[When these chapters were laid out the plot, the forces of Jutland participating in the war were counted. Since many warships had not yet been in service in 1915, my forces of Jutland participating in the war were different from those in history. Don’t blame me. Also, I haven’t written 4,000 words for a long time, although it was poured out...]

At 11:03 noon on the 3rd, David Betty's fast fleet was racing southward along the Jutland coastline, only a three-hour voyage from the edge of Helgoland Bay.[]

At lunch time, British sailors and engine room technical officers lined up in neat queues to go to the restaurant for dinner. In order to ensure the sailors' physical strength in the cold early spring, the food prepared for them in the kitchen was cookies and bread and whole pieces of chocolate chips, and coffee that was so thick that "a spoon in the middle of the cup can stand upright and not poured". The navy was always in a very strict hierarchy. In the officers' restaurant, a glass of British favorite beer was not strictly restricted. Middle and low-level officers fiddled with knife and fork and occasionally raised their glasses toast, and a relaxing atmosphere. In fact, everyone thought that the British Navy was rushing forward on the road to glory.

The sailors and middle- and low-level officers of the First Battle Patrol Fleet were in a happy mood, but the Lion Battle Patrol Commander Tower was a different scene. At 11:27, the three Schott 184 seaplanes searched south and southwest exhausted their fuel and failed to find the expected German patrol force, and had to return to the Enstin mothership. David Betty, who was used to being elegant, wore a slightly decadent factor in the military cap, opened his red eyes, measured the distance between the fast fleet and the Hurgoland Bay, which was like a tiger's den, and took out his pocket watch from time to time to calculate the time.

"Old friend is not afraid of making the interception battle that is so angry that it is a pale and powerless pursuit battle..." Betty seemed to remember something, and made a furious fork in the direction of Scarglake Strait, leaned over and counted the distance between the Oran Sea and the William Canal on the chart. After a long time, Betty spitted out the pencil in his mouth and drew another route from the Oran Sea to the Jutland coastline with a dotted line, and said fiercely: "Lampard, there is still no information on the ocean fleet going to sea in the Scarpa Bay?"

Germany and Britain did their homework before the war and deployed enough eyes and ears at the home port and the waterway of the other side's fleet. Both sides knew this well and tried their best to sweep and kill the other side's lurking intelligence personnel, the main fleet usually chose to go out late at night to ensure the concealment of the sailing, but this could only delay the time for intelligence personnel to confirm and send intelligence.

As usual, Betty should have received information about whether the Ocean Fleet will attack late at night in the morning, but the time is almost noon, and the expected information has not yet arrived.

"If Sylem wants to make a difference, the Ocean Fleet will never be indifferent!" Betty's doubts made Chief of Staff Osmond Brock speechless. Fortunately, Deputy Commander Major General Lampard cleared the siege: "Commander, do you want to break the wires and ask the Fleet Command silently?"

"It's clear that we have the initiative, but we are thwarting our hands and feet because of fear of Silame's strength. This feels really not wonderful!" Betty stroked the crooked military cap, threw down the pencil in his hand, and let it roll to the middle of the North Sea on the chart, and said without comment: "Ocean Fleet, I'm afraid the Navy Headquarters are also confused..."

****

At 12:12 noon on the 3rd, General Jelico's large fleet was running towards the central North Sea.

This is a powerful and fragile steel fleet.

It is said that it is powerful because this fleet has twenty dreadnoughts. This number not only makes old naval powers such as France, Russia and Italy cover their faces and abandon themselves, but even the Ocean Fleet has only room for envy. The famous Bellerofon-class, Saint Vincent-class, Neptune-class and Giant-class battleship, the ancestor of the super-dreadnoughts, the Iron Duke-class and King George V-class battleship equipped with 15-inch main guns, and the Iron Duke-class with ballistic computers and fire-fire commanders are piled up in this steel fleet. 100 12-inch main guns, 60 13.5-inch main guns, and 40 15-inch main guns are enough to make any navy of any country afraid.

This is not all the British awesome. You should know that the large fleet that was lined up in five columns and headed towards the Scarglak Strait at a speed of fifteen was not alone. It was accompanied by eight armored cruisers, eight light cruisers, fifty-two destroyers, six auxiliary cruisers and a seaplane mothership.

The main fleet reconnaissance force is Major General Robert Abbaslott's first-class patrol fleet and the second-class patrol fleet of Rear Admiral H-l-Heath. The former has two Edinburgh-class patrols (Duke of Edinburgh, Black Prince) and two Warrior-class patrols (Warrior, Achilles), and the latter has two Milotao-class patrols (Milor, Shannon) and two Warrior-class patrols (Cochrane, Natal). The one responsible for supporting and covering is the Brigadier General Le Messier.

The four light patrol fleet has two Birmingham-class light patrols (USA Adelaide, Nottingham), three Xianlin-class light patrols (USAIUCK, Fitton, and Bulsui); c-j-www.jtxsk.comg The 12th destroyer commanded by the Navy Major has a total of fifty-one destroyers, three reconnaissance cruisers (USABBY, Blanche, and God of War), the Oak destroyer, the flagship traffic ship of the Great Fleet, and six auxiliary cruisers for crew rescue, the Royal Ark seaplane mothership.

Of course, before paying attention to this fleet, no one can deny its weakness. The Royal Navy's Dreadnought Fleet's main guns are numerous and strong firepower, but its defense strength is indeed not satisfactory. Not to mention the coverage area of ​​the waterline with hardened main armor, which is only one meter higher than the waterline, the 10-12-inch waterline main armor, and the 11-inch turret front armor can hardly resist any first-class main gun of the German main ship at a distance of 9 kilometers.

, and 9 kilometers is the standard combat distance in naval battles in the dreadnought era. The tragedy is far more than that. The excessive pursuit of the main gun caliber, quantity and side firepower, the British dreadnought hulls were generally long, and the watertight compartment design and protection capabilities were repeatedly weakened. On November 1, 1914, the British King George V-class battleship Dark was killed by only one mine and was declared to sink. This is the embodiment of the insufficient defense of the watertight compartment.

Although the Royal Navy trusted their warship firepower and the favor of the sea god, this confidence had greatly reduced in terms of temperament and connotation. Just as Jelico in principle agreed to advance and retreat with the stormy Navy, he did not dare to delay the battle to strangle the First Reconnaissance Fleet into a decisive battle that could determine the situation in the North Sea!

"Where is the information of the signal light? Hall didn't know that this was a rapidly changing war. Any omissions and lags could lead to endless consequences?" Germany and Britain were among the best technological powers. In order to prevent some of the Germans from secretly deploying radio intercept and directional search devices on the Jutland coastline from playing a role, the Royal Navy was accustomed to keeping radio silent during navigation, that is, they could only receive and cannot send telegrams.

John Jelico, who had few trump cards, had no intention of breaking the dogma and had to stumble in the command tower of the flagship Iron Duke of the Fleet, waiting for the intelligence support that William R-Hall, the Minister of Navy Intelligence, who was nicknamed "Signal Light".

****

Although the Ocean Fleet had considered the secret issues and sneaked out of Jed Bay at night to avoid the British ears and ears, the empty Jed Bay in the morning could not stop the riots of British intelligence personnel. At 7:35 am on the 3rd, several confirmed British intelligence personnel sent out the intelligence that "the main force of the Ocean Fleet went out to sea late at night and had unknown courses."

The person who received the telegram was Captain Jackson of the Navy Intelligence Department. It is said that this person "despises all folk scholars and decoding experts." He quickly walked into Room 40 with the telegram paper and asked the crypto expert: "Where is the code number now for the German fleet flagship call?"

The decipher experts who had no progress in the deciphering work spread their hands, so he turned around and left quickly, and refused to stay with the "civilians". After Captain Jackson returned to the office, he made a brief analysis of the situation based on his own understanding and was ready to hand it over to Hall, the Secretary of the Navy Intelligence Department. At 8:01 am, Captain Jackson was surprised to hear a shocking news as soon as he left the door:

The British-French joint fleet suffered a crushing defeat in the Mediterranean, and the leaked news spread rapidly in various blocks of Greater London. Navy Secretary Winston Churchill and First Minister of Maritime Sir Arthur Wilson submitted their resignation to the Prime Minister ten minutes ago!

Chaos and dizziness were surging at the Navy headquarters. The unprecedented defeat and the resignation of the Navy minister made the long-standing inefficiency and cluelessness of the Royal Navy. Captain Jackson held the moldy walls in the dark and wet aisle of the Admiralty for a long time before he digested the news and remembered his duties. He stepped into Minister Hall's office and was told that General Hall had attended an emergency meeting of the National Defense Commission. The insane captain had to transfer the intelligence and analysis reports to the Navy Staff according to normal procedures of the British Empire.

For a long time, the British Navy was led by the civilian minister appointed by the Prime Minister to take charge of the overall situation. The first Maritime Secretary selected from professional soldiers was responsible for specific naval affairs in normal times, and became the chief of staff in wartime. The resignation of the British Empire Navy, Winston Churchill and Arthur Wilson, at the same time, had the impact on the British Navy. It is conceivable that Lieutenant General Study, who was almost forced to take office by Churchill, sat down on the sofa in depressedly,

The young and energetic staff of the General Staff were defeated by failure and wrote the gloom of failure on their faces; the dilapidated buildings of the Admiralty were swallowed up by the London residents who rushed to the scene after hearing the news. The deafening questioning and overwhelming anger outside the windowsill made everyone think about evasion, shirk responsibility, defense and self-rescue. Therefore, the highest level of intelligence transferred by the Intelligence Department was collected by the General Staff as straw paper in the dusty archives room because of human negligence.

"The Ocean Fleet has set sail, Betty, the Royal Navy's Zhun Nelson, you must stand up and turn the tide!" The scolding of the London residents surrounded by the Admiralty became even more unpleasant, and Captain Jackson was cautious in his dark office.

****

At 14:00 p.m. on the 3rd, the First Battle Cruise Fleet led by Betty carefully sneaked into Helgolan Bay and rushed around the 200-nautical mile defense circle of Helgolan Bay in Germany. Veteran Moore's Second Battle Cruise Fleet stayed outside Helgolan Bay, keeping a distance of half an hour from Betty, responsible for support and support.

After an hour-long search, the third reconnaissance fleet in the bag disappeared completely. The expected Silame fleet never fulfilled its landlords' friendship from beginning to end. News that should not come, but news that should not come followed one after another. The news that the Ocean Fleet went out to sea late at night on the 2nd was late, and the bad news of Churchill and Arthur Wilson's resignation came even more fiercely.

"Commander, we have already penetrated 20 nautical miles deep into Helgoland Bay!" The unfamiliar waters, minefields, submarines and ocean fleets that may be encountered at any time, are facing endless pressure, and Major General Lampard cannot be reminded carefully.

Betty pondered for a moment and agreed to Lampard's subtext. At 15:05, the huge First Battle Cruise fleet began to turn and turned around and searched north at a speed of 20 knots.

Dozens of warships opened countless messy halos on the ocean surface of Helgolan Bay and drove northwards in a vast array of wind. The pocket watch pointer in his hand flew away. Another hour was another, and the murderous First Battlecruising fleet still failed to find any small sampan with the German Iron Cross and the Black Hawk flag.

"The position of the main force of the Ocean Fleet cannot be judged. The expected first reconnaissance fleet has not yet appeared, and even the third reconnaissance fleet is not on the defense line of Helgolan Bay!" As the planner of the battle, success or failure depends on David Betty. The naval pride who carries the century-old destiny of the British Empire that existed to the ocean was finally torn apart by the bursting emotions. The accumulated pressure was unscrupulously vented on the ocean surface of Helgolan Bay. All the pressure gathered in the fist and then hit the eleven-inch armored wall of the Commander Tower. "Damn it, where are the Germans?!"

The frozen hands cracked, and the charming blood oozed through the pure white gloves. Deputy Lampard hurriedly greeted the medical soldiers. At this time, the towering watchtower of the Lion came from the heart-warming news:

"Four light patrols were found in the northwest direction, with a distance of 20,000 yards and heading northeast. It is judged to be four Bremen-class light patrols!"

"It's the third reconnaissance fleet! It's the third reconnaissance fleet!" Major General Lampard, who covered the wound on Betty's hand with a handkerchief, raised his head unconsciously, with an excited look on his face.

"The reserve of Fisher Gang, the glory of the Royal Navy, the kindness of the Navy ministers, at 15:43 on March 3, 1915, David Betty, I, Davey Betty, will reinterpret the noble definition!" Betty turned his head and let out a long sigh, and said inexplicably in his heart. Then he turned his head to the fleet staff in the commander's tower and said fiercely: "First Battle Cruise, rush over, destroy them, and destroy them! Before strangling the Silame fleet, I don't mind tasting a light appetizer!"
Chapter completed!