African Entrepreneurship Record

If we can’t break through the situation at this moment, then as these cover forces gradually get wiped out, the East African ironclads will also face a precarious situation.

At this time, the second fleet, in which Admiral Kerry had high hopes, also faced its own dilemma. The British naval ships had a numerical advantage, which forced the second fleet to abort its encirclement tactics halfway through.

”Rear Admiral Anton, the enemy ships are blocking our path, what should we do now?”

Rear Admiral Anton didn’t speak but carefully observed the battlefield. At this time, Admiral Kerry’s first fleet was gradually falling into a disadvantage, so the second fleet had to take on greater responsibility.

Seeing the disparity in strength between the two sides, Rear Admiral Anton carefully analyzed the problems their side was facing, realizing that it was impossible to continue with the encirclement plan. Returning to support Admiral Kerry’s first fleet would not only be ineffective but would also lose an opportunity.

”All warships, set the power to maximum, attack from the right flank, break through the enemy blockade. Each ship will act as a unit; there is only one goal, which is to attack the central area of the enemy’s main fleet. Regardless of the means, I only want the result,” ordered Anton.

After Admiral Kerry’s decentralization of command, Rear Admiral Anton further decentralized, and this time the East African second fleet was truly fighting independently.

However, Rear Admiral Anton’s strategic objective was clear: to disrupt the British regular attack formation at all costs to relieve the first fleet. If the first fleet was annihilated, the second fleet would have no path to survival.

The Hamburg, with a total displacement of about 6,700 tons, was the second largest ironclad in the second fleet after the Trieste. Upon receiving the new orders, Captain Sperg unhesitatingly ordered: ”Increase the ship’s speed to maximum, head west-southwest at full speed, aim the cannons at the British ships ahead, and carve a bloody path!”

Almost simultaneously, the second fleet entered a state unimaginable for the intercepting British forces: the East Africans had gone mad!

Onboard the Gray Fox, a British gunner asked, ”Which direction should we shoot now?”

With the decentralization of command in the East African second fleet, the ironclads along with the gunboats displayed their unique skills in a disorderly manner, leaving the three British ironclads responsible for interception instantly unsure of which target to engage first.

”First attack the armored ships, then deal with those gunboats, pick the bigger ones!” the commander of the Gray Fox ordered.

But at this moment, three East African ships opened fire first, all targeting the Gray Fox. Their thought was the same as the British’s at the first moment, which was to pick the bigger one to fight.

After the decentralization of command, many ships selected their targets or strategies to achieve their own goals, among which the Pest was the main force, targeting the Gray Fox, while the other two were gunboats.

Although gunboats are easily sunk and not very defensible, their firepower is strong, known as moving gun platforms. At this moment, three large and small ships concentrated their fire on the Gray Fox, making it difficult for the powerful Gray Fox to cope.

A shell from the Gray Fox hit the Pest directly, but the East African Herman gunboat and the Pest simultaneously struck the Gray Fox, and soon after, the Margaret gunboat took the opportunity to move within 200 meters of the Gray Fox’s left side and successfully penetrated its side armor.

Its 305mm main gun successfully pierced the hull of the Gray Fox. This shelling directly caused the Gray Fox to stall, severely impacting its internal power system. Subsequently, the three ships continued to unleash their firepower, leading the Gray Fox to withdraw from the battle.

While the East African second fleet was achieving success, other British ships also dealt significant damage to the East African second fleet, which had already suffered the loss of two gunboats, both sunk.

However, relative to this loss, East Africa finally broke through the British navy’s left flank, with the Trieste and Hamburg pinning down the two intercepting British ironclads, allowing the other four ships of the East African second fleet to take the opportunity to enter the hollow region on the left side of the British fleet.

The ironclads held down by the Hamburg and Trieste couldn’t go back to aid, and at this time, the British fleet’s main force was poised to clobber the East African first fleet.

The entry of four East African ships disrupted the British main battle formation, and at this time, the East African second fleet could fully target the British navy’s flank. However, due to Rear Admiral Anton’s previous orders, they aimed directly at the British navy’s main central location for shelling at all costs. Meanwhile, to prevent being hit, these four gunboats rushed towards the British forces in a chaotic path.

Disorder among the British rear instantly caught Admiral Kerry’s attention, and he knew the second fleet must have taken effect.

He immediately ordered: ”Stop engaging the British head-on. Remaining ships should spread in three directions, each finding its own target to strike, and completely disrupt the British rhythm.”

Thus, the command of the first fleet was also decentralized to each ship. At this time, the East African navy had no strategy, and the breakup of the first fleet took the British fleet by surprise. Coupled with the turmoil caused by the four East African ’flies’ at the rear, chaos began to emerge in the British formation.

Commander Grafton of the British Royal Navy expeditionary force realized something was wrong, but it was too late to make adjustments at this moment.

He could only order British ships to regroup and reform around the Giant, but after the order was given, the effect was not good.

East African ships played a game of ’King Qin Round the Pillar’ on the sea with the British, attacking arbitrarily with British ships as their main target.

At this time, the British and East Africans were thoroughly entangled overall. In such close-contact battles, cannon fire might hit not the enemy but rather friendly ships.

Of course, British ships were large and sturdy, fully able to choose to collide with East African ships. But even at such close range, the East African navy still chose cannons as the offensive method. Now the East African navy can hardly distinguish between friend and foe, just firing at large ships.

And the British ships, large and numerous, mixed with East African forces, naturally became easy targets, while the British found it challenging to counterattack these ’rouge’ East African ships.

Also, by this time, the British forces had been at sea for several days, having previously only rested in Somaliland, rendering them exhausted.

In this condition, the combat effectiveness of the British expeditionary soldiers declined sharply, especially their mental activities lagged noticeably. After East Africa successfully disrupted the battle, everyone was finally brought to the same level.

Time quickly moved to around ten in the morning, and by now, the war was finally declared over due to the arrival of East African reinforcements.

Grand Duke Ferdinand personally led the remaining main forces of the East African navy, arriving from the home port of Bajamojo. By this time, both the British and East African navies were exhausted, unable to continue fighting.

Upon seeing the East African reinforcements, Commander Grafton decisively issued the order to retreat, but not before the reinforcements caught the tail of the Hyderabad-class Cruiser from the British forces.

And so, the Battle of Lamu concluded thoroughly, though both sides suffered heavy losses. Almost a quarter of the East African navy was destroyed in this battle, with two ironclads sunk, six gunboats lost, and the remaining ironclads all damaged. Although the Friedrich did not sink, it was likely to be retired soon.

The British expeditionary force also saw three ships sunk, four heavily damaged, and two captured, which meant half of the expeditionary fleet’s combat ships were eliminated by East Africa, particularly the two captured ships, leaving Commander Grafton feeling unconvinced.