"Order, four light ships on the left wing leave the formation and turn towards Davenport!"

The commander tower of the battleship Ireland, the fleet's temporary commander Henry Shangxuan stood in front of the sand table, leaving the black hole's back to his subordinates.

"The right wing and the squadron turn left and form a battle line!"

Colonel Henry's voice was a little hoarse. With just one dreadnought and six old battleships, it was obvious that they could not take care of the four auxiliary warships with slow speed and no protection. Leaving the formation alone might be the best choice, or it might be the cruelest death knell.

Henry's men could not guess the captain's mood at this moment, just as they didn't know if they could still see the rising sun tomorrow. Campbell looked at the port side and said softly:

"good luck!"

The cruise formation of the Mediterranean Rescue Fleet quickly collapsed. After receiving orders from the flagship, the four auxiliary warships began to turn the bow. The auxiliary warships modified from the old ship dragged the thick smoke that covered the sky and the sun, embarked on a new journey of uncertainty in life and death, and rushed towards the Davenport Port in the northwest.

Half a minute later, the right wing and squadron of the Mediterranean Return Fleet also began to turn in a mess.

The captains and core commanders of these old battleships are well-trained veterans, but the core crew system in the form of reserves is destined to have uneven sailor capabilities in driving these old battleships. Furthermore, the USS Ireland battleship is a new ship that has been in service for less than a year, with a maximum speed of 21 knots, while the remaining six old battleships generally have problems such as aging hulls and outdated power systems. The London-class battleship with the shortest service life can still maintain a maximum speed of 17 knots, but the USS Majestic battleship that was in service in 1895 can barely reach 16.5 knots only under overload.

Chaos is inevitable. From the sudden acceleration of the Irish Super Dreadnought, the Sage and the Prince of Wales on the right wing, the formation is disconnected.

From the economic speed of 12 knots to the speed of 17 knots, the new ships that have been in service for less than a year are almost useless. However, for the old battleships of the Marquis and the Prince of Wales, which were served in 1902 and 1904, it almost cost a life, so the flagships of the Marquis and Prince of Wales gradually distanced themselves.

The right wing stumbled and continued to turn. In order to avoid a collision with the right wing, the Majestic, and the old battleship located in the squadron, began to slow down. When the Prince of Wales battleship at the tail of the right wing surpassed the Majestic, the entire squadron accelerated again and joined the loose battle line.

The return fleet wasted more than 20 minutes to adjust its formation, and the first reconnaissance fleet was not idle either. The four battle patrols at full speed shortened the combat distance to 15 kilometers.

15 kilometers, this is a very embarrassing distance for Colonel Henry, because whether it is the finest product created by Sir William White, the best battleship of the 1890s - Majestic class, or the world's first old man star-level to use water pipe boilers, or the old man star-level improved - the fear-class battleship and the London-class battleship. Although the 12-inch 35-diameter markviii main gun, which was set in 1895, had an extreme range of more than 22,870 yards, its effective range was only 14,860 yards (13,590m). Also, the behind-the-sight sighting equipment of these old ships was too old to support ultra-long-distance artillery battles.

The battle distances of the old ships have never been outside the range of 15 kilometers. However, long-distance artillery battles are the famous skill of the First Reconnaissance Fleet. German gunners have cruel long-distance artillery battle training and a lot of practical experience. Coupled with Germany's accumulation in the optical industry, they can easily overturn their opponents 15 kilometers away.

Let the old ships approach the Germans, fight closely, gain a future, or keep the old ships away from the Germans, and then pray that the Germans' shells will not fall on their heads?

Henry faced a difficult choice. Although the former is heroic and passionate, he may even get unexpected surprises, it will undoubtedly accelerate the death of the old ships. The latter is of course beneficial to the detour of the Isle of Wight. However, the return fleet is too far from the Isle of Wight, and time will help the Germans sank these old ships who cannot fight back.

"Henry, you have to make a choice, the Germans won't give us too much time..." Campbell reminded.

"Ireland vs. Luzov, and the Prince of Wales vs. De Fringer, Majesty, and then vs. Seidlitz. He was not afraid of Mafia." The colonel's eyes finally moved from the sand table. He turned around and faced the sunlight shining in the observation hole of the commander tower, and smiled calmly at his subordinates: "Let the old ships distance themselves from the Germans and move west of the Isle of Wight. If we can hold on until that moment, we may also form cross-fire with the Isle of Wight coastal fort..."

The confidential officer recorded Colonel Henry's orders and handed them over to the captain's signature. Henry took out a pen from his shirt pocket to sign, but he was not in a hurry to hand over the telegram to the confidential officer.

"There is another telegram that needs to be sent immediately." Henry said softly, with a little embarrassment and expectation: "The strength of the return fleet is limited. In addition to God, the Collingwood, who has just called and issued a warning. Let the telegram room send a report to Collingwood, and ask Colonel Clementley to pull his brothers for the sake of Britain..."

The situation was extremely urgent. The confidential officer took the telegram book and returned to the telegram room without stopping.

The Commander Tower fell silent again. Although Colonel Henry tried his best to pretend to be confident, the mood of failure still spread like a virus. Colonel Henry had no intention of criticizing his subordinates, because any agitation was pale and powerless in front of the First Reconnaissance Fleet and Heidi Sileme. The Ireland, which was drawn and supplemented from the two Navy systems to the "outside of the planning" of the Great Fleet, served as the chief and deputy captain. Henry and Campbell, who were always dirty, looked at each other in front of death, and felt a little frustrated.

"What if I could go back to Portsmouth alive and have a drink at the bar?"

"Honored!"

After getting closer, the First Reconnaissance Fleet began to slow down, and experienced sailors knew what this meant.

"Anton Turret is ready!"

"Bruno turret is ready!"

"Caesar's turret is ready!"

"Dora turret is ready!"

In the fire control center of the Luzov battle patrol, the terms of artillery come one after another. For an accurate shooting, from the main gun viewing tower responsible for range measurement and calculation of azimuth angle to the watchtower of the observation landing point, from the bottom range measurement department that calculates the relative speed to the staff team responsible for inputting data to calculate the elements. From the red-eyed gun to the gun captain with a gas mask on the neck of the turret, from the ammunition depot loading hands below the waterline to the turret operator at the top, the entire warship used all its strength.

The gunman turned his head and looked at the lieutenant general who was silent with his hands on his chest. Wang Heidi reached out and pressed his military cap slightly. The gunman understood and pressed the shooting button to fire the first shot of Portsmouth Airlines.

The shrill buzzer rang out on the deck, and the lookout with earplugs in his ears carefully poked his head out of the watchtower armored fort, looking at the two carrying Anton and Bruno turrets on the bow of the ship.

When the fire broke out, two balls of flames suddenly burst out from the huge muzzle. The smoke immediately enveloped the deck behind the turret. The hull with a standard displacement of 30,000 tons trembled slightly and moved horizontally to the right. The hull shot out layered ripples on the starboard side.

"At 16:38, Luzov shot against Ireland, and the first round of all turrets left half of the gun shot!"

The lookout, who witnessed the most magnificent and bloody scene on the planet, took back his head and leaned against the guardrail with armored guardrail. He took out his pen to record it on the watchtower log.

"At 16:40, Luzov attacked Ireland in the first round of artillery, four armor-piercing bombs, and port-side far-range bombs!"

The whistling sound of frictional air disappeared, and a huge explosion continued. Four armor-piercing bombs splashed and fell about 150 meters away from the port side of the battleship Ireland. Tons of sea water were bombarded into the sky and hit the sea hard.

Half-squatting on the side of the watchtower, Harrison holding the microphone was obviously frightened by the huge destructive power of the 600-kilogram armor-piercing bomb. The young man covered his mouth and looked at the water column mixed with gunpowder, so nervous that he couldn't speak.

Robinson had no time to comfort the poor newcomer. He skillfully controlled the azimuth plate of the watchtower equipment and measured the azimuth of the Luzov.

"Harrison, this is war!" The baseline of the orientation plate extends to the Luzov 15 kilometers away. Robinson quickly read the numbers on the engraving plate: "Don't be stunned, report to the Fire Control Tower, the Luzov 97 position!"

Thanks to the status of export ships, the semi-automated Drell fire control system commonly equipped by the British capital ships and the higher automation of the Lombok fire control system were completely gone in the Irish Fire Control Command Tower. Without the assistance of ballistic computers, the artillery officer responsible for manipulating the shooting disk was like the tyrant nicknamed "King Arthur" in the Admiralty, who was in a hurry to support his subordinates.

"Watch Tower?"

“Dimension 97!”

"Observation tower?"

“Distance 16,700 yards!”

"Ship bottom range test cabin?"

"Speed ​​speed is 25 knots! The wind is southwest, and the wind is level 1!"

The artillery consultant manually inputs all range measurement values ​​into the distance average meter, obtains the average range measurement value, and then inputs the average distance together with the hull shaking, wind direction and other data into the shooting disk, and then goes through complex operations to find the final shooting elements.

The shooting elements were fed back to each main turret of the Ireland. The hydraulically driven 13.5-inch main turret slightly corrected its orientation and pitch angle under the operator's drive.

"a Turret is ready!"

"B Turret is ready!"

"P turret is ready!"

"X Turret is ready!"

"Y Turret is ready!"

On the shooting podium, indicator lights that symbolize the ability to fire lit up one after another. At this time, a 350mm armor-piercing bomb exploded 25 meters from the port side of the Ireland.

The water column wrapped in the explosion slightly shook the battleship's hull, and the shells climbed onto the superstructure of the Ireland made of thin shipbuilding steel, making a shrill sound of friction.

"At 16:40, Luzov attacked Ireland in the third round of artillery, and a port side lost bullets!"

The sound of the observation tower was echoing in the sound of the turret of the Robinson's morale, so the Irish shelling action paused for a small amount because of the near-lost bullet. After carefully checking the service status of the turret, the gunners responded to the intact news to the fire tower, and the guns and guns pressed the shooting button for a long time.

The electric ringtone echoing in the turret was like a battle horn. With the cannon leader's roar, the first 13.5-inch buzzed out of the bolt. (To be continued...
Chapter completed!