After arriving in the waters south of Vogue Island, the British Task Force 7 sent a number of mine-strikers to search for the German fleet, but the continuous rainy weather caused extremely low visibility at night, and even though the British mine-strikers ventured to turn on their searchlights, their continued search was still fruitless. In the eyes of the British www.biquge.info, the German fleet, with three dreadnoughts as the main force, had either left the sea or was hidden in some hidden fjord or waterway with superb technology, in short, the German fleet was trying to avoid night fighting, because only during the day could their advantages of aerial reconnaissance and high-precision rangefinders be revealed.

The German Navy's unusual resourcefulness had already taken a toll on the British Navy, and the loss of its flagship Task Force 7 would only dry Admiral Gough-Carltsop on another Edward-VII class battleship, the Africa. Although he sent the "Australia" to the coastal waters of Vogue Island to launch a night artillery bombardment of the German positions on the island, he was very clear in his mind that such artillery bombardment would have little effect, and it would not be possible to force the German fleet to come to the battle, and his only role was to cheer up the British marines who landed on the island. After nightfall, the British attacked again despite their weariness, but the hateful Germans prepared flares, and after a day of fierce fighting, they showed no signs of running out of ammunition. After a bitter battle, the British Marines, who had a slight advantage in numbers, were helplessly defeated, and the battle plan to capture Vogue Island and use it as a springboard for the capture of the entire Faroe Islands had reached a difficult point to escape.

Could it be that the age of the seas that belonged to the British Empire is over?

Calthorpe's sentiment represents the hearts of many British soldiers and civilians, who, despite repeated setbacks, still believe that the great British fleet can win a great victory in a great naval battle, but the great moment has not yet come, and Britain is heading into the abyss of confusion......

In the pre-dawn sea, the wind and waves have eased, and the dense clouds have shown signs of dissipation. At a German lookout post at the northern tip of Vogue Island, the soldiers suddenly saw several ships, knowing that British naval warships were unlikely to appear in that direction, and their vigilance was filled with suppressed excitement. Soon after, the three-chimney ships sent a light identification signal to the shore and announced their names: "Niopa", "Amazon", "Akona", and "Fraunlob". The four ships all belong to the Gazelle class built in 1895-1896, a total of 10 of these small protective cruisers were built, and after their service, they appeared in various seas of the German Navy's activities, performing overseas dispatch missions, escorting the main fleet, and actively playing the role of naval war horses. After two naval battles of Flanders, the German Navy successfully broke the strategic maritime pattern between Britain and Germany, while the British Navy, which had lost a large number of capital warships and light ships, was forced to adopt a strategy of shrinking its defense. Realizing that the pattern of modern naval warfare had undergone an important change, the German Navy slowed down the pace of building new battleships and battle cruisers, repairing damaged ships while carrying out functional modifications to those old ships that had fallen behind in performance. Continue to shine in this glorious battle of the seas.

The two ports on the island were still under British control, and the four fast troop carriers sailed straight to the location where the German troops had first landed on Vogue Island, and sailed from their boats and sampans to the shore with soldiers wearing strange steel helmets and short rifles or other light weapons, and the German officers and men who remained on the beach greeted them with joy and curiosity. There is no doubt that these are regular German marines who came on troop carriers, they belong to the 2nd Marine Brigade, many of them were fighting with the British and French troops on the Western Front not long ago, the gray uniforms of the field gave them the spiritual confidence to sweep across the European continent like the German Army, and the Iron Cross on their chests is a tribute to their bravery and outstanding military achievements, and now, they not only hold the Mauser C96 pistol, the Mauser Model 1898A short cavalry gun and the Navy Madsen light machine gun These are the most iconic weapons, It also became the first unit of the German army to be equipped with M1814 steel helmets. This steel helmet is not as flashy as the leather spire helmet that the German army has been equipped with for more than 40 years (the only practical meaning is to resist cavalry knife slashes), but it has returned to the era of cold weapons - using the light helmet shape popular in the 15th century, with a sleek silhouette and large protective edge shape to provide good protection for the user's head and neck, and the smelting and casting technology of the industrial age makes the performance quality of this steel helmet far exceed that of handmade products from centuries ago, and it is easy to standardize production in large quantities. A large steel foundry in Danzig alone was tasked with producing 400,000 M1914 helmets for the German army, reaching 45,000 in the first month of production.

It is worth mentioning that the 1st Marine Division of the German Navy was awarded the royal title for its outstanding performance in the Battle of Amiens, the Battle of Paris and the landing on the coast of Flanders, and the steel helmets they issued were also printed with the shield of the Hohenzollern royal family on the left side, which was definitely an honorary reward for the morale of the officers and soldiers in the German army at this time!

Two battalions of German marines who landed in the northern part of Vogue Island had to travel seven or eight kilometers on foot with at least 20 kilograms of equipment on their backs to join the main forces on the island. As daylight came, the British 7th Detachment withdrew from the waters off Vogue Island, and the British landing force, which had no naval artillery support, returned to a defensive posture, dug a number of anti-shelling bunkers near the port of Sevorg, and hoarded the few remaining war materials in a natural ravine. As they expected, German planes flew in from time to time to drop a few bombs, German battleships reappeared in the nearby waters, and German troops who were defending themselves also made a comeback.

Soon after the battle began, the officers and soldiers of the British Marine Corps noticed that the Germans had significantly increased their strength and became more resolute than the previous day, but unfortunately their combat skills did not improve much, a Vickers machine gun was enough to withstand the attack of a company of German soldiers, and fifty British riflemen were able to repel more than 100 German troops in a volley of guns, but the resolute attack of the Germans was rewarded with increasing casualties. The battle lasted for more than two hours, and the Germans left behind more than 300 corpses to evacuate, and the British marines breathed a sigh of relief. The battle seems to be going on and on, and the decisive factor is still at sea – until the British or German fleets take full control of the sea, and the other side will not be driven out completely.

It was nearly noon, and the dark clouds cracked open one after another, and the bright light shone through these cracks, and the bad weather that had lasted for many days finally came to an end. Although the haze of war still hangs over everyone's heart, the mood of many soldiers suddenly brightens up when they see the long-lost sunshine. The British soldiers on Vogue Island ate their simple lunch in a rare calm, and the only regret they felt was that they had no hot water for two days for fear that the smoke would attract fire from the German warships, and the temperature here during the day was only three or five degrees, and at night, when the cold wind blew, the water left outside would soon freeze.

"Attention! The Germans are coming up! Note! Get ready for battle! ”

Hearing the officer's order, the British soldiers put down their water bottles and cold bread one after another, picked up their rifles and returned to their firing positions. The ground was full of yellow bullet casings, and although every ordinary Marine carried 150 rounds of ammunition with him, the intensive platoon of guns was very bullet-consuming, and many people had already bottomed out of their bullet bags in the past two days, and the more than 10 tons of war materials transported ashore by the ship were basically destroyed by the German shelling, and if the British fleet had not regained control of this sea area the night before and sent two destroyers to the port of Søvog to deliver a batch of ammunition to the landing troops, the British landing force would have fallen into a miserable situation of running out of ammunition and food.

In the warm sun, the British also saw the strangely shaped steel helmet for the first time, and the gray paint unsurprisingly aroused their strong disgust, and the soldiers unthinkingly raised their rifles, tried to put the German steel helmet and their head into the crosshair, and then killed them with one blow. But before they could get into the effective range of their rifles, these German soldiers changed from grinning wolves to cautious and cunning foxes, they avoided roads and open spaces, carefully walked through the ruins of houses, and when they heard the sound of gunfire from the opposite side, they quickly crawled down or hid behind obstacles, and when the British soldiers kept an eye on their hiding positions as usual, waiting for them to take the initiative to expose their figures, they were quickly attacked by the Germans who followed behind or were on the flanks, and once they were covered by their companions, The attacked German soldiers quickly looked for an opportunity to counterattack. In the absence of artillery fire, the defensive side has a slight advantage and tactical convenience, but in this ruined port village, in addition to the conventional factors that determine victory and defeat, the comparison of the number of automatic and semi-automatic weapons between the two sides is also very crucial.

In the tragic battlefield of the Western Front, the warring sides gradually explored a variety of reasonable offensive and defensive tactics at the cost of sacrificing millions of soldiers, the straggler formation replaced the dense charge, and the trench defense became the standard model, and in the largest city in Europe, Paris, the German army came up with a variety of tactics in order to break through the French barricades. They came to a halt and looked like they were dragging their feet, but their overall pace was much faster than the previous offensive.

(End of chapter)