.

The William III seemed to be out of control and was moving forward to the northwest in a long distance. Rounds of shells continued to fly towards the ship, causing its superstructure, which had been ravaged by artillery fire, to be hit again. The remaining 149mm secondary gun was still spitting flames at the opponent, but it did not produce any effect. The flying large-caliber shells quickly swept away them.

Bridge and turret b

At about 9:21, the William III d turret pointed to the front of the port side was hit by a 556mm shell. The main gun on the right side of the turret immediately lost its function, and an unknown fire broke out in the turret. However, under the leadership of the gunman, the artillery still insisted on firing two shells with the remaining left tube.

Then the fire and smoke quickly forced all the members of the gun team to escape from their posts, so this became another main turret that had lost its combat effectiveness. After that, the turret was

927 points. The efforts of the sailors in the turret were achieved. The 480mm main gun was accidentally fired, which scared the sailors on both sides. But this was just a rebirth. The British increasingly fierce and precise artillery fire completely shattered the German resistance, and the turret was quickly dumbfounded again.

At 931, the turret fired another salvo, and the shells landed not far from the battleship Nelson again. This was the last masterpiece of the main gun William III. A 356mm shell hit the front of the turret. Although it did not penetrate the armor plate, the lifting and rotating systems were damaged. The main gun on the left side of the turret could not continue to be used. At this time, the turret commander understood that the situation was hopeless and had to order all members to evacuate.

So the last remaining main turret also lost its function. Fires or minor explosions occurred in various degrees of internal turrets. In order to avoid more serious deaths, the damage managers who were still on duty began to pour water into several ammunition depots as usual.

The power system also suffered a major blow during the same period. According to the survivors of the damage center, the time was between 9:20 and 9:30, and a shell exploded in a boiler cabin on the starboard side, causing a small amount of fuel to catch fire (Note 7). Several other sailors were scalded by leaked high-pressure steam. The engine compartment on the left was also hit by the shell and stopped operating.

At this time, the warship became a floating city of death, and the angle of the hull tilted to the port side continued to steadily increase. However, her battle flag was still flying high at the top of the mast, which meant that the battle was still going on. However, this may not be a complete manifestation of courage. Since the entire ship had lost unified command, the crew had fallen into chaos, and most departments had lost the ability to master the situation.

At this time, the USS Nelson headed northeast and passed the left front of William III. The distance between the two sides was less than 6,000 meters, and William III, who was in difficulty in turning, collided with the British muzzle. The Dorset heavy cruiser, who had just completed the steering, also drove from the east, and the shadow of the death ground suddenly enveloped the German ship.

At this time, William III had become a target ship, and British warships surrounded them, pouring ammunition of various caliber unscrupulously. Due to the storm of fireworks on the German ship and the landing points of the shells were very dense, the observation of British gun officials encountered great difficulties. This problem temporarily became the protective umbrella of German warships, reducing the shelling efficiency of the British fleet. However, despite this, a considerable number of shells hit the German ships, and most of the hits were concentrated in the superstructure, among which the mast tower was the most severely damaged.

Nelson opened fire while driving in front of William III, and has since been wandering around William III, and inadvertently turning the focus of the strike to starboard. This is the first time since the age of the Dreadnought, a battle between battleships at such close distances occurred in broad daylight (if this could be called a battle).

After issuing the order of self-sinking, Hanse left the command post surprisingly. However, it is probably inappropriate to call this abolition. According to the testimony of other survivors, this should be due to the failure of the communication system in the ship at that time and even if the order is issued, it cannot be transmitted to other departments. It is estimated that the reason for this situation should be that some communication cables located above the main armored deck were damaged by artillery fire. The ship had to make great sacrifices because the main armored deck was too low and the space under the cabin was small. It not only extended the length of the protection area, but also caused many cables and communication cables to be placed above the main armored deck, which seriously reduced the overall protection level of the warship. After the communication equipment was gradually destroyed as the battle progressed, the communication situation inside the ship also deteriorated, eventually causing the entire ship to fall into chaos.

At that time, the failure of the communication system in the ship was confirmed in many ways, and many people did not receive the order to abandon the ship and sink themselves in time. For example, Baron von Murlenheim Rechberg did not receive this order at all. He used the telephone number inside the ship to contact other departments, but almost all of them could not be reached. The commander of the central turbine room Grhard Control Center received the order to abandon the ship and sink themselves, and then lost contact with the outside world. He had to send people to inquire about the situation, while leading the metros and soldiers to hurry to start preparing for the self-sinking.

But until all the preparations were completed.

No further instructions were received. Grhard had been completely interrupted. So he had to order all sailors to leave the main room. The head of the machine stayed to place explosives on the main room and set up a 9-minute detonation fuse until the head of the machine left. The head of the machine was still running according to the last order. Soon after, he had escaped to the grhard in the upper cabin.

At this time, the reserve buoyancy on the starboard side had been used up, and all the tilted control tanks were filled with sea water. The personnel in the damage center fled immediately after the communication system failed. At this time, Baron Fon Murlenheim Reshiberg, who was already in a hurry to turn around in the fire control station in the rear, finally opened up this time, and the Baron asked him who was in charge of commanding the warship and what the specific situation was. However, the damage manager was very nervous and told him that the two officers in the damage management department had fled the damage management center. Finally, he said that he was the last person in the damage management room and had to escape quickly.

Only then did Baron von Murlenheim Rechberg realize that something was wrong. Despite the news about the ship, such orders were not needed. British warships were constantly falling on William III. The Baron believed that hiding in the rear fire control station with armor protection was safer than rushing out with flying shells and shrapnel, so he decided not to leave his post for the time being.

Due to poor communication, the order to abandon the ship quickly caused a severe panic among the sailors. Most of the sailors on the ship were inexperienced recruits, and they could no longer remain calm at this critical moment of life and death. They rushed to the open deck. Many cabin doors had been closed or stuck, and the elevator escalators had stopped operating, making it difficult for many sailors in the lower cabin to escape. This even exacerbated the psychological pressure of the sailors. The trapped people climbed up from all exits, including ammunition lifting passages, but few successful people were successful.

Most of the officers on the ship quickly lost control of the situation, making the chaos uncontrollable. Some lucky people quickly fled to the open-air deck, but the bad thing was that no one lowered the flagship in time. The unknown British fleet still fired shells in an orderly manner, blowing the German sailors who fled to the deck to the bloody fleeing.

A violent explosion occurred in the turret of 940,b. It was estimated that the flames in the tower ignited shells or fired medicine packs stored at the back of the turret. The violent explosion knocked down the rear wall of the turret, which was as thick as millimeters. The flames surged out from the various ruptures at the top of the turret. The nearby wooden deck also began to catch fire, and the scene was very tragic.

After a while, Dresman and others, who finally arrived at the front bridge from the narrow passage, unexpectedly witnessed the scene and were stunned. After that, they found the bodies of two officers near the bridge. Dresman recognized that one of them was more than half an hour ago. When the ammunition depot of 62nd guns caught fire, they directly ordered him to fill the water into the cabin, and at this time he had become a cold corpse.

About 950. As the inclination of the William III to the left continued to increase, the already broken front mainmast was about to run out of oil. At this time, the left side of the mast was hit by two large caliber shells (it was probably the 356mm shell fired by George III), which again seriously damaged the building structure of the mast, causing the mast to break from it and fall to the port side. Dresman and others who were still on the bridge were also injured to varying degrees, but they were all spared.

954. The main gun of George III finally got rid of the troubles of various faults and was able to carry out all the firepower to strike William III. In the past 34 minutes, the eight main guns in the two quad-mounted main turrets suffered from the failure of the bullet or the rotary mechanism, which seriously limited the ammunition release and greatly reduced the efficiency of the artillery. Only the two main turret operated normally.

At around 10 o'clock, Nelson fired a millimeter torpedo of this ship to the starboard side of William III. Later, the crew claimed that the torpedo hit the target, but failed to obtain other evidence to confirm whether it was true. At that time, the German ship itself was surrounded by fireworks, and the surroundings were like rain. No one could explain the specific situation in the chaos.

At about 10 o'clock, a 356mm shell penetrated the upper port hull protected by a 145-meter armored belt. After passing through several cabins, it flew into the rear cafeteria and exploded. The originally bustling voices in the cafeteria were immediately replaced by miserable whine and groans. More than 100 German officers and soldiers who took refuge in the cafeteria and nearby cafeteria were killed, and an unknown number of crew members were injured. (There are also information that the death toll caused by this shell was as high as 200.) The deceased included the executive officer mentioned above. This man issued an order to open the sea valve about half an hour ago, but it was not clear when he retreated to the rear cafeteria.

According to witnesses, he was killed at a certain location between the elevator and the restaurant, when he was shouting to the people in the restaurant and abandoning the ship immediately. The hit was confirmed by the British and was likely the highest record of casualties caused by a single shell that day.

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Ma Yue turned around and smiled, the afterglow of the setting sun reflected his eyes, burning into two cold red flames, and the eyes of the two thousand soldiers were instantly focused on his face.

"Break the city and take three days off! Those who are the first to enter the city will be rewarded with a thousand gold medals!"

"Aowu~~"

As soon as Ma Yue finished speaking, the two thousand elite cavalry howled wildly, waving the steel knife and spear in their hands while howling. The wildfire had already ignited in his eyes, like a pack of wolves smelling blood, revealing bloody fangs.
Chapter completed!