"Boom! Boom! Boom!"
Heavy shells slammed viciously into the sea, throwing up columns of water that soared into the sky like whales spouting. Occasionally, dead fish floated to the surface. The war between humans had dragged even these innocent marine creatures into it.
The German Navy and the British Navy were fighting a battle to the death in these waters, churning an already restless sea into even greater turmoil.
At the start of the bombardment, both sides were merely conducting ranging shots. To conserve shells, they would only switch to concentrated fire after achieving bracketing fire or a direct hit during the ranging phase.
However, the German Navy's Bavaria-class battleships, equipped with new optical aiming equipment and Fire Control Systems, clearly held a considerable advantage in this regard.
"Boom!" A shell exploded in the waters off the starboard side of the battleship Ramillies, throwing up a column of water more than ten meters high. Although the shell had detonated over a hundred meters away and caused the battleship no damage whatsoever, the faces of the more than nine hundred Royal Navy officers and sailors aboard changed dramatically.
Because that shell meant the German Navy's battleship Sachsen, which was exchanging fire with them, had already achieved bracketing fire. In other words, Sachsen had them in its sights. The failure to hit had merely been a stroke of bad luck. Once Sachsen switched to concentrated fire and a dense rain of shells came crashing down, it should score hits soon enough.
"Damn it! How is that possible? The battle has only been underway for ten minutes, and the Germans have already achieved bracketing fire?" Vice Admiral David Beatty was utterly aghast. They had always believed that Royal Navy personnel were unquestionably the finest in the world. Yet even the Royal Navy could