On the foggy seas, the Second Reich's maritime giants – the King, Caesar, Helgoland, and Nassau-class dreadnoughts – were packed in a single column, and their knack for maintaining tactical formation in rough sea conditions was their knack for rigorous drilling. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 infoIn this respect, they are no less impressive than the Royal Navy, which is known for its glorious traditions and first-class qualities.

The sudden sound of artillery instantly drove away the people's mental drowsiness, and the officers and men who had temporarily taken turns quickly returned to their posts, while the senior officers gathered on the bridge. During the replenishment of the large torpedo boats at sea, this huge German expeditionary fleet basically sailed slowly westward at a speed of about four knots, and the daily movement distance of fifty or sixty nautical miles was only an inconspicuous short line in the vast Norwegian Sea, but it was able to maintain the most basic power of these ships. In the event of an unforeseen situation, they can return to the sailing speed required for combat operations in the shortest possible time.

At the beginning, the ships of the German fleet remained silent by radio, and the news could only be transmitted by flags or lights, and as a result, the people on the main battleship heard the rumbling of guns one after another, but did not know what was going on. Even so, the surrounding German warships did not send random signals to inquire about the situation, let alone send radio signals without authorization. After about five or six minutes, the report finally arrived.

"An old-fashioned cruiser of the first rank broke into our escort formation?"

Scheer looked at the officers beside him, and everyone's expressions were like the sky after a rainstorm, and in the blink of an eye, the clouds had cleared. The escort group consisted of 18 large torpedo boats, and they may not be the opponent of the British cruisers alone, but they could definitely overturn the opponent by attacking in groups, not to mention that the two old battleships and 12 old cruisers that transported the landing force themselves still had a certain combat effectiveness. In addition, there were two tigers that had blended into the flock, the King-class dreadnought "Frontier Governor" and the Nassau-class dreadnought "Westphalia", and it would be a great deal to be speechless if such a force had given a mere first-class cruiser an advantage.

What the fleet commanders really cared about was not the progress of the battle, but what else was behind the British cruiser, whether it was a lone ranger, a fleet escort or a powerful outpost for a battle fleet.

Colonel von Trotta was the first to speak, as usual: "Ninety percent likely...... It was escorting a fleet of ships that the British relied on the northern route to import Swedish iron ore, bearings and balls. ”

"I agree." Lt. Col. von Lefetsov rarely agreed with Colonel Trota's opinion so crisply, and then suggested: "When it is settled, we can search in the direction it came from and sink the British transports in one fell swoop." ”

"Even if the British sent battleships to escort us, it would be easy to clean up the entire convoy, and now the biggest headache is that this battle has exposed our whereabouts, and the British cruiser may have sent a telegram to London." No sooner had Colonel Trota finished his words than a communications officer hurried to the bridge and reported to Scheer the news of the interception of the enemy's communications telegram. Although the contents of the message have not yet been deciphered, the source of the radio waves determined by radio direction finding technology is in the nearby sea!

The captain of the King, Paul Beinke, who had recently been promoted to the rank of rear admiral, interjected: "We have been away from Keel for so long, and the British spies must have noticed our movements, and even if this British cruiser only saw the torpedo boats of our escort formation, it would be enough for the British Admiralty to guess where we are." From now on, we had better leave all unrealistic fantasies of luck behind and be ready for a tough battle with the enemy, completely crush the British Navy with a fourth victory, and let our fleet shine again before the end of this war! ”

After the news of the German capture of Paris, many officers in the fleet felt that the end of the war was not far away, some felt that the final stage should preserve its strength and avoid unnecessary losses, and some thought that the morale of the Allied army was almost collapsed, and they should take the opportunity to beat the water dogs, so that the British Navy would completely lose the opportunity to turn over, and also strive for more military honors for themselves.

The sudden intrusion of the British cruiser provided an opportunity to take advantage of the fact that the officers had different intentions and would have adversely affected the fleet's operational state, as Natsuki and Sher had noticed this, and they had prepared to take advantage of the short break in the Norwegian Sea to adjust the affection of the officers and men.

"The battle is not over so soon, there are still opportunities in the future." Natsuki said in a very pertinent tone, with his previous shocking performances, his status in the minds of the officers was already very comparable, so there was no need to explain at all.

"Now that the British Navy is aware of our movements and intentions, we ...... now," Colonel Trota sent the question to Natsuki in an abbreviated sentence. Although there is not a single word that directly states his position, his tone and previous statements tend to favor an early withdrawal.

Natsuki put his hands behind his back and pretended to be old-fashioned, "They know that our movements are good, but they may not be able to guess our intentions at the moment. Whether our main fleet will enter the North Atlantic or not, and how the two detachments currently operating in the North Atlantic will act, they cannot know these through espionage alone, and we can adjust the combat plan according to the actual situation, and this is where the advantage of grasping the initiative lies. Now that the British main fleet may go north to meet it, or it may go to the vicinity of the Skagerrak Strait to wait for us to sail back, they must clearly choose one of them, just like buying big or small at the table, big is big, small is small, once bet on it, there is no change. ”

"In my opinion, the British fleet will surely go north, wait for us to sail into the Atlantic, and then follow our tracks, and finally choose a position that is more advantageous to them to fight us." Lieutenant Commander Lefetsov, a veteran fleet staff officer, said, "If the main fleets of both sides end up in a naval battle off the Irish Sea, our prospects of victory may be less promising." ”

The lieutenant colonel's expression was always straightforward, and the wording sounded a little harsh, but Natsuki was not the kind of person who was empty-eyed, and he nodded at the lieutenant colonel: "That's right, we should avoid engaging the British fleet in the Irish waters, to be exact, we should end the duel with the British main fleet before entering the Atlantic." ”

Colonel Trota seemed to find a logical contradiction in Natsuki's preface, and he asked weakly: "But if the British Navy chooses the second possibility, as you mentioned earlier, Your Highness, to go to the Skagerrak Strait and wait for our return, shall we continue on to Ireland or turn south?" ”

"The initiative is in our hands." Natsuki replied with a polite expression, "If they do go to the Skagerrak Strait, we can let them travel thousands of miles instead of us to work at ease." ”

As the German officers gathered on the bridge were talking, the communications officer had once again appeared in a hurry, and he reported that the ship's communications department had interfered with the previous communication frequencies of the British ship, and had just intercepted a telegram from the enemy on another frequency, which, judging by the coding pattern, should be a new telegram with a different content from the previous one.

During the Battle of Jutland, the German Navy seized the communication codebook from the captured British ships, and although the British Navy quickly replaced the new communication code, the German Navy was able to partially decipher the adversary's new code through the study and analysis of the original code.

Scheer glanced at the document sent by the communications officer, which contained fragments of deciphered messages, scattered words that could not even be put together in a single sentence, but the shrewd commander was still able to capture some sensitive information from them.

"The captain of the British cruiser thought that he had met the main forces of the German High Seas Fleet."

Although anticipating this situation, hearing it come out of Scheer's mouth, the officers on the bridge all changed their grim expressions.

Before Scheer could say a second sentence, a loud bang suddenly came from the sea. Although they could not see what was happening, the experienced and knowledgeable officers on the bridge could deduce from the momentum alone - either the shells caused a small explosion on the ship, or the torpedo exerted its power, and the key was which side of the ship was damaged.

After only a dozen seconds, there was another exceptionally clear loud bang in the rumbling gunfire, which sounded like a continuation of the explosion just now, but in fact there was a significant difference.

After a moment of silence, Natsuki looked at Scheer and instructed directly to the communications officer: "Restore shortwave radio communication and ask the command ships of each formation to report the immediate situation." ”

Theoretically, short-wave radio stations and ultra-short-wave are suitable for radio communication at medium and short ranges, but at the beginning of the 20th century, short-wave technology was not yet mature, and the main ones used by the military were medium-wave and long-wave radios. Before the outbreak of World War I, the United States and Britain were in the leading position in radio technology in the world, and Germany's radio technology started a little later, and the radio equipment used by the army was mainly provided by Wireless Telegraph Co., Ltd. (the predecessor of Telephony), a joint venture between Siemens and General Electric, but under the stimulation of the war, Germany's radio technology quickly moved towards practicality.

After the introduction of the shortwave radio, the fleet commanders' grasp of the battle situation quickly became clear, and the standardized military terminology made a picture of the battlefield in their minds: the British protective cruiser that broke into the escort formation did not choose to fight and retreat, but bravely engaged in a fierce exchange of fire with the surrounding German ships, and it quickly damaged two large German torpedo boats with artillery fire, and attacked the "Westphalia" with torpedoes, and the starboard side of the dreadnought that followed the escort formation was torpedoed a large hole. The crew was doing their best to plug the leak, but the good fortune of the British cruiser ended there, and the attacking German ships smashed it to pieces, and an armor-piercing bullet penetrated its side armor and burrowed into the bilge, causing the boiler compartment to explode, and it immediately lost power, and there was no possibility of evacuating the battlefield.

(End of chapter)