1890 King of Southeast Asia

"The situation is not good!" Hipper looked at the fleet in front of the left.

The current distance between the two sides is about 16,000 kilometers. Because the German fleet's attention was on the Lion battlecruiser, it failed to discover the fleet in advance.

"General, the British battlecruisers on the port side are trying to reorganize the fleet. Should we attack them first?" The chief of staff compared the forces of both sides.

On the port side is the Lion-class battlecruiser formation, commanded by Beatty himself, with a total of 5 ships, but the Lion has been seriously injured and withdrawn from the battle line, losing its combat effectiveness.

Several other Lion-class battlecruisers also had some minor injuries, and their formation became scattered because of turning to avoid the Lion. Now the distance between the two sides is about 14,000 kilometers.

This distance is still the effective firing distance of the navy, but both sides can only use the main guns, and the secondary guns are no longer useful.

"Order the fleet to prepare to turn left as a whole. After turning left, the fleet will form two squadrons."

"Von der Tann, Moltke, Goeben, Seydlitz, form the 1st Battlecruiser Division, the target is the 4 British warships on the port side."

"The combat mission is to interfere with the British reorganization as much as possible, delay the British time, and let them play the advantage of the firing rate of the main guns."

"The remaining warships form the 2nd Battlecruiser Division to fight against the 4 British warships on the starboard side. The combat mission is to protect themselves as much as possible while destroying the enemy, and play the advantage of the range of large-caliber heavy artillery."

"The two squadrons are parallel, 6 to 7 chains apart, and the warships of each squadron are kept at the same interval. Each ship maintains a speed of 24 knots to the northeast and breaks contact with the British as soon as possible."

Hippel took a deep breath and decided to turn in front of the enemy.

Although this turn seems to be the Germans fighting for the T-head, with the British on both sides, this turn is to walk into a situation of being attacked from both sides.

Hipper certainly knew this situation, and also knew what it meant to be attacked from both sides.

However, the speed of the British reinforcements still surprised Hipper, and Hipper finally realized that first there were five ships, and then four more.

What happened next? Since the British had already sent out two fleets, it means that the British had expected the German battlecruisers, and even got accurate intelligence.

Then, the British may have other warships behind them, such as the Invincible and Indefatigable classes, and even orthodox battleships.

Therefore, Hipper was ready to take a risk and bet that the British would also maneuver when he made a maneuver, instead of just coming up and fighting him.

At 4:40, the Germans made the second correct large-angle maneuver in this battle, and re-formed a new formation under the British bombardment.

At 4:50, the German 1st Battlecruiser Division began to use high-speed firing to launch covering fire on the Lion-class battlecruisers that were about to complete the formation.

The four warships of the 1st Battlecruiser Division were all equipped with the same 305mm 50-caliber main guns and the same type of turrets, with a theoretical rate of fire of two to three rounds per minute.

The Germans did not spare the shells at all, and fired heavy projectiles at the British at an average rate of fire of more than 5 rounds per minute.

One after another, the water column interfered with the reorganization of the British warships and successfully delayed the British army.

The 2nd Battlecruiser Division was also equipped with the same equipment, but it was equipped with 350mm 45-caliber naval guns with a theoretical rate of fire of two rounds per minute.

However, the 2nd Battlecruiser Division did not shoot like the 1st Battlecruiser Division, but a very traditional slow aiming-half-salvo calibration-effective shooting.

At 4:56, the Royal Princess fired a 35-round shot at the port deck of the battlecruiser De Tann.

At this time, all countries in the world ignored the deck armor, so that the deck armor was very weak, including the Germans.

This 356mm shell penetrated the upper deck and then exploded. If the British fuse and charge were not too sensitive, this shell should have caused the Von der Tann to take on water.

Unfortunately, the explosion came too early, and only opened a hole on the port side of the Von der Tann amidships, and did not even affect the secondary guns not far away.

Of course, the secondary gunners were not counted, and the entire crew of a secondary gun nearby was dead.

It didn't take long for the Germans to retaliate.

At 4:59, under a salvo from the Goeben, a 305mm armor-piercing shell hit the Queen Mary's conning tower at a high angle.

The shell rubbed against the triangular mast (the triangular mast is behind the conning tower), and then fell straight into the conning tower, easily penetrating the top of the conning tower.

Boo!

After penetrating two layers of equipment cabins, the shell exploded in the equipment cabin, blowing up various facilities in the equipment cabin.

The vibration caused the Queen Mary to temporarily lose command, and the foremast was completely useless, including the firing director, rangefinder, antenna, etc.

At 1:00, the Queen Mary was silent, and because no one was controlling it, the rudder automatically returned to the right position and was leaving the battle line. It was not until the first mate returned to the command tower that the Queen Mary readjusted its course.

At 5:02 pm, the Royal Princess fired 8 shells, 3 of which hit the Von der Tann.

Two shells hit the port side, tearing open two holes, one large and one small. The Von der Tann began to take on water and the speed gradually decreased, but the damage was still within the tolerance range, and the damage control quickly began to drain and plug the leak.

Another shell hit the rear main gun of the Von der Tann, and the shell hit just above the turret, which was the weak point of the turret.

Originally, this was a fatal blow. The 356mm shell could easily penetrate the armor, ignite the explosives in the turret, and cause a secondary explosion.

If luck is good enough, the flames will rush down with the hoist, causing the ammunition depot to explode. In that case, the ship will be beyond the rescue of the gods.

However, the British were pitted by their own shells again. The moment they touched the turret, the 356mm shell was detonated, and the explosion did not even penetrate the top of the turret.

However, the impact force and the vibration of the explosion also completely stuck the main gun and could not rotate. The Von der Tann lost a main gun.

At this time, the German fleet was already in the middle of the two British fleets and suffered a crossfire attack. Fortunately, after being divided into two fleets, the distance between the ships was widened a lot, and the 4:4 ratio could cope with it.

From 5:07 to 5:17, within ten minutes, Seydlitz was miraculously hit 8 times.

You know, this is an orthodox battleship duel, that is, everyone is lined up in a line, and then the warships in the line are one-on-one.

Ten minutes is enough for the 356mm main gun to fire about ten rounds at most. Theoretically, it will be higher, but this is actual combat. Under the interference of various factors, it is good to be able to fire one round per minute.

The 8 main guns fired a total of 80 shells, 8 hits, and the hit rate is 1 in 10. This is a hit at a distance of 14,000 kilometers, and the hit rate is almost twice that of its peers.

However, 6 of them hit the side armor, because Seydlitz was specially strengthened in armor and speed, so these 6 shells were not fatal.

At most, there were a few cracks and some water entered, but the side armor of the Seydlitz fell off a lot. The huge kinetic energy of the shells and the pressure of the explosion caused the rivets connecting the armor to break and fall off, and the armor naturally fell off.

In addition, one of the two shells hit the chimney at the center, exploded before penetrating the armor, and left a big hole on the deck. The fragments punched several holes in the chimney.

Another shell hit the bow, easily penetrated the deck, and fell straight to the bottom deck. It was a pity that it was a dud, otherwise the Seydlitz might have been left behind.

The Seydlitz was also counterattacking and hit a few shells, but they were not very effective and did not hit the core area.

On the other hand, the battle between the Derfflinger and the Sound was not so... efficient?

After the German fleet turned and reorganized its formation, the Renown class did not turn immediately, but kept approaching while quickly pouring shells.

He really hit a few times, but it was useless. Except for two holes in the weak protection area of ​​the hull, the other hits did not even make holes.

Similarly, after the German fleet was in formation, it also retaliated against the British. The German shells had better performance, but they were not enough to break through the 330mm hardened armor of the prestige class at 13,000 meters (the warships were sailing, and they reached this distance after the formation was completed).

Although this armor belt is very narrow.

When designed, the 350mm main gun had a penetration depth of 354mm at a distance of 20,000 yards, that is, more than 18,000 meters.

But in fact, this gun did not achieve such excellent performance as the design indicators. The soft cap has a more stringent requirement for the angle of incidence. After exceeding 15°, the performance will begin to decline.

In long-range combat, the shells are completely ejected, and the North Sea is very rough. The soft cap armor-piercing shells inherited from the UK can only try their luck to find a better angle of incidence.

As for the British problem, it has been mentioned many times.

Both sides were heavily armored, and the battle was very exciting, but the German Navy still had the upper hand.

Even though the Renown-class guns had a larger caliber and a faster speed.

Renown used too much tonnage to pursue speed, and even as an optimized model of the Lion-class, defense was still ranked last.

At 5:30, the Derfflinger had been hit by 6 356mm caliber shells, 3 of which hit the deck, and two exploded after penetrating, causing a fire, but it was quickly extinguished.

1 exploded on the deck, and the other 3 hit the armor belt, blowing off an armor plate.

In return, Derfflinger returned 4 shells to the Sound, 3 of which hit the armor belt, two failed to penetrate due to the angle of incidence, and 1 fortunately penetrated, destroying several cabins and causing them to start flooding.

At 5:37, a violent explosion suddenly occurred in the midship of the Moltke, and the main turret in the midship exploded.

Two minutes later, the Goeben was hit twice in the side, leaving a 5-meter-long hole.

The older German battlecruisers gradually could not withstand the firepower of the new British battleships, and the situation seemed to be tilting towards the British.

Until 5:50, the main gun on the starboard side of the Moltke fired two shells, one of which landed behind the right side of the Queen Mary and the other landed just to the right of the Royal Princess.

But!

The shells did not explode immediately after falling into the water, but suddenly deflected after entering the water and rushed towards the Queen Mary. When they hit the hull, they suddenly exploded.

boo!

The sailors on the Queen Mary only felt the hull shake violently, a low water column rose on the starboard side, and then the ship began to tilt rapidly to the right.

boo!

The Royal Princess in front of us encountered another explosion, this time it was the turret that exploded, but fortunately the fire door was closed and no further explosion was triggered.

However, the explosion left a large hole in the Royal Princess, and the vibration also caused problems with the transmission system.

Two battleships were severely damaged in succession and had to withdraw from the battle line, which gave Hipper an opportunity.

"Order the fleet to turn right by one compass point, maintain the same speed, and the 1st Battlecruiser Division to concentrate firepower to force the British back."

"After forcing the British back, we will go home."

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