The 571 relics were destroyed

Vice Admiral Douglas Nicholson, who had white hair and white hair on the Nickia, walked from the cabin to the deck, which happened to be the famous "marble arch", and looked back, almost obscuring the rows of gun barrels on the deck, making him smile bitterly. (Full text reading, all in. (.i. Want. Wen. Learning Network)

Although he is a naval officer, he is actually in a semi-retired state, and he began to be the captain of the Royal Cruise ship a few years ago, but he did not expect that because the possibility of war breaking out is getting bigger and bigger, he was urgently transferred back to the navy, and he also got the opportunity to command this battleship that was intercepted halfway.

It was a battleship with seven turrets.

It's called the Agincourt (the previous chapter was changed, the hippopotamus made a mistake and was scolded by the Cult for a night, hey, the crime of molesting holy relics.) ）

There is no doubt that there is no country in the world that has a seven-gun turret and is armed with 14 12-inch/L45 naval guns, and perhaps the appearance alone can scare many people.

Originally, Brazil and the Ottomans were also attracted by its array of cannon barrels, but former Admiral Winston Churchill ruined the perfect deal and chose to keep it in Britain.

The wooden, flammable furniture had been torn down, and the famous "marble arch" in the amidships had been removed, with nothing to be seen except for the Ottoman extravagant furnishings that Captain Nicholson had asked to keep.

But is it a good warship to dismantle these?

The answer is no!

No one liked him, and with the exception of Nicholson, almost every British officer who saw the battleship called it a "luxury hotel", because they believed that the value of the capital ship was not the guns, but the lavish Ottoman ornaments inside.

Of course, no one can deny that this warship has merit, after the last secret test, it still has the ability to fire a salvo, but it can't last too long, and the shock is too big, but this also proves Britain's outstanding shipbuilding ability.

In addition, the Agincourt's firepower projection intensity is undoubtedly very impressive, even if the shelling is staggered, the total amount of ammunition projected per minute in an hour is theoretically stronger than any capital ship in the current Grand Fleet, and the B-type turret it uses is very advanced, not only using an electric rotation mechanism, but also installing a hydraulic booster, when the barrel is pitched five degrees, even one person can complete the work of loading shells and propellants.

After this technology was tested on the Agincourt, it has been extended to the Elizabeth-class battleships and the Lion-class battlecruisers, making a perfect experiment for the Navy's technological revolution.

Of course, the subjects tested were a bit bad.

The 14 12-inch/L45 naval guns are fully designed, and the data such as range and muzzle kinetic energy are very good, but the problem lies in the barrel, because the barrel bore is hastily manufactured and there are defects, resulting in the shell being loaded, there is a gap between the cartridge belt and the gun chamber, and as a result, after the shell is fired, it is very easy to break because it cannot withstand the stress generated by rotation.

Of course, this is still a secret, only a very few people know about it, and it is actually very simple to solve this problem, just change the barrel, but the problem is that this kind of gun has no spare barrel at all, and due to the urgency of the war, at the moment when the barrel is needed to suppress the enemy, no one will think of producing a few more 12-inch barrels for the "luxury hotel", so Captain Nicholson can only join Jericho's Grand Fleet with the cannon in question.

Originally, the Admiralty intended to order a batch of 12-inch gun barrels from the United States to improve it, but no one expected that the United States would begin to desperately expand its navy after the destruction of the transport fleet, and they had no intention of building this kind of small gun barrels, because their main opponent had already built battleships that were said to be powerful at present.

The madness of the United States is forgivable, after all, when the enemy has a thick muzzle, the Entente must not bow down, so Captain Nicholson can only continue to carry the 14 cannons in question to hold his post.

This was not a big problem, because Vice Admiral Jericho's large fleet had many capital ships, but no one expected that they would suddenly run into big trouble!

First, the Indefatigable was mine-struck in the Dardanelles, and then four successive battle cruisers were lost in the Pacific Ocean, and then Germany suddenly rushed out of the North Sea and caused a heavy damage to a Lion-class battle cruiser, plus three Bellerophon-class battleships were transferred to the Pacific Ocean to support Australia, the strength of the Grand Fleet suddenly became tense, and the gap with the German High Seas Fleet began to narrow sharply!

It was all the damned Far East arsonist, and he had even sent two Guam-class ships into the Atlantic in an attempt to disrupt the vital Atlantic shipping lanes, so in order to intercept this fleet, the Admiralty had to send itself and the Agincourt on an interception mission while it needed to defend against the increasingly restless German High Seas Fleet.

Captain Nicholson was not afraid of the 31st fleet, and he was even eager to fight the Guam-class, which was said to be one of the strongest battleships, but no one expected that only five days after departure, the boilers and steam engines began to fail, and not long ago a third of the power was lost, so that the Agincourt could only sail at a speed of 16 knots.

In order not to lose time, Vice Admiral Kafka decided to leave the Agincourt alone, and he himself took the Malaya and the Irish to Cape Verde to block the important line of defense into the North Atlantic, and then waited there for the 7-turret battleship.

Captain Nicholson glanced at the two turrets in the bow and stepped onto the bridge. ※※※※※ I ※ I ※ ※

"How's it going, Captain?" Grenville Sean, the first captain of the Agincourt and a good partner of Nicholson, heard his inquiry, Nicholson shook his head: "Oops, Keldon said he didn't have enough spare parts. ”

"Too bad." Sean shrugged his shoulders: "Looks like we'll have to hold out until Cape Verde recovers." ”

Captain Kerson looked at his pocket watch: "At our current pace, it will take four hours, and we hope to arrive by evening, as long as there are parts, Keldon said that it can be repaired another night." ”

"Is there a telegram?"

"The news was three hours ago, the Galatea was hit by a torpedo fired by the Chinese from the plane, and it is no longer able to sail, and the five class destroyers failed without completing the interception, and their secondary artillery fire is too strong to get close to the torpedo launch distance of 4 kilometers."

Nicholson took off his hat, revealing the famous white hair on his head, and with the action of dusting off the ashes, his eyebrows gradually approached: "What about the lack of a telegram?" Could it be that Kafka and they were all sunk? ”

"I don't know." Sean shook his head: "I have contacted the radio many times, but I have not received a reply, only the Cape Verde base said that the Chinese fleet has turned the rudder to the west, and General Kafka is leading the fleet in pursuit." ”

"To the west?" Nicholson walked to the chart, and if he went straight to the west, it was the Caribbean Sea, where the islands were dense, and it was indeed a good place to hide, but from the previous 31st fleet, it suddenly accelerated towards Cape Verde, indicating that they had been warned, and it was likely that they knew that the American fleet was rushing east, and the two Delaware-class battleships had also set off from the Caribbean Sea, and there was a high probability of encountering them at this time!

Will they do it?

Nicholson's brows became tighter and tighter, and from another angle, if he was an enemy, he should turn the rudder to the south, or simply use his speed to throw off Kafka's fleet and enter the North Atlantic, because without planes and cruisers and destroyers that can pursue at high speed, it only takes three hours to completely escape from the pursuit with a 5-knot advantage.

So why are they going down the difficult path?!

Could it be that they didn't know that two Delaware-class battleships were approaching head-on?

Although the Delaware class is no longer strong, but because of the early service and the experience of the sailors, if it collides, there is still a great chance of entanglement, at this time and the two fleets must be in pursuit, only need to be entangled for an hour, and the chance of severely damaging the opponent will be more than fifty percent, doesn't that commander know this truth?

Or are you overconfident?!

Captain Nicholson bent down on the chart table, and suddenly his eyebrows jumped, but then he shook his head again, because if the 31st fleet went straight to the north, then Kafka would not fail to alert himself, and he knew very well that the Agincourt would not be able to stop the enemy.

Maybe I'm suspicious.

Captain Nicholson, with his hat on his heavy hand, was just about to ask Sean to send another telegram to inquire, when a frightened cry suddenly sounded in his ears.

"Enemy ships! Two o'clock position! ”

The sound made the bridge explode suddenly, and Captain Nicholson looked at the billowing smoke in disbelief, how could it be? What about Kafka? They broke through to the north, why was there no telegram warning ?!

"Captain, telegram, the Chinese fleet is ......." Technical Officer Kelton rushed into the bridge with a telegram in his hand, and froze in the middle of his shouting.

The sound of beeping sirens resounded across the deck of the Agincourt, and the unprepared sailors hurried to their positions, the seven turrets spun rapidly.

"Ready for Wednesday."

"Ready for Thursday!"

“……。”

Since there were exactly seven turrets, the officers and men jokingly numbered turrets 1 to 7 as Sunday to Saturday, and this code name gradually replaced the original number.

By the time a biplane swept over the battleship, not only the 7 turrets were ready, but the ship's two 3-inch anti-aircraft guns had already opened fire.

The sound of cannon bang is sparse, and God bless you need to deal with a smart plane with this intensity, so Captain Nicholson didn't think about being able to shoot down enemy planes at all, but he didn't worry about dropping torpedoes when the plane dropped, that kind of little guy is almost like tickling for a 27,500-ton battleship!

He now has two options.

First, immediately move to the coast of Africa, abandon the interception of the 31st fleet, and let them enter the North Atlantic.

Second, interception!

"Left full rudder!"

This old fighter captain made a decision in an instant, he knew that Kafka's fleet would definitely not die, it must be pursuing behind, and the American fleet might already be behind, even if the 31st fleet has a speed of 30 knots in three hours, it can only pull about 30 nautical miles, that is to say, as long as they can delay the other party for an hour, they will not be able to escape!

The sharply deflected bow deflected the hull of the nearly 30,000-ton steel behemoth, and although it could only maintain a high speed of 16 knots, the distance of 28,000 meters still gave the Agincourt enough time to maneuver.

At 4 o'clock in the afternoon, when the Agincourt narrowed the distance to 23,000 meters, the 31st fleet in Captain Nicholson's telescope suddenly turned to the right, and the Agincourt had formed a head-on posture with the other party from the sky.

At 4:10, Captain Nicholson gave the order to turn to the left, and again tried to grab the word position and send back all 14 naval guns, but at the same time, the 31st fleet also turned 90 degrees to the left at the same time and continued to interject.

Seeing the man's nimble speed and choices, Captain Nicholson couldn't help but admire the Chinese commander, it was clear that his first turn was just to seduce himself, and now that he had completed a 90-degree deflection, the bow turned north again.

At 25 minutes, when Nicholson was about to give the order to maneuver and turn right again, the 31st fleet on the opposite side suddenly deflected the bow about 30 degrees, and when he wondered about this choice, he suddenly saw that because of the deflection of this angle, the stern turrets of the two Guam-class battleships had been turned around.

"Damn, they're going to fire!"

Captain Nicholson looked at the 31st Fleet 20,000 meters away, his face was already full of horror, could it be that the other side had a way to attack 20,000 meters away? Isn't he worried about the consumption of ammunition?

In fact, Li Xiuyan really doesn't worry about ammunition, since his departure, he has only fired 8 armor-piercing shells per gun, and there are as many as 900 on each battleship, and after entering the North Atlantic, he has decided to dodge with all his strength until he completes the mission and go home, so he can accept the consumption of at least 30 salvos.

30 rounds is enough to blow up any battleship, not to mention a big guy with a speed of only 16 knots and can't exert his full strength!

At 35 minutes, when the bow deflection was completed, Li Xiuyan boldly gave the order to slow down to 18 knots, then looked at his watch, picked up the phone and said only one sentence to the gunner: "You have thirty minutes." ”

Indeed, Kafka's fleet was 40 nautical miles behind, and the U.S. fleet had already closed to 50 nautical miles west of the fleet.

In the sudden deceleration, the Tumenjiang radar had already sent a calculated signal of the opponent's angle, speed and distance, and with the optical fire control system of the Guam class itself, the naval guns had already completed aiming.

At 40 points, the two Guam-class ships fired the first volley.

Captain Nicholson was stunned by the sudden explosion of fire from the retina, and he did not expect that at 20,000 miles away, the opponent would actually slow down and open fire, until the first round of shells fell dozens of seconds later, and he remembered that the Agincourt had a fatal flaw.

There is no fire control and optical rangefinder.

Britain had initially equipped itself with an optical rangefinder and primary fire control, but the problem was that the special and embarrassing status of the Agincourt made it negligent intentionally or unintentionally, so in the busy moment of upgrading the Grand Fleet, the Agincourt was not modified until it joined the fleet and set off.

This also means that the Agincourt cannot carry out shelling at a distance of 12,000 meters, not that the range of the naval guns is not enough, although the 12-inch naval guns have many problems and defective quality, the range can still reach 21,000 meters, but the lack of fire control and rangefinder cooperation, this distance is just a waste of shells.

But Captain Nicholson had no choice, he had to open fire!

At 43 minutes, the Agincourt also completed the bow deflection, and after opening all the firing angles of the seven turrets, the seven turrets erupted in a roar in turn.

Inside the bridge, the shock caused by the sequential turrets was enough to drive people crazy, and the 27,500-ton Agincourt was constantly deflected by the recoil, and if it wasn't for the captain's experience, maybe the second round of shelling would have been blocked.

The shells tore through the air, let out bursts of screams, and rushed towards the opponent 21,000 meters away, but both Captain Nicholson and the lookout standing on the mast were extremely disappointed, because this round of shells was so outrageous!

But his opponents did not have such a problem, the recoil of 9 380-mm naval guns was no more than 14 12-inch naval guns, but the displacement of the Guam class was much heavier, plus the deceleration to 18 knots, so 18 main guns could get a stable shelling platform.

380 mm and 305 mm armor-piercing shells are not at all the same level, the Beijing class in the counterattack exposed the 305 mm armor-piercing shells at a long distance to reduce the hit rate, must be closer to about 16000 meters to obtain a stable trajectory of the weakness, but for 308 mm shells, this distance shells will hardly be affected by the wind speed.

It is important that at this distance, the ammunition from which the shells fell was very steep, which avoided the difficult waterline armor and made it possible to hit the horizontal armor of the Agincourt, which was only 40 mm thick.

"Boom!"

49 points.

The first armor-piercing shell hit the bow of the Agincourt, and the shell that fell almost vertically pierced a large hole in the bow, which immediately caused the bow to enter the water, and at this time everyone did not expect that this armor-piercing shell had already set a long-range artillery record, because the distance between the two ships was 20,000 meters!

"There are no major problems, the shells passed through." Sean shouted at Nicholson over the phone, much to the surprise of the officers in the command tower, and secretly lucky.

At 51 minutes, under the command of Captain Nicholson, the Agincourt successfully closed the distance to 1,900 meters, and the 14 naval guns at this time finally had some shape, although they had not yet hit, but at least they could give a terrifying column of water to the starboard side of the opponent.

Just as Nicholson fantasized about relying on these water columns to locate his guns accurately, two 380mm armor-piercing shells shattered his dream.

The first hit the Agincourt, an armor-piercing projectile that directly destroyed the Agincourt's rear mast, which had collapsed and slammed into the back chimney by the officers who ventured outside to watch.

The second passed straight through the Sunday turret in the bow, killing everyone inside, but also tipping the heavy turret over and smashing one of the barrels.

Although the three main guns were lost, the vital chimney was fine, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief again, but the next round of shells completely cut off the possibility of the Agincourt continuing to maneuver.

Observers reported that the armor-piercing projectile, which was supposed to be aimed at the position of the rear mast that had emitted smoke after the collapse, pierced the bottom of the mast at an almost vertical angle, and followed it all the way to the power compartment, smashing the only intact reciprocating steam engine.

The Agincourt was sailed to seaworthiness in an instant!

After receiving the report, Captain Nicholson's face had turned dirty, it was very simple, the battleship without power was just a target, and he couldn't even continue to close the distance.

The lavish interiors had been shattered by violent shaking and explosions, and the fire had begun to spread along the deck, and the smoke had blurred the sea, and even the stubborn sailors could not hold on, and no one wanted to stay in an iron coffin that could not be navigated.

The continuous explosions and flames let Captain Nicholson know that he could not complete the mission, and being hit by two shells at the same time means that the other party has completed the aiming and positioning, and there will definitely be a steady stream of shells falling behind, so he made an extremely important decision, and it can be said that it is this decision that saved the lives of a large number of Agincourt sailors.

Abandon the ship!

No matter when and where, abandoning the ship is a shame for the captains, and even after Nicholson gave the order, he lowered his head and did not speak with a gloomy face.

But no one reproached him, because his order was too timely!

At 4:55, when the first sailors had already lowered their lifeboats and left, the Agincourt was hit again by four shells in a row, and it was already a sea of fire, and when Captain Nicholson boarded the lifeboat, the fatal blow was finally completed.

The armor-piercing shell pierced through the thin 3-inch top armor of the middle turret and went all the way down into the ammunition depot, where the violent explosion instantly flooded the amidships, and because the three turrets were so close together, the explosion spread to the ammunition depot of the two main guns next to it.

No warship could stop the power of nearly 260 shells exploding at the same time, and the powerful explosion almost instantly tore the hull that Captain Nicholson thought was good into two after a tooth-sour sound, but to everyone's surprise, the broken hull did not capsize immediately, but continued to float tenaciously on the surface of the sea.

At a distance of about 20,000 meters, it took only 15 minutes for the two Guam-class ships to destroy the world-famous 7-turret monster, which once again confirmed the cost of heavy firepower and light protection.

Perhaps it was Brazil and the Ottomans who were happy at this time, because they managed to escape the consequences of getting a useless warship.

Looking at the two smoking hulls, Li Xiuyan did not order to approach and continue shooting, nor even let the light cruiser fire a torpedo to destroy it, but immediately adjusted the course and continued to the north and accelerated to 28 knots (the Dongting Lake can also maintain this speed for a period of time when it is empty), as night fell, when Vice Admiral Kafka arrived at the scene and saw this tragic scene, the whole person seemed to be much older.

He knew that the Agincourt couldn't stop the enemy, but he didn't expect that it would be completely destroyed without even holding on for 30 minutes, and at this time he was even a little glad that if it weren't for the fear of damage in the Atlantic, the two Guam-class ships would be enough to carry out a strong attack on his own fleet!

At 5:50, while Captain Kafka ordered the rescue of people, he sent the news that the 31st Fleet had broken through the interception and entered the North Atlantic, and at the same time, Li Xiuyan also used longwave radio to report his actions to China for the first time.

Incredibly, when Captain Nicholson returned to the Irish, two of the Agincourt's hull were still floating on the surface of the sea and burning.

After Li Mo, who was in Chengdu, received the telegram sent back by the 31st fleet, he said something that no one understood.

"The holy relic is destroyed, sin!"

RO！ ~！