Between half-past three and half-past four, as several warships were sunk or heavily damaged, the flame of hope in Samoville's heart was gradually extinguished. If Sarmoville did not feel hopeless after the "War Weathiness" and "Warrior" were defeated, then when the "Iron Duke", "Rodney", and "Nelson" were destroyed one after another, Summerville was not only desperate, but completely desperate.

At about half past four, the "Rodney" disappeared from the sea. A few minutes before this, the captain of the "Rodney" sent a report that the fire on the battleship had gotten out of control and had spread to the vicinity of the ammunition compartment of the main gun. Samoville immediately asked the captain of the ship to abandon the ship and save the officers and men. That is, before the explosion of the "Rodney", the captain gave the order to abandon the ship, but in less than two minutes, a violent explosion occurred in the ammunition compartment of the main gun on the battleship. Of the more than 1,600 officers and men on board, less than 50 escaped, and the others did not have time to escape and sank into the sea with the battleship.

The rapid sinking of the "Rodney" came as a surprise. As early as the First Global War, a number of warships of the British Navy were sunk due to the detonation of the ammunition compartment of the main gun. It stands to reason that the British should have learned the lesson and knew that the main ammunition compartment on the battleship was the most critical part, and in any case, multiple protective measures should be set up here. For example, according to the design of the isolated bomb bay first adopted by the Germans, a sea valve is set under the ammunition compartment of the main gun, and seawater is poured into it when necessary to prevent the explosion of the main gun ammunition. These technologies were indeed used on the Nelson-class battleships, but the problem was that the British had some loopholes in the design of the battleships.

Judging from the results of the later investigation of the shipwreck of the "Rodney", the officers and men on the battleship did not have time to open the sea-opening valve in the ammunition compartment of the main gun, and the main reason for the effectiveness of the valve was that the position of the switch was unreasonable. When the fire spread to the vicinity of the ammunition bay, the place where the valve was opened was already covered in flames. And there was also a problem with the power system on the battleship. It is simply not possible to open the valve by manpower. As you can imagine, disaster struck when the fire burned into the ammunition compartment of the main gun. Because the three main gun turrets of the "Rodney" were concentrated in the front, and the ammunition compartments of the three main guns below were next to each other, according to the standard of 200 rounds of ammunition for each main gun, at most only one-tenth of the ammunition on the "Rodney" was consumed at most. That is, there were more than 1,500 16-inch rounds of huge shells on board the battleship, in addition, there were thousands of kits used to fire these shells. (Fastest update: n).

The first place to be detonated was the main gun ammunition bay of the C turret. The fire spread from the boiler compartment of the battleship. Therefore, the ammunition compartment of the C turret ground is the most dangerous. The flaws in the design of the "Rodney" were once again exposed, since the C turret was just in front of the commander's bridge, and the actual position was almost half of the length of the battleship. That is, in the very center of the battleship. When the explosion happens. It is not surprising that the battleship was blown in two and sank quickly. If the position of this main gun is a little forward, then at most it can only blow up the bow of the ship, although this will not save the "Rodney" either, but it can give the officers and men on the battleship a little time to escape, so that more officers and men can survive.

It was also from the "Rodney" that the big explosion occurred. And the rapid sinking began, and the final moment of the British Home Fleet came. The so-called blessings are incomparable, and disasters are not singular. Less than ten minutes after the explosion and sinking of the "Rodney", the "Iron Duke" followed suit.

The "Iron Duke", which went head-to-head with the "Nanning", was at a disadvantage from beginning to end, and he didn't even have the ability to fight back. During the entire engagement, the "Iron Duke" hit only one shell of the "Nanning", and it hit the frontal armor of its main gun turret, which can only be regarded as scratching the "Nanning" at best. Although the shelling of the "Nanning" was not accurate enough, the main reason was that the captain of the ship considered that the flagship of the fleet here, in order to ensure the safety of the commander, the "Nanning" maneuvered and evaded the most frequently. This also affected the accuracy of its shelling, but almost all the four shells that hit the "Iron Duke" hit the key parts, especially the one that hit the middle of the "Iron Duke" in the salvo before 4:20!

Just after 2 p.m., there was a loud sound from the Iron Duke when metal broke, and even the Queen Elizabeth was on the ground of Summerville, a few nautical miles ahead. It was a creepy sound, and some experienced officers and men knew that it was the sound made when the keel of a battleship broke, and before that. There was a violent explosion on board the "Iron Duke", which was located in the bilge of the battleship.

There is no doubt that the shell that finally hit the "Iron Duke" was fatal. Relatively speaking, the keel of a battleship is the least likely to be damaged in an artillery battle, but it is easy to be blown off by a torpedo, after all, the keel is under the belly of a battleship, and even the most powerful armor-piercing projectile is difficult to penetrate several decks before hitting the keel. But in the same way, for a battleship, the keel is like a human backbone, and if the keel is blown off, then the battleship is completely finished.

When Satsummerville received a message from the captain of the "Iron Duke", he also asked the officers and men of the battleship to abandon the ship. It was established that the armor-piercing shell did penetrate several decks and exploded near the keel of the battleship. The shock wave of the explosion destroyed more than a dozen nearby compartments, and the flying shrapnel killed and injured hundreds of officers and soldiers, and at the same time, the keel of the battleship was also damaged, which was irreparable and uncontrollable.

At 4:28 a.m., the captain of the "Iron Duke" gave the order to abandon the ship, and the officers and men quickly boarded the lifeboat and left the sinking battleship in turn in the order of retreat. But. There were more than 1,200 officers and men on the Iron Duke, and it was spread over several decks of the entire battleship, and it was almost impossible to quickly evacuate all the officers and men. Even without taking into account the shells that were still falling, it was unlikely that most of the British officers and sailors on the "Iron Duke" would have managed to escape.

At 4:35 a.m., a few minutes after the explosion of the "Rodney", the keel of the "Iron Duke" broke in two, and immediately the battleship began to sink from the breaking point, and the bow and stern of the ship were quickly warped. At this time, only about 400 officers and men boarded the lifeboat, and there was no time for the officers and men on the battleship to get on the lifeboat, and the retreat order was completely chaotic, most of the officers and soldiers jumped directly into the sea in life jackets, and many of them never returned to land.

The sinking speed of the "Iron Duke" was very fast, and at 4:42 a.m., the high stern of the ship had already disappeared from the sea, and it took less than seven minutes from the break to the complete sinking. Moreover, when the "Iron Duke" sank into the sea, there was also an explosion of considerable scale, which was confirmed by the officers and men on the nearby battleship, as well as the officers and men who fled to the lifeboat at that time, which is probably because the ammunition compartment on the battleship was not flooded by the sea, but was detonated in the process of sinking.

At this point, two battleships were already finished, but the disaster did not end there. Just as Summerville was contemplating what to do with the battle below, a telegram from the "Nelson" made him feel hopeless again.

In fact, as early as about four o'clock, the "Nelson" was hit by several beautiful straddles from the "Wuhan" and could not raise its head. The heroic performance of the "Wuhan" almost made the British officers and men on the "Nelson" despair. But the battleship was not immediately routed, but continued to hold on, fighting bravely with its last three main guns. The wonderful performance of the "Wuhan" was almost at about four o'clock, although the "Nanchang" also had a good performance later, but it was not able to sink the "Nelson" quickly, which can be regarded as a little luck of the "Nelson". But this only delayed the time of death, and when the opponent was completely pressed and beaten, the "Nelson" could not have any chance to escape.

By half-past four, the officers and men of the "Nelson" had extinguished several fires and effectively controlled the heat in the interior of the battleship. At the same time, the wounded captain handed over command to the operational staff officer. The fighting continues, and the distance has been reduced from 13 nautical miles to about 10 nautical miles. And this is definitely a fatal distance for the "Nelson". At this distance, the Type 26 armor-piercing projectile could easily penetrate any piece of armor plate on the "Nelson".

The real catastrophe was actually caused by the erroneous actions of the British officers and soldiers. At that time, the A turret on the "Nelson" actually had only two main guns to use, and the gunners asked the gunners to repair the third main gun and continue to fight.

At 4:45 a.m., there was a violent explosion aboard the "Nelson", and then Samoville received a report. This time it was not the opponent who was hit, but the main gun turret on the battleship exploded! Sell-off results in a borehole when using the second gun in turret A, which is not fully repaired. Immediately, several projectile packs in the turret were detonated.

The turret, which weighed more than 1,000 tons, was blown into the air, and none of the officers and men in the turret survived. But that wasn't enough to sink the Nelson. At that time, the substitute commander of the field of operations simply asked for the "Nelson" to be withdrawn from the battle first, and Summerville agreed to this request. After all, the ship's three main gun turrets have been destroyed. But less than ten minutes later, before five o'clock, before the "Nelson" had finished turning, another violent explosion occurred. The location of the explosion this time was the ammunition bay under the A turret!

It was the explosion in the A turret that detonated the ammunition bay. At that time, most of the damage management crew on the battleship were concentrated in the boiler room and engine room, and there were more than 400 wounded in the cabin, so there was no spare manpower to extinguish the fire at the A turret. The fire spread rapidly downward, and like the "Rodney", the design of the sea valve on the "Nelson" was so bad that the officers and men simply did not have time to inject seawater into the ammunition compartment of the A turret.

It was this explosion that brought the "Nelson" to a complete end. Although most of the energy from the explosion rushed upward, it still shook through the bottom of the battleship, and the sea water rushed into the hull, and within five minutes, the "Nelson" had rolled five degrees, and at the same time broke near the bow of a third of the ship's length. At five o'clock in the morning, the "Nelson", which had withdrawn from the place of battle, was not able to escape after all, and after receiving the order from Samoville, the acting captain gave the order to abandon the ship, and the battleship was considered finished.

The "Nelson" did not sink quickly, and all the officers and men on the battleship had withdrawn from the battleship by six o'clock. During this period, there were also several small explosions on the battleship, resulting in many casualties among officers and men. It was only at half past six that the "Nelson" began to slowly sink. The bow of the ship was the first to be submerged, then the tail of the battleship was cocked, and it was not long after dawn that the battleship finally disappeared from the sea.

After it was determined that the "Nelson" was no longer in order, it was only then that Summerville truly despaired. At this time. "Rodney" and "Iron Duke" have sunk one after another, and "War Weyer". "Warrior", as well as "Nelson", have withdrawn from the battle. There were only three battleships left in the fleet, "Queen Elizabeth", "Barham", and "Gold Coast", and judging from the battle reports received earlier, the five battleships in the Third Task Force had almost no losses, the situation had changed from eight to five to three-on-five, the superiority in strength had been lost, and the difference in the performance of the battleships had been confirmed.

What made Satmolville despair the most was not that he had lost a few ships, but that in this more than an hour of fighting, he was simply not able to pose an effective threat to his opponent, and the commander of the enemy fleet was well aware of his superiority, and the opponent kept the distance at about 12 nautical miles throughout the engagement. At this distance, the enemy's armor-piercing shells were powerful enough, but the armor-piercing shells used by British battleships could hardly threaten the opponent. In other words, the opponent did not give Satsummerville a chance and did not want to engage Summerville at close range at all!

It was already very clear that a sudden turn was necessary, and if it could not break through, then the British home fleet would never reach the port of Pontesmouth. Shortly before 4:50 a.m., Summerville ordered the "War Weathiness" and "Warrior" to go to the port of Eastbourne to the north, and the "Nelson" received the same order. Since Eastbourne Harbor was only a small fishing port, Sarmoville decided to lead three other battleships to continue to Portsmouth Harbor to break through the enemy encirclement as fast as possible!