There was a shocking sound, red light exploded, and the rear side of the British Lion Battle Patrol suddenly burst into a ball of azure fireballs with a radius of more than ten meters, like a huge red chrysanthemum blooming in the air. The wind howled, the waves rushed, and thousands of shrapnel shot out in all directions like a hurricane; In front of these screaming high-temperature and sharp metal objects, the bulkheads, decks, and human bodies were all pierced and shattered in an instant, blood sprayed, and the originally smooth and pleasant hull of the ship suddenly turned into a tragic hell with blood and fire!

The flames swept and the waves swayed. The 350-mm shell from the D-Verblinger struck the starboard side of the Lion's stern, and the violent explosion completely destroyed four sailors' cabins, damaged some auxiliary lines, and killed fifteen sailors on the spot. The water column of more than 40 meters high stirred up by the other three shells also collapsed like a mountain collapse after exhausting its kinetic energy. The rolling waves of water swooped down like a silver lion, roaring and rolling on the deck of the Lion Patrol, stirring up a thousand piles of snow and foaming at the white foam. Looking at the white waves of water flying outside the window of the command tower, Betty was horrified; In less than three minutes, the opponent's main gun achieved an accurate lock on himself, so efficient, it was completely much stronger than the Austro-Hungarian fleet that had fought with him!

Not long after the Lion was hit, the British ships "Royal Princess", "Indefatigable" and "New Zealand" were also shot one after another. The P-turret (the turret of the British capital ship was A, B, P, Q, X, Y, where AB corresponds to the bow turret, PQ corresponds to the amidships, and XY corresponds to the stern) was damaged by the violent air wave that exploded nearby. Stuck in place and immobile. Temporarily lost its combat effectiveness. And the New Zealand was hit three times in a row by the 283-mm shells of the Balfoss. Flames rose from its bridge, side and bow, striking against the deep blue undulating sea.

Faced with this situation, Betty was anxious, but did not give the order to turn to interfere with the enemy's ranging. Because while the battleship is turning to evade, its own fire control and ranging will also be reshuffled due to the deviation of the ship's course; This was undoubtedly a move for the British fleet, which had taken 6 guns but did not get 1 hit, to give up the initiative to the Germans. He remained convinced in his heart that the Royal Navy gunners would not let him down, perhaps in the next salvo. They will give the Germans a taste of heavy shells!

At 9:17, the Royal Princess, who had been hit on the bridge, finally let out a vengeful roar with its eight 343mm guns; A 635-kilogram shell thundered into the German battle cruiser Sedlitz, and the purple flames erupted like a volcano. The British War Patrol's counterattack was sounded. At a distance of 12 km, nine British battle cruisers battled the enemy in front of them: the Invincible and Indomitable two ships, which had been ignored by the Germans, bombarded the Balfos and Moritz at the rear of the German queue with six main guns on the single side that they could concentrate. Every time a cannon is fired, layers of brilliant light waves will rush out in front of the muzzle; From a distance, it seems that there are dozens of meters long fire dragons breaking through the sea in a roar, leaping forward; The momentum is spectacular. It's exciting.

Cannonballs roared into the sea, waves fluttered and exploded. Around the Anglo-German war patrol, columns of water like giant trees of Fusang continued to rise. From time to time, bright orange-red lights up in the rangefinder that was elevated on the enemy's mast, bringing one exciting hit after another. The gunner Chammons, who was holding on to the 47mm open gun position on the British ship "Queen Mary" on the battle cruiser, noticed that the enemy's artillery fire was becoming more and more accurate. "The Germans fired a shot at us and then we got two hits in four minutes. The thick column of water over the main observation post was nearly 150 feet high, and then it was splashed on his head and face. From time to time, there was a dazzling flash of light in front of him, and it was the scattered shrapnel harvesting the souls of the unfortunate. I tried to hide in the cabin, but found that the thin walls of shipbuilding steel could not protect against the scythes of death; On the bridge near the point of the explosion, there were more holes of various kinds penetrated by shrapnel than rat holes in the farmland after the flood waters receded......"

In the increasingly fierce battle, the German war cruisers also began to be shot one after another. The De Fringer was hit by a 343-mm shell on the forward bridge, and the main rangefinder at the top of the conning tower was rendered ineffective by a violent air storm; At the same time, the superstructure was broken into a charred black hole of nearly ten square meters, but it was not a big problem. The Lützov was hit twice, one exploding above the main armor belt and the other blowing off one of its bow anchor chains. The rest of the German war cruisers were no longer as smooth and handsome as they had been before the war, and thick smoke and flames rose from their hulls, ruining the landscape.

However, with its superiority in fire control and rate of fire, the German battle cruisers, with 7 to 9, still had the upper hand in this almost hand-to-hand battle. After the straddle was fully formed, every 20 seconds, the German battle patrol would fire four and a half salvos like thunder, and the sea around the British battle patrol was like a forest of bullet barrage. And the hard cap armor-piercing bullet that Krupp learned from Skoda was as sharp and sharp as the peerless dragon lance in the hands of the Templars, and the vertical armor of no British battle cruiser could resist the shells of the German war cruisers that fought against it!

"Boom!" The air spewed into the sky, the flames rushed wildly, and the D'Verblinger fired another round and a half volleys. The four cannonballs were like meteors falling from the sky, and they swept wildly and slashed towards the Lion. The British sailors on the opposite ship saw a few small black dots, lightning flying from the northeast sky at at least ten times the speed of the plane; In just a few breaths, the most ear-piercing scream they wanted to hear was close in front of them!

"Boom!" There was a loud thunder, the hull of the ship shook violently, and at the moment when the two pillars of water rose up, the hull of the Lion suddenly burst into two extremely blazing surging lights! A 350-mm shell hit the rear bridge of the battleship, and the chart room suffered a ruined blow; The red-stained blueprint fragments were burned to ashes by the fierce storm of air that blew into the billowing flames, and splatters of flesh and broken limbs could be seen everywhere on the deck. And the other 350mm shell was even more frenzied: in the wild screaming and hissing, the shell brazenly tore through the 230mm frontal armor of the Amidship Q turret, burrowed into it and exploded!

With a loud thunderous sound, the 610-ton turret twisted and deformed in an instant; The 64-millimeter roof was blown away, and a dazzling glow of purple and red erupted from it. More than 70 British officers and soldiers in the turret and in the loading room were instantly killed by the more than 70 packets of propellant charges placed at the back of the turret, and the raging flames quickly turned from red to terrifying bright white. The flames licked and swam towards the bomb shaft below, but the blast door leading to the ammunition depot was open at this time!

The high temperature is like boiling, and the hair moisture is all scorched and transpired. In a bloody pile of dead people, Francis covered in blood? Major J. Harvey slowly crawled out. Although his legs were blown off, he was already breathless and dying, but with a strong will and faith, he still dragged his stump to the side of the intercom and struggled to order the water to be filled and the ammunition hatch closed. The Lion was thus saved. When the flames of thousands of degrees spread to the ammunition depot, the steel hatch happened to be closed. Even so, the British sailors in the ammunition depot still felt the blazing breath on their faces, and even the blast-proof hatch appeared faintly red. Betty in the Command Tower, unaware that she had walked in the arms of death; He kept pacing back and forth, hoping that the German ships would suffer a heavier blow.

At 9:17, a 343-mm shell from the Princess Royal hit the stern Dora turret of the Cedritz, and the orange-red air exploded. Unlike in history, the German Battlecruiser, which was essentially a fast battleship, had already greatly strengthened its turret protection compared to the other plane; When the British's fuse-sensitive soft quilt cap armor-piercing bullet hit the hardened armor up to 320 mm thick, they instantly lost any idea and could only explode on the outside. However, the violent vibration still caused the turret to get stuck in place, and it became an embarrassing existence with zero left and right firing boundaries. German sailors walked up to the aft deck with cutting welding torches and other equipment, risking shrapnel and malfunctions in a race against time.

"Well done, kill these evil Germans!"

On the indefatigable patrol that followed the Royal Princess, torpedo officer Ager couldn't help but wave his fist fiercely. At present, the distance between the two sides has always been maintained at 11 kilometers, and his torpedoes, which have an ultimate range of only 6,400 meters, are obviously of no use, and can only watch the battle of the main guns. However, after more than ten minutes of fighting, the caliber advantage of the main guns of the own battle patrol has not been reflected on the battlefield, but has been beaten one after another by the German war patrol equipped with only 11-inch main guns, and the amidships and forward decks are already in flames.

In the midst of countless curses and longings, the Super Fearless Warpatrol Royal Princess has finally achieved decent results. The aft deck of an evil German battleship was in flames, and it appeared that at least one of the main turrets had failed or been completely destroyed. However, before Ajel could be excited, the hull of the hull under his feet was violently trembling with a magnitude 7 earthquake; The battleship was shot in the back, and the flames flew straight into the air higher than the mainmast. At the same time, the front of the front gun was pierced by another shell, and the flames that exploded burned the temperature of death, heading towards the open blast door and heading straight for the ammunition depot at the bottom of the ship! (To be continued......)

PS: Thank you for the monthly pass support of the book friend *Little Crab*, and the reward of returning 1m and nerdy net worms ~~~~