The sky was like ink, and thick black clouds churned low in the sky, completely obscuring the splendor of the stars and moon that was sprinkled on Wilhelmshaven. Heavily armed sentries patrol the docks, guarding Germany's most important fleet port. Although the Germans were in desperate need of reinforcements on both the eastern and western fronts, the German General Staff still deployed a large fortress guard in Wilhelmshaven, deep on the mainland, in order to ensure the absolute security of their huge fleet, which had been built up over a lifetime.

The dinghy slides, the waves crash, and the goat's beard goes up the cold, hard side gangway? Hippert boarded the deck of the De Fringel. In order to prevent British spies from infiltrating the outer line of defense at night and using high-powered telescopes to spy on the lineup of German ships in the harbor, strict lighting control was imposed in the berths of Wilhelmshaven at night, with the only source of light coming from the towering lighthouse at the mouth of the Gerald River, ten kilometers away. Outlined by this dim and hazy light, the 174-meter-long De Verblinger is like a cheetah crawling in the dark night, quiet, dangerous, deadly, and elegant.

......With the low sound of the steam actuator, the 350-millimeter-thick gate of the command tower was slowly opened, and a faint golden light burst out of it. Hipper's eyes narrowed slightly, and he got up and stepped into the command room, which was more than twenty square meters. Several staff officers were holding pencils and trying to draw on a chart with a ruler and an angular divider, and when they saw that it was the commander who had entered, they all straightened up and gave him a standard military salute. Hipper looked at a major officer next to him and asked, "Erich." What is the situation with the reconnaissance fleet now? ”

The staff officer, known as Erich, was in his thirties. Good facial features. The appearance is resolute, and there is a little scholarly elegance in the condensed bearing of a soldier. Hearing Hipper's inquiry, the staff officer immediately replied in a concise and smooth voice: "General, the second reconnaissance detachment under the command of General Berdick has sailed out of Wilhelmshaven forty minutes ago, and has entered the North Sea for reconnaissance first. At present, the reconnaissance fleet has also completed the replenishment of fuel and ammunition, the boiler has been fired, and it is ready to sail through the mouth of the Jed River at high tide at any time. ”

Hipper nodded slightly, a look of anticipation and excitement flashing in his gray-blue eyes. Before that. His reconnaissance fleet also made several sorties, and burned the British coastal ports, disgrace Britain, which had been in charge of the Seagod Trident for more than 300 years; This time, however, the situation is completely different. His role is no longer a hit-and-run thief, but a brave dragoon who clashes and attacks on the battlefield; And the source of confidence that made him dare to risk the arrow stone was the direct support of the majestic fleet in the berth in the depths of Wilhelmshaven, which terrified all the maritime nations of this planet!

On 14 August, with the approval of Emperor William, Tirpitz immediately sent an order from the Supreme Ruler to his fleet. The commander of the High Seas Fleet, Ingnoll, was also a staunch member of the main battle faction, and under his command, the German navy was already in a state of readiness from the day the war broke out. After receiving this coveted telegram from Berlin. The high seas fleet, a huge warplane, finally began to roar after a long silence.

According to the telegram instructions that Ingnoll had received that made his blood boil. The High Seas Fleet will directly raise its entire army to cross the North Sea to the west, directly in front of the mouth of the Thames at the door of the British. In order to strengthen the fleet's decisive battle capability as much as possible, Ingnoll not only incorporated the original decisive battle patrol Prince Heinrich that remained in the Battle of the Gulf of Helgoland into the battle line, but even called back 8 former dreadnoughts from the Baltic Fleet.

In terms of specific tactics, Ingnorr adopted the construction of Scher. Since the main force of the British fleet was hoarded in Rosyth in the middle of England and the military port of Scapavolo in the northern part of Scotland, Hipper's fleet was the first to act as the eyes and ears of the High Seas Fleet, conducting reconnaissance 50 nautical miles to the north. If the British Grand Fleet went south, then after Hipper's prior warning, the High Seas Fleet would be able to calmly open the battle line and fight a decisive battle with it in a posture that was not inferior to the other side.

The boiler roared, and the waves were rolling; With the flashing of the signal lights on the flagship De Fringer, the warships in an area of several kilometers began to move one after another. 36 torpedo boats untied their cables and swam out of the harbor like swift sailfish; On the thin hull, single-armor plate guns and central rotating torpedo launchers loomed in the dark night. As the main outpost reconnaissance force of the High Seas Fleet, the Hipper fleet undoubtedly has a large number of fast and light ships; And thanks to the strong industrial strength of Germany as a backing, it is obvious that they do not have to form a combined fleet to gather enough escort forces like the Italian and Austro-Hungarian navies.

The destroyer fleet was followed by a group of battle patrol detachments of the highest level of German industry. The D'Verblinger's sister ship, the newly trained Lützov, was at the front of the line spewing soot that was imperceptible in the night. The D-Fringel, who followed closely behind, was like a heroic sister who had grown into a qualified warrior, standing behind the Lützov at the moment, inspiring and inspiring the young sister who had the same talent and blood flowing in her body as herself, but lacked the test of actual combat testing, to conduct a test of courage on her own. These two fast capital ships, equipped with eight 350 mm guns, are the most elite of the current Hipper's reconnaissance fleet and even the entire German high seas fleet; Compared with the British Lion-class battle cruiser, which started construction at the same time, the De Vorlinger class has an overwhelming advantage in firepower and protection in addition to being two knots slower than its opponent.

Against the golden lights of the lighthouse at the mouth of the Jed River, another large war patrol with a well-proportioned body is slowly approaching; Although the entry into service of the D-Fringer class gave it up to the throne of the largest capital ship of the German Navy for two years, it was still an extremely important link in the high seas fleet that supported this steel dome. In 1907 in Brom? The keel-laying "Seydlitz" at the Foss shipyard has a standard displacement of 21,400 tons and a maximum speed of 25 knots, and the battleship is equipped with four twin 305 mm L42.7 main guns on the central axis of the long bow hull, which can easily project powerful and penetrating 450kg shells to a distance of 20 kilometers. In the just-concluded decisive battle in the Mediterranean, this excellent 305 mm gun made by Skoda military industry has been proven to be able to effectively penetrate the 270 mm main armor of the French Danton class at a distance of 10,000 meters and cause decisive damage. Its enemy, the British Lion-class Battle Cruiser, has only 230 mm of waterline armor at its thickest point, and the core cabin protection of the Invincible and Indefatigable Class Battle Cruisers is only a pitiful 150 mm. This meant that at normal combat distances, they would not have any immunity zone against the German rangers.

The Von der Tann, which started construction in 1906, and the three Blucher-class ships built in 1904~1905, constituted another battle patrol detachment of the German reconnaissance fleet. Among them, the three ships Blucher, Balfoss, and Moritz were fantastic warships built by Qingying under the technical background of the time using the opening method of the underwater protrusion. On their hulls with a standard displacement of 18,250 tons, four twin 283 mm L47 main guns are laid along the central axis, 1 in the front, 1 in the rear, and 2 in the rear, of which the two main turrets at the stern are carried according to the shape of the long bow building. Thanks to proper maintenance, these ships are still capable of running at a design speed of 25 knots after five to six years of service with the removal of build-up from the bottom of the ship and the replacement of boiler water pipes.

The flagship of the detachment, the Von der Tann, is an improved version of the Blücher class, with a standard displacement of 20,000 tons, the same main gun as the Blücher class, but the layout has been changed to a more beautiful and domineering full-axle piggyback type, and the armor and underwater defense have been strengthened considerably. Given the barrel effect of the capital ship in battle, the Von der Tann did not pursue higher speeds, but maintained the same 25 knots as its predecessors; In the analysis of the German High Seas Fleet by a group of military scholars in later generations, the Von der Tannen is generally regarded as the originator of the German battle cruiser to the road to high-speed battleships.

In addition, there was a ship in Hipper's reconnaissance fleet: it was tall freeboard, with a simple bridge, and its fat hull could faintly discern the shadow of a merchant ship, and at first glance it seemed to have no connection with military ships. However, both Hipper, as well as the commander of the High Seas Fleet, Admiral Ingel, paid enough attention to the ship. On its deck, equipped with two mechanical booms, there were six seaplanes with two pairs of wide wings; As soon as the weather and sea conditions permitted, German sailors would use the boom to lift the seaplane to the surface, and the pilot would take the aircraft with a wireless telegraph into the blue sky. This Seahawk I seaplane can stay in the air for two hours and sweep nearly 150 kilometers of sea area, and its reconnaissance efficiency is several times higher than that of a traditional mast lookout. Although the weather in the North Sea was quite bad, and this junior seaplane could not take off for more than sixty percent of the time, this could not prevent it from entering the field of vision of the German military as a combat weapon with great potential.

At 1 a.m. on 15 August, just three hours after the departure of the Hipper fleet, Wilhelmshaven, which had been calm, became agitated again. Countless warships sailed out of the mouth of the Jed River one after another, heading for a dark and deep ocean. The curtain of a peak showdown is about to open in Beihai. (To be continued......)

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