After the violent explosion, the battle bridge of the "Honbang" was pitch black, and the cramped space was filled with the choking smell of yellow explosives and the disgusting smell of burning wood, rubber, and human body, and the wind poured rain and waves of water into the "metal graveyard" from the breaches in the bulkheads and the blasted hatches......

In a moment, several hurried figures ran onto the bridge from the lower drawing room, flashlight beams illuminating a disastrous scene, and these people called the names of the officers in panic, but received no response. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 Although the TNT charged with German shells did not have the toxic and corrosive properties of picric acid, their relative stability allowed them to have enough patience to wait until the armor-piercing shells penetrated the outer armor of the bridge before exploding, wiping out all life like a grim reaper.

The death of the commander was quite a heavy blow to a battleship, but the British crew did not stop the fight because of this, and on their foredeck the two majestic and heavy main turrets were still turning, huge 13. The 5-inch gun was pointed at the command bridge of the enemy battleship with blood-stained hatred.

Rumble! Rumble!

The two main guns of the No. 1 turret of the "Honbang" opened fire one after another, and the flight trajectory of the shells was visible to the naked eye under the light of the searchlights of the German ship. Despite the fact that the distance between the two battleships was essentially a hand-to-hand fight, the two shells flew past the edge of the German ship's bridge observation platform, and the other hit the front chimney immediately adjacent to the main bridge, passing directly through them, completely ignoring the wounds to the battleship.

The time for the lore was fleeting, and the British sailors had to hope for their second turret. In the snap of a finger, the main gun on its left side let out a roaring rage, a shot of 13. A 5-inch armor-piercing projectile came out of the chamber. At such a distance within reach of the bow and arrow, as long as the target was hit, it was basically a fatal effect, but the hasty aiming and too bad sea conditions were destined to make the British group regret for life. Although the shell hit the German battleship and exploded violently, it hit the No. 2 main turret less than two meters away from the bridge, and the main turret with 12-inch frontal armor was instantly devastated, the shell tore through the hard armor and exploded, and immediately ignited the unloaded propellant and shell, killing all the gunners, but this still did not deal a fatal blow to the general flagship of the German High Seas Fleet. The existing safety design and damage protection had reached the point of near-perfection on the German Kaiser-class battleships – fire doors were installed at every opening in the gun compartment, operation room, hoister canister and elevator to prevent incendiary ammunition from descending into the ammunition compartment. Because of this, the "Frederick the Great" only lost two main guns and dozens of crew members this time, as well as more than a dozen officers under the fleet commander Ingnorr were dizzy and trembling from the violent explosion at close range, and the poor hearing could not be regained until half an hour later.

For some unknown reason, the main gun on the right side of the No. 2 turret of the "Honbang" did not fire for a long time, but the single 6-inch secondary gun located at the base of the bridge hit the oncoming German battleship twice, and the two medium-caliber armor-piercing shells were bounced off by the heavy armor without causing any substantial damage.

In the rough seas, the "Frederick the Great" continued to turn to the right, and in this trend, the two battleships would cross each other by mistake and decide each other's fate with close firefights, and in the absence of the commander, Ensign Nelson Hunt on the "Benbang" rear mast lookout actually became the one who decided the direction of the battleship. Inspired by patriotic fervor, military honor, and Nelson's spirit, the young officer, a civilian, sent a full rudder to the wheelhouse through a microphone to turn left, and at this moment, if the rudder of the "Benbang" could work properly, it would quickly turn and crash headlong into the main flagship of the German High Seas Fleet, which was only 100 meters away, but its rudder oars could only be deflected 2 degrees to the right instead of the maximum angle of 8 degrees at high speed, so that the 30,000-ton stern could only turn to the German battleship in a clumsy attitude of a slow beat. On the opposite bridge, the captain, Colonel von Lubic, shouted and gestured to the helmsman, who did not hesitate to turn the rudder in reverse, and the German battleship, which was turning right at full speed, quickly set course - after a pause, the helmsman continued to turn the rudder, steering the steel fortress of the sea with a tonnage similar to that of its rival and deflected to the left. As a result, the two battleships that fought to the death became the dance partners of tacit movements, and from one point of view, "Frederick the Great" seemed to be a bullfighter dancing with life, and "Benbang" was an angry bull with no way out.

In the torment and waiting of people's hearts, every second, the two battleships that were cutting through the waves were moving relative to each other at a speed of 20 meters. No matter how hard the gunners in their front main turrets tried, they didn't have time to fire a second shot, and their secondary guns fired desperately, but they couldn't change the situation at all...... A few seconds later, the bow of the "Honbon" had already crossed the stern of the "Frederick the Great", and the bow of the "Frederick the Great" had also cut the track left by the "Honbang", and there were still about 20 meters between the sides and sides, and it was impossible for the world champion in the long jump to cross this distance without the help of tools. Seeing that the two would make it through this voyage without incident, the monstrous waves caused by the rain storm had an astonishing effect - the two battleships crossed the crest of the wave and fell into the trough, they deflected and displaced, and in this way they got closer and closer to the side, and then collided in a way that no one expected!

There was a thud, followed by the piercing sound of metal grinding, and the two massive battleships shook and trembled in a very violent way as if they were cars speeding on dirt roads. The extraordinarily thick three-legged mast of the "Honbang" swept off the rear mast of the "Frederick the Great" in one fell swoop, and the entire steel mast fell to the other side like a felled tree, and the watchtower on the upper part of the mast of the British battleship was torn off a large steel plate and landed on the rear deck of the German flagship as a memorial. At the same time, under the tremendous impact, a row of gun-type auxiliary guns on the rear of the port side of the "Benbang" was completely flattened like matchboxes, and the barrels as thick as thighs and longer than the height of adults were bounced off the gun mounts like matchsticks. A piece of armor more than 20 meters long was removed from the hull of the British battleship on the side of the ship, and the "Frederick the Great" was also rubbed off an armor plate more than two meters wide and more than ten meters long, and the non-commissioned officers' cabins, sailors' cabins, and crews' bathrooms were exposed like exquisite room models, and the bedding, clothing, and pieces of paper were swept up by the wind and then quickly disappeared into the vast night rain. The only good thing is that the crew is now in their respective positions, and the cabins are basically empty, thus avoiding serious casualties, but nearly a quarter of the deck was twisted beyond recognition in the collision, and two of the three twin secondary guns on its side deck collided with the opposing hull and deformed, while its single 88mm guns were unharmed, and one of them was still firing at zero distance, although the shells pierced the upper deck of the British battleship, Fragments from the explosion bounced back and wounded three German gunners.

The thrilling collision lasted only three or four seconds, and the two warships swung back in reverse under the action of their respective centers of gravity, and thus disengaged. In the blink of an eye, the crews of both sides, especially the officers on the bridge of the "Frederick the Great", jumped in shock. Whether in the era of wooden galleys or steam warships, the ramming tactics of ships have played a decisive role, and cases of accidental collision and sinking of ships are not uncommon. In the Battle of Lissa in 1866, the Austrian flagship Archduke Ferdinand Max rammed the Italian armoured ship King of Italy, which was sunk along with 400 crew members, thus deciding the outcome of the naval battle. Nearly half a century has passed, the navy's capital ships have evolved from a displacement of five or six thousand tons of ironclad ships to twenty or thirty thousand tons of dreadnoughts, these new warships are far stronger than their predecessors in terms of firepower, power and survivability, if they collide with a lightweight destroyer or cruiser, they do not have to worry about their own safety, but now in the stormy seas collide with two battleships of equal strength, and they are also belligerents who have the intention of putting each other to death, who can guarantee that such a collision will not cause serious damage to the hull, A large amount of water ingress and even the loss of combat power?

After the two ships separated from each other, the crews did not have time to check the damage, and the two sides returned to the battle of life and death. The two aft main turrets of the "Frederick the Great" and the three twin main guns of the "Benbang" amidships and aft deck were all aimed at each other at the first time - people seemed to have traveled back to time and space to return to the old battlefield where flintlock guns fired at each other and sail battleships bombarded each other, often fighting not for skill but for courage and luck. Despite the loss of the bridge and the main commander, the non-commissioned officers and sailors of the British Royal Navy showed their tenacity and indomitable spirit as expected, and the "Benbang" rearwardly turned to the six gates.13 The 5-inch cannon opened fire almost simultaneously with the opponent's four 12-inch guns, and the two nosebleed fighters fought hard to each other, only to have two heavy punches each. The "Frederick the Great" was the first to penetrate the waterline armor, and the explosion caused water into three watertight compartments, a fire broke out in a coal bunker, and the No. 4 turret at the stern was also devastated, and the whole ship could only cope with the rest of the battle with half of the main guns; The No. 5 turret at the stern of the "Benbang" was hit directly, and the German armor-piercing shell unceremoniously penetrated the opponent's 11-inch armor, and the pair of powerful large-caliber naval guns were scrapped in an instant, and another German armor-piercing shell penetrated the broadside armor and fell into the engine room, making the British battleship, which had not turned well, completely lose its ability to maneuver, and the blazing flames spread in the ship, and many crew members were either burned, or poisoned or even suffocated due to the smoke.

After the close range of the main guns and hull collisions, the two British and German battleships built in the same period both survived, but there was no smile and hatred at all, the muzzle of the black hole still rotated with the movement of the other party, and the secondary guns that could still fire barked tirelessly like vicious dogs, but this battle was not a separate duel between them after all. After staggering the distance, the British battleship "Benbon", which had lost its commander, had to face a close attack by two other German new dreadnoughts, the "Caesar" and the "King", and the situation was precarious, and the German pair of flagships on the high seas, "Frederick the Great", and the second British battleship, the Orion-class lead ship "Orion", encountered unexpectedly in this violent storm.

Without allowing the crews of both sides to take a breath, a new battle came to their faces. On this battlefield where the narrow road meets, whoever can persevere to the end with courage and will will be the winner.

(End of chapter)