In February 1908, a brand new battlecruiser laid its keel at the Devonport shipyard in England; Fisher, then First Sea Lord, named it "Undaunted", meaning that the Royal Navy will always maintain the spirit of Lord Nelson's inheritance, and never tire of hard work.

Twenty-six months later, this slender and sleek behemoth has appeared in front of the world with a new attitude. On the hull with a standing displacement of 18,460 tons, there are four twin 305 mm L45 main guns; Its improved turret layout in the Invincibility class allows the ship to fire a salvo from the same side with all of its main guns in most engagement situations. In the subsequent sea trials, the original design of the 43,000 horsepower power system achieved a maximum output of more than 55,000 horsepower, allowing it to break the waves at sea at a speed of 26.89 knots. Compared with the German ships of the same class on the other side of the strait, the Tireless, which is 4,000 tons behind in tonnage, still has firepower and speed that are not weaker than the opponent!

For this reason, when the new Lion-class Battlecruiser became the new darling of the Royal Navy, the three Indefatigable class ships still entered the first-line lineup of the fast fleet with first-class firepower and speed. The majestic Royal Navy sailors in pure white uniforms lined up on the side of the Indefatigable ship once made countless London girls admire; Everywhere the St. George's Cross flag flies, they are greeted with flowers, praise, admiration, and cheers.

However, beneath the glamorous and glamorous exterior of the Indefatigable Intrepid, lies a shocking consequence. In order to control the tonnage and save costs, so that the number of dreadnoughts of the German Navy could be reversed under extremely severe shape. British designers responded to the Admiralty's call to save money. began to file the armor protection of the battleship in a drastic way. The main armor belt of the Indefatigable class is only a pitiful 150 mm thick. The front of the main turret and the main gun mount are only 180 mm, a thickness that is weak even against the 254 mm guns of the Italian PISA class. The main horizontal armor is only a single layer of 38 mm, and there is a danger of being overpowered by the opponent's large-caliber shells if it exceeds 10 kilometers; Although the protection of the conning tower has been thickened to 250 mm, it is still far from enough in the face of German hard cap armor-piercing shells. The battleship had no longitudinal partition of underwater torpedoes at all, and in the event of an attack by mines or torpedoes, there was hardly any reason to survive!

After all, the probability of the opponent hitting the ammunition depot with one shot is quite low, but the British muffled themselves to death. But once again, they did their enemies a great favor.

In all the military exercises after entering the era of dreadnoughts, British warships generally exposed the defects of low artillery hit rate. However, due to various reasons such as collusion of interests, the Royal Navy military did not start from the aspects of strengthening artillery training and upgrading fire control equipment to improve the hit rate, but increased the rate of fire of artillery as a way to solve the problem of hit count. In order to increase the rate of fire under the conditions of the screw gun latch and the existing ammunition delivery equipment, the British not only thought of stacking the propellant in the space at the rear of the turret as a convenient way to fill the ammunition, but also greatly reduced the standard ammunition lifting procedure in the safety regulations, so that the blast door to the ammunition depot was always open, so as to facilitate the lifting and lowering of the ammunition picker. And once the turret is hit and explodes, it is almost impossible for this door to close!

Despite this plane of Jericho. The anomalies have been discovered from the body of the outfit that exploded one after another in previous naval battles, and corresponding countermeasures have been taken; But due to the fact that the number of warships in the Royal Navy was too large. It was not possible to complete all explosion-proof retrofits in a hurry. In the current fierce battle, in order to achieve the best results, the gunners on the Tireless Battle Patrol reverted to their old ways and turned on the fury for rapid reloading. And this made the life of this battle cruiser come to an end after the turret was penetrated!

At 9:19, an earth-shattering roar suddenly burst out on the sea, as if thousands of scorching thunders exploded in unison. The Indefatigable began with the bow turret and then exploded like a volcanic eruption. The intense purple light that pierced the eyes was like a great wave, drowning the entire silhouette of the battleship; In the billowing black and gray gunsmoke, countless debris flew through the air and splashed densely on the nearby sea surface for hundreds of meters, which caused a terrifying metal storm to blow in this sea area. Of all the 1,017 officers and men on board, only the torpedo chief Ajar was blown away into the sea more than 100 meters away by the blast and was able to escape without dying, while the rest of the officers and men all sank with the ship and died on the seabed in the depths of dead silence and darkness.

The Black Vulture Cross banner hunted and flew over, and eight 283-mm guns were held high. On the deck of the Von der Tann, the German sailors looked at the fierce sea of fire and smoke in the distant sea, and their hearts exploded with ecstasy; They suddenly hugged their comrades beside them, and tears mixed with sweat stains flowed over their faces as they cheered. After twenty years of arduous dormant accumulation, he finally won a hearty and brilliant victory: the once invincible main warship of the Royal Navy was completely destroyed by the German-built war planes! Listening to the thunderous cheer from the deck, which was no less than the fire of the main guns, the captain of the ship, Colonel Wolfgang, was already overjoyed, and immediately reported the exciting news to the flagship of the battle, the De Flinger, at the forefront of the battle column. Under his ship-wide announcement, the German officers and men quickly recovered from the excitement of sinking the enemy ship, and now that the two sides were outnumbered by 8 to seven, the inferior German ships were far from being able to relax.

After the Indefatigable exploded and sank, the New Zealand, which was behind it, quickly turned around and avoided the monster that was creating a huge sinking vortex. The four ships of Australia, Invincible, Indomitable, and Indomitable, also turned in turn, and the rear ships of both sides lost their accuracy for a while, allowing the shells to set off heavy waves on the water in vain. However, because the Indefatigable sank so quickly, the vast majority of British sailors who were fighting hard at their posts did not notice the tragedy; As a result, their fighting spirit is still high, and the speed at which they can reload their guns is as fast as ever.

Fierce artillery battles continued, and columns of water from the jungle that looked like giant trees from prehistoric times were dancing out of the sea. While the clash between the two rear teams was temporarily silenced by the British War Patrol's steer evasion, the clash between the front teams produced dazzling fireworks.

Although the Lion escaped the death of Major Harvey, the Q turret was completely scrapped by the burning of the projectile; In the course of the battle against the D'Verblinger's eight 350mm guns with six 343 mm guns, the Lion was at an absolute disadvantage. After a short time, a cannonball whistled and blew up the observation room and communication antenna on the triangular mast; Another shell thunderbolted through its 150 mm thick upper armor, tearing apart a generator bay and nearby line pipes. As a result, the three pumps stopped, and the flying shrapnel pierced the damage crews and the rubber hoses on the nearby deck. The Lion, which had been hit with seven 350-millimeter bullets, was already in flames and smoke rising into the sky.

Seeing that the target was no longer visible, the De Verblinger immediately turned its gun and focused on the Queen Mary behind it. In the confrontation with the Lützov, the Queen Mary actually had the upper hand on the scene; Less than half a month after completing the training, the Lützov received only two effective hits, while she was hit five times: a 150-mm secondary gun was destroyed, the bow waterline was pierced, the amidships deck was on fire, and the ship's crew suffered more than 100 casualties. With its innate superiority in firepower and protection, the Lyuzov could have gradually turned the situation back; The addition of de Vorlinger has greatly accelerated this process.

"While the first wave of shells stirred up a column of water at an altitude of 150 feet, several more dark blue objects like wine bottles flew towards us in the air. I looked into the distance in shock, only to see that the fiery red flames of the battleship at the front of the Germans had not yet had time to dissipate. It's firing at us. Someone next to us roared in anger and horror and shouted at the female relatives of the Hans on the other side, but we could do nothing but pray that the shells would not fall on our heads......" a surviving Queen Mary lookout described the situation.

At 9:24 a.m., the D-Fringel, which had gradually found its bearing, broke out with the most astonishing hit of the entire naval battle; Four 350-mm shells in one and a half salvos roared and thundered, and three of them hit the target with a bang! The Queen Mary, which was originally quite neat, burst into flames in an instant; Dinghys, booms, passages, machinery, bulkheads...... Within the reach of the high temperature and air waves, all the surrounding qiē burst into flames and danced, shooting into the sky. More than 50 British sailors fell into pools of blood, and the rest of the thousands of officers and men screamed in amazement, like falling into hell nightmares, and suddenly became a mess. The captain hurriedly used the radio to make a metaphor for the whole ship, which made the sailors' frightened and frightened feelings calm down a little. However, only twenty seconds later, the half-salvo of the D-Fringer rushed again, and before the British officers and men could make amends for the sudden heavy damage they had inflicted, two huge balls of fire rose from the battleship in the violent tremor of the hull beneath them!

"Shhhh The 350-mm armor-piercing projectile weighing 600kg roared with thunder, slicing through the 230 mm main armor on the side of the Queen Mary. In the violent explosion of 20kg of explosives, a large number of large shrapnel was like a sharp axe, effortlessly chiseled through the 25 mm thick horizontal armor and densely packed into the projectile magazine below. And these guys wrapped in silk are not as mild-tempered as cannonballs! (To be continued......)

PS: Thank you for the tips of zhouyu1976 and hugetiger ~~~