The formation of Basilev's fleet is a bit strange, nominally this is the Red Banner Baltic Fleet, but in fact, except for the four Gangut-class, the main force of this fleet is mostly German cargo.

At the forefront was the reconnaissance cruiser formation, which consisted of four battle cruisers and four light cruisers. It is well known that the Polar Bear's only first-class battlecruiser, the Izmail-class, is in a state of suspension, and since the October Revolution, the 356-mm guns originally planned to be equipped on the Izmail-class have been out of stock by the British, and only ten guns have been delivered before, and these ten guns are not enough for one Izmail (triple four-gun turret).

So this reconnaissance cruiser fleet was all German, including the Hindenburg, De Fringel, Cedritz and Moltke. One of the flagships was the Hindenburg, which was founded by Alexander Hindenburg. Commanded by Rear Admiral Samekov.

This formation of battlecruisers served as the eyes and tentacles of Basilev, acting as a pre-reconnaissance mission, responsible for searching for traces of the main forces of the combined Anglo-American fleet. Of course, now they don't need to bother at all, with the effective reconnaissance of the Air Force, they just need to move towards the target.

Behind the battlecruiser formation was the main formation of Basilov, including fourteen battleships of Bavaria, Baden, King, Elector, Governor-General, Crown Prince Wilhelm, Kaiser, Empress, King Albert, Frederick the Great, Petropavlovsk, Gangut, Sevastopol, and Poltava. It can be said that the main forces of the entire Red Banner Baltic Fleet have already been dispatched.

Fourteen battleships, four battlecruisers, and a few dreadnoughts on the tail of the fleet, it seemed that the fleet was more powerful than ever. But compared to their opponents. That's a bit underwhelming. Although Jackson was taken by surprise by the air strikes. Lost a number of capital ships. But this little blow was a drizzle for the deep-pocketed Anglo-American Combined Fleet.

For example, it is also a battle cruiser formation that has broken ahead, and the Royal Navy is leading the way with the Super Dreadnought Prestige and Counterattack, and the 381 mm guns carried by these two battleships are two grades stronger than Hindenburg's 305 guns, and the Tiger and the Lion are followed by the R Shuangxiong, although these two are not brothers, but they are also genuine super dreadnoughts, and the main guns are 343 mm caliber.

Of course, the Lion is more tragic. It has been sunk, so although the battle cruiser formation in front of the breakthrough has a force ratio of 3 to 4, the Royal Navy is still far ahead in terms of the caliber of the main gun, that is, the firepower.

However, the German battle patrol was not without advantages, that is, although it lagged behind its British brothers in speed and firepower, it was much stronger in defense. For example, the R duo (prestige, counterattack, these two were originally ordered as R-class battleships, but under the intervention of Fisher, who likes battle cruisers, they were changed to battle cruisers). Before the two were remodeled in 1921, the main armor was only 152 mm, almost the level of a heavy cruiser. And the weakest of the Germans, the Moltke, also had 270 mm thick main armor, and the rest of the water was 300 mm battleship level.

If these two formations go head-to-head. It is very likely that it will turn into a contradiction, and it is really hard to say whether the British, which has the advantage in firepower and speed, will win, or the German ships with turtle shells will win.

Of course, there is also a premise for this, that is, they can meet, and if Jackson runs away directly, it will be empty talk.

Then Did Jackson run away? No! The admiral was determined to gamble his luck, if he left like this, his black gauze hat would definitely not be able to keep, and he would have to achieve some results more or less, otherwise he would really not be able to explain. So soon he ordered two destroyers to cover the retreat of the badly wounded New York, and the rest of the fleet continued in the direction of Szczecin.

At the head of the formation were the R Twins and the Tigers alone, as well as four cutting-edge Caledon-class light cruisers. Four of the Caledons came forward to find the way, and three of the Battlecruisers lagged a little behind to cover the ground.

It seems that Jackson is also very cautious, not daring to let the whole fleet take risks casually, he is kind of throwing stones to ask for directions, if there is not much resistance in the next step, continue to insert strongly, if the situation is not good, hurry up and pull the wind tightly.

The Caledon, the flagship of the formation, was at the forefront under the command of Colonel Baroni, and the other three sister ships were lined up in a fanning forward, and poor Rear Admiral Baroni did not know that Samekov's battle patrol formation not too far in front of them had already rushed towards them with great vigour, but because of the cloudy weather, neither commander could find the opponent's stock.

It wasn't until ten o'clock in the morning, just as Sukhoi was preparing to launch a second wave of air raids, that the British light cruisers collided with the leading formation of the German battle cruisers, and the four German light cruisers and the four British light cruisers met.

It may seem fair to look four-on-four, but it's not at all fair at all, with a standard displacement of 4,200 tons, a maximum speed of 29 knots, five 152mm guns and 76mm waterline armor. Their opponents, the Cologne and Dresden, had a standard displacement of 5,620 tons, a full load of 7,500 tons, a maximum speed of about 28 knots, eight 150-mm guns, and slightly thinner waterline armor but also 60 mm. The technical parameters of the Fort Collins and Emden, which cooperated with the Cologne, were also half-hearted.

Let's put it this way, four British light cruisers did not have any advantage in front of their German counterparts, and even an absolute disadvantage in the density of firepower!

However, the Royal Navy's must-fight style made Colonel Baroni choose to meet him, and the two sides engaged in an artillery battle at a distance of 8 kilometers. However, it soon became clear that this choice was problematic, as his four ships had a total of 20 152mm guns, but his enemy had 32 150mm guns, and each salvo hit 1.6 times the enemy's firepower, which can be said to be quite a loss.

Fifteen minutes after the battle began, Colonel Baroni came to his senses, he couldn't be so stupid and have no benefit from the enemy, it was better to turn the rudder and retreat, and let the three big brothers behind him clean up the enemy.

Immediately, Baroni gave the order to turn the rudder and retreat at full speed. But to Baroni's surprise. Even if his formation increased to 28 knots. The enemy in the back was still able to hold on, so he made a difficult decision, ordering Calypso, Caradoc, and Cassandra to retreat, and he personally led the Caledon to break the rear cover, hoping to hold off the enemy and buy time for the friendly ships.

The Caledon then began to zigzag in a zigzag course, releasing smoke and firing frantically at the pursuing Cologne with five 152mm guns. Even four torpedoes were fired.

However, neither the shelling nor the lightning strikes were fruitless, and the Cologne, Dresden, and the Fort Collins and Emden were outflanked from the flanks in pairs.

The Caledon, under the command of Colonel Baroni, twisted left and right, constantly maneuvering to avoid the rain of bullets. I don't know if it was because Colonel Baroni had a good character, or because the Russians were not good at gunnery, and they fought for twenty minutes without hitting once. And by this time, 15 volleys had already been played.

It was not until the sixteenth salvo that the Cologne opened its beard, and a 150-mm grenade hit the middle of the Caledon starboard. Fragments of steel from the explosion pierced the head of a torpedo inside the ship's torpedo tube, but fortunately no explosion occurred. Despite this, Colonel Baroni, who was scared into a cold sweat, immediately ordered the rudder to be evaded.

The seventeenth round of salvo still missed the target, and the eighteenth round of salvo achieved excellent results in cross-shooting, just when the Cologne was about to give the Brit a little color in the nineteenth round of salvo, the Caledon took the lead and hit the bridge of the Cologne at 6,400 meters, and the shrapnel from the explosion caused a burst of chickens and dogs in the bridge of the Cologne, killing the first mate and the chief sailor of the Cologne.

This cannon immediately interrupted the good posture of the Cologne, and in order to avoid the shelling, the Cologne also had to start turning the rudder to avoid it.

Fortunately, the battle was 4vs1 instead of 1vs1, and when the Cologne made adjustments, the Dresden and Emden took over, and soon avenged the Cologne.

At 10:11 a.m., the Dresden was the first to hit, and four minutes later the Emden opened up, and in the ensuing battle, Colonel Baroni and the Caledon still tried to resist, but as the distance got closer, the Russians got better and better.

By 10:25 a.m., the Caledon was enveloped in flames, only one of its five main guns was able to return fire, and the hull was riddled with holes. At the last moment, in the face of heavy artillery fire, Colonel Baroni paid tribute to the entire crew who stood at their posts and refused to abandon ship and escape. Half an hour later, the new light cruiser, which had only been commissioned in March 1917, slowly sank to the bottom of the sea, killing 320 officers and men.

By the time the Caledon sank, three of her sister ships had escaped the pursuit and joined up with the three battle cruisers, and the Russians, who were celebrating their victory, had no idea that they would provoke three big ones by beating the smaller ones, and they were still basking in the joy of victory.

However, for the commander of the formation, Akinfeev, although the victory was worth rejoicing, there were also many problems. The most serious problem was the consumption of ammunition, and in previous battles, his four light cruisers turned out to have consumed almost 4000 rounds of 150-mm shells!

It can be said that on average, almost a thousand shells were fired at each ship! That's not a small number! You must know that after taking over the High Seas Fleet, the fleet made a statistic that the 150 mm shell reserve of light cruisers was less than 300 rounds per gun on average, that is to say, like the Cologne, there were only 2400 rounds of 150 mm shells, and 1000 rounds were consumed in a not fierce naval battle, plus the part consumed in training, there were more than 1,000 shells left on the ship, according to such a rate of consumption, it really couldn't last long!

In fact, the most fundamental problem reflected in the large consumption of shells is the problem of gunnery, and if the gunners have a high hit rate, the natural consumption will be less. On the contrary, it is natural that a lot of shells will be wasted.

Of course, at this time, Akinfeev was in no mood to deal with the problem of gunnery, this thing could not be improved for a while, he was most worried about running into the enemy's main force, it was so difficult to hit a Caledon, and he had to be blinded when he encountered the enemy's main force?

However, many times it was a matter of fear, and Akinfeev's fears soon became a reality. Soon after, large puffs of black smoke rose near the water antenna, and these smoke were so "thick" and dense. Fools know the big guy is coming!

The brothers Prestige and Counterattack were at the forefront. When Akinfeev saw through the telescope the Prestige's tall tripod mast and the main cannon of the Black Hole. I broke out in a cold sweat. Almost without thinking, Akinfeev ordered the rudder to retreat, and immediately telegraphed Samekov in the back.

But it's so easy to run, the British Battle Patrol is a speed champion, and there are no other characteristics, it's notoriously fast! (The Prestige and Counterattack reached high speeds of 31.75 knots and 32.58 knots respectively during sea trials!) ）。 It was not a big problem for them to catch up with German light cruisers, who could barely reach 28 knots.

Of course, the British were faster at the rate of fire, and at a distance of 18 km the Prestige and Counterattack could not wait to open fire. Four 381-mm shells whizzed down around the Cologne, and the stirred water jets poured onto the deck of the Cologne.

And that's not the most frightening, what is even more frightening is that the British gunners have refreshed the limit rate of fire of the 42 times caliber 381 mm guns, and they are constantly pouring shells at the Cologne at a rate of 2.5 rounds per minute. From a distance, the poor Cologne was a small boat in a storm.

Moreover, the British were not only fast, but also quite accurate, which impressed Akinfeev so much that in his post-war report he wrote: "The 'Cologne' was almost immediately subjected to heavy fire and fell into straddle ...... The ship had to make frequent adjustments to its course in order to avoid enemy straddle fire! ”

11:02 a.m. A 381-mm grenade from the Counterattack tore the rear mast of the Cologne to shreds along with the observation post, and the scattered shrapnel almost knocked the deck of the Cologne into a sieve!

And Akinfeev's fleet table was not so ideal. As in the previous battles, they still couldn't find the right shot, most of the shells were off target, and even for a long time, their main guns could not reach the enemy, so they could only be beaten and unable to fight back.

Truth be told, it was a painstaking situation, the speed disadvantage completely deprived Akinfeev's fleet of the initiative, and the British could choose their favorite distance to fight, and they could have beaten Akinfeev with the method of kite flying.

In fact, the British did the same, keeping the engagement distance at around 16 kilometers, which was exactly more than the maximum range of the 150-mm guns of Akinfeev's fleet, and the 16-kilometer distance was nothing for the 381-mm guns.

If it weren't for the Cologne's frequent turns to delay the speed of advance, which allowed her to shorten the distance with the British, otherwise the Cologne would not even have had a chance to fire back. At this point, it was Akinfeev's turn to make a multiple-choice question, he was now in exactly the same situation as Colonel Baroni before (or even worse), his formation couldn't run away and couldn't beat it, should he also make a brave sacrifice like Colonel Baroni, sacrificing the Cologne to cover the retreat of the other three light cruisers?

Akinfeev made a completely different choice, he did not choose to stay alone, but chose to continue to escape. He thinks that there is no need to make sacrifices at all, and even thinks that Baroni, who has made sacrifices before, is a big fool!

Why? It's very simple, Baroni's fleet really can't beat him, but Baroni's fleet is not without backup, right? Obviously, there are three battle cruisers behind him, if the four light cruisers stay together to fight, it will definitely delay more time, right? Maybe we'll be able to wait until the warpatrol catches up, and maybe not even a ship will have to be sacrificed.

Akinfeev chose to run away, or ran straight in the direction of his battle patrol formation, he knew that if he persevered, he would definitely be rescued!

Of course, whether it can hold on is a big question, after all, for the 381mm cannon of the prestige and counterattack, it is fully capable of killing the Cologne in seconds, as long as the Cologne is directly hit, it will go to the west in minutes.

This period of time was nothing short of torment for Akinfeev, every time he saw the flash of enemy artillery through the telescope, his heart pounded, and he even had the urge to immediately turn to dodge. Fortunately, he restrained this fear very well and did not give random orders.

"Near-missed!"

"Far Bullet!"

"Straddle shot!"

"The enemy has turned again!"

In fact, for the Prestige and the Counterattack, this period of time was also a kind of torment, obviously the enemy was very weak, they once locked the enemy to death, but they could not get the decisive fatal blow. Even after the last shot, the enemy appeared to be very slippery, and immediately turned at the slightest mistake in the limelight, which is simply a devastation for a mechanical computer of this age, and it is impossible to solve the target of such frequent turning.

And it's not just a matter of fire control, although the firepower of the Prestige and the Counterattack looks very powerful, and the 381mm cannon is very good and powerful, it is undeniable that the firepower density of the Prestige and the Counterattack is not good. There are only six main guns on both ships, four in the front and two in the rear, and when pursuing the enemy, many times only four front main guns can play a role, and there are only 4 shells in a salvo, and there are only eight salvos in the two ships, which is too low!

This also made it difficult for the Prestige and Counterattack to get hits, and at one point they both wanted to speed up and catch up to close each other to kill each other. Fortunately, the British did not have a complete brain convulsion, Betty also thought so in the Battle of Jutland back then, but ran headlong into the enemy's main force, thanks to Betty bringing an elite leather queen, replaced by a British thin-skin battle patrol, and she will really be dried into scum.

Anyway, the British did not dare to risk cutting, so they could only continue to maintain this kite flying style until Samekov's battle patrol formation rushed to the battlefield, and the situation changed...... (To be continued......)

PS: Bow and thank you for holding the Po Lunzi, Mr. Jane and Comrade Juventus!