When the German Navy's Junkers 3-C maritime reconnaissance planes carried out leaflet bombing on London, the main combat ships of the German mixed fleet and the British Channel Fleet were engaged in a fierce battle in the waters east of the Thames estuary and northwest of the Netherlands. The four German capital ships www.biquge.info turned into a formation headed by "Caesar" and "King" and pressed by "De Fllinger" and "Goeben", and with their absolute speed advantage, they cut across the tail of the British battleship column and concentrated their firepower on the British battleships at the bottom of the battle line. In just a few minutes, this old old star-rated battleship was beaten into a pile of scrap metal by the fierce artillery fire of the German fleet, and because it lost power, it fell far behind its companions and became the target of wanton ravaging by the secondary guns of the German capital ships.

Under the direct command of Vice Admiral Bennard Kerry, they bombarded the German ships in the line with their stern main guns and turned left in a compact formation as a whole, but the Germans deliberately widened the combat distance -- 14,000 meters, although it did not exceed the limit range of the British 40 times the diameter of the 12-inch guns, due to the long service time, The main gun barrels of these battleships generally suffered from severe rifling wear, which affected the effective range of the guns, which led to a sharp reduction in the hit rate of the British fleet's shelling.

After immobilizing the British battleship, the four German capital ships quickly turned their guns to the next target, which was also an old man from 1900. The standard displacement of battleships of this class was 1. At 2.95 million tons, less than half of the "D-Fllinger", it belongs to the traditional ship type equipped with a twin main gun at the front and rear, and a small and medium-caliber secondary gun in the broadside gun profile. With a broadside armor belt of 152 mm at its thickest point and a turret frontal armor of 203 mm, its level of protection was comparable only to that of the German Scharnhorst-class armored cruisers, and the results of a head-on confrontation with dreadnoughts were conceivable. Under the fierce and precise blows of the German fleet, its hull soon suffered serious leaks, and the rear main guns were also reduced to nothing in a violent explosion. By this time, the 7 old battleships in front had turned 4 compass points to the left, and the front main guns had finally regained their firing range, but even if they were raised to the maximum elevation angle, most of the shells fell in front of the German fleet, and even those that fell close could hardly pose a real threat to the strong armor of the German capital ships.

Seeing that his battleship formation was not only unable to stop the German fleet, but was being eaten and disintegrated by the opponent step by step, Benald Kerry hurriedly made adjustments. Receiving a new order from the flagship "Prince of Wales", the British battleships, which were dragging behind, began to cast smoke screens, and a group of old destroyers also turned back from the front of the fleet. Instead of risking a torpedo attack on the German fleet, they spread out in the rear of the British fleet, creating a large amount of artificial smoke with a fume.

Seeing this scene, both the officers and men of the British fleet and the personnel of the German navy could not help but think that the British fleet had no intention of fighting and was bent on retreating.

Before the smoke completely obscured the line of sight, the four German capital ships under the command of the "King" turned to the right neatly, and the formation was adjusted from the simplest single-line column to the stepped oblique column when the German reconnaissance fleet and the British mobile fleet made initial contact in the Battle of Jutland. "De Fllinger" and "Goeben" continued to attack the damaged old man star battleship, while "Caesar" and "King" aimed their main guns at a British battleship in front, and twin secondary guns of 150 mm caliber also began to fire on the British destroyer acting as the rearguard.

Seeing that the German fleet had changed its previous artillery strategy of "avoiding it" and swooped down, the Bennad-Kerry battleship formation could have used the "two-in-one" tactics to confront it, but seeing the friendly ships being damaged one after another, the morale of the British crew had been shaken, the guns of each ship appeared to be chaotic, and the artificial smoke released by their own warships first affected the firing line of sight on their side, and the shells still did not find the target. In this case, Kerry simply ordered the formation to turn right and go into the smoke zone at full speed.

Looking at the smoke gradually dispersing on the surface of the sea and the group of British battleships that quickly disappeared behind the smoke screen, Natsuki was faced with a new choice of whether to chase or not, and what made him feel less heavy was that Reinhardt-Schell was a man of courage and resourcefulness, resolute and resolute, and when it was time to make a decision, he would never be indecisive, otherwise the historical Battle of Jutland would have either not started or ended in a crushing defeat for the German fleet.

Scheer looked at Natsuki and said with a calm expression: "We don't have to rush to pursue, first send a reconnaissance plane to see what they are thinking." What does Your Highness think? ”

Natsuki nodded, "Yes." ”

The agreement between the two men was quickly implemented, and the ships turned to the left one after another, temporarily abandoning the pursuit of the British fleet. Immediately afterwards, the "De Fllinger" ejected and took off a Junkers 3-C. Prior to this, the German fleet had taken advantage of the opponent's weakness to keep the engagement distance at 1 because of its possession of the engagement initiative. 2-1。 About 40,000 meters. With the technical performance of the existing optical ranging equipment, the cooperation of good weather and ideal sea conditions, such a distance is enough to form a precise attack on the large and slow-moving old British battleships, so there is no need to send reconnaissance planes to carry out calibration, and the seaplanes carried by the light cruisers are either sent to London to drop leaflets, or to conduct reconnaissance and alert in the outer seas, in case of the sudden appearance of other British ships outside the Channel Fleet.

After the reconnaissance planes departed, the German fleet turned around and picked up the two British battleships that had been badly damaged but had not yet floated on the surface. For this almost stationary target, the German crew aimed and fired calmly as usual with live-fire training. The "Caesar" hit two out of four, the "King" hit two shots, the "De Fllinger" hit one out of four, and the front guns of the "Goburn" fired a salvo, and they were simply dealt with neatly.

After a while, the reconnaissance plane passed through the smoke zone and returned to the side of the German fleet, and it emitted two light signals, one indicating that "the enemy fleet is retreating westward" and the other indicating that "enemy ships are hidden in the fog."

Obviously, if the German fleet rushed into the smoke, or bypassed the smoke area and pursued the British fleet directly, the British destroyers lying in ambush behind would use the smoke to launch a torpedo attack, which was much more threatening than the main guns of the old battleships.

In terms of the use of artificial smoke, Natsuki is definitely a master, he sees that the sea breeze is light at this time, and it will take at least an hour to wait for the smoke released by the British fleet to disperse naturally, and if you go around a large circle to completely avoid this smoke screen, it will take about the same time to catch up with the British fleet again. Coming and going, I am afraid that I have to chase my opponent to the mouth of the Thames, which sounds very fast, and is more exciting than throwing bombs at London, but it may have the opposite effect in terms of political strategy. If the Anglo-Saxons are thoroughly provoked, with the current fleet size and ship performance of the German Navy, it will be far from completely subjugating the opponent.

Thinking of this, Natsuki instructed God, "Ask where the 'Regent' is now." ”

Scheer understood Natsuki's intentions, and he turned his head to look at the sea, where the large torpedo boats accompanying him were splitting up to salvage the overboard British crew. This sea area was just over 100 kilometers from the British mainland, but it was more than twice the distance to Germany, where they had reason to be depressed and depressed as prisoners of war in the German Navy.

After about a cigarette, Captain Gord returned to the bridge with a telegram from the "Regent of Louitpold". After a night of emergency repairs, the unlucky German dreadnought was able to move on its own again at a slow pace, but at its current speed, it would take two days to return to Helgoland Bay, and by the time the large barges were in place, the return time would be cut in half—roughly in line with Scheer's initial estimate.

"If we could sink three or four more British battleships, the battle would be perfect." Scheer grinned, implying that he was ready to accept it when he saw it.

Natsuki shrugged: "These old battleships, there is actually no big difference between killing half a dozen and killing a dozen, the important thing is that we have shown overwhelming strength in front of this British fleet - the battle has been fought so far, we have sunk three British battleships, and the losses are minimal, if the battle continues, it is difficult to ensure that our battleships can continue to remain intact." ”

Scheer thought for a moment: "Your Highness is right. After all, with the consumption of ammunition just now, it is impossible for us to shoot from a distance all the time, and once the distance is closed, it is quite normal to be hit by enemy shells. ”

Natsuki added: "If we had used up all the shells on these old British ships, it would have meant that the main barrels of the ships except for the 'King' and 'De Fllinger' had reached the end of their design life and would have to be replaced in order to continue fighting." ”

Scheer nodded: "Then we ......"

"Wander around here for a while, then slowly retreat."

Natsuki's suggestion was obviously what Scheer thought, and the two looked at each other, and their mood suddenly relaxed a lot.

The victory in the Battle of Jutland gave the German navy the initiative in the North Sea and established an unprecedented psychological superiority, so it was able to show a strong temperament in the battle against the British Channel Fleet. At the same time, the German offensive on the Western Front also smoothed with the removal of the fortress of Liège, the Belgian army was losing ground and the French army was overwhelmed, and under the cover of the lancers, the German infantry flooded across the Belgian-German-French border - this was the battlefield on the right flank where the Germans had invested heavily in their forces, and on the left flank, in Alsace, the French went on the offensive with a strong desire to regain lost territory, but after the first few days of advance, they were soon armed with heavy artillery in the German army. Blood flowed in front of the defensive positions of barbed wire and machine guns hidden in bunkers, and the heroic and desperate attack turned into a fierce attack.

In the center of the Western Front, in the Ardennes Mountains, the German 4th and 5th Army Corps, under the command of the Duke of Württemberg and Crown Prince Wilhelm, dug trenches and waited for the French army to take the initiative to attack, but the French attack was delayed. Day after day, these two formidable forces, especially their ambitious and ambitious commanders, could only watch the gains of their friendly forces while their patience was constantly exhausted in the long wait.

(End of chapter)