Volume 23 Springboard for Progress Section 79 Take advantage of your illness to kill you

In the battle between the "Nanning" and "Guangzhou" against the "Montana", the battle between the "Nanchang" and the "Nanjing" and the "New Hampshire" was the most important. de0325

When the "New Hampshire" rushed out of the harbor, the captains of the "Nanchang" and "Nanking" found that the battleship was out of order, and they all judged that there was a problem with the steering gear, and the steering flexibility was affected, and this would inevitably have a huge impact on its combat performance, such as making the battleship appear more clumsy when avoiding shells, so that it would be hit by more shells. Under the circumstances, if the "Nanchang" and "Nanking" had been able to quickly defeat the "New Hampshire," the situation on the battlefield would have been more favorable to the Third Task Force. It is precisely because of this that the battle to strangle the "New Hampshire" has become extremely critical.

Because of the problem with the steering gear, and the time to turn at the latest, it was not until 6:52 that the "New Hampshire" completed the turn, and at this time the two turrets behind the battleship were no longer very meaningful. In the first ten minutes, the two fierce battleships had already made the officers and men of the "New Hampshire" completely desperate.

Before following the "Maine" turn, the "New Hampshire" had sailed nearly 2,000 yards south, and because the steering angle speed was too slow, in the case of .+u its own firepower was inferior to that of the opponent, the main method of self-protection was to open the distance, and the fierce artillery battle at close range was extremely disadvantageous to the side with a small number of main guns. The captain of the USS New Hampshire also understood this, but he could not change the actual situation at that time. This point, in the end, took the life of the "New Hampshire", and also made this battleship the worst and least "worthless" of the three battleships that came out later.

From 6:41 a.m., the distance between the two sides had been reduced to less than 5,000. What is this concept? 5,000 yards is about the same distance as C, and the length of the barrel of the 55 x 400 m main gun barrel is 22 meters (the length of the gun chamber and other parts is not counted). That is to say, this distance is only about the length of 205 barrels, and the accuracy of the 400-meter main gun is less than 2 milliradians, that is, at a distance of 4500 meters, other factors that affect the accuracy of shelling are taken into account, and the error radius will not exceed 15. The width of the frontal waterline of the Montana-class battleships was 37 meters. That is, the gunners on the battleship only needed to aim at the center of the waterline of the "New Hampshire" and let the shells hit the target!

At the time when the "New Hampshire" was still heading towards two "New Provincial Capital" class battleships. The aiming point set by the gunners on both battleships was not the midpoint of the battleship's waterline, but the midpoint of the battleship's commander's bridge. Although the aiming line is a little higher, if you take into account the height at which the trajectory of the shell decreases while flying, you can basically guarantee that the shell will land on the battleship. This was also the case, and it was an easy way to aim at the target.

It was also from 6:41 a.m. that the "New Hampshire" experienced the most tragic ten minutes of its life. During these 10 minutes, the "Nanchang" and "Nanjing" gave full play to their fierce firepower, and their relatively weak protective capabilities were not tested. This is probably the luckiest of all.

The first thing to be destroyed was the B turret in front of the bridge. The gunners soon discovered that when aiming at the bridge, the shells would basically hit the B turret, and as a result, between the destruction of the B turret, the 18 main guns on the two battleships aimed at the bridge in total, and more than 20 shells hit the turret successively. In fact, the fourth armor-piercing shell that hit the B turret already made the turret ineffective. The armor-piercing projectile pierced the frontal armor of the turret, and although it did not explode, it had severely damaged the internal equipment of the turret and made it impossible to use it at all. It is also because this shell did not explode. As a result, more than a dozen shells fell one after another. By the time the B turret was blown into the sky, the two battleships >: Mark.

These three rounds of shelling also proved one point, that is, at a distance of 5,000, the thickest part of the armor on the "Montana" class battleship could not block the direct fire of the Type 26 armor-piercing projectile, and the Type 26 armor-piercing projectile could penetrate the US standard armor steel plate with an inclination angle of 40 and a thickness of more than 500 meters at a distance of 5,000 meters, which was basically equivalent to nearly 700 meters thick armor in the vertical direction. The problem is that, except in very special circumstances, the "New Provincial Capital" class will never fight with any enemy battleship at such a close distance. As for whether the Type 26 armor-piercing projectile can hit the two-layer horizontal armor of the "Montana" class in long-range engagements. Under the circumstances of the time, it was impossible to get a real combat provenance.

After destroying the B turret of the enemy ship, the gunners on the "Nanchang" chose a relatively simple method, which was to press the aiming point down by about 5, in this case. You can hit the A turret in front of the B turret. The opposite choice was made, which was to lock the aiming point in the middle of the mast in the upper part of the bridge. So that the shells will hit the bridge. From here, the two battleships each picked a strike position.

The A turret of the "New Hampshire" was not much luckier than the B turret. At that time, the B turret was destroyed after only two rows of shells, and the A turret was destroyed by the armor-piercing shells fired from the "Nanchang" after only four rows of shells. At that time, the third armor-piercing projectile that hit the front of the A turret pierced the armor and exploded inside the turret. The top armor of the turret was blown into the air by the tremendous pressure generated by the explosion, and if it were not for the automatic sliding door between the turret and the ammunition depot, the ammunition depot below would have been detonated. After seeing that the enemy ship's A turret was also finished, the gunners on the "Nanchang" did not waste any more ammunition and re-chose the aiming point.

The performance of the "Nanjing" was not much worse. The first two rounds of shelling were not a threat because the aiming point was too high, and the shells grazed the top of the bridge and did not pose a threat, and the lookout quickly corrected the gunner's error, and the bridge of the "Montana" class was lower than that of the "Iowa" class, and the aiming point was pressed down. Of the third shells fired, there were two armor-piercing shells

Hit the front of the bridge. These two armor-piercing shells were enough to destroy the entire ship, and dozens of officers and men, including all the casualties. As a result, the "New Hampshire" lost its unified command.

By this time, the flanks of the "New Hampshire" had been exposed under the guns of the two "new provincial capitals". At this time, the gunners on the two battleships already had full confidence, the frontal armor of the battleship's main gun turret was the thickest, and since the armor-piercing shells could penetrate the frontal armor of the turret, they would definitely be able to penetrate all other parts of the armor. It was also the case that at that time, when the two "new provincial capitals" shifted their muzzles to the side of the enemy ship, the aiming points were pressed quite low, and the gunners of the main guns did not think of destroying the secondary guns on the side of the enemy ship first, but prepared to directly hit the hull of the enemy ship!

In long-range artillery battles, artillery shells can often hit the underwater parts of enemy ships, but in close-range artillery battles, it is difficult for artillery shells to hit the underwater parts of enemy ships, the main reason is that in close-range artillery battles, the trajectory of artillery shells is very straight, and the angle of incidence is not too large, when the shells fall on the water, because the density of water and air is different, the shells are easy to be bounced. This is the same principle as the bouncing of a "barrel" bomb on the surface of the water. Therefore, in close artillery battles, the belligerents rarely directly hit the parts near the waterline of the enemy ship, and of course, before destroying the main guns of the enemy ship and finding other more valuable targets for the time being, it is not impossible to lower the aiming point and try to hit the hull near the waterline of the enemy ship. de0325

At a distance of 5,000 yards, the penetration rate of 26 armor-piercing shells against the vertical armor of the side of the "Montana" class will not be less than fifty percent, but the problem of the fuse of the shell will still seriously affect the effectiveness of the shelling. From 6:45 a.m. to 6:50 a.m., the "Nanchang" and "Nanning" fired a total of 158 shells, of which at least 110 shells hit the starboard side of the "New Hampshire," and about half of the shells hit near the waterline. Even if these shells did not explode, dozens of huge holes were opened in the hull of the "New Hampshire". And each hole can cause one to several compartments to be flooded, and when dozens of compartments are flooded, the battleship is basically finished. Of course, it was by no means that all the armor-piercing shells that hit did not explode, then the battleship was even more hopeless.

By 6:50, more than half of the cabins on the starboard side of the "New Hampshire" had been destroyed, and more than 2,500 tons of water had entered. At that time, more than a dozen watertight doors connecting the nearby compartments were damaged by the shock wave of the explosion and were rendered useless. Eventually, it will definitely lead to flooding of most of the compartments on the battleship. The maximum amount of water that the "Montana" class can withstand when it is unladen is about 35,000 tons, but in fact it can only withstand about 20,000 tons of water at most, and if it is more, the battleship will sink. In addition, its unilateral water intake cannot exceed 12,000, otherwise the battleship is in danger of capsizing. At that time, the right compartment of the "New Hampshire" was half destroyed. At least 15000 of seawater can pour in, that is, if the seawater that poured into the hull cannot be quickly pumped out, the battleship will definitely sink. At that time, it was impossible for the "New Hampshire" to pump out the seawater inside the ship's hull.

The heavy shelling not only damaged the ground compartment of the battleship, but also blew up many cables inside the battleship, among which one of the main power compartments on the right side of the battleship had been flooded, and only another main power compartment on the left side of the battleship was relied on to provide power to the pumping machines, which could not meet the power needs of all the pumping machines working at the same time. In addition, because the inlet compartments are near the waterline, the compartments below are blocked. If the officers and soldiers inside opened the watertight door to escape, more seawater would inevitably pour in. As long as seawater is poured into the boiler room and engine room, even if the generators on the battleship are working, it is impossible to prevent the battleship from sinking.

It is also because the generators on the ground of the battleship are converted to provide power for the pumping machines, and at the same time. The compartments above the ammunition depots of the two turrets in the tail have also been flooded, and the cables connecting the ammunition compartments have been blown up, resulting in the interruption of the power supply to the ammunition compartments, and it is impossible to send shells weighing more than one ton to the turrets by manpower alone, and the turrets can only rely on auxiliary generators to drive the turrets to rotate, as a result, the two turrets lose their combat effectiveness without receiving a single shell.

By this time. The "New Hampshire" is finished, and even if the "Nanchang" and "Nanking" stop shelling at this time, the battleship will sink to the bottom of the sea. However, both battleships did not stop, and another 100 shells were fired over the next few minutes. Until 6:56. "New Hampshire" was already seriously tilting to the right, and at the same time the white flag was raised on the mast of the battleship. The captain gave the order to abandon the ship, and the officers and men rushed to the deck first, and when they began to flee for their lives, the two battleships stopped shelling.

By this time, the "New Hampshire" had received a full 200 shells, of which more than 50 had pierced the armor and exploded. At 7:18, after struggling on the surface of the sea for more than 20 minutes, the "New Hampshire" capsized with its right tilt reaching its limit, and then began to sink with its belly facing up. Because the water depth in this area is less than 40 meters, as a result, when the mast of the "New Hampshire" has been inserted into the silt of the seabed, part of the battleship's belly is still exposed to the sea.

Later, the Tang Imperial Navy organized forces to salvage the battleship, and simply repaired it nearby, after restoring part of the power, canceled the turret on the battleship, and other unnecessary equipment, and then replaced it with hundreds of artillery guns of the Tang Imperial Navy, becoming a "strong" fire support ship, and before the end of the war, participated in two battles of little significance, which were also the last two battles in which the "New Hampshire" participated, at that time, I'm afraid that the Americans who built this battleship did not expect such a thing to happen. After the war, the "New Hampshire" was towed to Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands of the Pacific Ocean. This is the last belonging of the ship, in the first hydrogen bomb test of the Tang Empire, the ship slowly sank into the sea under the huge flash of nuclear explosion along with dozens of other warships that were retired from the Tang Empire's navy or captured from enemy countries, and this was also the largest displacement warship in that test! Of course, that's all for later. Sea Soul Volume 23 Springboard for Progress Section 79 Take advantage of your illness to kill you