It was also a simple and nutritious breakfast, which was eaten especially heavily by King George V in London. After the www.biquge.info of Pen and Fun was finished, he received Winston Churchill, Lord of the Admiralty, and Prince Louis of Battenberg, First Sea Lord, who had arrived early in the morning in his study at Buckingham Palace.

In the United Kingdom, the Admiralty is the highest civilian officer in the Admiralty, and the First Sea Secretary is the highest position of a career naval officer, and is subject to the control of the Admiralty.

"Your Majesty, the Royal Navy has suffered the greatest disaster in a century." The elder Prince Louis said in a sad and heavy voice.

In fact, when he woke up in the morning, George V learned the nightmarish news, and the king, who had served in the Royal Navy for many years, was naturally distressed, but his resolute character made him choose to face reality. He looked up at Prince Louis, a respected veteran of the Royal Navy who came from a small country in southern Germany, Battenberg. When he chose to join the British Navy, the Second German Reich had not yet been formed, and now it is already part of it.

Despite his German aristocratic ancestry, Prince Louis was respected and supported by British naval officers and sailors even at the worst of Anglo-German relations, as the British royal family was also very close to the German royal family. George V's father, the former King Edward VII of England, belonged to the Saxe-Coburg-Gotha family of German origin, and this relationship naturally caused George V to be deeply troubled from the beginning of the war against Germany.

"Do we still have any hope of winning this battle?" George V asked.

Prince Louis was silent, and a young and vigorous Churchill replied loudly: "The glorious Royal Navy has suffered many setbacks in its history, and each time it has been able to turn defeat into victory, and I am sure this one is no exception." ”

Of course, confidence alone could not solve the problem, and Churchill went on to analyze: "In the naval battle last night, we were undoubtedly the losing side, and the loss of a large number of ships and personnel greatly reduced the strength of the home fleet, and although the German main fleet had fewer sunken ships than ours, many of their ships were damaged, and it would take a long time to repair these warships, and it would inevitably consume a lot of steel resources, which was what Germany was most lacking in at present, which was most lacking by the naval blockade of Germany." If they are anxious to break our blockade, they will take the initiative to challenge us, and if a naval battle breaks out in the northern part of the North Sea or in the English Channel, the geography is completely in our favor, and as long as we are calm, we have a good chance of a reversal and victory. ”

Prince Louis supported: "Yes, Your Majesty, as long as we firmly block the two exits of the North Sea, even if the German navy achieves a temporary victory, it will not be able to change their strategic disadvantage. Without sea routes, it will be impossible for them to compete with us in the speed of shipbuilding. ”

George V rested his elbows on his knees and dragged his chin with his hands: "Now my main concern is whether Britain can survive these two months." If the people knew of the crushing defeat of the home fleet, they would be extremely depressed. ”

Prince Louis immediately said: "With such a fiasco, we can't block the news." ”

Churchill, 40, who is in the prime of his nimble mind and quick thinking, said quickly: "No, there is no need to block the news, what we need to do is to give the right guidance to public opinion, so that the people can turn their grief into anger, turn anger into strength, and devote all their strength to repairing warships and building new ships." If all goes well, our Grand Fleet will be able to regroup in just two weeks, and with the ships urgently repatriated from the Mediterranean, we will have 3-4 battlecruisers, 12-14 dreadnoughts, and a large number of old battleships against the disjointed German main fleet. ”

George V, who was nine years older than Churchill, was also in the prime of life, and after thinking about it, he felt that what the Admiralty Secretary had said also made some sense, so he asked him: "Then how should we guide public opinion?" ”

"Blaming the defeat in this naval battle on bad luck is to make it clear to the public that our naval officers and men showed valor and courage in the battle, that we did our best, that there were no obvious flaws in the command and tactical use of the battle, that the Germans skillfully laid traps, and that they took advantage of the bad weather."

Churchill said as he looked at Prince Louis, after all, he was the admiral and had a convincing say in warfare.

George V looked at Churchill and, when he had finished, also looked at Prince Louis.

Prince Louis, well aware of the gravity of the situation, replied rather cautiously: "Although the details of the naval battle will not be known until the fleet reports, from what I know of Admiral Jericho, it is unlikely that he was negligent in command, and Sir Bernie, General Bradford, and General Thomas, these are all trustworthy commanders." The analysis that His Excellency the Admiral has just made is logical, and I personally think that it is possible that it is very close to the actual situation. ”

"Without further ado." Churchill preemptively suggested before George V's clear statement, "We had better act as soon as possible, lest we have to cover up our explanations after the German side has published the war report." ”

At this point, George V had no choice but to make up his mind and agree to Churchill's preconceived plan.

At three o'clock in the morning, the German people who were anxiously waiting at the military dock in the port of Kiel finally saw the second batch of naval ships sailing through the canal locks, and among these scarred battleships, dreadnoughts finally appeared, one was the capital ship "Catherine", which had been in service for less than two years, and the other was the "Ostfrieland", which had been in service for three years and five months. Unfortunately, both dreadnoughts suffered heavy blows in the engagement with the British fleet, and the "Catherine" was attacked by two British capital ships at close range, and its whole body was covered with bullet holes of all sizes, and the ship was flooded with more than 4,000 tons, and the bow deck was close to the water, and it was almost one step away from sinking, and the "Ostfreeland" also suffered 7 rounds and 13 shots in the latter battle with the British main fleet. The 5-inch large-caliber armor-piercing projectile, the number of dead on the ship was as high as 192, the wounded were close to 300, and the ship's guns were basically damaged.

Although the dismal appearance of the "Catherine" and "Ostfrieland" and the large number of wounded who were transported off the ship greatly disappointed the onlookers, and more and more people felt that the safety of their families was on pins and needles, the excited officers and sailors of the Navy brought good news to the people after the light ships escorting them back to the dock: the German fleet had won, and it was a great victory, and the main fleet was still behind to clear the battlefield, and later it would triumph with the victorious division.

The news spread rapidly, and the solemn atmosphere that shrouded people's hearts was suddenly swept away.

By noon, the three capital ships "Frederick the Great", "Posen", and "Seydlitz", which had been separated from the battle due to injuries, and more than a dozen light ships with varying degrees of damage also returned to the port of Kiel, and the crews confirmed the previous news: the German navy had indeed won a great victory, and although the battle was over, the fleet commander who had replaced the temporary flagship was still looking for an opportunity to expand the results with the capital ship group.

Unlike those ships that were damaged by artillery fire or torpedoes, the flagship of the High Seas Fleet, the "Frederick the Great", brought a completely different visual shock to the naval officers and men of the base and the people, it was like a vehicle that had been involved in a serious traffic accident, the hull was unrecognizable because of the violent impact, the front part of the bow was missing, and the back section was also deflated, and the whole battleship was shortened by more than ten meters, and the large amount of water in the front compartment caused its front main turret to be close to the water. On its port side, a single piece of armor belt had been stripped out, and a large number of internal compartments were unobstructed. It is hard to imagine that a ship so badly damaged could have struggled back to port in the midst of a raging sea, while another warship of the same class was sunk by a mere torpedo.

While the Kaiser's special train was galloping through the fields of northern Germany, the waters of Jutland gradually returned to a state of light wind and waves, and the sea was wide and high, and the busy "Bismarck" had already taken off four groups of carrier-based aircraft, plus a small number of water reconnaissance planes carried by other ships, a total of 23 planes were put into the search for the sea, although they could not find a single British capital ship that had fallen behind, but they had quite a rich harvest -- more than 200 crew members who had fallen overboard on both sides were finally rescued because of their report. Two large German torpedo boats, G137 and V164, which were badly damaged but not abandoned by the crew, returned to the base with the help of friendly ships, three British abandoned ships that lost power, the protective cruiser "Purple Quartz" and the destroyers "Laurel" and "Pelican", after being surveyed by German naval personnel, the "Pelican" was towed home, and the remaining two were torpedoed.

It was determined that the main British fleet had been withdrawn, and at about 11 o'clock in the morning, the main German fleet finally set foot on its way home. In order to pass through the mine array passage in the Gulf of Helgoland, the huge group of ships formed a long snake, led by the large torpedo boat G194, 9 cruisers, 23 large torpedo boats, 9 dreadnoughts, 2 battle cruisers, 6 torpedo boat carriers and the only "Bismarck" It took 3 and a half hours to pass through the minefield. Hearing the triumph of the main fleet, the German naval personnel stationed on Helgoland Island fired a gun salute, airships and planes from Wilhelmshaven accompanied the fleet, and the offshore alert fleet sailed out of the Gulf of Yard to meet them. By 4 p.m., the "King", flying the flag of the commander of the fleet and the flag of the admiral, entered the Kiel Canal, and the German people who had heard the news crowded the sides of the canal, shouting long live and waving flowers and handkerchiefs. Only a few days ago, these people had been terrified of Britain's entry into the war, and now they were able to put all these worries and sorrows behind them and indulge in the happiness and pride of victory.

After a night of hard fighting, baptism of storms, and the smelting of blood and fire, the officers and men of the German navy who participated in the war were bathed in the sun and cheered, and not so long ago, they were as confused and apprehensive as the ordinary people about the prospect of war, and at this moment, although they did not know where the road under their feet went, they were confident enough to hold their chests high and march forward with heroic steps.

(End of chapter)