Complex sentence: However the Russian ships followed and went into action, the cutter "Merkuriy" was the first to reach Venus and both ships opened fire, the larger ships then followed positioning them to be able to fire along the lengths of the "Venus".
Split into simpler sentences: However the Russian ships followed and went into action, the cutter "Merkuriy" was the first to reach "Venus" and both ships opened fire. The larger ships then followed,, positioning themselves to be able to fire along the lengths of "Venus".