boom!!

A huge water column rose less than 50 meters on the starboard side of the Bristol. The huge kinetic energy generated by the explosion caused the ship to shake for a while. The water column rising into the sky was mixed with the corpses of the fish that had been blown to pieces, and they were slapped fiercely.

On board the Bristol.

"Damn it, turn one compass point to the left again and check if the hull is damaged." Vincent stumbled, and would have fallen again if he hadn't been holding on to the railing.

"Report, everything at the bottom of the warehouse is normal, and no traces of cracking were found." The damage control inspected it once and gave good news.

Even if the large-caliber shells do not hit directly but explode close to both sides of the warship, they will still cause damage to the warship.

Because of the incompressibility of water, water can conduct the energy generated by explosions very sensitively, and the underwater parts of ships are often fragile.

This is also the reason why torpedoes do more damage to ships than artillery shells. Of course, the weight of torpedoes cannot be ignored. A heavy torpedo often weighs more than 1 ton and has a warhead charge of 100 to 200 kilograms or even more.

A large-caliber artillery shell, such as a 460mm armor-piercing shell with a charge of 18 kilograms, can take ten rounds to hit one torpedo. Of course, the damage of the artillery shell depends not only on the charge, but also on the kinetic energy.

"Sir, the Shakespeare is under shelling." An observer said, pointing in the direction of the Shakespeare.

"What? Damn it! These ungentlemanly Germans, don't they even have basic aristocratic traditions? A group of country bumpkins are not worthy of driving a battleship!" The chief of staff stretched his head and saw the water column rising around the Shakespeare.

, and immediately began to curse.

"The Shakespeare did not hoist the white flag. I just ordered the sailors to abandon the ship and did not ask them to hoist the white flag." Vincent walked over and looked at the firelights on the hull of the Shakespeare and the surrounding flames.

1 small water column.

Vincent ordered the Shakespeare not to flood and scuttle, in order to allow the Shakespeare to attract firepower and provide more life for other warships.

One destroyer had one-third of its boiler blown up. Even if there were no problems with other systems, it would be impossible to survive the attack from several enemy destroyers and cruisers.

Vincent knew this, so he ordered the people to abandon the ship. Now the Royal Navy has more ships. Although the destroyer leader is one point larger than the ordinary destroyer, it is still a destroyer in the end, and the British Empire has no shortage of it.

But the situation is different for skilled sailors. Sailors need to train for a long time, which takes much longer than the army.

Although Britain is a traditional maritime power with countless sailors, Britain needs to maintain shipping, especially under the threat of Germany, and needs more and more transport ships.

At this time, the value of skilled sailors becomes apparent.

Vincent could only silently pray that the sailors on the Shakespeare had obeyed the order and left the warship, otherwise the deck-washing bombardment of the German 105mm rapid-fire cannons would have caused heavy casualties.

Boom!

There was another explosion, this time the explosion was much closer, and the vibration was more severe. Vincent felt that his feet had left the deck.

"Bottom deck, report the situation." Before the ship could stabilize, Vincent immediately rushed to the phone and inquired from the bottom.

"Report, there is a water leak on the starboard side. The amount of water is huge. We don't know the details of the leak at the moment. We are preparing to plug the leak." The voice of the damage control officer came from the phone.

After feeling the cruiser under my feet, the speed indeed slowed down a bit.

Vincent knew that this was not caused by a simple water leak. The explosion was too close to the hull, and the vibration caused the hull's speed to decrease.

There is a long process of accelerating in water. The explosion is equivalent to interrupting this process and requires re-acceleration.

"It's about to turn right and the rudder will be full, hold on tight." Vincent said to the other end of the phone and hung up the phone without caring about the reply.

Various tools are needed to repair leaks in damaged pipes, and warships are required not to maneuver at large angles, otherwise the machine may crush people or damage equipment.

Vincent knew that doing so would greatly extend the time to repair the leak, the Bristol would take in more water, and its speed would further slow down.

But Vincent had no choice. In the long-range artillery battle at sea, the impact point of the shell was only 50 meters away from the warship. It could basically be regarded as a hit, but he was just unlucky.

All you need to do is increase the projection amount by 1 point and bring a little bit of luck, and you will always hit.

If they don't carry out large-angle maneuvers, the goddess of fate may not favor them again next time.

"Full the right rudder, turn right 30 degrees and straighten the ship. Wait for the Germans to fire two more rounds of shelling, then full the left rudder." Vincent ordered the helmsman.

"The Glasgow has been hit!" the staff officer pointed to the port side of Bristol.

Vincent turned his head and saw that about 45 kilometers to the left of the Bristol, the No. 2 Bristol-class light cruiser, the Glasgow, was spitting out black smoke.

Just now, eight 305mm shells fired by the battlecruiser Blücher flew towards the light cruiser Glasgow.

This was the fourth salvo fired by the Blücher against the Glasgow. None of the previous three rounds had a hit, and even the nearest shell impact point was two to three hundred meters away from the Glasgow.

It was precisely because the German bombardment was getting closer that the Glasgow took maneuvering measures and turned to the left, hoping to make the German bombardment parameters invalid through evasive actions.

Generally speaking, this can delay it for a while.

But the mistake of the Glasgow was here. Due to the influence of the waves, the shelling of the Blücher's round was slightly low, and it was originally missed.

However, the Glasgow's evasive action caused her speed to drop slightly by 1 point, and she happened to be on the Blücher's parabola.

The end has already occurred. A 305mm light armor-piercing projectile was fired from the rear main gun position of the Glasgow, penetrated the deck armor and dome armor, and exploded in the galley warehouse on the rear side of the hull.

The high temperature generated by the explosion ignited the cooking oil in the kitchen, which in turn ignited all combustible materials, causing a huge fire.

Most importantly, the kitchen warehouse is only separated by a wall from the rear main gun magazine, and this weak wall has been torn open several times by fragments generated by the explosion.

The Glasgow is now in a very dangerous situation. If the fire cannot be suppressed quickly, the flames will spread to the ammunition compartment, triggering a chain explosion, and the entire ship will cease to exist.

Like...

Boom!

From Vincent's perspective, a few minutes after the Glasgow was hit and emitting black smoke, a huge explosion suddenly occurred at the tail.

He clearly saw in the telescope that a burst of fire suddenly appeared on the stern of the Glasgow, accompanied by a shock wave visible to the naked eye, which spread in a hemispherical shape.

He saw with his own eyes all kinds of hull fragments and debris flying away, and he even saw the barrel of the Glasgow's rear main gun fly hundreds of meters away.

"The Glasgow is finished, and so are the sailors on it." Vincent was a little sad.

It had only been about ten minutes since the German battlecruisers fired their first shot, but they had lost 6,000 tons of warships, which was one and a half of the warships of this small fleet.

After the Bristol finished with full starboard rudder and completed its left turn, Vincent cast his eyes on the Glasgow again.

By this time, the smoke had dissipated, and the Glasgow's hull had not been completely destroyed, but nearly half of it had sunk. The bow of the ship was raised high, pointing straight into the sky.

"Are there any survivors?" Vincent saw several figures jumping off the bow of the ship, or falling off?

There may be some survivors, but they are also unfortunate.

The hull of the Glasgow was separated by the aft main gun, and the hull behind the aft main gun was completely destroyed by the explosion. After the explosion, a large amount of seawater poured in, the damage control had failed, and the warship sank rapidly.

During the sinking process, a vortex will be formed with the ship body as the center. This is the most difficult difficulty for survivors who have not taken a lifeboat to overcome.

The explosion was so sudden that by the time it was over, the Glasgow was already tilting so much that it was impossible to lower the lifeboat smoothly.

Therefore, some experienced sailors will jump out from the outermost side of the hull at this time, tilt as much as possible when entering the water, and then swim out.

Those who are lucky will escape from the control of the whirlpool, or simply jump to an area out of reach of the whirlpool. Those who are unlucky will be directly pulled by the turbulent current, unable to escape at all, and drowned alive.

All Vincent could do was to pray silently, hoping that the survivors would have better luck, although their luck was already very bad.

"Report to General Beatty that the Glasgow and Shakespeare have sunk. Our ships will continue to sail westward and try to attract the enemy to the shore for the glory of the Royal Navy."

Vincent looked at the chief of staff, his intention was very clear, he hoped to let the chief of staff send a telegram.

"The Glasgow is full of good guys, and so is the Bristol." The Chief of Staff patted Vincent on the shoulder before leaving.

"Reduce the speed to 20 knots, maintain the steam pressure, quickly repair the damage pipe, and lead the Germans to the west. Where is General Betty waiting for these Germans!" Vincent arranged his clothes to make them as possible as possible

Be more decent.

"For the king!"

With this gesture, Vincent lied to the sailors. At this time, Betty was north of them, at most slightly offset to the east, but definitely not to the west.

…

"General, a telegram from Lieutenant Colonel Vincent. He is a gentleman. Many nobles do not have the qualities of Lieutenant Colonel Vincent."

"If possible, I hope to apply to His Majesty the King to grant him a knighthood after the battle is won. This is the honor he deserves and the glory of the Royal Navy."

After reading the telegram, the chief of staff held his head high and said to Betty with great energy.

"According to the data recorded on the chart, if the pressure and ventilation are strong, we can rush over." Betty was silent for a moment after reading the telegram.

"How far is the Renown from us?" Betty looked at his eastern position on the chart.

In fact, the reputation level has almost caught up with them, and both sides can even see faint smoke clouds. However, an hour ago, Betty sent the reputation to sail to the east.

At that time, the entire British Navy firmly believed that the German battlecruisers were hidden northeast of Vincent.

The tactic Betty chose was to flank the German battlecruisers from both sides. This was the safest tactic if the Germans were anywhere.

But now, things have changed.

"Premature contact will cause huge changes and even affect the entire campaign layout. I do not support this."

"General, the soldiers of Vincent's fleet are all good. Because of this, we cannot let the opportunity they bought with their lives go in vain. I believe Lieutenant Colonel Vincent is not willing to see the Germans run away.

"
Chapter completed!