On February 7, 1916, German Foreign Minister Stresemann and the Austrian nobleman Count Adamas ended a two-day meeting, and the two sides basically agreed on a series of issues, the German government will support Adamas as the new emperor of Austria after taking full control of the situation in Austria, and after the situation in Austria is stabilized, the German army will be withdrawn from most of Austria one after another.

In exchange, the new Austrian government of Adamas would recognize the independence of Hungary and Bohemia, and would agree to the annexation of the kingdoms of Croatia and Slavonia, the principalities of Carniola, Carinthia, Salzburg, and the Primorsky provinces into the German Empire.

However, the current Prime Minister of the Austrian government, Stefan, and most of the Austrian government officials rejected such a humiliating treaty, because this treaty meant that the Austro-Hungarian Empire no longer existed, and the current Prime Minister of the Austro-Hungarian Central Government, and other central government officials, strongly opposed it.

Eventually, due to the lack of a legal representative of the government, the German government had to sign a secret treaty with Adamas, and after Adamas ascended to the Austrian throne through legal procedures, the two sides signed a formal treaty.

That night, Stresemann and his entourage left Vienna. In order to assist Adamas in seizing Austrian power as soon as possible, the Germans ordered the besieging troops to launch an offensive operation overnight aimed at pinning down the deployment of the opponent's forces and confusing the opponent's public, and on the other hand, sent a special operations force of more than 1,000 people wearing Austrian military uniforms to join Adamas's men in Vienna.

Due to the lack of artillery and anti-tank weapons in the defenders of Vienna, the tanks of the German 2nd Panzer Corps were at one point approaching only two kilometers from the city of Vienna, which caused the residents of Vienna to fall into a great panic, and people thought that the Germans were about to launch a final siege.

As for the special operations forces that entered Vienna, under the leadership of Adamas, raided the Austrian Prime Minister's residence, the Austrian War Department, the Vienna City Government and other important institutions, and detained a number of important government officials.

At the same time, Adamas and his aides were actively campaigning for support in the upper echelons of Vienna, and they used inducements and intimidation to win a lot of votes, but there were also those who outwardly supported Adamas but secretly raised Adamas's conspiracy to the city defense forces. Using the information obtained, Baron Vladimir's troops arrested Adamas and his staff at the Agriculture's home at Ling Key.

6 a.m. The German besieging forces stopped attacking, and by this time they were able to see the houses and streets of Vienna.

At 7 a.m., the commander of the German Lower Cluster, Admiral Hausen, sent an envoy to negotiate with the Vienna city defense forces, demanding that Baron Vladimir hand over Count Adamas, in exchange for which the German besieging forces would retreat to the starting point of the previous attack, otherwise the Germans would continue to advance towards the city of Vienna.

Baron Vladimir accepted this request. The Germans on the outskirts of Vienna began to retreat, and the Austrians then released the fourth count of Adam and allowed the count to leave Vienna with his retinue.

Hearing the heavy gunfire that had been raging overnight, and the news of the disappearance of the Austrian Prime Minister and a number of government officials, the people of Vienna were even more terrified. To avoid even worse confusion, Baron Vladimir and General Offenberg announced that the military would take over all affairs in Vienna and sent troops throughout the city to search for the missing officials.

Towards noon, the light rain that had lasted for more than a day finally stopped.

The warm sun shone on the earth again, but it failed to bring good luck to the troubled Austro-Hungarian Empire.

The first to discover the large German airship group was an observation post deployed by the Austrian Army more than 40 kilometers from the coast.

When the report reached Baron Condra. He held up his telescope and could find the black dots flying high in the northern sky.

"Ordered all parts to disperse concealed personnel, organize machine guns for air defense. Pay special attention to the concealment and protection of artillery positions and ammunition depots! Baron Condra prepared his troops for the German air raids, and by this time he had gathered nearly 400,000 troops along the Branica River and Mount Veridix, albeit with limited ammunition and heavy equipment. But the morale of the officers and men was high and well prepared, and they vowed to deal a head-on blow to the German invaders.

In fact, Baron Condra himself was uncertain about how long the morale of his troops would be maintained, and he deliberately deployed those who had withdrawn from Austria from those transferred from Italy, in order to prevent those soldiers who had fought with the Germans from bringing the pessimism to the rest of the troops.

When Baron Condra's troops were all ready, waiting for the German airships to bombard indiscriminately, the group of German airships flying in more than a dozen medium formations did not stop over their positions, nor did they drop a single bomb. At this time, Baron Kondra reacted that the goal of the Germans was not himself, but the Austro-Hungarian fleet behind him!

Wait for Baron Condra's urgent telegram to reach Admiral Anton House. German airship formations have long appeared in their field of vision. Fortunately, Admiral Anton was also prepared for air raids, so his ships were not anchored, and at least the normal boilers were kept in operation.

"Pass my order, the fleet set sail, disperse and evade in sub-fleets, pay attention to widening the distance between ships, organize anti-aircraft shooting, but pay attention to saving ammunition! The 1st Battleship Detachment was to the south, the 2nd Battleship Detachment was to the west, and the 3rd Battleship Detachment was to the southwest. Burn the wind! ”

After the signal from the flagship "Prince Eugen", the Austro-Hungarian fleet, which had been anchored in six columns off the coast, quickly moved. From the sky, the ships were moving in different directions with white water marks, and the scene was like a herd of deer attacked by fierce tigers, and each deer only wanted to flee for their lives.

Before the German airship formations began to drop bombs, the artillery fire of the Austro-Hungarian fleet rang out first.

The leading German airship also gave a light signal shortly after: "Look for targets in each squadron, try to attack valuable targets, and keep the altitude above 2500 meters!" ”

At 11:51 p.m. on February 8, the German airship L-117 was the first to drop bombs, and its target was the battleship "Count Cavour", the largest tonnage of the Austro-Hungarian home fleet.

The two loaders filled the shell into the chamber as fast as they could, and then shouted: "Reloaded!" ”

The observer pointed the muzzle at the target and waved his hand, "Shoot!" ”

As the gunner pulled the cannon rope, the cannon shook violently, and the thick smell of gunsmoke came to his face.

This scene took place not on an artillery position or a battleship, but on the Luftwaffe airship L231. The Fortress-class supership is firing 75-millimeter high-explosive grenades at an Austro-Hungarian warship at a depth of 3,000 meters.

"10 meters to the right!" The observer quickly reported the data, the gunner quickly reoriented the cannon, and the loader opened the bolt to load the next shell into the chamber. The only difference with using a cannon on an airship is that the muzzle of this cannon is facing downwards and the tail is facing up, so you have to be very careful when loading the cannonballs.

"Reloaded!"

"Shoot!" The second shell whizzed away, and this time, it hit the aft deck of the target accurately, after a cloud of exploding fire. The rear of the battleship was shrouded in thick black smoke.

"Okay, one more shot!" The observer shouted excitedly.

Two squadrons of 36 Fortress-class airships became the most successful German airship unit on this day, and at the same time became a huge nightmare for the Austro-Hungarian Navy. After firing all 540 75-mm high-explosive grenades, 31 Austro-Hungarian ships were hit, and another "ship was flooded because of a near-miss."

Hit by a high-speed grenade from above, although the large battleship did not worry about capsizing, the officers and men on the control towers, chimneys, gun emplacements, and open-air combat positions above the deck could not escape their fate. Among them, the most seriously injured were the battleships "Radetz", "Leonard" and "Krems", the upper stage of which almost completely collapsed, and the "Radetz" and "Leonard" were forced to stop because of serious chimney damage. "Krems" was no better. Only the No. 3 turret was still usable for its weapons above deck, and the other turrets were either deformed or stuck, and the three capital ships were basically incapacitated.

Furthermore. Two destroyers and three transports were sunk by 75-mm shells from German fortress-class airships, two Austro-Hungarian destroyers, one due to a large amount of flooding, and the other from shells piercing the deck and detonating the ammunition depot.

In this round of air raids alone, the Austro-Hungarian fleet lost hundreds of personnel to the Nami fortress-class airship, which was originally designed to deal with important targets on land, but did not want to be the first to make a big impact on the sea.

Compared with the fortress-class airships, the other 200 or so airships that came to carry out the bombing mission did not have high bombing accuracy, but they carried more powerful aerial bombs. The battleship "Archduke Franz Ferdinand" was hit by a 500-kilogram aerial bomb falling from an altitude of more than 3,000 meters and collapsed on the sea, the boiler room, engine room and middle turret were all damaged, and the entire crew lost nearly a third of the crew in the explosion and the ensuing fire.

In addition to the "Archduke Franz Ferdinand", 2 cruisers, 1 destroyer and 2 transport ships were sunk by aerial bombs from German airships, and the number of damaged ships reached 12.

As a result, before the German army and navy were engaged, Admiral Anton House had nearly half of his ships damaged, and his combat effectiveness was not only reduced by a third, but the blow to morale was even more incalculable. Even if you get to shoot down 2 German airships and damage 7. The Austro-Hungarian fleet, from the generals to the sailors, could not be more happy.

When it was time for lunch, the German airship formation was gone, but there were more than 100 Austro-Hungarian ships scattered on the sea, many of which were still burning and smoking, and there were broken planks, broken wood blocks, lifebuoys, canvases, wine bottles, and human bodies floating in the cold water.

"Perhaps, we should drive away from the coast, so that the Germans will not be so easy to spot us!" Admiral Anton's chief of staff made his own suggestion, and he knew that Admiral Anton was worried about the fuel problem, so he added: "You can also let the transport and supply ships pull coal out of the Pula military port, although the speed is slower, and our warships at least don't have to risk stopping at the dock to refuel coal!" ”

Admiral Anton House's face was terrifyingly black at this time, as if he had just been slapped in the face. The staff officer's advice was feasible in principle, but he looked up, squinted his eyes, and saw two black dots in the sky.

"I think unless it's clouds or a storm, they'll be there watching over us all the time! Send a telegram to the port of Pula and let the transport ship bring the fuel, and if this continues, we will run out of fuel in two days! ”

"Yes!" Before going down to deliver the order, the chief of staff also raised his eyes, but saw nothing because of the sunlight.

After lunch, the Austro-Hungarian fleet regrouped, and Admiral Anton assigned the more seriously wounded ships to the new 7th Column, so as not to affect the mobility of the other ships.

At 2 p.m., the 2nd Fleet from Taranto joined up with the Home Fleet, and with the addition of the battleships "Combined Forces", "St. Polten", "Karl", "Apada" and "Mulau", as well as light cruisers and destroyers, Anton House suddenly increased in strength.

When the German air force attacked for the second time in one day, Baron Condra on land did not hesitate, and he immediately conveyed the news to the Austro-Hungarian fleet on the sea.

This time, Anton House accelerated his warship to its maximum speed early, and before the German aviation units flew over their heads, 7 columns had already dispersed.

Unfortunately, this time it was not the slow airship units with low bombing accuracy that flew in, but the much larger German fleet!

A full 450 attack planes, bombers, and torpedo planes flew in three echelons, each divided into 30 five-plane formations, one five-plane formation against a small ship, two to three five-plane formations against a medium-sized ship, and three to five five-plane formations against a battleship.

This was not the first encounter in the history of mankind between large formations and large formations of warships, both at Pascaflo and at the mouth of the Thames, the German air forces achieved an absolute victory.

As soon as the battle began, the flagship of the Austro-Hungarian fleet, the "Prince Eugen", was targeted by more than two dozen German fighters. I saw two of the five-plane formations whizzing over the "Prince-Eugen", provoking a burst of fierce anti-air fire from the "Prinz Eugen" and several nearby destroyers, but their shotguns and machine-gun rounds were always a little away from those German planes. Just as the sailors' energy was attracted directly above, a row of five German torpedo planes quietly flew from the starboard side of the "Prince Eugen". By the time the anti-aircraft fire on the starboard side of the "Prince Eugen" had been readjusted to the surface, the five torpedo planes had flown to a distance of only 3,000 yards from the battleship, and each of the torpedoes below them seemed to be eager to try.

"Fire! Hurry up! The air defense commander of the "Prince Eugen" was almost crazy, and if his men were not happy, the German torpedoes would have cut the 20,000-ton battleship into a few big holes.

The sound of the roar of the guns and the smoke rising from the starboard side soothed the extremely nervous commander a little, and soon the shotguns and machine gun shells that flew out caused countless splashes and columns of water on the sea not far away, but the five German torpedo planes were still flying in this direction.

"Keep shooting! Fast! ”

Fifteen seconds later, the German torpedo planes were approaching a distance of 2,500 yards, and at that moment, they suddenly pulled up the nose and climbed.

The artillery fire on the "Prinz Eugen" did not stop, and after a while, someone was heard shouting:

"Torpedo! Torpedo! A torpedo was found on the starboard side! ”

Sure enough, several white water marks loomed on the sea.