1890 King of Southeast Asia

"General, an urgent telegram from London."

On the Iron Duke battleship, Jellicoe was chatting and smoking with Xu Sunming, and the communications major rushed over in a hurry.

"What's the matter?" Jellicoe looked at his anxious expression and his heart skipped a beat.

"Two German fleets composed of battleships and old battleships are approaching the British Isles quickly. His Majesty the King has gone south to Portsmouth, and the Prime Minister stayed in London." said the major.

Jellicoe was so shocked by the news that he was stunned for several seconds, then walked around the ship randomly, and finally stood on the starboard side of the ship, looking northeast.

"Order Betty to return immediately and take all the battlecruisers back with him."

"How far are we from the Germans?"

Jellicoe looked at the cloudy sky, with mixed feelings in his heart.

Battlecruisers are important firepower supplements and mobile forces. Withdrawing like this will be very disadvantageous to the next battle.

But Jellicoe had to do this. Even though he was unlikely to catch up now, he still had to send the battlecruisers back.

At least he could work with the old battleships to drive away the German fleet.

"About 40 nautical miles, expected to enter the range in 1 hour and 30 minutes." The major said.

"All ships should accelerate to the maximum speed and rush to the battlefield as soon as possible. We need a victory!" Jellicoe thought about it and changed his tactics again.

Xu Sunming frowned beside him, but in the end he said nothing.

Along the way, the speed of the battleship formation was maintained at 107 to 108 knots. If they continued to sail at this speed, they would be able to enter the visual position in more than an hour.

And accelerating to the limit, because each warship has different designs, construction, and maintenance levels, its maximum speed is different.

Some battleships can reach 2+2 or even 2+3 knots, while some, due to aging equipment and maintenance, have already done their best to maintain a speed of 109 knots.

In this way, once the acceleration begins, the fleet will not be able to maintain the current formation, and the time difference in arriving at the battlefield will definitely not be small.

In Xu Sunming's view, this choice is undoubtedly not quite right, but in the current situation, he is not convenient to say anything more.

Jellicoe greeted Xu Sunming and went to work. He needed to reply to London immediately to report the current situation.

The Queen class has already fought with the enemy, and it is not so easy for them to withdraw from the battle.

…………

In the north, the Germans are chasing the six British Queen Elizabeth-class battleships with all their strength.

However, since the speed of the Queen class can reach 2 + 45 knots, the general speed of German ships is only 2 + 12 knots. For a while, the distance between the German fleet and the British is still widening.

Both sides rushed into the strait, advancing at high speed on the sea, and greeting each other with the artillery they can use.

At this time, of course, the Germans, with more models and more numbers, had the advantage, but because both sides were moving at high speed, the shooting platform had poor stability and few hits.

Things did not change until 10:12.

A 380mm shell fired from the German High Seas Fleet's Baden landed near the port side of the British Royal Navy's Barham battleship.

This was a near-arrow shell, and the distance was very close. The power of the shell was so great that the explosion pressure opened a 201 square meter gap on the port side of the Barham, and seawater rushed in crazily.

A few minutes later, the Barham took on more than 1,500 tons of water, the hull tilted, and the speed was affected and reduced, but thanks to the surging power of the Elizabeth class, it still maintained at 202 knots.

However, this also gradually disconnected the Barham from the other Queen-class battleships. Next, the Germans began to focus their fire on the Barham.

The running and fighting battle lasted until 11:23. For more than an hour, about ten warships concentrated their fire on the Barham, which was hit by 17 shells and seriously injured.

At 11:23, the 17th shell that hit the Barham attacked the damaged area left by the previous shell.

This 350mm armor-piercing shell fired from the battleship Crown Prince William first passed through the channel opened by the previous shell and directly hit the second deck of the Barham. After continuously penetrating two overtimes and four compartments, the shell fell into the No. 2 power compartment.

The shell failed to detonate successfully, but the huge kinetic energy carried by the shell detonated the filter, and then detonated all the boilers in the entire power compartment.

Boo!

The midship of the Barham hull expanded unnaturally, and then suddenly exploded, emitting a huge amount of water vapor.

For a warship, the explosion of the boiler compartment is more terrifying than the ammunition compartment. The explosion released the high-pressure water vapor in the filter, and the high-temperature water vapor filled dozens of cabins in a short time.

In the boiler and pipeline, the temperature of water vapor is generally more than 200 degrees, and under normal pressure, once the water vapor touches a low-temperature object, it will stick to it and release heat.

In an instant, more than 200 people on the battleship Barham died or were severely burned. In this era, it is better to die than to be severely burned, anyway, you can't save it.

The explosion caused the transmission shaft to vibrate and generate heat, and with the loss of a power compartment, the speed of the Barham suddenly dropped to only ten knots.

"Very good, keep focusing fire and sink him." Reinhardt smiled faintly and nodded to everyone.

However, in a place that no one could see, Reinhardt's eyes remained cold. As time passed, Reinhardt glanced at the clock more and more frequently.

boo!

Another huge explosion sounded, but the source of the sound was on Reinhardt's right.

"It's the Great Graf, this smoke is... the ammunition depot..." Hoffman happened to have a telescope in his hand and saw the situation clearly at the first time.

The No. 3 main turret of the Queen Elizabeth battleship fired a round of shells. The two shells fell on the left and right sides of the bow of the Great Graf, causing an explosion.

The two 381mm heavy armor-piercing shells did not have much charge, but the explosive power was not small, especially when they exploded in the water, which could cause a critical hit to the ship, even higher than a direct hit.

These two shells were, the Great Graf's bow exploded 1 on the left and 1 on the right, and the force generated squeezed and deformed its waterline part, and also tore apart two large areas below the waterline.

A large amount of seawater poured in from both sides at the same time, and when the Germans were unprepared, it poured into many important locations, including the generator room of the turret.

What's more terrible is that the Great Graf was firing at this time, and the generator was running at full power. Soon, the short-circuited generator broke down and caught fire, further igniting the fuel.

The fuel flowed along the water to the ammunition extractor. At this time, there were still more than a dozen propellant bags being extracted in the extractor. The fuel was ignited by the fuel, causing a chain explosion.

The high temperature and flames generated by the explosion could not rush out of the fire door of the turret, and could only seek pressure relief downward, and thus entered the ammunition depot.

Then, there was a big explosion in the ammunition depot. The No. 1 main gun of the Great Graf was blown away by the huge power, and the No. 2 main gun was also destroyed. The bow was still there, but the location of the ammunition depot was already a big hole.

Hundreds of tons of water poured into the Great Graf within tens of seconds, and the bow sank rapidly, followed by a rapid decrease in speed.

Fortunately, the damage control closed the watertight door in the cabin in time, and the water inflow was contained, so it did not sink directly.

However, because the bow of the ship almost sank into the water, the remaining speed of the Great General was only 7 knots, and it played almost no role in the following battle.

"The Great General is finished..." Reinhardt said softly.

"Arrange two destroyers to try to tow the Great General away and run aground to the southeast."

"As long as she is still near Norway and Denmark, we can tow her away at any time."

Reinhardt said again.

"Yes!"

"The enemy has reduced its speed. It seems that the British want to keep this broken ship with a boiler explosion." Reinhardt keenly noticed that the distance between the two sides was getting closer.

"Close the distance and continue to concentrate firepower to put pressure on the British."

Reinhardt held the table with both hands, his fingers tightly clenched.

The chaotic battle meant that the main guns of the German fleet could easily penetrate the armor of the Queen-class, even the 305mm guns.

Similarly, it also means that the British can use their shells as efficiently as possible. The closer the distance, the higher the chance of hitting the core cabin.

381mm heavy armor-piercing shells may be a little difficult to penetrate against battleships, but it is also very simple to break the waterline armor and then penetrate the armor box.

If they are lucky, the German fleet can withdraw most of its main forces. If they are unlucky, the High Seas Fleet may have to be renamed the Coastal Defense Fleet.

"General, the report of the reconnaissance fleet, the British battlecruiser is turning to retreat, and it seems to be returning." Hoffman received a telegram and reported something very abnormal.

"Return? Has the support fleet set off?" Reinhardt thought of the support fleet at the first time.

"No wonder, according to the time, the battlecruiser should be almost here by now."

Reinhardt's expression became more vivid, and he breathed a sigh of relief as he looked at the approaching British Queen-class battleships.

"According to the plan, the support fleet set out last night. It seems that the British discovered them." The captain of the Bayern nodded.

"Send a telegram to Wilhelmshaven and ask Wilhelmshaven to forward it to the Helgoland. The British battlecruisers are rushing back."

"The British battlecruisers left at this critical moment. It seems that the British are coming to us."

"Time is running out. Let the reconnaissance fleet come back."

"All battleships, start forced ventilation, auxiliary warships move forward, use torpedoes to interfere with the British route, and force them to slow down."

"Success or failure depends on this one move. The future of the Imperial Navy is in our hands. Let's get started!"

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