In the decisive battle of the main fleet in the Second Battle of Flanders, the British super-dreadnought "Conqueror" was the last of the five British capital ships to be wounded by enemy gunfire, and from the moment it was shot, the previous good fortune ended here. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 The German-made armor-piercing projectile fired from the 50x diameter 12-inch gun pierced through its amidships and then through the compartment laden with heavy oil, causing a fire inside the ship. The fire was not fatal at the beginning, if the crew could extinguish it in time, the outsiders would not even realize that it had been on fire, but due to factors such as communication scheduling, the actions of the damage management personnel were actually a beat slower, and the heavy oil that flowed out immediately burst into a crew's living room. By the time the British sailors opened the fire valve, many of the upper compartments, including the communications center, had been engulfed in flames, including the four starboard secondary guns, which had not only lost their combat effectiveness, but also had a terrible detonation of some of the ammunition stored in the gun emplacements. In just a few minutes, the "Conqueror" went from a capital battleship with a complete appearance and terrifying strength to a disaster scene filled with thick smoke and tongues of fire, and the situation deteriorated even faster than the opponent expected!

Take advantage of your illness to kill you. The German officers and men aboard the "Elector" may not have heard this oriental saying, but what they are doing at the moment reflects the true meaning of this saying. Taking advantage of the fact that the British battleship on the opposite side was plagued by fire, they fired a burst rate of fire, and all the main guns fired 8 salvos in 5 minutes, 5 of which formed a straddle fire, 4 shells hit directly, and the 5.9-inch secondary guns on the ship were also desperately bombarding the deck of the British battleship. Although the distance between the two battleships was still 12,000 kilometers, the heavy artillery fire of the German ships was almost like beating the opponent at close range -- in the blink of an eye, the worst newcomer made a shocking reversal, and one could not help but feel the rapid change of the battlefield situation.

The newly commissioned "Elector" came from behind, and the old dreadnought "Oldenburg", which took the lead in the first place, ran into trouble at this time. After the second turn, its triple main gun hit the second St. Vincent-class dreadnought of the British fleet 13 times, but the penetration power of the 11-inch naval gun was much worse than the 12-inch naval gun of the same calibre, and the reason why it was able to rage at the first St. Vincent-class was because it hit the weak position of the enemy ship at the beginning, and when luck was no longer in favor of "Oldenburg", only two or three of these 13 direct hits formed an effective penetration, and as a result, although the British ship was full of bullet marks, it still maintained strong combat effectivenessOver time, the St. Vincent's counterattack began to bear fruit: one armor-piercing shell pierced the sideboard armor of the "Oldenburg", cutting several steam pipes, almost making the old dreadnought unable to keep up with the fleet's pace of combat, another armor-piercing shell hit its second main turret, and the British shell fuse was too sensitive to save one of the German gunners in this turret, and although the 11-inch-thick turret frontal armor did not penetrate, the violent explosion damaged the triple main gun, Immediately, the "Oldenburg" lost a quarter of its main gun firepower.

The rivalry between the two fleets has entered a white-hot phase, and either side has the possibility of victory. In the bridge commander tower of the "King", the officers observed the development of the battle situation without saying a word, and tension was quietly filled with tension in the air.

Boom ......

If it weren't for the deafening loud bang, the trembling sensation coming from the ship's hull would have been like a bumper car ride for Natsuki. With first-class high-quality armor, first-class protection design, and first-class combat damage management, Natsuki is confident that the King-class battleship can withstand the enemy's long-range artillery bombardment. However, there is no perfection in the world, and no matter how good a battleship is, it cannot be "unsinkable", and Natsuki's deep anxiety is actually no less than that of any of the officers present, because he knows that this is a war that Germany cannot afford to lose. If the German fleet were to lose to its opponent in this naval battle, I am afraid that more than half of the ships would be lost forever, and all previous efforts could be in vain. However, at this stage of the war, there was no turning back for him and the high seas fleet.

"The starboard armor was penetrated, the shell exploded in the officer quarters No. 2, and for the time being no fire was detected...... Uh, wait, sir, the flue of the No. 2 chimney has been broken, hot smoke has invaded the ship's hold, and personnel need to be evacuated from Officer No. 2...... The 4th, 5th, and 6th auxiliary gun emplacements on the starboard side were invaded by hot smoke, and the bulkhead deck was damaged......"

Brigadier General Beinck's staff officer kept reporting messages from the damage control room to the officers in the command tower. The battle command of the "King" is naturally under the sole responsibility of Captain Beinke, but it is also the command center of the entire fleet, and the fleet command team has the right and necessary to be informed of its damage at the first time.

After listening to the report, Brigadier General Beinke ordered without hesitation: "Immediately close the safety door leading to the other cabins in the smoke spread area, and the 2nd Damage Management Team and reserve personnel carry anti-poison equipment into the damaged area to control the damage as soon as possible." If there is a loss of power, it must be reported immediately. ”

Schell and the others did not say anything about Commodore Beanck's decision on the battlefield, but a considerable part of their attention had been turned back to their own ships from the British fleet on the opposite side. Looking out of the right-hand viewing window of the conning tower, there was no significant smoke burning on the starboard side of the King, and damage to the internal compartments was often more potentially dangerous than the exterior of the ship. Don't forget, picric acid explosives are not only strong, they are also deadly in their own right!

The old wounds had not yet healed, and the "King" soon received another heavy blow from its opponent. The violent explosion also occurred on the starboard side, and after a series of injuries, the optical rangefinder in the upper part of the bridge was completely damaged, and the shooting commander had to rely on the calibration data provided by the reconnaissance aircraft or the observation of the turret rangefinder to adjust the firing parameters.

In the face of these predicaments, Brigadier General Beinck's face once again showed the anxious look of the most intense moment of the Battle of Jutland, and the speed of his speech involuntarily increased considerably. He had the commanders of the two main turrets in the rear be informed that they would fire freely at the target before the ship's command communications were restored.

Less than two minutes after the two shots, the starboard deck of the "King" was transformed into a scorching, smoky purgatory, with red tongues of fire constantly pouring out of billowing black smoke. The twin secondary turrets of the 9-inch naval guns were surrounded by red flames, and its fall was only a matter of time, and the gunners opened the escape hatch and desperately moved the shells and propellant packs out and threw them into the sea, while the gunners were also transferring ammunition from several 88mm secondary guns and machine gun positions in the open air nearby, and the rest of the crew was using the ship's fire hose to extinguish the fire while beckoning the escorting large torpedo boats to come to help. The two large torpedo boats approached one after another despite the fire of the British fleet, and the fire water cannons soon spewed out long white water columns to suppress the constantly rushing tongues of fire.

At the same time, in part of the upper cabin on the starboard side of the "King", a tense, fierce, complicated and difficult life-and-death struggle was also going on. Dozens of damage management personnel groped their way through the passage of the ship's cabin, which was filled with hot smoke, using the fire extinguishers they carried with them to extinguish the open flames in the officers' cabins, and every time they cleared a section of the ship's cabin, they would close the safety door in time to isolate the cleared cabins from the damaged area, and they continued to move towards the cabins where the situation was unknown, and when they finally came to the position close to the chimney flue, the faces behind the gas masks were as red as boiled lobsters.

Here, they saw the scene of the explosion, the source of the damage to the battleship and the place where the damage was most severe, the twisted steel plates enough to make one imagine how violent the explosion was at that time, and the scorching smoke was pouring out of the hole in the black hole.

The lead damage manager made a cross on his forehead and chest, and said "God bless" in his mouth. Obviously, this damage needs to be returned to port to be completely repaired, that is, it has left a legacy for the rest of the battle, but it is not a fatal wound after all, and if the British armor-piercing shell adopts the same construction as the German armor-piercing projectile, with the power of a 13.5-inch gun, this blow will cause even more terrible damage.

After praying, the bearded damage officer shouted to his companions, "The boys who operate the secondary cannon are just above our heads, and we need to cool down here in order to cool their butts and avoid accidents with the ammunition of the secondary gun." Open the fire valve, and be careful not to let too much water go directly into the flue! ”

In the distance, seeing the flagship of the German fleet on fire, Jericho's bloodshot eyes shone with hope again. Excluding carrier-based aircraft, high-speed torpedo boats, and submarines, the two main fleets engaged in a relatively fair duel, which was exactly the excuse used by the British to cover up their shame after the Battle of Jutland and Flanders, but even with one more capital ship, the British fleet's performance was dismal: two St. Vincent-class dreadnoughts were beaten by a Helgoland-class German with nowhere to hide, the situation of the "Conqueror" looked very bad, and he himself sat "bold" The ship was also beaten to a mess by the Caesar-class dreadnoughts on the opposite side, and the "Thunderbolt" was also inferior in front of it, could it be that the rise of the German fleet and the decline of the British Navy have become an inevitable trend in history?

Even if a hundred were not reconciled, Jericho had to admit that the enemy's expensive and time-consuming capital battleships were indeed superior, and when the war came, he despised this opponent like most British naval officers, so that he was defeated and fell into passivity, but it was obviously too early to give up. If the battle had been fought like this, the German fleet would undoubtedly have a greater chance of winning, and as long as the British fast fleet could achieve the expected operational objectives, there would have been an important turning point in the battlefield.

At the moment, the British Rapid Fleet under Betty and Parkenham had twice routed the incoming German high-speed torpedo boats, withstanding the German planes' air raids, and it seemed that the only thing that could stop them from attacking the German support fleet was two old battleships and a few armored cruisers. As for Hipper's German battle patrol formation, it was still desperately on the way back from the mouth of the Strait of Dover, and it seemed that it would be difficult to catch up with this crucial battle.

(End of chapter)