Under the bright sunshine, two "three-chimney" German battle cruisers, "De Fllinger" and "Seydlitz", sailed at a speed of 24 knots on the rippling blue sea, and the thick twin main guns pointed at the Allied ships in the distant sea. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

Watching the British fleet's move to turn to retreat, Franz von Hipper, on the bridge, exuded a sneering look, and the opponent only reacted at this time, obviously it was too late. At a distance of 16,000 kilometers, the two German battle cruisers played at a very high level with sophisticated fire control equipment. After several rounds of adjustments, the "De Fllinger" had formed a straddle fire at the armored cruiser at the head of the enemy array, and the "Seydlitz" was aimed at the other armored cruiser behind it. Compared to the old protective cruisers, the armored cruiser was a good size, like a fat, tasty, easy prey, and the battle cruiser was designed to hunt and load, and this is the time to make the most of it.

As the warning bell sounded for the salvo of the main gun, the officers put down their binoculars one after another, because at the moment when the main gun fired, no matter how huge the hull was, it would tremble due to the impact of recoil.

The alarm bell stopped, and the huge cannon sound was about to strike, and the non-commissioned officers and students who had boarded the battleship for the first time hurriedly covered their ears, but the officers led by Hipper seemed indifferent. After a coherent roar, they unhurriedly re-raised their binoculars and watched intently at the group of enemy ships that were still turning in formation.

In a moment, the voice of the shooting commander came from the mouth of the microphone: "Straddle shooting at the enemy...... No hits...... Ten meters from the starboard side of the enemy, one shot was missed! ”

With the power of Krupp's 50 times the diameter of the 12-inch naval gun, only one shot of armor-piercing shells could fatally inflict fatal damage on the British armored cruiser of about 10,000 tons, but at this time, Hipper ordered the two-ship formation to turn left by 4 compass points.

There were no doubts, no arguments, and the officers were like a set of delicate gears, carrying out the commander's orders to the letter. As the ship turned, the ship's main guns fell silent for a moment, and only the large-caliber secondary guns, which had been granted free fire permit, continued to fire a few shots, but they all stopped firing immediately after.

On the sea, the two German battleships, which had a clear advantage in speed, drew two graceful arcs to the left, and after the turn was completed, they still maintained the position of facing the enemy on the port side, and the eight main guns of the whole ship had ample firing angles. The distance between the two sides then steadily decreased, and about five minutes later, the De Fllinger firing command room reported a distance reading of 13,500 meters.

This was within the range of the main guns of the British armored cruisers, but even if the 50 times the diameter of the 9.2-inch naval guns was lucky enough to hit a target 12,000 kilometers away, the shells had already lost a considerable part of their kinetic energy during the flight, and it was almost impossible to pose a threat to the German battle cruisers. In the first three rounds of firing, all the impact points were two or three hundred meters away.

On the bridge of the "De Fllinger", the officers headed by Hipper, calmly waited for the firing command room to re-determine the target parameters and for the main gun groups to adjust the firing elements accordingly. The emphasis on naval training was a tradition of naval powers, especially the Royal Navy, and as an emerging naval power, the German Navy emulated Britain in many ways, and was superior to the blue, thanks to both the German emphasis on discipline and obedience, and the mechanical genius of the Germanic peoples. In the Battle of Jutland, the shooting accuracy of the German capital ships was generally better than that of the British ships, but the "De Fllinger" was not long in service at that time, and although it had the honor of being a "super battleship" and had the latest and best fire control equipment, its overall performance was inferior to the other battle cruisers of the Hipper's fleet. Since then, the officers and men of the ship have been brave and diligent in training, and the level shown in the Second Battle of Flanders has made great progress.

The warning bell for the salvo of the main gun finally sounded, and for the side that was in the winning position and grasped the initiative, it was a pleasant fairy music, and it was a note that heralded victory. The officers on the bridge habitually lowered their binoculars and took advantage of this opportunity to relax their minds and spirits a little. It was not until after the heavy artillery fired in unison that they calmly picked up the binoculars and waited for the results of the new round of shelling to be intuitively reflected on the distant sea.

A dozen seconds later, the water column on the surface of the sea rose and the waves were flying, but the silhouette of the target battleship was not obscured in any way, which meant that the newly measured firing data was remote. Immediately afterwards, the voice of the shooting commander came from the mouth of the microphone. With high-precision optical instruments, he was able to obtain more detailed and accurate observations than the officers.

"The impact point is remote...... Pose a near-miss threat to other targets...... That's a three-chimney British destroyer! ”

"Ho, what an unfortunate fellow!" One of Hipper's staff officers said in a joking tone that the calm mentality of the German officers and men in this battle could be seen.

A mere destroyer was just a side dish to the feast, and Hipper, who was hailed as an imperial hero for defeating the British battle cruiser at the Battle of Jutland, would have taken this little temptation to stand there without saying a word, and no one would have to pretend to reprioritize the attack, even if one more round of fire would have sent the unfortunate British destroyer to the bottom.

In less than a minute, the Deflinger's firing commander quickly completed the correction of the gunfire and made the final correction of the adjusted firing parameters of each main gun, and then reminded all crew members to leave the position that could be damaged by the fire storm with a short warning bell, and to pay attention to the possible effects of the hull tremor.

Another salvo of main guns resounded across the battlefield like a war drum, invigorating the German officers and men and making the enemy officers and men tremble.

The smoke of the shelling cleared slightly, and the chief of staff of the German reconnaissance detachment, Major Erich Raeder, turned his head sideways and said to Hipper: "General, look, the French armored cruiser that is following the British fleet has come up!" ”

"The monster of the six chimneys?" Hipper replied in a low voice, and in the telescope it was markedly different from the British ships - six thick chimneys in three groups, two by two horizontal side by side, a configuration unique in the age of the steam engine, and even without the report of the pilot of the reconnaissance plane, the German officers could identify it from a distance by its strange silhouette, the Günet-Edgar-class armored cruiser of the French Third Republic.

The appearance of French armored cruisers in the waters south of Ireland was not at all surprising to Hipper and his officers. They had been keeping a close eye on the activities of Spee's fleet lately, and they knew that Britain and France had sent a number of ships to chase it down, trying to boost morale with a victory before the next naval battle. A few days earlier, Hipper's reconnaissance squadron and Spee's Pacific squadron had secretly rendezvous in the southwest of Ireland, and according to the strategy of the High Seas Fleet Command, two Scharnhorst-class armored cruisers and two Moltke-class battlecruisers had formed a formation for the northern waters of Ireland, where they attacked British ships and shelled military installations off the northern coast of Ireland, cleverly making the British mistakenly believe that the four German battlecruisers were operating in northern Ireland. Two German rangers disguised as Spee's fleet appeared in the waters south of Ireland to lure the Entente pursuing fleets to come, and the prey was indeed hooked, although there were two fewer British and French patrolmen who were left in Cork Harbour due to a breakdown, but in this sea near the coast of Ireland but far from any of the major Allied naval bases, Hipper's two powerful battlecruisers had plenty of time to enjoy this delicious meal.

"Ignore it for now." Hipper's gaze lingered only on the lone French battleship for a few seconds. In fact, the construction of the two Cünet-Edgar-class cruisers built by the French began as early as 1905 and 1906, but the procrastination and endless internal disputes kept them in service until 1911, when the British Invincible-class cruisers had been in service for almost two years! Since the Günet-Edgar class had become an unfinished and outdated tragedy, there was no need for the French to lock them in a safe as expensive gems, except for the key technical parameters, whose main properties were known to the outside world before the war. The firepower of 14 194mm guns (7.63 inches) was quite offensive for a warship of its class, but the two battlecruisers were the essence of the German shipbuilding industry, incorporating the most advanced battleship design concepts of the pre-World War I warship, and defeating the British battlecruisers armed with 13.5" guns in Jutland, giving Hippel and his men enough reason to despise this lone opponent.

Just as Hipper's gaze turned back to the British fleet, the column of water stirred up by the previous round of shelling had risen to its highest point, and the British armored cruiser that the "De Fllinger" was staring at had been mostly obscured by the white spray, and its leaden gray hull could only be seen through the gap in the water column.

In an instant, the exuberant tone of the shooting commander came: "Straddle shooting!" Straddle shot at the enemy! Well done! ”

It was quiet on the bridge, and the officers of Hipper's face only showed a slight look of satisfaction and pride before hitting the target directly. They knew, of course, that this level of shooting was close to that of the winner of the "Emperor's Cup", the most important annual shooting competition within the German Navy, in which the winners were awarded the Kaiser's personal awards. The Blucher, which shined in Jutland, was a two-time champion in the capital ship class. It is worth mentioning that the two Scharnhorst-class armored cruisers under the command of Count Spee have joined forces to win the trophy six times, and the first two times they have participated as the lead ships of the reconnaissance fleet. In the historical Battle of Coronel, the "Scharnhorst" and "Gneisenau" fully demonstrated their long-range shooting skills, helping the Spee fleet to defeat the British 4th cruiser squadron with the armored cruisers "Cape of Good Hope" and "Monmouth" as the main force with overwhelming superiority, and the "Cape of Good Hope" and "Monmouth" were both sunk, and none of the 1,654 officers and men on board were spared.

(End of chapter)