Chapter 2105 Melee Five
"Hit! That's great, it seems that your training has not been dropped!" Earl Spey praised sincerely. Although the Mainz-class armored cruisers can only be regarded as second-line battleships in the high seas fleet full of experts, they are usually only It can operate in the Baltic Sea, but it has to be said that the gunnery level of the Mainz-class armored cruiser is still good, and it accurately hit the opponent in the first round of salvo!
A 240KG armor-piercing projectile slammed into the double-mounted 9.2-inch main gun turret on the bow of the Crecy, and the sharp warhead was as easy as cutting butter with a hot knife, and the thickness was only 6 inches. The side armor, the huge impact force even knocked a large piece of steel plate off the top! Subsequently, with the detonation of the fuze, countless shrapnel, driven by the explosion energy, covered the personnel and objects inside the turret indiscriminately! The huge cannon lowered its head, billowing thick smoke and flames poured out from the broken part, and a column of smoke more than ten meters high rose into the air from the front of the hull!
Only 20 seconds later, the second round of shooting began! Eight shells roared towards the Crecy again. When the water column from the first round of attack just fell, this poor warship was once again covered by bullet rain! A 10-inch shell accurately hit the middle and rear of the hull, and the hardened armor with a thickness of only 6 inches was easily pierced. The huge shell carried a large number of fragments all the way down through the last layer of dome armor, and then left in the boiler room. The internal explosion, the shock wave generated by the explosion instantly destroyed 3 boilers, and countless pipes were cut into pieces. The high temperature and high pressure neatly and the flames generated after the boiler exploded exploded the entire power cabin to pieces! A huge fireball broke through at least two horizontal decks in the hull! The raging fire even made this battleship clearly visible from 10 kilometers away! (The performance and history of some warships in this book are different, and the book shall prevail.)
"Counterattack! We are under attack!" At this time, the attack of the armored cruiser Mainz exposed its position, and the two ships of the same level behind the Crecy, the Dionysus and the Hogg, passed the flares and contacted Mainz. The fire when the USS fired confirmed the position of the German fleet. After a short silence, the two warships also launched a counterattack!
Eight 9.2-inch artillery guns continued to fire at the armored cruiser Mainz in the distance. However, due to the smog on the Crecy in front, the British fleet's hit situation was not good. It hit the 9-inch-thick armor belt on Mainz's side, but did not cause much damage except for a scratch. And just when the two British armored cruisers were trying to save the Crecy, the Prince Albert and two other German light cruisers shot!
Earl Spey has been very careful with the habits he has developed in night battles over the years. He adheres to the principle of leaving himself a backup player at all times, and in night battles, the biggest backup player is to always keep a capital ship hidden in the Out of the opponent's field of vision, at a critical moment, a capital ship that suddenly appears may be more terrifying than the two exposed battleships!
When he found the Crecy but did not find other British armored cruisers, he let the German fleet behind him bear it for a while, and now, when the entire British armored cruiser detachment was exposed to the flames, the Earl still had control of the battlefield. initiative! When the Dionysus was unprepared, the 8 254MM artillery pieces of the Prince Albert aimed at the British armored cruiser!
Deadly flames once again appeared on the dark sea, accompanied by every salvo of the German armored cruiser, it was like a doomsday for the Dionysus in the distance! After three rounds of shooting, the Prince Albert hit for the fourth time and threw 3 armor-piercing projectiles into the face of the Dionysus! A shell exploded in the gun gallery area in the middle of the hull, and the two 6-inch guns were directly engulfed by the raging flames and shock waves. The second shot hit the main turret at the rear of the hull without any accidents.
This turret was directly fired like its contemporaries. And the third shell landed on the steering engine room at the rear of the hull, and with a loud noise, half of the steering engine room was blown to pieces!
And then, successive hits knocked holes one after another on the side of the old-fashioned armored cruiser. Under the intensive blows, the super-long power compartment of the Dionysus was also attacked, and flames and gunpowder smoke began to explode in the boiler. Between the warehouse and an engine room, ten minutes later, the Dionysus and the Crecy became two torches floating on the sea!
In fact, the fate of the British armored cruiser detachment was doomed as soon as the two sides fought against each other. In addition to the four 9.2-inch guns, the Crecy only had 6-inch secondary guns. This kind of firepower can even be called The Mainz-class armored cruiser, which is a small battle cruiser, is simply weak. Coupled with the advantage of sneak attack, the German fleet firmly controlled the situation from the beginning.
As for the last Hogg, it was pinched by two German Frankfurt-type light cruisers. The two warships had a total of 12 175MM artillery shells fired alternately, which turned the surface of this poor British armored cruiser into a sea of flames, because they were worried about their The armor-piercing projectiles fired by the 175MM artillery were not powerful enough, so the Germans used semi-armor-piercing projectiles, which could penetrate vulnerable protection areas such as the front and rear armor belts, and also had a certain arson capability.
"If there are no accidents, they are dead!" At this time, beside Earl Spey, a German officer put down the binoculars in his hand and said comfortably.
"Don't let your guard down, the British's strength is abnormal tonight." Earl Spey still maintains a high degree of vigilance. Judging from the current situation, the British have an armored cruiser detachment and a light cruiser detachment, and the number of destroyers seems to be increasing. Not too many. It stands to reason that when implementing the retreat plan, the British fleet should strengthen its deployment of troops. Even if the British fleet was attacked by the Luftwaffe outside the port of Calais, then this is not the only amount of troops, right? After all, even if the former dreadnought battleships and cruisers suffered heavy losses, the number of light cruisers in the British Grand Fleet should have recovered a lot in the past year.
Therefore, adhering to this idea, Earl Spey still left a destroyer squadron on his non-combat side to be responsible for the security mission. He was really afraid that when his main fleet tilted its firepower towards the opponent, a ship would suddenly rush out from a certain direction. The British light cruiser squad then rushed over and launched a lightning strike at a very close distance! That would be embarrassing.
But this time, the earl's prudence once again saved him and his fleet. Just as the four German cruisers were happily beating the old British cruisers, a British light cruiser detachment was slowly approaching the earl's fleet!
"Your Excellency, Commander, we have discovered the German fleet, and they are attacking our armored cruiser unit! The Cressy and the Dionysus are about to fail!" At this time, in the conning tower of the light cruiser Champion, a The British officer said anxiously to Brigadier General Nelpi.
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