However, just when the battlefleet led by Admiral May began to accelerate to the starboard side of the battle patrol formation, the British suffered a heavy blow, a 280 piercing bomb that penetrated the waterline armor and exploded inside, detonating the ammunition depot under the main turret at the bow of the Resistance, and the huge explosion directly blew the giant ship with a displacement of nearly 20,000 tons in half, and then quickly sank to the bottom of the sea with more than 1,000 officers and men.

Admiral May watched this scene in pain, it was clear that today was an extremely dark day for the Royal Navy, this was already the third sunken capital ship, but fortunately the Germans did not react to his new adjustment at this time, as the British battle patrol formation slowed down, the battlefleet that had accelerated to twenty-seven knots began to force between them and the German fast battleships, and then the Edward VII opened fire on the Lorraine first.

The British sailors who were stimulated by the sinking of the Revolt played at a high level, and in the first salvo, a 356 mm piercing bomb hit the Lorraine, and the direct fire of such a caliber at close range, even the Lorraine's 250 mm thick Bofors alloy armor could not be stopped, and the shell that sank the armor belt smashed a huge hole in its bow, and then the flames of the explosion erupted from inside, but thanks to the perfect internal compartment design, the loss caused by this shell to the Lorraine was nothing more.

As the British battleships took over the battle cruisers, the focus of the naval battle became five Edward VII-class and one London-class against six Braunschweig-class, while the weakly armored British battlecruisers cut between the London-class and Duncan-class battleships behind them from the outside, joining the attack on the remaining German battleships and battlecruisers.

But at this time, Admiral May found that his trouble was not only the fast battleship, according to the current combat situation, his battleships and battle cruisers with 305 mm guns needed to face the Germans' four Deutsche class, and these four used the same 356 main guns as the Edward VII class. Large tonnage, thick armor, and fierce firepower were clearly not something that those British battleships could compete with.

However, fortunately, the British still had an absolute advantage in numbers, and even if they were sunk and seriously wounded, they still had six more capital ships than the Germans.

The battle between the two sides has entered a white-hot heat, and in the turbulent waves of the North Sea, more than 40 steel giant ships that are still lined up in two battle lines are constantly pouring artillery fire on their opponents, and the roar of large-caliber naval guns is amid. Accompanied by a series of muzzle flames tens of meters long, countless shells with a speed of several times the speed of sound whistled out, intertwined into a fire net on the boiling sea, and the smoke of the explosion in the scattered splash of steel soared into the sky.

At the front, it can almost be said that the Edward VII class and the Braunschweig class are one-on-one, and the level of armor protection of the two sides is almost the same, the British have poor quality armor but thicker thickness, and the Germans have good quality but thin armor, and it is almost impossible to stop the opponent's shells at such a distance. Almost every hit pierces the opponent's armor. The British artillery was powerful, but the Germans' 280 guns were faster and more numerous, and the number of shells projected was nearly twice that of the British, and the frantic shelling almost burned the British battleships. And the British shells also left terrible wounds on the Germans like giant axes.

The two sides are now like an old group of heavily armored knights, fiercely slashing each other with cannonballs, competing to see whose blood flows faster, striking out the ferocious soldiers. One by one, they roared to the sound of the shells, repeating the action of loading and aiming and firing over and over again as fast as they could, and even the secondary guns joined the battle. A high-explosive bomb charged with picric acid shot up clouds of flames on the opponent's body, and a spreading yellow poisonous mist raged on the deck.

It didn't take long for the close-range combat to scar all the twelve battleships, especially the six battleships of the British, which could be said to have been beaten to a thousand holes, only the flagship Edward VII was hit by more than fifteen shots, and even one of the main guns was destroyed, and the weakest London waterline was hit by two shots, and the water had entered more than 500 tons, and the two main guns were destroyed, but its opponent Hesse was only slightly injured, and it was obvious that the London was in a very dangerous situation.

Admiral May hastened to order the London to withdraw from the battlefield, and at the same time a battleship and a battle cruiser behind it stepped forward to take its place, and by now the numerical advantage of the British had become smaller and smaller, although the Germans had all the battleships damaged, and a few were not lightly wounded, but with perfect protection capabilities, none of them had been sunk so far.

"Order the heavy cruisers to prepare to join the battle." Admiral May thought for a while and ordered, although it was dangerous for heavy cruisers to participate in a battle of this level, those heavy cruisers had torpedoes on them, and it was obvious that they wanted to sink these German battleships, and torpedoes were more effective than naval guns.

But at this moment, there was an earth-shattering explosion in the German fleet, and then all the British at sea could not help but cheer, and their battleships Montague and Indomitable combined forces sank the German Rhineland.

But unfortunately, the cheers of the British came to an abrupt end, and at the same time as the Rhineland sank, a three-five-six-millimeter piercing bomb fired by the German Hanover pierced through the waterline armor of the Solemnity, and a huge internal explosion caused a fire, and the rapidly spreading fire detonated the ammunition depot under the turret in the ship, and almost blew half of the Majesty's hull into pieces, and then the sea water rushed in, and the battleship was about to capsize.

Under the gloomy gaze of the British, the heavy cruisers, which had been hovering outside the battlefield, began to step forward, ready to strike the Germans with their torpedoes.

However, at this time, Prince Heinrich, who was on the Deutschland, received an unexpected telegram.

"Retreat?" He looked at Scheer suspiciously, the telegram from the General Staff of the German Navy, the withdrawal of the High Seas Fleet from the battle and the retreat to the Helgoland Bay.

"Your Highness, our airships bombed the landing force of the British, inflicting extremely heavy casualties on the enemy, and the General Staff believes that in the future it will be possible to block the reinforcements of the British by airship bombing alone, and there is no need to let the precious battleships continue to take risks." Scheer said with a smile.

"Withdraw, order the destroyer to step forward and fire a torpedo, release a smoke screen to cover the retreat!" Prince Heinrich did not hesitate any longer and immediately ordered.

Half an hour ago.

The second batch of British landing troops arrived in Rotterdam, because the British troops who had landed before had already taken control of the port, so this batch of reinforcements could land directly in the port, and more than 30,000 soldiers from the entire two divisions who came by troop transport ships were swarming out of the cabin and stepped onto the docks of the port of Rotterdam, less than a kilometer away from them was the battlefield, a large number of Dutch troops and Dutch civilians who spontaneously took up arms, with their familiarity with their cities, blocked the invaders to the death.

After the British disembarkation of these two divisions, they will immediately be put into the front battlefield, the number of the Dutch is not very large, after all, even if they transfer troops, it will take time, so far most of the Dutch army mobilized from all over the country, including the German troops to reinforce them are still on the way, with these two divisions joining, the British will basically control Rotterdam before dark.

But at this moment, among the British troops who were assembling at the docks, a series of screams suddenly sounded: "Airship, German airship!" ”

All the British soldiers who were landing raised their heads and looked at the sky stupidly, and countless huge airships were flying above their heads under the protection of a large number of fighters.

"Run, run! They came to cast burning dan. An experienced veteran then exclaimed, and all the British soldiers suddenly came to their senses, and at once they blew up their nests, and ran away without hesitation, and even the officers were panicked at this time, and they all ran madly towards the Dutch houses not far away, ignoring the supplies that were unloading the ship and the soldiers who had not yet disembarked from the ship.

On several destroyers near the dock, a small number of anti-aircraft guns also began to raise their heads and prepare to shoot, but at this time, the German fighters in the sky first dived down and attacked these destroyers with machine guns and the small bombs they carried, and behind them, more than a hundred airships quickly enveloped the entire dock and the 30,000 British troops below like a huge cloud, and then a full 500 tons of solidified qiyou bombs whistled and fell.

The entire pier was instantly in flames.

Not to mention the hapless British soldiers and the nearby Dutch dwellings, even the water of the Rhine was burning, and even a German fighter that was attacking the British destroyer was engulfed in flames, as for the troop carriers and destroyers on the docks, they were also engulfed in flames in an instant. Those destroyers were better, they could still break out of the bombing area with a blazing fire at a faster pace, and those troop transports docked on the shore were unlucky, completely becoming an iron pot scorched by flames, and the British soldiers who had not had time to get off the ship in it directly made barbecue meat in it, and the hoarse screams were chilling.

Soon there were people rushing out of the cabin despite the flames burning outside, but then they became fire men, and some of the clever ones jumped down with a blazing body, but the river below was also burning, and there was no way to live.

The British soldiers who fled to the nearby Dutch houses were shivering and looking outside, and the piles of their companions in the fire were struggling and screaming and turning into char, but soon the same terrible situation befell them, the accuracy of the German airship's bombs was not high, and at least a third of the coagulated shells that bombed the dock fell in the surrounding houses, and the fire immediately began to spread.

Most of the Dutch in this area ran away because they were fleeing the fighting, and most of them were British soldiers who were hiding from the bombing, and these guys who were still secretly glad that they had escaped were soon forced to fight the fire demons. (To be continued......)