When the Revenge received its telegram for help, the battle formation under the command of British Vice Admiral Dudley Pound was just over an hour's voyage away, which meant that they were the closest friendly force to the Revenge, just like the First Detachment Fleet led by the Massachusetts. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 InfoIn contrast to the 1st detachment that escorted the landing ships to Texel, Dudley-Pound's battle formation had just returned from the waters off Texel and had been specially redeployed to deal with the German Atlantic detachment.

In order to increase the search efficiency and improve the reaction capability, Pound divided the ships under his command into two, the "Howe" and the "Anson" in a group, and he personally led the "Hood" and "Rodney" operations, and this small formation also included the heavy cruiser "Cumberland", the light cruiser "Orion", and five newer destroyers, which were strong enough to fight the German fleet that raided the "Revenge". Pound then led his formation to the "Revenge" at full speed, but before he was halfway there, he received another telegram with surprising content -- after the "Revenge" was damaged and caught fire, the German fleet, which had the absolute upper hand, actually withdrew!

"What? The German fleet retreated? The 'Revenge' was shot and caught fire, but the injuries were manageable...... Is it strange that the Germans so easily let go of a British capital ship with reduced combat strength? In the battle bridge of the Hood, Admiral Chatfield was full of suspicion with his hands on his cheeks.

The staff officer who delivered the telegram explained: "The telegram says that the heroic charge of our destroyers repelled the German fleet. ”

Dudley Pound, who had been in the British Navy for 42 years and had personally experienced many of the most important naval battles in the last war, had focused on the tactics and tactics of the German Navy after the war, and scoffed at this explanation: "Bullshit! If the Germans were sure to sink the 'Revenge', not to mention a few destroyers, even if there were more than a dozen, they would not want to drive them away easily! There must be something wrong with this! Send a telegram to the 'Revenge' asking if they had previously observed artillery fire hitting enemy ships. ”

Under the majesty, the staff officer did not dare to say a word, and hurriedly obeyed his orders.

At this time, another of Pound's staff officers asked, "General, shall we rush directly to rendezvous with the 'Revenge', or shall we pursue the German fleet directly?" ”

"If you were the commander of the German fleet, in which direction would you retreat with the loss of a certain amount of combat effectiveness?" Pound asked rhetorically.

The staff officer replied: "In that case, I will temporarily retreat westward to the island of Flores, where the Germans have a strong coastal fort and a small naval base, where the damage should be more properly dealt with, as long as the damage is not too severe." ”

Before he could ask the question, Pound had clearly made up his mind, and without hesitation, he ordered: "Then we will go west, hoping that there will still be a chance to intercept this German fleet." Send a telegram to General Cunningham and tell him to rush in the direction of Flores Island and try to meet us as soon as possible. ”

At the same time, on the sea tens of nautical miles away, the German fleet, with the "Count Tirpitz" and "Prince Heinrich" as the core, has reduced the overall speed to about 10 knots. The news of the damage to the flagship soon spread throughout the ships, and the German officers and men were very surprised, and their already firm confidence was not greatly affected, but fortunately, the damage of the "Count Tirpitz" was lighter than people expected -- the large-caliber armor-piercing shell fired by the enemy ship entered the water at its near side, and this armor-piercing shell did not explode on contact with the water, nor did it deflect similar to a bouncing in the water, but continued to move forward with the help of huge kinetic energy, hitting the "Count Tirpitz" about 3 meters below the waterline and exploding there. Some accidental factors caused the destructive power of the explosion to exceed the power of the shell itself, and the explosion location was at the lower edge of the battleship's main armor belt, and its thickness was only half of the waterline, as a result, the only threatening shell of the enemy ship in this short naval battle directly tore through the external armor of the "Count Tirpitz", penetrated an oil storage tank, and the remaining impact force was completely blocked by the anti-fragmentation armor on the mediastinal wall of the ship, causing only two watertight compartments to leak, even if it was left alone, It would also take several hours to affect the navigation and operational status of this super battle cruiser.

Due to the excessive nervousness and cautiousness of the ship's damage management personnel, the damage assessment was skewed, and the ambitious William August missed the opportunity to kill the Revenge. Although the sinking of a British battleship was not enough to change the current situation, it was at least mentally heavy to the British officers and men who participated in the war. After about half an hour of inspection and repair, the damage management department of the "Count Tirpitz" finally corrected their previous mistakes, and knowing that his flagship was still 98 percent combat-effective, Wilhelm August, who was born in the German royal family, showed the tolerance of those who have achieved great things, he did not reprimand anyone, nor beat his chest and pause, but calmly discussed the next move with his subordinates.

"It's definitely too late to go back and chase now, and you can hit your opponent by surprise!" The captain of the ship, Colonel Schneider, showed a strong sense of initiative and aggressiveness.

In contrast, Chief of Staff Rawls is much more thoughtful and flexible: "That lonely Sovereign-class battleship was left alone due to damage from a mine, and the three battleships discovered by our reconnaissance plane should have now turned back to rescue it, and it may be possible to rush back before the enemy's reinforcements, or it may just collide with the enemy's battleship formation, we can use the speed advantage to evacuate calmly, but we have wasted the precious time in the last few hours before dawn." My personal suggestion is to take advantage of the enemy's attention to turn to the lonely Sovereign-class battleship, go back to Texel Island at full speed, and cooperate with the army aviation forces to attack the enemy's artillery fleet! ”

Another staff officer made a compromise suggestion: "Counting on the time, it will be dawn when we arrive on the island of Texel, will the enemy's artillery fleet stay there waiting to be bombed by planes?" In this case, not only will we be in the air, but we may also be targeted by the enemy carrier-based aircraft group attacking Texel Island, and if we are forced to enter Sanstro Sanshero to avoid bombing, we will not be able to deal with the attack formation and aircraft carriers we have left at sea in time, so the safest way is to temporarily return to Flores Island and wait for the opportunity. ”

After listening to everyone's opinions, William August thought alone for a while, and then clapped his head: "We will withdraw to the waters of Flores Island for the time being. ”

So the ships picked up speed again and headed southwest in the crisp pre-dawn breeze. Although the German Atlantic Squadron did not achieve a world-shattering result that night, it sank many light ships and severely damaged one enemy capital ship under the noses of the main American and British fleets, and its own side lost only one destroyer, and most of the crew members were properly transferred.

More than two hours later, the two Earl Tirpitz battlecruisers and their accompanying ships were far away from the previous engagement area, and there was still a small half of the voyage left from Flores Island, and it seemed that there was no need to sail at full speed with great fuel consumption, at this time the sky was slightly bright, and the line of sight was conducive to sea and air vigilance, so William August ordered the fleet to slow down to a warning cruising speed of 22 knots, but it didn't take long for the destroyer sweeping behind the palace to suddenly send an alarm: a column of smoke has been found in the eastern sea!

In a few moments, two white-painted seaplanes arrived, not carrying bombs or attempting to attack the ship, but observing the German fleet from near and far. Detecting the radio communication frequency of the enemy reconnaissance plane, the German ships immediately resorted to radio jamming, but this could no longer prevent the enemy fleet from following the trail - it did not take long for the radar equipment equipped with the German battleships to detect the enemy ships.

Immediately afterwards, the destroyers that were on alert sent a more detailed reconnaissance report: the enemy fleet had two large warships and seven small and medium-sized warships, with a speed of about 30 knots.

About ten minutes later, the German destroyer sent a new reconnaissance report: the two large enemy warships were preliminarily judged to be British Admiral-class battlecruisers.

William August and his officers immediately realized that they had a truly challenging opponent. According to the information collected by the naval intelligence department, the main armor belt of this class of battle cruisers is made of 14-inch thick Vickers carburized steel, the frontal armor of the turret has reached 16 inches, and the command tower has reached 13 inches, and the level of protection has greatly exceeded that of the previous British battle cruisers, and some data even exceed the powerful armament of the Sovereign-class battleships plus the test speed of nearly 31 knots and the strong armament of three triple 45 times diameter 16-inch naval guns, which is enough to rival the super battle cruiser of the German Count Tirpitz class.

Now that the enemy fleet is attacking at full speed, if it is hard to sail at speed, the German fleet will not only not fall behind, but can also throw off its tail, but for the German professional soldiers who regard honor as their life, it is an unbearable grievance to be chased by an enemy of equal strength, and even a great humiliation to personal reputation, not to mention that the German Earl Tirpitz and the British admiral have been repeatedly compared by people since the construction of the finalized model, and each other has become the number one imaginary enemy in various deductions and exercises. The soldiers of both sides have long been working hard to compete, and the current pattern is undoubtedly an ideal opportunity to start a showdown.

William August cautiously sent a number of maritime reconnaissance planes to detect the presence of an unknown enemy in the surrounding waters, and to prepare for a possible fierce artillery battle - the thin hangar between the chimneys could not stop the shrapnel, and if the seaplanes were placed on the ship during the battle, they would not only be easily damaged, but also inflammable.

At the same time, the "Count Tirpitz" came to support its aircraft carrier "Emperor Karl" by radio, and this medium-sized aircraft carrier was concealed in the waters southeast of Flores Island as planned, maintaining radio silence at night and providing reconnaissance and anti-aircraft cover for the assault group after dawn.

(End of chapter)