However, as time went on, the shelling of the Tennessee and the California became more and more accurate, and several hits were made, but the firepower of the 14-inch 45L main gun was still a little weaker, and it was not much of a threat to the two Caraciono-class battleships at such a distance. Although the Tennessee-class battleships were hit by more bullets, they were stronger defensively. So the two sides fought back and forth, which can almost be said to be a draw, and neither can hurt the other. The Oklahoma and New York in the later battles with the Vittorio and San Martin showed a decline, although they are also the product of the American imperialist iron turtle stream, but there is still a certain gap between the two levels of early super dreadnought defense performance and these cutting-edge warships in New Mexico. The most important of these is the insufficient length of the main armor belt.

The length of the main armor belt of a battleship should be able to cover the most important compartments, such as the ammunition compartment and the power compartment, but in addition to this, there are some secondary compartments, although they may not be lethal but they are still troublesome if they are broken, such as the motor compartment (the height and protection strength of the main armor belt of the 2 Trench Neto class battleships are good, but the length is a little worse). And these two ultra-dreadnought armor belts are a little shorter. THE MOTOR ROOM IN THE FRONT OF THE BOW OF THE OKLAHOMA WAS HIT BY A 350MM SHELL, DIRECTLY LOSING A THIRD OF ITS POWER. The other New York, although it was not denied the motor room, had its No. 2 turret stuck. This resulted in a sharp reduction in firepower.

It stands to reason that the New York-class battleships have 5 twin turrets and 2 main guns, and the problem should not be big. Theoretically, this is true, but in practice the New York has a big problem, that is, the No. 3 turret in the middle is too hot because it is close to the power compartment. As a result, the main gun in the middle deviated too much. (The author once saw a photo of the New York shooting target.) Two of the 10 splashes are far away from the other 8. So 10 guns can make 8 guns, and after losing 2 guns, there are only 6 guns.

Although the accident is not good. However, it will take a long time for the two Caracionot-class battleships to destroy the two American battleships that they are fighting against, and they are only pressing and fighting at present. Although the American warships were at a disadvantage, there would be no major incidents in the short term. The real problem lies in the last two ships, the French Brestani, which is attacking the Count of Cavour, Italy's last remaining dreadnought! If the battle between the Caraciono-class battleships and the Americans can be described as a slight advantage, and the two Austro-Hungarian battleships were almost tied with each other, then the Brestani-Count Cavour had an absolute advantage, the level of training of the French was not low, and the hardware gap between the two sides was too great. The first dreadnought of the Italian Navy is outdated!

The Brest made the first hit of the Allied capital ship, and a 14-inch shell fired from the slender barrel smashed into the hull of the Count Cavour like a sharp throwing gun, and the shell continued to concentrate the main horizontal armor downward after shattering the upper deck. Although because of the proximity and angle issues. The horizontal shell did not penetrate, but the violent vibration caused by the armor caused by the deformation of the armor plate and the cracking of the back plate. Countless fragments flew down from the ceiling of the power compartment, catapulting back and forth between the boiler and various equipment, and several steam and power lines were cut off. Hundreds of degrees Celsius of high-temperature and high-pressure steam erupted from the pipes, carrying countless debris across the chamber. This shell alone deprived the Count of Cavour of at least 40% of its power!

And that's just an appetizer. In the next three salvos, two more shells hit, one of which smashed the No. 3 turret of the Count Cavour into a burning tin box. Another shell exploded in the upper part of the stern's horizontal armor, and the violent vibration directly caused one of the propellers to stop. This further slowed down the speed of the Count of Cavour, and in just half an hour, the Count of Cavour's demise was already doomed. He began to slowly fall behind the fleet. During this period, two Austro-Hungarian Prinz-class battleships also tried to aid the friendly ship, but were unsuccessful. The Italian torpedo boats even braved the fire of the opposing armored cruisers to try to release torpedoes and smoke screens, but the 6-inch and 5-inch artillery shells rained down on the fast but rather fragile guys. There was even a torpedo boat that was hit by a close miss from a 10-inch gun because it was unable to dodge.

The impact of the explosion of the high-explosive bomb enveloped countless shrapnel and high-pressure bubbles and violently hit the hull of the torpedo boat. In a tooth-squeezing and tearing sound. The torpedo boat, which was only a few hundred tons, was torn in half by the furious onslaught, and the speedboat, which was unable to dodge, was finally destroyed. The Italians' rescue of the Count of Cavour has finally come to an end! The Brestani, which had been pouring out all its pent-up anger on the first dreadnought of the Italian Navy, was hit by a series of explosions, the mast was broken, the chimney was already broken, and four of the five turrets were saddened. The speed has dropped to less than 10 knots, and the rest of the work can be left to the torpedo boats. However, the French, who were so easy to get angry, thought that the battleship should be sent to the bottom by torpedo boats flying the French tricolor, and without Magiffin's consent, the French torpedo boats were sent out, and then fired more than 20 torpedoes at the battleship, which had been tilted 14 degrees.

However, at this time, Majifen did not have time to pursue this trivial matter, and now the five American capital ships under his command had been engaged in a battle with the other side for more than forty minutes, and the Tennessee and the California relied on their rough skin and thick flesh, and had two more guns than the other side, and the two Caracionot-class ships were evenly matched. A shell from the Veneto successfully killed the California's No. 2 turret. The Caraccino's No. 3 turret was scrapped by a 14-inch shell from the Tennessee, breaking one barrel and destroying the hydraulics of the other barrel with a violent explosion. Of course, more shells hit the superstructure of the hull, and from time to time bursts of flames burst out from the bridge. The majestic superstructure was riddled with flames and explosions, but as a product of the two countries' sophisticated products, there was no problem with the core compartment of these two battleships, although the head and tail were also shot, but relying on a good compartment and a sufficiently powerful drainage system, the battleship's water intake was still within a controllable range.

However, the New York and Oklahoma in the back were a little unable to hold on under the attack of the Vittorio and San Martin, and the two battleships, which were inferior in firepower and not very good in gunnery, had been completely suppressed by the other side after a long engagement. The New York was the worst, half of the ten 14-inch guns were destroyed in less than an hour's engagement, while a secondary gun mount was punctured, and dozens of shells and a large amount of propellant stored in the dressing room were detonated. The violent impact instantly tore apart the entire turret, and flames and shrenchel ran rampant across the turret deck under the action of the shock wave. In the successive explosions, fireballs rose from the hull of the ship from time to time. The fire on the entire battleship almost got out of control.

The Oklahoma was in better shape, but was still overwhelmed by the onslaught, and so far he was able to counter with six main guns. Although the Brest succeeded in destroying the battleship Cavour, the belligerents on the entire battle line did not gain the upper hand. After Brestany made up for it, Magifen agreed to the captain's request to keep the scarred battleship out of the spotlight. "Why hasn't the British come yet? What's wrong? Looking at the formation of fast battleships that had not kept up for a long time, Majifen felt a little uneasy in his heart.

So what are the three fast battleships doing now? Well, the result of the words came as a bit of a surprise, the British and Italians were fighting for command of the fleet. Although the British had only one battleship, after some coordination, the British were able to take command of the fast fleet, which was of course the result of the coordination between the British and the Americans, as a reward for Thomas to cooperate with Magifin. Although the Dutch, who had two fast battleships, were dissatisfied, but there was no way, if nothing happened, the British should have commanded the fast fleet to come to support at this time, but unfortunately, there was a little accident.

Just as the fast fleet was preparing to go to support Majifen after clearing the Allied torpedo boats that had launched the assault, several twin-engine attack planes flying from the southern land caused some trouble for this fleet, and they directly targeted the capital ship that was the largest in the entire fleet. These aerial bookshelves swayed over with not dense anti-air fire, and then dropped round things! These 200KG bombs, which were originally used for ground attack, were directly used to make cameo anti-ship appearances, although the attack accuracy of these aircraft can be described as sad, but one of the planes was so lucky that it dropped a bomb directly on the superstructure of the Malaya! Under the action of nearly 100KG of explosives, a huge fireball rose from the bridge of the Malaya, and the scattered shrapnel and shock wave happened to affect the fleet commander and captain who were commanding on the bridge! One of them was beaten straight into a sieve, while the other was also in shock from excessive bleeding!

Then the problem arises, it stands to reason that if the commander of the fleet is injured and cannot command the entire fleet to fight, then the captain of the flagship should act as the commander. But if neither the commander nor the captain can fulfill their responsibilities now, who will be responsible? The Dutch fleet commander's silent Jack believed that he was the highest-ranking officer in the entire fleet and should naturally be given command to himself, while the British thought that the deputy captain could still command, so he was reluctant to hand over the command. If it was a simple battle of will, it was nothing, the point was that the two sides had a dispute over the next move, the Dutch thought that they could intercept in order to achieve greater results, while the British conservatively chose to follow up and then cooperate with the main fleet to fight.

Thanks to the book friend zhouyu1976 and the book friend hukaikaka for the tip~~~, as well as the book friend Lonely Medusa, mrsgy, appleandyou monthly pass support ~~~. (To be continued......)