In the bridge command tower of the battlecruiser "Tiger", Betty and his staff assistants looked solemnly at the rising and scattered waves of the sea nearby, listened to the rumble of the shell explosion, and felt the trembling sensation under their feet. www.biquge.info Of course, these officers with good professional qualities know that although the protection capability of the "Tiger" has been greatly improved compared with the Invincible-class and Indefatigable battlecruisers built in the early stage, it is still a step behind the dreadnoughts, so this is still its shortcoming, especially after witnessing the tragedy of the "Indefatigable" being sunk by several enemy ships, their hearts were once again deeply shocked.

From the very beginning of the battle, the "Tiger", which was at the bottom of the British capital ship column, was attacked by two German dreadnoughts, and with the rapid sinking of the "Intrepid", the "Tiger" became one enemy with three, although the caliber of its main guns was 13.5 inches, and the three German dreadnoughts on the opposite side were all 11 inches in caliber, regardless of range or power, the "Tiger" had a very large advantage, but according to the situation of several previous naval battles, Since these ordinary dreadnoughts were able to sink the "Centurion" in the Battle of Jutland, it would certainly not be a problem to take out the "Tiger", which was a grade lower than the "Centurion" in terms of defense.

"Sir, you can't fight like this! If our main guns were damaged, or the power compartment was damaged, we would be completely passive when the German battlecruisers arrived. One of Betty's officers, a major, said with a sad look on his face.

Rear Admiral Onuoha, the captain of the "Tiger", immediately chimed in: "It is really not a wise move to give up the speed advantage and shoot at the German dreadnoughts. ”

On weekdays, Betty always gives people the impression of being heroic and energetic, but at this time, her eyes are wide and her teeth are clenched, revealing a rare hideous color. The Tiger and Princess Royal had a maximum combat speed of 27:05 knots, sharing the honor of being the fastest capital ship of their era with the German Seydlitz class. The German battlecruisers were not present at the moment, and they had a speed advantage of at least 3 knots in the face of any German capital ship, and only by finding a way to apply the advantages of mobility to the battle, coupled with the power of four triple 13.5-inch guns, it was possible to get out of the current passive situation.

However, how can you convince the stubborn theorist in the shortest possible time that his tactics simply will not work?

Betty struggled in agony, and suddenly heard another screech of cannonballs, and a moment later, the hull shook violently at the sound of explosions.

"The stern of the ship was shot, the No. 4 turret was stuck and could not turn, and the fault is being eliminated......"

"The starboard waterline armor has been penetrated, the No. 9 and No. 10 watertight compartments have been flooded, and the watertight doors have been urgently closed......"

This kind of damage management report made every officer in the bridge tremble, and what made Betty even more worried was that Jackson's command seemed to be following the old path of Jericho, and the scene seemed to be evenly divided, but if it continued like this, it was definitely the British fleet that lost.

Thinking of this, Betty turned her back and closed her eyes, her teeth chattering, and her cheeks bulging from the action. After a few moments, he finally made up his mind, and roared with the momentum of a lion: "Send a signal to the flagship, please allow the 1st Battlecruiser Detachment to carry out tactical maneuvers at full speed, and let us tear apart the battle array of the German fleet with our speed." ”

As soon as the signal was given to the flagship of the fleet, the "Tiger" had already turned to the right with the "Royal Princess" turning the rudder. After turning five compass points to the right, the two British battlecruisers were basically in a state of advancing in unison, while the accompanying light ships did not receive orders from the flagship, and only the four light cruisers that had previously been attached to the 1st Battle Cruiser Detachment followed closely according to the signal sent by the "Tiger".

In this way, the six fast battleships quickly broke away from the British fleet array and rushed towards the rear of the German fleet.

At first glance, this position looks like a red-eyed gambler trying to fight his opponent - with the tight array of the German fleet, how could two British war cruisers and four light cruisers take advantage? It's not good that I was beaten into a funnel by the other party in a few clicks!

"Is this man crazy?"

When he learned from the lieutenant the contents of Betty's signal, Sir Jackson spoke.

Because Betty had repeatedly objected to the British Home Fleet's strategy of heading north to meet the German High Seas Fleet, some people even thought that he was running away until they saw the movements of Betty's detachment. Fortunately, the truth was in front of them, and Betty's detachment bravely rushed to the German fleet, and any speculation that he was a coward was dissipated. Fleet Chief of Staff Madden sighed: "He wants to attract the firepower of the German fleet for us, so as to interfere with their tactical deployment and buy us precious time." ”

"Not at all!" Sir Jackson looked angrily at Betty's detachment as it had gone, but he had no courage to force them to call off the operation and return to the fleet array.

Although the "Indefatigable" was brutally killed, and the British fleet was the first to lose one capital ship, under the concentrated attack of the British fleet, the lead and secondary ships of the German capital ship column were already billowing with thick smoke, and the injuries were bound to be not light. So far, at least, Jackson's tactics were working well and the tide of the war was turning in favor of the British fleet, so Jackson had a reason to be angry - Betty's assertive actions were simply throwing things up.

At this time, the distance between the two main fleets had been reduced to 14,000 meters, and Charles Madden, who had been carefully observing the situation on the battlefield, seemed to have seen a clue from his opponent. If the two German capital ships at the head of the line did suffer heavy damage, they should have turned left and left the battle column so as not to find themselves in extreme distress under the follow-up blows of the British fleet, and it was not too late to return to the battlefield after extinguishing the fire and determining that the wounds were not fatal. However, the two German ships remained in position - for this they had to maintain a speed of about 20 knots at all times, and the existing damage apparently did not affect their high speed.

Madden's suspicions, which stemmed from his own intuitive feelings, and could not be directly supported by evidence, did not say this to Jackson, but paced up to Edward's side and whispered to the veteran: "Don't you think it's strange that the Germans haven't seen a single battlecruiser until now?" ”

Edward stared intently at the sea: "They may be on their way, and when we pack up these German dreadnought battleships, the remaining German battlecruisers will not be able to make any waves." ”

Madden frowned: "So, do you think the timing of our battle is really just right?" ”

This question made Edward glance sideways at Madden, "Isn't it?" ”

Madden took a deep breath: "If the battle patrol is not in place, how can the Germans take the initiative to meet them when we can't find them?" ”

"They have 10 dreadnought battleships, and they know that the 'Collingwood' has returned early after being torpedoed, and even if their battle cruisers have not yet arrived, they have the advantage of 1 capital ship, not to mention that our Indefatigable class battlecruisers are too vulnerable, and they quickly extended their numerical advantage to 2." Edward's analysis sounded plausible, but Madden shook his head.

"Our opponents are not so simple, they must have a hidden layout and then lure us into taking the bait step by step."

Edward was about to retort, the battleship shuddered suddenly, and a violent explosion struck simultaneously, and in an instant, another explosion occurred on the ship, which was significantly stronger than before.

This accident immediately interrupted Edward and Madden's conversation.

"Shot on the starboard side!" Someone on the bridge shouted in panic, "There's an explosion in a first-level secondary turret, hell, and a fire broke out on the starboard side." ”

At this time, Jackson decisively showed the calm that a fleet commander should have, and he said in a loud voice: "Calm down! Stabilization! Don't panic, everyone! ”

Madden turned to another officer, who was always observing the battle, and asked, "Which enemy ship got the shell?" ”

"It's the enemy ship."

"The enemy ship that has already been badly damaged by us?" Madden deliberately accentuated his tone, on the sea nearby, several waves of rushing water stirred up by cannonballs were scattered, these simultaneous cannonballs should come from the same battleship, if it is indeed the enemy ship, its fire control and main gun system should be basically undamaged, which contradicts the estimate of "heavy damage".

Edward heard Madden's words, he stared at the German lead ship with a telescope for a long time, his originally calm and calm expression gradually changed, and a pair of all-white eyebrows were tightly wrinkled.

Madden was waiting for Edward to speak, when an officer next to him said coldly: "Look, the German destroyer formation has rushed out, and they are going to attack our 'Tiger' and 'Royal Princess'!" ”

At this time, looking directly to the starboard direction, you can see the six battleships commanded by Betty, they have not crossed the center line between the two fleets, rough estimates, there should be about ten kilometers away from the German capital ship column, which is far beyond the effective range of torpedoes, the Germans sent more than ten large torpedo boats at this time, it seems that they want to take the initiative to attack Betty's detachment, or it may be to prevent the British battle cruisers and accompanying cruisers from threatening the German main fleet with torpedoes.

Up to this point, the German fleet had not concentrated all of its firepower on the head of the Betty detachment, as Madden had previously speculated, and only the four German dreadnoughts at the rear of the fleet were attacking in a positional manner, their 11-inch guns were not powerful, but the firepower output was still strong in terms of rate of fire and accuracy, especially in medium-range engagements, these German dreadnoughts with four triple guns were quite difficult opponents. Betty's ship was shrouded in a rain of bullets from time to time, and the "Royal Princess" had already suffered many shells, and they had thicker main armor to protect the vital parts of the ship, but the fire control equipment, communication facilities, and secondary guns were much more vulnerable -- the damage to the non-vital parts was constantly weakening the overall combat strength of the battleship, and now there were large German torpedo boats relying on the firepower of the capital ships to suppress the brazen attack, and the situation of Betty's detachment was quite bad!

(End of chapter)