the Mediterranean Sea. The Capital Ships team of German Navy Mediterranean Fleet has assembled into Gibraltar. Also arriving at the same time was 2nd Marine Division.
Originally, in German Navy's plan, only one regiment of Marine Corps was needed to capture Gibraltar. Now, Spain has joined in. In order to ensure that Gibraltar can be captured and resist the counterattack of Spain, the entire 2nd Marine Division was directly pulled over. So it took a little time.
After all, no matter how weak Spain is, it is still a country with a population of 20 million. If nothing else, there are still two to three hundred thousand troops. If mobilization is carried out, arming millions of troops will not be a problem. If too few troops are put into combat, they will simply not be able to withstand the Spain people's counterattack.
Fortunately, the terrain of Gibraltar is narrow. As long as we hold the narrow strip of less than one kilometer north of Mount Takri, we can withstand the attack of the Spain people. In such a narrow strip, there was no need to deploy many troops. Coupled with German Navy's Naval Gun fire support, no matter how many troops Spain dispatched to counterattack, they would only be bombarded to pieces in the end.
On January 31st, German Foreign Ministry issued a statement that Kingdom of Spain colluded with Britain, threatened the interests of Allied Powers, and demanded that Kingdom of Spain withdraw from Gibraltar.
However, Kingdom of Spain denied it, claiming that they had no collusion with Britain and refused to withdraw from Gibraltar. But even fools don't believe this. If there really was no secret agreement between Spain and Britain, how could the Britain people return Gibraltar to them? Of course, everyone thinks this is a conspiracy of the Britain people, who deceived the Spain people. But Spain seemed to not know, and jumped in stupidly.
Spain's refusal gave Germany an excuse. In the afternoon of that day, German Navy Mediterranean Fleet launched an attack on Gibraltar.
At two o'clock in the afternoon, Mediterranean Fleet's seven Capital Ships hit the ship horizontally on the sea less than ten kilometers away from Gibraltar, and their main guns were aimed at Gibraltar Fortress.
Although, Gibraltar Fortress also has many large-caliber fortress cannons, and there are even fortress cannons with a caliber of 305 mm. However, for these new Battleship equipped by German Navy, the power of these fortress guns is too weak. Even if they are hit, they may not be able to penetrate the armor of these Battleship. These Capital Shipss of German Navy Mediterranean Fleet are the new Capital Shipss designed by Britain people after they were defeated and learned from the experience. The defense has been greatly strengthened. Although a certain speed has been sacrificed, the anti-strike capability has been greatly enhanced.
British Navy After the failure, he finally realized his mistake. But, it's too late. The Capital Ships they redesigned and built failed to help Britain rise again, but fell into the hands of Germany, further strengthening the strength of German Navy.
"Start the attack!" Vice Admiral Mauff gave the order to fire on the flagship 'Helgoland' number Battleship.
This is the first battle for Imperial Navy after the end of World War, the first battle after the establishment of Mediterranean Fleet, and the first battle after Vice Admiral Mauff became Fleet Commander. Of course he wants to win a clean victory. Only in this way can he establish prestige among Imperial Navy.
As Vice Admiral Mauff issued the order, the three 50-fold caliber 380mm Main Gun of the 'Helgoland' number Battleship began to roar. Each Armor-piercing Shell weighing more than a ton roared towards Gibraltar Fortress.
After the 'Helgoland' Battleship opened fire, the other three Battleship and three 'Moltke-class' Battlecruiser of the same class also opened fire immediately.
Suddenly, seven Capital Shipss with a total of 72 380mm Main Guns started shooting wildly.
Originally, Britain was equipped with 45x caliber 381mm Main Gun for these Capital Ships. But in order to be compatible with German Navy's other Capital Ships shells, German Navy changed the main turret and used 380mm Main Gun with 50 times the caliber. Although, this has had a certain impact on the performance of the battleship. However, with the efforts of designers, this impact has been minimized.
"Boom! Boom! Boom!"
One after another, heavy shells hit Gibraltar Fortress under the influence of huge kinetic energy.
The fortress built on Mount Takri has been around for many years. However, it is still very strong. Many fortresses are built on mountains and have strong defense capabilities.
"Boom!"
A 380mm Shell hit a fortress, sending a burst of earth and rocks flying everywhere. However, Armor-piercing Shell failed to penetrate the fortress and only blew up one layer of the fortress's defense.
However, the impact of the explosion of the shell shocked all the Spain people inside the fortress to death.
"Fight back! Fight back quickly!"
Major General Donald was staying in the underground headquarters of the fortress, listening to the thunderous roar above his head, his face looking very ugly.
After leading his troops to take over Gibraltar, he originally wanted to leave here and return to his own Division Headquarters. However, an order from Madrid made him place Division Headquarters at Gibraltar. This made him feel miserable and he couldn't express it! Germany is so powerful, how could his troops be able to resist him? Although his army is considered a powerful force among the Spanish Army, but compared with the elite Germany* army, the gap is not even a tiny bit! Not to mention, Germany people also have so many powerful Capital Ships to help them fight. Calculating this way, they have no chance of winning at all.
When Spanish Army took over Gibraltar, Gibraltar Fortress was also included. The British army did not destroy the fortress, and the entire fortress, including the fortress guns, was intact. In the ammunition depot, a large number of fortress artillery shells were neatly stacked. It can be said that the Britain people deliberately left these ammunition in order to have a big fight between the Spain people and the Germany people.
However, Major General Donald does not have enough artillery to unleash the power of these fortress cannons. Moreover, his artillery is all army artillery, which is very different from the artillery of the coastal defense fortress.
"Boom! Boom!"
Gibraltar Fortress's fortress cannon opened fire, but only a small number of large-caliber fortress cannons opened fire. Moreover, the impact point is hundreds of meters away from Capital Ships from German military. With such artillery, Capital Ships wants to hit German military, unless God appears.