Spending ten years, exhausting the national treasury, betting on a hundred years of national destiny and the youth of a generation of naval personnel, the world's number one fleet and the world's second-ranked ocean fleet fifty main battleships, more than 200 support and support ships only gathered in the southern end of the middle line of the Skagrak Strait in the North Sea, the inconspicuous sea area on the west coast of the Jutland Peninsula. {《》 }

Not to mention the famous invincibility, the tireless, the lion, the tiger and the Queen Elizabeth, the famous Moltke, Germany, Seidlitz, and De Fringer, there are also fearlessness, Berlerofon, St. Vincent, Neptune, Giant, Orion, King George V and the Iron Duke; and Nassau, Helgoland, Caesar and the King-class two fearless fleets alone have built more than 100 million pounds of ships, and are equipped with warships. The maintenance and training costs of the main ships are astronomical

On March 4, 1915, this day belongs to Germany and Britain, this day belongs to the shallow North Sea, this day belongs to the giant ships and cannons and dreadnoughts, this day is destined to be written into history, and it is timeless in the memory of a generation, becoming the mystery that moves the changing direction of history.

As the respective fast forces of Germany and Britain, even though the German First Reconnaissance Fleet and the commander of the British Fast Fleet have good personal friendship, they have only room for death on the vast sea. The battle continues, Luzov vs. Lion vs. De Fringer vs. Tiger, Seidlitz vs. Unyieldingly, Moltke vs. Queen Elizabeth and Australia, Germany vs. New Zealand, the two fleets opened two vaguely intersecting battle lines and fought at a distance of 130 million yards.

"Hanging the British fast fleet, forcing Jeliko's main force to reinforce, and allowing the Royal Navy, which pursues long-range blockade, to fight with us in advance." Regarding Wang Heidi's order to continue fighting, the commander and staff of the first reconnaissance fleet, who were tired from running around for thousands of miles, had complaints. In their opinion, the first reconnaissance fleet has exceeded all tasks. They just need to drag Betty's fast fleet and wait patiently for the final battle of the main fleet. "General, maybe we should save our strength, after all, Betty still has eight fast main ships in his hands."

"Eight fast battleships?" The pain and dizziness caused by neurasthenia came like a tide, but Wang Heidi did not dare to unscrew the medicine box in her pocket no matter what. Expensive drugs will relieve symptoms in a short period of time, but the side effect is Wang Heidi's unbearable mental fatigue, mental dullness and drowsiness.

Wang Heidi sat near the corner of the armored wall of the Commander Tower, which was a relatively dark area of ​​the Commander Tower. With the cover of the shadow, his subordinates could not see his pale face as pale as paper.

The confident voice of the general who had been through the battle formation was vaguely heard. A callused finger poked out from the darkness and swayed left and right under the dim light of the commander's tower. "To be honest, Betty's hands are mixed with battleships, and I really don't take it seriously."

Just as Wang Heidi was tirelessly showing his disdain, the sea situation confirmed his confidence and was undergoing some subtle change: in the continuous high-speed sprint and the battle to seize favorable shooting positions, long-term pressure and ventilation damaged the boiler, the overspeed rotation of the propeller made the spindle overheat, and Queen Elizabeth was dragged down by the Germans, losing 25 knots of speed and gradually fell behind.

As a product of the fast battleship theory, the people of the British Empire and the Royal Navy had high hopes for this new battleship with a design speed of more than 25 knots. However, the first North Sea combat cruise inspection in 1915 made the powerful British gentlemen somewhat embarrassed because they found that the Queen could not run out of 25 knots in actual combat.

Returning to the factory is imperative. The Royal Navy, combined with the shortage of multi-line combat forces in the first half of 1915, put forward strict indicators for the shipyard: the queen class should complete all modification work and light-load sea trial work within one month, and the modified queen class should have the strength to have the 25 knots of speed in actual combat.

This is an almost impossible task. Research data parameters, find design loopholes, propose improvement plans and conduct feasibility verification, shipyard modification, bay light load sea trial, any link takes time to accumulate, and one month is far from enough. The pressure of the Navy's shipyard designers and technicians are somewhat eager for quick success. The designers only made small modifications to the boiler efficiency and water pipe issues, and replaced the Navy's technical indicators for the maximum speed of 25 knots into the background of boiler overload operation.

It has to be admitted that the Queen Elizabeth class is a super-dreadnought with excellent performance. The 13-inch waterline and main armor make the British who pursue caliber and fire speed have the first defense power similar to that of German warships. The 15-inch main gun and the actual speed of 25 knots after modification are even more jealous. Unfortunately, the British did not place the Queen Elizabeth class in the main fleet, but instead incorporated it into David Betty's fast fleet as the protective force of the battle patrol. Although the actual speed of the Queen Elizabeth class after modification has a considerable advantage over the German battleship, once the Queen is included in the battle patrol, the relatively considerable "maximum speed" of 25 knots is quickly transformed and becomes Achilles's life-threatening ankle.

The consequences of cutting corners gradually emerged in the protracted naval battles of the Dreadnought era. The Queen Elizabeth battleship, which was in the position of the No. 5, had been severely damaged by the boiler for a long period of pressure, ventilation and overload navigation, and gradually fell behind in the mobile battle toward the Scarglake Strait.

Even if Queen Elizabeth was left behind, the British still had a numerical advantage. However, the First Reconnaissance Fleet has been under the shadow of the British since its establishment. When the Germans transformed the Scharnhorst-class large armored ship Blüchel into a quasi-battleship cruiser, the British had already had the Invincible Class. When the Germans were still struggling with whether it was a battle patrol or a battleship, the three Invincible and three Tired Class Battle Cruises had already been launched. When the European War broke out, the British Rapid Fleet pointed out that

The commander was still desperately urging the shipyard to deliver the last Lion-class battle patrol and the latest Tiger battle patrol as soon as possible, while the number of introverted German battle patrols was always five. Even so, the First Reconnaissance Fleet, which was at a natural disadvantage in maritime competition, was not discouraged. In the battles of the enemy and the small number of us, they became the most combat-effective and combat-spirited elite force of the German Navy. The officers and soldiers of the First Reconnaissance Fleet did not take the advantages of the British's mere two main battleships to heart.

"Because we are the First Reconnaissance Fleet, we were born under pressure from the British, and we had no choice but to fight against our opponents." Despite being exhausted, Wang Heidi was still sharp in the years of gold hunting in Turkey, and soon mobilized the morale of the officers and soldiers of the First Reconnaissance Fleet.

The young man was infected by Wang Heidi's sincere motivation and was screaming and working harder in his respective positions. Wang Heidi looked at the young man who was in full swing and couldn't help but think of himself on the 1893 parliamentary stand, with a hint of worry and a smile on his face.

The battleship of the Sedlitz faced the British unyielding, and the two battle patrols were indomitable, and fought with their strong defense. The Ultimate, who suffered heavy damage, fired the flag saying "Our ship is injured and out of battle" and tried to lick the wounds, but the Captain of the German chose to stay and share the British artillery fire for the first reconnaissance fleetmate ship. The New Zealand did not pity its opponent at all, and the fierce artillery fire made the German shaking; Queen Elizabeth's fallen behind allowed the Moltke, who was troubled by the fire, to relieve the fire, and the four 305 main guns with shooting angles began to counterattack fiercely.

The poor Australian was hit in a very short time, two 305 armor-piercing bombs were shot in a row. One armor-piercing bomb drilled into the depths of the hull from the Australian chimney No. 1 chimney No. 1. The engine room and steam pipes under the chimney No. 1 were completely destroyed. The thick smoke, fire and white water vapor generated by the explosion soared into the sky, which looked particularly hideous in the light-colored North Sea. Before the British could react, another armor-piercing bomb shot from a half-gun gun in the entire turret roared. The bulky metal warhead easily penetrated the Australian waterline with main armor and a coal silo that took into account the defense functions, and continuously destroyed the two watertight chambers and port motor chambers.

The British might be glad that the second armor-piercing bomb almost wiped the Australian and drilled into a separate boiler cabin to the Q turret ammunition depot. Of course, the reason why the British used the word "may" to guess the British was just because the ending of the Australian, which temporarily escaped the disaster, was not ideal.

The second armor-piercing bomb did not have the ability to destroy a main ship with a standard displacement of 18,500 tons. Breaking through the sealed compartment and destroying a separate boiler compartment would only allow the Australian to inject a large amount of water and reduce its speed. However, the British themselves messed up all this.

After the Invincible Class Battle Tournament started in 1906, the British Navy believed that the number of existing battle patrols could not meet the needs of future combat, so it asked for the construction of three ships in the 1908 Navy budget. The financially tight British government believed that the battle patrol was too expensive. In order to reduce the fiscal deficit, it only approved the construction of one ship, and the remaining two ships were postponed to 1909. In fact, even if the subsequent construction time of the two ships was moved to 1910, the cost of shipbuilding was still insufficient. Therefore, the smart British Navy decided to name the Fugitive Class 3 ship Australia and "transfer" to Australia as part of the debt repayment, thereby obtaining financial support from Australia.

Funding difficulties forced the paper numbers to be cut corners. The six-inch waterline with main armor is a joke, and its narrow coverage area is even more shocking; the watertight compartment is reduced, the reserve buoyancy is insufficient, the watertight compartment longitudinal compartment has no trace, and the limited strength watertight compartment only exists in the engine compartment, boiler compartment, servo compartment and ammunition repository.

The sea water surged into the hole chiseled out of the armor-piercing bomb. Under the premise that the water pump could not work, the plug-in and plug-in box in the hands of the Royal Navy's loss-controlled team members was useless at all. The sea water still overflowed the two watertight compartments and spread along the contact channel. The loss-controlled team members finally realized that the leakage-controlled work had completely failed, so they hurriedly withdrawn from the cabin and tried to manually operate the robotic arm of the watertight compartment of the contact channel and put down a limited number of watertight compartments. At this time, the sea water had occupied several watertight compartments near the boiler compartment and continued to penetrate into the bottom compartment, tilting to the left for more than ten degrees.

The consequence of insufficient strength of the longitudinal partitions and watertight doors without watertight partitions appeared. Every once in a while, a dull explosion sound came from the bottom of the Australian ship. The strong tremor and heart-wrenching sound were transmitted upwards through the steel hull. So the loss-guard team members knew that another watertight cabin was destroyed. The loss-guard team members were already desperate. The fire in the engine room at the bottom of the No. 1 chimney could not be controlled at all. The water in the hull was even more amazing. The poor watertight design and the strength of the hull made the loss control worse.

At 7:17, the tilt of the Australian hull intensified, and the sea water was only one meter away from the deck, so the captain had to order the ship to abandon.

At 7:19, an E-type destroyer launched a torpedo at the Australian, and the Australian unit broke and was buried in the sea in less than a minute, becoming the second victim of the fierce battle of Jutland.

The sinking of the Australian is by no means the entire energy of the two fast fleets, and the battle will never end. On the other end, the two main fleets of thirty-seven battleships gradually opened fire at a distance of 17,000 yards, and the battle will only become more and more bloody (to be continued).
Chapter completed!