Near dusk, at Pier 5 at Scapafolo Naval Base, British admirals led by Jericho watched George V and his entourage board the armored cruiser "Aboukir". Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 During the whole process, everyone lowered their eyebrows and said nothing, and the solemn and oppressive atmosphere was almost like a funeral.

As the main German fleet was operating in the North Sea, George V's trip would bypass the north of Scotland, sail along the west coast of Britain to Liverpool, and then return to London by train.

Less than ten days after the start of the war, Britain's two major capitals of sea domination, the naval fleet and the tradition of victory, were hit hard by the Germans one after another, and George V, who supported the war against Germany, undoubtedly entered the darkest period of his life, but fortunately, the dignified, virtuous, intelligent and intelligent Queen Mary was always by his side. For the king, who became the heir to the throne due to the unexpected death of his brother and thus wore the "heaviest crown" of his era, the queen's thoughtful help and kind words and persuasion were a great spiritual pillar. This was true in the past, and it is still so.

The "civil and military chiefs" of the British Navy, Admiral Winston Churchill and First Sea Secretary Louis, both boarded the ship to accompany George V on his return. A few hours before leaving Scapa Bay, after careful consideration and conversation, George V decided to accept Lewis's resignation, and after completing the necessary formalities, the British naval officer from the German aristocracy would break free from the previous tangled pain, but seeing that the British navy, which he had served for nearly half a century, fell into a trough after successive defeats, Prince Louis of Battenberg admitted that his "heart was like a knife", and it was completely strong to keep his spirit from falling.

The Supreme Commander of the Royal Navy, the Lord of the Navy, is responsible for naval strategic construction, combat training, strategic planning and operational command. The current Admiralty Winston Churchill bears unshirkable responsibility for the operational defeat of the Main Fleet, but resignation is clearly not the only way to take responsibility. At Scappafló, King George V and most of the admirals believed that the attack on the German fleet should be cancelled and the entire east coast of Britain should be put on the defensive, unless the German fleet made an attempt to break through into the Atlantic, and the Grand Fleet in the north and the Channel Fleet in the English Channel would not be able to hold out.

Churchill felt that at this time, passive avoidance of war was equivalent to drinking water to quench thirst, and the Germans would use this opportunity to deal a heavy blow to Britain's military morale and international prestige, but he also realized that the German navy was planning and moving later this time, and it was likely to have a rear hand in tactics, and it was likely to be difficult to attack with a group of light ships, so he no longer insisted on his own opinion, but after the end of the Imperial Council, he crossed the First Sea Secretary and the commander of the Grand Fleet, and convened Betty and several other fleet generals who advocated the offensive to discuss the counterattack plan, and initially reached a consensus.

Later that day, when Churchill learned that George V had agreed to Prince Louis's resignation, he immediately met with the King and recommended Lord Fisher as First Sea Secretary - a respected field marshal who made an unparalleled contribution to the modernization of the British Navy, and he promoted the development of fast battleships with full heavy guns in the Royal Navy, and was known as the "father of dreadnoughts" and "the father of battle cruisers", and he promoted the conversion of naval ships from coal to fuel oil and equipped with new steam turbines. As a result, the British Navy gained an important technological leap in 1905-1907, further expanding its superiority over the navies of the great powers.

In the summer of 1914, at the age of 73, Fisher had been retired from the Navy for three years, but he was physically strong and energetic, and had been assisting Churchill as an informal adviser ever since. George V cautiously expressed his concerns about Churchill's personnel proposals, because in addition to his technical audacity, Fisher was also an admiral who advocated an active offensive and emphasized preemptive strikes, and he had served as commander of the Mediterranean Fleet and then the Home Fleet, and he had speculated as early as 1908 that Britain and Germany would go to war after the completion of the widening and deepening of the Kiel Canal, and this prediction eventually came true. It's just that Fisher didn't expect that the German Navy, which he originally thought would be able to be solved by a "Copenhagenization operation", actually defeated the British main fleet in a counterattack just after the start of the war.

After departing from Scapaflor, Churchill continued to try to convince George V. Although the Lord of the Admiralty had the power to appoint the First Sea Lord, in times of war this important appointment still required the consent of the sovereign - at least not against it.

After nightfall, the "Aboukir" sailed at full speed through the area infested by German submarines, closely protected by the wingmen accompanying it. On this calm night, the British light ship group assembled in the northeastern waters of England did not move in accordance with the latest instructions of the naval staff and carried out reconnaissance against the enemy with only a small number of ships.

At 9:40 p.m. that night, the German government issued a naval battle communiqué, declaring that the German main fleet had launched a fierce battle with the British Navy in the middle of the North Sea, and won an absolute victory in the case of the same size of the participating ships, sinking 43 British ships, including 4 capital ships, capturing more than 2,000 British sailors, and exhorting the British government to withdraw from the war unconditionally, otherwise the German Navy would launch a large-scale artillery bombardment of military facilities on the east coast of Britain, and intercept and sink British ships at sea.

As soon as the communiqué came out, the whole world was in an uproar. The fact that the main German navy would be able to go to sea in such a short period of time after the Battle of Jutland, and the assumption that the German fleet suffered only minor damage at the Battle of Jutland, and that the British navy suffered two defeats in a week, made one feel pessimistic and hopeless about the prospects of the British war. The British government did not make any response to the German naval war bulletin that night, but used technical means to interfere with the German radio broadcast frequency, so as not to be deliberately misled by the Germans, but the paper could not contain the fire, and the Admiralty Churchill reported the situation to George V overnight, and his suggestion was that the Prime Minister issue a national broadcast early the next morning, informing the British people that the naval battle was only an attack by British lightning strikes against several large German ships, and that the British government and army would not trample on the neutrality of other countries in any way. The countries that had initiated the war bowed their heads and compromised, and the threat of the German Navy to the British mainland coast was only temporary, and the British Navy was mobilizing combat ships from all over the world, and it would not be long before it could regain control of the North Sea, and then blockade the German Navy in the Baltic Sea.

"Even if we bring back all the warships from overseas, we can turn the tide and regain control of the North Sea in a few months?"

With a tired and frustrated look on his face, George V sat leaned in his chair, his chin supported by his well-sounded left hand. At this moment, his only advantage over his arrogant German cousin seemed to be this. On land, the German army destroyed the fortress of Liege with its unprecedented siege artillery. After a brief pause, the sharp and terrifying war machine moved forward again, overwhelmingly running over the Belgian fortresses and positions, while the French army's revenge offensive in Alsace was not strongly resisted by the Germans, but it was still slow to advance, and some units retreated hastily when encountered, and the British military observers accompanying the French in their reports to their superiors commented on the words "lack of courage" and "fear of the enemy". In fact, in the more than a week since the Franco-German war began, the French General Headquarters has already removed a number of ineffective corps and divisional generals.

"We don't necessarily have to have complete control of the North Sea, and as long as the Germans can't escape the cage of the North Sea, the balance of victory and defeat will tip in our favor sooner or later." Churchill said in a gentle tone as he watched the king's reaction.

Also summoned for military proceedings was Prince Louise of Battenberg, who remained the top military admiral of the British Navy until he officially left office. By blood, he was supposed to play for the German camp, but in terms of personal experience and life ideals, he was a British soldier in the truest sense of the word, a respectable admiral. However, the indelible blood ties made it difficult for him to gain the real trust of the junior naval officers and the ordinary British people.

"His Excellency the Admiralty is right, even if German merchant ships were allowed to roam freely in the North Sea, they would not have access to saltpeter, oil, rubber, and rare metals, while we would have unlimited resources for war from overseas colonies and friendly nations. The British Navy lost one warship and could quickly build two, while Germany could not maintain the same speed of construction in wartime. ”

Louis's words were undoubtedly a firm support for Churchill's main position, and George V nodded at Louis, his eyes full of understanding and sympathy for his former colleague.

"If the French army can withstand the German attack, it is acceptable for us to lose control of the North Sea for a while, but if the French army can only hold out for a month or two, the situation for Britain will be extremely bad, and even if only three or four divisions of German troops land on the shores of England under the cover of the fleet, we will return to the dark times before 1800."

George V's assertion was to the point, as naval personnel, Churchill and Louis could not make a professional and long-term view of the development of land warfare, but a monarch must be fully solid. According to the joint plan of the British and French army staffs, the British Expeditionary Force of six divisions should arrive in France as soon as the war broke out, and at the time of the outbreak of the Battle of Jutland, 80,000 British Expeditionary Force, equipped with 30,000 military horses, more than 300 field guns and more than 100 machine guns, had assembled in Southampton and Portsmouth, and could be transported across the English Channel by ship in a few days, but the disastrous defeat in the Battle of Jutland made the British top brass decide to postpone the operation, after all, in the summer of 1914, The British Army had only a pitiful number of troops available to defend the homeland. At the repeated urging of the French, the first British troops did not set out until 11 August, and when they arrived at Le Havre, France, by boat, they were immediately greeted enthusiastically by the French, but until the evening of the 12th, the British troops arriving in France added up to only one infantry brigade and one cavalry regiment, less than a third of the original plan.

(End of chapter)