The explosion and sinking of the Lord Nelson marked a turning point in the stalemate. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

Although the Lord Nelson had completely disappeared from the sea, the Zealandia, which did not dare to risk going straight up, chose to turn and avoid, and the huge hull began to tilt, and the violent maneuvering even caused the Zealandia to expose the red bottom below the waterline.

Although due to the tilt of the ship's hull and the change of course, all the guns on the Zealandia could not fire for a while, and the pressure on the Hesse, which was originally set on fire, was greatly reduced. But the Braunschweig, which was attacking the Zealandia, was not very happy.

Because of the turn, the enemy's side facing the Braunschweig will soon turn into the stern, and the smaller projection area and the rapid change of course will bring a large error to the Braunschweig's range.

Therefore, while the enemy ship was still facing him, the six main guns of the Braunschweig aimed at the Zealandia and fired five rounds of all-gun salvos at the fastest speed, but the 30 columns of water rising into the sky disappointed the officers and men of the Braunschweig, and the extremely annoyed sighters even held their heads and shouted: "God abandoned us today!" ”

However, the remorse of the sightman did not wait for only a few dozen seconds, and before the Braunschweig could even fire the next salvo, the sightman who saw the strange appearance of the battleship on the opposite side through the rangefinder opened his mouth wide, and when he was sure that it was not his own dazzle, he excitedly shouted: "Please forgive me!" God is with us today! ”

A thick column of black smoke mixed with white steam erupted from the back chimney of the Zealandia, so strange that the officers and men on the Braunschweig who saw this scene were stunned, obviously all 30 shells on their side were missed. However, the enemy's current situation looks like a water explosion in the boiler compartment?

Although the officers and men of the Hesse were as unclear as they had been when the Lord Nelson was blown in two, this did not stop the officers and men of the Braunschweig from cheering loudly.

The fire control operator, who heard the sightman's shout from his headset, shouted "God is with us" in excitement, and the phrase was carried down the microphone to the bridge and each of the main turrets, and soon the Braunschweig was filled with cheers of "God with us" everywhere on the Braunschweig.

The Braunschweig was indeed blessed by God, and all five salvos did fail, but the fire control system was firmly locked onto the opponent, and although all 30 shells went into the water, more than a third of them landed less than 200 yards near the Zealandia.

The most recent one landed only 20 yards from the Zealandia, and the cannonball hood that entered the water at a small angle of 11 degrees fell off and changed its trajectory under the buoyancy of the water, and then slammed into the waterline of the Zealandia. Due to the tilt of the steering and the elevation of the position of the main armor belt, the shells bypassed the 229 mm main armor belt and the 51 mm armor of the inclined section of the protective deck.

With the improved design of the hard quilt cap and the optimized aerodynamic shape of the hood, the 330 kg new shell fired by the Hesse's 45 times diameter naval gun has a penetration depth comparable to the 302 kg old shell fired by the 53 times diameter naval gun of the combined force class.

The surging seawater quickly cooled the boiling boiler, and the sharp thermal barrier cold contraction caused the boiler in the rear boiler compartment to explode instantly, and the seawater was vaporized by the high temperature in the furnace and then gushed out of the chimney.

And that's not all, the passage opened by the shells from the side to the rear boiler room was quickly filled with seawater, and the influx of thousands of tons of seawater made the Zealandia begin to roll violently without even having a chance to plug the leak.

The Germans' shells continued to add scars to the Zealandia, and soon the Sealandia was tilted more than 17 degrees, and the loss of the rear boiler room made the ship's speed drop by 8 knots, and the captain of the Sealandia, who could not support it, had to break away from the battle line and give way to the channel.

For more than 40 minutes, the officers and men of the Zealandia unanimously tried to save their battleship, but due to the inclination of the water, the 203 mm upper armor belt, which was already very close to the water, was also not under water at this time, and the sea water poured in from the breach in the upper armor belt that had been penetrated by the Braunschweig several times, which caused the Sealandia's inclination to increase to 28 degrees.

In order to restore balance, the captain of the Zealandia ordered a reverse water injection, but this was to no avail. The situation became even worse after 400 tons of water were injected on the other side. More than 1,000 tons of seawater lowered the Sealandia's freeboard by nearly 2 meters, and the protective deck, which was originally above the water level, was already lower than the sea level, so that the inclined section of the protective deck did not play any role in blocking the seawater, and the sea water directly submerged the horizontal section of the protective deck.

At 18:46, the Sealandia tilted to an irretrievable 40 degrees, and the captain was forced to give the order to abandon the ship.

At 19:21, the hull of the Zealandia capsized, and the huge hull was upside down on the surface of the water to reveal the red bottom of the ship, and then slowly sank to the bottom of the Ionian Sea in the night.

Because of the "God's favor" bombardment of the Braunschweig, there was even a call for "the best way to shoot in water" in the German Navy after the war, although these people were finally suppressed by the "super heavy bomb Dafa" and "450 kg bomb Dafa" two factions of people who pursued vertical empowerment, but to a certain extent, it did promote the strengthening of the underwater protection design of German warships after the war.

"Damn it! When are we going to get rid of that boat on the other side! "In the Commander of the Tyrol, Didrichs turned pale. Sinking 1 Lord Nelson-class and damaging 1 King Edward VII-class (the Sealandia had not yet abandoned the ship) did not make him happy.

The operational staff constantly summarized the wireless telegrams sent by each ship, and then sorted out the battlefield situation and handed it to Didrichs, so Didrichs knew that the situation of his own fleet was not optimistic.

And it is not enough to sink and damage 1 dreadnought each, if you can't sink two dreadnoughts of the French, even if you sink a few more dreadnoughts, you can't talk about victory at all. The sinking of only 4-5 former dreadnoughts would not demobilize the Allies' maritime power in the Mediterranean.

What's more, the warships on their side have also been damaged, and even if they can all be brought back to the Adriatic, repairing these warships will allow the Allies to maintain a limited fleet in the Eastern Mediterranean for a long time. Therefore, it is necessary to sink 2 French dreadnoughts, to deter the British and French with a big victory, so that they will not dare to provoke easily before the new dreadnoughts have formed a combat force, and at the same time, it will also allow those who ride the wall to make a choice when the British and French do not dare to act rashly.

But now the French dreadnoughts on the opposite side are a little too hard? Fourteen definite hits were observed by the sight alone, and the 450-kilogram shells fired from the Tyrol's 50-diameter 305-mm gun could penetrate a 365-mm Krupp target at a distance of 10,000 yards. And the dreadnoughts on the opposite side had already knocked out the forward B turret from the Tyrol; The blown rear mast smashed into the C turret in the rear, damaging one of the barrels; The shells hit in the rear side should have pierced the flue under the rear chimney, and billowing smoke was pouring out of the breach, enveloping the entire aft deck; And there was at least 2 degrees of hull trim due to water ingress in the stern. The Tyrol had the upper hand in the confrontation with its opponents, but the French battleship was unsinkable!

"Damn, are our shells full of sand?" Didrichs couldn't help but curse.

The Tyrole's shells were certainly not filled with sand. At 18:11, the Tyrolean crew fired a perfect salvo to prove this, and the spotter saw only 3 columns of water rising into the sky, which meant that 6 shells fell on the opponent!

Let? The turret mount under the Barr's B main turret was penetrated, although the French projectile was not as direct as the Cordite projectile. The Barr followed in the footsteps of the Lord Nelson, but the fire spread upwards into the main turret and ignited the six silk cartridges in the turret, and the entire turret immediately turned into an oven, and the screams of the crew members spread throughout the bridge through the microphone, and the terrible screams made everyone in the bridge, including Vice Admiral La Perel, terrified.

In order to prevent the fire from spreading to the ammunition depot, the captain ordered the forward ammunition depot to be filled with water. The bow of the Barr had been reverse-filled with more than 200 tons of water, and two of the Tyrol's six shells had hit Jean? The situation was exacerbated by the Barr's bow, with the ammunition depot flooded and the bow penetrated into the water, filling more than 1,600 tons of seawater. The bow of the Barr.

The original stern tilt immediately became a bow tilt, which was accompanied by a roll of about 10 degrees. Soon, the total amount of seawater inside the ship exceeded 2,000 tons. The situation of the Barr was even worse than that of the Zealandia, the bow deck was almost level with the water, and the waves of the battleship that were still sailing surged up the foredeck, almost hitting the A turret in the front, and the tips of the propeller blades on the other side could be seen in the stern raised in the rear.

Such a serious injury though not yet let let? The Barr sank, and if the almost completely incapacitated battleship could be towed to Malta for emergency repairs, it might have had the reputation of an "unsinkable battleship" like the historic battlecruiser Seydlitz.

However, it was no longer possible on this battlefield, and the Germans would not let go of this live target paralyzed on the sea. After Vice Admiral La Perel borrowed the destroyer that had come up, the captain gave the order to abandon the ship. Jean slumped on the water? The Barr was eventually torpedoed by a German destroyer at the end of the battle.

Accompanied by Jean? The Barr abandoned the ship, and Didrichs was finally convinced that the scales of victory had tipped in his favor!