Unlike the celebrations in the General Staff, Tirpitz was only happy for a while before returning to calm, holding in his hand the preliminary statistics of the bombing sent by the HNA that the first wave of attacks had caused heavy damage or sinking of three British capital ships, and the second wave was attacking, and Yin Maiman asked whether to launch a third wave of attacks.

"How many years of hard work, how many years of dreams, was easily realized by a hundred planes?!" Tirpitz had mixed feelings, according to the current trend, after three waves of attacks, the British would lose at least 8 capital ships, 20 cruisers and destroyers, so there would be no need for Scheer's high seas fleet to play!

"Let the boys of the HNA rest, there is no need to send a third wave, it's time for our high seas fleet to play." In such an important battle, the main forces of the Navy must play a key role.

"Our fleet is about to catch up with the Hipper fleet, and I request to withdraw the order to retreat!" Betty's telegram made Jericho furious, the main fleet suffered so much loss, the German high seas fleet was nowhere to be seen, Betty actually refused his order in a dangerous situation, and the main fleet needed his battleships to guard!

Enraged, Jericho sent three urgent telegrams asking Betty to return to the sea, but received no reply. Fortunately, General Hood's 3rd Battle Patrol had returned and joined up with the main fleet, which was supposed to support Betty's fleet, but Jericho ordered it to return to protect the main fleet after the German planes began attacking.

Because the Hipper fleet and the Betty fleet were entering the engagement distance, Hipper, too, seemed tired of running away and ordered the fleet to enter combat mode. The current situation is that the four main battle cruisers of Betty's fleet are scarred and their combat capability has been greatly reduced, while Hipper has three ships of the same type that have not been seriously damaged. But Betty was confident that he could win, even if Jericho's main fleet returned, because his Fifth Battleship was about 115 nautical miles behind him, and as long as he held Hippel for two hours, the Fifth Battlefleet would arrive and annihilate Hipper.

The duel between Hippert and Betty began again, the German sailors showed that they were not inferior to the British sailors, and the accuracy of the guns on both sides was good, but the problem was that the capital ship of Betty's fleet was badly damaged, the Indefatigable withdrew from the battle, the Tiger and Queen Mary's firing commanders were damaged, and the maneuverability and salvo ability were greatly affected. And the battleships of the Hipper's fleet were relatively intact, and the accuracy of the salvo surpasses that of the British fleet.

The unfavorable situation was born out of the British self-confidence of invincibility, but today their self-confidence was about to turn into recklessness, and Hipper taught the British a perfect lesson, and this naval battle was simply a microcosm of the international situation, in which the new Germany was replacing the aging England.

At 15:55, the Hipper's fleet turned to the southeast, and the neat formation and good communication made it impossible to see that it was the fleeing side. Betty's fleet fired first, but not a single shell hit, as it was not a side-fire, and very few guns were able to attack.

At 16:10, the four capital ships of the Hipper's fleet, which had first seized the T-position, fired completely sideways, and the disaster of Betty's fleet came. First, the Lützov hit the Lion and broke its radio, then the Queen Mary hit two shells in quick succession, and the weak armor protection cost the battlecruiser its life, and an armor-piercing shell flew off the main turret A and detonated the ammunition in the ammunition magazine.

The Queen Mary did not have the same good luck as the Indefatigable, the ammunition depot exploded, and more than 60 tons of gunpowder directly tore the Queen Mary to pieces, and countless steel residues were splashed, turning into the most conspicuous fireball on the sea.

At 16:25, Betty's fleet finally achieved good results, the New Zealand hit the De Fleeter, the old German war cruiser had a lot of damage in the previous battle, this time it could not withstand the bombardment of the New Zealand, the superstructure fell into a sea of fire, and the damage management personnel failed to extinguish the fire despite their efforts to rescue, and the captain had no choice but to give the order to abandon the ship.

At 16:49, the Betty fleet suffered another heavy loss, and the Tiger Patrol was set on fire by the Von de Tann and the Seydlitz, and successively hit four shells, the most lethal one from the side armor-piercing shell, which appeared a huge gap near the waterline, and also destroyed several sealed water tanks inside, causing the influx of seawater to be unstoppable. Within fifteen minutes, the Tiger was fully tilted, its stern raised high and split in two from the breach, before sinking into the sea.

Betty's fleet was even more disadvantageous after the Tiger was silent, and the Fifth Battle Squadron was still eighty nautical miles away, at which point Betty finally began to panic, and it was absolutely impossible for the Tiger to defeat the Hipper's fleet after it sank. So the destroyers of Betty's fleet began to launch torpedo attacks to cover the retreat of the remaining ships.

The situation turned, and the Hipper's fleet began to pursue Betty's fleet, with the destroyers of both sides tangling up and the capital ships rounding to pursue the British. Unexpectedly, the pursuing German battle cruiser Lützov was approached by a British destroyer, and two torpedoes hit the Lützov, and the Germans still showed their immature side after the victory, while the veteran British used these two torpedoes to prove the heritage of the old sea power.

Annoyed, Hippert caught up with Betty's fleet thirty-five minutes later, but the attack lasted only thirty minutes, as it was getting dark, and Hippel did not know that Betty was joining up with the Fifth Squadron, otherwise he would have retreated more neatly.

The thirty-minute pursuit attack caused Betty's fleet to be damaged again, the Lion Battle Patrol was attacked by the Germans with concentrated fire, and the Germans who had the advantage became more and more courageous, and played an extraordinary level, the Lion hit five shells in succession, and the power system completely stopped running, Betty did not dare to turn back to meet the battle, so she had to give up the Lion. Eventually, the Lion was torpedoed and sunk by two German destroyers.

In the other direction, the second wave of German attacks had just passed, and the home fleet again lost three capital ships and seven escort ships. In the absence of aircraft interception, weak anti-aircraft fire, disorganized formations, poor command, Jericho's native fleet was like a lamb to the slaughter. The British, who had been crisscrossing the seas for hundreds of years, had never seen this mode of naval warfare, nor had the experienced and sophisticated Jericho seen planes that could attack ships, and it was not easy for the home fleet to fight the Germans until the German aircraft superiority was broken, and the British did not know whether these planes took off from surface ships or from ground airfields.

If it is a bomber and torpedo aircraft that take off from surface ships, that is, "aircraft carriers" as the Chinese, then this will be the worst-case scenario. The High Seas Fleet and its aircraft carriers will be present in the North Sea, the Baltic Sea, the English Channel, and even the Atlantic, and the Home Fleet will have no way to deal with those carriers. At that time, Britain's maritime supremacy will be handed over, and the home fleet will only be able to survive in Scarpa's Bay and other military ports, and Britain and the Allies will lose the war. The new mode of operation appeared for too short, and many things were secret to Jericho, in fact, the aircraft carrier was not so magical, especially in the North Sea, where the wind and waves were too strong, and it also lacked the ability to fight at night, and once it was approached by the British battle patrol, it did not have the slightest resistance. And it is impossible for the construction of such large warships not to show the wind, the distance seen by European countries is like Beijing to Tianjin, and you can go from the capital of one country to another in a few steps, the Germans build large warships, and the British can smell it across the English Channel. But this was not something Jericho could have thought of out of a state of tension.

If the German plane took off from land, then it was okay, the range of the plane could not be too far, as long as it was not close to the European coast. In any case, after returning to the homeland, we must ask the Admiralty to urge the parliament to pass the bill on the development and production of aircraft carriers and carrier-based aircraft, and the native fleet without aircraft is too aggrieved!

However, the appearance of the main force of the High Seas Fleet led by Scheer made Jericho almost desperate, and Scheer, who had been waiting for a long time and accurately grasped the whereabouts of the British fleet, appeared in front of Jericho at the most opportune time, and as soon as he appeared, he occupied the T-position in the naval battle and cut off the retreat of the home fleet.

We must evacuate the battlefield and not fight the Germans! This was Jericho's first thought, the main force of his home fleet had lost six capital ships and sixteen escort ships under the blow of German aircraft, and its strength was greatly damaged, morale was low, and it was still in a disadvantageous position, and a decisive battle that insisted on going its own way would only make the home fleet suffer greater losses, and even the danger of total annihilation. (To be continued.) )