"Boom!" The scorching waves and the flames danced wildly, and the De Fringel, which was at the forefront of the German battle column, suddenly burst out of four huge clouds that were blazing and shining, and they were even more colorful and spectacular on the deep blue sea. A short time later, six other German cruisers also fired at an astonishing fire, and the British light cruisers 14 km away were surrounded by waves that undoubtedly far exceeded their masts!

Seeing this row of surging water walls, British Major General Goodnow instantly understood what was going on. Prior to this, due to visibility, the new German battleships could not be identified by their silhouettes. Just as he was about to get closer to investigate, the other party directly gave him an answer with a large-caliber shell that was hit by a split head and a face. Analyzing the firepower and number of the other side, what is currently appearing in front of your eyes is almost certainly the German battle patrol formation!

"Don't care about the formation anymore, all ships immediately full right rudder and leave this sea area at full speed!" After discovering the target, Goodnow did not have the slightest joy at completing his mission, and his face was full of horror and horror. In front of the battle cruiser, any light cruiser is like a gazelle under the mouth of a lion, without any resistance; Not only is the fire protection completely exploded, but even the speed may not be able to run! Now Goodnow had only one thought in his mind, and that was that his capital ship would appear as soon as possible and pull his light patrol back from the gate to hell.

The lights flickered, the flags rolled up, and the British cruisers, which were in a search formation on the sea, under the command of the flagship Southampton, suddenly began to turn desperately. The bow of the battleship rushed to the side of the ship with a large splash of waves, and the center of gravity also tilted; The lookout, who was on the mainmast, had to clutch the fence in front of him. was able to avoid the fate of being thrown into the sea. Large patches of artificial smoke also rose near the British cruiser. A maneuver that is identical to House's approach in the decisive battle in the Mediterranean. It was copied completely by the British.

The British seem to have a special talent for turning and retreating, far beyond that of other countries. In fact, with the exception of the Dunkirk retreat, which evacuated 330,000 troops and boasted a wolf-bled escape as a great victory, the British predecessors had already set a good example for their juniors as early as the First World War. At the end of November 1915, the Battle of the Dardanelles, promoted by Churchill, was coming to an end, and the British War Secretary Kitchener, after inspecting the battlefield, had to order a phased retreat. From this time onwards. The British were more efficient than ever before; Nearly 90,000 people were secretly evacuated from the battlefield, and the Turkish army, which was separated from them, did not even notice it. By January 9 of the following year, hundreds of thousands of British troops had all withdrawn from the Garibaldi battlefield, and they suffered fewer than 10 casualties in the entire retreat, which was a miracle. In the previous ten months of the long war of attrition, they had invested 500,000 heavy troops, and the British army alone suffered more than 120,000 casualties, but they never achieved any worthy victory.

Although the offensive spirit of the Royal Navy is far superior to that of the Army, they have the same national blood and are facing danger. The talent for transformation hidden in the depths of their consciousness was vividly brought into play by the British. But. The precise artillery fire of the German war patrol made Goodnow's hope of retreating in one fell swoop!

The shrill whistle sounded like a speeding train: a 283-mm armor-piercing projectile hit the amidships deck of the British cruiser "Dublin" like a meteor. The 330-kilogram shell was devastating along the way, piercing five decks in succession, and then bursting out of the starboard bottom of the forward ship. The German armor-piercing projectile with a delayed fuse, although it can avoid the tragic situation of the British counterpart, which is about to explode at the touch of a button, ensures that the body of the projectile can have enough time to penetrate the armor; But at the same time, it will also make the armor-piercing bullet appear a small probability of dud phenomenon. The armor-piercing shell that hit the British ship at the moment was a dud that failed to explode.

The British sailors who were on duty in the motor room, looking at the steel plate that appeared not far from him, the shocking hole, and directly collapsed his legs on the ground, his heart was full of strong tension and happiness for the rest of his life. If this shell had exploded normally, then the raging waves of hot air and flying shrapnel would have killed him in a thousand ways! However, the sound of gushing water made his thoughts tense up again. He scrambled to the entrance of the cave, only to see that the magazine below had somehow turned into an ocean; A wave with a cross-sectional area of more than a square foot swelled like a fountain, and the surface of the water soon submerged the tip of the 152-millimeter shell, which was more than half a meter high!

Since the site of the penetration was located at the bottom of the hull, the water pressure at the hole was significantly higher than that of the side near the waterline, and after only three minutes, the Dublin was filled with more than 300 tons of seawater, which was nothing at all for a 20,000-ton dreadnought, but it was undoubtedly a heavy blow to the light cruiser with a displacement of only 5,400 tons. The speed of the battleship dropped below 22 knots, and the captain's face turned pale. The British captain, knowing that there was no hope of escape, ordered the sailors to put on life jackets and plant explosives in key parts of the battleship; Once nothing can be done, abandon the ship as quickly as possible to reduce the casualties of the crew as much as possible.

While the sailors of the Dublin were preparing for the abandonment of the ship, the cruiser "Liverpool" with a displacement of 4800 tons was also hit; A 305-millimeter shell fired from the Cedritz broke through the shipbuilding steel, then brazenly penetrated its 50-millimeter-thick inclined dome armor and exploded into the boiler room. The majestic air waves that exploded in an instant were like a flash flood, and the waterfall was falling, directly blowing up the six boilers in the two cabins to pieces, and the broken iron flew wildly; Under the raging baptism of blazing steam, boiling furnace water, and gas wave shrapnel, more than 20 British stokers were instantly separated from their flesh and blood and died tragically on the spot. The steel armor burst, the sea gushed, and the entire interior of the battleship was in shambles; The only thing one could tell if it was injured was its sudden descent to a turtle-like crawl, and the roar of flames and steam that poured out of the breach in the side of the ship!

At the same time, the amidships of the "Southampton" light patrol also exploded into a huge wave of fire, and the light burst into the sky, like a colorful chrysanthemum blooming in the sky. Under the heavy fire of a 350-mm shell from the D-Fringer, a 152-mm single-mount gun was instantly blown away; The bridge collapsed, the deck twisted and rolled, and dozens of people fell in the sea of fire and blood, and the scene was horrific. However, the shell hit a non-critical part, and although the Glasgow suffered heavy casualties, the ample power to provide her escape was still functioning normally. Before Goodale in the command tower could feel a hint of joy, bad news came from the rear: the steering gear of the "Glasgow", which was of the same class as Liverpool, was blown up, and the battleship, which had lost control, spun in a circle in vain on the sea.

"The British are really fast." Looking at the clouds of smoke that had been pulled up on the sea, Hipper said with some regret. According to his original plan, his own patrol could fire at least eight rounds of shots; However, it only took more than four minutes for a smoke screen to distract from their own observations. In the six and a half rounds of salvo fire, the German battle cruiser fired a total of 168 shells, of which 4 were direct hits, with a hit rate of 2.38%; Combined with the current combat distance of about 14 kilometers, it can be regarded as barely reaching the level of peacetime training. However, his luck was quite good; Of these 4 effective hits, 3 caused the opposing ship to stall or lose control.

"The main guns of the battle cruisers stopped firing and attacked the British cruisers that were left behind with the secondary guns." Hipper gave the order rather leisurely. Although the German war cruisers could have chosen to put the boilers into a state of strong pressure ventilation, and pursued the light cruisers that fled in the desert in order to expand the results of the battle; However, Hippert never forgot his core task, which was to provide the main force of the High Seas Fleet with as detailed intelligence and reconnaissance as possible when the current war situation was not yet completely clear. If we blindly pursue the British auxiliary warships, we will not only deviate from the original purpose of reconnaissance, but will also put the fleet in a dangerous situation. According to the last reconnaissance by seaplanes 50 minutes earlier, the British fleet, consisting of 27 capital ships, was no more than 50 nautical miles away; Now that the other party has been out of touch for nearly an hour, no one knows what the British will do after being detected, so Hippert must take a more cautious driving route!

As for the main gun to stop firing, it is out of consideration for saving ammunition. The average ammunition reserve of each of the four Battlecruisers with 283 mm guns was only 80 rounds, compared to 85 rounds for the Cedritz and the two Derringel-class. At present, the war is imminent, and the ammunition of the main gun naturally needs to be properly balanced. German battle cruisers were armed with 10 to 12 150 mm secondary guns, each with up to 150 rounds of ammunition, and this firepower was enough to deal effective damage to British light cruisers.

The artillery fire roared one after another, the water burst out, and the hulls of the three British light cruisers continued to burst into flames. Ten minutes later, the ships were completely surrounded by smoke and flames. Somehow, however, Hipper had a strange feeling in his heart, as if things were far from settled. After a short time, the lookout suddenly reported that a shadow of a ship appeared 22 kilometers away from the 171 direction to the south, and it was impossible to distinguish specific information such as speed, bearing, and lineup.

Hippert exhaled and whispered to the major's staff officer, Erich, whose face suddenly turned solemn: "Order, the fleet slows down to 18 knots, and the first-level battle alarm is sounded. It's time for us to get ready for an old friend. (To be continued......)