Not long after the "Purple Fox" made a U-turn, the relatively close "Berlin" suddenly turned around and fired a salvo at the British destroyer at a distance of about 13,000 meters. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 infoThe 10 single-mounted naval guns of this old German cruiser are distributed in the bow and stern and on both sides, and the single side can only concentrate up to 5 naval guns, which does not have the conditions for using a unified firing command system of the whole ship, and lacks tactical value, and the German Navy's 40 times diameter 105 mm guns have a maximum range of 12,000 meters, and the shooting of the "Berlin" is obviously only a threat - the "Purple Fox" hurriedly made a turning action, but realized that the other party could not inflict substantial damage on itself, and it followed unrelentingly.

The two German cruisers, which had no absolute speed advantage, did not have the patience to accompany them to the end, and they slowed down slightly, and from time to time fired two shots from their stern guns, so that the British destroyers did not dare to get too close. About a quarter of an hour later, two more Hubert E attack planes carrying bombs took off from the "Bismarck", and they unceremoniously found the "Purple Fox", which had escaped before, and dropped the bombs at an altitude slightly higher than the mast, ignoring the weak fire that the British had put together with two machine guns. This time, the "Purple Fox" suffered two shells in quick succession, and the violent explosion destroyed a 77-mm naval gun and caused a small fire in the rear position of the amidships.

Taking advantage of the damage to the British destroyer, the "Berlin" turned around again, and the "Danzig" also pounced on it from the other side. As flames reached the boiler room, the Purple Fox's power was degraded, and to make matters worse, its rudder was also problematic, and its steering speed was much slower than normal. After a while, two German cruisers came into range one after another, and the column of water stirred up by the shells began to rise around the "Purple Fox".

As the enemy ships were still out of range, the British crews had to endure this passive situation, they tried to extinguish the fire, and did their best to repair the damaged equipment, and the high concentration of their minds made them temporarily throw their hesitant pessimism to Java, and under the command of the experienced Major Lallis, the "Purple Fox" dodged left and right, and it was not hit by enemy fire for a long time while the two German cruisers were constantly approaching. At a distance of about 8,000 meters, the "Purple Fox" began to counterattack, and most of the time, it could only fire with the 77-mm gun in the stern direction, and the rhythm of 3-4 rounds per minute could hardly pose any threat to the two 3,200-ton German cruisers.

Seeing that the situation was under control, the two German cruisers continued to approach the "Purple Fox", and their tireless attack finally caused damage to the lightweight British battleship, several shells fell against the side of the ship, and another hit the stern and exploded, and the "Purple Fox" was silent for two or three minutes. The Germans, believing that the British destroyer had lost its combat effectiveness, demanded that it give up resistance with an international signal, but the British replied very firmly: no!

The proud St. George's cross flag fluttered on the flagpole of the "Purple Fox", and as the soot from the chimney became thicker again, the waves raised by the bow of the ship returned to a cheerful jumping state from weakness and weakness. It is like a drunk person who has woken up, its moving posture is no longer clumsy and staggering, and its flexible steering vaguely shows its agility in its prime.

After quickly completing a 180-degree turn, the "Purple Fox" pointed its bow at the "Berlin" and sailed at full speed under the fire of the enemy ships. In the following short period of time, the "Purple Fox," which was alone and alone, became the active side of the battle, and regardless of the damage to the hull, it clung to the "Berlin" and rushed forward until the two ships were more than 3,000 meters apart -- at this time, the German cruiser had already completed its turn and was fleeing with all its might towards its own fleet, but the "Purple Fox," which had been shot again, could not maintain the momentum of its fierce charge, and helplessly aimed at the target and fired two torpedoes.

Seeing the torpedo track in the sea in front of the British destroyer, the "Danzig" issued a warning warning to the friendly ship and took advantage of the cover position to rain down artillery fire on the "Purple Fox." In just a few minutes, the front and rear decks of the "Purple Fox" were full of flames, not only did its speed drop sharply, but the hull of the ship also began to tilt, and the ship's guns were all silent, but until this sad moment came, the British crew could not see the situation of their own torpedoes hitting the enemy ship.

Although the British destroyer still had a battle flag flying on its flagpole, and given that it had essentially lost its combat effectiveness and that there were no other British ships around, the "Danzig" stopped shelling, slowed down, cautiously leaned over, and lowered four lifeboats from the ship.

By the time the German crew began to rescue those who had fallen overboard, the "Purple Fox" had already taken a bottom-up stance. After a few minutes of struggle, it completely disappeared from the sea.

At the same time, on board the King, the flagship of the German mixed fleet, the communications officer delivered a freshly baked radio monitoring report to the officers' lounge, a salon-like retreat for the ship's mid- and senior officers to chat, smoke, and drink.

Although the siege of the British destroyers by "Danzig" and "Berlin" did not go well, the fleet commander Reinhardt-Schell and his partner, Prince Joachim, did not bother much, and they passed the time leisurely, and the staff officers of the fleet and the main command staff of the flagship were also rotated in batches, and the off-duty officers were able to choose their preferred mode of rest, including sleeping in the cabin and recuperating in the battle room.

"I can't believe that after losing many ships, the British Navy is not worried that its communication codebook will be captured by us!"

The reason why Scheer was so emotional was that he had obtained a completely deciphered British telegram from the British destroyer that had just been sunk, and the tenacious British crew fought until the last moment, but unfortunately their knowledge of the German mixed fleet was limited to "aircraft carriers and several cruisers".

Natsuki, who was lying on the sofa, had already flipped through the contents of the telegram first, and he looked a little proud: "It's not necessarily that I'm not worried, but it takes time for the whole army to change the communication code, and how can the British, who had greater confidence in victory at the beginning of the war, be as fully prepared for the predicament as we are?" ”

Scheer motioned to the officers present to circulate the telegram, and then continued Natsuki's words: "After this battle, their mentality will be very different. ”

Natsuki looked up at the unpretentious cabin roof: "That depends on what the final outcome of the battle is...... and the degree of rationality of the British ruling class. ”

Scheer then asked: "If we fully realize the intent of this battle plan, in the opinion of His Highness, will the British withdraw from the war?" ”

Natsuki shook his head slowly, "I don't think so. ”

"I don't think so." Scheer said.

Hearing this, most of the officers present showed puzzled expressions.

Natsuki and Sher did not explain their judgment.

The crowd chatted lukewarmly, without pain, until lunchtime, when a report suddenly came from the bridge that their reconnaissance planes had seen a British fleet of 50 or 60 ships in the northwest waters, with about 5 or 6 large warships, and the rest were light ships.

"5-6 battleships?" With such speculation, several staff officers looked gloomy.

Natsuki walked nonchalantly towards the officer's cafeteria, divided by the tonnage and size of the ships, the armored cruisers built in the later period also belonged to large warships. Limited by the amount of information that can be transmitted by light signals, it is difficult for reconnaissance planes to clearly describe these extremely detailed situations.

Scheer, who was at the forefront, also did not show anything unusual, and the few worried officers just now looked at each other, although they did not know why, but since the officers were calm, they had to swallow their worries into their stomachs.

While the adversary was enjoying lunch, some 400 nautical miles off the Orkney Islands, the British battle fleet commanded by Sir Bailey was still trying to get out of the situation with the help of a group of minesweepers. In this era, there are two main ways for minesweepers to deal with anchor mines: one is to use mine-sweeping equipment to cut off the anchor chain of fixed mines, so that the mines can float up and then deal with them, and the other is to use mine-sweeping tools to find and directly detonate mines, and no matter which method is used, it takes a long time and is dangerous, and the slightest carelessness may cause the martyrdom of all members of the minesweeper, and the removal of mines has thus become the most difficult problem to solve in the naval circles.

In the space of an hour, one of our main battleships, an old battleship, and an armored cruiser were struck one after another, and as a result of this nightmarish experience, every explosion on the surface of the sea would make Sir Bailey and his officers and men shudder, and all this happened under the noses of the German airships, and they were burdened with another heavy worry, that is, the sudden arrival of the German fleet, taking advantage of the British fleet's lack of maneuverability, to kill on a killing spree, and sending the hope of the British navy to the bottom of the sea to defend the homeland.

Since the altitude of his own aircraft was not as high as that of the Zeppelin, Sir Bailey had to order the communications department of the fleet and the naval base to vigorously interfere with the radio frequencies in the vicinity, thereby preventing the German airship from providing real-time reconnaissance information to his fleet, which was usually effective, but seeing that the German airship did not leave, but continued to fly in the direction of Scapa Bay, Sir Bailey could not help but wonder: Could it be that the Germans had found a means to avoid radio interference?

Thanks to the Second Industrial Revolution, Germany's industrial technology is at the forefront of the world. In the First Battle of Jutland, the anti-sinking and attacking power of German dreadnoughts greatly exceeded the expectations of the British, and the use of torpedo machines was associated with the catastrophic losses of the Betty fleet, which was exclaimed by the British Navy as a "terrible secret weapon". Therefore, in Bailey's view, it was pointless to speculate whether the Germans had made some breakthrough in communication technology, and simply prepared for the worst, mobilized all the forces of the Scapaflo naval base, and fought to the death against the German fleet that could arrive at any time.

With this in mind, Sir Bailey quickly drew up a provisional battle plan and ordered the adjutant to return to base by seaplane to report to Churchill and Jericho. Shortly after the adjutant left, Bailey was alerted by a sound different from the detonating of a mine, and he looked from the bridge to port side, where smoke was already billowing from the "Hercules" in the distance. On closer inspection, the old dreadnought had an externality explosion in both the amidships and stern, and the probability of a battleship touching two mines on the same side at the same time was almost non-existent, meaning that it had just been torpedoed by a German submarine.

(End of chapter)