"Is it because there is too much water that completely submerges the armor?" , Yang Yonglin asked at the time, but as soon as the words came out, he realized that it was wrong, if this is the case, it is enough to use explosive shells all the time, why use armor-piercing bullets instead?

However, at this point, Yang Yonglin quickly figured out the truth, "I understand, it should be that the main armor belt with a thickness of 457 mm is completely submerged, but there is still armor above it, so the blasting shell cannot penetrate and cause water ingress." Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 infoHowever, the thickness of the upper armor was much inferior to that of the main armor belt, and it could not protect against our 210-mm armor-piercing shells, so after switching to armor-piercing shells, the centurion was quickly sunk......"

"You guessed it right, the thickness of the upper armor of the Centurion-class battleship was only 102 mm, and our 210 mm rapid-fire guns were completely penetrable at close range, and that's the truth! Due to the elevation of the waterline, the upper armor becomes the waterline armor, and when it is penetrated, it will cause water ingress, causing the Centurion-class battleship to sink further until the upper armor is completely submerged by the sea, and then it will really be paper-......", the technical staff officer nodded appreciatively and affirmed, and then he introduced the structure of some of the main British large warships, which naturally included the Sovereign-class battleships, and the careful Yang Yonglin memorized it in his heart, he didn't expect it to be used so soon.

"The upper armor of the Sovereign-class battleship is also only 102 mm thick, and it is still made of ordinary nickel steel armor, and our 210 mm armor-piercing shells can easily penetrate even at long distances, and now they are so close, even if they are shelled in the rear, and there are many compartments in the middle, they still have the spare strength to penetrate it." , Yang Yonglin thought confidently. Although the huge hull of the Sovereign-class battleship made it quite resistant to sinking, it could not withstand the Chinese gunfire, which was too fast and accurate, and the sinking speed could almost be felt with the naked eye.

Even if you observe with a telescope, even if the distance is quite close now, it is not easy to identify whether the main armor belt of the waterline is completely submerged, after all, there is no special indication on the outside, but Yang Yonglin has been paying close attention to the waterline of the Royal Oak Tree naturally has his reasons, "I can't see where the upper edge of the main armor belt of the waterline is, but as long as the enemy ship stops sinking, it should definitely have been completely submerged, so thick the main armor belt, even if it is only key protection, it cannot be very wide." ”

Yang Yonglin didn't wait too long, and after finding that the speed of the sinking of the battleship Royal Oak was imperceptible, he decisively ordered the main guns of the two warships to change the shells, and then the first salvo successfully broke the waterline!

After learning that the upper armor had been penetrated and caused flooding, the captain of the Royal Oak was shocked and immediately sent someone over to try to plug the leak, but where was the hole in the 210mm armor-piercing (blasting) shell so easy to plug? What's more, the rate of fire and hit rate of the two Chinese warships were terrifyingly high, and in a short time, the upper armor belt behind the battleship Royal Oak was blasted out of more than a dozen large holes, and at first only some of them were below the waterline, but the water ingress caused the hull of the Royal Oak to sink more and more, and soon all the big holes became water intakes, and the sea water rushed in frantically, unable to be blocked, and it was too late to drain out.

As a result, even Yang Yonglin did not expect that because the water ingress was too fast, the eight 210mm main guns on the second ship of Chaoyong Yangwei had not had time to replace the blasting shells, and the sea water had already flooded the deck of the Royal Oak. Since the enemy ship was definitely not saved, Yang Yonglin naturally would not waste more than half of the shells that had been consumed, and immediately notified the Yangwei through the radio to change its target and focus on the neighboring Indian Queen.

Less than one minute after Yang Yonglin's order was issued, the battleship Royal Oak, which had no skills to return to the sky, completely sank to the bottom of the sea, making it the first first-class battleship in world history to be sunk by a cruiser after the era of steam ironclads began......

Because the warships sank too fast, most of the lifeboats did not have time to put down, and the two sides on the battlefield chased and fled, and no one stayed to rescue, and the officers and men on the Royal Oak survived, and the total number of them was less than a hundred......

The sinking of the battleship Royal Oak terrified the remnants of the British Expeditionary Fleet, and Vice Admiral Seymour almost fainted, and he now realized that the two Centurion-class battleships were not torpedoed at all, but completely died by the extremely sharp shelling of the Haitian-class patrol! It's obviously a cruiser, but it can completely defeat the battleship in an artillery battle, and even sink it, this is not scientific!

"No, the Haitian class is not an ordinary cruiser, its displacement is not much smaller than some battleships, and its firepower and protection are terrifyingly strong, maybe this should be a completely new type of ship?" Vice Admiral Seymour suddenly had such an understanding, but the current dangerous situation made him unable to continue to think deeply, "If you can't think of a solution, those two Haitian-class cruisers will continue to sink our warships!" ”

But what can be done? If the technical generation gap can be made up by a little strategy, then it is not worthy of being called a generation gap.

Well, strictly speaking, it's not completely impossible, if the British fleet is scattered and fleeing now, the two Haitian-class patrols will not be separated, and the reinforcements have not yet appeared on the battlefield, at least three of them will have to be let go. However, in the event of an accident after scattering and escaping, each ship can only rely on its own strength to solve it, and even if it can get rid of the pursuit of the Chinese warship, it may not be able to escape back to Mumbai safely. What's more, it is extremely humiliating to do so, even if the expeditionary fleet is completely wiped out, it will only be defeated, and if five battleships are actually scattered and fled by two cruisers, even the super powerful new type of cruisers, it will be completely defeated! What is the dignity of the Royal Navy?

In addition, Vice Admiral Seymour, based on his own estimated ammunition consumption and the bomb load of the Haitian-class patrol, believed that the ammunition carried by the two Chinese warships should be not much, and even if the remnants of the British expeditionary fleet did not disperse and escape, they might not be able to sink one or two Sovereign-class battleships. And if the British ships fled on their own, they would lose the support of friendly ships, and the Chinese side only needed to disarm the pursuing target to force it to surrender......

Therefore, Vice Admiral Seymour thought about it, but he still did not make such a determination, he could not have imagined that there were six other Haitian-class patrol ships that were rapidly approaching...... (To be continued.) )