The sound of artillery shook the entire Le Maire Strait. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

Almost when the first cannon was heard on the island of Estados, several lighthouse keepers of the Argentine customs at the lighthouse on the island, who were also members of the coast guard, stood on the lighthouse and observed the strait from the telescope, if an hour ago, they were excited to see the big fleet, now each of them had a look of shock on their faces, they never thought that the Russian fleet would actually fight with the Chinese here.

"May God bless them!"

Maybe it's a similar faith, maybe it's the color of the skin, those lighthouse keepers prayed in their hearts for the Russian fleet, and while they were praying, the naval battle was already raging, and over the strait, ten-inch and 12-inch shells flew in the air with a whistling sound, and landed on the warship, to be precise, the "Duke Suvorov", the flagship of the Russian Second Pacific Fleet, or on the hull.

In the huge columns of water that kept rising, there was occasionally a cloud of black smoke that exploded, which was the smoke of the "Duke Suvorov" after it was hit!

Almost every salvo of artillery shells accurately hit the "Duke Suvorov", hitting the flagship of the Russian Second Pacific Fleet, and the black smoke continued to explode inside its hull - the cap-piercing shells always shredded its not-so-thick upper armor again and again, exploding inside.

"Good!"

The unimaginable hit rate made Huang Zhongying praise vigorously, and he stood there, his hand holding the telescope seemed to be sweating.

"Fight hard, you must sink the "Duke Suvorov", as long as you sink him......"

Almost at the moment when his words came out, another loud bang rang in his ears. The salvo from the main guns in front of the Jinghai sent only a scorching burst of flames and heat streams into its conning tower.

This is already the fifth salvo, and the 254 mm guns used in the Zhenbo-class armored cruisers can only fire 500-pound shells, which is far less powerful than the 1000-pound shells fired by the 305 mm cannons, but compared to the 305 mm guns, his rate of fire is higher. It is possible to reach a rate of fire of 4.5 rounds a minute.

To some extent, the higher rate of fire compensated for the weakness in firepower, and the gunners of the cruiser, who at this time had a geographical advantage, made the most of what they could achieve while training along the way.

Especially after the first salvo, the opponent sailing in a longitudinal line was completely passively beaten, and the effect of hitting the enemy ship by a cap-piercing shell made the cruisers' gunners shout with excitement, and they quickly calmed down, and they began to aim and shoot like an artillery exercise. And on the roof of the mast the operator of the rangefinder, in order to further enhance the hit rate. With the help of several sets of optical lenses, they magnified the Russian battleship 10,000 meters away by 20 times, which had reached the maximum magnification of the rangefinder.

"Your Excellency, we should switch to high-explosive shells!"

Almost immediately after the fifth round of salvo fire, Wang Wei put forward his own proposal, he wanted to use high-explosive shells to form a near-miss bomb has increased the damage to the "Duke Suvorov", of course. A more important point is that after the high-explosive shell hit the Russian ship. It can inflict more serious damage on its deck layer, and the armor-piercing shells used now, and the explosion of its upper layer inside, do not seem to have a very good effect.

"High-explosive ......"

Huang Zhongying's brows furrowed, and he pondered for a moment, looking at the front main turret that was preparing for the sixth salvo. He shook his head.

The ten-inch naval guns have a low trajectory and a faster rate of fire, but the shells are too light and the high-explosive charge is limited. The lethality of the near-miss bullet is small, which is the biggest shortcoming of the ten-inch naval gun, the power is too small, compared with the high-explosive shell, the effect of the cap armor piercing may be more significant.

"The caliber of the cannon is too small, and the expected damage is achieved within less than 5 meters, and the expected damage is achieved with a cap-piercing shell, even if it is a salvo, and one hits the fortress, it is enough to inflict a heavy blow on the "Duke Suvorov" ...... "

If you're lucky, you can even destroy an enemy ship with a single shot, such as hitting its steam engine......

“20、21、22……”

When Huang Zhongying rejected Wang Wei's suggestion, the chief of staff of the cruiser took a stopwatch to calculate the time of the bomb.

With accurate ranging, the cruiser's usual emphasis on the rate of fire began to play into play, and the high rate of fire brought about a hit rate was also demonstrated.

In just over 20 seconds between the fifth and sixth salvos, the Russian sailors on the "Duke Suvorov", although they had experienced a long voyage of tens of thousands of nautical miles, fully demonstrated the qualities they should have shown in their rigorous training in the past. Now many of them have been ignited by cannonballs, and the instinct generated by strict training makes them move very quickly, and it almost only takes a few minutes for those coal bags on the deck to be desperately thrown into the sea by the sailors.

However, they also paid a very heavy price - perhaps the main guns did not fire high-explosive shells, but the anti-aircraft shells fired by the broadside guns still set the entire battleship "Duke Suvorov" on fire.

"Tweet ......"

When the sharp whistle of cannonballs came again, the crew members on the deck of the "Duke Suvorov" immediately searched for concealment, and at the moment when the shells flew, the whistling sound that tore through the sky and even the sound of the explosion was muffled.

After the fifth salvo, the battleship "Duke Suvorov" was completely surrounded by a column of water tens of meters high, and the hull was surrounded by columns of water that soared into the sky, higher than the chimney, and then splashed on its head and face. Occasionally, the sailors would find something flying in front of them with a flash of light or a black shadow, and it was scattered shrapnel, and the flying shrapnel immediately reaped the lives of the sailors who could not escape.

At this time, at the beginning of the battle, it had already entered the white heat.

"The shells of the Chinese look very different from ours!"

The cruiser's fifth salvo only landed on the hull with only a few blasting shells, which made William, who was placed in the command tower as a military attaché to watch the battle. Feng? Grevell's mood was relaxed for a while, although he was watching the game. But here, you really need to be prepared to die in battle.

"Maybe I could have caught a cannonball flying over just now!"

Relieved, he was also in the mood to joke after taking a photo, and said with a smile that the reason why he said this was because he was carrying a camera. However, it would take a lot of courage for a military attache to get on the bridge during the battle, but he didn't care much.

As an officer of the German Navy, he hoped to be able to observe what kind of inspiration this naval battle would bring to the German Navy, just like now, he has discovered a detail - Chinese shells, whether high-explosive shells or armor-piercing shells. There is a fundamental difference from the shells of other countries, and their shells are more powerful.

Especially those high-explosive shells, even if they hit a telegraph line in the air, they will explode, and their power is very strong, as for armor piercing, it seems that there is a big difference.

"After the end of the war. Be sure to get this information! ”

At the same time, Rogers, who was standing on the bridge, did not use a telescope but silently watched the starboard side. There were heavy blows in many places on the starboard side, there were flames everywhere on the deck, and even there were burning flames on the sea, the Chinese shells were not only powerful, but they could burn on the water after exploding, what kind of shells did they use?

Roger Stevensky, of course, did not know the answer. At this time, with a telescope hanging on his chest, he looked up at the sky with a solemn expression, and the sun was in the west at this time, and the sun would set very early in high latitudes.

That's when Roger Stevensky picked up the telescope. He looked at the detachment in the other column, and then shook his head again. They also have no chance of forming a parallel battle with the Chinese.

The war, perhaps at the very beginning, was already doomed, should it continue now, or should it turn around and flee from this battlefield?

While Rogerst Winsky was thinking and hesitating in his heart, Hwang Jong-young also looked at the sky, knowing that he was in the west, which meant that when the sun set, his warship would form a strong shadow.

"When does the sun start to set here?"

"Sir, 16:03 to 20"

Well!

Nodding his head, Huang Zhongying understood that he still had a few hours to spare, naval warfare has always been a war of technology and calculation, and the battle between warships is battleship construction and artillery construction, but the most important thing is precise calculation, not only in terms of ranging and other artillery calculations, but also in calculating the impact of various natural conditions on naval warfare.

In naval warfare, the western side is undoubtedly at a disadvantage, especially when the western sky is clear and the sea horizon is clear, the side silhouette of the fleet living in the western region will be completely captured, and the impact point of the opposing side will be easily recognized, and as the sun sets in the west, the problem will only get worse.

After another salvo fired, noticing that the Russian fleet was trying to turn "t" into a parallel front of "v" and then "=", with a raise of his right hand, Hwang Jong-young gave an order.

"3 degrees right!"

"3rd degree right ......"

The order was repeated, and the 3-degree turn would not affect the next artillery battle, but most importantly, Huang Zhongying knew that he had to seize the geographical advantage, at least while everything was still in a hurry, to get rid of the disadvantage that he would face in a few hours. Of course, it is more important to maintain control over the "t" prefix.

The third turn, from 10,000 meters away, seemed to have hardly changed at all, and the cruiser fleet was constantly flying towards the "Duke Suvorov" like gunnery training, firing at least two to three salleys per minute in the seventh and tenth rounds, which was far beyond the rate of fire of any decisive battle of the main fleet.

At the time of the tenth salvo, the "Duke Suvorov", which was the flagship and the leader, was still under one-sided attack, and they could not even mobilize half of their guns to return fire, and behind the column, many warships could not even attack - they could not see the target at all.

The explosions around the warship were earth-shattering, and the starboard side of the "Duke Suvorov", which had been completely facing the guns of the cruiser with its starboard hull, was constantly hit as if it had been hit by a huge hammer again, and the secondary guns on the port side, the secondary guns on the inboard side, and even some of the guns were damaged before they could fire.

After being pierced through the hull by the cap-piercing shell, the torn fragments of armor steel and the steel fragments after the explosion of the shells splashed everywhere in the ship, sweeping the sailors to the ground like mowing grass, and the blood flowed from the deck and cabins in an instant, and when it was revealed on the starboard side, it was immediately subjected to a devastating round of shells.

"Boom ......"

When the twelfth salvo of shells flew, a loud bang like a bell shook everyone again, and it was definitely the starboard armor belt that the ten-inch shell had accurately hit.

A 10-inch mild steel armor-piercing shell accurately hit the starboard side armor belt near the waterline, like a giant's heavy fist armor-piercing projectile in the armor steel at the same time, the kinetic energy impact, vibrating the fixed "Duke Suvorov" armor belt and dozens of mild steel rivets on the ship's board, rivets flew at the same time, the armor-piercing projectile first penetrated the armor steel, and then penetrated the ship's board, and the accurate impact of the downward trajectory hit a boiler, at the moment of breaking through the boiler, the shell exploded on the inside of the boiler, and the shell was several kilograms of ******* The explosives may not be very powerful, but after the explosion in its boiler, it exerted its maximum power.

A steam-filled boiler explosion is nothing short of a devastating disaster. In an instant, the sailors who were constantly shoveling coal in front of the boiler were shrouded in the white mist that exploded after the explosion, and the high-temperature steam rushed towards the sailors, including the boiling water in the boiler, and the boiling water and debris exploded on their bodies, instantly scalding off their skin, and the next fragments, like God's favor, took their lives before they let out a scream of pain...... Only the luckiest lucky ones will be taken by God!

The sailors in the starboard boiler room were all knocked to the ground like dominoes, and at the same time, the boiler explosion also splashed countless debris in all directions, and the shock wave of the internal explosion directly hit the bulkhead, and the ship's side, which was injured by rivet breakage, suffered another heavy blow, and immediately tore a larger opening, and seawater poured into the boiler room shrouded in boiling water and flames along the gap of tens of centimeters.

"The starboard boiler compartment exploded and flooded!"

Despite his great respect for Rogerst Winsky, even at this time William? Feng? Griwell also had a premonition that the vice admiral was about to lose his flagship!

In William? Feng? While Griwell worries about his unknown fate, he also understands that Chinese seems to have won the naval battle...... (To be continued.) )