On a clear moonlit night, the sky was deep, the breeze was blowing across the sea, and the warm air was full of hypnotic factors, but in the rough St. George's Strait, on the two Irish destroyers sailing together, the crew had no intention of sleeping. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 Before they set sail, they had received secret orders, Britain and Germany were on the verge of war, and Ireland was also involved in war at any time because of the offensive and defensive alliance treaty with Germany, so they carried out the cruise in a state of second level combat readiness.

It was both combat readiness, except for the faint light of the emergency cabin lights, and the ship was pitch black. The sailors on duty at the combat posts could not play the harmonica or talk loudly, some whispered in the corners, some hummed the tunes of their hometowns, and many more remained silent. Today's Irish Navy has swept away the weak appearance of the past, its size ranks eighth in the world, with first-class cruisers, submarines and naval aviation, and the strong protection of German allies, in peacetime can well perform the duty of guarding territorial waters and promoting national prestige, but in the face of the stormy seas of war, the Irish Navy is like a flat boat, and every member needs to work together to tide over the difficulties.

At 0:20, the two destroyers received a coded telegram from the command of the detachment: Germany will declare war on Britain, the two countries may have entered a state of war, be alert to the British fleet sailing out of Milford Harbor, keep a surveillance distance after detection, report the situation at any time, and avoid exchanges of fire as much as possible.

After more than ten years of hard work, the British Royal Navy has gotten rid of the embarrassment after the signing of the London Armistice in 1915, its actual ship tonnage surpasses Japan, second only to the United States and Germany, but it is afraid of treaty restrictions and the strategic encirclement of the Allies, the main warships of the British Navy are deployed on the east coast of Canada all year round, the home fleet accounts for only one-third of the total naval strength, and its main ships are usually stationed in Portsmouth (southern England) and Roseth (eastern Scotland) The two major naval basesMilford Harbour, at the southern mouth of St. George's Strait, was only an outpost on the Irish side, and in most cases was manned only a few destroyers, torpedo boats, and a few small frigates that were not a big threat.

At 0:25, the pilot Irish destroyer F-3 "Cork" sent a set of light signals to the friendly ship F-4 "Waterford": War is imminent, we are on the front line, danger lurks, we must be vigilant, may you good luck!

Forty-three minutes later, the watchmen of the "Cork" spotted a vigorous group of "sea cavalry" in the northeastern sea. Judging by their narrow cross-sectional and elongated contour features, they should have been four destroyers.

The bright moonlight also provided a good view of the British officers and men, who should have seen the two Irish destroyers approaching from the southwest at about the same time, but even the most experienced sailors could hardly determine their identity, because the German Navy had military bases in both France and Ireland, and it was no surprise that the German destroyers were operating near St. George's Strait, and about 20% of the German Navy's medium ships and 25% of its light ships were purchased from Ireland. Moreover, the training methods, tactical thinking and even painting habits of the German and Irish navies are highly similar, and it is often necessary to distinguish the two correctly by the flag, emblem or crew attire.

In a very special situation, the four British destroyers did not ask the other side to disclose their identities, but continued to move forward in ignorance, but their formation was quietly adjusted from a single column to a more flexible oblique column. Although the Irish could not decipher these signals in a very short period of time, the technical intelligence department of the Irish Navy had already found out some important rules of British code encryption through long-term monitoring of the British Navy, and decoding them according to these rules had a certain chance of obtaining key information.

"Alert...... Preparedness...... Port K, what does K stand for? ”

In the communications room of the destroyer "Cork", two young officers racked their brains with the decoded words. Hearing their muttering, the non-commissioned officer's head, who was immersed in interpreting the code against the Technical Intelligence Manual, chimed in: "Could it be Cork Harbor?" ”

"Then they should sail west, the current course is 45 degrees off." Although the young officer questioned it, he and his colleagues knew very well that there was no need for this British destroyer detachment on the sea to go to Cork Harbor, which was 200 kilometers away.

Just then, another officer pushed open the hatch and beckoned to the two colleagues with an eager expression. When they came to the factory gate quickly, they lowered their voices and said, "Hey, come and see!" They are very close to us, see what model they are...... I think it's a C-class destroyer. ”

The communication room is just below the bridge, and when you walk out of the hatch is the starboard deck, and you can clearly see the shadows of four ships cleaving the waves in the sea in front of you, at this time the two sides are not completely facing each other, but have staggered a certain angle, and the two Irish destroyers are going in circles, apparently preparing to follow the British destroyer detachment from the rear.

The young officers joined in the observations, sometimes holding binoculars, sometimes concentrating, and one of them said, "Class C...... It could also be the D-class, and the leader must be their lead ship, just look at its antenna. ”

Another person analyzed: "The C-class is slightly faster and the D-class is slightly more firepower, and from a global perspective, the British Navy is more likely to deploy the C-class in Milford Harbor." ”

In 1933, the British Navy was equipped with 76 destroyers of 11 classes, and the ship numbers were arranged in alphabetical order from Class A to Class K, of which the four classes A, B, F, and H were ordered in the United States, and the three classes of E, I, and J were built in Canada, and only the four classes C, D, G, and K were born in the United Kingdom. The C and D classes were in service in the mid-to-late 20s, with a standard displacement of between 1,300 and 1,400 tons, a top speed of around 36 knots, a powerful twin 120 mm gun and a quadruple 533 mm torpedo tube, and as was customary in the Royal Navy, each class had a larger tonnage and more fully equipped lead ship.

As he spoke, the relative position of the four British destroyers shifted from starboard to starboard, thus revealing the silhouette of the Irish. Correspondingly, the side profiles of the two Irish destroyers did not leave a gap in the other's sight. By this time, the British crew should have been able to tell that they were the success of the Irish military shipbuilding industry, the Agni-class destroyers. A total of 14 destroyers of this class were built, equipped by the Irish, German and Swedish navies, and two destroyer squadrons were formed in the German Navy.

The success of the Agni-class destroyer was not accidental, it was finalized in 1924. Prior to this, through a large number of repairs and construction of various types of ships, the Irish shipbuilding industry gradually accumulated rich shipbuilding experience, and under the guidance of the Irish royal family and government, the Royal Irish Shipbuilding Association system was established, which concentrated the limited human resources, thereby improving the technical strength of the Irish shipbuilding industry. With the success of the Hunter class in 1921, the Royal Irish Shipbuilding Association and the major shipyards completed the design and demonstration of an improved enlarged model under the leadership of the Admiralty, which became the Agni class. Its standard displacement is 1,280 tons, equipped with three Hult oil-fired boilers and two high-efficiency steam turbines, with a total power of 33,000 horsepower, a maximum speed of 35 knots, and a maximum endurance of 5,200 nautical miles. It is more than 70% faster than the main gun of the traditional manually loaded destroyer, and it is quite powerful in both medium-range and close-range melee. The main turret adopts a traditional semi-enclosed structure, and the armor thickness of the shield reaches 200 mm, which can withstand direct fire from light naval guns, which is rare among destroyers of various countries!

The Agni-class destroyers, which are ordered by three Irish shipyards including the Royal Shipyard of Limerick, also have four 40 mm Forbos machine guns, three quadruple 13 mm machine guns, four twin 533 mm torpedo tubes, two depth charge projectors, two depth charge delivery tracks, a 3-meter optical rangefinder, a light ship shooting command instrument and a Type 28 sonar system, and a crew of 126 under normal conditions, which can be increased to 140 in wartime. Escort, anti-submarine and other tasks.

A few minutes later, the distance between the two Agni-class and the four British destroyers was more than 5,000 meters, and the two sides returned to a vague shadow in each other's sight, and the Agni-class that had completed the turn was directly behind the British destroyer detachment, and by this time the two sides had invariably increased their speed to more than 30 knots, and the speed was still increasing - the British tried to use their advantage in speed to get rid of the stalk, but they soon realized that a fully loaded destroyer was not suitable for speed, Or that the other side's sailing performance is better than your own expectations. For the next two hours, the two sides were always in each other's effective field of vision, and the continuous extreme speed of the voyage greatly accelerated the fuel consumption of the ship. By about 4 a.m., the British destroyer detachment had slowed down, and they began to turn, but not north, but toward the Cornish peninsula in south-west England.

The two Irish destroyers followed suit, and in the process, the distance between the two sides was reduced to less than two kilometers, and the British may have seen each other's Irish flags - the war had not yet broken out, so the flagpoles on both sides were not flying naval battle flags, but when the ships were facing each other, they were facing each other, as if two groups of warriors were in tandem.

At five o'clock in the morning, it was slightly dark, but the moon was still hanging in the sky. As the British destroyer detachment had approached British territorial waters, the two Irish destroyers slowed down and gradually fell behind, and this mutual surveillance, which lasted for more than four hours, seemed to be about to end in a silent way, but the roar of aircraft was heard from the direction of the British coast, it was a clumsy biplane that used the ship's fuselage to take off and land on the water, which looked non-toxic and harmless, but you must know that a Xiupo Marin "Walrus" can stay in the air for five hours, and it is equipped with high-power radio equipment. In the British Royal Navy is known as the "eye of the fleet", which shows its characteristics and functions.

(End of chapter)