Majestic ships, magnificent battleships; Thick heavy artillery, glittering flames...... Accompanied by thunder and tremors, the pinnacle of this ensemble belonging to the big ship and giant cannon is enough to make everyone who witnesses this scene enthusiastic and excited.

At Betty's order to speed up, the British battlecruisers began to rapidly close towards their German counterparts, and within a few minutes they were within 9,000 yards of the German fleet. The bridge of the tower of the German capital ship was already clearly visible in the binoculars of the British officer. And the black hole cannon that pointed directly at him was as terrifying as the tentacles on a giant beetle; Once it erupts with a blazing brilliant light, it will be a moment of severe life and death challenge!

"Damn, the Germans are starting to fire a full salvo!" An officer aboard the Lion looked at the red sea in the distance and said loudly with shock and anger. After less than ten seconds, the scream of a speeding train suddenly hit the face; With a roar and a roar, eight towering clouds of thick water suddenly rose around the battleship, like white dragons breaking through the sea, roaring and flying. Through the scattered mist, the British officers and soldiers could clearly see the wild waves of light spewed out by the German war patrols; Its dense shine has been doubled compared to before!

"Boom!" With a loud bang, the red light exploded, and the "Australia" battle cruiser, which was located in the middle of the British battle cruiser column, was hit with a bang; A 283-mm shell from the Von der Tann, impartially struck the forward bridge of the ship. With the blazing clouds that suddenly exploded, the two 102-mm guns were immediately blown to pieces, and nearly ten British gunners were scattered with flesh and blood; And the steel girder frame that supported the navigation room above and the central firing command post. It also bent and broke under the impact of a violent explosion. The two compartments then began to tilt and collapse. Dozens of British officers and soldiers lost their center of gravity. stumbling and falling in the whirling cabin; Almost all of the heads and bodies collided violently with the bulkheads, and the screams resounded in every corner of the bridge.

Thunder roared, and the waves spewed and rolled like rainbows. With the unwilling roar of the British gunners, 8 305-mm shells thundered through the air and swooped down on the German war patrol; In the midst of the accumulation and roll-up of the cascading waves, a fire wave orange also burst into the sky that made them extremely excited. The light wave at the base of the No. 2 chimney of the Von der Thanen exploded, and the amidship deck burst into flames; Hundreds of degrees of black smoke poured out of the cracked and rolled holes in the chimney, and the nearby German sailors fled in all directions. Then it attracted the damage management force to implement temperature reduction and blockade.

However, the excitement of the British officers and soldiers did not last long. Less than half a minute later, another 283-millimeter shell burst through the air and poured into the unprotected upper side near the bow of the Australia; The violent explosion from the inside made the battle cruiser with a standing displacement of 18,500 tons tremble violently. The main blower, which supplied the combustion air to the four boilers, was blown into a twisted pile of scrap metal in the billowing waves, forcing an entire boiler room in Australia to shut down and reducing its output by nearly 6,000 horsepower.

The artillery fire roared one after another, and the light waves exploded one after another, and before the main battleships of the two sides had completely closed the distance, the 12 British and German battle cruisers had already begun a fierce struggle with bayonets. From time to time, shells exploded angrily on the steel hull one after another. Set off a gorgeous fireworks like red chrysanthemums blooming in the sky. For the British battle cruiser's almost desperate and aggressive play, Ingnorr's face was full of anger and consternation. Jericho, on the other hand, understood Betty's reason for doing so after a brief moment of frustration. The Germans also lined up the battle cruisers in front of the main fleet, which greatly oppressed the Betty fleet, which had sunk three battle cruisers in the previous 40 minutes; Compared to the implementation of conventional artillery battles, which are no different from the previous ones, it is better to rush to the front and fight to the death with the opponent!

"We can't be left behind. The order was given to the fleet to turn left at a compass point to further close the distance to the German fleet; Each 13.5-inch gun carrier instantly reloads 635kg of heavy ammunition and fires it with a strong charge! A rare look of fierceness flashed in Jericho's eyes, and he roared loudly, "The glory of Trafalgar is restored today. Without the complete annihilation of the German fleet, the artillery fire of the Royal Navy will never stop! ”

With the raising of the Trafalgar signal flag, the formidable Royal Navy ship group began to accelerate its turn, and the four newest sister warships of George V, the Bold, the Centurion, and Ajax led the way. Behind him, the Third Battleship consisting of the two George V-class ships Trafalgar and the Royal Ark, and the two Bellelophon-class ships of the Magnificent and Nile followed closely. Thor, the Sovereign, the Conqueror, Ireland, the Giant, Hercules, Neptune, St. Parrio, St. Vincent, Collingwood, the Avant-Garde, the Dreadnought, Bellerophon, Reckless, Gorgon, the Hundred-Eyed Giant, and Orion, who was placed at the bottom of the dreadnought by Jericho due to a malfunction of the steam turbine, also found their respective targets, and continued to fire heavily at them during the voyage. Although the firepower of the 18 former dreadnoughts is not as good as that of the dreadnoughts, thanks to their huge numbers, they are still a strong opponent that must be seriously faced on the German rear battle line.

"Boom! Rumble! The hull and deck of the ship were hit by artillery fire one after another, the battleship shook violently, the flames spewed, and the huge body of the Lion's 213.4-meter-long body also groaned and trembled in the violent explosion, and the terrifying sound of steel beams twisting and breaking seemed to grind people's teeth and tear open their eardrums. The air surged, shrapnel flew sideways, and the British sailors who were fighting fiercely with the flames nearby flew flesh and blood on the spot, with severed limbs, internal organs, red and white brains, and skulls that were cut off in an instant.

In the Lion's conning tower, Betty was biting the cigar stump in her mouth, her nails digging deep into her palms, and her forehead was swollen. He originally thought that as long as the distance between the two sides was successfully closed, the disadvantage of his own warships would be erased, but the current battle situation gave him this wishful thinking as a blow to the head.

At present, with the use of full salvo fire, the German battleships are still able to maintain a round of fire every 25 seconds; And no matter how hard the British gunners tried to eat, the 13.5-inch and 12-inch cannons never had a reload time of less than 38 seconds. Even if the current hit rate of British ships has caught up with the opponent, but when the firepower density is exceeded by 50%, the overall number of hits of British warships is still far inferior to that of the opponent!

In addition, the 150 mm secondary guns equipped by the German battle cruisers also caused a lot of trouble for the British battle cruisers in this relatively recent battle. Although this kind of burning stick could not pose a threat to the important parts of the battle patrol, the cunning Germans used high-explosive shells with a charge of 3.3kg, or 4.0kg of the bottom and warhead, and fired them at once; The violent explosion not only killed and injured a large number of exposed people, but also caused severe damage to the bridge, rangefinder, mast antenna, and some pipeline lines. The German war cruisers were equipped with five or six 150 mm secondary guns on one side, and this kind of artillery could let out a roar every 10 seconds, and the British war cruisers were suddenly like a rain of bullets, and the casualties and the loss of core extravehicular equipment suddenly increased sharply.

The situation of the British War Patrol was quite different. From the invincible to the lion, they are armed with a secondary gun of 102 mm caliber; Although this kind of artillery has excellent performance on anti-torpedo boats, its effective range of no more than five or six thousand meters is at most, and it is simply not able to play any role in the battle between capital ships. The British gunners raised the elevation angle of the 102-mm gun to its limit of 15 degrees and fired desperately in order to gain something from its ultimate range of 10,610 meters; However, due to the inherent disadvantage of caliber, these shells were all spread over a huge area, and the aiming point was hundreds of meters away from the actual hit site, and there were very few people who were really lucky enough to hit the German war cruisers.

After less than ten minutes of fighting, the British battle cruisers were frequently frequented by the opponent's 150-mm high-explosive shells: the indomitable mainmast rangefinder was damaged by the shock wave, one of the generator compartments of the Indomitable was damaged in the explosion, and the rest of the ships were also released with fire that was not weak. Feeling the obvious vibration from the Lion from time to time, Betty's resentment and anxiety had reached its peak: if the other party did not suffer under his own artillery fire, this entire fast fleet would be in danger of being defeated and defeated!

"General, we've hit!" A cheer suddenly rang out in the conning tower. Betty eagerly raised her binoculars to look, only to see that the second ship in the other queue, the Lutzov, was already billowing smoke on the side of the side, and orange, red, dark and purple light was gushing and flashing in it. Although this scene was far less majestic than when the enemy ship was hit before, Betty, who was familiar with the navy, already knew in her heart that it must have been caused by her own shells penetrating the armor of the German battleship and exploding inside! After a while, the German battleship let out an angry roar with its main guns, but Betty clearly saw that only the main guns in the stern of the battleship rushed into a large area of brilliant waves of fire and flames, but the two main turrets in the bow did not make the slightest movement!

"Sure enough, the use of strong-charge shells at close range is the best way to deal with these evil German battleships!" Seeing this, Betty couldn't help but wave her fist fiercely, and the endless anger in her heart finally got some catharsis. After being sunk by the opponent 3 battle cruisers in a row, his fast fleet finally handed over some good luck. The current Royal Princess's 8 343mm guns are still intact, but the opposing Lützov has only half of its firepower left, and if nothing else, this German battleship will become its first prey! (To be continued......)