Having hastily bandaged the wound, Colonel Hart was helped by a non-commissioned officer to the third main turret of the Tiger. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 After the destruction of the info firing command system, the ship's main guns did not immediately fall into a separate situation, as long as the communication was kept open, the firing commander could still calculate the salvo parameters through the observation data of each turret, but unfortunately, the ship's communication center was also seriously damaged, and after the Betty detachment turned, the two battle cruisers faced the enemy in the stern, and only the rear main guns were able to concentrate fire on the old dreadnoughts in the rear of the German fleet.

After entering the No. 3 main turret, Colonel Hart personally went into battle to operate the rangefinder and took advantage of the remaining conditions of the communication lines of the No. 3 and No. 4 main batteries to achieve a partial salvo of the six main guns in the stern of the ship.

After several rounds of firing adjustments, the shells fired by the "Tiger" hit the new target of the "Rhineland" after it withdrew from the German battle columns, the "Nassau". The first shell hit the enemy ship made a large hole in the armor belt on the side of the ship, and after a round of fire, the second shell pierced the German ship's No. 1 turret, and a few seconds later, the German dreadnought suddenly exploded violently in the front of the ship. Almost everyone thought that the first dreadnought designed and built by the Germans was finished.

Looking at the cloud of black smoke, Colonel Hart clenched his right fist, and his excitement almost broke his wound.

But in the blink of an eye, a surprising scene appeared: the "Nassau" was like a fuse that was about to burn out, and it was extinguished at the last moment. Its foredeck was blazing and smoky, the two large and heavy twin turrets were no longer in shape, and the bridge and the front of the hull seemed to be deformed, but the hull did not fall apart or show any signs of immediate rolling, and the tall column mast still stood straight behind the bridge.

Colonel Hart sat stunned in front of the rangefinder, and the entire turret was as quiet as a tomb.

Are German dreadnoughts immortal monsters?

The battle between the two main fleets was still going on, and the other German dreadnoughts were bombarding the opposing British ships with great efficiency, the "Iron Duke", "George V", "Conqueror", "Thunderbolt", "Agincoot" and even the closer "Royal Princess" were all wounded, and no one knew which battleship would follow in the footsteps of "Indefatigable" and "Emperor" next, but it was certain that for every heavy damage or even sinking of a German capital ship, the threat to the British fleet would be reduced by one point.

"The turret reversed 5 points, the elevation angle remained 11 degrees 35 minutes, and the firing readiness ...... Let's get moving, whether that guy is still fighting or not, let's knock out the two main turrets behind it as soon as possible, and then attack the next German dreadnought! Hart's sonorous roar instantly drew the gunners' attention back to the moment. Although the blow was extremely beautiful, looking back at the performance of the "Tiger" in this battle, even Betty was not qualified to pat his chest and say that he could pack two German dreadnoughts in succession, and Colonel Hart's words were only an encouragement, and the originally disappointed gunners immediately became energetic, and it took them less than a minute to complete all the preparations for another fire.

Colonel Hart took a deep breath and decisively pressed the trigger button for the salvo of the triple main gun.

The majestic sound of the cannon was like a war drum, instantly making everyone in this turret enthusiastic. Without waiting for the shells to fall, Colonel Hart shouted: "Armor-piercing shell loading!" ”

The gunners then moved the spare shells stacked in the chamber to the loading pallet, and when the smoke was cleared and the bolts opened, they quickly pushed the shells into the chambers and into bags of silk-wrapped cartridges, and by the time they were about halfway through the work, Colonel Hart, who had personally operated the rangefinder, and the turret commander, who was watching the impact point in front of the turret viewing window, had visually determined the impact of the shells.

The turret commander clenched his fists and shouted: "We have hit the enemy ship!" Hit! It's really the god of war! Long live Colonel Hart! ”

The corners of Hart's mouth turned up slightly, and a smile appeared on his face, pale from blood loss, and he did not stop to celebrate, like the gunners, but carefully calculated the firing parameters after the relative displacement of the two sides with the help of a rangefinder.

"The turret rotated 4 minutes, the elevation angle was raised to 11 degrees 37 minutes, and the firing readiness was ......"

Under the personal control of the turret commander, the massive and heavy turret turned counterclockwise at a very subtle angle, and the three large-caliber naval guns of the parallel structure were slightly raised in elevation in order to deliver the 635-kilogram warhead to the bow of the enemy ship with precision.

The "Tiger" and the "Royal Princess" followed by the damaged firing command system were still firing, and the German battleships on the opposite side did not relax, but when the "Rhineland" withdrew from the battle and the "Nassau" suffered heavy damage, only two German dreadnoughts were still attacking Betty's detachment -- their guns were aimed at the "Tiger", and the water column from the shells continued to rise around this cutting-edge British battle cruiser, and after a continuous straddle fire, the 11-inch armor-piercing shells fired by the German ships finally found Betty's ship, one shot hit the stern, blowing up several of the upper compartments at the stern, and the other penetrated the secondary gun frame on the right side of the No. 3 turret, sweeping the part that had been destroyed by artillery fire again. Although the two shells did not cause serious damage to the ship's hull, the obvious explosion and the tremor of the hull still frightened many of the crew.

Colonel Hart didn't think much of it, and waited for the three groups of gunners to announce the "ready" command one after another, and he took one last look at the rangefinder and resolutely pressed the button to hit the generator.

Ten kilometers away in the sea, the German dreadnought "Nassau", whose main turrets were completely destroyed by No. 1 and No. 2, did not explode against, and the towering mast leaned only slightly forward, and the reason why the previous explosion of the main ammunition depot did not send the nearly 20,000-ton battleship to the bottom of the sea was because the German dreadnought stored shells and propellants in separate compartments. When the propellant magazine under the No. 1 main turret was ignited by an explosion, the double partition door connecting the propellant magazine and the shell magazine happened to be closed, and after the consumption of the fierce battle, the stock of propellant was only half of the normal situation, and the extreme situation that the designer had considered on the drawing board actually became a reality in the naval battle, which miraculously saved the "Nassau" and its experienced and meritorious crew.

For the rest of its life, the "Nassau" not only lost half of its main guns, but also greatly reduced its protective capability. The explosion of the front ammunition depot has blown up the longitudinal partitions of most of the watertight compartments in the front of the hull, which means that the front half of the battleship has lost its original watertight function, and as long as the external armor belt below the waterline and the outer wall of the ship are penetrated, it is still in danger of sinking. Therefore, when the shells from the "Tiger" fell nearby, it was the turn of the German crew to be frightened and panicked. After much deliberation, the ship's commander, Colonel von Darvel, ordered the signal corps to hoist the signal flag "This ship is out of battle" and beckoned the nearby large torpedo boats to cover with artificial smoke. However, the wounded "Tiger" apparently recognized the battered German dreadnought. After it and the "Royal Princess" turned, only the rear main guns were able to attack the "Nassau", but the two ships combined had 10 13.5-inch guns, and the ferocious and accurate artillery fire put Colonel Darvel and his crew under suffocating pressure at all times.

Just when the "Nassau" was once again in danger, the large torpedo boats that had previously attacked were like divine soldiers. The three 1911 class boats that rushed to the front row were the first to throw torpedoes from a distance of 3,000 meters, and at such a distance, the two battle cruisers and four light cruisers of Betty's detachment were able to turn and avoid them with ease, and the role of this batch of torpedoes was to disrupt the array of Betty's detachment and create a killing opportunity for the large torpedo boats that followed up. Seeing the German torpedo attack, Betty's captains did not dare to make a mistake, and the "Tiger" and "Royal Princess", which were large and conspicuous in size, quickly turned around, and the four light cruisers carefully evaded in advance while pouring artillery fire on the German torpedo boat group.

In this era when the observation and sighting of naval guns mainly relied on manual ranging and solving, even with the assistance of mechanical calculators, it was quite a complicated task to re-determine the orientation of the target, and the sudden turn of the "Tiger" made a "senior rangefinder" like Colonel Hart feel at a loss, and by the time he calculated the new firing parameters, the "Nassau" had already cunningly hid behind the tactical smoke screen released by the light ships, and it was difficult to pose a threat to the "Nassau" again unless it was hit by a single shot.

Looking at the fading figure of the "Nassau", Colonel Hart gritted his teeth and pressed the shooting button. With a long sigh, he ordered the turret commander to reverse the horizontal angle of the turret by 1 degree and 30 minutes, ready to attack the dreadnoughts at the bottom of the German main fleet.

Before the fire could be fired again, the phone next to Colonel Hart rang, and the ship's communication lines had been cut off by German fire, and it seemed that the technicians had repaired the main lines. He hesitated and grabbed the phone.

From the earpiece came the voice of the captain, Rear Admiral Onoha.

"Hey, Colonel, well done just now!" Major General Onuoha said, "General Betty asked me to convey his respect to you. ”

"It's a pity we couldn't sink it, if only we had given me a few more minutes of steady shooting." Hart replied with some frustration.

"If our firing command room hadn't been destroyed, we would have sunk it a long time ago." Onuoha was relieved, "You can still kick it out of the battlefield despite your injuries, and you are fully worthy of a Victoria Cross." ”

Colonel Hart was long past the age when things didn't go well and he needed to be comforted, and he said in a solemn voice: "Sir, what are we going to do now?" ”

Onuoha didn't answer directly, but said, "I've asked Captain Greene, the medic officer, to come and look for you, and then you can have about twenty minutes of rest." ”

"What do you mean?" Colonel Hart's eyes widened unconsciously. If it's a retreat, why a 20-minute intermission?

"The situation has changed somewhat, just come to the bridge and find out." Onuoha said mysteriously.

Colonel Hart suddenly had an ominous premonition, which must have something to do with the battle cruisers that the Germans had never seen.

(End of chapter)