Chapter 2245 Hipper’s Efforts 3
However, maybe God thought that Hipper had not endured enough disasters in this battle. Shortly after the Hipper fleet bit the Duff fleet, two huge figures appeared on the side and rear of the Hipper fleet. Unfortunately, the St. Vincent The battleship and the battleship Vanguard have completed their rest. Although the speed is still not high enough to catch up with the Duff fleet in a short time, they can already pose a threat to the Hipper fleet. From the situation, the situation is like this. In the end In front is the Duff fleet, behind is the Hipper fleet, and behind the Hipper fleet are two British dreadnoughts. Unlucky Hipper was caught in the attack.
"Let Helgoland and Oldenburg deal with the British dreadnoughts behind them. Damn it, if they were in better condition, those guys would have sunk to the bottom of the sea long ago," Hipper ordered with a livid face. And soon, something even more troublesome for Hipper happened. The intelligence sent by the seaplane just now revealed that the four British super-dreadnoughts commanded by Duff had broken away from the dreadnoughts and began to move quickly towards the Thomas fleet. Now, there are additional The British fleet, which acquired two battleships, finally had enough troops to contain its opponents while allowing Duff to support the main fleet.
That's right, when Duff issued this order, the four dreadnoughts were actually abandoned. No matter how bad the condition of Hipper's fleet is, it cannot be stopped by four dilapidated Dreadnoughts. But what does it matter? The four most powerful super Dreadnoughts among the remaining forces of the Grand Fleet can return to the battle, and this will have a great impact on the battle situation on the front line. has a very significant impact on
As for whether these dreadnoughts can be abandoned to intercept Vice Admiral Duff's super-dreadnought, let's not talk about whether they can successfully get rid of the enemies in front and behind. Even if Hipper really stops Duff's fleet through a series of maneuvers, so what? Duff can do it. Leave 3 super-dreadnoughts to hold Hipper back, and then let the remaining 5 warships support the main battlefield.
Therefore, in Hipper's view, the current situation is close to a dead end. It seems that no matter how he operates, he cannot stop the eight British warships.
"I never thought that I would encounter such a difficult problem when we already have the advantage. It seems that my future king will also make miscalculations." Looking at the Duff fleet in the distance, which has begun to break away. , Hipper couldn't help but smile bitterly. Originally, Hipper believed that facing the Thomas fleet at the beginning of the battle was the worst situation, so Ruprecht arranged for him a lot of life-saving things, such as new camouflage and armor as cannon fodder. Detachment of cruisers, destroyers and smoke. Although the final result was heavy losses, Hipper persevered after all. The most important thing is that he completed the task.
However, what he didn't expect was that after getting through the most dangerous stage of the plan, Hipper would still encounter such a difficult thing. The British fleet that needed to be intercepted was twice as many as his own. This was no longer able to use the performance and tactics of battleships. It's smoothed
"Order, the Goeben and the flagship break away from the formation to intercept Duff's super-dauntless, and the two Helgoland-class battleships drag the British's dreadnought," Hipper said decisively.
"General, it is very likely that we will be unable to defeat both sides," an officer said in shock.
"Our life or death is not important. What is important is that we cannot let them join Thomas. Our task is to delay and sacrifice. This is our mission, responsibility and honor," Hipper said.
After notifying the two Helgoland-class battleships behind them of the order via semaphore, the two remaining German battlecruisers began to accelerate and fed a large amount of coal into the boiler. The temperature in the boiler began to rise. When it reached a critical value , the fuel injector located at the top of the boiler begins to spray heavy oil. During the falling process, the heavy oil completes gasification and ignites a large amount of softened water into high-temperature and high-pressure water vapor, which is then sent to the steam turbine.
The steam engine produced in Bremen began to drive the propeller wildly.
At 24, 25, and 26 knots, the two German battlecruisers rushed towards their opponents at a speed exceeding the DAF fleet's super-dreadnought by at least 6 knots. and aimed its guns at the King George V at the rear of the British fleet.
"Boom" Another explosion from the rear of the team aroused Lieutenant General Duff's alert. He looked angrily at the ghost-like guy behind him. When he turned his head, he happened to see the hull of the King George V. A dazzling fire broke out, and needless to say, the battleship was hit again
The shells fired alternately by the two German battlecruisers successfully covered the British super-dreadnought at the rear of the team. Even though both sides were traveling at high speed, the Goeben still formed a straddle in the seventh salvo, and in The ninth salvo hit first, and then the Seydlitz hit the poor battleship again in the eleventh salvo.
Due to their location, both 350 shells hit the stern of the King George V. One of the shells successfully penetrated the stern armor belt and damaged the battleship's drive shaft. The waves were disturbing. After the metal broke and vibrated, the British had to shut down the power system of the drive shaft.
The other shell was even more deadly. This shell entered the water 20 meters away from the British warship, and traveled 25 meters through the water like a torpedo. It hit less than 5 meters away from the No. 4 turret at the rear. With a loud noise, the entire rear of the hull seemed to jump. The vibration and impact caused by the explosion directly tore a gap at the bottom of the No. 4 turret ammunition depot, and flames Little by little, it spread to the ammunition depot. In desperation, the British could only choose to add more tons of water to the warship to ensure temporary safety.
The water injection of the ammunition depot only made the King George V no longer in danger, but the shell that exploded almost close to the bottom of the ship also caused other damage to the British super-dreadnought. The side of the hull was torn open near the bottom of the ship. A hole of 6 square meters was opened, and thousands of tons of seawater poured into the hull under the pressure. The stern of the King George V, which did not adopt a subdivided compartment design, began to sink rapidly, regardless of whether the British used water pumps. , blockage, or other methods could not block such a huge scar located so low. The hull gradually sank, and the bow gradually tilted up. Even in the rangefinder, it could be clearly observed that the battleship had suffered a serious accident. Tail tilt
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