After discovering that the target was misrecognized, the French began to hurriedly divert fire, re-range, and re-aim at the target...... And their opponents, at this time, were ready for everything.

The four 305-mm guns of the battleship "Crecy" opened fire first. Just as the French intended to give priority to the battleships of the British, the British likewise prioritized the battleships of the French.

The battleship "Crécy" was aimed at the flagship of the French, the battleship "Trajan". This is a new type of battleship with a displacement comparable to that of the "Crecy". It was also the warship that posed the greatest threat to the British fleet.

Four shells flew towards the "Trajan" with the roar of cannons.

The British have not been able to come up with a new smokeless propellant, and the propellant they use is still the old brown gunpowder. The limit of the expansion rate of the gunpowder gas of brown gunpowder is quite low, which means that the muzzle velocity of the shells fired by the British artillery is also relatively low, and in order to pursue armor-piercing ability, the British can only use large-caliber and heavy warheads. So although the caliber of the British's cannons was frighteningly large, and the weight of the shells was many times better than that of the French, because the muzzle velocity was too low, the actual armor-piercing ability was far inferior to the 203-mm guns of the "Trajan", and even not much stronger than the 150-mm guns of the battleships of the previous generation "Caesar".

Of course, if it was pierced, the 305-mm shell would have a much larger charge than any kind of shell of the French, and it would naturally be much more powerful.

In the first round of firing, one out of four shells hit the A turret of the "Trajan". The first salvo can get a hit, and it's a god forbid. And it hit such an important position that Lord George Kirkburn almost jumped for joy when the lookout reported that he had "hit the enemy ship's A turret."

However, the lookout post then made this report: "We failed to penetrate the enemy's armor!" ”

"Damn! How can the French have such thick skin! How is this possible! ”

During the construction of this battleship, the British also used various methods to gather information about the French Augustus-class battleships. After getting a general idea of the size and displacement of the French battleship, they reverse-engineered it according to the shape of the battleship to see what thickness of armor the French could equip the battleship with.

According to the results of the British research, at this distance, the British 305 guns should be able to easily penetrate the armor of the Augustus-class battleships, but now, at such a close distance, the 305 shells were actually blown away by the armor of the French!

"It's not scientific!" Lord George Kirkburn couldn't help but say, "Don't these Frenchmen know how to respect science?" Could it be that even science sided with Napoleon? ”

But this is actually very scientific, and science will not be on the side of Napoleon, nor will it occupy the side of the British, and of course, it will not be on the side of the king.

The reason why the British made a mistake in judgment was mainly because when the British designed in reverse, they still adopted the concept of comprehensive defense, while the armor of the Augustus-class battleships adopted a focused defense mode. The so-called key defense means that only those places that are really important have thick armor, and those places that are not critical, even if they are shot, will not directly affect their survival and combat effectiveness, there is no armor at all. In this way, the French were able to pile up the armor of the key parts to be unusually thick, and the front face of the turret was the thickest part of the armor on the entire battleship. If the British shells could penetrate here, Admiral Bruyers on the other side would have to shout "this is not scientific".

Hitting the opponent at such a close distance should have been something that would have boosted morale, but the basis of morale was to penetrate the opponent's armor, and once it failed to penetrate, the morale was replaced by the French on the opposite side, and the morale of the British plummeted.

The French turned their guns and began to return fire. After all, the 203-mm gun had a lighter shell and a much faster rate of fire than the British 305. However, the French fired six rounds of 203 shells in the first round, and all of them flew off.

At this time, the battleship "Poitiers", which was following the battleship "Crecy", also fired a salvo at the French. But this round of volleys, like the French, hit nothing.

The French redistributed their firepower at this time, with the "Trajan" singled out the "Crecy", while the "Caesar" and the two super-cruisers and armored cruisers behind against the "Poitiers". As for the armored cruisers behind the British, because they had not yet had time to complete their turn, and could not join the battle for the time being, Admiral Bruyers felt that he had to seize the opportunity and hurry to inflict greater damage on the British.

The "Caesar" was more efficient in firing than the "Trajan", and this is also normal, because the "Caesar" has been in service for many years, and the soldiers are more familiar with her and more skilled in handling it.

In the second salvo of the battleship "Poitiers", the "Caesar" was hit, and her two shells hit the "Poitiers", but this time it was the turn of the French to be depressed. Because neither shell could penetrate the armor of the "Poitiers".

However, the first salvo of "Poitiers" against "Caesar" also missed, and nothing hit. And the 305 guns of the British battleships were quite slow to reload, it took about two to three minutes to fire a shot, and this time was enough for the 150 guns of the "Caesar" to fire 5 salvos.

So the shells of the "Caesar" crackled again, and not only Caesar, but also the 127-mm guns of the two supercruisers next to them.

The battleships of the British are still adopting the design of comprehensive defense, and the so-called comprehensive defense is only a larger defense area, and it is not really armored everywhere, for example, the superstructure of the warship is basically unarmored. This is not for any other reason, but because if these places are also equipped with heavy armor plates, the center of gravity of the whole ship will rise significantly, and then as long as there is a little wind and waves, the ship will shake so much that it cannot be used, and if the wind and waves are a little stronger, maybe no one will have to fight it, and it will capsize itself.

So, although neither the 150 guns nor the 127 guns could effectively penetrate the armor of the British battleships, they were enough to help the British wash the deck.

The "Caesar" was hit in the second volley, and then in the third and fourth salvos. In the third salvo, three 150 shells fired by the "Caesar" hit the target, one of which hit the bridge of the ship, killing the captain and a dozen other officers who were directing the operation there. Fortunately, the British still had a backup deputy captain, who soon took over the command.

But this also caused a lot of trouble for the warship's operations, but the fourth salvo was followed by another shell hitting the composite rangefinder on the platform outside the bridge. Blew the three-meter-long rangefinder to pieces, and incidentally killed the officer in charge of using the rangefinder. Fortunately, in another position, there is also an same rangefinder, otherwise, the impact of this gun on the later operations will be really great.

The fifth salvo of "Caesar" missed. But the other two supercruisers reaped the rewards of this round of firing, in which four more 127 shells hit the "Poitiers", all four of which hit the superstructure, and one of them also ignited some pipes and debris, causing a fire.

It was only after so many hits that the "Poitiers" fired another salvo, and one of the four shells barely hit the "Caesar", which flew over the head of the "Caesar" and broke half of the mast. The loss was that the "Caesar" could only communicate with other warships through the flag language, and could no longer rely on radio to communicate with each other. Fortunately, the fog basically dispersed at this time, so the impact on the battle was not too great.

After firing this cannon, the "Poitiers" had to hard-top the 150 shells of about five rounds and the 127 shells of more than six rounds of the French. Although none of these shells will cause fatal damage to it, it still hurts to let these shells wash the deck over and over again.

At this time, the "Trajan" had already fired a third salvo at the "Crécy", and as the largest French warship in terms of tonnage, the "Trajan" was theoretically the most stable firing platform. There should be the highest hit rate. However, due to the limited training time, the first three salvos of the "Trajan" did not hit the target, but the third salvo achieved a straddle shot, which also means that aiming is no problem now, and whether to hit later is already a matter of complete luck.

However, the situation of "Crecy" was not much better, they trained for a shorter time, in the first round they hit a shot that was completely blind, and then they played another round, and as a result, four shells did not know where to go.

As a result, the "Caesar" over there broke the mast, the "Poitiers" over there died the captain, and the "Trajan" and "Crecy" here, the A turret of "Trajan" lost a lot of paint, and the "Cressie" did not even lose any paint.

However, Trajan's fourth-round salvo finally landed a hit. A 203-mm shell, which hit the side of the "Crecy".

The armor-piercing capacity of the 203 shells of the French far exceeded that of 150 shells, and the armor that flew the 150 shells of the "Caesar" was far less solid in the face of the 203 shells.

"Hit the port side of the enemy ship with one shot, and successfully penetrated!" Admiral Bruyes stayed inside the Panzer Command Tower, completely unable to see the battle outside. But he can know the situation outside through the public address system. The first round of enemy shelling was a successful hit, which frightened Admiral Bryuss's staff. Although this shell failed to penetrate the armor, everyone knows that there is no armor on the bridge with the best view. Not to mention that a 305 shell smashed over, even if the shell of the British's four-inch secondary gun smashed over, it was also unbearable, although the French especially looked down on the British four-inch gun, thinking that compared with the 100-mm gun on their side, it was completely scum. Even compared with the 75mm guns on his side, he is completely scum. But this scum with a "ballistic trajectory bent like urine" can still kill people if it is covered.

So Admiral Bruyers was quickly stuffed by his staff into the armored conning tower, which had armor as thick as the turret, and it had been proven that the British shells could not penetrate such armor.

Admiral Bruyers objected to what his staff was doing, saying that he was not afraid at all, because the British would not be able to hit him at all. But having said that, he still had to enter the armored command tower because he couldn't get past those staff.

"Well done! I just don't know what the after-effect is? Admiral Bruyers asked into the microphone.

"General, I can't see it yet." The lookout post replied.

The shell pierced through the armor and then hit the galley of the "Crecy". This was not the time to prepare for morning or afternoon tea, so there was no one in the kitchen, and the shells exploded in the empty kitchen room, blowing the kitchen to shreds and successfully igniting the various cooking oils in the kitchen.

However, the British reacted fairly quickly and quickly brought the fire under control.

After successfully hitting the enemy ship, the French's luck began to improve, and the next two volleys, although they failed to hit again, formed a straddle fire. And after the "Cressie" again fired a useless salvo, the "Trajan" hit the enemy ship again, and this time, three of the six shells hit the target.

Both shells fired from the A turret hit the enemy ship, one of them hit the unarmored superstructure. The semi-armor-piercing projectile directly pierced the entire superstructure and flew out from the other end. Aside from the killing of two unlucky eggs, the damage caused was actually very limited. But the other shell was different, such a shell hit directly into the A turret of the "Cressy". The shell pierced the turret's shield and exploded in the turret, killing all the soldiers in the turret, as well as detonating a 305 shell in the turret that had just been fitted with a fuse.

If it weren't for the fact that the British Royal Navy of this era did not have the good habit of opening all the fire doors from the turret to the ammunition depot in order to pursue a high rate of fire, otherwise it would not be just a mere A turret that would have been completely scrapped in an explosion.

The "Crecy" had two turrets, one front and one aft, each with a twin 305-mm gun. Now, at this moment, half of the main artillery firepower has been lost, which is really a fatal loss in the engagement.

But the doom of the "Crecy" was not over, and two 203 shells fired from the C turret of the "Trajan" also hit him, one of which hit the upper deck and drilled a hole in the chimney of the "Crecy". The other went into the power compartment and destroyed a cylinder. The high-temperature steam that erupted from this cylinder killed more than a dozen sailors working in a power compartment in an instant.

Although the problem of the power compartment of the enemy ship cannot be seen, the destruction of the A turret of the enemy ship is visible to everyone. So when the news reached Admiral Bruyers, he felt that he had won the battle.

"And a more brilliant victory than Marshal Trevier. It's not like his kind of victory that kills a thousand enemies and damages 800 himself. Admiral Bruyers thought.