The battleship "Cressy" has now lost half of its firepower and can only rely on the B turret in the stern to resist stubbornly, but after the density of fire has dropped by half, the probability of hitting has naturally decreased. On the other hand, the damage to the power compartment also reduced the power of the warship. A warship has lost half of its firepower, which cannot be beaten; Then I lost power again, and I couldn't run away. It can be said that if nothing else, the loss of "Cressie" is already a foregone conclusion.

"Keep approaching, concentrate your fire, take him out as quickly as possible, and then we'll go to the aid of Caesar." Admiral Bruyes gave such an order.

Admiral Brueus could not be said to have made such a mistake, because just when "Trajan" had beaten "Cressy", there was a crisis on the side of "Caesar".

Before that, "Caesar" they were almost pressing "Poitiers" to fight. "Poitiers" was battered and scarred, and smoke was coming out of all directions. But neither the 150 shells of the "Caesar" nor the 127 shells of the supercruiser that helped him could deliver a real, decisive blow to the "Poitiers".

However, "Poitiers", after holding his head for a while with punches and kicks, took the time to punch and actually hit the "Caesar".

This was a shell fired by the B turret of the "Poitiers" during the fifth salvo. Before that, the deck of the "Poitiers" had been washed over and over again with all sorts of shells, and all the rangefinders, had already been destroyed. His two turrets were already fighting on his own estimated numbers.

But it's no wonder that the blindness was actually blinded by them.

This 305 shell easily penetrated the armor of the "Caesar", an explosion occurred in the power compartment. The 305 shells were so powerful that they wiped out almost half of the power of the "Caesar" at once.

The French, in order to ensure the accuracy of their shooting, had just carefully left the minefield and had not yet had time to increase their speed. So at this time, the speed of both sides was actually not fast, and the speed of both formations did not exceed ten knots. Among them, the formation of the French was slightly faster, about 9 knots, and the British were a little slower, about 8 knots. Half of the momentum was lost, at least for the time being, and the "Caesar" did not have problems keeping up with the formation. But after a long time, something will definitely go wrong.

Trajan began to shorten the distance between him and Cressy in pursuit of a higher hit percentage. In the process, they got another hit, breaking one of the chimneys of "Cressie".

However, the counterattack of "Cressie" actually hit as well. This time they hit the defenseless area near the stern, as a result of which the shells penetrated directly from one side to the other, and did not cause much damage to Trajan, which, because it was closer, received another hit.

The location of the hit this time was the ammunition depot of the secondary artillery of the "Cressy". The ammunition depot of the secondary gun of the "Crecy" was not as well protected as the ammunition depot of the main gun. So it was directly ignited.

However, the British still did some work in terms of safety, it is better to say that the auxiliary ammunition depot is separated, and each secondary gun corresponds to a small ammunition depot, so the explosion of the auxiliary artillery ammunition depot is unlikely to send the whole ship to the sea. In addition, this secondary gun has already lost a lot of ammunition before this, so it will be further down for you.

However, the explosion of the ammunition depot of the secondary gun caused a fire and cut off the power route of the B turret.

The B turret, along with the two 305mm guns above him, can also be rotated entirely by hand, but in this case, it can rotate at a speed comparable to the rotation of the earth. As a result, this turret was almost scrapped. Of course, the British rushed to troubleshoot and make urgent repairs, but, at least for the time being, the turret was useless.

However, the French did not see that the British B turret was temporarily unusable, because the problem of the B turret was different from the A turret, and there was no problem from the outside. So the French didn't dare to get too close at this time. However, the British knew that something was wrong with the B turret for a long time, because if the B turret did not fire for a long time in the current situation, then even a fool could see that the B turret was wrong. At that time, the French will definitely press on, directly a flying dragon riding face, and then the whole battle can be over.

However, the British bombardment machine was not affected in any way, so the B turret could still fire, but it was impossible to aim. In other words, the biggest function of the two cannons in the B turret today is to scare people. However, considering that the hit rate of artillery in naval battles is not high, even seven or eight salleys failed to hit a single shot, well, it can only be regarded as not very lucky.

Therefore, although they knew that under such circumstances, the two cannons of the B battery would not be able to hit any target at all, the British still fired at a fixed rhythm. Although it will not hit anything, it will at least intimidate the French.

To say that this approach really worked, although the subsequent shooting of the B battery did not hit a single hit, but he did play a role in deterring the French from continuing to approach. Moreover, the more the B turret is in fact ineffective, the more beneficial it is, the more you can control the navigation, you can completely ignore the need to exert firepower. In other words, "Crecy" could dodge the shells of the French more freely without destroying the battle line.

But Cressie's one-sided beating didn't change, and after dodging Trajan's five volleys in a row, she was shot again.

Fortunately, this time it was not a particularly critical place, although this shell caused more than 10 casualties, but the damage to the "Cressie" was still limited. After all, a battleship in general was a very strong warship, and it was not easy to destroy it with shells alone. If a battleship clears everything that can cause a fire or explosion, and then lets another battleship bombard it with cannons, I am afraid that the battleship will run out of shells, and it may not be able to send it to the bottom of the sea.

After six or seven more rounds of this, the French gradually realized that something was wrong with the battleship "Crécy".

"Captain, look at the B turret of the enemy ship, the two guns are obviously pointing at us, and they are not aimed at us at all. I suspect something is wrong with their aiming steering system. "An operations staff officer first noticed that something was wrong with the British, and reported it to the captain, Colonel Alstom.

Colonel Alston raised his binoculars and took a closer look, then said, "It's not too accurate. We accelerate, further change the relative position between us and them, and see how they react. ”

In this way, the problems of the B turret of the British naturally came to light. Judging by the fact that they were firing, there must have been something wrong with their rotation and aiming systems.

Captain Alstom immediately informed Admiral Bruyers, who was in the command tower.

"Are you sure?" Admiral Bruyers asked.

"Yes, I'm sure, of course they're rushing to repair ......," Colonel Alstom left a way out for his own judgment.

"In other words, if we don't take advantage of this opportunity right away, we may let it go." Admiral Bruyers' focus was clearly different from that of Colonel Alstom, "So what are you hesitating about?" Hurry up and get closer from a safe angle, the closer the better, and destroy the enemy ship completely! ”

"The enemy ships suddenly accelerated to the front of our flanks, and apparently they noticed the problem with our B turrets." On the British's side, Operations Staff Officer Bill reported to Lord George Kirkburn.

"I see it." In the bridge, Lord George Kirkburn lowered his binoculars, "They are closing in on us, and our secondary artillery poses no threat to them." However, they are actually an opportunity for us to come closer in this way......"

Trajan approached less than a thousand meters from the Cressie, and at this distance her six 203 guns already had a very high hit rate. "Trajan" fired six consecutive volleys at "Crecy" at this distance. None of the salvos were nearly 50 percent hit. As many as seventeen shells were smashed on the "Chrissy".

The "Cressie" caught fire, and the fire seemed to get out of control. Admiral Bruyers then ordered to continue the approach in order to accurately fire at the British's B turret and completely destroy the enemy's combat effectiveness. He knew that it would take time to sink this enemy ship, and if he could destroy the enemy's combat strength as soon as possible, then he could completely abandon this warship and work with "Caesar" to encircle and annihilate the "Poitiers" behind. This is the most reasonable way to fight.

Trajan continued to approach the Cressy and, at the same time, frantically poured fire on the Cress. Finally, a shell hit the B turret.

"Well, it worked! Now the enemy ships on the opposite side have become unthreatening eunuchs. Admiral Bruyes said triumphantly, "Now let's shift our focus and attack the Poitiers!" ”

Trajan began to slow down in order to get closer to Poitiers a little behind. At the same time, her six 203-mm guns. Also turned to the "Poitiers".

At this time, the "Poitiers" had just received a hit, and one of his 305 shells hit the B turret of the "Caesar", completely destroying the turret, and because the B turret was raising ammunition at this time, the fire door to the ammunition depot was open, and as a result, the flames of the explosion went down the passage, almost detonating the ammunition depot directly. But in order to extinguish the flames in the ammunition depot, the French had to flood the ammunition depot of the front main gun with water. Fortunately, turret A does not share ammunition depot with turret B, so the "Caesar" still retains half of its firepower. But this guy also made the "Caesar", who played very well just now, a lot more restrained. He even took the initiative to distance himself to protect himself.

As the "Caesar" retreated, the other two supercruisers naturally followed suit. Their ability to resist blows is not as good as that of "Caesar", so naturally they have to hide a little farther. Anyway, the British ship's guns had a low muzzle velocity, the distance was shortened, and the hit rate was touching.

Just when the "Poitiers" were slightly relieved that they had forced back the enemy ships, six 203-mm shells came back with a whistling fire.

Of course, this round of salvo did not hit, and even deviated quite far, but this round of salvo was huge for the morale of the British army. Because it meant that the French had won a complete victory in the heads-up of the new battleships, and were now able to support the other warships. The victory of the French was almost unshakable.

But it was at this time that the lookout post of the "Trajan" exclaimed: "The British warship has been found, six hundred meters from starboard!" ”

On the starboard side of "Trajan" was the "Cressie", which had lost all its main guns and most of its secondary guns, and was blazing.

But behind the blazing "Crecy", two small boats suddenly emerged. Both boats had a long pole on their bows, and at the top of the poles was a large trigger mine. This is the secret weapon of the British - pole mineboats.

The pole minecraft was a wooden structure, unarmoured, and without any other weapons, and was equipped with a steam engine with a considerable displacement that it wanted to displace, so it was quite fast, up to 22 knots, and more importantly, because of its small tonnage and high horsepower, it accelerated very quickly.

Of course, the disadvantage of such ships is also very obvious, that is, they basically do not have any resistance to strikes. Even the 75-mm secondary gun of "Trajan" can directly destroy it with just one shot.

If it is a normal battle, there is enough distance between the two sides, and a ship like this will not be enough to die. But now, the hull of the "Crecy" covered them, and the French did not know anything about their existence, so as soon as they appeared, they were already very close to the "Trajan".

To say that the reaction of the French is actually quite fast. Because at this time, the 75-mm secondary guns on the "Trajan" were still firing at the "Crecy". Therefore, the direction of their barrels did not turn much, and at this time, as long as they turned slightly, they could fire at the two pole mineboats that had been hedged.

But the appearance of these two ships was too sudden, and moreover, the distance was too close. So although the French were not slow to react, they only had time to hit a mineboat. The other mine-boat, on the other hand, had already rushed to the side of the "Trajan" at once, and entered the dead end of the artillery fire.

The long pole in front of the pole mineboat began to be lowered downward. With the front mines began to sink into the water. The long pole in front of the pole minecraft is movable. When it is about to hit the target, the operation will lower the long rod downwards so that the top mine will be submerged in the water, so as to attack the underwater part of the enemy ship.

Of course, if the attack is successful, the result will definitely be that the enemy ship will be blown out of a large hole in the underwater position, and the sea water will rush in; And what about the rod minecraft itself? Of course, it was in this close-range explosion that it was blown to pieces. Therefore, the pole mineboat is actually the earliest kamikaze.