No sooner had Captain von Lubic given the order to turn off the searchlights than orange cannon flames flashed in the darkness on the port side. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 The info shells came in an instant, blasting up a column of water in front of the bow, and the scream of the heavy shells could not be heard in the middle!

Seeing the thrilling collision of warships just now, the officers on the "Frederick the Great" felt both palpitations and excitement, and the sudden artillery fire made them extraordinarily sober and calm, but most of the sailors were in a state of anxiety, they did not know the injuries of the battleship collision, nor did they understand the changes in the situation of the naval battle, and the roar of the shell explosion was particularly dull in their ears in the lower cabin. They were apprehensive, they hesitated, they were panicked, but they did not leave their posts for half a step, but prayed silently over and over again in their own way.

On the bridge, where the smell of smoke was strong, Natsuki, Ingnoll and others looked at the sea on the port side without saying a word. There was no doubt that it was a formidable British dreadnought that fired at the ship, and whether it was closely followed by the elite forces of the entire British Grand Fleet was the key question directly related to the tactical deployment of the German fleet, but the answer was tightly concealed on this dark and rainy night. Judging from the situation of the opponent's artillery fire, Natsuki realized that the position of the "Frederick the Great" was right in front of the opponent at the moment. "Caesar" and "King" have followed the flagship turn, if there is no adjustment, the next 11 dreadnoughts will also turn right in turn, this should be a rather beautiful maneuver to seize the T-head, but this stormy sea conditions make the fleet tactics impossible to perform, and the result of forcibly crossing the opponent's array is likely to be a collision of battleships that both sides are defeated.

Thinking of this, Natsuki sighed on his back. In this era when ships use flags, lights, and radio codes as the main means of communication, in order to calmly control a fleet, not only the commander needs strong personal ability, but also the close cooperation of officers, non-commissioned officers, and sailors at all levels is indispensable. Backed by strong national strength, the ambitious Germans not only built a fleet that was proud of the great powers, but by the time the war began, they had a high-quality officer and soldier corps that was not inferior to the British navy. Thanks to this, whether it was a high-speed advance around dusk or a tactical maneuver on a rainy night, the German fleet always maintained a relatively tight formation, so that it mastered two valuable fighters, first disintegrating Betty's fleet and then severely damaging Bernie's formation, so that the situation of the battle continued to develop in its favor. Even so, the extremely bad sight and very bad sea conditions still made Natsuki have a lot of scruples. In fact, if it weren't for this sudden and unavoidable rainstorm, he could have used the high-speed torpedo boats carried by the carrier aircraft and torpedo boat formations carried by the "Bismarck" to disrupt the British fleet's array and destroy them one by one, and the old battlefleet of Scheer would not have had to suffer catastrophic losses in order to contain the enemy's capital ships.

After a moment's hesitation, Natsuki turned his head to the right. The No. 2 main turret adjacent to the bridge had turned into a pile of twisted and deformed steel wreckage, and the 12-inch thick frontal armor still could not withstand the armor-piercing shells fired by the British battleship at very close range, at this time, a small team of damage control personnel was entering the turret through the outward opening hole, but it was almost impossible to have survivors inside, all they could do was to see if the guns inside could continue to be used - the "Frederick the Great" with only four main guns left became a former dreadnought with thick armor and strong firepower.

In Natsuki's line of sight, the No. 1 gun on the foredeck was carrying its pair of 12-inch twin guns that rotated in a clockwise direction, and the long barrel stopped at an angle perpendicular to the gunwale. In a moment, the scarlet flame pierced the darkness, and the rumbling sound was like a giant mallet beating a giant drum, and the heart trembled with the battleship, and the blood qi that had been frozen due to hesitation surged again.

In an instant, the scarlet light flame reappeared, and the rumbling cannon sound once again urged the battle intent in his heart. Almost at the same time, a dense and majestic cannon fire sounded from the sea behind, presumably the "Caesar" and the "King" were joining forces to attack the "Benbang", which had turned ineffective, and the fierce roar was difficult to discern.

"Full speed ahead!" Natsuki's sonorous order found the direction of the bewildered and contradictory officers, and the captain, Colonel von Lubic, personally walked to the phone and ordered the engine department in his high-pitched voice: "The engine is running at full capacity, full speed!" ”

Because the boiler room is always under sufficient pressure, the crew in the engine room can bring all three steam turbines on board to full capacity with just a few knobs, resulting in a power output of 36,000 horsepower.23 Hydrostatic speed of 2 knots. Due to the great resistance to navigation caused by the raging waves, and the intake of nearly 200 tons of water in the stern, the "Frederick the Great" only ran out of 21. Actual speed of 4 knots, but this has given it ample melee maneuverability.

Shortly after Frederick the Great opened fire, several high-powered searchlights suddenly lit up on the sea in the direction of port side. In the deep darkness, this pillar of light piercing through the rain curtain actually gave people a fantastic beauty, but the ensuing artillery fire immediately made people return from illusion to this cruel real world - they are the holy light of heaven, and they are clearly the charm of death!

Under the guidance of the searchlight, the British gunners showed the marksmanship of a first-class navy, and the general flagship of the German High Seas Fleet sailing at full speed was suddenly shrouded in the water column waves stirred up by the gunfire, and the dense cannon flames and the mighty cannon sound were likely to make the rookies who first saw the battle mistakenly think that the opponent was already firing at full power, but the veterans could deduce the actual situation of the opponent from this sound and light scene. Obviously, the British battleship only mobilized part of the main and auxiliary gun fire, and if it was a real full-board salvo, the "Frederick the Great" would have been drenched by the sea at least once!

In the face of the bombardment of the British battleships, the German gunners were not to be outdone, the main gun loading gap, the remaining pair of twin 6-inch guns and 4 88mm guns on the port side entered a state of full speed fire, the sound of the cannon was like a military musician beating the marching drum quickly, large and small shells flew towards those searchlights with a trajectorious trajectory visible to the naked eye, although they could not penetrate the armor of the British dreadnought, but they continuously destroyed three or four searchlights of the opponent, and soon only two searchlights were left in the dark, A pair of demonic eyes stared viciously at the opponent at sea.

With the obvious advantage in the rate of fire of the main guns, the two twin main guns of the "Frederick the Great" preemptively launched a second round of shelling. Three of the four shells landed within 10 meters of the target ship's side, and the water column they raised was almost close to the hull of the British battleship, which was not only the effect of wetting the deck building and washing away the hapless crew, but also the effect of a well-landed close miss could blow up the side armor at a distance of several meters underwater, causing water into the ship's cabin, and the damage and threat to the battleship even exceeded the direct hit of the hull.

The high column of water was still receding, and two secondary shells hit the British battleship, and the flash of explosion instantly illuminated its silhouette and posture. The young commander of the German Main Fleet also keenly captured this crucial moment, and he wasted no time in ordering: "Turn left 2 compass points!" ”

This time, the German battleships took the initiative to rush to the British battleships - "Frederick the Great" versus "Orion".

Seeing the German fleet's lead battleship rushing towards him, Colonel Pääbo in command of the British battleship panicked, and he had planned to use the firepower of the whole side salvo to kill the opponent as quickly as possible, but if it was a savage ramming rather than a civilized artillery battle, it would be almost the worst situation to use his own side to the bow of the enemy ship.

Realizing that the enemy's speed had become a lethal weapon, Colonel Pabo ordered a full rudder turn to the left, hoping for the main gun fire in the reload. Under the reflection of the "Devil's Eye", the distance between the two ships quickly decreased, and the British crew on the lookout was surprised to see the fleet commander's flag on the other mast!

Boom...... Boom...... Knock Knock...... Boom...... Boom......

Six doors amidships, stern 13. The 5-inch gun was firing for the first time because it had not been angled before. Previously, the gunners only obtained the directivity data of azimuth and distance from the firing command room, and they had to determine the final firing parameters in combination with their own observations, and then the firing command room corrected them according to the dispersion of the impact points of the initial shot, but the current situation has made them calmly adjusted. If you can hit the right shot, you still have a chance to snuff out your opponent's brutal dash before the finish line, otherwise the victory or defeat will be decided by fate.

At a distance of only two or three hundred meters, people's intuitive feeling is that they can hit with a slight aim, and even if they deviate slightly, they can also cause close damage to the target, but to people's surprise, not only did none of the six shells hit, but two of them actually deviated from a distance of 100 meters, and the most recent one only hit a dozen meters in front of the bow, and the seemingly spectacular column of water could not stop the strong advance of the steel battleship at all.

In the blink of an eye, the four forward guns of the "Orion" that had been lowered to a horizontal angle roared one after another. At a distance where the enemy's signal flag was clear enough to be seen with the naked eye, the shells were clearly heading straight for the enemy ships, but no exploding flames appeared as desired. Four shots 13. The 5-inch armor-piercing shells either grazed the bridge of the "Frederick the Great", or drilled a pair of bullets in the towering chimney, and two more landed on the side of the bow on the left and right, not to mention whether they could blow through the hull armor and prevent the last chance for the other side to slip away.

The officers and sailors aboard the Frederick the Great took a deep breath and grabbed their grip on their holdings, while in the bridge of the battle, where there had been several brushes of death, the senior officers who valued loyalty and honor for their lives realized that this was an opportunity to forge the glory of a lifetime, and they all dressed up and took the greatest adventure of their military careers in stride.

(End of chapter)