After three rounds of shelling, only the remnants of the floating targets, which stretched for several kilometers, appeared, and the reconnaissance detachment, which was responsible for setting up the targets and carrying out tactical maneuvers, also appeared in the sea in front of the right side of the fleet. www.biquge.info It was only then that three light-gray airships floated in. Like the submarine units participating in the exercise, they also set off from the Wilhelmshaven Naval Base and set off a few hours later than the submarine because of the high flight speed, and as a result, the submarine unit arrived at the predetermined area on time, and these huge "air battleships" were obviously delayed by some reasons -- as long as the weather conditions were slightly unsatisfactory in all sea training exercises, it was common for them to arrive late and leave early, or even to "absent from work" without reason.

It is precisely because of this congenital deficiency of airships that Natsuki particularly admires carrier-based aircraft, and the battlecruisers built after 1911 and the light cruisers with larger tonnage are designed to carry the water reconnaissance aircraft manufactured by Hubert Aviation, and some of the armored ships built in the early stage have also been modified accordingly, and the Caesar and King battleships have also experimentally installed catapults and mechanical booms, which can carry 1-2 water reconnaissance aircraft depending on the needs of combat missions, and by mid-June 1914, the "Bismarck" who completed the modification of aircraft carriers It has been secretly put into use, but it has not been included in the sequence of this training exercise.

The airship formation was in place, and the expected guests of the other group were already on their way to the banquet.

In the fully functional radio communications room of the Frederick the Great, the flagship of the High Seas Fleet, members of the intelligence group dedicated to radio monitoring use technical monitoring equipment to closely monitor the communications signals coming from the surrounding seas. Although the German Navy's radio monitoring technology was not enough to decipher the British Navy's coded communications in a short period of time, the movements of the British fleet or individual ships could still be inferred from the strength of the communication signals, the coding patterns, and the results of direction finding without wires, with sophisticated technical instruments and well-trained technicians.

"The British ship is rapidly approaching," the radio listening intelligence group's assumptions were verified by the airship force, and von Ingnoll had already ordered the water reconnaissance planes to return to their ships -- even without Natsuki's explicit advice, the experienced and thoughtful fleet commanders were accustomed to hiding their strength from their opponents.

"The report, after receiving a telegram from LZ-20, found a ship at 56 degrees 98 minutes north latitude and 2 degrees 29 minutes west longitude, heading 25 degrees south-east and 22 knots, preliminarily judged to be a 5,000-ton fast cruiser of the British Navy. If the fleet maintains its current speed and course, it will encounter the ship in two hours. ”

The young fleet staff officer, Captain Hank Gold, a graduate of the 1903 class of the Kiel Naval Academy, and Natsuki's "fellow brother", brought back the latest communication report from the communications room and carefully calculated the voyage data. At the end of the tactical maneuver and live-fire exercises, the reconnaissance fleet consisting of battle cruisers and new light cruisers returned to the main fleet, and the formation of the fleet was again adjusted into three battle alert columns, the overall speed was reduced to 10 knots, and it turned from the sea west of the Skagerrak Strait and sailed along the Jutland Peninsula towards Wilhelmshaven.

Ingnoll looked down at his watch and ordered the ships to dine on time.

As a rule, the meals of the fleet during the exercise at sea were based on wartime standards. In order to keep the officers and men stockpiled for the physical strength they needed for battle, meat and dairy products were rationed much more abundantly than usual, and each sailor was given a delicious caviar. Of course, the premise of the implementation of this rationing standard is that the supplies are sufficient, and in peacetime, Germany can obtain all kinds of daily necessities by virtue of its developed overseas trade, and once the import volume of materials is sharply reduced due to the impact of the war, with the limited production capacity of Germany itself, even if the ration of the army is placed in a priority supply position, it will still be restricted and reduced for a long time, and then affect the combat capability and morale of the army.

After eating lunch in the relatively spacious and comfortable senior officers' canteen, everyone leisurely drank coffee, and the smokers went to the smoking room to smoke a cigarette, and then returned to the bridge in a hurry. It wasn't long before a white silhouette appeared in the sea behind the starboard side of the fleet, and the St. George flag fluttering on the mast could be faintly seen in the telescope.

The guests had already arrived at the table, and Ingnoll ordered the food to be served: "Order...... The 1st Battleship Detachment was 30 degrees to the right and 12,000 meters away, the 2nd Battleship Detachment was 25 degrees to the left and 11,000 meters away, the 3rd Battleship Detachment was 30 degrees to the left and 8,000 meters away, and the 1st and 2nd reconnaissance detachments were 25 degrees to the right and 8,000 meters away, each preparing two salleys and one free fire. ”

A few minutes later, Ingnorl gave the order to shoot, and the signal lights of the "Frederick the Great" immediately signaled "maneuver-live firing" to the ships on the left and right sides, as well as the ships in the front and rear. The sudden cannon fire was so violent and dense that it could no longer be described as a "thunderbolt on a sunny day". The huge German high seas fleet was full of flashing artillery flames and gunpowder smoke, heavy shells with a sharp whistling sound flew in all directions, stirring up a majestic column of water on the surrounding sea, the whole scene was spectacular, their own personnel felt a murderous and bloody atmosphere, and in the eyes of distant observers, this was a display of force with a sense of strategy, almost everyone was shocked by this majestic shelling, even the British main fleet of artillery training, there are very few shooting scenes of such a scale, And unlike concentrated fire aimed at a single target, this method of firing in all directions seemed to indicate that the German Navy was prepared for a war in which the enemy was outnumbered and the weak were strong.

After the shelling was over, the "Frederick the Great" again issued orders to the entire group. Although the line of sight was affected to a certain extent by the smoke of the shooting, the huge fleet responded quickly -- a column of 14 dreadnoughts accelerated forward with their swords unsheathed, five battle cruisers formed in separate formations, echoing the dreadnought formation on the central axis of the fleet in the left flank position, and armored cruisers, light cruisers, and large torpedo boats formed a number of relatively independent battle groups to follow up in the middle and rear of the fleet.

The fleet's change of formation took about half an hour, and the rigorous queue still seemed to be positioned by a ruler.

The smoke of gunpowder cleared on the sea, and it was not until this time that the light cruiser "Strasbourg," which was carrying out a vigilance and reconnaissance mission on the left side of the fleet, hurriedly inquired about the identity of the comer using the internationally accepted Morse code signal.

Witnessing the majesty of the High Seas Fleet, and perhaps recording it with photographic and video equipment, the British warship, which had long been targeted by German naval airships, generously reported its name and reason:

The British Royal Navy cruiser "Chatham" has come here for a routine cruise, and I would like to send my greetings to the German Navy!

Due to the certain directionality of the signal lights used for communication on the warship, the "Frederick the Great", which was at the forefront of the fleet, could not directly observe the content of the question and answer between the two cruisers, and it was only through the "Strasbourg" that the personnel of the fleet command learned the content of the British warship's reply.

Without having to dig through the data book, two men on Ingnorr's staff team were able to open their mouths to report the basic parameters of each class of the British Navy's active and reserve ships - although some of the data was not very accurate because of the intelligence relationship, the ability to do so was still admired by his colleagues.

These two capable men, one is the senior staff officer, Colonel Hoffert, and the other is the talented young staff officer, Captain Gold.

However, seeing that the commander of the fleet did not intend to consult, the old and spicy Colonel Hofert naturally would not blindly reckless, and Captain God, who received Natsuki's hint, patiently kept silent.

The number and technology of capital ships were the focus of the Anglo-German naval competition, and the two countries were neighbors of each other, and there were frequent official and non-governmental exchanges, and it was much easier to spy on intelligence than to keep it secret. "Chatham" is the first light cruiser of the Chatham-class commissioned in 1913, and its tonnage and combat effectiveness greatly exceed that of the previous reconnaissance cruisers and protective cruisers.

After a while, von Ingnoll said to Natsuki in an inquiring tone: "Will our concentration of all naval forces in such a large formation exercise cause the British Navy to transfer back all their large ships from all over the world?" ”

Natsuki calmly replied: "As long as there is General Spee's East Asia Detachment and General Su Xiong's Mediterranean Detachment, the British Navy must retain a part of its capital ships in the vast Pacific Ocean and the Mediterranean. Let them put aside the interests of the colonies and the safety of their allies at the same time, unless we pose a fundamental threat to Britain itself, which we are far from capable of now. ”

Ingnoll felt that his words made sense, so he bowed slightly.

Natsuki continued: "Actually, how many ships we have, the general combat strength, the British know very well, this time the Kiel Canal has been widened, any of our ships can travel freely between the North Sea and the Baltic Sea without restrictions, and they can concentrate all their naval forces at any time in wartime, today's move is to let them see that we are fully prepared for a decisive battle of the fleet, once war breaks out, they will not dare to easily attack our coastal waters." ”

Ingnoll frowned lightly and stared into the distance, his expression hidden in his anxiety that he did not want to be known to others. After a moment of hesitation, he whispered to Natsuki: "The near-shore blockade is the only magic weapon for the British Navy to restrain its opponents and seize the initiative for hundreds of years, even if the strength of our fleet makes them feel jealous, in my opinion, it is very likely that they will adopt a desperate strategy and do their best to fight a decisive battle with us at the beginning of the war, so as to destroy our fleet, cut off our sea lanes, and cause our industry to greatly reduce production due to lack of raw materials." ”

Natsuki said lightly: "If I were to be the commander of the British fleet, I would not have adopted the all-or-nothing strategy you mentioned, because Britain would have taken a much greater risk than Germany in a decisive battle at sea too soon. ”

"Oh?" Ingnoll turned his head to face Natsuki, his brow furrowed.

"You think, even if Germany loses the decisive battle at sea, if France and Russia are defeated by land, we will still be the victors in this war. Because the proportion of the European continent's industrial exports in the world economy and trade has far exceeded the level of more than a hundred years ago, it is impossible for the British Navy to deal with us by blockading the European continent. Conversely, if Britain lost the decisive battle at sea, they would lose their only barrier to protect their homeland, and the appearance of a single German soldier on the shores of Britain would bring down the invincible world empire. ”

After expounding his opinion, Natsuki concluded as usual: "Because of the different risks involved, the British Navy should be inclined to impose a long-range blockade on us, deplete our material reserves, weaken our military morale, and force us to take the initiative to fight." The advent of aviation, high-speed boats, and submarines has changed the traditional pattern of naval warfare, and if a decisive naval battle were to take place off the coast of Germany, we would be able to use these new technical weapons to compensate for the strength of our own fleet, and the chances of winning against the odds were far greater than in the open seas or even off the coast of Great Britain, as the British Navy should know very well. After all, they have a wise and prudent commander. ”

"You are talking about Sir George Callahan?"

Ingnorr's description of "wise and prudent" is somewhat surprising, given that Sir George Callahan, the current commander of the British Home Fleet, is widely regarded as a man of valor and fearlessness, despite his advanced age and ill health.

"No, it's Sir John Jericho." "It is believed that the British Admiralty-Secretary-General, the First Sea Secretary-General and Sir Callahan himself have negotiated a non-public agreement: if war breaks out during the remainder of Sir Callahan's term of office," replied Natsuki, "Sir John Jericho, Second Sea Lord, would be appointed as the new Commander of the Fleet. ”

In the past decade, the most famous names in the British Royal Navy are Sir John Fisher, who brought about the dreadnought revolution, Louis, the former Prince of Battenberg, who became the first sea secretary of the United Kingdom (the equivalent of the commander-in-chief of the British fleet), and Winston Churchill, who became the Minister of the Navy at the age of 36 and promoted a series of personnel and technical reforms. John Jericho, who has left a lot of controversy in history, is still an unnoticeable figure at this time due to his always low-key and cautious personality.

To emphasize, Natsuki added, "Barring no surprises, our main wartime adversary is this cautious and thoughtful John Jericho. ”

After working together for many years, Ingnoll has long been surprised by Natsuki's mysterious and conclusive assertions. When it came to confidential information and subjective speculation, he had nowhere to look for arguments, and as a fleet commander, he had to maintain relatively independent thinking and judgment, so he did not make any statements, but only silently weighed and calculated in his heart.

For the next ten hours or so, the huge German High Seas Fleet continued to sail southward, and the British light cruiser "Chatham", which "happened to arrive", followed it like a coyote that persevered in its prey. The German fleet did not make any further changes to its formation until it sailed into German territorial waters, but the long voyage itself reflected a lot of valuable information. The British must have noticed that even the 500-ton 1898 class of "high seas torpedo boats" built and commissioned in the early days were capable of accompanying the capital ships in long-range mobile operations across Jutland.

(End of chapter)