Artillery fire exploded one after another, surging waves, accompanied by bursts of light and flames like aurora clouds, this sea area was as if it was being violently stirred by the angry sea emperor Poseidon, stirring up countless boiling columns of water. The huge steel warship marched straight through a column of towering water, and the thick main cannon let out a deafening roar; There were constantly scattered and fluttering waves that washed the deck, and the water was misty. The wind was howling, the smoke was billowing, and the ears of the sailors were filled with a non-stop thunder, and the terrifying and terrifying majestic sound was like thousands of wild lions and angry tigers, roaring and rushing directly in front of them!

In the command tower of the De Verblinger, who led the entire battle line, Hippert stared at the British war cruisers who were on a par with him in the distance, and a cold smile quietly appeared on the corner of his mouth. After three hours of maneuvering, he and Betty's battle cruiser were once again in a-for-tat position, and the current angle and distance between the two sides were also extremely conducive to the decisive battle, which could be described as a fateful duel arranged by the Hand of God. In the battle some time ago, Hipper's fear of the British battle patrol has disappeared, and now is the best time for him to beat the opponent's battleship, complete the cross-cut in front of the enemy, and seize the T-shaped crosshead!

"Boom!" The thunder roared, the red light soared, and the D'Verblinger fired another round of astonishing shots; A 350-millimeter shell slammed into the bow deck of the Lion. The raging blast destroyed the three sailors' quarters and the nearby hospital bay, turning the ship's hospital, which had been overcrowded in the previous battle, into a terrible hell of severed limbs and flesh flying. More than fifty sailors, including doctors, were killed instantly. Flames and poisonous smoke reigned over all areas in between. The cracked steel plate made a sharp sound that almost tore a person's eardrum. The deck and interior cabins are stacked like pieces of paper. It was twisted into a shocking twist shape under the violent impact of the explosion!

Hearing the horrific death toll reported by the damage management department, Betty in the command tower was even more furious. In the battle a few hours ago, he lost 3 battle cruisers in a row in the face of the opponent's fast and accurate firepower; And now, once again, these Hans have taken the lead in the battle. Up to now, the Lion has been hit by a total of 8 350-mm shells, one main turret has been destroyed, and the number of casualties among officers and men has exceeded 200; If this situation continues, it is very likely that the previous situation of the Queen Mary being sunk in an instant will be repeated again!

August 28, 1912. With a standard displacement of 24,300 tons and a full load displacement of 27,500 tons, the De Ringer joined the combat sequence of the German High Seas Fleet in the cheers of thousands of people. The bigwigs sitting in the high-end offices in London were unimpressed. Because 3 months ago, the Royal Navy had already received two warships that could compete with it. The Lion and Royal Princess II ships, which started construction in 1909, have a standing displacement of 26,270 tons, are equipped with 8 343mm L45 main guns, and the maximum speed can reach 27.5 knots, far better than the opponent's 25 knots. Although the Lion's main gun is slightly smaller than the opponent's 350 mm, it has a longer barrel than the opponent's L42.4, and is capable of firing cannonballs with a strong charge. Therefore, the actual firepower does not fall behind. And in the face of the possible better protection of German warships, the British naval top brass also did not care; This was in addition to Fisher's belief in the theory that "speed is armor" by Fisher, who was in charge of the Navy at the time. The British Navy's lack of awareness of the ability of artillery shells to penetrate deep also played a decisive role.

At present, the specific technologies related to large-caliber artillery are listed as top secret by the navies of various countries, and it is even more impossible for the navies of Britain and Germany, which are imaginary enemies of each other, to obtain each other's shells; In this case, the navies of each country use their own shells to do penetration tests, and then design the protection of warships according to the penetration number of their main guns. The tragedy of the British battleship arose from this. The hard cap armor-piercing bullet pioneered by Skoda in 1907 was only taught to Germany, which had signed an offensive and defensive alliance with Austria-Hungary, and the rest of the powers were not blessed; Although Britain was equipped with armor-piercing shells on its Agile-class second-class battleships completed in 1904, the hardness of its quilts was far less than that of the Austro-Hungarian counterparts, and it failed to make revolutionary improvements in this for more than ten years.

Therefore, when the British used this shell for the penetration test, the result was a rather low number. According to the table of their shells on the range, the British believed that 9 inches (229 mm) of hardened armor would be able to withstand the normal charge fire of their main guns at normal engagement distances. Coupled with the fact that there would be a certain heading angle in battleship encounters, and the coal bunkers that coal-fired warships generally set up behind the armor belt, the British decided that 9 inches of hardened armor was completely sufficient in battle, and set it as the thickness of the Lion-class main armor belt. In the eyes of the British, the Lion-class battle patrol was well-balanced in attack and defense, and the speed was so fast, it was far superior to the German De Fringer class; So in 1910, they started construction of another ship of the same class as the Queen Mary.

However, the German armor-piercing projectile with excellent performance made the Lion-class British, who thought they were quite thick armor protection, like a hole in tissue paper. The Queen Mary's main armor belt was pierced by German 350mm armor-piercing shells, and then shrapnel was fired into the projectile magazine, causing a large explosion and sinking. Although Betty did not understand the specific cause of Queen Mary's death, she was aware of the far greater than expected penetration of German armor-piercing shells; Among other things, the explosion of the main turret of the amidships, which almost caused the explosion of the Lion's ammunition depot, was caused by a shell penetrating the 229 mm of armor on the front of the turret. And the thickness of the armor in this part is exactly the same as the main armor!

Before today, Betty was still very confident in fighting to the death with the German fleet, but through the fierce confrontation between the previous and the present, and feeling the opponent's accurate artillery fire and shells with powerful armor-piercing ability, she realized that the strength of the opponent's battle patrol detachment was far above her own fast fleet!

Just when Betty's heart was full of shock and disbelief, there was a violent tremor on the bridge beneath her feet. A 350 mm shell thunderbolted through the 229 mm main armor belt of the Lion's amidships, revealing its own tremendous energy in the extreme sublimation; The surging air and a large amount of shrapnel undoubtedly split the main deck of the Lion, which was only 25 mm thick, and carried out an indiscriminate sweep of the boiler room below. The steam burst out, the high temperature spread, and the 12 Yarrow boilers in the two boiler compartments instantly shattered and collapsed, and the maximum power output of the battleship suddenly lost nearly one-third.

Artillery fire thundered, and huge earthquakes rumbled. Betty turned her head to look and saw the sunset surging on the vast sea behind her, the sea of fire in full swing, and more than 80 main warships on both sides were engaged in a divine battle like Mars hitting the earth. Due to the grandeur and vastness of the scene, and the fact that the battle had just begun, it was difficult to judge who would die in the final outcome for a while. However, for the game confrontation of the fast fleet at the front, Betty already faintly had a terrible thought in his heart that he did not dare to face, but had to look at directly: his own battle cruisers would most likely repeat the tragedy of the explosion and sinking of the previous three battle cruisers, and the fast fleet would collapse. And the opponent's battle patrol will also then make a cross-cut in front of the enemy, forming a T-shaped bombardment on the battleship team, and the Grand Fleet will also suffer heavy losses!

"The order was given to the fleet to turn two compass points to the left, and the speed was raised to 25 knots, ready to engage in the most direct close-range bloody battle with the Germans." Betty's voice rang out in a roar, and his calm and deep tone made the captain of the Lion, Chatfield, have the illusion that he was standing in front of him as the commander-in-chief of the Grand Fleet. Looking at the stunned subordinates, Betty's eyes were full of determination, and she said: "Our artillery penetration and armor defense are not as good as the opponent's, and continuing to fight in the current position will not achieve any desired results." Only by significantly closing the distance of engagement and achieving mutual penetration with the Germans will we have the only chance of victory. Even if today we will be buried with the sea, we will destroy all the German battleships in front of us! ”

"The target battleship began to turn to the left, and the speed increased, and the preliminary estimate was above 22 knots!"

In the command tower of the De Fringer, Hipper, looked at the British battle patrol speeding up from 13,000 yards away, and his gray eyes already showed a hint of admiration. Betty's courage and courage had been known to every commander of the High Seas Fleet with the Royal Navy as an imaginary enemy in his previous career, but his courage to defy death was truly demonstrated in the current critical decision. As the finest tactical commander in the Royal Navy, it was impossible for him not to know what this really meant!

And the current Hipper can only fulfill the other party's wishes. Behind him was a group of 35 capital ships, and Betty was steering and accelerating with a standard cross-cut maneuver; If he chooses to turn away from Betty's fleet, he will inevitably expose the capital ship group in the rear to the T-shaped fire of the British. For the German reconnaissance fleet, the current position is also unavoidable, and it must face off with the speeding British fleet.

"Although I don't want to, that doesn't mean I don't dare to engage in hand-to-hand combat with bayonets!" Hipper's eyes flashed, and he said: "Order, when the British battleships enter within 9,000 yards, all ships will immediately turn half a salvo into a full salvo, and be sure to pour out the most artillery fire in the shortest possible time!" (To be continued......)

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The number of chapters in the title of the previous chapter was written incorrectly, and it should be that the order of the chapters after chapter 470 will be restored to normal