Chapter 1009: The Battle Between Quasi-Fearless One
Chapter 1009 The Battle between Quasi-Fearless 1
If the Japanese navy has a slight advantage in the battle between the four super-dreadnoughts on both sides, then the battle between the three quasi-dreadnoughts in the Austro-Hungarian fleet and the two quasi-dreadnoughts in the British fleet is different! Whether it is the quantity or quality of capital ships, or the quantity or quality of escort warships, it seems that the Austro-Hungarian fleet has the upper hand. In a word, after the two sides fought, the commander of the Austro-Hungarian quasi-dreadnought squadron, Rear Admiral Velennik, discovered I have a big advantage here! You can win if you go over with A!
The actual situation is indeed similar. The two former dreadnought battleships Radetzky and Ferdinand of the Austro-Hungarian fleet were well maintained and the twin 240MM secondary main guns were replaced with single-mounted 12-inch guns. gun. The 12-inch firepower of the 6-door side string can fully achieve long-distance shooting. Moreover, this 12-inch naval gun is the same model as the 12-inch naval gun on the German Navy's dreadnought, and its armor-piercing power is guaranteed. As for the armored cruiser Saint-Georg, in addition to having 2 smaller guns, it can actually be regarded as a small Dreadnought.
And what about the British fleet? The 12-inch gun used by the battleship HMS King Edward VII is the 12-inch L40 gun, the gun before Dreadnought... The secondary main gun only has four single-mounted 234MM guns. The gun ring is too small and cannot be replaced even if you want to!
The situation of the battleship Nelson is better. The tonnage is almost as much as that of the Dreadnought, so the battleship's armament is still strong. It has 4 12-inch L45 cannons, which are the same as the Dreadnought, and 10 234MM cannons... If you must carry out "dauntless" modifications, it is feasible. Just replace the four twin 234MM artillery turrets with single ones. But think about it, when World War 1 broke out, the Dreadnought was transferred to reserve. Naturally, the wealthy British Navy had no plans to "dreadnought" the Lord Nelson. Therefore, the British now can only carry one A large number of 234MM artillery are fighting the opponent from a long distance...
To be honest, the two Radetzky-class battleships have surpassed one early German battle cruiser purely in terms of firepower. The former two have a total of 12 12-inch guns, while the latter only has 9... .. And Edward VII is not only fully fearless in terms of armament and power, but also armor protection! The armor height of only 9 inches can only be said to be average. Although the defense area is large, it faces the Skoda 12-inch L45 artillery that is more powerful than the 12-inch L50 of the German dreadnought battleships in history... That can only be said to be too crispy! The 12-inch turret forehead is relatively strong, but the 6- to 9-inch turret mount is even more problematic... Well, in short, there are not many places where the Edward VII can block the opponent's 12-inch L45 artillery at a normal distance...
The tactic chosen by Rear Admiral Vellenic was to take advantage of his own long-range firepower, and first concentrate the firepower of a battleship and an armored cruiser to attack the weakest battleship HMS Edward VII, while another battleship contained the Lord Nelson, and each other Keep a distance of more than 13,000 meters between them to reduce the power of the British 234MM artillery to the greatest extent.
The battleship Archduke Ferdinand and the armored cruiser Saint-Georg first directed their fire at the Edward VII, which was at the bottom of the queue.
Six 12-inch artillery pieces and eight 240MM artillery pieces were aimed at the target in the distance. With the rangefinders of the two warships, the target was firmly placed in the middle of the cross. After the huge shells were pushed into the breech, along with the turret's There was a shock, and the first battle between the two battleships began!
Although they are relatively old battleships, the firepower of the two battleships is still considerable. The rate of fire of the 12-inch artillery can be maintained at 2.5 to 3 rounds per minute. The rate of fire of the 240MM artillery gun of the Sangeorg armored cruiser even reached 4 rounds per minute! After the two battleships join forces, their projection is no less than that of a first-class battleship! And when the two warships completed straddle firing one after another and entered the effective firing stage, these high-speed artillery immediately showed terrifying combat effectiveness!
The first one to score a hit was the armored cruiser Saint-Georg. On the one hand, the gunners on this ship were all veterans. The experience and quality of the fire control officer and gunner who had served for more than 5 years were indeed extraordinary. On the other hand, On the one hand, the shooting speed is fast, and the correction speed is also fast! After just 6 rounds of corrections, at a distance of 11,000 meters, the Saint-Georg successfully bit the opponent!
The first 240MM armor-piercing projectile weighing 230KG directly hit the 6-inch gun gallery armor belt of the Edward VII, and then... Then it actually broke through! The hard-cap armor-piercing bullet is really powerful. The penetration power seems to be even worse than that of the British 12-inch gun. To be honest, this round actually penetrated the shell. When the shell penetrated halfway, the bottom fuze was activated, and then violently The explosion directly blew the remaining armor into pieces. A destructive impact composed of radioactive metal jets and fragments swept across the two nearby gun tails. The armor on the side walls of the gun gallery of one gun position was directly smashed into sieves. The man was beaten to pieces by countless flying shrapnel, and the other gun position seemed to be even worse. A burning red fragment hit the propellant pack stored at the back of the gun gallery.
boom! Accompanied by a loud noise, more than a dozen packs of propellant and at least one hand of cannonballs were detonated. The explosion of hundreds of kilograms of explosives and propellant was truly astonishing. A huge fireball suddenly erupted from the middle of the battleship, and the upper deck was covered in pieces. The deck was torn apart, and countless fragments were rushed into the air by the shock wave generated by the explosion, and then fell on the sea surface hundreds of meters in radius, and some fell on the deck, and suddenly there was a burst of "shrapnel" rain".
The killing effect of the other shell was also good. This shell landed on the deck above the steam engine room of Edward VII. As a pre-dreadnought, the biggest problem is that the horizontal armor thickness is not enough. Think about it, 1.5 inches of horizontal armor What can you guard against? Well, this shell did not penetrate, it also exploded. The 1-inch horizontal armor plus the half-inch back plate actually has a very limited effect. Then, the soldiers in the engine room suddenly discovered that a burst of fire rushed out from the ceiling, and then hit a vertical steam engine that was running. With a violent explosion, the steam engine of dozens of tons The bracket next to it was blown to pieces! A storm of steel flames and steam covered all objects in the cabin indiscriminately! A moment later, flames shot into the sky, and half of Edward VII's power was lost!
Later, the battleship Archduke Ferdinand also performed well. A 12-inch shell directly hit the front of a 9.2-inch gun turret. Although the 9-inch frontal armor was almost the same as the British battle cruiser turret armor, the front Compared with the historically powerful armor-piercing capabilities of the German 12-inch L50, the 9-inch-thick hardened armor can only fall into the dust...
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