The Europeans equip their warships with cannons. This type of artillery has a shorter barrel and its effective range is often only six or seven hundred meters. In other words, beyond one mile, the accuracy of the cannon is basically lost and its power will be greatly increased.
fall to the ground.
The reason why European navies are equipped with such short-range artillery is because the waves on the sea are very bumpy and the ships are always shaking. The accuracy of shooting beyond one thousand meters is very low. Moreover, the hulls of European warships are getting thicker and thicker.
Artillery firing from a distance cannot cause effective damage to the turtle-shell armor of the battleship.
Therefore, general artillery battles occur at a distance of 500 meters to 300 meters.
But Li Zhi was equipped with a rifled gun, which greatly improved the shooting accuracy. Even if the gun is fired from a farther distance, the ironclad ship's artillery can still achieve an effective hit rate.
At a distance of 700 meters, the 600 broadside guns of forty ironclad ships spurted out tongues of flame, firing deadly lead-shelled steel-cored conical projectiles at the three southernmost enemy ships.
Six hundred cannonballs were like six hundred lightning bolts, streaking across the sea and hitting the battleships of the British and Dutch fleets.
In the bumpy waves, the gunner's hit rate was far inferior to that of shooting on the ground. In the end, only 10% of the shells hit the enemy ship. But even if only six or seventy steel-core shells hit, it still caused destruction to the British-Dutch fleet.
Sexual destruction.
It is difficult for round smoothbore cannon shells to explode the hull of a ship. In European naval battles, battleships often continued to fight after being hit by hundreds of shots. Even a thirty-pound smoothbore heavy cannon bombarded a battleship at a distance of one mile.
The hull often only cracks part of the hull, and some splinters of wood are splashed inside the hull.
For smoothbore guns that can only use spherical shells, if you want to penetrate the hull of a battleship, especially the hull near the waterline, you need heavier artillery to blast at a closer distance.
Therefore, in fact, the number of ships sunk in European battleship artillery battles was very small. In the Battle of Lowestoft in 1665, the British sent 107 battleships to participate in the battle, and fought for a whole day of artillery battles. In the end, they were only sunk.
A battleship.
However, when encountering Li Zhi's steel-core explosive bullets, the situation was completely different.
In the face of nineteenth-century technology, hardwood hulls were as fragile as pieces of paper. There was a fundamental difference in armor-breaking capabilities between sharp conical projectiles and round smoothbore cannon shells. Steel-core cone-shaped projectiles rotated at extremely high speeds, unlike spherical projectiles.
The comparison is like the difference between using an electric drill to drill into a wall and using steel balls to hit the wall. There is no doubt that an electric drill can easily break through a solid wall where steel balls are powerless.
The cone-shaped steel core bullet rotated at high speed, ruthlessly breaking through the dozens of centimeters thick hardwood hull of the European battleship.
The cone-shaped projectile continued unabated after being fired into the hull of the ship. It ran rampantly through the hull, killing countless unlucky sailors and smashing several fragile decks.
Then, more than 20 kilograms of explosive bombs exploded.
At this time, Li Zhi's artillery fuze had been improved. After the shells were fired into the battleship, they were silent for only about a second before they all detonated.
The explosive loaded in the blooming bomb is not black powder, but more powerful nitrocellulose, which doubles the destructive power of the blooming bomb. The scorching shock wave emitted by the violent explosion sweeps through the nearby space like a storm. The shock wave encounters
All those who arrived, whether they were European sailors, sailors or artillerymen, were immediately beaten to death and charred without mercy.
If you are too close to the explosion point, your entire body will be shattered by the shock wave and turned into broken limbs and minced meat, which will be scattered out along with the shock wave.
Even a heavy smoothbore cannon would be knocked out of position in the face of the shock wave emitted by nitrocellulose, sliding on the deck like a lead ball.
Some of the explosive shells that landed near the hull directly shattered the hull, which was tens of centimeters thick, and blasted a large hole one or two meters wide in the hull. Flying wood fragments and red flames exploded out of the hull.
It sprayed out of the hole and splashed above the sea. It looked like flowers blooming on the battleship, which was very beautiful.
Shooting out at the same time as the shock wave were death-like broken steel slag. These sharp steel slags flew faster than darts at this time. Many European sailors who were far away from the explosion point escaped the shock wave of the explosion, but failed to escape these steel slags.
, the body was mercilessly torn apart by these sharp objects.
Some sailors were cut to the stomach, and steel slag was stabbed into the intestines. They were rolling on the ground in pain. Some were cut to the hands and feet, and even half of a hand was cut off alive, leaving only half connected with flesh and bone, hanging on the arm.
Above. What was even more unlucky were the sailors who were shot in the throat or even the head by the steel slag. Blood spurted out from these vital parts in an instant, and then these sailors died under the destructive power of the steel slag.
Two of the three battleships received about 20 rounds of artillery shells, and all the decks inside the ship became a hell on earth. Especially on the full deck where the artillery was loaded, the steel slag ejected by the explosion took away almost all the
The lives of the artillerymen were filled with screams, blood and broken limbs.
More than 20 explosions blasted holes all over the hull, and the hull was already in chaos.
Basically, these two battleships have lost their combat effectiveness.
The most tragic thing was that a Dutch battleship at the southernmost end was hit by more than 30 explosive shells at one time. The entire battleship was like a flower, with holes everywhere. Except for the top deck, which was not damaged, the lower deck was not damaged.
Almost all the gunners and sailors were killed.
Not only were there huge casualties, but the hull near the waterline of the ship was also exploded. Seawater poured into the hull with huge pressure. It carried more than a hundred sailors who were still alive and more than two hundred bombed people.
The sailors were killed and injured, and the whole ship sank into the sea little by little.
Seeing that the ship was in danger, the sailors on the top deck jumped into the sea one by one in panic. The scene was like penguins jumping into the sea in Antarctica.
However, the huge sunken ship with a displacement of 1,000 tons formed huge whirlpools on the sea. These whirlpools are very deadly and will swallow the fleeing sailors on the sea into the deep sea. There are more than a hundred fleeing sailors who don't know how many people can escape.
.
In just one bombardment, rifled guns killed three battleships.
On the Dutch flagship Swordfish, Dutch Commander Adelbert and British Fleet Captain Gascoigne felt as if they had fallen into an ice cave when they saw the lethality of the rifled cannon.
If just now Li Zhi's ironclad ship took away the T-shaped advantageous position and made the Dutch and British panic, now the Europeans are in despair.
The Ming fleet fired at a distance of 700 meters. At this distance, most of the artillery of the combined fleet could not penetrate the enemy ships. Only the heaviest cannons could break through the armor of the ironclads. However, Li Zhi's rifled cannons could not penetrate the enemy ships every time.
The doors can penetrate the hull of a battleship.
Moreover, the combined fleet uses solid ammunition. Even if it hits an enemy ship, it will only make a hole. If you are lucky, you can kill one or two sailors. However, Li Zhi's explosive ammunition can set off a big explosion inside the battleship, and even destroy the sturdy battleship.
Exploded and sunk.
This battle is lost.
Gascoigne could no longer stand. He used all the strength of his hands to support the railing and barely managed to avoid falling to the deck.
Adalbert's face was equally pale, and his body was shaking uncontrollably.
But he was still prepared to make a final struggle.
The Dutch gritted their teeth and shouted: "The entire fleet abandoned the battle line, moved closer at full speed, gathered in the middle and fired at the enemy ships!" 8)
