"General, our avant-garde fleet seems to have discovered something." At this time, 70 nautical miles northwest of Helgoland, the German armored cruiser Lune, the commander of the German armored cruiser, Rear Admiral Beck, was cruising with two armored cruisers and three light cruisers. These two armored cruisers are the predecessors of the Scharnhorst-class Xiuzhen battlecruisers, in this class of battleships, the Germans have used the central axis to arrange the main guns, one turret at the end and one in the middle, a bit like the PISA type armored cruiser, but its armor is thicker, the speed is faster, and the practical gun is not a 10-inch gun, but a German 240MM gun, these two battleships started in 1900 and completed in 1903, which was a small strength in the world navy at that time.

The Luhn-class armored cruisers are the fastest and most powerful battleships in the German Navy, except for fast battleships. THE WATERLINE ARMOR OF THIS CLASS OF BATTLESHIPS IS UP TO 7 INCHES THICK, AND THE 240MM GUNS CAN FIRE 23 ROUNDS OF 220KG PER MINUTE, AND THERE ARE 14 105MM SECONDARY GUNS, AND THE SPEED CAN ALSO REACH ABOUT 23 KNOTS. The displacement reached 12,000 tons. It is better than the British contemporary. Of course, the last generation of the Minotar is a bit worse.

As the British fleet retreated to the open sea, the Germans took a step forward as a matter of course, and then the problem came, with the expansion of the range, the German alert fleet would definitely not be able to use light cruisers alone, the farther away from the mainland, the greater the possibility of encountering the opponent's main battleships, so even if the Germans did not expect that the British fast warships would all rush to the south of the North Sea to watch, they still decided to send their capital ships to provide cover for light cruisers and destroyers. And it was because of this that two Lune-class armored cruisers came to the open sea.

According to the usual plan, the light cruiser formations of the German Navy were to patrol on the periphery, with the Lunn-class armored cruisers in the rear. Run into the British fleet. If you can support it, you can support it, and if you can't support it, prepare to flash people. But this time it's different. Behind Rear Admiral Beck is the fast fleet of the German High Seas Fleet, and Hipperre personally took 4 capital ships to press the formation for Rear Admiral Beck, which made this general a lot bolder. So Rear Admiral Baker's two armored cruisers moved together with the perimeter alert formation. Hipper's fleet was about 20 nautical miles behind him.

At this time, Rear Admiral Baker's fleet spotted the other party's vague figure 3KM ahead. Shortly after a torpedo boat gave an identification signal, the other side decisively identified itself with shells. The V169 and V170 issued an early warning to Rear Admiral Baker while evading the enemy's artillery fire, and then waited for the light cruisers in the rear to join the battle. And when Major General Baker received the telegram. Request the avant-garde fleet to verify the authenticity of the information again. He did not immediately send light cruisers to support, because the German light cruisers were too few.

Historically, all German light cruisers of more than 3,000 tons combined were only 30, and in this dimension, the number of German light cruisers in service before the war was only 20. This also included 4 light cruisers of the Spee's fleet. The remaining light cruisers were barely organized into 4 light patrol detachments. Moreover, one of them and the former dreadnought fleet were deployed in the Baltic Sea to defend against the Russian Navy, and the other three light cruisers were responsible for the reconnaissance activities of the entire high seas fleet, so that the main fleet had to leave one, and the Hipper, who went out, brought a total of one with him. You must know that in such a big battle as the Battle of Jutland, the German Navy only dispatched 8 light cruisers! Relative to the capital ship. The Germans were even more lacking in auxiliary battleships!

So in order to protect the sparsely numerous light cruisers, Admiral Baker believed. After making sure that there were no capital ships of the British around, he should take two Rune-class armored cruisers against the British light cruisers, crush them with absolute superiority, and then prepare for the flash! And when the destroyer in front determined that the other party was only a light cruiser, Admiral Baker ordered his fleet to immediately rush to the target, and the first night battle of the First World War officially began!

"These flies are really annoying!" After sending the information about the encounter with the German fleet to Betty, Betty immediately called back and asked the four Chatham-class light cruisers to continue to keep in contact with the German fleet, so that the Betty fleet could clean up the German fleet after dawn. So under the leadership of Colonel Parker, the formation of 4 light cruisers and their destroyers began to maneuver around Baker's fleet.

THE CHATHAM-CLASS LIGHT CRUISER IS A NEW TYPE OF LIGHT CRUISER NEWLY LAUNCHED BY THE BRITISH, ARMED WITH EIGHT 6-INCH GUNS, 4 47MM GUNS, AND 50MM THICK WATERLINE ARMOR, WITH A TOP SPEED OF 25.5 KNOTS. Such performance was enough to make any German torpedo boat have no idea. THE GERMAN TORPEDO BOATS WERE ARMED WITH 88MM GUNS THAT COULD NOT HAVE DONE MUCH DAMAGE TO THEM AT ALL. Intensive artillery fire was also enough for the German torpedo boats to return in vain. However, at this time, Colonel Parker was worried about the big guys of the Germans on the other side, if it was a battle patrol, then he might not be able to survive the dawn!

But the Royal Navy has never lacked brave men who dared to sacrifice! And Colonel Parker did not hesitate to command his fleet to entangle with it. The destroyers on both sides quickly moved forward, and they undertook the task of waiting for the opportunity to launch lightning strikes and lighting the big ships, and soon, thick pillars of light swept back and forth on the sea, and huge figures were covered by the pillars of light from time to time, but soon, the intensive artillery fire would quiet these little guys who were "fighting with open fire"! The intensive artillery fire of the four Chatham-class light cruisers instantly scattered the German destroyer, and a destroyer that did not have time to evacuate was targeted by the Chatham and Dublin at the same time! The ferocious firepower of more than a dozen guns of various types instantly enveloped this little guy with a displacement of less than a few hundred tons.

"Not bad, we got it done in 3 minutes." Colonel Parker looked at the German destroyer that had sunk to the bottom of the sea, and said with a pretense of relief. The Germans seem to have retreated? When, with the help of the destroyers, Major Parker drove away the German destroyers that had come to light the lights, he suddenly found that there was no other party on the sea, whether it was the destroyer that was quite active just now, or the huge figures were hidden in the night. As if they hadn't been there.

"Where are they?" Colonel Parker never believed that the Germans would be so cowardly, especially when there were big guys, and it was important to know that at the beginning of the war, even if the troops were poor, the German light cruiser formation was still fighting the British light cruisers in the dark, although it was the Germans who suffered the most. Their task is to keep in touch, and since the other party is gone, then he has to find them.

"Order the reconnaissance fleet to launch a search formation and continue to move southwest, we want to find them, and then keep an eye on them!" A moment later, Colonel Parker ordered. Parker's fleet was only a small fleet, even with the spaciousness of the British Empire, it would not be assigned too many auxiliary ships, 6 torpedo boats were already interesting, and at this time, the searchlights of two torpedo boats were damaged by the other side in the battle just now, and the other four were all deployed in the southwest direction of the fleet, and their task was to continue to reconnoitre, light up and then indicate the target for the light cruisers behind before they died.

The whole fleet slowly continued to advance in the southwest direction, all the light cruisers were under light control, hidden in the darkness, Parker felt very safe, after all, the action of dispersing the opposing destroyers just now was absolutely clean and neat, and it would not be in the textbooks, even if the Germans had big ships following behind, there was absolutely no time to determine their position. However, this time Parker miscalculated, if the other party was far away from him, it was true that he could not determine the location of Parker's fleet, but what if when the German torpedo boat turned on the lights, the German battleship was not far away from him?

"What's that?" Suddenly, several pillars of light from the right side of the battleship swept across the foredeck of the Chatham, and the sudden bright light made Colonel Parker feel a little dizzy. "German battleship, at 10 o'clock on the starboard side, we are under attack!" Soon the sound of the phone and the roar of the artillery sent Colonel Parker into the ice cave! Through the gap in the conning tower, Colonel Parker could see that two slender cruisers were raining bullets on him and the Dublin, just about a nautical mile away!

THE ROAR OF THE 150MM HEAVY GUNS ONCE AGAIN BROKE THE SILENCE OF THE NIGHT, AND THE BRITISH FLEET IMMEDIATELY FELL INTO CHAOS, BECAUSE THE DESTROYERS ALL WENT TO THE RIGHT SIDE TO CARRY OUT RECONNAISSANCE MISSIONS, AND NO ONE LIT THEMSELVES, AND THE GERMAN CRUISER DID NOT KNOW WHEN IT WENT AROUND TO THE OTHER SIDE, SEVERAL GERMAN DESTROYERS QUICKLY APPROACHED, USING FLARES AND SEARCHLIGHTS TO INDICATE THE TARGET FOR THE LIGHT CRUISERS BEHIND, WHILE THE TWO GERMAN LIGHT CRUISERS HID IN THE NIGHT, LEISURELY ATTACKING THE EXPOSED BRITISH CRUISERS.

"Fire!" The British struggled to determine the direction of the other side according to the muzzle flame when the other side fired, but obviously, this was very inefficient, a high-explosive bomb weighing 45KG fell on the Chatham, and the flames generated after the explosion of picric acid explosives quickly ignited the lifeboats and various flammable materials on the ship, and in just a few minutes, the fire spread on the Chatham and Dublin. Yellow-green flames emitted deadly poisonous gases that spread across the deck, and teak decks crackled under the blazing flames. Pillars of fire completely exposed the British fleet, not only the two big ones, but also the two light cruisers in the back were exposed to the Germans!

"All the ships turn on the searchlights, find me the two rats!" Parker ordered a little angrily, since it has been exposed, there is no need to hide, 4 British light cruisers turned on their searchlights to search the sea, and soon found two Leipzig-type light cruisers hiding in the shadows! Then, shells rained down one after another, and the British counterattack began!

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