"What really determines the outcome of a war is the battle between the capital ships, especially the battle between battleships, and they are the equivalent of the queen in chess, the force that decides everything." - Cervila

Just when Jericho and Shelly were fighting to the death, the American battleship formation led by Sevela and the main fleet led by Severa were also engaged in the final battle, 4 battleships against 2 battleships and 2 armored cruisers, in terms of strength, the two sides were evenly matched, the Spaniards had the advantage in total tonnage and speed, but the American fleet had an advantage in the number of guns and the caliber of artillery, and the 2 Dante-class battleships could naturally suppress the Iowa and Indiana that were engaged with it, But the King and the wounded Cologne were a bit stressed against the other two American battleships. After all, the King and Cologne, as cruisers, had to spend a considerable part of their weight on power, while the American battleships were all slow-moving iron turtles! High speed has a great advantage when the cruiser is acting alone, but once it is grouped with a battleship and moves at a lower speed, the cruiser and the battleship will definitely suffer.

And now both sides are standard battleship battles...... Compared to Jericho and Shelly's direct movement dogfight, the cruiser could rush up and launch torpedoes if necessary, but the battleship could not be so flexible! Therefore, the battle between the two sides is a competition for firepower and protective ..........

The 13-inch and 8-inch guns of the American fleet, the 10-inch Armstrong heavy guns of the Spanish fleet, the 11-inch Krupp guns, and the 6-inch rapid-fire guns spat deadly flames at each other. Both sides are attacking with all their might, and attacking supremacy is the only option for both sides. Simpson knew very well that if he couldn't inflict heavy damage on the Spanish fleet, the low-speed American battleship formation would not be able to retreat smoothly at all, and Sevela needed to weaken the combat power of the American fleet as much as possible in order to prepare for the lightning strike behind! So at the beginning, the two sides coincidentally chose to shoot at close range, and this method of hand-to-hand combat with heavy artillery made the battle full of blood from the beginning!

Relying on the high rate of fire of the 10-inch 40L main gun. The Spanish fleet made more effective hits. The Iowa was fired at by the battleship Spaniard, in just twenty minutes. At least 7 hits from a 10-inch gun! Two of the shots directly turned a twin 8-inch turret into a flaming flare, while the other 10-inch gun blew the barrel of a 13-inch gun in two, and the rest mostly hit the upper deck. Beat the 3 4-inch guns and numerous 6-pounder guns on the side line into piles of scrap metal!

And the situation of the Indiana in the back is not very good, because the freeboard is low, and every shell that hits the side of the hull will greatly lead to water ingress, and as a low freeboard battleship, the small reserve buoyancy directly determines that it is very sensitive to water ingress, as more and more shells open one after another in the side chord, this America's first real battleship has turned to the right, and the speed has been gradually reduced to about 13 knots! But fortunately, the firepower is okay, but a twin 8-inch turret has been knocked out. At the same time, almost all 6-pounder guns were lost. Although the twin 13-inch guns on the aft deck were not destroyed, they had to temporarily stop firing ......... due to water ingress problems.

As for the third Marseilles, the situation is somewhat better than the previous two, but the good ones are limited. Although the number of 11-inch guns of the King is small, the power is greater and the rate of fire is not slow, and the side line is larger than the secondary gun group of 5 6-inch guns and 4 105MM guns is also stronger than the 6 6-inch guns of the Dante class, although the overall projection is not as good as the Dante class, but it can also be compared with the Marseilles class!

One of the more tragic things about the Marseilles is. An 11-inch heavy gun shell directly hit the front main turret, although the huge explosion did not penetrate the heavy armor of the turret, but still stuck the turret's rotation facilities, which directly led to the two main guns basically ineffective, and the other 8-inch turret was pierced by the 11-inch armor-piercing shell, which was directly not broken into a burning iron box. THE FIRST AND SECOND MAIN GUNS LOST HALF OF THEIR FIREPOWER, BUT THE SECONDARY ARTILLERY GROUP REMAINED RELATIVELY INTACT, AFTER ALL, THE DAMAGE OF THE 6-INCH GUN AND THE 105MM RAPID-FIRE GUN WAS NOT COMPARABLE TO THE 10-INCH MAIN GUN OF THE DANTE CLASS. The damage to the hull was also not significant. …。

As for the Oregon? How to say it, the Americans on this battleship finally experienced the pleasure of suppressing their opponents, and the Cologne, which had already been deposed with a 10-inch gun, was really powerless in the face of this Iron Turtle with 4 13-inch guns and 4 8-inch guns! …。

In addition to the inevitable fire accident, the loss of armament was the destruction of two 10-inch guns on the Spanish and one 10-inch gun and a twin 6-inch turret on the Madrid. Of course, a lot of losses like the 12-pounder secondary gun were unavoidable. The situation of the King was a little worse, the losses of armament were very limited, and the four 11-inch guns were still playing a huge role...... However, the hit on the hull caused a certain degree of water ingress, especially the 13-inch shell that hit the middle of the hull, which cracked the connection of the entire armor belt, and a crack with an area of about 2 square meters led to a large amount of water ingress into the hull, and the destruction of the ship type also increased the resistance of the battleship, and it was necessary to slow down. One of the main turrets and one of the secondary turrets were completely destroyed, as the bow was heavily flooded, causing a certain amount of head roll. At the same time, the hull was tilted about 3 degrees, and the speed dropped to 15 knots.

"Come closer. It's already 4:50 p.m., and we need to completely solve the secondary guns of the American battleship formations in the next half an hour. If it drags on a little longer, once it gets evening, it won't be easy. Yang Yonglin looked at his watch and said..........

"Well, if it loses, it's useless for the fleet to stay." Severa looked at her fleet in pain, and then said resignedly. "The fleet is a little closer, we need to give the American battleships a bath with shells!"

Then the whole fleet, led by the Spaniard, turned to the left and passed half a compass point. The distance between the two sides is further narrowed! Recently, it's only a little over 2KM! And the Americans did not have the slightest fear, they kept course without fear of the onslaught of the Spanish fleet! The roar of artillery became the only sound on the battlefield, whether the gun commander was directing or not, or even whether the gun commander was still alive or not, the gunners on both sides were as numb as machines, and they tirelessly loaded ammunition, closed the bolts, and then aimed and fired. They don't know when they're going to die, but they know that as long as they live, they have to fight.

Thank you for the book friend for a thousand years unchanged 777, the life-threatening scholar, the old man of the strait, and the monthly ticket support of athlon9527, in other words, I changed 4000 words yesterday, and the new chapter subscription is only 220+, so the author is too unmotivated——! (Your support is my biggest motivation.) )。