"Boom!" With an earth-shattering roar of tigers and dragons, the four twin main gun turrets of the battleship King erupted in an instant, with forty-meter-long purple waves and red waves; A strong muzzle storm raged like a hurricane, stirring up a large area of rushing white water on the blue sea below the muzzle. After a short time, the distant sea suddenly rose violently, and 8 towering water columns rolled into the sky in a white wave; Even if you are more than 15,000 meters away, you can still clearly feel the terrifying sound contained in this round of salvos!

"The firing range is 16,200 meters, and the ranging error is 205 meters; The dispersion boundary of each projectile point is 276 meters, and the dispersion boundary of the left and right is 69 meters. After further repetition and confirmation, the officer holding the microphone quickly recorded the number of fire controls for this group of battleships firing in full salvo on the sea trial log. After learning about the spread of this round of salvos, Qing Ying, who had been staring closely at the sea in the distance, couldn't help but feel relieved; He slowly took out the cotton ball that had been stuffed into his ear during the previous volley, and a pleasant smile appeared on his face.

Historically, in order to fight against the British and American super-dreadnoughts equipped with 343 or even 356 mm guns, the Germans, who were not to be left behind, rose up to catch up and opened a new era of 380 mm gun-carrying ships at the end of 1912. However, due to the fact that the maximum caliber of the naval guns developed by Germany was only 305 mm, the middle span was too large; In order to ensure that this new heavy gun could be put on the ship in time, the designers had to sacrifice part of the gun's performance. This type of gun uses medium-speed light bullets, which can only ensure a considerable depth of penetration at medium and close ranges; Once the distance is closed, even with the help of a hard quilt cap, the penetration depth of this gun is just as unsatisfactory. In light of this. When Qingying was tasked with leading the design of the new battleship. It was decided to equip it with a more powerful 380-mm naval gun. The cannon was not only an indestructible can opener in World War I. In the next war will also have the ability to pose a threat to the new ships of the younger generation.

Thankfully, the German Navy in this plane already has the confidence to pursue more powerful main guns. Under the impetus of Qing Ying, the German Navy embarked on a path of warship construction with equal emphasis on main gun firepower and protection and survival since the previous dreadnought era, and completed the development of 350 mm guns at the end of 1910; The Austro-Hungarian Skoda military industry, which can be called the Beidou of Mount Tai in the world's arms industry, has also formed a close cooperation with Krupp of Germany that far exceeds history, which has made the German Navy's research and development capabilities in large-caliber artillery have been unprecedentedly improved.

As a result of the cooperation between the two companies, the new 380 mm L45 naval gun was finally accepted and tested by the military in late 1913: more guns of the same type were produced and loaded into semi-finished turrets, which had already been cast. And under the lifting of the giant gantry crane, the outfitting work was completed on schedule. This type of gun weighs 91.2 tons, can shoot 800kg shells out of the chamber at a speed of 820 m/s, and the muzzle kinetic energy is more than 12% higher than that of historical 380 mm naval guns. During the test firing, the gun penetrated 390 mm thick Krupp hardened armor at a distance of 16,000 meters, which can almost penetrate a qiē defense in the current naval battle. Due to the limitations of the current material technology and metallurgical level, it is difficult to ensure the strength of the projectile after hitting the target with a larger weight, so the weight of the shell of the gun is still controlled at a more conventional 800kg, and it is ready to be replaced with a heavy bullet in the later stage.

However, the artillery technology of the Skoda military industry has always been famous for drug abuse. While the German Navy took advantage of its advantages, it inevitably brought with it some by-products: the barrel life of the gun was reduced to 260 rounds due to the increase in muzzle kinetic energy. No longer the historical 300 rounds are generally superior. Another factor that Qing Ying was worried about was that the strong muzzle kinetic energy could increase the distance of the shells. If the spread is too large. This will inevitably lead to a decrease in the accuracy of the shelling (if you can't understand it, please refer to the aiming circle of the bomb B in WOT, which is the dispersion range of the shell). And judging by the current situation, the dispersion rate of the 8-gun salvo is only 1.7%, and the engineers of Krupp have already done a pretty good job in this regard!

Compared to the firepower of eight 380mm guns and a speed of at least 24.5 knots, the King's most shining point is that her armored defense system is completely different from any previous battleship.

The biggest difference between the King-class and the previous German capital ships in terms of protection is that it completely canceled the upper armor belt that protected the gun profile, which made it realize a historic shift in design concept from comprehensive protection to focused defense. Its main armor covered 65% of the battleship's waterline length, and its thickness increased to 350 mm; The layout has been changed from the previous vertical to an 18-degree inward inclination, which greatly improves its actual defense against incoming shells. In order to compensate for the reduction in the projection area caused by the inward tilt of the armor plate and increase the probability of defense against underwater bullets, the main armor height of this class of ships has reached an astonishing 5.8 meters, which extends to an area of 2.4 meters underwater when fully loaded, which is almost not inferior to the Richelieu class.

Although due to the failure of foamed cement as a key subsystem, the King did not adopt the Veneto-like quilt cap design; However, this large thickness and inclination of the main armor belt, even if placed in another plane, its protection level is second only to the top storage of the three giants of Yamato, Veneto, and Nelson. Even in the face of the 406 mm cannon of World War II, the core cabin under the protection of the main installation is enough to be called stable! Due to the almost absolute reliability of the main armor, the dome armor for reinsurance was eliminated, and the original double deck was merged into a single 130 mm main level, which was installed on the middle deck on the upper edge of the main armor belt. For naval warfare during World War I, horizontal armor of this thickness was equally impregnable; And even in the next war, if you want to thicken the horizontal armor, there will not be too many difficulties in construction.

In addition to the most critical core armor box, the King-class also tried to fully support the torpedo protection, waterproof and medium bullet protection, and protection of the propeller shaft and weapon system. The frontal armor of the main turret was up to 400 mm thick and at an angle of 45 degrees to the horizontal; The battery protection is slightly inferior, but there is also a staggering amount of 380 mm. The underwater lightning protection of the power compartment adopts a new air-liquid-air three-layer cabin with a depth of 5 meters, supplemented by a 50 mm high-elasticity homogeneous steel, and the lightning protection capability is also greatly improved compared with the previous warship. The ammunition depot section is two 70 mm longitudinal partitions, which absorb the explosive energy of the torpedo while ensuring that the underwater bomb is blocked from the ammunition depot. In order to withstand the attack of near-miss shells and shrapnel from bombs, the ships of this class also retain 70 mm light armor belts at the bow and tail waterlines.

Compared with the defense system of Yamato in history, the king level has made corresponding improvements in the environment of the times while absorbing its essence. Qing Ying can be sure that for a long time to come, the rest of the powers will not be able to create a stronger existence. After undergoing a full-speed sea trial and artillery test firing, Qingying, who had obtained the first-hand number jù, returned to the port of Kiel in advance in a torpedo boat; For the next two to three months, the King will be trained in the Baltic Sea, so that it can be fully combat-ready.

The clouds are tumbling and the waves are swaying gently, according to which in a certain sea area of thousands of kilometers, a capital warship with wide shoulders and a broad waist is also cleaving the waves and sailing forward at high speed. The St. George's Cross Flag with red stripes on a white background flew in the wind, with a trace of melancholy and desolation that was difficult to erase. Its turret appearance is exactly the same as that of the Tiger Cruiser, which was completed more than two months ago, but the number has increased to four; What's even more amazing is that its surface speed has obviously exceeded 24 knots, but in its two thick chimneys, there is only a faint amount of green smoke curling out!

"Hurry, hurry!" On the tall and wide bridge, the British colonel wearing a military cap clenched his teeth, and a pair of gray-blue pupils stared straight at the white waves stirred up by the bow. Judging by his experience, the speed of the battleship at this time had not yet reached 25 knots. And no captain wants to see that his warship indicators do not meet the design value, not to mention that the Royal Navy, which is currently at an absolute disadvantage, needs to turn into the ability to be like the wind!

"The output of the battleship is 75,510 horsepower, the measured speed is 24.65 knots, and the propeller speed is 275 rpm." After a short time, a group of numbers was reported from the microphone to the navigation room. Before the British staff officer next to him had time to record the number of jù, he saw the captain of the colonel next to him suddenly slam his fist on the wall, which made him tremble in his heart. The colonel's eyes were red, and he roared loudly, "What's going on? Why was it that we were able to achieve a speed of 24.1 knots with 56,580 horsepower, and then add 20,000 horsepower to increase by 0.5 knots? Do these heavy oil boilers really provide enough steam output? ”

A major officer next to him stepped forward and said in a low voice: "Captain, the current output power is transmitted back from the engine room, and there will be no problem with the oil-fired boiler." There are often anomalous correspondences between speed and power, and some ships with more power are the slower ones of the sister ships. All we can do is record the results of the current sea trials and hand them over to the designers to find out. ”

The corners of the colonel's mouth moved, and finally turned into a bitter arc, and said, "Cunningham, how can I not know this? It is only in the current situation of carrying one-third of the fuel for deep-sea trials that such a maximum speed has been achieved; And if it is a combat state with a full load of fuel, how can it fight with a fast fleet? The Queen Elizabeth, armed with 8 15-inch guns, and her sisters, the last hope of the Royal Navy, will not allow us to go any further! (To be continued......)

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If you are interested in the King-class in the air, you may wish to go to the battleshiphttp://tieba./p/3454620800

http://tieba./p/3454620800 In this post, let's see a more intuitive line diagram, which the author took a lot of effort to make