Since the captain did not respond to multiple reports, the observers simply ignored them. No one thought that the Chinese dared to provoke them.
The Russian Far East Fleet is in a flying geese formation, while Chen Zheng and the others are in a vertical formation, currently located on the left side of the Russian Far East Fleet.
"What's the distance?"
"About 5200 meters!"
"Get closer! Load all the guns with live ammunition!" Chen Zheng looked at the Far East Fleet and said.
"5000 meters!" the observer reported.
"Send power to Liu Buchan and Lin Taizeng, and ask them to quickly go behind the enemy's rear after the first round of shooting and disrupt their formation!"
"What? The flagship ordered us to detour behind the enemy after firing? This way the flagship will be surrounded!" Li Dingxin said to Liu Buchan.
Liu Buchan said: "The armor protection capability of the flagship should be more than 1.5 times that of Dingyuan. It doesn't matter much if it is surrounded. We go around behind the enemy to hold them back, sink those cruisers first, and then besiege the remaining ones. battleship. Power is sent to the flagship and the Pearl City, and we and the Pearl City will first concentrate our firepower to attack the battleship Lettvyan on the right wing of the Far East Fleet!"
¡°4500 meters!¡± the observer of the Hawaiian Queen reported.
Chen Zheng put down the telescope and said: "The commander of the Far East Fleet seems to look down on us, and he has not entered combat readiness at all! Send electricity to Liu Buchan and Lin Taizeng, and fire at 4,000 meters!"
Su Chang said to the fire control room: "Fire control room, you can open fire in two minutes! The target is at three o'clock, about four kilometers away." Then he said to another microphone: "Observer, our target is the right wing of the enemy fleet. The battleship Peresvet, distance, wind direction and other data are directly reported to the fire control room!"
A minute later, the turrets of the three battleships began to slowly turn to the right. The observers on the Prince immediately shouted into the microphone in a panic: "The Chinese fleet is moving! It's moving!"
Commander Lieutenant General Witgeft didn¡¯t know why. Aren¡¯t other people¡¯s warships always moving? He picked up the telescope and looked to the right, just in time to see the length of the eight black 305 main guns on the Hawaiian Queen constantly getting shorter. They were aiming in his direction!
"Level 1 combat readiness!! Level 1 combat readiness!!!" Lieutenant General Witgeft shouted. There is no alarm system on the Russian warship, and there is no microphone or speaker that can be heard by everyone on the ship after speaking once, so the captain can only shout into the microphone one by one. All the people on the Russian warships started to work, and for a while, the decks of each ship were being stepped on by sailors, making a "thumping" sound.
"Aimed at target! Requesting to fire!"
"Allow the fire!" Chen Zheng said.
"10, 9, 8" Because the closed turret will evacuate the oxygen in the turret when it fires. Although there is a ventilation system, people in the turret do not know the exact time to fire, which often causes suffocation, so fire now. The fire control room has a countdown to remind the staff in the turret.
"4, 3, 2, 1!"
¡°Bang!!!¡±
The personnel in the turret began to hold their breath when they counted to "2". After the gun was fired, the ventilation system began to work. Because the distance was extremely close, the gun barrel could continue to be loaded without being lowered.
"Bang!!" "Bang!!" Hearing the sound of the flagship firing, the Honolulu and Pearl City also opened fire one after another.
At a distance of less than 4,000 meters, the artillery shell can hit the target in five or six seconds. At such a distance, even if the armor exceeds 400 mm, the Hawaiian Queen's 305 mm 50-caliber main gun can easily penetrate it. The new capped armor-piercing projectile, combined with a delayed fuse, can explode 0.04 seconds after touching the armor. .
If he had known better, the deputy commander of the fleet, Rear Admiral Fotomsky, would definitely have chosen to stay in Vladivostok. After seeing the Hawaiian Queen firing, he had no time to react. The Peresvet where he was was hit by 5 shells. Hit, at this time he really wanted to say "let the shells fly for a while!", and then ordered the battleship to evade with full left rudder. After watching the protruding flames of the Hawaiian Queen's main gun dissipate, he turned his head, then felt the ship's hull vibrate, and then saw the bow turret flying up!
"The main gun on the bow of the ship has been destroyed!" the damage controller shouted.
"The main engine (steam engine) has been destroyed! Stopped!"
"Two big holes were blown out in the starboard waterline! Water is entering! It cannot be repaired!!"
"Abandon the ship! Abandon the ship!!" Votomsky made a decisive decision.
But it was too late. The average reloading speed of the Hawaiian Queen was 22 seconds. Before the lifeboat could be lowered, another salvo from the Hawaiian Queen arrived. A total of three shells hit the side of the Peresvet. tnt The huge power tore a large hole in the armor, water continued to pour in, and the Peresvet began to tilt. I don¡¯t know why, although there was no fire on the battleship,The drug depot exploded when it was tilted deeply! With a loud "Bang!!!", the superstructure of the Peresvet was basically blown away, and more than 700 people on board undoubtedly survived.
At the same time that the Peresvet was sunk, the Letvishan was also beaten to a pulp by two protected cruisers. The two warships had a total of 12 210 mm 52-caliber main guns and fired a total of three rounds at the Letvishan. Two rounds of shells hit the boiler room and caused the boiler to explode, causing the battleship to completely lose power. The main gun on the bow of the ship was hit by two shells at the same time, and the turret now flew to no one knows where. The main gun turret at the stern of the ship was hit, and the turret could no longer rotate. The bridge was hit by a shell. The captain Sderevich, the deputy captain and others were killed on the spot. The gap opened by the explosion in the boiler room began to fill with water. It was only a matter of time before it sank to the bottom of the sea. The sailors on the ship began to hurriedly put down the lifeboats and escape.
Two battleships were lost in less than a minute. The previous domineering attitude of Fleet Commander Vice Admiral Witgeft disappeared without a trace. At this time, he knew that the Chinese had the final say in the Pacific Ocean. Each ship began to fire back. At a distance of four thousand meters, two 254mm shells in the first round of firing from each ship actually hit the starboard armor of the Queen of Hawaii!
But even at a distance of four thousand meters, it could not penetrate the armor of the Hawaiian Queen. The shell exploded after hitting the armor. After the black smoke dissipated, two large black circles were left on the white hull of the Hawaiian Queen. This made Wittgeft, who was about to cheer, stunned and did not break through!
The shock caused by two 254mm artillery shells hitting the armor of the more than 20,000-ton Hawaiian Queen was minimal, and the shock of a salvo was much greater. If the shells had not exploded, the damage control officer on the ship would have Didn't even know he was hit.
¡°The starboard armor was hit, the loss is zero!¡± the damage controller reported to the command room after inspection.
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