Chapter 178: Gorgeous Loss
HMS Magnificent, the second British battleship of the Palerrophon-class, was built at the Eswick shipyard and began construction in February 1907, was launched in November and completed in May 1909. When the www.biquge.info War broke out, it and its two sister ships were incorporated into the 4th Battleship Squadron of the British Grand Fleet to defend the British mainland. This class of battleships is an improved version of the "Dreadnought", equipped with five twin 45 times the diameter of 12-inch naval guns, one on the front and one on the front and rear decks, and the other three are placed in the middle of the battleship in the shape of an inverted "mountain", and can only concentrate up to 4 pairs of main guns when firing from a single port, and 3 pairs of main guns can be used for targets directly in front and rear; The main armor belt of the hull is from 127 to 254 mm, the frontal turret and bridge conning tower armor is 280 mm, and the gun mount is 254 mm; Equipped with oil-fired boilers and Parsons steam turbines, 4-axle propulsion, and a maximum speed of 20. knots 75; Rated combat personnel 732 people.
In the waters of Jutland, the "Gorgeous" participated in a fierce artillery battle with the German dreadnought group as a member of the Bernie detachment, and in a very short period of time, it was hit more than 20 times by shells of large and small calibers, the bow and deck of the ship were almost turned into sieve holes, the front main turret was damaged, the bridge, chimney and rear buildings were damaged, the part below the waterline was broken through in two places, more than 600 tons of water was entered, and the inclination of the hull once exceeded 10 degrees.
The scars on the ship and the bloodshed of their comrades did not break the spirit of the British crew, but gave them a high spirit, vowing to make the enemy pay a heavy price. After temporarily freeing herself from the entanglement of a fierce enemy, the "Gorgeous" carried out a sea maneuver with the entire detachment and learned that another detachment of German dreadnoughts was approaching from the sea to the northwest, and all the combatants on board were on standby. After that, when the crew heard the news of the unfortunate sinking of their own cover ship, everyone gritted their teeth and spread their fists. Soon after, the forward stern lights flashed, and it was the turn of the "Gorgeous" to swing the rudder, and at that moment, the lookout spotted the ship's shadow in the northwest sea, and the commander gave the order to fire flares. When the unfortunate German torpedo boat appeared in the flashing dazzling light, the secondary guns on the port side of the "Gorgeous" that could still be used in battle opened fire one after another, until the turn was completed, and hundreds of shells were poured on the target, but the bad sea conditions seriously affected the accuracy of the ship's guns, and the British gunners not only failed to sink the German battleship, but angered the German dreadnought detachment behind and caused themselves big trouble......
As midnight approached, several piercing pillars of light shot from the northwest sea from the port side of the Gorgeous, and they swam on the surface of the sea for a moment, and finally locked on the Gorgeous. Suddenly, countless cannon flashes pierced the darkness for a length of time like a celebratory fireworks on the River Thames. As they waited with bated breath, a second seemed like a century, and people painfully realized that in the dark void, a large mass of steel wrapped in high explosives was rushing towards them with bad intentions. Finally, they burst through the air with a shrill roar, some landing in front of them, some falling behind them over the mast, and the huge jets of water that were close to the misses soon drenched the crew like a waterfall, and shrapnel of all sizes hit the hull and deck builders with a loud sound.
Not to be outdone, the main guns of the "Gorgeous" returned fire just after the German dreadnought detachment opened fire, but in the face of the opponent's imposing artillery fire, it fired neither neatly nor ferociously, like an exhausted fighter barely defending his dignity in the ring. Realizing that the opponent's first round of shelling had found the right position, the ship's command immediately gave the order to turn. The helmsman turned the rudder calmly and quickly, and the dreadnought, built earlier, became a large whale trying to evade the whaling ships, swinging its body vigorously and dodging and leaping in the waves. However, at a distance of 5,000 to 6,000 meters, the pillars of light from the two German dreadnoughts kept biting the "Gorgeous", while the other four German dreadnoughts and their accompanying light ships hid in the darkness and fired desperately.
From the second round of firing, the Germans' shells began to frantically take revenge on the British battleship, which had abused the S-32.
An armor-piercing shell landed on the bridge, and the entire battleship was like being struck by a giant, each bulkhead trembled, and suffocating smoke poured into the bridge compartment along the torn hole of the shell. Faced with this mortal threat, the men on duty on the bridge used gas masks, but the telephone lines were also cut off, and the British officers had to use microphones to communicate, and there was a lot of noise on the other end of the microphone. Immediately afterward, another scream fell, and after a violent explosion, the armor plates of the bridge were twisted into strange shapes, and the chart room and the people inside disappeared in an instant.
An armor-piercing shell hit the side turret, igniting the ammunition in the loading chamber, and the flames and smoke seeped into the boiler room through the hole, causing the four boilers to stop working and the stokers had to evacuate their posts. A medium-caliber shell hit the rear main turret, breaking the main gun sights, leaving the gunners to wait for the bridge observations to fire, and to make matters worse, the main turret's power supply line was also cut off by enemy gunfire, and the turret and main gun could only be maneuvered by manpower, and the gunners could only maintain a rate of fire every two minutes despite their best efforts.
The British battleship, caught in a storm of enemy fire, had its infirmary overcrowded, and many of the wounded had to be given first aid on deck. Seriously injured people are simply injected with a dose of morphine, and the medical officer's job is to quickly stop the bleeding and bandage the upper splint. The sailors who had inhaled too much poisonous smoke were also carried up from the bilge one by one, they were short of breath, their skin was pale and they kept vomiting, some had to do artificial respiration, some had to inject cardiotonics, and the few oxygen cylinders were quickly used up, and the anxious sounds and cries for help were endless......
The battle lasted only a few minutes, and only one main turret remained in the port side of the battered "Gorgeous", which was not spared by heavy German fire. One shot 402. The 5-kilogram 12-inch armor-piercing projectile hit and pierced through its turret armor, exploding at the canister position, and the flames hit both the turret and the bottom ammunition magazine. Unlike the German dreadnoughts, which had fire doors installed in every opening in the gun chambers, workshops, and elevator positions, the damage caused by the explosion was far more terrible than the German-made armor-piercing shell itself, and the gunpowder stored in the gun chamber and the loading chamber was ignited, killing 70 officers and men almost instantly, and then the incandescent tongue of fire detonated the shell pile closest to the hoisting canister in the main ammunition depot. With an earth-shattering explosion, the turret weighing more than 500 tons "jumped" on the spot, and dazzling flames erupted from the gun mount, instantly engulfing everything around the turret, and the entire port side deck turned into a terrifying outward shape.
At the secondary gun position at the rear chimney base, several surviving gunners were stunned by the sight before them. The port side deck was quickly filled with choking smoke and dust after being burned by the flames, and the entire battleship was tilting to the left at an unprecedented speed.
A non-commissioned officer shouted with great reluctance: "Our 'magnificence' is finished, abandon the ship!" ”
With that, he took the lead and jumped off the deck, followed by several crew members, and after falling into the water, they hurried to swim into the distance. Immediately afterwards, more and more crew members ran onto the deck, and dozens of officers and men quickly gathered on the starboard side of the battleship, but they hesitated to abandon the ship and escape, because most of them were still lucky. After all, this is a very powerful battleship, and when it was built and put into service, people had high hopes, and perhaps as long as the damage management and repair were effective, it could still hold on, and even witness the British Grand Fleet turn the tide and win this naval battle, and finally return to Britain with the glory of "unsinkable......
In the blink of an eye, the British crew who took the lead in diving to escape had swam dozens of meters. At this moment, a huge explosion suddenly came from behind him, and the red flame light reflected the night sky and stained the sea red, only to see the hot debris fragments flying in the air, and the huge waves set off by the explosion spread outward, and the survivors did not dare to turn back, and continued to swim forward desperately.
At this moment, Natsuki and his colleagues witnessed the explosion of the "Gorgeous" from the bridge. The flames that rose into the sky were wrapped in a series of rapid and violent explosions, the towering three-legged mast collapsed, the shiny fragments swirled in all directions, the middle of the hull broke, black soot and white steam rose from all directions, and huge columns of smoke rose into the air like the color of the shroud.
The captain of the ship, Colonel von Lubic, walked up to the microphone, opened the lid, bent down slightly, and said in a calm and calm tone: "The enemy ship exploded!" ”
If applause and cheers thundered through every corner of the "Frederick the Great", the same was true on every German battleship in the battle. Prior to this, they had sunk a number of British ships, including a battlecruiser and two armored cruisers, but this was the first time they had taken out a British dreadnought. Since the completion of the "Dreadnought", these new capital ships with heavy guns, thick armor and high speed have been regarded by the British as a weapon to continue their maritime supremacy, although the German navy has rushed to catch up, has built many classes of dreadnoughts, and has shown their good strength in various military exchange occasions, the British people sincerely look down on this "nouveau riche" who lacks maritime traditions. After Britain declared war on Germany, "The End of William's Fleet" was cited as a toast by many British, and many people even sketched the wonderful scene of the "Battle of New Trafalgar".
A few minutes later, the smoke that had enveloped the "Gorgeous" began to clear. From the British battleship "Giant", which was lined up behind it, one could see that its stern to the ecstasis was still on the water, the propellers were spinning in the air, and people were crawling out of the aft turret and hatches. A British destroyer ventured to the rescue, but at this moment, the last part of the "Gorgeous" capsized and exploded, and the scorching debris was blown into the air and finally landed on the surrounding sea, leaving nothing behind.
(End of chapter)