Less than five minutes into the battle, three of the four capital ships of the British Royal Navy were shot, and Lady Luck was clearly not on the side of the British.

Admiral Tovey had already discovered that the British fleet was inferior to its opponents in long-range strikes, and although the British Royal Navy fleet had insisted on training for many years, most of them only focused on navigation and combat position drills, and did not have much experience in real live ammunition. Because of the worldwide economic crisis, which has also affected the army's expenses, the life of the gun barrels of warships is limited, so it is better to save a little or so.

The Queen Elizabeth had been on the slipway for almost a year, less than two months after it had been back in service, and during the refit, the original crew of the battleship was assigned to other battleships of the Home Fleet, most of which sank to the bottom with the ships, and the survivors were now chipping potatoes in German prisoner of war camps. At present, only the engine and navigation departments of this battleship are old men, and even the gunners are drawn from the cruiser fleet and the gunpowder school.

The modernization of the bridge was not completed, but the structure and pipelines of the bridge were messed up, and the equipment was reinstalled and debugged in a hurry, and now the battleship's command and communication system has frequent failures, otherwise Tovey would not have chosen the heavy cruiser Kent as the flagship.

Now that the question of whether the Kent could still assume command of the flagship was on the table, the Fleet Staff unanimously demanded that Tovey immediately change the flagship and transfer the headquarters to the undamaged heavy cruiser Cumberland. The heavy cruiser, which was on the far right, was lucky not to be attacked by the Germans, and it fired five salvos in good spirits, and although the shells were a little off, the overall performance looked very good.

The fire at the rear of the Kent had seriously affected the command and operations, and the German shells were so tricky that the designers of the battleship probably never thought that they would be shot in this position. The damage management team suffered heavy losses in the second explosion, and the surviving damage management personnel were desperate between the three decks. Toxic smoke filled the corridors of the lower cabins, and the sailors on the lower decks were all wearing gas masks. Since the cabin could not be forcibly ventilated, because it would fuel the fire, the smoke could not be discharged quickly, and the combustion consumed the oxygen in the cabin, many sailors were already suffering from a lack of oxygen.

Fuel flames are difficult to extinguish with ordinary water sources, and the damage management team has exhausted all the professional fire extinguishing agents and fire fighting sand buckets, and can only control the flames between several levels of cabins, unless they can obtain external support, it will take a lot of time to completely suppress the fire head. But as it stands. It is impossible to get any outside support, and it is also impossible to give them more time. The British fleet was now racing at sea at a speed of twenty-four knots, and it was impossible to safely lower the dinghy at such a speed, so there was no talk of changing flagships, and Tovey rejected the staff suggestion and decided to remain on the Kent to direct the operation.

Black fuel smoke covered the back half of the Kent's hull, billowing plumes of smoke drifted two or three nautical miles away, the signal flags on the mainmast were unrecognizable, and Tovey had to rely entirely on radio to direct the fleet's movements.

Germany has already scored several direct hits. The fleet has obtained accurate firing parameters, and they can now easily hit the heads of British ** ships by adding or subtracting numbers from the original parameters step by step.

The Germans had already beaten their rhythm and Tovey certainly wouldn't allow that to continue, and he decided to change formation and course. Disrupted the beat of the German Navy. Tovey knew that the British Royal Navy fleet was now at a disadvantage in long-range artillery battles, and the British Royal Navy had actually lost to its German counterparts on the other side, both in terms of the number of guns and the accuracy. Tovey decided to close the gap. Enter a medium-range battle line artillery battle, make full use of the existing firepower of the four capital ships, and at the same time put the light cruisers into battle. On light cruisers the British Royal Navy had the upper hand.

At 3:22 p.m. on the D, after firing a sixth salvo, and waiting for the German fleet's muzzle fire to flash, Tovey gave the order to change formation, and the four capital ships began to turn thirty degrees to the left at the same time, and changed from horizontal to column, led by the Kent, followed by the battleship Queen Elizabeth, followed by the Berwick, and finally the Cumberland. The light cruiser column also began to turn when the capital ship changed formation, following behind the capital ship column, and the whole fleet was stretched into a long single column, lined up in a standard battle line artillery formation.

Tovey's tactics worked, as the British fleet quickly changed formations and turned to the side front, and the German Navy's bombardment was completely unsuccessful.

The Kent was moving at high speed in the leader's position, and she was finally able to use all of her turrets to bombard, and although the smoke obscured the X and Y turrets, they could still fire at the parameters given by the main gun command. The black smoke of the Kent also served as a part of the cover, and the Germans had difficulty distinguishing the ship's shadow in the smoke, so they could only take a rough aim, and the shells began to fall loosely and aimlessly.

However, on the other hand, the smoke also affected the ranging and aiming of the subsequent ships, and the shelling of the Queen Elizabeth became even more chaotic, and the dispersion of the shells was so large that even the Germans could not stand it.

The Berwick, which was in disarray on the foredeck, had not been able to fire a single shell since the change of formation. Problems with the Berwick's forward turret had severely damaged the heavy cruiser's operational performance, and after the explosion, the Berwick's gun command post was jammed, and a piece of armor fragments from the A turret hit the base of the rangefinder, piercing the iron sheet and embedded in the refractive lens group.

Now this battleship can only rely on the backup command post on the top of the aft hangar for range-finding fire, and due to the smoke on the sea, the backup command post cannot even see the shadow of the enemy ship, and it is impossible to report the shelling parameters at all. The flagship, the Kent, could have used the firing bell on its back mast to inform the wingmen of the bombardment parameters, but now that position had burned into a sea of fire, and black smoke billowed so that even the elephant could not be seen from it.

The Cumberland was at the end of the line, and the smoke had been blown high by the sea currents, and the heavy cruiser happily fired a salvo at the German fleet with four turrets, probably practice makes perfect, and after a few rests, finally fired a straddle at a German light cruiser. There was jubilation aboard the Cumberland. Just as they were about to make further efforts to get the first effective hit on the British side of this naval battle, the German fleet also began to turn to change formations.

Raeder was definitely not an embroidered pillow, and although he was a little unbearable in front of Hitler, it could not erase his contribution to the development of the German Navy. He had been Hipper's youngest chief staff officer, and while Tovey was still working on the destroyer, he was already crouching in the command room of the battlecruiser Luzo to plan fleet operations.

As soon as Tovey changed formation, he guessed what the enemy was trying to do, and the British were ready to fight a close battle, which was exactly what he wanted.

The High Seas Fleet then fired two volleys, all of which were lost. The deviation of the distance of the first shot closest to the target is also more than 500 meters. The heavy cruiser led by the British led by the British dragged a long haul of smoke across the sea, which really caused great problems for the German Navy's ranging measurements. Raeder decided to change formation, close the distance between the two sides, and engage in a medium- and close-range artillery battle as the enemy wished.

Raeder was full of confidence in the German Navy's gunnery, as long as it entered between 15,000 and 10,000 meters, the German Navy could shoot accurately, and the defensive power of the battleship was no longer a problem, and the German Navy could smash all these British ships into the bottom of the sea one by one.

The German fleet began to turn to the right. At an angle of fifteen degrees, the two columns began to follow each other, transforming into a column, led by two Scharnhorst-class battleships. At a high speed of twenty-eight knots, it approached the British fleet. The two fleets lined up in columns and approached at an angle of ten degrees. The German fleet had a clear speed advantage, and at the same time far surpassed the British in terms of rate of fire. The two sides kept exchanging shells as they approached. Often, the German Navy fired two salvos, and the British fired a round of shells to return fire.

Soon the two sides were already close to fifteen thousand yards, and at this time the two fleets carried out several disguises in succession. Almost parallel to the coast of England.

The damage management team on the Kent accomplished an almost impossible task, they finally extinguished the fire between the two decks, before the fire had spread to the roof of the engine room, separated from the main engine by only a fifteen millimeter steel plate, the British sailors followed one after another, almost all the idle sailors joined the fire extinguishing team, people continued to fall due to suffocation and burns, and the aisle on the upper deck was full of British sailors whose faces were blackened with blisters. The loyal sailors of the British Royal Navy finally fulfilled the task assigned by their superiors, and as their oath said, they saved the King's ship with their lives, albeit only temporarily.

The open flames had been extinguished, the smoke from the cabin corridors had been pumped out, and now in place of black smoke was the scorching steam from the evaporated seawater, which rose from the collapsed hangars and the various deck vents, drifting with the sea breeze on the surface.

The British fleet's vision became clearer, and the Germans were finally able to aim at their opponents accurately, and the artillery battle began to heat up. The light cruisers of both sides had already been engaged in battle, and the British and Germans fought hard with all the weapons they could get their hands on.

As the distance closes, the Germans have broken the golden body record, and the rigors of the British Royal Navy are not fancy, and after a dozen rounds of frenzied shooting, the British Royal Navy finally played their own rhythm.

Admiral Scheer, with the flag of the lieutenant general, became the target of the British cruiser's concentrated attack, and the armored assault ship was almost covered by the column of water, and even Raeder thought that the warship must be more than lucky, but in the end it only suffered a 152-mm shell, which penetrated through the soldier's kitchen at the back and exploded on the edge of the oven, destroying two adjacent cabins and killing two cooks and four sailors. The fragile armored ship then received four consecutive volleys, and to everyone's astonishment, not a single shell could get close to her.

After that, the British light cruiser group was bombarded by two German heavy cruisers, and the Admiral Hippel and the eight turrets of the Prinz Eugen worked together to begin to name the six British light cruisers one by one.

The Zealous was the first to be shot, and the Admiral Hipper's A and B turrets fired three rounds at her, and in the last round, two 283-mm shells hit the middle of the hull directly, one penetrated the hull between the two chimneys in the front, directly destroying the main flue system, and the other blew off a 152-mm gun in the middle of the hull.

The Prinz Eugen was possessed by a god, and she simultaneously launched a bombardment on three British light cruisers. Two of them were hit in a row, the Gloucester-class light cruisers Liverpool and the Manchester were heavily damaged, the former was shot on the bridge, the wheelhouse was blown away, a five-meter-square hole was blown out in the outer wall of the bridge, the supporting structure was destroyed, the upper deck collapsed, and most of the people in the bridge were killed on the spot, the latter was hit in the stern, destroying the rear main gun control tower and cutting off the towering mast.

The British light cruisers hurriedly transferred their fire from the Scheer to two German heavy cruisers. Begin a melee battle with two fierce opponents.

The Scharnhorst was hit by the Kent's main gun, and the shells pierced through one side of the upper side armor, but failed to penetrate the second layer of dome, and finally destroyed only one supply warehouse, causing a small fire, and the German damage management team rushed to the scene at the first time and quickly extinguished the fire. The shell did not cause any serious damage to the Scharnhorst, but it set Raeder's fighting spirit on fire, and the German Admiral gritted his teeth. Determined to fight that Kent class to the end.

The Lützov never found its form, but fortunately his opponent was in worse shape, and the Berwick and the German armored ship were unhurriedly exchanging shells back and forth. Both sides had only two turrets, but the Germans had an advantage in caliber and numbers, with two more barrels than the other side, but several salvos were fired. The two sides could only create a bunch of water columns around each other, which made the captains of both sides depressed and wanted to die.

At this time, the two warships were gradually approaching the British coast, and the steep cliffs along the coast could be clearly seen through the lookout post's telescopes. The German fleet again began to turn. With a speed of four knots faster than the British **, Raeder made a 180-degree turn in front of the British fleet and narrowed the distance between the two sides to 12,000 yards. Tovey did not dare to slack off on this, and he hurriedly led the fleet to make a turning maneuver in the same direction, so as to avoid the German naval fleet from detouring to the flank of his column, the Germans had the advantage in speed, and the British fleet could only respond passively.

As the British fleet began to turn around, the distance between the two sides was again stretched to thirteen thousand yards. The two fleets, maintaining an almost parallel course, began to move in the direction of the French coast.

The fierce artillery battle continued, and the German and British navies were now red-eyed, and many ships in the ranks on both sides braved the billowing smoke, but still stubbornly remained in the queue, firing shells at the enemy. Just when everyone thought that this artillery battle would last for a long time, an unexpected circumstance broke this awkward stalemate.

No one thought that this shell would be the trigger for a series of tragedies that followed, let alone that it was this shell that ultimately led to the defeat of the Royal Navy's home fleet.

The Béric's fresh water tank was contaminated due to the crack caused by the near miss, which was supplied to the main engine boiler to make steam, and after the seawater entered the boiler, the water evaporated into steam, and the impurities of the steam soon accumulated a layer of hard salt crust on the turbine blades, and as the salt crust became thicker and thicker, the output of the main engine began to decline, and the pipes began to clog, and by the time the chief engineer discovered the problem, the situation had reached the point of no return, and several boilers and units were all damaged.

The Berwick's speed dropped suddenly, and she began to turn, trying to leave the battle line, but the Cumberland that followed closely behind was indulging in the confrontation with the Admiral Scheer, and did not notice any surprise ahead.

By the time the bridge crew realized that something was wrong, the Berwick was so close that it was like a high wall in front of the bow of the Cumberland. Cumberland's helmsman had only had time to turn the wheel twice before a terrible collision occurred.

The heavy cruiser of more than 10,000 tons rammed into the belly of the sister ship at a high speed of 24 knots, and the tragic situation at that time was unbearable to look at. Carrying a huge amount of kinetic energy, the Cumberland pushed Berwick's massive hull more than a dozen meters to the side of the front, and the huge waves that stirred up crashed onto the towering side of the ship.

The bow of the Cumberland was inserted into Berwick's hull up to the position of the A turret, and several of the Berwick's sailors were thrown into the air by the force of the impact, screaming and falling onto the foredeck and the A turret of Cumberland. The inside of Berwick's hull was completely torn apart, and the layers of deck structure were all exposed. The terrifying thing is that the main engine of the Cumberland and the Berwick has not stopped turning, and they are still struggling to push their respective hulls forward, and the Cumberland is like a huge can opener, priing Berwick's hull open little by little.

The breach grew bigger and bigger, and the sea poured frantically into Berwick's hull, and the heavy cruiser began to roll in the direction of the Cumberland, and the rear of the hull began to sink significantly. The captain of the Cumberland hurriedly ordered to go back at full speed, trying to pull his battleship out of the opponent's hull. But no matter how frantically the engine turned, the hull did not move, and the roll-over Berwick pressed all the weight on the bow of the Campbell, and the broken structure of the two sides was entangled, and the huge gravity and buoyancy interacted with each other, and the two were rigidly hinged together.

The heavy cruiser bit its killer before dying, and was ready to drag it into hell with it. (To be continued, please search, the novel is better and updated faster!)