Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology-Chapter 1191: WWI: Battle of the Atlantic (6)

"Admiral, the enemy is in range!!"

Edward was overjoyed. "What are you waiting for? Pass the orders, fire immediately," he roared.

Since the Bharatiya fleet had an advantage in the range at which their naval guns could fire, their bombardments caused extensive damage to the battleships. Even though the twenty ships at the frontline were built using the compartmentalisation technology, a technology that had only been recently mastered, almost all of those battleships were left riddled with holes, both small and large. And among that twenty, nine were directly put out of commission, sinking to the bottom of the Atlantic, while a few other ships were on the verge of collapse, tilting to the side, barely able to stay afloat. Aboard these ships, the sailors tried their best to seal off the compartment to stay afloat, but unfortunately, the water relentlessly gushed in.

While the other ships, only a handful, were lucky enough not to be hit in critical locations, they were still left in a half-dead state, unable to move forward anymore, their battle effectiveness swiftly brought to nearly nothing.

If it were any other time, against any other adversary, such a loss without even firing a round would be extremely distressing. But in the current situation, going up against the mighty Bharatiya Empire, the Overlord of the east, Admiral Edward felt like exchanging twenty battleships to get into the Effective firing range of their cannons, so that they could hit the enemy was a worthwhile sacrifice.

In fact, he was not the only one who had this thought; other commanding officers, like John De Witt of the Netherlands, Don Joao da Costa of Portugal, Marco Antonio Guistiniani of Italy, and others had the same thought as well.

The reputation of the Bharatiya naval artillery was something akin to a nightmare, the impression it left behind simply too deep, so much so that even when Edward, who had a lot of doubters even within the navy, made a decision to make up the distance by spearheading (sacrificing) the fleet with twenty modified Sovereign Class warships, none of them even had the thought of opposing him in their minds. They readily agreed with the plan of using twenty battleships to get into firing range, thinking it was a worthwhile deal, a bargain even. Besides, they had over 210 battleships in the fleet. There were plenty left anyway, so there is no need to fret too much.

"Boom!"

The European artillery shells shot up into the air, heading straight towards the Ramachandra Class and Maharaja Rama Chandra Class battleships of the Bharatiya Empire.

Admiral Yashvardhan, looking at the falling artillery shells, did not look worried at all. It was not that easy to take down the Ramachandra and Maharaja Ramachandra class battleships, the pinnacle of Bharatiya shipbuilding.

As he expected, the European artillery shells crashed into the Ramachandra and Maharaja Ramachandra Class battleships, leaving only a few dents behind, without any critical structural damage.

The counterattack of the Bharatiya fleet commenced. The 25 and 35 calibre artillery shot up into the air, cutting through the wind like a hot knife through butter, and plunged into the European battleships, more often than not achieving critical strikes capable of crippling a certain function of the ship, and on certain occasions, even completely rendering it useless.

The two warring fleets gave it their all, holding nothing back. Every second, hundreds of artillery shells flew into the air as firepower was exchanged on both sides. In terms of quantity, the Bharatiya fleet was at a disadvantage, but it made up for it with quality, with each shell hitting its intended target most of the time. The Europeans, on the other hand, did not possess the same power, range, or accuracy as the Bharatiyas, but they had numbers. Their artillery shells filled the sky like a blanket of fireworks, plunging into the Bharatiya fleet like blazing meteors, covering the gap created by their weaknesses.

In a matter of a few minutes, several rounds of salvos were exchanged. With the Delhi Class battleships, Colombo and Chennai Class warships joining the battle and bombarding the enemy relentlessly, the sky turned an ominous shade of crimson, giving off a feeling like the day of apocalypse. Even the birds that usually flew across the Atlantic Ocean along the northwestern coast of Africa were nowhere to be seen.

This went on for nearly 40 minutes until Yashvardhan Keshav noticed that the Delhi class battleships and other wooden warships were taking on too much punishment. He decided to adopt a different strategy.

The firepower of his ships may be strong, but it is still a little far off to contend against an enemy who outnumbers him by over two times.

"Assume a Trishula formation and charge," Yashvardhan ordered.

Soon, the Bharatiya fleet began to reorganise in the midst of the battle. The entire fleet visibly morphed into three distinct parts, each becoming narrower and narrower as time went on. The middle part was eventually spearheaded by two Maharaja Rama Chandra Class battleships and six Ramachandra Class battleships. As for the ones on the sides, each of them were spearheaded by a single Maharaja Ramachandra Class battleship and three Ramachandra Class battleships.

The full metal battleships took on the brunt of the attack, but due to the full metal armour design along with the ships built using the compartmentalisation technology, it is much harder to take them down than it is a conventional ship like the Delhi Class battleships, which is already known for its resilience and was once called the undead ship of the East.

"Now charge!" Yashvardhan roared.

The Ramachandra Class battleships, equipped with two Bhairavi Jalaputra second-generation naval engines producing a combined horsepower of 560 and a combined torque of 60,000 khanda metre, roared into action like sleeping behemoths torn awake from deep slumber.

As for the Maharaja Ramachandra Class battleship, fitted with two Bhairavi Vega first-generation turbine engines generating 840 horsepower, the exertion of its full power was like the roar of a mythological monster, its vibrations alone sending tremors through the hull and into the sea itself.

In the engine rooms, workers shovelled coal and fed oil into the furnaces as if into the stomach of a beast of the east, endlessly hungry and never satisfied. Waves of heat poured out, reddening their skin and soaking their bodies in sweat. The boiler rooms were choked with the heavy stench of ash, oil, and burning coal.

Driven by this relentless fuel, the turbines spun faster and faster. The screw propellers bit into the water at maximum speed, hurling the massive battleships forward with overwhelming force.

Following closely behind the full metal battleships were the Delhi Class battleships and the rest of the fleet, all sticking close together at an optimum distance like a pack of wolves cooperating with one another to hunt their prey.

Looking from the sky, the Bharatiya fleet had become a trishul, piercing the enemy’s vital points with ruthless speed and aggression, like the Polish winged cavalry renowned for piercing enemy defences that were known to be impenetrable and leaving nothing behind.

Yashvardhan thought of this tactic in the heat of the battle, but he would not take any credit for coming up with it, because it was a tactic that he thought of by combining several tactics from the past. The trishul formation is a classic tactic used by the Bharatiya Army during the War of Independence against the Mughals. As for its naval application, he drew his inspiration from His Highness Agni’s command of the Mediterranean naval battle, where His Highness was able to destroy more than 100 European warships despite being outnumbered several times and almost taking the head of Edward Russell.

So he simply combined the classic tactic used during the Independence War with the cavalry charge tactic, which His Highness Agni had come up with, and made a naval trishul tactic.

Edward Russell, looking at the change in formation of the Bharatiya fleet, immediately understood the intentions of the enemy, and looking at the formation, he felt a sense of deja vu.

Edward had learnt a lot from the victory that was not a victory two years ago. The almost cavalry-like charge of the naval ships that almost killed him left a deep and lasting impression on him, so he constantly analysed and tried to figure out how to counteract it. He studied many strategy books in the field of both the navy and the army. He even thought about it from the perspective of the army. If the charge of the Bharatiya warships was like that of the Byzantine cavalry blasting through the defensive perimeters as if it were a thin piece of paper, he asked what unit of the military was capable of withstanding the Byzantine cavalry.

From his research, the answer he arrived at was the spike wall heavy infantry tactics of the Sassanid Empire, a rival of the Byzantine Empire, combined with ingenious environmental and geographical manoeuvring. However, he immediately understood that these tactics could not be directly copied into a naval setting. He was fully confident that the council members of the European Union would never approve a ship designed to resist an enemy charge by innovating around ramming capabilities.

Besides, even if he were given the authority to make such a decision, he would not do so. Going against the Bharatiya Empire’s navy, the most diverse and flexible force in terms of what it could achieve with a ship and a mature battle style, placing a cemented limitation on oneself, such as dedicating a certain number of ships solely to resist a frontal charge by the Bharatiya navy, would be nothing short of a suicide.

So he made the next best decision, inspired by Mongol war tactics, which relied on horseback archery to defeat their enemies.

He looked at his deputy commander, John de Witt

"Have the warships in the central region quickly split apart, and place their aim, as well as their positions, directly perpendicular to the path created during the split."

"This will be the path where the Bharatiya bastards will be taking, so crush them without mercy."

Even though there was no geography on the sea, this was Edward’s method of creating suitable geography.

"Have the warships on the left and right go wide. The enemy will try to flank us from the sides. Try your best to stop them, don’t let the enemy box us in within their formation."

This was his method of dealing with the charge, inspired by the Mongolian horse archers.

Finally, after making a decision in his heart, Edward commanded with a firm tone. "This is a good chance, use those torpedoes."