"Like the legendary Titans, our battleships have been at the forefront of decisive battles, despite repeated heavy blows. The main turret, fire control room, power compartment and other core parts are intact, and all the soldiers are doing their duty: every 20 seconds, a half-salvo of accurate targets can be fired from the four majestic main turrets. Who would dare to criticize the king's lack of slender beauty now? It is true that its overall length is only 183 meters, almost the same as the Russian Gangut class, which has a displacement of 5,000 tons smaller than it, but it is precisely this large size that qualifies it to give it this almost impregnable core cabin space. After hearing the report from the Damage Control Force, Lieutenant Colonel Raeder thought confidently in the command tower.

After 20 minutes of fierce artillery fighting, the King had already been hit by 7 shells: 4 of them crashed into the lightly armored bow and tail area and the defenseless deck bridge, and 3 shells hit the main defense of the battleship. The concept of protection, which originated a quarter of a century ahead of the time of the Yamato-class, plays a decisive role in today's battles: not only the central armor box is light against incoming shells, but also the frontal armor of the Catherine C turret. The armor in this area is up to 400 mm thick and arranged at a 45-degree angle to the horizontal, providing even more protection at the current distance than the 350 mm main suit with an 18-degree tilt. When the violent explosion passed, the German soldiers were surprised to see that the surface of the turret was only a dent and a trace of flames; The slowly rotating movement and the upward adjustment of the cannon muzzle all show that it still has a strong life with combat effectiveness!

"It's unbelievable, our armor protection is perfect against the 15-inch guns of the British." Hipper, who was in the command tower, couldn't help but let out a long breath. Qingying, who single-handedly contributed to this transformation of the armor protection model, developed an indescribable admiration. Hipper, who was photographed several times in actual combat. The essence of this abandonment of the traditional structure and the shift to the focus of the defense of the armor box is fully understood: in today's era when the effectiveness of armor-piercing shells is increasing by leaps and bounds. Large, medium-thick armor will not only serve any defensive purpose, but will instead be a key fuse for activating the fuse of incoming shells. What is even more commendable is that this class of ships is not an absolute focus of defense, but a 70 mm light armor belt is also laid at the bow and tail of the battleship: its appearance can not only effectively resist the invasion of near-miss fragments, but also ensure that only one main body hole will appear after the shell hits the waterline, and the damage control soldiers can easily complete the plugging. And if it is completely undefended, the thin piece of shipbuilding steel on the outside will definitely be beaten like a beehive by the dense shrapnel produced by the explosion of the shells. The difficulty of plugging the leak will increase exponentially!

"His Highness is on our side. Otherwise, the sea power of the empire does not know how much time and national strength it will take to achieve! Hipper muttered.

Compared with the Germans' rejoicing, the situation of the British fleet, which was 12 kilometers away, was getting worse and worse. The Queen Elizabeth has been deposed of a main turret, and the ship has been hit by 8 bullets, and most importantly, all of these shells have achieved effective penetration! A large amount of seawater poured in from the shocking breach near the waterline, and the British damage control forces had to close one watertight hatch after another to stop the water from spreading; Inside the hull and above the deck, there was a terrible scene of twisted and broken steel plates, flames soaring into the sky. Almost all the sailors on standby were involved in the damage management work, and the scenes of thick smoke, flames, and water dragons rushing each other could be seen everywhere. Currently, both the artillery mounts of vertical protection, the main armor belt, the turret front. Or the deck of horizontal protection could not withstand the thunderous bombardment of German heavy artillery in the slightest!

"Damn the Germans. Why hasn't their battleships yet shown a decrease in combat effectiveness? Looking at the equally flaming German battleship in the telescope tube, Thomas exclaimed with anxiety and anger. So far in the battle, the opponent's artillery fire is still as sharp and accurate and orderly as it was at the beginning, which is completely as if the main core cabin has not been damaged in any way. If it was because of his back today, so that all the hits he had obtained before were all in the secondary area, Thomas would have admitted it, but he had clearly observed that a cannonball hit the opponent's tail gun group before, and it was reasonable to say that he should have dealt a decisive blow to the enemy ship, but now the cannonballs coming at him are still 4 shells every 20 seconds as before!

"General, let's retreat, now that we have lost one main turret and 6 boilers, and the battleship has entered more than 1,500 tons, it will undoubtedly be bad for us to continue fighting!" Captain Cunningham said to Thomas with a worried look on his face, "Because of the overweight brought on by the flooding, the 13-inch main armor belt, which was originally only 6 feet high, has sunk to the bottom of the water in large areas, and now it is no more than 1 foot above the waterline, and the dome armor has sunk completely below the waterline." Once the main armor is broken again, we will no longer have additional buoyancy protection, and we will have to let the sea spread and rage on the main deck, and eventually bury the entire warship! ”

Thomas turned his head abruptly, staring at the alarmist young captain; However, after a while, the fierce meaning in his eyes suddenly dissipated, leaving only pain, desolation, gloom, and helplessness that could not be concealed. How could he not know these things? However, what he carried before he set out was the hope of the whole of Britain, and if this attack ended in failure, how could he go back and give an account to the people and the government?

As he struggled, Thomas suddenly felt another violent tremor under his feet, this time so violent that he had lost his balance after many years of service at sea and the wind and waves: there was chaos in the command tower, and everyone staggered and stumbled, and it took several seconds before he could barely stand on his feet against the wall. "Don't be an ammunition depot!" It was the fervent prayer of all the British officers and soldiers who felt the tremor in an instant. A short time later, the damage management department reported the damage to a terrified Thomas: a large-caliber shell had pierced the middle armor belt, which had crept from 13 inches to 6 inches, and had penetrated the main deck, which was only 1 inch below, before burrowing into the engine room and exploding. Parsons steam turbines No. 3 and No. 4 have now been completely destroyed, and the entire battleship can only be maintained by two sets of steam turbines on one side!

Hearing the news, Thomas's face instantly turned pale. The Germans again sent shells into their own core area, and the most important mechanical room after the ammunition depot! Compared to the 24 oil-fired boilers, there were only 4 steam turbines that provided direct propulsion to the battleship; Now that he has scrapped half of himself at once, this loss of speed is undoubtedly heavier than the blow suffered by the boiler compartment before!

"Order, the fleet turns right 5 compass points and releases a smoke screen; The destroyer makes a torpedo assault and simply forces the opponent to change course! Thomas gritted his teeth and ordered loudly. The soldier in charge of the order stood for a moment, and then ran quickly out of the conning tower amid the sound of the promise; The staff officers next to him also had complicated faces, with a hint of relaxed happiness and indelible solemnity and silence. Thomas's order was undoubtedly an acknowledgment of the defeat of the Rapid Fleet in this battle: but what could be done without doing so? The unequal gap in the offensive and defensive performance of the new warships of the two sides has already doomed the outcome of this battle!

"Damn the British, how could I let you escape so easily!" Seeing that the British capital ships began to rise one by one large clouds of pale yellow smoke, Hippel roared loudly in the conning tower. After nearly half an hour of fighting, our fleet also suffered considerable losses: nearly 200 men were killed and wounded on the King, which he was on, more than 1,000 tons of water were flooded, and the bridge deck was also ravaged by the smoke of fire. Although the losses suffered by the other side who retreated first were likely to be much heavier than those of themselves who still maintained their full combat effectiveness, it was definitely not a situation acceptable to a commander to let the other side walk in front of him like this. What's more, the British Rapid Fleet has fully demonstrated their growth in today's table, both in terms of gunnery and protection: you must know that in the last encounter, the main gun hit rate of the Betty fleet was only a pitiful 1.9%, and it was destroyed by itself 3 battle cruisers in 20 minutes of battle! In this case, how could Hipper, who was close to blood, let the other party, who was almost crippled, return to the spring to replenish his blood and replenish the blue?

Looking at Hipper, who was about to chase after the enemy, Chief Staff Officer Raeder couldn't help but speak: "General, will the British Grand Fleet be waiting for us behind?" The British, who now have insufficient numbers of capital warships, are very likely to give us such a hand. Hipper took a deep breath and said, "Erich, I'm glad you kept your cool on the eve of victory. You don't have to think too much about it, though. Now the weather in this sea area is clear, not only can seaplanes take off for reconnaissance, but the capital ship has a lookout field of more than 24 kilometers; Even if the British set up an ambush in the rear, we would have been able to warn and evacuate calmly. What's more, this decoy tactic was originally intended to be carried out by the High Seas Fleet in the early stage of the war, but it was only because the British fast fleet was too reluctant to fight that the division of forces and lure eventually evolved into a group duel. Now, how can the British hook me back? ”

"The order was given, the fleet turned to the right two compass points, and the cruisers and destroyers came out to escort them; After repelling this wave of lightning strikes, the pursuit will be carried out at full speed. Hipper looked at the group of British destroyers in the distance that were speeding towards him, and said with a solemn face. (To be continued......)

PS: Thank you for the reward of the book friend hill2 and Xingyu Xingchen~~~