Since the "Dreadnought" opened the door to the dreadnought era, the tonnage and performance of the battleship have almost been a step a year, and the British Queen Elizabeth class with a keel laying in 1912 has a standard displacement of nearly 30,000 tons, equipped with eight 15-inch guns with a diameter of 42 times, and its strategic value and tactical significance have far exceeded that of the old battleships ten years ago. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

The pinnacle of the pre-dreadnought era, the Edward VII class, named after the new king of England, began construction in 1902.

The Edward VII class, with a standard displacement of 16,350 tons, is second only to the Danton class of France in terms of tonnage among the former dreadnoughts built by various countries. In the design, the British focused on how to overwhelm the opponent when the main gun firepower was equal to the opponent, and at the same time considered the low rate of fire of the main gun and the insufficient fire power of the secondary gun when the battleship was against the cruiser and armored cruiser, so the design of the secondary main gun was adopted, and it was equipped with 4 305mm main guns and 4 234mm main guns, plus 10 152mm secondary guns, which was enough to overwhelm the vast majority of opponents of the same era.

The expensive Edwardian VII class had strong performance on paper, but its actual performance was somewhat unsatisfactory. The ship's maneuverability is poor, and it is difficult to keep moving in a straight line for a long time, so it is ridiculed within the British Navy as the "Eight Trembling King Kongs". Because the secondary main gun occupies too much weight, the endurance of the Edward VII-class battleship is shorter, and the setting of the first and second main guns is also difficult to play an ideal role in battle, because their impact points are different, and the fire control system is difficult to coordinate and command, so it can only be operated in turns.

In the waters south of the Faroe Islands, British Admiral Calthorpe commanded three Edward VII-class battleships and three less powerful Duncan-class battleships to concentrate their fire on the world-famous "Moltke". The powerful German battlecruiser was damaged by an 18-inch torpedo fired by a British high-speed torpedo boat, and its speed dropped to about 12 knots, and the steering rate was also significantly affected, but its 50 times diameter triple 11-inch guns were a huge threat to the armored defense of the front dreadnought-class, and there were three dreadnoughts in the German fleet that turned to retreat, and Carl Thorpe's fleet wanted to take out the "Moltke" in a short time, and the key was to see the gunnery performance of these six battleships.

The effective visual distance of the naked eye on the sea surface under the moonlight is only a few hundred meters, and with the help of optical instruments, it is only one or two kilometers. By the time the British high-speed torpedo boat group finished its attack, Calthorpe's main battleship was still seven or eight thousand meters away from the German fleet, and it was only by relying on the reconnaissance of the outpost ships that it was determined that three large German battleships had been damaged. In order to seize this hard-won fighter, Calthorpe drove the six battleships in good condition to move forward at full speed, and after more than 20 minutes of pursuit, the distance to the target was finally shortened to about 4,000 meters. At this point, Calthorp made a desperate attempt to send the mine-striking ships forward to launch a torpedo attack, and caused all six battleships to turn to the left, thus giving the stern guns an angle of fire.

The silhouettes of the German battleships were illuminated by a series of artillery flares in the night sky, and the hastily retreating Funk fleet looked embarrassed, and the British fleet counterattacked and became a high-spirited and determined hunter. Amid the rumbling of artillery that resounded across the sea, the German ships were surrounded by columns of water, and there were especially many impact points around the "Moltke". In a short time, the battlecruiser received four direct hits. However, the difference in design concept makes the "Moltke" at least two notches higher than the "Australia", and its command tower and turret are even thicker than many British dreadnoughts, except for one shell that hit the upper deck and destroyed two open-air secondary guns, the other three are basically scratching the boots, but the close damage caused by large-caliber shells poses a greater threat to the German war cruiser - the water ingress of the bilge compartment changes the balance of the "Moltke", The unusual tilt of the hull had a negative impact on the aiming and ammunition delivery of the ship's guns, and the powerful triple main gun was slow to hit, and the firing interval was quietly increasing.

In the lineup of the Funk fleet, the hulls of the "Regent of Luitport" and "Thuringia" looked fine, but the speed of the ship was reduced to 12 to 14 knots. Although the German seaplanes hovering over the battlefield continued to drop flares on the British fleet's heads, the shelling of the two German dreadnoughts was no longer as sharp as before, and only the "Westphalia" maintained a relatively strong firepower output. It bit the enemy's lead ship with its stern guns and bombarded the Edward VII-class battleship with fire several times, but just as it was about to deal a heavier blow to the target, the British mine-striking ship rushed at the German battleship's gunfire. In the face of these fanged wolves, the "Westphalia" had to hurriedly adjust its main guns, using the few remaining shrapnel shells, and the first round of fire damaged two British destroyers, and the "Thuringia" on the side also joined in, and their rapid reaction played an obvious role in deterring the attack of the enemy's mine-striking ships, and in order to cover the main battleships, several German light cruisers and large torpedo boats fired shallow torpedoes at the incoming enemy ships, and turned on their searchlights to search the sea surface to discover the traces of enemy torpedoes as soon as possible, but this move of theirs immediately attracted enemy fire. In the blink of an eye, a large torpedo boat of the class of 1906 was hit by a medium-caliber shell, a violent explosion occurred in the amidships, and the crew on deck was killed and wounded, and another light cruiser was targeted by the secondary guns of the British battleship. Under the illumination of the searchlight, the column of water rising from the nearby sea takes on a strange color of half yellow-green and half snow-white.

More than a dozen British destroyers and small mine-striking ships advanced tenaciously in the rain of bullets, and many ships were injured by artillery fire, and a destroyer collided head-on with the torpedoes fired by the German light ships, and immediately exploded violently, while the remaining British mine-striking ships rushed to a position 1,500 meters away from the German fleet, and the torpedoes they projected made white water marks on the sea, looking at this scene, The British seemed to have seen the glory of victory, and the Germans began to consider the consequences of defeat, but the uncertainty of the night battle was vividly expressed on this night. The torpedoes dropped by the British high-speed torpedo boats from a distance of 2,000 meters achieved an astonishing hit rate, and none of the 20 torpedoes fired by the lightning strike ships at a closer range hit.

Many British officers and men could not help but choke at the expense of their own mine-striking attacks, but Calthorpe, who commanded the battle on the "Africa", was not in the slightest frustration. The lightning attack on the ship attracted the firepower of the two German dreadnoughts, which gave the "Sovereign" a respite from its difficult situation, the fire on the ship was extinguished in time, and the undamaged main and auxiliary guns were able to continue attacking "Moltke". At a distance of three or four thousand meters, ten minutes of all-out attack, six British former dreadnoughts almost paralyzed the battlecruiser that the Germans were proud of, the entire battleship had no main guns available, only a few secondary guns were still making the final struggle, the front and rear decks and the hull amidships were on fire in many places, and the crew had to risk their lives at any time to put out the fire, and two large torpedo boats nearby also ventured forward to help the "Moltke" extinguish the fire with water cannons.

The battered Moltke was reduced to a piece of meat lying on a chopping board, which could only be ravaged by the British fleet, but Krupp's carburized and hardened armor caused problems for the British. At this time, the deck building of "Moltke" was basically destroyed except for the bridge conning tower, that is, the gunners on the British battleship could only stare at the bridge and hull of the German battlecruiser and fire, but their 12-inch main guns were helpless against the "Moltke" conning tower with armor thickness of 13.8 inches, and the 11-inch-thick waterline armor was hit by the British fleet's gunfire, large and small craters and bullet holes, but none of them were fatally damaged. Faced with this situation, Calthop immediately ordered the six battleships to quickly transfer the target of attack to the Caesar-class dreadnought with the flagpole flying the flag of the commander of the detachment.

The "Regent of Louispold" was twice torpedoed by a British non-capital ship, which is indeed a frustration, but this does not erase the fact that the Caesar-class dreadnoughts have an excellent level of protection, not to mention that the "Frederick the Great" damaged the "Benbon" of the same magnitude by impact, "Caesar", "Catherine", and "King Albert" all withstood the test of enemy fire in the Battle of Jutland, and torpedoes may be the only weapon that can sink them. In the face of the concentrated attack of six British former dreadnoughts, the "Regent of Louispold" seems to be a Spartan warrior guarding Hot Springs, standing on the battlefield as an iron-blooded tough man. Under the cover of more than 20 minutes of artillery fire from the British fleet, the thick turret armor resisted the attack of most of the shells, and although the main turret lost its combat effectiveness one by one, none of them were completely destroyed; The conning tower is simply impregnable, and even if the external observation station, searchlights, rangefinders, antennas, and machine guns are all destroyed, the commanders are still active in their posts; The waterline armor belt even bounced out more than 20 rounds of 12-inch armor-piercing shells, and the surface was pitted, but none of them were penetrating damage that was deep into the inner compartment......

The "Regent of Louispoel" was attacked for a long time, and the British fleet turned twice, from the initial south to the west of the German fleet, because the overall speed of the German fleet was dragged down by the damaged ships, the British fleet actually occupied an advantageous position that could advance and retreat, and after the main guns of "Moltke" and "Regent Louispoel" were dumbed down one after another, Carlthop became the British naval commander who came closest to victory in the naval battle in this war, as long as he was given some time, He and the British soldiers he led could become national heroes to save Britain. However, the screeching sound of heavy shells crashing through the air shattered the British hope like a fantasy, and two murderous silhouettes appeared in the northwest sea.

"De Fllinger" and "Seydlitz", two of the most powerful battle cruisers of the German Navy, are not inferior in firepower and protection to the new dreadnoughts, and at the same time have superior power in naval warfare.

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