The Americans left the anchorage in two obsolete warships. And the bull coaxed in the way of the Spanish fleet to the Newport News shipyard! But the high morale of this was immediately discharged when they saw the battleship they were about to face!

"God, is this the battleship of the Spaniards? Look at its triple main gun, it's like Hades's three-headed dog of hell! An American sailor shouted.

"Damn the Admiralty, they've taken all the capital ships away, and the Spaniards have come to attack our shipyard! Are they all pig heads? The other sailor cursed.

"Prepare to meet the enemy, lads, we have no way back, and behind us is the heart of the US Navy! The Spaniards had nothing to fear, our 12-inch guns were enough to knock through the opponent's armor! "An officer inspires his subordinates.

Four Spanish warships approached at extremely high speed and quickly lined up in a sidechord, and as many as 20 10-inch 40L Armstrong rapid-fire guns were aimed at the two American ships 5 kilometers away. An indescribable sense of oppression instantly enveloped the 2 American warships. "It will be the first battleship to sink in my naval career." Scheer said excitedly.

4500 meters, 4000 meters, 3500 meters! "Open fire" The gun commanders of the four Spanish warships kept repeating the order to fire, and dozens of large-caliber guns spewed out tongues of fire in the distance, and the orange flames and gunsmoke at the muzzles of the guns were connected. THE 227 KG SHELL FLEW AT A MUZZLE SPEED OF MORE THAN 700 METERS, AND FLEW OVER THE SEA SURFACE 3.5 KM WIDE IN LESS THAN SIX SECONDS. Envelop the American fleet in the distance in a column of water!

"The firepower of the main Spanish fleet was so dense that we never dreamed of such heavy shelling. The Spaniards, lined up in neat columns, calmly opened fire on us, dropping at least tons of ammunition on our fleet in a minute! We were surrounded by yellow columns of water. More unfortunate. The first round of shelling hits, and the hapless Texas was hit. A surviving U.S. Navy soldier wrote in his diary.

3500 meters is a bit far, but with the support of a huge number of guns and a high rate of fire, in the first minute of the battle, a 227KG shell plunged headlong into the middle deck of the Texas! The 6-inch Harvey nickel steel armor can't block the hit of the 10-inch armor-piercing bullet at all, (note that the Harvey nickel steel armor and the Harvey hardened armor are not the same thing, the former just adds some nickel elements to the steel plate, and the defense is slightly stronger than the steel-faced iron armor.) The hardened body easily tore through the armor and plunged headlong into the middle deck. After passing through 2 chambers, explode at a distance of about one chamber from the flue! A dozen kilograms of picric acid explosives, mixed with shrapnel and hull fragments, turned the surroundings into a burning purgatory! The high-velocity debris easily shredded the chamber walls, and the blast wave and fire spread around the breach. Smoke billowed from the amidships of the Texas' hull was so visible that it could be seen clearly in Newport, miles away.

"Open fire, fight back against the Spaniards." The American gunner cursed while operating the gunner's gun. But those 12-inch heavy guns that give people a sense of security are not as good as people think, and the American-made 12-inch 35L guns are not more advanced than the 12-inch 35L guns made in Jiangnan after the refitting of Dingzhen, and even the propellant is still maroon gunpowder! The rudimentary turrets, poor feeding and reloading systems, and the smoke that lingered after firing made these huge 12-inch guns unusable!

Only 3 minutes after the start of the battle, the guns of two American battleships fired only 2 rounds! 300+ KG shells plunged headlong into the sea at a distance of 30 meters from the Spaniard. Except for making a splash, it didn't do anything.

"Approach them, kill them." When a soldier has the upper hand in war, even the most cowardly person becomes belligerent! The entire Spanish fleet began to close the distance. Hope to quickly solve these two annoying guys with close and dense fire! …,

The distance between the two sides soon approached to 2,500 meters, which was basically the best distance for the Spanish fleet to exert firepower. The 10-inch guns and 6-inch guns poured fire on the opposite side at the highest rate of fire, and 4 Spanish battleships and 2 American battleships rushed towards each other like medieval cavalry. It's just that on one side are heavy cavalry on war horses with war hammers in hand. On the other side were light cavalrymen with short swords and inferior horses. The two sides staggered by, firing cannonballs that slashed at each other like the scythes of death. In the moment when the two sides staggered, the two American warships were instantly overwhelmed by the rain of bullets!

Countless 10-inch, 6-inch and 3-inch shells rained down on the American battleship, and in less than 1 minute, the Texas was hit by at least 3 large-caliber shells, and each 10-inch shell continued to hit the fragile hull of the Texas like a heavy hammer! One, two, three, some lucky Americans really realized what it means to live like a year, and no one knew whether they would survive until the end of the war, and everyone was afraid that a shell would penetrate the next door of the cabin not far away. And those unfortunate were killed directly by explosions, shrapnel and flames. In just a few minutes, the entire battleship was passed through by a dense cannonball! The entire superstructure turned into a flaming torch, and yellow-green flames spread across the deck, devouring everything that came its way! And more importantly, a 12-inch gun turret was hit by a 227KG high-explosive shell! Although it didn't penetrate the 12-inch thick defense, the huge shock and debris still stuck the turret!

The Texas is still struggling in the flames and smoke, and the subsequent Monterey has no chance to struggle, with a displacement of more than 4,000 tons, it actually has 1 twin 12-inch 35L gun and 1 twin 10-inch 30L gun plus the nominal 13-inch main load! The data on paper is excellent! But what level is it, the Americans know very well in their hearts, the reserve buoyancy is extremely small, the dry chord is extremely low, and the main armor belt is narrow and short! Almost nothing! Coupled with the excessive weight of the armament, the stability and redundancy of this ship are really poor, although it has not been taken care of. But he was still beaten by the two Pisa-class armored cruisers at the end of the team!

A 10-inch high-explosive bomb struck the bow of the Monterey like a hammer. The entire battleship shook violently, and then a bright yellow flame burst out at the bow of the ship, and the huge explosive force directly opened a large hole of more than ten square meters in the bow, and the entire bow then sank violently. A large amount of seawater poured into the bow of the ship. Then the Montreal had a severe first tilt, and the speed of the entire battleship was reduced somewhat, and then at least three more 6-inch shells and countless machine gun shells swept across the bridge, and in the few minutes that the two sides had staggered, the Montreal was also riddled with holes. The fire spread on the ship, killing or injuring people on the bridge, and the fire quickly spiraled out of control.

"Right full rudder, let's go up from the rear and do it again." At this time, Sevela had no worries in his heart. Such a disparity in battle filled him with confidence. The only fly in the ointment was that none of the 4 battleships had torpedoes, otherwise, he could have ordered the battleships to arrive close and prepare for a lightning strike after another round!

"Your Excellency, two new ships have come out in the distance to die. Are we going to send them to the bottom of the sea too? Scheer said, looking at the two shore defense ships that had rushed out of the Hamilton officers.

"It's the Puritan and the Fear! The other side has four 12-inch guns and four 10-inch guns," a staff officer said after a moment's scrutiny.

"These two ships look a little tougher to deal with. Focus our fire on the Texas and Monterey first, and we'll deal with the two snails later. Severa thought for a moment and said.

At this time, the Texas and Monterey saw the two American warships departing from the military port, and immediately turned their course to move closer to the friendly forces, but unfortunately only the Texas could still make a difficult turn in the rain of bullets. The Monterey, on the other hand, struggled to keep up with the former due to loss of buoyancy and severe forecast. During the circumnavigation of the Spanish fleet from the rear, the 4 behemoths did not stop firing at the poor shallow-water heavy gunboat, constantly hitting the hull with shells, opening several holes in the sidestring armor. The influx of seawater kept the ship's freedle almost at the level of the water. The speed of the voyage, which was already low, was even lower to a pitiful extent under the action of the seawater. …,

Twenty-three minutes into the battle, the USS Monterey became the first ship to sink in the Spanish-American War. Ignoring the American sailors who had fallen overboard, the Texas approached the Wanderer and the Fear at their maximum speed. The Americans needed to regroup and extinguish the fire on the battleship. Then keep fighting! However, the Spaniards did not give the Americans much time, and just after sinking the Monterey, 4 Spanish warships began to charge the American fleet!

The Saint is in front, and the Fear is in the back. Then there was the Texas which was putting out the fire, this formation was a little stronger than the one just now, but then it turned out that this American fleet was not enough to challenge the other side! Comparatively speaking, the Saint was also a very good shore defense shallow water heavy gunboat, with 4 12-inch 35L guns, 6 4-inch 40L guns and 6 6-pounder guns. The Dread in the back had four 10-inch 35L guns and two 4-inch 40L guns, as well as two 6-pounder guns and two 3-pounder guns. But after all, they are all shore defense warships, and it is okay to deal with some small ships that sneak up on the port, but in the face of giant ships like Dante or Pisa, they are far from qualified!

"The American artillery is very bluffing, but the actual effect is very average, the extremely slow rate of fire makes the American battleship unable to get a hit at all, and the lack of rapid-fire guns makes the American battleship very powerless even if it wants to hit the bridge of our warship with high-explosive shells. This battle feels more like a carnage to me. Scheer wrote in his diary.

Another steel hedge, the Americans chose to go in the same direction as the Spanish fleet. The relatively small relative speed of the two sides and the almost fixed sequence of engagements were undoubtedly a fero's strength for the Spanish fleet, which had an advantage in firepower, so the United States chose to delay very sensibly! At least buy time for the evacuation personnel on the shipyard side.

"We can't drag it out like this, the 10-inch 40L main gun shells can't be replenished at sea, and if we can't destroy the other side with as few shells as possible, I'm afraid that even if we win the naval battle, we won't have enough ammunition to attack the Newport News shipyard." Scheer quickly discovered the problem, and he suggested immediately reversing course and engaging the other side in the same direction.

"Do it again as you did just now, hedge, turn at the tail of the enemy fleet and sail in the same direction." Severa vetoed Scheer's suggestion. From a tactical point of view, Scheer's advice would have saved the most ammunition and time, but what about after the end of the naval battle? Is it true that Newport News was wiped off the map with naval artillery? Sevela didn't dare to make such a decision!

In a way, Sevela's aim was to gain an advantage in the war and to keep his colony in the Caribbean. And not really annoyed the United States. Even if Spain wins the war, the United States can still seek control over Cuba again after about a decade of preparation. Perhaps in that case, Spain would eventually lose its colonies in the Caribbean. But Sevela felt it was better not to provoke the United States too much. After all, the United States at this time was not the United States of 1812, and Spain was not England!

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