The eight destroyers in the 2nd destroyer formation did not rush too close, and in previous torpedo attacks, destroyers had to be at least within 5 nautical miles of enemy ships to launch torpedoes, and the optimal torpedo range was within 3 nautical miles, which was mainly limited by the range of torpedoes. The maximum range of the 650-mm torpedo can reach 12 nautical miles when sailing at a maximum speed of 68 knots, and if it is only for the purpose of disrupting the enemy's formation and not sinking the enemy's warship, then the destroyer can launch the torpedo at a distance of 10 nautical miles, so that it can avoid entering the range of the enemy's medium-caliber secondary guns, so that there is no need to launch a torpedo attack in the rain of bullets.

This tactic was indeed used by the eight destroyers, and the new order was very clear: not to get close to the enemy fleet, but to fire torpedoes at the greatest possible distance. The eight destroyers could fire a total of eighty torpedoes, and these torpedoes were fired in a fan-fired manner. If the distance is based on the length of a battleship, and taking into account the difficulty of coordinating the torpedoes of the various battleships, it can cover the range of at least forty captains, which is enough to force the British battleships to turn.

The destroyer group was about 10 nautical miles from the British battleship formation when it fired its torpedoes, and about 7 nautical miles from the enemy's light cruiser formation. At this distance, the 6-inch guns on the British Navy light cruisers had a hard time hitting the fast-moving destroyers, and by the time they had just shifted their fire to strike at the approaching destroyers, the opponents had already turned to retreat.

Satsumville had received the news from the light cruisers in front at 3:24, and he was also surprised. Those destroyers were menacing, and it was obvious that they launched a torpedo attack, but they turned around ten nautical miles away, why is that? Could it be that he was scared away by the intensive artillery fire on the cruiser? This should be unlikely, after all, the officers and men of the Tang Empire's navy are not of a bad breed, and there has never been a Tang Empire's warship that escapes from the battle. So. Was it the commander of the opposing side who temporarily canceled the torpedo attack? This should have been possible, but by this time the destroyer formation sent out by Satmoville had been routed, and only two destroyers had been driven back by the fire from the enemy cruisers, or had been sunk. And the commanders of the opposing side should have realized that the artillery battle between the battleships was about to begin. Therefore, it is not a strange thing to cancel the torpedo attack at this time. The area of engagement was near the British mainland, and the British Navy's submarines were not vegetarians, and after the battle, the wounded battleships still needed destroyer cover, so it was a wise choice to keep the destroyer.

With that possibility in mind, Samoville is no longer worried. The show of destroyers and cruisers has ended, and now that the distance between the battleships of the two sides is within 12 nautical miles, the inevitable decisive battle is about to begin. Outcome. Summerville put aside the matter of avoiding torpedoes, and he first ordered all light cruisers on the right to withdraw. Then artillery targets were assigned to other battleships. At this time, the eight battleships of the home fleet had just completed their turn. The muzzles of the guns were all facing the starboard direction, and to the northeast of it, the five battleships of the "New Provincial Capital" class of the Tang Imperial Navy had long been in full position, and had stopped shelling the British light cruiser formation two minutes earlier, and were now probably adjusting their main guns to prepare for the shelling of the British battleships after all.

Summerville ordered the start of the shelling at 3:26 a.m., two minutes before Chang Jiexin gave the same order. At this time, the battleships of both sides were already lined up. Both cruisers and destroyers withdrew from the artillery battle, and the decisive battle between the battleships began. As soon as the order for artillery bombardment was given in Samoville, the first shells from the five battleships of the "New Provincial Capital" class fell one after another. This can only be regarded as a "symbolic" artillery bombardment, at this time the engagement distance is still too far, among the 45 huge shells that fell, the closest to the target is more than 500 meters, and most of the ground shells fell on the port side of the British battleship formation, the range set by the gunner is too far!

Three minutes after the first salvo, the battleship formations of the 3rd Task Force fired a second salvo. This time, the gunners on the battleship took longer to calculate the shelling parameters, and the gunners on the battleship spent more time calibrating the main guns. The accuracy of this round of shelling was much higher, but only two shells still hit the target closely, and did not hit the target directly, and the lookout did not see the ground fire when the explosion occurred on the target. It was when the new fleet fired a second salvo that the British counterattack came.

Unlike the salvo of the 3rd Task Force, the battleships in the British fleet were not able to form an effective salvo, and almost all the battleships were fighting alone. This was mainly due to the limitations of the capabilities of the British fleet command system. Because there was no way to coordinate the simultaneous firing of various warships in order to increase the density of shelling. As a result, the British Navy's ground battleships could only fight alone with the parameters provided by their own fire control systems. Because of this, when those shells fall, the density is much smaller, and it is difficult to form an effective fire coverage, and it is difficult to give full play to the advantage in the number of main guns.

By 3:34 a.m., Task Force 3 had fired a sixth salvo, and the British fleet had counterattacked four times. By this time, Chang had discovered a huge loophole in the British fleet, which was that the three battleships at the back of the formation were significantly slower to fire, and their shelling accuracy was much lower!

"The speed is reduced to 14 knots, the course is 260, the distribution of fire is adjusted!" Chang Jianxin quickly made a decision, "'Nanning' concentrated on attacking the enemy's No. 6 ship, 'Guangzhou' and 'Guiyang' concentrated on attacking the enemy's No. 7 battleship, and 'Wuhan' and 'Nanchang' concentrated on attacking the enemy's No. 8 battleship, ignore the five battleships in front of you, and kill the three behind the enemy first!"

In other words, the course of the 3rd Task Force was about 15 degrees to the north, and at the same time the speed was slowed down by 2 knots, while the speed of the British fleet was still 16 knots, and its course was 255, so that the battleships in front of the British fleet would gradually distance themselves from them, and the battleships behind would come closer.

It can be said that Chang Jianxin's judgment was very accurate, and it was the three weakest battleships that were at the rear of the British fleet, among which the No. 6 ship, that is, the "Iron Duke", which was dealt with by the "Nanning" alone, was the worst. The order quickly reached the other ships, and the other four captains also discovered a loophole in the British fleet, and immediately ordered the aim to be adjusted, turning the guns to the new enemy ship. At 3:36, less than a minute after Chang Zhixin gave the order, the five battleships fired a new salvo one after another.

Not long after the shells flew out, a violent flash suddenly appeared in the distance, and without waiting for the lookout's report, the officers and men on the bridge of the commander of the "Nanning" saw the obvious flash, which must have appeared after the explosion on the enemy ship. Chang Jianxin was also very surprised, the shell just went out, and it took more than a minute to fall on the target, and just when he was about to ask the combat staff officer, another strong flash appeared.

"What's going on?" Chang Jianxin shouted loudly, and at the same time alerted the other surprised staff officers.

"General, it seems that the enemy ship was hit." As he spoke, the operational staff officer picked up the phone that was connected to the lookout.

Chang Jianxin was also surprised, but he didn't rush to ask again, after all, the incident had just happened, and the other officers and soldiers also needed time to react.

"Who hit it?" Chang Jianxin calmed down a little. (Fastest update: n).

"I don't know, I'm asking." The combat staff officer picked up the microphone again, but he knew very well in his heart that in the beginning of the engagement, none of the battleships were dealing with the enemy No. 4 ship, and the distance between the enemy battleships was about 3,000 yards.

Chang Jianxin was also thinking about this problem, in fact, he couldn't believe that he had hit the enemy ship so quickly, and he had also hit the vital part, otherwise. It won't be such a strong flash, but anything can happen on the battlefield, and who can guarantee that?

"General, it seems that it was not our shells that hit the enemy ship." The combat staff officer put down the microphone again, "I just asked, and the other warships have not determined the outcome of the battle, and they all think that they did not hit it." It's weird. ”

"Maybe a torpedo fired by a destroyer." At this time, the nautical staff officer, who had been silent at first, added.

Chang Jiexin hesitated for a moment, then nodded. "Maybe, whether it's a shell hit, or a torpedo hit, or the enemy himself can't figure it out and blows up the ammunition depot on his own battleship, it's a good thing for us, now let's take out the three battleships behind the enemy's ass first. Then we will be able to secure victory. ”

The sudden explosion on the British battleship stimulated the gunners and gunners on the five battleships, and the shelling became more intensive, and several gunnery squads were exceeded. In two minutes, the "Nanchang" fired five volleys, and the "Guiyang" fired seven volleys in three minutes. Even without taking into account the time taken for calibration, the main guns on the "New Provincial Capital" class battleships were at a maximum of two rounds a minute. It can be said that at this time, the morale of the officers and men of the 3rd Task Force had reached its peak, and the enemy had already had two battleships hit, while now the five battleships of the 3rd Task Force were still unscathed, and the situation was extremely favorable to the 3rd Task Force. There is not much suspense about victory, and most people at this time prefer a complete victory rather than a pyrrhic victory!

At this time, the situation of the British home fleet was completely different, when the "War Weathiness" and the "Warrior" suddenly exploded, Summerville was also surprised, he did not believe that the guest was quickly hit by the enemy's shells, after all, before that, only four shells fell near the battleship, and none of the shells directly hit, it is impossible for two battleships to be hit at the same time, right? Moreover, the last round of shells fell, could it be that the opponent fired a new volley so quickly. Then, when Satsumville figured out the situation, he was even more surprised that it was not a shell that hit the "War Weathiness" and "Warrior", but a torpedo!

These are the torpedoes fired at the beginning of the charge of the 2nd destroyer formation. A 650-mm torpedo is ideally capable of reaching a maximum speed of 68 knots, while in real combat its maximum speed is generally around 65 knots. In addition, the 650 mm torpedo has two speeds to choose from. In addition to the maximum speed, there was an option for an "economical" speed of 50 knots, and when using this speed, the maximum range of the 650-mm torpedo reached more than 20 nautical miles. At that time, among the eight destroyers, the four destroyers responsible for scattering to the periphery only set a speed of 50 knots for firing torpedoes, perhaps because the captains of these four destroyers thought that the torpedoes they fired were unlikely to hit the target, so they chose to slow down, hoping to increase the range of the torpedoes, so even if they could not hit the enemy's battleships, this would be a little gain.

It took 40 torpedoes 10 minutes to cover a distance of 12 nautical miles. In these 10 minutes, the Satsumville flotilla not only completed the formation, but also pulled out of the queue and turned to a decisive battle with the battleships under the new command of Chang Zhi, so that the battleships in the lead came within the coverage of the 20 torpedoes scattered to the west. "Queen Elizabeth" and "Barham" were lucky to shoot torpedoes, but "War Weyer" and "Warrior" were not so lucky!

The "War Weathiness" was torpedoed to a third of the ship's bow, which was located near the main gun ammunition ship of the B turret, and at the same time it was also the battleship's electromechanical room, which not only penetrated the battleship's underwater armor belt, but also caused a fire on the battleship, causing water in more than a dozen nearby compartments. The situation of the "Warrior" was a little worse, the torpedo hit the outside of the engine room on the starboard side of the battleship, and the fire from the explosion ignited the heavy oil in the pipe, and the fire quickly got out of control.

It was only at this time that Satsumville did not know that the destroyers of the Tang Imperial Navy at the beginning did not withdraw back, but successfully launched torpedoes, and then broke away from the battle, and at the same time he also thought that the Tang Imperial Navy already had super torpedoes with a huge range, and before that, he had been ignoring this. It was precisely because of this that from this time on, the British home fleet was completely inferior.

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