Chapter 664 Ends with Chaos

"This is the most chaotic and darkest hour I know, and the saddest hour for the Royal Navy!"

"With the monopoly of Britain's advantage, we persisted for 67 minutes and brought back the victory. Next time Germany will persist longer!"

"The dog bit the dog for an hour, and he just pulled out some hair!"

The above three paragraphs are from the British Times, Tirpitz and Long Guozhang.

Of course, Bohr did not know people's evaluation of this naval battle at this moment. Now his attention was attracted by a Short 184 in front of him. After pressing the British Short 184 into it through the Crosssight, his fingers pulled the trigger.

The bullet rushed out of the machine gun barrel under the nose like a rainstorm. With the help of the synchronous shooter, the bullet crossed the rotating propeller and shot on the opponent's wooden wing, and then cut it off with a series of bullet holes.

Short 184, who lost half of his wings, fell into the smoke below.

When Boer flattened the fuselage again, two of Britain's latest Camel F2 fighters appeared in the distance. These were fighters that took off from the British mother ship Gredin in the distance. Like the Chinese, Britain began to be equipped with fighters that could take off from the deck.

This is not the first time Bohr has seen a camel. In fact, he has met these guys when he helped the army before. To be honest, they are difficult to deal with, maneuver and flexible. If he drives an Army Falcon or Fokker D, he dares to promise to kill the other party, but now he is just a seaplane, although the engine is used. The falcon technology provided by the country is not weaker than that of camels, but the two large floats under the fuselage limit the play.

After some efforts, Pol avoided one and circled behind it. Just as the dexterous camel was about to turn around, he seized the fleeting opportunity again and smashed the opponent's cockpit.

Another camel was probably a novice. He was already scared. When he saw his partner and plane falling like a kite, he didn't have time to fight and immediately flew back to the mother ship in the distance.

Bohr also dares not chase, because there are not only motherships, but also as many as 40 British destroyers and torpedo boats. They are not escorting the motherships, but the main ships fighting. They can't and are not willing to intervene for the time being. Nearly 50 main ships bombarded, from 280mm to 380mm guns. There are 400 guns, and there are countless secondary guns. Just by sweeping the whole battlefield, you can tear up anything.

After a while, the sky on the battlefield gradually calmed down. The warplanes that strangled each other began to retreat after paying a few losses. Unlike the crazy battles on the sea, even later, including Boer, were not recorded. The roar of the steel beast became the only protagonist this afternoon.

Driving the plane, Bohr began to look for his mothership, but the smoke from thousands of cannons and the smoke from thousands of superheated boilers have reduced the visibility to the limit. Looking down from the sky, there seemed to be a layer of gray curtain in front of him. Only countless fire points lit up and extinguished in an instant, and the whole sea was They are warships that seize each other's positions and shell each other.

It is difficult to describe the scene that Boer saw at this moment. The scene of millions of tons of steel and explosives mixed together is indescribable. Everyone's scalp is numb and heart trembling.

Although he is a pilot, Bohr still hopes to help his mothership. At this moment, even providing a coordinate is precious, so after thinking about it, he still carefully descended while searching and observing, hoping to find his comrades-in-arms.

Suddenly, a fire exploded in the smoke of gunp. When Boer turned his head, he saw a British armored cruiser like a cracked crater. The hull broke from the middle, and the crack kept spraying flames out. The edge of the steel hull was even burned red. Hundreds of British sailors were blown away, more than a dozen tons of The secondary gun was thrown into the air with the base.

"Great!"

Pol, who was sitting in the cockpit, waved his fist fiercely. Even if it was an armored cruiser, it would be a victory as long as it could be killed, so he quickly searched for the warship that made a contribution, but when several shells hit the water column around the exploding armored cruiser again, he was stunned.

British, battlecruiser?!

As a pilot on a long-range reconnaissance mission, first of all, he needs to be able to identify the opponent. The good players can even specify that it is the warship through details. Bohr is not so powerful. What's more, it is foggy in the sky now, but through the outline, he can still roughly distinguish that several shells are from the process and It was hit on a Tiger-class battlecruiser entangled by the Helgoland-class battleship.

What is this? This accidental injury is too ridiculous. It's a 9,700-ton armored cruiser! The eyes are not so bad, are they?

In Boer's dullness, the D turret of the stern of the British Tiger-class battlecruiser was already in a mess. After a gust of west wind blowing away the gunpownia smoke just now, the gunner found that he had actually hit the defense and sank the other party. Suddenly, he was so scared that his face turned white. After inspection, he found that it was a ship's gun lock. There is a problem with the shut-down.

Because the naval gun needs to hang down the muzzle first every time it is loaded, and then lift it back to its original position after installation, it is impossible to carry out manual positioning every time, so the designers invented the locking machine. As long as the positioning is completed, when the muzzle is lifted, it will automatically return to this position and cannot continue to rise.

During the battle, the locking machine will adjust every few minutes according to the angle provided by the rangefinder, but the turret of the reckless number D is obviously wrong. The elevation angle is 3° higher than the number given by the rangefinder, causing the shell to cross the target and fly to the defense.

The gunner nervously re-adjusted the locking position. Many people were even frightened by the tragedy of the defense, and even forgot to continue firing. It was not until the deck gun commander rushed in and shouted that they aimed at the opponent again.

But it was too late at this time. The diagonally inserted German battlecruiser DFlinger was locked. The excellent German machinery once again played its advantage. A 305mm shell was rushing towards the D turret. In the roar of the explosion, the whole turret seemed to be smashed by a giant with a hammer, and the turret instantly It's crooked, and the smoke and dust are rising.

When Boer was cheering for the Dflinger, his eyes were once again attracted by another group of battles. When the four sniper suddenly came out of smoke, his heart suddenly picked up.

Four British George V-class battleships completed the transverse insertion. Originally, their opponents should be five German Caesar-class battleships, which seemed to be one less, but because the Caesar-class had been injured when intercepting Betty before, which was equivalent to narrowing the technical gap, the combat strength of this group was comparable.

At that time, the German battle line was basically cut off. Scheer gave an order to fight to the southeast and retreat, and then asked the teams to complete the tactical adjustments by themselves. It was not that he did not want to command, but that he was entangled by Jellico's first team, and the smoke on the sea was too big. It can only be judged according to the telegrams sent by each team.

So at that time, five Caesar-class and the four pursuing George V began to turn southeast after more than ten minutes of bombardment, but when he turned the rudder, he found that four King-class battleships were trapped by the British Second Team and crossed in front of him. If he rushed straight, it was bound to disturb his partner's formation, so he could only turn to the south. Avoid the picture.

The four George Vs should have followed the turn, but Major General Hood suddenly found that the four German King-class battleships were close at hand, so he simply let Caesar go and cut in front of the four German King-class ships.

If the mast lookout of the German battleship König had not found George V in the smoke in time, all four King's teams might have been left here. Major Wimbeck was shocked and immediately ordered to turn eastward in order to avoid being besieged by 10 battleships.

Four George V, three Orions and three St. Vincent-class battleships aimed at the four kings for a while. After only five minutes, Prince William of the King's class caught fire first. The whole deck seemed to be burning, and the five turrets were completely ineffective, so they had to hang white flags to take the lead out of the battle line.

Immediately after the explosion in the middle of the body of the Elector, the excellent German protection design saved their lives again. After 15 minutes, the flames were finally suppressed. Surprisingly, the speed did not drop.

Its opponent was also uncomfortable. The St. Vincent-class avant-garde was hit by four 305mm armor-piercing shells, causing a large number of water inlet decks on the starboard side to begin to tilt, and finally sank in six hours.

The worst is the St. Vincent. Four powerful George Vs were hit with multiple shells before they arrived. After coming, they failed to save it. After being hit by an armor-piercing shell, it triggered a violent explosion, and the whole bow began to sink as if it had been cut off.

But this is also the most brilliant result of the German König class. Under the fierce shelling of the remaining eight British battleships, especially four comparable George V, the Doge and König also began to catch fire and had to release smoke to retreat.

Although Major General Hood's accidental joining, although he paid the price of a heavy injury (and later sinking), it also severely damaged the four King-class battleships of the main force of the German navy, second only to the Bavarian class, allowing the opponent to rest for more than a year, and did not be repaired and re-service until the end of the war.

If you just look at a group, Major General Hood's penetration was successful, but the problem was that he let go of his original opponent, freed five Caesar-class ships and crashed directly into the Helgoland-class battleship formation that were fighting against two British Giant-class battleships and four Tiger-class battleships, led by Hipper. DFlinger and Maughch helped. Although the four Helgoland-class battles were small in caliber and their strength was poor in the early launch, they were not weak. Unexpectedly, five Caesar-classes rushed over when the flag was equivalent!

Betty relied on the speed advantage to take these four Tiger-class battle patrols to successfully escape the trouble of being blocked in the T position, but the Giant-class battleships are older models, and the speed is slow and there is no time to break away. In less than 20 minutes, it was used by nine German battleships with overwhelming artillery wheels and finally sank.

According to Colonel Carter, the surviving staff officer of the Giant, "We are doing our best to knock down the opponent to score, but a group of crazy people rushed over and became the target."

Major Hood pushed the first dot, and then there was a big chaos. He went to deal with the king and let his original opponent Caesar deal with the giant. Betty, who escaped, took four tiger-level battle patrols under the pursuit of Shipper and crashed into the middle of the four scratch-class, which belonged to the oldest. It was only the replica of the Rhine that year. The design It was hard enough to face the two latest Iron Dukes in the fearless era. Unexpectedly, four more tiger-class war patrols came, and they were also hit by enemies who suddenly appeared 10,000 yards away before the two battle patrols arrived.

The speed is slow, and the airworthiness of the old class is not an opponent at all. Fighting is like using a dreadnought to deal with a dreadnought. Therefore, it only lasted for a few minutes and was sunk on the spot. The Westphalon was also found and sunk by a British destroyer at night. If it hadn't been for Hiffel hadn't arrived with two warcruisers, or The remaining two ships are also finished.

Since the defense was hit by its own people, Bohr in the sky seemed to be watching a series of crashes, one after a huge fire, one after another sinking, without a neat battle line, no unified artillery fire, dozens of capital ships like destroyers fighting, entangling and fighting. .

The whole battlefield is in a mess!

Bohr wanted to shout to remind his partners, but the roaring gunfire below had covered everything, so he had to ask for help and look at the neat central position, hoping that Lieutenant General Scheer could find the problem in time and find a solution.

Scheer didn't know that he was in a mess, but he couldn't leave at all at the moment, because there were four Queen Elizabeth-class battleships and two improved Avenger-class battleships in front of him.

His four Bavarian-class ships are stronger than each other in both protection and firepower, but the opposite Jellico has a speed and quantity advantage, which is another battle that must be fought.

"Boom."

Four Bavarian ships fired the 27th round of volley. The gunners lowered their muzzle while praying. At the same time, the opponent, who was almost 15,000 yards away, began to fight back. Dozens of shells passed through the sky, hitting each other with hope, anger and hatred.

The explosion sounded from the two teams at the same time, and thick smoke came out of the hit warship. Jellico's wounded war-weary, a 380mm armor-piercing shell hit the boiler chamber, and milky high-pressure steam spewed out of the hull, forming a jet stream dozens of meters high.

Scheer's third ship, Baden, was hit by turret B. Although it was not penetrated, the shock wave produced by the explosion still prevented the turret to launch another shell until it left.

At 5:15, the Bavaria fired a key shell, and the 380mm armor-piercing shell hit the Jelico flagship Ramilly. It drilled under the rear chimney deck and entered the power module. The explosion swept through two boiler tanks, and steam and toxic smoke killed everyone nearby in an end.

Scheer clenched his fist excitedly. As long as he sank the flagship, the British mainland fleet might collapse without a fight, but he didn't wait too long to be happy. The Queen Elizabeth accelerated in front of Ramie, blocking the angle of the shelling.

This move made everyone in the command tower sigh. Britain's capital is quantity, 6 to 4 ships. In the case of a small gap, it is impossible to solve it quickly.

"General, I was hit with a scratch and began to sink!"

"Westphalia began to enter the water, and the speed dropped to 16 knots!"

"General, the deck of Regent Louis-Paul began to tilt, asking to abandon the ship!"

A report made Scheer, who had just hoped to defeat Jellico, start to be restless. He did not expect the decisive battle of the big fleet in his dream to develop like this, and the bombardment of the battleship turned into a destroyer strangulation.

More importantly, Jellico dares to pay losses, because he still has enough reserve power in his old nest, but Germany can't afford it. Although the enemy's loss so far is more than twice that of himself because of the sufficient defense design, the British's shelling hit rate is not much lower than their own. If it weren't for their shells. The price will be even greater!

What's more, almost every warship is injured now, and repairing them alone will exhaust Germany's last resources, so if it continues, even if the local fleet is completely annipresented, Germany will face the end of no warships in the next few years!

Break through!

At 5:10, Scheer finally made up his mind to break through, but now the situation is serious. A big turn alone is not enough to buy time. After a trade-off, he made a decision and gave an order: "All destroyers and light cruisers rush to the enemy ships at all costs!

Dozens of small warships rushed into the war circle, immediately making the whole battlefield even more fragmented.

"S sir, Samurai reported that the enemy dispatched a destroyer."

"Command."

"Boom."

Before Jellico's order was finished, a suddenly amplified light in the thick fog in the distance made him unable to say anything. The Tiger-class battlecruiser, which was injured, was hit by a big explosion, and it was the Devlinger. One of his armor-piercing bullets found the British dead hole again!

Looking at the bright fire in the fog, Jellico's heart trembled suddenly, as if he had been splashed with cold water. So far, he has lost nine capital ships, and two of them have also been seriously injured. If he continues to fight, God knows how much he will lose.

What's more, now the other side has dispatched a small warship. In a melee with less than 8,000 yards of visibility on the sea, he has to order the destroyer to attack and intercept and collect the capital ship at the same time.

More than 100 small warships that rushed into the war circle almost at the same time made the sea situation more complicated. Countless torpedoes and shells shuttled with each other, and the explosions and fires were several times more than before.

Boer can't look at it anymore. The thick fog and gunpowder smoke mixed together made him feel as if he had fallen into the night early and had to pull up the fuselage into the bright world above the clouds.

On the sea, the daughters of Odin riding a flying horse and singing war songs on the clouds, holding up the souls of the war dead from the sea and bringing them back to Valhalla. The living still fought on the stage of iron and blood, saying with Jelico's order, "When you can see it, fire on everything you can see."

"Ben Bao, found a gray suspicious ship, 5:40 fire, unable to confirm the results."

"Warrior, fired at DFlinger at 5:41, 6,000 yards away, unable to determine the result."

"Baham, at 5:45, fired at the Caesar-level battle from 12,000 yards, and the other party disappeared quickly."

"The Avengers, 5:44, five starboard 95-degree battleships, two Bavaria, two scratched, and fired at the leading Bavaria. The first shot landed in the distance of the stern, and the second shot was fired near the back deck. It was counterattacked. One shot in the part, and the opponent disappeared."

Listening to a report, Jelico knew that it was too late to intercept, and glanced at the scarred warships that began to approach the flagship, with bitter corners of his mouth.

He made a wonderful start with ten minutes, but was buried by an hour of chaos!

In his later letter to his wife, he wrote: "We rushed over like this and started with a ten-minute sacrifice. Although we paid the price, if it was not in the evening, if the horizon was good rather than blurred, the second Trafalgar would be within reach."

An hour later, Bohr flew back to the Dflinger in a plane that was about to run out of gasoline. When he boarded the armor, he simply didn't look at everything he saw, as if he had gone to hell.

The chimney became a leaky spoon, the turrets were all skewed, the deck was full of broken meat and blood, and the medical room was overcrowded. Many injured were receiving first aid on the deck. The seriously injured were simply injected with a dose of morphine. The medical officer's job was to quickly stop the bleeding and bandage the splint. The gas-poisoning sailors also lifted up from the bottom cabin one by one and breathed. I'm short of time, my skin is pale and I keep vomiting. Some need to do artificial respiration, and some need to be injected with cardiac stimulants. The only few oxygen cylinders will soon run out.

The Moucci in the distance dragged its remnants around the flagship and sailed slowly. Its two chimneys were broken, and the bridge broke a big hole. The flashing arc of the electric spark was clearly visible. The fatal scar came from a large hole near the waterline, and a large amount of water inlet caused the speed to drop to a dangerous level.

On the whole sea, there are returning German capital ships. The destroyers and light cruisers behind them are still doing their best to stop the enemy. Their sacrifices will be greater and greater!

At 2:00 a.m. on May 16, the German high seas fleet finally survived the night and returned to the starting point of departure after the strangulation of the British destroyer. Scheer ordered the flagship to slow down and saw the warships re-enter the Kiel Canal, with an indescribable feeling in his heart.

After looking forward to it for several years, the decisive battle, which had exhausted its national strength, began to end slowly in the chaos filled with thick smoke and explosions.

(to be continued)