The sea breeze is blowing and the waves are shaking. In the thick fog, a group of gray ship shadows gradually emerged from the southeastern sea. In addition to the slender torpedo boats and light cruisers, the first two ships were huge and sturdy: the tower-shaped mast, characteristic of the German Navy in the pre-dreadnought era, towered majestically, and the modernized Zeiss 4.5-meter baseline rangefinder was suspended high above the sea, turning around like the lightning eyes of a falcon. And the black vulture cross battle flag that hunts and flies in the air shows the camp of this fleet more clearly.

On one of the main ships, Rear Admiral Maas saw his torpedo boat being beaten by the British, his eyes shining with anger, and his palms clenched into fists. From any point of view, the British fleet's attempt to penetrate the Helgoland Bay and shell a German patrol was an extremely provocative act that he, the commander of the base defense, could not tolerate. And now, he has arrived with a large force, including 2 Prince Heinrich-class armored cruisers, vowing to make these British who dare to pull their teeth pay the corresponding price!

The Heinrich-class cruiser began construction in 1896 and entered service in 1899, and was undoubtedly the world's top ship at the turn of the century. It is equipped with two twin 283 mm L42 main guns, 10 single 150 mm secondary guns and 10 88 mm rapid-fire guns, and its firepower is absolutely superior to the British "Crown" class slag first class cruisers completed at the same time. As the first class of German armored cruisers built for the purpose of fleet decisive battles, this class of ships has 250 mm thick waterline armor, and can also reach a speed of 20 knots; Before the advent of dreadnoughts. With a standard displacement of 11,600 tons, the Heinrich class has always been the most powerful fast capital ship except for the country's subsequent decisive battle cruises.

In the previous more than ten years of service. The two Heinrich-class ships have always been inseparable from the main force of the High Seas Fleet as decisive weapons; However, the outbreak of this war. But it gives them a chance to be on their own.

With the British Navy's tactics against Germany changed to a more secure long-range blockade, the German Navy's range of activities at home suddenly increased; In this context, the tasks of the Helgoland Bay patrol force, which is an outpost of the High Seas Fleet, has increased dramatically. It was clear that if Germany had deployed only a patrol force of a few light cruisers and a few torpedo boats in the Gulf of Helgoland, it would have been difficult for this force to guarantee superiority over the British fleet in an unknown conflict. In addition, the water level of the Jed estuary outside Wilhelmshaven is also a hidden danger: due to the ebb and flow of the tide in the water depth, the main ships of the High Seas Fleet can only enter the North Sea through the estuary for six hours each during the morning and afternoon high tides; This meant that once the estuary was at low tide, the battleships and battlecruisers would have to stay in the harbor. There is simply no way to support Helgolan. In view of this, the commander of the High Seas Fleet, Ingnoll, sent two Heinrich-class ships to the Helgoland Bay to provide timely and effective support with their 11-inch cannons in the event of an enemy.

According to the combat regulations planned by Rear Admiral Maas before, whether or not his two decisive battle patrols will support friendly forces must be determined according to the situation of the British on-the-field lineup, after all, the strength of these two old ships and the entire British Grand Fleet is completely incomparable. According to the reports sent back by the torpedo boats in front, the British only had one light cruiser and some destroyers, which made Maas determined to attack. In his opinion, this action of the British was just a small fight. Even if there were some British warships that were not detected by their own torpedo boats, their total strength would not be much higher. To be on the safe side. After receiving the telegram for help from the torpedo boat, Maas did not immediately dispatch, but waited for the "York", which was not on duty today, to complete the fire before attacking; Together with the accompanying 2 light cruisers and 12 torpedo boats, Maas was fully confident that he would be able to teach these Britons a hard lesson in the Helgoland Bay!

Soot billowed and spewed into the air. In the thick black smoke that swirled behind, the two armored cruisers quickly drove to the limit of 19 knots they could reach, and headed forward at full speed; Even Rear Admiral Maas, who was in the conning tower, could still feel the strong vibration of his ship as three old reciprocating steam engines ran at full power. Due to the limited speed of his armored cruisers, Maas did not choose to fight directly from the front, but ordered the fleeing torpedo boats to change course and lead the British destroyers behind him to his broadside at a wide angle. After previous exchanges with the V-187 and other ships, Maas had been able to determine the approximate location of the British fleet that had broken into the periphery of Helgoland Bay.

After a while, a group of faint shadows emerged from the white mist: their forward bow towers were taller than those of German torpedo boats, and the slender three chimneys showed their identity and faction. British destroyers were rushing at full speed from five thousand meters to the left of the German fleet, their numbers reminiscent of the passing of locusts that swept through the country. On the deck of the decisive battle, the magnificent and wide bow and tail turrets began to rotate slowly, and the stout and hideous 11-inch heavy guns raised their fierce guns diagonally; The gunners had already reloaded the first shrapnel with the propellant and waited for the exciting moment to come, as they made constant fine-tuning based on observations.

"What's that, is it our armored cruiser?" On the flybridge of the light cruiser Active, British Navy Captain Blunt held a telescope and looked at the shadows that suddenly appeared on his flanks with a little puzzlement. Before leaving, Blunt was informed that a cruiser squadron of four armored cruisers would come to his aid; But the cruiser, which was only as fast as the dreadnoughts, should have been in the open sea with the battle cruisers as cover, and would not venture into the Gulf of Helgoland. His confusion did not last long, and the rapid closing of the distance between the two sides at a relative speed of more than 30 knots quickly allowed Blunt to identify the other party: the tall mast and the two main turrets at the bow and tail, these two features were combined in one place, and the answer was only Heinrich in Germany!

Seeing the shadow of the ship in the fog, a large number of German warships came out, two of which were German Navy standard light cruisers with a standard displacement of 3,900 tons. At this time, he realized that in order to eat the wounded torpedo boats, he had been chasing in the direction of Helgoland Bay for more than an hour; No matter how slow the Germans were to react, it was time to send ships to meet them. In the final analysis, he still has to blame himself for being too eager to destroy the enemy; Now the strength of the Germans is no longer what his fleet can resist, and in the face of a balanced fleet with 6-inch or even 11-inch heavy guns, these small miscellaneous fish in his hands can only retreat!

"Retreat!" With Blunt's loud voice, a striking signal flag was raised on the mast of the light cruiser Active; Immediately afterwards, the battleship began to make a sharp turn to the right, intending to escape in front of the German reinforcements. And Major General Maas was unequivocal, and immediately gave the order for the whole army to open fire; The British want to pat their ass and go away after they are done on his turf, where is there such a good thing in the world?

"Boom!" A loud wave of wind and thunder roared abruptly burst out on the deck, and the German gunners, who had cotton balls in their ears, were still a little dizzy from the sudden violent thunder; The bow and tail of the Prince Heinrich each rushed out a cloud of orange-red light more than ten meters long, which was magnificent and terrifying. The 302kg shell was accelerated to a speed of 820 m/s in an instant, and it thundered towards the British fleet like a red dragon going to sea!

Due to the gradual fog on the sea, the British and Germans were already less than 5,000 meters apart when they spotted each other, and this distance was the perfect place for the German 11-inch cannon to show its might. It was only a few seconds before the terrible screech of the cannonballs rubbing against the air suddenly came to my ears; The astonishing roar of the heavy shells shocked the British sailors who were coming to the battle for the first time. The roar was deafening, the waves exploded, and the British destroyers were surrounded by columns of water higher than their masts, and the waves rolled and white foam flew.

Although the first salvo of the two German cruisers did not achieve a direct hit, the large-area damage of the shrapnel made up for this regret. After the fuse is triggered, the exploded shells will burst out in an instant a large number of colorful and fierce steel bullets, these small steel bullets and the fragments of the shells will fly in all directions, which is undoubtedly an invitation from hell for a destroyer without any protection. An 11-inch shell whizzed and crashed into the sea twenty meters away from the British destroyer Shooter, and in a slight flash of fire, a large number of debris shot into the sky like a raging storm. Hearing only a series of shrill sharp threaks of metal being cut, the poor destroyer was a bridge flip and the deck cracked; The holes in the waterline were as dense as a beehive, and the sea water poured in from these countless fist-sized cracks. More than a dozen sailors were suddenly pierced through their bodies by shrapnel, howling miserably and shooting blood.

In the face of all kinds of dense holes caused by shrapnel at the waterline, it was impossible for the British damage control forces to effectively block them; The destroyer's pumps were at their maximum, but the amount of water pumped out was still far less than the water pouring in. Gradually, the destroyer slowed down like a big cow full of water, and the freeboard moved closer and closer to the surface. Although the British sailors persisted, their efforts were doomed to be in vain. (To be continued......)

PS: Thank you for the reward of the book friend zhouyu1976 and February 30 precept book~~~ Anyway, I subscribed yesterday and was so sad, the author's heart was like falling into an ice cellar (╯_╰)