At sunset, dozens of British warships flying the St. George's Cross flag on flagpoles appeared in the waters south of Scapaflo anchorage. Pen ~ Fun ~ Pavilion www.biquge.info they are like a group of soldiers who have just suffered a defeat, looking gray-headed, ragged, and heavy-footed. This situation is reminiscent of the scene of the day before when the British main fleet sailed to the depths of the North Sea. Today, the surviving capital ships are staggering along with the broken hulls, and most of the cruisers and destroyers guarding them are also completely devastated and devastated.

With a long whistle, a convoy of battleships painted in lead gray sailed from the anchorage. More than 30 ships were divided into two columns, and their strict queues and solemn momentum made them look like a group of honor guards, but what they were waiting for was not a victorious army that returned triumphantly......

At the outbreak of the war, the absolute core of the British Grand Fleet consisted of ten super-dreadnoughts, namely two Iron Duke-class, four George V-class, and four Orion-class. After this extremely tragic sea battle, each of the three classes lost one ship, in order of "Benbang", "Centurion", and "Orion". The two ships of the Iron Duke class were one of them, and the remaining three ships of the George V class were all badly damaged, only the Orion class was in slightly better condition, the "Emperor" was away from killing most of the time because it lost course, and the "Conqueror" and "Thunderbolt" were exhausted and played little role in the final duel between the Jericho formation and the enemy's main fleet.

Among the remnants of the defeated army, the flagship of the Grand Fleet Commander Jericho, the Iron Duke, was undoubtedly the strongest member, it suffered hundreds of shells, almost no intact steel plates on the whole ship, and 27 large-caliber armor-piercing shells left more than a dozen shocking pits and an equal number of breaches. In addition, the battleship had several blows with torpedoes, and at the height of the battle, the whole ship was on fire, and the rudder was almost out of control, and Rear Admiral Duff persuaded Jericho to replace the flagship, but the cautious Jericho showed his courageous side, and he always stayed on the bridge until the flagship was out of danger.

In addition to the core combat power, the old dreadnoughts "Collingwood", "Palerophon" and "Dreadnought" remained in a state of disengagement after the Bernie formation was broken up, and did not rejoin the main force of the fleet until after dawn. However, they had already suffered serious injuries when they fought with the German dreadnoughts equipped with triple guns, and even if they were able to join the Jericho formation in time in the later battles, it would be difficult for them to perform well, and it would only add to the losses of the British fleet.

Frustrated, the British dreadnought group was wrapped in two large and slender figures, which did not belong to the category of dreadnoughts, but were no less expensive in terms of cost and military significance. Their names would appear among the ships that the German Navy announced were sunk, but they miraculously survived. The handsome and dashing British Admiral, David Beatty, who was accustomed to wearing a crooked military hat, was standing on the burning bridge of the ship at the moment, savoring the feeling of being in a different world. Overnight, only the "Royal Princess" and the "Australia" were left in the highly anticipated mobile fleet, two battlecruisers with serious injuries, and nearly 10,000 officers and men disappeared with each of them in the angry waves of the North Sea......

The dreadnought group was followed by the British 3rd Battleship Detachment, which consisted of old battleships, which had lost their detachment's flagship and commander, Vice Admiral Bradford, in naval battles. Aside from the bravery of the German reconnaissance fleet, they did almost nothing. In order to keep up with the pace of the main fleet, these old ships using coal-fired boilers have been running at full capacity, and a group of stokers have been tired of shoveling coal continuously, and the crew in other positions had to take turns to fight, and many people suffered from heat stroke because of working in a high temperature environment for a long time.

The feeling of defeat was certainly painful, and when the naval anchorage appeared in front of sight, many of the surviving officers and men of the British Grand Fleet finally breathed a long sigh of relief. At least until the ship is repaired, they will have time to adjust their physical and mental state. As everyone knows, under the surface of the sea, a pair of eyes glowing with cold light are peeking at these British ships that were devastated last night.

In order to cooperate with the high seas fleet, the German Navy sent 9 submarines to the North Sea before the war, after Britain declared war on Germany, a large number of German submarines quietly sailed out of the harbor and deployed in the English Channel - Thames estuary and the western and northern North Sea, only the British Grand Fleet's assembly place - Scapa Bay, there were 4 submarine squadrons, these submarines closely monitored the movements of the British main fleet, and after the naval battle began, They soon received orders from the Naval Command to keep an eye out for any British warships that returned home.

In the command module of one of the black sharks, the fledgling Lieutenant Wasser-Furstman was working with his weapons commander to determine the target's bearings.

"Angle?"

“020。”

"Record...... Target No. 1, destroyer of the British Navy, at a distance of 4500 meters, azimuth 20, speed 10 knots...... Target No. 2, a new battleship of the British Navy, at a distance of 6000, azimuth 20, speed of 10 knots. ”

In the line of sight of an underwater observer, the silhouettes of the two ships overlap at this point in time. Nearby was a British destroyer with a displacement of about 1,000 tons, it had a slender hull and three chimneys, the bridge had been blown away, the deck was in shambles, and the crew was basically not in their own battle positions, but the sea breeze was blowing on the fore and aft decks; In the distance was a large battleship, with two chimneys, high freeboard, two main turrets stacked on the foredeck, triangular masts towering, and equally incomplete buildings on board.

Then, turning the periscope clockwise, the young German lieutenant saw a battleship with a sleek linear shape, with a hull about twice as long as a common destroyer, with a higher freeboard and stronger guns on board - two single-mounted guns on the foredeck, secondary guns and torpedoes in the middle of the hull, and two single-mounted guns in the stern, which looked like a relatively old reconnaissance cruiser. The cracked main turret and the holes in the side hull reflect its poor condition.

"Angle?"

“027。”

"Record...... Target No. 3, British Navy reconnaissance cruiser at a distance of 4000, azimuth 027, speed 12 knots...... Target No. 4, British Navy battleship, distance 5500, azimuth 027, speed 10 knots. ”

After reporting the observation data, the observer slowly turned around with the periscope handle in his hand, and did not see a closer target, so he ordered: "Torpedoes No. 1 and No. 2 have a fixed depth of 6 meters, a fixed speed of 30 knots, and a maneuver angle of 0!" Torpedoes No. 3 and No. 4 have a fixed depth of 5 meters, a fixed speed of 35 knots, and a maneuver angle of 5! ”

In this era, torpedoes are usually set up relatively simply, either by obtaining a high hit rate at a high speed, or by increasing the effective range at a low speed, which is usually selected according to the commander's judgment of the battlefield situation.

Stimulated by the fighting atmosphere, the German crews quickly prepared. But not long after, a sudden roar startled everyone on the boat, and Lieutenant Fursterman, who was driving the boat for the first time, hurriedly turned the periscope. I saw that he frowned, and ordered sharply: "The enemy ship is approaching, put away the periscope, and dive to a depth of 30 meters at full speed!" ”

During the submarine diving, the sound of booming explosions continued one after another, and this was only the power of small-caliber naval guns, if it was the main gun of a British battleship, the submarine hull would probably be flattened by the huge impact force generated by the explosion of the shells.

Although the German crew did not see the enemy ship with their own eyes, judging from the captain's serious expression, it must have been a British battleship specializing in anti-submarine patrol missions. During this period, the anti-submarine means of the belligerent countries were basically visual alert and naval artillery bombardment, and as long as the submarine dived in time, the enemy ships had almost no choice but to wait and wait. Just a day earlier, the British Grand Fleet had sailed out of the mooring, and the British light ships in charge of patrolling and guarding at that time poured out, but they could not prevent the German submarines from attacking their own seaplane carrier "Campania", and as a result, the auxiliary ship carrying 10 seaplanes was damaged and returned home, leaving the British Grand Fleet in a passive position on the battlefield.

Having been spotted by enemy patrol ships, staying still is not the way out. When the submarine dived to a depth of 30 meters, Lieutenant Furstman ordered the motor to be activated and sailed away from the anchorage of Scapaflo, and the motor was turned off at intervals of about ten minutes in order to listen to the noise on the surface. This time, the British patrol boat, apparently not wanting to let go of the abominable attackers, lingered unrelentingly in the nearby sea, the sound of propellers churning the water lingering above the heads of the German crews. Seeing that the great opportunity to attack the enemy ships slipped away, Lieutenant Fursterman and his crew had nothing but to do it in a hurry, but in broad daylight, forcing the ascent would probably only become the target of the British fleet's anger.

More than half an hour passed quickly, and suddenly, a dull roar came from the sea, which was noticeably different from the previous shell explosion. Lieutenant Furstman had a stirring in his heart: was his own submarine finding the opportunity to sneak attack?

This explosion seemed to be the attack horn of the undersea legion, and after a while, similar explosions were heard one after another, and the roar of artillery shells also followed, and the sea suddenly became very lively. Lieutenant Furstman was eager to jump into the battle at once, and when the sound of the propeller was gone, he carefully directed the submarine to float, and then raised the periscope to see, ho! Less than two thousand meters into the sea, the front half of a huge British battleship had already submerged, the surviving crew jumped into the water like dumplings, and several destroyers circled in vain around the capsized battleship, one of which seemed to have discovered the periscope on this side and rushed towards it violently. Lieutenant Fursterman did not dare to slack off, and hurriedly ordered the submarine to dive into the depths.

After a while, the commotion outside gradually subsided, and by the time Lieutenant Furstman's submarine resurfaced, not a single British ship was visible in the periscope, and there was a large amount of oil, broken wood, lifebuoys, and other debris that could float on the surface.

"It looks like we missed the last battle with great regret......"

Lieutenant Furstman said to his subordinates with regret, but he thought that although the Scapa Flo base had equipment for ship repairs, it was certainly not enough for the large-scale repair of so many warships, and that the heavily damaged large ships would definitely sail to the British port after emergency repairs.

(End of chapter)