Sukhoi was a little tired, even if he was a flying maniac, he couldn't withstand such a continuous sortie today, from morning to now he had made three sorties in a row, only getting off the plane to call a certain immortal and running to the toilet, and the rest of the time he stayed up in the cabin.

The consumption of such a high-intensity flight is quite large, and even Sukhoi, who claims to be an iron man, is a little overwhelmed, holding the joystick with one hand and expertly unpacking the chocolate with the other, and then swallowing about 500 grams of chocolate like a hungry man.

After eating his fill, Sukhoi felt a little better, but only a little better. His eyes were sore and swollen, like pins and needles. There is no way, if you don't blink your eyelids and look at the sea for half an hour, this will be the result.

Sukhoi was not searching for enemy ships, in fact, after the second wave of attacks, the Anglo-American combined fleet was already maneuvering north at high speed, and it was clear that they were running away, and by the time the Sukhoi boys refueled and hung up their bombs and returned to the battlefield, they had already disappeared completely.

It was nothing more than Basilev's request to bother Sukhoi to continue to dispatch in person, and Basilev's fleet had lost contact with the two leading formations, and the old man was now so anxious that he had to ask Sukhoi and his boys to send out again to help find clues.

Eight dreadnought-class battleships is not a small number, once upon a time, Russia used the entire national effort to build only seven dreadnoughts. If eight ships were lost in one battle, Basilev would have to hang himself.

Sukhoi was also in the same hurry as the old man, after all, eight dreadnoughts involved the life and death of nearly nine thousand people. This is no joke!

What the. You ask, how can there be nine thousand people on eight dreadnoughts? Rookie no. The crew of each Gangut ship is about 1,100 people, and the average crew of the four German battle cruisers is about this number, which adds up to almost 9,000 people!

But what made Sukhoi more speechless was that his people had already searched the sea area where the incident occurred, and many of the British sailors who were in distress found them, but none of his own people could see them. The mustache sometimes suspects that Basilev is deliberately playing tricks on him!

In desperation, Sukhoi had to expand the scope of his search, which naturally made him even harder. However, even if I expanded the scope of my search, I still didn't get anything. It was as if the eight dreadnoughts had evaporated from the world.

Sukhoi yawned in the cockpit and prepared to search a dozen nautical miles further before returning home, because he was running out of fuel. I have to say that the mustache's luck was really good, and his last search before returning turned out to be fruitful.

After flying forward for a while, through a cumulonimbus cloud, smoke billowed from the sky ahead, and even a rumbling explosion could be faintly heard. Sukhoi hurriedly lowered his altitude to see what he saw.

I don't know if I don't see it, and I'm shocked when I see it. More than a dozen warships on the sea were mixed together and slaughtered, and the heavy artillery salvos one after another were really quite shocking. At one point, the splashed water almost hit Sukhoi's wingtips.

Soon Sukhoi identified the warships below, four German-made battle cruisers and four Ganguts against five queens and three more British battle cruisers. Sukhoi breathed a sigh of relief. Hurry up the height, and then ask the deputy in the back seat to send a telegram to Basilev.

And just as Sukhoi was scrambling to send a telegram, the situation on the battlefield entered an inflection point, and the previous evenly matched situation was broken!

The Warweariness had been following the flagship Queen Elizabeth to shoot at the enemy's second ship, the De Fringer, and although it had not been able to achieve any decent results, it did not allow de Verblinger to take advantage of it. It wasn't until the fifteenth volley that the War Weary finally opened!

It was a beautiful blow, and when the 381-mm armor-piercing projectile broke free from the barrel of the gun and flew 15 kilometers in one fell swoop and smashed into the sea near the D-Vorlinger, 8 magnificent columns of water rushed into the sky.

"Straddle, hold, one more round, quick!"

The war-weary-horn gun chief shouted excitedly. Because this round of straddle fire was so beautiful, the spread of the eight shells was quite small, and two shells landed on the port side of De Vorlinger, and the other landed a little further on the starboard side, almost making a face to face with De Fleeter.

In the opinion of the Warweary's gunslinger, De Fringle was locked on, and as long as his luck wasn't too bad, he should be able to get the result in the next salvo. The main thing now is to be fast, and you have to do the fatal blow before De Fringer changes course!

Soon, at the urging of the gunner, the Warweary fired a new round of salvos, but unfortunately, it was still off target, and compared with the previous misses, this time there was no even a straddle shot, all of them were close rounds!

Just as the war-weary gunner's gun commander was annoyed and cursed and chattered to the gunners' mothers, the next scene made him a little baffled. The De Fringer, which did not suffer a blow, fell off at an inexplicable speed, and then slowly broke away from the battle line, as if it was injured?

The British wondered, why did they withdraw from the battle when they didn't even touch De Fleeter? Could it be a mechanical failure?

It's a pity that this guess is wrong, and the director Zì de Fringer withdrew from the battle not because of a mechanical failure, but because he was really hit hard. The war-weariness hit the volley of the straddle shot, and in fact De Fringer was shot!

There may be comrades who want to ask, author, aren't you, it's obviously a straddle shot, isn't the straddle shot just missed? How did De Fringle get hurt?

Straddle fire does mean not hitting the target directly, please note that the words "direct hit" are important, and not hitting the target directly does not mean that you can't hit the target. Quite simply, the direction and velocity of an object change when it collides with another medium at a certain velocity.

It's the same with a shell, when it rushes into the sea at a certain angle and speed, it inevitably changes direction. Generally speaking, for ordinary shells, this change in direction is random, and it is possible to continue in either direction, but sometimes if you are unlucky, you will get stuck in your teeth when you drink water. For example, before World War II, devils were desperately studying the crooked "underwater bullets", hoping to use the "underwater bullets" to bypass the strong defensive belts of enemy ships. Hit the underbelly.

And this close-miss shot, which did not directly hit De Fringer, turned under the action of the seawater. Turned to the fragile bottom of the De Fringer. Bypassed the heavy armor near the waterline. The shell pierced through the weak hull and rushed all the way to the boiler room before it exploded unwillingly.

The explosion brought half of the De Fringer's boiler to a halt, and the high-pressure steam and boiling hot water killed a single life in the boiler compartment in an instant. According to the recollection of the damage management team members who went to the boiler room to rescue the emergency, the whole boiler room was filled with a smell of meat, and this very appetizing taste made most of them choose to eat vegetarian diets in the lower half of their bodies. Because once they smell the aroma of that protein, they can't help but think of that scene back then.

The D'Verblinger was actually lucky, and after being shot, he got out of the battlefield early. was lucky to avoid the slaughter in the back, and it was considered to have picked up a small life. And those warships that remained on the battlefield at that time were not so lucky.

After the Dfringer withdrew from the battle, the pressure on Samekov and Yashin was huge, they were already at an absolute disadvantage, and now they don't even have the so-called numerical balance on the field, and it is very likely that they will be beaten next!

At that time, the mood of both Samekov and Yashin was heavy, quite simply, and now there are not many options left for them. The main force of the fleet has been missing for a long time, and the shape of the scene is getting worse and worse. I'm afraid they can't even take the initiative to retreat!

Why can't it be withdrawn? Actually, it's not that it can't. But they can't run away. The speed of the four Ganguts was too slow, and it was almost impossible to run away in front of the Queen. And Yashin couldn't retreat. Samekov couldn't run for his life alone, and if he ran away regardless of it, Yashin would have been slaughtered. Samekov can't do such an undisciplined thing!

So Samekov and Yashin could only grit their teeth and support it, hoping that the main force of the legendary fleet would rush to the battlefield as much as possible!

In fact, it is enough to choke, due to the mistake of the translator, Basilev led the main forces of the fleet in the wrong direction, and went further and further, even if Sukhoi could correct this mistake in time, it would take time for Basilev to rush back to the battlefield. In other words, Samekov and Yashin could not avoid being hanged!

It was indeed a one-sided beating, and when de Verblinger withdrew from the battle, Queen Elizabeth and the Warweary concentrated their fire on the Hindenburg, and in a short time the Hindenburg was frequently shot.

Hindenburg was first named by the Queen's 152 mm secondary gun company, one of which directly destroyed Hindenburg's rangefinder, instantly depriving Hindenburg of the ability to return fire, and then destroyed the lifeboat and transport boat in the middle of the Hindenburg's hull, where the sailors fighting in the gun position enjoyed a rain of wood chips.

This was still light, just as the gunners of the Hindenburg tried to resume the battle with the rangefinder on the front main gun, a sudden 381 mm armor-piercing shell accurately lifted off the celestial spirit cover of the front main gun, and with great kinetic energy, this armor-piercing projectile pierced through the two decks of the turret and the fire door, and exploded in the gondola under the turret.

Suddenly, a wave of air instantly lifted off the front main gun of Hindenburg, and this hundred-ton iron lump flew away from the hull of the ship like a dirt plane and landed on the sea dozens of meters away.

The situation at that time was indeed quite critical, the explosion of the No. 1 turret not only destroyed the turret, but also affected the No. 2 turret behind, when the No. 1 turret flew out, the two main guns of the No. 2 turret that were about to fire were smashed into twists, and the fire caused by the explosion of the No. 1 turret quickly spread to the front ammunition depot and the No. 2 turret, and there was a possibility of causing a martyrdom at any time.

At this critical moment, the commander of the second turret desperately gave the order to fill the ammunition depot and turret with water, and when nearly 1,000 tons of seawater poured in, the front half of the Hindenburg was already immersed in the seawater.

It was later found out that the Queen's bomb directly killed more than 100 people, and more than 100 people died indirectly from water injection and fire. All in all, the cannon turned the Hindenburg into a disabled person, and even Samekov had to withdraw from the battle even if he was reluctant.

The shape on the battlefield has deteriorated again, and the advantage of eight to six is quite large, and it must be seen that the Cedritz has been heavily damaged before, a turret has been lit with sky lanterns, and the combat effectiveness is only eighty percent. She will then be under the heavy care of the four Queen-class ships along with the Moltke. The shape shì is precarious!

But it wasn't the two Battlecruisers that suffered first. After all, their defenses were much better than the four Ganguts behind them. Gangut is almost naked when faced with super dreadnought. In the fierce fire, not to mention the 381-mm and 343-mm cannons, even the 152-mm secondary guns can make them suffer.

Soon the Petropavlovsk was shot one after another, and the middle side of the ship was a sea of fire, and the blazing flames bent the deck out of shape, and the last pieces were warped. I have to say that the technological level of the Russian battleship is really enough, and to put it mildly, it is a tofu scum project.

For example, during the Russo-Japanese War. The Russian ship-accompanying engineer who participated in the expedition of the Second Pacific Fleet recalled that the craftsmanship of his warships was a mess, the rivets were not strong, the new ships were leaking everywhere, the boiler materials were substandard, and the conductors were full of faults. All in all, the Russians lost so badly in the naval battle of Japan, in addition to the problems of tactical and personnel training and long-distance expeditions, one of the most important things was that the shipbuilding technology was too improvised.

Although Maozi learned lessons after the Russo-Japanese War, the weak industrial strength is there, and there is no big change in just a decade. All in all. The Gangut class was quite improvised, and the construction process was quite average. may be very powerful before bullying Dreadnought, but when facing genuine Dreadnought, it is really not powerful.

When the Petropavlovsk caught fire, the second ship, the Gangut, was also not feeling well, because the weather was gradually getting worse, and her secondary guns, which were too close to the waterline, were almost unusable. When a wave hit before, there was a large amount of water near the gun cage near the bow of the ship, because it was too late to close the gun hole, and a poor worm that did not run away was drowned alive!

In fact, it is only a small problem that the secondary cannon cannot be used, and the 16 120mm secondary guns of the Gangut class can only tickle the enemy, and they will not play much role at all. What really hurts is the lack of power of the main gun, why not give it? The accuracy is so poor!

The triple main gun does look good and powerful, and it looks like it has superior firepower, but why haven't the naval powers Britain and Germany adopted it before? On the contrary, second-rate goods such as Italy and Austria-Hungary grabbed the front? Is it really just because the British are conservative and the Germans are blindly obedient?

Definitely not, because the triple main gun was indeed problematic at the time, because the spacing before the barrel was too small (certainly smaller than that of the twin), and the muzzle storm generated by the three guns during a salvo would interfere with each other, and the accuracy of the guide shells was greatly reduced. Before the invention of the delayed firing device, the problem was almost unsolvable (unless the salvo was abandoned).

The British, on the other hand, attached great importance to accuracy, and temporarily abandoned the triple turret after a bit of practice, while the Russians resolutely became guinea pigs because of the pursuit of firepower density (a lesson learned from the defeat in the Battle of Japan), so the Gangut class looked very powerful in firepower, but in fact sacrificed accuracy.

So from the beginning of the artillery battle, the Gangut level looked like it was in full swing, but it really didn't make any achievements, so basically it could only be used as an artillery battle. All in all, they did not pose much of a threat to the British, on the contrary, the British gunners hit accurately, and the balance of victory was constantly tilting in their favor!

And here we have to point out the most fatal problem of Gangut, the general layout of the ship is very problematic, four turrets are lined up in a line, one in the bow and one in the stern, one on each side of the rear chimney, it can be said that ninety percent of the length of the entire ship is occupied by the turret and engine room, in short, such an arrangement greatly lengthens the defensive area, and under the limitation of tonnage, it is inevitable that only the thickness of the armor can be reduced.

This is the most important reason why Gangut's displacement of more than 20,000 tons is only a meagre 229 mm of main armor. By the time Gangut's improved version of the Queen Maria class, the Russians had to reduce the number of boiler compartments in order to increase the armor, and the defense was only at the level of the German battle cruisers.

Moreover, what is even worse in this arrangement like Gangut is that the bombed area is greatly enhanced, as long as any bullet is taken, the ship may be destroyed. For example, now, when the armor-piercing shell of the Malaya hit Petropavlovsk near the middle of the rear chimney, the fatal situation happened!

The armor-piercing bullet easily tore through the 229 mm armor and crashed headlong into the boiler room, which was destroyed in an instant, and the high-temperature and high-pressure steam immediately rushed in the direction of the two turrets, and after a few minutes, the fire in the boiler room was not extinguished, and the propellant stored in the No. 3 turret exploded due to the rapid rise in temperature.

In the words of the captain of the Gangut, Onopkov: "A fireball rushed out of the middle of the Petropavlovsk like a lightning bolt that tore through the sky...... In an instant the Petropavlovsk broke in two, and I had to order an immediate turn of the rudder to avoid the stern of the ship, which was stubbornly standing on the surface of the sea......"

The Petropavlovsk sank into the icy Baltic Sea with more than half of its sailors, and just as her sister ship was stunned at the sight of the qiē, the blows followed. Onopkov was quickly struck and the Prestige accurately hit his conning tower. The armor 250 mm thick was completely incapable of stopping the opponent's armor-piercing shells, and after a violent explosion, shrapnel swept across the entire bridge. Onopkov himself had a thigh cut off by shrapnel, and when he woke up, he was huddled in a lifeboat with his smoke-covered sailors, and his ship, the Gangut, had been left forever on the soft bottom of the Baltic Sea, following in the footsteps of the Petropavlovsk.

Sukhoi, who was in the air, completely witnessed this "massacre", and he could no longer care about watching the battle, and single-handedly entered the battlefield...... (To be continued......)

PS: Bow and thank you Comrade Juventus!