Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology-Chapter 1190: WWI: Battle of the Atlantic (5)

The explosive shells, hundreds if not thousands in number, fell like a shower of meteors, crashing into the frontal naval formation of the European fleet. They exploded with loud, thunderous bangs, sending columns of water shooting into the air, turning the sea into mist, and making the waters extremely turbulent.

"Ah, help!" a sailor who had been thrown overboard cried out in anguish, but the crew on deck had far greater problems to deal with. The turbulence made it impossible to properly control their ship, and it was drifting straight toward another frigate.

"Ah, my leg!" another sailor who had been slammed against the mast screamed in pain, but the men around him had no time to stop as a projectile was coming straight towards them.

"Hold on!" a helmsman shouted as a massive wave struck the hull, but the wheel spun out of control. The ship veered off course, drifting dangerously close to another warship.

"Over here!" a deckhand called out while trying to pull a wounded man up, but another explosion shook the vessel. The deck tilted sharply, and both men were thrown into the sea.

"Brace!" an officer roared as the ship jumped sideways, but the warning came too late. The sudden impact sent sailors tumbling, and the bow slammed toward the incoming waves.

"Oh no!" a captain of a nearby frigate exclaimed as he looked at the scene. The entire formation had fallen into disarray, and chaos had erupted within the forward warship group.

Some warships were even unlucky enough to have the projectiles fall directly on them and explode.

Although a single hit was not enough to completely put them out of commission, since these were not the highest-calibre, one-shot-kill artillery rounds normally used by the Ramachandra Class and the Maharaja Ramachandra Class, they were still more powerful than the standard explosive shells used by the Delhi Class. With the increased range achieved through a higher volume of explosives, the projectile speed had also increased proportionally, greatly enhancing its overall destructiveness. While it had not reached the level of a one-shot kill like the Ramachandra Class or Maharaja Ramachandra Class, it was more than capable of leaving its target in a half-dead state.

Additionally, some ships even capsized.

While such situations were rare under normal circumstances, when two conditions occurred at the same time, colliding with another ship and encountering a particularly violent wave, smaller warships did capsize. Decks tilted violently, masts snapped, and entire crews were hurled into the sea as the ships rolled over and sank to the ocean floor before anyone could even react.

Oddly enough, the reactions of both admirals commanding the opposing fleets were strikingly similar. Their faces were stiff, and their hands were trembling.

For Yashvardhan Keshav, the plan had not gone exactly as intended. The original goal was to make the sea turbulent enough to cause all the ships to capsize, or at the very least lose the ability to sail. What he was witnessing fell short of that. Almost no ships had capsized; when it did happen, it was only on rare occasions and only after several prerequisites were met.

Thankfully, it was not a complete failure. The carefully arranged formations that had previously prevented their ships from colliding, made possible by the chained non-linear strategy, were no longer intact. Collisions began occurring everywhere, and although indirect, the objective of disrupting the enemy’s frontal naval formation had been successfully achieved.

Edward Russell, on the other hand, stared at the same scene in disbelief, but for an entirely different reason. At first, he had let out a sigh of relief that the explosions had not caused the kind of direct destruction he had feared. Thousands of artillery shells racing into the sky and crashing down without pause greatly intimidated him.

Just as he was about to relax, thinking the enemy had wasted countless artillery shells for little effect, the formation broke apart, and ships began crashing into one another.

Looking at it, no words came out of his throat. Painful memories of being ridiculed behind his back resurfaced in his mind, making him shiver. His strategy, which he had so meticulously formulated, would once again be seen as a failure. And if the Bharatiyas somehow managed to reduce their fleet size by one-third, like they had last time, he could not even imagine what his situation would become.

’No, I will never let that happen,’ he gritted his teeth and clenched his fist with determination.

He quickly came up with a solution.

"Have the frontal warships fall back into the fleet. Let the battleships spearhead the formation and increase speed. Move as fast as possible. We must reach firing range and strike the enemy as quickly as we can."

"We have a numerical advantage that the enemy does not. Use those modified battleships to lead the charge."

"Yes, Sir Admiral."

The orders were transmitted immediately, and changes began to take effect the very next moment.

Yashvardhan Keshav raised his eyebrows. "Did Edward change his tactic halfway through?"

"It looks like it," an officer replied. "With the light warships falling back into the fleet, they seem to be adopting a more conventional approach."

Yashvardhan noticed something unusual. "Raghunathan, are those ships what I think they are?"

Vice Admiral Raghunathan did not immediately understand what the admiral meant, but as he studied the enemy fleet more closely through the telescope, the doubts in his mind cleared.

"There is no mistake," he said firmly. "They should be their version of ships equipped with compartmentalisation technology, sir."

Yashvardhan nodded. This was exactly what he had suspected. "We did receive intelligence that the Europeans might have developed this technology on a small scale, but to think they have already applied it to battleships and put them into active service..."

"Tch. This is going to be troublesome."

He was clearly annoyed. He knew better than anyone how frustrating it was to fight battleships built with compartmentalisation technology. Such ships were far harder to sink, and that was a problem because, until a battleship was completely destroyed, it was not truly out of the fight.

"But, sir," Rear Admiral Hari Nathan spoke up, "according to our intelligence, their technology is not as thorough as our own. They seem to have cut corners and did not implement it throughout the entire ship. It should not be too big a problem, right?"

Yashvardhan shook his head. "Even if it only gives them a slight edge over their previous battleships, in a war of scale, that small edge becomes a serious problem. Battleships that previously required four to five direct hits to break apart and be put out of commission will now require six or even seven. It may not sound like much, but when scaled across an entire fleet, that means hundreds more rounds will be needed to achieve the same result."

Hari Nathan immediately understood when it was explained that way.

Yashvardhan scratched his beard in irritation and issued another order. "We can stop the bombardment now. Since the smaller warships are falling back, there’s no need to waste ammunition. Have the ships recover, let the guns cool down, and take stock of our remaining shells."

"In the meantime, the Ramachandra Class and Maharaja Ramachandra Class can begin acting as soon as the enemy battleships enter firing range."

"Oh, and use the new armour-piercing rounds. They might help overcome the gap created by the compartmentalisation."

The firing stopped immediately. It was as if the chaos from moments earlier had never happened. The region returned to an eerie calm, but everyone knew it was only the calm before the storm. Both sides had made their opening moves, gaining some advantages while suffering losses of their own.

The European battleships surged forward, taking the lead and accelerating at full speed, trying to pull their fleet into effective firing range. On the other side, the Bharatiya full-metal battleships were fully loaded and ready. The gunners felt a growing anticipation, having missed the earlier bombardment.

For a brief moment, it felt as though time itself had stopped.

Then all hell broke loose.

"Boom!"

The 25-calibre rounds of the Ramachandra Class and the over-30-calibre rounds of the Maharaja Ramachandra Class erupted like the breath of fire-breathing dragons, announcing their presence on the battlefield with deafening roars.

Each shell, weighing at least 180 kilograms, soared into the sky as if savouring the freedom of flight before crashing down upon the European vessels.

"Brace for impact!" senior officers shouted, gritting their teeth as they crouched and clung to whatever solid structure they could find, praying they would not be unlucky enough to be hit directly.

"Ahhh!"

Screams of agony and pain rang out immediately. Those whose bodies remained intact felt brief relief that they had survived, but the tension returned just as quickly, knowing this was far from over.

The captains of the European battleships, most of them commanding modified Sovereign Class vessels, wore grim expressions as they shouted a command.

"Damage report!"

"The projectile cut through the bow and entered the living quarters, sir!"

"The hull has been breached, sir. We’re taking on water!"

"The bridge was hit, sir! The living quarters beneath it were destroyed. Several dozen are dead, many more injured, but there is no critical structural damage!"

"The projectile penetrated the starboard side, sir! Secondary bulkheads are holding, but multiple compartments are flooding!"