Open an aircraft carrier to fight against Japan

Due to the distance, the first shell of the Dingyuan ship did not hit the German ship. Even so, this shot gave the German ship a lot of shock. The huge waves caused by the 305mm shell shocked everyone. .

The distance gradually narrowed to 4000 meters. This distance is the effective range of the Dingyuan and Zhenyuan ships. The artillery of the two ships aimed at the flagship of the other side at the same time, the Grand Kurfürst. The shells of the two ships used black powder, which was at that time The world is already relatively backward. With the same quality of gunpowder, black powder is less powerful, and black powder will produce very strong smoke, which will have a great impact on the gunner's subsequent operations.

The gun covers of the main guns of the two ships have been dismantled, not only to let the smoke disperse as soon as possible. There are blood lessons in it. Bounces bounced back and forth on the wall of the gun cover, killing and injuring a large number of people on the gun emplacement.

Although the cannon cover has been removed, the thick smoke has not cleared away. The gunner endured the pungent smoke, put a few high-explosive grenades into the barrel, filled the propellant, and fired a salvo after the preparations were completed.

The idea of ​​​​the German warship when designing protection is: as long as the warship is not sinking, it can be towed back to the port for renovation. Therefore, on the Brandenburg-class battleship, the thickness of the main armor is as high as 400mm. Dingyuan and Zhenyuan's 355mm armor.

Several shells hit the side of the ship near the waterline, and the steel-faced composite armor laid on it played a role. The outer surface of this armor is relatively hard steel, and the inner surface is softer iron. Due to the different physical properties of the two layers of materials, the Since shells change direction at the interface, this composite armor provides better protection than homogeneous armor using only one material.

The impact of the shell shook the hull, but it did not pose a fatal threat to the hull. However, the upper deck of the German warship was not protected. A shell passed through the deck and hit the sailor cabin. The violent explosion immediately caused a fire. , the German ship had to mobilize some personnel to put out the fire; in addition, the main gun located at the bow suffered a devastating blow. The powerful explosion shock wave and scattered shrapnel caused the barrel of the dual 260mm main gun installed on the bow to be destroyed. It was broken, and the personnel on the emplacement suffered heavy losses.

In naval battles in this era, it is impossible for anyone to sink the opponent when the first shell is fired. Therefore, the key to determining the outcome is not only who hits people harder, but also who can be beaten more.With its high speed, the German ship quickly pulled the Dingyuan ship and the Zhenyuan ship into its own range. Although the 35-caliber artillery and the 40-caliber artillery on the Brandenburg class needed to calculate different ballistic elements, the German The sailors still showed superb military qualities, and they quickly completed their calculations. Immediately, three Brandenburg-class battleships fired shells at Dingyuan, the flagship of the Beiyang Fleet.

The Dingyuan ship and the Brandenburg-class battleship are from the same family. They are both manufactured by the Vulcan factory in Germany. The composite armor on them is the same, so the Brandenburg-class shells are not able to penetrate the Dingyuan ship. Armor, but the buildings above the deck were hit. The gunpowder used in the Brandenburg-class shells is not black powder, but picric acid gunpowder, which is much more powerful than black powder.

The chemical name of picric acid is "2-4-6 trinitrophenol", in which 2,4,6, [-], and [-] represent the position of the nitro group on the benzene ring. After chemical treatment, this substance can be made into a powerful explosive, commonly known as It is yellow explosive, and the explosive used on the Brandenburg class has been specially improved. It can form extremely high temperatures in the center of the explosion, and it is claimed that it can even melt steel.

After the shell hit the deck of the Dingyuan ship, a fire ignited immediately, the wooden deck burned violently, and the thick smoke surrounded the watchtower. The observers could no longer observe the target and calculate the ballistic data. The main gun of the Dingyuan ship is equivalent to unusable.

Just as the Dingyuan ship and the Grand Kuraster were shelling each other, four warships including Zhiyuan and Jingyuan, which were located on the right wing of the Dingyuan ship, had already sailed into the opponent's range, inserted into the opponent's column formation, and the two sides had formed Chaotic situation.

This kind of chaotic battle situation is not uncommon in naval battles in the age of steam power. The two sides did not have a fixed formation and fought on their own, with thick smoke billowing on the sea. In this case, it was difficult for the flagship to command and control the overall situation, so the two sides The commanders of the fleet - Ding Ruchang and Dietrich ordered at the same time, each fighting.

Under such circumstances, the high speed and high rate of fire of the German ships gave full play to their advantages. On the ships of the Beiyang Fleet, bullets rained down for a while, and the four cruisers of the German fleet were like four ferocious wolves. Flat-armored cruisers are trapped in the core by distant ships.

The so-called flat armor cruiser is different from the dome armor cruiser in that the flat armor is not as flat as the dome armor, and the structure of the two slopes has only one layer of flat steel armor to protect the ammunition depot and engine room.This kind of armor has a fatal flaw. This layer of armor is located below the waterline. Once the outer hull is broken, seawater will flood into the hull. In this way, water will accumulate in the hull above the armor. , the warship will sink.

This fatal flaw was soon reflected in the battle. Under the siege of the German ships, the Jingyuan ship was hit by dozens of guns, the hull began to tilt, and the engine room began to flood. , had to order to extinguish the boilers in the flooded compartments. As the water intake increased, all boilers on the transshipment ship were extinguished, and the transshipment ship eventually lost all power.

The tilt of the hull accelerated the sinking of the hull, and finally, the ship had to be abandoned by the ship's control belt.

During this process, the Beiyang Fleet also continued to attack the German fleet. Since the firing rate of the Beiyang Fleet's artillery was generally slow, it was always at a disadvantage throughout the engagement.

The naval battle lasted for four hours. With the sinking of the warship, the German fleet first withdrew from the battlefield, followed by the Beiyang Fleet.

The first armored fleet confrontation in human history known as the "Yellow Sea Battle" came to an end. As for the German fleet, one cruiser lost its combat effectiveness, and the rest of the warships were damaged to varying degrees; as for the Beiyang Fleet, After the ship sank, the Zhiyuan ship damaged in the Jiaozhou Bay naval battle lost its combat effectiveness. It is worth mentioning that: According to post-war statistics, the hull of the Dingyuan ship was shot in as many as 187 places, but none of the shells penetrated the armor. .

The German fleet went all the way south and entered Hong Kong, a British colony. The British immediately made a gesture of diplomatic mediation and actively mediated. Yuan Jian Guan led Deng Shichang to be dismissed from his post, deprived of his brave name of "Ger Sabatulu", and exiled to Taiwan Island.

On November 11th, Deng Shichang stood on the ship bound for Taiwan. Through the porthole, he looked at the Taiwan Island shrouded in vast clouds and mist, just like when he was 25 years old, when he received the Zhiyuan ship and returned to China, he looked at the vast Bohai Sea. The land he loved so much.

He sacrificed his life to go to the national disaster, seeing death as if he was home. From the moment he joined the navy, he had thought about the fate of a general who would inevitably die before the battle, but he couldn't think of himself being exiled to Taiwan as a prisoner. He bowed his head, The ink-soaked pen in his hand is swaying on the snow-white rice paper, as if he wants to write down his unpaid ambition!

If you want to put your heart on Yaoqin, there are few bosom friends, who will listen to the broken strings!

He still doesn't know that soon he will meet a captain who has the same patriotism as him, and he will display his ambition in another strange place.