“fire！” The light cruisers on both sides approached quickly, and when the distance was less than 7km, the British light cruisers finally spewed out tongues of fire, and the flashes of 6-inch rapid-fire guns kept jumping on the side of the ship, and the rain of shells of various calibers instantly enveloped the German fleet, and at the same time, the German light cruisers also fired back and the unyielding roar of the artillery resounded through the battlefield.

The engagements between the light cruisers were not as clear as those of the battleships, and the two sides lined up to attack each other. The engagement of light warships is often synonymous with chaos, and all kinds of advanced fire control equipment are quite weak in this kind of exchange several kilometers apart. With the closing of the distance, the accuracy of the artillery bombardment of the two sides has directly increased to a higher level, and the light armor belt at the waterline cannot ensure the safety of the battleship at such a close distance. The Leipzig light cruiser was the first to fall victim, and it was quickly caught in trouble when it was caught between two 5,000-ton British light cruisers.

The crossfire of the 6-inch guns made the Leipzig lose sight of the other. The 6-inch semi-armor-piercing shell shredded the fragile gun cover without incident...... Like a sharp sword pierced into the gun position, only more than ten minutes of fighting, the upper deck of the Leipzig was beaten into a sea of fire, and the waterline armor belt was also pierced many times, a large amount of seawater poured in from it made the fast forward battleship gradually slow down, and there was a serious tilt, the destroyer next to it tried to rescue the battleship, but the dense 12-pounder guns and 6-inch guns stopped the other party's rescue after tearing apart the two destroyers who rushed to the scene, just when the Leipzig struggled to get out of the battlefield, A torpedo hit its bow, and the violent explosion directly blew the battleship into two ..........

Just when the British were cheering for the sinking of a German light cruiser, two slender figures suddenly burst out from the smoke screen on the other side, and two torpedoes were fired at the galloping British fleet. The light warships of both sides were like the light cavalry that galloped by in ancient times. Harvesting each other's lives with slender sabers. In this round of hedging, the British succeeded in destroying a German light cruiser. And then, before they could attack again. plunged headlong into the sidestring secondary artillery fire of the Bavaria and Saxony.

The dense artillery array of 14 6-inch guns and a large number of 88 guns of the two capital ships hit the British light cruisers. One of the 3,000-ton cruisers was really unlucky, and in the process of evading the shelling, it happened to be full of arms with a German lightning strike team, and the ecstatic Germans did not hesitate to fire 8 torpedoes at a distance of less than 2,000 meters, directly blowing the poor guy to pieces. Subsequently, these four German destroyers were surrounded and suppressed by two British light cruisers and a lightning strike team. Three German mine-striking ships were smashed to pieces by shells of various calibers, and only one narrowly escaped.

The battle of the light ships was brutal and short, and in less than 20 minutes, two German light cruisers were sunk, one seriously wounded and one lightly damaged, while the British sank one. 3 ships were slightly injured. As for the losses of the mine-striking ships. The two sides together sank more than a dozen! The superiority of the British in auxiliary warships was vividly demonstrated in this encounter. The German light cruiser formation, even with the support of the secondary guns of the capital ships, could not penetrate the blockade of the opposing side. However, the British did not seem to have achieved their goal, and although their torpedoes caused the formation of the German capital ships to be slightly disorganized, the Warweary was still dealt a devastating blow during this time.........

After the Australia was settled, the battleship York, at the strong request of Hipper, split half of its firepower to match the Bavaria. The roar of 6 14-inch guns and 10 15-inch guns was enough to destroy any battleship, and the war-weary ship, which had lost its fire power and was damaged in its eyes, soon died under the furious blow. Shells from the main guns, weighing hundreds of kilograms, repeatedly swept the warweary's hull, and the entire tail even sank below the waterline due to excessive water ingress. The remaining 4 main guns have long been dumbed. One of the turrets was even pierced by a 15-inch gun, causing the ammunition in the turret to detonate, and the violent explosion directly lifted off the top of the turret. Huge fireballs soared into the air, even if they were so dazzling throughout the battlefield. …。

The British rescue operation ultimately failed, the rear of the hull was seriously flooded, the damage management team could not enter, the battleship was completely out of control, and the power remaining was less than 5%. The boiler compartment also deteriorated under the strong water pressure. The steel plates of the watertight compartment bulged and it was only a matter of time before they collapsed. And when the last 4 main guns were lost, the Warweary really could only be called a garbage heap floating on the sea. The once majestic bridge was turned into a sea of fire, and from time to time burned-out brackets and neighbors fell off from it. The tall masts and chimneys have been broken. The billowing black smoke showed that the interior of the battleship was badly damaged, and countless flames and smoke enveloped the battleship, accompanied by a severe tail roll of the hull. The bow of the ship gradually emerges from the water, and eventually breaks in two by its own gravity. The Warweary finally fell silent, and after fighting for an hour and a half, it became the first capital ship with 15-inch guns lost on both sides!. …。

"Long live the German Reich! Long live the Kaiser! The Great Bavaria! "When the war-weariness was no longer visible on the sea...... Thunderous cheers erupted in the German fleet. At this moment. The people seemed to have forgotten that the war was still going on, and they roared and shouted wildly with their oil-stained hats and shirts. What had once been a mountain in the hearts of the German Navy had finally been defeated. Tough Queen Elizabeth-class battleships can all be destroyed, so what can't be done? Now that the German avant-garde fleet had gained a huge advantage, if the British dared to continue fighting, the Germans were confident that they would send the other queens to the bottom of the sea! At this time, in the eyes of Hipper, it can be described as a bright future. The German Navy has already achieved great results, and if you work harder, you can achieve a decisive victory! What an honor it is to defeat the Royal Navy! Thinking of this, Hipper was a little fluttering.

However, Scheer's mood was not at all as pleasant as that of Hipper, just as Hipper's fleet was beating Thomas's fleet with great triumph. Scheer's main force of the High Seas Fleet had the upper hand in the fight against his old rival Jericho, and yes, you read that right, the luxurious lineup of 14 super dreadnoughts did not overpower Jericho's 16 capital ships. True, the British Dreadnought could only damage with a dense rain of bullets, and their combat effectiveness was far inferior to that of the improved German battleships, but the revenge class was too fierce! It can be described as killing gods, and the king and Caesar who are right with him can't beat it at all! As for those artillery battleships, after using strong charges and choosing the tactics of hand-to-hand combat, they faintly pressed the Nassau-class battleships! After all, the latter's protection is only half a pound or two with Moltke, and the time is too early, no wonder others!. …。

Faced with 5 revenge-class battleships, Scheer began to command 4 Caesars and 2 King-class battleships against them, and then the remaining 8 battleships against 11 battleships of the British. But before the Nassau-class battleships and the Helgran battleships behind them could achieve results. The Revenge-class battleship Resolve had already beaten Frederick the Great with a blue nose and swollen face. There was such a ridiculous saying in Xu Jie's era called caliber is justice, which is not necessarily true, but if you add some qualifiers, such as no problem with shells and the same number of tubes, then this sentence has really become the golden rule of the BB party. And today, the Frederick the Great proves the correctness of this statement.

German artillery adhered to the advantages of the German high rate of fire, and the shelling was accurate and sharp. However, the lethality of the guns of the revenge-class battleships is still a little low, which is like a flexible cheetah constantly attacking a rhinoceros, but it cannot play because of the opponent's heavy armor, and the cheetah with insufficient strength can only leave shallow or deep wounds on the opponent's body, but it is difficult to break the muscles and bones. Judging by the number of hits alone, Frederick the Great did a really good job. Hit the opponent 5 times in just 5 minutes, but is it actually effective? Three shots were deflected off by the main armor belt, one blew off the Resolve's galley, and the last knocked out a 6-inch secondary gun. …………。

Although the rhinoceros reacts, the movements are slow. But once hit, it's a fatal blow. The Resolve only hit the opponent 3 times. But these 3 times I was biting! A single shell pierced Frederick the Great's No. 2 turret, piercing the armor on the head and landing between the two main guns. The violent explosion completely destroyed the entire artillery crew connected to the artillery servo, and the swaying flames even ignited the cartridge behind the turret...... The ensuing detonation tore a gaphole in the entire rear armor of the turret. Two other shells destroyed one of the Caesar's chimneys, making it impossible to remove a large amount of exhaust gases. Billowing smoke spread through the cabin, which directly affected the operation of the power system. The last shell hit near the waterline, and although it failed to penetrate the main suit due to the angle, the violent impact still caused Caesar's side chord to appear more than 2 meters long. Debris from the explosion shot through the gap and shattered the 20mm wall behind the empty silos, resulting in the contamination of the Frederick the Great's oil tanks and the rendering of hundreds of tons of fuel unusable.

The sudden drop in power made Frederick the Great unable to keep up with the speed of the fleet and had to give a signal to withdraw from the battle to save herself, and this level of damage did not seem serious. But it is clear that in fleet operations it is impossible for Scheer to reduce the speed of a battleship. So the actions of Frederick the Great were understandable, but with the temporary withdrawal of this battleship, the originally very delicate battlefield changed! Scheer suddenly felt that he couldn't resist! And the first to break the entire battle line was actually the Nassau-class who was fighting the much-criticized Iron Duke-class battleships! …。

Thanks to the book friend zhouyu1976 and the book friend hukaikaka for the tip~~~