As soon as the real tough battle began, the old German battlefleet lost the "Hesse" and "Pomern" ships, and the battle situation and atmosphere changed drastically. www.biquge.info In this unfavorable situation, Lieutenant General Reinhardt-Scher, who commanded the operation at the flagship of the detachment, was faced with a new choice, either to slow down the first array and wait for the lagging second column to come forward to rendezvous, or to turn off the searchlights to reduce the accuracy of the enemy's artillery fire, but this "aggressive old sailor" did not flinch, and he stared angrily at the sea on starboard. The British fleet sank two old German battleships with heavy artillery fire, and the artillery fire of the German fleet was not much inferior in density and accuracy. At this moment, several British dreadnoughts in the searchlight area were frequently shot, and the scene of the shells exploding on the ships was clearly recognizable, and the fire of two of them was raging, giving people the feeling that they could be forced out of the battle with a little more force.

"Send a telegram to Major Henecker and ask him to send two torpedo boats to rescue the survivors on Hesse and Pomern."

At this command, Scheer remained silent. Moments later, the "Deutschland" and "Schleswig-Holstein" turned off the searchlights in accordance with the previous "searchlight alternate cover tactic", and the order of the queue changed as the "Hesse" and "Pomern" sank. "Silesia", "Hanover", "Alsace" did not hesitate to turn on the searchlights, and "Braunschweig", which had not turned on the lights before, continued to hide in the dark and opened fire this time.

After continuous adjustments, the gunners of the Scheer fleet became more and more accurate, except for the main guns of the "Deutschland" which temporarily stopped firing because of jamming, the main and auxiliary guns of the rest of the battleships maintained a high rate of fire. Despite the change of crew in service, the champion style of the "Schleswig-Holstein" remained undiminished, the Orion-class battleship "Conqueror" on the opposite side was shot one after another, the front main gun turret with 11-inch frontal armor was actually dumbed and fired, the firing command station standing high above the bridge was also damaged by direct artillery fire, the gun profile armor at the base of the bridge was pierced by 283 mm shells, and four 6-inch secondary guns connected to the gun position were lost in an instant. The three main turrets on the amidships and aft decks were also hit by multiple armor-piercing shells, but they survived these attacks with strong armor defenses and a non-negligible element of luck, and for the German crews, they could even distinguish the barrels of British battleships with the naked eye in the light of searchlights, which bobbed up and down like the black tentacles of a large beetle, and despite the repeated hits of their own guns, none of the damned Brits slowed down.

Another outstanding German battleship was the Braunschweig, which was always hidden behind the lights, and because of the priority given to the old officers and non-commissioned officers to the newly commissioned dreadnoughts, at the outbreak of war, only 68 of the 740 officers and men below the captain of the ship, Captain Hossen, were over 35 years old, and 260 recruits between the ages of 18 and 20. The young men lacked experience and insight, but they had commendable fighting spirit and drive, and under the leadership of the young junior officers and cadets, all of them worked tirelessly at their posts. The stokers kept the ship's 12 water-tube boilers at constant pressure, and the gunners fired the guns of a large and small caliber at a level close to the theoretical maximum -- in the same time, the number of shells fired by the "Braunschweig" with only four main guns was comparable to that of the "Emperor of India," which had 10 main guns from an opponent 4,000 meters away, and the hit rate of the former reached 4 percent, while the latter's main and auxiliary guns fired more than 400 shells, but only three of them hit directly, and four of them were close misses.

The tragedy of this fleet artillery battle was not only reflected in the dense and ferocious artillery fire, but also in the casualties of the fleets on both sides beyond imagination. The sinking of two German battleships caused the death of nearly a thousand crew members, and in a short time, a main gun armor-piercing shell from the "George V" hit and penetrated the rear main turret of the "Deutschland", and the terrible explosion instantly claimed 37 lives, although the fire door of the bomb supply channel was closed at the time of the explosion, but the huge impact exploded the fire door like shredding paper, and the blazing flames spread along the bomb supply channel to the bottom ammunition depot, and the German crew had to turn on the emergency water pump to fill the ammunition depot, Only then did he narrowly avoid a martyrdom that would endanger the entire ship. At the same time, the poisonous gas produced by the picric acid explosives spread rapidly in the ship, and the scorching heat was full of deadly toxins, and the people who had not been evacuated began to cough and vomit incessantly, their faces and hands had turned dark yellow, and their ears were bleeding, and the scene was very terrifying.

The situation with the "Silesia" was even worse than with the "Deutschland", and in less than 3 minutes before and after, its front and rear main turrets were 13 in succession. The 5-inch British-made armor-piercing shell hit, and the 11-inch thick Krupp armor failed to protect the personnel and equipment in the turret, all the gunners were killed, and all four main guns were damaged, one of which was more than 40 tons of barrel fell from the collapsed gun mount, and the crew could only watch it roll back and forth along the deck......

Just when many officers around him were desperate about the development of the war situation, "Prussia" and "Lorraine" kept up with the "Alsace" at the bottom of the battle column, and the five Wiecchersbach class also tried their best to run at a speed of nearly 18 knots, which was already their technical limit, but the battlefield situation brooked no delay, and when there were still 3 nautical miles away from the first array, the most old-fashioned of these five participating ships - The German battleships, which had long been regarded as "ironclad ships" by the British Navy, raised their guns and opened fire on the British fleet on the starboard side of the sea.

For the main armor of British dreadnoughts, whose 40x 283 mm naval guns were not enough to effectively penetrate, the 40x 240 mm naval guns of the Wicchersbach class were more like scratching the shoe, but they were superior to their high rate of fire, and they were able to damage the non-critical protective parts of British warships at medium engagement distances, and kill and injure personnel in external positions. Under the guidance of the "Alsace", after several rounds of rapid firing, the five Wiecchersbach-class battleships and the "Prussian" and "Lorraine" two Braunschweig-class battleships gradually found their senses, and several George V-class battleships at the end of the British fleet had to endure the "weakness" harassment of this group of old guys, and the "George V", "Daring", "Ajax", and "Centurion" were shot one after another, and the important parts of the turret, bridge, and waterline armor were intact, and the rangefinder, searchlight, and radio mountAs a result, the four new British capital ships, which cost more than 2 million pounds and had first-class performance, suffered "soft kills", and the number of casualties was small, but the bloody scenes and the groans of the wounded quietly distracted some of the crews.

By the old battlefleet's containment of the enemy's capital ship group, the German large torpedo boats that had previously carried out the surprise attack and survived had put their spare torpedoes into the launch tubes, and they repeated their old tricks to try to approach the enemy's battle line to launch a lightning strike without attracting the attention of the other side, but this time Jericho's fleet had already taken precautions, and before the "Blade Warriors" of the German 4th Lightning Strike Group came forward, several British destroyers on the alert on the left flank of the fleet decisively turned on their searchlights and drove away the German torpedo attackers with fierce artillery fire. Scheer noticed this important opportunity to delay the opponent and ordered the "German" and "Silesia" to provide fire support to their torpedo boats. Although the two old battleships had only two 283 mm primary guns and five 170 mm secondary guns available, the two sides were within the range of the German 88 mm secondary guns, and these small-caliber naval guns, which were used against enemy mine-attacked ships, could fire up to 15 rounds per minute. In a few moments, their intense artillery fire broke up the British destroyers intercepting the German torpedo boat group, and three large torpedo boats of the 1911 and 1913 took the opportunity to slip through the perimeter of the British fleet, and although they were ultimately unable to break through the defensive fire of the enemy's capital ships, the torpedoes fired at a distance of 1,500 to 2,000 meters still forced several dreadnoughts at the front of Jericho's formation to turn to evade.

At this time, Jellicoe, who was in charge of the "Iron Duke", received a telegram from Vice Admiral Bernie, informing him that the eight old dreadnoughts of the 1st Squadron had exchanged fire with the German fleet, and that the sound of artillery from the northern sea was also intense. The German Navy's attack was obviously premeditated, and Jericho had reason to believe that the opponent had mobilized as many ships as possible to participate in the battle, and the number of dreadnoughts should be 13 to 15, but he was only facing a group of old German dreadnoughts here, and if the Bernie detachment was attacked by the entire German dreadnought, then the situation of this naval battle had become extremely unfavorable to the British fleet!

Jericho was anxious to lead the capital ship group to support the Bernie detachment, but the opponent was like a large piece of kraft candy, which could not be chewed or shaken off in a short time. The guns of the old German battleship groups posed no mortal threat to the new-edged British dreadnoughts, but the German lightning ships were able to attack frequently under their support. In this sea area far away from the British mainland, once the capital ships of the Royal Navy are damaged by mines, they are likely to fall under siege by German ships because they cannot keep up with the large fleet, and the loss of each capital ship will threaten the strategic environment and even the security of the British homeland. Now that the "Honbang", "Orion", "Conqueror" and "Thunderbolt" at the front of the battle line were temporarily detached to avoid torpedoes, Jericho weighed the pros and cons and quickly sent a wireless telegram asking the four dreadnoughts to go north at full speed under the command of Rear Admiral Ivan Thomas, deputy commander of the detachment, to make contact with Vice Admiral Bernie and temporarily join his detachment.

After the command was given, Jericho returned his attention to the battle in front of him. In his opinion, even if one Iron Duke and three Orions were missing, the remaining six British dreadnoughts would be enough to deal with a large group of "old antiques" on the port side of the sea.

The course of the battle soon confirmed Jericho's assumption, and the rear deck of the "Deutschland" at the front of the German battle line flashed red, and the fireball formed by the violent explosion soared into the sky. Less than 10 minutes later, the scene of the fatal damage of the "Pomerne" was repeated on the flagship of the detachment, and the gap between the threshold of "fearlessness" could not help but be staggering. After the flames of the explosion subsided, the stern of the "Deutschland" was on fire, a large amount of black smoke rolled up into the clouds, the guns of the large and small calibers on the ship suddenly stopped moving, and many crew members who had withdrawn from the inner compartment could be seen on the broadside deck near the stern......

Since the battleship had lost all its combat power and had only very limited power left, it was not suitable to remain in the battle column at all, Reinhardt-Schell had to evacuate with his staff first. The transport boat had been completely destroyed in the battle, and they had no choice but to summon the V-180, which was not far away, and the large torpedo boat ventured close to the side of the ship, picked up Scheer and his party from the soft rope ladder, and turned to the other ships in the formation. It soon approached the "Silesia", but each of the main turrets of the battleship was broken and basically incapacitated; Then he sailed to the Schleswig-Holstein, and found that its mast and superstructure had just been washed by shrapnel, and that the radio facilities and searchlights had been damaged; The V-180 then rushed to the "Hanover", a battleship whose bow waterline had been cut by enemy shells, and which would be flooded at a slightly faster speed, and was clearly not suitable as a flagship. It was not until they approached the "Braunschweig" that Scheer and his staff breathed a sigh of relief, and when they boarded the relatively intact battleship, they received a report like a basin of cold water poured on their heads: the "Deutschland" had rolled badly, and the captain had given the signal to abandon the ship; The "Alsace" suffered heavy damage, its speed was sharply reduced and it withdrew from the battle; The new entry into the battle "Prussia" was also hit, losing the front main turret. At this point, only half of the 15 old battleships remained, and the situation in front of them was extremely dire.

(End of chapter)