1890 King of Southeast Asia

"They are coming for us."

"How thick are the armor plates they put on the battlecruisers? Why can't our 14-inch guns penetrate their waterline armor?"

"Our shells are too sensitive. They will explode if they touch anything. Damn it. The people of Vickers should be court-martialed."

On the Renown-class side, four battlecruisers came aggressively, but now they are in trouble.

They thought that their "battlecruiser killer" with enhanced power and armor could easily determine the direction of the battle.

It's like as long as the Sound is put into battle, everything will be fine.

After all, the Renown-class has battleship-level armor protection, although it is relatively narrow, and it also has a speed that exceeds other battlecruisers, as well as relatively strong firepower.

All of this gives it performance far exceeding that of its peers, allowing it to easily hunt down battlecruisers of the same level.

The designer called it a battlecruiser killer, but Beatty and Fisher and others didn't like this name very much, but the sailors serving on the Renown-class liked it very much.

When the sailors were driving the four Renown-class battlecruisers into battle with high morale, the battle mode they envisioned was:

They could quickly approach the German battlecruisers, form a team calmly, and with the negligible firepower and high speed, they could give the Germans a fatal blow before they could react, and then end the battle.

It's no wonder they thought so, because it was related to the British positioning of battlecruisers, because the initial positioning of battlecruisers was not fleet warships, so they were not required to have heavy armor.

The 9-inch 200-plus millimeters of the Lion class was already good, and the Tireless and Invincible were even only 5 to 6 inches, that is, 127 mm to 152 mm, and this was waterline armor!

The British knew that the Germans attached more importance to defense, but the battlecruisers were there, and they couldn't defend against the same caliber naval guns, right? Aren't they battleships?

However, the Germans positioned their battlecruisers as fleet battleships, just like their battlecruisers were assigned to the 1st Scouting Fleet, rather than forming an independent battlecruisers formation.

The Germans considered putting battlecruisers on the battle line to participate in the decisive battle, so they fully considered the survivability of the ships when designing.

The thickest part of the waterline armor of the first generation Blücher was 260 mm, and it was tilted at a certain angle.

Moreover, the Germans had a mysterious obsession with armor coverage, so the Blücher was much larger in tonnage than the Indefatigable, but the force configuration of both sides was basically the same.

However, in terms of weapon performance, the 305 mm 50-caliber main gun on the Blücher was far superior to the 305 mm 45-caliber main gun of the Indefatigable class.

And going a step further, the thickest part of the armor of the Von der Tann reached 300 mm, and it extended into an armored box, and the watertight compartment bulkhead was 280 mm.

Going one step further, Seydlitz, armor thickness 330 mm, there is a 150 mm lattice inside.

Seydlitz is a little bigger, it is Derfflinger, the basic defense configuration is the same, but Derfflinger's main weapon is not good, the hull is wasted.

Looking at these defense standards, you will find that they are only slightly weaker than the German battleships of the same level, and not much worse than the British battleships of the same level.

Of course, there is a price. At the same level, the tonnage of German battlecruisers is 20% or more more, the cost is almost the same, and the endurance is limited.

The Renown class increased the cost and upgraded. Although the defense upgrade was carried out because the 381 mm main gun could not be in place, it happened to match the Germans' thinking.

So, when Seydlitz and Derfflinger met the Renown class, the war gradually evolved into a battle between battleships.

Everyone threw shells at each other for a long time, but the effect was not very obvious. It was not that they did not hit the target, but that they could not cause effective damage after hitting the target.

However, due to the problem of shells, the British were relatively weak and could only damage the surface of the German ship. Only a few lucky shells could penetrate the deck armor.

The Germans were more "sluggish" because of their shells. They could basically achieve significant results in attacking the secondary core area, but they might not be able to penetrate the core protection areas such as the main armor belt.

This situation lasted until 5:30 pm, when Hipper ordered the German fleet to turn right.

"Even if the distance is shortened again, we will not be able to penetrate the enemy's main armor belt due to the problem of shells, but if the distance is shortened to 10,000 yards, our main armor belt will definitely not be able to withstand the enemy's artillery fire."

"What's the situation on the Royal Princess? Can we cooperate in the pincer attack?"

Captain Florenzi of the Reputation was very angry when he saw the German warships that were still aggressive after being hit by more than ten shells.

Because of the heavy armor of the Reputation class, Florenzi had enough time to carefully observe the effect of the shelling.

Originally, at such a distance, Florenzi should not have noticed any problems. No one could tell that the shells exploded prematurely and failed to penetrate the armor from more than 10,000 meters away.

Until a shell hit the rear mast of the Derfflinger. The Germans used a single mast, and a large-caliber shell directly hit it, which should have been blown off directly.

The mast plays a huge role. It is not only used for observation and aiming, but also for commanding the fleet and communicating with the fleet. The simplest radio antenna is on the mast.

Blowing up the mast is also a good effect.

Then, Florenzi saw the rear mast of the Derflinger, which was still standing after the explosion.

He even saw a figure moving on it, proving that the mast had not lost its function.

Florenzi ruled out all possibilities, such as the Germans obtaining some super materials and using them on the mast, and finally locked the target on the shell.

The fuse delay of the British armor-piercing shells is 0.06~0.03 seconds. If it can penetrate the armor, this delay is enough.

However, the British used passivated picric acid for loading, which is a more powerful explosive than TNT, but very sensitive, and may explode when squeezed.

Florenzi didn't know whether it was a problem with the fuse or the picric acid charge, or both.

He only knew that his shells might have a big problem. It might have hit the railing or rope pointed out from the German mast just now, otherwise there was no way to explain why the shells exploded without damaging the mast.

If the shells were so sensitive, they would either fail to penetrate the enemy's armor, or even if they did, they would explode behind the armor and would not damage the core area.

In this way, he didn't know how to resolve the battle except for penetrating the core areas such as the main armor belt or turrets at the waterline.

What worried him more was what happened to the warships such as the Royal Princess on the other side? Their armor was not as thick as their own reputation.

"We couldn't contact the Royal Princess. The Queen Mary sent us a telegram saying that she and the Royal Princess were seriously injured and were withdrawing from the battle line. They could no longer contain the Germans. Please be careful."

"I think the radio of the Royal Princess may be broken."

After a while, the first mate came back with the telegram.

"How are we?" Florenzi was very unwilling to hear this. Three Lion-class battlecruisers withdrew from the battle line, and there were at most two left on the opposite side. Even if they stood on the battle line, how long could they last?

Without the threat from the west, it was no wonder that the Germans chose to close the distance. They wanted to exchange their injuries for their lives!

If he hadn't suspected that there was something wrong with the shells, Florenzi would really have exchanged with the Germans. Anyway, there were British warships all around. Even if I sank, I would win if I could slow you down.

"The waterline was hit several times, two of which penetrated, and one was in the middle. I suspect that the shell did not penetrate the armor, but it exploded after making a hole, piercing the armor and leaving a big hole."

"Another shell hit the middle and rear, penetrated the waterline armor and then penetrated two decks and two compartments in succession."

"Bad news, we may not be able to eat today. The shell hit the kitchen warehouse, which is terrible. If this shell went a little lower, it would be the rear main gun ammunition depot. Bread and potatoes saved us."

The first mate was still joking humorously. God knows what he felt when he saw the dent on the top of the ammunition depot in the ammunition depot.

"There were also some other hits, none of which were fatal, but we lost more than a dozen cabins. When we return to the port, the sailors can only sleep on the shore." The first mate added.

The situation of the Renown was not good, but not bad either. Although it looked a little tattered, it did not affect its combat effectiveness.

boo!

"The Repulse had a violent explosion, slowed down, and was leaving the queue." The second officer came down from the mast and said anxiously to Florenzi.

"Ask for details." Florenzi looked at the Repulse battlecruiser, which was emitting thick smoke 7800 meters away, and his mood suddenly became very bad.

"Turret No. 2 was hit, and the shells in the turret that had not been fired in time exploded. At present..."

After a while, the first officer received the telegram, but at this time the Repulse was getting farther and farther away.

"Replace high-explosive shells, armor-piercing shells can't have much effect, turn right, speed up, and extend the distance to 16,000 yards." Florenzi looked at the remaining three warships of his side, which were already scarred, and changed his tactics.

Since armor-piercing shells have to explode in advance, Florenzi thinks it is better to use high-explosive shells, at least high-explosive shells have more explosives and are more powerful.

Falling on the deck and superstructure, the damage is greater than armor-piercing shells.

If you don't pursue armor-piercing, you don't need to keep such a close distance. If you move farther away, you won't be penetrated by the Germans.

This is also a helpless solution. The British have seriously damaged 4 warships, and the Germans only have 1 seriously damaged and 1 sunk, but the seriously damaged ones did not reduce their speed, but their firepower dropped very seriously.

At 5:40, the British fleet to the east of the German fleet turned right and pulled away.

Seeing this, Hipper ordered the fleet to increase its speed to 2+4 knots, and ordered the destroyers to move forward, release torpedoes, and break the enemy's formation.

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