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Chapter 414 Anglo-German naval Armageddon

[Big change chapter, 11,000 words]

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With the help of the Chinese Empire, the German Navy received the first batch of critical military equipment. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info\\. The first launch included 20 upgraded submarines with sonar arrays dismantled (the German Navy called them Seawolf U571 submarines), and German naval aviation received 100 J-4 Cat Demon fighters, 60 H1N1 avian flu bombers, and a matching 320 tons of aviation ammunition and aerial bombs.

As part of the huge trade order between China and Germany in 1915, the Chinese Empire gave priority to the supply of weapons and equipment to the German Navy, with the purpose of helping the German Navy to conduct a decisive battle with the British Navy, and to help the German High Seas Fleet defeat the British Navy, break through the blockade of the British Navy, and enter the Atlantic.

The supplies were finally put into service with the German Navy on March 27, and the German Navy dispatched the most elite naval submarine officers and naval aviation officers, and with the covert help of the Imperial Chinese Navy, they mastered the use of relevant equipment in a short period of time.

At the same time, at the suggestion of Lin Taizeng, air defense systems were installed on the capital ships of the German High Seas Fleet. Since the German Navy did not have time to develop naval air defense equipment, it urgently seconded 1,000 M2 heavy machine guns from the Chinese Imperial Cyprus base, and temporarily added anti-aircraft machine guns to the warship by urgently installing anti-aircraft mounts on the female wall of the warship.

The main reason for this consideration was that Lin Tai was worried that in the decisive battle between Britain and Germany, Germany would send naval aviation to participate in the war, and Britain would definitely send naval aviation as well. Previously, the Chinese Empire had exported more than 500 foreign trade J-4 Cat Demon fighters and N1N1 avian flu bombers to the British, and the CIA of the Chinese Empire had intelligence that several British converted aircraft carriers had been completed, so they had to be on guard.

In view of the fact that the Chinese Empire used aircraft carrier fighter groups to defeat the Japanese Combined Fleet, the German Navy actively supported and cooperated with Lin Taizeng's proposal.

On 29 March, all preparations for the German High Seas Fleet were completed. However, the main force of the British Navy has been squatting in Scapa Bay, and has not realized that a major war is coming, as usual.

During this period, although the British agents in Germany provided some fragmentary information, and had a premonition that the German Navy would have a big operation, the arrogant British Navy did not take the German Navy seriously at all, and with the United States entering the war, the more powerful American Navy would soon come to Europe to converge, and then it would be the end of the German Navy.

At this time, the British Admiralty and the U.S. Admiralty were also studying the matter of a joint decisive battle between the two navies against the German Navy, and both sides believed that the British and American combined fleets would completely destroy the German High Seas Fleet, break the European maritime stalemate, and then make an all-out counterattack against the Allies.

The British Admiralty was busy receiving American naval officials, so it turned a deaf ear to individual information about the recent major operations of the German Navy.

Of course, the main reason for the peace of mind of the British Navy was that the British deciphered the German Navy's codebook, and believed that the German Navy had not yet discovered that their codebook had been deciphered, so the British Navy was able to know the movements of the German Navy at all times, so it was easy to sit back and relax.

On the afternoon of March 30, the commander of the British Navy's main fleet, John ? Admiral Jericho received a top-secret message from London: "The German Ocean Fleet (the British name for the High Seas Fleet) will sail tomorrow." ”

The German Navy had already known from the Chinese Empire that the British Navy had deciphered their codebook and had secretly changed it, but in order to paralyze the British, the new codebook would only be used in the decisive battle, and before that, it would also use the exposed old codebook, and deliberately revealed some important information to the British, so that the British would continue to think that the German Navy had not discovered the fact that the codebook had been deciphered.

After receiving the information, the British Admiral John? Jericho and Vice Admiral David? Betty sensed that the happy event was coming, and they all wanted to damage the German Navy once and make a name for themselves.

Jericho worked out a battle plan that was exactly the same as Lint's overnight: David? Vice Admiral Betty led the avant-garde fleet from Port Rousseth in Scotland and arrived in the waters off Jutland east of Norway on the afternoon of the 31st in the hope of meeting the German fleet. Jellicoe personally led the main fleet from the port of Scappaflo and also reached the sea area 60 nautical miles northwest of Betty's fleet on the afternoon of the 31st. With the sheer firepower and speed of the British fleet, Jerichale believed that he was completely certain of annihilating the German fleet that appeared in the intended waters.

As soon as Jericho and Betty developed a plan to ambush the German High Seas Fleet, they immediately reported it to the British Admiralty, which was quickly approved.

Just after four o'clock in the afternoon, the British Admiralty again informed Betty and Jericho of the latest intercepted German naval radio intelligence, confirming that the German Navy would send a battle cruiser fleet into the Atlantic tomorrow morning.

At Scapa Gulf Jericho ordered the main forces of the home fleet to prepare for battle, while in Roses Harbor, Betty also gave the order to sail at 22 knots to the waters of Jutland on his flagship battlecruiser Lion.

At about half past nine in the evening, Betty led his detachment of battlecruisers (the 1st Battlecruiser Squadron, the 2nd Battlecruiser Squadron, the 5th Battleship Squadron and the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Cruiser Squadrons, the 1st, 9th, 10th, and 13th Destroyer Squadrons) to the predetermined sea.

And in Scapa Sound, Jericho's fleet's main battleship fleet also set off at the same time. With the exception of a dozen or so battleships, including the Dreadnought, which remained on home soil and served as escorts at sea in the Atlantic, all Royal Navy battleships and battlecruisers were dispatched.

In order to ambush the main fleet of the German Navy in advance, the Home Fleet of the British Royal Navy set off four and a half hours before the departure of the German High Seas Fleet.

At the same time, the four electronic reconnaissance and hunting ships of the Imperial Chinese Navy's special service fleet successively intercepted and deciphered the radio communications and telegrams from the British Admiralty and the fleet commands, and all of them were collected and delivered to Lin Taizeng, who then relayed them to the German Admiralty.

"This is a British naval communications telegram that has just been intercepted." Lin Tai had sent a telegram to Tirpitz and Scher, and at the same time said: "Congratulations, the British navy has been fooled, they are heading for the Jutland Sea, preparing to ambush us. ”

Tirpitz was very excited, and hurriedly thanked Lin Taizeng: "This information is so important, thank you." ”

Lin Tai smiled and accepted Tirpitz's thanks very calmly.

Next to him, Scheer asked, "Lord Lin, I wonder if there is an exact ambush location for the British Navy in your country?" ”

Lin Taizeng shook his head and said, "Not yet!" However, the main fleet of the British Navy has already departed, and we will inform you of the location of the British Navy as soon as they arrive at the ambush site. You just have to wait a few hours before you go. ”

Although Scheer was very excited, he was still very nervous for the first time to command such a large fleet for a decisive battle, so he said: "Since we are going to delay our departure for a few hours, why don't we deduce it first?" ”

Lin Taizeng smiled and nodded in agreement.

"If I were Jericho, I'd ambush here, here......"

"Then we will ambush them, and we should be there......"

……

For the rest of the few hours, Lin Tai worked with Tirpitz and Schell to deduce the possible ambush location of the British Navy's main fleet, and then adjusted his own anti-ambush position according to the deployment of the other side.

After waiting for more than four hours, Lin Tai agreed that Schell could lead the fleet to depart, because the interval of four hours was enough time for the German Navy to give the German navy sufficient warning time and time to deploy the battle plan.

At one o'clock in the morning on March 31, the German Navy's submarine fleet departed, with a total of 76 submarines, including 20 advanced submarines supplied to the German Navy by the Chinese Empire.

At 2:10 a.m., Hipper headed the 1st and 2nd fleets and the 2nd, 6th, and 9th destroyer fleets, consisting of battle cruisers and cruisers, respectively, out of port.

Half an hour later, Scheer set sail with the main force of the High Seas Fleet, including the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd battleship squadrons and the 4th reconnaissance squadron consisting of cruisers, and the 1st, 3rd, 5th, and 7th destroyer squadrons were on cover.

At about five o'clock in the morning, Jericho ordered the battleship squadron to turn 30 degrees east-south at a speed of 16 knots to join Betty's fleet.

Half an hour later, Scheer received a report from the submarine U571 that a British naval fleet had been spotted heading southeast.

Scheer and Linté had hurriedly checked the charts to gauge the intentions of the British navy.

At about half-past five, the sky was bright, but the sky was cloudy and gloomy, and the sun could not be seen. However, Scheer still suggested sending a naval aviation reconnaissance plane to reconnoiter it, but Lin Tai objected to it on the grounds that after our reconnaissance plane discovered the British fleet, it would inevitably alert the British fleet, and the effect would be reduced. "Net" t "Net" //

"Rest assured, we'll have news of the British Navy fleet soon."

Lin Tai had promised Scheer that he would dispel Scheer's thoughts.

At 6:10 a.m., four large reconnaissance planes that took off from the Cypriot naval base of the Chinese Empire arrived at Bremen Airport, and immediately after refueling, they took off and flew at an altitude of 4,000 meters to reconnoiter targets in the waters near Jutland.

Due to the fact that the large reconnaissance aircraft (long-range bomber modifications) of the Chinese Empire flew high and had a long endurance, they could not be detected by the British Navy on the sea, so they could maintain the concealment of their actions.

At half past six, Lin Tai had received a report from a reconnaissance plane of the Chinese Empire that the main fleet of the British Navy had been discovered. But the main fleets of the British Navy did not come together, but acted separately.

After researching this, Scheer and Linté decided to have the Hipper's fleet attack the smaller British Navy's fleet as a diversion, while Scheer led the main fleet to ambush the British main fleet directly from the flanks.

Scheer was a little hesitant, and Lin Tai comforted him: "Don't worry, once the war starts, I have a way to make the command system of the main fleet of the British Navy fail." Coupled with the air attack of naval aviation, it will definitely cause chaos in the British navy, and then you can concentrate on taking out a group of British capital ships first, seize the initiative, and then destroy the rest. ”

Scheer nodded, "Although you have always refused to tell us the truth, I believe in the great strength of your Chinese Imperial Navy. ”

At eight o'clock in the morning, Scheer kept the main forces of the High Seas Fleet fifty nautical miles behind the side of Hipper's fleet, and instructed Hipper to lead the fleet to prepare for a sortie and hold off the vanguard of the British Navy. Scheer adopted the tactics of encirclement and reinforcement proposed by Lin Tai, and led the main fleet to ambush the main fleet of the British Navy that rushed to reinforce it.

At the same time, Jericho and Betty received notices from the British Admiralty that the main force of the Scheer fleet had not left the port, while the latter pointed out that the Scheer fleet was no longer in the port, which confused the British army's judgment of the battlefield situation. Betty believed the Admiralty's intelligence and therefore continued to prepare as planned to ambush the German battle cruiser detachment on the eastern side of Jutland, while Jericho questioned the intelligence and wondered if it was a German trap. When Jericho called back a second time, the intelligence bureau reversed course and said it had made a mistake.

Jericho dispelled his suspicions and continued to act according to his original plan. In fact, what neither he nor the British Intelligence Service knew was that the German Intelligence Service had just terminated the British spy station in the Bremen military port, and the second piece of information was a false information written by the Germans based on the British radio code provided by the Chinese Empire.

This small intelligence war is not known to the world, but it was one of the key factors in the outcome of the Battle of Jutland. The British paid a heavy price for intelligence failures, and the Germans were able to ensure the success of the operation by stopping the British spies in time.

At two o'clock in the afternoon, the sky was further gloomy, as if a storm was coming. The Betty fleet and the Hippel fleet were 50 nautical miles apart, and the two fleets were in a parallel position. Despite the unusually high amount of black smoke coming out of both fleets, the sky was so dark that neither side was alert.

However, soon the Hipper fleet was guided by the reconnaissance planes of the Chinese Empire at high altitudes, knew that the British fleet was opposite, and immediately launched a tactical transformation, and at the same time called the naval aviation at the Bremen base to make an urgent sortie. In turn, the Betty fleet, due to weather conditions, only sent the light cruiser Galaday to guard the perimeter due to mechanical problems with their naval water reconnaissance aircraft.

At 2:15 p.m., Hipper's fleet approached the rear of the British fleet in a tactical attack formation, and was quickly spotted by the Betty fleet with the guard cruiser Galaday placed on the perimeter.

The vigilant cruiser Galaday immediately reported to Betty: "The German fleet has been spotted moving east-southeast and seems to be outflanking the flank of our fleet." ”

Betty was taken aback, and before the battle began, she lost a trick in reconnaissance, so she hurriedly ordered the fleet to turn the rudder in a south-easterly direction. Due to the distance between the two sides, the Betty fleet, which had no aerial reconnaissance planes to provide information, could only ask the 1st Light Cruiser Detachment to reinforce the Galaday, maintain reconnaissance of the movements of the German fleet, and order the maintenance crew to repair the seaplanes as soon as possible, and at the same time report the situation to the base camp.

Betty reported to Jericho that he had spotted the German Battlecruiser and did not look at the main fleet, so Jericho, who had been worried, breathed a sigh of relief and asked Betty to attract the German Battlecruiser to the direction of the main fleet, and at the same time told Betty the location and course of the main fleet.

At this moment, the electronic reconnaissance ship Baigujing, the No. 4 ship of the Imperial Chinese Navy's special service fleet, located 60 nautical miles to the southwest, intercepted the contents of Jericho and Betty's communications, and quickly solved them and reported them to the German High Seas Fleet.

After obtaining the exact location of the British main fleet, Schell immediately worked out the location of the ambush of the enemy fleet with Lin Taizeng, and at the same time ordered the submarine fleet to immediately go to the ambush area, and then estimated the approximate start time of the engagement, and quickly sent it back to the German Admiralty, asking the naval aviation bomber group to be ready.

At 2:28 p.m., the Hindenburg, the third battle cruiser of the Hipper's fleet, which attracted the attention of the British fleet, was the first to approach the Gallardier, the outer guard cruiser of the Betty fleet, and at a distance of 20 kilometers, the Hindenburg opened fire first, and then the other three battle cruisers opened fire at once, and dozens of 356-mm shells whistled at the Galaday, and the prelude to the Battle of Jutland began.

The main battle cruisers of the Hipper fleet consisted of 15 ships, which, according to Lin Taizeng's proposal, were organized into four columns, with other light cruisers and destroyers mixed among the four detachments.

Fight in several parallel columns, which are relatively more mobile. Several shorter columns can turn faster than a long serpent, and can also relay the signal of the flagship (usually at the head of the central column) to the entire fleet more quickly by searchlights or flags. In a long line of snakes, the signal from the flagship at the head of the column often takes 10 minutes or more to be transmitted to the last ship of the column, because the black smoke coming from the battleship's chimney makes it difficult to make out the signals from the front and back, and each ship has to repeat the message it receives to the ship behind it (or in front). And since many messages must be acknowledged by each ship before they can be implemented, the time wasted can be doubled. Fleets tend to line up in columns to meet enemy ships before exchanging fire. This requires the ships led by each column to lead the ships they lead to turn left or right to form a suitable formation. Since the fleets of both warring sides are traveling at high speeds, fleet commanders need to send reconnaissance fleets (usually composed of cruisers and destroyers) to report the enemy's position, speed, course, etc., so that the fleet can form the most favorable formation to meet the enemy ships as soon as possible. The reconnaissance fleet should also try to prevent the opposing reconnaissance fleet from obtaining similar information.

Ideally, your own column is formed exactly across the path of the opposing fleet, forming a T-shaped or T-shaped (your fleet is located in the position of the T-shaped horizontal), so that all of your front and rear main guns and all the gunwales on one side can aim at the opponent, and the opponent can only return fire with the forward main guns of the ships at the front of the column. But a large part of the plan to form a T-shape is a matter of luck: since both sides are already moving at high speed, it is very likely that they will not be able to get the timing right, and they will go from a T-shaped horizontal to a vertical one, and thus be passively beaten.

The Imperial Chinese Navy was experienced in column tactics and achieved a series of victories, so the German Navy's capital ship formation was also changed to a Chinese-style tactical formation arranged in parallel columns.

At half past two in the afternoon, the Betty's fleet reconnaissance cruiser Galati came under the third fire salvo of the third squadron of the Shipper's fleet, in which two 356-mm shells hit the ship's vital point and penetrated its horizontal armor of less than 30 mm, directly into the hull and exploded.

With a loud bang, the light cruiser Galati exploded violently, and in an instant, smoke and flames burst out several hundred meters high, and the entire battleship was blown up, and it suddenly lost its ability to maneuver, followed by a series of explosions, and the oil depot and ammunition depot exploded one after another, and in less than five minutes, the Galati light cruiser disintegrated and sank.

The might of the mighty Hyperbow battlecruiser was revealed at this moment, and the German Navy quickly cheered and celebrated the good start. The British Navy was shocked and overshadowed.

As soon as the battle began, Betty's fleet suffered a loss, which greatly annoyed Betty and ordered all battlecruisers to speed up to 22 knots.

At 2:37 p.m., the seaplane on board the Betty's fleet Egadin was repaired, but the seaplane needed nearly 20 minutes of preparation time before it could take off, which was very passive for Betty, because he could not analyze the arrangement of the German battlecruisers twenty kilometers away at sea level, and could only judge the opponent's position and formation according to the opponent's firepower and direction, which was very passive for Betty.

At the same time, Jericho also received a report from Betty that the two sides were already fighting, so he ordered the battleship to speed up to 18 knots.

At 2:58 p.m., Betty's water reconnaissance plane finally took off and briefed Betty on the disposition of the German battle cruiser.

Soon, Betty ordered the Lion, the Royal Princess, the Queen Mary, the Tiger, the New Zealand, and the Indefatigable to turn 40 degrees to the left of the Hipper's fleet, the Lützov, the De Fllinger, the Sadritz, the Moltke, the von Pet. Morality. The Tann attacked in the direction of the direction, trying to take advantage of the speed advantage and seize the advantageous "T" prefix to shoot the transverse.

At 3:20 p.m., a fierce battle broke out between the first detachment led by Betty's flagship Lion and the first team led by Hipper's flagship Seydlitz, both sides wanted to seize the advantageous T-shaped shooting position, but the speed difference between the two sides was not large, and the British battlecruisers were at most two or three knots faster than the German battlecruisers, and under the correct command of Hipper, Betty was not given any chance.

If it is changed to ten years ago, the difference in speed is two or three knots enough for the fast side to easily seize the T-shaped shooting horizontal position, which the Chinese Empire has compared with the Russian Navy ten years ago, and it is better than the speed.

However, ten years later, with the revolutionary development of the navy, the difference in speed by two or three knots can no longer seize the advantageous T-shaped shooting horizon, because the main guns of the two sides have a large caliber, a firing range of more than 30 kilometers, and the combat distance is also 20 kilometers away, and they no longer engage in battles within five or six kilometers as ten years ago. In this way, if you want to seize the T-shaped shooting horizon, you need to do a circular course movement with a radius of 20 kilometers, which is obviously not compensated for by the speed difference of two or three knots.

It was only at this moment that the British Navy sadly discovered that the speed advantage they were proud of no longer had an absolute advantage in actual combat. In turn, the German naval warships had thicker armor and strong resistance to strikes, and the two sides quickly fought to the detriment of the British Navy.

Since the battle cruisers of the German Navy developed no later than the British, and the lead ships of the German Navy were introduced from the Chinese Empire from the very beginning, the caliber of the main guns was not bad. As soon as the war began, the German Navy got off to a good start, so the more fierce the war became, and gradually found that the British Navy was not as strong as imagined, and there was nothing remarkable.

The guns roared, the smoke of gunpowder filled the air, and the capital ships of both sides soon entered the stage of firefighting, and the entire area of the battle was boiling in an instant.

At 3:45 p.m., German naval aviation flew 20 Fokker fighters, 40 Cat torpedo bombers, and 10 H1N1 bombers. The reconnaissance plane piloted by Second Lieutenant Robinson sent by the Ergardine was attacked and shot down on the way back, leaving the Betty fleet blind and deprived of the reconnaissance plane.

Five minutes later, German naval aviation dropped forty torpedoes and 20 500-kilogram bombs in the Betty fleet formation. Since most of Betty's fleet were battle cruisers, they had a fast speed and a fast ability to maneuver and turn, and they were covered by a large number of light cruisers and destroyers, but they were all torpedoed to change course, and the formation fell into confusion.

However, the Betty fleet also had a fifth battleship detachment (four Quasi-Divine Bow battleships, built during the Sino-British War, with an average speed of only 17 knots), and due to the slow speed and slow turning, the battleships Leicester and Lincoln were torpedoed, of which the Lincoln was hit by two torpedoes, and sank instantly. The Leicester was hit by a torpedo and, after being damaged, was temporarily saved, quickly leaving the battlefield and returning to Scapa Bay.

Seeing that the formation of the British fleet was in disarray, Hipper immediately ordered the whole fleet to take the opportunity to launch a fierce attack and sink as many British ships as possible.

At 3:57 p.m., the naval battle between Betty and Hipper's fleet was at a fever pitch. The battlefield situation was very favorable to Hipper's fleet, and his fleet was in good shape, and the mixture of soot and gunpowder smoke that fluttered in the wind blew towards the opposing side, reducing the visibility of Betty's fleet even more.

At the same time, the electronic reconnaissance ship Yutu, the special service fleet of the Chinese Empire, which had been following Hipper's fleet, suddenly activated a large-scale radio jamming and blocked the radio communications of the British Navy, causing the Betty command system to malfunction, and all the warships were fighting separately and losing their unified command.

The Hipper fleet took the opportunity to carry out a penetrating and splitting attack on the Betty fleet, circled out the lone British battlecruisers, and concentrated their firepower, which immediately inflicted heavy damage on the Betty fleet, and the battle cruisers such as the Lion, the Royal Princess, the Queen Mary, the Tiger, and the New Zealand were severely damaged one after another, with countless casualties.

Betty was so anxious that she immediately cancelled the radio communication method and replaced it with flags and light signals. However, after entering the era of the Shenbow Navy, the ships were far apart, and the huge artillery bombardment of the sea caused a column of water hundreds of meters high, huge waves rolled, smoke filled, and it was difficult to see the flag and light signals clearly, and there were frequent interruptions.

At 4:17 p.m., Betty's fleet had a signal error, which caused the Lion and the Royal Princess to fire at the same target, while the weakest Indefatigable was sent to fight von Fathom. Morality. The Tann and the Hindenburg faced off, and the result was naturally bruised and swollen by the German Navy.

At 3:50 p.m., the German ship Lützov fired once and hit the Lion once, and the Moltke hit the Tiger twice in succession. Because the main guns of the battle cruisers were huge, but the protection was very weak, even one shot would have been catastrophic, and the Lion and Tiger were immediately severely damaged, the hull was severely damaged, and a fire broke out, thick smoke billowed, and hundreds of people were killed and wounded.

Three minutes later, the British ship Royal Princess hit the Lützov. But at the same time, the Royal Princess was also hit by two 356-mm shells fired by the De Fleet, which was interspersed with roundabouts, and the No. 3 and No. 4 turrets were instantly damaged and burst into flames. Fortunately, the British did not want to extinguish the fire, otherwise they would have almost burned to the ammunition depot under the turret. Once the ammunition depot is detonated, sinking is inevitable.

All the ships of Betty's fleet were badly damaged, and Betty was so angry that she slammed her head against the hatch until she was bleeding before being persuaded by her lieutenant.

In order to gain time and turn the tide of the situation, Betty ordered all destroyers to carry out torpedo attacks at any cost. His purpose was to sacrifice the destroyer to keep the battlecruiser.

At 3:58 p.m., the German ship Setritz wanted to take advantage of the Queen Mary's evasion to seize the T-shaped horizontal position, but instead of grabbing it, the other side occupied the T-shaped horizontal position.

The tragic Cedritz was fired at by a salvo from the Queen Mary, only to destroy one of its turrets with a 356-mm shell. The German ship Fleeter rushed to support and hit a shell from the Queen Mary, but at the same time it was hit by a shell itself.

At four o'clock in the afternoon, the Lion was hit by a 343-mm shell from the Munich in the No. 2 turret, rendering it unable to turn.

Betty's fleet as a whole was heavily damaged, and although no battlecruisers had been sunk, each wounded, plus one battleship sunk, made Betty have no intention of continuing the decisive battle. Due to the failure of the radio and the inability to contact Jericho, he had to quickly abandon the decisive battle and take the initiative to retreat to the main fleet.

However, Betty never imagined that their retreat route had long been known to the German Navy. Scheer knew that the strategic purpose of Betty's fleet was to attract the Hipper's fleet into the pocket of Jericho's main fleet, so a large number of submarines had been arranged between Betty's fleet and Jericho's fleet, and at this time there were already more than a dozen submarines aimed at the approaching Betty's fleet.

"Boom!"

After a loud bang, the battlecruiser Indefatigable was hit on the port side by a 21-inch torpedo, and the huge explosion instantly tore through the poor 200 mm waterline and armor of the Indefatigable Battlecruiser, and the huge opening was often billowing with smoke, while the sea water poured violently into it, the huge hull quickly tilted, and the port side was submerged to the deck in less than two minutes, and three minutes later the entire battleship was overturned on the sea, and thousands of British naval personnel were locked in it and sank with the battleship.

The sudden attack on the Indefatigable made Betty think of the damned submarines of the German Navy for the first time.

"Boom!"

There were several more explosions, two light cruisers and one destroyer of Betty's fleet were torpedoed and exploded, and the hull was sinking at a visible speed, becoming the first battle cruiser lost by the British Navy since the beginning of the war.

Betty was taken aback, knowing that there must be a lot of German submarines on the route ahead, so she did not dare to take this route, turned around and turned west, intending to flee directly back to Scapa Bay.

At this time, the Hipper's fleet, which had followed and caught up, attacked again.

At 4:05 p.m., the starboard side of the battlecruiser Tiger was replaced by the battle cruiser Von. Morality. The Tann hit three times in a row with its 343-mm guns, and the third time two shells pierced the No. 3 turret of the battlecruiser Tiger, and the German Navy's time-delay fuse shells exploded inside after penetrating the gun mount, as a result of which the ammunition magazine under the No. 3 turret was detonated.

There was a loud bang, followed by a continuous explosion of "boom, boom", and the stern of the battlecruiser Tiger was blown up and sank quickly.

At 4:08, the battlecruiser Tiger sank, becoming the first 30,000-ton giant ship to be sunk by a battlecruiser of its kind in the Battle of Jutland.

The Hipper fleet became more and more courageous, and seemed to see the tragic situation of the British navy, and beat the water dogs.

At 10:40, the Lion's ship island was hit by a fire salvo from the second team of the Hipper's fleet, and the entire ship island was instantly razed to the ground, although Betty's command tower survived, but the explosion destroyed the Lion's power system, so Betty had to change to a dinghy and escape to the Queen Mary.

Hipper ordered the 9th Destroyer Squadron to launch an attack on the Lion, and three minutes later the Lion was sunk by three torpedoes fired by German destroyers.

No sooner had Betty escaped to the Queen Mary than the German ship De Fleeter immediately switched from shooting the Lion to shooting at the Queen Mary and forming a straddle.

At 4:26 p.m., the starboard waterline of the Queen Mary was hit by four 356 mm shells at the same time, and the violent explosion instantly bit the starboard side of the Queen Mary like a sea monster, and the sea water poured into it violently, and Betty jumped into the sea in a panic. A large number of officers and soldiers who fell into the water struggled in the water, but soon they were sucked under the water by the whirlpool, and Betty's dog was very good at shaving and finally swam to a destroyer and was rescued.

Although the Betty fleet was passively beaten, it did not mean that the Hipper's fleet was doing well. Despite the fact that the German battlecruisers were somewhat armored than the British ones, in the face of the 356-mm super-cannon, there was basically no difference between the 200-mm armor and the 240-mm armor, and the German ships did not have a good time.

Just as the German ships were attacking Betty's flagship, Betty's fleet of battle cruisers such as the Royal Princess and New Zealand were also besieging Hipper's flagship, the Cedritz.

At 4:25 a.m., Moltke and von Brown, escorting the Cedritz. Morality. The Tann was hit twice, the hull was heavily damaged, and the Moltke withdrew from the combat sequence. The British ship Princess Royal covered a destroyer and fired three torpedoes at the Setritz, one of which hit, causing a huge breach, tilting the hull and dropping in speed.

The Royal Princess stepped forward to attack further, when the German ship von Murphy. Morality. The Tann rushed up to stop the difference, forcing the Princess Royal away. However, after holding out for more than ten minutes, the Cedritz failed to prevent the flooding, and Hipper had to give the order to abandon the ship, and the command was transferred to von Ander. Morality. Tann.

Although Betty was pleased that Hipper's flagship had also sunk, the whole situation on the battlefield was irreparable, and the German Navy became more and more excited the more they fought, and the British Navy became more and more sad. So Betty had to order the three remaining quasi-godbow battleships to be reared, and the other battleships to retreat quickly.

At 4:28 a.m., the only three old battleships left in the Fifth Battleship Squadron of Betty's fleet took a tragic step, and they fought fiercely with the Hipper's fleet with 300 mm thick armor and 305 main guns and 243 secondary guns.

Hipper's battlecruiser armor was also not easily hit by the 305 main guns of these three old battleships, and it was not easy to tear through the 300mm armor of these three battleships.

In the end, after more than half an hour of fighting, Hipper's battle cruiser fleet violently suppressed the fire of three British ships, sent destroyers to fire torpedoes at the risk of death, and finally three old British battleships were torpedoed and sunk, and Hipper also paid the price of sinking 6 destroyers, two of which were sunk by a cannon of his own battle cruiser Oolong.

Betty sacrificed three old battleships, and finally relied on her speed advantage to safely take the remnants of the fleet out of the battlefield and flee directly to Scapa Bay.

The Hipper fleet paid the price of 1 battle cruiser, 4 light cruisers and 13 destroyers in exchange for 4 battleships, 5 battle cruisers, 7 light cruisers and 19 destroyers of the Betty fleet, which was a great victory.

However, all the ships of Hipper's fleet were also heavily damaged, and none of them were intact, so it was impossible to reinforce Schel's capital ship Armageddon. With Scheer's approval, Hipper led his fleet back.

At the same time, a great battle was staged on the other side.

Scheer's fleet ambushed Jericho's main fleet halfway, with twenty-two capital battleships, 18 light cruisers, 33 destroyers, and 102 submarines, against Jericho's twenty-three capital ships, battleships, four battlecruisers, 22 light cruisers, and 42 destroyers.

Since Scheer knew the direction and course of Jericho's fleet in advance, and arranged an ambush of a submarine group on the way to go, when Jericho found that he had lost contact with Betty's fleet, he panicked and hurriedly ordered the whole fleet to enter the battle and move forward.

In this way, the Jericho fleet did not have time to detect the German submarine threat. Of course, Jericho also did not believe that the torpedoes fired by German submarines would be able to hit battleships moving at full speed at 21 knots.

But what Jericho never expected was that the German Navy came prepared and arranged more than a hundred submarines to ambush, knowing that it would be difficult to hit, but the real purpose was to disrupt the formation of the British fleet so that the German fleet could attack.

Sure enough, when the British main fleet entered the ambush area of the German submarines, the German submarines quickly fired hundreds of torpedoes, of which more than 98% of the torpedoes failed to hit the British capital battleships, and only sank five light cruisers and two destroyers by mistake (they were sunk when blocking torpedoes for the capital ships), but they forced the British warships to change course and hide in the east, causing confusion in formation.

However, the 20 most advanced submarines provided by the Chinese Empire to the German Navy exerted their might, and the underwater speed and torpedo speed of the promoted submarines were greatly increased, and the 20 submarines fired 76 torpedoes in a row, of which six torpedoes hit the target, causing the five Bow battleships of St. Vincent, Collingwood, Avantgarde, Neptune, and Hercules, which were the slowest among the British capital ships, to be sunk, and the Hercules was hit by two 21-inch torpedoes and was killed on the spot.

Although these five Sharpbow battleships were outdated, their sinking was a huge blow to the British Navy, and Jericho immediately ordered the entire fleet to be anti-submarine on the spot. More than a dozen German submarines were sunk by British anti-submarine destroyers, others fled the battlefield safely, and there were no losses in the upgraded submarines supplied by the Chinese Empire to the German Navy.

While Jericho was busy with anti-submarine, Scheer's main fleet launched an attack formation and swooped straight for the British main fleet.

Jericho was shocked, he didn't expect the German capital ship to appear here. By this time he had already understood that this operation was estimated to have been calculated by the Germans, but he had no time to investigate the problem, and immediately ordered the whole fleet to prepare for battle.

At this moment, 100 escort Fokker fighters, 80 H1N1 bombers and 60 Cat demon torpedo bombers flew over the main fleet of the British Navy, and quickly dropped aerial bombs and torpedoes, because the German naval aviation mastered the technology of strategic bombers and torpedo bombers of the Chinese Empire, they only sank a few destroyers by mistake, and 12 of the 60 torpedoes dropped almost hit the capital ships of the British Navy, but they were all blocked by destroyers and light cruisers near the capital ships. As a result, two light cruisers and 7 destroyers were sunk.

At this moment, the Scheer fleet seized a favorable T-shaped shooting position, and hundreds of shells whistled down into the formation of the Jericho fleet, adding to the already chaotic situation of the British fleet.

Submarine ambushes and aerial bombardments gave the Scheer fleet a golden 25 minutes of strike time.

During this time, the Scheer fleet fired 4467 shells of various calibers, of which 1987 were large-caliber shells, 142 hits, sank the British battleships Revenge, Sovereign, Orion, Agincoot, Ireland and Canada, and the most invulnerable battlecruisers Prestige and Counterattack were sunk in the first wave of saturation shelling, proving that the battlecruisers participating in the decisive battle of capital ships were purely chicken, and 7 light cruisers and 22 destroyers were sunk, These small-tonnage battleships were basically sunk by blind fire, one by one, and they were all sunk by gorgeous explosions.

The Jericho fleet fought back with all its might, but only inflicted heavy damage on the Deutschland of the Scheer fleet, sinking two light cruisers and seven destroyers.

In the golden 25 minutes, the British capital ships lost a third, and Jericho suddenly did not dare to fight and hurriedly ordered a retreat.

Because the British battleships were much faster than the German ones, and the distance between the two sides was nearly 20 kilometers away from the beginning, when Jericho gave the order to retreat, the German fleet could not catch up at all.

As a result, the main fleets of the two sides fought for less than half an hour, and the British navy fled.

Although Scheer was very unwilling, he had no choice, and it became his regret that he could not completely annihilate the British main fleet.

However, Schell successfully completed the task of defeating the British main fleet, and after the Battle of Jutland, the British navy's main fleet lost nearly half, while the German high seas fleet suffered negligible losses, making it a classic battle in the history of naval warfare.

At that time, because of political relations, Germany did not admit that the Chinese Empire was involved, which made the navies of all countries in the world think that the German Navy had become so powerful, even surpassing the Chinese Imperial Navy.

But it was not until after the war that Germany and the Chinese Empire declassified the facts of that year that the truth was revealed.