.

At around 5 o'clock, Holland ordered the preparation for the battle. For a moment, the British ships were alarmed and the shells loaded gunners were in place. Soon Lukins also saw the "Shock" and "Queen Elizabeth" from the telescope. He never expected that what he encountered would be the British most powerful battlecruiser "Shock" and the latest "Queen Elizabeth" battleship!

Due to the bad weather conditions, it is impossible to tell that Yingjun has several support battleships, so Lukins ordered the order to turn at 5:39 to avoid the British ship. Almost at the same time, the British ship was also turning, and the head of the ship pointed directly at the German ship and rushed over! What I thought of retreating for a moment, and the British thought of advancing. It has to be said that the German naval officers had no enterprising spirit. In fact, the two German battleships were far more powerful than the British warships.

At 537 points, Lieutenant General Holland ordered the formation ships to 40 degrees to the right and headed 280, which made the enemy located in the direction of the head of the British warship. The British warship speed was about 29 knots, and the Queen was located at a distance of 800 (731.5 meters) to hit the right string. Unfortunately, for the British ships who wanted to reach the favorable position in front of the German ship, they were now going against the rules. The British ships could not seize the favorable position. Holland's plan was to rush to the German ship with all their strength, turn at close range, and exert all firepower.

Holland has about 2 possibilities to do this: 1. He believes that the Slam is insufficient in dealing with shells shot from far downward. His weak deck armor and the string-side armor in certain areas will be easily penetrated and lead to fatal consequences. For Slam, shortening the distance with the opponent is very important, at close range. Slam is still fragile to the opponent's local artillery fire, but at such a distance, the ballistic stretches low, and the reinforced main-side armor is expected to resist the opponent's artillery fire. 2. Holland knows the Royal Sea...|. area. Before shortening the distance to the sound of the attack, he must keep it perpendicular to the opponent to reduce the ship shadow and reduce the target. The second view is the mainstream view.

This approach has a risky element and brings many adverse factors. British ships can only use bow artillery during approaching; British ships will be affected by the wind, and the waves raised by the wind make it difficult to use the optical sight; Holland also maintains a dense formation. Once the formation is discovered, the enemy can easily change the target of the attack. During the approaching of British ships, German ships can exert all firepower. At the same time, German ships on the upper side are affected by the wind and waves and the direction of British ships is not maintained well, the huge ship shadow will become a good target for German gunners.

552, the distance between the two formations was shortened to 25,000 (12.3 miles/22.8 miles), 300. At 549 points, the British ship turned right again by 20.550 points, Holland issued an order: g:?., that is, the order was to hit and Queen Elizabeth aimed at the German ship that was left in the 337 degree direction. The German ship aimed at was Queen Frederick the Great. The British believed it was William III. On Queen Elizabeth, this error was quickly corrected. Major Colin McMullen correctly recognized the warship that was right in the 337 degree direction direction, and ordered him to aim. In addition to correctly identifying, he also tried to determine the exact distance only before the first fire.

This initial misunderstanding is understandable. In the distance and angle of the German ship, the silhouettes of the two German warships were very similar. William III followed Frederick the Great (about 1.2.5 km) to strengthen this similarity because it made the smaller warships look larger. Almost no British knew that the German ship had changed positions a day ago.

William III's radar failed when the main gun fired at Norfolk the day before. This may be the reason. Frederick the Great was sent to the front to search for any British ships that could be approached from the front. In addition, the British cruiser Norfolk and Suffolk followed like a shadow, and William III might have to advise the British ships to avoid getting close to them, in order to increase the chance of getting rid of them.

As the two formations approached, the slammed observers discovered their mistakes. Lieutenant General Holland was informed of one of the news before the fire was about to be opened. He ordered: gob1. That is, commanding the two main ships to aim at the warship on the right side - William III. Although this order must have been issued before the first slapped, for some reason, it was not notified to the slammed gun control officer in time.

Through a comprehensive analysis of the observation of witnesses from Frederick the Great and the comprehensive analysis of the outdated Drell fire control system, the slam may not have changed the target at all. More experts tend to think that the slam will turn its target to William III at the last moment.

The survivors of the slam had at least 2 scattered shots before Holland ordered the change of the target. Queen Elizabeth's captain Ritchie believed that he had received orders before the fire was opened. On the slammed shooting target, Frederick the Great witnesses believed that the slam never changed the target and always shot at them.

This is very different from the sailors of William III, who believe that the slam always shoots at William III very accurately. Unfortunately, these views confirm a kind of possibility

Most of the scattered volleys hit the middle of the 2 German ships, but did not hit any of them.

55230, the battle began, and the two turrets that hit the bow of the ship made their first salvo. Half a minute later, Queen Elizabeth's front turret also began to shoot. Because at the maximum shooting distance, the 284 gun aiming radar was used to calibrate the landing point. Queen Elizabeth's radar failed and could only rely on optical aiming to shoot.

At 5:54, the German ship saw that the battle was inevitable. In addition, according to the aircraft's observation, there were no other British battleships in the sea area, so they turned to a 200-degree course, forming the "t"-shaped formation that is most favorable to the British ships. In this way, the British ships could only use the front main gun to fire, while the German ships could use all the main guns to shoot, and the British ships did not have the advantage in the number of guns on their original guns.

Now it can only be described as worse! In addition, although the British ships fired first, because the two German ships had similar appearances, Holland believed that the leader must be "William III", so he mistakenly pointed the shooting target at "Frederick the Great"! "Queen Elizabeth" could not tell it in time, and then shot at "Frederick the Great". Until the end, the British ship did not find this fatal mistake.

The battle lasted for ten minutes. Although the British fired guns at long distances first, they did not gain anything. The British's performance could be said to be a mess. I really don't think this performance is the performance of the most powerful navy, but in fact, this is the actual level of the British. Their excellent tradition is to rely on the advantage of the number of ships to win the battle, so the strength of a single ship is not strong.

How could the Germans miss this good opportunity? At 5:55, the main gun of the "William III" began its first volley! In the artillery battle, the "Shoot" did not hit the target several times. On the contrary, the new ship "Queen Elizabeth" that had not yet been debugged and had to use an optical rangefinder for fire control had occasionally hit. However, in front of the 400-meter armor, these 356mm shells were ruthlessly turned away. The British warship was like a dog that kept howling. Although it was aggressive, it did not cause any harm to the Germans.

The German ship's shooting is much more accurate than the British ship. The "William III" hit the "Shock" with the second volley, and the deck suddenly became a sea of ​​fire. At 5:57, Holland ordered a left turn 20 degrees to exert the power of all the main guns. As soon as the British ship began to turn, the heavy shells of the "William III" flew over, and the third volley accurately hit the key to the "Shock" - penetrating the six-layer deck, in the main gun ammunition compartment

Explosion! The 300-ton shell was detonated immediately, and the violent explosion completely exploded the middle of the "Shoot". Even the heavy main turret was thrown into the sky by the explosion. The sea water surged into the turret, and the hull was instantly broken into two halves and quickly sank. Before the explosion could be dissipated, the "Shoot" sank into the sea in less than three minutes! There were 14 people in the ship, only 3 of whom survived, including Lieutenant General Holland and Captain Colonel Cole.

Seeing that the situation was not good, the "Queen Elizabeth" hurriedly turned left 180 and began to escape. Although the British were not afraid of death, they did not want to sacrifice themselves in such hopeless battles. The "Queen Elizabeth" was ready to use its own speed to escape, and the speed of 31 knots was as fast as a battleship.

However, what the British did not expect was that the speed of the German giant ship was not bad at all. Two William's third-century battleships actually chased after him. The fourth volley II finally hit the British giant shells of 480 meters. They easily hit the A turret of Elizabeth's battleship, and completely killed the A turret.

After being killed, Elizabeth began to release smoke, which affected the German shooting accuracy, but for the Germans, this was basically not a problem. An excellent radar system can still lock the position of the British ship.

What no one expected was that a huge battleship formation was carrying out radio silence, and the commander tower was also silent, although Elizabeth was just fifty nautical miles away, the fleet commander asked with a blank face:

"The fleet is heading westward, and we must keep these two William III. The British Empire's navy was invincible, and this glory has been maintained for three hundred years. We cannot let this honor be lost in our hands."

The ships turned neatly, the main turret slowly turned and aimed, the steel giant began to sail westward, one battleship after another appeared, and then disappeared, and the thirty battleships formed five columns, separated from each other, forming a huge square array of five horizontal and six vertical lines, and began to face the two William III-class battleships.

If you look at it from the sky, you can see that the huge William III-class battleship is like a lion, while the British battleship is like a wild wolf. When the lion catches a lonely wild wolf, it will meet the wolf pack. The fierce battle has just begun, and the more intense battle is still behind.
Chapter completed!