Chapter 40: The era of deck washing is coming!
"Sir, we just want to buy 240MM artillery from your country, and most of your test content today has nothing to do with our business." Argentine representative Naval Colonel Diano said euphemistically.
"But wouldn’t it be nice to know more about things? Today, it’s not just you who came here." A sign of a senior Krupp engineer hung on his chest, and our Baron Vittorio began to fool his potential customers. With his current status, it is not too easy to get a name in Krupp!
"Look there, that is the personnel of the Admiralty, the representative of the Austro-Hungarian Empire a little bit to the north, and the representative of Russia on the side. Today, we will witness the miracles created by rapid-fire artillery and new charges. We will use high explosive This target ship was completely destroyed!” The baron first introduced the audience present, and then pointed to the target ship more than 40 meters long on the river.
"But I think it is difficult to destroy this target ship with just 4 light guns!" Colonel Diano glanced at the artillery and then looked at the target in the distance and said unceremoniously.
"Light artillery? How is it possible? What we use today is..." When Mr. Baron glanced at the artillery on the cannon, his face immediately turned green.
"Isn't it a good 150MM naval gun? Why did you get me a 105MM naval gun?" Baron Yin asked the staff of the Krupp factory next to him.
"It's too heavy, the light gun body is more than 4 tons! So let us use the 105MM artillery on it." The other party wiped a cold sweat and said, any naval gun is a big guy on the land. It's not that Krupp didn't try his best, it was because time was too short and the artillery was too heavy.
"Well, I hope today's performance will not be too bad." This is the end of the matter, and it is useless to complain. Originally, the Baron thought that using picric acid high-explosive grenades could destroy the target in a short period of time. But the firepower now seems to him a little insufficient?
The purpose of planning this experiment was to make the Argentines realize how terrible the suffocation attacks of high-explosive shells and rapid-fire guns are, and then tell the opponent that the armored cruisers and dome cruisers with insufficient defense area are out of date, when the opponent is in despair. And when he is in a panic, he will come up with his work-the 7500-ton Munich-class armored cruiser! Brand-new armor, full-speed cannon fire, speed of more than 20 knots, whether it is MT, fighting output, or running is expert level!
But today... There seems to be some accident! Just as Mr. Baron cursed the Krupp factory for cutting corners and wondered whether his order would be ruined, a series of loud noises from the gun station told everyone that the test had begun!
Four artillery guns spewed deadly flames at a distant target that was still stationary! The 18KG high-explosive shell is shooting at a rate of about 8 rounds per minute! In just one minute, four 105MM guns can theoretically tilt more than 30 rounds toward the target, which is about 600KG of ammunition!
Because of the use of new smokeless gunpowder, the artillery does not have to wait for the smoke to dissipate before firing. One by one, orange fireballs jumped at the muzzle, and a series of shells fell on the target that had already been calibrated. The explosive power and burning effect of the picric acid high-explosive bomb is really excellent, and every shell hit will cause a local fire!
The yellow-green flames spread quickly on the hull, flowing along the deck and metal supports like a flaming dragon, leaving only a scorched wreck wherever it passed, even thinner steel plates can be ignited! Within 3 minutes from the start of the shooting, the surface of this target ship has become a sea of flames! The blazing fire makes this ship look more like a huge torch!
The explosion of flames and the distorted hull structure made people feel shuddering. Krupp, which originally planned to hit 200 shells, found that the target was so unattended! But after 40% of the ammunition was used up, it was almost burnt! The target ship staying on the river bank began to change and sink, and eventually broke in two and ran aground at the shallows.
But this also allowed experts from various countries to observe this burnt out of recognition warship from close range so as to understand the threat of high explosive bombs to warships with insufficient protective area! Accompanied by the muffled sound of the flashlight, personnel from all sides recorded the final appearance of this sad target ship.
"We have just witnessed the end of an era, and the beginning of a new era!" Vittorio said to the stunned Argentine. "The rapid-fire guns and high-explosive shells of the German Empire are enough to sweep the old warships into the garbage dump of history! The new armor and the new armor layout are also enough to resist the rapid-fire guns and high-explosive shells of the Chileans!"
When all the onlookers left the experimental field in shock, disbelief, or even fear, the matter did not end. Under the intentional or unintentional operation of some people, some details of the experiment were disclosed in the newspapers. The unrecognizable burned photos in the Brassey Yearbook, the twisted steel beams and keel, and the hull that was almost burnt to a shelf made all navy personnel surprised and terrified.
In another subsequent experiment, a mere 10-inch Bavarian hardened armor easily blocked the 240KG shells fired by an 11-inch artillery shot from 1000 meters away! And this result shocked the Russians and Germans present! According to previous standards, a battleship is embarrassed to go out without a 14-inch armor belt? And this 14 inches is the thickness of a pure steel-faced iron armor, and the thickness will be even greater if you count the teak back panel at the back!
For an instant, the Russians were shocked! The defensive power of the new armor exceeded their imagination. UU Reading www.uukanshu.com If the Russians began to doubt whether the new German hardened armor could achieve the performance stated in the report, now they really believe it! The shells whizzing past only left a 3-inch pit in the steel plate. When this photo was sent to the Russian Navy, the next day, the Russians decided to accept the offer from Bavaria!
And after learning through various channels that the supply of hardened armor in Bavaria is tight, and the German shipyard may expand production capacity, the Russian Admiralty immediately began to discuss whether to set up an official office in Bavaria to ensure the supply of hardened armor in Russia! After all, the Russians have already begun to build! The artillery, power and hull are all fine, but there is really only one armour!
"Almost overnight, the cruisers of the British Empire are almost obsolete. All the new dome cruisers have come to the end of their lives. Even if they haven't got off the berth yet, the result on the battlefield is certain!" Diano The colonel reported everything he had seen in Germany to his homeland, and at the end suggested that the Argentine Navy should not purchase the dome warship. Because these things are useless against the Chilean rapid-fire guns!
And then this report was sent to the Argentine delegation that went to the UK to purchase protective cruisers. When the head of the delegation asked Sir Watts if he could design a cruiser that could withstand rapid-fire guns, Watts stunned, after all. So far, all in hand are armored protective cruisers, and I haven't gotten armored!
"I will try my best, wait for 2 weeks!" Sir Watts, who was honest, admitted that he could not come up with the relevant design now, but he did not want to give up the order. So said.
Thank you book friend zhouyu1976 for your reward~~~, I will still double update next week~~~
