Boom! Boom...... Boom! Boom!

The roar of a thunderstorm came one after another from the two twin-mounted main gun turrets nearby, and the six British crew members on the right side of the rear bridge of the "Invincible" covered their ears tightly and cats. www.biquge.info In this era, unlike the Germans, who preferred beards, the British "gentlemen" paid more attention to neat appearance and hygienic habits. Of the six gunners, four had no beards at all, and two had thin, pale gentlemanly mustaches. It is worth mentioning that this ratio reflects not only the middle and lower groups in the army, but also the proportion of beards grown by British officers is much lower than that of their German counterparts, who are keen to use beards to groom their faces.

The huge sound of the shelling gradually dissipated, and these secondary gunners turned into another state - they craned their necks one by one to look into the distance, at this time the two fleets were separated by more than ten kilometers, and the huge battle cruisers were only a faint black spot in the sight of the naked eye, and only the fire from the guns or bullets was easily recognizable......

"Guys, be careful!"

Whenever the senior sergeant with a gentleman's mustache issued such a warning, the rest of the gunners would hide behind the cannon shield as fast as they could, as if they were playing a game of eagle catching chickens. The "boom" of the shells is involuntarily nervous, and before they fall, only the most experienced people can judge by the sound.

Boom ...... Boom ......

Loud eardrum-piercing noises followed, and the blasts produced waves of air that were even more powerful than the terrible hurricane, and the sturdy hull and cannon shields were still able to withstand the impact of such a degree, and if the fragile human body was directly exposed, the body and mind would inevitably be weakened.

Not only that, the battleship, which had nearly 20,000 tons of steel, was violently tossed and swayed in the waves, and the gunners had to hold on to the gun mounts or the arms of their companions to avoid falling and being injured.

Like the Dreadnought, the epoch-making Invincible-class battlecruisers had a number of design problems, as they were equipped with only two types of naval guns, the 45-diameter 12-inch (305 mm) main gun and the same 4-inch (102 mm) secondary gun, the former having an absolute range inferior to the German Navy's 50 times the diameter of the 11-inch guns, and the old armor-piercing shells were also very limited, and the latter was a typical short- and medium-range rapid-fire gun, which was acceptable against lightly armored destroyers or torpedo boats, it is difficult to do anything about the cruisers built in the later period with a certain amount of armor protection. In the long-distance bombardment between the two battle patrols, the 4-inch single-mounted secondary gun of the "Invincible" had no chance to play a role at all, but the strict combat discipline made the gunners stick to their positions. Once a battleship is hit by a bullet, or suffers a near-miss, it is often the crew who lacks adequate protection in these positions to bear the brunt!

The senior non-commissioned officer who had just given the warning took out his handkerchief and wiped his face fiercely, and although he did not say a word, he looked at his companions and obviously said: Oh no, the Germans are shooting more and more accurately, I hope we can get the first score before they hit us.

In a moment, the main gun firing alarm bell sounded to alert the personnel of the outside positions, and the gunners covered their ears and turned their backs to the No. 2 main turret closest to them. This twin main turret is not on the central axis of the hull of the "Invincible", but is located in the starboard forward position, the No. 3 main turret is correspondingly arranged on the port side, the two amidships main turrets are on the diagonal, plus the No. 1 and No. 4 main turrets on the fore and aft decks, the four main turrets can only achieve a full salvo at a very limited angle.

In the absence of a precedent to draw from, the British shipbuilding engineers adopted this unique design to meet the technical requirements of the Admiralty, which would have led the technological trend for a period of time, not only the subsequent dreadnoughts and battle cruisers of the British Navy, but the Germans also adopted similar designs on the Kaiser, Moltke and Seydlitz, but the trajectory of history has quietly changed here, and the German battle cruisers on the distant sea all adopted the full central axis arrangement of the main guns, The two Moltke-class ships have gained quite strong firepower thanks to the creative design of the triple turret, and the "Blücher", which fired at the "Invincible", also had good broadside salvo capabilities.

As soon as the firing alarm bell sounded, the No. 1 main turret on the foredeck, the No. 2 main turret on the starboard side, and the No. 4 main turret on the aft deck opened fire one after another, and the fierce shelling once again made the British crew look forward to the sight of the enemy ship being hit by a bullet and catching fire, and just as they raised their eyes to look, the battleship located in the stern of the German fleet burst into flames, and the time difference that happened to be close made a small number of crew members who did not know the truth cheer, in fact, it would take five or six seconds for the shells fired by the "Invincible" to fall on the bow of the enemy ship.

In the time of two breaths, the rising water column appeared near the target one by one, there was no expected fire, no expected smoke, and the pure white splash of water meant that the shells fell into the sea without exception. Almost at the same time, a terrible scream began to come faintly, and in the auxiliary gun position on the right side of the bridge in front of the "Invincible", the senior non-commissioned officer was full of horror, the pupils of his eyes dilated suddenly, and he subconsciously turned around and ran to the port side of the battleship.

This time, instead of a calm warning, a terrified shout: "Run!" ”

The gunners, who were still watching, were not surprised, the senior non-commissioned officer's movements seemed to be a lot, but compared to the shells flying hundreds of meters per second, his swing arms and strides were like a demonstration in slow motion. In the next two seconds, 3 of the remaining 5 gunners made an effort to turn around and run away, 2 of them were still stunned in place, the gunner standing on the right side of the gun shield was still a childish big boy, he looked directly ahead and above in a daze, only to see a small dot with a dark red luster flying rapidly, its outline became uniform and rapidly enlarged, and then, the big boy in the uniform of the British Navy sailors only had time to clench his fists, and the cannonball that shot straight out suddenly in front of him with an extremely piercing scream- Plunged into the wall of the ship beneath the secondary gun emplacement. After it disappears from sight, a crisp sound is transmitted to the brain through people's eardrums.

The 2 gunners who were stunned in place, the 3 gunners who were dodging in panic, and the 1 senior non-commissioned officer who ran a few meters away all felt the movement under their feet in the next moment. This is not an ordinary shaking or shaking, but an indescribable sensation that only those who have experienced a strong earthquake can experience. In an instant, the hard, flat deck turned into a churning wave, accompanied by a terrible popping sound, and the familiar sensory world was subjected to a subversive shock, which, though lasting only a few tenths of a second or less, was enough to destroy the courage of people who thought they were strong.

At the moment when the soles of their feet felt like the deck was exploding, the gunners were roughly divided into two categories: those with blank heads and lamenting that "it's over". The picture of memory is still flashing in front of their eyes, the pain of regret is still surging in their hearts, and the pain of falling heavily on the deck makes them stunned: they are still alive?

Roughly centered on the secondary gun, the wooden deck and the steel skeleton of its lower part twisted violently under the tremendous force, the gun mount rose a foot, its roots almost detached from the deck, the gun shield beveled upwards, the barrel tilted upwards, and the surrounding deck arched into an irregular protrusion, as if it were a small bump growing on smooth skin. Obviously, the German armor-piercing shells that pierced through the broadside armor themselves had limited explosive power and failed to blow through the deck from the bottom up, but the tongues of fire that burst from the breach in the ship's side were still reminding those who thought they had escaped that the catastrophe was far from over!

The youngest gunner staggered to his feet, one hand on his forehead, red blood pouring from his fingertips, one on his waist, grinning as he remembered what had just happened; The senior sergeant also got up, and when he returned, he saw three of his companions lying motionless or lying on their stomachs, and wanted to go over and see how they were doing; There were also two gunners who reacted quickly and were only slightly injured in the explosion, they looked at everything around them in a daze, the nightmare of being hit by enemy artillery fire finally became a reality, the experience of escaping death was terrifying, and they seemed to have no idea what to do next...... As he thought about it, an unprecedentedly strong tremor accompanied by an extremely violent explosion came from the soles of his feet, and this time, people no longer had the opportunity to show how fast or slow they were, and the arched and deformed deck was torn to pieces by the huge impact from the inside out, and the bright yellow red flames erupted with it, instantly engulfing everything around it like a large volcanic eruption.

The war has begun, and some people are destined to end their lives early, leaving their widows and widows to suffer grief.

The fireball rising from the side of the "Invincible" rushed straight to the height of the mast, and countless fragments scattered like fireworks to the surrounding sea, and the whole battleship was like a dead leaf in the wind, trembling and swaying helplessly, and the fire quickly spread from the starboard side to the cabins and deck bridges, and successively detonated the main and auxiliary gun ammunition stored in various places in the ship, billowing thick smoke enveloped the whole ship, forming a conspicuous column of smoke up to 100 meters high. For the British fleet, it was a sign of disaster and sorrow, and for the Germans, it was the good news of the first victory, and the beacon of victory.

The two German maritime reconnaissance planes hovering over the battlefield observed the explosion of the "Invincible" almost simultaneously, and they vied with each other to send good news to their own fleet, and at this time, the bridges of the "Seydlitz" and "Blucher" were already cheering. On the eve of the expedition, the commanders of the detachments and the captains of the main ships were summoned to the headquarters of the High Seas Fleet to listen to the commander of the fleet, von Ingnoor, convey the operational instructions of Kaiser Wilhelm II. He analyzed conclusively that the seemingly formidable British battlecruisers had the fatal weakness of weak defenses, that they were like tin boxes containing high explosives, and that the artillery battle would soon turn into a magnificent fireworks display, and that the German battle cruisers would return with all their glory!

Two minutes later, the British Navy's first battlecruiser was a pile of burning floats, with its deck tilted to the right at an angle of more than 30 degrees, and it looked like it could capsize at any moment, and the numerical superiority of the capital ships of Betty's fleet disappeared. During this period, the "Lion" and "Royal Princess", who jointly attacked the "Seydlitz", successively made hits, but at a distance of 16500 to 16000 meters, three shots 13. None of the 5-inch armor-piercing shells penetrated the armor of the German flagship, and the explosion of the shells caused only a small fire on the ship. After the "Invincible" withdrew from the battle, Betty decided to continue to concentrate superior firepower on Hipper's flagship, which meant that the "Blucher", the weakest in the German fleet, turned into an undisturbed free attacker, which quickly turned its guns to the "New Zealand" and told its opponent with a confident salvo that it was an absolutely unforgivable mistake to underestimate itself.

As the artillery battle between the two battle patrol formations intensified, a third plane appeared over the battlefield, and to the disappointment of the British, its wings still had a clear Iron Cross logo, and unlike previous water reconnaissance aircraft, it was used as a tool for take-off and landing by wheels rather than pontoons - for the British, this meant many possibilities, and the most unacceptable outcome for them was not that the German Navy built new ships that could take off and land land-based aircraft, but that the whole of Denmark fell into German hands, This not only means that German planes will use Jutland to expand the reconnaissance and warning range, but also means that the German Navy can easily cut off the sea route between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea, and occupy an absolutely advantageous strategic situation in northern Europe.

(End of chapter)