"Sir, the reconnaissance aircraft reported that the speed of the enemy battleship was sharply reduced after being hit by a mine in the stern. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ”

"Okay."

On the bridge of the German battleship "Hesse", Colonel Pate Kemp, the special liaison officer of the Irish Navy, received the latest information from the German officers on the battle situation, and immediately relayed it to His Majesty King Joachim I of Ireland, who was calmly watching the battle. The fleet commander with the aura of the god of war said "very good" with an affirmative expression, but then did not make any adjustments, that is, the Allied reinforcement fleet continued to sail along a parallel line to the enemy fleet, even though the enemy fleet's speed was slowed down by the damage of one of the capital ships, and the straight-line distance between the two sides was only slightly reduced, and the observation range was still more than 23,000 kilometers.

Suddenly, the eight 16-inch guns of the "Hesse" once again let out a deafening roar, which was the 27th salvo it fired that day, and together with the previous corrective fire in the form of a half-salvo, a total of 244 rounds of ammunition for the main guns were consumed, accounting for 30 percent of the ammunition loaded. According to Natsuki's pre-war scenario, the worst-case scenario would be to consume a third of the main gun's ammunition to get the first hit, and the current situation is undoubtedly much better than the worst-case scenario.

The salvo was so accurate that all the shells landed in the vicinity of the damaged enemy battleship, and the huge columns of water that rose up almost completely enveloped it.

Now that the speed of the target has been reduced to extremely slow, the work of the "Hesse" firing command team has become much easier, and they quickly calculate the relative displacement based on the speed of the ship, and then guide the main guns to adjust the firing angle. They were quite efficient, and the whole process from observing the impact point to the next salvo was fired added up to just over a minute.

After another round of roaring, the captain of the ship, Colonel Messer, came to Xia Shu's side and said half-jokingly, "Your Majesty intends to slowly wear down their fighting spirit like a cat and a mouse?" ”

Natsuki twitched the corners of his mouth: "I don't have that bad taste." ”

Messer was a cadet of the 1910 class at the Keele Naval Academy, four classes later than Natsuki, so he didn't get to witness the genius at the academy, but he must have heard a lot about him. Later, when the Great War broke out, Miser sailed with the High Seas Fleet as an officer and cadet, and experienced several thrilling naval battles, and was full of admiration for those who strategized. After Natsuki left the German Navy, Meiser went up step by step, during which the two had a few encounters, but they never had a deep friendship. This was the first time they had officially worked together, and despite the fact that they had not been together for a long time and had very different statuses, the two quickly got acquainted and discovered a lot of common interests, so they were able to talk as easily as friends.

"In that case, your Majesty's intentions ......," Messel thought for a moment as he touched his chin with his right hand and pretended to be very serious, "is it the force that inflicts heavy damage on the enemy at the least cost?" ”

"Your judgment is very accurate." Natsuki replied, "Although long-range artillery battles consume a lot more shells, they can also save us a lot of shells. ”

Messel continued, "Then go into the next battle with the best possible posture, and that's the real duel. ”

In this battle, how could Natsuki set his sights on such a small-scale naval battle as it was now? In his heart, there is a big game of chess brewing. At this time, there was no need to sell Guan Zi anymore, he nodded, and then asked: "According to your estimate, how long will it take for the enemy's main fleet to arrive here?" ”

Maiser muttered, "Synthesize the information you already have...... One or two hours if it's fast, four or five hours if it's slow, but the enemy commander is likely to adjust his plans according to the development of the battle, so that the next battle may not take place here. ”

"Colonel Victor Franz Messer." Natsuki suddenly called him by his full name, much to Major Messer's surprise.

"You are a commander with a flexible mind, excellent insight and a big picture view, and you have the potential to be a good commander, and you will definitely achieve great things if you maintain a never-ending mentality, keep yourself improving, and keep up with the development trend of naval technical and tactical thinking." Natsuki patted his arm as he spoke.

Colonel Messel was a little embarrassed to receive such a high evaluation, and he moved his lips, not knowing how to answer. At this time, a huge explosion came from the porthole, this is the enemy Queen Elizabeth-class battleship fired a shell, the shooting accuracy is actually not as good as the previous two sides when the two sides are separated by 26,700 meters, it can be seen that the opponent's military heart has indeed been shaken, their first thought is not how to defeat the strong enemy, but how to get out of the current predicament. Digging deeper, this shows that the enemy's main fleet is approaching as scheduled.

After about a cup of tea, the three Allied battleships continued to bombard each other with an overwhelming rate of fire and a significant advantage in accuracy, and one 16-inch armor-piercing shell and three 12-inch armor-piercing shells hit the enemy battleship that was dragging behind. In such a long-range artillery battle, the queen Elizabeth class's thick and inclined vertical armor could not be used, and all four hits were fired from the top of the battleship, easily destroying the two main turrets, but both shells deviated from the ammunition supply channel in the process of penetrating the hull, so that they did not cause a large explosion in the ammunition depot as in the "Lexington", and the other two shells fell to the bottom of the ship after penetrating the deck, severely damaging the power system of the British battleship and causing some watertight compartments to break and leak. It caused great trouble to the British crew's damage management and emergency repair.

At the same time, another Queen Elizabeth-class battleship did not let its friendly ships passively be beaten behind, and it led three light ships to draw a full arc on the sea, and quickly killed in front of the Allied reinforcement fleet, such a pseudo-T-shaped prefix did not change the situation on the battlefield. As the distance between the two sides suddenly shrank to 20,000 meters, the three German battleships quickly turned, and all pointed at the courageous British battleship "Balham" on the port side, and then launched a stormy rapid fire -- with two and a half rounds of salvo as a foreshadowing, the "Hesse" fired seven full volleys in five minutes, and the "Elector" and "Karl the Great" fired eight and nine full salvos respectively. The calibration assistance of the water reconnaissance planes and the good combat mentality caused the German warships to fire "critical hits" one after another, and the "Balham" constantly withstood the test of artillery fire in the stormy weather. At this moment, the British sailors should pay tribute to the designers and builders of the Queen Elizabeth class, because their warships showed good protection under the fierce attack of the opponent, and stubbornly withstood the attack of five direct hit shells and multiple close misses in front and rear, and the whole ship caught fire in many places, but still continued to fight, and also fired three rounds of straddle fire at the enemy flagship, and one shell directly hit the side of the ship, getting a hard-won point.

Under the cover of the "Barham", which was fighting bravely, the three light ships launched a "death charge" against the Allied fleet, and they tried to get close to the enemy fleet to carry out a torpedo attack, but the enemy's capital ship's secondary artillery fire and cruiser artillery fire were too fierce, and they barely rushed to a position of more than 6,000 meters and projected torpedoes, but were easily avoided by the enemy warships.

When turning to avoid torpedoes, the three German battleships and the damaged "Warweary" were briefly shortened to 16,000 kilometers, which was also the closest position of the capital ships of both sides in this naval battle. The "Hesse" unceremoniously fired two salleys and four rounds of front/rear main gun fire, with the result that two hits and three misses, while the horizontal angle bombardment was really not as powerful as the previous long-range hanging fire, and the two 16-inch armor-piercing shells only blew two large holes above the waterline of the "War-Wey", while the 12-inch armor-piercing shells of the "Elector" and "Karl the Great" could not penetrate the main armor belt of the "War-Weyware", and their attacks caused some damage to the deck of the British battleship.

Compared with the "War Weariness", which lost most of its combat effectiveness, the "Barham" is the first target of the Allied fleet at the moment. After evading the torpedo attack, the three German battleships regrouped into the battle diagonal column favored by His Majesty Joachim and opened fire again from a distance of 20,000 meters. During this period, carrier-based fighters flying from the convoy used light bombs to attack the "Barham", distracting the British crew.

As the "Hesse's" thunderous hammer struck the "Barham" again, a relatively violent explosion occurred in the rear of the British battleship, and the four main guns that could still shoot all fell silent, and the ship's secondary guns were limited by their range and posed no threat to the enemy ships.

At this point, Natsuki split the reinforcement fleet into two, with the two King-class battleships leading more than a dozen light ships to chase after the "Barham" who was trying to withdraw from the battlefield, and the "Hesse" led the remaining light ships to approach the "War Wereary". In a situation of basic desperation, the remaining American and British destroyers defended their dignity with extraordinary courage, and they launched one attack after another against a formidable adversary under the cover of gunpowder smoke and artificial smoke, and those torpedo tracks that appeared from time to time frightened the German and Irish naval officers and sailors for a long time, but fortunately none of the battleships were unlucky at the last moment, and they immediately launched retaliatory strikes with furious artillery fire, and the American and British battleships were shot one after another and burst into flames, and they either sank proudly or fled with tears in their eyes. With the "war-weary" unbalanced capsizing, the "Balham" was sunk by the crew by opening the bilge valve, a wonderful victory was taken by Natsuki, the battle report was transmitted back to Europe by telegram, countless people were surprised, countless people cheered, everything seemed to return to the morning of the end of the Battle of Jutland, all the tense and suppressed emotions were swept away by the joy of victory.

(End of chapter)