Six-six-two, 2 to 3

Whitehall. ※※※※※ I ※ I ※ ※

In the narrow naval chamber, Prime Minister Lloyd George was dressed as solemnly as if he was going to meet the king, and the ministers whispered to each other, taking advantage of this rare opportunity to discuss the war and prepare supplies, while the generals all stood by, constantly looking at the surface of their hands anxiously.

The Scapa Bay anchorage is empty, and there are only a few old ships left in the home fleet now, but everyone here knows that Britain still has the confidence, even stronger than the United States at the moment!

Because four Avenger-class battleships and four Prestige-class battlecruisers are being outfitted at an accelerated pace, they will all be in service by the end of the year, five Normandy-class ships transferred from France can be delivered in March next year, and the construction of four Hood-class battleships is also accelerating, and the powerful 3rd and N3 class battleships are already being designed.

Although the battlecruiser has been proven to be inconsistent with the idea of a decisive battle, it is the only fast maneuverable force that can be built under the current situation, and the design indicators of the prestige class and the Hood class even exceed 26 knots, and it is still a great threat to use in the vast sea area, even larger than the battleship, so Britain chose to continue to go all out!

On the other hand, in Germany, although the construction of the fifth Wester of the Bavarian class and the third Hindenburg of the De Vorringer class has been completed by 70 percent, almost all of their resources have been embezzled by the army, and it is impossible to enter service at least before the end of next year.

Germany was declining, as fast as they had taken Paris, not because of their lack of industrial capacity, but because of their lack of colonial blood transfusions and lack of ties with their allies, which caused the consequence of the lack of supplies, so that the iron fist of the allies had begun to gradually weaken.

If there is no Far East, perhaps everyone can already announce the entry of a strategic counteroffensive, and the curtain of victory will gradually open, but because the Baghdad railway is about to open to traffic, Russia is constantly in the country, and the situation is suddenly starting to be delicate again.

So the Prime Minister came, the Chancellor came, almost all the senior officers who could come in a hurry, because by this time everyone knew that the German fleet had quietly crossed the Kiel Canal in the middle of the night yesterday, and was now on the North Sea!

Defeat them, even if the home fleet pays half the price, as long as the German navy can be destroyed, Britain can free up at least 20 capital ships to enter the east by the end of the year, plus the United States can also take out at least 12 capital ships, and the offensive launched in the Pacific Ocean, with the mother ship and the cruiser equipped with a large number of anti-aircraft weapons, can at least regain the current disadvantage and drag Li Mo into endless attrition!

There is no country that is not afraid of attrition, and China was scary in the early days because it occupied a technological advantage, but as long as Germany was eliminated and all the forces of the Entente were gathered, no matter how strong China was, the battlefield that was too open and the industrial capacity worse than itself would be completely consumed.

This is the strategy, the brutal strategy of throwing yourself and the enemy into the fire.

No one knows how long it will take for the battered Entente countries to recover if this strategy is implemented, even if they can win the battle and restore the order of the world, but if they don't, then the alliance will lead the world!

The British Empire will look at other people's faces for a generation, and the century-old hegemony created after the Victorian era has completely become a thing of the past, so even if you know that you will step into the abyss, you must gamble on this!

Lloyd George and Admiral Edward Carson looked at each other, then turned to Hamilton, the First Sea Secretary (similar to the Chief of Staff of the Navy), who nodded heavily when he received the gaze.

He knows what the Prime Minister is worried about, but he believes Jellico!

Because "Silent Jack" is the second best artillery expert in Britain after Fisher, he is conservative by nature, usually taciturn, but he knows his responsibility, if it were only Germany, Hamilton believes that he may choose to take it when it is good, and block the enemy in the anchorage, but this time he must bet all his chips to fight anyway!

Now everyone is worried about whether the cunning guy in Scheer will give him a chance to fight?!

Lloyd George turned the pocket watch in his hand, and the cover kept opening and closing, showing the nervousness and uneasiness in his heart at the moment, where did Jericho go? Did any fighting start? What about the losses? And so on, and so on, are haunting this office, bothering the whole of Britain and the Entente.

"Report, Vice Admiral Jericho reports, the Conquistador, and Queen Mary ......." Jacobson, the Second Sea Minister, rushed into the conference room with a gloomy face, but when he finished his report, he was surprised to find that except for several generals and ministers, Hamilton, Carson, Field Marshal Kitchener, including the Prime Minister, all had calm faces and did not seem to hear the damage report.

0-2 behind, but only behind, Jericho is still 28-26 ahead of the numbers, not to mention that the Germans who sank the two capital ships must also have losses, so everyone now only wants to know whether they lost 2 ships in vain, or .......

As the minutes passed, the air in the conference room had scorched and frozen, and just when patience had run out, the sound of rushing in the corridor was heard again. ※※※※※ I ※ I ※ ※

Prime Minister Lloyd George slammed his pocket watch shut and pressed it into his palm.

"Report, General Betty's first battle cruiser has entangled the German battle cruiser, and Vice Admiral Jericho said that the decisive battle ...... will start within an hour!"

"Boom!"

The explosion over the North Sea had just begun, and after being hit by shells again, the 26,250-ton Lion battlecruiser was like a rag doll thrown into the sea of fire, and the fire and smoke began to spread on the deck.

Captain Harvey, covered in blood, staggered into the command tower of the battle cruiser Lion and shouted: "Sir, the turret is finished, all the personnel are dead, we have just flooded the ammunition depot, the cabin is still flooded, and the watertight compartment No. 7 must be closed immediately." ”

Captain Bonn didn't seem to hear the words of the captain of the damage management, the traditional, elegant and decent captain just turned his head and asked lightly, "How long can we hold out?" ”

"Sir, I can only promise to hold out for 20 minutes, but if I get shot, I ......."

"That's 20 minutes!" Captain Bonn clenched his fists, instantly tore apart all the elegant disguises, and ripped off his hat: "Hit back, how they beat us, just hit me back!" ”

"Yes, Captain!"

Two minutes later, the remaining three turrets of the Lion battlecruiser, which had just extinguished the fire, roared heavily, because the bow turret was filled with water and explosion-proof, so the deck had already leaned forward, but at this time no one cared about it, and the heavy armor-piercing shells continued to burst out of the muzzle one after another.

"Hit, Captain, we hit the Von de Tann!" Five minutes later, the gunners shouted excitedly, and smoke rose from the deck of the von der Tann, which had been fighting the Lion, and its speed was reduced again.

Captain Bonn finally laughed, he didn't know if the German counterparts on the opposite side would be able to perform another miracle to protect that battlecruiser, but there was no doubt that it had at least lost its combat effectiveness!

"Send a signal to General Betty that we need to leave for a while to save the ship."

With Captain Bonn's order, the badly wounded Lion battlecruiser slowly deflected its bow and prepared to leave, but no one expected that 14,000 yards away, the two turrets of the bow of the Rutzov, which was inseparable from the Black King, quietly changed angles.

Almost at the moment when the four 305-mm shells burst out of the guns, temporarily freeing themselves from the pursuit of the main German forces, the two battleships of the 1st Battle Cruiser Detachment, the St. Vincent and the Avant-garde, also aimed 16 305-mm naval guns at the smoke-emitting von der Tann at a distance of 16,000 yards.

"Sir, the Von de Tann has been pinched!"

The staff officer shouted to alert Hipper, and when the latter turned his telescope to find the fiery Von der Tann, the cigar in his mouth was bitten in two by his teeth.

All they saw was that the von der Tann was like a lit firecracker, and the fire engulfed the German battlecruiser in the blink of an eye.

While the German sailors were gritting their teeth, the Lützov made another meritorious move, two 305-mm shells accurately hit the battleship Lion at a distance of 14,000 yards, one of which passed through the conning tower, killing not only all the officers, including Captain Bonn, but also depriving the Lion of command.

But before everyone realized the problem, the command was actually meaningless, the second armor-piercing shell fell in the injured No. 1 turret, and entered the ammunition compartment that had been flooded without difficulty, although the explosion did not detonate the ammunition, but the sea water squeezed and rushed through the side armor, and also tore the nearby watertight hatch, and in an instant, thousands of tons of cold sea water from the North Sea entered the cabin.

The signal driver of the Reckless Bug, who was lined up behind the Lion, recalled: "It was shot in the front, about the position of the bridge, there was a lot of black smoke coming out of the superstructure, I didn't observe the flames, I thought it was the transport boat burning, I saw the flag, at that time it had turned the rudder to the left and was about to leave temporarily, but when it deviated 1500 yards from us, the front gun mount exploded again, and then everything was quiet, for about 30 seconds, there was neither smoke nor fire, and then the bow seemed to crack, I saw a 50-foot-long steel plate being pushed a full 300 feet to the right, and it almost hit the destroyer Juan, which had arrived to escort it. ”

Captain Harvey did his best, and although he had arrived at the bow with the damage management team, he was submerged in the water before the rescue could begin, and while everyone was looking for a place to breathe in the flooded cabin, the battlecruiser Lion was already slowly sinking like its sister ship, the Queen Mary.

It's 1 to 3!

Jericho didn't even bother to take the report of the loss, because the smoke of gunfire was already billowing in front of him, the guns were rumbling, and the fierce battle stimulated every officer and soldier in the main fleet to tremble, and all the naval guns, including small-caliber rapid-fire guns, were reloaded.

The only current pillar of the Royal Navy, the Home Grand Fleet, is moving at full speed towards the "Second Trafalgar", and in that great naval battle, Admiral Nelson commanded the battle in full dress, and now Jellicoe on the Ramie is also wearing a military uniform without a trace of wrinkles.

England needs everyone to do their job!

On the battleship, every soldier who kept echoing this phrase in his ears began to check his equipment, dark blue waterproof hats, double-breasted tops and white scarves around the neckline, and the Belgian-born Rear Admiral Carter on the Giant, even ordered the flag: "Revenge for Belgium!" ”

Although it was only a glimpse, the "dark cloud" in the distance clearly told Hipper that it was at least hundreds of chimneys emitting smoke, and the thought of being about to be targeted by a main gun of more than 16 inches again made his heart begin to contract very much.

Moments later, when the British armored cruisers Defend and Samurai rushed in with destroyers as dense as locusts, he knew he had to leave immediately, or he would be drowned before General Scheer arrived!

But it's easier said than done, the boiler compartment of the von der Tann that was hit continuously has been filled with water in order to suppress the explosion, and even if the German capital ship has stronger protection than the British, it can't afford to pour so much seawater, and the damaged power compartment is doomed to be impossible to leave.

The rest was no better, the Moltke had only 2 turrets left, the upper deck of the Seydlitz was almost flattened, the flagship D'Verblinger also lost one turret, and only the Lützov was in slightly better condition, not only the turret could be used, but it also remained maneuverable.

Seriously, seeing that the main force of the Grand Fleet was not far behind him, Betty had gone completely crazy, and with 3 St. Vincent-class battleships and 5 battlecruisers, he stood on the smoking battlecruiser Tiger, and vowed to kill Hipper and the German battle cruisers even if there was only one battleship left.

At 3 o'clock, Hipper, unable to wait any longer, decided to carry out the breakout, and he ordered Brigadier Heinrich to lead 21 destroyers and torpedo boats to charge Betty, in order to cover the main force, and he even had Rear Admiral Bernice with a few light cruisers join in.

At 3:05, the Regensburg cruiser raised the checkered flag, and the almost suicidal full-speed assault began, Betty also threw 26 destroyers and cruisers into it, and also ordered the more injured Lion-class battlecruiser Princess to support, but he didn't realize that it was because of this that he buried the chance to return to Scapa Bay.

The word flag is a symbol that the navies of all countries are familiar with, Britain uses letters, Germany uses grids, and China uses dragon claws, in fact, they all mean the same thing, because it is the latter letter, and there is no one behind, so the word flag is raised, which represents a death war!

According to the staff officer who rescued the Regensburg afterwards, Commodore Heinrich rushed into the battle of the capital ships with the idea of dying, and his opponent, Rear Admiral Hart of the 3rd Destroyer Squadron of the Royal Navy's Home Fleet, also raised the flag at the same time.

It is hard for ordinary people to imagine how much courage it takes to join the battle circle of destroyers and torpedo boats with only a few hundred tons that may have only needed one heavy artillery shell to explode next to them and be overturned by the waves while the capital ships are still bombarding.

In the gap between the capital ships lined up with angry eyes, dozens of small warships rushed into the sea filled with gunsmoke and visibility to the extreme, like light cavalry without armor protection on the ancient battlefield, and like countless suicide torpedoes tumbling over the white waves, staggered towards each other.

At that moment, perhaps it was a chaotic period in this naval battle, the flags, the light signals were almost ineffective, and hundreds of naval guns ranging from 37 mm to 152 mm roared in the North Sea, and the shells were denser than the torrential rain.

Almost instantly, the sea was in chaos, the fluttering German checkered flag desperately assaulted, after a ** torpedo was fired, the captains used naval guns to hit the opponent who tried to block, and the word flag also did not show weakness, relying on the advantage of number and volume, rampage.

With a loud bang, the 712-ton German destroyer Campos was hit by the 343-mm main guns on the Princess, and the smoke from the explosion rose hundreds of meters into the air, and in just a few blinks of an eye, the Campos disappeared into the sea.

Commodore Heinrich did not expect that the opponent would actually send a battle cruiser to block the way, and immediately personally launched a decisive assault with two light cruisers and five torpedo boats.

A ** shell covered it, and the bow of the Regensburg cruiser even began to flood, but after losing 2 torpedo boats, it still stubbornly assaulted to a distance of 2000 yards, and 16 500-mm torpedoes rushed towards the Princess like a shuttle with a clean white wake.

One, two, three.......

The Princess kept moving its huge body, and when it was about to avoid all the torpedoes, it was still hit by two in the stern, and the violent explosion tore a hole several meters in the stern, and also destroyed the oars, and finally the Princess could not hold on before the tugboat arrived the next day, and sank in the North Sea, but at the next moment, the British gunners, who were still stubbornly fighting back, also took Commodore Heinrich and his Regensburg light cruiser with him.

The battle situation has completely fallen into white heat, the sea assault battle can not see the white blade when charging on the ground, but it is not easier than the army's bayonet, although the warship of several hundred tons is small, but it takes time to turn or maneuver, but there are warships all around, the enemy's, your own, you can't tell the difference at all, sometimes you just finish a torpedo, you will be beaten by the opponent who is killed on the side until it sinks.

In just 10 minutes, both German and British destroyers paid a heavy price, and when the main formation entered the decisive battle after 20 minutes, it became clear to everyone that both sides had left behind about ten of their partners.

The frantic assault of destroyers and torpedo boats disrupted the formation of the main formations of the two sides, so that Hipper, who was anxious to retreat, finally waited for an opportunity, and the Lüzov took the lead in breaking out of the vague battle circle that had been almost obscured by fog and gunsmoke.

Betty was also anxious at this time, seeing that Jericho's main force could arrive in 15 minutes in more minutes, and if Hippert escaped at this time, it would be completely useless, so he also followed the opponent's rudder, and ordered the distance to be closed again, and ordered all the shells to be concentrated on the Lützov.

According to the chaplain who was lucky enough to escape on the battlecruiser Lützov, they were covered by at least 40 heavy guns at that time, and the British also thought of the centralized artillery tactics pioneered by China at a critical moment, although their shipboard fire control commander was not as good as ours, but you can't imagine what it was like to drop 40 heavy shells per minute at a distance of only 12,000 yards in an 11-minute pursuit battle, and in order to stop us, nearly a hundred 127mm secondary guns above them were also shelled at full speed, Whether they can hit or not, they don't care about wasting shells, they just want to stop us.

The interception battle instantly turned into a pursuit battle, although the heroic sacrifice of the destroyers gave Hipper a chance to turn the rudder, but everyone's battle patrol speed was 24 knots, and the four Tiger-class battle cruisers could even run out, so he couldn't completely get rid of the pursuit.

In the 10-minute pursuit, which was later known as "Crazy Betty", Betty led four Tiger-class battlecruisers and three St. Vincent-class battleships in two columns in constant pursuit, ignoring the shells fired at them and concentrating all their firepower on the Lützov.

Two huge fireballs finally made the Lüzov slow down, even if the fuse of the British shell was too sensitive to penetrate the internal explosion, no battleship could remain intact under the flying of dozens of tons of steel and ** per minute.

The Lützov, which had a large hole punched out of the port side, quickly flooded, and Hipper wanted to slow down and stop the rescue, but he knew that if he stopped at this time, the remaining three ships would not want to go back alive.

The Lützov, which was surpassed by his comrades, completely became a magnet for cannonballs, and the first battle cruiser formation led by Betty and the battleship detachment led by Thomas surrounded the Lützov, but what made the British sailors almost couldn't believe it was that the Lützov, trembling in such a dense shell, was still firing back, until all four turrets were destroyed, Captain Rudolph ordered the flag to be hoisted and sunk in the water.

Watching this proud, knightly battlecruiser with medals sinking little by little, even the British naval officers and men were in awe.

"Boom......."

Countless shells began to explode around Betty's fleet, and the German main fleet led by Scheer finally arrived, this time it was Betty's turn to start running back desperately, what tactics, what maneuvers have become useless things, only to run, run back to the main fleet that has appeared not far away.

Of the five battle cruisers that set out, only three remained, and the entire upper deck of the Seydlitz was barely visible, and Hipper had to send several destroyers to escort the behemoth, which looked like it was going to sink at any moment, to return first.

Surprisingly, the Sedlitz escaped the British Navy two days later and returned to Germany, but unfortunately due to a shortage of resources, it was not repaired until the end of the war.

One by one, the majestic battleships smashed through the icy sea water and sailed past the Lützov, which began to sink with a full flag, and every German naval officer gritted his teeth, saluted with tears, and then turned and walked into his battle position, locking the huge "dark cloud" regiment that was approaching with a thick muzzle!

Now it's 2 to 3 (at that time the British Princess didn't sink, it can only be considered damage, the von der Tann has been torpedoed and started sinking), they are still ahead, and everyone believes that they will always be ahead!

: I've been dreaming of Jutland since I liked BB, but at this time, I found that it was too familiar, and it limited my imagination.

The only consolation is that at least I have redesigned the tactics, of course, it's just a novice tactic, hehe, the hippopotamus has always been a novice.

RO！ ~！