Chapter 814: Meet the Boss!
After Beck received Hipper's telegram, he did not continue to move along the established patrol line, but lowered his speed and waited for the arrival of the follow-up fleet.
But Baker didn't expect that it was precisely because of this seemingly safe and conservative decision that his fleet was finally ruined, according to common sense, waiting for the follow-up main force to arrive was a correct decision, but if the other party acted quickly and was so strong that even the main force in the rear could not help, then waiting became a death, at first Betty was worried that the prey would slip away like this, but soon, several destroyers found the blurred figure in the moonlight and reported it to Betty, and Betty sped up, At the same time, contact with Baker's fleet was maintained, and after some twists and turns, it was almost dawn at this time. The morning star rises in the sky, and the light on the sea is getting brighter and brighter! Rear Admiral Baker, who had not rested all night, finally spotted the British fleet hovering around him.
Now, Baker has finally noticed that something is wrong, that is, why are there so many British fleets around? Enemy ships were spotted at 2 o'clock and 7 o'clock in his own position, although judging from the appearance, it should not be a large battleship, but so many fleets were concentrated here, which made Rear Admiral Baker feel a sense of crisis! He was almost certain now that there must be big guys around!
Betty didn't make Major General Baker wait too long, soon. Columns of smoke appeared in the direction of Baker's fleet at 1 o'clock, and even in the morning fog, Rear Admiral Baker could still see the smoke that obscured the sky in the distance. Subsequently. It didn't take long for a huge figure to appear in Major General Baker's telescope. "Oh my God!" Did the British transfer all the Grand Fleet! In just a few minutes, Beck thoroughly experienced what it was like to go from heaven to hell, in the face of the sudden powerful fleet, Beck had no intention of fighting at all, and directly ordered the fleet to retreat, 2 German armored cruisers and 2 light cruisers drew a U on the sea. Under the cover of several destroyers, they fled towards the western wall.
"It's a shame that there are only two old guys." Betty looked at the German fleet that was fleeing wildly in the bow of the ship in the distance, and said with some unfinished business. The maximum speed of the two armored cruisers at this time was about 22 knots. And the speed of Betty's fleet was more than 24 knots, and the average speed of the first battle cruiser formation reached more than 26 knots! Plus because of the morning fog. Baker found out that the opponent was a little late, so it didn't take long for Betty to catch up with Beck's fleet, and at this time, the Hipper's fleet was not yet in sight!
In the face of the swarming British battlecruiser formations, the Baker fleet simply had no capital to resist. THE BEATY FLEET SOON APPROACHED TO A DISTANCE OF 14KM. Accompanied by the order of the gunnery chief to open fire. The 4 ultra-dreadnought battlecruisers in front spewed out tongues of fire! Betty's flagship Tiger took the lead and fired the first round and a half salvo, four armor-piercing projectiles weighing 635KG whizzed through the sky, and ten seconds later, 4 huge water columns fell around the German fleet.
"Let the light cruisers evacuate, they should not be buried for my mistakes." When the first salvo of the British sounded, the German general immediately ordered. Every light cruiser was a very valuable asset of the German navy, so unnecessary sacrifices must be eliminated.
"Want to go? No. None of them can run! Betty's eyes were like a cheetah staring at its prey. The formation of light cruisers, which had gathered on either side of the battle cruisers, began to break away and pursued the German light cruisers, which had already broken out of formation, at a speed of up to 27 knots. And at this time. The two German light cruisers, having suffered some losses in the previous night's engagement, and their slow speed, were no longer able to evade the siege of the superior enemy. Two battles started one after another, one was eight battle cruisers besieging two armored cruisers, and the other was four British light cruisers besieging two damaged German light cruisers, although the scale gap was huge, but there was no suspense, no matter in that battlefield, the German fleet targeted by Betty had no possibility of escaping!
"It's so messy, we can't tell where it hits." The gunnery officer on the Lion shook his head helplessly, Betty gave an order, and his younger brothers naturally would not give up this opportunity to beat the water dogs, and the 8 battle cruisers sprayed a deadly rain of bullets one after another, and as a result, there were too many shells out, and the splash of water completely filled the field of vision of the rangefinder, so that the British could not recognize which water column was shot by themselves just now, and they could not see the water column, and it was impossible to talk about any shot.
However, this problem was quickly solved, because everyone could not see clearly, so the rate of fire slowed down, and the latter few battleships with poor design positions simply did not waste shells. Most of them are stopped, and the rest of the nature is easy to observe...... Another reason is that the British battlecruisers were really fast enough, and it didn't take long for the distance between the two sides to be pulled into about 10KM, which is already very accurate at this distance for the battleship's main guns!
After a brief period of confusion, the British bombardment became quite precise and deadly, and Betty finally asked the First Battlecruiser Formation to reap the glory of sinking the first large German battleship, with the Tiger and Lion against the Lune, and the Queen Mary and Princess against the York. At a distance of less than 10KM, the Tiger directly caught the Lune in the second round and a half salvo, and then in the third round and a half salvo, a shell entered the water at a distance of less than 10 meters from the starboard side of the Luum, although this shell did not hit directly, but the semi-armor-piercing projectile had a large charge, and its power was equivalent to a small mine after the explosion!
Rear Admiral Baker felt the hull sway, and then quickly leaned to the right of the ship. THE ENTIRE BATTLESHIP WAS SAILING AT A SPEED OF MORE THAN 20 KNOTS, AND THE 343MM NEAR-MISS BOMB DIRECTLY OPENED A LARGE HOLE IN THE HULL, AND THE HIGH-TEMPERATURE AND HIGH-PRESSURE BUBBLES GENERATED BY THE EXPLOSION PUSHED THE SHRAPNEL TO TEAR APART THE HULL PLATE AND PENETRATE THE WALL OF THE SEALED CABIN. Within seconds, the three watertight compartments of the Lune were damaged, and in just a few minutes, more than 800 tons of seawater poured down the cracks into the hull!
And this was only the beginning of the disaster, in just ten minutes, the Lune was hit by two super dreadnought battle cruisers as many as 8 times in a row! THE SHOCK WAVE GENERATED BY THE EXPLOSION SWEPT ACROSS THE HULL WATERLINE WITH FLAMES AND SHRAPNEL, AND ONE OF THE SHELLS PIERCED THE LUNE'S SIDE ARMOR BELT, AND FINALLY EXPLODED ON THE DOME, THE SHOCK WAVE GENERATED BY THE EXPLOSION DIRECTLY TWISTED THE 45MM THICK STEEL PLATE INTO TWISTS, AND THE FLAMES AND SHRAPNEL RUSHED THROUGH THE BREACH TO DESTROY THE INTERNAL PIPES AND LINES. Most of the shells that hit the surface of the hull destroyed almost all of the ship's gun emplacements and superstructure, turning the entire battleship into an Shura field.
The ship's damage pipe quickly lost control, and the speed of water ingress exceeded the limit speed of the Rune's exclusion. The fire on the surface of the ship and the flying shrapnel made the fire extinguishing efforts even more futile. The power of the Rune was rapidly decreasing, and the angle of inclination increased even further, and by ten minutes the German armored cruiser had tilted up to 20 degrees! The main guns are already unusable, and even if the British now abandon the attack, it is absolutely impossible for the battleship to return to Wilhelmshaven alive!
The York was even worse, a 343MM shell penetrated the horizontal armor and was sent directly into the steam engine room of the York, directly destroying two vertical steam engines in a compartment, and the entire battleship instantly lost half of its power, and then, without waiting for the German officers and soldiers on the York to take remedial measures, another shell penetrated the main turret in the middle of the York's hull, and it was even more unfortunate that the ammunition hoisting shaft of the York was open at this time, and the flame storm generated by the explosion rushed directly into the ammunition depot of the York along the hoisting shaft.
According to common sense, it should generally be the shell magazine in the upper part and the propellant magazine in the bottom. But I don't know if the Germans wanted to test the fire resistance of their copper-packed propellants, or for some other reason, the German battleships had to put the powder magazine on top and then the shell magazine on the bottom, and generally the shells were not particularly easy to detonate (as opposed to the propellant). After the ammunition depot catches fire, you may be able to get away with it by filling it with water, but the propellant is different, whether it is nitrocellulose or bi-base propellant, these things are just a little bit! (The German 1 war gun was a slip-wedge type, which was convenient for rapid locking and had a faster rate of fire, but the air tightness was somewhat not good, so the second half of the propellant was wrapped in a brass shell to increase the air tightness.) )
"The sinking of the York was so sudden, we didn't expect that a 10,000-ton warship could be destroyed in less than five minutes, and the cost of millions of pounds and hundreds of human lives seemed so fragile and helpless in front of the ultimate human war machine. We saw a huge fireball rising from the middle of the York's hull, and below it was a trail of water vapor, shrapnel, and soot. A huge mushroom-shaped cloud shot up into the sky, and in a burst of explosions, the whole battleship was cut in two in half a minute, and then, my ears were filled with loud cheers, and we finally sank the first large German battleship, and the honor belonged to the Queen Mary! A British officer serving on the Queen Mary later recalled.
The battle on the main battlefield was soon over, and while the two Rune-class armored cruisers were at the end of the battle against the rolling waves of the North Sea, the two German cruisers on the other battlefield were also encircled by British light cruisers and destroyers. And at this moment, the figure in the distance regained Betty's attention!
Finally unblocked~~~~. Here, I would like to thank the editors Sansheng Da and Guozi Da for their help and support. During this time, the side position did not give up and continued to update ~~~. From today onwards, double shifts will be maintained every day for a week~~~. Can you continue to support the side position~~~~. (To be continued......)