In the faint starlight, the "Positive", far from its own fleet, sailed alone on the undulating sea. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 infoAll British crews, including Captain Brent, were ready to make combat contact with enemy ships. Of course, they did not forget about their tasks. From the mast lookout to the bridge deck, the deaf and discerning crew watched the sea with full attention. Time passed minute by minute, and the mighty German fleet was still nowhere to be seen, as if they had fled at full speed for fear of the prestige of the British Grand Fleet.

On the bridge of the battleship, Colonel Brent checked his watch every few minutes with the help of a flashlight. The radio contact with Betty's fleet had been agreed for 20 minutes, but now it was only 15 minutes, but it seemed like hours. At the cruising speed of the "Positive" at 18 knots, a quarter of an hour meant another 4 to the south. 5 nautical miles. On the vast ocean, this is an insignificant short distance, but a fleet usually spans no more than ten nautical miles, and the previous shelling of Betty's fleet was clearly part of the main German fleet. Thinking of this, Colonel Brent felt more and more that it would be difficult to continue to search for the German fleet in the south, and he thought that he should ask Betty for instructions - either to speed up the southward movement and completely eliminate the possibility of the German fleet turning around and retreating, or to turn in other directions and search the sea area where the German fleet was more likely to go.

After another two minutes, the colonel called the communications officer and instructed him the contents of the communication telegram, and at this moment, the officer outside the bridge stepped into the hatch with a hurried step: "Colonel, there is a situation in the sea ahead, it is a light code signal from the ship!" ”

The colonel hurriedly grabbed the binoculars, and through the porthole on the front of the battle bridge, he saw a tiny point of light flickering on the chaotic sea, it was very regular, but it was not the international Morse code.

"What now? Captain. The officer at the hatch asked.

Colonel Brent did not hesitate to decide: "Reply to the other side as it is." ”

Immediately afterwards, the colonel instructed his deputies on the bridge: "Let all positions be ready to shoot, and you must not open fire without my password." ”

Following the commander's orders, the signalmen on the main mast of the "Positive" sent a light signal to the other side with the same beat, and the light spots on the sea ahead disappeared. The scorching atmosphere lasted for several seconds, and suddenly, a bright pillar of light pierced the darkness that enveloped the sea. After a brief displacement adjustment, it locked onto the lead-gray hull of the Positive.

At the moment when this pillar of light appeared, Colonel Brent shouted like a lion: "Turn on the forward searchlight!" ”

Without waiting for the eyes of the British sailors to adjust to the sudden glare of the light, they heard a rumbling in the sea ahead, and the screeching sound of shells scraping against porcelain plates with cutlery. It landed in front of the starboard side of the "Positive" and instantly blasted up a column of water more than 30 meters high.

Officers with extensive experience in gunnery could tell at a glance that the shell came from a ship gun of a smaller caliber.

Moments later, the forward searchlight on the "Positive" came on, and the beam of light it emitted was thicker and brighter than that of the other side. In front of the sea, a low-hull gray battleship emerged from the darkness. There was a gun with a cannon shield on the bow deck of its ship, and several figures could be seen looming next to it, and it must have been the one who had just opened fire.

Less than 2,000 meters apart, both sides could see each other's faces clearly under the light of searchlights. Compared with the old 1898 class large torpedo boats on the German side, the "Positive" had obvious advantages in size, tonnage and firepower, but this was not a gladiatorial arena between two battleships, but a sea battle between the navies of the two countries and the two main fleets. In this case, any light ship is just a pawn on a tactical chessboard. Because there is no real-time combat information sharing system, it is impossible for the officers and men on these ordinary warships to understand the battlefield situation in the same way as fleet commanders, and in many cases, even fleet commanders may not have a comprehensive and accurate grasp of the battlefield. Therefore, the two hostile ships that met unexpectedly looked at each other while speculating on the strength behind the other party that had not yet appeared.

Once in a state of engagement, time flows twice as smoothly as a river thawed from ice. As the order to "fire freely from the guns" came from the bridge, the British crew in charge of the guns on the foredeck of the "Positive" completed the aiming of the guns as quickly as possible, and the old MK-III 4-inch naval guns immediately let out a roar of battle. The British reconnaissance cruiser was designed to be equipped with two forward-facing guns, but one of them was damaged in the previous battle, and the battle between the strong and weak was for a time a one-man battle between the two guns, and the distance between the two sides was only more than 1,000 meters, giving people the impression that they could hit with aim, but after firing the guns, the British crew found that their own projectile impact point was also more than 20 meters away from the target.

Next, the two battleships opened fire on each other and briefed their respective superiors on the battle. The "Positive" was far away from its own fleet and could only communicate by radio at this time, while the large German torpedo boats on the opposite side only had to use their stern signal lights to send out the code. By the time they had finished their briefings, the battle had been going on for three minutes, and the artillery fire on both sides had hit. The German Navy's 1898 class large torpedo boats were the weakest of the ships in service in the High Seas Fleet, and their later models had a displacement of just over 600 tons, and were usually armed with two 88 mm guns, three 50 mm guns and three 450 mm torpedo tubes. After being hit by a shell from a British cruiser, its bridge burst into flames and black smoke billowed from it, and if it continued, the battle would have been one-sided.

Seeing that the situation was not good, the German boat hurriedly turned to avoid the battle. The "Positive" made a slight adjustment of course to obtain a firing angle for the guns placed on the side of the ship, and then the shells flew towards the German boat one after another, and the tall column of water almost submerged it, and the shrapnel of the shells continued to kill and injure the crew on board. At this moment, a dark shadow flashed on the edge of the illumination area of the British ship's searchlight, and the British crew hurriedly turned the searchlight, and found a large torpedo boat of the same model in the 1898 class. Its narrow body swayed from side to side in the waves, the bow occasionally stirred up waves that rose above the bridge, the Black Hawk battle flag on the stern flagpole twisted and tumbled, and the two chimneys spewed jet-black soot out at the same time, and its speed had soared beyond the reach of the Positive......

Colonel Brent immediately judged: "It wants to fire torpedoes from the right flank, and orders the artillery to attack it first." ”

Even without explicit instructions from the colonel, British officers with good fighting qualities, especially those who had served for many years, knew exactly what to do in such a situation. The German boats were approaching at high speed, and the 102-mm single-mounted naval guns and 47-mm small-caliber rapid-fire guns on the central and starboard sides of the "Positive" opened fire one after another, and the rapid and dense sound of guns filled the sea. In the blink of an eye, the German lightning strike boat was surrounded by water columns at high speed, the sea was almost boiling, the surging waves shook its body, and the horizontal and vertical swings existed at the same time, and the crew looked like it was difficult to even maintain balance, let alone operate weapons. After a few rounds of firing, the boat was greeted by the explosion of shells, and when a great amount of smoke poured out of its amidships, its speed dropped suddenly, and it had to fire torpedoes at a slightly greater distance.

Large torpedo boats of all classes in the German Navy were equipped with rotatable torpedo tubes on deck, allowing them to attack without the need for the ship to adjust its course. Seeing the black torpedo rushing into the water, the British officers and men did not dare to slack off in the slightest, and the "Positive" immediately made a full rudder turn, and then successfully avoided the German torpedo. At this time, the German torpedo boats, which were the first to engage in fire, rushed up to cover their badly wounded companions, firing three torpedoes in succession at a distance of almost 600 meters. The "Positive" took another sharp turn. Although the process of rapid turning had a great impact on the ship's gun fire, the ship's gun fire was still accurate. In a few minutes, the two large German torpedo boats had lost their speed advantage, turned around and retreated.

While most of the crew focused on the two damaged German mine-striking boats, Colonel Brent scanned the sea in the distance with alarm, especially to the south of the two German ships. He knew that German ships of this class usually accompanied large ships in the vicinity of large ships, and carried out escort operations or torpedo attacks according to tactical needs, although they could also be sent to carry out peripheral reconnaissance missions, but if there were indeed German capital ships around, with the terrible attack power that the German fleet had previously displayed, once there was contact, as long as the "Positive" moved half a beat slower, it was very likely to be killed by the other side, and if it could not be reported to Betty's fleet in time, The battleship, along with the courageous officers and men, died in vain.

Shortly after, the sudden appearance of cannon flames in the darkness to the south confirmed Colonel Brent's fears. The whistling shells then landed on the sea more than 100 meters from the port side of the "Positive", and the splash that went straight to a height of nearly 100 meters instantly shocked and frightened the British crew. Although Colonel Brent knew that the situation was not good, he was strangely relieved: he had finally found the trace of the German High Seas Fleet?

At most, half a minute later, there were flickering flares of cannon fire again in the darkness to the south, and they were in pairs, echoing each other, and from a distance, at least two battleships were firing with twin guns.

Colonel Brent suddenly came to his senses and shouted, "Turn off the searchlights!" Stop shooting! ”

In order to attack the two German torpedo boats on the sea, the "Positive" turned on two searchlights, and their bright light certainly provided the gunners of the ship with the convenience of aiming and firing, but also made itself unobstructed in front of the enemy. It seemed too late to turn off the searchlights and stop firing at this point, and the German battleships in the distance had already obtained accurate firing parameters, and the two German torpedo boats that had been shot and caught fire were also effective auxiliary references. Heavy shells came one after another, and soon one of them formed a close miss on the side of the "Positive", and to make matters worse, judging by the flickering fire, the enemy ships were getting closer and closer, and the rumbling of large turbines could be heard on the sea.

Under the command of Colonel Brent, the "Positive" tried to avoid the shelling of the enemy ships by maneuvering at sea, but the two German torpedo boats that had retreated due to wounds suddenly turned around, and the British crew could not be sure whether they still had torpedoes, and one of them actually had a searchlight that had not been damaged, and the position of the "Positive" was quickly pointed out by this not very powerful searchlight, and the British crew had no choice but to brave enemy fire to fire heavily at the two German torpedo boats.

Seeing that the two large torpedo boats were once again ravaged by the fire of the British cruisers, the German battleships coming from the south burst into fire, and not only did their large-caliber naval guns continue to fire at an astonishing rate of fire, but medium-caliber naval guns also entered the battle. The intense artillery fire, though not an immediate hit, put a strong psychological strain on the British crew, and the shells that landed at a slightly closer range continued to cause problems for its old troubles below the waterline.

In the face of danger, Colonel Brent remained clear-headed. Seeing that the enemy warships were constantly approaching, he decisively ordered the searchlights of the whole ship to be turned on, and the three high-power searchlights that were still working shone to the south together.

In an instant, two majestic large battleships appeared in the sight of the British, and on their bow-like foredeck, the black holes of the twin main guns faced each other.

Colonel Brent was taken aback, but not because the opponent had an overwhelming superiority in combat power, but because they were not the old German battleships that he had estimated - although the two German armored cruisers were also 10,000-ton battleships, their presence here was not enough to infer that the German main fleet was nearby.

More than 3,000 meters away, the searchlight of the "Positive" did not disturb the vision of the German gunners, but provided great convenience for the opponent's ranging and positioning, and the two German armored cruisers quickly fired accurate shots. Before the British crew could finish the telegram on the situation of the battle, a 150-millimeter secondary shell hit the bridge directly, unceremoniously blowing through the radio room......

(End of chapter)