At 11:34, Akinfeev, who had been suffering for 20 minutes under the heavy artillery fire of the British battle cruisers, was pleased to see Samekov's battle cruiser formation, and in order not to hinder his own battle cruiser shooting, he immediately commanded his light cruisers to cut between the Hindenburg and the D-Vorlinger.

Samekov, who was located on the Hindenburg, praised Akinfeev's actions and wrote in his post-war report: "His maneuvering maneuvers are simply a textbook model!" After confirming that our large battleship was advancing towards the enemy, he deftly evaded the fire of the enemy's 381 mm heavy guns and successfully withdrew his battleship from the line of fire! ”

From 11:35 to 45 a.m., the exchange of fire subsided for the time being, and both sides were regrouping for the next round of a duel. Samekov formed a battle line with his own battleship cruisers and light cruisers, while Rear Admiral Clyde of the British Royal Navy on the opposite side was still anxiously waiting for the Tiger to follow.

So where did the Tiger go? Poor Tiger had a problem with the boiler during the previous acceleration maneuver, and a steam line suddenly burst, causing her speed to drop in an instant. Not to mention keeping up with the 30 knots maneuver of the R duo, it is enough to maintain a speed of 20 knots.

While the Prestige and Counterattack were bombarding the Cologne, the Tiger, far behind, was struggling with the old steam lines, so much so that the ship's commander, Captain Marin, had to apologize for sending a telegram to Rear Admiral Clyde: "I am sorry for the current delay, but I assure you that soon I will be returning to the formation!" ”

Marin was a man of his word, and under his personal supervision, the mechanic began to rush to repair. At 11:45. Finally, the maximum speed was restored to 25 knots. Of course. When the battle between the battle patrols was about to start, the Tiger could not catch up for the time being.

Clyde also knew that he could only rely on the Prestige and the Counterattack for a while, and as soon as he discovered the enemy's battle patrol, he began to adjust the course, diverting the route to the north, and taking advantage of the speed advantage to grab the T-head.

In other words, when the battle resumed, the Prestige and Counterattack could finally use their full firepower while they were 20 kilometers away from the sea. The Hindenburg is still sprinting hard.

There was no way, the German Patrol had always lagged behind the British Patrol in terms of speed, and its prestige and counterattack could soar to close to 32 knots, while Hindenburg was 27 knots. So in terms of grabbing the position, Samekov is really not Clyde's opponent.

At 11:46, the six 381-mm guns of the Prestige resumed firing, and the first row of 871-kilogram armor-piercing shells quickly flew a distance of 23,734 yards (about 21.7 kilometers) and crashed into the sea on the starboard side of the Hindenburg. The Counterattack, which followed the Prestige, also locked on to the Hindenburg, but at the last minute before firing, the ship's commander, Colonel Demps, ordered the ship's guns to shift their targets. Aimed at De Fringel, who was later in the position. Soon the six cannons of the Counterattack were also fired, and a huge roar echoed between the sea and the sky. Bringing the naval battle to a climax!

Not to be outdone, the British took the lead, and about four minutes later, at a distance of a little over 20 kilometers, returned fire at the British provocation, delivering a 405-kilogram round of shells to the opponent.

And De Vorlinger, who was following behind Hindenburg, also soon began to bombard, followed by Cedritz, but the Cedritz fell a little farther, and the range of her main guns was a little bit unable to keep up, and the effect of the shooting was quite improvised. As for the Moltke, it was even more so that she could only stare dryly, and who let her be equipped with a 280 mm gun with a smaller caliber was even more out of reach.

Of course, when the artillery battle just started, in fact, there was not much that could be said, both sides were engaged in artillery battles at the limit of the artillery range, and the speed of both sides was quite amazing, and in this situation, the hit rate was impossible to talk about at all. Shooting is more of a powerful force.

The only thing that can be talked about during this period of time is the distribution of firepower, because of the distance, and only two warships on both sides of the battle are actually put into battle, so Samekov's numerical advantage cannot be brought into play. In terms of the comparison of the number of artillery, the British are 12 to 16, which is not a big disadvantage, and after taking into account the caliber advantage of the 381 mm main gun, the British may still have an advantage in the amount of firepower thrown per unit time.

In particular, the British Battle Cruiser had an advantage of more than 5 knots due to its sheer speed advantage (31 knots vs 26 knots)! Such an advantage allows Clyde to calmly choose whether to engage or retreat, and Clyde easily takes the initiative!

With speed and firepower in the ascendant, the Counterattack chose to attack D-Fringer, which is a bit strange. Admittedly, from the point of view of the normal distribution of firepower in the battle line, the choice of the captain of the ship, Demps, was not wrong, and he should suppress the second ship in the enemy's battle line that was capable of firing.

But it must also be seen that De Fringer fired very reluctantly, almost in a cannon fight. Such an attack poses no threat to the Prestige and the Counterattack. Since it can be ignored, then Demps should shoot at the Hindenburg with the flagship, so that he can concentrate his firepower on two-on-one. If the Hindenburg could be sunk or heavily damaged, the battle situation behind the British would be much easier!

Of course, there is also a possibility that Demps attacked the De Fringer based on the experience of the Battle of Jutland. Because the experience of the Battle of Jutland showed that when multiple warships fired at the same target, it would be difficult to observe the impact point and control the fire. It is likely that the conservative Demps was concerned about this, and he could not ignore the two German battle cruisers that were approaching, so he chose the more traditional method of distributing fire to the corresponding targets in the enemy's column.

After the long-range artillery battle of the two sides began, Samekov's fleet fired very calmly and unhurriedly, carefully observing and calculating the impact point of each shell, and then correcting the elements before firing.

Some remote shells fell in the formation of British light cruisers, both the Calypso and the Caradoc were grazed by shrapnel, and the Hindenburg even formed a straddle fire on the Calypso at one point!

The captain of the Calypso broke out in a cold sweat and wrote in his logbook: "At the time of the second crossfire. The two shells were only 10 yards (9 meters) away from hitting our ship directly. One of the shells grazed the pillar of the rear mast signal light ......"

Completely different from the unhurriedness of the Russians. The British shot with a frenzy, and in the main turret of the Counterattack, the gunners were sweating and desperately reloading. Everyone was in a state of euphoria, and the blazing firepower also posed an increasing threat to the opponent. In his post-war report, Samekov described the effectiveness of the shelling of the British ships as follows: "The dispersion of the enemy's fire from the enemy ships was minimal and more dense! ”

When the capital ships of the two sides came and went, and the fighting was very happy, the light cruiser formations of the two sides, which were not willing to be lonely, also rejoined the battle. At 11:55, the Cologne fired three salvos at the Counterattack on its own, and although its 150-mm shells could not penetrate the Counterattack's armor even at a distance of more than a dozen kilometers, Akinfeev hoped that this would interfere with the British firing.

At 11:58, according to Clyde's order, the British light cruisers also began to fire back at Akinfeev, and immediately the avant-garde cruiser formations on both sides pinched again, which was really lively!

At this time, the Tiger finally arrived on the battlefield, and Clyde was relieved. The previous two-on-four really put him under a lot of pressure, and the opponent's firepower was too fierce. At one point, a straddle shot was formed at the counterattack.

Although the 305 mm cannon is much less powerful than the 381 mm cannon, the small size is also relative, and for the prestige and counterattack with light armor (main armor 152 mm), a 405 kg shell can also kill them.

When the Tiger joined the fray, the enemy's firepower was dispersed, much better than when the Hindenburg, De Fringer, and Cedritz surrounded his two warships. The good news for the British was bad news for the Russians, who had been happily "besieging" their opponents with good results for a time, but with the arrival of the Tiger, he had to redistribute his firepower.

"The Hindenburg and the D-Fringer continued to shoot at the enemy's lead ships, striving for all the results! Cedritz shoots the enemy ship No. 2, and the Moltke is in charge of the No. 3 ship! ”

It can be seen that Samekov still wants to solve the prestige as much as possible, as long as the prestige is defeated, the enemy's remaining two battle cruisers will not be his opponents at all! It should be said that this judgment was very accurate, and the subsequent course of the battle fully proved Samekov's judgment, but the result was not entirely correct.

After 20 minutes of bombardment by seven battle cruisers, the decisive moment of the naval battle came. Clyde noticed that from 12:05 onwards, the De Verber had formed a straddle of his flagship, and by 12:09 the landing point of another broadside salvo was within reach!

At that time, a 305-mm armor-piercing projectile set off a huge 50-meter-high column of water near the bow of the Famine, and the front deck of the battleship was completely soaked with seawater. Clyde hastened to order the warship to turn 20 degrees to the right and accelerate from 21 knots to 30 knots in order to maintain the accuracy of the shelling, in order to quickly escape from this deadly position, which had been locked by the enemy.

At this point, the Prestige quickly accelerated, as the ship's firing commander could not aim when the ship had turned its rudder more than 10 degrees, so the Prestige had to temporarily stop firing. At that time, both the Cologne and the Emden noticed the anomaly of the Prestige, and almost simultaneously reported to the flagship Hindenburg by radio: "The enemy's forward ship has deviated from the battle column. ”

In fact, without the reminder of the Cologne and the Emden, Samekov naturally saw it, but he didn't have much to do about this kind of rapidly turning target, so he could only order the gunners to hurry up and solve the fire control calculations, and strive to get new shooting elements as soon as possible.

And for the gunners of the Hindenburg, this is quite a painful job, before it was easy to lock on the opponent, and he was ready to make a steady hit, who would have thought that the enemy was more oily than a mouse, and the wind cried when he saw that it was wrong. And how can it be so easy to resolve? In such a hurry, in desperation, he could only rely on experience to modify it slightly, and then passed the so-called "new" shooting elements to the turrets.

Naturally, such adjustments will certainly not be too effective, and to put it mildly, off-target is completely unavoidable. But sometimes luck can't stop it, and it's just such an uncertain round of salvo that actually achieves results!

Just as the Prestige had finished turning, a 305-mm shell struck the deck near her rear chimney, exploding to tear a five-meter-square hole. In which the warhead continues to go deeper. After penetrating the second deck. Stayed in the soldier's quarters.

It should be said that this hit was not fatal, but the explosion caused a large fire, and the middle of the hull of the Prestige was suddenly enveloped in thick flames, and suffocating smoke poured from the ventilation ducts into the boiler room below deck, forcing part of the engine room personnel to evacuate, and the four boilers immediately declared a strike. The Prestige's speed dropped rapidly from 28 knots to 18 knots before the shot.

Seeing that the flagship was hit by a bullet and slowing down, the Counterattack quickly adjusted its course to overtake the Prestige and continued to shoot at the D-Verblinger. However, just like the previous twenty minutes, it was still impossible to achieve results.

The situation is quite bad for Clyde, who was at a disadvantage with three to four, and now the flagship is still halfway off, which is equal to 2.5 to 4. Moreover, the prestige that has lost its speed is obviously not suitable to continue to stay on the battlefield, and if one is not good, it will be dumped by the enemy, and it is not safe for the counterattack and the tiger, and those two ships will not be able to withstand the opponent's encirclement at all.

It was in that moment that Clyde made up his mind - withdraw! He immediately ordered the Prestige to begin a new round of turning, and ordered the light cruiser formation to begin releasing smoke.

The battle went on until 12:15. The British are nervous, which is really not good news for Samekov. It was so easy to get a shot, and he wanted to beat the water dogs. But the British actually ran, and ran so neatly, that they didn't give him a chance at all.

Samekov wanted to chase, but under the cover of the Counterattack and the Tiger, he did not dare to rush forward blindly. As a result, after a round of emergency repairs, the Prestige was quickly restored to about 25 knots, a speed that could not shake off Samekov, but it could not allow him to close the distance.

Just like that, while chasing, while fleeing, half an hour later, the prestige had already extinguished the flames and resurrected with full blood, and suddenly the speed was a new round of increase, and after speeding up again, Samekov had no hope of catching up at all.

It stands to reason that Samekov should have given up at this time, but the somewhat stubborn rear admiral was still in pursuit. After another ten minutes or so, the situation changed again, and the British, who had fled with their tails between their legs, suddenly changed the rudder again. The Prestige with the Counterattack suddenly killed a horse pistol!

This scene made Samekov overjoyed, and he couldn't help but say in his heart: "Sure enough, where there is a will, there is a way!" ”

Spirited, Samekov was ready to roll up his sleeves and make a big move, ready to beat the British. But is there really such a good thing? The British are not stupid, they can run away, why should they turn the rudder and continue to fight?

I'm afraid there is only one possibility, and that is that Clyde has received support, and only when he has received strong assistance will he have the courage to turn back and face it!

Indeed, Clyde has received strong reinforcements, not ordinary strong! If Samekov could take to the skies, he would be able to see that in the rear of the Prestige, five battleships were coming violently!

These five are not ordinary battleships, in World War I, they are the most powerful warships in terms of overall strength, this is the Queen Elizabeth class. In the Battle of Jutland that year, Betty once took four queens to face the entire high seas fleet, although she was beaten badly, but she was able to get out of the way! This fully illustrates the comprehensive strength of the queen level!

Let's put it this way, before the Big Seven were not in service, the strongest battleship was the Queen-class (Bavaria was about the same as the Queen, but unfortunately sank itself). The five queens could barely reach a speed of 25 knots, which was considered a fast battleship in those days, at least able to keep up with the formation of the battle patrol.

So why are these five queens here? Was Jackson really going to take a gamble?

On the contrary, Jackson was about to run away, and at half past eleven he was subjected to a second wave of Sukhoi air raids, which, although this wave did not cause him much damage, completely frightened the admiral.

Soon he ordered the fleet to turn and retreat, but it was no problem for him to retreat, but the battle patrol formation that had previously reconnoitred had not returned. After contacting Clyde, I heard that this person was in a terrible situation, and that there was an enemy behind him who was chasing him and couldn't get out. Jackson immediately sent the queen out, and compared with the other battleships in the formation with a speed of less than 21 knots, only the queen class had some speed, at least it could cooperate with the battle patrol formation. Moreover, the Queen-class has been tested by Jutland, and the entire High Seas Fleet can retreat from the rough skin and thick flesh alone, and it should be able to retreat with its whole body today.

Indeed, if Sukhoi's air force does not perform at the high level of the first wave of air raids, then the fleet of Basilev is really helpless with five queens. In terms of single-ship combat effectiveness, only Bavaria can compete with the queen, and there are only two Bavaria in total, and the speed is a cut slower. It can be said that even if the queen of naval battles can't withstand the crowd, she can still run away.

Of course, Samekov didn't know that the Prestige was followed by five queens, otherwise the pants of this cargo would have been scared off, and I am afraid that they would have turned around and fled for their lives at that time. Fortunately, he didn't know that this allowed the largest naval battle since Jutland to continue, giving the strongest battleships of Britain and Germany a chance to face each other head-on!

At 12:30, while Hindenburg was exchanging shells with the Counterattack, five queens suddenly appeared on the battlefield, which was described in one word as a divine soldier from the sky, and Samekov was scared out of his nose anyway.

It's not that Samekov recognized the Queen, but he was frightened by the number of enemies, and five big guys appeared at once, did I run into the main force of the enemy? (To be continued......)

PS: Bow and thank you for drinking a thousand cups and not getting drunk, Chen Liangyan and Comrade Juventus!