"Kentucky, ranged, 13,100 meters, single-shot calibration, A-turret error...... 550 meters! ”

"Block B, the left deflection of the direction machine is 0.2 degrees, and the single-shot school shot!"

Rumble...... Fierce cannon flames erupted from the second main gun mounted on the bow of the HMS Queen, and the target was the USS Kentucky, which had been firmly stuck at the far end of the T-shaped top position......

Old man Shi Pei was not at all easy at the moment, although the plan to invite you into the urn was very perfect, the Americans did not understand the situation at all, and they were led into the trap set by themselves, the only thing that was slightly disappointed was that the US West Coast Fleet was really a little thin, and only such a Qishaji-class former dreadnought battleship came out, which directly led to the two Scharnhorst-class heavy cruisers having little chance of being brilliant.

The range and accuracy of the 12 210mm, 40 times diameter main guns on the Scharnhorst-class heavy cruiser are completely sufficient to complete long-range shooting at a distance of 12,000 meters, but this caliber shell is undoubtedly an itching effect for the 10-inch main armor belt of the American Iron Turtle, and the armor of this heavy cruiser is obviously difficult to withstand the long-range bombardment of the 13-inch main gun of the American battleship!

After all, in the absence of any overseas base, any kind of damage is a huge loss for the fleet, so Old Man Speese obviously asked the two Scharnhorst-class heavy cruisers and the two Queen-class battle cruisers to form a front and rear flanking sub-fleet, but in terms of combat ideas, there is no doubt that they are ready to use the 13.5-inch, 40-fold diameter big guy on the Queen-class battle cruiser to solve the battle.

At 12:07 p.m., when the Queen's Patrol fired its third round of single-shot school shooting, the dazzling sunlight swept due south across the mist that had spread around the strait early in the morning. This immediately gave Admiral Spee an excellent opportunity to strike. The HMS Empress and Scharnhorst were stuck just south of the battleship Kentucky. At this moment, the other party's observation mirror must be a golden light, full of various observation blind spots.

From the 13,000-meter distance between the two sides into the engagement, the 13-inch, 35-fold main gun in the bow of the American ship has not fired a single calibrator projectile from beginning to end...... Don't let this opportunity go!

Spee's sophisticated judgment. It was indeed the big trouble that Major General Fit was facing at this moment, and although the staff officer had confirmed to him the strength of his head-on opponent after taking into account the known information, the situation before him at this moment, at least in terms of his judgment, was already in a position of great disadvantage......

The opposing side has two newest battleships...... Because the Queen-class battle cruiser has never released specific information to the public, it has always been recognized as a quasi-dreadnought by the United Kingdom, the United States, and Australia, after all, that tonnage and main gun caliber are definitely enough to suppress the existence of the former dreadnought.

As for why it is not the 8 or 10 main gun configuration of the dreadnought, in the case of the dreadnought's general 12-inch main gun. There is actually no gap in the projection capabilities of the 6 13.5-inch guns, perhaps the only difference. It is only in the projection coverage of the salvo, but the improvement is indeed the huge lethality of a single gun, and in the design of warships in this era, there is no absolute judgment of which is better or worse.

Of course, for the Chinese warship designers who advocate large pipes, they will resolutely not consider small pipes if they can carry large pipes, of course, with "huge thick and long" as the only standard, the Queen-class as an export-oriented battle cruiser is not equipped with the most advanced 48 times the diameter of the 13.5-inch main gun, and even the mature 45 times the diameter of the pipe is not configured, but this caliber is enough to be proud of the dreadnoughts of various countries of the same tonnage.

It was this de facto pressure that made Rear Admiral Fitt, who even had a 14-inch main armor, feel great pressure, and the fear of falling into a trap brought him a more immediate sense of crisis, and the original plan to circumnavigate Catarina Island to get rid of the opponent caused his squadron to be flanked by the opponent's 6 warships.

As a Chishach-class battleship built at the same time as the Battle of Cuba, because it had entered the outfitting stage when China intervened in the Cuban War, it still maintained the outdated design of the second-class main gun, and the 13-inch main gun only had two front and rear guns.

However, the firm belief in the Iron Tortoise of the American Navy made him decide to launch an active attack, after all, it is less than 200 kilometers from San Diego, and there are many American warships in the surrounding waters...... Of course, it was only the old torpedo boats and destroyers, but it was enough to assist the battleship in its mission of repelling the enemy!

"Turn the rudder 30 degrees to the left and order the destroyers Vlad and Reed to follow and launch an attack on the enemy ship in front! The encounter finally began as Major General Fit gave a new combat order from the microphone.

However, although Rear Admiral Fit has turned around and tried to use the angle to deploy the battleship's sidestring fire, the poor environment of backlight observation and the MK-I mechanical fire control used by the US Navy are based on the British Dreyer fire control export technology for research and development of the platform, and at this moment, if you want to attack the Queen-class battle cruiser that occupies the dominant terrain, at a distance of 13,000 meters, it can be said that there is no accuracy at all.

You must know that the US Navy's standard pre-war exercise range was 8,000 meters, based on long-distance shooting of more than 10,000 meters, or the "pinch fork shooting technology" stolen in the technical exchanges between the United States and the British Navy, but in fact, this technology based on the integrated fire control platform, even the Royal Navy, which has just been applied to actual combat, still has various problems, not to mention the US Navy, which has learned half-baked and has no chance to fight at all.

At 12:15, it had been more than 20 minutes since the two sides exchanged fire, when the Queen Battle Patrol fired the seventh round of half-volley school firing, and the Scharnhorst Heavy Patrol fired the 17th round of single-shot school projectiles, the battleship Kentucky finally fired the first round of front main gun school projectiles in the evasive maneuver that constantly changed the marching situation, and the 350-kilogram armor-piercing projectile had an error of more than 1,000 meters after nearly 15 seconds of flight.

Major General Fit was not given a chance to embarrass this terrible school projectile. The scorching sun ends at noon. The Queen's Battle Cruiser and the Scharnhorst Heavy Patrol fired a rush of intense collation fire almost simultaneously...... Black smoke suddenly rose from the two giant ships. The huge shock caused by the black smoke and flames rolling on the sea surface made everyone on the American battleship 10,000 meters away also feel a huge pressure!

"Turn 10 degrees to the left!" Major General Fit put down the telescope in his hand in shock, this feeling of placing fate under the muzzle of the opponent's gun is indeed extremely bad, but as a soldier, he naturally knows the helplessness in it...... It's all on your own! He immediately yelled at the microphone again, "Speed up the school shooting!" We're going to fight back against the Germans! ”

However, the Kentucky's luck was obviously not good, and the whistling sound in the sky completely suppressed the nervous herald on the Kentucky. A series of huge columns of water rose from less than 100 meters in front of the battleship, covering the almost so-called direction of the battleship's advance, and the nearest huge column of water was less than 50 meters to the left of the battleship.

This scene obviously surprised the United States, the previous German battleship's school projectiles fell sporadically around the battleship, and there was no such amazing sense of oppression covered by the bullet rain at all, but when the iron turtle he was riding on was about to get into this bullet rain, such a heavy feeling was obviously not something that anyone could bear...... And, what's more. This was already the result of the tactical maneuver of the rudder ordered by Major General Fett.

Major General Fitt was also obviously surprised by the accuracy of the German gunnery, but he did not get any chance to react. The officer at the observation post let out a scream, and the bridge of the battleship Kentucky suddenly felt a huge tremor, and several teacups on the chart table jumped up without warning, and then, a violent explosion and billowing black smoke poured into the command tower.

At 12:18, the 8 210mm guns fired by Scharnhorst in a lateral salvo fired a beautiful round of rapid fire, as the most advanced 210mm rapid-fire main gun made in Germany, although the caliber is not outstanding, but the rapid salvo efficiency of 6 rounds per minute can indeed be regarded as a very good naval firepower.

In just one minute, the Scharnhorst poured 48 6 rounds of salvos at the battleship Kentucky 12,500 meters away, and the Americans simply did not have time to make any reaction in such a short period of time, and had to accept the baptism of this dense barrage, of which the second, third, and fourth rounds respectively hit the battleship Kentucky 4 210 armor-piercing shells and 3 high-explosive shells.

With only 120 kg of armor-piercing shells and 105 kg of high-explosive shells, it was naturally impossible to penetrate the main armor belt of the battleship Kentucky, and 5 of the shells hit the shells of the conning tower, rear turret and side chord armor belt, and almost no destructive effect was achieved, but the other two shells still played a good role in washing the ground!

One of the high-explosive shells hit the American battleship's foremast cage lookout with the symbol of the American battleship, and as a result, a 5-meter baseline rangefinder arranged on the side of the lookout was destroyed on the spot, and the four-person ranging team was also killed instantly by the explosion, which caused a small fire on the ship's mast.

Another 120 kg armor-piercing shell hit very accurately, the shell has lost most of its kinetic energy after more than 10,000 meters of flight, but this shell directly hit the front deck of the battleship Kentucky, although the armor of the American Iron Tortoise includes the 40mm horizontal armor belt of the deck, but compared to the main armor belt with the thickest 14 inches of side chord, the protection is naturally weak.

The armor-piercing shell almost easily penetrated the horizontal armor belt, and ran diagonally along the battleship's hull through the weak dome belt of the 3-story cabin, triggering the fuse at the thickest in the bilge near the bottom of the bridge......

The battleship Kentucky is naturally an all-steel battleship, but the bilge armor of the battleship is a 3-inch steel plate, and the violent explosion immediately caused the rivet-fixed steel armor to burst horizontally, and finally formed a large crack of nearly 30 centimeters horizontally and nearly 1 meter longitudinally.

Admiral Spee was not surprised to see that Scharnhorst actually opened the first battle, and the participation of Scharnhorst in the battle was originally based on the importance of many long-range rapid-fire main guns of the heavy patrol......

He smiled coldly and made a decisive gesture, and the fleet immediately began to accelerate its advance, and the huge main guns raised high on the undulating battleships once again spewed out deadly killing planes!

However, Admiral Spee's brilliant tactical performance was more obviously tactical, although the Queen's battle patrol and the Scharnhorst's heavy patrol made full use of the speed advantage and firmly stuck the T-position's advantageous position, but the Queen's next two volleys, although it hit a beautiful close miss, failed to achieve results.

On the contrary, the battleship Kentucky, which was desperately advancing, after losing its main rangefinder, actually hit a school projectile of less than 200 meters in the next two rounds of school firing, as if it had exploded into a small universe, which made the calm Admiral Speese immediately carry out tactical maneuvers to ensure his superior position......

After the next two rather dull rounds of firing between the two sides, an observer officer reported to Spee in surprise, "General, the Americans are slowing down!" (To be continued......)