After discovering that the target was identified incorrectly, the French began to shift their firepower, re-measuring the distance, and aiming at the target again... and their opponents were ready at this time.

The four 305mm guns of the "Cresey" battleship opened fire first. Just as the French planned to take priority to kill the British battleships, the British also gave priority to attacking the French battleships.

The battleship "Cresey" targeted the French flagship "Turazian" battleship. This is a new type of battleship with a displacement of comparable to that of the "Cresey". It is also the warship that poses the greatest threat to the British fleet.

Four shells flew towards the Tulazhen amid the roar of cannons.

The British have never been able to produce new smokeless launchers. The launchers they used are still old brown gunpowder. The limit of the expansion speed of the gunpowder gas of the brown gunpowder is quite low, which means that the initial velocity of the shells fired by the British artillery is relatively low. In order to pursue armor-piercing ability, the British could only use large caliber and heavy warheads. So although the British guns were so large that the caliber of the British were many times better than those of the French, because the initial velocity was too low, the actual armor-piercing ability was far less than that of the 203mm gun of the "Turajan", and it was not even much stronger than the 150mm gun of the previous generation of the "Caesar" battleship.

Of course, if it is penetrated, the 305mm shell will be loaded much more than any other shell from the French, and it will naturally be much more powerful.

In the first round of shooting, one of the four shells hit the A turret of the "Tulajan". The first round of volleys can get a hit, which is God's blessing. And it also hit such an important position that when the lookout reported "hit the A turret of the enemy ship", Lord George Kirkburn almost jumped up with joy.

However, the Watchtower then made a report like this: "We failed to penetrate the enemy's armor!"

"Damn it! Why are the French so thick-skinned! How is this possible!"

When building this battleship, the British also adopted various methods to collect relevant information about the French Augustus-class battleship. After roughly understanding the size and displacement of the French battleship, they made reverse designs based on the appearance of the battleship to understand what thickness of armor the French could equip the battleship.

According to the British research results, at this distance, the British army's 305 guns should be able to easily penetrate the armor of the Augustus-class battleship, but now, at such a close distance, the 305 shells were actually bombed by the French armor!

"This is not scientific!" Lord George Kirkburn couldn't help but say, "Does these French people not know how to respect science? Did even science stand on Napoleon's side?"

But this is actually very scientific. Science will not stand on Napoleon's side, nor will it occupy the British side, and of course, it will not stand on the side of King Ming.

The reason why the British made mistakes in judgment was mainly because the British adopted the concept of comprehensive defense when designing the reverse direction, while the armor of the Augustus-class battleships adopted the key defense mode. The so-called key defense means that only those places that are really important have thick armor, and those places that are not critical, even if they are shot, will not directly affect their survival and combat effectiveness, and there is no point of armor at all. In this way, the French can pile the key parts of the armor into an extraordinary thick, and the front face of the turret is the thickest place on the entire battleship. If the British shells can penetrate here, the Admiral Brees on the opposite side will also shout "This is unscientific."

Hitting the opponent at such a close distance should have been something that could greatly boost morale. However, the basis for the great boost of morale is to penetrate the opponent's armor. Once it fails to penetrate, the morale will be replaced by the French on the opposite side. On the contrary, the morale of the British plummeted.

The French turned their guns and started to fight back. After all, the 203mm cannon shells were lighter and the firing rate was much faster than the British 305. However, the French fired six 203 shells in the first round.

At this time, the battleship "Poitier" behind the battleship "Cresey" also fired a volley at the French. However, this volley was like the French and he did not hit anything.

The French redistributed their firepower at this time, and the "Trajan" fought against the "Cresey" alone, while the "Caesar" and the two super cruisers and armored cruisers behind the British fought against the "Poitiers". As for the armored cruisers behind the British, they were unable to join the battle yet because they had not had time to complete the turn, Admiral Brees felt that he wanted to seize this opportunity and quickly kill the British.

The shooting of the Caesar is more efficient than that of the Trajan, which is normal, because the Caesar has been in service for many years, and the soldiers are more familiar with her and more skilled in operating it.

In the second round of volleys on the battleship "Poitier", the Caesar scored a hit. Her two shells hit the "Poitier", but this time it was the French turn to be depressed because neither of the two shells could penetrate the armor of the "Poitier".

However, the first round of volleys of "Poitiers" on Caesar was also empty and nothing was hit. The British battleship's 305 guns were loaded very slowly, and it took about two to three minutes to fire one shot. This time was enough for Caesar's 150 guns to shoot five rounds of volleys.

So the "Caesar" shells hit him again, and it was not just Caesar, but the 127mm cannons of the two super cruisers next to him also hit him in a head-on manner.

The British battleships are still adopting a comprehensive defense design. The so-called comprehensive defense is just a larger defense area. It does not really have armor everywhere. For example, the superstructure of warships is basically without armor. This is not another reason, but because if these places are equipped with heavy armor plates, the center of gravity of the entire ship will rise significantly, and as long as there is a little wind and waves, the ship will shake and become unusable. If the wind and waves are a little bigger, maybe they will overturn themselves without someone else's attack.

Therefore, although neither the 150 guns nor the 127 guns could effectively penetrate the armor of the British battleships, it was enough to help the British wash the deck.

The Caesar, who scored a hit in the second round of volleys, was hit in the fourth round of volleys. In the third round of volleys, three 150 shells fired by Caesar hit the target, one of which hit the bridge, killing the captain and more than a dozen other officers who were commanding the battle there. Fortunately, the British also had the backup deputy captain, and soon took over the command.

But this also caused great trouble for the warship's combat, but then another round of volleys hit the combined rangefinder on the platform outside the bridge. The three-meter-long rangefinder was blown into pieces, and the officer responsible for using the rangefinder was killed. Fortunately, there was also the same rangefinder in another position, otherwise, the impact of this gun on the subsequent operations would have been great.

The fifth round of Caesar's volley fell into the air. However, the other two super cruisers gained the rewards in this round of volley. In this round of shooting, four 127 shells hit Poitiers. The four shells hit the superstructure, and one of them also ignited some pipelines and debris, causing a fire.

It was not until after so many hits that the Poitiers fired another round of volleys, and one of the four shells barely hit Caesar. The shell flew over the head of Caesar and broke half of the mast. The loss caused was that Caesar could only contact other warships through flags and could no longer rely on radio to communicate with each other. Fortunately, the fog basically dispersed at this time, so the impact on the combat was not too great.

After firing this shot, the Poitiers had to hardly beat the French 150 shells about five rounds and 127 shells more than six rounds. Although these shells would not cause fatal damage to it, it was still very painful to let these shells wash the decks over and over again.

At this time, the "Trajan" had already made a third round of volleys at the "Cresey". As the French warship with the largest tonnage, the "Trajan" is theoretically the most stable shooting platform. It should have the highest hit rate. However, due to limited training time, the "Trajan"'s first three rounds of volleys did not hit the target, but it achieved a cross-fire in the third round of volleys, which also means that the aim is no problem now, and whether to hit the target later is a matter of luck.

However, the situation of "Cresey" was not much better. They trained for a shorter time. They hit a shot in the first round, which was completely confused. They also shot one round later, but they didn't know where the four shells flew.

As a result, the "Caesar" on the other side broke the mast, and the captain of "Poitier" on the other side died. The "Turazin" and "Cresey" on the "Turazin" had a lot of paint lost, while the "Cresey" didn't even get any paint.

However, the fourth round of "Turazin" finally got a hit. A 203mm shell hit the side of the "Cresey".

The French 203 shells had armor-piercing capabilities far exceeded 150 shells, and the armor that had shot Caesar's 150 shells was far less solid in front of the 203 shells.

"Hit a shot on the port side of the enemy ship and successfully penetrated!" Admiral Brees stayed in the armored commander tower and could not see the situation outside at all. However, he could understand the situation outside through the broadcast system. The enemy's first round of artillery shots were successfully hit, which scared the staff of Admiral Brees. Although this shell failed to penetrate the armor, everyone knows that there is no armor on the bridge with the best vision. Not to mention a 305 shell hit, even if it hits the British four-inch secondary cannon, it would not be able to withstand it. Although the French looked down on the British four-inch cannon, they thought that compared with the 100mm cannon on their side, they would be completely slag. Even compared with the 75mm cannon on their side, they were completely slag. But if this "ballistic curved like urine" was covered, it could still kill people.

So Admiral Brees was quickly stuffed into the armored commander tower by his staff, which was as thick as the turret. The facts have proved that the British shells could not penetrate such armor.

Admiral Brees expressed opposition to the actions of his staff. He said that he was not afraid at all, because the British could not hit him at all. But that's the case, but because he couldn't resist those staff, he had to enter the Armored Commander Tower.

"Good job! I just don't know what the after-effects are like?" Admiral Brees asked into the microphone.

"General, I can't see it yet." The lookout replied.

The shell penetrated the armor and then entered the kitchen of the "Cresey". This time was not the time to prepare morning tea or afternoon tea, so there was no one in the kitchen. The shell exploded in the empty kitchen room, blowing the kitchen to pieces, and successfully igniting various cooking oils in the kitchen.

However, the British reacted very quickly and quickly controlled the fire.

After successfully hitting the enemy ship, the French's luck began to improve. Although the two rounds of volleys failed to hit again, they both formed cross-fires. After the "Cresey" made another round of ineffective volleys, the "Turajan" hit the enemy ship again, and this time, three of the six shells hit the target.

The two shells shot from the A turret hit the enemy ship, one of which hit the unarmored superstructure. The semi-armor-piercing shell directly penetrated the entire superstructure and flew out from the other end. In addition to killing two unlucky guys, the losses caused were actually very limited. But the other shell was different. The shell directly hit the A turret of the "Cresey". The shell penetrated the turret's anti-shield, exploded in the turret, killing all the soldiers in the turret, and detonated a 305 shell in the turret that had just been loaded with the fuse.

If it weren't for the British Royal Navy of this era, it would not have been a good habit of opening all the fire doors from the turret to the ammunition depot in order to pursue high rate of fire, otherwise it would be more than just a turret that was completely scrapped in an explosion.

The Cresey has two turrets in front and back, each turret has a double-equipped 305mm gun. Now, one-half of the main gun firepower has been lost at once, which is a fatal loss in the battle.

But the fate of the Cresey was not over yet. Two 203 shells shot from the C turret of Trajan also hit him. One of them hit the upper floor and drilled a hole in the Cresey chimney. The other one entered the power compartment and destroyed a cylinder. The high-temperature steam sprayed out of this cylinder killed more than a dozen sailors working in the power compartment in an instant.

Although we can't see the problem of the power cabin of the enemy ship, the destruction of the enemy ship A turret is something that everyone can see. So when the news came to Admiral Brees, he felt that he had won this battle.
Chapter completed!