Chapter 15: Germany, Germany! (2)

  The Dougal Sea Battle is written quite roughly, and I've made up for a lot of naval knowledge. I'm determined to lean slightly towards technical writing, but I don't know if this attempt will work?

  Wang Haitie made no attempt to conceal his intention of cutting the T, and the five cruisers sheered out at an angle, racing to overtake the enemy's first cruiser squadron.

  Even without the benefit of hindsight, Beatty would not have underestimated the survivability of German capital ships. A 21,000-yard range for a gunnery duel was still too early, and even if it had begun, the First Battlecruiser Squadron would not have gained any advantage, so he accelerated the fast squadron to its maximum speed and brutally ordered the approach of the First Scout Squadron, regardless of making a contemptuous close-quarters melee attitude that the Germans despised.

  Charge to the death? Now is not the era of the Battle of Jutland, and the close-range battles of Dogger Bank are almost impossible to replicate. The Germans have absolute confidence that they can send the British ships with a draft of only 9 inches (229 mm) to the bottom of the North Sea from 9 kilometers away!

  At 5:51, the two fleets closed to within 18,000 yards of each other, and despite poor visibility, sailors on both sides could clearly make out the muzzles of the main armament of their opponents' capital ships.

  "Do the British want to tie us up?" As the only opponent of the German Navy's war god, Beatty was not easy to deal with, but apart from the stunning appearance of the Japanese-German fleet in the North Sea, Beatty's tactical movements before the battle were all clumsy. Chief of Staff von Ingenohl held a rough sketch of the two fleets' courses in his hand and couldn't figure it out: "Just because of those two slow Queen-class ships?"

  The ominous premonition before the war came flooding in, conflicting with the eagerness to make a big splash in Jutland after just shaking off the conservative faction within Germany. The desire for a glorious final battle to end the North Sea naval warfare was at odds with the hesitation of the normally decisive Admiral Scheer. The British couldn't afford to lose, nor could the Germans; and even less so could the sailors who followed him or vouched for him.

  At 5:51 pm, the lookout in the spotting top of the Lion saw smoke and flame belching from the muzzles of the guns of the German battlecruiser Lützow.

  "Commander's tower, the British are starting to test-fire!" Blautz hastily grabbed the receiver and reported to the commander's tower.

  The trial shot was the prelude to a great sea battle, and German sailors almost saw British sailors eager to try, with a shell sent by a catapult filled with armor-piercing shells into the gun barrel, the barrel raised to its maximum elevation angle, maliciously pointing at them. The well-trained gunner cursed, drew a cross in the direction of the German mainland, put away photos of family or lovers in the deepest part of their military uniform, bent down to pick up the gun sight; medical soldiers carefully poked their heads out of their cabin, trying to keep the last tranquility in their hearts, taking a deep breath and waiting for the blood and fire of the German army.

  A deafening roar, the first 343mm capped armor-piercing shell hurtled towards the sea between Lützow and Derfflinger, startling a few seagulls. The logistics soldiers in the warship's canteen, the engine room personnel in the bottom hold, and the telegraph operators protected by the armored belt all felt the tremors from the sea, so they knew that the highest honor of a soldier was about to arrive, with only General Heidekampf's counterattack order awaited!

  "First Scout Fleet, counterattack!" Now that the British have opened fire, all speculation and gloom can be set aside for the time being! Wang Haitian pointed to the flagship of the First Battlecruiser Squadron, which was proudly called "Perfect Cat" by the British - the Lion-class battlecruiser, and with an icy tone, opened the door to slaughter.

  On the rangefinder turret of the Lützow's command tower, Lieutenant Korf carefully manipulated the rangefinder drum, moving the diamond-shaped light marker back and forth in the viewfinder.

  The German rangefinder was called "stereoscopic", and its working principle was mainly through the lens group on both sides of the rangefinder. The reflection mirror system similar to the horizontal periscope made the target image in the left eyepiece in the middle of the rangefinder. The rangefinder personnel observed with both eyes separately through the left and right eyepieces, and when the diamond-shaped light mark on the rangefinder eyepiece coincided with the target's shadow, the scale plate connected to the rangefinder wheel could directly read out the converted distance value.

  "Hold on target!" The diamond-shaped reticle in the rangefinder's eyepiece merged with the image of the target, and a hint of a smile finally appeared on Cody's tense face as he grasped the ranging dial to report to the fire control officer.

  The rangefinder director grasped the telephone handset used inside the warship, confirmed the value on the rangefinder's dial plate, and reported to the command tower and main gun director tower along with the angle of the enemy fleet measured by the positioner beforehand. "Target Lion, distance 18000 yards, error 300 yards; angle 91 degrees, error 0.12 degrees."

  Unlike the British central fire control systems, which were already beginning to use ballistic computers - such as the Pollen and Dreyer systems, the German full-ship fire direction system still used manual calculations: data from the rangefinder turrets and reports of ship speed from the vessel's bottom meter were rapidly fed back into the full-ship fire control system. Staff members manually input all range values into a distance averaging instrument to obtain an average range value, then entered this average range along with the period of roll, wind direction, etc., into the shooting disc to calculate firing solutions. After complex calculations, firing parameters were transmitted via telephone systems to each main gun.

  The turret captains, after receiving the firing data from the command tower, manipulate the electrically driven hoist to adjust the shooting angle and elevation of the main gun turret weighing hundreds of tons. The ammunition loading room below the turret loads the amount of propellant according to the distance of the enemy ship. After completing the preparation for the main gun firing, the turret captain sends a message back to the fire control center and waits for the order from the ship's gunnery officer.

  Although the main gun is usually fired by a small electric button, it does not detract from the charm of artillery. At a distance of over 10,000 meters, the hit rate of the main gun can only be described as pathetic, so cross-fire became the mainstream form of warship battles in the era of dreadnoughts. The so-called cross-fire refers to the fact that when the main gun is fired, the shooting command post at the top of the bridge observes the scattered area of the shell's impact point and continuously corrects the aiming direction of the main gun until the shells can cover both sides of the target ship simultaneously.

  The Lev Tov's alarm blared again, tearing the air apart as sailors on deck scrambled to get off or stood with their mouths agape, clutching anything that could hold them in place, standing on tiptoes waiting for the most glorious moment of a sailor.

  At 17:54, the last ray of sunset helplessly sank into the other end of the sea level, and only the afterglow scattered by the air was left on the western horizon. The flagship of the First Reconnaissance Fleet, Levsoff, fired first, with a sudden contraction of the air near the muzzle of the 350mm main gun, followed by an explosion of orange-yellow flames, and the half-ton shell flew towards the First Battle Cruiser Squadron like a stream of fire.

  Apart from the command tower and rangefinder, other sailors could not directly know the process and outcome of the sea battle they participated in. Compared to the command tower and rangefinder, the lookout on the mainmast was closer to their colleagues. In the telescope tube, a high splash of water appeared about 500 yards to the left front of the Lion-class battlecruiser, like small white flowers blooming on the warm yellow sea surface at a distance of 10,000 yards.

  "Command tower, updating parameters, distance 18100 yards, azimuth 91.1 degrees!" The rangefinder feeds the latest data back to the fire control command tower, a new round of trajectory and firing calculations is underway, and the brutal Battle of Jutland finally begins!

  The order "First Scout Fleet, open fire in sequence" was transmitted by signal flags, lantern signals and wireless telegraphy. The command tower of the Levizof, the heart of the fleet, was a flurry of activity, with charts on the long table covered in dense annotations and data, while new data continued to pour in.

  "Commander, there's some intelligence you need to take a look at..." Lieutenant General Leventsov was holding a telegram sent from the destroyer V-117, and he looked slightly shaken.

  "Have the two Queen-class fast battleships been found?" Wang Haitian stood at the corner of the command tower, his right hand holding a cup with warm water, and asked calmly before tilting her head back to swallow several sedatives.

  "Not yet!" Levitt glanced around cautiously and whispered in a low voice: "There are still three Indefatigable-class battlecruisers!"

  "Five fast battleships?" The water cup at her lips paused for a moment, then returned to the parched mouth two or three seconds later. After drinking half a cup of water, she discreetly put the pillbox back in her pocket, and only then did Wang Haitian have the energy to respond to the panicked deputy commander. "Alright, Deputy Commander, although it's a bit troublesome, we haven't reached the point of exhaustion yet, I'm sure we're still on the road to glory!"