For the battle that took place on the other side of the earth, Bai Zhizhan was also helpless, and he could only sigh in vain.

Although it is said that it was unlucky, after encountering an armed merchant ship, it was discovered by a patrol plane, but in essence, it was still the problem of the Manman Navy.

Fundamentally, it's all the fault of hesitation!

A few days ago, after the Royal Navy's Luxinhai Fleet attacked the Raleigh fleet and the Locke fleet, the Navy's Navy's should have made a decision.

At that time, Bai Zhizhan also planned to contact Liu Changxun, so that Liu Changxun, as the commander-in-chief of the Imperial Navy, would communicate with the commander-in-chief of the Imperial Navy, so that the "Prime Minister" could end the combat operation of breaking diplomatic relations on the North Sunset Ocean, and take advantage of the fact that the Royal Navy of Bran was fully advancing to increase the number of troops in the Fanyan Ocean, and when there was no time for other cares, he went south at full speed to the South Sunset Ocean. It's just that before sending the telegram, Bai Zhizhan felt that this was very abrupt.

Even if Liu Changxun is asked to speak, the commander-in-chief of the Manman Navy may not be able to listen to it.

If you put too much emphasis on it, it will cause misunderstanding.

If the "Prime Minister" goes to the south and sets sail, the final destination will be the Imperial port, and the Hellman Navy will lose the only capital ship available.

Worked hard to build the "Prime Minister" to fight for the Liangxia Empire?

As for the promises made by the imperial authorities, such as helping the Empire build 2 "Xuhai"-class fast battleships, it is still only a promise.

When it will be delivered, and whether it will be delivered, no one knows for sure.

If the Manman Navy had made a decision a few days ago, even if it had allowed two large cruisers to stay, and only let the "Prime Minister" go to the South Sunset Ocean, it would have a great deal of confidence to break through the blockade of the home fleet, and the two large cruisers would still be able to carry out the task of breaking diplomatic relations on the North Sunset Ocean.

Unfortunately, the Navy did not make a decision immediately.

Early the next morning, that is, after a good night's sleep, Bai Zhizhan received the latest news from the naval command.

The battle south of the Danish Channel is over.

The "Prime Minister" is indeed extremely brave, and the results achieved are so successful that even Bai Zhizhan can't believe it.

The fighting, which began at around 4:15 p.m. local time.

At that time, it was only about 15 minutes before nightfall.

The two sides discovered each other almost simultaneously, but at first, the lookout of the "Hud" did not recognize that the oncoming "Prime Minister" was the "Prime Minister", nor did they find the "Scharnhorst" and "Gneisenau" behind the "Prime Minister", thus delaying the fighters.

After the lookout re-reported the situation and claimed that he had found the three capital ships, Vice Admiral Holland, the commander of the squadron on the "Hud," thought that the lookout had made a mistake and asked the lookout to re-observe and report, but delayed for a few minutes, perfectly missing the opportunity to fire the enemy first.

At that time, Vice Admiral Holland definitely believed that 2 large cruisers had returned.

Even if the lookout identified the "Prime Minister", he did not want to believe it, and firmly believed that he would not encounter the three capital ships of the Manman Navy in this area.

This toss, 5 minutes passed.

Very precious and also very deadly 5 minutes.

The Prime Minister made the turn at 4:17 and fired the first volley one minute later.

At that time, the distance between the two sides was about 22 kilometers.

According to the usual tactics of the Manman Navy, the "Prime Minister" did not fire a half-salvo, but as soon as it came up, it was full firepower, and all eight main guns were used.

At 4:20 a.m., when the "Chancellor" fired the second salvo, the "Scharnhorst" and the "Gneisenau" entered the battle one after another.

At this time, Holland was awakened by the flying shells and gave the order to fight.

It's just that the queue hasn't changed yet

In any case, a warship of tens of thousands of tons cannot change course as flexibly as a fighter of several tons.

All of a sudden, all three battleships aimed their guns at the "Hude", which was rushing to the front.

Although the "Hud" was the largest warship of the Royal Navy in Bran by tonnage, as a battle cruiser, its armor protection was far inferior to that of a battleship.

In the face of the ferocious artillery fire of the three capital ships, the "Hude" was too thin.

In addition, the luck of the "Prime Minister" was indeed very good.

By 5:26, less than five minutes before it was completely dark, in the fifth salvo, a 380-mm armor-piercing projectile fired by the "Prime Minister" accurately hit the "Hude", and, after penetrating the weak horizontal armor, directly drilled into the main gun ammunition depot at the bow of the ship.

The violent explosion that followed could be seen from tens of kilometers away.

Just three minutes later, at the very moment of nightfall, the "Hude" disappeared from the sea.

Including Vice Admiral Holland, the commander of the detachment, more than 1,400 officers and men of the whole ship were all killed!

The "Beard" suddenly exploded violently and sank rapidly, which immediately had a noticeable deterrent effect on the "George V" and the "Prince of Wales" behind it.

According to the later war report, the captain of the "George V" believed that there was a submarine in the area of engagement, and sank the "Hud" with a torpedo.

Actually, it's completely understandable.

The "Prime Minister" has just been put into service, not to mention that most of the officers and men have not yet completed their training, and many equipment, including the main rangefinder, have not been debugged.

Before rushing out of the Skagerrak Strait, the "Prime Minister" did not even fire a full salvo of 8 main guns.

Who would have believed that this newly commissioned battleship would take out the opponent's largest capital ship of tonnage with 5 rounds of inaccurate salvos in the first battle?

If it's a submarine, then it's easy to understand.

The protection of the "Hud" was already poor, and if it was hit by several heavy torpedoes at the same time, it could quickly sink in a large explosion.

Even a genuine battleship could not withstand a heavy torpedo fired from a submarine.

After the sinking of the "Beard", the captain of the "George V", who took over the command of the detachment, Colonel Ritchie, immediately gave the order to turn and retreat.

Prior to this, "George V" had only 3 salvos, the first of which was a half-salvo from the school guns.

The rearmost "Prince of Wales" made only 2 salvos.

Not to mention that it didn't hit, even if it did, it didn't matter.

At the time of the retreat, the "George V" was more than 20 kilometers away from the "Prime Minister", and its 14-inch naval guns could not penetrate the horizontal armor of the "Prime Minister" with a thickness of at least 130 mm at this distance, so even if it hit, it was useless.

Equipping a cutting-edge fast battleship with a 14-inch naval gun, which had fallen behind 20 years ago, I am afraid that only the Royal Navy of Bran could do it.

Fundamentally, it is the same thing as not paying attention to the number of aircraft carried by the aircraft carrier.

Without an opponent, the Royal Navy lost its target.

It can be seen that if you really want to fight, you can't say who will kill the deer.

Retreating in time should be a wise choice.

Subsequently, 2 fast battleships left the battlefield from the southeast.

Judging from the situation at the time, it was very likely that Colonel Rich wanted to join up with the main force behind and then turn to pursue the Riman fleet.

The main formation consisted of 4 battleships, as well as enough cruisers and destroyers.

Interestingly, the Palman fleet did not pursue the retreating Bran ships.

After nightfall, the Prime Minister turned to sail westward.

The point was that at about 7 o'clock in the evening, the two large cruisers separated from the "Prime Minister" again as planned, and turned to the northeast.

It must be said that after making several mistakes, the Yama Navy finally did the right thing.