As the gray smoke rose, there was a thunderous sound of spring dawn on the sea. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

In an instant, several tall water columns burst into the water not far from the British destroyer "Bulldog".

Colonel Short frowned.

In the binoculars, he saw the familiar silhouette of a warship. It's not that he had a lot of dealings with the Germans, but that the appearance of the German ships is too consistent. They are decent, lack of variety, make people think that the engineers of the German Navy are a group of Prussian soldiers who lack artistic cells and passion for life, but the ordinary appearance does not mean the inner mediocrity, and even before the outbreak of the war, Sir Fisher, known as the "father of dreadnoughts", warned his colleagues: German warships are not easy to deal with!

At the Battle of Jutland, Fisher's fears became a reality, and the British Navy's new warships, which had been built at great expense, were defeated in a head-on confrontation with the main German fleet.

At this time, no one dared to despise the German Navy, and the information about German ships became hot overnight.

In this regard, British naval intelligence is far ahead of any other country. In accordance with the requirements of the British Admiralty, the manual of German naval ships issued to officers was upgraded from a short version to a full version, which included not only the specifications, performance, parameters and line drawings of the ships, but also the names, resumes and styles of the captains. Although these intelligence materials could not be guaranteed to be absolutely accurate, and could even be incorrect, these atlases quickly became required reading for all levels of command and staff of the British Navy, as well as on every ship.

As the commander of the outpost fleet, Colonel Short knew that he would inevitably run into German battleships, so the atlas of German naval ships in his hand had been torn through the corners.

Starting with the Dresden class, the German Navy successively built five classes of light cruisers, their tonnage continued to increase, and the main armament was always four 6-inch twin main guns, and the chimney was also a thunderous three, so there was no obvious difference in the silhouette of the front or side. In other words, Colonel Schott could only determine that it was a German light cruiser designed and built after 1904, but not whether it was Dresden, Kohlburg, Magdeburg, Karlsruhe or Gloudenz.

However, the German cruiser in sight was freshly painted and uniformly painted, and the deck construction was exceptionally neat. Colonel Schott had a vague feeling that he might well have come across a newly commissioned German cruiser.

According to the practice of the German Navy, newly commissioned ships usually go deep into the Baltic Sea to carry out all-round exercises until they are fully combat-ready and then integrated into the High Seas Fleet. In the midst of the war, and any negligence could result in the loss of ships, the Germans would never let a new cruiser wander alone with a few large torpedo boats in this area of water, only a hundred nautical miles from Britain and three hundred nautical miles from Germany.

That is, if this is really a new cruiser, then behind it must be the main force of the German High Seas Fleet!

Until conclusive evidence is obtained, all this is only Colonel Short's speculation. In the telegram sent to the Naval Staff, he still used such obviously subjective phrases as "attacked by a cruiser suspected to be an outpost ship of the German High Seas Fleet" and "preliminarily judged to be the latest German 6,000-ton cruiser."

As Colonel Schott intuitively judged, the cruiser that appeared in front of the "Bulldog" was none other than the latest "Gloudenz" in service with the German Navy. It belongs to the Gloudenz class, which is a new type of cruiser built by the German Navy in accordance with the 1911 plan as an improvement of the Karlsruhe type, a total of two are designed and built, and its size, displacement, armament and other main parameters are no different from the Karlsruhe class, and thanks to the development of power technology, in the case of reducing two boilers and part of the rated fuel, the design speed of the Gloudenz class is still 28 knots, the endurance has increased by 10%, and the weight saved is used to strengthen the underwater defense. The design of the hull waterproof compartment has been strengthened, and the range of the double bottom has been expanded accordingly.

At the time of the outbreak of war, the "Glaudenz" had been completed and fully crewed, and was in full swing in various pre-service trainings.

This expedition is the first time it has participated in actual combat. Therefore, in the manual of German naval ships printed by the British Admiralty, there is very little information about the Gloudenz-class cruisers, Hugh said that the commander's situation, even the size, tonnage, and main parameters are estimates, and the wiring diagram is exactly the same as that of the cruiser of the previous class.

Serving as wingmen on the "Glaudenz" were two large torpedo boats of the 1906 class. A total of 59 ships of this class were built and served, and they were the largest torpedo boat group in the German Navy, except for those high-speed torpedo boats with one or two hundred ships at every turn. As the "war horses" of light ship forces, they are widely used in various fields such as vigilance, patrol, and escort, and they can often be seen in the North Sea and the Baltic Sea.

In the face of an unexpected and powerful enemy, Colonel Short tried his best to keep a cool head. As long as there is a glimmer of hope, he will not give up on the British submarine he saved earlier. Because, in his opinion, the combat potential of submarines, which are also combat ships that use torpedoes, is significantly stronger than that of ordinary torpedo boats.

In sight, the seaplane, which had been parked on the aft deck of the German cruiser, suddenly "disappeared". A moment later, Colonel Short saw it fly over the cruiser towards this side. Although the British Navy was also equipped with a number of seaplanes, none of them were motherships of cruisers, nor did they have this seemingly extremely convenient catapult technology. Although the principles of these mechanical technologies are not complicated, and it is possible to go to the Americans and pick up ready-made ones, it is not possible to fully master and develop combat effectiveness in a moment.

Hearing that the German carrier-based aircraft could both drop bombs and strafe with machine guns, Colonel Short was already secretly screaming in his heart at this time, but the seaplane that took off from the German cruiser finally roared over his destroyer, neither dropping bombs nor strafing, and flew straight into the distance, not looking to attack or shoot at the impact point, but to let the cruiser have no worries in the following artillery battle.

The development of the battlefield situation confirmed Colonel Short's suspicion, and the German cruiser rushed straight with two wingmen, and the four main guns in the forward direction opened fire fiercely, and the shells landed closer and closer.

In order to avoid enemy fire, Colonel Short ordered the destroyer to make two maneuverable turns and tried to get out of the terrible situation of being flanked by enemy ships, but it was not long before he suddenly realized that the two large torpedo boats of the class of 1913 that had been following him had stopped pursuing and turned south.

Colonel Short was not at all happy, and he thought to himself that the fate of the C-22 submarine seemed irretrievable.

Surely the speed of the battle could not catch up with the two large German torpedo boats, Colonel Short sent the "Bulldog" to the south, only thinking of meeting up with his own torpedo boat group as soon as possible.

The oncoming German cruiser turned into a chase behind them, but to the surprise of the British crew, the guy actually chased closer and closer!

According to the rough estimates of the lookout, the speed of the German cruiser was close to 30 knots.

You must know that the British Navy's latest Chatham-class and Birmingham-class light cruisers have a maximum speed of only 26 knots when the main engine is forcibly overloaded. The Welsh class under construction is said to have been designed to reach speeds of 29 knots, but their service is at least a year away, and it is unknown how they will actually perform.

Colonel Schott was skeptical when he heard that the German Karlsruhe-class cruiser had reached an astonishing speed of 29 knots during sea trials, but now he saw with his own eyes that he was completely impressed by the German mechanical technology. In the past, naval ships often sacrificed speed for their excellent defense, such as ironclad ships. However, in the First Battle of Jutland, the German naval ships showed excellent protection and maneuverability at the same time, and even the naval gun firepower was not lacking in fierceness.

The laws that must be followed in the design of ships seem to have been circumvented by the Germans in some ingenious way.

In addition to sighing, Colonel Short had to face the cruel fact that a powerful enemy was approaching step by step, and if this continued, his own destroyer would be killed sooner or later.

Instead of waiting for failure, it's better to give it a go.

So, Colonel Short asked the torpedo room to reload the torpedoes as quickly as possible.

Unlike a medium torpedo boat, which had only one torpedo tube on board, the Bulldog carried a total of six spare torpedoes. In fact, with the tonnage and capacity of the destroyer, it is completely possible to carry more torpedoes if it were not for the fear of ammunition detonation in battle.

Torpedo loading is different from shell loading, which needs to go through multiple procedures such as depth fixing, hoisting, inflation (water injection), etc., and it is all manual operation, not to mention time-consuming and laborious, and a slight difference in the pool not only can not guarantee the hit rate, but may even pose a fatal threat to itself.

In addition to the previous time, Colonel Short mentally estimated the time limit of five minutes. As long as the "Bulldog" was not severely damaged by the enemy's gunfire during these five minutes, it could suddenly turn around and take the opponent by surprise with a torpedo.

After sinking a large torpedo boat of the 1913 class, it would be quite a feat to damage another German light cruiser.

At this time, the German cruiser behind it had already pursued to a distance of six or seven thousand meters, and although it only fired with half of its main guns, the density of fire and accuracy made the British officers and men on the destroyer feel terrified. In less than three minutes, with a loud bang, the "Bulldog" shuddered suddenly, and the burning heat and pungent smell came to his face.

Looking back from the bridge, the stern of the ship was filled with flames and black smoke, and those lying on the deck could not tell whether they were killed or stunned, several sailors staggered to the railing, and a blackened officer shouted "fire brigade", but no one responded to him......

Colonel Short's face was so dead that he thought all hope was in vain, but before he knew it, after a minute or two, the destroyer's speed did not slow down, and the sailors came from the lower cabins and pulled up the hoses to join the firefighting procession. The damage to the stern of the "Bulldog" was mainly above deck, and the rear-facing guns were destroyed, but the most powerful weapon, the torpedo tubes, was unharmed because it was placed on the bottom floor.

At this moment, the signal corpsman sent a telegram from the wingman: The enemy ship is approaching, I have sunk the submarine, and we are withdrawing from the battlefield at full speed.

Colonel Short was silent for a few seconds, and then asked the communications corpsman to reply to the telegram: Good job, good luck.

In a moment, the ship's two torpedo tubes were finally reloaded.

Colonel Short did not hesitate to give the order to turn and lead the brave "bulldog" head-on to the German cruiser that was chasing after him.

(End of chapter)