Chapter 1962: Three above the strait

"If we can send these guys to the bottom of the sea, then in the future, we will have no problem fighting the super-fearless people of the large fleet!" Major Norman said. To be honest, these armored cruisers that have disbanded the formation are actually more difficult to deal with than the battleships in the formation. Thus, the fiercest cat and mouse battle in the entire battle has been staged!

Unlike the former dreadnought battleships that have been nesting in the Strait of Dover after the war began, these cruisers had battled with German submarines at the exit of the North Sea before coming to the Strait of Dover, and the German auxiliary cruisers in the ocean. Cats and mice, survive in the Aegean Sea from the bombs of the Bavarian Air Force. The combat experience of the commander and the crew is quite rich!

"Damn it, those semi-enclosed turrets are really disgusting!" After another wave of strafing, after watching the bullet hit the steel baffle on the anti-aircraft mount, the German pilot on this K4 interceptor was quite disgusting. Looking resentfully at the gun positions on the deck surrounded by steel plates. It has to be said that the soldiers on the Drake armored cruiser have been bombarded and learned how to deal with them. The officers and soldiers on the Drake armored cruiser gave themselves additional anti-air firepower points to increase their defenses and replaced them with new gun mounts. In the face of machine guns and shells falling from the sky, the steel plate with a thickness of 25mm can almost guarantee safety. The new pedal powered gun mount makes the speed and pitch angle of the gun more excellent.

　　 And the most worth mentioning is that the anti-aircraft firepower on these cruisers is operated under unified command. Through the on-board rangefinder and simple fire control, the gunners adjusted the artillery according to unified information, and then fired. Although it is very primitive, it is still difficult to get off the plane, but watching the dense flares continue to fly against the plane However, it was enough for the German torpedo bombers to give up their attacks when necessary.

　　 However, sea-to-air is still very passive. Only a few minutes later, Norman, who is also experienced, responded. The bomber-carrying bomber first carried out a round of low-altitude horizontal bombing, and then the torpedo aircraft boarded. Those steel plates can block shells, but they can't block 250KG bombs, right?

　　 And then the facts proved that semi-armor piercing shells are indeed good for destroying cruiser-class warships. Even if no torpedo is deadly, bombs thrown at a larger angle from a height of 300 meters are still effective in delaying and suppressing enemy ships.

After all, 　　 anti-aircraft guns have not yet evolved to the level of the second battle. One of the very direct manifestations is that the elevation angle of the artillery seems to be insufficient... The maximum elevation angle of 55 degrees is too small for a bomber that enters from overhead. The machine gun does not have this limit, but it is difficult to shoot down a twin bomber with a 7.7MM machine gun. Because the big guy flying in the air is also prickly!

　　 When the plane was diving, the air was compressed quickly, and the harsh sound spread around through the friction between the body and the air, and the roar of the engine was like the scream of death. The first bomber will throw two 250KG bombs at the Drake one by one. This armored cruiser, more than 100 meters long, is as agile as a sea snake. After adjusting its course twice, it avoided the falling bombs. The huge hull drew a serpentine trajectory on the sea, but the constant change of direction and acceleration overdrawn the high-temperature and high-pressure steam stored by the cruiser. When luckily avoided the third bomb, the fourth bomb successfully landed less than 10 meters away from the sidestring of the warship's tail!

　　 Boom! A huge water column leaped high beside the battleship, and the falling sea water even wetted a large area of ​​the deck. On the surface, it was a failed hit. But in fact, despite the name of a semi-armor-piercing projectile, there are up to 90 kg of charge in a 250KG bomb! Although it is impossible to shred the battleship directly like a torpedo hit by a direct hit, the shrapnel produced by the rupture of the projectile still cost the armored cruiser a heavy price under the energy of the explosion.

The shell plate of more than ten millimeters thick was beaten into a sieve, and a large amount of seawater entered the interior of the hull along the gap. With the high-speed maneuvering of the battleship, the shell plate was already close to the limit. The whole body shattered under the impact and collision. Hundreds of tons of seawater poured into it and destroyed the internal structure of the warship. The drive shaft of the left propeller made a burst of horrible metal cracking and twisting sound in the vibration and collision. The anxiety caused by the shock and fragmentation forced the British to temporarily shut down the connected power system. And this made this armored cruiser, which was originally like an agile cheetah, instantly turned into a lame hyena!

　　 Then, destruction followed! The third attacking bomber swooped down bravely, and dropped 2 rounds of 250KG semi-armor-piercing shells continuously from a low altitude of 150 meters at the extreme speed and maximum dive angle!

"I can clearly feel the arrival of the **** of death. A big guy with a wingspan of more than 20 meters fell from the air almost vertically ~ www.wuxiaspot.com ~ line of sight problems, in fact, the dive angle is not great.) I watched it with my own eyes. Two dark bombs fell from the air. Looking from the position of the front control tower, these bombs were just the size of grains of rice. Two bombs flashed away. One of them fell between the No. 3 and No. 4 chimneys. And the other shot seemed to fall in the stern!" The captain of the Drake recalled the scene like this.

　　The first bomb successfully landed in the middle of the two thick chimneys of the ship, and unfortunately, this armored cruiser of the pre-fearless period was obviously not equipped with a porous defense structure called flue armor! Therefore, when the bomb easily smashed through the upper deck, it was a devastating blow to the flue below!

　　 A huge flame blasted into the air from the middle and rear of the hull accompanied by the explosion. Countless fragments and thick smoke came out. Nearly one hundred kilograms of explosives easily destroyed all the flues under the two chimneys. Exhaust gas and flames spread along the damaged flue to other places, and the exhaust gas flowing back into the boiler warehouse even caused several boilers to be directly stalled. Although the casualties were not large, the entire battleship was lost in a short period of time. Half the boiler!

Another bomb hit near the stern rudder compartment. The violent explosion directly destroyed the almost undefended steering engine compartment at the rear. At the same time, the violent vibration also caused one stern rudder to fall off. Just two bombs made it run quite a while ago. The swift Drake was in a semi-pause state. Before the British could react, two more bombs came down. One of them fell into the water almost close to the bow. The explosion destroyed several compartments in the bow, while the other bomb landed on the left deck. on!

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