"It's true that blasting shells can't sink armored ships, and now that they're closer, the armor-piercing shells will penetrate much deeper than before," Philistine nodded secretly, appreciating the enemy commander's decision, but his expression was still calm, "But even if you get closer, the caliber of 8.2 inches (210mm) is too small after all, how can it penetrate the main armor of the Centurion as thick as 12 inches (305mm)?" However, the turret is a bit dangerous, and even with the advanced Harvey nickel steel armor, the thickness of 6 inches (152mm) is still a little smaller, and they must be made to strictly adhere to the safety regulations, so as not to break down and fire and spread to the ammunition depot."

As soon as Philmante's order was sent out through the microphone, a subordinate came to report that the main turret was hit by an enemy shell, but to Philiman's surprise, the turret was undamaged, and the enemy's armor-piercing shell only blew a pit in the armor on the front of the turret, and failed to penetrate it at all!

"Only to this extent, you can basically rule out the influence of luck, why is the penetration of Chinese shells so weak?" , Philmant was surprised and also felt a little puzzled, if based on the data obtained in the test, the 8-inch armor-piercing projectile will definitely be able to penetrate the 6-inch Harvey nickel steel armor at this distance, why can't the Chinese' 8.2-inch armor-piercing projectile do it?

"Is it Chinese technology that is not good?" , Philmant immediately ruled out this idea, judging from the performance of the Haitian-level patrol, their technology is very advanced in all aspects, and it is unlikely that the shells alone are particularly poor, not to mention that the other party's blasting shells are very powerful, but the armor-piercing bullets are not good, which is even more puzzling.

"Wait, in order to facilitate the inspection of the breach during the test, we used solid shells, but now the armor-piercing shells from the Chinese are loaded with explosives, could it be that the shells exploded in advance during the armor-piercing process and affected the penetration depth?" , After Philmante thought of this possibility, the mystery surrounding the Haitian suddenly gradually unraveled like a cocoon, which made him extremely excited, "It should be like this, and it is likely that not only the Chinese's armor-piercing shells have such problems, but also our own armor-piercing shells, because the problem is not actually on the shells, but on the new armor material with hardened surface of Harvey nickel steel!" It is likely that its defense in real combat is better than in testing, and a thickness of 6 inches or even less is enough to make it immune to cruiser gunfire. If this is the case, the reason why the Haitian-level patrol performance is so strong is obvious! ”

"The Chinese should know that armor-piercing shells with charges have an extremely poor effect on surface-hardened armor, so they focus on explosive shells instead of armor-piercing shells, and it is also for this reason that Haitian-class armor patrol does not need much thick armor to be immune to armor-piercing shells, so that a lot of tonnage can be saved to strengthen the power system and expand the protective area of armor to achieve comprehensive protection, it must be so, I understand it all!" , Philmante, who figured all this, couldn't help but shout in the command tower, and even left behind the fierce battle that was still going on, because he knew very well how much this discovery would affect the design of the warship, and it would cause a revolution, it would definitely be!

Philimante suddenly didn't want to die, he wanted to personally bring these secrets back to China, and it was always not so reassuring to write a note and entrust it to his subordinates to bring back, but at this time, he saw a captain rushing into the command tower in a panic, "Oh no, Your Excellency, the main armor has been penetrated, and the water is very serious, are you ready to put down the lifeboat now?" ”

"The main armor belt was penetrated? How is that possible? 12 inches thick! Philmante subconsciously thought that the person who came might have made a mistake, and was about to scold, but suddenly thought of a possibility, and his face changed greatly, "Could it be that the waterline has risen to where now?" ”

After listening to the report of his subordinates, Vice Admiral Philimante sighed deeply, and sure enough, as he was worried about, the enemy shells hit the unprotected parts of the bow and stern many times before, causing a large amount of water, although it was not enough to completely submerge the waterline armor, but it was enough to completely submerge the lower main armor belt with a thickness of 305mm, and then the protection of the waterline could only rely on the upper armor belt with a thickness of only 102mm, even if the defense of the Harvey nickel steel armor was strong, such a little thickness, It is also difficult to protect against 210mm armor-piercing shells that increase in depth as they get closer.

"After the upper armor belt is penetrated into the water, the Centurion will definitely sink further, and then even the upper armor belt may be completely submerged, and then everything will be over", after Filimant thought about this, he decisively agreed to put down the lifeboat immediately, the honor of the Royal Navy is more precious than life, but in addition to the captain and first mate who must strictly guard their posts until the last moment, unnecessary sacrifices should be avoided as much as possible, if you die at every turn, with the frequency of wars in Europe back then, the Europeans may have died a long time ago

However, at this time, the distance was too close, and the hit rate of the Haitian-class patrol main gun was frighteningly high, and with its terrifying rate of fire that could fire one shot in twelve or thirteen seconds, almost every one or two seconds, a 210mm shell hit the Centurion battleship, and more than a third of them hit the waterline, and the Centurion sank so fast that it could almost be felt with the naked eye, and there was not much time left for the officers and men on the ship to escape.

To make matters worse, due to the unprecedented psychological pressure, British officers and men were generally in a bit of a hurry when they put down their lifeboats, and it was difficult to put them on the surface of the sea correctly and smoothly

Looking at the ugliness of his subordinates, Vice Admiral Philmante, commander of the British Far East Fleet, sighed deeply, "I finally understand the feelings of the Japanese in the Battle of Ganghwa Bay, such an enemy is indeed desperate."

Eventually, less than 200 of the 622 crew members of the Centurion were rescued, and the commander of the British Far East Fleet, Fremantle, was captured, while the captain of the Centurion refused to leave the ship and sank with him

Long before the Centurion sank, Liu Buyun asked the Hairong to chase its sister ship Balle, at this time the distance was already quite far, once it ran out of sight, even if the Haitian-class patrol had the advantage of speed, how could it chase if it couldn't find someone?

Although the battleship Balle turned on the strong pressure ventilation and desperately escaped, the speed gap between the two sides was obvious, and they could only watch the other side continue to approach (to be continued). )