In the West Norwegian Sea in November, the wind was as cold as a knife, the water ice was biting, and the British and German fleets fought fiercely here, and the battlefield was scorched with flames and thick smoke, and the officers and men of both sides had long been unable to take care of this treacherous natural environment. Every participating ship www.biquge.info has an open-air battle position, and the brave sailors brave the wind and waves and the shrapnel that may hit at any time, and most of them know that their efforts will not change the situation of the battle, but they still silently contribute their own strength.

On the upper main deck of the forward part of the German flagship "King", a group of unassuming-looking crew members are busy outside the turret. The large, heavily armoured Second Main Turret had lost its former might, and its seat was marked by a large blackened and conspicuous pit, a color that showed the heat it had experienced, and the two thick straight barrels no longer stared at the target as before, but stared blankly at the empty sea. At this time, the situation of the German fleet was slightly superior, but victory was not in the bag, and a slight mistake could still lead to a complete loss, and the "King" was both the flagship and the leading ship, and its play was directly related to the fate of the German fleet. In order to restore the main turret, the ship's engineers and crew had to troubleshoot the steering gear - although the British ship's large-caliber armor-piercing shells did not directly penetrate the 300 mm thick gun mount armor, the violent impact of the explosion severely deformed the turntable and caused some of the rollers to break.

On a dreadnought as large as the King, it is not an easy task to replace the turntables or rollers of the main turret weighing several hundred tons. If it is in the port dock with large lifting equipment, the situation is relatively simple, but on the battlefield where the guns are flying, the crew can only use jacks to jack up the heavy turret, and then use the maintenance equipment and spare parts on the ship to carry out manual repairs, the difficulty can be imagined.

With a terrible scream, the heavy shells from the British ships fell on the sea not far away, instantly stirring up a wave of amazing water, and the German sailors who were cooperating on the maintenance outside the turret were once again doused by the icy seawater, and this gritted teeth could still hold on, once the shell hit the hull, even if it was a weak armor-piercing shell, they could lose their precious lives in an instant. Even so, no one withdrew out of cowardice.

In the battle bridge behind the No. 2 main turret, the German officers led by Schell saw the heroic behavior of the sailors, and were inspired by this to their will to fight and their desire to survive, but the victory or defeat of the battle was not decided by the mental state of both sides. The British fleet is still using the tactical strategy of concentrating firepower at this moment, that is, the "King" is being attacked by four British super dreadnoughts, even if this German dreadnought has almost perverted protection capabilities, and cannot withstand the heavy blows of the enemy fleet, the "King" gradually becomes unrecognizable, and the battleship that smokes everywhere looks like it may be exploded by a shell from the British fleet at any time, and the German fleet is sweating for its flagship from top to bottom.

Despite this, the battle flag on the top of the "King's" foremast still fluttered unruly in the wind, showing no sign of retiring from the battle due to injury.

The two main fleets fought from the initial 18,000 meters to the current 7,000 meters, and the Germans have always been superior in archery, not to mention that the "King" attracted most of the gunfire of the four British capital ships, so that the "Elector", "Governor of the Frontier", "Caesar", and "Regent of Louitport" can exert their combat effectiveness with ease.

The "Elector" clung to the opposing "George V", and now every salvo could cause some damage to this gorgeous British battleship, and the ultra-dreadnought named after the current British monarch was already in shambles, the firing command on the upper part of the bridge was even turned off, the searchlights and communication antennas were blown into the sky, two of the five main turrets were dumb fire, and the chimneys were riddled with holes.

The Frontier Governor took on the Conqueror, who had survived two battles at Jutland and Flanders, and twice set the British Orion-class super-dreadnought on fire with its precise and heavy fire. At this time, the most tragic and smoke part of the "Conqueror" was the secondary gun battle position in the front of the starboard side, the gun frame armor was completely vulnerable to the 12-inch German armor-piercing shells, the ignited shells and propellants caused a medium-scale detonation, the three 6-inch secondary guns installed in the gun frame were gone, and the fire quickly spread along the lower compartment of the bomb supply channel, if it were not for the subdivision of the hatch to block the fire, the misfortune that had happened on the friendly ship before was likely to be repeated.

After taking out the flashy seven-turret god ship "Agincourt", "Regent Luitport" and "Caesar" attacked another Orion-class super-dreadnought, "Thunderbolt". With little interference, the mid-range shelling of the two German dreadnoughts was quite sharp, they were able to get hits almost every two salvos, and the armor-piercing shells fired from the 12-inch guns 50 times the diameter were able to penetrate the main armor belt of the "Lightning", and the striking black bullet holes in the starboard hull of the British ship were their masterpieces. Since Orion is a kerosene hybrid, and part of its fuel tanks are loaded with heavy oil, there are two bullet holes in the armor belt that gurgle with black viscous liquid. Three of the Thunderbolt's five twin main turrets had been hit by German ships, two had suffered devastating blows, one had lost its normal steering capability, and the entire battleship's firepower output was only half small.

The damage caused by the four German dreadnoughts attacking the British ship in turn relieved the pressure on the "King", and the "King", which was still capable of fighting with only three main turrets, still had strong combat effectiveness, and its 12-inch naval guns were the most powerful naval weapons in the German Navy at present. When the direct distance between the two flagships was close to six thousand meters, the armor-piercing projectile fired by the "King" accurately hit the bridge of the "Iron Duke", which tore through the 280 mm thick armor and penetrated into the square bridge, almost turning the conning tower into a steel grave.

The capital ships of both sides gradually narrowed the distance of the naval battle where bayonets were red, and the light ships that entered the battlefield with them did not stand idly by. Having received instructions from the "Iron Duke", eleven British destroyers quietly circled to one side and rushed towards the German fleet at a speed of more than 35 knots.

From a distance, their bows stirred up white splashes, like a broken arrow.

On the side of the German fleet, more than a dozen large torpedo boats attacked the British fleet from the other side, and the heavy task of covering the dreadnought fleet fell on the six light cruisers "Glaudenz", "Rostock", "Strasbourg", "Stralsund", "Kolburg", and "Cologne". Each of them has experienced bloody battles before, some have come to the present with good combat performance, and some have returned from the brink of death to the battle with the indomitable will of their crews.

The self-confident formation of German light cruisers, the first few salvos brought a death greeting to the British destroyers rushing to the front. A 45.3-kilogram armor-piercing projectile fired from the 6-inch gun of the "Rostock" pierced the bridge of a British destroyer, and the violent explosion immediately swept away its commander; The fire of the "Stralsund" detonated the torpedo of another British destroyer in a state of being fired, and the thousand-ton British destroyer was blown into countless pieces in an instant like a wooden barrel; The "Cologne" fired a continuous salvo quickly and accurately, and the shells roared around the British destroyer on which it had locked, and the battered hull ignited a large fire, which soon turned into a floating incendiary object......

Jackson gritted his teeth and commanded his four British super-dreadnoughts to fight hard against the main German dreadnought formation, at this time, he had only one goal in mind, that is, to sink the "King", but the other three old dreadnoughts that he considered to be German "tactical decoys" came to disrupt the situation at an inopportune time. Although they are located 18,000 kilometers away and are equipped with less powerful 11-inch naval guns, they are the longest-serving and longest-running warships in service with German capital ships, and reflect the excellent level of German ship and weapons engineers. "Helgolan", "Thuringia" and "Westphalia" aimed at the "Iron Duke" in unison, and it was not long before Jackson's flagship was shattered by the falling 11-inch shells, and the non-key protection areas - masts, chimneys, secondary guns, searchlights, ship-based ships, etc., were swept away, and these 11-inch armor-piercing shells fired from a long distance could not penetrate the main turret armor of the "Iron Duke", as long as they exploded on its surface or nearby, Violent concussions can damage the original firing element of the main gun, resulting in a temporary malfunction of the main gun. Gradually, Jackson's flagship had only one main turret left to shoot normally.

Weighing the balance of power between the two fleets on the sea, Jackson felt unprecedented pressure: his original intention was to defeat the "King", and then take out the rest of the German battleships one by one with the advantage of firepower and tonnage, and now it seems that the most critical to achieve this tactical goal is to defeat the German flagship "King", which may be only one or two shells away, and the balance of victory will be tilted in favor of the British fleet. However, that guy has an extremely tenacious vitality......

(End of chapter)