"It was reported that the fleet's 10-degree turn to the right had been completed, heading 16 degrees north-west of the target and 20 nautical miles from the target port. Pen Fun Pavilion www.biquge.info"

In the heavily armored command tower, an officer with a young and steady face and a neat and concise military uniform reported to the middle-aged general who was thin and standing on the side in a round, neutral tone.

The middle-aged general wore a dark blue navy uniform with a short placket and a slight stripe on his chest representing the rank of German vice admiral. He had short hair about an inch in length, a lean and swarthy man, a neatly trimmed upper lip, a brief goat's whisker on his chin, black-shelled binoculars on his chest, and small eyes that looked very shrewd.

Through the porthole of the command tower in front of you, you can see a large amount of gray-black gunsmoke on the far sea in front of the port side. There was only one lone ship in the open sea between the ship and the smoke of gunfire, and its high-speed state could be seen from the white waves stirred up by the bow, and the two naval guns stacked on the foredeck occasionally spewed out flames and smoke, but the shells that fell were still thousands of kilometers away from the ship.

In the immediate vicinity, the two large twin main turrets are quietly pointing in front of the port side, and the twin secondary turrets on the side of the second main turret are turning, and the straight and slender barrels have crossed the gangway, fine-tuning the high and low angles.

Estimating that the poor British destroyer had come within effective range of his secondary guns, the German vice admiral with a short goat's beard spoke with a calm and unambiguous expression: "Shoot!" ”

The officer standing in front of the microphone, a large, round-shouldered man, immediately conveyed the firing command to the perforating chamber in a sonorous baritone.

A few seconds later, the twin secondary guns in front of the porthole of the Command Tower erupted with bright tongues of fire. 4。 The roar of a 1-inch cannon sounds much softer and less trembling than the roar of the main gun, but that doesn't mean they're insignificant. Originally intended to be used as the main guns on German Navy light cruisers, these new naval guns developed by Krupp were faster and longer firing than previous guns of the same caliber, and were equipped with high-explosive and armor-piercing shells with greater destructive power. After the German Navy's top brass changed the firepower configuration of the light cruisers, these guns were used on new, larger ships, and most of them used flexible and fast twin secondary turrets to provide ample and dense firepower at medium defensive distances.

In the blink of an eye, the shells fired by the ships of the fleet rained down on the sea thousands of meters away, and the waves they stirred up instantly enveloped the weak but unruly British destroyer. With the difference in strength between the two sides, the suspense of this battle is only how long it can hold out. After a dozen seconds, the twin secondary guns in front of and below the porthole fired again without any pressure, and the smoke from the muzzle of the guns quickly dispersed with the wind. Ten seconds later, they fired three times, with an astonishing rate of fire.

In the distance, beyond the waves, there was soon a new sight. The short-haired goat slowly raised his binoculars, and in his magnified field of view, the solitary British destroyer was still moving forward, but the foredeck and bridge were already in shambles. The guns were strangely distorted, and the crews were scattered around the battle position, and the bleak scene of blood flowing down was like purgatory.

Another round of bullets rained down, the bridge and amidships of the British destroyer exploded one after another, and more and more space on the ship was swallowed up by flames and smoke. Another shell hit the hull, and the most stubborn figure fell......

The heavy rain of bullets lasted only three or four minutes, and the British destroyer could no longer move forward. Its tilted deck drew closer to the water, and all the ship's guns stopped roaring. After the short-haired goat had to order a ceasefire, the sea was suddenly eerily quiet. Just when it was thought that the surviving British sailors should seize their last chance to escape, an embarrassed figure was stranded near the stern of the ship at the torpedo firing position. Suddenly, a faint puff of smoke emanated from the mouth of the circular launch tube, and a pointed torpedo flew into the water, but even if it could sail to the target's location, the distance provided the opponent with plenty of time to evade.

Shortly after the torpedo was fired, the devastated destroyer exploded extremely violently without any external force and quickly sank in a state of disintegration. The battlefield fell silent, and the British sailors who survived could only watch the tattered St. George's Cross flag on the mast disappear from the sea.

From the appearance of the German fleet to the sinking of two British warships one after another, it was just an interval between a cup of afternoon tea.

A few minutes later, the German fleet passed by the survivors of the battle, and on the mighty ships, the hatches and hatches were open for the main turret and the side turrets, and the German gunners in white uniforms were watching the British sailors floating on the surface with a hateless gaze. Although the ship's machine guns were able to kill the poor creatures in an instant, the Germans were not as bloodthirsty as some newspapers portrayed. At the behalf-time message of a dignified officer on the bridge, several German sailors threw down their lifebuoys - although it was not far from the British coast, the current wind and waves were a great drain on the swimmer's physical strength, and the better ones could swim back to shore or support until the rescue ship arrived, and the worse ones were all up to luck.

Holding the lifebuoys thrown by the Germans, the embarrassed British sailors were able to get a good look at the sudden appearance of the German fleet. The 11 battleships were divided into two columns, one column was five large ships, all of which were arranged in four twin-mounted main turrets, arranged in the central axis, and placed on top of each other behind the main and auxiliary bridges of the main bridge; The main bridge is a not particularly tall tower structure, behind which are towering three-legged masts, and between the two bridges are two chimneys of the same size, between which are hung transport boats, sampans, and some objects included in canvas. The bow shape is not the usual razor-shaped shape today, but the lower part is vertical, the upper part is outward, and the side hull at the waterline position seems to be curved and promising.

Returning to the whole from the details, the sharp-eyed British sailors saw the "clues": these five battleships are different in size and length, but the side silhouettes are the same, it is like a template enlarged and reduced in size!

In the relative abundance of observation time, some British sailors also carefully observed another German battleship, which was supposed to be a relatively new cruiser, mostly between 3,000 and 5,000 tons, and had four twin main turrets along the central axis like the great warships. British cruisers of different classes often had their own characteristics, and the similarity of the side profiles of these German cruisers made it easy for the opposing observers to misjudge in the heat of naval battles. In addition, some British sailors were anxious to see that the German cruisers were carrying a considerable number of mines, and this extremely destructive trigger weapon was very easy to deploy, but it was difficult to completely remove it, and once laid on the British coastal route, it would have a catastrophic impact on the shipping in the east of England in a short time.

In the distance, the covering smoke screen released by the two British warships had gradually dissipated, and the shadows of the seven ships that had fled to the shore were still clearly visible. After adjusting the course again, the German fleet once again launched a thunderous artillery bombardment, and the main guns of the stern of the ships that had obtained the firing range were also added, and the firepower was doubled compared to the previous one. After only two rounds of fire, a freighter was hit by artillery fire, and black smoke billowed from the wounded hull.

"Butcher! Devil! You damned Germans, go to hell! ”

A British sailor lying on a lifebuoy wrestled his fist angrily at the distant back of the German fleet, and the red and white lifebuoy had "The Emperor's Battleship - Seydlitz" written in German.

After about twenty minutes, the Germans stopped their long-range artillery bombardment without pressure, and the powerful heavy shells smashed three British civilian ships into the sea, a one-sided naval attack that was in line with the "naval blockade warfare" envisioned by some naval war theorists, that is, attacking enemy transport ships with fast and long-range warships, so as to achieve the goal of blockading the enemy country from the sea. However, in the waters near the mouth of the Arbus River on British soil, the German fleet's attack on British ships seemed to be a mere passing, and they then pointed their guns high at the port of Grimsby, which was protected by the coastal fortifications.

At this moment, the sirens of the British ships and the sound of cannons from the sea had informed the British soldiers and civilians of the attack of the German fleet in and around Grimsby - the terrible news was spreading like a black plague with incredible propagation over the east coast of England, and then throughout England. Within a few hours, it would be appearing in the press and media in various countries in a variety of tones, reminding people that the war is evolving in complex and varied ways.

"The Germans are coming!"

The scream was like a sharp knife piercing the proud heart of the British. Over the years, they have bombarded the doors of one backward country after another with strong ships and artillery, plundered the wealth of these countries in an extremely barbaric way, and oppressed the people of these countries.

With great nervousness, the British officers and men stationed at the fortress at the mouth of the Abs River stared intently at the sea, and behind them was Grimsby, a traditional seaport in the east of England. It is neither a military port nor a political and economic location, but its greatest significance at the moment lies in the fact that it stands on the shores of Britain's homeland.

This is an absolute no-go zone in the British Empire!

Watching several of their civilian ships flee in a hurry under enemy shelling, the British officers and soldiers guarding the fortress were full of anger but had no way to vent their anger. In a vulnerable island nation like Britain, coastal defence is a top priority, but in recent years the Royal Navy has had to devote most of its funds to a shipbuilding race with the Germans, leaving them with neither the energy nor the money to strengthen coastal fortifications. Had it not been for the dismantling and sale of a considerable number of old warships for the purpose of raising funds for the construction of ships, and transferring their still serviceable naval guns to the coastal defense forces, the British garrison might even have to use antique-class guns to deal with the enemy. Before 1906, the vast majority of battleship main guns had a range of just over 10,000 meters, and the effective distance of fleet artillery battles was considered to be 6,000 to 8,000 yards, but in 1914, the improvement of metallurgical forging technology enabled the latest naval guns to obtain a range of more than 20,000 meters, and the use of new sighting equipment also greatly improved the long-range accuracy of naval guns, which meant that once the British coastal fortresses met the new German warships, long-range artillery battles would only suffer.

Upon receiving the enemy's situation, the alert ships stationed in the upper reaches of the estuary were urgently dispatched, but when these old notification ships, torpedo boats, destroyers, and gunboats of smaller tonnage were relegated to the second line, they sailed to the open sea, and the artillerymen of the fortress felt no sense of relief in their hearts. When the dejected freighter barges approached the coast, the dark shadow of the German fleet also appeared in the eastern sea. The battle alarm bell suddenly rang through the fortress, and the azimuth and distance parameters of the enemy ship's target were continuously transmitted from the observation post to the artillery position, and the fortress artillery of large and small calibers had been raised to the maximum elevation angle, and now it was only waiting for the enemy to enter the firing range.

Far beyond the range of the fortified guns, and even beyond the effective viewing range of ordinary optical equipment, the German fleet opened fire - and the sight of the fire and smoke that appeared at the far end of the sea was equally astonished to the British officers and men guarding the fort and their companions on the warships, but few of them associated this with the slightly noisy grey plane in the sky, which would soon teach them a very painful lesson.

In the beginning, each round of artillery bombardment of the German fleet was divided into two echelons that were relatively close to each other, which was a common "shoot-observe-adjust-shoot" tactic in naval warfare, that is, one of the twin main guns fired first, and the commander adjusted the firing parameters according to the landing point of the first shell, and then fired with the other gun, and so on until the impact point of the bullet approached the target. After several rounds of tuning, German bombshells began to cross the British fortress and smash into the Grimsby. Once on the shore, each of these large-caliber high-explosive shells can bring a strong shock of landslides and ground cracks, shaking and shaking, and they can easily raze houses, kill and injure people and animals in the vicinity, and shatter glass in a radius of kilometers, but these are not the deadliest. As the artillery fire continued to stretch towards the harbor docks, a giant mushroom-shaped fireball suddenly rose into the air - it was the Royal Navy's 10,000-ton fuel depot in Grimsby!

Under Sir Fisher's leadership, most of the British ships built after 1906 used oil-fired boilers. Compared with traditional coal-fired boilers, liquid fuels are highly efficient and easy to store, transport and use, which brings great convenience to the Royal Navy, but the UK does not produce oil in the UK. In order to prepare for the problems of shipping during the war, the British Navy had to store at home the combat fuel that could be used by the fleet for several months -- in view of the huge size of the home fleet, stimulated by the second Moroccan crisis and the two Balkan crises, the British Navy had by the summer of 1914 a few million tons of fuel on the mainland, which were scattered in various coastal ports, and although there were relatively complete warning mechanisms and fire prevention measures, it was impossible to withstand the bombardment of large-caliber naval guns.

Seeing the raging fire raging in the harbor, the British officers and men guarding the fort were already indignant, and when they saw that their own ships bravely meeting the German fleet were intercepted by dense fire on the sea, they opened fire in a rage, and the heavy artillery fire in vain stirred up the waves and stirred up the mud, and did not even touch the side of the German fleet.

The huge and striking fireball seemed to be a clear signal of command, and a moment later, the German fleet, which was about to enter the range of the British fortification, ceased fire, and the 11 warships drew a simple and sleek arc on the sea, and the course changed from the mouth of the Abs River to parallel to the British coastline, which made the angry British gunners stare in disgust.

The fortress artillery was useless, and it was logical that the hope of revenge was pinned on the unparalleled Royal Navy - on the first day of the war, the main force of the British Home Fleet sailed from the southern military port of England to the base in the north of Scotland to block the German navy's access to the Atlantic together with the Channel Fleet. This "long-range blockade" was different from the "coastal blockade" used by the British Navy, which left considerable room for the German fleet to maneuver, and was perceived by many as a sign that the British were afraid of the German lightning strike fleet. In fact, it conforms to the trend of technological development of naval warfare weapons and is a correct judgment of the situation in naval warfare. With a clear superiority over the enemy, the British Navy created a cage of unprecedented scale for the High Seas Fleet, which the Germans had spent so much money building.

The beasts with sharp teeth and claws are not willing to be trapped in a cage, but if they want to break the iron cage built by the British, it is not enough to have a reconnaissance fleet with battle cruisers at the core. Sinking a few ships and destroying a fuel depot is not enough to have a substantial impact on the strategic posture. The strategic posture has long been formed, war has already broken out, and before the victory is decided or the stalemate is reached, the belligerents want to defeat their opponents by the most direct military means.

(End of chapter)