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Drinking the last drop of coffee in the cup, Natsuki held his head high and looked into the distance. At this moment, the essence of the German High Seas Fleet, 14 linear, majestic dreadnoughts, are sailing in a stepped array on the increasingly angry sea west of Jutland. On their starboard side, an equally majestic fleet sailed in the same direction, but the night obscured them, the waves obscured their resounds, and Natsuki and his comrades knew they were there.

After more than ten years of hard work, one day he finally became qualified to challenge the strong. Regardless of the final outcome, this is destined to be the pinnacle of many people's lives.

In complete silence, the sea in the distance suddenly appeared one after another dazzling bright spots, their dazzling light was better than any star in the sky, even if the moon appeared on the surface of the sea in its fullest form, the light brought by the moment was far less bright.

"I saw the British fleet!"

The observation deck above the bridge was impatiently screaming, while many more chose to confront the adversary in a quiet and calm manner. In fact, when it was just dark, the flares dropped by the German reconnaissance planes reflected the position of the British fleet. However, at that time, it was far away, and the personnel on the German flagship had to use high-powered optical telescopes to see a vague shadow at the end of the sea. Now, the two sides are less than 10 nautical miles apart, and as long as the flares are fired in the right place, even the dark shadows of ships sailing on the crest of the wave can be discerned with the naked eye.

The time had come, and Natsuki calmly took off his military hat, smoothed his hair with one hand, and put it back on. The officers of the Second German Reich Navy were divided into two styles, winter and summer, the winter crown wall was blue, while the raid top was pure white, the wall was sea blue, the brim was pure black, the huge cockade was a Prussian ring in the center, the upper end was a crown symbolizing royal power, and surrounded by full oak leaves, symbolizing courage, loyalty and honor.

After arranging his military hat, Natsuki said to Ingnoor, "Give the order to fire!" ”

Ingnoll had no choice, he nodded: "The ships are free to fire." ”

Moments later, the signal flag, which allowed the ships to fire freely, was hoisted over the signal of the "Frederick the Great", and at the same time, the communications personnel used searchlights to send a clear and unmistakable light code signal to the entire battle formation.

The main guns of the battleships pointing to the starboard side of the sea in unison made the final fine-tuning, and after a short period of brewing, the roar of the heavy artillery resounded across the sea, and the cannon flames stained the night sky red, and the sea boiled again!

About twenty minutes earlier, the brave "Stantin" had indicated the exact position of the British fleet with flares, and the German dreadnought group had engaged the British fleet in an artillery battle for almost ten minutes. With the "Stantin" being sunk by British light ships and retreating, the British fleet took advantage of the situation to disappear into the darkness, and the German fleet had to cease fire, but it was clear to both sides that the war had developed to such an extent that neither side would give up easily until the winner was decided. During the 10 minutes when the artillery battle stopped, although the attention of both sides was attracted by the rumbling of artillery coming from the rear of the fleet, they did not stop arranging troops and dispatching generals in response to the battle. Therefore, when the German dreadnought group challenged the end again, on their opposite, the British ship group was also ready to fight.

Knock, knock, knock, knock!

The short cannon fire brought a clear shock, and the "Frederick the Great", which was the general flagship of the High Seas Fleet, took the lead in the attack. Prior to the straddle firing, Captain von Lubic routinely ordered the ship's main guns to fire in turn, with each twin main turret firing only one gun at a time, and when the observation of the impact point was returned, the other gun fired according to the adjusted firing parameters. However, the environment of the night battle obviously had a great impact on the observation and aiming of the combatants, and sometimes two warships fired at the same target at about the same time, and the impact points were mixed together and it was difficult to distinguish them.

Seeing the cannonballs fired by his own fleet constantly blasting up columns of water on the sea in the distance, and the flashing light of the opposing fleet was all cannon flames, Natsuki still maintained his composure that did not match his age. Before the advent of fire control radar technology, no matter how much effort the Navy invested in night combat training, the combat effect could not escape the dependence of the human eye on light. After more than a dozen rounds of firing, the German dreadnought group still failed to make a single direct hit, but their heavy shelling clearly attracted the attention of their opponents, and the British, not to be outdone, also rumbled vigorously. Taking advantage of this opportunity, nine large torpedo boats of the 1st German Thunderstrike Group launched a mine attack in the face of the interceptor fire of the British fleet. Following the flagship's orders, the German ships rushed to a distance of 3,000 meters from the British battle line and fired torpedoes. Although this distance exceeded the effective combat range of the G-type torpedoes, the torpedo trails that appeared one after another on the sea surface made the British break out in a cold sweat. Their battleships had to twist their huge bodies to evade, and the light ships escorting the escort were even more busy, and several British battleships almost collided with each other under the tense atmosphere. At the most dangerous moment, the sharp bow of a battleship almost brushed the side of a cruiser.

Just when the British fleet was busy avoiding torpedoes, Natsuki, who had already seen the opponent's lineup clearly, issued a new tactical order. 14 German dreadnoughts, under the cover of the accompanying light ships, turned 45 degrees to the right and rushed straight to each other at a high speed of 18 knots. The two fleets were rapidly decreasing at a rate of about 400 meters per minute, and in just ten minutes, the combat distance between the two sides had been reduced to 10,000 meters.

Seeing that the German battleship group swooped down with terrifying momentum, the destroyers escorting the British capital ships hurriedly attacked. Four destroyers in the first echelon, six in the second echelon, and ten British destroyers tried to approach the German fleet to launch torpedoes, but they were quickly intercepted by three light cruisers and one armored cruiser from the German 4th Reconnaissance Fleet.

"8000 meters away from the enemy fleet!"

By the time the rangefinders reported the latest observations, the atmosphere in the bridge of the "Frederick the Great" could no longer be described as tense. Ordinary training exercises are aimed at nothing more than those conceivable situations, and the real battle is full of uncertainty. The staff officers of the German High Seas Fleet Command were completely unable to guess the direction of the war when they were supposed to be calculating, analyzing, and strategizing in the complex environment of night warfare, the ambitious young commanders, and the British fleet, which could not be determined by visual observation. In the night battle, long-range artillery bombardment had little effect, and only by closing the distance could the opponent have the opportunity to deal a heavy blow, and the caliber of the guns of the German capital ships was generally smaller than that of the British battleships built at the same time, and high-speed light bullets were chosen to help improve the accuracy of hitting, considering the stark differences between the two sides in terms of armor thickness and defensive layout, close combat was more beneficial to the German fleet, but at the same time added many unpredictable accidental factors.

In front of the sea, two British destroyers suddenly broke free from the entanglement of German light ships, and they did not rush blindly, but fired several torpedoes from a distance. Seeing the torpedo trails looming on the sea, Natsuki also did not dare to be careless, and when the ships accompanying him had begun to turn to evade on their own, he made a key decision according to his own prediction: he ordered the six dreadnoughts of the 1st Battleship Detachment to avoid the torpedo attack and turn to the rear of the "Frederick the Great", and the 8 dreadnoughts of the 3rd Battleship Detachment avoided the torpedo attack and formed two columns led by the "Nassau" and "Helgoland" respectively.

While the German dreadnoughts were dodging the torpedoes in a panic, the British fleet, which had already jumped for a while, was regrouping. Through the previous artillery battle, they had already exposed their strength to the Germans - Armament 13. The Iron Duke and George V-class battleships with 5-inch guns were indeed in the rear, and the German dreadnought group was confronted by the 4th, 5th, and 6th battleship squadrons belonging to the British 1st Battleship Squadron, and their common commander was Vice Admiral Cecil Burney, deputy commander of the British Grand Fleet.

Through the observation of the shelling of the German fleet, Vice Admiral Bernie also realized what kind of lineup the enemy was in front of, and he immediately sent a report to the "Iron Duke", the general flagship of the British Grand Fleet, where Jericho was located, and asked the admiral whether he wanted the fleet to slow down in front or to speed up in the rear to catch up, and Jericho's reply was "keep the speed and hold the array".

Vice Admiral Bernie's Bellerophon, St. Vincent, and Giant classes were all early dreadnoughts, and the maximum speed they could actually achieve was 1-2 knots slower than those of the older dreadnoughts. In the first half of the voyage, the British Grand Fleet sailed in an orderly formation, and after receiving the signal for help from Betty's fleet, they had to speed up, and the entire Grand Fleet was divided into three parts, the 2nd Battleship Squadron, composed of the latest and strongest George V, Iron Duke, and Orion-class battleships, rushed forward under the personal leadership of Jellico, the 1st Battleship Squadron under the command of Vice Admiral Bernie could only run at a speed of 18 knots, and the 3rd Battleship Detachment, composed of former dreadnoughts, lagged behind at a speed of 15 knots, As for the seaplane carrier, which accompanied the voyage as an auxiliary vessel, it was hit by a torpedo fired by a German submarine shortly after leaving Scapa Gulf, and staggered back to base under the protection of several destroyers.

Rear Admiral Bernie was really drumming in his heart when he saw the German dreadnoughts rushing straight in a rather neat echelon-type battleship, after all, he only had eight mediocre dreadnoughts here - 3 Bellerophon-class, 2 St. Vincent-class, 2 Giant-class, and the "Dreadnought", which was the first all-heavy gun battleship. Armed with 45 or 50 x diameter 12-inch guns, they had the weakest firepower of the British dreadnought, due to their lack of experience and some design flaws. In the eyes of outsiders, these dreadnoughts are majestic and domineering, but in fact, they are not invincible. Shocked by the fact that some of the performance parameters of the German Navy's dreadnoughts were learned, the British navy's top brass decided that these early British dreadnoughts were not enough to meet the challenge of the German dreadnoughts in a reciprocal situation, so they could not wait to start construction of newer and stronger battleships, and towed the Belle Lovon-class and St. Vincent-class in service back to the dock for refit, in order to strengthen the defense, but also to reduce the design speed, which eventually led to hard constraints on the use of tactics.

(End of chapter)