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Part One Twenty Years Chapter 11 The Moment That Changed History (6)

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    "("King of the North Atlantic" Section 6, mistakes and counterattacks[1])

    To this day, many people still believe that the climax of the Battle of the Orkney Islands was the German T-shaped cross and the British turn of death. However, in the eyes of those of us naval experts who study the history of naval battles, the Orkney Islands  The most exciting part of the naval battle has just begun.

    At 12:32, the two steel fleets in formation on the North Sea passed the eastern apex of Scotland, UK, and pursued along the southern coastline of the peninsula towards the northern edge of the Firth of Forth.

    The second round of fighting was supposed to break out later, but the British battleship Canada was hit, disrupting the German navy's plans.

    The Ocean Fleet strictly followed the orders of their naval god of war, Heidi Sillem, and pursued the victory: the three Mackensen-class battlecruisers of the First Reconnaissance Group relentlessly encircled and suppressed the seriously injured Canada, and the other five battlecruisers of the First Reconnaissance Fleet  Then use their respective main guns to suppress and sweep away the British 1st Battle Fleet and 4th Battle Cruiser Fleet that had been disabled earlier.

    ??In the subsequent time, the German First Battle Fleet and the Third Battle Fleet successively exchanged fire with the British Second Battle Fleet and the Fourth Battle Fleet, and the battle line decisive battle broke out in advance.

    At the time, Heidi Sealem¡¯s decision was a no-brainer.  Although the German battle line formation needs to be adjusted to a certain extent, it may not be impossible to complete this process in a specific naval battle. The Ocean Fleet has no reason to fear the disabled British First Battle Fleet and Fourth Battle Cruiser Fleet and let them go.  Delicious prey delivered to your door.

    Since the new century, the myth and respect for Heidi Sillem, a generation of famous naval generals, has weakened in the naval community.  Many admirers of David Beatty even criticized Sealem's mistakes in this round of battle, believing that it was Heidi Sealem's mistake that caused the Ocean Fleet to fail in the second round of battle line decisive battle.  Have the absolute upper hand.  Indirectly, the Ocean Fleet encountered an American battleship squadron on its way back.

    Sealem once said that David Beatty is "an opponent worthy of respect and attention." We have no intention to deny the role of David Beatty to the Royal Navy. We even dare to say without politeness that the Royal Navy played a major role in the first world war.  All the results during the war were at the hands of Beatty. Without David Beatty, the Royal Navy would have no room for resistance.

    The problem is that we cannot entirely blame Hedy Sealem for the losses of the Ocean Fleet in the Battle of Orkney.  It was not that there was a problem with Heidi Silem's "pursuit of victory" and "battle line bombardment" tactics, but that the German First Battle Fleet reacted too slowly to the Royal Navy's unusual actions.  The combination of factors such as Explosion Shen's underestimation of the performance of Britain's new armor-piercing bullets and the favorable timing of David Beatty's selection were combined.

    At 12:40, the Oceanic Fleet¡¯s attention was focused on the battleship Canada, which was about to sink. No one thought that David Beatty would brazenly issue the order to ¡°concentrate the first unit of fire¡± in the command tower of its flagship.  No one noticed that at the other end of the German battle line, the four battleships of the First Division of the British Second Battle Fleet, King George V, Orion, Hercules and Giant, were almost undefended. To be more precise, they were almost undefended.  Respond to the attacks of a Bavaria-class battleship and four Helgoland-class battleships from the second squadron of the German First Battle Fleet with a non-resistance attitude, and instead pour the British anger and humiliation, together with the artillery shells, onto the German first squadron.  On four Nassau-class battleships.

    In fact, as early as when designing the German battle line, Heidi Sillem realized that the four Nassau-class battleships of the first squadron might become the breakthrough that the British tried to open just like the Battle of Jutland.

    At the forefront of the German battle line was a Bavaria-class battleship and four K?nig-class battleships. Facing the British four Revenge-class battleships equipped with 15-inch main guns and with an unprecedented 13-inch main armor on the waterline, they were evenly matched.  Although the subsequent five Caesar-class battleships were only equipped with 305 mm main guns.  However, if we make full use of our numerical advantage, we will not suffer too many losses in front of the four British Iron Duke-class battleships equipped with 15-inch main guns. The one Bavaria-class battleship and four Helgoland-class battleships in the rear face the British one.  A Joe V-class battleship equipped with 15-inch guns, an Orion-class battleship equipped with 13.5-inch guns, and two Giant-class battleships equipped with 12-inch guns may still have certain advantages. The only one at an absolute disadvantage is the first detachment, with four ships.  The Nassau-class battleship, which has a standard displacement of 18.649 tons, is equipped with four 280 mm 50-caliber main guns, and has only 300 mm of main armor on the waterline. It cannot resist a British Joe V-class battleship, two St. Vincents and a Titan.  -class battleship.

    Sealem was not unprepared for this.  After the Purple Baron discovered the whereabouts of the British at 11 o'clock, Sealem arranged the troops of the Ocean Fleet that was advancing in a cruising formation. The reason why the first reconnaissance group was placed at the end of the battle line was that the mixed formation of different units would lead to lack of resources.  Fix this issue.  The main reason is to use the first detectiveThe group protected the weak first detachment.  Once the war goes south, the three Mackensen-class and three Derflinger-class battle cruisers at the forefront of the first reconnaissance group can easily support the first detachment with 380mm and 350mm cannons.

    And in the Battle of Orkney Islands.  The actual situation is that the German First Reconnaissance Group, which should have allocated part of its energy to support its own first squadron, has become red-eyed and fallen into a hysterical and unreasonable state. It frantically attacked the dying battleship Canada and appeared in subsequent battles.  The Bellerophon showing signs of exhaustion.

    In this way, the only loophole in the Ocean Fleet was nakedly exposed in front of the Royal Navy, and was then caught by David Beatty, who had a keen sense of smell.

    The British Second Battle Fleet began to focus on the Germans, and the latter could only use the 280 mm main gun, which was slightly ineffective in the super-dreadnought era, to fight against the entire British battle fleet.  In front of the German first squadron, the observation officers of the second squadron never noticed the flashing fire mist from the muzzle of the British target squadron, which was almost 15,000 meters away. They thought that the opponent was late due to command or heading problems.  There was no chance to fire.

    We cannot blame the well-trained observation officers of the German Second Squadron. Although from a theoretical point of view, the Ocean Fleet located on the south side has better observation conditions due to the angle of the sun, the actual situation is that the British target fleet just got into it.  In the clouds.

    ¡°It was a typical North Sea summer cloud layer composed of a piece of relatively humid mist that was difficult for sunlight to penetrate. In that moment, the observation noncommissioned officer of the German Second Detachment lost his ability to detect the British.

    On the other hand, for the British, since the direct point of the sun is located near the Tropic of Cancer, although the sun's rays at noon shine from the south, the angle of illumination is large and does not cause much trouble to their sighting, so when the sky is clear,  As long as the horizon is clear, British observation sergeants can easily determine the impact point of their own artillery shells, providing more accurate data for artillery calibration.

    The British who used a fleet to focus fire on a squadron took advantage of the right time and place, and the German first squadron soon became unable to support it.

    At 12:41, the British battleship Canada was buried in the North Sea as the fourth battleship to die in this naval battle.

    In the battle to encircle and suppress the British battleship Canada, the outstanding performance of the German 1st Reconnaissance Group was substandard. The three Mackensen-class battle cruisers, known as the "King of the North Atlantic", used 380mm main guns to attack the poor.  The British poured nearly 150 large-caliber artillery shells, but failed to hit any vital part of the Canada battleship.

    But this poor battleship was still beaten into a sieve by such a high-density bombardment.

    As one of the only fifteen survivors of the battleship Canada, damage control officer Lieutenant Mike Hee recorded the moment of the sinking of Canada very well:

    ¡®In the previous round of shelling, ninety-three of our men were killed, two boilers and a coal storage bunker were destroyed, all the port side generators stopped running, and we could only manage to move forward at a speed of about 10 knots.

    After encountering the German barrage again, fire and thick smoke quickly occupied the deck. The Canada under my feet was like a frightened monster, fighting left and right in the German barrage.  I don¡¯t know when the sea water overflowed the layer of dome armor we laid above the power cabin, and it completely stopped on the sea surface.

    We all know that the Canada is doomed. The temporary captain, Captain Tracy, who narrowly escaped the disaster in the command tower, ordered the ship to be abandoned, but we could not find a lifeboat or even a small sampan at all.  In desperation, we had no choice but to jump off the warship, which had only about half a meter of water left, and swam toward the distance.

    The battleship sank faster than we imagined. The seawater quickly overflowed its port side deck, causing the battleship to tilt violently to the left. Tens of seconds later, it capsized and sank. I clearly saw many of the battleships still there.  Colleagues paddling on the sea were drawn into the huge whirlpool created by the sinking of the battleship, and they could not escape no matter how hard they tried.  ¡¯

    The sinking of the battleship Canada increased the number of British battleships lost to four, with a total tonnage of more than 92,000 tons.

    This should have been a sad moment for the Royal Navy, but good news came: almost at the moment the battleship Canada sank, the third German Nassau-class battleship, the battleship Rheinland, suffered a hole in the hull and lost its underwater ammunition.  The warehouse exploded and sank.

    In addition, the Royal Navy seems to have other surprises.  In the competition between the German Kaiser-class 12-inch gun and 350mm main armament and the British Iron Duke-class 15-inch gun, 12-inch main armament and 'green bombs', the fourth Kaiser-class ship, the King Albert, fell into a disadvantage.  One turret was destroyed, and fire and smoke instantly enveloped the dreadnought.  "
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