Chapter 448 Battle of the Faroe Islands

At the Isle of Wight Naval Base, hundreds of warships of the Royal Navy's Task Force of the Imperial Chinese Navy are moored in the dock.

I don't know who got the news from the secretary office of the fleet headquarters, and the officers and men of the whole fleet thought that the commander Shi Jianfei had gone to ask for orders, and they all ran back to the warship one by one to wait for the news.

However, Shi Jianfei, who came back from the office, poured cold water on them and extinguished the enthusiasm of the officers and men of the whole fleet.

A Sea Sparrow fast communications ship quickly sailed out of the base harbor and headed for Portsmouth on the opposite side. Soon, the British Royal Navy Fleet Command got the location of the main force of the Dutch fleet and quickly sent someone to inform Warrent, who was searching for the Dutch fleet in the North Sea.

A day later, Warrent received the information and went to the Faroe Islands to set up an ambush according to the best ambush plan provided by Shi Jianfei.

Two days later, the weather in the North Sea was a little overcast, with a light rain and slightly higher waves.

Knight commanded the main force of the Dutch fleet to return to the Netherlands after sparing a large circle from the Norwegian Sea. On the way, the Dutch fleet encountered hundreds of ships from various countries, and Knight ordered all the ships to be destroyed in order to ensure the absolute safety of the fleet. In fact, the officers and men of the ships of the Dutch fleet could not help but fight the autumn breeze for a long time, and Knight did this helplessly, hoping that it would not cause international disputes.

Despite Knight's extremely careful course of action, the British were eventually caught.

On May 2, the 26th year of Shenwu, which happened to be April Fool's Day in the Western calendar, the main fleets of Britain and the Netherlands encountered each other in the sea area 30 nautical miles north of the Faroe Islands, and the unprecedented scale of the Faroe Sea Battle Tunnel began.

As the British Royal Navy realized that it had set up an ambush near the Faroe Islands, it was ready to work. So, when the Dutch fleet arrived, it was suddenly ambushed by the British fleet.

The Dutch advance fleet of about 40 warships sailed north through the waters north of the Faroe Islands, and the detachments of the two British navies, with a total of 30 warships, suddenly rushed out from the southeast and northeast of the Faroe Islands, respectively, and galloped westward, quickly seizing the "T" prefix of the Dutch advance fleet and quickly opening fire to suppress it.

Due to the continuous rain and poor visibility, the Dutch advance fleet did not detect the British fleet beforehand. By the time the British fleet suddenly appeared in front of the flanks, it was already too late to prepare for a U-turn.

The Dutch Navy did not believe that naval battles would break out in rainy weather, because rainy days on cloudy days would affect the firing of artillery. However, that was during the First Anglo-Dutch War. After five years of military expansion, the British government spared no expense to replace the naval guns of the main fleet of the Royal Navy with the breech-loading tunnel guns imported from the Chinese Empire.

With the rapid progress of the naval arsenal of the Chinese Empire, by the 22nd year of Shenwu, the ignition of artillery in rainy days and strong winds, as well as the problem of preserving propellants in humid environments, had been solved. The solution of these problems directly pushed the artillery industry of the Chinese Empire to the top of the world and was one era ahead of the world.

Britain, as a loyal servant of the Chinese Empire, was pleaded by Charles I, and the Chinese Empire exported the technology to it.

Of course, the government of the Chinese Empire was also motivated by political, military and economic considerations, and Britain was the bridgehead of the Chinese Empire in Europe and needed to be united. Militarily, the Dutch navy was significantly stronger than the British navy, and Britain did not have the financial resources to expand into the Dutch navy in the short term, so it could only improve the quality of the British navy. Economically, the focus was on selling to the British Navy at a high price to cater to the major arms giants within the Empire, so that they could continue to support or fund the Empire's parliamentarians to carry out their election campaigns.

Of course, the most direct purpose of the Chinese Imperial Military was to use the British Navy to test these new scientific and technological achievements of the Empire. Once the inspection is successful, the Imperial Royal Navy will be equipped on a large scale, otherwise it will not suffer a loss, and it can help improve the defects.

The Dutch navy was careless because it did not believe that the British navy would open fire in such weather, and as a result, when the guns of the British battleships roared, the Dutch advance fleet was immediately hit head-on and suffered heavy losses.

The British battleship occupying the horizontal position of the "T" was fully firepowered, and shells were flying all over the sky, like heavy rain. The Dutch warships were shot one after another, and soon the flames rose and smoke billowed.

The Dutch advance fleet was ambushed by the British navy, and news soon reached Knight's ears.

Knight was shocked, and he had made a mistake by all means.

Fortunately, Knight divided the whole fleet into three echelons, with the real main force in the middle, and the advance fleet and the rear guard fleet in the front and rear.

The advance fleet was ambushed, but it was not the main British fleet, and Knight immediately judged that the British main fleet must be nearby and was rapidly approaching them.

As a result, Knight ordered the Chinese army to quickly deploy a defensive formation and sent a detachment to rescue the advance fleet.

However, the experienced Walter did not choose to directly attack the main force of the Dutch navy, perhaps he was a little nervous and worried, in short, the Dutch fleet at this time was stronger than the British fleet. Walter had to make the most of the ambush to destroy as many Dutch ships as possible. Therefore, Walter chose to attack the Dutch fleet's rear guard fleet first.

When hundreds of British warships appeared in the flank and rear of the Dutch Royal Fleet, Knight was dumbfounded. He had expected that the main force of the British navy would appear on the left or right flank of his central army, and that the main force would have a decisive battle in the same way that the British fleet attacked the Dutch advance fleet. I never thought that the British would decide to attack the rear fleet first.

The fleet of the Dutch Navy has a total of more than 30 warships, most of them are cruisers, and there are only four or five battleships, and most of them are old-fashioned warships.

The main British fleet appeared in the rear, and although it did not seize the "T" position, the British had the upper wind and could fire at the Dutch battleships downwind. Coupled with the British as the main battleship, after a few salvos, this cannon fodder rear fleet was scattered.

When the Dutch fleet was dispersed, many British warships broke away from the fleet battle sequence on their own, scrambling to surround and beat the lone Dutch warships, with the obvious intention that they were competing for the enemy's wealth.

Fortunately, Walter strictly ordered that all ships of the main battleship formation should not participate in the robbery of wealth, otherwise the naval battle of the regular army would become a robbery by bandits.

The British fleet, which had the upper wind, pressed down on the Dutch fleet, and Knight had no choice but to resist the pressure of the fleet's slowdown, turn to the west, and the ships of the whole fleet to fight horizontally, preparing for a decisive battle.

According to Knight's understanding of line tactics, it is to line up the fleet and attack enemy ships with broadside fire. At this time, the British Navy had the upper hand and wanted to move back to the disadvantage, which is what Knight thought.

However, Walter had studied the advanced battle line tactics of the Imperial Chinese Navy more deeply, and even went all the way to the Imperial Chinese Naval Officer School for a year of study, and at the same time learned from the Chinese Imperial Navy generals in joint exercises.

At this point, Walter had the upper hand, and Knight took a position to form a "T" against the British fleet, seemingly in a favorable position to open fire. However, Walter analyzes. Dutch battleships also used outdated arquebuses as artillery fuses, and the battle line was not powerful enough in today's stormy conditions. At this moment, the British fleet has the upper wind, and if it is pressed downwind, it will rush into the Dutch fleet formation in a very short time, and divide the opponent into dozens of sections, and at the same time, the British fleet will suddenly change from a passive "T" vertical position to a favorable "T" horizontal position.

Walter's idea was not accidental, and there was a classic example of changing the "T" tactic against the trend in the library of the Imperial Chinese Naval Academy, so Walter decided to take a bold shot.

When Walter's order was given, the captains of all the British battleships frowned, and many thought Walter was crazy.

However, Walter's idea was unanimously approved by the members of the Imperial Chinese Field Observation Group who were watching the battle in the British fleet. The officers of the Imperial Chinese Field Observation Group were all top students of the military academy, and they naturally knew that Walter's tactics had long appeared in the classic war examples, so they supported Walter's decision.

Naturally, the officers of the British ships were very satisfied with the decision of the Imperial Chinese Field Observation Group, because the Chinese officers were unanimously their instructors and friends, and they were worthy of their trust.

Therefore, after the ships were slightly sluggish, they began to carry out Walter's tactical orders, and the whole fleet pressed down with the wind and went straight to the middle of the Dutch fleet.

The British main fleet consisted of fifty-eight large battleships, organized into six sub-fleets, all of which were first-class battleships of the British monarch class.

The Dutch main fleet had 103 large battleships, organized into five sub-teams, and the first echelon was the Dutch Republic-class first-class battleships.

The two large ships on both sides confronted each other directly, and suddenly the sound of artillery shook the sky, the smoke of gunpowder filled the sea, and the sea boiled in an instant.

In just a few minutes, the Dutch fleet fired four firepower salvos, sinking three large British ships, causing more than a dozen large ships of the British Navy to be scarred and blazing, and the power of the battle line was vividly exerted by the 20 Republic-class first-class battleships.

However, ten minutes later, the situation reversed. After the British fleet sacrificed a dozen large ships, the main fleet broke through the Dutch fleet under the cover of smoke. Suddenly, the two sides were transposed. The British battleships occupied a favorable "T" crossing.

"Open the gun"

The red-eyed British sailors opened fire on the Dutch ships on the left, and because of the close distance, the British shells lightly pierced the hull of the Dutch battleship, causing great damage to the Dutch battleship.

Because the British sailors were trained by Imperial Chinese officers to handle their guns quickly, and because of the advanced naval guns exported to them by the Imperial Chinese Empire, a salvo would be fired in a matter of minutes. The British battleships, which occupied a favorable position, could basically cripple or directly sink a Dutch battleship with each salvo.

Soon, the Dutch Chinese fleet was overwhelmed by the British fleet, and the two sides fell into a large-scale melee. The Dutch navy did not have sufficient tactical training for the battle line, so in the melee, the Dutch battleships initially kept several warships in groups to fight, and soon went their own way. On the other hand, the British navy, most of the warships were always fought in groups of three or five in a row on the battle line, and as a result, the British navy, which was numerically weak, quickly defeated the Dutch navy.

The main fleets of both sides fought fiercely from half past two in the afternoon until about nine in the evening. The Dutch navy suffered heavy losses, losing as many as sixty-two large and medium-sized battleships, more than a hundred small and medium-sized cruisers and frigates, and tens of thousands of prisoners. The rest soon became a rout, scattering and fleeing. The losses of the British navy were also very large, about 20 large and medium-sized warships were damaged, but they clearly won a big victory in comparison.

The battle lasted until dark, and some of the Dutch fleet took advantage of the cover of night to escape. At this time, the British Navy was broken into pieces and searched for Dutch warships everywhere.

In the following week, the British Navy continued to search for Dutch warships in the North Sea Navy, and many Dutch warships were sunk and captured one after another, and many Dutch warships were desperate and took refuge in the ports of neutral countries such as Norway, only to be seized by neutral countries. Knight was lucky enough to escape back to The Hague in the Netherlands, and after some counting, there were less than eighty warships left, each wounded, of which only three of the twenty Republic-class battleships remained.

Enraged, the Dutch speaker immediately arrested Knight and brought him before a court-martial. The defeat at the Battle of Faroe in the Netherlands suddenly cast a shadow over the Netherlands.

Upon his return to England after Walter's triumph, he was personally received by the King of England, who awarded him the title of Marquis of the First Class and the Order of England. The British Navy rewarded the officers and men of the navy, army and air force of the White Island garrison of the Chinese Empire for three days.

News of the Anglo-Dutch battle in the Faroe Islands quickly spread across Europe, and governments convened to discuss the matter. The crown of Europe's first naval power was then given to the British Royal Navy, which put pressure on the French Navy and Sweden, the first naval power in Northern Europe, which had been waiting for an opportunity. In particular, the Spanish Empire, which was not dealing with Britain, was very afraid of Britain across the Channel after the fall of its navy.

Similarly, the British victory was a miracle for the Chinese Empire. It was thought that the British and Dutch navies would lose both, but unexpectedly Walter turned the tide of the war and became a great victory for the British.

After "Huang Lao" Shi Jianfei got the news, he hurriedly came to see Huang Zupei. "I'm afraid I'll disappoint you"

Huang Zupei sighed and said, "People are not as good as heaven, this Walter looks like he is going to be blacklisted."

Shi Jianfei asked, "What should we do next?" ”

Huang Zupei thought for a while and said, "The plan can't catch up with the changes, and it is estimated that we will enter the war."

Only by participating in the war can he get a piece of the fruit of victory, and Shi Jianfei naturally understands this truth.

Three days later, however, an unexpected piece of news disrupted their deployment. A