Unlike the First Battle of Flanders, in which German new ships attacked old British warships, the Second Battle of Flanders was a duel between the main ships of the two naval powers. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 info entered the stage of artillery battles, and the distribution of forces of the German fleet was "King" against "Thunder", "Caesar" against "Daring", "Elector" against "Conqueror", "Oldenburg" against "St. Vincent", and "Collingwood" at the end of the British fleet was left alone.

On the British side, Jellico's combat deployment was the opposite of Betty's arrangement for Hippel in the Battle of Jutland, with the lead ship "Thunderbolt" alone against the "King", the flagship "Daring" attacking "Caesar", "Conqueror" against "Elector", and "St. Vincent" and "Collingwood" joining forces to attack "Oldenburg".

Among the four German dreadnoughts, the "Oldenburg" was the earliest, with the smallest caliber of main guns and the weakest hull protection. Jerichault may have wanted to take out the easiest of these German capital ships first, but the "Oldenburg" was by no means a soft persimmon, and the dense firepower of the four triple guns and the extreme rate of fire of the 11-inch guns at 2.5 rounds per minute were the magic weapons that made it stand out from the enemy.

Before the artillery battle began, in order to obtain an ideal firing position, the two fleets coincidentally adjusted their course, the British fleet's relatively compact columns paid attention to coordination, and the German fleet's stepped array was obviously more conducive to the independent play of each ship. At the beginning of the battle, the closest capital ships to each other were "King" and "Thunderbolt", while "Oldenburg" and "St. Vincent" and "Collingwood" were the farthest opponents.

Since the tracks of the two fleets are no longer parallel, the actual difference between the nearest and farthest fleets is only more than 1,000 meters. In such a situation, the "Oldenburg" was the first to hit, once again showing the efficiency of the attack of the triple main gun.

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With a high freeboard, a high bowhouse, a non-stacked main turret, twin chimneys of the same size and a large triangular mast standing in front of each chimney, the starboard profile of the "St. Vincent" is clearly visible in the optical rangefinder of the "Oldenburg", which is the most representative shape of the beginning of the Dreadnought era, but it is not the only one, the Germans and Americans invariably adopted the new knapsack main turret.

"One hit...... Missed three shots in the near future...... There was an explosion on the side of the enemy ship, and smoke was seen......"

The sonorous voice of the captain Colonel Schchemitt made the officers in the battle bridge very excited, and through the starboard viewing window, the British fleet in the distance was lined up, the sea was filled with gunsmoke, the water column from the shells was clearly visible, and the fourth large battleship was the only one with billowing smoke. Although the British dreadnoughts were much more protected than the battle cruisers, there was no doubt that a single German-made large-caliber armor-piercing projectile would make it suffer.

After the previous round of shelling, the gunners did not wait for the results of the impact point observations to reload, as long as there was no special order. Wait until the firing command room determines the impact point, calculates the parameters of a new round of firing through the navigation room, and then transmits it from the firing command room to each main turret, and the 12 main guns of the four main turrets have already been reloaded, and then the firing commander gives the firing order according to the situation.

As the dense cannon sound of the rows sounded, the battleship, which was close to 25,000 tons, continued to tremble slightly, the thick smoke of gunpowder quickly dispersed, and the shells fired flew into the distance with a trajectory that was recognizable to the naked eye. Under normal circumstances, twenty seconds feels like a short time, but in the cruel and unforgiving battlefield, people's lives are as small as dust, and enemy shells can come at any time, and no one knows if they will die in the next second. The "Oldenburg" had not yet been hit at this time, but the shells from the enemy ships had fallen on the nearby sea, and the best way to avoid being hit was to take out the opponent first.

Twenty seconds later, white columns of water suddenly jumped up on the sea where the target was fired, and their height was more than three times higher than the chimney of a battleship, which showed how amazing the kinetic energy and explosive power of the shells were. No matter how accurate the observation data of the shooting commanders is, how well the gunners operate, and the firing distance determines the dispersion range of the projectile impact point, such a long-range artillery attack, it is very good to be able to hit the target with one shell in a salvo

"There was no direct hit...... Maintained a straddle of the target...... Three rounds missed...... There was a shot close to the stern ......"

Colonel Schchemitt spoke to himself to the last sentence, and his tone improved markedly.

A close missile, at the same distance, may cause only minor damage if it falls on the thickest part of the main armor belt, but it can cause fatal damage to the battleship by destroying its external propulsion or steering devices, making it lose its normal ability to maneuver!

In the telescope, the British ship "St. Vincent", which was strongly attacked by the "Oldenburg", was still able to carry out a starboard salvo with eight main guns, and its combat effectiveness did not seem to have weakened significantly, but the eight heavy armor-piercing shells roared in, but they all landed in front of the starboard side of the German battleship, and even the straddle fire was not formed. Such a disparity in performance between the two sides cannot be attributed to the incompetence or slackness of the British officers and crews, in fact, the St. Vincent class was the product of barely passing the 1907 naval budget, it followed the unsuccessful main gun configuration of the "Dreadnought" and the Palerrophon class, and the multiplier of the 12-inch gun was increased from 45 to 50, which was intended to increase the power of the gun, but the shooting accuracy and body life of the new ship guns were not satisfactory, and the effect was not ideal. In addition, the St. Vincent class has adjusted the distribution of hull armor, reducing the thickness of the stern armor belt with increased tonnage and size, and the thinnest part of the deck is only 0.75 inches, which is only half the thinnest thickness of the deck of the "Oldenburg".

From this point of view, the entire crew of the "Oldenburg" should be very fortunate to be able to face the "St. Vincent" and its sister ship "Collingwood".

During the short interval between the salvos of the main guns, the officers in the bridge of the "Oldenburg" could clearly hear the roar of continuous fire from the three twin secondary guns on the starboard side, which were 45 times the diameter of the 5. As far as the 9-inch (150 mm) guns were concerned, the current engagement was still a bit far, and seeing that the ship's main gun had hit the target twice, the German gunners in the secondary turret obviously couldn't bear to try their skills. It is worth mentioning that the two St. Vincent-class ships on the opposite side were only equipped with single-caliber 4-inch secondary guns, although they had the convenience of simple maintenance and unified firepower, but compared with the German battleships with 5.9-inch and 3.5-inch (88 mm) two-stage secondary guns, the British ships suffered a lot in battle

Another shrill whistle was heard, the deafening roar of heavy armor-piercing shells falling on the sea surface followed, and a group of amazing columnar waves appeared 100 meters away from the port side of the "Oldenburg", and the two British battleships joined forces to complete a straddle fire, but this did not affect the opponent's artillery performance in the slightest. Suddenly, the "Oldenburg" fired another round of broadside volleys. After the first round formed a straddle fire, the second and third rounds each hit one shot, and the fourth round maintained the straddle fire, the fifth round of salvo hit again: an armor-piercing ejection pierced the twin main turret on the starboard side of the British ship, and ignited the ammunition to be fired that the British had just sent from the bullet channel, and the entire turret exploded twice violently in succession, and the top armor weighing dozens of tons was lifted like a piece of paper, and the blazing fireball rushed straight dozens of meters, turning into billowing black smoke in a blink of an eye.

Seeing this scene, the Germans were delighted to think -- and the British feared with horror -- that the "St. Vincent" would repeat the tragedy of the "Invincible" and "Magnificent" - and sink to the bottom of the sea with all the officers and men of the ship in a terrible explosion. After a few seconds or even a dozen seconds, the "St. Vincent" did not have an earth-shattering explosion, and did not even slow down significantly, but the smoke from the starboard side became more and more intense, and there were bright yellow flames in between.

Against the backdrop of the fire and smoke, many white figures swayed on the deck, and a slender water dragon appeared, followed by the second and third, and they bravely pounced on the surging flames, and just when the British officers and men on the friendly ships were a little relieved, the accurate fire of the Germans cut through the heart like knives - in another salvo of the "Oldenburg", two shells landed near the starboard side of the "St. Vincent", one of which apparently hit the armor belt, and the explosion itself had no fatal effect on the main structure of the battleship, The exploding shrapnel swept across the starboard deck, and many British sailors who had struggled to extinguish the fire fell in response.

A moment later, one of the German ship's secondary guns landed impartially on the bridge of the "St. Vincent", and the officers and crew suddenly fell again.

Seeing that the sister ships of the same class were being abused by the German ships, the "Collingwood" opened fire desperately, but the criticized technical problems of the 50 times diameter 12-inch guns caused the British gunners to fall into a strange circle of speed, and the more anxious they were, the more they could not find the right shot, and only when they got closer to 16,000 kilometers did they fire a non-threatening straddle fire at the target.

Gradually, the smoke rising from the amidships of the "St. Vincent" covered most of the rear part of the main bridge, and the firing interval of the remaining main guns became longer and longer, and the firing aiming became unsustainable, and the two main guns at the back of the amidships even fell silent, and such a battleship was a rare target for the enemy gunners, and the firepower of the "Oldenburg" became more and more stable, and the salvo of the main guns was basically in a state of two rounds per minute, and even if each round of artillery fire did not achieve a direct hit, there were at least one or two close misses. If it continues at this rate, it will not take a few minutes to completely turn the "St. Vincent" into a ruined ship.

In the bridge of the temporary flagship of the British Grand Fleet, the "Daring", Jericho examined the situation on the battlefield with worry, and the "St. Vincent" had previously sent a signal that the ship was out of order, and at this time it had completely fallen into a situation of passive beating, and in less than ten minutes of fighting, the advantage of one more capital ship of the British fleet was gone, and the confidence of the officers and men was also dealt a rather heavy blow. During this period, the "Thunderbolt" and "King" and "Daring" were evenly matched in battle with "Caesar", "Conqueror" and "Elector", the three British super-dreadnoughts were equipped with superior performance 13.5-inch guns, the three German cutting-edge dreadnoughts had first-class protection capabilities, the spear and shield competition was thrilling, the "Thunderbolt", "Daring" and "Conqueror" fired straddle shots at the German ships one after another, and the "Daring" and "Conqueror" had already achieved direct hits, and the "Thunderbolt" and "Daring" also suffered from each other's shells. There were no reports of serious damage to the "Thunderbolt", and the condition on board the ship was not significantly abnormal, and the injuries should be fine, while the starboard armoured belt of the "Daring" on which Jericho was sitting was hit twice, one shell was ricoched off by the main armor, and the other pierced through the armor belt and exploded in a compartment filled with heavy oil, causing some fuel loss and a leak in a watertight compartment.

(End of chapter)