.

At the same time, the British destroyers were surrounded by bad weather and began to shake the low freeboards of these destroyers violently. However, compared with the terrifying monsters a few miles away, the British warships only hoped that the storm would be bigger, so that they would safely avoid the powerful attacks of the German ships.

Within less than 5 minutes, the British destroyers quickly changed to single digits. William III's heavy artillery played a huge role. In fact, the losses of the British destroyers all came from the main guns of the German ship. The fierce and accurate secondary guns of the German ship, especially those rapid-fire guns that were highly anticipated, basically had no effect.

This is because the opponent he faces is a Southampton-class light cruiser

The total length is 180.3 meters, the waterline is 178 meters long, the shape is 19.5, the draft is 6.1 meters, the standard displacement is tons, the full load displacement is 11,540, the crew

The appearance design has a strong British characteristic. With a forecastle boat type, the newly designed main building is very wider than the light patrol in the first few levels. There are two main gun turrets at the beginning and end of each triple. There are seaplane catapults and cranes between the two tilted backwards in the middle.

The original design intention of this class cruiser is to be able to compete with cruisers with roughly the same tonnage but equipped with 203-meter main gun. The main gun chose a 152-meter caliber, which is also the proposition that Britain has always insisted on. On the surface, the 203-meter main gun has the advantages of range and power, but in fact, the UK advocates the design of the 152-meter main gun to have its superiority.

In terms of range, cruisers equipped with 203 meters main guns are several kilometers long because of their range. In theory, they can eliminate the opponent outside the range of the 152 meters gun cruiser, but due to the limit of hit rate, especially in harsh weather conditions, the advantage of distance is not very good, and cruisers equipped with 152 meters guns can quickly shorten the distance with their opponents with their high speed.

In terms of power, although the weight of the 152-meter shell is less than half of the 203-meter shell (about 250), the weight of the ammunition fired by 12 152-meter cannons per minute is the opponent's 3 (about 7,200 pounds compared to pounds).

Although the Frankfurt-class and Brooklyn-class main guns have 15, the UK still has 12 main guns. This design is more rational, reducing the deck space occupation, effectively saving construction costs, and reducing displacement. If a main turret is added under the premise of 9,100 tons, the armor protection level of the entire ship will inevitably be greatly reduced.

In fact, the light cruisers built by the United States after the Brooklyn class only use guns. Four triple-mounted mk.xxiii 152-meter guns in Southampton-class are 50 caliber tubes, with a rate of fire of 8/min, and a maximum range of 23,317 meters (at 45 degrees). Each shell weighs 50.8 kilograms and can be loaded manually when it loses power, while 203-meter shells cannot.

The Southampton class is also equipped with 4mk-to-sea and air defense. The rate of fire is 20 rounds per minute and the range is 19,500. The gun is slightly insufficient to sea and has good air defense performance. It is a standard air defense weapon for large British navy warships.

The total weight of the gun is about 16 tons, and the rear is open and without armor protection. There are also 2 quadruple 40-meter ping-pong cannons with a firing rate of 115 per minute and an effective range of 1100. In addition, there are 2 quadruple guns, but they are easily stuck during use, and they are later cancelled during modification. Since it was designed before the war, the threats from the air were not considered sufficiently. When it was first built, the air defense firepower seemed relatively thin.

The modified ship of this class is also equipped with 20mm caliber Erliton anti-aircraft guns, with an initial firing speed of 835/sec and a maximum range of 5700 meters Bofos anti-aircraft guns. After the shell is launched, it can usually self-detonate at about 5,000 distances to increase the hit rate. The maximum firing rate per gun is about 120/min. In addition, there are 533 meters torpedo tubes and 6 triple-mounted installations,> ,> pose a certain threat.

This class has medium protection level, much better than the Frankfurt class, which has been criticized for being accused of, and is basically close to the level of the Brooklyn class in the United States (the protection characteristics of the Brooklyn class are mainly in that the front armor of the turret is as thick as 6.5 inches, and the thickness of the deck armor is slightly larger than that of Southamp. It is better to resist air strikes). 114 mm, which can withstand 152 meters of shells fired from outside and nearly lost 203 meters of shell fragments. The thickest part of the ammunition chamber armor is 114 meters, the deck armor is 32-51 mm, and the turret armor is 25 meters. The Parsons gear-driven turbine steam engine produces a power of 75,000 horsepower. This cruiser with a standard displacement of 9,300 tons reaches about 32, which is comparable to the Brooklyn class.

Therefore, the 150-meter artillery of the German warship caused some damage to the Southampton class, and the main damage was caused by the 480-meter artillery of the German ship. In fact, the order for the Germans to shoot British cruisers was questioned by many people because it was obvious that British cruisers could not threaten the safety of German ships, and German ships should concentrate their firepower on British battleships. However, the historical fact is that German ships suddenly began to concentrate on shooting British cruisers, regardless of the battleship formation.

The situation on the Sheffield was very similar to the situation before the tragedy of the Slam Slam. It continued to drive at full speed on the mist-covered sea, sometimes out of the fog barrier, and sometimes in another fog barrier. The lookouts on the cabin were still focused and held their posts. The warships broke through the splashed waters of the waves and hit them from time to time. They still calmly searched the sea surface around the warships with telescopes, and the radar had already striked earlier.

"Starring 5, find the warship!" a lookout in front suddenly shouted loudly. It was the "William III" moving through the waves. It was sailing out of the fog and rushed straight towards the "Sheffield".

The helm command came from the tube above the helm:

"Left full rudder!"

The helmman immediately turned the steering wheel and watched the dial in the compass rotate smoothly. The warship changed its course sharply with a great tilt.

The boiler cabin started to run at full speed, and a "smoke screen" was displayed on the clattering indicator. While the warship was turning, various control valves were opened to the maximum position. A furnace opened the valve and let the smoke emerge in large quantities. From the peeping hole in the furnace, you could see the rolling incandescent flames, which instantly turned into thick black.
Chapter completed!