Before the third round of artillery fire of the enemy fleet had cleared, the captain of the "Lexington", Colonel Garcia, speculated: "Dreadnought! Those two were definitely dreadnoughts for the Germans! Only the main guns of dreadnoughts can reach such a long range! ”

In the telescope's line of sight, the outlines of the enemy ships were still blurred, and it can be inferred from the shelling that the two "medium battleships" were German dreadnoughts nine times out of ten. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 Vice Admiral Info Hart knew very well that although their tonnage was not much larger than that of heavy cruisers, their strong protection was much better than that of cruisers, which was obvious to all in the last war. The 18-inch naval guns of the "Lexington" are one of the most powerful naval weapons, and the 15-inch naval guns of the two Queen Elizabeth-class ships are not small, but their close misses may not be fatal to the German dreadnoughts, and the direct hit rate of this kind of ultra-long-distance artillery battle is certainly much lower than that of previous naval battles. Assuming that the hit rate of both sides is one percent, by the time the three capital ships on their side have finished firing 100 rounds, the opponent may have completed two 100 rounds, who will take advantage more? Moreover, today's naval warfare is no longer a simple confrontation of warships, and the enemy is coming as if he is prepared, how can he fight a simple fleet artillery battle?

With such doubts and concerns, Lieutenant General Hart's mentality was not as steady as a rock at the beginning, but oscillated between advancing and retreating, fighting and evading. After a while, he turned his head to look at his staff officer, and ordered with a displeased expression: "You go to the radar room and see for yourself what kind of state the 'medium warship' equipped with large-caliber naval guns is on the radar detection equipment. ”

Colonel Garcia, who was on the side, heard the dissatisfaction in Hart's words, and the captain defended his radar operator, saying: "In fact, the radar determines the direction and size of the target based on its reflection of radio waves, and at a long distance, it cannot even accurately distinguish between a battleship and an island, so we are often ......."

Before the Colonel could finish what he was about to say, the Lexington's main guns let out an earth-shattering roar, and its first round of fire fired four shells at intervals, after which the two Queen Elizabeth-class battleships also fired their first half-salvo.

Everyone's attention quickly shifted to the sea in the distance.

In the more than one minute from the time the guns were discharged to the time they fell, it can be seen that the three enemy ships opened fire twice, and the diffused gunpowder smoke formed a faint mist in the line of sight, which would have a certain impact on the observation accuracy of the optical equipment. Seeing seaplane activity near the enemy ship, Vice Admiral Hart spoke, and he said to Colonel Garcia: "Colonel, I think we urgently need seaplanes to go and observe and report on the impact point. ”

Colonel Garcia woke up from a dream and hurriedly made arrangements for his subordinate officers. Based on the important role played by seaplanes in the last war, the original design of the Lexington-class battlecruisers was equipped with carrier-based aircraft, and during the modernization, engineers moved the aircraft catapult from the amidships to the stern to make room for more carrier-based aircraft and anti-aircraft weapons. The Lexington-class that has been refitted can carry four Curtiss "Seagull" water reconnaissance planes on board during wartime, and 12 of them can be carried in a three-ship formation, which basically meets the needs of combat reconnaissance and artillery fire calibration.

Placing an aircraft catapult in the stern of the ship solved some problems, and at the same time created others. Although the aft guns fired at the broadside did not prevent the catapult from being used, in order for the seaplane to eject and take off, the crew had to transport the seaplane from the amidships to the stern by trailer, and even if it passed through the other deck opposite the gun, it would be affected by the ship's shelling and enemy shells. At this time, the "Lexington" was sailing in formation, and its speed was relatively high, so it was not suitable for hoisting the seaplane to the surface of the water to take off, and because of the reliance on radar, Colonel Garcia did not arrange for the crew to prepare for the reconnaissance plane to eject and take off before dawn, and now he had to bite the bullet and let them get the "seagull" to the stern. As a result, when enemy planes approached the US and British fleets, the "Lexington" still failed to take off a single carrier-based aircraft, but fortunately, the two American cruisers and a British cruiser that accompanied it ejected three seaplanes, and Vice Admiral Hart and the mixed fleet under his command did not fall into an extremely passive situation.

Before the water reconnaissance planes were in position, the Allied fleet fired more than 60 shells at a distance of 29,000 to 26,000 kilometers, and the number of direct hits was zero, but two of them landed on the surface of the "Lexington" near the board, causing slight damage to the hull and killing and wounding three of the crew members on the starboard side of the US ship. The U.S. and British fleets fired more than 40 shells, and the number of direct hits was also zero, and the lookout observed that several of the projectile impact points were very close to the enemy's flagship, and even mistook the smoke of the enemy ship's fire for the scene of a shot exploding, and then corrected it.

Shortly after the two "Seagulls" that took off from the US ship and the "Walrus" that took off from the British ship took off, the air defense alert personnel of the "Lexington" suddenly alerted: "Four enemy planes have been found in the east, biplanes, and no pontoons, and it is very likely that they are enemy carrier-based fighters!" ”

The officers on the bridge quickly turned their gaze to the east. At this time, the sun was shining, and there were four clear black shadows on the edge of the sky, which were magnified by the telescope, and it could be seen that they were indeed typical single-engine biplanes as described by the air defense guards, and that they were supposed to be carrier-based aircraft taking off from aircraft carriers because they were far from land.

For Vice Admiral Hart and his combat crew, the mere four fighters were not scary, but their presence meant that there was enemy ship activity nearby. Because of the limited information he had received before, Hart did not know that the enemy's convoy had an auxiliary aircraft carrier, and since the Battle of the Azores began, he had personally experienced many naval and air battles, and knew that the threat of carrier-based bombers to surface ships was great, and if the enemy's aircraft carrier formation was in the nearby waters, then not only the "Lexington", but also the entire task force would be disastrously attacked.

Without having time to think about the possibility of the enemy aircraft carrier appearing here, Vice Admiral Hart ordered the accompanying light ships to set off a smoke screen to cover the retreat of the three capital ships. After receiving the order, the American and British destroyers quickly set off a smoke screen on the side of the enemy fleet, but in this way, the view of the ships on the sea surface was also affected. Perhaps it was the enemy's artillery fire that interfered with the ship's communications, or perhaps it was mental stress that caused human error, and in the process of making a hasty turn, the "Lexington" suddenly rammed headlong into the British light cruiser "Orion". The sharp bow nearly cut off the hapless fellow, and the collision killed 17 British sailors on the spot, causing the Orion to roll rapidly and nearly 100 sailors trapped in the bilge but unable to escape in time......

In this tragedy, the "Lexington" was also badly wounded, its bow ruptured, and the sea water poured into the forward cabin and the ammunition depot of the No. 1 main turret, and Colonel Garcia had to order a slowdown to allow the crew to carry out drainage and damage management operations.

The withdrawal plan of the Hart fleet was unexpectedly thwarted, and the American and British reconnaissance planes that took off from the cruiser were also in serious trouble. The four carrier-based fighters that flew in from the east were Irish-made IR-29T, and the performance of this carrier-based fighter, which was famous in the European aviation community in the early years, was outdated, but it was more than enough to deal with the clumsy "Seagull" and "Walrus". As soon as they fought, the American and British pilots knew that they were invincible and hurriedly hid back in the air defense circle of their own fleet. Intimidated by the antiaircraft artillery fire of the US and British warships, the Irish "griffin" did not dare to approach, but set up a circle around the US and British fleets to cover their own He-60 water reconnaissance planes for air firing.

The U.S. and British fleets have a lot of troubles on their side, but their opponents are getting smoother and smoother. Under the guidance of the "eye in the air," the three German battleships continued to shell targets 26 kilometers away, their aim getting higher and higher, and the water column rising in the vicinity of the American and British battleships, and according to this trend, it was only a matter of time before they could get a direct hit.

At 6:44 a.m., a 305-mm armor-piercing shell from the USS Carl the Great hit the "Lexington", and the shell penetrated through the upper deck from the rear of the No. 5 secondary gun on the starboard side of the US ship, and then penetrated three decks one after another under the action of huge inertia, and exploded on the inside of the armored partition below the waterline, penetrating the armored partition and the adjacent oil storage tank from the inside out, and inwardly penetrating the protective armor of the second boiler group, cutting off a large number of steam pipes, and almost causing an explosion in the boiler room.

Two minutes later, another salvo of the "Karl the Great" hit again, this time it directly knocked out the No. 3 secondary turret and its ammunition depot on the starboard side of the US ship, and instantly detonated nearly 200 rounds of 152 mm caliber shells and more than four tons of ******, blazing flames rushed everywhere, billowing black smoke almost enveloped the amidships, as if it had received a very heavy blow, but the actual damage was not as serious as it seemed.

The ship "Karl the Great" is named after King Charlemagne I of the Franks, one of the most famous monarchs in European history, the common ancestor of the Germans and the French, known as the "Father of Europe". The German Navy's predecessor, Karl the Great, was built in the late 19th century as a Caesar-Frederick III-class battleship, which had been transferred to the second line before the outbreak of the last major war, mainly for vigilance and training tasks, and then sold or decommissioned and dismantled. This generation of "Karl the Great" was added in 1913 to build the King-class battleship No. 5, its hull construction completely follows the original design, by 15 low-pressure oil-fired boilers and 3 geared steam turbines to provide 58,000 horsepower, overload can reach 62,000 horsepower and 25 horsepower. Top speed of 2 knots. When the battleship entered the outfitting stage, the war had already broken out, and the shipbuilding committee then adjusted the anti-aircraft weapon configuration according to actual combat experience, adding four twin-mounted 37-mm guns, and in the modernization of 1927-1929, all King-class battleships further added four 20-mm guns, and installed an earlier model of warning radar and an improved ship-wide unified design command system, and its main guns continued to use 50 times the diameter of the 305 mm Krupp naval gun, However, by increasing the elevation angle of the gun and improving the ammunition configuration, the maximum range was increased from 26 km to 35 km, and it was this seemingly minor surgical improvement that gave it the capital to show its might at this time.

(End of chapter)