The two medium torpedo boats under the command of Colonel Schott, each with a displacement of more than 300 tons, were each equipped with one 76 mm naval gun, one 25 mm machine gun and two 500 mm torpedo tubes, with a maximum speed of 35 knots. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

The German Navy's large torpedo boats of the 1913 class, with a displacement of nearly 1,000 tons, were equipped with three 105-mm naval guns, two 20-mm guns and four 533-mm torpedo tubes, with a maximum speed of 36 knots.

Two British medium torpedo boats, pitted off three large German torpedo boats, standing from a very unfair starting point from the very beginning.

The battle lasted more than 20 minutes, and one of the two British torpedo boats that tried to pin down the opponent was beaten into thick smoke and its speed was sharply reduced, and it was in a very bad situation.

The two large German torpedo boats did not mind the reputation of bullying the small with the big and the small with the many, and they caught up one left and one right, and blasted the other side all over the body with continuous artillery fire, and the fire was everywhere.

The third large German torpedo boat was aggressively chasing another British torpedo boat, and the ship's guns did not hit very well, but it had already hit the opponent several times.

In the sea ahead, Colonel Short had ordered someone to report the latest battle situation to the naval staff, and sent a telegram to the medium-sized torpedo boats with a small group of torpedo boats on standby, asking them to bring the group of boats to reinforcements as soon as possible, but they had not yet received a callback, and it was not possible to confirm whether they would arrive in time. Now, his destroyer was towing a power failure submarine to catch up, but at such a speed it seemed that it would be impossible to escape the pursuit of the German ships. He ordered the accompanying torpedo boats to pick up all the remaining personnel on the submarine and important materials such as communication codebooks.

As a last resort, in order to prevent it from falling into the hands of the Germans, they had to sink it with a torpedo.

Immediately afterwards, Colonel Short ordered to cut the cable that dragged the submarine and personally led the destroyer to turn around to meet the enemy.

During the First World War, British destroyers and German large torpedo boats can basically be regarded as the same type of combat ships, they can be used as escorts, they can be used as escorts, historically, their biggest difference is that British destroyers focus on artillery warfare, German large torpedo boats value lightning strikes, and the tonnage of German large torpedo boats built in the early days is smaller than that of British destroyers, so the two sides have been head-to-head, and the British Navy has won more and lost less.

The destroyer that Colonel Short rode on was called the "Bulldog", which belonged to the G-class destroyers of the British Navy, with a full load displacement of 940 tons, equipped with 1 102 mm gun, 3 76 mm guns and 2 533 mm caliber torpedo tubes, with a maximum speed of 27 knots, in a one-on-one situation, it could have an advantage against the German Navy's large torpedo boats in the 1911 class and before, but these were the most advanced large torpedo boats in service in the German Navy.

Fighting skills alone seemed difficult to turn the tide, and Colonel Short only hoped to be able to delay a little longer until his own group of torpedo boats arrived, or his own fleet was stronger from the direction of Britain

After joining the battle, Colonel Short's "bulldogs" quickly joined forces with their own torpedo boats, which had just fled in confusion, and they coordinated with each other and tacitly cooperated to form a fire suppression on the large German torpedo boat that was acting alone.

A few minutes later, a shell hit its foredeck, and the German gunners in the forward gun emplacements caused a lot of casualties, and the two 105-mm naval guns stacked on top of each other suddenly fell silent.

Seeing that the situation was not good, the Germans hurriedly turned to flee towards the friendly ship, and at this time, the other two large German torpedo boats had already packed up the lone British torpedo boats, and when they saw that their companions were being bullied by the other party, they immediately rushed at full speed and were shooting from afar.

Colonel Short commanded the "bulldogs" to chase and fight fiercely, and soon two more shells hit the German ship, but after all, the other side had a clear speed advantage, and the distance between the two sides continued to widen, and the threat of artillery fire was also reduced. The torpedo boat that served as a wingman could match its speed, but it had already run out of torpedoes at once. Colonel Short then ordered his men to signal the flag, and the wingmen worked closely together to meet the other two large German torpedo boats, which were largely intact.

This battle is the real test.

After the defeat at Jutland, the prestige of the British Royal Navy fell to a low point overnight, but thanks to the active campaign of the British government and military, most British naval officers and men not only did not suffer from "ethnophobia", but looked forward to using victory to wash away the shame. Approaching the two large German torpedo boats, Colonel Schott was pleased to notice that the crews around him were calm and unafraid.

At high speed, the guns of the four ships on both sides were lackluster, and it was not until they entered a distance of several hundred meters that the impact point began to pose a real threat to the other side, and when the two sides were four or five hundred meters apart, the German ships fired torpedoes one after another.

Seeing the smoke from the torpedo tube, Colonel Short cocked the corners of his mouth contemptuously and ordered: "Turn a compass point to the right with half a rudder!" ”

The helmsman carried out the order accurately, and the medium torpedo boat, which was in the wing position, reacted a little slower, but also avoided the torpedoes fired by the two German ships in quick succession.

After turning, Colonel Short's two ships turned sideways to the enemy, which increased their bomb area, but also gave the guns in the amidships and rear an angle of fire.

As the distance between them rapidly closes, the gunners keep lowering the muzzles of the guns until they are level, but due to the turbulence of the ship, no more than a quarter of the shells can hit each other in this almost face-to-face firing.

Both sides are gritting their teeth to withstand the blows of the other.

In the binoculars, Colonel Short saw several officers standing on the bridge of the opposing ship, and the man at the head was also looking at him with a telescope.

"Attack the bridge of the enemy ship!" Colonel Short shouted.

As soon as the words fell, the shells fired by the enemy ship screamed and passed by, and Colonel Short's face was calm, but a chill appeared behind him.

The order was quickly transmitted to the gun emplacement, and the experienced non-commissioned officer personally operated the gun, and after the cannon roared, the smoke of the explosion suddenly flashed on the battleship opposite, but the hit position was near the second chimney behind the bridge.

In an instant, a shell fired from another cannon of the enemy ship flew in and hit the bow of the "Minotaur".

Despite the shrapnel, Colonel Short did not move.

In the telescope, the same is true of the officer on the opposite bridge.

Since neither side had the intention of separating the superior with a brutal collision, the four ships staggered each other. When they were closer, they were able to see each other's clothes and figures, and each tried to take advantage of this opportunity to inflict maximum damage on each other with machine guns.

Next, the two German ships made a sharp left turn and tried to attack the British ship from the rear using their speed. Colonel Short anticipated this situation, and he decisively ordered the two ships to turn left, but instead of going in circles with each other, he ran towards the large German torpedo boat that had been defeated in a hurry - this guy did not withdraw from the battlefield, but joined up with the two friendly ships, but in a short time he did not adjust to the same pace, and was slightly behind a distance of several hundred meters, and this vacancy had long been seen by Colonel Short.

The gunners were in full swing, and they turned their guns quickly, pouring all their fire on the daredevil.

After a few rounds of artillery fire, a blazing fireball suddenly jumped on the front deck of the large German torpedo boat, and the sound of the explosion instantly resounded across the sea.

When the smoke cleared, a semi-enclosed gun was distorted, the gunners were killed and wounded, and the people on the bridge were all on the sidelines.

At a distance of less than two hundred meters, Colonel Short suddenly gave the order to launch a torpedo from the starboard side.

The order was delayed for a few seconds, and the torpedo man hesitated slightly, and the torpedo fired grazed the tail of the enemy ship.

The witnesses were stunned, but Colonel Short was unmoved.

In the blink of an eye, two large German torpedo boats came closer from behind, and the cannon fire was raging, and the medium torpedo boat that served as a wingman suffered two shots in a row, and the speed of the ship suddenly slowed down.

At this moment, the lookout of the "bulldog" reported the discovery of a small fleet in the northern seas.

It could be the British fleet that came to reinforce it, or it could be the ships of the Germans.

Colonel Short ordered the signal men to climb the mast and signal the flag, while at the same time ordered the destroyer to turn to the left with full rudder and concentrate its fire on the one of the two pursuers who were closer - the other decisively reversing the gunfire that had been smashed at the "bulldog" wingman, but the firepower of the other large German torpedo boat was enough to kill a medium torpedo boat. It swept away the last gun of the British torpedo boat with naval guns, then bombarded the part of its power compartment in succession, and when the torpedo boat lost most of its speed, it turned sideways and fired two torpedoes from the port side.

After a violent explosion, the medium torpedo boat disappeared from the sea with its entire crew.

Colonel Short's eyes were like knives, and his face was like iron. Under his command, the "Bulldog" made 16 compass points in a row, that is, a 180-degree U-turn, and then turned its bow against the enemy and rushed over at full speed. Seeing this, the German ships hurriedly evaded, and the ship's single-mounted guns and machine guns opened fire desperately, while the "bulldogs" were shot one after another, and the fighters on the foredeck were killed and wounded.

Seeing that he was only 200 meters away from the other side, Colonel Short gave two orders in succession: the full rudder turned 5 degrees to the left, and the starboard torpedo waited for the opportunity to fire.

On this class of destroyers, the two torpedo tubes are both underwater, and the left and right sides are separated, so there is no need to adjust the angle when attacking.

Moments later, the torpedo's white trail appeared on the surface of the sea, and it extended in the direction of the large German torpedo boat, but it was not until the waves set off by the explosion appeared on the side of the target that Colonel Short's eyes flashed.

The joy of sinking the enemy ship was suppressed by the unoptimistic battle situation. The remaining two large German torpedo boats have already been united, and although one of them has suffered heavy damage, it still has a formidable combat effectiveness and its power is largely unaffected.

What made the British sailors even more desperate was that the ships that appeared in the north were completely indifferent to the flag signals sent by their ships, and the officers also made a preliminary judgment from the shadows shown in the binoculars: the ships were large and small, the big one was a medium-tonnage battle cruiser, and the small one was a light ship of the destroyer or large torpedo boat.

Unfortunately, their contours clearly belong to the opposing side.

(End of chapter)