Seeing that the German Navy was led by three large torpedo boats and followed by more than 20 high-speed torpedo boats, the British officers did not have to think that the opponent would definitely use the sea assault tactics covered by smoke screens. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 infoIn the battle that just ended, in addition to the armored cruiser "Roxborough County" and the destroyer "Phoenix", which were the first to be damaged by mines, one more light cruiser and two destroyers were damaged. Of the three damaged destroyers, only the "Phoenix" survived, but the hull was noticeably tilted, the situation was not optimistic, and two cruisers also withdrew from the battle. The first wave of German high-speed torpedo boat groups caused considerable damage to the British fleet, and the only consolation to the British officers and men was that the three precious battle cruisers were finally safe and sound, otherwise, the British Navy would face the embarrassing situation of having no ships to counterbalance the German battle cruisers, and thus fall into both tactical and strategic passivity.

Before the German torpedo boat group approached, the British fast fleet quickly gathered its formation and made adjustments to its subordinates: the only remaining armored cruiser "Roxborough County" was towed behind by two destroyers, and the rest of the ships formed a prismatic battle formation, that is, the battle cruiser and light cruiser were centered in a single column, and the destroyers held the two flanks in groups of three or five, except for the ships that were towed behind, the rest of the battleships were increased to 24 knots, so that they could evade the torpedo attack more quickly.

In the south-western waters of the British Rapid Fleet, the returning Thunder boats staggered past their newly arrived companions. Although I was not able to witness the whole process of the battle, I saw that only nine high-speed warships of the two teams remained, two of them returned with wounds, and all three large torpedo boats hoisted the signal flag "Salute to you" on the signal cable.

After the farewell, the German torpedo boat group that stepped into the battlefield set up an offensive position: the large torpedo boats of the class of 1906 led the front, and twenty-four high-speed torpedo boats, "Lightning 14" and "Thunder", followed by a straggler array, and the whole group of attack boats quickly approached the British fleet at a speed of more than 30 knots.

Unlike the previous battles, this time, the three British battle cruisers did not start firing until the German boat group advanced to a distance of 12,000 kilometers, but as soon as they came up, they went all out, trying to overwhelm their opponents in momentum.

The artillery fire of the British fleet was menacing, and in the distance, thick black smoke came out of the chimneys of the three large German torpedo boats, and the waves of the water in the bow surged, and after a few minutes, large clouds of white smoke began to appear in their sterns, and the smoke from the chimneys also turned gray, and strips of smoke appeared on the sea surface they sailed over, and these four large torpedo boats were not parallel to each other, they kept changing course, and the tracks crossed each other, and the smoke bands formed were also intertwined, The high-speed warships are like bees that smell the scent of pollen, and when they appear in the void where there is no smoke, you can see that they are performing their wave riding skills.

The gunners of the British ships had no difficulty in accurately observing the German high-speed warships hidden in the smoke screen, and their battle strategy was very clear: concentrate their fire on the large German torpedo boats that were piloting.

Based on the conventional layout of surface warships, the broadside firing could put more naval guns, so the British fleet adjusted its course, and in order to reduce the resistance to attack, the German torpedo boat group also continued to maneuver before approaching the British fleet, and the smoke screen on the sea covered a large area, but this artificial smoke is different from the naturally occurring sea fog, which lasts for a short time, and is easy to spread and thin, and eventually loses its covering effect.

Smoking an ordinary cigarette, the German torpedo boat group advanced to the sea surface about 8,000 meters in the direction of the port side of the British fleet, which was already within the range of British 4-inch naval guns, and those British destroyers on the flank of the capital ship were not rigidly stuck to their positions, and in accordance with the instructions issued by the flagship, a small group of destroyers broke away from the formation and took the initiative to meet them. They looked about the same size as the large German torpedo boats, and they were equally armed, but the very different fighting mentality and offensive and defensive angles made these British destroyers extraordinarily brave, they cleaved the waves on the surface at a speed not inferior to that of their opponents, and although the hull was very jolting and swaying, the guns on the ships were frequently firing at the rate of rifle fire.

Boom...... Boom......

The scene of heavy shells exploding in the air meant that the terrible shrapnel began to play a devastating effect, because the relative speed of movement of the two sides was very fast, the impact point of the British ship was often hundreds of meters away from the target, ordinary shells were almost ineffective, and the coverage area of the shrapnel was much greater. The three large German torpedo boats in the lead were wounded by shotguns one after another, and the open combat positions were literally turned into slaughterhouses, and the insignificant offensive firepower tended to disappear. They kept turning, leaving an irregular zigzag trail on the sea, but no matter how maneuvered they were, the British fleet's artillery fire was always able to catch up quickly. As the distance between the two sides gradually closed, the secondary fire of the British ships began to pose a direct threat to the three large German torpedo boats, which had to pass between large and small, high and low water columns, and the hull of the boats swayed as much as a rubber raft in the rapids.

"Lower the angle of fire by another 30" and continue to reload the shrapnel!"

In one of the main turrets of a British battle cruiser, a fierce-looking sergeant loudly conveyed the order of the firing commander, after continuous high-intensity fighting, the gunners were covered in sweat, the exhaust fan was constantly pumping in fresh air, the temperature in the turret was still the same as that of a steamer, and the situation would be slightly improved if the emergency hatch could be opened, but the sergeant refused the proposal on the grounds of enforcing the combat regulations.

For a moment, the turret phone made another monotonous and slight beep that would largely ignore during the battle, so a cabin light was placed next to the phone, which would turn on whenever a phone was connected.

The sergeant pulled the earbud made of cotton from his right ear hole and picked up the phone. The gunners thought it was a command to fire and stopped their movements one by one, but the sergeant did not make the gesture of firing as usual, but responded to the other end of the phone with a surprised face: "What? Say it again! There are only 12 rounds of special bullets? ”

Despite the cotton plugging in the ear holes, the gunners could hear the gunner's loud voice, and his frowning brow and serious expression told his boys that this was bad news.

The sergeant had just put down the one-sided earpiece of the old-fashioned telephone, and the cabin light on the side was on again, and he held the cotton earbuds in one hand and the receiver in the other: "...... Yes, we're already loaded...... Corrected firing elements, azimuth 300°10′25", elevation angle 4°3′12", shrapnel firing ......"

At the end of the proofreading, the sergeant put down the earpiece and stuffed the cotton back into the ear hole, and the movement was coherent and in one go. Immediately afterward, he suddenly waved his left hand and shouted, "Fire!" ”

Seeing this, the gunners hurriedly covered their ears with their hands and waited for their comrades in charge of firing to step on the firing pedal. In a moment, the hull trembled with a thud, and the turret's two 12-inch guns opened fire. After the loud bang, the gunners quickly took their positions, and when the gun commander gave the order, they had to repeat the entire process of reloading the main gun.

The sergeant sat silently in the gun commander's position, observing the landing point of the shells through the optical rangefinder on the turret. After a few seconds, he clenched his fists and muttered, "Come on, crazy Germans, if you come, we'll blow you to pieces!" ”

Soon, the British sergeant's broken words were interrupted by the lit cabin lamp, and he quickly pulled out the tampon in his right ear, patted the ear hole, and brought the earpiece to his ear: "Yes, continue to reload the special bullets, increase the azimuth by 20", and reduce the elevation angle by 30", understand! ”

In front of the port side, gray-white smoke filled the sea, and most of the time, the British gunners could only see the large torpedo boats of the German Navy. Ten years ago, in Kiel Bay, the British were indeed taken aback by this sharp way of fighting, and felt that the German Navy had found the key to "conquering the big with the small", so in the following ten years, the British Navy continued to explore and exercise countermeasure tactics, and after a long time, not only the British main fleet had the experience of dealing with high-speed lightning attack boat groups, but the light ship units of the sparring were also able to skillfully use the German-style smoke screen assault tactics.

Despite the speed and erratic movement of the large German torpedo boats on the surface, the use of shrapnel against them did do what the naval officers described - hunting hares with shotguns. The continuous bombardment caused the three large torpedo boats of the class of 1906 to become bruised, and at this time, the British destroyers who took the initiative to meet them also arrived at the forward position. From a distance of a kilometer, their guns showed a remarkable accuracy, and soon a large German torpedo boat was in flames and black smoke, and seeing its speed plummet, and it was embarrassed to burrow into the smoke screen of its own making, the British destroyer turned its guns to another target, forcing the large German torpedo boat to turn away in a hurry.

The British destroyers' close-range fire was very effective, but at the same time they put themselves in great danger. Due to their proximity to the smoke screen, the British gunners had time left for them to pounce on the German high-speed battleships in seconds. Those light "lightning" and powerful "thunder" are like short arrows that quench poison, and if they are encountered, Hugh will not say that large ships, even light ships with fast speeds such as destroyers will be difficult to retreat and avoid.

In addition to the conventional 4-inch guns and 2-pounder guns, the ships were also equipped with various rapid-fire weapons, even the old rotary tube guns that had been retired from the army units. Without waiting for the German Navy's high-speed warships to approach, the ship's guns and guns fired hard, and the hot shells rolled down to the deck, and the crew responsible for supplying the ammunition frequently went back and forth between the upper deck and the lower cabins, sending boxes of ammunition to the gun battle positions.

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