The huge artillery thundered, the water waves surged, and in the blink of an eye, the battlefleets of the two sides fought each other for nearly twenty minutes. The guns of the Baden and Bavaria burst into the sky, and every 20 seconds, six shells weighing 1,150 kg were accurately dropped over the American fleet. Under the powerful fire of the German battleships, the New Jersey and Iowa had already been hit by 7 and 8 shells respectively, and the steel armor was twisted and broken, and the waves of fire swept into the sky, and the situation was tragic. The fledgling American sailors were screaming in horror by the thunder and artillery fire of the day, and the flesh and blood sprayed in the violent explosion made them even more paralyzed, frightened, and weakened their will to fight. So far, the USS New Jersey has only hit three shots, which is less than 1.4 percent of the 217 rounds of ammunition fired to make the Americans feel ashamed.

In the command tower of the New Jersey, Nimitz was looking at the sea 19,000 meters away through his telescope with an anxious face, but it was not his ship's inferior gunnery in battle that made him feel anxious. The two Iowa-class ships had just been commissioned, and their battlefield hit rates were lower than average daily training, which was entirely within Nimitz's consideration; When he made the allocation of firepower for the two ships to engage an enemy ship alone, he had already figured out that they would be inferior to the opponent's large projections. To Nimitz's anger and anxiety, his rear ships were unable to open up the victory. The other 2 battleships of the German fleet had been hit by about 10 shells each under the concentrated bombardment of 4 battleships on their side; Even if you are lucky, at least 3 shells will hit the core area of the German ship and cause fatal damage to it. However, at present, the counterattack firepower of the opposing warship is still fierce and ferocious. I don't see a trace of the symptoms after the core cabin is broken!

"What the hell is going on?" Looking in the distance, the German battleships were still firing heavily at the South Dakota and the Alabama with their remaining firepower. Nimitz couldn't help but roar loudly in his heart. In order to lay a defense against its own shells on the South Dakota-class battleships equipped with nine 16-inch guns. The American designers took great pains: not only did they drastically cut the length of the ship's hull, but they also desperately compressed the core compartment to reduce the area of defense. As such, South Dakota also had a standard displacement of 37,375 tons after it was actually built. The U.S. Navy is undoubtedly satisfied with this balanced warship, which is significantly superior to the North Carolina class, but has not increased its tonnage in the slightest, and even after the design of the more high-performance Iowa and Montana classes has been completed, South Dakota is still regarded by the U.S. Navy's top brass as the absolute core of the strike force.

Judging from the current situation, the opponent's warship, which has the same tonnage as Nanda and has an extra main turret, seems to have solid protection on par with its own warships! This is an American designer who would not dare to ask for a superior performance today. The Germans seem to have achieved it 20 years ago! The old Bavarian class is still so tricky, but what about the latest Bismarck and Wilhelm the great?

Before the thought could be made, the battleship Württemberg, which was at the end of the German fleet, exploded again with two huge fireballs of red, purple, gold and red; The columns of water rolled into the air like the mountains of Fuso, temporarily blocking the damage of the hit. Nimitz had a glimmer of hope in his heart, and hurriedly raised his binoculars to take a closer look. When the colorful waves of water crashed into the sea, a familiar scene of fire and smoke mixed with the familiar scene was greeted by the turret on the bow of the enemy ship, which was already covered in thick smoke and was fatally damaged. However, after only a few breaths, the remaining two main turrets erupted again; After nearly forty seconds of flight, two shells also slammed into the Indiana's hull!

"Boom!" There was an earth-shattering bang. The light wave exploded, and the Indiana also trembled violently under this heavy blow. A cannonball flew like lightning. There was no suspense in the 50 mm thick frontal armor of the Indiana's starboard No. 4 twin secondary gun; The 26.5kg explosive burst under the trigger of the fuse at the bottom of the bomb, and the entire secondary cannon instantly exploded like a balloon that exploded. The bones of nearly a dozen American sailors in the turret and reloading room were gone, and two 127mm guns were blasted into molten and twisted scrap metal along with servo machinery; Under the sweeping fire of a large number of shrapnel and broken metal, several nearby open-air anti-aircraft guns also turned into a bloody hell on earth. Another shell hit the ship's No. 2 main gun mount, failing to penetrate its 439 mm thick armor, but the violent impact and explosion shattered the internal rotating structure, leaving the large 1,400-ton turret stuck in place, unable to attack the enemy ship until the bearings were repaired.

"Order, the fleet turns right three compass points!" Upon learning of the failure of one of the Indiana's turrets, Nimitz could no longer maintain his previous composure and composure, and decided to engage the other party in close quarters. By now, the U.S. fleet had consumed most of its armor-piercing shells, and the opposing ships still showed no signs of being defeated, which prompted Nimitz to take decisive action to fight the opponent. After all, it is impossible for a high-explosive shell to inflict a fatal blow on a battleship. If you start to use high-explosive shells, not only will you not be able to achieve the desired results, but you will let the opponent see your own reality, which will undoubtedly make the opponent resist your attack with a more resolute attitude!

With Nimitz's order, the similarly scarred American fleet began to close the distance between it and the German fleet: at a distance of 21,000 yards, their core bays withstood the test of the opponent's 400-millimeter shells, and not a single battleship's turret, gun mount, main load, and main level were pierced by the shells and detonated. Because of this, several American battleships, which had been flooded with a lot of seawater, were able to maintain a considerable speed in tactical maneuvers. Now, however, the threats they face have increased dramatically. Nimitz, who was ready for a quick victory, narrowed the distance to within 17,000 yards in one go, and the first thing to bear the brunt of the ships was the 307 mm 19-degree inclined built-in main armor; due to the double change of falling angle and storage velocity, the probability of hitting the main armor and the penetration performance of the shells at this distance increased sharply. However, the same situation applied to the German battleships, and Nimitz was convinced that at this distance his main guns would be able to deliver a decisive blow to the enemy.

"Boom!" The flames of light and waves flew everywhere, and the fleets of the two sides once again launched a new round of confrontation. Since the previous bombardment of the German ships also did not cause the desired damage to the American fleet, Marchar, who was sitting on the Baden, did not make a maneuver to distance himself from the opponent, but continued to maintain the original speed and course, so that his own artillery group could always lock the position of the opposing fleet. The German fleet, which had not changed course, took the lead in this confrontation: after several fine-tunings, a new half-salvo of the Baden once again caught the lead New Jersey, and six huge columns of water burst through the sea with a deafening scream. A shell that entered the water at a small angle finally formed a stable underwater trajectory under the chaotic force, and the flat and blunt cap after losing the hood broke through the layers of water waves, guiding the shell to rush forward; After sneaking for a distance of nearly 100 meters, he immediately crashed headlong into the amidship hull on the starboard side of the New Jersey!

Although the resistance of the sea water is hundreds of times that of air, the residual velocity of the heavy shells is still not enough to withstand the 16-millimeter-thick hull; The weak outer steel armor cracked in response, and the shells instantly sank into the empty and oil tanks deeper inside. When confronted with the Iowa-class TDS armor that was stretched down along the main load, the stalled shell still struggled to penetrate it. The fuse that had been duly committed was finally activated under the impact, and the shrapnel and air waves from the violent explosion destroyed the last 16 mm waterproof partition; A large amount of seawater began to pour into the No. 4 boiler room, and two large oil-fired boilers were forced to shut down with full open air valves.

Inside the command tower of the New Jersey, Nimitz's face sank after learning the details of the damage: he had been shot in water, and a quarter of his power had been lost. Although for this warship with an output of up to 200,000 horsepower, it can still run at a considerable high speed with 6 boilers at this moment, such a heavy blow can only be taken again at most, otherwise it will face a fatal situation that it will be difficult to evacuate the battlefield. The cannon roared, the smoke rose into the air, and in Nimitz's eager and expectant eyes, his own fleet also made another hit after a short adjustment. And this time, as he expected, the core cabin defense of the German battleship finally began to be broken!

As the absolute core of the German Navy during the treaty, the Bavaria-class was undoubtedly given a solid defense against the new warships of the later generations by the Qing Ying at the beginning of its design; However, with the rapid improvement of the armor-piercing ability of artillery shells during the inter-war, the originally indestructible armor of the Bavarian class was inevitably severely challenged. Although the number of 350 mm 20-degree inclined main armor belts is better than that of American battleships, because the Bavarian class uses the old Krupp armor, its performance is obviously inferior to that of the newly developed Class-A of the United States, and the actual bullet resistance is significantly lower than that of its paper number. The 420 mm artillery mount armor has become its weakness, as long as the hit angle does not deviate from the central axis significantly, the armor-piercing shells fired by the MK6 gun can also penetrate it at a distance of 18,000 yards. Now the only reliable thing in the Bavarian class is its underwater defense, and the double-layer TDS with the effect of taking off the quilt is still a trench that is difficult for the opponent's shells to break through, but the probability of shells in the water only accounts for a small number of shells after falling into the water, and most of the shells that hit the core cabin still have to rely on the main equipment as the mainstay! (To be continued......)

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