"It's a pity, it's too short." Hipper said helplessly. In just a few minutes, the German fleet hit at least 4 main gun shells from the opposing side, allowing the Tiger to temporarily withdraw from the battlefield. But the British still had 7 battle cruisers. It still has an absolute advantage in firepower. Under the command of Colonel Charron, the confusion of the British soon ended, and the adjusted British fleet continued the pursuit. And the advantage that Hipper created in a flash of inspiration is like a passing cloud. can only continue the evacuation of the pit father.

"It's a standard chase. The fleeing side struggled to avoid the attack, and looked for every opportunity to counterattack, and the Germans soon increased their speed to more than 23 knots. Our ships were faster, and in order to avoid being overtaken, the Germans had to repeatedly adjust their course to try to be flexible enough to get rid of us. We hit our opponent several times, but, it seems, could not penetrate the opponent's armor. A British officer wrote in the report. In fact, he also hid some information, that is, the attack power of the Germans had exceeded the defensive performance of the British battleships.

Although the Blucher and the von der Tannen were far inferior in firepower to the Moltke-class fast battleships, they were no less protective than these two super-dreadnought battleships. In this battle, the Blucher-class fast battleships showed their defense very well!

"Damn, we've got shot again!" A German officer cursed as he felt the shaking of the ship's hull. At this time, the damage management captain was leading his subordinates to extinguish the flames after the explosion of the picric acid charge. From the broken spot on the battleship, another huge fireball could be seen bursting out of the hull. Luckily, however, the shell appeared to hit the main armor and was not penetrated.

"How's the Blucher?" Hippert said with some concern. According to the report. The Blucher should have been hit by almost 10 shells. Although he was able to maintain his speed, the occasional pillars of fire and the smoke that covered the battleship still worried Hipper. "Tell the Moltke that we're focusing our fire on the Lion! As long as one more battleship is repulsed, the British will definitely retreat! ”

Moments later, the Moltke abandoned the Queen Mary and Princess Celestia, who had been shooting at her. Began to concentrate fire on the British's flagship Lion. Columns of water covered the Lion. This was a bit of a surprise to Colonel Charlen, but at this point, the Queen Mary, whose design was undisturbed, began to rain bullets at full force towards the Moltke. Before Moltke could hit the Lion, he was hit by two more shells.

An orange flame burst through turret 3. THE FRONTAL ARMOR WITH A THICKNESS OF UP TO 350MM ONCE AGAIN WITHSTOOD THE TEST OF THE 343MM GUN. The shell was crushed by a thick hardened layer. But a large piece of shrapnel still smashed into the barrel on one side, and the German officers and men in the turret saw the main gun shaking like a vibrating tuning fork. And there was a cracking sound from the cannon. It's not broken, but it definitely doesn't work!

Although they could not penetrate the armor of the German battleship, the British large-charge shells still caused a lot of problems for the Germans, at least according to the damage crew. Almost all of the remaining personnel were put into the process of extinguishing the fire. The battle has reached a fever pitch. Each German battleship was washed several times by the main and secondary guns of the opposing side. Even light cruisers came up to join in the fun. The two German light cruisers accompanying Hipper did their best to cooperate with the capital ships to drive away from each other, but the British had too much numerical superiority. And at this time, the main guns of the battleship did not have time to fight these miscellaneous fish!

Of course, the British battleships also paid some price at this time, such as the Lion, which is now being fired at by two battleships! Just 4 and a half volleys! TWO 350MM HEAVY ARTILLERY SHELLS HIT TURRET NUMBER ONE IN THE FRONT AND TURRET NUMBER FOUR IN THE STERN OF THE LION ALMOST AT THE SAME TIME! The Tiger that has been strengthened by its defenses will be penetrated, and the Lion will not be spared. Two huge fireballs rose at the bow and tail of the hull at the same time, and a violent explosion resounded throughout the battlefield, and two turrets weighing hundreds of tons were blown into a burning iron box, while the other was directly knocked out of the gun position by the huge shock. In a matter of seconds, the Lion lost half of its firepower!

Billowing smoke drifted from bow to stern in the sea breeze. Two flagships in quick succession were hit hard. It also makes the British a little hairy in their hearts, but at this time. It seems that the Germans are in a worse situation. Blücher and von der Tannen, two brothers in distress, are still sailing at high speed at sea. However, the secondary artillery on the fighting side was almost washed by the other side. There are only 3 of the 6 main turrets of 2 ships that seem to be usable, and only 7 cannons can be fired. You read that right, not every gun can be used even if the turret can be turned, one gun is blown off, and the other gun is stuck due to vibration, and the pitch angle cannot be adjusted.

As for the Moltke and Goeben, which had just hit the Lion, the situation was not very good. There are 11 more artillery pieces that can be used. Although the main belt of the hull is fine, it does not mean that there is nothing to do at the beginning and end! The shells of the British could not penetrate the main armor belt, and could not knock out the head and tail armor? So there were two large holes in the hull of the Moltke and three on the Goeben, and they continued to run towards home. Although the Lion directly lost half of its firepower, if it continued like this, the British seemed to have a real chance to keep these battleships, after all, after a large number of floods, the German fast battleships could no longer run at such a high speed.

At this time, Charlen was also hesitating, hesitating whether he should continue to catch up, or accept it when he saw it. After all, now that it is getting closer and closer to the German mainland, the German high seas fleet does not know when it will burst out! The Germans were certainly at the end of their power, but they were not in good shape. And at this moment, something made Charlen feel the crisis, and at 700 meters on his starboard side, a stick-like thing slowly surfaced, and then, several wakes rushed out of the sea!

"Right full rudder, avoid torpedoes!" The British fleet was caught off guard by the sudden appearance of the submarine from the right, and the already wounded Lion struggled to wriggle around to avoid three torpedoes, and soon the British light cruisers and destroyers attacked the submarine with artillery and bombs. The sudden lightning strike caused the dissatisfaction in Charlen's heart to ferment rapidly. The arrival of a huge figure in the distant sky made Charlen decide to retreat immediately, and a huge zeppelin appeared in the field of vision of the British fleet.

"Led Zeppelin definitely has a much better view than a battleship, and now that we've spotted him. Then it means that the other party will find out that we will be earlier. Our position has been exposed. According to Hipper's telegram and the tracking of the airship, the German High Seas Fleet should have locked us in, perhaps on its way to the battlefield at this time, and in the case of the fleet's poor condition, I thought it would be wise to lead the warships to evacuate. Afterwards, Colonel Charlen explained.

And Colonel Charron's approach proved to be true afterwards, because just half an hour after Charlen led the fleet to withdraw, a large fleet appeared in Hipper's field of vision. "It's finally here!" Hipper said with a long sigh. I looked at the main forces of the High Seas Fleet, which were getting closer and closer in the distance, and then looked at the British battlecruiser formation in the distance, where only a phantom remained. Hipper's heart was full of helplessness and rejoicing. "As long as you give me two more capital ships, we can sink all the British in the sea!" Fisher kept repeating this sentence in his heart!

Although this experience can be called a life and death. But Hipper's faith is indeed increasing! For the defense and firepower of the British war patrol, Hipper has a deep experience! Except for the Tiger's sidestring armor that successfully bounced off 14-inch shells, the rest of the battleships should not have the ability to resist 14-inch shelling, because according to intelligence, the three battleships including the Lion are all 9-inch main equipment and 9-inch turrets. And the Tiger is 11 inches of inclined armor, according to estimates. SINCE THE 350MM GUN CAN PENETRATE THE 9-INCH TURRET, IT SHOULD NOT BE A BIG PROBLEM TO PENETRATE THE 9-INCH VERTICAL MAIN LOAD. If it weren't for the fact that it has been suppressed by the opponent's superior firepower, and at the same time it is in high-speed motion. Hipper thinks that the British will never leave this battle!

So, surrounded by the High Seas Fleet, Hipper's fast fleet returned to Wilhelmshaven. After a simple rush repair, Hipper was to take the fleet through the Kiel Canal to the Baltic Sea, where he would repair his own ships at the Wilhelm and Germania shipyards. And, of course, one of the most important things is to attend hearings at the Admiralty. The loss of 2 armored cruisers and the wounding of 4 fast battleships in one battle was already a very serious mistake. Although the punishment decision has not yet come down, judging from what Schell revealed, the Kaiser and Tirpitz were quite dissatisfied with this battle!

If Hipper returned to Berlin with a sense of apprehension, then Betty was proud, although he did not catch a German fast battleship, but it was the problem of the subsequent commander, at least until he withdrew from the battlefield, his performance can be described as perfect. What's more, this battle was originally a victory, and no one could blame themselves for their own wrongdoing. Betty had always been a very aggressive man, and under the stimulus of this battle, he thought that if he hadn't started the smoke and maneuver of the German Navy to get some heads, he would definitely have left a few German capital ships.

Betty's victory boosted the morale of the entire Royal Navy, and the gloom of the recent German attack was swept away. Encouraged by the victory, the British Admiralty decided to adopt more aggressive tactics to suppress and even inflict heavy damage on the German navy, because the British had already felt the restlessness and restlessness of that country in the Apennines! "God knows when the Italians will act. We must completely stabilize the situation in the North Sea before the Italians enter the war! Churchill said this more than once at meetings of the Admiralty.

The second is more ~~~. (To be continued......)