Australian Storm 1876 - Chapter 1043

Chapter 1043 The dog jumps over the wall

7pm

Admiral Reinhardt-Schel ordered the German fleet to turn northeast to meet the opponent, which happened to collide head-on with the British Grand Fleet.

The best scene of the Battle of Jutland appeared

The flares fired by the fleet illuminated the sky and the earth brightly, and the cannonballs fired by the main fleets of Britain and Germany were like tsunamis, woven into a crimson fire net in the night.

The ocean boils, and artillery fires to the ground.

Dozens of battleships of the British Grand Fleet were full of anger and launched violent artillery fire on the German High Seas Fleet. Generally, it boils over.

In the face of the opponent’s powerful superior firepower, Admiral Reinhardt-Scher regretted it after the first minute. He knew that this return to the carbine was a failure, and it was stupid to fight recklessly.

So he ordered a U-turn again, in order to delay the pursuit of the British battleships with superior speed and firepower, to gain time for the main fleet to escape.

Admiral Reinhardt-Schel twitched and gave an order, ordering the battlecruisers and destroyers belonging to Admiral Hipper to launch a decisive assault on the opponent.

This is also impossible

Poorly, the four battlecruisers who made outstanding achievements in the battle became abandoned children. They will face the crazy revenge of the British mainland fleet, and the possibility of survival is extremely low.

The four German battlecruisers who received the order did not flinch. They used their own weak strength to shoot against the British fleet.

As expected

“De Flinger”, “Seidlitz”, “Von der Tann” and “Kedel” were hit several times, badly damaged, and covered each other’s retreat all the way.

After the battlecruisers, the destroyers of the German Navy launched 4 assaults successively, firing a total of 44 torpedoes into the boiling sea battlefield.

Although these torpedoes did not hit the target, in order to avoid the torpedoes, the British Grand Fleet made many turns and delayed a lot of time, and finally allowed the German battleship to escape.

Taking advantage of the precious time gained, the main force of the High Seas Fleet accelerated to retreat to the southwest, but the relentless British followed closely behind.

The hated Admiral Betty led 6 British battleships to catch up with Hipper’s fleet at 20:30 in the evening, and the two sides immediately began to shoot each other.

The German battlecruisers “De Flinger”, “Seidlitz”, “Von der Tann” and “Kedel”, which were repeatedly damaged, were covered with scars, and this time the British fleet almost They were beaten to scrap metal,

The German 2nd Battleship Squadron came to support, but the 6 ex-dreadnought battleships of the squadron were no match for the British battleships at all and were quickly defeated.

The former German dreadnought “Pomeranian” was hit by more than 20 large-caliber shells, exploded into flames, and then sank by two torpedoes. Other German warships ran away in the dark.

At 20:40 in the evening, the British fleet ceased fire, which became the last exchange of fire between the capital ships of the two sides in the Battle of Jutland.

Post-war inventory;

In this unprecedented large-scale naval battle, both Britain and Germany suffered a certain degree of losses, and the British Royal Navy suffered particularly heavy losses. A total of 3 battleships, 6 battlecruisers, 5 armored cruisers, and 12 destroyers were hit. Shen, with a total displacement of 192,000 tons, 11,764 naval officers and men were killed and 421 were captured.

And in the original historical time and space

In the Jutland War, the British Grand Fleet had 3 battlecruisers, 3 armored cruisers, and 8 destroyers sunk, with a total displacement of 113,300 tons, 6,197 naval officers and men were killed, and 177 were captured.

Two-phase comparison

Undoubtedly, the Royal Navy’s Grand Fleet has suffered even more losses today. It is especially distressing that three “Queen Elizabeth” class battleships were sunk, one was severely damaged, and the entire Fifth Battleship Fleet lost its combat effectiveness. Cancellation of the designation, this is the main force of the front line, and it is really the pain of the Royal Navy.

examine the reasons

The main turret ammunition blast door of the British battlecruiser is missing, and it is always open during the battle. Once hit by enemy shells, the fire will quickly spread into the ammunition depot, which is a fatal flaw.

smashed hundreds of tons of ammunition in the ammunition depot, and even the most powerful warships could not carry it.

This tragic flaw,   , was the culprit responsible for the near-annihilation of the British First Battle Cruiser fleet.

Secondly, the German Navy used a new type of delayed-explosive fuze, which made the shells fired by the German fleet have greater destructive power, combined with the fatal flaw in the design of the Royal Navy’s warships, which caused this tragedy.

Look at the German side;

1 battlecruiser, 1 ex-dreadnought battleship, 4 light cruisers, and 9 destroyers of the German High Seas Fleet were sunk, with a total displacement of 72,200 tons, and 3,341 naval officers and men were killed.

Only from the point of view of the results, the German Navy suffered slightly more losses than in the original history, but not much more.

The Germans achieved a tactical victory, but the British naval hegemony was not shaken and still had a great advantage.

Admiral Reinhardt-Scholl’s last carbine nearly wiped out his battlecruiser fleet.

Although only one ship sank in the end, the other ships were smashed into tatters, so don’t even think about going to sea to fight in a short time.

After this battle

The Allies quickly reached an island-for-arms agreement with the Ocean Empire. This was an unprecedented deal. The Allies handed over to the Ocean Empire, including the Azores belonging to Portugal, the Wallis and Futuna islands of the French, and the British islands. St. Helena and a number of other islands in the Pacific and Atlantic, a total of 22 archipelagos, including the Andaman-Nicobar Islands at the northwestern tip of the Strait of Malacca, are geographically critical.

The Ocean Empire handed over to the Allies six active-duty “Queensland”-class battleships, six Metropolitan-class battleships, eight 20,000-ton heavy cruisers, 66 Brave-class and Huayue-class general-purpose cruisers, and hundreds of destroyers. A large number of weapons and equipment, as well as advanced delayed-explosive fuze shells, total up to 12,000 tons.

Due to the high price of large-caliber artillery shells for ships, this unprecedented large-scale transaction is worth as much as 253 million gold oceans, or about 130 million pounds, setting a record for a single weapons transaction.

In other words, the Ocean Empire spent so much money to buy 22 islands, which is not just a transaction, but also takes into account political factors, so there is a big premium.

The main purpose of    is to help the Allies win the final war.

All parties in the   Contract clearly felt the serious threat of the German High Seas Fleet, and quickly replenished the front-line weapons and equipment at any cost to ensure that Germany was firmly blocked in the fjord, and they were willing to pay a heavy price for this.

Once the German fleet is let loose, it will cause a major blow to the Allies that is irreversible. On this point, the interests of all countries are the same.

Therefore, the Portuguese generously took out the Azores, the French took out Wallis and Futuna, and the British took out most of the remaining islands in exchange for the much-needed islands. Frontline battleship.

Considering that there are not so many active servicemen in the Allied countries to operate warships, the Royal Navy of the Ocean Empire has done it to the end, and urgently retired 24,500 naval officers and men, who drove the mighty fleet to Europe, nominally participating in the war as volunteers.

The New York Herald commented on June 3:

The German fleet beat the jailer, but was still imprisoned in the cage. With the help of outsiders, the jailer replaced the baton in his hand with a repeating gun, leaving little chance for the German fleet.

This implicitly malicious comment is full of provocation and will naturally be targeted.

As a result, the US “New York Herald” published a solemn apology statement on the front page of June 4, ashamed of the newspaper’s inaccurate comments, and solemnly apologized to all parties concerned by this.

The German radio station Berlin Welle slammed this: Ocean Kingdom tore off its hypocrisy and sent the most elite Royal Navy officers and men to join the ranks of the containment of the German High Seas Fleet, which is a shameful act that seriously violates the neutral position. , will inevitably lead to strong opposition from the Allies.

Germany will consider launching unrestricted submarine warfare, including the Ocean Kingdom merchant fleet in the Atlantic Ocean, and teach them with iron and blood, some things cannot be mixed!

As the mouthpiece of the German Empire, the vehement remarks of the Voice of Berlin news agency reflect the great anger of the German high-level parties, and have considered using war to attack the blatant financing of the Ocean Kingdom.

Australia

Daming Palace

“Hehehe…the mouth is very fierce, but the body is very honest. If the Germans hadn’t had water in their heads, they would never have dared to attack the imperial merchant ships.” Li Fushou put down the newspaper in his hand and said lightly.

I don’t know since when, the Ocean Empire has become an existence that the world’s powers are very afraid of.

As the month of June, the unprecedentedly tragic Battle of the Somme in Europe is about to launch. This is an out-and-out “Battle of Hell” and a decisive battle.

How dare the Germans have more troubles at a time like this?

In Li Fushou’s expectation, only by the end of the year, the Germans suffered successive defeats in the Somme and Verdun battles on the western front of Europe, and the losses in the eastern front were equally serious. Seeing that the war situation was extremely unfavorable to the Allies.

Unlimited submarine warfare will be launched only when the dog jumps over the wall in a hurry. Now, that time has not yet come.

Gu Kaizhi has been appointed as the new head of the royal family secretariat, and he replied with a smile; “Saint is wise, our fleet sending supplies to Europe has reported encountering German submarines many times, but every time after identifying the flag of the empire, these German submarines have They all dived into the water in despair and did not launch any attack.”

“Kaizhi, now the war situation is stable, William II is not crazy, so take this opportunity to send more supplies to Europe, let our institutions in Europe also hoard more, just in case.”

“Wei Chen understands and will start doing it right away.” Gu Kaizhi bowed to take orders.

(end of this chapter)