The summer morning, the sunshine is warm, the sea breeze is refreshing, this is the most beautiful scene of the day, but under the smoke of the war, the restlessness is diffused in people's hearts. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

The fierce battle at sea had begun, and the sharp front lines of "De Fllinger" and "Goeben" swooped down on the British fleet with lightning power, and under their fierce blows, the British fleet was like a blow to the head - the majestic battleship "Hannibal" was damaged and capsized, the Duncan-class battleship "Russell" was also reduced to a pile of burning floating objects, and the two German battlecruisers were almost unscathed. The battle had just begun, and the British officers and soldiers had already lost to each other in momentum!

"De Fllinger" and "Goeben" were ravaging the old British battleships in front, and "King" and "Caesar" were still on their way to their predetermined positions. Although the British ship group was already within the effective range of the SKL/50 Krupp guns, the two German dreadnoughts behaved unusually quietly. I saw their hulls undulating with the waves, battle flags waving in the wind, the huge and thick twin main guns on the foredeck always standing still, and a pair of eyes behind the observation windows, rangefinders and telescopes staring coldly at the group of prey, while in the shooting command room located in the upper part of the bridge, the officers calmly and orderly carried out the ranging calculations and transmitted these preliminary information to the drawing room.

"The ship is 14,000 kilometers from the enemy's battle line."

When the ship's staff officer reported the number, Natsuki just put down the binoculars, he closed his eyes, pinched the bridge of his nose slightly, and then heard Scheer order: "Send a flag signal to 'De Fllinger' and 'Goeben' to keep them at 1." With a firing range of 20,000 meters, we will join the battle from the rear of the 'Goeben'. ”

"Wait......" Natsuki opened his eyes and looked at Scheer, "My personal suggestion is to let 'Caesar' take the lead, let 'De Fllinger' and 'Goeben' go around in a circle and join the battle from behind us. ”

Natsuki objected at this time, and although Scheer was a little surprised, there was no resistance on his face. When the two worked together for a long time in their early years, they were familiar with each other's acting styles, and no matter who gave advice to whom, they would not make a tone or play tricks for the sake of the so-called face problem.

"Their tactical adjustment has been basically completed, and next, the pressure on our lead ship will be greatly increased, and the protection ability of 'De Fllinger' is certainly very strong, but it is still slightly inferior to the" Caesar ", and our battleship has not been in service for a long time, and the run-in between the crew and the battleship has not yet reached the ideal level." Natsuki explained unhurriedly that in the distance, the vast and aging British fleet was trying to complete a 180-degree turn, and the nine old battleships were gradually arranged in a tight and orderly battle column, and there were signs of two or two battle groups. Seeing this scene, Natsuki immediately remembered the Battle of Sarech in the history of World War I - when the Tsarist Russian Black Sea Fleet was the main force of five old battleships, facing the "Goeben" that the Germans entered the Black Sea under the name of the Ottoman Turkish Navy, the Russian commander came up with a "trinity" tactic that allowed the former dreadnoughts to exert the firepower of the dreadnoughts, that is, the three dreadnoughts were grouped together, and the central command ship was responsible for firing coordination, and the three battleships fired a salvo according to the same firing parameters, As long as the main guns of these three battleships are of the same caliber, they can theoretically achieve the effect of a salvo of dreadnoughts.

As he spoke, the location of the British battleships was glittering with fire, the smoke of gunpowder rising, and the rhythm of the gunfire confirmed Natsuki's speculation, and Scheer was not only experienced, but also flexible thinking and accurate judgment were also a major advantage that distinguished him from his colleagues. Seeing that the "De Fllinger" was surrounded by more and more columns of water, he immediately adjusted his instructions according to Natsuki's suggestion.

Threatened by the enemy's intensive artillery fire, the "De Fllinger", which took the lead, did not dodge in a hurry, but saw this extraordinarily large and particularly slender high-speed battleship sailing steadily in the turbulent waves stirred up by the shells, and the eight main guns basically fired a salvo at a rate of three rounds in two minutes, and the power of these heavy shells was directly reflected on the surface of the sea -- they roared around the flagship of the British fleet again and again with an astonishing burst of water, scattering and falling waves that poured over its bridge and deck over and over again. Flying shrapnel continued to attack its hull and gun emplacements - the St. George's flag on the flagpole was actually torn into several strips of cloth!

A moment later, an exploding flame appeared in the amidships of the British flagship, not only the "De Fllinger", but also the "King" also resounded with a burst of enthusiastic cheers, the tonnage of the London-class battleship was comparable to the majestic class that had just been killed by the "De Fllinger", except that the turret armor was strengthened, the level of protection was not much different, a 12-inch caliber German armor-piercing projectile was enough to penetrate its main armor at a long distance, as for the degree of damage to the hull, it was entirely up to the luck of both sides.

In the case of a direct hit from the shelling, the "De Fllinger" began to turn left, which meant that the firing commander had to re-determine the firing target and calculate the firing parameters, which was a time-consuming and laborious task that was difficult to avoid errors in the era of manual and mechanical supplementation, but the ship's active turn also meant that the enemy's previous measurement of the firing elements was ineffective. With the rapid turn of the "De Fllinger", the shells that once fell more than 10 meters on its side gradually drifted away, and after another fierce salvo, the "Goeben", which had 12 main guns, also turned to the left, and the combat distance between them and the British fleet, which was once close to about 10,000 meters, increased again.

The two battle cruisers meticulously carried out the flagship's combat orders, and the battleship "Caesar", which was originally behind the "King", also followed the flagship's instructions to "overtake". Considering that the Caesar was the slowest of the four capital ships, the King slowed down accordingly in order to successfully complete the position adjustment, and after a few minutes, the two ships switched places, and the distance between them and the British fleet was exactly 1. A predetermined value of 20,000 meters.

Soon, the slogan "Turn with me" appeared on the signal platform of "Caesar", and the demeanor of the lead ship was unmistakable. Braving the whistling shells, the "Caesar" steadily reduced its speed, and at the same time turned to the left with half rudders, leaving a deep arc of water marks on the sea. After turning six compass points, the two pairs of twin main guns in the backward direction of the "Caesar" were given sufficient firing angles, and after a short adjustment, the Krupp heavy guns of the same model as the "De Fllinger" let out an earth-shattering roar. Moments later, the "King", which had reversed course, began to shoot alternately, and two powerful German dreadnoughts joined the battle!

The roar of heavy artillery echoed like thunder before a storm, reverberating in the sea northeast of the Thames estuary and west of Amsterdam. In the face of an opponent with absolute superiority in speed, the British fleet sailing out of the English Channel put on a posture of turning and retreating, and in the case of the two battleships being killed one after another, they did not break up, but confronted the enemy fleet with the nine battleships with the strongest combat effectiveness. Although the "two-in-one" tactic of two ships in a group was not enough to enable the two aging former dreadnoughts to exert the same combat capability as the dreadnoughts, and their firing speed was greatly limited by the communication efficiency, the distribution of impact points still proved its positive effect. A few minutes later, Vice Admiral Benald Kerry's flagship "Prince of Wales" withdrew from the battle due to wounds, and at the same time, the German fleet leader was shot - this battle known as the "Battle of South Cape" lasted 23 minutes, and the British fleet finally achieved the first main gun hit. In the next two rounds of fire, the British fleet again hit the German lead ship with 12-inch armor-piercing shells of its main guns, and at the moment when the shells fell most intensively, the huge body of the German dreadnought was almost annihilated by the rushing waves......

With first-class protection, the "Caesar" silently withstood the enemy artillery fire, and the "King" followed closely behind, Natsuki twice witnessed the shocking scene of enemy shells being bounced off the "Caesar" side armor, he had every reason to be proud of his design, proud of the excellent quality of the Krupp armor, and at the same time, he was also surprised by the attack power displayed by this group of old British battleships. He knew very well that the full protection of the "Caesar" did not mean that it was invulnerable, and that at such a combat distance, the British Navy's old 12-inch naval guns could hardly penetrate the main armor on its sides, turrets, and battle bridges, but they could destroy other parts of the battleship: destroy the secondary guns, cause the secondary guns to detonate, destroy the shooting sights, communications equipment, penetrate the deck and other weak parts, and cause fires on or inside the ship, etc. And those shells that were deflected by the main armor belt could still cause trauma to the lower part of the waterline armor belt after falling into the sea, causing leaks in the bottom cabins, and it is not impossible that the damage will add up to the catastrophic consequences.

Natsuki calmly observed the changes in the battle situation, and Scheer was also in a state of high concentration and high-speed thinking, realizing that the situation was developing in an unfavorable direction for his side, he quickly issued a battle order: the fleet turned right in a large radius and cut the tail of the enemy side.

Even though the four German capital ships maintained a speed of only 20 knots, their maneuverability far exceeded that of their opponents, and the "cross-cutting tail of the line" requested by Scheer was the opposite of the common "cross-T-head", which was to turn his own battle column to the tail of the enemy fleet and concentrate gunfire on the side to attack the enemy's warships at the end. In this way, the German fleet will attack the old battleships in the tail of the British fleet one by one with two dreadnoughts and two battle cruisers, thus forming a huge local advantage, and at the same time it means that the German fleet has basically given up the attempt to annihilate the opponent - from the area of engagement to the mouth of the Thames, although the Channel Fleet is the only large fleet of the British Navy in the southeastern waters of Britain, there are several alert fleets deployed around the mouth of the Thames to defend London and foreign routes. Light ships with a certain lightning strike capability, British submarines deployed in coastal waters are also a threat that cannot be ignored, and after receiving an enemy attack warning, they can rush to the engaged sea area at a surface speed of 10-15 knots.

(End of chapter)