The Iron Duke-class battleship is another class of dreadnoughts built by the British Navy after Palerophon, St. Vincent, Giant, and Orion. Starting from Orion, the caliber www.biquge.info of the main guns of the British capital battleship exceeded 12 inches, which also became the direct criterion for dividing dreadnoughts and super-dreadnoughts. By the outbreak of the First World War, the British Navy had a total of 12 super-dreadnoughts of the three classes of Orion, Iron Duke and George V, and because the German Navy's latest King-class battleships continued to use 12-inch main guns, the Germans' first super-dreadnought "Bavaria" was still under construction on the slipway, and it would not be included in active service until 1915 at the earliest.

In the early morning of August 8, 1914, the British Iron Duke-class battleship that intruded into the field of view of the German High Seas Fleet's flagship "Frederick the Great" was the second ship of the class, the "Honbang". When the Bernie squadron was desperate for help, the British capital ship group was being entangled by the old German battleship formation, so Jericho sent the "Benbang" under the command of Thomas and the same ships "Orion" and the Orion-class battleships "Conqueror" and "Thunderbolt" to reinforce first, but before they could catch up with the Bernie squadron, the latter had already collapsed under the repeated onslaught of the German 3rd and 1st battleship detachments. The communications equipment of the battleship "Qianwei," which was lucky enough to escape from the tiger's mouth, was completely damaged, and the main transmitter of the "Neptune," which had been evacuated with it, also malfunctioned, and it could only rely on the spare transmitter to communicate with the outside world. Due to the delay in communications, the two battleships were not able to learn in time about the fleet's temporary replacement of identification signals, so when the "avant-garde" and the "Honbang" met unexpectedly, the latter naturally thought that the incoming ships were German ships that were using their own identification signals to fraudulently use their own identification signals, and before that, some officers on the "Benbang" misunderstood the contents of the communication telegram and thought that the Bernie squadron had been completely wiped out, and the news made the officers and men on the ships feel disappointed and nervous. After turning on the searchlights, the shooting commanders actually mistook the friendly ships that had been getting along day and night for the German King-class battleships, and the gunners did not carefully distinguish between them. One of its shells pierced the armor of the secondary gun on the starboard front of the "Honbon", destroying two 6-inch secondary guns and causing a heavy fire. It was not until a few minutes later that the tragedy of fratricidal slaughter was stopped, and in the process, the "Honbang" was hit by 2 bullets and suffered 24 casualties, and the "Avant-garde" was hit by 16 bullets and suffered 56 casualties.

When breaking away from the Jellico battle formation, the "Honbang" and other four super-dreadnoughts rushed all the way to maintain a speed of about 20 knots, but then due to the strong wind and waves, and the "Conqueror" suffered some mechanical problems, the overall speed of this temporary formation slowed down to 18 knots. After learning of the sinking of the "Magnificent" and the collapse of the Bernie squadron, Admiral Thomas, who was in charge of the "Benbang", ordered the ships to overcome difficulties and grit their teeth and maintain a speed of 20 knots, and at this speed launched a huge artillery battle with the "Avant-garde". After confirming the identity of the "Avant-garde", Thomas decided to reduce the speed of the formation to 16 knots, and the "Avant-garde" and "Neptune" were transferred from the rear to the formation, so that this temporary formation actually had six battleships: "Honbang", "Orion", "Conqueror", "Thunderbolt", "Avant-garde", and "Neptune". The Thomas formation in a hurry originally had only 2 destroyers to escort the escort, and the embarrassed "Avant-garde" and "Neptune" had 2 light cruisers and 3 destroyers, but after merging into one place, it became 6 dreadnoughts and 7 light ships, and the formation structure tended to be reasonable, but these light ships had not yet reached the ideal battle position, and the bad sea conditions also greatly weakened their reconnaissance and vigilance role, and the destroyer "Sparrowhawk", which served as an outpost in front of the "Benbang", did not detect the "avant-garde" nor perceive the main German fleet. Just bury your head forward and miss the opportunity to change the tide of the battle.

When Frederick the Great first opened fire under the influence of the rainstorm, it was only 370 meters from bow to bow of the "Honbang", which is an absolutely astonishing figure. Although the entire starboard side of the "Honbon" was under the guns of the Germans, the poor sea conditions also helped the British, and the eight 12-inch guns of the "Frederick the Great" all approached, and the shells blasted a row of alarming columns of water on the sea to the right of the "Honbang", but not a single missile.

The personnel on board the "Benbang" were all shocked by the German battleship that suddenly appeared in front of them and threw a heavy punch. When the opponent's fist hit the tip of the nose, people already felt a chill down their spine, and they were even more afraid that after a dangerous scene, the British battleship was not out of danger, but faced even greater danger. In the blink of an eye, a series of cannon flames flashed on the sea behind the German battleship—and at least two large battleships were aiming at themselves. Suddenly, a shell hit the bow of the "Honbang" and landed near the starboard side, and the sudden tremor of the ship's hull made the hearts of all the officers and men of the ship hang

At such a close distance, the ship's turn was obviously not as fast as the muzzle of the gun, and only the twin turrets on the starboard front of the "Honbang" could be aimed at the enemy ship as quickly as possible, and the rest of the main guns required a certain amount of adjustment time, and the German battleship was famous for its firing speed. In such a blink of an eye, the starboard side guns on the first German battleship were already roaring like a pack of mad dogs, and the hull and superstructure were hit by two shots in succession

Faced with this extremely unfavorable situation, Thomas made an astonishing decision, but in line with the tradition of the British Royal Navy: to ram the enemy ship head-on!

On this side of the turbulent waves, the moment he saw the bow of the "Honbang" deflect to the right, Natsuki's heart jumped suddenly, and he immediately realized what his opponent wanted to do, and without waiting for him to remind Captain Rubich, this German officer, who usually made people feel a little nagged, responded in the most concise way - in the case of unstable accuracy of artillery fire, he shouted to the helmsman in a timely manner: "The right rudder is full!"

The main helmsman of the "Frederick the Great" has a burly and muscular figure like King Kong, and a pair of thick big hands have saved countless dangers in the naval football league, and he responded to the "full rudder right turn" in his mouth, while turning the rudder quickly, and this large warship with a full tonnage of nearly 30,000 tons is like an African wild elephant with soaring hair, turning the direction with an extremely vigorous attitude, the bridge swings to the right with the hull of the ship, and the waves make people almost untenable, and they have to worry that it will capsize because the swing amplitude exceeds the design maximum. At this time, the chief designer of the Caesar-class battleships and the then director of shipbuilding of the German Navy, Natsuki, who was in control of the situation as the chief of staff of the fleet at the moment, may be the only person present who has a bottom in his heart. He was well aware that the battleship he designed would only be in danger of capsizing if it had a lateral swing of more than 60 degrees. As for the adverse effects of a large angle of yaw on the ship's equipment, facilities, personnel, and materials, it can be completely relegated to a secondary position in a life-and-death situation.

Unlike the equanimity of the warship designer, the users of the battleship can only pray secretly in their hearts at this moment. Fortunately, the hull quickly swung back to the left, and people's fears shifted from the capsizing of the battleship to the possibility of a collision between the two sides.

Because of the similarity in maneuverability, the "Frederick the Great" followed her opponent to complete the turn, and the two ships went from parallel to head-on, although the longitudinal line of the two sides was not in a precise straight line, and if the helmsman wished, they would have made an earth-shattering head-on collision at a relative speed of more than 35 knots.

The "Caesar", which was behind the "Frederick the Great", was obviously unprepared for the sudden action of its own flagship, its front main gun was loaded and ready to fire, and the gunners found a majestic black shadow appearing in the auxiliary scope, and hurriedly ordered the gunners to stop firing, and because of the angle, its rear main gun was not hindered and fired normally, and the shells almost grazed the bow of the "Frederick the Great" and flew by, and the people on the two battleships were shocked into a cold sweat!

Of the 4 12-inch armor-piercing shells fired from the rear main gun of the "Caesar", 3 missed the target, and 1 fell impartially on the stern of the British battleship and exploded in the waves rolled up by the propellers.

On the two rapidly closing battleships, the "Frederick the Great" and the "Honbang", the huge main turrets were turning, and whoever could aim the muzzle of the gun first would have a chance to win, and this situation may not have been expected by the British designers: the twin of the Iron Duke class13. The 5-inch turret weighed 670 tons, and the German battleship opposite used a twin 12-inch gun, and its main turret weighed 600 tons with the same protection capability, and the lighter turret should have a faster rotation speed if the motor power was equal. 5 degrees per second, the figure listed in the technical manual of the "Frederick the Great" is 4 degrees per second, and in the actual operation, officers and gunners found that its actual speed was slightly higher than that, and some people have experimented that it only takes 40 seconds for the main turret to go from facing the port side to the starboard side, that is, 4. 5 degrees per second.

While the main guns were desperately turning, the secondary gunners of the two battleships opened fire in a hurry, and each side had 4 6-inch guns (the German battleship secondary guns were 5. 9-inch caliber) possessed firing angles, although their caliber was much smaller than the thickness of the bridge armor of the opposing side (Iron Duke 11 inches, Caesar 13. 8 inches), but when the armor-piercing bullet hit the outer wall of the bridge, people's hearts suddenly hung in the air.

A moment later, the rear half of the enemy ship could be seen from the viewing windows of the two front main turrets of the "Honbang", while at the same time, the two twin main guns of the "Frederick the Great" were aimed at the bridge of the enemy ship!

Boom! Boom!

Four 12-inch guns with a diameter of 50 times the diameter of the sky roared one after another, and at this "muzzle-to-head" firing distance, the turbulence of the wind and waves made the German capital ships, which had always been known for their superb marksmanship, only get a 25% shooting hit rate, but the master made a move, and one blow was enough to kill.

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