The German fleet, under the command of the rear admiral, began to speed up and quickly sailed to the battlefield.
On the other side, the Leibercht and the George were struggling to hold on under the powerful artillery fire of the French fleet.
"Turn a third of the rudder to the left, point all the guns to the right string, aim at the French destroyer with string number 144 in our direction at three o'clock, and the A turret is a single test fire!" Helmut directed the destroyer to turn at high speed to avoid enemy fire, calmly looking for an opportunity to fire.
The order was transmitted to the firing command room, and the officers inside quickly obtained the firing elements through the shooting director, and then transmitted the shooting elements to the various turrets to complete the aiming.
"Boom!" The A turret, after completing its aiming, fired a shell at the target.
Helmut observed the trajectory and impact point of the shell with a telescope.
The shell, after a short flight, did not hit the target, it landed in the sea several tens of meters from the target.
"Corrected shooting Zhuyuan, salvo ready!" Helmut ordered.
"Shooting Zhuyuan is corrected!" A response was quickly heard from the firing command room.
"Fire!"
Smoke erupted from the muzzles of the five main guns of the George, and five armor-piercing shells flew towards their targets at a speed of 1000 m / s.
Helmut raised the telescope again and watched nervously at the trajectory of the shell.
These five finally lived up to the expectations of the entire ship, and two of them achieved results. One was a water bullet that hit the rudder of the French destroyer, while the other made a direct hit, which pierced the broadside armor of the French destroyer, penetrated directly into the power compartment and exploded.
Helmut clearly saw in the telescope that after the French destroyer was hit, the normally smoking chimney suddenly spewed a fire, and then the destroyer began to gradually slow down, and finally stopped.
"Shoot beautifully!" Helmut put down his binoculars and excitedly shouted, "We destroyed their power chamber!" "
"Fantastic!"
"Who fired this damn shell? I'm going to treat him to a drink when I get back! Not only Helmut, but almost the entire ship's officers and men were cheering for this fatal blow.
"Torpedo ready! Aim for the unpowered No. 144 ship and let's give him a ride at the end! Helmut ordered happily.
"Torpedo aimed!"
"Three salvos from torpedo launcher No. 1! Let the damned Frenchmen go to the sea to feed the fish! "
"Tom! Tong! Tong! After three muffled sounds, three powerful 610mm torpedoes were pushed into the sea by compressed air and sailed towards the unpowered French destroyer 144.
The destroyer No. 144 seemed to understand what its fate would be, and after the officers and men on the ship failed to repair the power room, they chose to abandon the ship under the order of the captain and left their battleship on a life raft.
A few minutes later, three G/7A torpedoes hit the destroyer No. 144, and the powerful explosion blasted the entire destroyer to pieces, throwing it several meters high.
Watching the destroyer No. 144 disappear into the sea, the officers and men of the George cheered again, but before their cheering stopped, they stopped to see the warning sailors shouting on the ship's radio: "Attention all personnel!" At 1 o'clock, artillery fire is coming! "
The sailors hurriedly grabbed the handrails around them, nervously waiting for the shells to fall.
Inside the bridge, Helmut nervously looked at the ten orange bright spots flying towards him in the distance, and he had ordered the warship to do emergency maneuver evasion, but the shell flight time was too short, and the evasion might not be effective.
However, the flight time of a few seconds seems unusually long at this moment. Finally, the shell reached the position of the George, but did not hit the George, but flew over the George's head and flew to the rear.
This French artillery skills are not so bad, right? Helmut thought to himself.
"Boom! Rumble! Rumble! Several violent explosions came from the rear of the George, and Helmut was so anxious that he quickly pushed open the hatch of the bridge and ran outside the bridge to look back.
"Captain!" An officer stared blankly at the scene behind, "The Leibercht is finished." "
A few hundred meters behind the George, the destroyer Leibercht, which had been firing, was breaking into two at this moment and sinking slowly.
It turned out that the target of those dozen shells fired from the French cruiser was not the George,but the destroyer Leibercht, which has been following behind the George! Lady Luck did not take the German side this time, half of the more than ten high-explosive shells directly hit the Leiberacht, and one shot hit the Leiberocht's torpedo launcher, causing the three G/7A torpedoes in the standby state to explode violently, directly blowing the Leiberacht from the middle.
"No, no." Helmut shook his head, unable to believe what was happening in front of him, and shouted hoarsely, "Left full rudder!" We have to go back and save people! "
"Captain, calm down! If we go back to save people now, we will be finished! The first mate grabbed Helmut's hand and exhorted loudly.
"What then? Let the survivors freeze to death in the seawater? Helmut said with red eyes.
"Drop our lifeboats and send sailors over to save people." The first mate looked directly at Helmut, "Captain, I know that Commander Carl is your brother, but we are now on the battlefield, what we should do is to avenge the dead brother!" "
Helmut froze, then squatted on the ground and cried: "Carl is my best friend, we both grew up together, how should I face his parents when I go back?" "
"I understand, Captain, I understand." The first mate patted Helmut on the shoulder, "Damn Frenchmen killed our brothers, we must not let them just run away!"
Helmut tried to stabilize his emotions for a moment, then stood up and returned to the bridge, reporting by radio to the fleet flagship Königsberg: "Rear Admiral, the Leibercht Maji is sunk, and the Georg Thiele will continue to fight!" "
There was silence on the other end of the radio for a while, and then the voice of the rear admiral passed: "We see, please hold on, the fleet will arrive at your position in a few minutes." "
Helmut glanced at the right string, and in that direction he could already faintly see the silhouettes of 5 warships.
"Reduce the speed to 15 knots, lower the lifeboat and rescue the survivors of the Leiberacht." Helmut slammed the wireless phone receiver in his hand on the table.
"The lifeboat was lowered smoothly." The herald said.
"Correct course! Right third rudder, target the French fleet, assault at full speed! Helmut gritted his teeth and said, "The bow artillery fires at will!" I'm going to make the French bastard pay! "
The George, under the command of Helmut, once again sailed at full speed, the bow of the ship cut through the icy Atlantic waters, pointing directly at the French fleet!
"Damn it! The Germans are crazy? The commander of the French fleet shouted incredulously, "One destroyer dares to charge one of our fleets?" "
"Commander!" A French officer holding a telescope said, "At 10 o'clock I found the German fleet with two new cruisers that we had never seen before."
The French commander thought carefully and said: "Just with our old cruisers, we may not be able to beat the new cruisers of the Germans. Order the fleet to fan out torpedoes, block the mad dog behind, and we retreat! "
"Captain, torpedoes were found ahead." A sailor in charge of observation reported to Helmut, "The Frenchman ran away!" "
"Damn it!" Helmut hammered the table fiercely, "Urgently evade the torpedo and give up the pursuit!"