"Boom! Rumble! The 210-mm guns of the three German cruisers Cologne, Königsberg, and Karlsruhe spewed dazzling muzzle flames one after another; Although they are all old models from decades ago, they still look majestic and majestic in the naval battles of today's era. Eighteen shells screeched in the air and rushed towards the British fleet 18 km away, and suddenly, the large cruiser of De, which had been broken and sunk in the sand, landed in this sea again!

(Because the dispersion of 210 mm shells was not as good as that of large-caliber shells, and the number of main guns of the K-class heavy cruisers was relatively small, the warships of this class did not use the half-salvo fire commonly practiced by large German warships, but directly used the simplest and crudest all-salvo gunnership.) ）

After 40 seconds of flight, the shells exploded into the sea near the British battleship. In an instant, the waves exploded, the white waves flew, and the thick columns of water rose into the air, roaring and swept up into the air far above the bridge of the navigation ship. After a brief period of adjustment, the British and Germans were ready to face each other: Cologne against Orion, Königsberg against Exeter, and Karlsruhe against York. As for the light cruiser of Ajax, which was second in the British fleet, it was ignored by the Germans, who had one less ship; She poured all her firepower on the Cologne, the leader of the German fleet, in order to relieve the pressure on her sister ship, Orion, which was clearly inferior in the duel.

"Report, the 2 light cruisers in front of the British fleet have begun to turn their rudder to the right!" The German fleet had just finished firing the first round when a neutral voice rang out in the command tower. Brigadier General Miller raised his binoculars to take a closer look, and saw that the British battleship column in the distance was gradually split into two from the middle: the two heavy cruisers in the rear were still sailing at a steady and uniform speed, while the light cruisers in front were approaching him at high speed, and they had a desperate posture of burning with their own jade!

"The arrogant British are so shrewd and difficult to deal with when they start a war!" Miller gritted his teeth and lowered the binoculars, a look of solemnity and jealousy flashed in his eyes for the first time. According to his original plan, the only thing his fleet really needed to deal with was the two heavy cruisers equipped with 203 mm cannons - the other two light cruisers had obvious shortcomings in their effective range, and even if they joined the heavy cruisers and fired at their own side, the damage they could do would be extremely limited. Now, however, the British did the opposite: the two weakest light cruisers were not only not placed at the end of the queue, but were placed ahead of the heavy cruisers, and they did not play their cards at all according to the common sense of ship bombardment, and directly broke away from the battle line and approached their own side at high speed.

As the first target of the British light cruisers, the Cologne, which was ranked first in the German ship, was unable to maneuver at a distance as it did in normal combat. Because if she did, it would be tantamount to giving up the T-shaped head of the Königsberg in the rear; The two British light cruisers were able to concentrate the fire of 16 152mm naval guns and launch a stormy bombardment on the Königsberg, which was engaged with the British heavy cruisers. Even if the K-class heavy patrol has a well-established core capsule defense, it will definitely not be able to withstand the blow of so many rapid-fire cannons unilaterally. In this case, the Cologne must engage in a close-quarters duel with the British Light Cruisers who rushed forward.

"I must admit that you have succeeded in getting the light cruisers, which were originally wastes, to fully exert their combat effectiveness in this battle. But will that change the outcome of the battle? Miller muttered, with a bit of pride and pity in admiration, "Even if the combat power of the K-class heavy cruiser is only one-third of that of the German class, it is definitely not something that ordinary treaty cruisers can shake!" ”

With a loud roar, the water column soared like a dragon and a snake, and the cruiser Cologne sailed in the surging waves, and the two main turrets were facing the shadow of the British light cruiser sailing in the distance. Under the action of the gyroscopic stabilizer, the 6 thick and straight barrels constantly adjust the pitch angle with the roll of the battleship, and always maintain the lock on to the target. After five minutes of fighting, the distance between the two sides had been reduced to within 16 km by the British, and the Cologne's artillery fire had become more and more accurate in the process of steady firing, and the average impact point was already very close to the target.

"Boom!" Thunder roared, the wind whistled and danced, and the Cologne, with a standard displacement of 7,500 tons, trembled again under the recoil impact of the salvo of six main guns; The red orange flame of the cannon is like a gorgeous golden chrysanthemum blooming in the void, and every time you see it, it is so pleasing to the eye. However, in the midst of this magnificent scenery, there is the birth of the deadliest ship-killer. The new 150kg semi-armor-piercing projectile shoots at a speed of 737m/s: the slender and sharp hood cuts through the air in front like a blade cutting butter, allowing the projectile to crash into its target from a height of thousands of meters with minimal loss!

The cannonballs flew through the air, slowing down and cutting through a parabola with a small to large slope, but no one could catch all of it, and the British sailors on the cruiser Orion could only see a few small black dots rushing towards them. This time, the British were no longer as favored by Lady Luck as they had been in previous rounds. A shell slammed into the right side of the ship's amidships at supersonic speeds, and the lightweight quilt cap tore through two thin layers of structural steel without suspense with the help of kinetic energy, and broke through the main horizontal armor of only 25.4 mm at a large angle. The reliable delayed fuse successfully triggered the **** set at the bottom of the projectile body 0.02 seconds after impact, while around and in front of it, it was tightly loaded with up to 7kg of high-energy high explosives.

"Bang!" The shells exploded in all directions, and the blast wave of destruction swept through the interior of the British battleship, tearing everything it came across. The auxiliary generator located near the explosion site was immediately and fatally hit, and the three-phase rotor and equipment lines were blown to pieces; There was a widespread power outage in the internal compartments of the battleship and darkness, and more than half of the water pumps could not guarantee a source of power. The adjacent No. 3 boiler room was also not spared, and the boiler body and auxiliary pipes were severely damaged under the impact of the blazing air waves. As a result, the ship's power was lost by one-sixth, and the top speed was reduced to 30 knots.

Thick smoke filled the air, and the flames raged more than ten meters high from the Amidships of the Orion, and its scorching temperature could be clearly felt even in the command tower. Rao is the British captain was very aware of the essential difference between the power of the 8-inch cannon and the 6-inch main gun on his own battleship, and at this time he was still shocked by the damage management department's reported losses: this shell actually destroyed more than 200 cubic meters of cabin space, and caused much more damage to the hull structure and sailors than he expected. If this continues, I am afraid that my light patrol ship will not be able to withstand a few shells, and it will lose its combat effectiveness due to excessive damage!

Not long after, the Orion's eight 152-mm guns also let out an unwilling roar; The sailors who saw this scene temporarily calmed down from their panic and began to pray that the shells would make effective hits. However, the British captain's face did not improve in the slightest, and his lips became dry and pale because of the subconscious pursing: at the current 15km engagement distance, the guns of his own battleship had no accuracy at all, and they could only be slaughtered by the other side until they entered 12km. He gritted his teeth fiercely, with a look of determination in his eyes, now he has no way to retreat, he can only rush forward and survive through the chaos of fighting to the death!

Artillery roared, waves of light burst out, and another 10 minutes rushed past the battlefield. During this period, the cruiser Cologne, which had found its target, significantly increased the rate of fire of its main guns: on average, in less than 20 seconds, six shells whizzed through the air and fired furiously at the British light cruisers. White foam is sprayed on the surface of the sea, water jets are in the air, and brilliant fireworks burst out with shells hitting targets. The British cruiser Orion was also severely damaged by this series of blows: the steel armor cracked, the debris danced, and the smoke of flames billowed from the hideous and twisted breaches, almost enveloping half of the warship in chaos and heat.

"Boom!" The 7,200-ton hull of the Orion once again shook violently, and the thunderous explosion swept through the command tower, making every officer in it dizzy and frightened. The British captain struggled to follow the prestige, only to see the A turret at the front of the battleship burst open like a watermelon; The twisted barrels hung on the deck, and the British captain could even see the mutilated limbs of the gunners in a sea of smoke and fire. Obviously, a quarter of the firepower of this warship has been completely reimbursed, and if the Germans had dropped their shells another 7 to 10 meters, the warship would have been left with no bones!

"Captain, the German artillery fire is too fierce, let's withdraw from the battle!" An officer said with an anxious expression. In the short but fierce exchange of fire just now, the Orion had been hit by nine 210-mm shells one after another. Not only did the crew suffer more than 100 casualties, but the superstructure, including the telegraph room and the navigation room, was seriously damaged, and even the core cabin was penetrated several times, causing more than 700 tons of water to enter the building. For this battleship, which has a displacement of just over 7,000 tons, it is already extremely heavy damage. According to the British Navy's combat regulations, the warship could have released smoke and evacuated.

"But we have now only hit three shells from the Germans, and we have not caused any substantial damage at all." The British captain gritted his teeth and spoke, his expression full of pain and unwillingness. It wasn't until a few minutes ago that the Orion, which had narrowed the engagement distance to 12km, barely had decent firing accuracy; The explosive power of the 152-mm shell was equally embarrassing, and it was difficult to achieve the desired lethal effect in the face of the post-war large-scale cruisers. He suddenly hated the idiot parliamentarians in China who only knew how to reduce military spending, if his battleship was equipped with 203 mm cannons, even if there were only 6 guns, today's battle situation would be far better than the current one! (To be continued.) )