The red sun was setting in the west, the sea was rippling, and a destroyer fleet flying the St. George's cross flag was spitting a faint soot and calmly returning to the Grand Fleet at a cruising speed of 14 knots. On the deck, a British sailor in a black collar and white shirt was talking about the previous battle with great interest, and from time to time burst into laughter with joy. Next to the rotating torpedo launcher in the middle of the hull, it was even more crowded at the moment; The torpedo crews, who were unknown in the past, have now become the focus of attention of all the crew. As far as the eye could see, the surrounding robes cast envious and excited glances, and even the officers turned a blind eye to this unsuspecting reunion of the sailors, and only recalled the hearty victory with a smile on their faces.

"I never imagined that our ships would be able to approach so close that they were less than 2,000 yards away from the German Cruisers. Their battleships were much shorter and thicker than ours, comparable to our battleships, and I wonder how the Germans managed to make such a fat man run at speeds of more than 25 knots! Immediately after receiving the order to launch the torpedo, I pulled the mechanism with all my might, and let two 21-inch (533 mm) torpedoes be fired from the deck; As the ship turned, I could even see the horror and panic on the faces of the wicked pirates before they were judged by justice. Just two minutes later, a huge column of water more than 100 feet high rose from the broadside of the German battleship, and the accompanying explosion and flames were the most wonderful scene I had ever seen in my life. A small torpedo soldier frowned and recounted what it was like to carry out a torpedo attack.

"The speed of the German battleship was indeed disproportionate to its size. If the other side was only a 21-knot standard dreadnought, we wouldn't have fought so hard in this battle. Even in the case of power overload, we only formed a speed advantage of 3 knots against the enemy's battle cruisers. After chasing it for two hours in a row, it was forced to reach the torpedo range. If we can also have the 34 knots speed of the opposing torpedo boat. And how could 6 friendly ships be sunk in the battle that followed? Suck TM Nai. Sooner or later, these idiot ship designers will be sent to the gallows and go to hell with the Germans! Hearing this, a gunner with his arm hanging from gauze couldn't help but curse, which immediately caused a burst of echo from the surrounding sailors.

Hearing this, the sturdy loader sighed and said, "I have to admit that the German battleships are indeed superior to ours in many aspects. The evil German flagship, after being hit by three torpedoes in the first round of attack, maintained a speed of 12 knots and tried to escape; If we hadn't launched a second attack later, there was a real chance that they would have escaped! And even the first German war cruiser that was the first to be built. It was also after eating 4 torpedoes that it was declared sunk. Even our battleships, I don't think it will be possible to do this. The reason why the Royal Navy is in today's predicament is that its weak protection is definitely the most core factor. ”

The little torpedo soldier glanced at him with some dissatisfaction, and said, "Even so, what can it be?" Didn't the 2 battle cruisers of the Germans sink shamefully under the cover of our criss-crossing torpedo cobwebs? 300 years ago, we defeated the Spanish Armada not by the superiority of the warships in numbers and performance, but by the commander-in-chief and the bravery of the sailors! This time, the German pirate fleet was originally composed of fast combat patrols, and also had aerial reconnaissance by aircraft, whether it was attacking or escaping, it had the first opportunity; And our large fleet is not only slow, but also has a much inferior reconnaissance range to the enemy. However, even in this case, we still intercepted and eliminated this group of pirates in the vast ocean! There is the wise and wise General Jericho. The Royal Navy will surely return to the pinnacle of glory! ”

Under the influence of the little torpedo soldier's words full of positive energy, the slightest unfavorable episode in the attack was immediately drowned out in even more cheers. From the point of view of the British destroyer. Their operation was a complete success: six cannon fodder destroyers were exchanged for two of the opponent's capital ships, a deal that was not far less than what the Germans had gained in the Battle of East Scotland three months earlier. Due to their absolute numerical superiority, the fact that the German torpedo boat force was completely overshadowed by the stormy fire of the 16 battleships of the entire British Grand Fleet did not appear on these British destroyers, which also carried out lightning strikes, and the British had every reason to be satisfied with their results.

The turbine is low, and the breeze is blowing; In a short time, the British destroyers arrived at the predetermined area, and rediscovered the 5th Destroyer Squadron, which was on guard on the periphery of the Grand Fleet, and the towering triangular mast in the distance. To their surprise, the comrades who stayed behind did not congratulate them on their triumphant return; The ordinary and formulaic flag language did not at all seem to the triumphant warriors who had just sunk 2 German battle cruisers. Seeing this, these returning British sailors couldn't help but feel a little angry in their hearts: We also fought all the way to achieve such feats, and these guys were so jealous!

Amidst a burst of curses, the British destroyer fleet continued to sail inward. The main lineup of the Grand Fleet has been fully presented in the sea and sky, and it is gradually clearly displayed in front of their eyes. Suddenly, a shocking exclamation rang out on the deck, but it was the loader who had broken one arm pointing to the sea with his other: a look of disbelief and shock on the faces of the crowd when they saw what they saw.

10,000 meters away, a capital ship with wide shoulders and a broad waist had tilted more than 30 degrees to the right, and sesame-sized lifeboats were constantly coming and going between the battleship and the nearby destroyers. In order to delay the capsizing of the ship as much as possible, the only main turret in the bow has been turned to the port side, which indicates that this is an early dreadnought equipped with a 305 mm main gun. The British sailors stood on deck in a daze, no longer in the excitement of their return voyage: what had happened to the Grand Fleet during the time they had been attacking?

At 15:17, the British Bellerophon-class battleship "Nile" finally entered the water and capsized four hours after being hit by a 500-mm torpedo. Although the torpedo hit the starboard side, which was the widest underwater width, the British battleship, which did not have any longitudinal partition against torpedoes and relied only on thin shipbuilding steel to provide underwater defense, was not in a position to resist torpedoes. The violent explosion instantly tore a huge breach in the underwater hull of the ship, 10 meters long and 8 meters wide, and the raging waves completely flooded the entire boiler room in just a few minutes. And because the division of the underwater compartments of the British battleship was huge and unreasonable, this further aggravated the process of entering the water. Despite the fact that the British sailors kept closing the hatches and relied on the motor pumps that had not been damaged by the torpedo attack, the water inlet area was irretrievably expanding, and the captain finally had to abandon the ship in agony. The 18,800-ton battleship, with the firepower of 10 305-mm guns, £1,620,000 in wealth and Britain's maritime ambitions, sank into the cold depths of the sea that would never see the light of day, along with 68 sailors who had not had time to escape.

On the bridge of the Trafalgar, Jellico's face was pale, and even the news of the sinking of two German battle cruisers did not give him any relief. In addition to the sunken Nile, the two main battleships, the Ajax and the Bavrel, were also torpedoed: the former suffered a catastrophic detonation of the forward ammunition depot on the starboard side. After four hours of all-out fighting, the ship's flooding was finally brought under control, but the consequence was that a large area of the cabins, including the bow ammunition depot and three boiler rooms, was submerged, the ship's speed dropped to 10 knots on par with the merchant ship, and only three of the five twin main turrets were still functional. The Bavrel, on the other hand, was not out of danger until now, and the waves that almost flooded the aft deck made Jericho feel like he was struggling in the water and tormenting in the fire every minute of the day.

Did you do something wrong? As if it weren't. When the order for the assault was given, he left 8 destroyers in front to keep on guard, and the main fleet did not get too close to the smoke released by the Germans. But the German torpedo boats braved the artillery fire swept like a torrential rain, and resolutely rushed to a distance of less than 2,000 meters before releasing the torpedo, at all at the cost of their lives! The warships of their own side also performed remarkably well under their own training and training, not only giving full play to the anti-mine power of the 102-mm secondary gun, but also avoiding torpedoes without any mistakes. Those torpedoes were all declared hit when there was really no way to avoid it, and the situation of Cheng Dù, when the battleship was hit, was much better than the situation of the German battle cruisers sent back by the destroyers on the front line!

But why did his own warship sink again? You must know that in the Battle of Helgoland Bay, which broke out in early June, the German patrol Prince Heinrich, which started construction in 1896, was successfully rescued after receiving more than a dozen large-caliber shells and 2 533-mm torpedoes! The nightmare of the fiasco of three months ago once again loomed over Jericho's mind, and the unreasonable fragility of his own warship above and below the water left Jericho exhausted.

Now his own fleet is attritional, not to mention, there are wounded soldiers who have slowed down the progress of the team; The German High Seas Fleet, with 22 dreadnoughts, was rushing here in full force in some unknowable sea. It is also the most taboo to tow at high speed when the injured ship is seriously damaged, because it is very likely to cause secondary strain damage to the damaged hull structure of the damaged ship and destroy the original watertightness, and the final result can only be self-destruction.

After some thought, Jericho still ordered the fleet to wait for the rescue of the Bavrel. From any point of view, it is impossible to abandon a friendly ship and escape alone without even knowing where the enemy is. Now he could only hope that the German fleet was far enough away from him that he could use the next night to shake off the strong enemy. (To be continued......)

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