Compared with the British super dreadnoughts with 13.5-inch guns, the 305-mm 50-caliber guns that were originally intended to be used in the "King" class were slightly lacking in firepower. At the request of Wilhelm II, the "King" class was replaced with a new 350-mm gun.

In May 1916, all four "King" class battleships participated in the Battle of the Great Sea, and as the "second main force" of the High Seas Fleet, they fought to the death with the British fleet, sinking many British ships and making great achievements. However, the four "kings" were also severely injured because of the long battle, and after the war, all of them were docked for overhaul, and with the frantic efforts of the German workers, they were repaired only three months later. The repaired "King" class ships and the "Byrne" class ships frequently attacked the British coast, causing great panic among the British people. In addition to the Crown Prince William, three other ships of the King class entered the Baltic Sea in October 1917 to join the war against Russia and sank a Russian naval battleship in a naval battle.

For the battleships of the "King" class, such a battleship as the "St. Vincent" can no longer be called an opponent.

It's just that at this time, Scheer didn't expect that in a while, the four "Byrne"-class battleships and the four "King"-class battleships he led would encounter a formidable opponent that he had never seen before.

At this time, the British fleet had realized that if it continued to fight, it was likely to face a catastrophe, and Vice Admiral Bern issued an order to "turn and evacuate" on the "Revenge", and ordered the Straight Guard to launch a torpedo attack on the German fleet to cover the retreat of the battleships. The British battleships, which had received the signal, began to turn around, while the British cruisers and destroyers, who were acting as direct guards, rushed up en masse, fired torpedoes at the German fleet in the face of a hail of bullets, and then quickly turned and fled for their lives.

At this time, all the large and small ships of the British fleet released smoke screens, and the sea was full of smoke for a while, and the visibility was dropping sharply, but Scheer could still see clearly through the telescope, and one after another British [***] ships were desperately spitting smoke and hiding themselves in the smoke screen.

Seeing the embarrassment shown by the enemy, Scheer's heart was full of contempt, and at this time, he had long forgotten the reminder of the fleet staff before the war.

"Let's catch up! Send them all to the bottom of the sea! Scheer commanded loudly.

After the Battle of Deland, the German navy was full of optimism, and in the eyes of many Germans, the Great Fleet, which the British were proud of, no longer existed, and it was no longer a problem to defeat Britain, the most difficult of the Entente powers.

During this time, the frequent and active attacks of the Germans caused great disturbance and losses to the British, and many ports and shipyards were greatly damaged. And because of this optimism, the Germans did not pay attention to the navies of China, the United States and China stationed in Britain mainland. The results of several skirmishes between the Germans and the Allied navies further boosted the Germans' optimism and confidence in victory. At this moment, not only Schell, but all the officers and men of the German fleet did not seem to realize that the danger was quietly coming.

"Our battleship is coming."

On the bridge of the battleship "Republic", Betty, holding a telescope, said, "It looks like they fought a hard battle. ”

"Their situation is not good." Colonel Schneider, the American captain, said with some surprise when he saw the four British battleships that were riddled with bullets.

Listening to the American's exclamation, although Betty knew that the other party might not have any malicious intent, she couldn't help but feel annoyed in her heart.

In fact, the "Revenge" class battleships were originally built to deal with the "Byrne" class battleships, but now they are being beaten by the enemy like this, which is really a shameless thing.

In 1913, in response to Germany's construction of the "Byrne" class battleships, the British Navy approved the construction of five "Revenge" class battleships (also known as the "R" class because the ships have the initials R). The battleships of the "Revenge" class had a normal displacement of 28150 tons and a full load displacement of 31500 tons, The ship is 190.3 meters long, 27 meters wide, 9.2 meters draft, 40,000 horsepower, maximum speed 21.5 knots, endurance: 7,500 nautical miles at 12.5 knots, 21 knots are 2,400 nautical miles, and has 8 twin 15-inch (381 mm) 42 times diameter main guns, 14 6-inch 45 times diameter secondary guns, 2 76 mm guns, and 4 underwater 533 mm torpedo tubes. 13 inches at the thickest point of the broadside armor belt; Main deck 3 to 1 inch; The turret was frontally armored 13 inches, the turret was 10 inches, and the conning tower was 11 inches.

The layout and weapons systems of the Revenge-class battleships were essentially the same as those of the Queen Elizabeth-class fast battleships, except for a shortened hull length, slightly improved protection, and a single chimney. Concerns about wartime oil supplies led the Revengeance class to switch back to coal-fired boilers during the design phase, a move that was strongly opposed by Sir Fisher, who returned to the post of First Sea Lord in 1914.

A total of 5 battleships of the "Revenge" class were built, of which the "Revenge" and the "Royal Oak" took part in the Battle of Delta. The "Royal Oak" was hit by the German battleship "Baden" in the main turret during the battle, causing the ammunition depot to detonate and eventually sink. The "Revenge" was also badly damaged in the fierce battle, and after discovering deficiencies in the design of turret protection and fire protection measures (a common problem for British battleships and battlecruisers), the British Admiralty urgently overhauled the remaining battleships. However, due to financial problems, only a small part of the conversion was completed.

And now, the consequences of the British stinginess in funding are being revealed.

For the British naval officers and men, their opponents, the German-built "Byrne"-class battleships, had become their nightmares.

Stimulated by the intelligence that the British Navy's "Queen Elizabeth" class fast battleships were equipped with 15-inch guns, the German Navy began to design and build "Byrne" class battleships equipped with 380 mm guns, and approved the construction budget in 1913.

The standard displacement of the battleships of the "Byrne" class was 28530 tons, and the full load displacement was 32200 tons. The ship is 180 meters long, 30 meters wide and has a draft of 9.39 meters. The power system uses 11 "Sannikrovt" coal-fired boilers, 3 steam turbines, and the main engine power is 48,000 horsepower. The maximum speed is 23 knots, and the cruising range is 12 knots at 5000 knots.

The Byrne-class battleships had 8 twin 380-mm 45-diameter guns, 4 twin turrets, the twin main gun turrets were arranged in the same symmetrical hull front and rear as the Queen Elizabeth class, and 16 single-mounted 150-mm secondary guns, 10 single-mounted 88-mm guns, and five 600-mm underwater torpedo tubes.

The protection-conscious Germans designed the armor of the "Byrne" class battleships to be very powerful, with a maximum of 350 mm of side armor belts, and the thickness of their broadside and horizontal armor far exceeded that of the "Queen Elizabeth" class battleships of the British Navy, with a frontal armor thickness of 350 mm for their turrets; With 350 mm thick armor and three armor decks, each nearly 30 to 40 mm thick, the Byrne's total armor weight is about 1,000 tons more than that of the Queen Elizabeth class, and the protection range is more comprehensive. To improve the accuracy of shooting, the Germans also designed a sturdy tripod mast with an advanced shooting director on the mast. Fearing that Britain and Russia would monopolize crude oil in the Persian Gulf and Baku, the two major oil producing areas during the war, the Byrne-class battleships used coal-fired boilers for their power systems (the Saxony was equipped with a cruising diesel engine).

The four ships of the same class of the "Byrne" class battleships all took part in the world-shocking Battle of the Battle of Yudeland, achieved remarkable results, and were able to attract the attention of the world with their powerful firepower and excellent protective surname. After the Battle of the Navy, the four ships of the "Byrne" class went into battle many times and swept the British coast, but the "Revenge" class, which the British originally used to deal with the "Byrne" class battleships, did not play its due role at all. For example, in this battle, the "Revenge" class was reduced to a decoy to attract the "Byrne" class into the ambush circle.

"We can't see them anymore."

Seeing that the four "Revenge" class battleships were still desperately pulling smoke to cover themselves, Xu Zhenpeng felt a little amused, but also frightened by the strong combat power of the German fleet.

forced the battleships of the British Empire, which once dominated the seven seas, to flee for their lives, and the Germans were the first to do it.

The sirens were constantly sounding, and at this time, the heavy mine-loaded light cruiser "Hainan," which was on the vanguard reconnaissance mission of the Chinese fleet, had already broken out of the smoke screen released by the British, and not long after, the German fleet appeared in front of it.

"Report the flagship now! Spot enemy ships! Major Wei Lunze, the captain of the ship, who was standing on the bridge of the "Hainan", put down the binoculars in his hand and gave the battle order, "Prepare for battle!" ”

At this time, the direct guard ships of the German fleet also discovered the "Hainan" and rushed over while firing their guns.

Wei Lunze sneered, and under his command, the cruiser "Hainan" turned around sharply, rushed out of the barrage of German ships, and sailed to one side together with the two other Chinese destroyers that rushed up.

The German cruiser "Hamerin", which rushed to the front, saw this scene and did not notice anything wrong, at this time the people on the German [***] ship were a little puzzled about the origin of these warships flying the flag of "people" that they had never seen before, but they did not stop until they saw the figure of the huge ship in front of them.

First of all, the huge mast pierced the sea level, and then the silhouettes of huge battleships appeared.

When he saw the giant battleship that appeared in front of him with the "human" flag hoisted, the telescope in the hand of the captain of the "Hamerin," Major Root, unconsciously fell off his hand.

Although he still does not know about the "change of flags" of the Chinese Navy, judging from the big Chinese character "man", these giant ships that appear in front of him are the legendary Chinese's new battleships.

“…… Just now we were all joking with each other, saying that the Chinese did not have a navy at all, and their battleships were just a joke, but now, after all of us saw the appearance of the enemy, no one could laugh. Years later, Captain Root recalled, "We adjusted the rangefinder and telescope, magnified it 20 times, and I could see that the cruisers and destroyers, which I had never seen before, were moving to the side, as if trying to avoid the blow of the incoming giant shells." Soon, the real enemy appeared, and I saw a large warship that I had never seen before, and it gave me the feeling that it was tall, magnificent, murderous, and sure enough, it was the kind of giant ship with a tonnage of close to 50,000 tons, and our ship also began to turn the rudder and evacuate together with the destroyer torpedo boat, because we all understood that after a moment of fighting, we might not be able to help much. ”

Not long after, the German battlefleet also discovered a new enemy.

“…… Although the weather was not very good, and the smoke on the sea had not dispersed, I could still make out the figure of the enemy's cruiser, it was a beautiful-looking ship, it should be the enemy's reconnaissance ship, and when it saw us, it turned around and disappeared, and then I saw several other cruisers or destroyers blurry, and they were also speeding away, and I suddenly realized that the enemy's capital ship might be in front of me, I remembered the information I got from the Admiralty about these battleships built by the Americans according to the design drawings and requirements provided by the Chinese, and was hesitating to fight them, and the enemy appeared at this time. Betty recalled, "The six were grayish-black in appearance, tall and large, like giants of antiquity, gasping for breath and coming towards us with heavy steps, making people shudder......"

After the war, Scheer recorded what he saw with his pen in this way:

“…… The staff officers around me were counting the number of enemies, there were six enemy battleships, they seemed to be moving mountains in the sea, because we were chasing the British battleships, at this time it happened to be in the opposite direction with the enemy ships, watching these steel beasts grow rapidly in size, and the guns pointed at us, I suddenly felt danger in my heart, I remembered the advice of my subordinates, and later many people in the country accused me of cowardice, I admitted, I was indeed scared, And because the enemy is too strong and afraid. I immediately ordered all ships to turn in place and retreat immediately. I'm still glad I was able to make that decision decisively......"

The six Chinese battleships exuded a powerful aura that made Scheer unable to possess his body, and before the two sides could get close to the battle distance, the eight German battleships began to make a 180-degree turn and perform a rare "enemy front turn" maneuver, while at the same time, the German cruisers and destroyers rushed up again, this time it was the turn of the Germans to desperately unleash smoke and launch a torpedo attack.

The battle first began between the light ships, the cruiser "Hamelin" quickly rushed to the first Chinese battleship, fired torpedoes one after another, the Chinese battleship immediately discovered the torpedo track flying on the sea, began to turn to evade, watching this huge battleship flexibly turn its body on the sea, the Germans could not help but express their heartfelt admiration for their excellent performance.

The first round of torpedo attacks by the German light ships did not yield any results, and all the torpedoes fired were deftly avoided by the Chinese battleships, and the Germans paid a great price for this. And such a result was not caused by the secondary guns of the Chinese battleships, but by the direct guards of the Chinese battlefleet.

After seeing the German fleet turn and detect the enemy's torpedo attack, the light frigates of the Chinese fleet rushed up to drive the Germans away, and the Chinese cruisers and destroyers began to fire fiercely, and the two Chinese light cruisers actually fired torpedoes when facing the German cruisers on the side side, and the cruiser "Wittenberg" was caught off guard, and was immediately hit by a torpedo in the middle of the hull, which was broken into two with a loud bang, and soon disappeared into the sea.

When the Chinese direct guards opened heavy fire on the German light ships, the Chinese battleships that had rearranged the array also began to fire with secondary guns, and for a time the dim sea was full of bullets and fires, and the German cruisers and destroyers were instantly shrouded in layers of barrage, and soon, another German destroyer "V25" was hit and died in a series of explosions.

At this time, all the German battleships had completed the "enemy front turn" action, the four "King" class battleships that were originally in the rear position of the fleet became the front team, and the four "Byrne" class battleships became the rear team, all the German ships were trying to get out of the battlefield at full speed, and it seemed that they were about to succeed.

But what the Germans did not expect was that the Chinese battleships were much faster than them.

After discovering that the German ship had escaped, Betty ordered the Chinese battleships to "pursue at full speed", and the six "Republican" class battleships began to accelerate one after another, starting the pursuit at a high speed close to 26 knots.

When he saw the figure of the Chinese battleship appear behind him again, Scheer could hardly believe his eyes.

Scheer did not know that the GE steam turbines used by the "Republic" class battleships were small in size but huge in horsepower, and they used "Wilcox" boilers that burned heavy oil, and the maximum speed of the test had reached an astonishing 31 knots, and they had also run at a speed of 28 knots in ordinary training, and at this time the pursuit at a speed of 26 knots was not too difficult for the "Republican" class battleships, and the maximum speed of the "Byrne" class battleships was 23 knots, and if you want to run at this speed, You have to risk burning out the boiler.

(To be continued)