"Sir, we're 4,500 yards from the enemy ship!"

On the battle bridge of the battlecruiser "Tiger", the lieutenant of the captain, Admiral Ohano, reported this figure in a loud voice, and not only Ohano, but every officer present could clearly hear it. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 At this moment, Betty and his staff officers are holding the railing in one hand and high-magnification binoculars in the other. In the case of the destruction of the firing control command room and the damage of the main and auxiliary rangefinders, only the rangefinders on the main turret can provide accurate distance data, but the officers judge the battlefield situation and adjust the combat deployment accordingly, but they do not have to be such fine figures, they can estimate the approximate distance of the warships on both sides with experience and the naked eye.

4,500 yards, converted into metric units of about 4,100 meters, in the field of view of the 16x telescope, the German battleship on the opposite side is like a car across the street, with clear outlines and clear details, the flames of the main guns, the black smoke gushing out of the chimney and even the waves raised by the bow of the ship are vivid and vivid landscapes.

Two Moltke-class cruisers, one Blucher cruiser, two Scharnhorst-class battle-mounted cruisers, and five German heavy speedboats lined up in battle columns at intervals of about 300 meters, and they were neatly facing Betty's detachment on the starboard side, and all the naval guns were firing wildly, and the momentum was overwhelming.

Betty's six battleships, both in total displacement and the number of guns, are inferior to the five German battleships on the opposite side, but the caliber of the main guns and the ultimate range of the two battle cruisers are superior to the German battle cruisers, if the "Tiger" and the "Royal Princess" are in an ideal state, it is a wise strategy that every commander can think of to always maintain a long artillery battle distance through tactical maneuvering, but the "Tiger" fire control command room has become Betty's Achilles heel that Betty cannot get rid of, in order to block this dangerous German detachment, he has to make a sideways, Desperate with the last hope......

When it came to the moment of PUBG, Betty did not hesitate for a moment, he decisively ordered: "The Tiger and the Royal Princess turn left 4 compass points, bombard the German fleet with a salvo, and the light cruisers all assault and launch a torpedo attack on the enemy!" ”

Although the main radio station of the "Tiger" was destroyed in the battle, and the signal cable at the top of the triangular mast was also scratched by shrapnel, the crew still quickly transmitted the command through the backup radio and communication signal lights, and the six British battleships carried out the order to the letter, the battle column with a distance of 2,000 meters from the end to the end completed the tactical adjustment within three minutes, and all the guns of the "Tiger" and the "Royal Princess" deployed on the central axis and the starboard position were unceremoniously pointed at the German battleship. The four light cruisers did not hesitate to pounce on the enemy with strong firepower.

"May Sir Nelson's Spirit in Heaven help us defend the honour of the Royal Navy!" General Ohano pointed a cross on his forehead and chest, and then shouted in a loud voice: "All salvo!" ”

In the previous battle, the No. 2 main turret of this super battle cruiser was penetrated by the Germans' armor-piercing shells, almost causing a fatal disaster, and the three powerful 13.5-inch heavy guns lost their combat effectiveness, but fortunately, the "Tiger" also has three triple main turrets, and the number of main guns that can be put into battle is only one less than those British super dreadnoughts, so at this short distance, O'Hano does have reason to have high hopes for the next salvo, Some British officers had even imagined in their minds the wonderful scenes of the German battleships being blown up one by one on the other side.

In the blink of an eye, a salvo of cannon fire from the second Moltke-class battle cruiser roared down. Under the stubborn resistance of the "Tiger", the two Moltke class ships that fought two against one did not seem to have been able to take much advantage, they knocked out one of the claws of the "Tiger" and took several heavy punches themselves, and the second Moltke class also had a main turret that was dumb fired, and 7 of the 9 11-inch shells it fired landed on the sea on the starboard side of the "Tiger", and 2 fired at the main armor belt on the starboard side. The "Tiger" battle cruiser, which began construction in 1912, used Vickers' improved hardened armor, which was of higher quality than the original KC armor steel that Krupp provided to British arms dealers through the sale of patents, but as the most protected battlecruiser of the British Navy, the main armor belt of the Tiger waterline was still only 3 to 9 inches thick, that is, even in the amidship protection area, which was regarded as the key part of the battleship, the armor plates above and below the waterline were only 230 mm. Once the main armor belt is penetrated, one can only hope that the thin armor plates of the fuel tanks and internal compartments on the side can absorb the kinetic energy of the shells to the maximum extent possible and protect the important parts of the ship as much as possible.

The shells that pierced through the gunside armor unexpectedly exploded inside the hull of the "Tiger", and the hull trembled twice in succession and the dull explosion made the heart of every officer and soldier on the ship be severely plucked, some prayed for the Creator's protection, and some showed great indifference to this wandering on the edge of life and death. Before anything worse could happen, the three main turrets opened fire one after another, and the loud sound of the triple gun fire gave many British sailors a moment of psychological comfort.

Nine huge columns of water appeared one after the other on the surface of the sea, and no matter how close they were to the target, which meant that the first round of shots after the "Tiger" turned did not work a miracle.

Miracles are called miracles precisely because of their rarity, and victory in a war cannot be hoped for only by miracles. The British have dominated the seas for hundreds of years, and they should be even more aware of this. In fact, the British government's political, diplomatic, and military skills are more mature than any other country, and have formed an institutionalized model, no matter which party is in power, the national level of strategic decision-making can maintain a high standard, and there are very few major mistakes, and Germany's political and diplomatic mess after the loss of Bismarck is a very stark contrast.

In a few moments, the officers who were anxiously waiting for the damage report in the bridge finally breathed a sigh of relief, and the two German armor-piercing shells that pierced the starboard armor did not cause serious damage to the strong "Tiger", they only swept some innocuous compartments in the second and third floor of the ship's cabin, and relieved the pain of dozens of wounded soldiers waiting for treatment in the medical room......

"Look, Blucher has been blown up, and the 'royal princess' has done a great job! Long live Britain! ”

This astonishing exclamation came from one of Ohano's young officers, and in the direction he was paying attention to, the entire aft deck of the German battle cruiser "Blucher" was shrouded in thick smoke and dust, the flames of the explosion continued to flash in the smoke, and the earth-shattering explosion resounded across the sea, and there should have been a continuous explosion of ammunition on the ship, but the phrase "explosion" was still a bit exaggerated at this time, because the explosion only stayed above deck, and the hull of the German battle cruiser showed no signs of bursting.

Betty calmly observed for a moment, and whispered, "This time at least one of its main turrets has been killed, and if you are lucky, its power system has been severely damaged, and hopefully our light cruiser will be able to launch a successful lightning strike operation." ”

The young officer, who had just been standing not far from Betty, was astonished to hear this, and when he looked closely, his white cheeks flushed with shame.

The smoke cleared, the fire subsided, and the legendary German battle cruiser was only destroyed by the main turret in the rear, its hull was largely intact except for a few charred black bullet holes blown by shells, and its speed was decayed, but it did not immediately withdraw from the battle. Just over a minute later, the officers on the bridge of the "Tiger" experienced the meaning of both joy and sorrow: under the continuous attack of a Scharnhorst-class armored cruiser, the light cruiser "Yarmouth" exploded violently when it was about to enter the torpedo attack position. The battleship, which was more than 5,000 tons, instantly broke into two parts, and disappeared into the tumbling and boiling sea before most of the crew could evacuate.

Immediately afterwards, the light cruiser "Sydney", which was commissioned by the Australian government and incorporated into the British Grand Fleet shortly after the outbreak of the war, also hoisted the signal flag that "this ship is seriously damaged and cannot continue fighting." The officers and men of the Australian Navy who served on this battleship are not afraid of cowardice, nor are they cowardly and incompetent, but compared to such a 5400-ton light cruiser, the German armored cruiser on the opposite side is too fierce, four pairs of 8-inch twin main guns can be called lightweight battle cruiser firepower, and has champion-level naval gunnery, the battle has been fought until now, the "Sydney" has suffered an unknown number of near-misses, its scarred hull has already been filled with a large amount of seawater, if you are a little less lucky, I'm afraid it would have been sunk a long time ago.

The two light cruisers sank and retreated, and the number of warships on both sides became 4 to 5 in a blink of an eye, and the remaining two light cruisers of Betty's detachment were also surrounded by enemy artillery fire, and the situation was precarious. If it weren't for her sanity, the annoyed Betty would have been eager to lead the Tiger and the Royal Princess to rush forward and sink the two abominable Moltke-class battle cruisers.

"Hold on, hold on for another 500 meters...... Well, they fired torpedoes, and they were more than two thousand yards away from the German battleships, and we wanted an absolute hit......" Betty's partner, Admiral Goodenough, said with regret in his tone, in fact, the two light cruisers with a top speed of only 256 knots were quite heroic enough to rush to a position two thousand meters away from the German battlecruisers. Since the Battle of Jutland, successful torpedo attacks have basically been carried out by fast destroyers, torpedo boats and submarines with unique concealment, the original intention of cruisers equipped with torpedoes is to use melee to find opportunities to kill the enemy, or to play the role of battlefield executioners in specific situations, and from the construction of the Adventure class in 1904, British light cruisers were equipped with only two torpedo tubes, until the construction of the Caroline class began in 1914 to increase to four, and the same is true of German light cruisers, This makes it difficult for them to become "crossover heroes" in an orderly naval battle.

As soon as Goodenough's words fell, the two British light cruisers that had fired their torpedoes flashed the flames of explosion, and seeing such a scene, the British officers could not help but worry about their thin hulls, but when the five German battleships in their sight turned one after another, and the neat battle queue was out of order for a while, their eyes immediately lit up, and they thought that they had found a glimmer of opportunity to turn defeat into victory.

(End of chapter)