He strictly observed the Navy Flight Regulations, and the seaplane R-024 attached to the "Sedritz" completed its reconnaissance mission safely and turned back. During this process, several British light cruisers opened fire one after another, but their guns were limited by elevation angle and range, and none of them posed a substantial threat to the German reconnaissance aircraft. The pilot of the water reconnaissance aircraft that took off from the "Deferringer" was a young nobleman with an adventurous spirit. Seeing that the friendly aircraft were flying back, he decided to create some chaos for the British while performing the reconnaissance mission.

The Juncker 3-C, which was put into production in 1912, is a two-seat water reconnaissance aircraft developed by Hubert Aviation for large warships. It uses a Daimler 4-cylinder water-cooled piston engine with an output power of 110 horsepower and can fly continuously for 4 hours in a windless state. Its characteristics are that the body is light, solid structure, smooth operation, and absolute speed and maneuverability are not its strengths.

During the daily training exercises of the German Navy, Junker 3-C only performed reconnaissance and artillery correction tasks. The pilots only received theoretical and practical tutorials on air bomb drops in the last two months of the outbreak of the war and conducted several bomb drop trainings. The attack accuracy of manual bomb drops was unsatisfactory. However, the H-13 aviation bombs equipped for reconnaissance aircraft were unanimously praised by the pilots. This kind of trigger fuse is used.

The bomb weighs 5 kilograms and attacks unprotected personnel on ships and land in a fragmented manner. It has reliable transportation, easy use, and a low rate of smelly eggs. During this expedition, all aircraft carriers were equipped with this light bomb. During the previous shelling of the British coast, the Hippel fleet ejected two reconnaissance aircraft. In order to facilitate the fire shooting contact, they needed to continue to hover at a height of 1,000 meters, and unfortunately missed the record honor of bombing the British mainland.

After identifying the position of the enemy's flagship, Ensign von Inserdel asked his observers to load the two H-13s on the plane with the trigger fuse, then flew around the rear of the British fleet and began to fly along the British fleet's longitudinal line. The main and secondary guns of the British fleet on the sea, the battle cruisers and the reconnaissance cruisers, were all conventionally designed, and the pitch angle of the artillery was limited by the gun seat structure, making it difficult to conduct effective air shooting, while the shooting angle of the 47mm rapid-fire gun and machine gun were limited by the shooting angle.

However, their original purpose is still maritime defense. Their sighting methods, rate of fire and range have great technical limitations. When this German reconnaissance aircraft flew close to the fleet, the British crew could still pose a threat to them through rapid-fire cannons and machine guns. When it flew directly above the fleet, it entered most rapid-fire cannons based on gun mounts or brackets. The machine gun shooting blind spots were the British crew members who had to take out the rifle from the inner compartment and fired on the deck.

Intuitively judging, the Navy Lieutenant Inserdel shouted to his deputy: "Throw the first one!"

The 5 kilogram bomb was not enough to produce the thrilling effect of howling down, so it landed quietly. Both people on the plane leaned out and watched it quickly turn into a black spot, and then a white wave of water exploded twenty or thirty meters behind a British cruiser.

The second lieutenant was regretting, and a slight sound was heard. The cloth on the right wing was drilled into a hole with a bullet. Although it would not affect the normal flight of the aircraft, strictly speaking, it meant that the British Navy's surface ships injured the German Navy's water reconnaissance aircraft.

"Throw the second one!" The lieutenant shouted, and just waited for the deputy to throw the bomb down. He immediately pulled the joystick and increased the accelerator to slowly climb the Junker 3-c with extremely minor injuries. The Daimler engine made a low roar. After a moment, a sound that was not deafening from the bottom. The observer Sergeant Lore immediately shouted excitedly:

"It's exploded! Ha! It's exploded!"

Second Lieutenant Feng Inserdel hurriedly looked at it. It was really "I was willing to plant poplars but I didn't live, but I didn't want to plant willows and willows and willows to form a shade." The second bomb that was quickly dropped hit an enemy battle cruiser and landed on the deck between the bridge and the chimney in front of it. The sea breeze quickly blew away the smoke mass produced by the explosion, but the flames in the smoke mass were still visible, and it was possible that the bomb caused the fire.

During the shelling of the British coast, the Hippel fleet sank two escort warships and multiple high-speed torpedo boats. This aviation bomb is no longer the first "meeting gift" given to the opponent by the German Navy since the outbreak of the war, but it still created the record of the first hit and first killing of the ship by the aircraft in this war. Second Lieutenant von Inserdel and his partner did not know at this time that the bomb they dropped killed a sergeant on the battlefield cruiser of the Royal Navy "Royal Princess", and four other sailors were injured to varying degrees.

Stimulated by this bomb, the British fleet's firepower of air shooting increased sharply. After the r-030 climbed up, several 47mm rapid-fire shells flew past the wings. If they were equipped with delay fuses and properly set up, the wooden-skinned water reconnaissance aircraft may have been torn into pieces by the shrapnel of revenge. However, the weapon technology of 1914 is more than one level different from 1944. The war thinking of most people is still in plane mode. The British fleet fired hundreds of small-caliber shells and countless bullets in vain, and finally could only watch the German reconnaissance aircraft "escape" with the victory report.

Two German water reconnaissance aircraft followed one after another in this waters far away from land. The British fleet commander David Betty, 43, naturally did not dare to take it lightly, but he had neither new combat intelligence nor direct reconnaissance reports, so he could not judge the true intentions of the Germans. When the third German reconnaissance aircraft might be the first to appear and return, when flying from the southwest of the fleet, Betty made a response and deployment: a Weymouth-class light cruiser, an active-class reconnaissance cruiser and six destroyers accelerated to leave the formation and conduct warning reconnaissance in the southwest waters. At the same time, the flagship "Lion" issued a power generation to inform the main force of the large fleet commanded by Admiral John Jelico about the situation of its own encounter with German reconnaissance aircraft, while the "Royal Princess" was bombed and slightly injured.

In the southwest waters of the British mobile fleet, the German reconnaissance squadron, which sailed at a speed of 22 knots, also made deployment adjustments at about the same time. Five battlecruisers changed from single-line marching columns to ladder-shaped combat formations, six light cruisers were divided into two teams, three Magdeburg-class light cruisers "Magdeburg", "Strasbourg" and "Stralsund" served as fleet outposts, and two relatively weak Kollberg-class cruisers "Korbor" and "Mainz" together with this class improved "Rostock" guarded the right rear of the battle patrol formation.

At 5:56 pm on August 7, 1914, the British reconnaissance cruiser "Active" saw columnar smoke and clouds on the southwest sea, so he issued an alarm signal that "15 nautical miles ahead are suspected to be an enemy ship." Theoretically, the issuance of this alarm is a bit rash, because a cargo ship using inferior bituminous coal can also produce thick smoke columns when sailing, but the war just broke out and the situation was unclear. A large number of ships were stranded at the port or adjusted their routes to avoid dangerous waters that might become battlefields. This sea area is on the shortest route for the German reconnaissance fleet to return to Helgolan Bay. Various factors and corresponding probability gathered together, causing the British sailors on the observation deck to make an inference that match the facts.

A few minutes later, three warship masts appeared on the sea. All British cruisers and destroyers who were reconnaissance went into combat, and the "Active" asked the other party about their identity with light signals.

The other party did not respond, but continued to maintain the current course and speed. After a while, many clouds of smoke could be clearly seen at the far end of the sea surface, and more warship masts also appeared at the end of the sea level.

At 6:11, the British reconnaissance cruiser "Active" sent a correction report: "An enemy fleet with three light cruisers as advance ships was found 10 nautical miles ahead."

Just one minute later, the whistling 6-inch shells confirmed the judgement of the lookout officers that the three advance ships were indeed German light cruisers. They fired first at a distance of 18,000 meters, and the shells all fell on the sea hundreds of meters ahead of the "Active". Through years of artillery exchanges, the British Navy has formed a generally recognized view that the shooting accuracy of German naval ships is better than that of Russia and France, and is roughly at the same level as the diligent and diligent Japanese Navy, and is only slightly inferior to the British Navy. The reason why these shells are far away is that the shooting commanders of the three German cruisers are likely to perform abnormally collectively, and the remaining reason is only one: the limited range of the naval guns.

Don't say it is a dreadnought. Most of the main gun ranges of the former dreadnought and quasi-dreadnoughts built and put into service after 1900 were more than 20,000 meters. Before metallurgical casting and gunpowder and ballistic technology were greatly improved, large-caliber naval guns had a long enough range. The range of 6-inch naval guns was normal. A reconnaissance cruiser like the "Active" that uses 4-inch naval guns could only hit the shells to 15,000 meters by 15,000 meters by raising the naval gun to the maximum elevation angle, and the shooting accuracy could not be guaranteed.

The six British destroyers accompanied had a caliber of more than 4 inches. They could only be passively beaten at the beginning of the battle. The Falmouth, who was dragged behind them, decisively adjusted their course. The Weymouth-class light cruiser fired a salvo in front of the port with all 8 6-inch guns. The shells flew over the heads of the "Active" and the six destroyers, and finally aroused 8 white water columns on the sea to the left of the three German cruisers. Although they were not under the opponent's fur, their momentum was not inferior!

In the next few minutes, three German cruisers and the Falmouth bombed each other two rounds, and the shell landing points became closer and closer to their respective targets. The British Navy's "Active" cruiser led the team of six destroyers to advance at full speed. While taking the German cruiser into its effective range, they closely watched the German battlecruisers that gradually showed their hideous faces on the sea farther away.

At 6 o'clock, the "Sedlitz" at the forefront of the trapezoidal battle line, the main guns in front of the four gates suddenly ejaculated orange-red flames, and the thunderous roar echoed on the sea for a long time.
Chapter completed!