Due to the extremely strong armor in the vital parts and the superior performance of the armor steel used in the British battleships, it was difficult for even the 24 381mm guns on the three Risseliu-class battleships to pose a mortal threat to them, and the vital broadside waterline main armor belt and main turret armor of the King George V battleship still withstood the severe test when the distance between the two sides had been reduced to less than 7 kilometers. The ingress of the non-main armor belt under the waterline was caused by the penetration of the British warship's superior displacement capacity, which prevented the ship from tilting significantly and its speed dropping significantly.

Of course, this is also because the performance of the French warship's naval guns and guns is inferior to that of the British, and it has lost its lead, and it is forced to meet the British warships in the best condition under the unfavorable situation that the speed of the warship has not been raised, and the hit rate of the French naval guns is only a fraction of that of the British, otherwise the entire 7 battleships will concentrate on shelling one, and it will not be able to withstand it in any case, even if it does not sink, the ship gun hit rate will be reduced to almost zero due to the destruction of the command instrument, and the possibility of the ship's hull tilting and speed reduction due to too much water is also very large

On the other hand, while the tragic 356mm guns of the King George V were hardly too much of a threat to the French battleships, the flagship King George V captured most of the enemy firepower, while the other four British battleships with their 381mm guns were free to attack. As a result, the battleship King George V, like the Dingzhen II in the Battle of the Yellow Sea more than forty years ago, interpreted half of the definition of a battleship with its indestructible armor, and the giant ship remained stubbornly afloat after being hit by more than 10 rounds of 381mm armor-piercing shells. From time to time, with its 356-mm guns, the French bombarded the thinly armored old battleships among the enemy ships, and the French could not help but lament, "Isn't this battleship indestructible?" ”

Although the armor of the three Risselieus class battleships of the French is not thin, the overall protection capability is still far from that of the King George V-class battleships whose defensive power is second only to the Yamato-class battleships in history, and its particularly thickened turret frontal armor can barely withstand the enemy's 381mm armor-piercing shells when facing the enemy head-on, but when the two fleets enter the state of sidestring bombardment, the main armor belt of the Risselieus class's main armor belt with a maximum thickness of only 346mm has become an obvious weakness. But if the French warships turn to face the enemy head-on, and the firepower is reduced by half, what should be done, this is really a dilemma

Due to the fact that the speed of the French warship was not fully raised. The hit rate of the guns of the British ships was unusually high. In addition, the British Royal Navy's fire control system had to be manually fine-tuned during the shelling (Note 1), so as the shelling continued, the hit rate would get higher and higher, and the French flagship battleship Richelieu was hit by seven 381mm armor-piercing shells in a short period of time

One of the shots hit the right side near the waterline and pierced through the armor, blasting a large gap. Although fortunately there was no detonation of vital compartments such as ammunition depots and engine rooms. However, it resulted in a large amount of water ingress. The Richelieu's hull began to tilt, and another shot burrowed into the engine room, slowing it down, and the main turret armor, which had blocked one 381mm armor-piercing shell, was powerless to save the ship as the distance between the two sides narrowed. A 381mm armor-piercing bullet pierced through the No. 3 main turret and caused a violent explosion inside the ship, quickly igniting a raging fire from the bridge to the stern, and finally detonating the main ammunition depot, completely destroying the French Navy's proud giant ship

When the battleship Richelieu sank, her other two sister ships were also scarred, and at this time, the British carrier-based aircraft group that took off from the three aircraft carriers in the rear also joined the battle, because the damaged French battleships had greatly reduced their speed and air defense capabilities, and the two major defects of low hit rate and poor survivability of torpedo bombers were avoided, and it was easy to send the two French Risselieus-class battleships that had to rely on naval guns alone to the west with mounted aerial torpedoes. And the British lost only 1 aircraft

The sinking of three advanced Richeliu-class battleships and the loss of none of the British warships made the French navy almost completely desperate, but knowing that they could not win, they decided to move away from the thick-skinned King George V battleships and instead attack the older battleships with relatively weak defenses.

It is worth mentioning that after initially finding that their main guns could not penetrate the main armor of the battleship King George V, the French chose to accelerate and approach to improve the accuracy and power of the ship's guns, but the British were not stupid, and they took the initiative to retreat without waiting for the enemy ships to enter a dangerous distance. On the contrary, because of the waste of time, the British almost unharmed the further expansion of the victory

Note 1: Whether it is World War I or World War II, the artillery accuracy of the German Navy has left a high impression, but in fact, the shelling accuracy of German naval guns is not higher than that of the British, the reason for this illusion is that the German fire control has a higher degree of automation (there is a giant Siemens-Heismeier), basically does not require too much personnel experience, all rely on the accuracy of the machine, because German fire control experts believe that although people can automatically correct errors, but also the biggest source of error.

This makes the German naval guns can quickly achieve a higher artillery accuracy, and the naval guns of other countries such as the United Kingdom, which rely more on manual adjustment, need a much longer time to achieve the same artillery accuracy as the German naval guns, because many famous naval battles do not last long, so Germany's fire control advantage is quite obvious, leaving people with the illusion that the artillery accuracy is much higher than the enemy, in fact, if you carefully analyze the historical examples of the German Navy, It will be found that the results of the German large warships are often hit in the first few rounds.

And if the naval battle lasts for a long time, the accuracy of the shelling of large German warships will become worse and worse after ten rounds as the personnel fatigue (especially the pressure on the Germans who are being pursued in the guerrilla warfare at sea), and the accuracy of the sights affected by the vibration of the gyroscope by the artillery fire. The fire control of the British Navy is Dreyer-style, relying on statistical proximity data and corrections for shelling, so as the artillery battle continues, it will become more and more accurate, so in a naval battle that lasts longer, the British fleet will have a very large advantage

PS: The above thanks to the guidance of ^_^ the emperor "Aoi" (to be continued......)