In the Battle of Flanders in mid-August, the British light fleet based in Harwich Harwich took the initiative to attack in order to prevent the main German fleet from approaching the mouth of the Thames, but suffered a catastrophic defeat, and the participating ships were sunk or damaged, and the Harwich fleet basically lost the ability to continue fighting. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 infoAfter that, the British Navy resolutely rebuilt this strategically important homegrown light fleet. As a distinction, the light fleet reconstituted after the Battle of Flanders was called the "New Harwich Fleet", and the commander was still the experienced and courageous Commodore Tyrit.

The new Harwich fleet inherited only five destroyers from the old fleet, and the new ships were not old second-tier ships, some of them were drawn from other fleets, and some of them had just been commissioned, including two lead ships, the "Lin Xian" and the "Daring" light cruisers, all of which were new ships built and put into service after 1912. In order to counter the increasingly powerful German fleet, the cruisers and destroyers built by the British Navy in the later period were greatly enhanced in terms of firepower, and with the rapid development of power technology and the use of new engines, these new ships also made breakthrough progress in terms of speed. The 800-ton Class I destroyer can reach a maximum speed of 35 knots, which is 1 knot faster than the German 1911 class large torpedo boats of the same class; The top speed of the 1,000-ton K-class and L-class destroyers has been reduced due to the enhanced armament and protection, but the seaworthiness performance has been significantly improved compared with the earlier "30-knot destroyers".

Once again, facing the German fleet with the Black Hawk Cross flag flying on the mast, Commodore Tirlett bravely chose to attack, but he and his officers showed themselves much smarter than in the battle more than half a month ago. The "Lin Xian" led nine destroyers to form irregular columns at unequal intervals and staggered horizontally, and the two destroyers in the pilot position, the "Arabian Antelope" and the "Fire Dragon", used smoke canisters to continuously release artificial smoke, thus forming a covering smoke screen and interfering with the aiming and firing of the German fleet; The "Daring" took eight destroyers to the far end, and before entering the range of the German fleet, they changed from a single column to a horizontal fish-shaped formation, and the four destroyers in front of it cast a smoke screen, and the following ships were hidden in the smoke. In this way, it was difficult for the accurate salvo of German battleships to exert the terrible power of the past, and although the British fleet's own naval gun aiming was also affected, the accuracy of artillery fire at high speed was not high, and the loss of offensive firepower in exchange for a higher chance of survival was like a sheep and a cow, which was a fairly good deal.

In the enemy formation, the two capital ships that stood out were the "De Fllinger" with 8 12-inch guns and the "Blucher" with 8 11-inch guns, the light cruiser was the Magdeburg-class "Stralsund", and the six large torpedo boats were all of the 1911 class, numbered G-9, G-10, G-12, V-2, V-5, V-6.

Brigadier Tirritt's 19 ships together were less than one "De Fllinger", but they had a weapon powerful enough to destroy a large battleship - a 533 mm MK-II torpedo. This torpedo was the latest model to be put into production at the Weymouth Arsenal in 1914 and weighed 1. 25 tons, warhead charge 101 kg, speed can be adjusted between 29 and 45 knots, the ultimate firing range at the slowest speed is 9200 meters, and at the maximum speed is 3600 meters.

During the same period, most German ships still used torpedoes of 450 and 500 mm caliber.

The first half of the battle was still a shooting show for the German fleet. In the face of the British light ship group that adopted smoke screen tactics, the two German battle cruisers unceremoniously put in the main gun and large-caliber secondary gun, and after the experience of two large-scale naval battles, the German gunners' combat skills and psychological quality were tempered, and their long-range shooting was still extremely accurate.

The artillery fire of the German fleet was first concentrated on the enemy on the right flank, that is, on the side on which the "Linsen" was thrown into the attack. Powerful shells flew over the heads of the British with a piercing whistling sound, and the deafening explosions drowned out the wind on the sea, the roar of the machines, and the guns of the British ships. The "Arabian Antelope" and "Fire Dragon", which were piloted, were soon caught in a storm of German artillery fire, surrounded by columns of water that rose higher than the chimneys and poured down from the heights, and the British sailors on the deck gun positions had to hold on tightly to the fixations to avoid being swept into the sea. Occasionally, there was a flash of light in front of me, and it was shrapnel scattered in all directions.

In just a few minutes, the "Arabian Antelope" was attacked by two large-caliber near-misses, and the walls of the ship were pierced in many places.

Unlucky, a 150-mm shell hit the rear of his hull, penetrating the bulkheads and burrowing into the engine room, the explosion ripped off all the steam pipes, the main and auxiliary engines came to a standstill, and it quickly withdrew from the battle and floated silently on the rough sea. The German artillery fire did not let it go, and in the blink of an eye, another 150-mm shell pierced the armor plate on the outside of the bridge, and the entire bridge exploded inside, half of the bridge was overturned, and then smashed heavily on the foredeck, and the whole battleship suddenly fell silent, and there was neither a running of personnel nor a roar of machinery. After about 30 seconds, a bright red flame rose from the bow, and a low explosion was heard in the middle of the hull, and deep black fragments flew in the air, and then the whole ship exploded violently, and the mast twisted inward and fell, and the thick black oil smoke enveloped her, rising higher and higher for a long time.

When this catastrophic tragedy occurred on the "Fire Dragon", the "Lin Xian" was sailing by the sea not far from its port side. Brigadier General Tyrit closed his eyes in agony at this familiar scene, but he did not give any orders, which meant that the remaining ships would continue to advance under enemy fire, and no one would stop to check if there were any survivors of the Fire Dragon.

Despite the loss of a destroyer at the beginning of the battle, the smoke screen tactics of the British light fleet worked in a clear way. Except for the "Arabian Antelope", which was frequently attacked by enemy artillery fire, the rest of the warships passed through the passive area of 20,000 to 8,000 meters where there was almost no defense. The 4-inch rapid-fire guns on the British destroyers opened fire, and the number of water columns around the German fleet increased dramatically, and ships began to be shot—although these small-caliber shells did little damage to the German battleships above the cruiser, they were enough to make the German crews who were so devoted to the battle feel the immediate threat of death, and were swayed by their fears, and dissipated by their swaying.

At this time, there was a brief pause in the firing of the main guns of the two German battle cruisers, and when they restarted firing, a scene different from that of ordinary high-explosive shells appeared: the shells exploded in the middle of the flight, and the large warheads instantly turned into countless small round bullets, which scattered and flew in all directions, falling on the sea like raindrops, and there were few ships in the coverage area that were not hit, and these fist-sized small round shells were not inferior to small-caliber machine shells, and had terrible lethality to the personnel in the open combat positions.

The two German battle cruisers were shooting shrapnel at Commodore Tierlet's light ship like a large shotgun, but they were met by a pack of very brave rabbits. Although the hull of the "Arabian Antelope" was riddled with holes, and the deck was stained red with the blood of the casualties, several of the ship's guns were still fighting stubbornly; The "Oak Tree", which took over the position of the "Fire Dragon", received a 150-mm and a 105-mm shell, and the ship was ignited with a raging fire, which was later extinguished by the crew. In less time, the third shell that hit the "Oak" destroyed its steering gear, the rear guns were useless, the deck was littered with corpses, and the few remaining combatants gathered around the last 4-inch gun in the center, and the gun commander himself took aim. The two shells fired by this naval gun in quick succession landed near the "De Fllinger", but this was not an effective close miss. Since the ship's engines may shut down at any time, the torpedo tubes on both sides have been adjusted to a ready state and can be launched only after an order.

From 8,000 to 4,000 meters away from the enemy, the light ship squadron to which the "Lin Xian" was located was subjected to increasing resistance. As the distance closed, the thin smoke screen was not enough to completely block the view of the German gunners, and the accuracy of the German fleet's artillery fire continued to improve, and the shrapnel fired by the large-caliber naval guns continued to traumatize the British ships on the sea in a domineering way. If they had been to rush down, Commodore Territ's ship would not have escaped the fate of heavy casualties. Under these circumstances, the "Arabian Oryx" suddenly turned to the left, and the rest of the ships, except for the injured "Oak", which could not turn around, followed the "Arabian Antelope" one after another to turn away from the sprint course, but they did not turn around and flee, but sailed in a direction roughly parallel to the German fleet for some distance, and then turned right at full speed and pointed the bow back towards the German fleet -- simple maneuvering was not enough to avoid the German fleet's artillery fire, the key was that the light ship fleet on the other side had already pounced on the German fleet at a distance of six or seven thousand meters to the port side, Two German battle cruisers and one light cruiser were simply blocked by their port side guns, and the firepower of several large torpedo boats was not enough to form a strong interception against them.

In the telescope's line of sight, the two German battle cruisers, each with two large main gun turrets, slowly turned to the other side, although half of the main guns were still aimed at his side, and Brigadier General Tierrit was glad that he was not attacking the two terrifying Moltke-class. He ordered the battle flag to be hoisted at full speed, and the destroyers accompanying him did not have to take care of the slowest "Lin Xian", and rushed forward with all their strength. For the fastest Tier I destroyer, it only takes 4 minutes to pass through the last 4 kilometers, and another 3 minutes if a torpedo is fired at a distance of 1,000 meters.

In this 3-minute period, the German fleet could send about 50 large-caliber shells to starboard, 270 to 300 medium-caliber shells, and more than 500 small-caliber shells, which was enough to sink or severely damage many British light ships, even with a hit rate of two percent.

(End of chapter)