"Steady...... Steady...... Okay, turn right – right now! ”

Before the "Thunder" driver could speak, there was an immediate sound of "Boom" from the back seat, as if he was hitting a heavy metal drum at a super fast speed. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 Suddenly, a series of dark red points of light swept against the surface of the sea towards a black shadow forty meters away. It was a British high-speed torpedo boat weighing seven or eight tons, and it was in the middle of the line with the splash of bullets. The bullets that hit the hull of the boat seemed to have burrowed into a pile of floating haystacks, unhindered by any hard objects, and some of the bullets even pierced the hull, and the British battleship seemed to be suddenly drained of energy, and it stalled abruptly, and finally stopped on the surface.

The highly effective hunters, the German Navy's Thunder high-speed torpedo boats, quickly ceased fire and made a continuous turn, quickly moving away from the firing position they had just fired. After a while, it set its sights on a new target, and was about to repeat its old trick, when the target suddenly spat out a small tongue of fire first.

That's muzzle flare from machine-gun fire.

Machine gun bullets usually fly at speeds of more than 700 meters per second, and the speed of a sprinting speedboat is only 30 meters per second, which seems to be no comparison at all, but the "Thunder" pilot quickly reacts with a quick turn of the steering wheel. The strings of bullets only caused a cascade of splashes on the surface of the sea, and did not hit the target that the shooter was aiming at.

The "Thunder" shooter did not point his gun directly at the enemy ship, but reserved a small angle. After firing, he steadily shifted the muzzle of his gun, and the 13mm bullets poured out, and they splashed higher and denser on the surface of the sea, and these splashes formed an ever-extending dotted line, approaching the target with dizzying speed, and finally swept past without suspense. The British high-speed torpedo boat that was hit suddenly turned into a blinding fireball, and a violent explosion shook the sea.

The flames of the explosion were fleeting, and only billowing smoke was on the surface of the sea, and the battleship and its pilots were completely gone.

The scene of the explosion undoubtedly attracted the attention and vigilance of the British battleboat pilots more than the previous machine-gun fire, and the hunters were soon threatened with bullets from different angles, and the hull was hit several times, but no fatal damage was caused. At this time, the "Thunder" shooter did not fire indiscriminately to counterattack, but coldly observed the muzzle flame that appeared in the line of sight, and his partner skillfully made a large-angle continuous turn, using the cover of night and the battlefield environment to escape the focus of the enemy shooter's sight. Soon, only the nearest British high-speed warship was still chasing and firing, and its machine-gun fire actually lasted more than half a minute, which meant that the shooter on the boat fired half a bullet belt in one go.

In this not very bright sea, the muzzle flame is a more conspicuous and easy target, and the "Thunder" shooter quickly turns the muzzle of the gun towards the opponent who is not smart enough, and then responds with a short shot that lasts three or four seconds.

If it weren't for the unexpected jolting of the hull, he would have had a good chance of hitting his opponent.

With less than a quarter of the 120-round cartridge belt remaining, the "Thunder" shooter shouted to his partner: "Hold steady, just one chance......

The driver in the front cabin did not speak, but turned the steering wheel sharply, and the hull of the boat immediately leaned over. In an instant, the original position was dramatically replaced by a flood - the British Navy's two-seater high-speed torpedo boats were equipped with recoilless machine guns, and the British ships with slightly larger tonnage were equipped with light machine guns to counter the German Navy's 13mm machine guns.

A new threat had just emerged, and not far off the sea, another "Thunder" ghostly shuttled through the British torpedo boats, and the sound of machine gun fire attracted its attention. I saw that it adjusted its course slightly, and a long string of flames suddenly burst out from the stern of the boat, and the rain of bullets accurately fell on the British battleship that was nearly 200 meters away. In order to destroy this target, which could be lightly armoured, the German shooters fired long shots for more than ten seconds until the entire cartridge belt was completely drained.

Dark red bullets fell, and a little farther out on the sea, the low-profile British warship caught fire. It was still in a state of navigation, but its speed had slowed down significantly, and no more cannon sounds were heard. A moment later, I saw a flash of light on its hull, and two deafening explosions came out one after another......

Before the outbreak of the First World War, Britain was in its economic, political, and military heyday, and when war broke out, few people would have expected that its naval power would be defeated so quickly, and even the small "Thunder" battleships could run amok at the mouth of the Thames. The Royal Navy has been victorious in all wars for more than 200 years, and has played a very important and sometimes decisive role in the good traditions built up over time, but this time their opponents were rigorous, hardworking, brave and well prepared for the war. It has been 10 years since the formation of Germany's high-speed torpedo boat units, and the training and combat readiness system has been quite perfect, and the vast majority of officers and crew members are young people, full of vigor and enthusiasm, and no matter their background, as long as they are skilled and perform well, they can be rewarded and promoted. At the same time, the caliber of the Hubert M-11A rotary tube machine gun used by the "Thunder" is nearly twice as large as that of the British Vickers-Mark I water-cooled machine gun, and the combat rate of fire is twice as fast. After several encounters, the British soon discovered that their two-seater torpedo boats armed with machine guns were no match for the "Thunder" at all, and those single-seat torpedo boats that were not equipped with weapons could only be carefully guarded and run away at any time.

From afar, watching the group of "Thunder" boats that had previously attacked on the battlefield to hunt targets with ease, Christian quietly sailed towards the depths of the Thames estuary with six "Lightning-14s". Despite missing the best of times, he was not without success during those hours spent on the King. In addition to convincing the chief of staff of the fleet to allow him to sail into battle, he also mastered the tactical intentions and battle strategies of the German fleet to enter the Thames estuary. He knew that the main German fleet was not retreating aimlessly at the moment, but was systematically luring the British mine-striking ships away from the British coast, using escort light ships to block them in the front layer, and using "Thunder" warships to drive them away step by step in the rear, turning the British torpedo boats participating in the battle into sandwich biscuits. As long as there are no major accidents, the German fleet will also kill a rifle and continue to shell the stranded British super dreadnoughts, forcing the British Navy to send the last elite forces into battle.

On the battlefield, it was certainly not a good situation to become "sandwich biscuits", but the British high-speed torpedo boats that rushed to the front had no choice but to attack. With twice the speed of the German capital ships, they were getting closer and closer to these targets, which stood out in the starlight. However, in order to carry out a torpedo attack on the German capital battleships, they first had to break through the defenses of the German escort ships.

In the rear of the main German fleet, 11 large torpedo boats proudly set up a double row of staggered fish scales, 6 in the 1911 class in the front, 5 in the 1906 class, in addition to the 105 mm or 88 mm caliber rapid-fire naval guns, most of these German light ships are equipped with 2-4 37 mm rotary tube guns, all 1911 classes are also equipped with 4 13 mm rotary tube machine guns, with strong medium and short range firepower, plus hydrophones and anti-submarine bombs, They have become all-round escort ships that meet the requirements of modern naval warfare.

In the face of the raging British high-speed torpedo boats, the large torpedo boats of the class of 1911 in the front row turned on their searchlights, so that the enemy warships rushing to the near distance could not hide, and the gunners on the ships were full of enthusiasm into the battle. During weekday training exercises, they can fire up to a dozen shells at a time, and for most of the time they follow the fleet, these large torpedo boats silently play the role of bodyguards, and it is rare to have such an opportunity to shoot heartily.

The dense artillery fire of the large German torpedo boats formed a sector with a radius of about two kilometers, and in this constantly moving area, wherever British warships appeared, the sea was bound to be covered with large and small columns of water. With the passage of time, the British torpedo boats hit by German artillery fire soon reached double digits, and the British crew behind saw that "this road is impassable", so they bypassed the German rearguard ships and made a detour from the far end, but what awaited them was not a smooth road, but the fierce artillery fire of the German capital ships -- the "Thunder" pilots who had thrown themselves into the battlefield had been given clear instructions before setting off not to approach or bypass their own torpedo boats under any circumstances. Without the fear of accidentally damaging their own warships, the six German capital ships directly used "weapons of mass destruction" against light ships. They remained divided into two teams, each against the British torpedo boats, which bypassed the rearguard ships from both flanks. Despite the fact that the "King", "Elector", "Oldenburg" and "Goeben" still had some of their main guns unable to enter the battle, this did not prevent them from hitting their opponents with shrapnel grenades.

The German high-speed torpedo boat group was unable to resist the fleet defense position, and the British torpedo boat group, which was greatly weakened and had no torpedo attack aircraft to provide cover, was even more powerless. With the sound of rumbling artillery, the sea surface illuminated by flares and searchlights was shrouded in a rain of bullets from time to time, and the nine British high-speed torpedo boats that attacked from the north side were quickly destroyed, and the 14 British warships that made a detour on the south side were also defeated, and the number of British torpedo boats damaged and destroyed by the "Thunder" and large torpedo boat groups also increased to 29, and most of the more than 70 British torpedo boats that gathered from the Thames River had been lost, but on the German side, most of the "Thunder" had run out of ammunition, and the ammunition consumption of the rearguard ships gradually could not keep up. However, at this point in the battle, most of the surviving British high-speed torpedo boat pilots had no intention of fighting, and they rushed to the maximum range and hurriedly threw torpedoes, and some even gave up the battle, and their attitude of hasty retreat did not see the arrogance and conviction of the past.

(End of chapter)