Australian Storm 1876 - Chapter 1081

Chapter 1081 The Eastern Front Defeat

The two largest, most advanced and most powerful fleets ever built by human beings fought fiercely in a radius of more than 160 square kilometers in the North Sea, battle lines against battle lines, cruisers against cruisers, and destroyers against destroyers.

within reach

The azure sea is full of splashes of steel and fire, the life and death of the sea war monsters, the flames are rolling, the scorched ship wrecks can be seen everywhere, and there are countless corpses, oil stains, canvas, oil barrels and debris floating on the sea.

The cannon rumbled, roaring non-stop…

A sea battle lasted until about 3 o’clock in the afternoon, and a message came from the Zeppelin airship floating in the sky;

There are two British fleets coming at high speed, with a total of about 10 capital ships and more than 20 other cruisers, about an hour and a half away from the battlefield.

The battle is over

The German High Seas Fleet led by Admiral Scheer has taken advantage of its superior position and has caused heavy damage to the British Oceanic Fleet, achieving the expected purpose, and its own losses are not small.

At this time, the ocean fleet led by Admiral Jellicoe of the United Kingdom, like a wounded lion, constantly launched a fierce counterattack, exchanged wounds for wounds, poured out angry artillery fire, and kept hitting the main German battleships, showing that the battle to the end was dead. determination.

Admiral Scheer only hesitated, and then decisively issued an order; turn the course, and all the German High Seas Fleet fought and walked, striving to get out of the battle as soon as possible.

The German High Seas Fleet does have a chance to destroy the British Royal Navy’s Oceanic Fleet, but that possibility is very remote, and the price is death with the enemy.

But the Germans can’t afford a small bet, and the high seas fleet is all exhausted, so there’s really nothing left.

The British Royal Navy is different. Even if this oceanic fleet is completely buried in the naval battle, there are still two small fleets that are coming at high speed. There is also a large-scale retired and sealed fleet in Portsmouth, England. In addition, There are also French, Italian and allied fleets of the Ocean Empire, still able to maintain maritime superiority.

Just leave it as soon as you see it, this is the real thought in the mind of Admiral Reinhard Scheer of Germany at this moment.

Seeing that the German fleet was fighting and retreating, Admiral Jericho, commander of the British Ocean Fleet, saw that the enemy was about to slip away, and immediately led the scarred main battle fleet to entangle.

The average speed of the fleets of the two sides gradually increased from 5 to 6 knots per hour to more than ten, fifteen or sixteen knots. The artillery roared while chasing each other, but the accuracy of the artillery bombardment dropped significantly.

The Germans wanted to run, and the heavily damaged British Ocean Fleet couldn’t stop them.

6pm

Night fell in the sky over the North Sea, and two British fleets rushing all the way appeared at the end of the sea-sky transition. They could only watch the shining artillery fire from time to time across the night sky in the distance, tearing apart the thick twilight, showing the fierce battle Still haven’t stopped.

At this time, the British reinforcement fleet from Scapa Flow was still more than 35 kilometers away from the battlefield.

It was obvious that he could not catch up until the night completely enveloped the North Sea.

The battle came to a complete halt at 6:50 pm. At this time, the North Sea was completely shrouded in darkness. The German East Sea Fleet, which was focused on withdrawing from the battle, fled to the northwest at high speed and disappeared into the thick darkness.

made a big circle

Admiral Reinhardt Scheer led an irregular High Seas Fleet to escape back to the port of Scapaflow. At the time of the attack, the German High Seas Fleet had a total of 78 warships. When they returned, there were only 46 ships left, and more than half of them were still carrying degree. different trauma.

Post-war inventory;

Of the 18 main battleships of the German High Seas Fleet, 4 were sunk, and a battleship “Prince Wilhelm” was seriously injured. The ship was then forced to sink due to the irreparable damage.

In this battle, a total of 13 light and heavy cruisers, 14 destroyers and a few torpedo boats were lost.

The rest of the main German battleships suffered varying degrees of damage, and in a short period of time, they did not have the basic conditions to attack again.

In the battle of the North Sea, the German High Seas Fleet, relying on the advantages of aerial reconnaissance, arranged a battle line with the prefix “T” in the direction of the British Ocean Fleet, taught the British a lesson, and achieved a de facto victory in this naval battle. .

11 battleships of the British Ocean Fleet were sunk, 8 were badly damaged, and more than 10 were slightly injured. Another 22 cruisers were lost, and 41 destroyers of various types were lost.

After this war

The ratio of the battleships of the British and German sides was 22:14, and the British still firmly held the advantage, but the advantage was no longer obvious.

The good news is;

The British shipyard will launch three post-dreadnought-class giant ships equipped with 15-inch main naval guns before June 2017, further enriching the Royal Navy fleet.

Before the end of the year, there will be 4 more battleships launched in the aquarium.

London will continue to build more post-dreadnought-class battleships with additional emergency funding to maintain the Royal Navy’s global dominance. These new battleships will have larger displacement, more intense artillery fire and stronger combat effectiveness than previous battleships.

On the other hand, the Germans, because of the tight seal of the British Royal Navy and the shortage of materials, the shipyard does not have the ability to continue to build large warships, and the loss of one large battleship is one less and cannot be replenished.

After the Battle of the North Sea

The battered British Royal Navy’s blockade of the German coastline has become less stringent, which has made German submarines more rampant, going out to strangle the Allied transport lines, and the number of sinking ships is increasing.

The loss of merchant ships in April was 520,000 tons, the loss of merchant ships in May was 680,000 tons, and the loss of merchant ships in June was as high as 810,000 tons, of which 3/5 belonged to British merchant ships.

The total British merchant ships were only 2.78 million tons. Even if the shipyards around the world were producing at full capacity, they could not bear such huge losses. A large number of shopping malls and materials sank into the icy seabed, causing serious material shortages in the Allied countries, including the United Kingdom and France.

Ocean **** work had to be put on the agenda.

According to the statistics;

The loss rate of the merchant fleet with ship **** was 2.73%, while the loss rate of the merchant fleet without **** was as high as 24.2%, which was 9 times that of the former.

This reflects the necessity of ship **** from one side.

To this end, the Allied countries have assembled more than 300 aircraft and more than a thousand ships of various types, and organized the fleet of important cargo transported to **** the entire Atlantic.

In view of the excellent performance of the mixed formation of the aircraft carrier “Dinghai”, the second aircraft carrier “Zhenhai”, which has just completed outfitting, also joined the Azores fleet to perform **** and anti-submarine missions in the Atlantic Ocean.

In the face of the rampant behavior of German submarines, Britain and France also realized the huge role of aircraft carriers in anti-submarine warfare, and quickly converted several aircraft carriers with cargo ships and old-fashioned warships, which were specially used for Atlantic aviation anti-submarine warfare.

Under the efforts of many parties

has effectively curbed the momentum of the crazy killing of German submarines. On average, 6 to 8 German submarines can be sunk every month. In just a few months, more than 30 German submarines have been sunk, and a very good record has been achieved.

In order to further fight against Germany, from the beginning of May, the British, French and Oceanian forces started the process of the Belgian campaign. Millions of troops poured into Belgium to fight against the German army.

The long-silent war has resumed, the air planes shuttled, the cannons on the ground rumbled, and the armored torrent of the Ocean Empire showed its might on the plain battlefield, constantly breaking through the German defense line and dealing heavy blows to the German army.

On the Eastern Front, it was another scene.

The domestic political situation is unstable and people are in a state of panic. The Tsarist Russian army, which has more than 8 million people, is unwilling to fight. Every day, thousands of officers and soldiers desert the army, and the entire defense line collapses on a large scale.

The German army and the Austro-Hungarian army on the eastern front have marched all the way, and they have penetrated the front deeply into the territory of Ukraine. The Tsarist Russian army was on the verge of collapse. The military supplies and guns and ammunition abandoned all over the mountains and fields made everything worse.

Everyone knows that the rout of Tsarist Russia on the Eastern Front is unstoppable.

The 360,000-strong 2nd Army of the Ocean Empire resting on the Crimean Peninsula quickly attacked after receiving the order and occupied more than 100,000 square kilometers of land in Western Ukraine with Kyiv as the core.

made every effort to gather the defeated Russian army. Inspired by Bread, they gathered more than 600,000 Russian troops with a relatively complete system in just over a month, forming a heavy army group of one million people, which stabilized the occupation of northwestern Ukraine.

This was already the largest range of capabilities of the 2nd Army, and it accounted for only a small fraction of the Russian troops that had retreated across the board.

Throughout June and July, the Russian troops retreating from the front line migrated like locusts, eating up everything they could, including bark and wild vegetables.

This unplanned flight resulted in a famine that spread throughout Ukraine. Countless soldiers and civilians died on the way, and it turned into a disaster.

Faced with this situation, the 2nd Army could not do anything.

Protecting the sea transportation line of millions of troops cannot maintain the relief of more people. In this aspect, due to the shortage of materials, we must give priority to ensuring the supply of the western battlefield. Its importance is much higher than that of the eastern battlefield.

On the other hand, the senior leaders of the Allied Powers were extremely dissatisfied with the actions of the current government of Tsarist Russia. After all, Tsar Nicholas II was the cousin of King George V of England.

The World War is in its 4th year

Even veteran colonists such as Britain and France were dragged down by the war and were in debt. They were more than willing to rescue Tsarist Russia.

The scale of Tsarist Russia is too large, with a population of 160 million. Such a large country is one person, one mouthful of food, and millions of tons at every turn. Who can get it?

Perhaps, the North American continent without a war can come up with it, but this is only a beautiful idea in theory.

Today, the North American continent is raging with wars, the United States is torn apart, and there is not enough food for itself, and it is even more impossible to export on a large scale.

It was very difficult for the Ocean Empire to fully supply Britain and France, and there was no excess food resources. To rescue Tsarist Russia, which was trapped in a great famine, they could only watch the tragedy happen.

On the battlefield of the Eastern Front, Germany’s victory could no longer be contained. With the 360,000-strong Second Army, it was only a drop in the bucket.

(end of this chapter)