In full view of everyone, three slender German battle cruisers rushed out from behind the headland, majestic and murderous. The Americans were taken aback www.biquge.info the Pen, Fun, and Pavilion were even more shocked by the British.

Prior to this, the Allied fleets used their strengths and avoided their weaknesses by using the minefields around São Miguel Island to circle with their opponents, while the U.S. and British fleets used static braking and relied on superior forces to block the retreat of the Allied fleets to Europe, so as to find fighters to annihilate them. When some of the capital ships of the Allies appeared in the northeast corner of São Miguel Island, the US-British joint operations fleet commanded by US Admiral Standley did not pounce on them like a vicious tiger predator, but adjusted their formation accordingly, with five British battleships rushing forward to meet the attack, four US-British battle cruisers on standby, and the rest of the capital ships divided into two battle groups and opened a battle line in the open sea east of San Miguel Island.

After the outbreak of the war, Britain quickly became the front-line battlefield of the United States and the British camp against the Allies, and when the British Army and Air Force officers and men fought bloody battles with strong enemies, the British Royal Navy, which has a long history and strong strength, did not continue their glorious tradition of being brave and fearless, and their war-avoidance behavior was ridiculed by the Allies and even the press of many neutral countries. Since the beginning of the Battle of the Azores, the British carrier-based pilots have performed very eye-catching, their fighting passion and combat skills are better than their American colleagues, and in the process of conquering Texel Island, the British Marine Corps contributed the first and suffered the first casualties, and the brave and tenacious character deeply shocked the friendly forces and opponents. In terms of will and quality, the officers and sailors on the British surface ships were not inferior, but the haze of the last war hung over them: the "Revenge" was attacked by an enemy submarine and fell behind, and then was beaten by the German war patrol. Immediately afterwards, the "Hood" was blown up in a narrow naval battle, becoming the first capital ship lost by the British Navy in this war, which greatly dampened the morale of the British officers and men. In the storming of Texel Island and the battle against the Allied fleet, the British aircraft carriers "Brilliant" and "Indomitable" suffered heavy losses one after another. After pursuing the Allied fleet, the British Navy's two capital ships, "Warrior" and "Judt", withdrew from the battle due to injuries, and the "Malaya" was severely damaged in the first round of fire with the Allied fleet......

The British-class battleships "Great Britain" and "Angle", the Sovereign-class battleship "Sovereign", and the Queen Elizabeth-class battleships "Queen Elizabeth" and "War-Weathiness", these five British battleships entered the battle in a single column. Due to the tactical smoke screen released by the opponent, at first glance, the British observed only four German capital ships north of São Miguel Island, two Bavaria-class ships were close to the headland, and two German-class ships were located more than 3,000 meters behind them. However, as the battle progressed, the British soon found themselves calculated by the opponent, and there were more than four German capital ships into the battle, and there were shore defense guns to help, and the situation of the British battleship formation was very bad, but the American battleship formation was not far behind, and the British did not retreat, but gritted their teeth and dragged the opponent.

The appearance of the three Mackensen battlecruisers was like a sharp sword unsheathed, the sharp blades glistening in the sunlight.

For the German battle patrol group, the range figure obtained by the American battleship "Indiana" was 23,000 yards, while the target distance obtained from the "Great Britain" was 18,000 yards, that is, about 16,000 meters.

Before that, the capital ships of the two sides had never been so close!

The command crew of the two Queen Elizabeth-class ships immediately felt threatened, although they were completed after the end of the last war, all the designs were pre-war standards, and subsequent improvements and modifications had limited effect, and they were not enough to withstand the attack of 15-inch armor-piercing shells at normal engagement distances, and if they were bombarded by the three Mackensen-class ships, they might be difficult to support, and even tragedy might occur.

On the two Britannia-class battleships, the British officers had no such apprehensions, wondering why the Germans had allowed the three battlecruisers to rush into battle without hindrance. Today's German Navy, not to mention the existence of supergiants such as the Deutsche class, even the "remnants" of the last major war, the King-class and Caesar-class dreadnoughts, are more suitable for charging and carrying the line than the Mackensen-class battlecruisers.

After coming out of a concealed position behind the headland, the German battle patrol formation opened fire quickly without adjustment, and directly entered the salvo of the whole main gun. Surprisingly, the shells did not fall near the Queen Elizabeth class, which had a relatively weak level of defense, but instead a column of water rose around the command ship of the British ship "Great Britain"!

The 45,000-ton Britannia class represents the peak level of the shipbuilding industry in the United States and Britain in the late 20s. The armored area of this class of ships is built according to the standard of resisting 16-inch caliber shells, and the armored deck and broadside armor form a box structure similar to the "armored enclosure" of the entire warship, and the main armor belt on the side is spliced together with the main mine-resistant armor, combined with multiple watertight compartments and 3 layers of bottom to form an underwater anti-torpedo system. Theoretically, the Germans' 15-inch naval guns were unable to penetrate the Britannia-class's key defensive areas, and a considerable part of the British Navy's humiliating confidence was built on this basis.

The gap between reality and theory does not have to wait until after actual combat to be known. As early as the Prussian era, Krupp's artillery was the magic weapon of the Prussian army to defeat a strong enemy, and by the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, Krupp arms were in a leading position in Europe and even the world. In 1914, the German Navy defeated the strong with the weak, and unexpectedly overturned the British Navy, which had dominated the sea for more than 200 years, to the ground, and the power of the Krupp artillery and its supporting ammunition was obvious to all, and the battle between the spear and shield between the Vickers armor and the Krupp artillery had already been made by British scholars in professional magazines published before the war, but it failed to get the attention and recognition of most people.

In terms of muzzle kinetic energy, the 50 times diameter 15-inch naval gun manufactured by Krupp has no obvious advantage over the American and British naval guns of the same specification, but the theoretical calculations of the Germans and a large number of test data have given them a sufficient grasp of the armor-piercing ability of this type of naval gun -- at a distance of about 15,000 meters, the standard armor-piercing projectile can effectively penetrate the armor of most of the active warships of the US and British Navy, including the British Britannia-class and the American South Dakota-class.

Without waiting for the British battleships to complete the adjustment of their firing targets, the three Mackensen-class ships fired a second salvo with astonishing efficiency. In order to accurately determine the impact point, their firing was orderly and tightly connected, so that the "Britannia" was constantly covered by ferocious artillery fire, and the waves stirred up by the shells caused its huge hull to sway violently!

There was no doubt that the formation of ships of the same class was the most suitable for the "many-in-one" firing tactics, and the three German battle cruisers formed a straddle fire at the target with two salvos, and in less than a minute apart, they completed the correction of the second shot, and then fired a fierce and deadly third round of gunfire......

Looking at the orange-red explosions and black smoke that bloomed from the front ship, the British officers on the bridge of the "Angles" almost froze. Who would have thought that the German battle rangers, always playing the role of rangers, would attack a heavily armored British super-battleship with such a furious attitude, and they would not be afraid that they would be damaged in an artillery battle and thus lose the mobility on which they depended?

The flames and smoke from the German shells hitting the hull of the "Great Britain" had not yet dissipated, and the British battleships had already begun to return fire. The Sovereign and Queen Elizabeth classes were both armed with 15-inch naval guns, and the Britannia-class was equipped with 16-inch naval guns, and they fired enough armor-piercing shells to penetrate the armor of the Mackensen-class at such a combat distance, but the British's orderly first half-salvo did not pose a threat to the German battle cruisers, and when they corrected the firing parameters according to the impact point, the three Mackenson-class fired a fourth round of gunfire with great ferocity, and the magnificent body of the "Great Britain" was instantly wrapped in spray, flames and smoke.

Witnessing this astonishing scene, the British officers aboard the "Angles" finally realized the terrible nature of the enemy's tactics, and they wanted to break the fighting spirit of the British officers and men by inflicting heavy damage on the "Great Britain" and make them completely lose confidence in defeating their old enemy. In the present situation, it may be the most effective way to break the siege by striking the German war cruisers and forcing them to withdraw, even if the second and third rounds of fire do not hit, and there are still fourth, fifth, and sixth rounds, and the "Great Britain" will certainly be able to hold out longer than the German war rangers, so they speculated, so they continued to fire at the German war rangers. During this period, the German battleships, which were at a distance, were able to calmly observe without interference, and instead of staring at the "Great Britain" and firing, they attacked the other four British battleships with a clear division of labor, all without the slightest delay, as if they had already planned a premeditated battle routine.

The fifth salvo of the three Mackensen-class battlecruisers left a new scar on the Great Britain, and after the previous round of fire, the British battleship's triple main guns did not roar, and the signal flags and signal lights were all hidden in the smoke. In this sense, perhaps two more accurate and rapid salvos would have been enough to knock the guy to his knees, but the whizzing shells kept them from fighting, and before the American battleships could cripple them with overwhelming artillery fire, the three Mackenson-class ships turned around decisively and fired a sixth salvo of main guns in the process of turning.

The shells once again covered the majestic and broad hull of the "Great Britain", and the hard steel tried its best to resist the impact of heavy armor-piercing shells, sometimes succeeding, sometimes ending in failure, and when these 15-inch caliber German-made armor-piercing shells entered the hull, the charge of nearly 20 kg would explode violently, which was the real test of the battleship!

(End of chapter)