Scheer, the commander-in-chief of the German Imperial Fleet, did not hesitate at all, but decisively ordered the ships to turn to starboard. To read the latest chapter of this book, please go to Baidu search: 1Novel.com
According to this order, all ships of the German Empire reversed course with full rudder, made a 180-degree turn, and withdrew from the battle sequence.
Since the route to the German Empire's home base was cut off by the opponent's vanguard fleet, the German Empire's main fleet had to sail southwest. This meant that the farther the German Empire's fleet ran, the farther away it was from the home base in the southeast.
The Commander of the German Empire Fleet, seeing that Commander John Bull Empire Fleet did not pursue the pursuit, judged that the other party must have deployed the main fleet of the John Bull Empire to the return route of the German Empire. This was more terrifying than the pursuit.
Therefore, the commander of the German Imperial Fleet decided to turn around and fight back while the John Bull Imperial Fleet was changing formation, break through from the rear of the opponent's main fleet, break the John Bull Imperial Fleet's blockade, and fight their way back to the base.
After some thought, the commander of the German Imperial Fleet once again issued an order to turn the entire fleet. He wanted to fight back and fight with the opponent again.
Just after 19:00 in the evening, the German Empire's main fleet appeared on the port side of the Hanniu Empire's main fleet.
Unfortunately, due to the calculation error of the staff, the German Empire's main fleet did not rush towards the rear of the John Bull Empire's main fleet, but directly crashed into the center of the opponent's main fleet. Once again, a confrontation with the John Bull Empire was formed on the battlefield.
Fleet, favorable "t" line combat posture.
The main fleet of the German Empire was once again facing away from the sunset, and its outline was clearly visible. However, its own fleet was still hidden in the smoke. The John Bull Imperial battleship fired at a distance of 7,300 meters, and the German Imperial battleship could not see the John Bull Emperor.
The ** ship only saw the flash of its muzzle in the distance.
Seeing that the fleet was once again in a critical situation, the commander of the German Imperial Fleet immediately ordered the use of smoke screens and torpedoes, and ordered the battlecruisers of the decoy fleet to make a death charge to cover the main force's retreat.
Under the cover of smoke screen and decoy fleet, the main fleet of the German Empire once again escaped from danger.
When the last batch of ships rushed out from the chaos, the flagship of the decoy fleet, which had repeatedly made military exploits, was riddled with holes and could not continue sailing. It was forced to abandon the ship and sink it. On another battlecruiser, the decoy fleet was raised
Flagship command flag.
At 20 o'clock, it was getting dark. Commander John Bull Fleet was worried about being attacked by torpedoes and mines from the German Empire. He did not pursue it. He planned to block the main fleet of the German Empire on the route back to its home base.
Outside, wait until dawn before annihilating them in one fell swoop.
In his words: "It will be a wonderful day for the Royal Navy!" The commander of the German Imperial Fleet also understood that if his fleet failed to break out of the siege at night, it would be impossible for the fleet to return after dawn.
There is nothing left.
After careful analysis and calculation, the commander of the German Imperial Fleet decided to turn southeast and rush through the rear of the opponent's fleet at night. Then he returned to the base via the Horn Reef Channel. To this end, he sent all available destroyers out to intercept John Bull Emperor.
**The main fleet covers the breakout of our own fleet.
According to his order, the destroyers of the German Empire fought desperately, like a pack of wolves, attacking John Bull's main fleet from different directions, causing confusion and misjudgment to the John Bull fleet, making the other party unclear about which direction its own fleet was.
At 23:30, the main fleet encountered the destroyer acting as rearguard of the John Bull Imperial Fleet, thus enacting the final scene of the Battle of Jutland.
The two sides used flares, searchlights, and the firelight of the ships to engage in aimless shooting and collisions.
During the night battle, a battlecruiser of the John Bull Empire mistakenly thought that several huge black figures approaching it were friendly ships, so it sent out a contact signal. However, it attracted a salvo of fire from four German Imperial battleships. This John Bull Empire battlecruiser
The Bull Empire battlecruiser immediately turned into a ball of fire….
An old battleship and two new light cruisers of the German Empire were sunk by torpedoes from the Imperial destroyer John Bull. Another light cruiser was sunk after an accidental collision with a friendly battleship.
The losses of night combat destroyers were: 6 John Bull Emperors and 3 Deutsche Kaiser. This cut off the German Empire's main fleet and the route to its home base.
At 3 o'clock in the morning on the 1st of the following month, all the warships of the German Imperial Fleet finally broke through the blockade of the John Bull Imperial Fleet and rushed towards the waters of Horn Reef. The waters of Horn Reef were the main naval port for the main fleet of the German Empire.
The only way forward.
After the outbreak of the First World War, the German Imperial Navy deployed countless mines here to defend against sea attacks by the John Bull fleet. The mine array was extremely irregular, like a maze. Since the war began, many John Bull warships attempted to attack the main military port.
No return, buried in a minefield.
To pass through the minefield, only senior generals of the German Imperial Navy knew the only narrow waterway.
At 3:30, it was the darkest moment before dawn. The fleet commander calibrated the compass position, found the entrance to the waterway, and directed his fleet to line up in a column. One ship followed the other through the minefield safely, heading towards the main ship.
The naval port sailed away. The Scheer fleet finally got rid of John Bull's main fleet!
Outside the minefield, the main fleet of the John Bull Empire that was chasing after them could only roar and fire cannons, but they did not dare to cross the minefield even half a step.
At 4:15 in the morning, the John Bull Imperial Navy sent a telegraphic reconnaissance report to the commander of his own fleet, telling him that the other side's fleet had safely passed the Horn Reef waterway and was about to return to the main military port. The disappointed fleet commander had to take the
His main fleet returned to the main naval base angrily.
This unprecedented scale battle between battleships at sea has thus come to an end.
After the naval battle, both warring parties claimed to be the winner, so how to judge it became a famous public case in the history of naval battles.
In this battle, the John Bull Imperial Fleet lost a total combat tonnage of 163,000 tons and suffered 9,945 casualties;
The German fleet lost a total of 82,000 combat tons and suffered 4,958 casualties. The loss ratio between the John Bull Empire and the German Empire was nearly 2 to 1.
In terms of tactics, the German Empire was indeed the winner of this naval battle. But in terms of strategy, it was the John Bull Empire who won. Therefore, it is not unreasonable for both sides to say yes! (To be continued...