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Text Chapter 609, Naval Battle (1)

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    Rear Admiral Hood's battlecruiser HMS Invincible took the lead, followed closely behind him by HMS Indomitable which took up the cruisers, and then those cruisers and destroyers.  Today's sea conditions are extremely good, with clear skies and almost no waves. The fleet has now accelerated to 25 knots. At this time, Rear Admiral Hood can already see the towering mast of the German battlecruiser with a telescope on the bridge.  .  The Germans were not too prepared for the appearance of the British. In order to save fuel, their fleet had been sailing at a low speed of about ten knots. Although when Major General Hood's fleet rushed over at high speed, the Germans also discovered  However, all kinds of external combustion engines, including steam turbines, had a common flaw, that is, they would be relatively slow to increase speed.  Therefore, although Admiral Lispe immediately ordered the warship to speed up.  But acceleration requires a process. According to the calculations of the staff, the British fleet will be able to catch up with the German fleet before it completes its acceleration.  And if the German warships blindly escape, they will naturally fall into another dilemma: During the escape, the German warships can only use the artillery in the stern direction to confront the British artillery in the bow direction.  Although the number of cannons in the stern and the bow are the same, in terms of anti-strike capability, the stern's anti-strike capability is far inferior to that of the bow. There are rudders and propellers in the stern direction.  Extremely important components, once they are hit in an artillery battle, the movement ability of the entire warship will be destroyed. At that time, there will really be only a dead end.  In contrast, the bow position has much fewer weaknesses.  "How many warships does the enemy have?" General Spey asked.  "There seem to be two battlecruisers, and the other warships are not clear yet." Operation Staff Officer Witte replied, "They were blocked by the British battlecruisers, so they can't see clearly." "Continue to accelerate, once the British warships enter  The maximum range of our tail guns will be used to fire at the British immediately. "General Spey knew that since the British had two battlecruisers, he had no reason to fight the British.  Although he also has two battlecruisers in his hands (the British lookout posts obviously didn't see clearly at the beginning), they are no less than the British, and they have a slight advantage based on the performance of the warships alone, but General Spey still does not intend to fight with  The British fought hard because he understood that the British would have a great advantage in the number of auxiliary ships.  This advantage cannot be regained by the performance advantage of the battlecruiser.  Moreover, he also knew that once damaged in battle, his warship would not be able to find a port where it could be safely repaired.  "The ultimate speed of our battlecruiser is two knots higher than that of the British. As long as we can escape the initial bombardment, we have a chance to escape." General Spey thought this way.  At this time, the British fleet had entered the range of the German battlecruisers' cannons. At a distance of 20,000 meters, the eight tail guns of the two German battlecruisers fired the first salvo.  .  Under the technical conditions of this era, if you fire at such a distance, the chance of hitting is very slim.  In fact, General Spey's purpose of doing this was not to attack British warships. His purpose was only to disturb the British and force them to make evasive actions, thereby buying time for his fleet to accelerate.  The impact point of the German's first round of shooting was really a bit off. The distance between the impact point of the shell and the British warship was more than 700 meters.  "Go forward at full speed, don't dodge, close the distance to 10,000 meters before firing!" Rear Admiral Hood ordered, standing firmly on the bridge, looking at the German warships in the distance.  The Germans quickly fired a second round of volley, this time even more missed than the last time.  "Bah! These cowards! They know they can't hit." Major General Hood said to the officers around him with a contemptuous smile.  ?Then the Germans fired their third salvo.  When shooting from a long distance, it took almost half a minute from the time the Germans opened fire to the time the shells landed on the sea. When the heavy shells flew past, they ripped open the air and made a whistling sound like a train whistle.  Even in the bridge, such a sound can be clearly heard.  It's just that the sound of the roaring shells this time is obviously different from the previous times.  "Boom!" Only a few dozen meters away from the bow of Rear Admiral Hood's ship, the Invincible, a water column tens of meters high suddenly appeared, and then the falling seawater splashed against the ship.  On the glass front of the bridge.  At the same time, of the other three shells, two landed less than a hundred meters away from the port side, and one landed only about fifty meters away from the starboard side.  "General, the enemy has launched a straddle fire!" a combat staff officer shouted to Major General Hood, "Captain, please go to the command tower!" The so-called straddle fire means that the impact point of the enemy's shells appears on the left and right sides of the warship at the same time.  .  This shows that the enemyHaving found the correct parameters, their subsequent bombardments will become more precise and more dangerous.  As for the command tower, it is actually a small room with relatively thick armor.  It would certainly be much safer to be there than on the bridge.  "I'm not going anywhere. The Germans are just blind." Major General Hood remained unmoved, "Keep on heading!" The Germans' training level was quite good, and they quickly fired another round of salvos, but this time  One round of shooting missed another two to three hundred meters.  "I just said they were deceived." Major General Hood said coldly.  The Germans fired several more rounds of volleys, but none of them formed a cross-fire.  This may be because the speed of German warships has also begun to increase. Once the speed increases, the shooting accuracy will also decrease.  "With another salvo, the distance will be close to about 10,000 meters." Major General Hood said as he looked at the German battlecruiser that had grown much larger in his telescope.  At this time, the Germans fired another salvo. Now the distance was much closer. The shells no longer needed to fly in the air for half a minute. After just over ten seconds, the German shells fell.  After coming down, everyone on the warship clearly felt the warship shake violently.  At the same time, several water jets suddenly appeared around the Invincible battlecruiser.  "Are we hit?" Major General Hood asked.  After about ten seconds, an officer ran in and reported: "The enemy hit our mast! A section of our mast was broken." This was not a big damage. Major General Hood nodded and asked  "How far are we from the enemy now?" "General, we are close to 10,000 meters." An officer replied.  "Very well, let's fire on the enemy!" Hood said.  Because the British still have a higher speed, they will be more affected by the shaking of the ship when shooting.  If you fire from too far away, the hit rate will be ridiculously low.  Therefore, Hood must let his warship risk getting closer before firing.  But even at this distance, the Invincible's first round of bombardment still missed a lot.  On the contrary, the Germans once again hit a cross shot.  Hitting cross-shooting twice in a row is definitely not luck.  Therefore, even though his mind was full of brave Nelson, Hood still had to allow the captain to take the measures he felt should be taken.  The Invincible began to take evasive actions, which gave the Germans more time to accelerate. Now the speed of the German warships is not much slower than the Invincible.  General Spey felt that his chances of escape were increasing.  At this time, the cruiser Kent took advantage of the Invincible and Indomitable and dared to come up from behind at full power. It surpassed the two battlecruisers at the front and rushed towards the German Moltke.  At the same time his six-inch gun began to fire wildly at the Germans.  At a distance of 10,000 meters, the shooting accuracy of the six-inch gun is much worse than the main gun of the battlecruiser.  However, the rate of fire of the six-inch gun was much higher than the main gun of the German battlecruiser. Under the leadership of the Kent County, the following cruisers followed up and fired wildly at the Germans.  Such intensive firepower certainly achieved a certain effect. Soon, the battlecruiser Moltke was hit by several six-inch shells in succession.  Of course, such shells could not bring a fatal blow to the Moltke.  However, the Moltke's secondary battery hit the British cruiser Bulldog with several shells, causing the cruiser to burst into flames.  However, the cruiser's attack was not ineffective. The burning Bulldog fired a shell that hit the rangefinder above the Moltke's turret. This greatly reduced the Moltke's shooting accuracy against the Invincible.  , two consecutive volleys missed by unknown distance.  "The enemy ship's sight may be damaged! Stop evading and fire at the enemy ship as quickly as possible!" Rear Admiral Hood ordered.  The Invincible's bombardment accuracy quickly improved after it stopped evading.  On the sixth salvo, they made a beautiful cross-shot, and on the eighth salvo, they successfully hit Moltke for the first time.  The disadvantage of the ship's stern against the enemy was immediately apparent. This shell blasted a large gap in the stern of the Moltke, and the Moltke immediately began to yaw to the left.  Apparently, its steering gear was damaged.  This was really a fatal blow. After the steering gear was damaged, the battleship's maneuverability was completely destroyed. It was impossible for her to escape from the British pursuit.  Around this time, the battle between the Indomitable and the German Goben also came to an end. A shell fired from the Goben blew off most of the bow of the Indomitable, causing the Indomitable's speed to suddenly drop.  It¡¯s tenSection.  But before the Goeben could celebrate, the Indomitable retaliated and knocked off the Goeben's turret with a salvo.  However, the Goben's sailing speed was not affected. She continued to speed up, leaving the Indomitable behind and escaping towards the depths of the ocean
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