"Fearless", "Courage", "Gorgeous", "Berrerofon", "Collingwood", "Avant-garde", "Neptune", "Giant", these loud names basically represent the pride of the British Royal Navy leading the fearless era. Since 1906, amid the warm cheers of the British and civilians, "Her Majesty's Battleship" has slid one after another off the ship platform, equipped with powerful and terrifying heavy artillery, raised the cross flag of St. George to sail to the far sea, and used unquestionable strength to show its indestructible hegemony.

On the night of August 7, 1914, under the command of Lieutenant General Cecil Bernie, these eight British dreadnoughts, lined up in single-line combat columns, shot directly at the German fleet with searchlights, thus gaining the lead for the range-finding aim of their gunners. As Lieutenant General Bernie's ship "Courage" fired a shocking roar with all the main guns, the rest of the British dreadnoughts rushed to fire, and the port side of the battleship flashed in orange red.

Covered by light. Since the sail battleship exited the stage of history, this extremely dense naval gun fire has not appeared for many years. Now, 68 12-inch caliber fires in a uniform interval of no more than 20 seconds, and the scene and momentum are almost unique (Deffort, although Palerofon and Saint Vincent have 10 main guns, the turret arrangement makes it possible to fire at most 8 main guns for one side, while the 10 main guns of the Giant class can fire one side at a certain angle).

Following the instructions of the squadron flagship, it was also the mainstream tactic adopted in the fleet artillery battle in this era that advocated the spirit of the chivalrous spirit. Eight British dreadnoughts each aimed at the corresponding German warships and opened fire. With a distance of 4,000 to 4,600 meters, the first round of artillery bombardment of the British fleet showed the solid foundation of the world's first navy. Except for the two German dreadnoughts that slightly escaped from the array because of torpedoes, the other six were immediately surrounded by water columns that soared into the sky from the sea. Of course, these German dreadnoughts were all behemoths of 20,000 tons. Even if they were attacked by fierce artillery fire from the British fleet, they would not be as swaying and helpless as the British destroyers that had been ravaged before. The waves of the shells washed their empty decks and had no power to infringe on the ship's honest and solid turrets and towering bridges.

The orange-red flash of heavy artillery fire was fleeting, and the sea was soon left with only bright yellow searchlights, and gray-white smoke filled the port side of the British fleet. The dense areas were simply to cover the face of the warships. On the side of the German fleet, the linear array of six dreadnoughts was not as neat as the British fleet. The two ships that were behind were trying to return to the combat formation. Time flowed quietly, and these German battleships, which also had powerful weapons, were surprisingly silent. Suddenly, people seemed to have returned to the Teutonic Forest more than a thousand years ago. The fierce German soldiers were waiting for the horn of charge in the dense black forest. The Romans' shouts and provocations did not make them lose their minds, but ignited the anger suppressed in their hearts.

The last splash fell, and the sea where the German fleet was located could be seen rolling white splash bubbles everywhere, and the waves surged in disorder, slapped each other and collided into vortex. Suddenly, the masts, bridges and searchlights set on the peripheral platforms halfway up the chimney were lit. The sea surface between the two fleets suddenly became as bright as day, and even the splashes on the top of the waves reappeared a crystal clear luster. However, the artillery fire of the German fleet did not appear with the searchlights, and the sea surface was still dominated by strange calm. It had almost a minute passed by the first round of artillery bombardment of the British fleet.

During the period, their main guns of the dreadnought were said to be 1.5 rounds per minute, which has made considerable progress compared to the old heavy artillery more than ten years ago. Just when people felt that the British fleet located on the right side of the battlefield, that is, the northeastern direction, would hit the enemy with a second round of artillery fire with a high hit rate, the German dreadnought "Hergolan" at the front of the battle line suddenly shouted for battle. The 12 283mm caliber main guns on the ship opened fire in an extremely coherent manner like firecrackers. The orange-red artillery flames reflected the night sky and dyed the sea red, and also dyed the right hull of the warship a layer of bloody red.

In addition to the slightly behind "Rhineland" and "Posen", the dreadnought battleship commanded by German Lieutenant General William von Reims launched a volley with a momentum that was no less than the opponent. At this point, the British fleet led by the "Courage" also began a second round of shooting. The shells fired by the German fleet were still flying, and the British fleet's artillery fire followed one after another. A rather strange and shocking scene appeared on the battlefield. This momentum must only be produced by the fighting and collision of two groups of steel beasts, and no matter how many light ships were, they could not piece together a similar scene.

When the artillery shells were flying very close, the artillery fire of the German fleet naturally fell first. Each 302 kilogram armor-piercing bomb had huge kinetic energy. Each of the water columns they aroused far exceeded the mast height of the British warship. These water columns were connected in pieces and merged and intersected. For a time, the British dreadnought, whose water displacement was about 20,000 tons, was also trapped in the raging waves.

Since the Nassau class and Helgolan class of the German Navy are both fired by four triple main guns, six ships can fire 72 shells in one volley, and the two slightly behind warships also fired half a beat. Due to the direction and direction, they only fired their main guns in the previous department, not counting as 150mm secondary guns. The first round of artillery fire of the German fleet still slightly overwhelmed the opponent with 84 large-caliber armor-piercing shells.

The number of shells in a round of volleys is only a one-sided factor in a fleet artillery battle. You should know that these eight British dreadnoughts are equipped with 12-inch main guns. The standard weight of armor-piercing shells they fire is 386 kilograms, which is 27% heavier than the 11-inch armor-piercing shells of German warships. It is worth mentioning that British armor-piercing shells are loaded with picric acid explosives, which are powerful but highly sensitive. German armor-piercing shells are loaded with tnt explosives that are not that powerful and not so sensitive. These factors also affect the progress and results of the battle.

The waves covering the British fleet had not yet fallen back, and the German fleet began to welcome the opponent's second round of artillery fire. At a combat distance of less than 5,000 meters, the previous bounce point was corrected. This round of volleys of the British Dreadnought basically formed a cross-fire on the German warship. Not only that, the officers and crew on the British warship also identified the landscape where the opponent's warships were shot. The leading ship and the fourth ship of the German battleship had successively appeared in explosion flashes, densely popping up the terrifying roar, and two nuanced sounds appeared...

The German warships hit were the "Helgolan" and "Westphalia". The explosion was quite amazing. Even if they were prepared, the German naval personnel on the battlefield felt trembling. Fortunately, the design concept of the German main battleship was survival first. Two British armor-piercing bombs were not enough to make this fierce fleet artillery battle lose its suspense early. The "Helgolan" was just a hull shot, which looked nothing serious. The rear deck of the "Westphalia" appeared in flames after the explosion, and the injuries were not yet clear.

As the last British shell fell into the sea and exploded, the momentum of the battlefield where the two fleets were located slipped from the peak to the trough, but the sea did not completely calm down. The secondary guns of the battleships of both sides and the naval guns of the escort light ships were involved in the battle. Countless shells were rowed across the battlefield with different trajectories and landed on the sea surface far or near from the target. Occasionally hit the opponent's ships, but they did not produce eye-catching results. Here, the battleship groups of both sides were destined to be unshakable protagonists.

During the breathing, time flowed. Ten seconds passed, and then another ten seconds, the German fleet fired first. However, such a shooting interval made the British on the opposite side unwilling to believe in reality...

In an earlier artillery exchange, the "Von der Tempern" equipped with a triple 11-inch naval gun had demonstrated its strength to perform three volleys per minute in front of the British Navy. However, even if the officers and soldiers of both sides had the opportunity to board the ship to communicate, the turret and inner cabin were absolutely forbidden zones. Therefore, the British did not know the internal structure of the German warship, nor could they determine whether the high-speed shooting of the "Von der Tempern" was an exception or common situation, and whether this extremely advantageous rate of fire was common in the German fleet. Of course, it was not a secret that the German Navy favored rapid-fire guns. Influenced by the Dadonggou Naval Battle of the Qing and Japanese fleet, starting with the Caesar Frederick III class battleship, Germany

The man took a "non-mainstream" route, and ten battleships of two consecutive levels were equipped with 240mm caliber main guns, while the British battleships built at the same time were almost all 305mm guns. The reason why the German Navy was able to accept the huge gap in caliber was because the 240mm naval gun was the largest caliber rapid-fire gun that could be made at that time, and the naval distance at that time was relatively close, especially in the North Sea where meteorological conditions were complex, large-caliber naval guns were not as useful as rapid-fire guns. In addition, the second-class artillery and small-caliber secondary guns of German battleships also had excellent rapid-fire performance. This gap was not changed until the British Navy equipped mechanical semi-automatic loading small-caliber secondary guns.

As for the shooting accuracy of naval guns, the range measurement method adopted by Germany at that time was also advanced than that of the UK. The Germans first calculated the opponent's distance from the rangefinder, then increased the distance to this reading, fired the first shot, and then fired the second shot based on the reading, and finally subtracted a certain distance from the reading. The range intervals of the three shots were the same and the time was close, so the ballistics could be quickly corrected according to the bounce point. This method was called hierarchical ranging, while the Royal Navy still used the traditional dichotomy method to measure the distance, that is, first fire one shell and adjust the next shot according to the bounce point until two consecutive shells landed on the opposite side, and then took the middle value. It obviously took a long time to measure the correct distance in this way.

With the efforts of hundreds of German gunners in 84 combat artillery groups, the Krupp 283mm naval gun, which German Emperor William II was particularly beloved, began to show its power. In this round of artillery, the German fleet not only formed cross-fires on multiple British dreadnoughts, but also caused near-loss damage. The rapid and violent shooting also invisibly put additional pressure on the British crew. After more than ten seconds of painful suffering, the British fleet finally started the third round of shooting. This time, the shooting of eight British warships was quite different. Before the two warships could open fire, the German fleet actually launched another round of volleys. Although the two lagging German warships could only put their main guns into battle before, their performance immediately exceeded the British fleet in momentum!

After two previous observation and corrections, the round of shooting between the fleets of both sides began to show a terrifying rhythm. The British fleet's artillery directly hit three German warships, and the leading "Helgolan" was the first to be hit. Two dazzling fireballs exploded on the front and middle of the starboard side. The main bridge immediately ignited a fire, and the radio room was also damaged. Only backup radios could be used for command and communication; the "Oldenburg" immediately followed was also

Two British armor-piercing bombs hit, one shot at the center of the starboard side and exploded the steam pipes. The white steam suddenly spread across the deck and bridge, and the other shot hit the seat of its No. 2 turret. The 11.8-inch thick Krupp armor successfully protected this key part, but the explosion caused the steering device of the turret to have serious failure. In the subsequent battle, it could only fire at a fixed angle, which almost meant the loss of one-quarter of the firepower of the entire ship.

Compared with the two Helgolan-class battleships in front, the Nassau-class "Westphalia" that was hit one after another was not so easy. The bow side was penetrated, and the fire inside the ship once threatened the ammunition supply channel of the front main gun; the No. 4 turret was severely damaged, half of the gunners were killed, and two main guns were damaged. Due to tonnage restrictions, its defense is the weakest of the entire German main fleet, and the maximum speed of 21 knots is also the "shortcoming" of the German dreadnought group. In fact, the greatest significance of this class of dreadnought is that it allowed designers and builders to accumulate very valuable experience. After all, from the past to dreadnoughts, navies of various countries have experienced a leap forward. Compared with the British "Defensive" and Palelofon-class, the batch of German Nassau-class battleships in front of them are excellent!

The British fleet's first and second rounds of shooting, three German dreadnoughts were hit by six armor-piercing bombs, and Nassau and Thuringian each took 1-2 rounds of nearly lost bullets, and the overall combat power loss was less than one-tenth. The third round of shooting of the German fleet, which was as fast as a storm, also brought unprecedented threats to the British fleet. The "Default" originally located at the back of the fleet, accidentally became a leader, and it was naturally under the focus of the opponent's artillery fire. Although it was called "Old Boiled" by Fisher when it was completed and served.

Egg, which means that it is impossible to be crushed, but this epoch-making warship actually has many weaknesses. The first German armor-piercing projectile that hit the "Default" almost hit the point where it hit the main turret on the starboard side, and the second shot pierced through its tail armor, causing water to enter the helm room and its maneuverability to be affected to a certain extent. The third armor-piercing projectile that arrived almost at the same time exploded the bridge, instantly destroying its shooting command room, and all the shooting command personnel were killed.

The defense arrangement is almost the same as the "Default". The turret, gun mount and bridge are covered with 11-inch rear Vicks armor. At medium combat distance, it can barely resist the dense and precise 11-inch armor-piercing bombs of the German fleet. The hull and deck armor at the bow and stern of the ship are their weakest positions. The German armor-piercing bombs hitting here can easily penetrate the armor and enter the ship. The "Courage" where Lieutenant General Bernie was located was shot in the bow, which caused the front main gun to be unable to be corrected.

Frequently fired, and the "Fairy" was hit by three shells one after another, like the "Fearless". Two shots near the left side directly hit the shell only caused slight damage. The one hitting the front of the hull exploded a large hole in the waterline armor position, and tons of sea water poured into the bottom cabin, forcing the British crew to close some of the watertight cabins urgently. Before the water inlet was controlled, the 20,000-ton warship had already shown a slight tilt, and the supply and shooting of the main gun in the front were also directly affected.
Chapter completed!