Standing on his gun emplacement, he could clearly see the lighthouse on Walsha Island without even a telescope, and he had never been so close to the entrance to the Gulf of Riga as he was now, but the closer he got, the more nervous Bowen became.

The T-47 at his feet was nothing more than a large torpedo boat converted from a Type 1885 minehunter. Since the hull draft was only 1.25 meters, and the anchor mines with a fixed depth would not be triggered, all the Type 1885 large torpedo boats were diverted.

The torpedo tubes in the stern of the hull were removed and a 37mm rapid-fire gun was installed, freeing up space for towed explosive cables. The 37mm rapid-fire cannon can be used to destroy floating mines, while the explosive cable will detonate after colliding with objects underwater to clear anchor mines. A few mines can also be placed on the aft platform to make a cameo appearance as a minelayer at night without being detected.

But as it is now, so close to the mouth of the Gulf of Riga in broad daylight, it is simply a trick to death! The previous mission was to wander the Baltic Sea routes, searching for and intercepting Russian fishing boats or transports, and never approached the Russian coastline. But today, I don't know what kind of nerves Major Buehler had to run so close to the Russians with 4 minehunters! Even if the Russians have been avoiding the war before, it does not mean that only 4 minehunters can run to the door of the Russians to show off their might! The Russian destroyers patrolling near the mouth of the Gulf of Riga rushed out to kill themselves and then it would not take much time to go back!

The T-47 under his feet is more than 20 years old, although it was overhauled at the time of the original refit, but it was almost 10 years later, and now the maximum speed is only 20.1 knots. The ship's armament consisted only of three 37 mm rapid-fire guns and two torpedo tubes on each side of the bow with a 450 mm C08 torpedo. There is no chance of winning at all.

There were not a few people who thought the same as Bowen, except for the people who stayed in the power compartment of the small minehunter and could not get out, the whole crew of the dozen or so people was all engrossed in staring at the depths of the Irbe Strait, for fear that several Russian ships would suddenly rush out of it.

Major Biele, the commander of the minehunter squadron, was naturally not alive enough to die, and he was just as nervous at this time, standing on the not-so-high command platform of the T-47 and scanning the sea back and forth with binoculars. Even if there is a wisp of smoke coming out of the ship's chimney on the sea level, he will give the order to turn around and run.

However, the task he received was to wander around here and attract Russian ships into the minefield he had laid, although Major Biehler did not know when his own men had laid mines here, but the order was like this, and he could only bite the bullet.

Fortunately, Major Bueller didn't know anything, and the airship force threw down the anchor mines and drifting mines, otherwise the Admiralty might have taken advantage of the shallow draft of these minehunters and ordered Major Buehler to continue deep into the Gulf of Riga. Attract Russian ships to drive them into the minefield, and then let the Russian ships with a deeper draft hit the anchor mines. If that were the case, Major Biller would be even more nervous by now.

However, today is destined to be their lucky day, because at this time, the Russian lightning fleet in the Gulf of Riga is also preparing for its own actions, so there is no time to pay attention to them.

"You are acting at night, and you should not encounter German ships, but if you do, don't fall in love with the war. Except for the high-speed torpedo boats of the Germans, no ship can catch up with our mine-striking ships, and you should be able to shake off the Germans. "Responsible for the defense of the Gulf of Riga. Rear Admiral Rutkhachev, who is also the commander of the Gulf of Riga Thunderbolt Fleet, told Colonel Yevgeny, commander of the Thunderbolt Fleet, who will lead the attack this evening.

"Germany's lightning strike fleet of 8 ships is a group, their 1889 fleet lightning strike ship performance has long been old, our mine strike ship has an advantage in performance, in the same number of engagement, we don't have to run away at all!" Colonel Yevgeny was confident in the performance of the ships he led.

Four of the eight fleet mine-striking ships participating in the operation were shipbuilders of the Hussar-class with a standard displacement of 710 tons, built on the basis of the Project 1895 destroyer by the German Germania shipyard. Equipped with 2 75 mm Ghanaian guns, 6 57 mm Hatch Chase rapid-fire guns, 3 457 mm torpedo tubes, and a speed of 25.6 knots, although the number of main guns and torpedoes is relatively small, the ship is relatively short and in good condition. Although the overall level is slightly lower than that of the Type 1895, it still has a great advantage in the face of the old Type 1889 fleet mine strike ships of the Germans.

The other four Ukrainian-class destroyers were due to the lack of capacity of Russia's own Langue-Sow shipyard, and after encountering difficulties in the construction of the first ship, an agreement was reached with the Volkeng shipyard that the Germans would be responsible for the complete power system, and technicians would be sent to Riga to supervise and guide.

Since the Germans at this time had much more experience in the field of destroyer construction technology than in history, after making a number of improvements to the design of the Ukrainian class, after solving the problem of longitudinal vibration of the hull at high speeds, the performance of the Ukrainian class was better than in history, except that the number of torpedo tubes was reduced by one compared with the Hussar class, and the number of Hatch Chase rapid-fire guns was reduced by two, and the speed of 26.4 knots was higher than that of the Hussar class.

Therefore, Colonel Yevgeny believed that the Germans were not his opponents at all with the same number of engagements.

However, Major General Rutkhachev was not impressed by the offensive spirit of Colonel Yevgeny, it was enough to successfully and successfully complete the orders of his superiors, and any extraneous actions would bring variables to the operation.

"This operation had to be stealthy and fast. Your Excellency the Admiral does not care how effective our actions are, but that we can successfully act under the noses of the Germans. If this operation goes well, then we will have more opportunities to make a move, and if you mess up, then there will be no more action in the future" Major General Lutkhachev said in a stern tone: "So I want you to avoid any belligerent behavior!" That's an order! ”

"Yes, Your Excellency, Major General!"

"Then now go check the readiness of your fleet again, go to lunch when everything is done, and then go back to sleep, I want you to set off in the best possible condition for the evening!" Major General Lutkhachev waved his hand and motioned for Yevgeny to leave.

"Yes. The lower official retired. ”

The sun sets and the moon rises, the clouds are thick and the stars are sparse. Due to the summer and the high latitude of the Baltic Sea, the fleet led by Colonel Yevgeny did not leave the harbor until 6 p.m.

Colonel Yevgeny stood on the compass bridge of the flagship Don Cossack, looking at the sky, which had not completely darkened at this time, and was full of confidence in the operation. According to the scheduled plan, the fleet maintained a high speed of 21 knots. At about 10 p.m., their fleet will sail out of the Gulf of Riga, and at about 4 a.m., the fleet can reach the sea off Memel, lay all 164 mines, and then return to Libau (present-day Liepaja) before dawn, because Libau and Memel are too close to each other as the most advanced naval base of the Russian Baltic Fleet, fearing a German attack on Libau. The base has been evacuated early. Therefore, the fleet will not stay in Libau for a long time, but will stay in the harbor until dark, and then rush back to Riga at night.

In this way, the Germans would have known that, while they were still dreaming, the outer part of Memel had become a minefield, and that the freighters and fishing boats that had left the port in the early morning would taste the gifts that the Russian Navy had given them.

Sometimes, though, it's just that dramatic. Since the first day of mine-laying had ended, the German Navy had assessed that the use of small ships to mine the Irbe Strait was too inefficient. Because these small ships really can't carry too many mines. Therefore, while thinking about how to get more ships involved in minelaying operations, the Navy decided to draw some of the airship troops first. Block the nearest Irbe Strait first. Therefore, at this time, five airships, including Pokel's LZ-50, were also on the way to the Irbe Strait.

At 10:10 p.m., at the mouth of the Irbe Strait, everything looked the same as yesterday, except in a different location, but the sea was dark. Pokel couldn't see any difference in location. Everything seems to be the same as yesterday, throwing the mine down at an altitude of 200 meters is considered complete, and the flight distance today is shorter than yesterday, and it is estimated that it will be a few hours earlier than yesterday after returning home, but things are obviously not so smooth.

"Colonel. There is an anomaly! The lookout post standing on the bridge of the compass shouted: "There is a strange light in the sky on the port side!" ”

"Lights? How can there be lights in the sky? It's Starlight, right? Someone on the side laughed.

Drilling out of the bridge and climbing onto the compass bridge, Yevgeny looked in the direction pointed by the lookout, and there were indeed five strange flickering light sources 2 nautical miles away. It's hard to see in the night, but it's clear that there's something there.

"Turn on the searchlight!" Yevgeny shouted loudly that he had not yet sailed out of the Irbe Strait, and that there was no danger here even if he turned on his searchlights, and that he did not have to worry at all even if there were German ships nearby, and that the Germans would not dare to follow up if they had withdrawn.

However, when the searchlight shone into the sky, five huge figures appeared in the eyes of the Russians, the gray paint had a good cover in the night, but under the illumination of the searchlight, the huge size of the German airship deeply shocked the Russian sailors who had not seen much of the market.

"Oh God! What is that! Looking up at the huge cigars in the night, the Russian sailors exclaimed

"Oh! My God! Russian! The Germans inside the airship shouted the same thing.

It was the navigation lights on the German airships that emitted the light, and the Russian fleet carried out strict light control, and even the navigation lights and anti-collision lights on the ships were all turned off, so the Germans did not know that Yevgeny's fleet was not far below them, and several searchlights that shone up in an instant also blinded the Germans for a while.

When the blinding light hits the airship pod, Polk knows he's in trouble. The eyes, which had been accustomed to the darkness, were now gray, and the pod was full of scolding from the crew.

"Damn, I can't see anything!"

"Hell! You stabilize the steering wheel for me! I don't want to bump into anything! ”

"Maybe someone else bumped into us?!"

"Shut up! Bastard! ”

Blinking vigorously, there were reddish-green spots of light in front of his sore eyes blocking his vision, but Polk, who was finally able to see, knew he was in trouble. Although I don't know if the Russians can shoot at the air, at this distance, even if the elevation angle of the Russians' machine guns is only 30 degrees, their airships are not safe.

"If you don't want to crash right here, throw away the ballast! Exhaust the air from the auxiliary airbag! Climb high now! Polk also panicked at this time: "All 4 engines are driven to maximum horsepower for me, let's get out of this place quickly!" ”

The hatch in the middle of the airship opened, and the 6-ton sandbags crackled and fell like rain. The horizontal rudders in the stern hit the maximum angle, the four engines roared violently, and the bow of the LZ-50 jerked up, and the violent vibration and tilt of the hull forced everyone to hold on to the fixed objects in the cabin so as not to let themselves fall out. But even so, everyone still wants to be able to make the most annoying emergency climb a little faster

The five airships were all doing the same thing at this time, a total of more than 30 tons of sandbags smashed on the sea, and the skyrocketing water columns that rose one after another looked spectacular. Even the sailors on the Russian warship, which was quite far away, couldn't help but shrink their necks, for fear of being hit in the head by this thing that fell from the sky.

"Don't be stunned! The Germans are going to run! Full speed ahead and catch up! "After the previous shock, Yevgeny had already reacted, it was the German airship. Although I don't know what the German airship came here for, such a low flight altitude at this time is a good opportunity to attack. As long as these airships can be shot down, even if the minelaying operation is canceled because of this, it will be worth it!

The machine guns on the Don Cossacks were the first to go off, followed by tongues of fire from the eight fleet mine-strike ships, but due to the distance, the Russian machine guns were not threatening, but the Russians did not have tracer bullets in their machine guns, so they could not see the trajectory, so the equally nervous Russian sailors were still tilting their fire towards the target. Although this was just a waste of ammunition, the Germans leaning against the bulkhead looked at the dozens of flickering tongues of fire below, and their faces were still pale with nervousness.

However, fortunately, the 6-ton airship was thrown away and climbed extremely fast, and when the airship climbed to an altitude of 5,000 meters, Polk ordered to return to horizontal flight, and at this time everyone let out a long breath.

Seeing that the Germans were out of sight, Yevgeny could only regretfully order all ships to keep on fire, turn off the searchlights, and continue to carry out the scheduled minelaying mission. I've wasted some time, and now I have to hurry.

Yevgeny, who was still thinking about why the German airship was here, was full of doubts, but before he could step off the compass bridge, a loud noise came from under the right hull, the hull under his feet shook violently, a column of water rose into the sky, and the middle of the Don Cossack made a tooth-aching sound of steel twisting, and a large amount of sea water crushed down to the deck.

Evgeny fell from the ladder and slammed it on the deck, passing out. Crimson blood flowed from his head, quickly mixing with the sea. (To be continued.) )