In the direction of Riga, there are many transport fleets, in the Gulf of Riga there are supplies and related logistics personnel that can supply an army, there are also old-style dreadnoughts and many merchant ships, but unfortunately, the Germans here got the news first, and laid mines on the channel, which was originally completely blocked by mines when Russia was defending, and was later swept out by the German Navy for ships to accompany them. And now the German Navy only needs to block this road, although it is very hasty, but the Russians, who do not even have a few minesweepers left, obviously do not have the ability and no time to go deep into the Gulf of Riga, after clearing a few peripheral transport ships, Essen had to lead the fleet away, the airship on the head has been following him, the German main fleet is only a matter of time, so Essen wants to sink some more transport ships before being caught.

But what is very sad is that after the airship discovered the Russian fleet, in addition to constantly reporting the location of the Russian fleet to Scher, it was also giving early warning to the German fleet that was sailing, and the fleet that got the warning either quickly returned or quickly evaded, which greatly reduced the efficiency of the Essen fleet like a headless fly, and for a while the entire sea seemed to be quiet, and the last elite fleet of the Russian Navy began to cruise aimlessly on the sea, or waiting, waiting for the final battle to come!

At noon the next day, when the sun reached its highest of the day, a dense black cloud appeared in Essen's field of vision, and there was no doubt that the German fleet had caught up! However, looking at the scale, it seems that this is not all the battleships of the Germans, it should be only a partial. Thinking of this, a smile appeared on Essen's face, "Maybe." We can also sink a capital German battleship! And when the two sides got closer, Essen couldn't laugh anymore, because he recognized the identity of these warships, the ultimate warship of the German Imperial Navy, one of the most formidable beings of this era! Bismarck-class battleships! This existence that makes him sleepless is finally here!

"It's a pity that our Izmail-class battleships are not yet in service, if they can. I really want to command the Izmail-class battleships to fight each other. There was no fear in Essen's heart, only lamentation and regret. Not being able to command the strongest warship to fight the opponent is the most embarrassing and biggest regret in Essen's life!

"Prepare for battle, let's put an end to the Russian fleet with our own hands! The glory of the Saint-André flag will go down in history! We will be the overlord of the North Sea, the lord of Europe, and even the overlord of the world! "Scheer's heart is full of fighting spirit! Essen's last blow made him furious. Such a mistake in a situation of absolute superiority cannot be tolerated! If he were a bystander, he would have admired Essen's blow, but as an opponent, he had a feeling of being slapped in the face at this time!

"17KM apart!" In the past, German battleships would not have fired first at this distance. But this time. It is Germany's most elite Bismarck-class battleship, and these behemoths named after the greatest chancellor in German history are the culmination of German industry! A larger rangefinder was replaced, and fire control equipment was improved. The Chinese Navy had a record of engaging at such a distance, and Schell thought the German Navy could do it too! The performance of the Longwu-class battleships in the Pacific and the Mediterranean was very enviable, and these battleships first easily damaged the Americans' New Mexico, and then sank two capital ships in the Mediterranean battle, which made the arrogant Germans have to admire. After all, the Longwu-class battleships are dealing with first-class big guys!

With a loud bang, the pride and pillar of the German Navy fired a salvo in a naval battle! 4 capital ships opened fire from this. Bismarck and Saxony concentrated their fire on each other's flagship, Sevastopol, and Bavaria on Gangut. Byrne attacking the Poltava. As for the two Moltke-class battleships? Scheer believes that there is not much need to put these relatively fragile battleships into battle, after all, the Americans' 14-inch 45L main guns are not vegetarians, and another aspect is that he is very confident in his 4 Bismarck-class battleships! The roar of the cannon resounded throughout the venue, and huge fireballs flew towards the target in the distance with the aura of destruction, and the final battle of the Russian Navy finally began.

"Release the smoke screen, approach quickly, we need to engage at a closer distance." Essen said, looking at the smoke from the muzzle of the cannon in the distance. This distance is too far, and his own 14-inch naval guns simply cannot inflict a fatal blow on him, so he must close the distance! But at this moment, the Russian fleet does not even seem to have the ability to carry out such an operation, on the one hand, there are few Russian destroyers left and it is impossible to pull out enough smoke screens, and on the other hand, the Germans have too many light cruisers, and the number of destroyers in front of them is not as large as the light cruisers of the other side! THE GERMAN LIGHT CRUISERS SLAUGHTERED THEIR DESTROYERS WITH EASE, AND THE RAIN OF 150MM GUNS WAS WOVEN INTO A NET OF FIRE ON THE SEA, AND THE DESTROYERS WERE DESTROYED BY THE DENSE RAIN OF BULLETS LIKE MOTHS THROWING FIRE. They had no armor protection, and even the close loss of a 6-inch gun could lead to serious consequences.

The sharp attacks of the Germans quickly consumed the combat power of the Russian navy, and with a loud bang, many Russian destroyers were destroyed by the sharp artillery fire of the opposing side before they even had time to fire their torpedoes. Along with the loss of the destroyers, the smoke screen covering the capital ships also became thinner and thinner under the blowing of the sea breeze, and soon the Russian battleships were completely exposed to the guns of the Bismarck-class battleships. It wasn't meant to be a fair contest, especially since Essen's flagship, which was attacked by as many as 20 naval guns. After the smoke screen cleared, the Germans formed a crushing fire in the third round of attack, and then with minor corrections, two shells hit the target in the fifth round of shelling.

800KG OF ARMOR-PIERCING SHELLS HIT THE HULL OF THE SEVASTOPOL, AND ONE OF THE SHELLS HIT TURRET NO. 2, BLOWING THE TWO BARRELS IN TWO, BUT FORTUNATELY, AFTER THE SHELLS DESTROYED THE BARRELS, THE DAMAGED SHELLS DID NOT PENETRATE THE ARMOR, AND THERE WAS STILL A GUN ON THE TURRET THAT COULD BE USED. Another shell hit the amidships, because the angle did not break through, but the violent impact caused the armor plate to fall off. The first round of hits did not deal a fatal blow to the new battleship, and the Sevastopol continued to fight, firing 14-inch shells, during which the Russian ship also made hits, but did not cause much damage, and was ricocheted away by the heavy armor on the side of the ship.

The advanced turret structure of the Germans gave the gun an extremely high rate of fire, and the 5 twin turrets gave the battleship an excellent walk, so in unit time, the Germans hit more! Shortly after the first hit, almost every round of the following shots had a hit, and Essen, who had hoped that the last Ichibo would be able to gain a little life in close combat, quickly collapsed under the raindrop of shells.

The closer you get to your goal, the closer you get to death! At a distance of 14 km from the Bismarck, an 800KG armor-piercing shell flew out of the chamber with a muzzle velocity of nearly 800 meters per second and hit directly on the mount of the No. 3 turret of the Sevastopol. AFTER TEARING OPEN THE OUTER LAYER OF 350MM VERTICAL ARMOR, THE INTERNAL EQUIPMENT WAS BLOWN INTO A PILE OF FRAGMENTS. Another shell pierced the stern steering gear room, rendering the entire battleship inoperable. As for the other hits, the entire battleship was swept away, and neither the cabins, the secondary gun emplacements, nor the various equipment survived the dense rain of bullets.

Although the Sevastopol was still on the surface of the water, and although it was able to fight back with the few remaining guns, its fate was already decided. At this time, the flagship of the Russian Navy could only be reduced to the target of the Germans' artillery exercises. It proved difficult to destroy a well-guarded and well-defended battleship with artillery, and after the Sevastopol had been beaten and almost incapacitated, Scheer did not waste time and turned his guns to two other Russian ships.

It has to be said that the Russians fought very tenaciously in the last struggle, and in the face of the overwhelming German fleet, the Russians had almost done their best, they wanted to close the distance and fight close combat, but the German fleet always kept a certain distance from the Russians under the cover of a large number of auxiliary warships. This was almost the largest main confrontation between the two sides since the start of the war, not only in the number of capital ships, but also in the size and application of auxiliary warships, which the Russians could not get out of in the face of the German navy, which had absolute superiority.

Schell did not want to prolong the battle, and shortly after the battle began, two Moltke-class battleships joined the siege of the Poltava. As a result, under the attack of three capital ships, the Poltava was scrapped first, even earlier than Sevastopol! In this engagement, the Germans experimentally experimented with filling the inside of the shells with dye and then dyeing the water column after the shells fell into the water in order to distinguish the impact points, which made it theoretically possible for multiple warships to set fire to a single battleship.

It looks good in exercises, but what to say in real combat? There are too many water columns, and it is still troublesome to observe, and if the three capital ships are fired with a half-salvo, they can still be distinguished, but after a period of fighting, they will still be mixed together. In this way, the entire Russian fleet became a target for the Germans to experiment with new weapons and tactics. Faced with such a solution, Essen's heart was full of unwillingness. War is so cruel, lack of strength is the original sin of everything! The final battle of the Russian Navy, Essen fought really aggrieved!

Except for the Gangut, which took advantage of the chaos to destroy a light cruiser at the beginning, the Russian Navy did not destroy a single battleship with a displacement of more than 1,000 tons after the start of the official decisive battle. Although the battle was not long, it had completely worn out the Russian Navy's worst will to resist and its ability to resist.

Thanks to the book friend zhouyu1976 and the book friend hukaikaka for the reward, as well as the book friend Hell Queen and my favorite Zhao Yun for the monthly pass support~~~ (to be continued......)