After withstanding four rounds of bombardment, the Boston Empire's warship main gun finally entered the effective range. Although it was not the optimal range, the helpless Admiral Godard ordered the counterattack to begin immediately. Shooting while traveling at high speed is natural. It's not exactly accurate, but it greatly improves one's own morale.
The chaotic counterattack caused water jets to rise around the four Lanting-class battleships, which also disrupted the sight of the gunners of the St. Martin Empire Navy. In addition, the continuous shooting caused the St. Martin battleships in the leeward position to be shrouded in smoke from the gun muzzle. Their shooting percentage dropped a lot.
When the St. Martin Empire's armored fleet saw that the opponent's attention was drawn to the direction of the battle fleet, they immediately inserted it from the side. These armored ships are the product of the bow-to-enemy tactics. It is best for them to insert from the side and use the bow to attack the enemy. Suitably, they formed a cavalry-like wedge formation and charged towards the flank of the Boston fleet.
More than a dozen 305mm main guns continuously fired shells at the Boston fleet, disrupting their progress. The Boston warships in the rear team immediately turned their rear main guns sideways and fired back fiercely at them. The two sides fought fiercely.
Admiral Godard's purpose was very simple. After seeing that the opponent's formation was dispersed, he planned to attack with all his troops and sink the opponent's four Lanting-class battleships with the strongest firepower in the shortest time, thus establishing his own advantage in one fell swoop. , so he rushed over regardless of the loss.
After losing another cruiser, Boston's fleet finally entered its optimal firing range. Godard immediately ordered the fleet to turn, and all the naval guns fired fiercely at the four 'Lanting' class battleships.
Seeing that the other side began to turn, Marshal Dinant played a little trick. He ordered the four battleships to deflect five degrees to the outside. On the surface, it seemed that the two fleets began to sail parallel and shoot at each other. In fact, the two fleets began to sail in parallel. The distance slowly began to grow farther.
The miscalculation of the distance began to cause the Boston Empire gunners to make repeated mistakes and the hit rate was very low. This attracted the attention of the experienced Admiral Godard. Originally, he could have turned five degrees and slowly approached, but after one shot of three hundred After a 0.5mm shell hit the side of a Lanting-class battleship, he changed his mind.
The shell hit the side of the battleship almost straight and exploded. But how could the low-power black powder penetrate the thick manganese alloy steel stamped and surface-carburized Lanting? 'class battleship armor.
After the explosion, Admiral Godard was surprised to find that there were only some blackened marks on the opponent's hull, and even the dents were not very deep.
Seeing this situation, Admiral Godard knew that his decision was wrong. These warships were more powerful than what the intelligence said. Their armor could not be penetrated by any main gun in various countries, so he immediately gave up attacking the four ships. The attack of the battleships began to turn towards the armored fleet of the Saint Martin Empire.
Seeing that the opponent had changed its target, Marshal Dinant immediately ordered the fleet to turn and pursued the enemy fleet. However, they were already far away and they had to turn again at this moment. They would not be able to catch up with the opponent's fleet in a short time. Secondly, The fleet's ironclads had to face the huge Boston Empire's Storm Ocean Fleet alone.
Intensive artillery fire began to wreak havoc near the ironclad fleet, causing the five ironclad ships to immediately feel the pressure. Soon a shell was concentrated on the waist of the ironclad ship in the gun room, and a gorgeous explosion like fireworks flew up with a corner of the gun room.
filled the sky, and then several shells hit the ironclad ship again. It was quickly blown into two pieces and sank.
Seeing the results, Admiral Godard immediately commanded two Missouri-class battleships to attack them. With a flash of fire from the main gun muzzle, a Xibai-class ironclad ship also suffered heavy damage, and the shells penetrated its hull.
The side armor entered the hull. Perhaps the warhead fuse failed, or perhaps the warship's hull was too fragile. The shell actually penetrated from the other side of the hull and fell into the sea before exploding.
Although the ironclad ship luckily escaped being bombed and sunk, the huge gaps on both sides still greatly affected its speed. The sailors desperately used materials prepared in advance to plug the leaks, but due to the reduced speed, the warship became
It was a living target, and soon several more cannonballs were fired, completely destroying any hope of repair. In the end, the captain had no choice but to give the order to abandon ship.
Seeing that the armored fleet was under siege, the two cruise fleets and the battle fleet speeded up to help. The St. Martin Empire fleet was about to form an encirclement on the Boston Imperial Navy. Seeing this situation, Admiral Godard immediately ordered the fleet
Accelerate, go around the outside of the armored fleet, and continue to attack.
Although the Boston Navy's warships were slower, they were relatively close after all. Before several other fleets could encircle them, they had already escaped from the encirclement.
At this time, the cruiser fleet of the Boston Navy rushed towards the Second Cruiser Fleet of the St. Martin Navy. They were looking for help. They were interested in the old cruisers of the St. Martin Empire with poor performance, while Admiral Godard's fleet rushed towards Dinant.
The battle fleet led by Marshal Special moved past.
He just led the attack on the St. Martin Navy's ironclad fleet in order to lure the opponent's battleship fleet over. Admiral Godard knew very well that the opponent's battleships were superior to his own battleships and armored ships in any direction, not just at long distances.
There is a problem that his own naval guns cannot penetrate the opponent's armor. If he pursues blindly, Marshal Dinante will definitely rely on the speed of the 'Lanting' class battleship to slowly wear him out. That's why he found such a bait, but the opponent
Sure enough, I was fooled.
Discovering that Admiral Godard's main fleet began to turn to seize his own T-position, Marshal Dinant was not to be outdone. While he ordered the other three fleets to jointly besiege the Boston Navy's cruise fleet, he ordered his own battle fleet to turn in the opposite direction.
.
The two main fleets turning in opposite directions gradually closed the distance, and both sides aimed the sides of their warships at each other. The two rows of warships sailed staggered two nautical miles apart. Seeing the opportunity to attack, the commanders of both sides issued orders.
Order to fire.
Warships from both sides passed one after another, and every cannon on the warship began to pour its shells at the enemy as fast as possible. This was a bayonet battle on the sea, and both sides were red-eyed.
Although sparks were flying on our own battleships and cannonballs were falling around them from time to time, the artillerymen still fired the cannonballs desperately, posing greater danger to the enemy. Despite their numerical superiority, the Bostonians without loaders
The firing speed is slightly slower and the gun caliber is smaller.