"Boom!" The 450-mm shells roared like thunder and slammed into the open deck of the Rodney, and the thin shipbuilding steel plates were torn apart without suspense, completely exposing the annular main gun mount below to the incoming shells. In an instant, www.biquge.info tip of the German heavy shell collided head-on with this layer of 374 mm thick heavy armor, and in a burst of sparkling sparks, the cap shattered the outer hardened layer of the armor, and the heavy shell was driven by its own strong residual kinetic energy, spinning at high speed and madly drilling into the dense steel armor!

As a warship built in the early 20s, the Rodney's imaginary enemies were only the Japanese Nagato-class and the American Colorado-class, both "bigseven", and the thickness of the 374 mm gun mount was indeed the best in the world at the time of her birth, and it was extremely reliable. However, in today's era of rapid development of artillery shells and artillery technology, its defense power can no longer be called very strong. After an unprecedentedly fierce squeezing collision between atoms, the German armor-piercing projectile, which still had most of the body left, stubbornly broke through the defenses in front of it, and the delayed fuse located at the bottom of the shell faithfully carried out its mission, and the spark instantly detonated the 37.5kg of high-energy explosives contained inside the shell!

"Boom!" There was a shocking sound, the red light rolled and exploded in anger, and a fierce and incomparable wave of fire suddenly exploded inside the C gun mount, destroying and decaying, sweeping away everything encountered along the way. The hundreds of British sailors in the entire turret and vertical gun shaft only had time to let out a few screams before they were completely swallowed up by the waves of flame and flying shrapnel of more than 1,000 degrees, and the complex and sophisticated main gun servo equipment was all shattered and disintegrated, and turned into countless fragments under the coercion of the surging waves, and scattered inch by inch. Fragments flew and fire surged, and the space was completely occupied by death and destruction, leaving only three massive barrels that had not yet melted to stand on the deformed gun carriage, a testament to the force that this place once possessed.

"Your Excellency, Admiral, the C turret is completely finished, and even the largest and hardest main bearing has been blown into several pieces......"

Hearing the trembling report of the captain of the management with a crying voice, Forbes, who had just wobbled to stand up from the floor, instantly turned pale as paper. He turned his gaze to the foredeck in disbelief, and then he saw the catastrophic images that made his eyes bloodshot. A large hole had been pierced in the vicinity of the main deck of the C gun mount, and the steel armor around it was twisted like twisted flowers, and black billowing smoke was pouring outward; The most heartbreaking thing for Forbes is that the originally arc-shaped gun mount has been significantly deformed at this time, which is enough to show what a violent explosion occurred inside the gun mount, and the fate of the equipment and personnel inside can be imagined!

"Fortunately, the explosion didn't reach the ammunition depot below...... one of the staff officers said with difficulty, finally finding the last bit of solace in the disaster. Since the Battle of Jutland was planted with several firecrackers, the British designers paid special attention to the fire protection of the ammunition depots of warships, except for the saltfish destroyers, which could not be equipped with armor, all large and medium-sized ships were equipped with heavy blast doors to avoid damage to the ammunition depots below due to bullets in the turrets or gun mounts. At this time, the Rodney only lost one-third of its firepower, and did not become a brilliant firework like her predecessors, and for a while, everyone in the command tower had a feeling of happiness that they would not die.

"Continue to fight, and if we don't destroy the German fleet in front of us, our artillery fire won't stop for a moment!" Forbes clenched his fists and said with tears in his eyes. His calculations were clear: the Rodney had suffered such a heavy blow, and he would have to lie on the slipway for at least three months when he returned, and since the warship would have a long vacuum period in the future, it was better to choose to break the jar and fight the Germans to the end. At the same time, when the artillery battle between the two sides reached this time, Forbes couldn't help but feel a breath of anger in his heart: why did the German battleship have firepower, speed, range, and armor protection? Today, the evil German battleships must die to comfort the souls of the British sailors!

However, less than two minutes later, a catastrophic blow struck the Rodney. In Bismarck's last two rounds of firing, 2 of them crashed into the water less than 20 meters from the target; One more shot hit the starboard side of the Rodney, making direct contact with the 95 mm horizontal armor above the boiler compartment.

In the face of low-speed heavy bombs of 450 mm caliber, horizontal armor of less than 4 inches was completely as fragile as tofu. The devastating situation that had just occurred inside Gun Shaft C was once again staged in the boiler room, and the leaking hot water vapor made the explosion even more terrifying and powerful, and arbitrarily harvested the lives of the sailors in the cabin. The explosion completely destroyed two boilers and blew up the water supply line of the other boiler, causing the latter to be forced to shut down; As a result, the Rodney's power plummeted by three-eighths, and its 28,000-horsepower output was not even as good as that of the American Iron Tortoise on the other side of the ocean.

But that's not the end of it. Two near-misses that fell into the water near the warship inflicted damage on the Rodney that even exceeded the Germans' expectations.

In order to save weight, the British designers laid a built-in main armor belt for the Rodney: this certainly saved the area of the armored deck, but the negative effect was the lack of protection at the waterline, and even the 40mm guns on the torpedo boat could easily open countless holes in the hull of the Rodney.

This time, when the heavy shells exploded near the waterline of the Rodney, thousands of shrapnel fired directly into a colander on her side hull, and the raging sea water poured into the ship through these large and small, dense honeycomb holes, and the British soldiers were powerless to plug the leak. They had no choice but to close the watertight hatches one by one, sacrificing a large amount of reserve buoyancy in exchange for the safety of the warship itself. This led to a steep increase in the displacement of the warship, and the speed soon dropped to an outrageous level.

"According to the report, the ship has increased its water by 1,600 tons, with a total water intake of more than 2,500 tons, and the maximum speed can only be maintained at 19 knots." The anxiety in Forbes's heart deepened a little more, and his teeth were gnawed and bitten. At present, the speed of the Rodney has dropped to the point that even the Royal Oak is not as good as the early dreadnoughts; Regardless of whether she wins or loses this battle today, it will be difficult for her to have a chance to retreat from the whole body.

It's just that Forbes can't understand why the German battleship on the opposite side still retains such a lethal attack capability? The Warrior's firepower is not inadequate, and Forbes thinks that if he were to be shot instead, he would almost certainly not be able to hold on at this time!