The super cruiser "Cambridgeshire" rushing to the front naturally became the target of the French army's concentrated fire, and this was in fact the purpose of the British army to let the "Cambridge" rush to the front - to help the "Queen Elizabeth" block shells. Covering the "Queen Elizabeth", the "Queen Elizabeth" retained full combat strength as much as possible, rushing to a distance sufficient for accurate shooting.

The British "supercruisers" are all thin-skinned and stuffed, in order to pursue speed, in order to install large-caliber artillery, the British supercruisers, in terms of defense, that is, the level of British armored cruisers. And such armor, even against ordinary armored cruisers, is not very reliable, in the face of the armor-piercing shells of the 150-mm long-barreled guns of the French battleships, it is basically no different from papier-mâché.

But the rough and rough conditions of the North Atlantic helped her a lot, and if it was in the calm Mediterranean, the 100mm guns of the French armored cruisers would be enough for her to drink. These cannons had limited power, but they had a fast rate of fire and fought like rain, and the "Cambridgeshire" was so thin-skinned and stuffed that in fact even such shells could not be stopped.

But in the North Atlantic, it's a different story. French ships have always valued high speed (even if they can't beat it, they can run). Well, at least Joseph, who presided over the development of the military-industrial complex, has always emphasized, speed, speed, speed! But on boats, the emphasis on speed performance often requires a little sacrifice in other areas, such as stability.

Big ships like "Imperator" and "Caesar" are fine, even super cruisers like "Free Trade" are actually not very stable, as for the armored cruisers of the French, hehe, less than two thousand tons of full rows, what kind of stability, a little wind and waves at sea, and the ship swaying from side to side for more than ten degrees, that is the norm. In such a state, if you want to hit the opponent at a long distance, you have to rely entirely on luck, in fact, it has nothing to do with the performance of the cannon itself, or the gunner's gunnership.

Therefore, although the shells fired by the armored cruisers of the French were as many as rain, the distance between the two sides was only about three kilometers, but there were many shells that deviated by more than one kilometer.

However, the 150 guns on the "Imperator" and "Caesar" were more effective at this time. When the distance between the two sides was about two kilometers, the "Imperator" made its first hit, and a 150 semi-armor-piercing shell directly hit the mast of "Cambridgeshire", knocking off her mast and most of the chimney behind it.

The mast falls off or something, which is not a big deal, but the chimney is knocked off, which directly affects the combustion efficiency of the boiler. Leads to a decrease in motivation. However, at this time, the problem is also not too big, because the "Cambridgeshire" also has a chimney, and the "Queen Elizabeth" can barely run about ten knots anyway, and the "Cambridgeshire" does not need to fly at full power output.

However, with the first hit, naturally there would be a second, and soon in the second salvo of the "Imperator" another shell hit the "Cambridgeshire".

This time, the Cambridgeshire's good fortune seemed to run out, and the shell hit the bow of the ship directly, easily passing through the paper-like armor in the bow section and then plunging headlong into the ammunition depot of the front main gun......

Nelson was on the bridge of the "Queen Elizabeth" when he saw the "Cambridgeshire" in front of him suddenly shudder, and then a huge fireball suddenly came out from under the deck of the "Cambridgeshire", engulfing the entire "Cambridge" supercruiser at once.

Then fireballs and smoke rose upward, and Nelson saw that the Cambridgeshire had broken in two in the explosion. Then the rumbling explosion reached the bridge of the "Queen Elizabeth", causing the glass on the bridge to vibrate.

The Cambridgeshire sank into the sea in the blink of an eye, leaving only a large, foaming whirlpool on the surface.

Now it was finally the turn of the "Queen Elizabeth" to face the rain of bullets from the French fleet, and the distance between the two sides had been shortened to about two thousand meters. The shells of the French began to fall constantly, and the 100-mm shells of the armored cruisers of the French kept falling near the "Queen Elizabeth", stirring up columns of water. The sea near the Queen Elizabeth is like a boiling cauldron.

"The rate of fire of the French cannons is really high." Nelson said to his lieutenant, "We have miscalculated the firepower of the French. They must have some technical secrets. ”

The French kept the artillery hydraulic reset device so secretive that apart from the navy, even the invincible army of France was not equipped with this thing.

The British knew that the guns of the French Navy were generally of a small caliber, at least compared to the 10-inch cannons of the British, which was simply too small. From this, they deduced that the French should be pursuing a higher rate of fire. In addition, the barrels of the French cannons were very long, for example, their 150-mm guns, the barrels should be more than six meters long, and even one meter longer than the barrels of the 10-inch guns of the British. In addition, it was observed that the barrel walls of the French cannon were no thinner than the 10-inch guns of the British - this means that although the caliber of this cannon is small, it is not small in bore pressure. Such a barrel is very difficult to manufacture, so don't look at the French cannon as thin as a toothpick, but its cost is definitely not cheap. Maybe more expensive than the 10-inch guns of the British. At least that's the case with the one the British themselves tried to make.

According to their understanding, the British also built a long-barreled 150, and the final test result was that this gun was only slightly weaker than their 20-caliber 10-inch gun in armor-piercing ability, but the rate of fire was much faster. Of course, the cost is also a cut higher, and the price of two long tubes of 150 is enough to buy three 10-inch guns. But this is not the most fatal, the most terrible thing is that this gun is seriously ablated, and its life is even only one-third to one-quarter of that of a 10-inch gun. In this way, the British Navy suddenly felt that the 10-inch gun was more fragrant.

Therefore, although the British ridiculed the French naval guns in the newspapers as small toothpicks, compared with the British cannons, they are not worth mentioning at all. But the British Navy never underestimated the 150 guns of the French, but even so, they greatly underestimated the rate of fire of the French cannons.

Because the distance was closer, even the guns of the armored cruisers of the French began to become accurate. It was at Nelson's exclamation that a 100-mm caliber shell hit the front main gun turret of the "Queen Elizabeth". However, the 100-mm gun could not penetrate the armor plate of the front main gun turret at all, so the shell only exploded outside the main turret and did not cause any damage to the main turret itself.

But this does not mean that the shell did not cause much damage. As the shell exploded, a piece of shrenchel flew over and shattered a window pane on the bridge.

"Your Excellency, Commander." The adjutant said, "Please go to the command tower and direct the battle." ”

The Command Tower is a thick armored box in which it can be used to communicate with other departments by telephone. This is a design made to protect the commander of the Navy.

"No, I'm not going." Nelson said, "My post is here. ”

Although there are various command and communication equipment in the command tower, they cannot see the situation on the battlefield with their own eyes, and can only rely on other people's oral accounts to understand the battlefield, and it will be very inconvenient to command there.

More shells fell. Another 100-mm gun hit the side of the Queen Elizabeth. But this shell really had little effect other than destroying the paint of the "Queen Elizabeth".

But then a 150-caliber shell hit the superstructure of the "Queen Elizabeth". The shell entered from the right, passed through the empty crew rest quarters, smashed the wine cabinet next to the bar counter, then passed through another cabin, then drilled two more holes in the chimney, and then continued forward, falling into the sea on the port side.

Although the 150-caliber shell did not cause any real damage, its hit also meant that the French battleship had been aimed at the "Queen Elizabeth", and the next step was about to enter the real effectiveness of the shot.

Sure enough, another 150 shell hit the bow of the "Queen Elizabeth". The shell pierced the armor of the Queen Elizabeth and then through a compartment, exploding in the aisle. As for the specific damage it caused, it is not particularly clear.

Then another shell from the "Caesar" hit the "Queen Elizabeth", which hit the coal tank and caused a fire. However, the British were very good at managing the damage, so the fire was quickly contained.

More 100-mm shells fell on the "Queen Elizabeth", these shells could not penetrate the armor of this warship at all, however, most of the superstructure of this warship was unarmoured, and these 100-mm shells were high-explosive shells, and they fell one after another, knocking the superstructure of the "Queen Elizabeth" to pieces.

The continuous falling 100-mm high-explosive shells caused the "Queen Elizabeth" to catch fire in many places, and the damage control personnel who fought the fire suffered heavy casualties under the subsequent falling shells, and the fire gradually began to get out of control and began to approach the command platform on the bridge.

Then another 100-mm shell landed near the warship. Yes, this shell did not hit the "Queen Elizabeth", it was only a near-miss.

In naval warfare, there are times when a close miss is even more dangerous than a direct hit, because a close miss explodes in water, which is incompressible. As a result, some large-caliber shells may even have a torpedo-like effect.

But the 100-mm gun is not a large-caliber gun, and the power of such a shell is quite limited.

But the shell landed near that patch of the "Queen Elizabeth". This patch is already big and unreliable, and after sailing so far along the way, it is already a little crumbling. At this time, another shell, although only a 100-mm shell exploded next to it, but it still tore the original patch at once, and the sea water rolled in.