A sea of fire was raging, and thick smoke was pouring into the sky. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

In the solid command tower, the captain of the battleship Tirpitz, Colonel Topp, was using a microphone to give detailed instructions to the damage management department, and under his orders, groups of soldiers rushed to the damaged site with weapons in their hands, and engaged in fierce battles in the fierce flames or icy water. Water dragons roar, pumps roar, and engineers drill in and out of oil-stained rubble chambers in an effort to repair more machinery and wiring.

After nearly 20 minutes of fighting, the Tirpitz also went from being glamorous to scarred. Eight 381-mm shells hit various areas in front and behind her hull, causing the loss of nearly 200 personnel and the destruction of a large number of surface facilities. More than half of the small-caliber anti-aircraft gun emplacements on the port side of the battleship had been turned into twisted and broken remnants of iron; The hangar and catapult at the stern of the ship were completely wiped out, and the huge flames produced by the aviation fuel explosion were like the sudden appearance of the red mountain torch, standing proudly between the sky and the sea.

Because of this hit, the British officers and soldiers on the opposite side thought that the Tirpitz was finished, but before they could cheer for long, the Tirpitz announced her courage and anger as the king of the sea with a deafening roar!

In fact, the damage of the Tirpitz is limited to the flesh and skin of the minions, and the most critical muscle and bone center is still playing a role almost 100%. Eight large oil-fired boilers roar and roar to produce high-temperature and high-pressure steam at hundreds of tonnes per hour, while four Brom-Fox turbines whirl to provide a steady stream of power for the main drive shaft and main generator. Inside the heavy and sturdy main turret, hundreds of German sailors were servicing the nine 450mm guns: no British shells had yet hit the main weapon system, and these formidable Imperial heavyweights still maintained an unrivalled deterrent.

However, to Colonel Topp's anger, the gunnery of his men was indeed terrible. By the time the battle broke out, the Tirpitz had fired more than 170 shells in eight and a half salleys and 15 salvos, but only two hits were actually observed, and the hit rate was less than 1.2%. In contrast, the British fared much better: the Queen-class battleship against the Tirpitz had already hit 5 of its own guns, and even the R-class at the rear, which had not undergone any modern modifications, also contributed 3 rounds!

For this embarrassing situation, Toph was not only angry, but also mentally prepared. Although the Tirpitz is a glorious masterpiece of German industrial power, and the fire control equipment is excellent and sophisticated, it is the people who operate these equipment; Only after sufficient running-in training can the power of the hardware itself be truly brought into play. It has been less than five months since the completion of the Tirpitz, and the personnel are actually not fully trained, while the British battleship opposite has been in service for at least 23 years, and the sailors on board are already very familiar with their duties and equipment in their hands.

It stands to reason that the Tirpitz in this condition should not be pulled out to the battlefield, but the war will not wait for anyone, and the Tirpitz, which has formed its initial combat effectiveness, must be put into battle to give light and heat to this German campaign to capture Norway. At this time, this standard displacement of 45,600 tons of giant ship turned into a blood cow, for Bismarck (sister) to carry the hatred of 16 381 mm heavy guns, while desperately fighting back, Toph can only hope that Bismarck can be gunned, with a proficiency far higher than the Tirpitz members to score a vital point.

Suddenly the red glow rushed ahead, the purple light was surging, and the dazzling light reflected a large area of the sea red, and the Bismarck fired another volley. The roar of thunder swept in all directions, shaking Topp's eardrums, which were more than 700 meters away, to the point of slight pain. However, no one cared about the deafening sound of the cannon at this time, and their minds were attracted by the few small black dots in the sky. After more than twenty seconds of waiting, 5 Titan-like water columns rose wildly from the sea, and the British battleship surrounded by water waves burst into flames, followed by a large cloud of black-red smoke!

"Well done!" Colonel Toph clenched his fists and waved his arms, and couldn't help but blurt out loudly.

On the battleship Rodney, Admiral Forbes only felt that thousands of thunderbolts struck him at the same time, and in an instant, the surrounding mountains collapsed, which made him unable to control his body anymore and fell heavily on the hard floor. However, the piercing pain from his elbows and ankles made his dark and chaotic Lingtai be stirred up for a while, and he was pulled back from the edge of fainting. Forbes bit the tip of his tongue and forced himself to gather his spirit, and when he struggled to brace half of his body, he found that the entire command tower was lying on the ground, and only one young communications officer was struggling to get up.

At the same time, Forbes sensed that the roll of the ship beneath him was abnormal: it was tilting significantly more to the right than to the left, and the speed of righting from the right was greatly reduced. Forbes, who realized something, was furious, and with the help of the communications officer, he tried his best to get back to the intercom microphone, but what he didn't expect was that the damage to the warship was several times more serious than he expected.

Just now, 2 450-mm shells hit the Rodney almost simultaneously. One of the shots hit the cipher room next door behind the Command Tower, and was blown to pieces along with the Signal Room and the Military Quarters, and only the Command Tower, protected by its thick armor, survived the tsunami landslide-like explosion. The Rodney lost its ability to communicate, and could only communicate with the surrounding warships by means of flags and lights. The other shell was the most deadly, crashing straight into the starboard side and breaking through the outer hull.

As a first-class warship born under the strict restrictions of the treaty, the Rodney was faced with the deadly task of controlling displacement at the beginning of its design. In order to meet the Navy's rigid requirements for heavy artillery and heavy armor, the British designers still felt insufficient after using the built-in main armor belt to save weight, and set their sights on the height of the main armor belt.

Anyone who knows a little bit about physics can see that the main armor belt of the battleship is undoubtedly the bulk of the devouring weight. On the left and right sides of the steel armor is laid a steel armor more than 120 meters long and more than 300 mm thick, which is absolutely frighteningly high, and it is measured in thousand tons. In this case, every 0.1 meter reduction of the main installation will bring a great improvement to the displacement of the warship.

As a result, the British happily played their paper trick of the dreadnought era, that is, to control the tonnage of warships by laying the main armor at a height of only a belt (in English, the word for main armor is "belt"). It can be seen that the British have always been very appropriate for the positioning of this armor - the autumn moon press).

The Rodney's main armor is less than 3.8 meters high and is tilted 15 degrees inward, which makes it seriously inadequate in terms of projection height relative to incoming shells. To add insult to injury, the area underneath this narrow main outfit is basically streaking, with only 3 thin steel plates used as TDS to absorb the impact damage of the torpedo explosion.

In contrast, although the new American battleships are also narrow in the main armament, they also have a thick homogeneous armor under the main armament, which can effectively defend against shells 1~3 meters below the hit waterline. The same historical cricket class, which is not very high, also has a gradually thinning vertical armor underneath, extending to about 2 meters underwater. Rodney, who only bluffs people on paper, has a height of less than 0.5 meters for the main outfit to extend underwater, and as long as the opponent's shell hits the waterline a little downward, it can directly avoid the main outfit and enter the core cabin!

For more than a decade, the world's great powers have enjoyed peace with each other, and the Rodney has been able to become the most powerful battleship on paper. However, in today's real life-and-death showdown, her fatal flaw was finally exposed.

A cannonball from the Bismarck did not form an underwater shell, but only entered the sea very close to the Rodney, but it was this shell that lost its stability after entering the water and rolled wildly, but it bypassed the main equipment of the Rodney, and with the residual kinetic energy, it hit three thin steel walls in a row, and finally flew diagonally into her engine room.

In an instant, the enclosed cabin was devastated, with a massive turbine that broke and tens of thousands of steel fragments swept through the storm. The blazing waves, which had previously been difficult for the British soldiers to deal with, disappeared in just a few tens of seconds, as the raging waters had flooded the area in a very short time, and it was the ultimate ship-killer ten times more difficult than the former!

"According to the report, the ship's No. 2 engine room has been completely destroyed, and we have closed the 11 adjacent watertight hatches, but the sea water is still spreading rapidly through the severely damaged No. 34 watertight compartment. At present, the warship has entered 4,800 tons of water, tilted 7 degrees to the right, and has a speed of 12 knots left! The anxious report of the captain of the damage management team made Forbes feel as if he had been hit on the head, and his body couldn't help but tremble violently. There is no doubt that the Rodney has fallen into a big break and can no longer continue to fight, and in this duel between the capital ships, the Germans won the victory against their own side by virtue of the superiority of large-caliber main guns!

"The ship immediately released smoke and retreated. Ordered the destroyer fleet to carry out torpedo attacks on enemy battleships. At the moment of life and death, Admiral Forbes did not suffer too much pain and hesitation, but quickly gave the order to contingency, "At the same time, prepare the transport boat, I will go to the new flagship to continue the battle!" ”