Chapter Eighteen Alas, He Does Not Belong to Britain (Three)

  The North Sea seemed to be ablaze, with the thunder of guns all around and the shriek of splinters as they tore through the steel plates on the sides of the turrets.

  A shrill alarm sounded in the intercom, and the tenth salvo of ten 305mm armor-piercing shells whizzed out of the barrel. Even with the main gun using recoil technology and hydraulic shock absorption, young Lance Corporal Lars Bendel, a member of Anton's gun crew, still felt the intense recoil.

  His eardrums throbbed with a dull ache, protected only by the earplugs, and his internal organs felt as if they had been torn apart by the recoil of the main cannon. His eyes were bloodshot and he was having trouble breathing. Bander stifled a groan, fighting to hold back the intense nausea that threatened to overwhelm him, slowing down his breathing as the gunner had taught him, waiting for the intense sensation to pass.

  The initial velocity of the German 305-L50 shell was 855 meters per second, and at a distance of over 16,000 meters, it took more than twenty seconds for the shell to leave the barrel and hit its target. The waiting time for the artillery strike result was most annoying, Private Bender secretly glanced at the expressionless old gunner, and couldn't help but press his eyes close to the narrow observation hole of the turret, but his thoughts strangely flowed back to an hour ago.

  At that time, the High Seas Fleet was in a state of turmoil and ended up colliding head-on with the battle line of the Grand Fleet. The disordered turn, the chaotic counterattack, and the hasty changes made Bendorff feel that it was the most bewildering moment since he joined the navy. Although the High Seas Fleet eventually formed a battle line, turning southeast to open up an angle and offsetting the disadvantage, if not for the desperate charge of the four King-class ships of the Seventh Squadron, and the cover provided by Admiral Heidekampf and his First Reconnaissance Group, perhaps the Imperial Navy would have suffered a major defeat?

  Bender's thoughts involuntarily turned to Heidebrand und das I. Aufkl?rungsgeschwader. In August 1914, war broke out in Europe, Berlin streets were filled with marching troops singing military songs, the bonfires in front of Schloss Charlottenburg finally did not disperse, trains loaded with soldiers headed south at the train station, and Bender, the son of a small citizen, followed the historian and warmonger Treitschke's shouting, rushing into the long queue in front of the naval recruitment office, joining the Imperial Navy without hesitation.

  Three months later, the Dogger Bank Sea Battle that shocked the world had ended. The fleet led by two battlecruisers and one large armored cruiser raided the British Empire's coastline, entangling eight British main battleships, sinking a British super-dreadnought, a new-style battlecruiser, and an old-style battlecruiser of the First Scouting Fleet, becoming the most revered and proud object of the empire. Three months later, Bendler completed his sailor training and faced allocation.

  Bender had hoped to serve under the god of war at sea, joining the illustrious First Reconnaissance Fleet, but things don't always go as planned. Bender was assigned to the Third Battleship Squadron of the High Seas Fleet, and the only consolation for the first-class private was that the Third Battleship Squadron was a newly formed squadron equipped with the latest battleships of the Empire, and he served on the flagship Friedrich der Grosse.

  "Damn it, now that little Cros is finally going to have a chance to mock me!"

  Kleiner Krebs was a neighbor of B?ndel, in the winter of 1914, when new naval recruits were assigned, Kleiner Krebs was transferred to serve on the German cruiser Derfflinger, which was still being fitted out and awaiting final trials at the Schichau shipyard in Danzig Bay.

  After a night of fierce fighting, the First Reconnaissance Fleet sank one new battlecruiser and severely damaged the pride of the British Empire - the HMS Iron Duke, forcing this new fast battleship to withdraw from combat. More than ten minutes ago, new results were confirmed and announced throughout the fleet: The British lost another old-fashioned battleship, with General Heide-Selheim making a name for himself once again.

  Before the Battle of the Summit, Commander-in-Chief Scher announced that the Allies had won a great victory in the distant Mediterranean, the Mudros Bay Raid. The seven-turret sacred object Agincourt finally died at the doorstep of the Muslim world. It seems... this naval battle also has the shadow of General Sylem, commander of the First Reconnaissance Fleet!

  "The First Scout Fleet is still entangled with the Fast Fleet, and Cross has new capital to boast about, damn it! I can only stay in the safe Anton gun tower, continuing the futile shooting!"

  "Frederick the Great, 07:52 hours, salvo on Ajax, full broadside, long range!"

  The 305mm caliber guns of the Tirpitz had an average firing rate of three rounds per minute, and the flight time of the shells was only about twenty seconds. This means that when a new salvo had just cleared the air, another shell had already splashed down on the other side of the British line, thus forming a crossfire. Crossfires are difficult to observe and judge the fall of shot, so it is easy to lead to errors in shooting parameter calculations, but this technical work was not difficult for the meticulous German staff.

  The message from the watchtower came back dull as ever, and after an unbearable silence, the loudspeaker echoed with Frederick the Great's hoarse voice:

  "All turrets, receive new firing parameters and adjust your firing angles!"

  "Are we preparing for the eleventh salvo?" Thinking of the previous nine rounds with no results, Bender couldn't help but furrow his brow.

  The training of the Imperial Navy was quite arduous, basically three days of small exercises and five days of large maneuvers. The novice Bendler went through day after day of artillery training and damage control drills before finally gaining recognition from his comrades, and he also performed outstandingly in the Baltic Sea combat cruise training at the end of February and early March.

  Hundred-mile dashes, crystal-clear waters and white sandy beaches of the Baltic Sea, picturesque Norwegian fjords, and breathtaking 350mm main cannon salvoes. Close combat, night battles, fog battles, and ultra-long-range artillery duels; full turret salvoes, half-battery fire, rapid-fire, planned fire, and scatter shots. High-intensity damage control, emergency evasion, and anti-torpedo drills. Bendel thought he had grasped the entirety of naval warfare, but when following the Grand Fleet, following the flagship Friedrich der Grosse into this unprecedented steam-powered naval battle, privately defined by old gunner Lieutenant Boaten as the "North Sea's Apex Battle", he found his limited experience and meager imagination completely unable to keep up with the actual rhythm.

  Just like the tormenting five-minute full salvo of slow firing, due to the excessive distance of the crossfire, the expected intersecting fire was nowhere in sight. The Anton gun remained lukewarm, adjusting its angle and waiting for the opportunity to rapid-fire. Unlike the scene outside the observation port during the Baltic Sea battle cruise: splashing water, smoke from the propellant blocking out the sun, and a blood-red color!

  "Correcting angle of elevation, azimuth minus three degrees, elevation correction plus one degree, no change in propellant quantity!"

  Gunnery is a skill that requires talent and experience, and in a complete gun crew the gunner is usually the most experienced old hand. In the rapidly changing circumstances of naval warfare he has absolute authority.

  New firing parameters swirled around Lieutenant Boa Ten's ears, and the eyes of the gunner who had been wandering at sea for over a decade suddenly opened wide. His sharp gaze swept across the data transmitter, and his brief but powerful orders pierced through his thick beard and the gas mask that covered his chin, entering everyone's ears.

  Gunner Private Simon operates the electrical direction finder, carefully checking the calibration dial. In Anton's gun crew, Simon is the best educated and most knowledgeable; he was a student of mechanical engineering at Stuttgart University before putting aside his dark civilian suit for another dark one with naval insignia on the sleeve.

  In Bendl's impression, the universities of the empire were always introverted, they never lacked patriotism, but were quite subtle, so subtle that the sons of ordinary citizens dared not approach. However, Bendl did not feel this way about Simon, because he was a Jew, or more precisely, a Jewish German. In Christian countries, the fate of Jews is no better than that of the notorious wandering nation Gypsies, and the evil legend that has been circulating since before the Middle Ages, which explains why Jesus was nailed to the cross, always raises questions about the cunning, treachery and betrayal of Jews.

  "Will Simon come?"

  The answer is clear. Bündel's most revered general, Heide-S?ilm, has said more than once that as long as one lives on this beautiful German soil, takes up arms and fights alongside the so-called Franks, Saxons, Swabians and Bavarians, he is a German! Simon wears the uniform of the Imperial Navy, he has sworn allegiance to the Emperor, he fights alongside us, he is a German!

  The electrically powered hydraulic winch began to make fine adjustments, and through the thick arm, Simon felt the bearing's trembling engagement. The first soldier let out a breath, and a faint smile of satisfaction flashed across his pale face as he winked at Bender:

  "Got it!"

  The electric cannon sight indicator light did not come on, and it was not yet time for Bender to perform. Suddenly, the internal loudspeaker of the turret transmitted the stiff voice of Claire, the chief of the lower ammunition chamber under the Anton turret.

  "Gunner, loader, loading complete!"

  Gunnery Sergeant Claire was an old-timer, having joined the Navy even before Gunner. Claire was incredibly powerful and could recite the firing tables for the Empire's 280mm, 305mm, and 350mm main cannons from memory. Bender never doubted this because he had personally seen Claire use a string of detailed data to thoroughly defeat new recruits from the Doran artillery without using a penetration table.

  However, although Claire has super strong business skills, Bandler still thinks that Claire resembles the vampire image fabricated by European medieval church pastors, just like his black pupils, white face, silence and conservative personality.

  "Gun commander, depression angle minus three degrees, elevation angle plus one degree, correction completed!"

  Simon repeated the order given by Captain Boaden earlier, it was a naval custom, repeating orders could avoid unnecessary mistakes, and precise battleship warfare refused to make mistakes!

  The cannon's sharp gaze turned over and stayed on the face of Private Qingshan.

  Although the main force ships of the empire have a full-ship fire control command tower, which can accurately calculate shooting parameters based on data from rangefinders, position disks and bottom measurement instruments, the fire control command tower does not have equipment similar to the British electrical central aiming and automatic firing. In naval battles, gunnery officers manually input shooting data, which is then fed back to each turret through precise electrical transmission devices. When the turret is ready to fire, the gunner presses an electric button, at which point the firing indicator lights and bells in front of each main gun commander work simultaneously, and the only thing the commander has to do is get the shells out of the barrel as quickly as possible while considering the ship's roll cycle.

  The breech mechanism feeds the heavy armor-piercing shell into the left gun chamber. After the cannon is automatically locked, the indicator light finally lights up.

  "Fire the Anton cannon!"

  The muffled sound rose again, the turret fell silent, the sailors in the underwater ammunition depot and the firing chamber were busy handling the separate armor-piercing shells, Bander was busy checking the service condition of the breech and barrel, and the sailors silently started a new round of artillery preparation work.

  It's been more than twenty seconds since the last armor-piercing shell was fired, right? The sense of rhythm wouldn't be wrong, but Benda still had a frozen illusion of time, the pointer seemed to have walked for several centuries, and when he looked up, he was surprised to find that there were still several centuries ahead!

  "Oh God, we've got a straddle! Friedrich der Grosse, 7:52 against Ajax, full broadside from the main guns, straddle! One armor-piercing shell has penetrated the rear of Ajax's number one funnel and another has hit the bow of Ajax!"

  The suffocating and depressing feeling vanished instantly, the lookout's voice was like a century storm, piercing through the 350mm thick armor of the Anton cannon tower, shocking the eardrums of the gunners. The German Navy, which had been staggering with heavy thoughts just a second ago, finally regained its youthful color.

  "Comrades, the opportunity has come! We must swing our fists and fire a few rounds quickly to keep the British devils' planes from taking off!" Lieutenant Boa Ten, the battery commander who had been suffering greatly for a long time, finally cracked a smile, clapped his hands, and his eyes were filled with fervor and bloodlust.

  "It's tough but I like this feeling!"

  The daze disappeared, the discomfort of the powerful recoil of the 305 cannon disappeared. This is *** the era of hot blood, Bandler clenched his fists tightly.

  At 7:52, the disorganized Grand Fleet finally got a result. The pre-war visit to Germany's Kiel military port, promised to be peaceful for generations, the Ajax-class battleship was subjected to a terrible crossfire. In the following three minutes, a total of six 305mm armor-piercing shells hit this super-dreadnought, the bow waterline belt, midship horizontal armor and upper armor belt of the Ajax were continuously penetrated, and the hull took on a large amount of water.

  The King George V-class battleships retained the Orion-class's 12-inch (305 mm) waterline belt and 11-inch (280 mm) turret face armour thickness, but made some changes in their protective design: the hull strength was increased, forming a continuous protected area from the forward A turret to the aft Y turret.

  However, the true extent of the flaws in the British dreadnoughts and super-dreadnoughts was revealed in an accident in November 1914. Audacious, the third sister of Ajax, struck a mine off the north coast of Scotland and sank. The poor state of the watertight subdivision and damage control measures on British battleships was thus exposed.

  At 7:56, after a period of incubation following the disaster experience, an armor-piercing shell finally hit Ajax's waterline belt main armor.

  Just as with the battlecruisers, the British raised the waterline belt of main armour by one deck to just over a metre above the loaded waterline in the "343 battleship".

  In fact, without the blessing of holy light and magic, it was not easy for that 12-inch armor-piercing shell to find a narrow waterline belt on the main armor in the midst of the crowd. However, the German armor-piercing shell failed to continue the miracle, missing the thickest 12-inch part of the waterline belt by three meters and piercing the 10-inch armor belt instead.

  The armor-piercing shell blasted a two-meter diameter hole at the waterline position of Ajax, and at this time, Ajax had taken in more than 2,000 tons of water. The bow was heavily submerged in seawater, and the foredeck was only two meters away from the sea surface. Flooding to balance was no longer effective, and after struggling for five minutes, the captain had to order the crew to abandon ship.

  At 08:01, the destroyer Ruby fired three torpedoes at Ajax, which exploded violently and sent the ￡1.89 million (13.8 tons of gold) steel giant to the bottom of the Skagerrak Strait.

  At 7:56, it was not just the Friedrich der Grosse that scored a hit. At the far end of the battle line, where the combat distance was less than 15,200 meters, the second squadron's fourth division, consisting of the Hannover and Schlesien, were beaten back by the British Invincible, Bellerophon, and Magnificent, symbolizing the bitter end of the pre-dreadnought era; the explosion that occurred after the turret top armor of the Bellerophon-class battleship was penetrated foreshadowed the revelation of the truth in a compromising manner, ending the eight-year-long competition for the world's number one dreadnought.