After successfully luring the German heavy cruiser formation to the vicinity of its own battleship formation, the British heavy cruiser detachment immediately changed its previous appearance of fleeing at full speed, turned around and killed the German fleet following closely behind, and entangled with them to prevent the German fleet from escaping when the situation was not good.

However, the German fleet did not want to escape at all, they also wanted to entangle the British fleet and wait for the support of their own naval aviation.

Therefore, when the British fleet turned around and killed back with "momentum" and was ready to chase and attack the fleeing founding fleet, the German fleet met it even more fiercely than them.

A scuffle inevitably happened.

However, it was a melee, but in fact the scene was a little chaotic, and the battle situation was still one-sided with the German fleet.

The British heavy cruiser formation, first of all, was at an absolute disadvantage in terms of quantity (7 to 14), and secondly, it was also far inferior to the German fleet in terms of quality.

The most combat-effective British heavy cruisers were the three ships of the London class, the latest of which was the Shropshire, which was launched in the second half of 1929 and belonged to the treaty type heavy cruisers.

In terms of armament, the London-class was equipped with four twin 204mm guns, but except for the London, the remaining three ships had a turret removed before the war to install more anti-aircraft guns, which means that the main gun firepower of the remaining three London-class heavy cruisers was only three-quarters of that of the previous London.

On the other hand, the weakest of them was the Admiral Hipper-class heavy cruiser that belonged to the same treaty heavy cruiser as the London class, but even if it was the weakest on the German side, it still had three triple guns with a total of nine 203mm guns, which completely crushed the three twin six 204mm guns of the London class in terms of firepower projection.

Moreover, in the German fleet, there were only four "weakest" Hipper-class treaty heavy cruisers, and the remaining ten heavy cruisers were all "monsters" with a displacement of more than 15,000 tons and four triple-mounted guns with a total of 12 203mm guns.

Therefore, with both quality and quantity falling behind, the British fleet was suppressed by the German fleet at the beginning of the battle.

"Hindenburg calls the Rune!" Bastian took the microphone and shouted to the Lune, who was beating the British heavy cruiser Shropshire 8 kilometers away, "I need you to set fire to the heavy cruiser Kent with me, repeat, I need you to set fire to the heavy cruiser Kent with me!" ”

"Woo ......" After a burst of electricity, the deep baritone voice of the captain of the Rune came over the radio, "Understand, sir, set fire to the heavy cruiser Kent." ”

Half a minute later, the heavy cruiser Lune pulled out of the battle with the Shropshire, and the four triple main guns slowly turned to the heavy cruiser Kent, which was fighting the heavy cruiser Blucher.

After a burst of artillery fire, 24 203mm shells were fired at the Kent from two directions, splashing countless water around it.

The Kent realized that it had been set on fire, and hurriedly dropped the Blucher, which had already been hit by several shells of its own, and turned the bow of the ship to speed away from the battlefield.

And how could the Hindenburg and the Rune sit back and watch the fat slip away on its own?

"Ballistic calibration! Ballistic calibration! The firing commander of the heavy cruiser Hindenburg shouted loudly, "Shell loading!" Reloaded! Fire! ”

There was another burst of cannonballs, and 33 cap-piercing shells flew towards the fleeing Kent, this time Lady Luck was not on the side of the British.

Of the 33 armor-piercing rounds, 17 were directly hit, two of which hit the power compartment and one hit the main ammunition depot under the second turret of the Kent and caused a detonation.

The violent explosion directly broke the Kent into two sections and quickly sank into the water, and none of the more than 900 officers and men on the ship survived.

"The Kent is wrecked! Gather fire to the Kent-class Berwick! Watching the Kent sink into two rapid stages, Bastian's face was full of vengeful pleasure.

"Understood, Target Berwick!" The captain of the Blucher and the captain of the Lune agreed at the same time, and then turned the still smoking muzzle of the guns to the Berwick, which was already struggling to support itself under the fire of two German heavy cruisers.

After a few volleys, the Berwick sank in two, like the Kent that had preceded it.

After quickly sinking two Kent-class heavy cruisers, the British battleship formations finally brought the German heavy cruisers into their range.

After several rounds of test firing, the Nelson, the flagship of the British battleship formation, successfully formed a straddle fire on the Blucher.

"Blucher, right full rudder out of the current course!" Seeing a few columns of water rising on both sides of the Blucher, Basti suddenly became nervous, and he hurriedly picked up the microphone and ordered the Blucher.

"Understood, the right full rudder cuts out the current course!" The captain of the Blucher was also a little panicked, you know, it was the battleship Nelson that formed a straddle shot at them, one of the "Big Seven" battleships!

While the Blucher was busy dodging with the right rudder, the Nelson reloaded and fired a salvo at the Blucher.

After a deafening blast of artillery, nine 406mm armor-piercing shells whizzed across the sky, three of which accurately hit the heavy cruiser Blucher in turn.

Nelson's 406mm shell weighed 957 kg and had a muzzle velocity of 790 meters per second, which was a standard low-velocity light bullet.

Although the low-speed light bullet will have a lack of penetration in the face of heavy armored targets, the Blucher is obviously not a heavy armored target, so the three 406mm shells easily penetrated the main armor belt of the Blücher and exploded in the core area of the Blücher.

After three explosions, three large holes appeared in the hull of the Blucher, and the icy sea water quickly poured into the ship from the three large holes, and the speed of the ship was rapidly reduced from 33 knots to 7 knots.

Fortunately, none of the three 406mm shells hit the ammunition depot, so although the Blucher was dead, it did not break in two and sink as quickly as the Kent, and the crew had enough time to abandon the ship and escape.

After seeing the Blucher being taken away in one round, the remaining German heavy cruisers abandoned the fat of the British heavy cruisers and began to twist left and right to avoid the aim of the British battleships.

However, for the German heavy cruiser formation, the challenge was just beginning.

Just as the German heavy cruisers were nimbly dodging the huge cannons of the British battleships, a noisy roar of engines was heard in the sky, as if countless flies were flying together.

On the bridge of the Hindenburg, Bastian, who had been busy directing the fleet in battle, was attracted by the noisy sound of engines, and he looked in the direction of the sound in the sky.

Densely packed planes!

It's a pity that those are not the German naval aviation, which Bastian and others were looking forward to, but the British carrier-based aircraft.

"Damn! British carrier-based aircraft! Fleet air defense ready! ”