Escape Action (4)

After realizing they had misidentified the target, the France hurriedly shifted their fire, re-ranged, and re-aimed at the target... Meanwhile, their opponents were already fully prepared.

The four 305mm guns of the battleship "Cressy" opened fire first. Just as the France intended to prioritize taking out Britain battleships, the Britain also prioritized attacking France battleships.

The battleship Cressy was targeting the France flagship, the battleship Trajan. Trajan was a newer battleship with a similar displacement to Cressy and posed the greatest threat to the Britain fleet.

Four shells flew toward the Trajan amidst the roar of cannons.

The Britain were unable to develop a new type of smokeless propellant, and they continued to use the old brown powder. The expansion velocity limit of brown powder gases was quite low, meaning that the muzzle velocity of Britain shells was also relatively low. To achieve armor-piercing capabilities, the Britain had to use large caliber, heavy projectiles. Therefore, although the Britain cannons appeared to have intimidatingly large calibers and their shells were many times heavier than those of the France, their actual armor-piercing capability was far inferior to the 203mm guns of the Trajan, and not even significantly better than the 150mm guns of the previous generation battleship, the Caesar.

Of course, if it penetrates, the 305mm shell has a much larger explosive charge than any other France shell, and its power is naturally much greater.

In the first salvo, one out of four shells hit the A turret of the Trajan. To achieve a hit on the very first salvo was nothing short of divine intervention. Moreover, it hit such an important position that when the lookout reported "Hit on enemy ship's A turret," Lord George Kirkburn nearly jumped for joy.

However, the lookout then reported, "We failed to penetrate the enemy's armor!"

"Damn it! How can the France be so shameless! How is this possible!"

During the construction of this battleship, the Britain also employed various methods to gather intelligence on the France Augustus-class battleship. After gaining a general understanding of the size and displacement of the France battleships, they reverse-engineered the design based on the battleship's shape to determine the thickness of armor the France could equip on it.

According to Britain research, at this distance, the British Army 305mm guns should have been able to easily penetrate the armor of the Augustus-class battleship. However, at such close range, the 305mm shells were actually deflected by the France armor!

"This is not scientific!" Lord George Kirkburn exclaimed. "Don't these France know how to respect science? Does science have sided with Napoleon?"

However, this is actually very scientific. Science will not side with Napoleon, nor with the Britain, and certainly not with Trump.

The Britain misjudgment stemmed primarily from Britain reverse engineering approach, which employed a total defense philosophy, while the Augustus-class battleship utilized a focused defense strategy. This focused defense meant that only truly critical areas had thick armor, while less critical areas, where damage wouldn't directly impact survivability or combat effectiveness, lacked even basic armor. This allowed the France to pack exceptionally thick armor into key areas, with the turret front being the thickest armored section of the entire ship. If Britain shells could penetrate this, even Brueys would have exclaimed, "This is unbelievable!"

Hitting the enemy at such close range should have been a morale booster, but the foundation for such a boost was penetrating the enemy's armor. Once that failed, the morale of the France on the other side was boosted, while the morale of the Britain plummeted.

The France turned their guns around and began to return fire. After all, the 203mm shells were lighter and had a much faster rate of fire than the Britain 305mm shells. However, all six 203mm shells fired in the first volley by the France missed their targets.

At this moment, the battleship Poitiers, following behind the Cressy, also fired a salvo at the France. However, like the France, this salvo missed everything.

The France then redistributed their firepower, with the Trajan taking on the Cressy alone, while the Caesar and the two super-cruisers and armored cruisers behind it fought the Poitiers. As for the Britain armored cruisers behind them, they had not yet completed their turn and could not join the battle. Admiral Brueys felt he should seize this opportunity to inflict greater damage on the Britain.

The firing efficiency of the "Caesar" was actually higher than that of the "Trajan," which is quite normal, since the "Caesar" had been in service for many years, and the sailors were more familiar with it and more skilled at operating it.

In the second salvo at the battleship Poitiers, the Caesar achieved a hit, with two of her shells striking the Poitiers. However, this time the France were frustrated, as neither shell penetrated the Poitiers' armor.

However, Poitiers' first salvo against Caesar also missed, hitting nothing. The Britain battleships' 305mm guns had a rather slow reload speed, taking about two to three minutes to fire a single shot, which was enough time for Caesar's 150mm guns to fire five salvos.

So the "Caesar's" shells came raining down again, and it wasn't just the Caesar; the 127mm guns of the two super cruisers next to it also came crashing down on it.

Britain battleships were still designed with full defensive capabilities. However, this meant that the defensive areas were larger, not that every part of the ship was armored. For example, the superstructure of the warship was basically unarmored. This was not for any other reason than that if these areas were also fitted with heavy armor plates, the center of gravity of the entire ship would be significantly raised. Then, even a small wave would make the ship unusable, and in a larger wave, it might capsize without being attacked.

Therefore, although neither the 150mm nor the 127mm guns could effectively penetrate the armor of Britain battleships, they were sufficient to help the Britain wash the decks.

The Caesar hit its target in the second salvo, and subsequently in the third and fourth salvos as well. In the third salvo, three 150mm shells fired by the Caesar hit their target, one of which struck the bridge, killing the captain and several other officers who were directing the operation there. Fortunately, the Britain had a backup first officer who quickly took over command.

This caused significant trouble for the warship's operations. However, the fourth salvo then struck a rangefinder on the platform outside the bridge, shattering the three-meter-long rangefinder into pieces and killing the officer in charge of using it. Fortunately, there was another similar rangefinder in another location; otherwise, this shot would have had a much greater impact on the subsequent operations.

The fifth salvo from the "Caesar" missed. However, the other two supercruisers succeeded in this salvo, with four 127mm shells hitting the "Poitiers." All four shells struck the superstructure, and one of them ignited some pipes and debris, causing a fire.

After enduring so many hits, the Poitiers finally fired another salvo. One of the four shells barely managed to strike the Caesar, flying over its head and snapping off half of Caesar mast. The damage was that the Caesar could only communicate with other warships by flag signals, no longer relying on radio. Fortunately, the fog had mostly dissipated by this time, so the impact on the operation was not too significant.

After firing that first shot, the Poitiers would then have to endure about five volleys of 150mm shells and six or more volleys of 127mm shells from the France. Although none of these shells would cause fatal damage, it was still painful to have the deck repeatedly washed by them.

Meanwhile, the Trajan had already fired its third salvo at the Cressy. As the largest warship in the French Army, the Trajan was theoretically the most stable firing platform and should have had the highest hit rate. However, due to limited training time, the Trajan's first three salvos failed to hit the target. But the third salvo achieved strafing, which meant that aiming was no longer an issue; whether it hit the target afterward was entirely a matter of luck.

However, the situation wasn't much better for "Cressy." They had even less training time, and hitting the target with one shell in the first round was pure luck. They fired another round, but all four shells ended up flying off somewhere.

As a result, the mast of the "Caesar" broke, the captain of the "Poitiers" died, and the "Trajan" and "Cressy" on this side... the "Trajan" had a lot of paint chipped off its A turret, while the "Cressy" didn't have a single paint chip.

However, Trajan's fourth salvo finally hit its mark. A 203mm shell struck the side of the Cressy.

The France 203mm shells had a much greater armor-piercing capability than the 150mm shells. The armor that had deflected the 150mm shells off the Caesar was far less robust against the 203mm shells.

"One shot hits the enemy ship's port side, penetration successful!" Brueys, inside the armored command tower, couldn't see the battle situation outside. However, he could learn about the situation through the broadcast system. The enemy's first volley of shells had hit successfully, which terrified Admiral Brueys's staff. Although the shell hadn't penetrated the armor, everyone knew that the bridge, with the best view, was completely unarmored. Let alone a 305mm shell hitting them, even a shell from the Britain four-inch secondary guns wouldn't be enough to withstand it. Although the France particularly looked down on the Britain four-inch guns, considering them utterly worthless compared to their 100mm guns, and even compared to their 75mm guns, this "trajectory as curved as urine" piece of trash could still kill if it hit.

So Admiral Brueys was quickly shoved into the armored command tower by his staff. It had armor as thick as the gun turrets, and it had been proven that Britain shells could not penetrate it.

Brueys objected to his staff's actions, stating that he wasn't afraid at all because the Britain couldn't hit him. However, despite his words, he couldn't resist his staff's insistence and had to enter the armored command tower.

"Well done! I just wonder what the aftereffects will be?" Admiral Brueys asked into the microphone.

"General, it's not clear yet," the lookout replied.

The shell penetrated the armor and then entered the galley of the Cressy. It wasn't the time to prepare morning or afternoon tea, so there was no one in the galley. The shell exploded in the empty galley, blowing it to smithereens and successfully igniting the various cooking oils inside.

However, the Britain damage control response was quite swift, and they quickly brought the fire under control.

After successfully hitting the enemy ship, the France began to have better luck. The next two salvos, although they failed to hit again, both resulted in straddle shots. After the Cressy fired another ineffective salvo, the Trajan hit the enemy ship again, and this time, three out of six shells hit the target.

Both shells fired from turret A hit the enemy ship. One of them struck the unarmored superstructure. This semi-armor-piercing shell penetrated the entire superstructure and then flew out the other end. Apart from killing two unfortunate soldiers, the damage was actually quite limited. However, the other shell was different. This shell hit turret A of the "Cressy" directly. The shell penetrated the turret's shield, exploded inside the turret, killing all the soldiers inside, and also detonating a 305mm shell that had just been fitted with a fuse.

If the Royal Navy of that era hadn't yet developed the habit of opening all the fire doors from the turret to the ammunition magazine in pursuit of a high rate of fire, then it wouldn't have been just a mere A-turret that was completely destroyed in the explosion.

The Cressy had two turrets, one forward and one aft, each with a twin-mounted 305mm gun. Now, it had lost half of its main gun firepower, a fatal loss in combat.

But the Cressy's misfortune wasn't over yet. Two 203mm shells fired from Trajan's C turret also struck it. One hit the upper deck, drilling a hole in the Cressy's funnel. The other penetrated the engine room, destroying a cylinder. The scalding steam ejected from that cylinder instantly killed more than a dozen sailors working in the engine room.

Although the problem with the enemy ship's engine room was not visible, the destruction of the enemy ship's A turret was obvious to everyone. So when the news reached Brueys, he felt that he had already won the battle.

"And it's a victory far more glorious than that of Admiral Treville. It's incomparable to his kind of victory where he killed a thousand enemies but lost eight hundred of his own," Admiral Brueys thought.