1890 King of Southeast Asia

Crack~~

"Ah!~~"

Boom!

Crack...

The Royal Princess made an unbearable cry when it made an emergency turn at high speed, and all kinds of debris on the ship were thrown out.

The soldiers on the upper deck were miserable. The sharp turn without any warning generated huge centrifugal force, and many sailors were thrown out with the secondary gun shells.

The sailors who could enter the water without injury were lucky. Many sailors subconsciously grabbed what they could grab around them, and then were hit by various debris. They either fell into the water after being hit or were directly killed.

Of course, the worst were the sailors on the mast. The sailors who didn't have time to grab the railing were directly thrown off the mast by centrifugal force, and then hit various buildings, and finally thrown into the water.

The mast is the tallest building on the ship. In the era without radar, the higher the mast, the farther you can see. For warships like this with a full load displacement of more than 30,000 tons, the masts are all 45 meters or more.

Like the Fuso class, in order to see farther, the Japanese frantically increased the mast height to 14 stories during the modernization modification, which was more than 60 meters above the water surface. A large number of buildings were also integrated on the mast, which was jokingly called an illegal building.

And what is the concept of being thrown down from 45 meters? The height of a standard residential building is 2.8 to 3 meters per floor, and 45 meters is the height of 1034 floors. Even if it falls on a warship, it is 78 stories high.

When the sailors on the mast fell to the ground, the lightest was fracture and internal bleeding, and the slightly heavier ones might die on the spot.

After all, warships are made of steel, and the various equipment on the deck is stacked, which is rugged. If they fall down and hit these protruding equipment, fractures are minor.

In this turn, the Royal Princess lost dozens of sailors, including almost all sailors operating the 7-meter qf2 rangefinder.

"Avoided!" On the Lion, the chief of staff watched the whole process of the Royal Princess's avoidance with fear.

Because the Lion was severely damaged, the steering gear was stuck, and the left main shaft was overheated, the engine had to be shut down, and only the drive of the two right drive shafts was maintained. In addition, the speed dropped sharply due to severe water ingress.

The speed dropped too fast, and the antenna was broken again. If the Royal Princess had not found something wrong, the two ships would have collided.

Fortunately, Beatty ordered the right propeller to run at full power, and the Lion turned slightly to the left through unbalanced power.

The Royal Princess also responded calmly and turned right urgently. The subsequent warships followed the Royal Princess to turn, so that no traffic accident could be caused.

"It was avoided, but we now have a huge hole." Betty looked at the sinking Blücher unwillingly.

The personnel on the Blücher had almost evacuated, and the captain of the Blücher ordered the sea valve to be opened. After all, in this case, the Blücher could not go back.

In addition, Hipper also ordered to abandon the ship. The destroyer came up to pick up the people, and the captain took the ship's bell and some important items and retreated.

"We sank a German battlecruiser, and only one of ours was seriously injured, and two small warships sank, but we also forced the Germans to retreat and broke their intentions."

The fleet staff looked at the scattered British fleet, turned his head and said to Beatty,

"General, our formation is completely chaotic, and we can't reorganize the attack for the time being. I don't know why the Renown has not arrived at the battlefield yet."

"As a fleet staff, I suggest temporarily suspending the subsequent combat plan and sending fast destroyers to track the movements of the German Navy. The specific plan will be integrated first."

The fleet staff was undoubtedly persuading Beatty to give up, but it was just said more tactfully.

Send destroyers to track, what happens next? Even if the destroyer was lucky enough not to lose it at night, after Beatty integrated the power of the battlecruiser fleet, the German First Reconnaissance Fleet didn't know where it ran away.

They are all battlecruisers, and the speed difference is only one or two knots. The speed difference between the most advanced battleships and the oldest battleships is less than 4 knots.

If the Germans run for an hour, even if Beatty only uses the fastest battlecruiser fleet to chase them, it will take 45 hours to catch up.

God knows where the Germans will run to after 45 hours. It is very unreliable to track them at night, especially when the Germans already know that they are exposed.

"Invincible, plus Tireless and Reputation, there are still 9 level 3 battleships. Let Queen Mary and others chase them separately, and the maneuvering range does not need to be very large."

"We still have a chance." Beatty was a little unwilling.

His four most elite Reputation-class battlecruisers have not been put into battle yet. The armor of the Reputation-class battlecruisers is not worse than that of the early battleships. He wants to do it again.

There are not many opportunities to block the Germans, and the Royal Navy has not had any outstanding achievements so far in this war.

1 battlecruiser? Battlecruisers are battleships, and they are very precious and rare in other countries, even in France and Russia.

However, for the old naval hegemon Britain and the emerging naval power Germany, the loss of a battlecruiser is heartbreaking, but that's all.

The two sides have a total of 80 new battleships, battlecruisers and other large battleships, as well as a large fleet of old battleships.

A battlecruiser has never been indispensable to Britain and Germany. Similarly, sinking a battlecruiser can only be considered a tactical victory at most.

Betty still hasn't figured out what the Germans are going to do. They sent out 9 battlecruisers at once, all of which were the essence of the 1st Reconnaissance Fleet. They must have other intentions.

"Let the Royal Princess take the battleships back to the battle position. We must hold on until the reputation arrives. Let's leave the battlefield first and repair the Lion first."

Betty turned around and said no more.

At this time, the Germans were still bombarding, but because Betty's fleet route was completely chaotic, the bombardment parameters had lost their effect, and they were safe.

In theory, Betty should transfer to other warships by boat and continue to command the fleet to fight. After all, the Lion was seriously injured, the speed was greatly reduced, and the chance of returning to the battle line was very small.

But Betty didn't dare to waste this little time. Now they were racing against time.

"Water column rises in the German fleet!" The remaining observers on the foremast of the Lion were still working, pointing in the direction of the German warships and shouting.

"Did we fire the cannon?" Betty raised the telescope in surprise, and happened to see several water columns rising, and asked the fleet staff nervously.

"No, I didn't hear any artillery fire, nor did I see any smoke. It wasn't us." The fleet staff smiled and nodded to Betty.

"Reputation, it's Reputation, they're here!"

"Let the Royal Princess lead the fleet to attack the Germans!"

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