"The enemy ship is at a distance of eleven thousand two hundred yards, and the bearing is thirty-one degrees and two minutes. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info"

At the ranging post on the top of the bridge of the "Ireland", the azimuth readings measured by the rangefinder's 3-meter baseline rangefinder were transmitted to the firing command post in the lower part, and the officers used the "Dreyer" fire console to calculate the parameters of the next round of main gun firing according to the speed and direction of the target's movement. This kind of fire control system, which uses mechanical components for mathematical calculations, is more accurate and efficient than manual calculations in the past, especially for long-range shelling, but it is not perfect, and it is not as good as radar fire control decades later. At the outbreak of the war, except for the battle cruiser "Queen Margaret", which experimentally installed the Polonian fire control system, the rest of the British capital ships were basically equipped with "Dreyer", but they were defeated in the Battle of Jutland, which is very telling.

"The shooting azimuth is 312 degrees, the elevation angle is 9 degrees and 15 minutes, and the shooting is ready."

After issuing the firing command, when the turrets successively reported the password of "in place", the British ship's gunnery commander pressed the firing electric door, and the main guns of the whole ship opened fire in unison.

At this moment, the British fast fleet was in a favorable position to cross the T-shape, but it was still more than 10,000 meters away from the German fleet, and the 6-inch guns of the British light cruisers and the 4-inch guns of the destroyers were not very threatening, and the firepower output of the fleet mainly relied on the super-dreadnought "Ireland" and the armored cruiser "Black Prince".

The opponent seized the T-shaped position, but the German reconnaissance fleet behaved calmly at this time, and the three battle cruisers were lined up in a neat single column. For a short period of time, because of the obscuration of the "De Fllinger", the "Goeben" and "Blücher" could not aim and fire at the "Ireland" at all, and when the target position was moved, they could only launch shelling from the front main guns, and the effect of sighting and ranging was affected by the smoke emitted by the "Deflinger", and the accuracy of the artillery fire was not up to standard.

At first glance, the German fleet was in a very unfavorable tactical position, but in fact it was an inevitable process of charging into battle. In the time that followed, it would put more pressure and threat on its opponents with each step forward, and no matter how the British fleet adjusted, the chances of turning the tide were getting smaller, the only difference being whether it chose to fight and retreat or break the net.

At the same time, in the waters of the right front of the German fleet and the left rear of the British fleet, a fierce melee was being fought between the lightning ships of the two sides. The German large torpedo boats preemptively fired a round of torpedoes, but the British destroyers were very agile in evasion, and none of the torpedoes hit the target. The British destroyers quickly returned to their colors, using the elaborate battle formations of the main fleet, striking the German large torpedo boats with rapid, accurate, and heavy fire. When the mine-striking ships of both sides rushed to a distance of more than 1,000 meters, the Germans fired a second round of torpedoes, and the British destroyers also fired torpedoes-for-tat, and then the ships of both sides had a lively swing dance to avoid each other's torpedoes.

The sight of 50 or 60 torpedoes flying on the surface of the sea at the same time was surprising enough, and what was even more surprising was that not a single ship on either side was caught in a mine. However, the exchange of fire between the British and German light ship units was by no means a mere formality, and the British destroyers had a small number of torpedo tubes, they mainly used naval gun fire, and they were good at coordination, and the scene of two or three British destroyers staring at a large German torpedo boat soon appeared on the sea. Several classes of large torpedo boats built by the Germans in the later period greatly enhanced the configuration of naval guns, and the combat effectiveness of the single body was not inferior to that of the British destroyers designed and built at the same time, but the tactical thinking and daily training exercises of the officers and men still focused more on torpedo attacks, and their artillery fire was not as fierce as the British ships at a distance close to hand-to-hand combat, but repeatedly tried to use torpedoes to deal with the other side. After a few rounds, three large torpedo boats on the German side had been severely damaged, and only one destroyer of the British Navy was seriously wounded, but from the height of the entire naval battle, the German large torpedo boats managed to entangle the opponent, preventing them from directly attacking the German fleet and disrupting Hipper's tactical deployment.

By the time the German large torpedo boats could not support themselves and took the initiative to retreat, these British destroyers were tired, and then they had to break through the German fleet's medium and short-range fire blockade and withstand the baptism of shrapnel bombardment before they could approach the German fleet and launch torpedoes.

During the fierce exchange of light ships between the two sides, Hipper's battle cruisers advanced at high speed under the heavy artillery fire of the "Ireland", and their front main guns gradually adjusted from the muzzle to the front to the left, the elevation angle of the barrels was slowly reduced, and the impact point of the projectiles was regrouped around the "Ireland".

"Our shells hit...... An explosion occurred in the stern of the enemy ship...... If only it could be crippled! ”

It was Hipper's chief of staff, the young Major Erich Raeder, who said this, and the shell that hit the "Ireland" came from the "Goeben". Krupp's cannons are known for their high quality, stability and reliability, and the SKC/09 50x diameter 11-inch naval gun used in Moltke-class battle cruisers and Helgoland-class dreadnoughts is also a classic, which was deeply loved by Kaiser Wilhelm II, who once approved it as the standard weapon of German capital ships, because the British Navy began to equip 13.5-inch naval guns and developed 15-inch naval guns, and had to withdraw this highly subjective directive.

In the dreadnought era, the bridge conning tower, turret, and waterline were the key protective parts of the capital ships, and the stern was not within this range, and it was indeed possible on the battlefield that Raeder said that the "Goeben" would cripple the mighty "Ireland" with one shot, make it lose its normal maneuverability, and then let the German fleet slaughter. However, the probability of an 11-inch armor-piercing projectile falling into the power compartment through the layers of decks is only theoretical, in addition to the top deck armor, the boiler room, engine room and even the exhaust flue are all under the protection of heavy armor, and the more countries that pay attention to the survivability of ships, the more energy they invest in the internal protection of the main warship, Britain and Germany are obviously at the forefront of the world in this regard.

Not long after Raeder's words were spoken, a strong tremor was felt in the hull of the "De Fllinger", but the battlecruiser was not directly hit by enemy fire, but suffered a near-miss bullet that landed near the port side. At this point in the battle, the "De Fllinger" was covered in flames and scars, only four main guns were available, the number of casualties among the crew had already exceeded 100, and the hull was leaking in many places. All the damage management personnel were dispatched, and they were trying to race against time, and the outcome of this race was directly related to the fate of the officers and men of the ship and even this naval battle.

Due to the constant change of positions on both sides, the German fleet gradually gained an angle of salvo fire, and the aft main guns of the three battle cruisers were turned from starboard to port. After some adjustments, all the main guns of each ship seemed to be linked with the same axis, and the firing attitude remained highly consistent. Although only half of the De Vellinger's guns were available, the accurate fire of the Goeben and Blücher gave the German fleet an advantage in attack efficiency - as the combat distance continued to shrink, the "Ireland", a large battleship that had had the opportunity to fight alongside the German Navy, began to suffer unprecedented heavy blows.

At the request of the Ottoman Turks, the "Ireland" retained the design style of the British capital battleship with a unified secondary gun, but the caliber of the secondary gun was increased from 4 inches to 6 inches, and the performance of the 50 times diameter 6-inch naval gun manufactured by Vickers Company was not inferior to the same type of Krupp naval gun. In the course of the battle, the port side of the "Ireland" repeatedly hit the "De Fllinger", but under the heavy blows of the other two German battle cruisers, only one of the eight secondary guns on the port side gradually opened fire.

Under the desperate attack of the "Ireland", the situation of the "De Fllinger" also got worse and worse. It was soon hit by another large-caliber armor-piercing shell, and the No. 2 main turret was damaged without any suspense, and although there was no ammunition detonation, the German battlecruiser, which was second to none, had only the No. 4 main turret in the stern of the ship, and the twin secondary turrets on the port side were all destroyed, and the combat firepower was even inferior to that of an old battleship.

Seeing that the "De Fllinger" had only two main guns available, and that more shells could not inflict a fatal blow on it for a while, Betty finally ordered the "Ireland" to turn its guns to the next German battle cruiser, and laughed at the "Goeben" with four triple turrets. By this time, another German fleet was still approaching, but it would be at least ten minutes before their main guns really threatened the "Ireland".

Within 10 minutes, if the "Ireland" could have dealt a heavy blow to "Goburn", a reversal would have been possible.

The officers and men, including Betty, also had another expectation, that is, Jellico's main fleet would be able to defeat the German capital ship group - the presence of the Hipper's reconnaissance fleet here meant that Jellicoe only had to deal with those German dreadnoughts.

As soon as the "Ireland" fired a round of artillery fire on the "Goeben", the cannonballs flying from the opposite side hit the stern main turret of the "Ireland", although the German-made armor-piercing shell was shot down by the frontal armor of the turret, but it caused the turret's steering machinery to malfunction, and the huge turret could not rotate, which was equivalent to losing combat effectiveness, and the No. 1 main gun in the bow of the "Ireland" had been damaged in the previous battle, and now only half of the main guns were available.

The more the battle reached a thrilling critical moment, the more unpredictable the play of both sides became. A moment later, the "Ireland", which had only four main guns, actually hit the "Goburn" with one shot, destroying one of its former main turrets. At this point, only the rear main gun of the "Goeben" was available.

The officers and men of the British ships did not have time to cheer, and the "Blucher," the weakest part of the German reconnaissance fleet, fired a round of brilliant fire in a calm and calm manner, and four of the eight shells actually hit the "Ireland." After a violent explosion, the amidships and aft decks of the British super-dreadnought burst into flames, and the entire battleship fell silent.

Half a minute later, the "Blucher" fired another salvo with astonishing accuracy, 3 of the 8 shells hit, and 2 misses at close range, which is comparable to the 100-meter shooting of a first-class rifleman!

"Blucher" suddenly became powerful, and "De Fllinger" did not lose the style of a famous ship. Although it only had a pair of main guns to continue fighting, the observation and aiming calculations of the shooting commanders were not ambiguous at all. Two 12-inch armor-piercing shells hit the "Ireland" in unison, one of which penetrated the 228 mm thick side armor, the fuel tank, and the 76 mm armor on the side roof of the boiler room, and the explosion immediately destroyed four coal-fired boilers in the No. 1 boiler room, and at the same time caused the left engine to stop, causing the "Ireland" to turn left on its own.

"Blücher", the old and sturdy super marksman, did not miss the opportunity, and it unstoppably re-launched its power, one shell hit the bridge of the "Ireland", blasting the rangefinder and firing command post on the upper part of the bridge, and another shell hit the damaged forward main turret of the "Ireland", igniting two spare rounds and some propellant packs that had not been diverted in time. The violent explosion made many British sailors think that the ammunition depot had been killed, and they silently stopped their work and began to pray, but the end of this powerful warship has not yet come, and it is still fighting against fate. The last two guns roared abruptly, but this time, the two shells did not even reach the fur of the Goeben.

(End of chapter)