A light rain falls on the sea, and it is extremely difficult to see things with a simple telescope, unless there is something large and special - such as a large amount of smoke produced when an object is not burned sufficiently. The faint but certainly black smoke in the direction of the British fleet through the telescope immersed the entire German fleet in a wordless sense of relief.

The rumbling of cannon still rang out every two minutes, and the six German battleships had already cut across the course of the British fleet with a huge advantage in navigation, and at this moment they were less than 2 meters away from the leading British ships!

Seeing that the time had come, Zhang Kai decisively ordered: "The fleet turns 10 degrees to the left, 12 knots, and prepare for small-scale tactical maneuvers!" ”

After the order was issued, the German naval officers and men had the advantage of a high degree of overall running-in and skilled technical mastery, and the adjustment of the course and course of the two warships was completed accurately in just a few minutes, and the implementation of the commander's tactics was a key to victory.

As the German fleet turned, nine 11-inch and 88-inch guns, all high-firing and long-range guns, suspended their long-range ravages against the British. After the adjustment was completed, such a scene appeared on the rough sea: a huge fleet of dozens of ships sailed eastward in 10 columns, and in front of them, two slender warships, although they seemed to be alone, cut like two extremely sharp knives to the left flank of the opponent's fleet!

On French soil, the scythe tactics of the German Lugano were swung almost perfectly. Now in the vast ocean, the German Navy seems to be possessed by a soul......

"The current enemy ship, azimuth 741, distance 41000! Enemy ships are approaching! ”

On the "Ramillis", the rangefinder officer who made this report actually showed a suppressed pleasure in his heart to be able to vent - only by measuring the distance of the other party could he use the ship's 15-inch heavy guns to attack him, and only then could he wound or even sink the other party, and he could not achieve this first ** even with all his might.

In such a situation, White had little choice. He immediately ordered: "Get ready to attack!" ”

The ship's two heavily armored turrets moved slowly, and since the muzzles were already facing forward, they did not have much difficulty to aim the forward-facing 415-inch guns at the looming plume of smoke on the surface of the sea, and raised the barrels to their maximum elevation angles. Just wait for the commander's order. They will be able to hit each other at the first time.

However, the distance between the two sides continued to close and did not immediately start an artillery battle, and the generals of the two sides chose to wait very tacitly, and this kind of one-touch waiting is also the most torturous nerve. Now in the comparison of forces. The British were slightly inferior to the German fleet's battleships and a heavy cruiser with one battleship, one auxiliary cruiser and one seaplane carrier, but they were equal in firepower -- the superiority of the 815-inch guns of the Ramillis in caliber offset the numerical superiority of the Germans in medium-caliber guns, while the entire British fleet together with lightly armed freighters was equipped with more than 100 small-caliber guns, compared with the 52 guns of the "Gneisenau" and the "Admiral Hippel". and anti-aircraft artillery were basically the same. However, history has proven countless times that the outcome of a war is not simply a numbers game, and that both the quality of equipment and tactical strategy may play a decisive role in turning the tide.

A cup of tea. The rangefinder officer, who had a good voice, shouted again:

"Enemy ship 1. 386。 Distance 15000; Enemy ship 2 azimuth 307. The enemy ships are still approaching! ”

The atmosphere on the ship seemed to be more solemn with the movement of the needle, and no one was seen moving on the deck, and the sailors in full gear on the open gun positions were all waiting for them, especially on the port side of the battleship, the officers held binoculars and couldn't stop looking at the sea in the distance, and the heavy expressions on their faces made many ordinary sailors become extremely nervous.

The same was true of the sailors on the battleships, and on freighters, which were at best lightly armed and had negligible defenses, the crews had apparently put their lives on the roster of no control over them, allowing the hop of fate to leap from one grid to another, and no one knew which one would end up in it—life or death.

"Enemy ship 1, azimuth 331, 15500 yards; Enemy ships 2,: 23,

The rangefinder officer continued to shout anxiously, in the last war, the British and German main fleets regarded 1400015000 as the upper limit of the distance of fire, once this number is reached, the hit rate and attack effect of large-caliber naval guns will be sharply reduced. As a traditional dreadnought built during the First World War, the Ramillis still needs to follow this principle today, but the old German fleet died 21 years ago, and the new German combined fleet is full of vigor, both in combat condition and in the will to fight.

It was at this close to the critical ** distance that two German battleships opened fire! On the misty sea, the red yellow fire accompanied by clouds of black smoke and dust suddenly appeared on the port side of the two German battleships, leaving a short time for the British officers and men to prepare, only a few seconds later, the terrible shells whistled, and the deafening explosion instantly hit people's eardrums. Several shells landed on the port side of the Ramilles, others on the starboard side, and the British officers standing in the command room were immediately shocked: the first salvo after the Germans reopened fire formed a straddle fire!

In this era of not yet **, the most important factor in the fleet artillery battle in addition to the power of the shell is the shooting accuracy, due to the relatively long distance between the ships of the two sides, coupled with the impact of wind and waves on the stability of the hull, the difficulty of aiming the naval gun is often much greater than that of the 6 on the artillery battle. The main warships of various countries are usually equipped with more than 6 large-caliber guns, and the impact of each shell does not overlap when they fire a salvo. Instead, they are more evenly dispersed over a certain area, which is called scattering. When the scattering area can cover all or most of the target ship, it means that the enemy ship is enveloped in your own firepower, which forms a straddle fire.

Pursue the cross-shot

When radar technology had just appeared, the firing accuracy of the large-caliber naval guns of the navies of various countries had reached an unprecedented high level, but when a salvo was fired at a distance of 10 kilometers, it was still quite difficult for the main fire to reach within 200 meters.

But. Perhaps because of the tension, the officers on the Ramillis unanimously agreed that they had been straddled by the German battleship, but what landed on their port and starboard sides was actually shells from the German battleship and heavy cruiser respectively - the main guns of the Gneisenau were slightly closer, and the Admiral Hipper was slightly remote, except that the 280-meter and 203-meter caliber guns were not as large as one might think. The British officers' misjudgment nearly put their commander in a desperate position.

In any case, the German fleet had already shown the accuracy of its main guns at effective range, which White had heard from his colleagues more than once, although the firepower of the heavy cruiser class did not look so terrible. But with the examples of the "Prestige" and "Nelson" in front of him, White did not dare to carry it in the slightest, and he gave two orders in succession:

"Turn right 15 degrees and go all ahead!"

"The main guns of the whole ship immediately returned fire!"

Thereupon. The heavy elephant roared as he turned, trying to protect the weak sheep around him through his own efforts. Within visual range, the British's proud large-caliber naval guns burst out with terrifying power enough to chill the enemy. The rumbling drums of war were officially beaten at this time.

In the command room under heavy armor. Quite a few officers turned to face the port side ahead. At this time, the German battleships were to them two gray little ** at the end of the sea, and only a few seconds had passed since the salvo of the Ramilis. Suddenly there was a flash of fire, and a large cloud of smoke could easily lead one to think that the other side had been hit by their own shells, but with the muzzle of the 15-inch/42-diameter K-type guns normally slightly higher than 800 per second, it was impossible for them to hit the heads of those two German battleships in less than 15 seconds!

Under the gaze of thousands of pairs of eyes of the entire fleet, the eight shells fired by the Ramillis stirred up a high column of water in the distant sea with great inertia, and from some angles the German fleet seemed to be wiped out in an instant, but the British sailors in other positions were very painful, because they saw that their shells did not even touch the skin of the German ships - the performance of the main gunners of the battleship Ramillis was sad compared to the accurate shelling of the Germans.

Just when people thought the battlefield was going to be one-sided, God stretched out his miraculous hand. Despite the excellent impact of the first round of firing**, and the straddle fire of the Ramillis by both German ships from the third salvo, the shells were always close to their target. The massive Ramillis struggled stubbornly between the waves and the water, its slow sailing and its presence in the middle of the fleet made it awkward in its tactical maneuvers, but every time it fired back, the Germans were terrified. If fanatical about the big ship Adolf. Hitler, who witnessed the naval battle as a spectator, had to suffer a heart attack at the risk of his ships being severely damaged or even sunk - stimulated by their German counterparts, the British gunners gradually found their senses, and the routes taken by the German fleet brought them closer to the British fleet.

Finally, a volley of 15-inch shells smashed the waves on the "Gneisenau board, and the balance of victory was quietly restored to the state of five-five." It was also at this time that the "Gneisenau" issued the order to "maneuver with me", and the two German battleships with high sailing turned sharply to the right in a uniform manner with the routine of many exercises, and when the next wave of shells from the British battleships fell, they left the British shells far behind, at the cost that their shells also deviated from their original targets, and the British battleships gradually increased and adopted similar maneuver tactics, and the German fleet temporarily lost the straddle fire advantage it had previously achieved.

"Looks like luck isn't on our side today!"

In the command room of the "Gneisenau", Zhang Kai's tone when he said this did not mean frustration, on the contrary, a strange confidence flashed in his calm eyes. After calmly examining the entire battlefield, he turned to Schubert, "Now let's start hunting freely, I think we should have no less than 30 minutes!" ”

Schubert smiled whimily, "Great free hunt!" ”