The real tough battle just started, and the old German battle fleet lost the Hessen and Pomeren ships, and the combat situation and atmosphere changed drastically. In this unfavorable situation, Lieutenant General Reinhardt Schell, who was commanding the battle under the flagship of the team, faced a new choice, which could slow down the first array and wait for the backward second battle line to join, or turn off the searchlight to reduce the accuracy of enemy artillery fire, but this "fighting old sailor" was not afraid of difficulties.

Retreat, he glared at the starboard sea. The British fleet sank two old German battleships with violent shelling. The German fleet's artillery fire was not much inferior in terms of density and accuracy. Just now, several British dreadnoughts in the searchlight area were frequently shot. The scene of shells exploded on the ships was clearly identifiable. The two of them were shot and the fire was fierce, giving people the feeling that they could force them out of the battle line with another force.

"Send a report to Major Heineke and ask him to send two torpedo boats to rescue the survivors on Hessen and Pomeren."

After this order was issued, Scher remained silent. After a moment, "Germany" and "Schleswig Holstein" turned off the searchlights in accordance with the previous "scanning alternate cover tactics", and as the battle between "Hessen" and "Pomeren" subsided, the queue sequence changed. "Silesia", "Hannover", and "Alsace" turned on the searchlights without hesitation, while "Brunswick", which had not been turned on before, continued to hide in the dark and fire.

After continuous adjustment, the gunners of the Schell fleet were getting more and more accurate. Except for the front main gun of the "Germany" that was once suspended due to a stuck shell, the main and secondary guns of the other warships maintained a high rate of fire. Although the crew members were replaced one after another, the champion style of the "Schleswig Holstein" was still unabated. The opposite Orion-class battleship "Conqueror" was shot one after another. The front main turret with 11-inch front armor was actually silenced. The shooting pole tower standing tall above the bridge was also damaged by artillery fire. The base of the bridge was located.

The artillery profile armor was penetrated by 283 mm shells, and four 6-inch secondary guns connected to the gun position were instantly lost. The three main turrets located in the rear and the deck of the ship also hit multiple armor-piercing bombs, but they were hit by these attacks with their thick armor defense and unnegligible luck. For the German crew, under the illumination of searchlights, they could even distinguish the barrels of British battleships with their naked eyes. They swung up and down like the black antennae of the big beetle. Although their own artillery fire hit the target, none of the damn British men reduced their speed.

Another outstanding German battleship is the "Brunswick" which is always hidden behind the light. Since veteran officers and non-commissioned officers are given priority to the newly-served dreadnoughts, when the war broke out, the 740 officers and soldiers of the ship, Captain Horson, were only 68 of them, over 35 years old, and there were as many as 260 new recruits between 18 and 20 years old. The young men lacked experience, but they had commendable fighting spirit and enthusiasm. Under the leadership of young candidates and non-commissioned officers, everyone was tireless.

The firefighter kept the 12 water pipe boilers on the ship under the ship at all times maintained sufficient pressure. The gunners allowed the guns of all sizes to fire continuously at a level close to the theoretical highest value. During the same time, the number of shells of the "Brunswick" with only four main guns was fired equal to that of the opponents 4,000 meters away, and the "Indian Emperor" with 10 main guns. Moreover, the hit rate of the former reached 4%, while the latter fired more than 400 shells, but only 3 shots hit directly, and 4 shots formed a near-lost bomb.

The tragic part of this fleet artillery battle is not only reflected in the dense and fierce artillery fire, but the casualties of the fleets on both sides are even more than imagined. The sinking of two German battleships caused nearly a thousand crew members to be killed. Soon, a main gun from George V hit and penetrated the main turret of the rear of the German. The terrible explosion instantly claimed 37 lives. Although the fire door of the bullet supply channel was closed when the explosion occurred, the huge impact seemed to be tearing

The fire door was exploded like shreds of paper, and the blazing flames spread to the bottom ammunition depot along the ammunition depot. The German crew had to turn on the emergency water pump to inject water into the ammunition depot, which almost avoided a death explosion that endangered the entire ship. At the same time, the poisonous gas produced by the picric acid explosive spread rapidly inside the ship, and the burning air waves that hit the face were full of deadly toxins. People who had not yet evacuated began to cough and vomit continuously. Their faces and hands had turned dark yellow, and blood was flowing in their ears. The scene was very terrifying.

The situation in "Silesia" is worse than that of "Germany". In less than 3 minutes, its front and rear main turrets hit 13.5-inch caliber English armor-piercing bombs one after another. The 11-inch thick Krupp armor failed to protect the personnel and equipment in the turret. All gunners were killed. Four main guns were also damaged. One of the barrels weighing more than 40 tons fell from the collapsed gun stand, and the crew could only watch it roll back and forth along the deck...

The two ships sank, and the two ships were severely damaged. When almost a cigarette was used, Scher's first array lost half of its combat power. Just as many officers around him were desperate about the development of the battle, "Prussia" and "Lorraine" followed the "Alsace" at the last battle line. The five Vichersbach-class also tried their best to run a speed of nearly 18 knots, which was their technical limit, but the battlefield situation was urgent. With 3 nautical miles away from the first array, the oldest German warship among the five participating ships, which has always been regarded as "iron-clad ships" by the British Navy, opened fire at the British fleet on the starboard sea.

For the main armor of the British dreadnought, which is not enough to effectively penetrate the 40-diameter 283 mm naval guns, the 40-diameter 240-mm naval guns of the Vechersbach class, are more like scratching the surface, but they are better at the high rate of fire, and can damage the non-key protective parts of the British warship at medium combat distances and kill external combat personnel. Under the guidance of the "Alsace", after several rounds of rapid shooting, the five Vechersbach class and "Prussia" and "Lorraine" and the two Brunswick class battleships gradually found the correct feeling. Several George V-class battleships located at the end of the British fleet had to endure the "soft and weak" of these old guys

The turret, "George V", "Bold", "Ajax" and "Centurion" were successively shot, and important parts such as turrets, bridges, and waterline armor were intact. Range finders, searchlights, radio brackets, electrical pipelines and other equipment with fine structures and functions were easily damaged by shells or shrapnel. The artillery-style secondary guns on the ship were not enough to resist the attack of medium-caliber armor-piercing shells. As a result, these four British new battleships with first-class performance suffered "soft killing". The number of casualties was not large, but the bleeding scenes and the groans of the injured quietly dispersed part of the crew's attention.

By the restraint of the enemy's main battleship group by the old battleship fleet, the large German torpedo boats that had previously carried out raids and survived have installed spare torpedoes into the launch tube. They used their same tricks to try to approach the enemy's battle line without attracting the attention of the other party. However, this time, Jeliko's fleet had been on guard. Without waiting for the "Blade Warriors" of the German 4th Lightning Strike Battalion to step forward, several British destroyers who were alerting on the left wing of the fleet decisively turned on the searchlights and used fierce artillery fire to drive away the German torpedo attackers. Scher noticed this important opportunity to delay the opponent, so he ordered "Germany" and "Silesia" to provide fire support to their torpedo boat groups. Although the two old battleships only had

Two 283mm caliber first-class main guns and five 170mm caliber second-class main guns are available, but the combat distance between the two sides is within the range of the 88mm secondary guns of the German ship. These small-caliber naval guns used to deal with enemy lightning strike ships can fire up to 15 rounds per minute. In a short while, their dense artillery fire broke up the British destroyers that intercepted the German torpedo boat group. Three 1911 and 1913 large torpedo boats took the opportunity to slip through the outer cordon of the British fleet. Although they ultimately failed to break through the defensive firepower of the enemy's main ships, the torpedoes launched at a distance of 1,500 to 2,000 meters still forced several dreadnoughts in the forefront of the Jelico formation to evade.

At this time, Jelico, who was in charge of the "Iron Duke", received a telegram from Lieutenant General Bernie and learned that the eight old dreadnoughts of the 1st Squadron had fired with the German fleet, and the sound of cannons from the northern seas also tightened. The German Navy's attack was obviously premeditated. Jelico had reason to believe that the opponent had mobilized as many ships as possible to participate in the war, and the number of dreadnoughts should be 13 to 15, but he was facing only a group of old German former dreadnoughts. If the Bernie squadron was attacked by the entire German dreadnoughts, then the situation of this naval battle would have become extremely unfavorable to the British fleet!

Jelico was eager to lead the main battleship group to support the Bernie Squadron, but the opponent was like a big piece of ketchup, which could not be chewed or removed in a short time. The artillery fire of the old German battleship group did not pose a fatal threat to the thick-skinned British dreadnoughts, but German lightning strike ships were able to frequently attack under their support cover. In this waters far away from the British mainland, once the main ships of the Royal Navy were damaged by lightning, they were likely to be trapped because their speed could not keep up with the large fleet.

The siege of German ships, and the losses of each battleship will threaten the strategic environment and even local security of the United Kingdom. Now, the "home state", "Orion", "Conqueror" and "Thunder" located at the front of the battle line have temporarily separated to avoid torpedoes. Jelico weighed the pros and cons and quickly sent a wireless telegram, requiring these four dreadnoughts to go north at full speed under the command of Major General Evan Thomas, deputy commander of the squadron, to contact Lieutenant General Bernie and temporarily join his squadron.

After the order was issued, Jelico turned his attention back to the battle in front of him. In his opinion, even if one Iron Duke and three Orion were missing, the remaining six British dreadnoughts were enough to deal with the large group of "old antiques" on the port side.

The course of the battle quickly proved Jelico's idea. He only saw a red light on the rear deck of the "German" at the front of the German battle line. The fireball formed by the violent explosion was soaring to the sky. Less than ten minutes later, the scene of the "Pomeren" being fatally damaged was repeated on the team's flagship. The gap in the threshold of the "Fearless" was shocking. After the explosion disappeared, the fire was ignited at the tail of the "German" ship, and a large amount of black smoke rolled straight into the clouds. The cannons of all sizes on the ship suddenly disappeared. Many crew members who were withdrawn from the inner cabin could be seen on the side deck near the stern. Most of them did not abandon the ship in a hurry to escape, but spontaneously joined the fire extinguishing ranks, but the several water dragons that pierced into the fire seemed too slender...

Since the warship had lost all its combat power and had only very limited power left, it was not suitable to continue to stay in the battle lineup, Reinhardt Schell had to take his staff team to evacuate first. The traffic boats on the ship had been completely damaged in the battle, and they had no choice but to summon the V-180, which was escorted not far away. The large torpedo boat ventured near the ship's side, picked up Schell and his group from the soft rope ladder, turned around and turned to other battleships in the formation. It quickly approached the "Silesia", but each main turret of the warship was broken and basically lost its combat capability; so it headed to the "Schleswig Holstein" and found that its mast and superstructure had just been washed by shrapnel, and the radio facilities and searchlights were all
Chapter completed!