ps: I can't do two more today, and the 5000-word chapter will be sent.

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12:02。 Just as the lookouts of the ships were desperately looking at the sea, trying to spot the incoming torpedo. A huge column of water suddenly rose from the stern of the Gangyong, and the huge battleship was pushed several meters to the side by the powerful impact force.

The Gangyong was originally the most complete of the five battleships, but in the air raid just now, it only suffered two near-misses and was only a few pieces of armor lost. But now its good fortune seemed to have come to an end, and a torpedo hit it near the stern. The 250-kilogram black ladder mixed explosives produced a powerful shock wave, and the underwater part of the hull was suddenly torn out of a hole more than three meters long, and a large amount of seawater poured into it frantically.

As the saying goes, disaster never goes alone, and before the Gang Yong could react to the shock of the mines, it was hit by two more torpedoes on its port and starboard sides. In particular, the two torpedoes on the starboard side were the most fatal, the front torpedo blew a big hole in the hull near the keel, and then the second torpedo just got into this hole and directly broke the keel.

Then the Gangyong made a tooth-aching cracking sound, and the two ends began to slowly, which was exacerbated by the two torpedoes that hit the underwater part of the port side. In five minutes, the giant ship, with a displacement of more than 40,000 tons, was cut in two.

After seeing the Gangyong hit the mine, the lookouts of the other battleships looked at the sea more carefully, but they were almost staring at the balls, and they still didn't see the damn torpedo track.

12:03。 The lookout on the Queen Elizabeth suddenly noticed that there seemed to be a black shadow flashing quickly under the sea in front of him, but he could not confirm whether it was a torpedo or not, and if it was a false alarm at this moment, it might affect the dodge of the real torpedo. Just as he hesitated to report it, the dark shadow reappeared in his sight. And not one, but a whole six!

I saw these six slender black shadows pounce on the Queen Elizabeth like a mad shark in the angry sea.

The cold sweat of the lookout hand came out, and he didn't care if it would be a false alarm, so he hurriedly grabbed the intercom and shouted hoarsely to the bridge: "Starboard torpedo, six, azimuth xxx, distance 300 yards, speed ...... Speed at least 50 knots!"

By this time it was too late, the distance was too close, and even if the Queen Elizabeth used all her strength, it could not dodge the incoming torpedo. It is not easy to see an oxygen torpedo at a depth of 6 meters below the surface of the water at a speed of 53 knots.

"Boom...... Boom...... Boom, boom, boom......, boom" only heard six muffled thunderous noises sounding one after another, and the starboard side of the Queen Elizabeth ate six torpedoes in one go.

"Boom, boom...... Boom Boom Boom ...... The Malaya and the War Weary next to the "Boom ......Boom Boom" also had three torpedoes each, and the Barham had four torpedoes.

The most unfortunate was the light cruiser Lostoft, which was originally aimed at large warships, so the depth of the torpedoes was set at 6 meters, which could not hit these light ships. One of the torpedoes probably had a problem with the depth fixing, not reaching a depth of 6 meters, but only about 3 meters, and as a result, it hit the light cruiser Lostoft, which was in front of the Malaya. The light cruiser, which was more than 5,000 tons, directly blew off a section of the bow and soon fell headlong into the sea.

12:08。 This horrific torpedo attack finally ended, with 22 of the 96 torpedoes hitting, a 23% hit rate. This result was better than Commander-in-Chief Wang Hammer expected. According to his thoughts, the H-2 is not a professional torpedo plane at all, and the pilot is not a professional torpedo plane pilot, and it would be good to have a 10% hit rate in this attack. But he didn't take into account that the British fleet had encountered an oxygen torpedo for the first time, and they didn't know how to deal with it at all, and they were almost stupid.

Such a result naturally made the Germans smile, but the British were about to cry. Their fast fleet had already suffered heavy casualties, and the Gang Yong had been cut in two, with its head and tail high on the surface of the sea, and was sinking. The entire starboard side of the Queen Elizabeth was almost blown up, I don't know how much seawater it drank, and at this time it had tilted 15 degrees to the right, and it looked like it was hopeless. The War Weary had already been blown up and lost its mobility, and to make matters worse, it was torpedoed by three torpedoes, and it was completely unable to move. The Malaya and Barham fared slightly better, but they also drank a lot of seawater, and their speed dropped by at least 6 knots. In addition, a light cruiser was hung as a giveaway.

Not only did the five battleships suffer heavy losses, but the losses of light ships are even more terrifying. In the air raid ahead, many light ships were sunk or damaged, and because they were busy running back to block the capital ship, they were bitten and beaten by the Germans. The original huge light fleet of 10 light cruisers and 50 destroyers is now only 3 light cruisers and 32 destroyers that are still fighting power.

On the other hand, the Germans, up to now, have lost only two light cruisers and eight fleet torpedo boats (the German Navy did not have the rank of "destroyer" at this time, and warships of the same class were called "fleet torpedo boats").

In such a good situation, the German Navy naturally would not be stupidly watching the soy sauce from the side, and their capital ships immediately accelerated forward, ready to come up and beat the water dogs.

However, it was at this time that Rear Admiral Thomas, who had just transferred his command to the Malaya, finally noticed that countless columns of smoke had appeared on the northern sea antenna.

The main forces of the British Home Fleet have finally arrived!

"Great! Our main force has arrived!" Thomaston, in high spirits, immediately ordered all the warships to open fire on the Germans, and pestered them to the death.

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"It's okay, I finally caught up!"

At this time, Admiral Jericho, who was on the Iron Duke, the flagship of the home fleet, also breathed a sigh of relief. Although he already knew that the fast fleet in front of him had suffered heavy casualties, they also did a great job of completing the task, holding back the main force of the German Ocean Fleet.

How can there be any reason not to lose such a decisive battle? The British Empire can afford this loss, and even if the fast fleet is scrapped with three battleships, Jericho's team still has 30 battleships, which is still more than half of the advantage over the Germans. Jericho's confidence has not been affected at all, and he is not worried about not winning.

Of course, the German air raid just now also made him a little worried, he really didn't expect that the plane could also cause so much damage to the battleship. But this little worry was not enough to make him retreat, and he did not dare to retreat.

If you just go back in such a gloomy way, how can you explain it to China? Being sunk and damaged by the Germans and damaging so many capital ships, and only killing two of the opponent's battle cruisers, is unacceptable in any case. This is not a calculation, but stealing chickens and rice.

At this time, however, when the British Empire was in full swing, it was being taken advantage of by others, how could it be tolerated with the spirit of the British Empire? If Jericho dared to withdraw like this on the grounds of "fear of air raids," then he would not have to be confused. Moreover, if their main force retreats, the fast fleet will definitely be hopeless, and Erdezi will not let go of the meat on his lips. Giving five cutting-edge high-speed battleships and a large number of light ships to the Germans, no one could save him from such a big crime.

Therefore, he can't be cowardly in public or private, and if he doesn't coax, he still has the opportunity to achieve supreme meritorious deeds, and if he is cowardly, he may only spend the rest of his life in prison.

And he also thought that the Luftwaffe had already conducted an air raid, and it was impossible to do it again in a short period of time, as long as he took this opportunity to destroy the main force of the German fleet, even if the Luftwaffe attacked again, it would be nothing.

"Full speed ahead! Prepare to open the battle line! Fight a decisive battle with the Germans!" Admiral Jericho gave an order to the whole fleet, and at the same time ordered the Z-shaped flag to be raised, indicating his determination to fight to the death with the German fleet.

Jericho's 30 battleships, 2 battle cruisers, 8 armored cruisers, 7 light cruisers, and 16 destroyers all hoisted their battle flags and sailed for the German fleet at 21 knots.

In fact, Britain should have had 36 dreadnoughts by now, but the battleship Bold (the third in the George V class) was not strong enough and died early.

When it left for training in July 1914, it encountered the German submarine U-39 in the waters north of Ireland. It was nighttime, and the U-39 slipped into the ring of the Dardacity under the cover of night, and then fired four Yaksha-2 submarine-launched torpedoes at it. The Bold was completely defenseless, was hit by three torpedoes, capsized and sank after rescue efforts failed. And the bold U-39 was still not enough, and when the frigate rushed to help, it sank a light cruiser with a tail torpedo, and then swaggered away. So now there are only 35 dreadnoughts in the Royal Navy of the British Empire. However, compared to the Germans, it should be far ahead.

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Here is a general explanation, the British battleships in this plane have been very different from the original time and space since the Iron Duke class.

The Iron Duke class has changed from 10 343mm guns (five twins) in the original time and space to 10 381mm guns (five twins) in the plane, and the displacement has also risen to 34,500 tons. The caliber of the Queen Elizabeth-class and revenge-class main guns has not changed, but the number has increased from 8 to 10 (five-seat twin) in the original time and space, which can basically be regarded as an improved version of the Iron Duke class, and the displacement has also risen to 40,110 tons and 35,150 tons respectively. And because of the intensification of the global shipbuilding race in the plane, these warships have been built faster than the original plane, and they are now all in service.

Also, it is worth mentioning. The two battleships ordered by the Ottomans, who were shamelessly drifted by the British in the original time and space, the Irish and the Agincourt also have the same name on the plane, of course, the Ottoman was run away by the British in the plane and did not order them there. This class of battleships is a test version of the triple main gun built by the British itself, that is, the Fuxi class of the cottage. Of course, the Agincourt in this plane is no longer a "seven-turret holy relic", but a four-seat triple main gun with the same as the Fuxi class.

The two battleships were called the "Irish class" by the British, and were also the first triple-mounted main turrets of Opium Cow. At first, the British looked down on the triple main guns, because they felt that the accuracy of the triple guns was very poor, so their battleships were all twin main guns. It was only later that I saw that China and the United States were making this kind of thing as a "standard battleship", and the two Fuxi-class and the Qinling-class and Taihang-class with the same main gun layout were extremely good in the Sino-Japanese War, and there was no problem of "the hit rate was too low" at all.

At this moment, Niu Niu, who has always been the "first navy on the earth", can't sit still. They are also traditional naval powers, and it goes without saying that the advantages of the triple assembly over the twin are well known, and if it were not for the fact that the problem of hit rate is very weak, who would still use the double assembly? Since China and the United States now think that the triple assembly is easy to use, then it means that there must be a way to solve it, otherwise China and the United States are not fools, how could they build so many Fuxi-class? Moreover, now even the Germans have bought the blueprints of the Fuxi-class and are preparing to build four of them. It can't be that the high-level brains of these three countries have entered the water together.

The British were still very good at absorbing the advantages of other countries in naval technology, so they put down their cheeks and asked Zhu Erdian, the ambassador to China, to contact Wen Desi and try to buy a full set of drawings of the Fuxi class from China, but Wen Desi would definitely not sell them now. Mr. Wen also asked people to dig out the contract with Germany and show it to Zhu Erdian, and the German side clearly stated on the contract that the Fuxi-class drawings could not be sold to the Entente countries again. There's a contract, and we can't help it. Mr. Wen had to regret that he was sorry.

Zhu Erdian was a little discouraged when the deal was not negotiated, but when he was strolling around the commercial streets of Wuhan that day, he stumbled upon a high-quality imitation of a Chinese warship in the store. The model is very exquisitely made, it is completely a warship with equal scale, and the prototype is exactly the same in shape and structure except for the size.

At that time, Zhu Erdian was stunned. Nima, shouldn't this kind of thing be kept secret? The Chinese actually sell this kind of thing as a toy! Well, although the shape layout can only be seen on the model, this is also very valuable for reference, at least in this era, the weapon arrangement and external structure of the new warship are also military secrets. If anyone in Britain dares to make a high-quality replica of the latest warship and sell it publicly, then he will wait to go to prison and count lice.

So he had an idea, and immediately bought a few sets from the store and quickly packed them for people to take back to the UK. According to his idea, although he did not buy a full set of drawings, there are these high-imitation models, which will also bring a certain reference to domestic ship experts.

Zhu Erdian's idea is also correct, the British ship experts did get a lot of the numbers they wanted from these high-imitation models, after all, these high-imitation models are reduced in equal proportions, as long as the measurement is more accurate, after the scale is enlarged, those dimensions can be restored. Combined with the information obtained from other sources, they quickly figured out the appearance and structure of the Fuxi class.

As for the internal structure, although it is not visible, the bunch of experts in Britain is not for nothing. Even if there is no original version, but we won't make up for it? Chinese who have never played battleships can design it, can't they design it in the British Empire?

So, in 1913, they started construction of 2 "Irish-class", and when they were built in 1915, they were disappointed when they tried it, and the hit rate of the triple main gun was still so unbearable. Why did the Chinese have no such problem with the triplet? The British were puzzled. To say that the solution to this "triple main gun hit rate is not high" is actually very simple, that is, to add a small delayed firing device to the middle gun, so that the middle gun is fired a few tenths of a second later than the two sides. But before this layer of window paper is pierced, I just can't think of it.

When Mr. Wen knew about this, he laughed for ten minutes. Who told you to copycat without permission, now stupid, right?

This Fuxi-class is probably the battleship with the largest number of built, most used countries in the world, China, the United States and Germany are all building in batches, Germany has 4, China has 8, the United States is the most exaggerated, there are 10 ships, Argentina and Ottoman also have one each, it is not difficult to figure out the reason.

But Argentina and the Ottomans are just users, and they don't know why they know what they are, and they can't ask anything, and besides, they all regard their own battleships as the treasure of the town, so they are willing to give you Niu to check everywhere? China, Germany, and the United States are all manufacturers, and of course they know the trick, but why should people tell you plainly?

China said that we are honest merchants, as long as the Germans agree, we will sell you a full set of drawings. The Germans don't agree? I'm sorry, we have always done business in good faith, and we can't do anything that violates the contract. The German side must be even more playless, there are people on both sides who have dog brains, and if you want to understand from them, you don't have to think about it.

The undisciplined Yankees are willing to transfer technology. But they opened their mouths wide and took the opportunity to slaughter them. They said that if you want Britain to buy this know-how, you can do it, but we don't retail it, and if you want to buy it, you have to buy the whole set of drawings together! 5 million pounds is not the same price! As long as 5 million pounds, you will know everything! Niu Niu's representative will lie down on the spot, 5 million pounds? Lao Tzu can build two super dreadnoughts! My family's money is not blown by the wind.

In the end, the British still didn't get this trick, and had to abandon the plan to replace the follow-up ships with triple main guns. As for the two "Irish-class" that have already been built, there are still no problems in other aspects, except for the insufficient hit rate of the main guns. The British were originally going to replace their main turrets with twin 381mm guns, but before they could do so, the task of destroying the German Ocean Fleet began. Although the hit rate of these two "Irish-class" is sad, they are also super dreadnoughts, so they were brought out by Jericho together.

But the British cottage was not for nothing, at least they had tested and knew that the underwater linear design of the Fuxi class was more advanced than theirs, so their Nelson class used the same bulbous bow as the Fuxi class.