Satsummerville was aware that the German fleet was heading south, so on the afternoon of the 14th he again ordered the fleet to turn and move the interception area northwest of Balgen, so that he could gain about four more hours of battle, which was invaluable whether it was to defeat Scheer or to turn around and flee for his life. At half past ten o'clock in the evening, Sarmoville ordered all three "avant-garde" radars to be activated, while still sending two light cruisers equipped with radars to carry out reconnaissance and alert missions in this area. It's a very old-fashioned tactic, but it's also very effective.

At this time, Scheer's fleet was heading south, at a speed of 18 knots, about 70 nautical miles from the cruiser cordon in Samoville, that is, Scheer was going south two hours earlier than scheduled, mainly in order to be able to enter the Skagerrak Strait before dark, and avoid being intercepted by the British fleet at night. At this time, Scheer did not know that Summerville had already set up a position in the south, just waiting for his arrival, and in the fleet, only the radar on the "Admiral MLM" running in the front was running, and the radar on the "Admiral Spee" and "Lützov" in the back were not activated!

The three battleships purchased by Germany from the Tang Empire continued the names of the previous "German" class small battleships, while the three "German" class small battleships had been on combat missions in the Atlantic, and all of them had been sunk. The first of the three battleships was the "Admiral Scheer". It was named after the commander of the German High Seas Fleet during the First Global War, Admiral Schell, who was now the grandfather of the commander of the Far East Fleet. Scheer made the battleship named after his grandfather his flagship. It is probably to commemorate the ancestor who almost led the German High Seas Fleet to defeat the British Home Fleet. Or maybe I want to fulfill my grandfather's last wish.

Then. The British were in good standby battle, while the Germans were unaware, but naval battles were indeed very fortuitous, and it was not the British cruisers that first raised the battle alarm. But "Admiral Scheer"! At one o'clock in the morning of 15 July, the radar on the "Admiral Scheer" detected the British warships more than 20 nautical miles to the south and sounded the battle alarm. It wasn't until half an hour later that the British cruiser's ground radar detected the big guys to the north. By this time, the German fleet had completed its turn and was making a round to the west, and the distance between the two sides was already less than 20 nautical miles!

Savowil, who was also taken aback when he received the report from the cruiser, first thought that Scheer had come prepared, and that the Germans had figured out his intentions. Scheer's determination to fight him startled Summerville, and if Scheer did fight him, he would have to flee for his life. (Fastest update: n).

Soon, the cruiser again sent a report that the German fleet was shelling them, requesting a retreat. After receiving this report, Samoville was a little relieved. If Scheer had come prepared. Then it will not be the first to shell the cruiser, but to approach quickly. Bombard the battleships behind. That is, it is quite possible that Scheer did not realize that there was still a formation of battleships to the south!

The British fleet was now sailing westward, and Satsummerville immediately ordered the squadron to turn to the left, and at the same time reduced its speed to 14 knots, with the muzzles all facing to the right. The German fleet was on its north-western flank, and was moving south, and the speed had increased to more than 20 knots, and the distance between the two sides was about 28 nautical miles, and according to the situation at that time, before three o'clock in the morning, the two sides would be within artillery distance, and would sail south for about 30 nautical miles. If it could be delayed until dawn, then the eight battleships deployed to the south in Satsumville would come in handy.

At this time, Scheer to the north was not unaware of the danger, and he had already ordered the fleet to speed up, indicating that he wanted to pass through the blockade of the British fleet as soon as possible. Before he could give the order, several heavy cruisers rushed forward and struck hard at the two British Navy light cruisers, and the main guns on the "River" class heavy cruisers, where the Germans purchased them, were 200 mm in caliber, and the British sailors judged the water column generated by the explosion of the 200 mm shells on the sea surface as the shells of the battleship's main guns, which led to a misunderstanding and made Satsummerville make a wrong judgment.

At 2:10 a.m., the radar on the "Admiral Scheer" detected three "Avantgarde" class battleships heading south, and the radar operator accurately judged that they were three battleships, and that they were three "Avantgarde" class battleships. Scheer was also secretly shocked when he received the report, he didn't expect the British to repair these three battleships so quickly, and what worried him even more was where the other eight British battleships were. At that time, Scheer made the judgment that the other eight battleships must have formed a battle line somewhere to the south and were waiting for him to collide, while the three "avant-garde" were faster and appeared to the southwest to prevent him from entering the bay to the east. After making this judgment, Scheer once again ordered the fleet to turn to the left, and the speed was increased to 24 knots, apparently, he did not want a knightly duel with Samoville, but just wanted to leave the battlefield quickly, and leave this hellish place as soon as possible.

The radar on the "avant-garde" detected the German fleet that was turning at 2:25 a.m., and found that the Germans were suddenly sailing eastward, and Thermoville was also taken aback. If Scheer wants to seize the prefix "Ding", then he shouldn't turn behind the ass of the British fleet, right? Under the circumstances, if the German fleet had been successfully turned back and had been rounded back, it was very likely that the enemy would have taken an advantageous position, and it would have been even more impossible to defeat Scheer with equal forces. Satsumville immediately gave the same order to turn around, and the fleet turned left at full speed!

At that time, the diagonal distance between the two fleets was about 20 nautical miles, and Scheer was in the 300-degree direction of Samoville, because the German fleet was faster, and after completing the turn, the distance between the routes of the two fleets was no longer 20 nautical miles, but 10 nautical miles! Less than three o'clock, the distance between the two sides was shortened to 14 nautical miles, and Scheer was in the direction of 330 degrees in Samoville. It was at this time that the artillery battle between the battleships of both sides began. Because two of the three main gun turrets in the "new provincial capital" are in front. As a result, Scheer could concentrate two-thirds of his fire on Samaville. Samoville, however, could only return fire with half of its main guns, and Schell had the first favorable opportunity.

Summerville soon discovered this problem, the "avant-garde" main gun turret could only rotate 110 degrees from side to side, and the B turret only rotated 100 degrees due to its proximity to the commander's bridge. Although the tail turret of the "new provincial capital" on the opposite side could not be pointed at them either. But the opponent opened fire with six main guns, and he only had four main guns to use, which is quite an obvious disadvantage. In this case, Satsummerville had only two options, one was to reduce his speed and let the Germans catch up, but to accelerate the steering and go around in front of the Germans. If the speed is reduced, the opponent can use the same tactics, and the flexibility of the ship is greatly affected. It was difficult to avoid the artillery shells from the other side, and in desperation, Satsummerville could only order the fleet to speed up its turn, and try to go around to the front of Sherdi as soon as possible to seize the advantageous position.

The British fleet had just begun to turn, and Scheer had discovered this, and he immediately ordered the fleet to speed up. The maximum speed of the "new provincial capital" was 31 knots, while the "avant-garde" was less than 30 knots. In terms of speed, Scheer doesn't suffer. That's it. The speed of both sides exceeded the maximum speed allowed during the artillery battle, and the accuracy of their shelling was greatly reduced.

After nearly an hour of entanglement, and after wasting hundreds of shells on both sides, Summerville finally allowed Scheer to catch up by cutting the outer circle, and the main guns of both sides were able to point at the opponent and exert their power. At four o'clock, Scheer first ordered to slow down to 18 knots, which was the maximum allowable speed during the artillery battle of the "new provincial capital", and Satsummerville immediately slowed the fleet to 16 knots, and at this time the course of both sides was about 20 degrees, almost sailing north!

The first few rounds of shelling still yielded little fruit, and for the gunners on both sides, the wide maneuver was the most annoying, and the previous engagements were a little too far away. It wasn't until 4:25 a.m., when the distance between the two sides was less than 15,000 yards, that the "Admiral Spee" opened the record, and a shell fired by its B turret (the German naval ground number is different, here the standard of the Imperial Navy) accurately hit the opposite "Challenge", and the hit point of this shell was extremely accurate, almost near the waterline in the middle of the side of the ship hit by the "Tirpitz" last time, the impact point was almost the same, and the Type 23 armor-piercing projectile was against the "avant-garde" at this distance There is a deadly threat, and what is even more tragic is that most of the watertight doors of the "Challenge" have not been repaired, and there are hidden dangers in many places, and they are all hidden dangers!

The Challenge no longer had the same luck as it had in the Battle of Skagerrak, the shells exploded inside the hull and ignited all the flammable materials in the vicinity, and the fire quickly spread to the boiler room, and then to the engine room, and by the time the sailors on the battleship realized the danger, it was too late to control the fire. About 25 minutes after being shot, the tail of the "Challenge" exploded violently, and flames rose several hundred meters high, and the upper turret in the tail was almost directly blown away. In less than 15 minutes, this huge ship with a displacement of more than 50,000 tons disappeared from the sea, and this was the second British battleship after the "Hood" to be sunk in a naval battle after only one shell.

Satsummerville watched the sinking of the "Challenge" with his own eyes, but at this time he had no choice, the "Avant-garde" became a key target, the "Admiral Scheer" and the "Admiral Spee" were aimed at the "Avant-garde", and before five o'clock, the "Avant-garde" had already had three turrets destroyed. But good luck did not leave the British either. Just when Samoville was about to despair, God finally stood behind the British.

The last remaining turret of the "Avant-garde", that is, the D turret in the tail, hit both shells in the 31st round of fire on the "Admiral Scheer", which can be described as a miracle! Two shells hit the Admiral Scheer's aft turret and the horizontal armor under turret B at a distance of 12,000 yards, and the armor-piercing shells knocked out the tail turret and pierced through the ship's vertical armor, exploding near the ammunition depot of turret B. The automatic water filling system was immediately turned on, and the rapid influx of seawater prevented the fire from spreading, while also avoiding the explosion of the ammunition compartment. That's it. "Admiral Scheer" lost all its main gun fire and had to withdraw from the battle ahead of schedule.

Five minutes later, the "Resolve", which was at the rear of the formation, performed another miracle, and two of the six shells fired from its 29th salvo hit the "Lützov" on the opposite side. The two shells hit the seaplane catapult near the seaplane catapult, as well as on Cambridge, the commander of the battleship. At that time, the combat distance was about 14,000 yards, and the armor on the bridge of the commander of the "new provincial capital" was more than 400 mm thick to block the armor-piercing shells, but it was not able to protect the German officers and soldiers inside, dozens of people were killed by the flying shrapnel, and all those who did not die were seriously injured, and the "Lützov" lost its unified command, and it was not able to fire a decent salvo within fifteen minutes!

At this time, the "Avant-garde" also withdrew from the battle, and its last turret was quickly terminated by armor-piercing shells from the "Admiral Spee", and there was also a water in the engine room, and Sarmoville did not want to fight the Germans here, so he had to retreat in advance. By this time, only the "Admiral Spee" and the "Resolve" remained on the sea, both battleships had only six main guns left, and the "Lützov" was withdrawn from the battle at 5:34.

The battle between the two battleships lasted until 6:15, and only the armor turret on the "Admiral Spee" was still fighting, and only the B turret on the "Resolve" was functional. The officers and men of both sides are desperately trying, but when the strength is equal and the artillery readiness rate is not much better, it is impossible to helpless the opponent. In the end, the "Resolve" was the first to withdraw from the battle, and the "Admiral Spee", which had suffered heavy losses, also gave up the pursuit and followed the already retreating fleet north to return to Birgen.

After the artillery battle, the aviation units of both sides also fought several rendezvous over the North Sea, and finally "broke up unhappily." For Samoville, he successfully completed his mission, preventing the German fleet from returning home. For Scheer, he saved every ship, but at the same time he couldn't make it back. The battle was short and fierce, tactically, the Germans won and took out the "Challenge", but in terms of the overall result, the British were the victors, the German "Far Eastern Fleet" lost its combat effectiveness, and the three damaged battleships could not be repaired in Germany itself!