"Damn the Germans, why don't their ships sink yet?" In the conning tower of the battle cruiser Lion, Betty angrily threw down the binoculars in her hand and said in a tone full of anger. Beside him, the staff officers were also full of anxiety and anger, and they did not have the joyful countenance that a victor should have.

Since the arrival of the British battle cruisers, they had been engaged in a battle with two German battlecruisers for nearly 30 minutes. However, what they didn't expect was that the battle that could be resolved in less than 10 minutes in the original plan now lasted for nearly half an hour, but it still didn't get a complete picture. This is not because the British gunners were not good at gunning, but on the contrary, they all showed the level of the exercise in actual combat today: the Queen Mary, equipped with a new fire control system, performed even better, frequently forming straddles and hits against the fleeing Prince Heinrich. What made the British war patrol always invincible was the small and strong vitality of the German patrol patrol!

At the beginning of this cruiser design, Qingying was ready to let them participate in the decisive battle of the fleet with 12-inch or even 13.5-inch heavy guns as the protagonists, so although they bear the name of "armored cruisers", they have battleship-level solid protection. With a 3.5-meter-high, 10-inch-thick main armor belt along the waterline, and two horizontal decks combined to 65 millimeters thick, it not only surpassed the Lion-class battlecruisers, the most elite in Betty's fleet, but was even better than the original British dreadnoughts. The British artillery shell is not only a soft coat cap armor-piercing shell with low armor-piercing ability, but also has the problem of early explosion due to the excessive sensitivity of the fuse. So much so that its 13.5-inch cannon looked weak in the face of German 10-inch armor. In the historical Battle of Jutland, the German battle patrol's large area of 9-inch upper armor belt was able to stand tall in the face of British 13.5-inch cannon bombardment in most cases!

"Boom!" The thunder roared loudly, the light was dazzling, and a huge blood-colored fireball rose from the German decisive battle uniform. To the great disappointment of the British officers and men, however, the German battleship seemed to be completely unmoved, still sailing towards Helgoland Bay at a speed of more than 16 knots. At present, although the two German decisive battle cruisers have ignited a raging fire hundreds of meters high and smoke is billowing from their bodies, they can still move forward at a speed that is not weak. Less than twenty minutes more. They were to flee back to the cover of the shore-based heavy artillery in the Gulf of Helgoland; And the reinforcements from Wilhelmshaven at the moment. We're almost there!

As soon as she thought of this, Betty did not hesitate any longer, and suddenly said loudly: "Order, the first and second destroyer detachments." Immediately launch a torpedo attack on the two Germans on the run! ”

Soot billowed out. The sea is shaking. With the lights flickering on the flagship Lion. A large number of British destroyers turned and rushed out of the British fleet like wild dogs that had been loosened their collars, and then went straight to the German patrol. Although the previous British destroyer fleet was sunk by the artillery bombardment of the German fleet led by the decisive battle of the patrol. But there are still 22 ships in the lineup. Betty had thought that the two German capital ships would be destroyed soon, so she did not let them risk another attack; And now that the situation has changed, it is time for these destroyers to come into play.

Seeing a large number of British destroyers coming towards him, Maas instantly understood what the British were going to do, but at present, he rarely had the strength to counter it. In the previous battle, more than half of the 150mm secondary guns and 88mm rapid-fire guns on your own ships had been destroyed; And their own escort ships also suffered heavy losses, sporadic bullet rain smashed into the sea, but it could not stop the British destroyers from breaking through!

"Boom!" The red light roared, and a 150-millimeter shell fired from the Prince Heinrich burst through the wind and roared, impartially, and crashed into the foredeck of a British destroyer. As a huge fireball rose, the entire bow of the destroyer was blown to pieces; The sea rushed in from it, and the speed of the entire destroyer suddenly slowed down. A short time later, an 88-millimeter shell also shaved off the chimney of another British destroyer, and steel flew away, and its speed plummeted. However, more British destroyers advanced quickly, and soon rushed to a distance of less than 3,000 yards from the decisive German battle!

"Phew! Phew! Phew! The British destroyers who arrived at the torpedo firing position quickly shot out the two 533-mm torpedoes they were carrying. Although the British destroyers were more focused on conventional artillery warfare, and the number of torpedo tubes they possessed was less than half that of the German torpedo boats that specialized in lightning strikes, the number of salvos from more than two dozen British destroyers still formed an extremely terrifying scene. As far as the eye can see, there are white marks everywhere on the sea. And anyone who has a little common sense of battle at sea will know if the body of a battleship appears on the path of these torpedoes; Then except for the capital ship with the best underwater protection, the result of any other battleship will be like a mantis arm as a car, and there is no room for resistance!

In the face of these rapid attacks of the ultimate weapons of naval warfare, the German sailors on the two decisive battle patrols were terrified and scattered, and in an instant, countless of the most pious voices praying to God sounded on the battleships. In the cockpit, Captain Gerald of the Heinrich is holding the steering wheel, preoccupied with controlling the course of the battleship; With him at the helm, the battleship danced like a fish in a fluttering game, dancing with death on the tip and blade of the spear.

"Whoosh!" The two torpedoes were like powerful crossbow arrows, speeding past more than 100 meters away from the port side of the Heinrich, and the extremely nervous hearts of the German officers and men could not help but relax a little. After a short while, three more torpedoes rushed through the stern of the ship, the nearest of which was less than 20 meters away from the stern. A moment later, waves piled up on the bow side of the Heinrich, and the sudden change of right rudder caused many German sailors to lose their balance and fall to the ground; A torpedo grazed the left side of the battleship almost against the side of the ship, and the German sailors on the port deck watched the torpedo pass under their noses, their faces pale and their hearts pounding. However, the dozen torpedoes fired from the last half blocked all the dodge paths of the Heinrich, and the captain Gerard gritted his teeth and immediately struck the rudder to the left!

"Boom!" With an earth-shattering loud bang, the hull shook wildly, and a rolling silver pillar more than 50 meters high suddenly rose from the bow of the port side of the Heinrich, like a white rainbow through the sun, and the dragon soared into the sky. The terrifying shock wave generated by the explosion of the torpedo instantly shredded the pitiful outer shipbuilding steel plates in the bow, and the high-pressure sea water carried a large number of bubble shrapnel into the ship, and swept wildly in all directions. In an instant, the three compartments at the bow and bottom of the ship were torn to pieces, and hundreds of tons of seawater poured into the surging water, drowning more than a dozen German sailors who had not had time to evacuate. The Heinrich, which had already been buried in the front ammunition depot due to the flooding of the front ammunition depot, was now even more severe, and the waves were rolling and had already submerged the first porthole on the bow armor.

The hit in the bow of the Heinrich was only a prelude, and a dozen seconds later, another torpedo roared and crashed into the starboard side, and the waves swept into the sky. Because the 20-knot power compartment occupies too much internal space, the TDS mine protection depth of the ship's amidships is only 3 meters; The astonishing power of the 91kg high explosives burst through the thin 25-mm anti-torpedo longitudinal bulkhead in an instant, and rushed into the boiler room behind it. The four boilers were instantly shut down by the torrent of seawater, which flashed in contact with the blazing boiler and superheated steam, and wreaked havoc on the surrounding steel compartments along with the blast wave that was still lingering. After a short time, another torpedo hit the stern; Major General Maas, who was clutching the column and preparing to grit his teeth to withstand the impact, did not feel movement for a long time, and his heart moved, and he suddenly realized that this torpedo was actually a dud!

With the hard resistance of these three torpedoes, the slowed Heinrich naturally avoided the attack of the remaining dozen torpedoes, but the situation suddenly became serious. At present, the battleship has been filled with more than 1,800 tons of seawater, and half of the boilers are out of service; Although the subdivided watertight compartment played a huge role at this moment, preventing the further aggravation of the water ingress, the 8-knot highest display on the speed meter made Major General Maas's heart suddenly sink to the eighteenth floor!

"General, the York is finished!" A bloodied herald rushed into the tower and hissed in a panicked and desperate tone. Maas slowly turned his head to look, and saw that the battleship behind him had tilted more than 35 degrees to the left; A sea of fire rushed on the deck, and from time to time it rushed out with blazing steam. In the attack just now, the unfortunate Yorke was directly hit by 5 torpedoes, and no matter how good the watertight compartment and damage management system were, it was useless. The surviving German sailors, dressed in conspicuous orange life jackets, jumped into the sea that was already flush with the deck, and due to the fierce fighting before, there was not a single intact wooden lifeboat left on board the York!

"General, the Lion has sent a signal for us to surrender!" Another adjutant ran into the command tower and shouted at Major General Maas. For a moment, all eyes in the conning tower were on him.

Looking at these young and energetic faces, Maas couldn't bear to let them die with this battleship. Just as he was about to nod his head in agreement, a large group of majestic gray ship shadows suddenly appeared in the southeast. He was stunned for a moment, and suddenly roared like crazy: "The High Seas Fleet is our battle cruiser!" (To be continued......)

PS: Thank you for the reward from zhoyu1976~~

(PS: In the Battle of Dogger Sandbank, the Cedritz was almost killed, and it was also thanks to the sacrifice of a brave sailor to save her.) Therefore, the Cornell of the previous chapter has a prototype in the German Navy ~~~)