This sea battle, which was destined to go down in the annals of war history and occupy many military records, came to an end?

The sound of the cannon on the sea completely subsided, and there was only the endless sound of wind and rain in my ears. Pen ~ fun ~ Pavilion www.biquge.info In the bridge of the "King", the officers looked at each other, and saw first a sense of relief, and then the joy of a heavy defeat to the British fleet. It is no exaggeration to say that such a naval battle is enough to be described in a series of words such as thrilling, dangerous, exciting, shocking, and heart-wrenching, and basically every ship participating in the battle has suffered casualties, and it has occurred from time to time that the whole ship has exploded due to being hit by a shell or a torpedo. From birth to death, it can be a momentary boundary, or it can be an extremely long, frightening, and painful process. Everyone who is involved in this naval battle, no matter what rank he is, what position he is in, whether he is mentally prepared or not, may be able to die at any moment. In the process of going through all this, people witnessed the magnificence and splendor, the tragedy and the tragedy, felt the pride of striking the enemy, and were angry and sad for the bloody sacrifice of their comrades...... At the end of the battle, everyone who is physically intact and safe should be rejoicing.

"We've won!"

The captain of the ship, Commodore Bernke, looked at the fleet commander Ingnoll and the chief of staff of the fleet, Prince Joachim, who were standing side by side with heartfelt feelings. From his point of view, at least in the second half of the battle, the young chief of staff, who came from a distinguished background, displayed the basic qualities that a good commander must possess -- a sense of the situation, the courage to make decisions in the face of battle, and the wisdom to strategize. Although the battlefield is full of unpredictable and accidental factors, judging from the impact of the flagship's directives on the battle situation, most of the decisions he made have played a positive and effective role, and these instructions issued to the executors are clear, and there is no need for too much speculation and second choice, but this is also a kind of constraint, which greatly restricts the judgment and play of the lower-level commanders, and their understanding and grasp of the battle situation is obviously more realistic than the flagship responsible for overseeing the overall situation. In addition, with the flagship "Frederick the Great" as the lead, he took great risks to ram the British ships continuously, whether this was his intention or not, and could not escape the suspicion of hasty and recklessness.

Beginning with Brigadier General Beinke, the officers began to express their joy at victory with words and deeds. Based on what they determined alone, at least 5 British cruisers and 7 dreadnoughts were sunk in this battle, and the British navy lost half of its main force, while the German navy, although many of its capital ships had been heavily damaged, had not sunk a single battle so far, and it was absolutely inappropriate to attribute such a battle to victory.

"We have won! Your Royal Highness Prince Joachim, please accept my heartfelt respect! ”

Under the leadership of Captain Gold, the young staff officers of the High Seas Fleet Command paid a military salute to this young and promising achiever. Even if there was no change of command on the spot, as the initiator, planner, and key promoter of the sortie plan, the German fleet, which was in a weak position, could win, and he bore the first credit, and although he did not say it explicitly, anyone with a little vision could see that in the course of this naval battle, the actual command of the German fleet was in the hands of this chief of staff of the fleet, and he took on huge responsibilities and risks, and he deserved to reap the honor of his exploits.

The officers around him, whether they knew the truth or not, were also in awe.

Natsuki turned around and said with a calm face and a steady attitude: "Gentlemen, we were able to win the victory thanks to everyone's efforts and the tenacious struggle of all the naval personnel, and the whole of Germany will be proud of our performance today." However, it is better to save the feelings of celebration until the time of our return to port, and now that we are not far from the British fleet, and the enemy may turn around at any moment, we must be vigilant. ”

Hearing this, Ingnoll turned his head to look at Natsuki, and a hint of relief flashed in his eyes full of loss.

After the de-battle, the combat alert of the German fleet was not contacted, and the officers and sailors were still in their respective positions, but could sleep in shifts. On ships that don't have heavy damage management tasks, the crews on duty deliver coffee, fruit, and pastry directly to the various combat stations for the fighters to replenish their strength. Many people realized the end of the battle and shook hands with each other to celebrate that they were still alive.

On the sea, where the wind and waves were still blowing, the main ships of the German fleet that still had combat strength were gradually concentrated in one place. The five ships "King", "Caesar", "Helgoland", "Oldenburg" and "Westphalia" are in one column, and the four ships "Rhineland", "Thuringia", "Nassau" and "Regent Louispold" are in one column, and each ship maintains a speed of 12 knots. The heavily damaged capital ships - "King Albert", "Catherine", "Posen", "Osterfriedland" and "Seydlitz" could not form a formation because of their varying speeds, and had to return separately escorted by a number of light ships.

Behind these German capital ships, 3 light cruisers, 10 large torpedo boats formed a wide line of guard, and two moderately damaged but still fast battle cruisers, "De Fllinger" and "Goeben", supported the line of rearguard.

At 3:10 a.m., just over half an hour after the main fleets of the two sides left the engagement, the large torpedo boat S-58, which served as the rearguard, found the shadow of the ship in the northeast sea, and its report immediately made the entire rearguard line nervous, and the "De Fllinger" and "Goeben" formations immediately sounded the battle alarm, and the news reached the main fleet, and the 9 dreadnoughts also began to adjust their arrays and prepare to turn around to meet them, but after a few minutes, the battle alarm was lifted, and it turned out that what appeared in the sight of the S-58 was the light cruiser that had been damaged and separated from the fleet before" Stuttgart". In the course of the battle between the German main fleet and the Bernie formation, the cruiser carrying out the reconnaissance mission was hit by enemy artillery fire, the communication facilities on the ship were completely destroyed, and the power system also suffered serious failures. Thanks to the efforts of the crew, some of the boilers were back in operation, and with the help of one engine, it staggered south at a speed of nine knots, and later the second engine was restored, but the commander and his sailors were ignorant of the battle situation, and feared that they would encounter the British ship again, so they had to carefully turn off the lights and move forward, and were almost attacked by their two battle cruisers.

At 3:25 a.m., another similar German ship, the G42, a large torpedo boat of the 1913 class, caught up with its own fleet after repairing its damage, and brought with it the important news that a British fleet of at least twenty ships had been observed heading northwest.

Ten minutes later, two Lonne-class armored cruisers appeared in front of the "King", which were escort members of the auxiliary fleet, and had encountered British cruisers after dark and engaged in battle. Because carrier-based aircraft and high-speed torpedo boats could not be used in bad sea conditions, the auxiliary fleet with the "Bismarck" modified aircraft carrier and six torpedo boat carriers as the core hovered on the edge of the battlefield all night.

In Natsuki's original plan, the auxiliary fleet was mainly used to stir up the formation at the beginning and end the battle, but now it seems that unless Jericho still wants to use the old battleship to launch a surprise attack to save the complete defeat of this naval battle, his own auxiliary fleet can completely withdraw its troops in advance. After weighing it, Natsuki finally decided to let his auxiliary fleet continue to stay in the waters north of the Helgoland Bay, after all, rain storms in the North Sea usually don't last too long, and this midsummer, it will be dawn in another hour, and this strange army may kick the British fleet in the ass.

The surprise lies in its relatively advanced combat methods, although these auxiliary ships are protected by many cruisers and large torpedo boats, if they encounter the British capital ships directly, the fate of slaughter is inevitable. At 3:40, Natsuki ordered the main fleet to turn left, and the nine dreadnoughts turned in a large circle under the cover of two light cruisers and eight large torpedo boats, while the two Longne-class armored cruisers crossed the main fleet and continued northward, preparing to support the rearguard line with the two battle cruisers.

As 4 o'clock approached, the rain weakened significantly, the low-hanging rain clouds gradually rose, the sea was no longer pitch black, the visual distance was much larger, and the rear ships could be seen from the front of the fleet. Despite the improvement in sea conditions, the "King Albert", which had been evacuated due to injuries, gave a signal to abandon the ship - in the process of withdrawing to Helgoland Bay, the bow of this cutting-edge dreadnought lost control, and the sea water gradually penetrated into the upper compartments, and the hull tilted more and more severely, and it was in danger of capsizing at any time. Despite all their reluctance, the crew had to abandon the £2,250,000 capital ship, which could be the last battleship to be torpedoed and sunk by an enemy battleship!

In the course of the previous battle, only 91 men of the "King Albert" were killed, and the remaining nearly 1,000 officers and men, including 100 seriously wounded, had to be transferred off the ship in the shortest possible time. The ships were soon filled with the King Albert's evacuees, and by the time the last crew had evacuated, its No. 2 turret had been submerged.

After all the personnel have been transferred, the last moment of "King Albert" is also coming. As was customary, one of the accompanying ships was to end its torpedo with a torpedo, but three large torpedo boats had already run out of torpedoes in battle, and the role of the executioner had to be played by the "Dresden". It fired the ship's last three torpedoes from 300 meters away, and all of them hit. A few minutes later, the King Albert lay still 66 nautical miles from the Gulf of Helgoland.

At 4:30 a.m., the "Catherine", which was almost a floating object, sailed into the Helgoland Bay with heavy wounds, and the "Frederick the Great", "Posen", "Osterfriedland", and "Seydlitz" that fell behind only had seven main guns that could be used normally, while the total number of bullets on these German capital ships exceeded 200 rounds, and the main guns of more than 12 inches alone suffered more than 40 rounds, and repairing them was an unprecedented challenge for ship engineers.

(End of chapter)