"Boom!" With a loud bang and a huge earthquake on the hull, the U.S. fleet finally landed the decisive hit Nimitz expected in the 46th minute after the battle broke out. A cannonball fired from the USS New Jersey roared like thunder, piercing the thick, sloping main armor belt on the front side of the Baden; The 18.4kg high explosive detonated in response, and the surging air waves and flames instantly swept through the gun shaft under the A turret!

The waves are dancing wildly, and the flames are like rainbows. The iron plate steel separating the upper and lower layers was suddenly torn apart, and the deadly fire dragon rushed into the bomb magazine below like a flood; However, for all the more than 1,600 officers and men on the Baden, fortunately, due to the previous high-intensity artillery battle, the shells in the area where the Yan Wave was raging in the first time had already been fired by the gunners. The commander of the guns immediately ordered an urgent filling of water into the forward ammunition depot, and finally flooded the ammunition depot before the nearby shells, which were not as sensitive as the propellant, were heated and detonated. Saved the battleship from the catastrophic situation of being sunk by a martyrdom. When the sea water came into contact with the last batch of shells, there was even a sound of water vapor steaming and steaming from the surface of the shells! However, the frightened gunner soon discovered an embarrassing situation: due to the flooding of the ammunition depot, the two main turrets in the front of the Baden were completely muted, and its tactical advantage over the New Jersey was lost in an instant.

After receiving the report from the damage control department, the commander of the German fleet, Machar, was suddenly shocked in his heart: the guns of this new American warship are really terrifyingly powerful, and their core cabin is no longer safe in front of it! However, Mashal did not back down from this situation. In all naval battles, no commander has ever flinched because of the defensive weakness of his ship. Unarmored destroyers who dare to make a desperate charge at a large capital ship. It has long set an example of a soldier who is not afraid of life and death in the navies of various countries. His battleship also had reliable protection against underwater bombs, and more than 200 well-trained officers and men in damage management. There was absolutely no reason to retreat and give up the landing field to these enemy ships. What's more, the opponent's battleship was also a scene of fire and smoke under his previous attack, maybe his next attack would be the last straw that crushed the camel!

In the midst of the surging water, the rear main gun group of the Baden opened fire again. With half of its firepower lost, the battleship's gunnery switched to a full salvo, and the overlapping muzzle flames roared and roared, as brilliant as the sunset. Meanwhile. A broad battle flag was also raised on the towering mast of the Baden, and the loud and heroic dance made every German sailor who saw it feel excited and enthusiastic. During the Battle of the North Sea 24 years earlier, Ingnoll raised the flag in his flagship ship, the Frederick the Great, and won an unprecedented victory in an epic decisive battle. At this moment, when the flag was fluttering, the hearts of the German sailors were aroused with pride and excitement for the glory of the past; In the flash of tears, their original feelings of horror and horror due to the successive injuries of the battleships were instantly swept away, and they were replaced by an unprecedented high fighting spirit!

"Boom! Rumble! "After the Baden, the Saxony and Württemberg, which had been shelled by more than a dozen bullets, also let out an earth-shattering roar with the remnants of their main guns; Its posture of resistance to the death. It looks like a lion tiger beast with several arrows in its body, but it is even more ferocious. The two German ships, which were attacked by the combined attack of the opponent's four battleships, were already a terrifying scene of flames and thick smoke rushing into the sky at this moment. Only 6 and 5 guns remained in the main gun fire, and the freeboard of the battleship was significantly lower than the normal height. However, they had no intention of leaving the battle line. Although the flag, rope, and radio stations were blown up, making it impossible to make contact with the flagship, the sailors saw the familiar battle flag raised by the flagship, and were determined to compose their own glory in this sea.

The flames were blazing, the smoke of gunpowder was in the nose, and in the thunderous explosion of heavy artillery, huge orange and red fireballs burst out from the battleships of both sides from time to time. As the battle distance had been reduced to within 17,000 yards, the accuracy of the artillery fire had increased exponentially compared to before, and the violent explosion waves ravaged the steel-armored hulls, making people wonder if they would collapse under the repeated bombardment of these many shells. The core compartments of the German battleships began to be penetrated one after another, the power auxiliary engines were destroyed one after another, the surging waves poured into one compartment after another, and the lightly wounded had already been arranged into the damage pipe after simple bandaging, and the intense work of extinguishing and draining the fire was carried out. The sailors near the ammunition depot clenched the gate valve with both hands, ready to flood the ammunition depot at the first opportunity; If time is short, then ascending to Valhalla is also the ideal destination for them as soldiers.

At the same time, the U.S. fleet also suffered a sharp increase in wounds under the bombardment of German heavy artillery: its 307 mm 19-degree inclined main equipment could no longer defend against the heavy shells of German ships, and the protection extended from the main armor to the water was also difficult to resist the attack of underwater bullets. In addition, with the surge in the number of hits on both sides, the disadvantages of the built-in main equipment of American battleships began to appear, and this became a key factor in determining the victory or defeat at sea.

In order to save the area of the main horizontal armor, the American designers put the main armor belt into the hull, which successfully reduced the tonnage of the battleship, but also made the battleship's waterline defense become severely insufficient. With only 38 mm of outer hulls for the Iowa class and 32 mm for the South Dakota class, the thin steel plates can only withstand small shrapnel at best, and are completely powerless against direct shell hits and large shrapnel. When the German shell hits directly or misses closely, the large shrapnel produced by the explosion can penetrate the hull steel plate without pressure and cause dozens or hundreds of holes in the water. The large number of leaks not only greatly increased the speed of seawater infusion, but also made the plugging work of the damage control troops complicated and arduous, and eventually caused the warship to enter the water.

In contrast, the design of the German battleships with an outboard main assembly and an underwater protrusion completely avoided this tragic situation. Fragments that missed the bullet could not break through the thick main armor belt, and even if the shell penetrated the armor, the fragments produced after the explosion could not penetrate the inside of the hull and out of the ship. In the end, all that was left for the damage management force to solve was a single hole of the same caliber. Although the U.S. ships were superior in reserve buoyancy over their German counterparts with narrower water sections, the damage caused by the tilt of the hull was irreparable by this advantage. Soon, the Iowa, the hardest hit in the U.S. fleet, was faced with a dilemma: reversing the water would not only lose more buoyancy in reserve, but would also cause the main armor belt to sink further into the water, and the speed would plummet. And if the reverse water injection is not carried out, the large angle tilt of the starboard side will make the normal battle of the battleship unsustainable, and there is even a risk of capsizing!

"General, we only have 36 armor-piercing rounds left!" The USS New Jersey's command tower was on the phone with a report from the chief gunner. Nimitz clenched his teeth, and the nails of his hands were already deeply embedded in his palms. He never imagined that this battle would present such a lose-lose situation, and if you consider the advantage of the lineup he has, it can undoubtedly be said that he is defeated. However, who would have expected that the armor of these heavy artillery fast enemy ships would be so strong, and they would not sink under the bombardment of a large number of artillery fire?

"The guns continue to fire, and when the armor-piercing shells run out, use high-explosive shells to fire!" Nimitz gritted his teeth and replied. He really didn't want to give up his work like this, and he couldn't go back to explain to Admiral Jin after he had turned back. Perhaps the German battleships had only their last breath left, and their own persistence would have achieved decisive results, even if the other side continued to float on the sea, and they still had the opportunity to carry out a wave of torpedo raids with destroyers.

However, bad luck befell the head of the American fleet first. At 6:47, the Bavaria hit the Iowa again, and a shell broke through the main armor and fell into the starboard generator room at the rear of the battleship; Although it was a dud that paralyzed the surrounding American sailors, the vital generator stalled under the violent impact of the shell itself. The Iowa, which had lost power from several pumps, could no longer contain the intensification of the water on the starboard side, and the captain hurriedly released smoke and decided to withdraw from the battle. Due to the low training of the recruits, they did not perform well in the fields of gunnery and damage management, and did not give full play to the strength of this giant ship with a standard displacement of up to 47,800 tons. With a more experienced crew, the Bavaria would not have been able to gain a significant 23-11 advantage in battle. Thirty seconds later, another round of shells whizzed, and a water-borne bullet pierced the underwater part of its stern like a dragon gun, triggering a new round of large-scale flooding in a violent explosion. The Iowa's drainage pipe was completely out of control, and the order to abandon the ship was soon issued!

When the tilting Iowa began to rapidly release the boat, the American fleet's victory was finally belated: a shell fired from the Massachusetts broke through the Württemberg's D battery and exploded at a very close distance from the blast door. Since the Bavarian-class 420 mm main gun mount was previously generally regarded as an impregnable reservoir, the large blast doors connecting to the ammunition depot were designed to be 30 mm thick to withstand only armor collapse and flame spread. When a large-caliber shell explodes at close range, this obstacle is blasted away, and the blazing flames instantly invade the magazine. This time the Württemberg was not as lucky as the Baden, and just as the sea water had flooded the projectile chamber below, the upper magazine was detonated, and the explosion of 300 shells was so powerful that the entire stern of the ship was blown to pieces. The German sailors began to jump into the sea without hesitation, and desperately swam away from their warships; It won't be long before the warship will sink completely. (To be continued......)

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