In the old Russian navy, Eberhardt was generally considered to be a cautious rather aggressive general, and this old man preferred to fight steadily and steadily, and rarely fought the enemy with a bold sword.

This also led to the impression he left on the officers and men of the Black Sea Fleet, more conservative, but was Eberhardt really a pedantic and conservative admiral?

It should be said that it is not! On the contrary, I personally think that he is very shrewd and practical, for example, from his fighting method with Su Shun, this can be seen. At that time, when facing Su Shun and the Goben, who was faster and had better technical performance, forcing the other side to fight a decisive battle to eradicate the troubles in one fell swoop was indeed the most direct and easiest way, and every Russian naval officer would definitely not let go if he could seize this opportunity.

The question is, does that opportunity exist? Will the Goeben have a knightly duel as the Russians intended? Su Shun was not so stupid, before the Queen Maria-class dreadnoughts were commissioned, the Goeben did have a great technical advantage in the face of the Black Sea Fleet, and at that time, he was afraid that he would not be afraid to fight a vigorous naval battle and destroy or severely damage the opponent in one fell swoop.

However, with the commissioning of the Empress Maria, Goeben's advantage was greatly diminished in 1915. In addition to the fact that the Goeben still exceeds in speed, the others, firepower, armor, and Goben's advantages basically do not exist. Even in terms of numbers, the other side has a three-to-one advantage.

In this case, let Su Shun face the three dreadnoughts of the Black Sea Fleet head-on plus the other three or four dreadnoughts head-on, unless Su Shun's brain cramped. Otherwise, the most pragmatic approach is to avoid a head-on conflict and a sneak attack. After all, the Goeben also had an advantage in speed. It is free to choose whether to engage or retreat.

Face a rat-like opponent. The most important thing is to hold your ground. You must not be disrupted by him, otherwise, the result will be fishing in troubled waters. This was what Eberhardt did at that time, on the one hand, by attacking the Turkish Navy's sea transportation lines, cutting off the Goben's fuel supply and restricting the Goben's activities, and on the other hand, actively carrying out offensive mine-laying, a two-pronged approach. Completely let Su Shun stop cooking.

It should be said that there is no problem with this way of coping, but the mid-ranking officers of the Black Sea Fleet generally have an impetuous mood, and there is only one kind of thinking in their minds, that is, fighting, that is, a decisive battle. If the Goeben cannot be solved with an honest battle, it is a failure, it is incompetence.

These simple-minded guys never thought that there was more than one way to fight in a dignified way, and it was not just a battle for a battleship to fight a vigorous naval battle, but also a battle for harassment and mine-laying, and to put it mildly. In the Black Sea, the latter is less costly and more efficient.

The simple and direct hairy bear just can't turn this corner. The thoughts in the minds of most Russian captains are similar to the current Kalanin, rushing forward, firing guns, firing full firepower, paralyzing and sinking opponents, this is called naval warfare, this is the meaning of the existence of the navy.

And Eberhardt has gone beyond this superficial perception, in a sense, he is like an old fox. Although the old man had to correct the course of the Mercury Memorial and engage in a regular battle with the Askder due to the situation, this did not mean that he was ready to use artillery to solve all problems.

As mentioned earlier, Eberhardt's wishful thinking was to use torpedoes to solve the problem, to compress the distance of the artillery battle as much as possible, to shorten the artillery interference when the destroyer was sprinting, and to increase the success rate of lightning strikes as much as possible.

Under this dominant idea, even if you want to play artillery battles, the old man has to inject water. In fact, he thought about it from the beginning, why did he choose to turn right instead of left when he was shot before? Like Comrade Political Commissar, if you choose to turn left, you can indeed quickly win the angle of fire and facilitate the counterattack, but if you turn left, you will inevitably have to go around to the stern direction of the Ascade, and as the artillery battle progresses, it is very likely that the two sides will have to exchange positions, and at that time they will face two problems.

The first problem, with the exchange of positions, the Mercury Memorial was inevitably surrounded by the Askid and the Lieutenant Shestakov and Lieutenant Colonel Sarkin and Donetsk, who caught up behind.

The second and most important question. With the exchange of positions, the originally retreating Ruthless and Fury completed the lightning strike operation, without any cover, and the two destroyers had to face the artillery fire of the Ascade, and it is difficult to say whether they could succeed.

And to put it mildly, if the torpedo they fired didn't hit the Ascade, the next bad luck would be the Mercury Memorial. Sinking by one's own torpedo, that's called stupidity.

In fact, there is a third problem, that is, the direction of the sun, the time of the battle is in the afternoon, as the sun sets, aiming from the east to the west, it will inevitably be interfered by the sun. Don't underestimate this, this interference is still very strong, which can directly affect the accuracy of ranging and aiming. And in an artillery battle, ranging and velocity measurement are extremely important, and their accuracy is directly related to the quality of the shelling.

Eberhardt didn't want to be beaten, he didn't want to waste a precious lightning strike, and he didn't want to aim and measure the distance with his face facing the sun. Therefore, he rejected the advice of the commissar and chose to turn right.

Turning to the right means that the Mercury Memorial will sail in the same direction as the Ascade, that is, in the same voyage. Generally speaking, compared with the anti-air warfare that passes by by by mistake, the same air warfare has lower requirements for fire control, which is conducive to achieving results.

The choice made by the old man is actually more cunning, in the same voyage battle, in the current situation, the Mercury Memorial is less disturbed than the Ascade, and can calmly aim and shoot, while the latter is inevitably disturbed by the light, that is to say, the old man is taking advantage.

The actual situation was similar, as the battle unfolded, the Mercury Memorial and the Askard "reciprocated" each other, and the eight 152-mm guns on the side of the board carried out round after round of shelling. But overall, the Ascade suffered, and he could no longer shoot as calmly as the Mercury Memorial turned around, let alone achieve any results. On the contrary, as the artillery battle deepened, it suffered two shots.

A shot hit the upper middle of the hull, and a 75-mm grenade broke the transport boat hanging there in two. The flying wood chips made the sailors in the gun positions below the transport boat suffer a little. Sharp sawdust easily pierced the garment. The sailors were drenched in blood, and a poor unfortunate man covered his face and howled and fell, red blood running from between his fingers.

The other gun was slightly better, the 152-mm armor-piercing projectile opened a small window in the middle of the hull, and after penetrating a three-meter-thick coal seam, it stopped at the upper end of the inclined dome, causing minimal damage.

And the effect of the shelling of the Ascade is really unsatisfactory. Not even the side of the Mercury Memorial could not be touched, and every time a straddle was formed, the Mercury Memorial was under the command of Eberhardt, maneuvering at a large angle.

In this year's mechanical fire control equipment, there is basically no solution for large-angle and high-speed maneuvers, as long as one side adopts this maneuvering method, it means that all the previous fire control calculations are nullified. It was necessary to re-test the firing, re-observe the landing point of the shell, re-calculate and re-correct.

It takes a long time to go through such a set of procedures. And when the Ascade finally finished solving the test firing, it re-entered the effective firing. Or luckily hit a straddle shot, and a new round of maneuvers on the Mercury Memorial began.

This kind of shameless and obscene tactics directly made Garanin flip the table, "OO you XX, coward, coward......"

The sound of the spitting could be heard outside the bridge of the Ascade, and the heavy shelling could not hide it, which showed how angry Garanin was. In fact, whoever encounters this situation will be angry and rude, and it is really no wonder that Galanin.

For what? The reason is very simple, as I just said, this year's fire control equipment, which is composed of a simple mechanical computer and a rangefinder, can be calculated for large-speed and large-angle maneuvers. And this pressure is not only on the side that is aiming and shooting, but also on the maneuvering Mercury Memorial.

The violent maneuver also made her fire control equipment work, and she was also unable to effectively calculate the Ascade's trajectory, and she was also unable to make sure of it.

Generally speaking, the purpose of artillery battles is clear, that is, to sink or defeat the opponent, and like Eberhardt, he began to turn the rudder to avoid it when he was a little troubled, which was not an artillery battle, but a lack of effort. To put it mildly, that's stalling time.

But who made Eberhardt's essence to stall for time? He didn't want to fight in a dignified manner, he didn't plan to use artillery battles to determine the winner and loser, he was originally buying time for the Ruthless and the Fury. Only the stupid Garanin believes in a head-to-head confrontation, brain-dead!

"The other side is too oily," said the captain of the Ascade, giving him a cautious glance at the furious Garanin, and reminded him in a low voice, "Your Excellency, I think the enemy may be trying to stall for time!" ”

Although Garanin is sometimes a little simple-minded, this thing is not completely brainless, and the navy is a kind of technical and technical class, and people without brains can't get in. In fact, he has realized this, the opponent's slippery tactics are obviously not for a head-on decisive battle, is there still reinforcements behind the enemy?

This is what Garanin is most worried about, unlike his fleet, most of the main forces of the Black Sea Fleet are controlled by the fleet committee, and the fleet committee can send the main fleet to encircle and suppress him, maybe the Mercury Memorial is the vanguard?

If the enemy does have reinforcements, whoever comes, even if it's just the Mercury Memorial's sister ship, the Kagur, will be enough to kill the Ascade. What's more, there may be capital ships, such as the Free Russia or something. If the other party is delaying time just to wait for reinforcements, then he must make a choice early.

Will the fight continue or will the wind howl?

Galanin hesitated, to tell the truth, if he retreated, he did not know where to retreat, from the moment he escaped from Odessa, his fleet became a vagabond at sea, and unless his accomplices in Sevastopol could successfully overthrow the rule of the fleet council, there would be no way to go to heaven and earth.

"Let the destroyer launch a lightning strike!" It was much later that Galanin made a decision, and he was determined to take a gamble.

Lieutenant Shestakov and Lieutenant Commander Saken soon received signals from their flagships. For this order, the captains of the two destroyers trembled a little, after all, their ships were too small and too slow, and it was not easy to occupy a favorable lightning strike position.

But embarked on the road of rebellion. That means they don't have any more options. Only the above commands can be executed. Soon. The two old destroyers began to accelerate again, plunging into the battlefield from the rear of the Askard, and even the blind could see their intentions.

The commissar reminded: "The enemy is ready to use torpedoes!" ”

"I see," Eberhardt ordered with a calm face as he put down his binoculars, "full speed ahead, tell the gun emplacements, and put fire on those two destroyers!" ”

The commissar hesitated, he felt that it was inappropriate: "Whatever the Ascade is inappropriate, right?" ”

Be honest. The political commissar's concerns were very right, let the Ascade go regardless of the absolute problem, without the suppression of artillery fire, the Ascade could calmly maintain its course and aim calmly, which was quite beneficial to improving the hit rate.

Eberhardt calmly replied: "A shell can't sink us, but a torpedo can send us to sea!" ”

The commissar immediately stopped talking, the threat of torpedoes is really greater than shells, especially now that the Mercury Memorial does not have any cover. The enemy's destroyers can go straight through without hindrance, in this case. The first thing to focus on is indeed torpedoes.

However, the commissar was still a little resentful, if the Ruthless and the Fury were around, how could there be such trouble, with them, the enemy's destroyers would not be able to pass at all. At the end of the day, the commissar still felt that Eberhardt's decision was wrong, and that the Ruthless and Fury should not be the protagonists, but that the Mercury Memorial should be the protagonists and use cannons to solve the problem.

However, no matter how big his resentment is, it is useless, now that Alberhardt is in charge, with the support of a certain immortal, in this small fleet, the old man's words are holy decrees, which must be carried out unconditionally. Otherwise, the Cheka would happily arrest the commissar and throw him into the confinement chamber of the bow anchor compartment. Truth be told, it's airy and cool, and you can take cold showers, so it's a great place to regain your senses.

On the sea, the Lieutenant Shestakov and Lieutenant Commander Sarkin accelerated a little slowly, giving the impression that they could not make it out. This can't be helped, after all, these two destroyers are a bit old, and the boiler equipment is definitely not as powerful as in the early years after more than ten years of wear and tear. What's more, their speed is not very fast, and the speed of 25 knots really does not have much advantage in front of the Mercury Memorial.

That is, the bow of the Mercury Memorial was damaged before, and it was a bit burying, and the maximum speed could not go up, otherwise, it would be really difficult for these two destroyers to seize the launch position. This pressure is even greater when the Mercury Memorial shifts most of its firepower to them.

Columns of water of varying thicknesses and heights rose around the hulls of the Lieutenant Shestakov and Lieutenant Commander Saken, and the flying shrapnel caused the sailors on deck to lower their figures, and some simply chose to take refuge.

As they got closer to the Mercury Memorial, the pressure grew, and the Lieutenant Shestakov, who rushed ahead, almost became a spirit wandering between the blades, and from time to time shells passed by it, and the sailors trembled and visually measured the distance, hoping to end this dangerous journey sooner.

I don't know if it was the luck of Lieutenant Shestakov, or the guns of the Mercury Memorial who were ruined by Eberhardt's maneuvering tactics, the old destroyer staggered into the firing position.

"Set the depth of five meters, the distance of a thousand, three salvos! Put! ”

With the order of the gun commander, the sailors operating the torpedo tubes could not wait to press the electric door, and with three muffled pops, three cold and shining torpedoes rushed towards the Mercury Memorial with murderous momentum.

"Torpedo found on the port side!" The observation post shouted sharply.

However, Eberhardt and the political commissar in the commander tower were not particularly nervous, at least they did not look nervous, "Right full rudder!" Eberhardt ordered.

Under the personal control of the political commissar, the Mercury Memorial jerked to the right, deflected at a considerable angle, and three torpedoes rushed in front of her bow in a thrilling way. At that moment, the officers and soldiers in the entire bridge breathed a sigh of relief from the bottom of their hearts - shhh......

However, the crisis was not over, as the Lieutenant Shestakov attacked, and the Lieutenant Commander Sarken, who was closely behind her, also fired a torpedo, and there was exactly a time lag between the Mercury Memorial and the Mercury Remembrance, the hull was a little fluttering, and the rudder was the least efficient and the most difficult to operate.

"Torpedo!" This time, the observation posts on the mast all emitted a high sound of an octave high, which shows how dangerous the situation is.

In the face of danger, neither Alberhardt nor the Mercury Memorial can do anything, and it is basically impossible to change the rudder, and even now the hull is a little out of control because of the low rudder efficiency. Anyway, the commissar's heart was completely raised, and he felt that he was a fish waiting to be slaughtered on the chopping board.

At that moment, time was almost frozen, the first torpedo grazed from the stern direction, the second torpedo was disturbed by the wake in the stern, deflected an angle and staggered, but the third torpedo was not disturbed in any way, and swaggered towards the hull of the Mercury Memorial without hindrance, and it was likely to complete a brilliant explosion in the next second.

The time seemed to be long, but it seemed to be very short, and just when Eberhardt and the political commissar were all angry and ready to resist the impact of the explosion, a voice came from the observation post overhead: "Comrade Director, Comrade Political Commissar, the torpedo has passed through the bottom of the ship......" (to be continued......

PS: Bow and thank Comrade Juventus and Comrade Potato in seconds!