All of the Spanish Navy's medium-caliber and higher guns were turret guns, as were the first and second class main guns on the four battleships of the US Navy, of which the 13-inch guns had a rate of fire of 1 shot per minute. And the rate of fire of the 8-inch gun also reached 2 to 2.5 rounds per minute! Its projection is about the same as that of the Spanish Navy! As the engagement continued, the U.S. Navy's performance became more stable, and the amount of firepower projection increased significantly.

So within 3 minutes of the start of the battle, two 8-inch shells of the U.S. Navy also hit the Spaniard, one hit the bow turret, and the explosion only left a pit in the turret armor, while the other shell blew apart a 12-inch gun on the deck on the side chord.

"It's a little closer, we have to use the main guns. We need to hit the opponent hard. Looking at the enemy ships in the distance, Admiral Simpson ordered in a deep voice. He knew very well that for the Spanish fleet, the 8-inch guns could only cause some trouble to the other side, and it was the 13-inch guns on his own battleships that really made the final decision!

And as the U.S. fleet gets closer, the hit rate of both sides will continue to rise, and just after the U.S. fleet has just deflected half a compass point, the United States has received the first heavy blow in this naval battle! The Maria Princess's amidships turret flashed, and a 10-inch shell crashed into the amidships of the Oregon at a speed of more than 700 meters per second, and after easily cutting through the 4-inch upper armor, the huge explosive power of the shell spread inside the hull, and the shrapnel and hull fragments easily tore apart the two 6-inch gun emplacements on both sides of the hit part. The occupants were devoured, and to make matters worse, the flames ignited the propellant in the emplacement, followed by a loud bang and a flash explosion in one of the 6-inch gun emplacements. A bright yellow flame pierced through it. The ensuing black smoke even affected the viewing seconds of the 8-inch gun at the rear.

Just when the Spaniards were cheering for this hit, suddenly. There was a loud explosion from the Okundo, which was at the end of the line, and the 10,000-ton PISA-type battleship trembled and swayed in the huge explosion. A 13-inch bullet from the Iowa bit the middle and rear of the Okando's hull like a shark! And this is the area where the main armor belt passes to the stern armor belt. The shell, which weighed 5--g and hit at a speed of 600 meters per second, did not have much charge in itself, but with the help of huge kinetic energy. This shell still cost the Okendo extremely dearly!

With the sound of impact, the entire outer hull plate was shattered into pieces, although the rear armor plate blocked the shell, in fact, under such a heavy blow, one armor plate was still blown outward! It not only destroys the shape of the hull but also affects the speed. It was knocked open a gap of about 5 square meters, and a large amount of seawater poured into the watertight compartment from this gap, and the poor Okendo instantly had 2 watertight compartments flooded, but fortunately one of them was a coal bunker. Thus the water ingress is not very much.

No, at this time, the warring parties simply did not have the opportunity to pay much attention to the hit. At this point, the distance is pulled forward. It is very difficult for both sides to get rid of it for a while, and the US fleet is slow, so it is more difficult to get rid of it. However, the Spanish fleet also slowed down the overall speed due to the slowdown of the Okando, unless the ship was abandoned for patrolling, or the enemy was forced to repulse. Otherwise, Severa will have to fight to the death!

It was a real hand-to-hand fight, with both sides fighting to the death, and the gun commander repeating the order to fire. Shells were lifted from the bottom of the ammunition depot by the action of the hoisting machine and manpower, and then fed into the still hot chamber. Then stuffed with a waist pack wrapped in silk, close the bolt, and aim and shoot! From the moment they hit the Okundo, both sides seemed to have received a signal at the same time, that is, the decisive battle began, and there would be no death! The warships of both sides unreservedly sowed a rain of bullets of death. At this time, no one cared about the ammunition problem, and no one estimated whether their battleship was hit or not, they only knew that in this case, as long as they were alive, they would fight, and they would fire! …,

A twin 8-inch turret aboard the Indiana suddenly exploded, and a stream of flames broke through the armor on top of the turret and swayed upward. Two guns, which had been spitting shells just a few seconds earlier, shrugged down. Looking at the armor plates that are gradually burned red, it is conceivable that the people inside have died, and this is just the beginning, the Spanish and Indiana at the top of the line frequently hit each other, in a kind of collision without any tricks, the competition is the performance of the battleship, the competition is the quality of personnel!

Shortly after the Spanish turned a twin 8-inch gun of the Indiana into a burning iron box, a 13-inch shell also injured a twin 6-inch gun turret at the tail of the Spanish to the sky.

A blow of this magnitude was just a pre-dinner hors d'oeuvre for both battleships. The 10-inch guns of the Spanish were superior in number and fast rate of fire. Therefore, the number of hits is relatively high, and although the Indiana's heavy cannon has a slow rate of fire, once it hits the turret or secondary protection part, it will have a huge impact.

Almost at the same time, the Indiana and the Spanish hit the opponent again, 1 10-inch gun hit the bow of the Indiana, easily hit a piercing at the bow, and the debris produced after the breakdown directly punched several small holes in the already thick watertight bulkhead partition, and then a large amount of seawater poured into the hole, and the already broken neighbor was really unable to withstand the impact of the current and finally breached. Soon, the Indiana had 3 watertight compartments in the bow of the ship! And this put the Indiana, which had little redundancy, into a crisis.

Indiana's excellent performance on paper is achieved in exchange for low freestrings and redundancy, and this is not a problem that is not obvious in normal sea conditions, but when the sea conditions are higher, or when there is a more serious water ingress, the problem is big! The water in the bow of the ship directly led to the lowering of the dry chord, and the bow of the ship was even submerged below the surface of the water, and the sea water poured into the muzzle of the twin 13-inch guns from time to time, directly causing the front main gun to be disabling in disguise. And this is just one of the problems, as the distance closes, the opponent's rapid-fire cannon keeps knocking on the head and tail side chords of the Indiana, and punches holes in the armor, which directly leads to the already low armor belt gradually entering the book, which means that the main equipment of the Indiana is now useless! Therefore, after a long period of fighting, the Indiana, which has excellent data on paper, has also shown a tendency to decline.

But the Indiana's 13-inch gun also gave the opponent a ferocious blow, this shell fell on the bow of the Spanish main gun mount, in the face of 10 inches of hardened armor, the warhead of the shell weighing 5-g was broken by the hardened layer, and then although it could not penetrate in the face of such a thickness of armor, the huge shock still brought a certain amount of trouble to the Spain, and the angle of rotation of the gun was limited to a range!

When another 10-inch shell from the King directly broke the left barrel of the Indiana's rear main gun, the firepower of the entire battleship was greatly weakened, that is, the Spanish fleet had begun to gain an advantage!

The battle between the Spanish and the Indiana was like this, and the battle between the Madrid and the Marseilles was similar, except that the Madrid was slightly unlucky, and a 13-inch shell of the Marseilles hit the front of the main turret of the amidships, breaking a 10-inch gun, and at the same time damaging the hydraulic pitching equipment of the 10-inch gun on the side, and the fire of the two main guns was abolished at once, and another 13-inch shell hit the waterline of the rear of the Madrid's hull, although it was bounced off by the heavy armor. However, there was also a crack, but for the Madrid, which had a displacement of up to 14,000 tons, the damage was still within the tolerance range, and the water only submerged one compartment. …,

But the situation in Massachusetts is not good, if the Indiana's problems are due to the ship's bow breakage. The Marseilles, on the other hand, was hit by too many high-explosive shells, causing the hull to catch fire. Unlike the Spaniard, which uses half high-explosive shells and half armor-piercing shells, the Spaniard uses almost all high-explosive shells, and the dense rain of bullets slanted down, turning the opposing battleship into a sea of fire in just a few minutes. The blazing smoke caused almost all the artillery firing range on the side chord to be affected, and almost all the heavily protected places on the entire bridge except for the conning tower were empty shelves, and the projection of 9 10-inch guns and 6 6-inch guns was definitely not a joke. The projection speed of up to 6 tons of ammunition per minute completely suppressed the American battleship, and although the 10-inch high-explosive shell did not penetrate the armor well, it was still not a big problem to penetrate other places except for the main turret and side-chord main equipment, and the problems in the protection of the Indiana were completely exposed!

If the two Dante-class battleships shine in the battle against the American battleships and stabilize the opponent, the situation of the two PISA-class armored cruisers behind is not optimistic. The firepower is one-third less, the protection is poorer, and the hull redundancy cannot be compared with two regular battleships, in this case, in the face of two battleships and the two protective cruisers behind that are ready to come up and take advantage of the cheap, the two PISA-class can be described as Alexander.

And Scheer, who was sitting on the Okando, noticed this before the battle, and he knew that once the two sides fought, there would be no problem in suppressing the opponent's battleships in the Dante-class battleships, but before gaining the advantage to support himself, the two armored cruisers would definitely suffer in the face of the two battleships behind, so his request was very simple, not to seek merit but to seek no fault! Therefore, when fighting, Scheer deliberately kept the distance between the two sides, that is, the Spanish fleet at this time was not a straight line, the two battleships in front were close to the opponent, and the two cruisers in the back were slightly farther away.

I wish you all a prosperous and happy health in the new year~~. Thanks again to the book friends...... of tips. It's the Spring Festival, so let's support it~~. rq！ ~！ ……，