In the twilight of the sea, 12 low-profile two-seater torpedo boats soared north at a speed of 36 knots. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 The rumbling of cannon bombardment drowned out the powerful roar of Daimler's gasoline engines, but the surging waves did not suppress the sharp edge of these sharp blades. These high-speed warships have no flags waving in the wind, and the Iron Cross logo on the hull exudes a dark atmosphere under the washing of the waves; There are no arrogant guns, and the torpedo tubes on the side of the boat hide low-key dangerous weapons......

In the bumpy cabin, the German crews, dressed in the brand-new black uniforms of the high-speed torpedo boat unit, watched the sea with blazing eyes. Our own reconnaissance planes continued to drop flares over the British fleet, so that those British warships had nowhere to hide, and our own dreadnought groups were also constantly firing at the British fleet, and the cannonballs in flight were like meteors crossing the sky, and the water column that fell to the sea was tens of meters high, which was particularly eye-catching under the shining flare light.

Seeing that the column of water in front of them became clearer and more shocking, and that the British battleships were more complete, the German crew knew that the time of battle was imminent.

Before the "Thunder" formation launched an attack on the British mobile fleet, the "Lightning-14" formation was the first to strike. Even in less than ideal sea conditions, these small, nimble, single-seat torpedo boats were able to reach speeds of up to 40 knots under combat load. In other words, even if it was a simple race for speed, these German high-speed fighters would be able to catch up with the British mobile fleet heading north at 23 knots for most of the time within the combat radius, not to mention that their pace was also hampered by German torpedo attack aircraft. In just half an hour, the "Lightning-14" formation had already caught up with the battlecruiser "Lion", which had fallen behind due to wounds, and at this time it was already under the artillery fire of the German dreadnought group, and these German high-speed battleships did not get up to fire torpedoes, and most of the "Lightning-14" continued to chase the British ships in front with all their might. A three-boat detachment set its sights on another British cruiser, HMS Birmingham, which had been wounded and left behind. The 5,400-ton British battleship was unlucky, as two battle cruisers had exchanged fire, and it had been placed at the rear of the fleet without firing a single shot, and after making a big turn in sight of the main German fleet, it was hit by a German shell from 16,000 meters away. The 305 mm ordinary shell instantly destroyed its stern gun, and the explosion spread to the engine room on the lower deck, causing the "Birmingham" to be in a state of no power for nearly ten minutes. Through the efforts of the crew, one of its main engines started working again, and the speed was restored to 8 knots, and seeing that the other main engine was about to be repaired, it suffered another near-miss, and seawater poured into the bilge, which soon caused a group of boilers to shut down, and as a result, this cutting-edge warship, which had been in service for less than half a year, could only continue to stagger on the sea. The British crews were busy repairing the equipment, while the lookouts were keeping an eye on the German main fleet behind them and paying attention to the injuries of the "Lion", but they could not detect the German high-speed torpedo boats that were attacking quickly in time, and by the time they sounded the alarm, it was too late!

As they got closer, the pilots of the three Lightning-14 high-speed torpedo boats realized that the British battleship, which was longer than the former dreadnoughts, was just an ordinary cruiser that posed little threat to their main fleet. Nevertheless, they fired a torpedo at the starboard side of the "Birmingham" at a distance of 300 meters. Three 450 mm trigger torpedoes hit the target one after another, and the successive explosions quickly turned the British cruiser into a burning graveyard, and when the main ammunition depot exploded, a huge fireball soared 100 meters, and ships within 20 nautical miles could see this spectacular sight.

Seeing the explosion of their own ships, the officers of the two rear ships of the Betty Motor Fleet, the "Bodisia" and the "Goddess of War", both belonging to the Aesinic Queen-class reconnaissance cruisers, invariably sensed the approaching threat. When the lookout post noticed a vague shadow of the ship in the sea behind the side and that it was difficult to identify the type, the officers ordered flares to be fired. British artillery flares turned into bright yellow lights one after another over the sea, but due to the deviation of the estimated distance, the first few flares illuminated the empty sea, and when the correctly placed one burst into the air, the German high-speed torpedo boats jumping on the crest of the waves caused many British sailors to gasp: for ten years, the Germans have maintained an unparalleled technological superiority in the field of high-speed speedboats, and the increasing number of high-speed warships in the German Navy has gradually become a force of strategic defensive significance. Whenever a diplomatic and political conflict broke out between Britain and Germany, and some British people clamed for a "preventive war" against Germany, the liners passing through Helgoland Bay and Kiel Bay could always "accidentally" bump into the spectacular scene of a large group of German high-speed torpedo boats going to sea to exercise, and the German people were comforted by this, while the generals and officers of the British Royal Navy had to painstakingly study the tactics of breaking through the opponent's coastal defenses, so the British ships were equipped with a large number of MK-IV 4-inch naval guns with semi-automatic loading technology. In pursuit of loading numbers and firepower density, British dreadnoughts and battlecruisers were equipped with only a single 4-inch secondary gun, which created a more prominent tactical drawback.

An ordinary artillery flare can only illuminate a very limited area for a limited time, and the final twilight is mixed with the brilliance of the flares, and the visual effect is rather strange, and the German high-speed warships are divided into several small groups, in this case, the British officer on the "Baudesia" judged that there were as many as forty German torpedo boats attacking, and the command staff of the "Goddess of War" concluded that "about sixty German high-speed torpedo boats were coming from the right rear of the fleet". The figures of the two reports gave the officers and men of the friendly ships a very intuitive signal: a large wave of German high-speed warships is approaching!

At this moment, the British battlecruiser "Royal Princess", sailing three nautical miles in front of the "Baudetisia" and "Goddess of War", had just hoisted the flagship flag and the vice admiral's flag, which meant that it had resolutely assumed the heavy responsibility of the fleet command ship when the sister ship was under enemy fire in the back. At this point in the battle, more than half of the mobile fleet of the Royal Navy's fast warships had been lost, but this was clearly not the final result. In Betty's heart, whether to swallow the bitter fruit of defeat to preserve her strength as much as possible, or to cooperate with the Grand Fleet to fight back Jedi, the answer is obvious.

Before the outbreak of the war, the British Navy had widely adopted semi-automatic loading technology on small-caliber naval guns, so that it had at least twice the rate of fire of pure manual loading, so in a one-on-one battle, British light cruisers or destroyers had a relatively obvious firepower advantage over German warships of the same class, and could also intercept them with dense short-range firepower in the face of torpedo attacks by German light ships. Observing the approach of the German high-speed torpedo boat group, the cruisers under Betty opened fire one after another, and the large and small water columns on the sea surface were suddenly countless, and the torpedo tactics of the Germans were not dull straight line assaults, from the high-speed torpedo boat test group to the later offshore lightning strike fleet, the changeable lightning strike tactics have always been one of the most eye-catching highlights of the previous Kiel Military Port Festival. Seeing the enemy's dense fire ahead, the German crews tacitly turned to the right and made a detour, looking for a gap in the enemy's defenses in a quick and agile tactical maneuver.

The "Lightning-14" battle group attracted the attention of the British ships, and the "Thunder" battle group, which entered the battlefield, began to disperse the formation. They were grouped in pairs, either from the rear of the British fleet, or by the right side of the British fleet along the route of the Lightning-14. These "heavy" high-speed torpedo boats, equipped with four torpedoes, were only slightly faster than the newly commissioned British destroyers, and their endurance was far less than that of any destroyer, but their hulls were only more than one meter above sea level, and their width was only about two meters.

"Left front 88 °, 800 yards, elevation angle 2 °, continuous launch!"

"93 ° sea surface in front right, 700 yards away, 2 ° elevation, continuous launch!"

"Straight ahead, 700 yards, continuous launch!"

The rapid and slightly jumbled sound of passwords filled the starboard deck of the "Royal Princess", and before there was time to rest for a moment, David Betty boarded the bridge observation deck with a solemn face. Excluding the battle-sinking "Invincible", the "New Zealand" that had previously withdrawn from the battle and evacuated on its own, and the "Lion", which was waiting for the end of its life under the guns of the German fleet, his fleet was now only left with the "Royal Princess", "Queen Margaret", and "Australia", three battle cruisers, one after the other, almost no battle formation to speak of, the number of capital ships was reduced, and the remaining light cruisers and destroyers were correspondingly simpler, with two or three of them covering one battle cruiser, Be careful to guard against the biggest threat of the moment: torpedoes!

The "Royal Princess", which served as the temporary flagship, was guarded by a light cruiser and two destroyers, the 3,400-ton reconnaissance cruiser "Amphion" was in front of the starboard side, and the 900-ton destroyers "Fawn Dog" and "Scorpion" were behind the port side and starboard respectively. However, after hearing the battle order of each gun position on the side of the ship, Betty knew that this fire net was only a futile momentum, so she ordered the No. 1 and No. 8 secondary guns on the starboard side to fire Type 4 flares with the shortest fuse delay at a 5-degree angle in succession, and made the searchlights of the whole ship ready to shine on the starboard side.

In the midst of the chaos, Betty's orders were still carried out in a timely manner. The two 4-inch secondary guns on the starboard side and fore replaced the ordinary shells with flares, and these low-angle flares were basically fired at a distance of 400-500 meters from the starboard side and 20-30 meters above the sea surface.

At this time, the sky was not yet completely dark, the waves, ships, and smoke on the sea surface were all hazy and blurry scenes in the line of sight, and the sudden strong light immediately produced a dazzling effect, and the oncoming German high-speed warships turned one after another, but it was obviously too early to be happy at this time. The British crew soon spotted a torpedo trail on the starboard side, and the fire poured out, and a torpedo was soon exploded. Even so, unable to confirm how many torpedoes the German high-speed torpedo boats had fired before the temporary withdrawal, Betty did not dare to be careless, and at his behest, the "Royal Princess" quickly turned to the left, and the three escort ships also turned the rudder.

(End of chapter)