Seeing the British destroyers retreat, a hint of contempt appeared on Colonel William August's cold and arrogant face. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 As if he had long expected such a move from his opponent, he decisively ordered a turnaround. The light cruiser "Glaudenz" turned 30 degrees to the right with agility and provocatively displayed its slender broadside in front of the opponent, and the eight 150-mm main guns in the bow and stern, as well as the two 88-mm rapid-fire guns and two 37-mm machine guns on the broadside, were pointed at the target in unison, and the fierce artillery fire quickly weaved an impenetrable fire net on the sea.

In just a few moments, the thin British destroyer was already surrounded by a column of water. Immediately afterward, the foredeck of its foredeck flashed with fire, and a thick cloud of black smoke bloomed like a flower.

"Hah, hit!"

On the bridge, the well-dressed staff officer made no secret of his joy. He was young, burly, handsome, well-dressed, personable, and looked a little aristocratic, but standing with a royal armor like Colonel August, even if he didn't look at the military accessories, his momentum and bearing were obviously different.

This Colonel William August, who came into a hereditary family in Oldenburg, was the second son of the current Grand Duke of Oldenburg and the elder brother of Christian. Although he was only in his thirties, he was already a veteran naval officer, having served as a training ship instructor, a battleship navigation officer, a naval attache stationed abroad, a colonial port commander, and a staff officer of a cruiser detachment.

A moment later, the British destroyer exploded again, but it continued to move at a reduced speed, and the distance to the "Glory" had been reduced to about two thousand meters.

With the relative speed of the two sides at this time, it only took a minute and a half for the British destroyer to rush under the nose of the "Glaudenz".

If it was hit by a torpedo, even if the excellent protection design could save the "Glaudenz" from sinking, Hugh said that the rest of the voyage would only be protected by the wingman and retreat.

Stimulated by the euphoria and tension, the German gunners had gone into a frenzy of firing, with the 150mm guns basically firing at a rate of 7-8 rounds per minute, and the ship's 88mm guns with an extreme rate of fire of 15 rounds per minute. Under such circumstances, Colonel August did not make any temporary adjustments, but just watched indifferently as the British destroyer dragged the billowing black smoke through the waves in the rain of bullets.

Within a minute, the British destroyer had received several more shots, and at least fifteen or sixteen near-misses had been enough to damage the hull, and its speed had finally slowed down with a clear and discernible trend.

Under the command of Colonel August, the Gloudenz began to rotate around the British destroyer, with just the right amount of displacement to allow the four twin main turrets to attack targets with only a fine angle.

The "bulldog" quickly turned into a pile of burning floats.

Colonel August, showing no mercy in the face of this courageous enemy, gave the order to fire two torpedoes from the port side, and the ship's torpedo crews coped with the task well.

After the huge explosion, the "pit bull" completely disappeared.

In the sky, the water reconnaissance plane that had ejected from the "Glaudenz" flew back and swung its wings rhythmically to warn its own mother ship of the enemy situation.

Suddenly, the ship's lookout read the warning from the light signal issued by the plane: 20 high-speed torpedo boats were seen in the southern sea, approaching at a speed of more than 30 knots.

"Where are we now?" Colonel August asked calmly.

The officers under his command immediately got busy, and the navigator used a sextant to calculate the current azimuth data on the spot, and the navigation room calculated according to the route and time, and the two sets of data checked each other, so as to obtain reliable azimuth parameters.

A few minutes later, the data was sent to Colonel August, who made a simple calculation that the British torpedo boat group that appeared ahead must have set off from Belgian ports before the artillery battle between the two ships, most likely because their submarines had been bombed by German reconnaissance aircraft. Given that the high-speed torpedo boats were defenseless, the command of the British Navy should have anticipated the arrival of the German fleet several hours in advance, and had obtained the relevant information even earlier. From this point of view, the British high-speed torpedo boats attacking from the south were only a force of the British navy in battle, and the ships from other ports must have been on their way.

Thinking of this, Colonel August decisively ordered the communications officer to send a telegram to the flagship, and reported his inferences without subtlety.

At this time, the accompanying German torpedo boats were sheltering the survivors of the sunken ships - both British sailors and German naval officers and sailors floating on the surface. Colonel August left two wingmen to continue the search for the drowning man, and the "Glaudenz" and another large torpedo boat of the class of 1906 decisively turned around and retreated.

Because the German Navy itself is the number one user of high-speed torpedo boats, the officers and men have already fully seen their sharpness through their daily training exercises, and it is by no means rational to encounter a whole group of high-speed torpedo boats and engage them head-on.

In a short time, the two large torpedo boats of the class of 1913 that had gone in pursuit of the British submarines were also withdrawn, and the group of British torpedo boats could be seen speeding on the waves in the southern sea.

Colonel August still had that calm expression on his face, on the one hand, the excellent performance of the new battleship gave him great confidence, and on the other hand, these British torpedo boats had already consumed a lot of fuel to sail here from the port, and even if they desperately pursued without leaving any room for them, I am afraid that there would be no chance of catching up with the "Glaudenz".

In a sense, this is a technical trap dug by the greatest designers in the history of the German Navy for their opponents.

Seeing the decisive retreat of the two large torpedo boats of the class of 1906 and the two large torpedo boats of the class of 1913, the corners of Colonel August's mouth flashed with a hint of pride. At this moment, the water reconnaissance plane, which was on air alert on the surrounding sea, swung its wings again in the line of sight.

This time, it spotted a small British fleet of two cruisers and three destroyers to the northwest of the fleet

The situation of the enemy in front and the pursuers behind seemed very unpleasant, but Colonel August was not alarmed, and he ordered his deputy to find out what the two enemy cruisers were, and at the same time ordered the communications officer to send a second telegram to the flagship of the fleet.

In addition to mastering flying skills, the pilots of the German Navy's reconnaissance planes also learned the necessary reconnaissance skills, including how to accurately judge the type, level, and tonnage of a ship. Whether it was the earliest Battle of Jutland or the subsequent Battle of Flanders, German reconnaissance plane pilots had miscalculations that had nothing to do with the overall situation. Therefore, when the deputy reported that the pilot saw an old protective cruiser with four chimneys and about 3,000 tons, and a light cruiser with three chimneys and about 4,000 tons, Colonel August wondered: The protective cruiser was an old commodity of the last century, and fighting with the light cruisers built in recent years not only slowed down the overall speed, but also basically could not help with limited firepower.

In their own judgment, those two are most likely old protective cruisers,

The most direct way to confirm his assumptions was to talk to the pilot of the reconnaissance plane face to face and obtain more detailed information through verbal descriptions, but the enemy was close and the battle was imminent, and the "Glaudenz" should not slow down, and Colonel August categorically abandoned this path. He ordered the carrier-based reconnaissance planes to change from carrying out combat reconnaissance missions to artillery fire calibration, and at the same time signaled the large torpedo boats that were lagging behind, asking them to catch up as soon as possible to join his battle formation.

Just a few minutes later, the reconnaissance plane and the ship's lookout warned one after another that a white seaplane had appeared in the northwest.

In order to facilitate identification, the German Navy carrier-based aircraft used a uniform light gray livery.

The white plane seemed to have its sights on Colonel August's small fleet, and it flew straight ahead of the German reconnaissance planes, circled the head of the "Glaudenz" a few times, and examined the four large torpedo boats that followed it before turning back and flying northwest.

Although the plane did not have any logo, Colonel August's officers recognized it as a British-built Schott seaplane. There is no doubt about the identity, and the suspense lies in whether it is a carrier-based aircraft carried by a British cruiser that takes off by mechanical catapult or hoisting on the water, or whether it flies directly from a British port.

Colonel August couldn't help but have a little more calculating in his heart.

Without changing course, about a quarter of an hour later, the lookout saw the small British battle fleet on the sea. With a distance of more than 20 kilometers, he could only discern the number of the other side, and half-guessed the enemy's ship type, and the reconnaissance effect and efficiency were obviously inferior to those of the aircraft.

Both fleets showed no sign of retreating, and over time, the Glaudenz's optical rangefinder had accurate distance readings, and when the target reached the maximum range of 15,000 meters, the four main guns in the forward direction began to fire in turn.

The British cruisers, however, were slow to "respond".

Colonel August saw that the other side was indeed two old protective cruisers, their naval guns were usually scattered on the side, and there were only one or two main guns in the bow and stern, which could not concentrate all the firepower in one direction, and they needed to face the enemy on the side to effectively exert their combat effectiveness, and they should be equipped with the old popular 4-inch naval guns, which had a fast rate of fire but less power, and the firing range was also very leisurely.

With the assistance of the reconnaissance plane, at a distance of 11,000 meters, the "Glaudenz" had already formed a straddle fire at the target.

Colonel August calmly ordered the ship to adjust its course, and the eight main guns immediately launched a long-range salvo, and the first salvo was very fortunate to be hit.

The two British cruisers in sight fired back, but their shells were still more than 1,000 meters away from the "Glaudenz", and the difference in the performance of the guns of the two ships was obvious.

As soon as the battle began, the British lost in momentum. Colonel August was not in a hurry to crush the opponent with powerful artillery fire, but patiently circled the opponent, using the dual advantages of artillery range and ship speed to keep the British fleet in front of him in a passive situation.

The British, knowing that they were outnumbered, turned around and withdrew north after a few rounds of artillery fire, while the white plane kept hovering over the nearby sea, not far from sight.

(End of chapter)