The heavy rain kept falling, and the sea was dark, not to mention the navigation lights of the front ship four or five hundred meters apart, and the naval battle flag on the bow flagpole was almost impossible to see from the bridge!

The worse the line of sight, the more likely the battle is to be affected by various fortuitous factors. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 As time passed, the confusion and restlessness that hung over people's minds gradually turned into a cloud of gloom, and people felt anxious and apprehensive about the prospect of this battle, and this torment was reciprocal to the two warring contemporaries. Whoever is more calm will often be able to take the lead.

The Caesar-class battleship Frederick the Great, the flagship of the German High Seas Fleet, opened fire on the Betty fleet at 7:09 a.m., and the team of officers led by Fleet Commander Ingnoor, Chief of Staff of the Fleet, Prince Joachim, and Captain Colonel von Lubic spent most of their time in this limited space, only going up to the bridge observation deck to breathe the air outside between the previous battles and when the battles were less intense. Although a long life at sea can save them from seasickness, the accelerated drain on physical energy caused by such rough sea conditions cannot be changed, but on the one hand, it is due to duty, and on the other hand, for professional officers who regard honor as their life, it will be a lifelong regret to miss such a naval battle of absolutely historic significance.

The silence was broken by the ringing of a telephone like an overloaded current, and Colonel Lubich, standing closest to the phone, hesitated for a moment and grabbed the receiver: "Bridge...... Oh? Oh! Oh? Okay, got it! ”

Before the earpiece was put down, he couldn't wait to report to the commanders: "The watchtower saw a green flare, in the front right direction, but it couldn't see the exact distance and bearing, and ...... Only one sailor of the second rank saw it, none of the others saw it. ”

The implication is that this may just be a miscalculation caused by the dazzled sailor of the second-class sailor.

Natsuki looked down at his watch, it was still four minutes until midnight.

"General order to all ships: The battle that will decide our fate may come at any time, and all personnel must stick to their posts and pay close attention to the sea situation. For the rise of Germany, we must win this one! ”

Word by word, sonorous and powerful, once again aroused the pride in the hearts of the officers.

Even if it was indeed a hallucination caused by the nervousness of a second-class sailor on the watchtower, Natsuki was on guard, and it was destined to be a night when he reached the pinnacle of his life. Just three minutes later, the endless darkness in front of the sea suddenly flashed red points of light, as if thunder and lightning accompanied by a rainstorm, but the luster was noticeably different.

The officers' attention was suddenly focused on the bow of the ship.

If an outpost makes contact with an enemy ship, it should soon have a telegram or light signal back, and if the time is not good, it may lose all communication capabilities by the enemy ship in a short time.

Such is the unpredictability of battle.

In the anxious waiting, the pace of time crept past the date cut-off line for the Germans, and for the British, it would be a full hour before August 8, 1914.

The phone ringed inside the bridge, this time still Colonel Lubic's aide-de-camp.

"We just received a telegram from the V-25, which observed heavy artillery fire 3 to 4 nautical miles ahead, but the details are unknown."

After listening to Colonel Lubich's adjutant, Colonel Hofert, the oldest staff officer in the fleet's staff team, explained: "The V-25 is at the forefront of our fleet, and no other ship is more advanced than it. ”

Captain Gold, who was on the side, analyzed: "It should not be the ships of the 2nd Battleship Detachment. ”

Xia Shu pondered: Since it was caused by heavy artillery fire, at least from armored cruiser-class warships, from the perspective of the battlefield situation, Germany's fleet strength is basically divided into four parts-Hipper reconnaissance fleet, Scheer's old battlefleet, auxiliary fleet, and its own dreadnought formation. With the exception of a few light ships that were separated in battle, the rest of the ships were in their respective columns, and the distribution of British ships was obviously much more complicated by comparison. The ships of Betty's fleet that retreated from the battle due to injuries may not have traveled far, and the ships that escaped after the collapse of the Bernie detachment are still in this area, is it possible that the artillery battle ahead was caused by a mistake between British ships?

At this moment, Natsuki's adjutant lieutenant, Lieutenant Lutyans, expressed his judgment: "Our ships have twice used the identification signals of the British fleet, which most likely aroused their vigilance, so they temporarily replaced the identification signals, but some British battleships damaged the radio equipment during the battle, and as a result, they did not match the identification signals with their own men and got into a fight." This probability sounds small, but some outrageous things happen in reality. ”

This was in line with Natsuki's speculation, and he gave his young lieutenant an approving look. Gunther Ruetjens, the admiral of the Third Reich in the original history, obscured his personal brilliance by a tragic ending. With the deepening of historical research, many historical events are being presented in front of people's eyes more and more objectively, and according to the more fair review, Lütjans was a fleet commander and a hero of the sea with excellent command skills, a pure soldier. He had lodged a written protest against the Nazi regime's anti-Jewish signs, and he refused to perform the Nazi military salute, even when Hitler was in charge of the Bismarck, one of the few who insisted on the traditional naval salute.

In the historical time and space, Natsuki's attitude towards historical figures is to make the best use of things and talents, but he also avoids pulling out seedlings to help them grow, let alone letting them bear the heavy responsibilities of the future in advance. Among the famous generals of the Third Reich, the only ones he really came into contact with so far were Rundstedt, who worked in the General Staff of the Army, Raeder, who was the chief of staff of the Hippel reconnaissance fleet, and then there was this older fellow disciple, Ruetjäns. Born in 1889, he entered the Kiel Naval Academy at the age of 18, where he trained for a round-the-world voyage, graduating with the rank of second lieutenant, followed by a three-month study at the Naval Artillery Academy before serving in the Naval Fleet. In 1913, he was promoted to lieutenant and transferred from the cruiser fleet to the torpedo boat formation, where he became the deputy of Prince Christian of Oldenburg. It was not until after New Year's Day in 1914 that he had the opportunity to meet Natsuki for the first time, and the first conversation between the two was very speculative, and after that the two exchanged several letters. On the last day of March, 25-year-old Ruetjens arrived at the command of the High Seas Fleet with his luggage and officially became the new adjutant of the chief of staff of the fleet. He was the only participant in the process of Natsuki's plan for the High Seas Fleet, and most of his suggestions were adopted by Natsuki.

"We ......" Natsuki looked at Ingnorr, relieved of the distress of his choice, and the calm fleet commander instead showed a calm and calm general style.

Before Xia Shuhou could speak, Ingnoll nodded slightly.

So, Natsuki raised his voice and said to all the officers present, "We...... Go forward and return triumphantly! ”

The young officers were all excited, and with a lot of life experience, the older officers obviously had a different perspective on the coming battle. Natsuki heard Colonel Hofert praying "God forbid" while Captain Lubic of Kongwu made a cross on his chest before giving his boys an order to prepare for battle.

For a long time, red light flashed in the darkness ahead, and the vast rain curtain made it unclear what was happening there, so it was inevitable to suspect that it was a trap set by the enemy. In the process, Natsuki did not issue any new orders, because in such an extremely harsh environment, the tactical utility of seizing the T-shaped position has been greatly suppressed, and the warships of both sides can only aim and attack the opponent in a face-to-face position.

The main German fleet, consisting of 14 dreadnoughts, continued to move straight ahead at a speed of 20 knots.

After a few more minutes, the red light in front of him became brighter and brighter, but the frequency of the flickering decreased sharply, and the interval suddenly became longer, and finally, the red light disappeared from the sea at all, and there was no light to replace it, and the sight returned to chaos, and the surrounding darkness was only the sound of wind and rain, and the atmosphere was strange and inexplicably tense.

Not counting the personnel in the shooting command room on the upper floor and the drawing room on the lower floor, there were more than a dozen officers in the combat bridge at the moment, and they looked like a group of sculptures that did not move at all.

The cold air makes you forget that this is the hottest dog day of the year.

From the mast to the bridge, along with the gunners who were resting looking out at the sea from the turret observation port, they all stared at the dark sea with wide eyes.

Suddenly, there was a faint flash of light in the heavy rain, which seemed to be there and nothing, making people suspect that this was an illusion caused by dazzleness.

Among the sculptures, Natsuki took the lead in moving, he turned his head to Captain Lubic and said, "Colonel, order the main guns of the whole ship to be aimed at the front 30 degrees to the right, the muzzles are flattened, and the armor-piercing shells are loaded!" ”

The sound was not loud, but everyone here could hear it, and the tense atmosphere suddenly tended to freeze.

Without hesitation, Colonel Lubic translated this order into a technical directive: "Karl, aim all the main guns in the 030 direction, adjust the elevation angle to zero, and load the armor-piercing shells." ”

"Hank." Natsuki then explained to Captain Gold, "Send a signal to 'Caesar' and 'King' that once we open fire, follow us to attack the enemy's lead ship." ”

After doing this, Natsuki turned his gaze back to the sea in front of him, the faint flash was still like a ghost fire looming on the sea, and the rhythm of their flickering represented a string of tactical information: a large ship on fire was found in the sea in front of him, heading in the opposite direction of me, suspected to be the lead ship of the enemy fleet......

On the German battleship, named after Frederick the Great, the four large main gun turrets rotate clockwise with a characteristic mechanical noise, and a pair of round, straight barrels finally stop at 30 degrees to starboard, and the muzzles are lowered to the level of the barrels at sea level. With this move, the gunners in the main gun positions naturally knew that the battle was approaching, while in the other positions of the battleship, the crews were still ignorant of the changes in the situation, so they speculated whether there would be a chance to fight the British fleet in the future. The weather was so bad that it was not surprising that the two fleets ended up staggering.

At 00:19 on August 8, 1914, the lookout of the "Frederick the Great" found a flickering fire on the starboard side of the sea, vaguely reflecting the outline of a large battleship. After a few moments, the plot room reported the calculated firing parameters to the main gun emplacements. Since the new parameters differed very little from the preset state, the gunners were able to calibrate them in a very short time.

At 00:20, the "Frederick the Great" simultaneously shone four 110 cm searchlights on the starboard side, and the pillars of light struggled through the rain and darkness to reveal the shape of the large battleship.

German officers recognized it almost immediately as a British Iron Duke-class battleship, the pride of Britain, the backbone of the Grand Fleet, and the imaginary enemy of the German Navy's numerous wargames and naval drills.

(End of chapter)