As the sun sets below sea level, the afterglow reflected in the sky is quite poignant. On the www.biquge.info sea, four British battlecruisers flying the St. George battle flag on their masts were making a 315-degree (14 compass points) turn, adjusting their course from southeast to due north to avoid the terrifying edge of the German dreadnought group. In the course of the tense turn, they were not subjected to heavy shelling by the Hipper fleet as expected, and the fire of the four German battlecruisers had turned to the British light cruisers and destroyers who had been ordered to carry out the torpedo attack, but this did not mean that the four British battlecruisers would be able to retreat safely. At a distance of 21,000 meters, the four frontal guns of the German High Seas Fleet's flagship "Frederick the Great", raised to the maximum elevation angle, suddenly roared, with a normal charge, 405. The 5-kilogram shell accelerates to 855 meters per second in a barrel 50 times the diameter, and then flies in a high-angle parabola to the target on the other side of the sea......

At 7:09, the "Frederick the Great" opened fire for the first time since the outbreak of the war, and this moment is destined to go down in history as a symbol of the German High Seas Fleet's dreadnought group entering battle.

If the German dreadnought group was to go north in a straight single column, then after the flagship at the front of the column fired, the subsequent ships would not be able to exert their power because of the obstruction of the line of sight and firing angle, which is also the secret of suppressing the opponent by seizing the T-shaped head in the naval battle of the fleet. Prior to this, von Ingnoll first ordered the fleet to turn one compass point to the right, and five minutes later ordered each ship to turn one compass point to the left, which seemed to be slowing down the pace of advance.

At 7:10, "Caesar", "Catherine", "King Albert", "Regent Louitberter" and "King" after "Frederick the Great" opened fire one after another, because the distance between the ships was close to 400 meters, the actual distance between the "King" and the British battle patrol formation reached 23,000 meters, and it had reached the limit range of the German 50 times the diameter of the 12-inch naval guns at an elevation angle of 18 degrees, and the four Helgoran-class and the four Nassau-class followed were equipped with 45 times the diameter of the 11-inch naval guns, The range was not as good as the distance was long, so it just held the muzzle high and did not "speak".

After more than 40 seconds of arc flight, the cannonballs fired by the "Frederick the Great" were the first to fall to the surface of the sea. With a distance of more than 20,000 meters, the super-first-class optical rangefinder cannot accurately judge the distance between the impact point and the target, and the significance of the aircraft's calibration is highlighted under this circumstance. Soon, a German reconnaissance plane hovering over the British fleet sent a correction report: 450 meters long, 200 meters to the left.

This meant that the shells flew over the British battle patrol formations to the sea in front of them to the left, and that the deviation of less than 600 meters from such an ultra-long distance was already quite impressive - a very "terrible" result for the British.

The rolling thunder of heavy artillery fire echoed on the sea, and another 20 shells from the German fleet fell one after another, and the reconnaissance planes hurriedly sent back correction reports, the closest landing point was only more than 200 meters away from the British battle cruisers, and the high splash must have wet the flags on the masts of the British ships.

As soon as the smoke of the propellant cleared, people found that the "Frederick the Great" had hoisted a new signal flag: "All ships are assaulting at full speed!" ”

Unlike the previous "full speed ahead", the new tactical directive means that the five Caesar-class and one King-class at the forefront of the German dreadnought group will spread out and rush forward, and the four Helgoland-class and four Nassau-class will gradually distance themselves due to the difference in speed performance, but these 14 dreadnoughts will still be grouped together as a fleet battleship, far ahead of their own old battleships and auxiliary ships.

With plenty of steam, the five Caesar-class ships quickly accelerated from 20 to 22 knots, and then continued to pick up speed on a relatively slow pace. At this time, the smoke from their chimneys became black and thick, almost like a very polluting chemical plant, and in the boiler compartments of each group, the stokers also opened the strong ventilation facilities according to the instructions, and used special coal burning for even watering, so that the heat output of the naval boiler quickly approached the maximum, and the "King" followed by the same strong pressure measures, and after the speed exceeded 22 knots, its acceleration momentum was slightly stronger, and the distance between it and the "Regent of Louitport" continued to close. For isometric obsessive-compulsive disorder, such a cohort is an absolute nightmare.

At 7:11, after recalculating and adjusting the firing parameters, the "Frederick the Great" opened fire for the second time. In order to improve the accuracy of hits and at the same time to deter the opponent, the four front guns still fired a partial salvo, and after the shelling was over and before the smoke cleared, the young chief of staff of the fleet, the "key man" who contributed to the large-scale naval battle, Prince Joachim, a member of the German Empire, went from the relatively clean and tidy battle bridge to the upper firing command room filled with the smell of gunpowder. In this cramped and cramped enclosed space, technical officers are using a 5-meter stereo rangefinder to observe the impact point. Under the same technical conditions, the longer the baseline length of the rangefinder, the higher the accuracy of the range, but large rangefinders with a baseline of more than 6 meters are usually only suitable for large turrets or special observation platforms built on the upper part of the bridge due to the large space required, and the gunpowder observation room on the upper mast of the "Frederick the Great" can only be equipped with a baseline of 2. The 5-meter omnidirectional gyratory rangefinder, this optical instrument, is naturally not as delicate and accurate as the direct observation of the collatorial aircraft over the battlefield.

In the German Navy's ship-wide unified azimuth firing command system, the firing command room acts like the human eye and retina, from which deaf, eyed and responsive officers observe the target and the impact point, and then transmit the observations to the drawing room located under the bridge, where the technicians carefully calculate the firing data to derive the firing parameters, and with the help of mechanical instruments to ensure that all the main guns can be salvo according to the same parameters, so as to exert the power of the main gun salvo.

Coming to the shooting command room, Natsuki neither interfered with the normal work of the officers, nor did he occupy the key observation positions. The bulkhead has portholes that allow direct observation through tempered glass, and it is raised above the two decks of the battle bridge for a better view. He stood silently in the corner, holding his binoculars and looking out through a round porthole. A bloody battle was going on on the sea in front of the left, and the German battle cruisers and light cruisers in light gray paint were engaged in a fierce battle with the British mine-strike ships in lead gray paint, and in the hazy twilight, the sporadic firelight flickered and jumped, and the smoke rose and drifted in patches, and the shells falling on the sea were like raindrops, and the faint sound of explosions connected the dots; At the far end of the bow to the left, a series of leaden gray shadows formed a curved arc, the leading ship was trying to turn due north, and the bow of the trailing ship was still facing due east, and a wave of shells in front of it had fallen, but a white water trail could still be identified on the sea, which was the landing point of 12-inch ordinary shells.

"Next shot...... Reload armor-piercing bullets! ”

When the command of the shooting commander inadvertently came to his ears, Natsuki's calm mind suddenly rippled a little. According to the different structure, performance and use, the shells used by warships can be roughly divided into ordinary shells, armor-piercing shells, and incendiary shells. Since this battle was for the British fleet, the German battleships and battlecruisers naturally had more armor-piercing shells, and a small number of ordinary shells were mainly used for bombarding coastal targets, dealing with light ships, and correcting shots.

The complicated and orderly instructions were conveyed one after another, and the picture that seemed to be static in Natsuki's vision finally changed. The four 12-inch shells fired earlier fell "silently", raising a column of white water far higher than the mast of any British battleship, and the impact point was not only closer to the turning British fleet than the previous first shot, one of them landed on the near end of the British ship, and three on the far end, as if a straddle had formed.

The shells that fell next were basically on both sides of the British fleet, and the straddle fire situation became clearer and clearer. At about the same time, the shells fired by the British battle patrol formations also whizzed, falling thousands of meters away, and as close as four or five hundred meters, although they did not cause any kind of damage to the German dreadnought group, but the loud roar of their overboard explosions revealed that the British mobile fleet did not give in easily, and their large-caliber naval guns were capable of causing problems for the German fleet.

Before the long-range fire of the British fleet fell closer, the officers in the firing command room of the "Frederick the Great" hurriedly "invited" Natsuki back to the battle bridge. It's not because the protective armor in the firing command room is weak, but the battleship built by Natsuki has a lean defense system, and the bridge and the frontal armor of the main turret are 13. 8 inches, theoretically quite capable of withstanding 13 of the British capital ships. The 5-inch guns hit directly, and the bridge armor also extended from the bottom drawing room to the upper firing command room, and even the top was covered with armor plates of the same thickness, with only the side facing back to the main chimney slightly weakened. Comparatively speaking, the protruding position of the firing command room is more vulnerable to shelling, and although the inlaid portholes are made of very thick tempered glass, there are still certain hidden dangers.

As the atmosphere of the battle grew, Natsuki did not want to distract the officers' attention, and returned to the battle bridge without saying anything, and in just a few minutes, some positive changes took place in the rapidly changing battlefield situation: the torpedo attack planes that took off from the "Bismarck" had just flown over the long German dreadnought battleship, and in ten minutes they could launch a diversion torpedo attack on the British battle patrol formation that was trying to flee north, and the first batch of high-speed torpedo boats had already arrived at high speed, even if the British battle cruisers were at full speed, They were able to catch up within an hour, and the fading light on the surface of the sea not only did not affect their torpedo attacks too much, but rather covered their tracks, making it even more difficult for the British fleet to guard against.

After a long time of layout, it's finally time to close the net, but don't let the fat big fish in front of you slip away! Natsuki thought in his heart, and before nightfall, the naval airship responsible for keeping an eye on the periphery sent the last telegram of the day, the British main fleet heading south at full speed was only more than 70 nautical miles away from the battlefield, and the fastest one and a half hours, the dreadnought groups of the two sides entered each other's range, and the sky was already completely dark by then.

(End of chapter)