In the midst of the strong wind and waves, the "Dresden" with a combat displacement of more than 4,000 tons swayed greatly, and huge waves of five or six meters easily surged onto the deck and even spread to the bridge. In such sea conditions, it would be very difficult not to mention gunfire, to mention gunfire, it would be very difficult to control the course of the ship.

After enduring the turbulent sea breeze, more than 360 crew members firmly stayed at their respective posts. It had been an hour since the fleet started to anchor and left the port, and more than 7 hours had passed since they entered a state of war. The tense atmosphere, the harsh sea conditions and the battle process that could not allow for a slight mistake all consumed people's energy and physical fitness. The current ship conditions were unable to cook hot food at all, so people had to chew chocolate in cold water and canned beef, and then closed their eyes and rested during the battle, although no one could get rid of gravity and take a nap.

On the bridge, the well-dressed German officers stared at the sea surface where they were unable to see their fingers. Compared to the ordinary crew members who were dedicated, they knew better about the tasks and risks they carried out. Not long ago, they sank a severely damaged British armored ship with torpedoes, which certainly added a worthy point to the history of the "Dresden", but seeing those surviving British crew members struggling on the turbulent sea surface, except for a few who could survive, most of them were quickly submerged in the waves. The extremely cruel scene left a profound warning to the winner: If you want to return to your family alive, it is best not to let your warship sink.

However, as a reconnaissance cruiser subordinate to the main fleet, the mission of the USS Dresden is almost innate: reconnaissance, alerting, patrol, exploration, and blocking or replacing the gun when necessary. There is no doubt that only the last item is relaxed and pleasant, but such opportunities are hard to come by, and more often, it and the people serving on it can only adapt to the arrangements of fate.

In this sea area far away from its main ship, this "far" does not mean absolute distance, but a psychological sense, and is the loneliness of not seeing the figure of the friend ship at all. The "Dresden" led a group of confused and nervous crews toward the deeper sea area. Although it was only two-thirds of the maximum speed at this time, the furnace drivers burned 12 coal-fired boilers to steam so that the officers could increase their speed at any time. In the open open-air observation deck of the main and auxiliary masts, the brave rotating crews fixed themselves on the posts on the conditioned ship side in a tie. They tried hard to open their eyes in the storm and rain, and were wary of enemy situations that might appear at any time.

At 1:37, the naval battle that took place in the Jutland Peninsula was about to usher in the final *. The lookouts on the "Dresden" suddenly found a glittering light spot on the sea ahead, followed by the second, third and fourth. This airtight rain curtain effectively obscured people's sight, and these ship navigation lights that emitted dark light were not found at all. Based on the location of these navigation lights and their usual experience, the lookouts on the German ship inferred the existence of two large ships, and as the distance between the two sides shortened, they quickly vaguely identified the outline of the battleship from behind the rain curtain. One was located in front of the starboard side of the "Dresden", and the other was in front of its port side, and the majestic and magnificent figure gradually appeared...

After receiving the alarm from the lookout post, the German officials were also shocked by the scene in front of them. At this time, the distance between the two sides was only a few dozen meters. These two powerful British battleships did not even need to use main guns. They could use the secondary gun on the side of the side to make a sieve with the secondary gun on the side. Except for direct impact, there was almost no way for "Dresden" to threaten the torpedo launched by the British main battleship from the deck position to require a certain operating distance to perform its combat effectiveness normally.

When the tonnage is less than one-fifth of the opponent's side, the weak side must be the one with tragic casualties.

After hesitating for a few seconds, the German officer on the ship suddenly realized that the other party had not discovered him, so he quickly ordered the warship to turn. At the extreme, the bow of the "Dresden" almost turned around against the enemy warship's side. Except for the German crew on the mast who could peek at the scene above the British deck, the rest of the personnel saw just a wide and majestic steel wall.

From near to far, the contours of the British warship in the eyes of German crew became blurred again, but before the "Dresden" had completely escaped, the alert lookouts on the British ship noticed something strange on this side, and they immediately sent a signal to verify the other party's identity. At this time, the Germans on the "Dresden" did not know that the opponent had changed the identification light code and still responded with the code they received earlier. The British people on the opposite side were also not sure that "Home" and "Fengwei" had caused serious accidents of accidental injury due to misunderstandings in identity identification. Seeing that the identification signal was wrong, they sounded the alarm without hesitation. The dazzling searchlight lights lit up on the ship. The "Dresden" with typical German cruiser characteristics soon appeared.

Under the light, the German commander on the ship ordered the firing, and the German gunners who were waiting for the enemy also fired. There were two twin 6-inch guns in the stern of the ship "Dresden", one of which was in accordance with the instructions to launch a flare. A moment later, under the low rain clouds, a German flare burst out with strong incandescent light. Under its illumination, the Germans immediately realized that the British warships sailing in this area were not only the two ships that "Dresden" had almost hit. Huge triangular masts stood proudly in the storm, and the huge ships swayed one by one, leaving deep water marks on the sea. The most powerful warships of the British Royal Navy were lined up to advance southwest!

Since their whereabouts have been exposed, these British battleships no longer endure and sneak. They immediately bombarded the Dresden with dense sub-air artillery fire, and one mighty main gun has already pointed at the German warships that ravaged the "centurion". The deafening sound of cannons vented the rage of revenge, and the dazzling flames showed the arrogance of the strong. The sharp roar of the heavy shells pierced the sky, and they fell with unstoppable terrifying destruction.

The violent explosion on the sea surface turned into a tsunami. Due to the horizontal obstacle between the "Centurion" and the British fleet, the German battleships "Rhineland" and "Thuringian" were attacked the most violently, especially the "Rhineland". The storm waves produced by the shell explosion washed over and over again and again on its hulls, and shrapnel hit the armor and the walls of the ship, and the surrounding sea surface was more like boiling water, constantly rolling and boiling...

Jelico's "Iron Duke" rushed back with the British fleet, and the tenacious "Centurion" had been surrounded for more than ten minutes. Even with its first-class protective design, it could not resist the siege of the German fleet on all sides. The fire on the ship became bigger and bigger. The rear bridge, chimney columns and upper deck compartments of the rear deck were all collapsed. The main and secondary artillery were silent for a long time, and the waterline armor was devastated, and the speed was slowed down to about 10 knots. It seemed that the war could sink at any time. In this case, the unyielding British did not raise the white flag, but continued to use the underwater torpedo tubes on the ship to counterattack, but the current sea conditions were too harsh. For the German warships that were close to the corner, they fired two rounds, but none of them hit the six torpedoes.

The three new dreadnoughts, "Caesar", "King" and "King Albert", are still galloping eastward in the heavy rain. On the center of "King", Xia Shu watched the British fleet that was firing frantically. He believed that in addition to rescuing the friendly ships, Jeliko's combat intentions were still as undesirable as before, but at least they would sink several German main battleships. Given that the British main battleships were equipped with the most powerful 13.5-inch naval guns, the German main ships were not impeccable, especially the Nassau-class and Helgolan-class built in the early days, and the protective armor in key areas was not enough to withstand the enemy's close-range shooting. If you are lucky, Jeliko's Iron Duke and George V class would be able to kill the "Rhineland", "Thuringian" and the more injured "Catherine" within a few minutes.

Before luck decided the direction of the naval battle, three old-fashioned dreadnoughts, "Posen", "Nassau" and "Osterfriland", located on the right wing of the German fleet, suddenly reminded the opponent with a continuous and rapid artillery fire: ignoring oneself would be an extremely serious mistake.

In terms of shooting speed, the 11-inch naval gun of the old German dreadnought is based on 3 rounds per minute, while the 12-inch naval gun of the British dreadnought is 1.5 rounds per minute. When it comes to a 13.5-inch caliber, the shooting speed of the British naval gun has dropped to 1.4 rounds per minute. In medium and long-distance artillery battles, the warships of both sides need to consume a lot of time to correct the bounce point, and the difference in absolute rate of fire is not so fatal. However, in the current artillery battle with harsh sea conditions and extremely close distances, only high rate of fire can make up for the lack of shooting accuracy accordingly.

In less than two minutes, three old German dreadnoughts caused the British battleship's pilot ship to be shot four times, and the warships followed closely followed also ate two shells. Although they did not cause obvious damage and did not cause a bad fire, how could the cautious Jelico turn a blind eye to such a threat? Soon, two battleships in the British fleet array turned their muzzles and bombarded the "Posen" and the "Nassau". At a distance of more than 800 meters, their artillery fire was also fierce. One shot hit "Posen" for the first time. The German ship immediately ignited a fire. The successive near-lost bomb also interfered with the "Nassau"'s sighting. Only "Osterfriland" was able to maintain its original shooting state.

Seeing that the British main warships were getting closer and closer by artillery fire, the time for Xia Shu to wait had arrived. He calmly asked the communications personnel to send telegrams to the three dreadnoughts directly commanded by Lance, so that they could work closely together and act on the camera, and then notify "Caesar" and "King Albert" to launch a surprise attack on their opponents with the ship, and if necessary, they would not hesitate to launch hand-to-hand combat at sea.

The communicators on the ship shot and sent telegrams urgently. Just as the attack horn was about to sound, the brightness of the "King" suddenly increased sharply on the starboard side. A huge ball of fire rose from the besieged British battleship. Such a scene would only occur when a violent explosion occurred in the ammunition depot...
Chapter completed!