The two battleships of the Dutch Navy were purchased from the Swedish Young's shipyard, that is, the kind of shore defense battleships specially designed by Yang Feng for the Swedish Navy. After all, this kind of small boat with a standard displacement of only 9,000 tons is equipped with eight 10,000-horsepower diesel engines, and the speed is almost catching up with the Hongwu-class battle patrol, and the power of the 280 main gun is also not weak, coupled with the centralized fire control of the primary version, the rate of fire of a single gun is close to three rounds per minute, although there are only six, but the firepower projection is not inferior to the Edward VII class with ten main guns.

But the problem was that there were thirty-two battleships and battle cruisers on the opposite side, more than forty heavy cruisers, more than sixty light cruisers, and more than a hundred destroyers.

"Wait for the order!" The commander of the Dutch Navy gritted his teeth and said.

The captain didn't say anything, raised his binoculars and continued to admire the breathtaking fleet in the distance.

Minute by minute, the hands on the clock were pointing to the time stipulated by the British ultimatum, and at this time, the whole of Germany was completely out of order, and William was directly stunned by the stick of the British, including Count Schlieffen and Moltke of the General Staff.

Originally, the original plan included taking the Netherlands first, but later after evaluating the gains and losses, the country was removed from the target, and Moltke Jr. made smooth progress in Belgium, so he didn't mention it again, after all, if the Netherlands was neutral, it would not be a bad thing for Germany, but I didn't expect that the British would have done the work they didn't do now, and if they had simply destroyed the Netherlands together, there would have been no such trouble, and now both William and his chief of staff regret it.

Of course, at this time, there is no point in putting this kind of afterthought, the important thing is how to deal with the current crisis, the high seas fleet of Wilhelmshaven was immediately dispatched, and all eighteen battleships attacked, even if it was a decisive battle, the British must not be allowed to land.

At the same time, the Sixth Army, which was stationed in Genter, immediately moved north, and once the British landed in Rotterdam, they immediately entered the Netherlands to fight. There was also an urgent remobilization at home, the formation of the Fifteenth Army to prepare for the defense of the German mainland, and the airship troops on the front line withdrew to Düsseldorf to prepare for the bombing and landing of the British army. Of course, this will take time, and even if Wilhelmshaven's high seas fleet is fast, it will certainly not be able to reach the mouth of the Rhine before the ultimatum time.

In the same way, the Sixth Army, no matter how close it was, could not have entered the Netherlands before the British landed, and they could not have entered before the Netherlands had made a decision, which would have become a German invasion of the Netherlands, but once the Netherlands had made a decision. The British would immediately land and block the Sixth Army's road north to Rotterdam.

From Belgium to the Netherlands, there were a lot of bridges and a large river below, and the British only had to drive a few gunboats into these rivers to make the Germans look at them.

For William, the only thing he could do now was to pray to the gods and pray that the Dutch would fight to defend their homeland, but it was clear that his wish had been disappointed, and after learning that the British naval fleet had all been sailed, before the ultimatum had arrived, the Dutch government gave the navy that was facing each other at sea an order to break through and retreat north to neutral Sweden or Denmark in the event of war. Of course, before that, it must be remarked.

In addition to the navy, the Dutch Army units in Rotterdam were similarly given a similar order, after a symbolic resistance once the British landed. Front-line generals are allowed to choose to surrender when they see fit.

The time for the British ultimatum soon came, and the huge fleet at sea began to move forward into Dutch territorial waters, and the Dutch fleet, which was facing each other, immediately issued a warning, and the British fleet did not care in the slightest to continue advancing. The Dutch fleet's flagship coastal defense battleship Rotterdam fired a warning shot from a single gun, and the British fleet quickly sounded the battle alarm, followed by the Dutch fleet as well.

The two sides are getting closer and closer, and gradually entering the battle distance. The Dutch sailors began to aim at the invaders with all their guns with grief and indignation, but the destroyers and torpedo boats began to retreat, they had been ordered that the battle was only symbolic, and that the use of torpedoes as a heavy weapon was forbidden, and that it would be bad if they really sank the British warships and made a feud, and it was hard to say if the British would let them go!

But at this time, no one noticed that between the two fleets, a periscope was quietly watching the British fleet, and on the underwater German Navy U9 submarine, the captain was aiming the periscope aiming at the British battleship Duncan in the distance, a battleship with a displacement of nearly 20,000 tons and ten 305 mm main guns.

This submarine was actually here before the arrival of the British fleet, although this is the territorial waters of the Netherlands, but for the submarine generally does not care about this, its goal is to stick to the Dutch coast south into the English Channel to ambush those British merchant ships transporting supplies to France, who knows that just here, suddenly found a huge British fleet in the distance, frightened that the captain quickly ordered to sit and sink to the bottom of the sea, and then have been sitting and sinking until now, During this time, he also made radio contact with Wilhelmshaven and received orders from the German Navy General Staff to attack the British.

Knowing that attacking such a large fleet was no different from committing suicide, the brave captain decided to obey the order, not knowing that his bravery could be regarded as saving his country.

The two fleets continued to move towards each other, and after the second warning and the final warning to the British in the guò flag, the battleships Rotterdam and Amsterdam opened fire on the opposite side of the Edward VII and the Sovereign, and the first salvo of the main guns, all arranged in the bow, hit the Sovereign, and the Bofors 280 mm piercing shell instantly penetrated one of the secondary turrets of the Sovereign, and the twin 152 mm turret was blown to pieces in a huge explosion.

Not to mention the British in this scene, even the Dutch themselves were shocked, no one expected that this kind of artillery was so powerful, you must know that now the distance between the two sides is seven kilometers, and it is terrifying enough to directly penetrate the turret armor at such a distance, even if it is the secondary turret armor.

Of course, the retaliation that followed was also appalling, except for the Sovereign, which was busy extinguishing the fire, the remaining thirty-one British battleships and battlecruisers opened fire almost simultaneously, and the flames of the explosion instantly flooded the Rotterdam and Amsterdam, and the two poor little ships were completely turned into a sea of fire. However, the next scene almost made the eyes of the British pop out, although they were scarred, the two small ships were obviously not mortally wounded, and it was obvious that even the British three, five or six main guns could not penetrate the main armor of such a small battleship.

Of course, this was not enough for the Dutch to continue fighting, and immediately after the second round of shelling, the two shore defense battleships immediately began to accelerate their preparations to turn, and by virtue of their tonnage and shallow water, they fled the battlefield at high speed from the shallow water to the north with the fleet.

But at this moment, the German submarine that was sandwiched in the middle, the captain suddenly gave the order to launch torpedoes, and two Bofors steam gas torpedoes jumped out of the torpedo tubes in an instant, dragging two obvious tracks straight to the Duncan, which had been locked.

"Torpedo!" A series of exclamations immediately alarmed Admiral May, the commander of the British Home Fleet aboard the Edward VII, who was stunned to hold up his telescope and look at the two tracks that were rushing towards the Duncan at a high speed of forty-five knots, while the Duncan, which was firing at the Amsterdam, was desperately turning to try to dodge the two deadly torpedoes.

It's a pity that these two torpedoes fired from only three kilometers away came too suddenly, and the Duncan, which was huge and slowly advancing, did not dodge any of them, and almost all of them hit its starboard waterline at the same time, and two 200 kilograms of antimony and antimony charges exploded violently, tearing two large openings tens of meters long under the waterline of this giant ship with a full load displacement of nearly 20,000 tons, and the sea water poured into it frantically under the pressure of its own weight, and soon the Duncan began to tilt on the sea surface.

During the tilt, the Duncan's interior caused a series of explosions that accelerated the terrible process, and in less than three minutes, the Duncan had capsized like a dead fish.

Admiral May was almost stupid, he never thought that this purely demonstrative mission would actually cost him a battleship, and when he came to his senses, both he and the officers and men of the entire British Home Fleet were all enraged by this shameful scene. The light and heavy cruisers, which had not participated in the battle, immediately blocked the escape path of the Dutch fleet from both wings, and at the same time the four battleships aimed their guns at the submarine that had been discovered, although the submarine had re-sunk under the water at this time, the 305mm PAO shells still smashed wildly on its head, and the water pressure of the explosion instantly tore it to pieces.

Looking at the oil stains rising from the water, the British stopped shooting, but they turned their anger at the Dutch, and the guns on all the battleships were aimed at the surrounded Dutch battleships, and at the same time the flag was raised on the Edward VII: "Surrender or sink them all!" ”

On the opposite side of the Rotterdam, the commander of the Dutch fleet was about to cry at this time, he never expected such a thing to happen.

"Send a report to the Admiralty!" Looking at the dense cannon muzzle in the distance, he said to the chief of staff beside him with a bitter face.

A few minutes later he received a reply from the Dutch Admiralty, and he left it to him to decide.

"Okay!" His Excellency the Fleet Commander took a deep breath, straightened his military hat and said, "I decide, fight!" (To be continued......)