As the three-ship formation led by the "King" broke through the British fleet and a fierce exchange of fire broke out, the Reims formation, which was on the left flank of the German fleet and the right side of the British fleet, also quickly joined the battle group. Pen ~ fun ~ Pavilion www.biquge.info "Helgoland", "Oldenburg", "Westphalia", these three slightly earlier German dreadnoughts were armed with distinctive triple 11-inch naval guns. This kind of naval gun is not only the least powerful main gun in the British and German dreadnought lineup, but also the fastest normal rate of fire, their dense and rapid firepower has left a shocking impression on foreign counterparts and visitors in artillery exchanges and joint exercises, and the trend of triple main guns has prevailed. In addition to the Austro-Hungarian and Italian navies, which originally designed to use triple naval guns, Britain, Russia, France, the United States, and Japan all began to experiment with this novel design, and the caliber of their naval guns exceeded 11 inches, that is, 12 inches for Russia and France, and 13 for Britain. 5 inches, and the powerful United States and ambitious Japan have climbed to a new level of 14-inch naval guns in one go!

In August 1914, in the stormy and bloody waters of Jutland, except for the battlecruiser "von der Tann" who went to the Mediterranean, all the capital ships of the German Royal Navy with triple main guns participated in the battle, and all of them played quite well. In the battle of Hippert and Betty, the two Moltke-class ships not only repeatedly hit the British warcruisers, but also killed the British lightning strike ship group; In the fierce confrontation between Reims and Bernie, 8 German dreadnoughts equipped with 11-inch naval guns beat the 8 British dreadnoughts built at the same time to the ground, which largely contributed to the defeat of the Bernie formation by the German cutting-edge dreadnought group. At present, the three German dreadnoughts "Helgoland", "Oldenburg", and "Westphalia", which were lightly damaged and could not get out of the line of fire, continued to support the main formation under the leadership of General Reims, and from a distance of 1,200 meters to 800 meters from the enemy, they first bombarded the burning "George V" under the guidance of friendly ships, turning this torch into a torch. Immediately afterward, when the "Caesar" was attacked by several dreadnoughts in the rear of the British fleet, they turned their guns to these old rivals, successfully distracting the enemy.

While the Reims formation was firing calmly, the "King Albert" at high speed had already caught up with the isolated British lead ship from the right side, that is, the "Iron Duke" flying the flagship of the fleet flagship and the admiral's flag. Not long ago, the "Iron Duke" rushed into the German fleet array with great force, almost killed the German "Catherine", and was almost hit by the more courageous "Rhineland", and for a time fell into the predicament of having more than one enemy, and was able to get out under the cover of the "centurion". In the process, the shooting command room and sighting equipment on the upper part of the bridge of the "Iron Duke" were damaged, half of the secondary guns on the port side were lost, and the hull was also damaged in many places. With the "Centurion" basically out of combat, it firmly locked on to the "Rhineland" and fired six salvos in five minutes, with four hits and seven to nine close misses from the main guns alone, which was beyond the reach of a Nassau-class battleship. As a result, the "Rhineland" soon burst into flames as the "Centurion", the hull was noticeably tilted to the right, the bow deck was close to the water, and only a few guns of the entire battleship were able to continue firing, and they had to withdraw from the battle under the cover of friendly ships.

Before the "Rhineland" had withdrawn from the battlefield, the overwhelmed "Centurion" exploded violently. After the explosion, the ship's remains continued to float on the water, and Jericho's rescue plan was undoubtedly completely frustrated. Immediately afterwards, the three capital ships with the strongest combat effectiveness in the German naval lineup suddenly appeared on the surface of the sea, forcing the three George V-class battleships to turn around and avoid with unstoppable momentum, damaging the "George V", not to mention the "George V", and thus cutting off the connection between the "Iron Duke" and the follow-up ships, and Jericho's flagship once again faced the siege of enemy ships.

In view of the fact that the battle situation had become extremely unfavorable for his side, Jericho had to abandon his previous intentions and urgently ordered the ships to turn to the northeast at full speed, and the "Iron Duke" turned left with full rudder, but the battleship did not immediately bombard the German battleship "King Albert" that was approaching with its rear main guns, but continued to fire a salvo at the "Rhineland" in the southern sea. Although the "Iron Duke" was already in full throttle turning, this round of salvo actually hit the target, and the amidships of the "Rhineland" that were still burning suddenly rose into a dazzling fireball, and the sound of a violent explosion instantly resounded across the sea......

Such a scene was not enough to infer that the German capital ship was sunk, but Jerichaw and his officers and men preferred to believe it, after all, the British Royal Navy had suffered so much bad news in the past 8 or 9 hours, which was a complete collapse of spiritual support and fighting faith for many people, and they really needed a little good news to boost their morale.

Before the news of the sinking of the enemy's capital ship could spread, a loud "bang" and the violent concussion of the entire battleship made the mood of all the officers and men of the "Iron Duke" extremely heavy. In the process of turning, a large-caliber German-made armor-piercing projectile hit the rear of its bridge, and flying shrapnel swept across the bridge observation platform, killing Rear Admiral Dafu and several other officers on the spot. Blazing flames ravaged the deck, burrowing through the ventilator into the starboard engine room, turning the cooler into a pile of garbage, and until it was repaired, the ship's speed would be greatly limited!

Upon hearing of the death of Rear Admiral Duff from his subordinate officers, Jericho was furious and ordered a counterattack with naval guns and torpedoes.

Larger wind and waves can affect the sea water dozens of meters below the sea surface, and this rain storm not only greatly affected the normal navigation of the ship, but also the torpedoes sneaking a few meters underwater were also very obviously disturbed, and the effect of lightning strikes on both sides was greatly reduced, but this did not mean that the torpedoes were completely ineffective. At the suggestion of a torpedo commander, Jericho agreed to adjust the torpedoes carried by the "Iron Duke" to a depth of 8 meters. Excluding the mechanical errors of the instruments, they were already operating at the maximum draft of the German capital ships.

From the Nassau class onwards, German capital ships were no longer equipped with underwater torpedo tubes, while British dreadnoughts and battlecruisers retained this traditional design. The Iron Duke class has four 21-inch underwater torpedo tubes, located in the front of the No. 1 main turret and the rear of the No. 5 main turret, about 2 meters below the waterline, and two in the bow and stern, firing white-headed torpedoes. With Jericho's order, the crew in the rear torpedo compartment prepared for torpedo firing as quickly as possible, adjusted the angle according to the parameters transmitted from the bridge, and then fired the torpedo.

The report that "the torpedo has been fired" quickly reached the bridge of the "Iron Duke", and several officers invariably bowed their heads to read their watches, and Jericho waited without saying a word. Ten seconds, twenty seconds, half a minute, time kept flowing, and the sound of artillery and explosions outside the bridge was intertwined, and it was impossible to tell whether the torpedo hit the target or not from the sound alone.

The sea was still windy, the rain was pouring down, and the torpedo track was completely hidden in the rolling waves, and no one on the "King Albert" noticed the attack of the torpedo, until a violent explosion came from the bottom of the ship in the front, and many people thought that it had been hit by the main guns of the enemy ship. In fact, the torpedo tore a large hole in the double bottom of the ship in front of the ammunition depot of the No. 1 main turret that could never be plugged, and in an instant, the four bottom watertight compartments were filled with seawater bursting into, and the huge power of the explosion directly blew open the longitudinal partitions of these watertight compartments, and the seawater immediately poured into the compartment above the watertight compartments, the water pressure was so great and the water momentum was so fierce that many German sailors found that the situation was wrong but it was too late to close the waterproof doors everywhere, and more than 60 people drowned. And some of the ship's crew used the ship's telephone and voice transmission channels to send out the alarm when there was no hope of evacuation. In order to stop the spread of seawater, the commander ordered the emergency closure of all lower compartments, and the middle compartments at the front were also under precautionary control. With the loss of a quarter of the watertight compartments and a number of lower compartments, the water ingress at the bottom of the ship was finally initially contained, and by this time the "King Albert" had entered more than 2,700 tons of water, the hull had a serious longitudinal tilt, and the sailing speed was sharply reduced from 20 knots to 8 knots, and then slowed down to 5 knots.

When it was learned that the "King Albert" had been torpedoed, the "King" to which Natsuki was located had already copied behind the port side of the "Iron Duke" and was preparing to flank the British flagship with the "King Albert". Realizing that the wingmen had fallen behind, Natsuki had to make an impromptu tactical adjustment, causing the "King" and "Caesar" to turn right simultaneously, and after the final salvo bombardment of the enemy ships, they turned away from the British fleet and rushed to cover the "King Albert" crawling at a rapid pace.

After a surprise defeat of a German capital ship, Jericho suddenly saw hope of reversing the unfavorable situation, especially after learning that the speed of one enemy ship had been drastically reduced and two enemy ships had voluntarily withdrawn from the battle, he immediately sent a telegram to the rest of the ships, ordering them to reorganize their battle columns with the "Iron Duke" as the lead. The three George V-class battleships that had disengaged from contact with the enemy quickly responded, but the four dreadnoughts dragged at the rear of the fleet - "Conqueror", "Thunderbolt", "Avant-garde", "Neptune", and especially the "Avant-garde" and "Neptune", which had been part of Bernie's formation, were in trouble at this time. Under the fierce bombardment of the three old German dreadnoughts led by General Reims, the extremely unlucky "avant-garde" became a burden with neither command nor combat power, and the "Neptune", which was continuously bombed, also had a tendency to change from torches to torches, and what made the British feel even worse was that there were continuous flashes of cannon flames on the sea behind the Reims formation, and the incoming heavy shells easily found the "Neptune", which made the situation of this old dreadnought built in the early days precarious.

(End of chapter)