Thunder was rolling, bullets were howling, and high-power searchlights and gun muzzle flames were intertwined, constantly illuminating the surrounding sea surface in a red, purple and golden yellow. In the undulating sea, slender and slender German torpedo boats are rushing forward like sailfish: the dazzling light suddenly lit up in front of you is the location of the British main fleet!

On the British battleship Irish, the gunners on duty were firing as fast as they could: unlike other British capital ships, this battleship, originally built for the Turks, was equipped with a 152 mm secondary gun, and although the power of a single shot was several times higher than that of a 102 mm gun, the rate of fire was only one-third of that of a 102 mm gun. More importantly, the ship did not use a considerable number of secondary rapid-fire guns to make up for the lack of small-caliber firepower like the German capital ships equipped with secondary guns of the same class, which was not a problem in a conventional decisive battle, but it became its most fatal shortcoming in dealing with enemy torpedo boat attacks.

In the chaos of the battlefield, the attentive commanders of the German torpedo boats soon discovered that one of the British capital ships was spewing out flames at an unusually slow rate. If the surrounding British capital ships are vigorous and elegant young men, then the actions of this battleship are like old men in the age of sixties, even if they have the heart to gallop, but their physical energy is really unable to keep up with the rhythm of the juniors. In the battle to expel the enemy's mine-strike ship, the power of a single shot is no longer the key factor in determining the outcome of the battle: only the projectile rate is fast enough to hit the opponent's unprotected mine-strike ship into the water and stall in a short period of time is the only condition to ensure one's own safety!

At one time, 2 German torpedo boats were eyeing this target. and rushed towards it at full speed. The darkness provided good natural cover for sneak attackers. Even under the illumination of a column of searchlights. The German torpedo boats also had to face a much shorter distance of death than in the bright daylight. Even if the German torpedo boats were locked by the searchlight column, the British gunners had a lot more difficulty coping with it than during the daytime artillery battle: most of them were not adapted to this kind of observation and judgment in the extremely bright and dark contrast environment, and the shells fired at close range could also have a distance deviation of more than 100 meters, which was a rare shortcoming of the Royal Navy in combat skills.

"Boom!" The bow of a German torpedo boat that was moving at high speed suddenly exploded like a balloon, and a huge ball of fire rose more than ten meters in width. An officer or veteran who is familiar with naval warfare can easily judge by the furious range of the fire wave generated by the explosion, which is almost unmistakably hit by a 6-inch (152 mm) high-explosive shell. Almost instantaneously. The torpedo boat in the high-speed sprint had slowed down visibly, and several searchlights shone in this direction, and the fierce artillery fire around it suddenly caused flames to erupt all around it, turning it into a pile of floating objects that could only burn on the surface of the sea. The efforts of the secondary gunners on board the Irish finally paid off. However, the other torpedo boat was like a rabbit falling like a rabbit, moving forward at high speed under the heavy artillery fire, and within a few minutes it rushed close to the target, and then released a deadly large-caliber torpedo in a sharp turn!

The shrill sound of the "......" suddenly sounded in the entire cabin of the Irish, and the screaming British sailors only felt that the center of gravity of the battleship began to fall to the other side suddenly, and the strong centrifugal force made everyone have to rely on foreign objects to stand on the deck. Four searchlights, located on the rear mast, locked the track of each incoming torpedo in the scramble of the sailors. The captain had already stood at the top of the bridge and directly used the microphone to direct the battleship's evasive actions. Compared with the German warships, which had a dedicated TDS longitudinal partition and deliberately lowered the freeboard, the British ships with a generally high freeboard center of gravity were indeed superior in maneuverability. The ability to circumvent torpedoes is even better; However, once they are torpedoed, these guys will definitely die the fastest!

On the wide deck, countless British sailors looked at the bubble white line that was flying under the illumination of the pillar of light, and everyone's heart was in their throats: the scene of the sinking of the two battleships during the day was still vivid, and they didn't expect that it would be their turn to face the cruelty of fate so soon! Feeling that the battleship could no longer turn slowly, everyone's heart only hated that it could not give birth to a propeller horizontally in the amidships; With such a slow speed, how could it be possible to complete an evasive maneuver before the German torpedo hit?

The bubbles were billowing, the track was like lightning, and in the screams and roars of the British sailors, a torpedo grazed the bow of the battleship. At the same time, the helmsman struggled to turn the compass in his hand in reverse, and the battleship began to deflect sharply towards the other side, and the 23,000-ton steel body also groaned in pain under the maneuver of the sudden change of course. Suddenly, the searchlight lost its lock on the torpedo, but by this time, the incoming torpedo was so close that the deck crew could clearly see it. One torpedo missed more than a dozen meters on the port side of the battleship, and its teeth and claws made every British sailor who witnessed it up close sweat: but they did not have any relaxation or joy in their hearts, because the other two torpedoes were approaching at a rapid pace, and the space left for the Irish to maneuver was extremely limited!

"It's too late, it's going to crash!" On the starboard deck of the battleship, a terrifying and frantic roar suddenly resounded in the air. The German torpedoes were already approaching less than 300 meters from the Irish, and in the current situation there was no doubt that they would be hit! A large number of British sailors began to rush to the other side of the battleship in screams and screams, and some of the bright-headed people had already jumped into the sea with waterproof flashlights. After only twenty seconds, the hull shook violently, and then there was an earth-shattering explosion and a column of clouds and water rushing into the sky; The tremors were so strong that they could not stand still, and everyone was terrified of the heavy blow to the battleship. Before the water column in the air began to collapse, another violent tremor of the mountain shook the sky from the bottom of the battleship, and the deck vibrated like a tuning fork; The second column of water rising from the stern of the ship made every British sailor feel like falling into an ice cellar!

Similar scenes were constantly played out in the main fleets of Britain and Germany. In just one hour, the three battleships of Ireland, Hercules, and Collingwood were hit by mines one after another, and the icy sea water poured violently from the breach created by the explosion, drowning a large number of sailors who had not had time to escape. Dozens of kilometers away, the three battleships in the German fleet, the King Albert, the Oldenburg and the Nassau, also appeared to roll and sink into the ground, and the Longne, which was halfway home and became a dreadnought, even turned around in place at sea. A torpedo hit the stern of the ship destroyed its steering system, and the ship's course could no longer be controlled.

At this time, the light ships fighting in the center of the battlefield also began to rush towards the opponent's main fleet in large numbers with the summoning of friendly ships. The warships that fought with them either continued to cling to their opponents to protect the safety of their own warships, or they staggered past after a thunderous and rainy artillery demonstration, seeking a side of darkness for greater gains. After a period of fighting, the original tight formation of the main fleets of both sides has become greatly scattered with the maneuvering of torpedoes and the appearance of wounded battleships, and this is also a perfect opportunity to fish in troubled waters. With the roar of power machinery and artillery fire, a new wave of battle peaks has once again begun.

"Boom!" The Lonne, which was thunderous and slammed into the bow and starboard side with two 533-mm torpedoes and a wave of the waves, was emptied and the steering gear failed. And this predecessor is true? Due to the early start of construction, it is impossible to achieve all-round excellence under the technical limitations of the times, and the underwater defense is obviously weaker than that of the later dreadnoughts. The terrifying energy that suddenly exploded enveloped the seawater, and after tearing open the hull without any suspense, it broke through the 25 mm longitudinal partition at a depth of 3 meters, and the seawater began to pour into the motor room. After a short short circuit, the main generator stopped running, and the drainage capacity of the pump-based machine plummeted: although the German sailors immediately threw themselves into the damage pipe with a wooden barrel and iron basin, the water ingress into the hull compartment continued to increase rapidly. This 14,200-ton pocket dreadnought is nearing the end of its service life.

"Your Excellency, the torpedo boat G-199 has sent a telegram that a British battleship has capsized and sunk, and the preliminary estimate is the Irish." A staff officer walked straight inside the gate of the command tower and reported to Ingnoll.

"How far is Hipper's fleet from here?" Ingnoll replied lightly, but asked in another way. The young staff officer was slightly stunned when he heard this, and then replied: "An hour and a half ago, the distance between the reconnaissance fleet and us was 84 nautical miles, and they have already rushed here at full speed after receiving our telegram of encountering the enemy. At present, the reconnaissance fleet is still about 50 nautical miles away from us. In about two and a half hours, the main forces of the reconnaissance fleet will arrive. ”

"Send a telegram to Hipper, and have his battle patrols and light patrols slow down in order to save even fuel for the torpedo boats, and then send all the torpedo boats to reinforce us. Tonight will be our last battle with the British fleet in this sortie, and we must preemptively deliver a decisive blow to the main force of the British Grand Fleet in the night battle before the British Rapid Fleet comes back to help! Ingnoor's voice sounded faintly, still clearly audible in the faintly reverberating thunderous roar outside the command tower, "In an hour and a half, I need to see 3 squadrons of torpedo boats appear at the core of the battlefield and complete a final round of raids on the British before the sun rises!" (To be continued......)

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