Rear Admiral Hood's battlecruiser Invincible led the way, followed by the Indomitable Cruiser, and then those cruisers and destroyers. Today's sea conditions were unusually good, the sky was clear, there were hardly any wind and waves, the fleet had now accelerated to 25 knots, and by this time Rear Admiral Hood could already see the towering mast of the German battle cruiser with a telescope on the bridge.

The Germans were not too prepared for the appearance of the British, and in order to save fuel, their fleet had been sailing at a low speed of about ten knots, although the Germans also discovered the British fleet when Rear Admiral Hood's fleet came at high speed, but all kinds of external combustion engines, including steam turbines, had a common defect, that is, they would be relatively slow to increase speed. So while the first time Rispe Navy aboard. The warship will be ordered to speed up. But acceleration required a process, and according to the calculations of the staff officers, the British fleet would catch up with the German fleet before it could complete its acceleration. And if the German warships blindly escaped, they would naturally fall into another predicament:

On the run, the German warships could only confront the guns in the stern direction and the guns in the bow direction of the British. Although in terms of the number of cannons, the stern and the bow are the same, but in terms of strike resistance, the strike resistance of the stern is far inferior to the bow, there are steering gears in the direction of the stern, there are extremely important components such as propellers, once they are hit in the artillery battle, the movement ability of the entire warship will be destroyed, and at that time, there is really only a dead end. In contrast, there are far fewer weaknesses in the bow position.

"How many warships does the enemy have?" General Spee asked.

"It seems that there are two battlecruisers, and the other warships are not clear." Witte, the combat staff officer, replied, "They were blocked by the British battle cruisers and could not see very clearly." ”

"Continue to accelerate, and as soon as the British warships come into the maximum range of our tail guns, they will immediately open fire on the British." General Spee knew that since the British had two battle cruisers on their side, he had no reason to go to war with the British. Although he also had two battle cruisers in his hands, (at the earliest, the British lookout posts apparently did not see clearly.) It was no less than the British, and it had a slight advantage in terms of the performance of the warships, but General Spee still did not intend to fight the British, because he understood that the British would have a great advantage in the number of auxiliary ships. This advantage is not something that a battle cruiser can get back. Moreover, he also knew that if he was damaged in battle, his warship would not find a safe port to repair it.

"Our battlecruisers had a limit speed two knots higher than the British, and as long as they could avoid the initial shelling, they had a chance to escape." General Spee thought so.

By this time, the British fleet had already entered the range of the giant guns of the German battle cruisers, and at a distance of 20,000 meters, the eight tail guns of the two German battle cruisers fired the first salvo one after another.

Under the technical conditions of this era, firing at such a distance is quite unlikely. In fact, Admiral Spee's purpose was not to strike at the British warships, but only to interfere with the British and force them to dodge, thus buying time for the acceleration of his own fleet.

The impact point of the first round of German fire was really very off, and the distance between the shells and the British warships was more than 700 meters.

"Full speed ahead, don't dodge, close the distance to 10,000 meters before firing!" Rear Admiral Hood stood steadily in the bridge, looked at the German warships in the distance, and ordered.

The Germans quickly unleashed another second volley, this time even a little more than the last.

"Phew! These cowards! He knew they wouldn't be able to hit. Major General Hood said to the officers beside him with a disdainful smile.

Immediately after that, the Germans fired a third volley. When firing from a distance, it takes about half a minute from the time the Germans fire the cannon to the time the shell falls on the surface of the sea, and when the heavy shell flies through the breath, it tears through the air and makes a whistling sound like the whistle of a train. Even in the bridge, this can be heard clearly. It's just that the sound of the cannonballs whistling this time is obviously different from the previous ones.

"Boom!" Only a few dozen meters away from the bow of Rear Admiral Hood's ship, the Invincible, a column of water dozens of meters high suddenly appeared, and then the falling sea water crackled on the glass on the front of the bridge. At the same time, two of the other three shells landed less than 100 meters from the port side, and one fell less than 50 meters from the starboard side.

"General, the enemy has fired a straddle shot!" An operational staff officer shouted to Rear Admiral Hood, "Captain, please go to the Command Tower!" ”

The so-called straddle fire refers to the fact that the landing point of the enemy's shells appears on the port side of the warship at the same time. This shows that the enemy has found the right parameters, and their subsequent artillery attacks will become more accurate and dangerous. As for the command tower, it is actually a small room with relatively thick armor. It is certainly much safer to go there than on the bridge.

"I'm not going anywhere. The Germans are just blind. Major General Hood was unmoved, "Keep on course!" ”

The Germans trained quite well, and they quickly fired another volley, only this time it was another two or three hundred meters off.

"I'll just say they're blind." Major General Hood said coldly.

The Germans fired a few more volleys, but none of them were able to form a straddle. This may be because the speed of the German warships has also begun to increase, and once the speed increases, the shooting accuracy will also decrease.

"If there is another salvo, the distance will be shortened to about 10,000 meters." Rear Admiral Hood said this as he looked at the German battlecruiser, which had grown much larger in his binoculars.

At this time, the Germans fired another salvo, and now the distance was much closer, and the shells no longer needed to fly in the air for half a minute, and after just over ten seconds, the German shells fell, and then everyone on the warship clearly felt the warship shake violently. At the same time, around the battlecruiser Invincible, several columns of water rose at once.

"Did we get shot?" Major General Hood asked.

After more than ten seconds, an officer ran in and reported: "The enemy has hit our mast!" Our mast broke off. ”

It wasn't much of a deal, and Major General Hood nodded and asked, "How far are we from the enemy now?" ”

"General, it's already approaching 10,000 meters." An officer replied.

"Very well, let's open fire on the enemy!" Hood said.

Because the British were still a little faster, they were a little more affected by the rocking of the ship when firing. Firing at too far away, the hit rate must be ridiculously low. So Hood had to risk his ship getting closer before firing.

But even at this distance, the first round of shelling of the Invincible was just as far off. Instead, the Germans once again hit a straddle. Two strides in a row is definitely not luck. So, even with the brave Nelson in his head, Hood had to allow the captain to take what he felt he should do.

The Invincible began to dodge, which gave the Germans more time to accelerate, and now the German warships were no slower than the Invincible. General Spee felt that the chances of escape were growing.

At this time, the cruiser Kent, taking advantage of the Invincible and the Indomitable, dared to come up from behind with full horsepower, overtaking the two battle cruisers that had been in the front and swooped straight towards the German Moltke. At the same time, his six-inch gun began to fire frantically at the Germans.

At a distance of 10,000 meters, the firing accuracy of the six-inch guns was much worse than that of the main guns of the battle cruisers. But the rate of fire of the six-inch guns was much higher than that of the main guns of the German battle cruisers, and several cruisers behind them, led by the Kent, followed and fired frantically at the Germans.

Such dense fire, of course, had a certain effect, and soon the battlecruiser Moltke was hit several six-inch shells in succession. Of course, such shells could not inflict a fatal blow on the Moltke. It was the Moltke's secondary guns that hit the British cruiser Dogfight, and a few shells set the cruiser on fire.

However, the cruiser's attack was not ineffective, and the blazing Bulldog fired a cannonball that hit the rangefinder above the Moltke's C turret, which greatly reduced the Moltke's accuracy against the Invincible, and two consecutive salvos did not know how far it deflected.

"The sight of the enemy ship may have been damaged! Stop the dodge and fire at the enemy ship as fast as you can! Major General Hood ordered.

The accuracy of the Invincible's shelling, which had stopped dodging, was quickly improved. On the sixth volley, they landed a beautiful straddle, and on the eighth volley, they managed to hit Moltke for the first time.

The aft's inferiority to the enemy was immediately apparent, as the shell blew a large gap in the Moltke's stern, and the Moltke immediately began to veer to the left. Apparently, its servos were broken.

It was a fatal blow, and when the steering gear was damaged, the ship's maneuverability was completely destroyed, and it was impossible for her to escape from the pursuit of the British.

Around this time, the battle between the Indomitable and the German Goebon also came to an end, and a shell fired from the Goeben blew up most of the bow of the Indomitable, causing the speed of the Indomitable to drop to about ten knots at once. But before the Goeben could celebrate, the Indomitable knocked out the Goeben's C turret with a salvo.

However, Goeben's speed was not affected, and she continued to pick up speed and shook off the Indomitable and fled towards the depths of the ocean......