When he saw the first German dreadnought rush out from behind the smoke, the commander of the British Grand Fleet, Sir Jackson, provoked a sneer on the corner of his mouth, he thought that this was just a reckless move by the Germans to cover the friendly ships, but the German battleships broke out one after another, and Jackson and his staff were stunned one by one. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

On the battlefield, eight German dreadnoughts were like eight knights in light gray heavy armor, and their huge and solid bodies stood tall in the vicious wind and waves. The intact hull, the well-armed, the well-organized queue, and the speed at which the waves broke through, all of this revealed to Jackson the last thing he wanted to see: he had been tricked!

Eight German dreadnoughts were divided into two groups, five to the west and three to the east. With a little observation, it is not difficult to see that the five ships on the west side are the strongest King class and Caesar class, and the three ships on the east side are the Nassau class and Helgoland class that were built in advance. Jackson and his staff were at a loss for a moment as to what the Germans intended to do in this formation, and according to normal thinking, the British fleet should concentrate on breaking one group of German dreadnoughts and then wait for an opportunity to deal with the other. In a brief discussion, Jackson and most of the officers tended to put the easy things before the difficult ones, but at this critical moment, the chief of staff of the fleet, Charles Madden, reminded everyone that the three old German dreadnoughts that seemed to be easy to deal with must be tactical bait laid by their opponents. If the five capital battleships of the British fleet pounced on them, the other five German dreadnoughts would take advantage of their speed advantage and quickly form a tactical encirclement, forcing the British main fleet to fight on two fronts.

Once the British capital ship is attacked from the left and right, the powerful armament that the super-dreadnought is proud of will turn into the most lethal hidden danger, because the main turret armor of all battleships is thick on the front and thin on the sides and back, even 11-inch armor-piercing shells can penetrate the side or back armor of the Iron Duke-class main turret from 10,000 meters away, and the accuracy of the German battleship's shelling is so terrifying......

After listening to Lieutenant General Madden's analysis, Jackson and the other British officers were immediately on pins and needles, and their hearts were burning. At present, the British fleet seems to have only one way to fight to the end, and the leak happened to rain overnight, and the German carrier-based planes that had not appeared for a long time flew from the north, and if they dropped aerial torpedoes on the British capital ships, the battle array of the British fleet would be affected, and this gave the German fleet an opportunity.

Just when Jackson and the others were in despair, on the sea more than 20 nautical miles away, Betty's detachment had already set up an artillery battle formation with the mixed formation of the Germans' battle patrol and mounted patrol. The opponent had three capital ships and two quasi-capital ships, and on Betty's side, only the "Tiger" with reduced strength and the "Royal Princess" with an unsatisfactory hull structure were not ideal, and the remaining four light cruisers were only large battleships with shipborne torpedoes that could threaten the Germans. In such a matchup situation, the Betty detachment seems to be more auspicious, but David Betty, who is standing in front of the porthole, can vaguely see a little long-lost confidence in the calm, and the source of this confidence is obviously the new battle patrol he is sitting on.

The "Tiger" was in service for a short time, but because of the experience of the "Ireland", the British Navy carried out intensive navigation and shooting tests after the completion of the "Tiger", and immediately adjusted and repaired the problems and deficiencies found in the tests, so that this powerful new warship could be put into battle in the best possible condition. In the battle with the main German fleet, the initial performance of the "Tiger" can only be evaluated as "unsatisfactory", its long-range salvo hit 16 rounds, consumed 192 large-caliber shells, not only failed to achieve a direct hit, but even missed a few bullets, but after Betty made a bold surprise decision, the "Tiger" combat effectiveness exploded, it inflicted heavy damage on two German dreadnoughts in a row, and almost single-handedly kept the hope of victory for the British fleet.

At the outbreak of the war, the 43-year-old Betty served as the commander of the British First Battle Cruiser Squadron, commanding the main battle patrol that was highly expected by the navy's top brass. He lacked prudence and poise, and the British fleet's crushing defeat at Jutland was largely due to his recklessness, but with the help of high-ranking officials such as Admiral Winston Churchill and Honourable Senator Fisher, Betty continued to gain trust and salvage his reputation at the Second Battle of Flanders. The forged warfire allowed Betty to quickly fade away from his original impetuosity and recklessness, and he became mature and sophisticated, but without losing the qualities that set him apart. Now that the "Tiger's" fire control and command system was damaged, Betty was not discouraged, and after facing the German 2nd Reconnaissance Formation, he decisively led two battle cruisers to charge head-on, which meant that his battleship would be attacked by enemy precision fire at medium and close ranges - it also meant that the "Tiger's" separate triple main gun could have a high hit rate.

It was a risky move that would have turned out to be unpredictable, but Betty's decision was at least not a waste of time.

Seeing that the Betty detachment put on a desperate posture as soon as it came up, the five German battleships calmly adjusted their positions under the command of Rear Admiral Lebret Maas, and when the "Tiger" led by the Betty detachment reached a distance of 16,000 kilometers, the German 2nd reconnaissance formation occupied the T-shaped horizontal position, that is, the three battle cruisers and the two mounted cruisers were all facing the enemy fleet on the starboard side, and the naval gun fire would be maximized.

For the next five to six minutes, Betty's detachment faced the most dire situation, and if his ship was severely damaged or the power system was damaged in the process, he could lose the game.

The German fleet in front of us has not only the Moltke-class battle cruiser with the highest firepower output speed, but also the "Blucher", which has repeatedly performed miraculously in battle, and the two Scharnhorst-class armored cruisers designed by Prince Joachim are also recognized as "quasi-battle cruisers", their 8-inch main guns have an extremely fast rate of fire, and their power can cause fatal injuries to British battle cruisers at close range, or damage the equipment and facilities of British battle cruisers that are not key protective parts at medium and long distances. Not to mention the ordinary light cruisers against the British Navy.

Next, "Moltke", "Goeben", and "Blucher" began to bombard Betty's detachment at a salvo rate of one round per minute, and their first three rounds of firing did not hit, but the impact point was clearly close to the target, and from the fourth round of firing, the German battle cruisers suddenly accelerated the pace of attack, and the "Tiger" and "Royal Princess" were suddenly caught in the trap of the water column, and the impact of the explosion and the attack of shrapnel constantly alerted the British crew that their situation was very dangerous. However, the aim of the British officers and men was clearly affected by the massive waves of enemy shells, and their artillery fire still posed little threat to the three German battle cruisers.

"Sir, I received a call from the flagship, and they ......"

The communications officer's expression made Betty feel that the situation was not good before reading the telegram, and after reading the telegram, his whole body was stunned, and his determined eyes froze for a moment.

"We ......" Betty hesitated, but finally swallowed the second half of the sentence back, with his understanding of the situation of the naval battle, the flagship's telegram undoubtedly declared the defeat of the British fleet a foregone conclusion, and the task of the fleet commanders then changed from winning to retreating as much as possible.

He folded the telegram in two and put it in his pocket, then waved for the communications officer to leave. Under the curious gaze of the officers around him, he stood indifferently in place, and the Betty detachment, with the "Tiger" and "Royal Princess" as the absolute main force, was still advancing towards the enemy at an overall speed of 25 knots.

After more than ten seconds, the hull of the "Tiger" trembled obviously, and a loud explosion followed, and a large cloud of smoke rose from the front deck of the battleship, obscuring the sight of the two forward main gun turrets in a blink of an eye, and the "Tiger" briefly fell silent, and this further boosted the arrogance of the other side, and the two Moltke-class battle cruisers aimed at the "Tiger" fired, and the rate of fire of the main guns reached almost two times per minute, which was beyond the reach of all British capital ships. In the following time, 11-inch armor-piercing shells hit the "Tiger" one after another, and the bow deck, the main turret, the mast watchtower, the upper bridge and the chimney were shot one after another, only the frontal armor of the main turret bounced off the enemy's shells, and although the damage to the rest of the parts did not endanger the vital point of the battleship, with the accumulation of damage everywhere, the condition of the entire battleship and even the morale of the officers and men continued to deteriorate.

The "Royal Princess" behind the "Tiger" is one of the lucky ones who followed Betty through the Battle of Jutland and escaped death, it belongs to the Lion-class battle cruiser, the hull structure is basically the same as the "Tiger", but it is equipped with twin 13.5-inch naval guns, and the attack power on paper is only two-thirds of that of the "Tiger". During the overhaul of the "Royal Princess", the British Navy, which felt that its own battle cruisers were vulnerable, tried every means to enhance its protection capabilities, including improving the design of the ammunition depot, increasing the armor thickness of the internal compartments, draping the main turret and turret mount with additional armor belts, and adding additional armor belts to the underwater parts of the main armor belt, these modifications increased the full load displacement of the "Royal Princess" from nearly 30,000 tons to 32,000 tons, directly catching up with the D-Fllinger-class battle cruisers, but its overall protection capability was still better than that of the Germans. The "super battleship" was a cut off, and it was greatly modified in the case of damage to the main structure of the battleship, which was opposed by the ship's engineers from the beginning, which also reflected the unbalanced mentality of the British Navy as a dead horse and a live horse doctor.

(End of chapter)