The "Cambridgeshire" supercruiser that rushed to the forefront naturally became the target of the French army's fire-intensive strikes. This is in fact the purpose of the British army to let the "Cambridge" rush to the forefront-to help the "Queen Elizabeth" block shell . Covering the "Queen Elizabeth" as much as possible to retain full combat power and rush to a distance sufficient for accurate shooting.

British "super cruisers" are all thin-skinned stuffing, in order to pursue speed, in order to install large-caliber artillery, British super cruisers, in terms of defense, which is the level of British armored cruisers. And this kind of armor is not very reliable even if it is fighting against a general armored cruiser. In front of the armor-piercing shells of the French battleship's 150mm long tube gun, it is basically the same as the paper.

But the high winds and high waves in the North Atlantic have helped her a lot. If it is in the calm Mediterranean Sea, the French armored cruiser's 100mm gun is enough for her to drink. The power of these guns is limited, but the rate of fire is fast, and the fight is like rain, and the "Cambridgeshire" has thin skin and stuffing, in fact, even such shells can't stop it.

But in the North Atlantic, the situation is different. French ships have always attached importance to high speed (even if they can’t fight, they can run. Well, at least Joseph, who is in charge of military industry development, has always emphasized speed, speed, speed!), but on ships, emphasizing speed performance often requires Make a little sacrifice in other areas, such as stability.

Large ships like the "Inbrador" and "Caesar" are down. Even super cruisers like the "Free Trade" are not very stable. As for the French armored cruisers, hehe, less than two. Thousand tons of things full of rows, there is still some stability, there is a little wind and waves on the sea, it is normal for the ship to swing around more than ten degrees. In this state, if you want to hit the opponent at a longer distance, you have to rely entirely on luck. In fact, it has nothing to do with the performance of the cannon itself and the artillery skills of the gunners.

Therefore, although the French armored cruisers fired as many shells as it was raining, the distance between the two sides was only about three kilometers, but there were many shells that were more than one kilometer away.

However, the 150 guns on the "Inbrado" and "Caesar" are more useful at this time. When the distance between the two sides was about two kilometers, the "Inbrador" made its first hit. A 150 semi-armor-piercing projectile directly hit the mast of "Cambridgeshire", connecting her mast to the rear Most of the chimney was knocked out.

If the mast is dropped, it will be dropped. This is not a big deal, but if the chimney is knocked out, it will directly affect the combustion efficiency of the boiler. Causes power to drop. However, at this time, the problem is also not too big, because the "Cambridgeshire" also has a chimney, and anyway, the "Queen Elizabeth" can barely run for about ten knots, and the "Cambridgeshire" does not need to be full. Speed ​​of power output.

However, if the first shot hits, there will naturally be a second shot. Soon in the second round of the "Inbrador" salvo, another shell hit the "Cambridgeshire".

This time, the good luck of the "Cambridgeshire" seemed to have run out. This shell directly hit the bow of the ship. The shell easily passed through the paper-like armor of the bow, and then plunged into the front main gun. Ammunition Depot……

Nelson was on the bridge of the "Queen Elizabeth" and saw that the "Cambridgeshire" in front of him suddenly trembled, and then a huge ball of fire suddenly appeared from under the deck of the "Cambridgeshire", all of a sudden. The "Cambridge" super cruiser was engulfed.

Then the fireball and thick smoke rose up, and Nelson saw that the "Cambridgeshire" broke in two directly in the explosion. Then the rumbling explosion reached the bridge of the "Queen Elizabeth", causing the glass on the bridge to vibrate.

The "Cambridgeshire" sank into the sea almost in the blink of an eye, leaving only a large, foamy whirlpool on the surface.

Now it is finally the turn of the "Queen Elizabeth" to face the bullet rain from the French fleet, and the distance between the two sides has also been shortened to about two kilometers. The French artillery shells began to fall continuously, and the 100mm artillery shells of the French armored cruiser continued to fall near the "Queen Elizabeth", stirring up water jets. The sea near the "Queen Elizabeth" was like a cauldron boiling.

"The rate of fire of the French artillery is really high." Nelson said to the adjutant next to him. "Our estimates of the French firepower are all wrong. They must have some technical secrets."

The French kept secrets of the artillery hydraulic reset device so tightly that apart from the navy, even the invincible French army did not equip it.

The British knew that the French navy’s artillery was generally of small caliber, at least compared with the British 10-inch cannon, which was simply too small. From this they concluded that the French should be pursuing a higher rate of fire. In addition, the barrels of the French cannons are very long. For example, their 150mm guns should be more than six meters long, even one meter longer than the British 10-inch cannons. In addition, according to observations, the barrel wall of the French cannon is not thinner than that of the British 10-inch gun-which means that although this gun has a small caliber, it can withstand a large pressure. Such a barrel is very difficult to manufacture, so don't look at the French gun as thin as a toothpick, but its cost is definitely not cheap. It may be more expensive than the British 10-inch gun. At least that's the case with one of the British trial-made.

According to their understanding, the British also built a long tube 150. The result of the final test is that this gun is only slightly weaker than their 20-caliber 10-inch gun in terms of armor penetration ability, but the rate of fire is lower. Can be much faster. Of course, the cost is a bit higher. The price of two long tubes of 150 is enough to buy three 10-inch guns. But this is not the most terrible thing. The most terrible thing is that this gun is severely ablated, and its life span is only one-third to one-fourth of the 10-inch gun. With this calculation, the British navy suddenly felt that the 10-inch gun was better.

Therefore, although the British ridiculed in the newspapers that the French naval guns were small toothpicks, they were nothing compared to the British cannons. But the British Navy has never underestimated the French 150 guns, but even so, they still greatly underestimated the rate of fire of the French cannons.

As the distance got closer, even the guns of the French armored cruisers began to become more accurate. Just as Nelson sighed, a 100-mm caliber shell hit the turret of the former main battery of the Queen Elizabeth. However, the 100mm gun was unable to penetrate the armor plate of the front main turret, so the shell exploded outside the main turret and did not cause any damage to the main turret itself.

But this does not mean that the shell did not cause any damage. When the shell exploded, a shrapnel flew over and shattered a piece of window glass on the bridge.

"Your Excellency, Commander," said the adjutant. "Please go to the commanding tower to direct operations."

The conning tower is a thick armored box in which you can communicate with other departments by telephone. This is a design made to protect the commander of the navy.

"No, I won't go." Nelson said. "My job is here."

Although there are various command and communication equipment in the command tower, it is impossible to see the situation on the battlefield with your own eyes. You can only rely on other people's dictation to understand the battlefield. Command there is very inconvenient.

More shells fell. Another 100mm artillery hit the side of the Queen Elizabeth. However, apart from destroying the paint of the Queen Elizabeth, this shell really had no effect.

But then a 150 caliber shell hit the superstructure of the "Queen Elizabeth". The shell was shot from the right, through the empty crew rest cabin, smashed the wine cabinet next to the bar counter, then passed through another cabin, then drilled two more holes in the chimney, and continued Forward and fell into the sea on the port side.

Although this 150-caliber artillery shell did not cause any real damage, its hit also meant that the French battleship had aimed at the "Queen Elizabeth", and it was about to enter the real effective shooting.

Sure enough, another 150 shell hit the bow of the "Queen Elizabeth". This shell directly penetrated the "Queen Elizabeth" armor, then penetrated a cabin, and exploded in the aisle. As for the specific losses it caused, it is not particularly clear.

Then another shell fired from the "Caesar" hit the "Queen Elizabeth" shell into the coal bunker and caused a fire. However, the British were very effective in managing damage, so the fire was quickly brought under control.

More 100mm artillery shells fell on the "Queen Elizabeth". It is impossible for these shells to penetrate the armor of this warship. However, most of the superstructure of this warship is unarmored. These 100mm artillery shells are all unarmored. They were high-explosive bombs, and they fell one by one, knocking the superstructure of the "Queen Elizabeth" to pieces.

The continuously falling 100mm high-explosive shells caused multiple fires on the "Queen Elizabeth", and the fire-fighting personnel suffered heavy casualties under the subsequent falling shells~lightnovelpub.net~ The fire gradually began to lose control, and Begin to approach the command platform on the bridge.

Then another 100mm shell fell near the warship. Yes, this shell did not hit the "Queen Elizabeth", it was just a near miss.

In naval battles, sometimes near misses are even more dangerous than shells hit directly, because near misses explode in water, and water is incompressible. Therefore, the near misses of some large-caliber artillery shells may even have an effect similar to torpedoes.

But the 100mm gun is not the kind of large-caliber artillery, and the near-missing power of this kind of shell is quite limited.

But the shell fell near the patch on the "Queen Elizabeth". This patch was already very unreliable, and after sailing so far along the way, it was already a little shaky. At this time, there was another shell. Although it was just a 100mm shell exploding next to it, the original patch was still torn apart, and the sea rolled in.

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