A few years later, when people go back and study the various types of combat ships of the Second German Reich Navy, it is not difficult to summarize the unique national origin of the ships in them, and subdivided, people will find that roughly in 1904, the design ideas of the German Navy ships have taken a turn, and the large ships have started from the Scharnhorst class, and the light ships have started from the Dresden class, and more attention has been paid to seaworthiness and naval gun firepower, and the underwater torpedo tubes that were popular for a while gradually disappeared from the German ships. And the survivability of the ships has been further strengthened. After the baptism www.biquge.info of the Great War, these well-balanced and well-rounded ships have been recognized for their success, and many of their designs have been canonized as classics. The reason for this change has been explored, and since various clues point to the same name, some people refer to the German ships associated with it as the "Joachim", while the German ships that were previously designed and built are naturally classified as the "former Joachim".

The classification of "Joachim" and "pre-Joachim" was not recognized by the authorities in the end, but it still interpreted the key role of the designer in the performance of the ship from a certain perspective, and in that war-torn era, many sailors did not have an objective, rational and accurate understanding of the strength of their ship, and they were full of enthusiasm to join the army, hoping to win honor with their heroic performance, so as to change the fate of the country, the nation and the individual.

Strictly speaking, the Königsberg-class small cruisers, which were built in 1904, belong to the "former Joachim-type", which continues the design ideas inherited from the Gazelle-class cruisers, and is a reconnaissance-type light ship expanded and improved on the basis of the early notification ships, with fast speed and weak firepower. The design assumed that the opponents were destroyers and large torpedo boats of other navies, so they used 105 mm naval guns and 35 mm of protective armor at the thickest point. As a result, "Stantin" received 90 faster than the sister ship with an increase in weight 1 tons. With a speed of 5 knots and a maximum speed of 26 knots when overloaded, it was the fastest cruiser of the German Navy when it was built and put into service.

On the night of August 7, 1914, in the waters west of Jutland, the "Stantin" carried 320 of its crew on a reconnaissance mission. By the faint light of the stars and the afterglow of the flares in the distance, the German officers and men who were looking out from the masts and bridges saw a hazy number of indiscernible shadows on the sea ahead, and since their main fleet was in the stern direction, it must have been the British fleet. In the waters of war, the British would not dare to be careless, at this time their battleships must be loaded with shells, gunners in position, and they will apply heavy artillery fire at the sight of enemy ships. Thinking of this, the German crew inevitably felt nervous, after all, only 450 mm caliber torpedoes on the whole ship could be used to compete with the British capital ships. In order to improve the ship's mobility, the captain twice ordered to speed up, and now the speed of the "Stantin" has been increased to 24 knots, which is almost the highest speed that this seven-year-old "old ship" can drive under the current situation.

At 9:48 a.m., a signal light appeared on the sea in front of the right side of the "Stantin", which was obviously a light code used by the British ship to confirm its identity. In order to delay time, the captain of the ship, Major Kernig, ordered a reply in Morse code: the ship was a Dutch-flagged freighter "Lilac", carrying non-military goods to Bergen, Norway.

Immediately afterwards, the other party replied to the Morse code light signal: stop the ship immediately for inspection.

While Lieutenant Commander Kernig prepared the crew for engagement, he told the communications corps to continue to confuse his opponents: please report your identity.

The other party did not answer, and suddenly, an orange-red light flashed in the darkness, which was obviously the cannon flame produced when the ship's guns fired. The shells flew with a scream and landed on the sea almost a hundred meters from the "Stantin".

Faced with this situation, Lieutenant Commander Kernig shouted at his crew to keep their composure, which he knew was the usual temptation of the British. Therefore, he ordered the signal corpsmen to signal the Morse code light: Do not fire, the ship will stop for inspection.

Sure enough, the other side did not fire any more shells, but sent its new request with a signal light: stop the ship immediately and turn on the front and rear navigation lights.

Major Kernig then ordered the ship to turn 30 degrees to the right so that the bow faced the opposing side, and then ordered the crew to turn on the bow navigation lights and signal to the other side that the stern navigation lights were malfunctioning, and the bow navigation lights were turned on and the ship was stopped.

Under this pretext, Major Kernig bought a few more minutes for his reconnaissance mission, and when the British naval personnel on the opposite side heard the roar of the engines and felt bad, the "Stantin" was already in front of him. The British ship, a thousand-ton destroyer, hastily turned on its searchlight, and within a few seconds, the German cruiser's two forward guns opened fire first, giving it an instant blow. Immediately afterward, the "Standin" was in a state of high speed, and the gunners in the 105-mm and 52-mm rapid-fire guns on the starboard side were ordered to aim the searchlight and fire, and in less than a minute the British destroyer's lights were completely extinguished, and a small fire was caused in its stern.

The "Stantin" not only bullied the small with the big ones, but also engaged in hoodwinks and surprise attacks, and this vicious behavior immediately attracted a fierce counterattack by the British fleet. The sea behind the British destroyer soon lit up with several extremely bright searchlights, followed by a dense flash of flames, as if a large group of reporters were using magnesium lights to snap pictures. Moments later, dozens of shells rained down with a terrifying sound, most of them did not pose a threat to the "Stantin", but a few flew closer.

Judging by preliminary observations, Major Kernig ordered flares to be fired at the sea behind the British destroyer.

10,000 meters away, German dreadnoughts were moving towards the waves with their bows pointed obliquely at the front of the British fleet's route. As the distance between the two fleets had been greatly reduced, the officers on the German flagship, Frederick the Great, were able to observe the engagement on the sea quite clearly, and when the flares fired by the Stantin lit up the night sky, they finally saw the British battleship on the surface. Over the past decade or so, the growing German Navy has gradually become capable of challenging the British Navy. Before the outbreak of war, both sides, from generals to sailors, regarded each other as their number one imaginary enemy. In addition to their daily training and exercises, they also attach great importance to every opportunity for the two navies to exchange visits in order to learn as much as possible about future adversaries. Both the command staff of the "Frederick the Great" and the staff officers of the High Seas Fleet Command knew the type and characteristics of each British capital ship and the various data obtained through intelligence.

In the face of a rather shocking scene, the commander of the fleet, Ingnoel, the chief of staff of the fleet, Prince Joachim, and most of the officers present were silently calculating in their hearts at this time, and some people were unwilling to mutter:

"We are facing the dreadnought group of the British Navy, with at least five newer warships...... Six, seven, eight, I saw eight dreadnoughts, the rest are definitely outside the light zone......"

"The front is the Iron Duke class, the middle is the Orion class, and the back is the George V class, the newer the battleship is, the farther back it is, is this a fleet turn that has undergone an inverted front and back......

For a time, people only looked at the lineup and formation of the British fleet, and risked their lives to carry out reconnaissance of the "Stantin". Under the searchlights of several British cruisers and destroyers, its gray shadow was clearly visible on the sea. The flares lit up the British battleships with flames and smoke rising, and the massive fire from the main and auxiliary guns created a rather astonishing momentum, and the large and small shells stirred up countless columns of water around the German cruiser that was turning at high speed, and constantly attacked its not solid hull with explosions, air waves, shampnel and waves.

Before anyone could draw any conclusions, Natsuki ordered in a loud voice with lightning speed: "All ships turn left 2 compass points with all rudders, and after completing the turn, they will start firing freely at the enemy fleet." ”

The German officers gathered in front of the observation window immediately carried out the orders in two groups, the staff officers under the fleet command were responsible for transmitting orders and conducting fleet dispatch, and the officers under the command team of the ship directly carried out the steering and free fire orders.

When the time finally came, Colonel von Lubic quieted down and allowed his deputy to remind his subordinate officers in a tireless tone: "Turn left 22 degrees 50 with full rudder, determine the target distance and firing direction in the firing command room, reload the armor-piercing shells of each main gun, first carry out three rounds of alternate firing, and correct the impact point." ”

100 seconds later, the long-lost cannon sound first sounded on the flagship "Frederick the Great", Natsuki was not in a hurry to observe the first batch of impact points, but issued two combat orders one after another: the 1st and 3rd battleship detachments increased to 14 knots; The Hipper's fleet moved at full speed to the general flagship.

After the German battleship group opened fire, the British fleet on the opposite side was able to determine the distance and direction of the German fleet through the light of the gun's fire, but it was difficult to judge the opponent's battle column disposition. However, the German fleet had such brave scouts as the "Stantin", and the British fleet had no shortage of fearless outposts against difficult dangers, and not long after the super-heavy artillery battle began, a British destroyer avoided the German escort ships and approached the 2nd Battleship Detachment of old battleships, and its flares and searchlights allowed several Wicchersbach-class battleships to show off their old and sturdy form to their opponents. The old battleships, together with the light ships in close proximity, fired their shells at the British destroyer, and before it turned to retreat, it fired four torpedoes from a distance of less than a kilometer, and the white wake on the surface of the sea startled the German crew into a cold sweat. The Wicchersbach-class and the Braunschweig-class battleships sailing in front of them turned to evade, and the battle formation suddenly became a little chaotic.

(End of chapter)