At 9:59, the flagship of the 2nd battleship detachment of the German High Seas Fleet, the "Deutschland", issued an order to the 14 old battleships following it with a signal light: each ship turned on its searchlight, and the ship's guns fired freely!

In the blink of an eye, searchlights shone brightly in the darkness, and the starboard sea at the rear of the German fleet suddenly lit up. The British destroyer, which tried to quickly slip away after firing the torpedo www.biquge.info was nowhere to be seen, its slender body quickly sank into the column of water, and before it could send more and more detailed reconnaissance reports to the command ship, a series of 170-mm and 88-mm shells hit it one after another, and the flames and smoke from the explosion filled the deck, and the only few naval guns were destroyed. Blowing through the bottom of the ship, this kind of damage is second only to the death of the whole ship. The British destroyer quickly snapped into the middle of it, and the back half of the hull quickly tilted into the water, disappearing from the surface of the sea faster than a submarine dived; The front half of the hull struggled forward for some distance, then quickly leaned back, the bow raised high, and at the last moment it was perpendicular to the sea. The entire sinking of the destroyer lasted only a little more than two minutes, and the crew did not have time to lay down a life raft, and those who hastily abandoned the ship had to fight against the raining shells and the whirlpool of the sinking hull, and few survived.

On the battleship "Deutschland", the construction of which began in 1903, 51-year-old German Vice Admiral Reinhardt-Schell stands proudly on the open-air bridge observation platform. Looking back on his long naval career, he began his career as a torpedo specialist, and after a difficult but rewarding overseas assignment, he grew into a fine commander, first as cruiser captain, then as battleship captain, and then as chief of staff of the High Seas Fleet under von Holdendorff. By 1913, he had been promoted to vice admiral and was appointed commander of the 2nd detachment of the German Battlefleet. At that time, this detachment consisted of five Deutsche class battleships, the last class of pre-dreadnoughts of the German Navy, and was only a minor combat force in the German High Seas Fleet, which was already equipped with more than a dozen dreadnoughts.

In the last year or so before the war, the German Navy unexpectedly invested a lot of manpower and material resources in the old battleships of the Deutschmann, Brunswick and Wiecchersbach classes, so that their combat performance was restored even beyond the state when they were built. Due to the needs of tactical formations, at the suggestion of Prince Joachim, the chief of staff of the fleet, all 15 old battleships were placed under the command of Scheer. Since the 1st and 3rd battleship detachments consisted of only 14 dreadnoughts in total, Reinhardt-Schell was jokingly referred to as "commander of half of the battlefleet" or "commander of the German small fleet".

Many people think that Prince Joachim's proposal to give Sher unified command of the large group of old battleships was mainly due to the close personal relationship between the two men. Since naval warfare has become a competition between dreadnoughts and battlecruisers, the most important thing the old warships are to make their debut and wave their flags in the war, and there is no need to rush to the front line to fight to the death.

In the month leading up to the outbreak of the war, the German Navy held a series of joint fleet exercises in response to tensions, including a voyage to northern Norway and several live-fire exercises. The 14 cutting-edge dreadnoughts showed the strength that people expected, completely overshadowing the 15 old battleships, but in the eyes of insiders, these old battleships are the real surprise. Under the command of Reinhardt-Scher, their formations, tactical maneuvers, and firing standards were up to par with the requirements of actual combat. You must know that the 5 Wiecchersbach class in 1909 has been transferred to the coastal defense fleet service, ship maintenance and staffing are significantly inferior to the first-line fleet, 1905-1906 completed 5 Braunschweig class conditions are slightly better, but by 1914, the latest service dreadnought displacement has been more than twice the Braunschweig class, the caliber and performance of the gun has also increased several levels, the speed gap is also very obvious, These changes put former and quasi-dreadnoughts in an awkward position, including the Braunschweig-class and the Deutschland-class.

With the searchlights turned on and free fire allowed, Scheer's 15 old battleships, together with the escorted light cruisers and large torpedo boats, completed an attack that could almost be called a "second kill". The disparity in strength between the two is so great that of course some people will think that this is a bully without technical content and tactical connotation, but in an instant, the sea in the distance is glittering, the cannon is rumbling, and a huge and powerful long-range artillery bombardment ensues. At this time, many people suddenly realized that this naval battle was not an isolated battle between the German 2nd Battleship Detachment and a British destroyer, and the moment the former turned on the searchlight, the more powerful British battlefleet on the opposite side had already noticed their presence.

When the heavy shells of the British fleet came from a distance with a sharp whistling, Reinhardt-Schell stood still, his piercing eyes narrowed slightly, and there was not a hint of surprise on his resolute face. In an instant, the huge and continuous explosions brought continuous impact, and the British shells with picric acid as the combat charge set off wild waves on the sea, and even if they were four or five hundred meters away from the point of impact, the battleships of the German Navy fell into a stormy situation. The small spray of the explosion formed an artificial rain, and they were still falling long after a round of shelling.

The first shells from the British fleet fell, and Schell gave the order in a hurry, but instead of telling the ships to turn off all searchlights, he demanded that the battleships that had turned to avoid torpedoes return to the battle as soon as possible. As a result, the British fleet on the opposite side took the searchlight of the German ships as the target and fired three waves of artillery fire within four minutes, approaching the German fleet one wave after another, and the nearest shell was only thirty or forty meters away from the German battleship. In the process, Scheer calmly observed the sea where the British fleet was located, while many of his officers and men were extremely nervous, and the staff officers even repeatedly reminded Scheer to turn off the searchlights, but it was not until all 15 old battleships returned to their existing stepped formations that he ordered each ship to turn off the searchlights.

In the absence of natural light at night, as soon as the guidance of the lights was lost, the long-range shelling of the British fleet immediately lost its previous accuracy. Seeing that those powerful guns no longer approached the fleet but fell into the open sea one after another, the German officers and men of the 2nd Battleship Detachment finally breathed a sigh of relief.

At this moment, the signal light of the "Deutschland" flashed again, and a brief tactical command was sent with the light code: the rudder of each ship turned four compass points to the right.

With the relative position of the German fleet to the southwest and the British fleet to the northeast, this order was undoubtedly close to the rhythm of the British fleet. Although the captains of the old battleships could not guess Scheer's intentions, they did not hesitate to carry out this order under the inspiration of duty and honor.

At the same time of modifying the power system, the 15 old German battleships have correspondingly increased the maximum elevation angle of the main guns, equipped with 280 mm 40 times the diameter of the German class and Braunschweig class, the ultimate range of the main gun has increased from 18830 meters to 20700 meters, and the 240 mm 40 times the diameter of the Vicchelsbach class, the ultimate range of the main gun is still only 16000 meters, and the thickness of the armor of the key parts of the British dreadnought is generally more than 280 mm, unless it rushes to the "distance of the bayonet", With the attack power of the Wicchersbach class, it was almost impossible to pose a threat to British dreadnoughts.

At 10:07, the "Frederick the Great", the general flagship of the German High Seas Fleet, received a communication telegram from the "Deutschland". It was only after reading this telegram that Ingnoll and his fleet chief of staff learned what was going on with the previous noisy artillery fire, and what was happening in Scheer and his second battleship detachment at this time.

"It's too risky!" Ingnoll's reaction was strong, "Doesn't he know that his old battleships can't compete with even a squadron of British dreadnoughts?" ”

The British battleship squadron was comparable to the German battleship detachment and usually consisted of 4-6 battleships. According to the general opinion of this period, the combat power of one dreadnought is equivalent to two or even three old battleships, so that Scheer's 15 old warships are equivalent to four or five British dreadnoughts, and this is one of the considerations that Natsuki originally suggested for this arrangement.

Natsuki looked at Ingnoll without being alarmed: "General Scheer is a level-headed, bold and careful person, he will not be reckless in doing things that have no hope of victory. Now, it's time for us to perform. ”

"Performance?" Ingnoll was puzzled.

Xia Shu smiled slightly, turned his head and instructed the staff officers: "Order, each ship of the 1st and 3rd battleship detachments will turn 2 compass points to the right, and increase the speed to 18 knots; The 4th Reconnaissance Sub-Squadron covered the 1st Lightning Strike Group to advance at full speed towards the British fleet, firing flares to 5,000 meters, firing torpedoes at 3,000 meters and turning to withdraw. ”

After the previous order to turn two compass points to the left of each ship, the 14 German dreadnoughts began to fire on the British fleet at a distance of 20,000 meters in a rotational manner, and the British ships fired back with it. Limited by the visual conditions at night, the observation effect of both sides was unsatisfactory, and the long-range artillery battle was false and rarely threatening, but through the identification of the outposts, the shells of the German fleet had crossed the head of the British fleet and fell to the far sea, but the shells of the other side were all on the near sea, and judging from the column of water stirred up by the shells, the British battleships that exchanged fire with the German dreadnought group were equipped with main guns of no more than 12 inches, that is, at least the stronger Iron Duke-class and the latest George V-class battleships were not in the opponent's position.

A quarter of an hour after the departure of the 1st Lightning Strike Group, Natsuki issued an order to "1st and 3rd battleship detachments: turn left and turn 2 compass points with all ships in the rudder."

Since the contact with the enemy, the German dreadnought group, which has taken the lead, has made many turns and increased or decreased its speed, especially in the state of night sailing, and a ship that is a little slow may collide with a friendly ship, so it is difficult to be competent without strict training and a rigorous work style. Thanks to the efforts of all the German crews, these massive steel giants were turned into position at a high speed of 18 knots, and then fine-tuned their course and bearing with the help of friendly ships' navigation lights to maintain their original stepped battle columns. After the turn was completed, the German dreadnought fleet became an integral 71 north-west. Heading in a direction of 25 degrees, it was roughly parallel to the British fleet sailing 75 degrees north-west, and the distance between the two sides was reduced from more than 20,000 meters earlier.1 50,000 meters.

At about the same time, the detachment of the battleships of Scheer, which had turned directly to the right at 4 compass points, had the distance from the British fleet to 1. 60,000 meters. To this end, 15 old German battleships bravely passed through the area covered by the British fleet's gunfire, but fortunately, none of them were hit, and only a few crew members of the entire battleship detachment were injured by shrapnel.

While the capital ships carried out artillery bombardment and tactical maneuvers, each of the belligerents sent light ship formations to carry out reconnaissance-style attacks, and the sound and light of naval guns, shell explosions, flares, and searchlights turned the place into a sea of chaos. The vast majority of officers and men participating in the battle did not know where the enemy was and how the battle would continue, as if everything was shrouded in fog, and success or failure was determined by the destiny of heaven.

(End of chapter)