At night, the British super-dreadnought HMS Daring, with the fleet commander's flag fluttering on its mast, slowly sailed past the last bay before the Thames River joined the sea, and the open water in front of it was the battlefield. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 infoAt this time, Royal Admiral John Jericho's mood was unprecedentedly hesitant. Knowing that the first wave of torpedo boat battle groups attacking the German fleet suffered more than seventy percent of the battle losses, but did not make any substantial gains, he already admitted in his heart that it was only wishful thinking to rely on tactical advantages to reverse the defeat when the battle was fought to this extent. Today's German fleet is like the English fleet in 1588, it seems to be attacking the strong with weak, but the technology and tactics are more advanced, and it is the side of fortune, winning victory is the trend of the times, unless the god of war is reincarnated, there is a strong chance to turn the tide, and he is at best a good admiral, far from the high godhead......

The terrible thoughts in his heart invisibly eroded Jericho's determination and will. At present, he only has three capital ships in his hands, "Daring", "Thunderbolt", and "Collingwood", and according to the report of the torpedo boat unit, there are at least six German capital ships that have sailed into the waters of the Thames estuary. But the battle still has to be fought, after all, the fearless and tenacious soldier's creed is the foundation of the British Navy's survival, and it is a more valuable asset than the giant ships under construction on the slipway. Therefore, in the following battle, he must not only let the officers and men of the fleet and even the entire army and people of the British Empire see the indomitable British spirit, but also save the ships as much as possible, especially the "Daring" and "Thunderbolt", two super dreadnoughts whose injuries are not particularly bad. The difficulty is tantamount to walking a tightrope at a high altitude, and the slightest carelessness may break bones.

Fortunately, Jelliko still has a balance bar, which is the group of torpedo boats that will be assembled later and the Strait Fleet that will go north to participate in the war.

After the First Battle of Flanders, in order to prevent the German fleet from attacking the coast of Britain, the British Navy carried out a comprehensive mobilization of all active, reserve, and mothballed ships, and urgently signaled a large number of civilian ships, and the number of light ships and auxiliary ships that could be put into operation doubled, but the most offensive offshore weapon, high-speed torpedo boats, did not increase significantly. The British Navy General Staff organized all more than 200 high-speed torpedo boats into five battle groups, which were deployed from south to north in Dover, Thames, Harwich, Chatham, and Rosyth. Judging from the location distribution of these sites, the waters of southeastern England are the core area of British coastal defense, so the British Navy can still concentrate a large number of high-speed torpedo boats and other types of mine-strike ships in the waters of the Thames Estuary in a relatively short period of time when the Harwich fleet and the Dover fleet are hit one after another.

Looking out over the waters of the Thames estuary from the bridge of the "Daring", orange-red lights flashed from time to time in the northeast. Jellicoe learned from the report of the feedback from the reconnaissance combat ships that after repelling the British torpedo boat battle group, the German main fleet did not collect its troops and returned to its previous firing position, and continued to shell the stranded "Ajax" at a long distance. The British officers and men on this super-dreadnought ship did not abandon and resisted desperately, but they could not get effective impact point correction, and the hit rate of long-range artillery battles was close to zero. Not long after, it was shot again, and the explosion caused the ship's power supply line to be interrupted, and the battleship suddenly became a dumb steel battery. After a few more minutes, the German fleet's artillery fire finally dealt a devastating blow to the "Ajax", and the stranded giant ship ignited a raging fire, a large number of inadequately burned particles formed billowing black smoke, and the column of smoke rose to a height of several hundred meters, which could be clearly seen more than ten nautical miles away......

From Jutland to Flanders, from Flanders to Thames, the news of the sinking of his own ships had numbed Jericho, and he stared coldly in the direction of the main German fleet, thinking about how to repel the wolves. If the Thunderbolt Group and the Channel Fleet launched an attack on the German main fleet together with the main fleet, there would be a chance to inflict heavy damage on one or two German capital ships, and Scheer and his genius chief of staff, even if they were extraordinarily courageous, would not tolerate their own capital ships in a desperate situation, and the final result was likely to end in the voluntary retreat of the German fleet like the first Battle of Flanders.

If the German fleet did not retreat, Jericho was prepared for the worst. Any more moment of German fleet presence at the mouth of the Thames would have created a catastrophic panic among the British military and civilians. After daybreak, the British Army and Navy aviation will use all the airships at their disposal to bomb, but there are very few British planes that can carry torpedoes, most of them can only use bombs with limited power, and the pilots have never received professional bomb dropping training, and they can think that letting them attack the German fleet is tantamount to chasing ducks to the shelves. The real reliance will still be on naval vessels, and warships, auxiliaries and submarines from other ports will gradually converge on the Thames estuary, and even if they fight hard, they will be able to destroy the German fleet.

Shortly after the bad news of the destruction of the "Ajax" came, the British Navy Staff sent two secret telegrams one after another, one saying that the second wave of torpedo boats gathered at the mouth of the Thames had a total of 89 boats, of which 67 were high-speed torpedo boats, and they would be organized into four combat detachments, each with an old destroyer as the flagship. The other is the location of the Channel Fleet - 14 old battleships and accompanying light ships have arrived in the waters south of the Thames estuary. On a clear day, Jericho could almost see their masts on the surface of the sea.

At the outbreak of the war, the British Channel Fleet, which was ordered to guard the English Channel, was equipped with 21 old battleships, which were indeed old and decrepit in the face of dreadnoughts and super-dreadnoughts, but for second-rate, third-rate and even those countries that did not enter the stream, this steel fleet was still a considerable military force, and any one of them could serve as the main ship of their country's navy.

As the trans-channel movement unfolded, the old battleships of the British Channel Fleet were busy day and night, and after receiving information about the German fleet's sortie, the British Naval Staff immediately ordered the Channel Fleet to sail from the waters of Portsmouth to the waters of Cape Dungenes on the inner side of the Strait of Dover, ready to fight the German ships that forced their way into the strait. The German Navy's battle patrol formation appeared outside the Strait of Dover, and it took no great effort to clean up the British Dover fleet, which was dominated by lightning-striking ships, and in the process of shelling the Dover Fortress and the shore fortifications, the Germans were once again favored by Lady Luck, and the shells hit an underground ammunition depot in the Dover Fortress, and a huge explosion leveled the fortifications, causing great trauma to the British troops guarding the coast. However, the German battle patrol formation did not break through into the strait, but suddenly turned north and rushed to the waters of Flanders at a critical moment, dealing a fatal blow to the British fast fleet that carried out a roundabout attack, and completely destroying the British fleet's battle plan. During this process, the Channel Fleet remained at the entrance to the Channel, covering its ships to transport the last army units of the day to the European continent. After nightfall, the troop transport was suspended as the escort ships were unable to defend themselves against the attack of German submarines, and the German fleet brazenly entered the waters of the Thames estuary. With the order of the Navy General Staff, the Straits Fleet launched with all its might, and they sailed out of the Strait of Dover, and because of the slow speed, the voyage of more than 70 nautical miles was forced to run for most of the night......

Heading out of the Thames, Jericho led his three capital warships and a dozen light ships along the north coast slowly eastward, patiently waiting for the participating ships to arrive at their intended positions. However, a low humming sound from the air made him feel uncomfortable, and although all the ships of the main fleet were strictly enforcing his personal orders to control the lights, the German seaplanes spotted them. The blazing white light of the flares instantly illuminated the sea, making the towering masts and majestic hulls of the British capital battleships nowhere to hide, and at the same time illuminating Jericho's pale face. As he had predicted, shortly after the German planes dropped the flares, orange-red dots of light shone one after another on the distant sea, and heavy shells soon whistled in, stirring up huge columns of water in the sea in front of the British fleet. The bombardment of the German fleet is still as usual, but it has a particularly deterrent effect in today's environment and atmosphere. Jericho had no choice but to send a telegram to the alert ships ahead, asking them to point out the position of the German fleet with flares or searchlights, and ordered the three capital ships to sail to the north coast so that they could run aground on their own when the ship's condition became untenable.

A few minutes later, the outpost ships of the British Navy began to fire artillery flares, and the silhouette of the German fleet emerged from the haze. The main rangefinders of the "Daring", "Thunderbolt", "Collingwood" were all damaged in previous battles, and after several hours of hasty repairs, only the "Thunderbolt" was repaired. The main rangefinder was located high on the bridge, and the ranging effect on long-distance targets was better than that of the turret rangefinder, and the three British capital ships used the "Thunderbolt" as the gunnery command ship to use the three-in-one joint artillery bombardment tactic. According to the ranging parameters provided by the "Thunderbolt", the three British ships opened fire one after another, but after several rounds of adjustments, the impact point was still far from the target, and the fire of the German fleet began to pose a direct threat to them. Under these circumstances, the British officers could not help but worry about technical problems with the ranging equipment of the "Thunderbolt". Jericho had no choice but to have his three capital ships observe and range each of them, and try to adjust the firing parameters according to the observation reports provided by the outpost reconnaissance ships and coastal observation posts.

In contrast to the increasingly nervous and anxious mood of the British officers and men, the German fleet's fighting rhythm was still as solid as a rock, and with the help of two seaplanes, their night firing remained highly efficient. After the alternating fire found the right point, these German capital ships began to fire a salvo - although only one dreadnought and two battle cruisers were able to fire a salvo in the true sense of the word, and the main guns of the rest of the ships were ineffective because of combat damage, the German fleet's continuous salvo still made the British powerful, because at a combat range of nearly 19,000 meters, the angle of incidence of the shells happened to be the weakest weakness of the British capital battleship's defense: the deck!

(End of chapter)