It's July 7 again, don't forget the national shame!

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"Hit! Sir! We've hit the target! ”

In the hot and dry air of the No. 1 main turret of the "Tiger", the gun commander, Sergeant Bosroyd, exclaimed very excitedly. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info Behind him sat the shooting commander of the battlecruiser, Colonel Hart, whose head was thickly bandaged, his face was bloodless, his lips were pale, and his usual piercing eyes looked exhausted.

Hearing the sergeant's voice, the dozens of gunners in the turret were greatly encouraged, but Hart only nodded at him slightly, and then continued to immerse himself in the ranging and calculation of the enemy ship. If it weren't for the destruction of the firing command room, the standard ranging and calculations would have been carried out by a number of technical officers, and the Scott Shooting Commander replaced the tedious manual calculations with a mechanical calculator, making the firing control more efficient than the best equipment in the German Navy. All the work was now carried out by Colonel Hart, who was considered to be the British Navy's first-class gunner, experienced and intelligent, and had previously sat in the third turret, and played a key role in the process of heavy damage to the two German dreadnoughts.

Moments later, Colonel Hart reported the new firing parameters, and Sergeant Bosroyd energetically urged his gunners to make positional adjustments. When his voice fell, Colonel Hart whispered, "That guy wasn't crushed by us. ”

"What?" The sergeant couldn't believe his ears, he looked through the turret viewing window, and then began to question his own eyes again.

"The defense of the German battleships is really strong!" Colonel Hart's admiration was full of helplessness.

The sergeant gritted his teeth: "Then let's continue to attack, as long as we give it two more shots, we will definitely be able to clean it up!" ”

Colonel Hart did not answer, and when the gunners had finished preparing for the shot, he fired the guns himself with helpless anticipation. The sound of the huge cannon still echoed in the ears, and the hull of the battleship shook suddenly, this strong and unusual tremor was completely different from the fire of the ship's cannons, and the terrifying black smoke poured in from the turret observation window with a blazing temperature, which made the experienced officers even more shocked.

In an instant, the panicked shouts of the crew came from below the bomb supply channel: "Everyone, evacuate, the ammunition depot is on fire!" ”

This voice almost didn't let the gunners in the turret wander. If there was a martyrdom at the ammunition depot, Hugh said it was a turret, and few people in the entire battleship would survive. For this reason, the ammunition depots of combat ships are usually arranged at the bottom of the hull, protected by the main armor belt and multiple compartments, and can be filled with water to avoid explosions if necessary, which can be said to be the most heavily protected part of a battleship. Having learned the lessons of the battles of Jutland and Flanders, the British Navy reinforced its active capital ships, but these contingency measures did not have the desired effect. After the Battle of the Faroe Islands began, the "Indefatigable" quickly fell victim, and the "Emperor", which had strong protective capabilities, actually followed in the footsteps of many British capital ships such as "Invincible" and "Benbang".

Before Sergeant Bosroyd could speak, several panicked gunners took it upon themselves to open the escape hatch at the rear of the turret. As soon as the hatch opened, a red tongue of fire rushed in, and the gunners who approached the hatch were stunned by the terrible aura of death, but fortunately a non-commissioned officer slammed the hatch shut, which did not cause a catastrophe.

In the blink of an eye, there was another extremely violent explosion outside the turret, and the huge explosion almost stunned the gunners. One of the gunners looked at his companions with horror: "We're finished!" ”

The consequences of the explosion of the ammunition depot were like the hands of a ghost, tightly choking the necks of everyone here, and the gunners, even if they had a strong desire to survive, were powerless to resist the verdict of fate at this time.

After a moment, Colonel Hart stood up: "Death is not so easy to catch us, now that the second turret has been destroyed, if we give up the battle because of timidity, it will be equivalent to voluntarily giving up the right to live." ”

"The Colonel is right, let's go back to the battle position, close the fireproof partition of the ammunition supply channel for the time being, and drain the spare ammunition in the turret. What do you think, sir? The sergeant turned to look at Colonel Hart. Although they did not receive any definite information and did not see it with their own eyes, they were able to deduce one or two through common sense.

There was a hint of approval in the colonel's eyes, and he nodded, "That's it!" ”

The gunners, appeased by the calm and composure of Colonel Hart and Sergeant Bosroyd, did not see the deep concern behind Colonel Hart's calm expression - the precise optics of the rangefinder had been damaged by the explosion that had just occurred, which meant that the triple gun would either fire from the ranging data of the other turrets or would have to use the most primitive manual visual sighting.

In the battle bridge behind the No. 2 main turret, the officers led by Betty could clearly see the tragic situation of this new battle cruiser, and their hearts became extremely heavy. At this time, the distance between the two fleets had been reduced to within 10,000 meters, and the "Tiger" had just exerted its power when it lost the guidance of the fire control command system, and the No. 2 main turret was pierced by the armor-piercing shells from the enemy ships, and the ammunition was being lifted in the bomb supply channel at that time, so the fireproof partition was in an open state, and the terrifying flames of the explosion invaded the ammunition depot along the bomb supply channel. I'm afraid this battleship is going to come to naught.

"It's not fair, it's not fair!" Rear Admiral Onuoha, the captain of the ship, was almost mad, "Our turret armor is as thick as those two German battle cruisers, but our shells can't fatally wound it, and it almost killed us with one blow!" ”

Betty said as if lost: "When the two navies fight, the outcome is often decided on the slipway. ”

Onuoha looked at Betty eagerly, "Sir, let's turn!" If the rear main gun is not engaged in battle, we really have no chance of winning! ”

Because the Tiger's normal salvo ability was seriously lacking, Betty's original intention was to seize the advantageous position first, and then crush the opponent with a fierce shot from close range. The speed of the battle cruisers on both sides was almost the same, but the German fleet was two or three knots slower than the Betty detachment as a whole because of the drag of two Scharnhorst-class armored cruisers. Under Betty's command, the British fleet had gotten out of the terrible situation of being occupied by the opponent in the T-shaped cross, and in a few minutes it would be possible to cross the German fleet upside down.

Looking at the German war cruiser with smoke billowing from the foredeck in the telescope, Betty gritted her teeth: "Hold on for two more minutes." ”

Onuoha unconditionally chose to obey, but the situation did not turn out as Betty had hoped. In a few years, the "royal princess" who behaved decently was hit hard. The German battle cruiser "Blucher", which crisscrossed the North Atlantic and sank more than 20 British ships, which can be called the "British widow's machine", used continuous precision to shoot the British war cruiser with a tonnage larger than itself, firepower stronger than itself, and a speed faster than itself. The Royal Princess's waterline armor belt was pierced twice, the forward main turret and the bridge control tower were pierced once, and its salvo dealt only two close misses to the Blücher......

Seeing that the defeat was irretrievable, Betty's resentment was even more annoyed than chagrin, because in his opinion, his command this time was impeccable, and the fault was that he failed to resolutely prevent Jackson from leading the Grand Fleet north to the Faroe Islands. The German fleet had been in the northern seas for many days, and instead of suffering from the bad winds and waves that Jackson and some senior British naval officials had imagined, they had plenty of time to plan everything and wait for the British fleet to arrive. Had it not been for the bad weather, the British fleet would have lost even more.

Betty was not thinking of Jackson, at this time in another battlefield more than twenty nautical miles away, the pretentious naval combat expert was leading the main fleet of LinkedIn to charge head-on to the battle detachment of five German dreadnoughts. If this were a numbers game on paper, Jackson's four super-dreadnoughts and the seven-turret "Agincourt" had a great chance of defeating the opponent, but in this very realistic battle, the German fleet was like a rainbow, and the flagship "King" charged ahead, with both unpredictable tactical genius and fleet commander with courage, courage, vision, and mind in command, the British fleet could not easily take advantage. In the wind and waves, the German King-class and Caesar-class dreadnoughts rushed forward at a speed of 23 knots, and the British main fleet could only run at a speed of more than 20 knots in order to maintain a complete formation, but in order to avoid the torpedoes dropped by the German carrier-based aircraft, their formation was still torn apart.

Taking advantage of the significant difference in speed, five German dreadnoughts quickly occupied the T-shape. Although the British fleet tried very hard to get out of this unfavorable situation, for ten minutes the German fleet was smashing the British fleet with a volley from the side of the side, and the "Iron Duke", "Conqueror", "Thunderbolt", and "Agincourt" all suffered.

For the first three British super-dreadnoughts, the 12-inch shells fired by the Germans from a longer distance were not so deadly, but for a battleship like the Agincourt, which was designed and built to cater to the vanity of the orderers, every shell fired by the German fleet made the crew above fearful. Originally built for the Brazilian Navy, this dreadnought is known for having the most main gun turrets on the central axis of the hull. It has seven twin turrets: two in the bow; The two amidships are located between two chimneys; The three stern turrets are pyramid-shaped, with the middle turret mounted above the front and rear turrets. In order to reduce weight and maintain speed, engineers were forced to sacrifice the structural strength of the hull and armor protection, and the thickness of the defensive armor of the "Agincoot" was only equivalent to that of British battle cruisers, and the watertight compartments were reduced, and the buoyancy of the reserve was reduced accordingly. When it was requisitioned by the British Navy and put in active service, the British fleet even circulated the theory that a salvo of all the ship's main guns would destroy the hull structure.

This time, the German dreadnought "Louipold Regent", which attacked the "Agincoot", became a legendary terminator, and one of its pinch fork shots hit the target beautifully, and a 12-inch armor-piercing projectile directly penetrated the waterline armor of the "Aginkut" amidship, and the remaining kinetic energy and the effect of the time-delay fuse allowed it to penetrate two layers of internal armor in a row, burrowing into the ammunition depot under the No. 3 main turret, and immediately causing a large explosion of landslides and ground cracks. The turret, which weighed several hundred tons, was thrown into the air like a toy, and the hull of the "Agincoot" shook violently and capsized to the left. With a huge whirlpool, the huge hull was quickly swallowed by the sea, leaving only countless fragments and patches of oil stains, and only more than 20 of the more than 1,000 officers and men on the ship survived.

(End of chapter)