.

The heavy cruiser fired shells at the starboard side of the Lin III at 2 meters away, so the Germans were in a dilemma of being attacked from left to right. At about the same time, Nelson's 6-inch secondary gun also began to fire shells at William III.

After the corrections of the gun officers, the third volley of the main gun of the Nelson hit William III. At this time, the bad luck of William III came again. From about 8:58 to 9, Nelson made 4 and 5th volleys at a distance of about 18,000. A total of 2,381 mm shells hit the area where the main gun group in the rear of the hull of William III was located, causing serious damage to the main gun group.

Before the Germans reacted, an 8-inch shell fired by Norfolk hit the foremast building, destroying the front fire control room. There was another 381mm b turret in 902. The shell exploded, and the lifting device of the two main guns in the tower was destroyed. The British sailors quickly observed that the guns of the two main guns were lifted up to a maximum elevation angle of 30 degrees, and the turret was also fully powerful. In this way, just 15 minutes after the war started, William III had lost 2/3 of the main gun fire power and the front fire control room.

904, the heavy cruiser of Dorset County was 18 (fire). After that, the British artillery fire became more and more accurate. George III had previously failed to score due to some errors in identifying the bounce point. However, at around 9:10, the ship's main gun sent 5356mm shells to William: The bombing caused the entire ship of William III to be violently shaken, and one of the shells also pulled away the top cover of the No. 62 sub-cannon turret located on the port side and the wall behind the side.

Clayderman and Ludsman, who were standing in the commander tower, felt a violent shaking, and the lights flickered and darkened. After finally taking a firm footstep, Ludsman hurriedly ordered Clayderman to report the loss. Clayderman began to inquire about the loss, and the adjutant quickly connected the loss tube, and the sound on the other end of the phone was already a little panicked:

"A fire broke out in the ammunition depot of the No. 62 sub-aircraft gun. Now, seawater has been poured into the No. 62 sub-aircraft gun to avoid a death explosion. At this time, some sailors still did not escape, but in order to protect the warships, they can only sacrifice them. In this way, our buoyancy will be weakened. Moreover, due to the left-leaning weight, we need to immediately inject water symmetrically, which will cause a total loss of about 1,200 buoyancy."

The adjutant turned around and reported to the two superiors:

"In addition to the problem of a gunpowder chamber with a secondary gun, the damage pipe has been solved now! However, the sea water poured into the ship quickly consumed the reserve buoyancy of the ship, increasing the draft depth of the hull. The angle of the hull tilt to the left is gradually increased. The center of the damage pipe had to symmetrically inject water into the right cabin to restore the balance of the hull.

If it were just these attacks, then it would still be possible to survive. However, immediately, the secondary artillery group located on the starboard side was also attacked by British heavy cruisers 8-inch shells at about the same time. The situation was in danger. Another 381mm storage room caused the shells to explode and killed many anti-aircraft artillery soldiers who were on standby in nearby cabins.

The blazing flames began to spread on the decks and superstructures of the hull. The ground ammunition used by these large-caliber anti-aircraft guns suffered multiple explosions in battle due to the lack of strict protection measures. This became a serious safety hazard. One of the explosions even completely dismembered an air-to-air shooting commander on the port side.

In fact, this is also one of the common problems of large German warships. The heavy cruiser Blüchel, which sank in the Oslo Fjord in Norway in 1916, suffered a lot because of this. Unfortunately, William III did not make any improvements to this shortcoming, so this tragedy happened again a year later.

However, this is also the advantage of the Germans. They would rather take such a risk than reduce the firing rate of the artillery. Among the two options, choosing the most dangerous one is also worthy of admiration.

At this time, Baron Von Murlenheim Reshiberg, the fourth gun officer of the rear fire control station of William III, had heard the news that the front fire control station had lost its combat effectiveness on the inside control phone, and then received an order from the bridge: Since the two turrets of the front main gun group had lost their combat effectiveness and the front fire control instruments had also been destroyed, the rear main gun group was now controlled by the rear fire control station to continue fighting.

According to Baron von Murlenheim Reshiberg himself, he received this order after 0:00 (about 9:07) (and this was the only order he received from the command department in the entire battle.), and also said that the main gun was in him

A total of 4 shellings were carried out next. According to the situation where the British lost its effective counterattack ability at around 9 o'clock, and then suspended the shelling and performed tactical maneuvers, it can be believed that the Baron's estimate of time was quite accurate.

Baron von Murlenheim Rechberg immediately issued relevant instructions on the main turret of C and D, and changed the target to George III, because he had observed the target for a while. The last main gun in the rear pointed to the battleship of the George III at 7 o'clock, and the distance between the two sides was about 11,000. Good visibility helped the Baron's distance. After three rounds of test firing, he had measured the correct distance between the two sides. In the fourth round of artillery shells, the shells fired by William III raised huge white mushroom-shaped water columns on both sides of George III, which meant she had caught the opponent. The loud noise made by the shells when the shell exploded made many sailors on George III very nervous, worried that they were hit by the next round of shells by William III.

This is a critical moment. If William III can make another one or two more volleys, it will be very likely to hit George III. Almost at the same time (at about 9 o'clock), a 381mm shell fired by Nelson hit the bridge of William III. The people inside the bridge were killed and injured. Since then, the bridge has been repeatedly attacked by artillery fire.

About a minute later, another large-caliber shell hit and penetrated William III's rear mast tower, pulling the rear optical rangefinder and the base away, and the eyepiece lens used by the fire control officer was also shattered. The fire control department of William III lost the last means of commanding the main gun. The frustrated Baron Von Murlenheim Reshiberg watched the opportunity pass and could only issue an order to make the last two main turrets fight.

At this point, about 26 minutes after the war started, William III was hit with a total of 128-inch shells, 15 356mm shells, 24 381mm shells, 4 main turrets, bridges, and front and rear rangefinders were destroyed one after another. This means that after the ship lost its effective maneuverability, it lost its unified command and fire control, and basically lost its combat effectiveness. Using words such as "pointing acupoint" or "surgical strike" to describe the shelling during this period is just right. Next, what is waiting for William III will be a huge number of shells.

913. Nelson temporarily suspended the shelling. Three minutes later, Nelson fired a 622-meter torpedo at William III with an underwater torpedo launcher at a distance of about meter, but failed to hit it. Since William III had basically lost its combat effectiveness, the British battleship began tactical maneuvers. First, Nelson turned around to starboard and turned north, and the relative position with the German ship was also changed from opposite-direction to opposite-direction to opposite-direction.

George III, which was far away from the German ship, chose to turn north to the port after the ceasefire, which also shortened the distance between it and the target. The two gunmen of William III's rear main gun group also reused the nearest Nelson as the strike target, and carried out some sporadic independent shootings, but due to the lack of unified fire control, it could not pose too much threat to the British warships. After the two British battleships completed the turn one after another, they resumed their shelling operations against the German ships.

920, the Ark Royal aircraft carrier outside the battlefield began to take off the swordfish torpedo attack aircraft, with a total of 12 aircraft taking off one after another and then flying towards the battlefield.

920, the old fault of the A-turret of George III was caused by a serious failure. In the next 30 minutes, the captain was frustrated and immediately ordered all the secondary guns to start firing shells at William III.

The 356mm main gun used by the ship is a product of Vickers. Its good shooting accuracy has been tested in actual combat. However, due to the poor technology of producing multi-unit turrets, it has low reliability and frequent mechanical failures. This problem was not partially resolved until the late stage of World War II. However, in this battle, such problems seriously plagued the battleship George III, making it unable to fully exert firepower for a large part of the battle and indirectly extended the battle time.

At the same time, the Norfolk heavy cruiser turned northeast and soon turned westward, continuing to fire 8-inch shells at a distance. The Dorset, which was sailing eastward, turned to starboard. The ship's main gun was less "speaking", but it was quite accurate. It hit the key parts of William III many times, leaving a deep impression on the personnel on the German ship. At this time, the Nelson was slowly turning to the east and began to approach William III.
Chapter completed!