Fox of France

After discovering that they had misidentified the target, the French began to hurriedly shift their firepower, re-measure the range, and re-target the target... and their opponents were already ready for everything at this time.

The four 305mm guns of the battleship "Cressy" opened fire first. Just as the French intend to give priority to killing the British battleships, the British also give priority to attacking the French battleships.

The battleship "Cressy" aimed at the French flagship "Trajan". This is a new battleship with a displacement comparable to the "Cressy". It is also the warship that poses the greatest threat to the British fleet.

Four shells flew towards the "Trajan" amidst the roar of the cannon.

The British have never been able to come up with a new type of smokeless propellant, and the propellant they use is still the old brown powder. The limit of the expansion speed of the gunpowder gas of brown powder is quite low, which means that the muzzle velocity of the shells fired by the British artillery is relatively low. In order to pursue armor-piercing ability, the British can only use large-caliber and heavy warheads. So although the caliber of the British cannons is scary, and the weight of the shells is many times that of the French, but because the muzzle velocity is too low, the actual armor-piercing ability is far inferior to the 203mm gun of the "Trajan", Not even much stronger than the 150mm guns of the previous generation "Caesar" battleship.

Of course, if it penetrates, the charge of the 305mm shell is much more than any of the French shells, and its power is naturally much greater.

In the first round of shooting, one of the four shells hit the A turret of the "Trajan". The fact that the first volley was a hit was a godsend. And it hit such an important position that Lord George Kirkburn almost jumped up for joy when the lookout reported "hit on enemy ship A turret".

However, the lookout followed up with this report: "We have failed to penetrate the enemy's armor!"

"Damn! Why are the French so thick-skinned! How is this possible!"

When building this battleship, the British also used various methods to collect information about the French Augustus-class battleship. After they roughly understood the size and displacement of the French battleship, they reversed the design based on the shape of the battleship to understand what thickness of armor the French could equip the battleship.

According to the research results of the British, at this distance, the 305 artillery shells of the British army should be able to easily penetrate the armor of the Augustus-class battleship, but now, at such a short distance, the 305 artillery shells are actually defeated by the French armor shells. Fly!

"It's unscientific!" Lord George Kirkburn couldn't help but said, "The French, don't they know how to respect science? Could it be that even science is on the side of Napoleon?"

But this is actually very scientific. Science will not stand on the side of Napoleon, nor will it take the side of the British, and of course, it will not stand on the side of King Wu.

The reason why the British made mistakes in judgment was mainly because the British still adopted the concept of comprehensive defense when they reversed the design, while the armor of the Augustus-class battleships adopted a key defense model. The so-called key defense means that only those places that are really important have thick armor, and those places that are not critical, where even if they are shot, they will not directly affect their survival and combat effectiveness, they don't even have any armor at all. In this way, the French were able to pile up the armor of key parts to be extraordinarily thick, and the front of the turret was the thickest armor on the entire battleship. If the British shells could penetrate here, Admiral Brues on the opposite side would have to shout "this is unscientific".

Hitting the opponent at such a short distance should have been able to boost morale, but the basis for boosting morale is to penetrate the opponent's armor, and once it fails to penetrate, the morale boost will be It was replaced by the French on the opposite side. On the contrary, the morale of the British plummeted.

The French turned their guns and began to return fire. After all, the 203mm gun has lighter shells and a much faster rate of fire than the British 305. However, the French shot all six 203 shells in the first round.

At this time, the battleship "Poitiers" following the battleship "Cressy" also fired a salvo at the French. But this round of volley was the same as the French, and nothing was hit.

The French redistributed their firepower at this time. The "Trajan" singled out the "Cressy", while the "Caesar" and the two supercruisers and armored cruisers behind them fought against the "Poitiers". As for the armored cruisers behind the British, because they haven't had time to complete their turn, they can't join the battle for the time being. Admiral Brues feels that he should seize this opportunity and quickly inflict greater damage on the British.

The shooting of the "Caesar" is more efficient than that of the "Trajan", which is also normal, because the "Caesar" has been in service for many years, and the soldiers are more familiar with her and more skilled in operation.

In the second salvo of the battleship "Poitiers", the "Caesar" scored a hit, and her two shells hit the "Poitiers", but this time it was the French's turn to be depressed . Because both shells failed to penetrate the armor of the "Poitiers".

However, the first volley of "Poitiers" against "Caesar" also failed, hitting nothing. The 305 guns of the British battleships are loaded very slowly, and it takes about two to three minutes to fire a gun, and this time is enough for the 150 guns of the "Caesar" to fire 5 rounds of salvo.

So the "Caesar" shells came crackling again, and not only Caesar, but also the 127mm guns of the two super cruisers next to them also hit their heads and faces.

The British battleships are still adopting a comprehensive defense design. The so-called comprehensive defense is only a larger defense area, and it does not really have armor everywhere. For example, the superstructure of a warship is basically unarmored. This is not because of other reasons, but because if these places are also equipped with heavy armor plates, the center of gravity of the whole ship will rise significantly, and then as long as there is a little wind and waves, the ship will shake so that it cannot be used. Maybe you don't need to be beaten by others, and you will overturn it yourself.

Therefore, although neither the 150 gun nor the 127 gun can effectively penetrate the armor of the British battleship, it is enough to help the British wash the deck.

The "Caesar", which scored a hit in the second salvo, was hit in the third and fourth salvos thereafter. In the third round of salvo, three 150mm shells fired by "Caesar" hit the target, and one of them hit the bridge, killing the captain and dozens of other officers who were directing the battle there. Fortunately, the British still had a backup deputy captain, who quickly took over the command.

But this also caused a lot of trouble for the warship's operations, but immediately after the fourth round of salvo, another shell hit the combined image rangefinder on the platform outside the bridge. The three-meter rangefinder was blown to pieces, and the officer in charge of using the rangefinder was killed along the way. Fortunately, there is another same range finder in another position, otherwise, this gun will have a great impact on the subsequent operations.

Caesar's fifth volley missed. But the other two super cruisers gained in this round of salvo. In this round of shooting, four more 127 shells hit the "Poitiers", and these four shells hit the upper layer On the building, one of them also ignited some pipelines and debris, causing a fire.

It was not until after so many hits that the "Poitiers" fired another salvo, and one of the four shells barely hit the "Caesar". Half the mast was broken. The loss is that "Caesar" can only communicate with other warships through semaphore, and can no longer rely on radio to communicate with each other. Fortunately, the fog basically dissipated at this time, so the impact on the battle was not too great.

After firing this shot, the "Poitiers" had to harden the French with about five rounds of 150 shells and more than six rounds of 127 shells. While none of the shells are going to kill it, it still hurts to have those shells wash the deck over and over again.

At this time, the "Trajan" had already launched a third round of salvos against the "Cressy". As the largest warship in the French army, the "Trajan" was theoretically the most stable shot. platform. Should have the highest hit rate. However, due to the limited training time, the first three salvos of the "Trajan" failed to hit the target, but a straddle shot was achieved in the third salvo, which also means that the aiming is now no problem. Hit is completely a matter of luck.

However, the situation of "Cressy" was not much better. Their training time was shorter, and they hit one shot in the first round, which was completely fooled. Know where to go.

As a result, the "Caesar" over there broke its mast, the captain of "Poitiers" over there died, and the "Trajan" and "Crecy" here, the A turret of "Trajan" fell. There was a lot of paint, and "Cressy" didn't even have a drop of paint.

However, Trajan's fourth salvo finally scored a hit. A 203mm artillery shell hit the side of the "Cressy".

The armor-piercing ability of the French 203 shells far exceeds that of the 150 shells, and the armor that flew the 150 shells of the "Caesar" is far from being so strong in front of the 203 shells.

"Hit one shot on the port side of the enemy ship and successfully penetrate!" Admiral Brues stayed in the armored conning tower and could not see the battle outside at all. But he can learn about the outside situation through the broadcast system. The enemy successfully hit the first round of shelling, which frightened the staff of Admiral Brues. Although this shell failed to penetrate the armor, everyone knew that there was no armor on the bridge with the best view. Let alone a 305 shell, even if the shell of the British's four-inch secondary gun hits it, it will not be able to withstand it. Although the French particularly look down on the British four-inch gun, they think it is the same Compared with the 100mm gun on the side, it is completely scum. Even compared with the 75mm gun on my side, it is completely scum. But this slag with a "trajectory bent like piss" can still kill people if it is covered.

So Admiral Brues was quickly stuffed into the armored conning tower by his staff, which has armor as thick as the turret. Facts have proved that British shells cannot penetrate such armor.

Regarding the approach of his staff, Admiral Brues expressed his opposition. He said that he was not afraid at all, because the British could not hit him at all. But that being said, he still had to enter the armored command tower because he couldn't hold back the staff.

"Good job! I just don't know what the aftereffect is?" Admiral Brues asked into the microphone.

"General, I still can't see it yet." The lookout sentry replied.

The shell penetrated the armor and then entered the galley of the "Cressy". This time is not the time to prepare morning tea or afternoon tea, so there is no one in the kitchen. The shell exploded in the empty kitchen, blowing up the kitchen to pieces and successfully igniting all kinds of cooking oil in the kitchen. .

However, the British's damage control response was quite quick and the fire was quickly brought under control.

After successfully hitting the enemy ship, the luck of the French began to improve. Although the next two rounds of salvos failed to hit again, they all formed straddle shots. After another ineffective salvo from the "Cressy", the "Trajan" hit the enemy ship again, and this time, three of the six shells hit the target.

Both shells from A turret hit the enemy ship, one of which hit the unarmored superstructure. This semi-armor-piercing projectile directly penetrated the entire superstructure, and then flew out from the other end. Apart from killing two unlucky ones, the damage caused was actually very limited. But the other shell was different, so the shell directly hit the A turret of the "Cressy". The shell penetrated the shield of the turret, exploded in the turret, killed all the soldiers in the turret, and also detonated a 305 shell in the turret that had just been fuzed.

If it weren't for the British Royal Navy of this era, there is no good habit of opening all the fire doors from the turret to the ammunition depot in order to pursue a high rate of fire, otherwise it will not be just a mere one that will be completely scrapped in an explosion A turret is up.

The "Cressy" has two turrets, one in front and one behind, and each turret has a twin-mounted 305mm gun. Now, at this moment, one-half of the main gun firepower has been lost, which is a fatal loss in a battle.

But the doom of the "Cressy" was not over yet. Two 203 shells fired from the C turret of the "Trajan" also hit him, one of which hit the upper deck. A hole was drilled in the chimney of the ship. While the other penetrated the engine compartment, destroying a cylinder. The high-temperature steam ejected from this cylinder killed more than a dozen sailors working in the engine compartment in an instant.

Although the problem in the engine compartment of the enemy ship cannot be seen, everyone can see the destruction of the turret of the enemy ship A. So when the news reached Admiral Brues, he felt that he had won the battle.

"And it is a more glorious victory than Admiral Treville's. It is not comparable to his victory of killing one thousand enemies and self-defeating eight hundred." Admiral Bryes thought so.