After lunch, Vice Admiral Reinhardt-Scher, who sat on the flagship "King", finally ushered in his "debut" as the commander of the German mixed fleet: a large group of British ships appeared in the western sea, and its strength showed the strong foundation of the old maritime empire, and the combat ships under the command of Scheer were relatively inferior in numbers, but the total tonnage was not inferior to that of the opponent, and they were prepared early with the help of carrier-based aircraft reconnaissance. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 infoIn this sunny and mirror-like sea, the British ship group is like an arrow from the string, the German fleet is in full swing, the two sides are murderous, and a fierce collision is about to be staged.

On the towering bridge of the "King", Natsuki calmly stared at the sea ahead. 4 armored cruisers, 17-19 protective cruisers, 65-70 destroyers and small and medium-sized torpedo boats, and 8-12 submarines, this was the first wave of attack lineup of the British Navy, and the size and composition were exactly what he expected. If the engagement position were to advance another 50 nautical miles to the coast of Britain, and the British Navy's high-speed torpedo boat group could enter the battle without needing to be resupplied halfway, then the German fleet would have to deal with many more opponents at a time than it is now, and if the engagement position was 50 nautical miles away from the British coast, the British Navy would need longer to reconnoiter the target and assemble the fleet, and the attack method and pace could be very different. Holding the initiative in battle is like the first move in a chess game, as long as you can make a clever layout, you have every chance to lead the opponent by the nose.

With a crisp roar, the seaplane painted with the R-030 number quickly slid away from the starboard side of the "King". For operational purposes, none of the German Navy's battleships were equipped with carrier-based aircraft, and the reason why this reconnaissance plane, which was part of the battlecruiser "De Fllinger", was close to the flagship was only to allow the observers on board the aircraft to board the ship via a sling, and verbally report to the commanders the details of aerial reconnaissance -- such a direct transmission of information was only possible when the sea conditions were good and time was sufficient.

In order to allow the aircraft observers to board the ship, the speed of the "King" was reduced to 4 knots, and after the departure of the seaplane, it calmly increased the speed to 12 knots and returned to the battleship formation of "Caesar", "Regent of Louispol", "Braunschweig", "Pomerania". In the face of the surging British ship group, 5 German battleships sat in the center, 4 armored cruisers and 8 large torpedo boats arrived in the front, 4 light cruisers and 16 large torpedo boats escorted the aircraft carrier "Bismarck" and 6 high-speed torpedo boat carriers, and the battle cruisers "De Fllinger" and "Goeben" led 3 light cruisers cruising in the rear waters.

The British ship group had not yet reached the range of the German fleet's heavy artillery, and the carrier-based aircraft that took off from the "Bismarck" were like a flock of vultures smelling blood, hovering over the battlefield early, and among them were two seaplanes using pontoons, and the red signal lights on the tail were flashing to send tactical messages to the liaison ships.

The tension of the battle was in full swing, and the German crews skillfully hoisted various types of high-speed torpedo boats to the surface on six high-speed torpedo boat carriers converted from old protective cruisers. In the Battle of Jutland, this high-profile sea dagger successfully slowed the retreat of the British mobile fleet, and damaged two British battle cruisers, sinking and damaging many light cruisers and destroyers. If it weren't for the sudden rain storm, they would have scattered under the cover of night, taking advantage of their small and agile characteristics to sneak up on British battleships, and might even steal the limelight from their own main fleet and become the number one contributor to defeating the British fleet.

The rumbling cannon finally sounded, and the horn of the battle was heard, and the 22 Thunder-class heavy battleships sailed slowly and steadily to the open sea between the rear and the front. Among the high-speed torpedo boats built and put into service by various countries, the Thunder is neither the largest in tonnage nor the most equipped with weapons, but it has a compact structure, outstanding performance, and adopts a standardized assembly line for production, and its stable quality and low cost make it the hottest ultra-light assault ship in the international arms market. In recent years, in addition to the German Navy ordering a large number of equipment, it has also been exported to Austria-Hungary, Italy, Turkey, Sweden, Bulgaria and other countries.

1。 80,000 meters, 40 times the diameter of the 11-inch Krupp naval guns of the ultimate range, in the face of the British ship group charging in a cavalry formation, the German battlefleet lined up calmly opened fire with a calm and orderly rhythm. Heavy shells streaked across the center of the battlefield with a terrible whistling sound, and the sound of their falling and exploding greatly exceeded the most commonly used armor-piercing shells in fleet artillery warfare, and were obviously high-explosive grenades used against light ships and ordinary targets - the body charge of the projectile was nearly three times that of armor-piercing shells, and even if they fell close, the astonishing explosive force would cause great damage to the hull of lightly armored or unarmored ships, and the impact of shrapnel and explosion was also a fatal threat to the exposed human body. From a distance, the British Navy's lightning strike ships marched proudly under the air of the towering columns of water, showing a majestic and fearless temperament, but many ships were silently suffering heavy shells, and the number of casualties among their crews was rising without the bewildering of the onlookers.

In order to interfere with the sight and sight of the German battleships, the British destroyers at the front of the group released smoke screens from the beginning, but the long-range artillery bombardment of the German battlefleet did not pursue absolute accuracy, so their main guns fired much faster than the fleet engaged. In almost ten minutes, five German battleships fired more than 600 main shells, and the report of the water reconnaissance aircraft was "sinking 2 ships and seriously damaging 5 ships", considering that the smoke that filled the sea surface affected the pilot's field of vision, the actual number should have been higher.

1。 At 20,000 meters, the main guns of the German battlefleet slowed down the firing rhythm slightly, and the medium-caliber secondary guns and cruiser main guns began to wield power. The "Thunder" group advanced across the battle line, their speed getting faster and faster, and the light gray hull began to jump on the surface of the sea, while the British Thunder Strike group in a state of assault had few ships able to reach their speed, and the overall speed of this large wave of ships was only about 25 knots.

The four British armored cruisers in the rear were put into battle one after another, but the German fleet was at the limit of their range, and there were no reconnaissance planes to provide them with long-range fire, and the accuracy of the artillery fire was not satisfactory, but a few shells that landed in front of the German fleet caused a very violent explosion, for experienced naval commanders, this scene contained important tactical intelligence, and the leading British destroyers did notice these extraordinary explosions, As the smoke prevented more efficient flag and light code communications, they had to send a warning to the command ship by telegram, and the command ship could only adjust its deployment in the same way, and the forward commander's immediate response could only exert influence on a small number of ships, and most British destroyers and torpedo boats still pounced on the German fleet according to the advance deployment.

Looking east from the bridge of the "King", the formation of the British light ship group has been fully dispersed, the frontal width of the attack line is more than 10,000 meters, and there are small formations on both wings, while the defense width of the German mixed fleet is only 5,000 meters.

After waiting patiently for most of the day, the German officers headed by Schell had long been gearing up and eager to try, but as the battle progressed, they suddenly found themselves in a state of having nothing to do, and the enemy's ship group was attacking in a way that was like the blue side in an exercise, and their own formations only had to act according to the plan, and there was no need to adjust their formations on the spot.

At 8,000 meters, in addition to the small-caliber machine guns, the naval guns of the ships on both sides have been put into battle, and the battlefield situation seems to be a hodgepodge at first glance, but in fact it is clear and distinct, the British Navy, which took the initiative to attack, threw about half of its destroyers into the flanks, trying to attack the weaker enemy auxiliary ships in a roundabout way, and the other half of the destroyers attacked the front with the support of armored cruisers and protective cruisers. The German fleet in a defensive position was relatively concentrated in formation and moved slowly as a whole, but the actual speed of each ship was not slow -- the maneuverable large torpedo boats had reached 25 knots, the battleships and armored cruisers had reached 16 knots, and the battlecruisers and light cruisers on standby in the rear also had a speed of more than 20 knots, and only the "Bismarck" and the six high-speed torpedo boat carriers maintained a speed of about 5 knots.

With the guidance of precision optical instruments, the German battleships, especially the "King", "Caesar", and "Louipold Regent", the three dreadnoughts, quickly showed the technical characteristics of "fast, ruthless, and accurate", they all faced the enemy on the side at this time, and their single side was equipped with 4 twin 150 mm guns and 4-6 single 88 mm guns, and in the case of little threat from enemy artillery fire, the German gunners were able to fully demonstrate the results of their daily training exercises, and the British ships pointed to by the guns were shrouded in a terrifying fire net one after another. Flying shrapnel swept over their superstructures, shells that landed on ships easily blasted open decks, tore bulkheads, and ignited fires, and British ships retreated wounded one after another, and the attacking ranks thinned out.

Although the backward armament of the two old battleships, the "Braunschweig" and the "Pomerania", did not have the ability to confront the new dreadnoughts, they were more than enough to cope with such a battle. In addition to the 280 mm guns, they had seven powerful 170 mm secondary guns and up to nine 88 mm guns on each side, and in the hands of experienced sailors, they were highly effective weapons for killing light ships.

Seeing that the British destroyers and torpedo boat groups were approaching the torpedo range, Scheer ordered the main guns of each ship to fire incendiary shrapnel shells. After this round of fire from the German battlefleet, most of the shells exploded in the air before they could fall to the surface, instantly turning into hundreds of balls of fire dragging white smoke, and as soon as these fireballs hit the deck of the ship, they immediately exploded, and the scorching fragments not only killed and injured people, destroyed equipment, but also caused a fire on the ship. In the blink of an eye, the sea was full of fire and smoke, many British ships were damaged, and several of them were in flames, and the scene was shocking!

(End of chapter)