"What really determines the outcome of a war is the battle between the capital ships, especially the battle between battleships, they are the equivalent of the queen in chess, and they are the force that decides everything." - Cervera

Just when Jericho and Shelly were fighting to the death, the American battleship formation led by Sevela and the main fleet led by Sevella were also engaged in the last battle, 4 battleships against 2 battleships and 2 armored cruisers, in terms of strength, the two sides were evenly matched, the Spaniards had the advantage in total tonnage and speed, but the American fleet had an advantage in the number of guns and the caliber of artillery, and the 2 Dante-class battleships could naturally suppress the Iowa and Indiana that were at war with them, But the King and the wounded Cologne were a bit stressed against the other two American battleships. After all, the King and Cologne, as cruisers, had to spend a considerable part of their weight on power, while the American battleships were all slow-moving iron turtles! High speed has a great advantage when the cruiser is acting alone, but once it is grouped with a battleship and moves at a lower speed, the cruiser and the battleship will definitely suffer.

And now both sides are standard battleships, which are much more rigid than Jericho and Shelly's direct movement fighting dog fighting methods, and the cruiser can rush up and launch torpedoes when necessary, but the battleship can't be so flexible! Therefore, the battle between the two sides is a competition for firepower and protection.

The 13-inch and 8-inch guns of the American fleet, the 10-inch Armstrong heavy guns of the Spanish fleet, the 11-inch Krupp guns, and the 6-inch rapid-fire guns spat deadly flames at each other. Both sides are attacking with all their might, and attacking supremacy is the only option for both sides. Simpson knew very well that if he couldn't inflict heavy damage on the Spanish fleet, the low-speed American battleship formation would not be able to retreat smoothly at all, and Sevela needed to weaken the combat power of the American fleet as much as possible in order to prepare for the lightning strike behind! So at the beginning, the two sides coincidentally chose to shoot at close range, and this method of hand-to-hand combat with heavy artillery made the battle full of blood from the beginning!

Relying on the high rate of fire of the 10-inch 40L main gun. The Spanish fleet achieved more effective hits, and the Iowa, which was fired at by the battleship España, in just twenty minutes. At least 7 hits from a 10-inch gun! Two of the shots directly turned a twin 8-inch turret into a flaming flare, while the other 10-inch gun blew the barrel of a 13-inch gun in two, and the rest mostly hit the upper deck. Beat the 3 4-inch guns and numerous 6-pounder guns on the side line into piles of scrap metal!

And the situation of the Indiana in the back is not very good, because the freeboard is low, and every shell that hits the side of the hull will greatly lead to water ingress, and as a low freeboard battleship, the small reserve buoyancy directly determines that it is very sensitive to water ingress, as more and more shells open one after another in the side chord, this America's first real battleship has turned to the right, and the speed has been gradually reduced to about 13 knots! But fortunately, the firepower is okay, but a twin 8-inch turret has been knocked out. At the same time, almost all the 6-pounder guns were lost, and the twin 13-inch guns on the aft deck, although not destroyed, had to temporarily stop firing because of water ingress.

As for the third Marseilles, the situation is somewhat better than the first two, but the good is limited. Although the number of 11-inch guns of the King is small, the power is greater and the rate of fire is not slow, and the side line is larger than the secondary gun group of 5 6-inch guns and 4 105MM guns is also stronger than the 6 6-inch guns of the Dante class, although the overall projection is not as good as the Dante class, but it can also be compared with the Marseilles class!

One of the more tragic things about the Marseilles is. An 11-inch heavy gun shell directly hit the front main turret, although the huge explosion did not penetrate the heavy armor of the turret, but still stuck the turret's rotation facilities, which directly led to the two main guns basically ineffective, and the other 8-inch turret was pierced by the 11-inch armor-piercing shell, which was directly not broken into a burning iron box. THE FIRST AND SECOND MAIN GUNS LOST HALF OF THEIR FIREPOWER, BUT THE SECONDARY ARTILLERY GROUP REMAINED RELATIVELY INTACT, AFTER ALL, THE DAMAGE OF THE 6-INCH GUN AND THE 105MM RAPID-FIRE GUN WAS NOT COMPARABLE TO THE 10-INCH MAIN GUN OF THE DANTE CLASS. The damage to the hull was also not significant. …,

As for the Oregon? How to say, the Americans on this battleship finally experienced the thrill of suppressing their opponents, and the Cologne, which had already abolished a 10-inch gun, was really powerless in the face of this iron turtle with 4 13-inch guns and 4 8-inch guns!

In addition to the inevitable fire accident, the loss of armament was the destruction of two 10-inch guns on the Spanish and one 10-inch gun and a twin 6-inch turret on the Madrid. Of course, a lot of losses like the 12-pounder secondary gun were unavoidable. The situation of the King is worse, the loss of armament is very limited, the 4 11-inch main guns are still playing a huge role, but the hits on the hull have caused a certain degree of water ingress, especially a 13-inch shell that hit the middle of the hull, cracking the connection of the entire armor belt, a crack with an area of about 2 square meters has caused a large amount of water into the hull, and the destruction of the ship type has also increased the resistance of the battleship, and slowing down is necessary, as for the PISA-class armored cruiser Cologne, which is ranked at the bottom of the line, Under the influence of both bad luck and strength, this kind of warship, which showed its might in the First Sino-Japanese Naval Battle, was under great pressure. One of the main turrets and one of the secondary turrets were completely destroyed, as the bow was heavily flooded, causing a certain amount of head roll. At the same time, the hull was tilted about 3 degrees, and the speed dropped to 15 knots.

"Come closer, it's already 4:50 p.m., and we need to completely deal with the secondary guns of the American battleship formation in the next half hour. If it drags on a little longer, once it gets evening, it won't be easy. Yang Yonglin looked at his watch and said.

"Well, if it loses, it's useless for the fleet to stay." Severa looked at her fleet in pain, and then said resignedly. "The fleet is a little closer, we need to give the American battleships a bath with shells!"

Then the whole fleet, led by the Spaniard, turned to the left and passed half a compass point, and the distance between the two sides was further shortened! Recently, it's only a little over 2KM! And the Americans did not have the slightest fear, they kept course without fear of the onslaught of the Spanish fleet! The roar of artillery became the only sound on the battlefield, whether the gun commander was directing or not, or even whether the gun commander was still alive or not, the gunners on both sides were as numb as machines, and they tirelessly loaded ammunition, closed the bolts, and then aimed and fired. They don't know when they will die in battle, but they know that as long as they live, they will fight.

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