Hey, British, this is a continental war that has nothing to do with you, stay away from it, away from death and sorrow!

In Newcastle-on-Tyne, a vibrant port city of the industrial age, hundreds of thousands of flyers fall like snowflakes on squares, streets, ports and factories, each with such a short but powerful sentence written on it. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 Info saw that the German planes were dropping pieces of paper that had no hard damage, whether it was the soldiers and police waiting outside, or the people watching behind the windows, the fear in their hearts suddenly diminished, and their attention quickly shifted from the hovering and roaring planes to the contents of these leaflets.

- This is a war between the Germans and the Austrians and the French and the Russians, why should Britain get involved? Over the past half-century, France and Russia have threatened Britain far more than the Germans.

- Britain should withdraw from this war. If possible, a long-term peace agreement with the Germans would be concluded so that the Germans would concentrate their energies on the European continent and Britain's maritime position would not be threatened.

- Why did the British help the Gauls and Slavs in the war, needlessly sacrificing their elite and valuable navy? In the end, it was the United States and Japan that benefited.

Such a view existed not only in the minds of the British people, but also in the minds of many local officials and military personnel who read the leaflets of the Germans. In fact, regardless of national sentiment or historical origins, the Entente camp formed by Britain, France and Russia can only be regarded as an expedient alliance, not an iron ally who lives and dies together. Britain and France have been bitter enemies for many years, and not long ago there was a fierce confrontation over Egypt; There were irreconcilable contradictions between British and Russian interests in the Near East, and before Russia's crushing defeat in the Russo-Japanese War, the Russian fleet was Britain's number one naval rival, and Britain's repeated tough interventions during the Russo-Turkish War also aroused the resentment of the Russians through gnashing of teeth.

After dropping leaflets in Newcastle, Gateshead, Wolsend, South Shields and other places along the Tyne, the six German planes quickly departed, during which they did reconnaissance over the Eswik shipyard but did not drop explosives or incendiary ordination as the British feared, a move that seemed to demonstrate the Germans' ininterest in fighting Britain – at least in Newcastle, where many people felt the expression, but the faint anti-war voice was not enough to attract the attention of the British government and the military. At this moment, these men who held the power and directly decided the fate of Britain were still thinking about how to turn the tide on the battlefield.

Under the clear blue sky, in the sea southeast of Scarpa Bay, a fleet of 13 battleships, 5 armored cruisers, 7 light cruisers, 22 destroyers, and 3 seaplane carriers slowly moved south in an anti-submarine escort formation. Battleships, armored cruisers, and seaplane carriers formed three columns, light cruisers and destroyers were scattered around the columns, and every officer and soldier at the combat post kept a close eye on the surrounding water. Over the course of several days, German submarine activity around Scarpa Bay continued unabated, and in addition to the battleship Dreadnought, they sank two protective cruisers, one destroyer, and seven non-combat vessels, and continued to try to infiltrate the British fleet anchorage at night. Due to the strategic location of Scapa Flow, the British Navy had to urgently redeploy ships from the east coast to strengthen the defensive forces of Scapaflo Naval Base.

With Admiral Jerichale left behind, the striking British battle fleet was effectively placed under the command of Vice Admiral Sir Lévis Bailey. During the Battle of Jutland, Sir Bailey was the commander of the 1st Battleship Squadron of the "George V", compared to the tragic fate of the Bernie Squadron, the performance and luck of this squadron were not too bad, and the "Emperor", "Conqueror", and "Thunderbolt" belonging to it are also the absolute main force of the British battle fleet at present. Among the major admirals of the British Navy, Sir Bailey's qualifications and abilities were obvious to all, but it was only because of his age and prestige that he was unable to hold the important position of commander of the home fleet.

As for one of the favourites to become the next commander of the Home Fleet, Admiral David Beatty, who was in the prime of life and famous, was now on the spacious and bright bridge of the "Ireland". Jutland's crushing defeat cast a shadow over his future, and it was clear that if he wanted to break the ice, he would have to get back up where he fell.

Being able to win the opportunity to take command of the "Ireland" and "Aginkut" in the future, Betty seemed to see the hope of turning over, but it was not easy to turn this hope into reality. The two battleships were both export ships, which were requisitioned by the British government because of the outbreak of war, and their actual service time was less than half a month, and the equipment and crew were seriously lacking. After receiving the order to attack, the sailors on the ship were ready and fearless, but the officers all looked worried. At this point, they had no choice but to seize the last time to conduct combat drills. After following the fleet out of the berth, both ships organized officers and men to carry out live-fire operations and opened fire test firing while sailing. The deafening sound of artillery boosted the morale of the fleet to a certain extent, but also made Betty see the grim reality: although the two battleships were equipped with many experienced officers and men, both the speed of execution of tactical orders and the accuracy of technology were not satisfactory. Judging from the encounter between the battle patrol formations of both sides in Jutland, the German fleet is undoubtedly a very formidable opponent, and it is still in a 100% state of defeat, if it is only 50%, the result is enough to make people anxious!

Betty was struggling with how the two new ships could be used to their best when suddenly, an unusually dull thud came from the sea ahead. As the live-fire exercise was still ongoing, most of the officers and men on the "Ireland" were indifferent, and there were neither suspicious shadows nor enemy aircraft in sight, but David Betty on the bridge was unusually vigilant and watched. I saw that there were some scattered white waves on both sides of the bow of the "Emperor", which served as the temporary flagship, and the majestic super dreadnought looked safe and sound at first glance, but the ripples around the hull seemed to reveal the violent shock it had just experienced!

"Attention! Enemy attack! ”

Betty's calm and powerful roar finally made the casual guys around her realize the gravity of the situation, the fleet was only more than twenty nautical miles from the naval anchorage in Scarpa Bay, and the mist-shrouded outline of Southern Ronasay Island could be seen in retrospect. In addition to the accompanying destroyers, at this time in the waters around the British battle fleet can also see a lot of British gunboats and small torpedo boats on alert cruise, in this safe and orderly situation, there are usually only two possibilities to be attacked: torpedoes fired by German submarines, mines laid by German ships in advance!

After initial confusion and hesitation, the escort ships of the British fleet began to frantically search the sea for traces of German submarines. After a while, one destroyer opened fire, and another ship not far away also began to shoot, and the sound of banging cannons suddenly had a strong psychological hint to the combatants on other ships, and everyone began to be nervously vigilant about the surrounding sea.

More than ten minutes have passed since the explosion, and the damaged "Emperor" hull has been significantly tilted, fortunately, this is a super dreadnought with advanced design, not only has superior firepower, but also has anti-sinking performance on the basis of the dreadnought, the thinnest part of the main armor belt of the waterline is also 8 inches, the key protection position has reached 12 inches, and the compartment is further subdivided, the overall protection performance is stronger than most battleships including the German Helgoland class, only slightly inferior to the latest Kaiser-class and King-class of the German Navy. Under the calm command of the officers, the British sailors successfully controlled the flooding of the damaged walls and the lower cabins, and after an emergency filling of water into the watertight compartment on the left side, the "Emperor" gradually regained its balance, the superstructure was unharmed, and the bow deck sank by two or three meters, but it was still able to sail at a speed of more than a dozen knots.

"If the ship is damaged, it will return to the berth for emergency repair, the commander will be transferred to the 'Thunderbolt', the fleet mission will remain unchanged, and the ships will strengthen their vigilance and continue to move forward."

The flag signal of the "Emperor" was fired three times in a row, and the witnesses were as heavy as Betty. Because of the delay in receiving information about the strength of the German fleet, the main generals of the British battle fleet had prepared for the worst, and now they had lost another capital ship without even seeing the shadow of the enemy.

Betty was silent until the "Thunderbolt" raised Sir Bailey's lieutenant general flag, and when the commander was in position on the new flagship, he instructed his deputy: "Send a signal to the flagship: in order to prevent a German submarine attack, it is advisable to send seaplanes to reconnoiter the whole process." ”

The breezy weather is just right for seaplanes to take off and land, but among the three seaplane carriers, in addition to the "Egadin" with a maximum speed of more than 20 knots, the other two can only run out of about 18 knots, and they are not as advanced as the Germans, seaplanes need to be put on the water with a boom to take off, in the process of releasing and retracting seaplanes, the mothership must reduce its own speed to less than 6 knots, which means that once the fleet speed exceeds 16 knots, It will be very difficult for three seaplane carriers to catch up with the pace of the fleet.

Betty would not have been unaware of this trouble, and now the problem was left to Sir Bailey, who had been appointed to command the fleet. A few minutes later, the Thunderbolt issued an order to the three seaplane carriers, "Egadin", "Hagmet", and "Luneau", asking them to release seaplanes in batches to ensure that at least two seaplanes were on air alert around the fleet at the same time.

It wasn't long before two Schott seaplanes took to the air, and the fleet's escort destroyers and patrol ships on anti-submarine alert duty in the waters off Scapa Bay were still searching for the attackers, but they found nothing in the area other than unconfirmed lookout reports. Despite this, most people still think that the "Emperor" was hit by a torpedo fired by a German submarine, after all, before this, there had never been a precedent for a British ship to strike a mine in the waters around Scapa Bay, and there was no information about the German ship coming to lay mines, but the British Navy laid more than 1,000 anchor mines one after another out of the need for vigilance and defense - unless the anchor chain broke off, these triggered mines would always stay in a fixed minefield, and even if there was an accident, Mines that are floating are not difficult to be observed by the attentive crew and give an advance warning.

(End of chapter)