Chapter 977： steel collision

At 9 am on February 9th, the combined fleet of the German Navy officially caught up with the Austro-Hungarian Navy. The two huge fleets have become a parallel line.

Both sides know that this battle is inevitable. Therefore, the commanders of both sides did not issue additional orders, but directly ordered to prepare for battle.

Preempting the T prefix and the like are just a waste of time. Although, the combined fleet of the German Navy can give it a try with the performance advantages of warships. But the size of the Austro-Hungarian Navy is not small. If that is the case, I am afraid that even if it is dark, they will not be able to kill them all. Once it gets dark, the Austro-Hungarian Navy may be able to escape into the vast Indian Ocean under the cover of night. At that time, it may not be so easy for the German Navy's combined fleet to find out and deal with the Austro-Hungarian Navy.

In addition, Admiral Hipper and other generals of the German Navy also admire the Austro-Hungarian Navy's daring to confront the German Navy head-on. Therefore, they hope to defeat the Austro-Hungarian Navy in an upright manner.

The combined fleet of the German Navy has six more capital ships than the Austro-Hungarian Navy. Coupled with the performance of their warships, they are far stronger than the Austro-Hungarian Navy. Therefore, the combined fleet of the German Navy has an absolute upper hand. If under such circumstances, none of them were able to defeat the Austro-Hungarian Navy, or if they paid a relatively high price, then the generals of the German Navy would be too incompetent.

The capital ships of both sides began to form a long battle line. Small and medium-sized warships began to withdraw to make room for the duel of capital ships.

"Four 'Kaiser-class' battleships against the Austro-Hungarian Empire's four 'Austro-Hungarian Sovereign-class' battleships, four 'Brandenburg-class' battlecruisers against the Austria-Hungarian 'Old Kaiser-class' battleships. Four One 'Helgoland-class' battleship against the three 'Old Moltke-class' battlecruisers and one 'Old Helgoland-class' battleship of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The remaining three 'Moltke-class' battleships cruisers, four 'Nassau-class' battleships and three 'Blücher-class' battlecruisers, besieging the four 'United Force-class' battleships of the Austro-Hungarian Empire!" Admiral Hipper ordered.

Although, the Austro-Hungarian Empire has renamed the capital ships purchased from Germany. However, Admiral Hipper still used to call them by their names when they served in the German Navy. It's just that an old word is added in front of it. It is precisely because the warships sold to the Austro-Hungarian Navy after the German Navy retired have become the main force of the Austro-Hungarian Navy. This made the German Navy feel a little strange in this battle. After all, those capital ships were also built in Germany! And in the last world war, he made great contributions to Germany's defeat of the Royal Navy of the British Empire. Now, they have become enemies. In order for the empire to win this war, they have to sink them.

The four "United Force-class" battleships of the Austro-Hungarian Navy have undoubtedly become the focus of the German Navy. The "United Forces-class" battleship, as the first-class dreadnought ship built by the Austro-Hungarian Navy, is not very powerful, even in this period, it is considered very bad. Although there are many main guns, there are four main guns in triple mounts. But unfortunately, they are all 305mm main guns with 45 times the caliber. The power of this main gun can no longer cause fatal damage to the capital ships of the German Navy. What's more, the thick armor of those important parts cannot be penetrated by the 305mm main gun at all.

If the four "Joint Force-class" battleships can be dealt with in the shortest time after the battle begins, then the German Navy's advantage in this battle will be further expanded.

Of course, in order to get rid of these four "Joint Force-class" battleships, the German Navy's combined fleet has also used its main force. The three 'Moltke-class' battleships, four 'Nassau-class' battleships and three 'Blücher-class' battleships are all powerful battleships equipped with 380 mm main guns of 50 times the caliber. The armor-piercing projectiles, as long as they hit the 'Joint Force-class' battleship, can penetrate its armor. Even the thickest conning tower armor.

The waterline armor of the "Joint Force-class" battleship is 280 mm, the frontal armor of the turret is 305 mm, and the thickest part of the conning tower armor is 356 mm. It's just that these armors are still like paper in front of the new cap-piercing projectiles fired by the large-caliber main guns of the German Navy. The armor-piercing projectile launched by the German Navy can easily penetrate it.

"Close the distance, start the battle at a distance of 15 kilometers. Then maintain this distance, and the Austro-Hungarian Navy will not be able to shorten the combat distance to within 12 kilometers!" Admiral Hipper issued an order.

For the German Navy, the large-caliber main guns of their capital ships have a longer effective range. The capital ships of the Austro-Hungarian Navy generally had a smaller caliber. At a longer distance, not only the hit rate will drop a lot. Similarly, the power of shells will also be affected. Therefore, fighting at this distance is obviously more beneficial to the German navy.

In order to win at the least cost, Admiral Hipper also made the most beneficial choice for his side.

The battle line composed of the capital ships of the German Navy has already allocated targets for strikes. The battle line began to turn in order to further narrow the distance between the two sides.

The huge main gun on the capital ship also began to rotate slowly under the action of the motor. Soon, they will start shelling, tearing the enemy to pieces with the shells they fire.

"Order all the ships, prepare to fight! The insidious and cunning Germans, they really took our 'Joint Force-class' battleships at the end of the battle line as a key target. Tell the four 'Joint Force-class' battleships Long, I don't ask them to achieve much in this battle, but I hope they can last longer!" General Anton House ordered.

Obviously, Admiral Anton House knew that the four "United Force-class" battleships were close to death this time. But if they can delay for a longer time, maybe they can buy more time for the other 12 capital ships of the Austro-Hungarian Navy. If you are lucky and can cause greater casualties to the German navy, maybe there will be a turning point in this naval battle.

At 9:25, the battle officially started. The total tonnage of the capital ships of the two navies has exceeded 1.5 million tons. There is no doubt that this is definitely the largest collision of steel ever.