Chapter 661 Jutland needs a decisive battle!

The chalk brush was drawn on the blackboard, and the triangles were marked in the circle one by one, and then two thick and long arrows were led to the center of the battlefield at the same time. In an instant, a simple combat diagram was completed in the hands of Lan Jianshu.

He was still wearing a navy uniform with the rank of major general, and his clothes were still straight and could not see wrinkles, but Lan Jianshu still had some regrets in his heart. When the war gradually escalated, he retired from the front line because he was not confused and became a tactical lecturer at Dalian Naval Academy.

But when he saw nearly a hundred young and energetic faces sitting in a circle in front of him, he felt that he was not wronged, because he was transferring the experience, knowledge, shortcomings and glory of the old navy to a new generation of navalians.

It is said that a hundred years of incubation is the foundation of the increasingly powerful navy.

"Int. Lan, is this a situation map drawn by yourself, or is it supported by intelligence?" A young naval academy stood up after seeing the situation map, because today's blackboard is not a boring old war, but a real war that may have happened in the North Sea!

"I made a phone call, and they told me." Lan Jianshu blinked mysteriously, and the students would laugh. Everyone knew the previous identity of the instructor, so it was not surprising to get this kind of news.

"Instructor, since Britain and Germany have sent bait at the same time, can it be said that whoever executes the order more thoroughly can take the initiative?"

"Yes." Lan Jianshu nodded to the student, pointed to the two arrows close to the middle under the chalk, and said with a smile, "Two baits, only one can succeed in the end, so this student is right. It is possible to win if you execute the order more thoroughly, but."

Lan Jianshu paused and smiled, "No matter who they are, it is impossible to escape as soon as they see the enemy, so they are doomed to have a confrontation, and then one side pretends to retreat and attracts the enemy to the main fleet behind them."

"So instructor, who do you think will succeed?"

Lan Jianshu knew the thoughts of these little guys and shook his head: "I don't know, the war is full of suspense and unpredictable, so I, like you, I can only look at this picture now and wait!"

"In instructor, I have a question. As you said before, the North Sea is foggy and gloomy all year round. If it happens to be in this kind of weather now, so that the two baits do not find each other, but pass by and rush to the enemy's main force, how will it change?"

Lan Jianshu looked at the whimsy young non-commissioned officer, was also surprised by his imagination, and asked, "What's your name?"

"Report instructor, my name is Chen Ce." Chen Ce saluted.

Lan Jianshu did not continue to ask, but suddenly turned around and picked up the chalk and drew countless lines between the two main fleets. The students were a little stunned when they saw this scene. They didn't understand what the instructor meant, and the whisper began to grow louder.

After the whole situation map was messed up, Lan Jianshu turned his head and pointed to the blackboard and asked Chen Ce, "What did you see?"

Chen Ce looked at the blackboard in a daze. The messy lines had no regularity in his eyes. When he was about to say he didn't know, an idea suddenly flashed through his mind and immediately replied, "Chaos!"

"Yes, chaos!"

Lan Jianshu threw away the little bit of chalk left, clapped his hands and said with a smile, "I know you are very strange about my ghost charm just now, but now Chen Ce has answered correctly."

"I have visited Britain and Germany respectively, and conducted friendly exercises with the German navy in the North Sea, so I also know a little about the hydrological situation, which I mentioned in my previous lecture." Lan Jianshu straightened up and looked at the young people in front of him and said, "The hydrological of the North Sea is not good. The wind is high and the waves are high. In this season, there will often be heavy fog during the day. Even the visibility of using telescopes is less than 20,000 meters, so Chen Ce's hypothesis just now is very likely to happen.

So what will happen if this happens?

Actually, I don't know, because as I just said, the naval battle is full of suspense, luck and change. No one can really master it. What you have to do in the future is not to master it, but to learn to use the conditions around it as much as possible to win.

Back to this picture, whether it is Britain or Germany, throwing bait must be to catch big fish. The bait can't defeat the prey, so it is bound to take both main forces to a certain point in the middle!"

"Collision!"

Lan Jianshu fiercely instructed the center of the intention: "It is very clear that when you squeeze into a foggy sea with a warship and more than 200 warships, you not only need to hit your opponent, but also need to protect and respond to your partners, then even if your brain has strong computing power, even if your staff is powerful. It is impossible to cover everything.

It's like a dice. You fill it with mercury in it. When you think you can throw out what you want, you find that the table in front of you is uneven and there are many small pits.

There is only more unpredictability left for you. When these unpredictability comes down together, it's chaos!"

"So instructor, if you are in command, once you collide and find that the enemy's main force is actually on the opposite side, how will you solve this chaos?" Chen Ce asked curiously.

Lan Jianshu liked this young man a little, as if he had seen another Li Xiuyan. He smiled and said, "If it were me, I would put aside all the details. Whether the bait is lure or not, even if I was brought to the opponent's main force, I should immediately directly bring the battle into the decisive battle and sweep the chaos with the main ship's fire!"

"In instructor, so, is Germany and Britain a decisive battle this time?" As soon as several students heard about the decisive battle, they immediately stood up excitedly.

"I don't know, I really don't know." Lan Jianshu shook his head with a wry smile, looked at the west window, and said quietly, "It depends on whether Prussia and Britain have the intention of a decisive battle!"

===== "Close to lost!"

Sergeant Martin shouted to remind his comrades-in-arms that as a deck lookout, after the initial stage of rush, he can already hit like raindrops from them. He needs to distinguish which can cause damage to himself and the battleship Conqueror under his feet in the black spots flying in the screen for more than ten seconds.

What shocked him was that the other side obviously had only 5 battlecruisers, and all the guns added up to only 40 280mm and above caliber guns, but the ammunition density seemed to be no less than 20 battleships on his side, with more than 100 guns.

Of course, he didn't know that this was the long-term result of Germany's pursuit of large ships and cannons. Because at the beginning of its design, Germany thought that its future decisive battlefield was the North Sea with greater wind and waves, and the number was not a British opponent. They needed to work on the accuracy and speed of naval guns, so When Xinhua chose the triple installation to install the Guam class, Germany still chose the triplet for the Bavarian class, because the accuracy of the double installation was higher than that of the triple installation.

In the battle patrol, it has fully implemented the principle that large ships trot, stability first, and speed is the supplementary. Therefore, although the gun caliber is small, the speed is much higher than that of the British main fleet.

In Sergeant Martin's shouting, the deputy gunners around buried their heads and lowered their bodies one after another. A 305mm shell accurately landed less than 30 meters next to the side of the Conqueror. The huge column of white smoke rose into the air, more than ten meters high, and the provoking sea water rushed to his face.

When the Conqueror had just breathed a sigh of relief and survived another round, the Luzov in the distance was hit by a 343mm shell in the main armor of the side line. Fortunately, there was a problem with the fuse of the British armor-piercing shell, and it exploded without penetration.

More shells landed on the side of the five German war patrols. At the same time, several fires exploded, countless roots were full of yellow-green columns of water (cauated by the dyeing after the explosion of bitter acid explosives) soared to the sky, and the Shipper fleet was like a sailboard in the storm.

"General, the Luzov is fine. He just scratched a little skin, but a shell of the Von der Tarn was damaged." The correspondent kept shouting, and he couldn't whisper, because the explosion outside was too dense, but he brought bad news one after another, which alerted Happel.

Hipper knows very well that the situation is deteriorating every minute. 20 British battleships have more than 160 heavy guns, all of which are above 13.5 inches. If they continue to stay, good luck may disappear in the next second.

"I have to leave!"

Hiffel looked at the Conqueror reluctantly. The first eight rounds of 40 ships did not cause fatal injuries, which made everyone a little frustrated. Now in order to deal with other British [***] ships, they have to spread their firepower, and the hope is even more slim, so they have to leave.

"Turn the rudder, we."

The order was still lingering in his mouth, and the corners of Huppert's eyes twitched. He only saw a huge fireball suddenly rise on the back deck of the battleship Conqueror, which he had just remembered. It was so bright and dazzling.

"It's the Luzov! The Lutsov hit him!"

"We kicked it away!" This is what the Luzov gunner recalled. The surviving gunner recalled: "At that time, we were hit, and the hull exploded and vibrated, so the shell trajectory shifted, but who would have thought that it would hit it like that and kicked off the Conqueror's No. 5 turret.

In fact, the gunner did not know how much damage was caused by the 305mm delayed armor-piercing shell fired by the turret. Britain once again paid the price for the thin horizontal deck and the design concept of not paying attention to protection.

The armor-piercing shell drilled from the side of the No. 3 turret should have been blocked by the horizontal deck, but only 67 mm of armor here could not block the heavy artillery shell at all. The 400 kg armor-piercing shell was deflected after drilling through the horizontal deck, tearing up the 203mm turret well protection wall.

The shell that originally exploded in the well should not cause later tragedy, but the problem is that there were several packs of propellant on the hoist in the well at that time!

The British paid the first price for simplicity and neglect. Compared with Germany, Xinhua and even the United States, which began to use metal sealed containers to lift the propellant, the open propellant bag wrapped in only a few layers of silk is simply a more explosive product than a shell.

When these propellant kits were detonated, the blazing flames entered the ammunition compartment at the bottom without an explosion-proof door, and the situation disaster occurred!

According to the front mast watchman of the Conqueror, he recalled: "There, a flame soared straight into the sky, as if a volcanic eruption had erupted. The explosion lifted hundreds of tons of turrets up 600 feet high, and then the rear mast and chimney were involved, collapsing like a tree that had lost its foundation, and the left side of the ship was torn open. With a crack nearly five meters wide, the deck quickly began to tilt. The third ship of the Orion-class battleship suddenly fell into despair. Second Lieutenant Sampson pulled the redd water-tight hatch that had been burned by the fire and tried to close it, but failed with all his strength. When the sea water suddenly poured into the cabin along the hatch, the ship began to make a sour creak.

The captain immediately gave the order to abandon the ship. The alarm bell rang from each cabin, and countless sailors rushed to the deck like crazy. When the inclined deck sank little by little, the 752 officers and soldiers of the ship escaped less than 130.

All the officers of the local fleet saw this scene. No one expected that in the case of absolute superior strength, the first to make themselves unlucky. In the 16th minute after the battle began, the fourth battleship detachment, with a standard displacement of 22,200 tons and 10 343mm heavy guns, the Conqueror was like a lift. When the whale-turned belly sank little by little, the guy who caused the tragedy began to accelerate to flee south.

Countless shells chased Hipper's buttocks, one of which even hit the stern of the von der Tann and almost destroyed the rudder. Fortunately, the German sailors repaired it in time, and the speed returned to 24 knots four minutes later.

At this time, Major General Burdick chased Sinclair's buttocks and finally arrived at the battlefield. After seeing the signal of "immediate evacuation" on the flagship, he didn't even have time to take a breath, so he immediately turned the rudder and chased five war patrols with four scarred light patrols that were also plowed by shells and began to accelerate their withdrawal. The rest The destroyers also scattered and fled.

During

, Hippell sent a telegram to Scheer: "The British are behind my ass."

Jelko already knew at this time that Hipelle was actually a bait. Originally, he was not a person who was easily irritated. Compared with these five prey and the discovered main force of Scheer, the loss of a battleship was not too much. What's more, he could not refuse to destroy the ** of the main German fleet, although he was usually a little conservative, but Lieutenant General Hamilton's words made some changes before he left.

"John, we must destroy Germany at all costs! Because we can't afford the pressure of fighting on both sides. This is the original words of Lieutenant General Hamilton, which is said to be a hint of the Prime Minister.

So he immediately ordered to continue the pursuit and sent a telegram to Betty to retreat and intercept Hippel on the way.

His tactics are very simple, that is, let Betty entangle Hipper when he retreats, so that Scheer must fight even if he doesn't want to fight. For Britain, as long as he can destroy the German navy, even if he pays half of the loss of the mainland fleet, it is worth it!

The radio waves sent by the flagship Lamy spread rapidly, but Jellico didn't know that he didn't have to rush Betty to escape, because he was in big trouble.

"Sing." The harsh roar made Quiz's face white. He couldn't remember how many cannonballs had flown against the top of the mast. Three minutes had passed since the cross-fire formed, which meant that the Germans on the opposite side were only lucky.

The Queen Mary's four-door double-couple 343mm gun is still roaring with his companions. The black and red fireballs keep flashing in Ques's eyes, but he now hates this battle line, because it means that the battlecruisers with speed advantage are fixed at a certain point.

A flame rose again on the German King Albert in the distance. Ques raised his telescope and saw that the shell hit the flank of the opponent's rear bridge. Several unexpected German sailors were blown into the sea, but when the smoke gradually dissipated, he found that the shell still did not cause much damage to the other party.

"Damn it." Quess hammered the fender hard. He didn't know that this was the first explosion point he had observed, but except for a few that caused damage, the guys on the opposite side, who did not look bigger than himself, could always survive and continue to fight back.

"There's something wrong with our damn cannons today." In the Tiger Command Tower, Betty frowned and said to the staff. In fact, he was depressed to death. His heavy artillery was obviously more and heavier than the other party, but he could never complete the final kill score, which was a torment for any officer.

"A little closer to the enemy!"

In the face of the situation of being out of reach and killing, Betty issued a typical Nelson style, full of British style, and even with a little reckless order. Although it was later said that it was this order that destroyed Queen Mary and buried the whole naval battle, some people eulogized him because they saw Betty's coldness. Quiet and fearless. .

Betty is really not a hot-headed man. Although he is grumpy and aggressive, he is an excellent admiral. At this time, Major General Thomas's battle fleet is less than 5 minutes away. With three battleships and his heavy artillery, he really hopes to sink or hit one or two. If a German battleship succeeds, it will completely change the later war situation. It is just a faint figure over Europe that makes him return with hatred!

Li Mo, the Far East arsonist in the European population!

Because he sold the Rhine to Germany and developed the L47/380mm heavy gun with Germany, the biggest obstacle that plagued the Bavarian-class battleships in history was solved two years earlier.

The Bavarian class is Germany's trump card. Although Germany can't continue to expand its navy from the fifth ship because a large amount of resources have been consumed by the army, the first four are still the best battleships in Europe, not even one of them!

From the perspective of displacement, the Bavarian class is far inferior to the Guam class, but this is mainly due to the surprise of the endurance requirements of the two countries. The difference between the standard row and full load of the Guam class is nearly 8,000 tons, while the former is only more than 4,000, and the extra is fuel, and the firepower and protection standards of the Guam class are designed according to 406 mm. That's why it looks bigger.

Although it is not the key protection, the layout of the Kryp armor and the German protection compartment has always been ahead of Europe, so even Li Mo thinks that the Bavarian class is a good battleship.

The Württemberg fired the sixth round of volley, but there was still no gain because the warship was inserting into the battle line at full speed, which disappointed Ramson, the gunner of the No. 4 gun position of the ship, and his memories were later published in the newspaper.

"I was very disappointed at that time, because I missed the opportunity again, because at that time, our speed was about 19 knots. This speed would be very bumpy in the waves, and the bow was inserted into the battle line. My perspective was not very good, but I didn't give up, because I always believed that the next second I would It will succeed."

Second Lieutenant Ramson's dream came true. As the Württemberg squeezed into the battle line and slowed down to 16 knots, Scheer finally completed the formation after the initial chaos. The price was that five Caesars received at least 17 shells. Britain's inferior fuses and armor-piercing shells helped Germany again, far more than Caesar's. The 343mm heavy gun with a thicker and longer range did not fully exert its power.

"The goddess of fate seems to have deliberately tortured England after the war." This is what the Times wrote after getting the naval engagement process.

2:27 p.m.

When the Conqueror on the other side of the battlefield had a big explosion and began to sink, the ferocious and thick muzzle of the Württemberg locked the Queen Mary, and Ramson and everyone fired the eighth round of sip.

"In the fuchsia smoke, a black spot rushed out. After drawing a wonderful arc in the sky, it accurately fell between the two chimneys of the Queen Mary. The explosion occurred after I blinked my eyes. The firelight and thick smoke were mixed with a lot of white smoke. At that time, I knew that it could not go!" The lookout of the Württemberg said so.

Yes, Queen Mary was fatally injured. The 380mm shell hit by the Württemberg skewed its bow through the horizontal deck and went straight into the boiler compartment. After the explosion destroyed the two boiler compartments, the speed suddenly dropped to 15 knots.

But this is not the main reason for Ma's sinking. Just 50 seconds after Betty's eyes** ordered the Queen Mary to withdraw from the battle, the Württemberg hit it again.

This time, the armor-piercing shell penetrates directly from the main armor belt next to the bow turret. If it is a battleship, the armored defense thickness here is at least equal to the muzzle caliber, but this is a battle patrol! The battlecruiser sacrificed protection for firepower and speed!

The 9-inch (228mm) armor was no different from the paper paste under the 380mm shell, and the shell drilled inward along the wound until it stopped next to the ammunition compartment.

Corporal Murphy stared at the shell falling from the top of his head stuck in the middle of the steel. He didn't know whether to be lucky or run away, and he didn't know why the shell didn't explode, but when he finally remembered the danger, it was too late.

There was something wrong with the fuse of the shell. It was 20 seconds late to start working. At the moment when Murphy had climbed the ladder and left the cabin, a huge flame suddenly exploded behind him. The flame generated by the explosion flooded him like a tide. At the same time, he also tore off the 30mm thick armor plate and entered the ammunition compartment.

151 343mm shells were detonated one by one, enough to melt the steel temperature and the huge impact to break through all the armor and steel plates around them. When they finally rushed away from the horizontal armor, the whole battlefield seemed to be ignited!

The thunder on the Württemberg was thunderous, and Scheer clenched the armrest excitedly. The clouds over the German fleet seemed to begin to dissipate, while Betty's fleet fell into the ice cellar. The soldiers looked like ashes. The staff officer held the retreat telegram sent by Lieutenant General Jericho's hand and froze in mid-air. When the west wind thickened the Queen Mary's position. When the smoke blew away, the 26,250-ton beast had disappeared on the sea, and only 15 of the 1,266 officers and soldiers on the ship were rescued.

Major Thomas stared at the place where the Queen Mary disappeared and looked at the big blank in the middle of the battle line. He didn't know whether he should insert three St. Vincent-class battleships in or queue up again.

At that moment, British confidence began to shake. Nelson's spirit and the maritime hegemony that began in the Victorian era began to sink gradually because of the continuous sinking of the Queen Mary and the Conqueror on the other side of the battlefield. It took more than 30 years for the Prussians to finally catch up. They used thicker barrel and better gunnery. , and the cold machine-like efficiency style, poked a knife in a place that Britain is proud of!

"Get out of here!"

Before even reading the telegram sent by Jelico, Betty ordered an immediate evacuation. The most wronged Major General Thomas led the battleship formation without even a shell, and then began to run away. But the biggest problem was that his partner's speed was 24 knots, and he only had 20 knots!

Fortunately, the German fleet was not fast, so he could only run back after being chased by shells all the way.

At this moment, if you push away the low clouds over the North Sea, you will see that the two huge fleets are rapidly approaching the middle. Jelko is begging Betty to entangle Hipper on the way back, regardless of loss, and then force Scheer to fight, but Scheer wants Hipelle to intercept Betty and the capital ship halfway. The team killed the British war patrol together and then retreated.

For Happer and Betty, Long Guozhang later had a very classic sentence: "Two bandits were going to grab a ticket, but they didn't expect that they couldn't win after being beaten, so they had to go home to move rescuers."

Although there is a deviation, at least Hipper sank one, but there is nothing wrong, because Hipper's five war patrols were almost injured. The most serious von der Tann lost two turrets, and the stern also poured into 600 tons of seawater, and the speed dropped to 23 knots. If it hadn't been a step earlier, Jellico Is there a war patrol in his hand? Maybe Happel doesn't even have the strength to cry at this time.

2-0, now Germany is leading!

But everyone knows that this is not over yet. The loss of two ships will not make Britain cry, nor will Germany take control of the North Sea! So under all kinds of thoughts, faster light cruisers with destroyers, like the galloping light cavalry on the ancient battlefield rushed out from both ends to the end to kill, and countless columns of smoke pierced the sky.

"Enemy ship!"

4:10 p.m.

After running for nearly an hour, Hipper and Betty met again, and both of them wanted to cooperate with the main force to stop each other! Although the purpose is different, the result is the same.

Betty is so angry that she can't win the battleship, and can't she win the same battle patrol?!

Hipper was so excited that the battleships were sunk by himself, not to mention the less protective battlecruisers!

10 minutes later, the two formations, which were supposed to be bait, broke out first, like two long steel dragons separated for 16,000 yards and slowly.

"Boom."

The first to fire was the battleship Tiger. It was not aimed at Hipper, but the four Weisbaden-class light cruisers of Major General Bernice, who had been rampant before and caused him to run in the wrong direction.

Luck seems to have returned to Betty's hands. In just two rounds, a 343mm shell hit a speed of 23 knots 15,000 yards away. The Wiesbaden, which wanted to escape, was more like a high-explosive shell. The armor that would be similar to the wooden board, so it directly smashed through the steel plate and exploded inside.

The smoke and fire on the Wiesbaden attracted more shells, and the gunners of Betty's fleet almost treated the small light cruiser as a capital ship, venting their depression and anger.

After just a few minutes, the Wiesbaden turned out its gray belly, but surprisingly, the German watertight cabin technology was really good. After being hit by at least five 343mm shells and dozens of secondary shells, the light patrol lasted for a whole night before it was finally hit by the United Kingdom. The destroyer sank with torpedoes.

The destruction of the Wiesbaden made Hipelle's eyes red. When the Elpin also began to catch fire and smoke, he was even more angry and wished that he could fly over and smash the other party immediately.

The flames were still burning. The British gunners looked indifferently. They looked ahead, but the muzzle was aimed at the Elping. Suddenly, it was like a giant hitting the ant with a hammer. What they wanted was not this little result, but to tell Hipper that you couldn't run away!

"Fire!" Happel stared, threw away half of the cigar and pulled out another one.

Almost at the same time, Betty also ordered to open fire, and Major General Thomas in the distance was smiling ferociously, with three slower St. Vincent-class battleships, avoiding the shells behind him while raising the barrel at Hipper.

At 2:35, when Major General Thomas inserted three battleships into the central battlefield, Hipper was shocked because no one told him that Betty still had a battleship.

The German telegrapher also made a fatal mistake, only telling the war patrol to intercept it, but forgot that there were three battleships in the report!

When Happel and Betty were entangled with each other, Scheer and Jellico, who were 23 nautical miles apart, had already got the news. If Happel couldn't come back, Schell had to fight. Similarly, if Betty couldn't come back, Jelliko would rather die!

God took two red apples and fairly distributed them to Germany and Britain, but the problem is that these two apples were taken out by themselves and mixed with poison!

Delicious ruddy apples mixed with poison, but finally stuffed into their own mouths!

Later people said, "Almost the same combat plan, almost the same poor adaptability, and almost the same strong desire to fight, coupled with mistakes, chaos and luck, let us see a naval battle that is still haunting!"

23 nautical miles, it doesn't even take an hour to fight!

Jelic took a deep breath, sorted out the military uniform in front of the faint reflection on the glass, and ordered the flag bearer to make the famous Nelson-style signal: "England, everyone needs to do their duty."

After Scheer knew that the bait had turned into a poison to invade himself, he aroused his ambition to fight with Jellico. He chose and copied the flag of Admiral Long Guozhang of the Xinhua Empire, who became famous in World War I in the largest naval battle at the beginning of the 20th century, "Germany, waiting!"

Two signal flags that have also spread all over the world and are regarded as the motto of a lifetime by countless navy people, which refreshes everyone! Nelson's inspirational legend and the hard and cold Prussian killing machine finally collided with sparks on the North Sea!

Nearly 60 capital ships!

217 warships!

Gather into a voice.

"Fight!"

(to be continued)