Shortly after Smith's Second Squadron bombarded Calais, John Joe's First Squadron also noticed a strange black cloud floating over the sea in front of the fleet—a black cloud formed by thick plumes of smoke from countless chimneys.

The mood of the British officers and men was depressed by the appearance of this black cloud, but what made them even more alarmed was that they did not even see the face of the German battleship, and the sound of the air being torn was already ringing in their ears, and more than forty 280-mm or 305-mm shells fell into the sea like meteorites. In a series of deafening explosions, the sea water was raised high, and a large area of the sea was shrouded in a white curtain of water. The force of hundreds of tons of seawater falling back into the sea was immeasurable, and the sea slammed into the water, stirring up huge waves, and the tall wall of water quickly spread out in all directions, until it hit the gunwales of the battleship with great force. For the British sailors, the world began to shake!

"It must be those planes guiding the German fleet!" John Joe viciously looked at the German planes circling in the sky, and he was helpless against the few high-flying "flies", so he quickly gave the order to change direction and move.

"The fleet turns, head north at full speed!"

The so-called full speed of this old armored fleet was nothing more than panting desperately at a speed of 18 knots. One by one, the huge hulls began to turn, and the steel bow cut a large white wave mark on the sea. From the air, the British fleet looked like a huge arrowhead, the track behind them seemed to be a straight arrow, and the small battleship was like the feathers of this arrow, where the silver arrow that had been pointing straight to the east was suddenly broken.

Just 2 minutes later, the British sailors again witnessed the German shells falling like a small meteor shower. Columns of water more than 20 meters in diameter rose into the air, far higher than the masts of the cruisers, and the British battleships tossed more and more violently, and the walls of the sea that were lifted by the explosion smashed on their decks again and again. Some of the sailors standing on the open bridge screamed and searched for concealment, while others clung to everything they could, fearing that one would be swept into the sea by shrapnel or a wall of water if he was not careful.

If there really was a God, then he would be able to hear the prayers of countless Englishmen in this sea.

"Hey, you guys! Still like a warrior of the British Empire? Crying and mourning, where is all your enthusiasm for avenging the people of London just now? John Joe roared angrily, his voice filling the small space of the conning tower. Looking at the officers around him again, sure enough, they all cried with sad faces, as if they were dead old women.

After a long time, an officer whispered: "General, the Germans' shelling from 20,000 yards away is so accurate, and we don't even have a chance to return fire now!" The fleet did not continue to close the distance with the Germans, but turned north, and we could not escape and could not fight, and we could not fight, did not wait for death in vain? ”

The other people in the command tower supported the old man who spoke with their eyes, and it was a long time before John Joe spoke slowly:

"You know what? It's strategy! ”

The crowd fell silent until half a minute later someone shouted:

'Look!' The Titan's got shot! ”

John Joe pushed the crowd away, and not far in front of them, the 12,000-ton armored battleship "Titan" had just been hit by a German shell, the battleship's tall mast collapsed at the stern, the broken cables were wrapped around the mast and burning, and billowing smoke was pouring from its broken upper main building. In the gap in the thick smoke, it was found that its once angular bridge had collapsed, the part of the shell had twisted into a mass of scrap metal after the huge explosion, and the 6-inch armor wrapped around the firing command post seemed to have been easily lifted, and the officers inside had probably gone to heaven to report for duty, and the captain's conning tower was spared by the protection of 11-inch thick armor.

"God, it must have been a shell fired from a 50x diameter 305 mm gun! It seems that at least the German battleships above the Caesar level, the Germans really sent the most elite battleships! John Jo exclaimed that if the German Nassau-class battleship's 45 times caliber 280 mm naval guns had hit the Titan, the ship's losses would have been much smaller.

Tens of seconds later, the air boiled again, and large-caliber shells burst through the air with a hoarse whistle. The last two waves of shells no longer splashed monotonous seawater, but reflected countless high-speed steel fragments and liquid metal like fireworks when they hit the steel, and even more spectacular when they hit the iron-boned wooden battleship, with wooden blocks, pieces of iron, and cloth of various shapes scattered on a large area of the sea.

Within minutes of the British fleet completing its turn, two more waves of shells fell on the head of the fleet. A number of small warships were blown to pieces, and three armored battleships, including the "Titan", were damaged, among which the "Union" was also far behind the fleet because of a large amount of water.

In this way, the British fleet desperately fled northward, while the German fleet followed the British unhurriedly, always maintaining a distance of about 12 nautical miles, and the calibrators continuously sent the position of the British fleet back to the German fleet, and the front main guns on the German battleships readjusted their firing every 2 minutes, so the shells always fell very close to the British battleships. As commander of the German battlefleet, Admiral Schell took pleasure in directing the hound-to-rabbit chase.

In the sweltering turret, the German sailors were eager to fill bags of ****** and shells into the chambers, and then covered their ears with smiles on their faces and waited for them to be fired.

More than half an hour later, the German battlefleet came to the place where the British fleet turned, and there were some fragments of the remnants of the exploding British battleship floating on the sea, and two masts were isolated out of the water. In the field of vision, the "Union", with its heavy hull, moved helplessly to the north.

The German battleship raised the flag and asked the British sailors above if they would like to surrender.

Soon, the British replied with artillery fire.

Scheer smiled contemptuously, and the two 305 mm guns in the stern of the "Union" looked so weak in front of him.

"Smash its superstructure and main artillery, I'm going to capture it!"

"Catherine" and "King Albert" broke away from the fleet and sailed to the left and right of the "Union", and at an angle of 60 degrees to the target, the two Caesar-class battleships could concentrate eight 305 mm guns on one side, and at this angle, the "Union", which was tilted 10 degrees to the left, could hardly fight back.

The rear main guns of the "Union" were still stubbornly firing at the rear, while the "Catherine" and "King Albert" were silently advancing, 9,000 yards and 8,000 yards, the muzzles of the main guns were slowly lowered, and the shells fired by the secondary guns of the "Union" made small splashes around them, but the huge German battleships did not care at all. It wasn't until 6,000 yards that the 16 main guns of the two German battleships let out a deadly roar together, and the shells were almost horizontally routed towards the Union. The bridge of the "Union" turned into a huge fireball in an instant, the compass bridge and the main gun command post on the top floor had been blown up without a trace, and the combat bridge on the lower floor was torn in half, half twisted and obliquely protruding from the ship's broadside, and the other half collapsed into the navigation bridge on the next floor. The barrels of the front and rear turrets had become distorted, and several large cracks had appeared in the turrets.

The "Union" fell silent, and after the second salvo of the German ships, there was no longer any living life above deck.

The German battleships sailed away after a blast, leaving only two destroyers to clean up the scene.

When the remnant sun was approaching the sea level, the German school firing plane was ready to return. While Admiral Scheer was pondering whether to continue the pursuit of the British fleet, a reconnaissance plane spotted Betty's fleet more than 20 nautical miles southwest of the carrier formation, but by this time Scheer's battlefleet was already 50 nautical miles away from the aircraft carrier.

In the aircraft carrier formation, only 5 dreadnoughts, 4 armored battleships, 6 destroyers, 2 aircraft carriers and 2 seaplane carriers including the "Frederick the Great" remained, and they had to fight alone against the British 2 dreadnought-class battleships, 10 armored battleships, 27 cruisers of various types and 18 destroyers in the approaching darkness.

The expression of surprise was written on Prince Heydrich's face, and he did not expect that the British would dare to divide their forces at this time, especially the British fleet that shelled Calais, which interfered with his judgment to a great extent. After a short period of thought, he decisively gave the order to turn the fleet. With less than an hour to go before dark, his torpedo planes could make one last sortie, and no matter how many British ships they could sink, it would only slow down the British a little, and the British fleet would be desperate to make a final move.

Heydrich slowly got up and walked to the bridge, the sea was calm and beautiful before dusk. He looked at each of the battleships in the fleet one by one, silently calculating their speed in his heart. The five dreadnought-class battleships "Frederick the Great", "Caesar", "Nassau", "Rhineland" and "Thuringia" had a maximum speed of between 19.5 and 21 knots, the four armored battleships "Deutschland", "Hanover", "Pomerania" and "Prussia" were 18 or 18.5 knots, the aircraft carriers "Super Duck Mother" and "Lisa" were 22 and 26 knots, respectively, and the seaplane carriers "Victory" and "Honor" were 17 knots, All six destroyers had a speed of more than 25 knots. Obviously, the two seaplane carriers were the biggest burden on the fleet, but even if they were left to retreat with all their might, it was entirely possible that the British cruisers and destroyers would catch up.

Shortly after 35 torpedo planes took off from the decks of the two aircraft carriers, the "Frederick the Great" gave a flag signal: all the battleships formed the first squadron, the "Lisa" and "Super Duck Mother" and the destroyers "Toure", "Freiburg" and "Giessen" formed the second squadron, the "Victory" and "Honor" and the destroyers "Jazz", "Authority" and "Siegen" formed the third fleet, and the first, second, and third fleets sailed eastward at speeds of 15, 22, and 17 knots, respectively.