At the time of the destruction of the "Barham", the life of the "Gold Coast" was not much better. Although only the "Wuhan" and "Nanchang" were dealing with the "Gold Coast" at that time, and the malfunctioning turret on the "Nanchang" once again lost its combat effectiveness, the "Gold Coast", the battleship named after Britain's most important colony, could not escape the fate of destruction in the face of the encirclement and annihilation of two more powerful battleships.

"Gold Coast" is another name for the coastal area of the Gulf of Guinea in West Africa, which was called the "Gold Coast" after the arrival of the first colonists because of its abundance of gold. Originally, the "Gold Coast" was one of the more important colonies of the Tang Empire on the African continent, especially before the opening of the Suez Canal, and the fleet heading to the West would stop at the "Gold Coast" after passing through Cape Town, and then continue on. Similarly, the abundance of gold here was the main overseas treasure of the Empire. However, during the period when the Tang Empire was at war with Japan, the empire had to shrink its sphere of influence, and Britain took this opportunity to seize the "Gold Coast" and turn it into its own colony. Before the outbreak of the Great War, the "Gold Coast" was the most important British colony, and it can be said that a large part of the expenses that Britain spent on building new naval warships before the Great War were plundered from here.

The battleship "Gold Coast" was built with the donation of British colonists in the area at that time, and it was also the fifth battleship of the "Queen Elizabeth" class. At that time, during the First Global War, the British Navy had planned to build only four Queen Elizabeth-class battleships, and the British government only paid for the construction of four of them. After the Battle of Jutland, the flaws in the design of the battleships of the British Navy were exposed, and the position of the British Navy was demonstrated. At that time, Britain, France and other countries were organizing expeditionary forces. Prepare to fight into the Pacific Ocean and defeat the Tang Empire. At that time, the British Navy needed more and better battleships, and the construction of the "Gold Coast" was decided. It was also because its cost was provided by the colonists of the "Gold Coast" area that the battleship was named the "Gold Coast".

Compared to the other four warships of the same class. The overhaul of the "Gold Coast" during its service was not very thorough, mainly because before the outbreak of the war, the British Navy lacked sufficient military spending, and a large number of newly built warships had drained the British Navy's military spending. It can be said that the performance of the "Gold Coast" at that time was the worst of the five "Queen Elizabeth" class, and if it had not been for the radar installed before the German "Far East Fleet" was encountered, I am afraid that this battleship would not have been able to participate in the battle with the third task force. But it is precisely because of this that the "Gold Coast" embarked on a road of no return after leaving the port of Aberdeen.

Like the "Barham", the captain of the "Gold Coast" learned that Summerville had been killed at about 5:30 a.m. And almost simultaneously the decision to retreat was made. However, unlike the "Barham", the captain of the ship did not make a low mistake, and he gave the order to turn right, not left. It was less than 5:40. The "Gold Coast" began to turn at full speed and headed in the direction of the coastline. Although there are a lot of reefs and shoals in the shallow waters, at least they won't explode compared to the huge bombs fired by enemy warships.

After discovering that the "Gold Coast" had turned and fled, the captain of the "Wuhan" ordered the battleship to turn left and speed up without consulting the fleet commander, and then the "Nanchang" following the "Wuhan" also quickly turned left and returned. In the previous shelling, because the "Gold Coast" was at the rear, it was also the farthest away from the "Wuhan" and "Nanchang". So only two armor-piercing rounds were fired, and both in inconsequential positions. Now, the two sides turned almost at the same time, because the "Wuhan" and "Nanchang" were faster and the angular speed of the turn was faster, so the "Gold Coast" did not widen the distance between the two warships because of this, but only gained a temporary respite. But it was precisely because of the unauthorized departure from the battle that the captain of the "Wuhan" was severely criticized by Chang Zhixin after the battle, but. His decision at that time was obviously correct, and if the "Wuhan" had not turned around immediately, but had consulted the fleet commander first, he would probably not have been able to stop the fleeing "Gold Coast."

Three warships sailed quickly on the sea. Before turning, the "Wuhan" and "Nanchang" positions were in the northwest direction of the "Gold Coast". By 5:53 a.m., when the "Nanchang" had finally completed its turn, the two warships were already south of the "Gold Coast." At that time, the "Gold Coast" was heading 25 degrees. The speed is 24 knots, and the course of the "Wuhan" and "Nanchang" is 20 degrees. Speed 27 knots. It was only after five minutes that the "Wuhan" began to slow down, maintaining the same speed as the enemy ship and sailing in a northeasterly direction.

Obviously, the speed of the three battleships at that time exceeded the maximum sailing speed allowed during the artillery battle, although the battle was still going on, and the distance between the two sides in a straight line was only about 6 nautical miles, but the hit rate of the artillery bombardment was surprisingly low, mainly because the speed was too fast, and the wind and waves on the sea surface were relatively large, and the battleship was very turbulent, and often the gunners aimed at the target, but the shells that were fired did not know where to fly because of the interference of many factors!

The scuffle continued until about 10 a.m., when the Gold Coast approached the shoal area outside Seaford and had to slow down and turn to the right, that is, in the direction of the Wuhan and Nanchang.

"Wuhan" and "Nanchang" did not miss this opportunity, at this time the sea area of the battle is less than 20 nautical miles from Eastbourne Harbor, if the "Gold Coast" continues to sail eastward, then the tiger will be released back to the mountain, and this is only a dozen minutes of opportunity, but it is these more than ten minutes, the "Gold Coast" was caught by death, and it will never be possible to return to Eastbourne!

The "Wuhan" slowed down first, and at 6:12 a.m., before its speed had been reduced to 18 knots, it had already achieved a crucial result in the 34th volley against the "Gold Coast".

The shell was fired by the No. 3 gun of the B turret and hit the right side of the tail of the "Gold Coast", that is, the side of the right wheelhouse. The armor in this part was very thin, and the armor-piercing shell did not explode immediately after entering the helm compartment, but continued to penetrate two layers of isolation armor, and finally exploded in the soldier's compartment in front of the left helm compartment! This can definitely be regarded as a fatal shell, and it can also be said that the luck of the "Wuhan" is extremely good. The enormous force of the explosion not only destroyed the soldier's cabin and several adjacent compartments, but also blew up the left rudder at the back, causing the left rudder of the "Gold Coast" to not work properly. In addition, the shell destroyed the rotating equipment inside the right rudder as it passed through the right steering bay, as a result, the right rudder of the "Gold Coast" was jammed.

It was this miraculous armor-piercing bullet that finally brought the "Gold Coast" to a halt just a step away from Eastbourne. And gradually moved away from the offshore. Because the right rudder was stuck, the "Gold Coast" began to turn to the right, that is, towards the "Wuhan" and "Nanchang", which was simply sent to the muzzle of the gun. In the next two salvos, the gunners on the "Wuhan" did not let the "Gold Coast" have a good life, and at least 4 of the 18 armor-piercing shells hit the tail of the "Gold Coast", in addition to destroying the last turret in its tail, and blowing the entire aft deck of the battleship to shreds. (Fastest update: n).

The "Nanchang" was also quickly put into battle. At that time, only two main gun turrets on the "Nanchang" could operate normally, that is, only six main guns could be used. Although this number was a little less, it did not affect the morale of the gunners on the "Nanchang". After nearly forty rounds of shelling in a row, the gunners of the "Nanchang" finally got the result, and in the thirty-ninth salvo, a shell hit the middle of the port side of the "Gold Coast", and after penetrating the main armor of the battleship, it entered the electric engine room in front of the boiler room. This is also quite a critical shot, and the damage management system on the battleship needs electricity. In the Pacific theater, almost half of the warships were caused by problems with the power generation system. There was not enough power output during the damage management, and as a result, it sank because the rescue was not timely.

When the "Queen Elizabeth" class battleship was built, its power compartment was centrally deployed in front of the battleship's furnace bay. In later improvements, several other ships were equipped with auxiliary power bays, which would ensure that power would still be available after the main power bay was destroyed. But the "Gold Coast" did not make similar improvements. Its three diesel generators were all centrally arranged in a single compartment, except for a small generator under the commander's bridge of the battleship, which was specially designed to supply power to radar, radio and other electronic equipment. And this has become the fatal hidden danger of the "Gold Coast".

At that time, the fire at the stern of the battleship had already begun to spread, because of the lack of power supply, the fire extinguishing equipment on the battleship could not be used normally, especially the high-pressure water cannon, which could no longer be used. It is impossible to contain a fire with a small fire extinguishing device alone.

Before dawn, the fire on the "Gold Coast" was out of control. And spread to the outside of the hull. The damage crew had sealed off the aft compartment of the battleship and injected seawater into the ammunition bays of the two main guns behind it. Because the fire spread so quickly, many officers and soldiers were burned alive before they had time to evacuate. Or smoked to death. The fire came a little later, and if it had been at night, it would have made the Gold Coast a bright target. But by this time the sky was already faintly bright, and the lookout could already see the battleship five nautical miles away, and even the gunners in the turret could see the unfortunate battleship through the periscope.

The ensuing shelling was quite intense, and by half-past six the four main gun turrets, the commander's bridge, the chimney and other exposed parts of the "Gold Coast" were all destroyed. Dozens of large holes were pierced in the hull of the battleship, and at a distance of 5 nautical miles, not only the 400 mm cannon was constantly pouring shells, but even the 120 mm secondary guns joined the battle. Although it was impossible for a 120 mm armor-piercing shell to threaten the battleship, its dense rain of bullets quickly swept away the British officers and men outside the battleship, so that the British naval officers and men on the "Gold Coast" did not dare to be exposed at all, let alone go outside for emergency repairs, and it was difficult to escape from the entire interior of the ship!

By the time the battle got to this point, there was basically no suspense left. "Wuhan" and "Nanchang" did not stop shelling, but approached. There is still constant firing. Perhaps, for the officers and men of these two warships, what they dare to be most interested in is not whether the "Gold Coast" will be sunk, but how the battleship will be sunk, whether it will be smashed by shells, or will it finally be sunk because of its own ammunition?

By 6:40 a.m., the "Wuhan" and "Nanchang" had spent at least 600 Type 26 armor-piercing shells on the "Gold Coast", and even fired dozens of high-explosive shells at the last moment. In order to kill and wound the British officers and men who ran to the surface of the ship and prepared to escape. At least a third of these shells hit the "Gold Coast". Especially between 6:20 and 6:40, because the "Gold Coast" was no longer able to maneuver to evade, and the engagement distance was reduced to 5 nautical miles, or even the closest distance, the hit rate of the shelling was a bit ridiculously high. At that time, the results of the statistics on the "Wuhan" were that 67 of the 120 shells fired in these 20 minutes hit, and 64 of the 117 shells fired by the "Nanchang" during this period hit, and the hit rate was more than 50%!

It can be said that the last ten minutes were not fighting, but the "Wuhan" and "Nanchang" were ravaging the "Gold Coast". At that time, there were even two armor-piercing shells that hit the same part, and the second armor-piercing shell entered through the bullet hole of the first armor-piercing shell, and then penetrated the entire hull and fell under the sea surface on the other side of the battleship before the explosion miracle occurred!

By 6:45 a.m., the "Gold Coast" had reached a left-leaning angle of about 30 degrees. The British captain had already given the order to abandon the ship fifteen minutes earlier, but because the white flag of surrender was not raised on the battleship, the shelling did not stop. Those British officers and men who dared to flee outside were either killed or wounded, and many more officers and men hid inside the ship and did not dare to escape. Because of this, when the "Gold Coast" capsized and sank, at least half of the officers and men were not able to escape. In the end, including the captain of the ship, more than 760 officers and men of the whole ship were killed or missing!