When the destroyers in the British fleet launched a crazy shock operation, Chang Jianxin was also adjusting the deployment, the five battleships were in full array, he did not let the battleships also join the ranks of the shelling, one is that the battleship formation was not threatened, the second is that the 400 mm caliber cannon is a bit wasteful to hit the destroyer, and the 120 mm caliber secondary gun on the battleship can't hit that far, and finally the most critical, these five battleships are used to deal with the British battleship, Chang Zhixin doesn't want to let the main force go into battle so quickly. Of course, it's not that there is no way to cause a little trouble for Satsummerville.

Task Force 3 consisted of 16 destroyers of the "City" class, two of which remained in Gibraltar due to mechanical problems, and three of which were sent out on alert missions and did not return to the fleet, and when the battle began, 11 destroyers were often recommended for novices, of which the 2nd destroyer formation was fully established. Chang Zhixin left all 8 destroyers of this formation behind the battleship formation, and when the British destroyers attacked, he also ordered the 2nd destroyer formation to attack the battleship formation in Samoville. Because the 2nd destroyer formation was not able to maneuver in time, it was not until about half an hour after the cruiser formation had exchanged fire with the enemy, that is, before 3:10 a.m., that the eight destroyers moved over and were ready for torpedo attacks.

At 3:10 a.m., when the 2nd destroyer formation dispersed into an evacuation queue and began to accelerate, Chang Zhixin gave the order to open fire. The British Navy's light cruisers posed the greatest threat to the destroyers, so he first ordered five battleships to concentrate their artillery fire on the British light cruiser formation, which was about 12 nautical miles to the southeast, and used their huge guns to clear the way for the destroyers to launch a torpedo attack.

It was also the first salvo fired by the battleships in the official artillery battle of the same night. The roar of nine 400-mm guns on the "Nanning" opened the prelude to the salvo fire of the battleships. At that time, the British light cruiser formation was about 12 nautical miles from the "Nanning" and about 8 nautical miles from the 2nd cruiser formation. In previous battles, the six light cruisers had been covering the charging destroyers with artillery fire, but the 6-inch guns on the British Navy light cruisers were not powerful enough to threaten the Imperial heavy cruisers at such a distance. Therefore, the effect of artillery fire support is not obvious. The battleship formation under the command of Satsumville was still about 3 nautical miles behind his light cruiser formation, and because of the limitation of radar performance, it was impossible to suppress the heavy cruisers on the opposite side with huge guns. It was clear that the British fleet was a little disjointed, and Satsummerville was also worried that if it got too close, it would be bombarded by the opposing battleships, and at that time the eight battleships had not yet completed the formation, therefore. It would have been difficult for Sarmoville to cover the destroyers with the huge guns of the battleships for torpedo attacks.

In fact, by this time, the battleships of the two sides had still not exchanged hands, and even if Chang Jiexin had ordered to fire at the British light cruiser formation, at a distance of 12 nautical miles, it was difficult for the battleship's huge artillery to accurately hit the small and nimble light cruisers, and at most they could only force the British light cruisers to spread a little more, and could not concentrate their fire on which destroyers launched a torpedo attack. The most active on the battlefield are the cruisers and destroyers of both sides, which can be regarded as a classic battle between two auxiliary warships with different design styles. At the same time, it also proved the advanced nature of the Tang Imperial Navy in the development of cruisers and destroyers.

In the Navy of the Don Empire insisted on the construction of heavy cruisers. And when the destroyer was made larger to replace the previously indispensable light cruiser, there were many objections. During the First Global War. The light cruisers of the Tang Imperial Navy played an extremely important role on the battlefield, especially in some remote theaters, light cruisers were more suitable than destroyers, and a certain firepower was enough to suppress the enemy's destroyers. In addition, the heavy cruiser itself was a "treaty product". After the signing of the Naval Arms Treaty, the competition between the world's great powers to build battleships was extremely restricted, and when it was impossible to build more battleships, the naval powers realized that cruisers would become an important force in determining naval strength. And the Naval Arms Treaty has relatively lenient restrictions on cruisers. Under this circumstance, the Tang Empire, Japan, the United States and other countries all did their best within the framework of the treaty to build cruisers with high speed, strong firepower and good seaworthiness, but slightly inferior in protection capabilities, and this was the later heavy cruiser.

Precisely because the heavy cruiser itself is a "treaty specialty". Therefore, there were many people in the Imperial Navy who opposed the development of heavy cruisers, believing that light cruisers, which were cheaper and had sufficient performance, were more suitable for future wars. This idea also exists in the navies of other countries, such as the United Kingdom, which did not build heavy cruisers, but vigorously developed light cruisers, of course, this also has its root causes, such as the weakness of the British national power. And its main adversary in the Atlantic does not have a strong navy that can threaten its fundamental interests, etc.

The top brass of the Imperial Navy of the Tang Empire did not take light cruisers seriously, until later. In order to cope with the opposition of many people, the "City" class destroyers, similar to the "destroyers", were built, and this large destroyer was not much inferior to the British Navy's light cruisers in all respects. After the outbreak of the war, because of the cost constraints, even with the strong national strength of the Tang Empire, the production of destroyers at full capacity, the output of the "City" class is not very high, and the construction period is relatively long, if all the "City" class destroyers are used to carry out escort missions, it will definitely be a waste. Therefore, the Imperial Navy assigned the "City" class destroyers to the main fleet and some important local fleets, and separately developed a "frigate" with a smaller displacement than ordinary destroyers, reduced the number of guns, reduced or simply eliminated the torpedo combat capability, and focused on strengthening the anti-submarine capability, and used the frigate to carry out escort missions instead of participating in the decisive battle of the fleet.

In terms of heavy cruisers, the Tang Imperial Navy also recognized some of the performance limitations of heavy cruisers, such as too powerful firepower, insufficient defense capabilities to block the enemy's medium-caliber armor-piercing shells, high cost, and so on. Before the outbreak of the war, the Imperial Navy was trying to find a way to solve these major problems, and the "Tsuki" class was a kind of warship with a very experimental nature, which was originally planned to be built only a few, and later because of the needs of the war, it was built in batches. When the "River" class was designed, the Imperial Navy adopted a number of new technologies that would increase the combat effectiveness of heavy cruisers. (Fastest update: n).

The 240 mm gun was originally developed for the "River" class, when the Imperial Navy hoped that this new type of artillery could overwhelm all the opponent's battleships except the battleships, and even be able to easily deal with the enemy's battle cruisers, but with the advent of fast battleships, the battle cruisers basically withdrew from the historical stage during the war, and against other cruisers it seemed a bit excessive, so later the "River" class was all replaced with 200 mm guns. In addition to the power of the main gun, the rate of fire of the main gun is another important factor related to firepower, and the rate of fire of the 200 mm heavy gun is definitely much slower than the 155 mm gun.

In other respects, the design of the "River" class is very advanced. For example, thicker, stronger armor has been added to key areas. It seems that the design on the aircraft carrier adopts a small compartment structure, and dozens of horizontal watertight doors are set up to ensure that the battleship will not sink after only one-third of the cabin is flooded. In terms of reducing costs, the most effective way is to build in large quantities, by increasing the number of constructions and ordering spare parts in bulk, so as to reduce the purchase unit price of warships. Facts have proved that the "River" class is definitely the most outstanding heavy cruiser during the war, whether it is in frontal naval battles, or in providing air defense cover for aircraft carriers, or performing ground support missions, the performance of the "River" class is enough to satisfy any demanding admiral. As a result, more than 40 cruisers of this class were built throughout the war, making it the most numerous cruisers built by the Imperial Navy during the war, and the most active cruiser on the battlefield.

Speaking of which, the conversation is far away. Relatively speaking, the performance of the "City" class in the war is also remarkable. Compared to aircraft carriers, battleships, cruisers. Even submarines, these star-class warships during the Great War, destroyers were not very valued during the Great War, especially in the Tang Imperial Navy, because the threat of submarines on its important routes was not very large, so the Imperial Navy's requirements for destroyers were not exactly the same as those of other countries. In the Imperial Navy, the first task of destroyers was in addition to escort ships. It must also take on the ability of part of the fleet to fight a decisive battle, and the most important thing is its torpedo attack capability.

Initially, the "City" class was designed with three five-pack heavy torpedo tubes, but in the actual design, it was found that to install so many torpedo tubes on a single destroyer, it was necessary to reduce the number of artillery plots and occupy a large amount of deck area. In war, there are not many opportunities for destroyers to launch torpedo attacks, especially when performing fleet escort missions. Anti-submarine and even anti-aircraft capabilities are more important than torpedo attack capabilities, and when strengthening the air defense capabilities of battleships in front of the Imperial Navy, it is natural not to forget to let destroyers also carry out anti-aircraft strengthening modifications, and in the end the "City" class is finalized. Only two penta-mounted torpedo tubes remained, and the extra space was used for a main gun turret and a dozen machine guns.

At the beginning of the war, the Imperial Navy used 550 mm heavy torpedoes, and their performance could only be regarded as mid-to-low, after all, the Imperial Navy had not paid much attention to torpedo warfare capabilities. At the beginning of the war, the Japanese navy's use of the "Lance" torpedo gave the Imperial Navy a very deep "impression", and after the defeat of Japan, the empire figured out the specific performance and design data of the "Lance" from a group of captured Japanese engineers. Later, it was learned that Japanese exiled scientists who had fled to the United States were assisting the Americans in developing an oxygen torpedo that was better than the "Lance", and the Imperial Navy immediately launched the oxygen torpedo development program, abandoning the electric torpedo that it had been working on. This is where the 650-mm heavy torpedo comes from, which were first equipped on the newly commissioned Type C and D submarines, and later on destroyers. When Chang Zhixin led the 3rd Task Force expedition, all the destroyers of the 3rd Task Force were replaced with 650 mm heavy torpedo tubes, which also reflected the benefits of large destroyers, and their large hull space had enough room for improvement and upgrading, so there was no need to worry about replacing them with larger and heavier torpedoes.

The performance of the 650-mm heavy torpedo was relatively similar to that of the Japanese "Lance" torpedo. It is capable of reaching a maximum range of 20 nautical miles. Even at the fastest speed, the range of 12 nautical miles is more than enough. After all, if the range is increased, it will be a question of whether it can hit the target. The main purpose of raising the caliber of torpedoes in the Imperial Navy was not to strengthen the combat performance of torpedoes, but to increase the safety of torpedoes. The Japanese designed the "Lance" with little regard for safety, so the failure rate of the "Lance" torpedo remained high and it was prone to self-detonation. Perhaps the Japanese Navy could tolerate these shortcomings, but the Imperial Navy could not. In the case of technical limitations, in order to increase the safety of torpedoes. The only way to do that would be to make the torpedo a little bigger and add more dedicated security facilities.

It can be said that the 650-mm torpedo could be used against any kind of sea target, and it was also the only weapon on the destroyer that could pose a threat to the battleship. Even if the landlord armor belt of a warship can block the direct hit of a 16-inch armor-piercing projectile, the underwater defense capability of any kind of battleship is quite limited, and battleships are no exception, not to mention the old battleships of the British Navy, even if it is the "New Provincial Capital" class, as well as the "Iowa" class of the US Navy, and the larger "Montana" class battleship, as long as it is hit by a 650mm torpedo, it will be seriously injured if it does not die!

The eight destroyers that launched the torpedo attack all carried this lethal weapon, and behind them were more than a dozen cruisers and battleships providing fire cover. If Satsumville had known by this time that the destroyers were carrying torpedoes that were enough to destroy them, perhaps he would have reconsidered how to fight Task Force 3. However, Satsummerville was not clear, and in the chaotic battlefield, the radar on the British battleships was not even able to detect the destroyer group that had broken away from the main formation in time, and by the time the officers and men on the British battleships reacted, I am afraid it would be too late to intercept these destroyers!