Chapter 359: The artillery battle begins

"Aim at the target!" With a clear cry, the main gun on the battleship Conquer was slightly adjusted.

Although in the history of the earth, the Dreadnought-class battleships were not equipped with advanced equipment such as radar, but these battleships that served in the Ailan Hill Navy were all equipped with some different advanced equipment.

The first point is that all the dreadnoughts of Ailan Hill are equipped with radar electronic equipment. These equipment are not installed after modification, but existed when they were originally designed.

In order to install these radar equipment, the center of gravity of the dreadnought was slightly increased, and the superstructure was also modified and designed.

The huge internal gear with a diameter of more than 5 meters, driven by the motor, drives the turret to rotate meticulously. These gears are neat and orderly, like brilliant flowers blooming from industrial civilization.

The inner wall of the huge artillery has charming rifling. These riflings rotate to the tail without any deviation, ensuring that each shell can fly out of the barrel according to a predetermined trajectory, rotating and flying to the target stably.

"Ready to fire!" In the enclosed turret, with this command, the atmosphere suddenly became tense. Everyone is waiting for the next order, this is their first time facing a powerful enemy evenly matched.

The gunners standing in their positions, heavy, hundreds of tons of artillery are ready. The gunner in charge of firing had already pressed the button of the firing device. The officer in the turret held his chin, his eyes full of firm light.

He held the phone in his hand, waiting for the sound of the command to fire from the phone. Although he couldn't see the enemy here, he could still feel the tension of the war that was about to erupt.

On the bridge, everyone saw the demon fleet on the sea in the distance through the thick glass windows. The black warships are getting closer and closer, forming a black straight line on the sea horizon.

Lawnes raised it again and again, and put down the telescope in his hand again and again: "How is the distance measurement?"

"The newly installed rangefinder shows that we are 16 kilometers away from the enemy." An officer immediately replied.

"Okay! Order the artillery to start shooting! Then adjust the shooting parameters according to the actual shooting state!" Lawnes was a little impatient for the first real naval battle commanded by him, and gave the order to attack.

In the next second, the weapon officer grabbed the phone in front of him and issued a loud order to fire: "Fire!"

"Boom!" Almost at the same time, the cannons on the battleship Conquer began to roar. With this roar, all the cannons moved back slightly, and then slowly returned to their positions.

Immediately afterwards, the muzzles of these artillery blasted out a large amount of thick white smoke. At this time, all the shells fired were still flying.

At the same time, the eight main guns on the four turrets of the battleship Heroes in front of them also spewed dazzling fire. With this volley of eight 305mm artillery shells, they flew towards the distant enemy.

After only a few seconds, the eight main guns on the battleship Victory also fired. After a row of shells were fired, they entered the stage of loading.

More than ten kilometers away, in the demon fleet, a demon officer is pressing his long sword, clamoring to give the human navy a little color: "Hurry up and prepare the magic cannon! I will make them pay!"

"Yes! Sir! We are ready to fire. As long as they are in range, they will be finished!" an ugly demon replied shrillly.

Compared with other empires, the weapons and equipment of the Demon Fleet are not at the same level. They have magical cannons, which are powerful and have a long range. Therefore, compared with Ailan Hill's fleet, they are not completely at a disadvantage.

This kind of contest is more evenly matched, and naturally everyone has their own dedication to victory or defeat. You can't expect to rely on a sailing fleet to defeat the enemy's steel battleship, but if it is a battleship fighting a battleship, it feels different.

Just as the Demon Fleet was about to fire and attack, the shells fired by Ailan Hill fell first. These shells smashed into the water at once, and after the explosion, they stirred up a water column as high as dozens of floors of buildings.

The huge explosion suddenly silenced the noisy demon army. The demon soldiers on the deck looked at the magnificent water column, and for a moment forgot that they should roar and strengthen their momentum.

After an instant, more water jets rose into the sky, and a demon touched the sea water splashing on his cheek, and then realized that the terrible human attack had begun.

"Raise the magic defensive barrier!" The demon commander headed by loudly issued an order to fight.

In his shouts, on the side of a huge demon battleship with a length of more than 200 meters, a water column tens of meters high rose into the sky, which looked spectacular.

In naval battles, it is really rare to hit the enemy in the first round of salvos. Too many factors restrict the hit rate in naval battles, so most of the time, even if you have advanced naval warships, naval battles will also meet the enemy. Will choose to fire as close to his opponent as possible.

In short, Ailan Hill's first round of volleys, in fact, did not hurt the demon fleet at all. And Ailan Hill's navy was not at all affected by the ineffectiveness of this round of attacks.

The Ailan Hill sailors, who were responsible for loading the artillery with ammunition, couldn't see their combat results at all. They could only confirm that their artillery had fired on the enemy through the dull sound of explosions.

Then, they couldn't see any enemy situation, but inside the small turret, they continued to repeat the loading work that had just been repeated.

The mechanical loading equipment will transport the shells out of the well-protected ammunition compartment, and then take the shell elevator to the turret. Immediately afterwards, the propellant is transported to the designated location by a similar device, and then the semi-automated loading will begin.

Soldiers use a motor to control a push rod to push the shell into the barrel. Then, the push rod works a second time to push the prepared propellant into the barrel. At this time, the loader can close the breech block and prepare for launch.

When the ammunition of the two artillery is loaded, the whole loading work is completed. The returned artillery will be adjusted to the angle before loading at this time, so that it can attack again with higher accuracy.

"Fine-tuning by 0.31 degrees!" The calibration data was transmitted to all turrets over the phone, and the gunner in charge of the angle began to adjust the elevation angle of the barrel of the gun he was responsible for according to the data.

After adjustment, the accuracy of the attack this time will be greatly improved, and basically the second time can create a cross-fire situation.

Once there is a straddle shot, it is not far from hitting the target. If the opponent is also a master of naval warfare, he will adjust his course or change his speed to interfere with the opponent's shooting estimation.

After everything was ready, all the Ailanhill battleships broke the silence that had lasted for several minutes. Another salvo of artillery began, from the battleship Conquest to the end of the battleship Victory.

Twenty-four 305mm cannon shells once again flew to their respective targets, but at this time the demon's fleet had not yet entered its attack range.

The attack range of the magic cannon is actually very long, and it is not much different compared to the large-caliber artillery. But Naihe Devil's observation and aiming system is too backward, so in order to ensure aiming accuracy, they can only wait patiently and wait for a suitable attack distance.

The second round of salvo came in an instant, and the armor-piercing projectiles filled with magic spar accelerated in the air to a critical point, and then fell and dived and hit the target. The projectile has burnt red due to friction, and the internal charge has become extremely unstable.

Another column of water rushed straight into the sky in the middle of the demon fleet, and the demon warship that had supported the magical defense barrier, felt the heavy attacks from human beings.

"These **** human beings!" A demon officer's face was low and he gritted his teeth with hatred as he looked at the water column in front of him. He could not tolerate the fact that the advanced weapons provided by the source of magic were comparable to those used by humans.

Unfortunately, just as he gritted his teeth, a 305-millimeter shell pierced through the fragile magical defense barrier like a piece of paper, directly smashing through the deck of a demon warship.

Before everyone could react, a huge explosion exploded inside the demon warship that had penetrated the deck.

That destructive force suddenly shredded the demon warship's hull, and the twisted and deformed steel plate broke apart, torn apart with the hideous barbs on it. Then the next second, the sea water poured into the cabin, submerging everything it could submerge.

No one thought that in the second round of the salvo, the artillery shells fired by Ailan Hill's navy could accurately hit a target.

Therefore, this shell greatly encouraged the confidence of Commander Lawnes, who was watching the battle: he now felt that his fleet could completely wipe out the seemingly huge demon fleet in front of him.

In fact, it is not how accurate Ailan Hill’s naval shooting ability is, but because there are too many demon warships. Even if it is a probability problem, so many demon warships are arranged together, the probability will be doubled to one. A very promising degree.

In addition, the Allan Hill fleet has been fighting south, and it has indeed trained a very capable navy. These naval gunners usually attack the enemy’s fortresses, attack the city, and control the artillery to a very proficient level.

Therefore, before not knowing it, Ailan Hill's navy, in fact, had a level of artillery skills that was much higher than what they had estimated.