Chapter 2105: Melee five
"Hit! Great, it seems that your training has not been pulled down!" Count Spey sincerely praised, although the Mainz-class armored cruisers can only be regarded as second-line warships in the masterful high seas fleet, they usually only Can move in the Baltic Sea, but I have to say that the artillery level of the Mainz-class armored cruiser is still good, and it accurately hit the opponent in the first round of the salvo!
An armor-piercing projectile weighing 240KG hit the twin 9.2-inch main turret on the bow of the Cressy. The sharp warhead was as easy as cutting butter with a hot knife. The thickness was only 6 inches. The side armor, the huge impact force even lifted a large piece of steel from above! Subsequently, with the detonation of the fuze, countless shrapnel, driven by the explosive energy, covered the personnel and objects inside the turret indiscriminately! The huge artillery lowered its head, billowing smoke and flames gushed out from the broken place, and a plume of smoke more than ten meters high rose into the air from the front of the hull!
After only 20 seconds, the second round of shooting began! Eight shells once again roared and flew towards the Crecy. Just as the water column raised in the first round of attack fell, this poor warship was once again covered by bullet rain! A 10-inch shell accurately hit the middle and rear of the hull. The hardened armor with a thickness of only 6 inches was easily pierced. The huge shell with a lot of fragments penetrated the last layer of armor all the way down and was in the boiler warehouse. The internal explosion, the shock wave generated by the explosion instantly destroyed the 3 boilers, countless pipes were chopped up, the high temperature and high pressure neatly and the flames produced after the boiler blasted the whole power cabin to pieces! A huge fireball blasted through at least two horizontal decks in the hull! The blazing fire even made this battleship clearly visible from 10 kilometers away! (Some warships in this book have different performance and history, please refer to the book.)
"Counter attack! We are under attack!" At this time, the attack of the armored cruiser Mainz exposed her position, and the two ships of the same class behind the Crecy, the Bacchus and the Hogg, passed the flare and the Mainz The fire from the shooting confirmed the position of the German fleet. After a short silence, the two warships also launched a counterattack!
Eight 9.2-inch guns kept firing at the armored cruiser USS Mainz in the distance. However, because of the smoke obscured by the Crecy in front, the British fleet's hits were not good. One of the shots hit The Mainz sideboard was 9 inches thick, but it did not cause much damage except for a scratch. And just when two British armored cruisers tried to save the Crecy, the Prince Albert and two other German light cruisers took action!
Over the years, the habit of night battles has made Earl Spey very careful. He adheres to the principle of leaving himself a back hand at all times. In the night battle, the biggest back hand is always to hide a capital ship. Out of the opponent's field of vision, at a critical moment, the battleship that was suddenly launched may be even more terrifying than the two exposed battleships!
After discovering the Cressy but not other British armored cruisers, he let the German fleet behind him tolerate for a while, and now, when the entire British armored cruiser squadron is exposed to the fire, the earl still has control of the battlefield. initiative! With the Bacchus unsuspecting, eight 254MM guns of Prince Albert were aimed at this British armored cruiser!
There is another deadly flame jumping on the dark sea. With every salvo of the German armored cruiser, it is like the end of the day for the Bacchus in the distance! After three rounds of shooting, the Prince Albert made a fourth hit and threw three armor-piercing rounds into the face of Bacchus! One shell exploded in the artillery gallery area in the middle of the hull. Two 6-inch guns were directly engulfed by turbulent flames and shock waves. The second shot hit the main turret at the rear of the hull. No surprise, this turret was as direct as its peers. It was opened. The third shell landed in the steering engine compartment at the rear of the hull. With a loud noise, half of the steering engine compartment was blown to pieces!
And then, successive hits knocked holes one after another in the side of the old armored cruiser. Under the intensive blow, the super-long power compartment of the Bacchus was also attacked, and flames and smoke began to be in the boiler. It spread between the warehouse and an engine room. Ten minutes later, the Bacchus and Crecy became two torches floating on the sea!
In fact, the fate of the British armored cruiser squadron was doomed as soon as the two sides met. In addition to the 4 9.2-inch guns, the Crecy had only 6-inch secondary guns. This kind of firepower could even be said to have 8 254MM heavy guns. For the small battle cruiser Mainz-class armored cruiser, it is simply a weak chicken. Coupled with the advantage of sneak attacks, the German fleet firmly controlled the situation from the beginning.
As for the last Hogg, it was flanked by two German Frankfurt-type light cruisers. A total of 12 175MM artillery shells fired alternately by the two warships turned the surface of this poor British armored cruiser into a sea of flames, because they were worried about their own. The armor-piercing projectiles fired by the 175MM artillery were not powerful enough. Therefore, the Germans used semi-armor-piercing projectiles, which could penetrate fragile protective areas such as the front and rear armor belts, and also had certain arson capabilities.
"If nothing happens, they are dead!" At this moment, beside Earl Spey ~www.wuxiaspot.com~ a German officer put down his telescope and said comfortably.
"Don't let your guard down, the British troops are not normal tonight." Earl Spey still maintains a high degree of vigilance. Judging from the current situation, the British have an armored cruiser squadron and a light cruiser squadron, and the number of destroyers seems to be also Not too many. It stands to reason that when implementing the retreat plan, the British fleet should strengthen the deployment of troops. Even if the British fleet is attacked by the Luftwaffe outside of Port Calais, then this is not the reason for its strength? After all, even if the former dreadnought battleships and patrols suffered heavy losses, the number of light cruisers in the British fleet should have recovered a lot this year.
Therefore, adhering to this idea, Earl Spey still left a destroyer squadron on his non-combatant side to be responsible for the guard mission. He was really afraid that when his main fleet tilted its fire towards the opponent, one suddenly rushed out in a certain direction. The British light cruiser squadron then rushed over and launched a lightning strike at a very close range! Then this matter is embarrassing.
And this time, the earl’s caution once again saved him and his fleet. Just as the four German cruisers happily beat the old British cruisers, a British light cruiser squadron was slowly approaching the earl’s fleet!
"Your Excellency Commander, we have found the German fleet, they are attacking our armored cruiser squad! The Crecy and Bacchus are about to fail!" At this moment, in the command tower of the light cruiser Champion, a The British officer said anxiously to Brigadier General Neelpi.
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