Battle of Jutland, Battle of the Cruisers

After the British heavy cruiser detachment successfully led the German heavy cruise formation to the vicinity of its own battleship formation, it immediately changed its previous appearance of fleeing at full speed, turned around and rushed to the German fleet closely behind, and entangled with them to prevent the German fleet from seeing Unlucky to escape.

However, the German fleet did not want to escape at all, and they also wanted to entangle the British fleet and wait for the support of their own naval aviation.

Therefore, when the British fleet "aggressively" turned around and went back to chase the fled Jianguo Fleet, the German fleet met them even more fiercely than them.

A scuffle inevitably ensues.

However, it was said to be a melee, but in fact, the scene was a little chaotic, and the battle situation was still one-sided to the German fleet.

First of all, the British heavy cruiser formation occupies an absolute disadvantage in quantity (7 to 14), and secondly, it is far less than the German fleet in terms of quality.

The most combat-effective British heavy cruisers are the three London-class ships. The Shropshire, which was the latest in service, was launched in the second half of 1929 and belongs to the treaty-type heavy cruisers.

In terms of armament, the London-class is equipped with 4 double-mounted 204mm main guns, but except for the London, the remaining three have a turret removed before the war to install more anti-aircraft guns, that is to say, the remaining The main battery firepower of the three London-class heavy cruisers was only three-quarters of the previous London.

On the other hand, the German fleet, the weakest among them is the Admiral Hipper-class heavy cruiser, which belongs to the same treaty heavy cruiser as the London-class, but even if it is the weakest on the German side, it still has three triples with a total of nine doors. The 203mm artillery completely crushed the London-class three double-mounted six 204mm artillery in terms of firepower projection.

Moreover, in the German fleet, there are only four "weakest" Hipper-class treaty heavy cruisers, and the remaining ten heavy cruisers are "monsters" with a displacement of more than 15,000 tons and equipped with four triple-mounted 12 203mm artillery pieces. .

Therefore, when the quality and quantity were both at a disadvantage, the British fleet was stubbornly suppressed by the German fleet at the beginning of the battle.

"The Hindenburg calls the Loon!" Bastian took the microphone and called to the Loon, which was beating the British heavy cruiser Shropshire 8 kilometers away, "I need you to join me in the gathering. The heavy cruiser Kent, repeat, I need you to focus the heavy cruiser Kent with me!"

"zzz..." After a burst of electric current, Captain Loen's thick baritone voice came over from the radio, "Understood sir, focus on the heavy cruiser Kent."

Half a minute later, the heavy cruiser Loon pulled out of the battle with the Shropshire, and the four triple-mounted main guns and the Hindenburg slowly turned towards the heavy cruiser Blücher. The heavy cruiser USS Kent.

After a burst of artillery fire, 24 203mm shells were fired at the Kent from two directions, splashing countless water beside it.

Only then did the Kent realize that it was being focused on fire, and hurriedly dropped the Blücher, which had already been hit by several shells, and turned the bow to speed up to escape the battlefield.

And how could the Hindenburg and the Loon just sit and watch the fat slip away?

"Ballistic calibration! Ballistic calibration!" the firing commander of the heavy cruiser Hindenburg shouted loudly, "Cannonball reload! Reloaded! Fire!"

There was another burst of gunfire, and 33 hooded armor-piercing rounds flew towards the fleeing Kent. This time, Lady Luck was not on the British side.

Of the 33 armor-piercing rounds, 17 were directly hit, two of which hit the power compartment, and one hit the main ammunition depot under the No. 2 turret of Kent and caused a martyrdom.

The violent explosion directly folded the Kent into two sections and quickly sank into the water. None of the more than 900 officers and soldiers on the ship survived.

"The Kent was wrecked! Focus on the Kent-class Berwick!" Bastian's face was full of revenge pleasure as he watched the Kent sink into two sections.

"Understood, target Berwick!" The captains of the Blücher and the Loen agreed at the same time, and then turned the still smoking muzzles to the two heavy ships in Germany not far away. The Berwick, which was struggling to be supported, was attacked by the patrol.

After several rounds of salvos, the Berwick, like the Kent one step ahead, turned into two pieces and sank to the bottom.

After quickly sinking two Kent-class heavy cruisers, British battleship formations finally brought German heavy cruisers into their range.

After several rounds of test firing, HMS Nelson, the flagship of the British battleship formation, successfully straddled Blücher.

"Blücher, the right rudder is off the current course!" Seeing a few water columns rising from both sides of the Blücher, Basti became nervous, and he quickly picked up the microphone and ordered to the Blücher .

"Understood, the full right rudder cuts out the current course!" The captain of the Blücher was also a little panicked. You must know that it was the battleship Nelson, one of the "Big Seven" battleships, that formed a stride against them!

While Blücher was busy evading with full right rudder, Nelson reloaded and fired a salvo from Blücher.

After a deafening sound of gunfire, nine 406mm armor-piercing shells roared across the sky, three of which accurately hit the turning heavy cruiser Blücher.

Nelson's 406mm shell weighs 957kg and has a muzzle velocity of 790 meters per second, which is a standard low-speed light projectile.

Although the low-speed light projectile will have insufficient penetration when facing heavy armored targets, the Blücher is obviously not a heavy armored target, so these three 406mm shells easily penetrated the main armor of the Blücher. belt, an explosion occurred in the core area of ​​the Blücher.

After the three explosions, three large holes appeared in the hull of the Blücher. The icy seawater quickly poured into the ship through the three large holes, and the speed was also quickly reduced from 33 knots to 7 knots.

Fortunately, none of the three 406mm shells hit the ammunition depot, so although the Blücher was dead, it did not break into two pieces and sink as quickly as the Kent, and the crew had sufficient time to abandon the ship to escape. .

After seeing the Blücher being taken away in one round, the remaining German heavy cruisers gave up the British heavy cruiser fat that was about to eat their mouths, and began to swerve to avoid the British battleship's aiming.

However, for the German heavy cruiser formation, the challenge has just begun.

Just as the German heavy cruisers flexibly avoided the cannons of the British battleships, there was a loud roar of engines in the sky, as if countless flies were flying together.

On the bridge of the Hindenburg, Bastian, who was originally busy commanding the fleet, was attracted by the noisy engine sound. He heard the sound and looked in the direction of the sound coming from the sky.

Dense planes!

It's a pity that those are not the German naval aviation that Bastian and others have been looking forward to, but the British carrier aircraft.

"Damn it! British carrier aircraft! Fleet air defense preparations!"