The distance between the two sides is close to the point where they can penetrate each other. Although the actual breakdown distance will be closer than the theoretical breakdown distance, at this time, neither the Bismarck-class battleship nor the Vengeance-class battleship can guarantee that they will be immune to the opponent's shells! If you hit it again at this distance, it will no longer be a shock to some equipment, and it is not impossible to be shot into the soul!

There is a story in the West that because a blacksmith was careless when he hit a horse's shoe, a group of war horses stumbled, and the stumbling war horse led to the capture of a general, and the captured general led to the defeat of a battle, and the final result turned out to lead to the destruction of a country. The likelihood of a chain reaction of these things in a row is too low, but it is undeniable that the slightest mistake in the war can lead to great disaster, and the Royal Oak allowed the Saxony to seize the opportunity when it beat Frederick the Great, perhaps by luck, or for some other reason, after a salvo of amazing results, Saxony succeeded in preemptively inflicting a heavy blow on the Monarchy!

The 10 guns of the Saxony actually hit 3 shots in one salvo! One of the shells landed behind the Sovereign-class turret No. 1...... However, due to the angle problem, the fuse of this shell was knocked out and did not cause an explosion, but then the shell, which had changed from a shell to a solid shell, crashed under the battery mount of the No. 2 turret. The problem was that the turrets of both turrets were deformed to varying degrees, with one of the turrets only being able to turn in a smaller range, while the other was completely jammed! …。

The roof leak happened to rain overnight, and two other shells made a hole on the port side of the Sovereign, and the shells weighing more than 800 kilograms crashed all the way into the boiler room, blowing up four boilers into the sky. Another shell destroyed a secondary artillery ammunition lifting channel, igniting dozens of 6-inch shells and propellant packs inside! A large orange fireball erupted from the side chord. The entire battleship seemed to tremble in a violent explosion.

However, although he was seriously injured. However, the formidable Sovereign changed colors, and a 15-inch shell successfully penetrated the turret of the Saxony's No. 3 turret, igniting the ammunition inside. A fiery dragon sped towards the lower ammunition depot, though the heavily armored fire door blocked the fatal blow. However, the violent impact caused it to be severely deformed, and in desperation, the Saxony could only fill the ammunition depot of the No. 3 turret, thus completely losing one-fifth of its firepower. And another shell hit the bow of the Saxony. Several of the compartments were destroyed, flooding them with hundreds of tons of seawater.

If Saxony and Sovereign are both lions, then the former can be called an African lion, while the latter can only be called a cougar, although everyone is a big category, but the combat effectiveness is still different. Although the latter scratched the opponent's face, it was at most broken, and in the ensuing battle, the Saxony, with its eight 15-inch guns, successfully suppressed the Sovereign, which had only four main guns. In this situation where it is already possible to penetrate the opponent with each other. The side with more artillery and faster rate of fire will always have the advantage! …。

But even so, the Sovereign, which was already at a disadvantage, still held out for more than 20 minutes. During this time. At one point, the distance between the two sides was reduced to only 10km, and at that distance, the Saxony hit the other side at least 19 times! That's a full 19 rounds of 15-inch shells! "The side chords of the Sovereign are almost beaten into a sieve, and looking through the telescope, we can clearly see the large and small holes in the Sovereign. Many of them were still billowing smoke, and the heaviest part of the shells was in the amidships, where at least six of our shells hit his power compartment. The entire boiler bay should have been completely destroyed visually, and even the ship's chimney was not smoking, but thanks to excellent fire extinguishing and compartmentalization, the battleship could still float at sea, but as a battleship. Having lost the value of his continued existence, he began to slowly withdraw from the line, the entire battleship was tilted at least 15 degrees, a large amount of sea water continued to pour into the hull, there was no power, and it was only a matter of time before the Sovereign, with its heavy casualties, was finally abandoned. This is how a German official described the final fate of the Sovereign. …。

The Sovereign was the first battleship to be armed with a 15-inch gun in this battle. The bullet is definitely not the last. Before the German officers and men on board the Saxony could celebrate their victory, the storm of steel coming from the flanks and rear made the Germans realize their existence again. After destroying Frederick the Great, the Royal Oak realigned its guns to aim at the already scarred Saxony. As the saying goes, when people walk in the rivers and lakes, how can they not be knifed? At the same time that the Saxony took away the Sovereign with about 2 dozen shells, it was also hit by nearly a dozen shells himself! After the battle of the Sovereign. The number of main guns available on the Saxony was also reduced to five, two of which were cut off by one shell, and the servo of the other gun was malfunctioning. And what's even more tragic is that at this time, the attack of the Royal Oak began! …。

Later generations commented on the Bismarck-class battleships and the British Queen and Revenge-class battleships...... It was once joked that the former was nothing more than a revenge-class battleship with two more guns. Although it is biased, it is really similar in terms of combat effectiveness, and at this time, the Saxony, which has lost half of its firepower, is at most half a pound or eight taels with the Royal Oak. This is a real parity, punches and bites, and as the distance is closer, the attacks of both sides have left scars on each other's bodies. From time to time, there were bursts of violent explosions on the battleship, flames and a large amount of smoke poured out from the breach in the hull, and countless shrapnel jumped and bounced between the cabins, tearing to pieces groups of officers and men of the two countries who tried to save the battleship.

The main warships of the two sides were already extremely close, and the auxiliary warships were even closer, and a large number of destroyers and light cruisers rushed out of the direct gap of the fleet, firing at each other at extremely close distances to launch torpedoes, how far is 10km? At a speed of 30 knots for a torpedo boat, it would take no more than 12 minutes to cover this distance in a straight line. And if you want to include the opponent in your torpedo attack range. It takes less time! When the capital ships of both sides were busy fighting, these miscellaneous fish that could not be on the table at all finally became powerful! These torpedo boats were going to be the last straw that crushed the battleship Saxony!. …。

The main gun has heavy armor protection, and it may not be penetrated, but the protection of the secondary gun can be described as a broiler, and the two sides can easily sweep away the opponent's secondary guns, and even some open-air deck guns are also blown up together. At this time, the Saxony lacked enough rapid-fire guns to provide anti-lightning firepower, and Jericho also put in a full 8 destroyers in time, and rushed to the Saxony under the cover of 2 light cruisers! Although there was also a full-fledged formation of light cruisers in the Hipper fleet. But after all, they couldn't all be sent, and the only light cruiser that came to support fell into the crossfire of two British light cruisers in an instant, and the remaining three destroyers were also sunk in the siege of a group of British destroyers.

No matter how high the kung fu is, I'm afraid of torpedoes! Shortly after breaking through the blockade, 4 British destroyers finally rushed to a distance of less than 2000 meters from the Saxony and fired a full 12 torpedoes! The Saxony, which wanted to cry without tears, managed to dodge only 10 of them, and the other two torpedoes hit the side chord of the Saxony! A shell exploded at the ammunition depot at the lower part of the No. 1 turret, and although the No. 1 turret had been destroyed in a fierce artillery battle, this torpedo still had extremely serious consequences for the Saxony, for the very reason that the explosion of the torpedo spread to the ammunition depot! The high-temperature and high-pressure bubbles produced by the violent explosion and the seawater smashed the underwater protection system like a hammer, and then the aftermath hit the ammunition depot unabated! But fortunately, the water injection is quite timely. It did not result in the detonation of ammunition. …………。

Another torpedo exploded near the power distribution compartment in the front of the Saxony, and the violent explosion completely destroyed the cabin, leaving the entire front of the battleship without power supply, and all lighting and damage pipes could not be carried out, and what was even more terrifying was that these two torpedoes brought nearly 4,000 tons of water to the Saxony! The entire foredeck of the hull was submerged, and the barrel of the No. 1 turret was almost flush with the water! Even the propeller at the stern of the ship was exposed from time to time, and the Saxony had a serious first roll!

"The front of the hull has been almost shattered...... The armor box also had a serious flooding, even if the battle was stopped now, the success rate of the Saxony's withdrawal would not exceed 3 percent, it was too big, and the damage was also very serious, in the fierce confrontation with the Royal Oak, Saxony's few remaining main guns were also destroyed, but fortunately, our enemy was not in a good situation, it seemed to be attacked by submarines! A German officer on board the Saxony wrote in the report.

During the battle of the Grand Fleet, one of the capital ships of one side was struck by lightning, and this seemingly impossible thing actually happened in the decisive battle between Britain and Germany! The submarine is an assassin. However, this assassin moved very slowly, and with enough frigates to protect him, no matter how stealthy his actions were, he would never be able to go less than 2,000 meters away from the opponent and deliver a fatal blow. In all the large-scale naval battles, not a single capital ship was destroyed by a submarine-launched torpedo in the course of the engagement! …。

But this time, a lucky German submarine actually sneaked up on the Royal Oak less than 1,000 meters away. Then he decisively fired 4 torpedoes and hit three shots, two of which hit less than 5 meters apart! With a loud bang, the Royal Oak, which was already riddled with holes in the side chord, was directly cut a 15-meter-long hole by the violent explosion! The Royal Oak, which was supposed to die in the U2 torpedo attack in World War 2, actually died in World War I like this, and the only thing that is the same is that they all died at the hands of submarines! Is this the fate of the legend?

Thanks to the book friend zhouyu1976 for the reward~~~, as well as the book friend Kongchen, Yanbo Enchanting, Lonely Medusa, and Orphein's monthly ticket support ~~~