The destroyer Mons, under the command of Captain Albert, was conducting a routine patrol outside the port of Kiel. Since the Germans had completely bowed their heads and raised their hands to admit defeat, the Royal Navy was finally able to enter the Baltic Sea. Most of the German ports, especially the important ones, were immediately taken over by the British, American, and French navies.

Of course, for Albert, he didn't like this task very much, and he thought that he could retire and enjoy life after defeating the Germans, so he had to continue to gallop on the field with an old bone. As an officer over sixty years old, this is a bit cruel.

In fact, Albert retired before the outbreak of the Great War, when he had been a naval lieutenant for 15 years, and there was little hope of being promoted to lieutenant colonel on his merits. So he didn't continue to occupy the pit and didn't, and chose to go home and start a business.

However, the outbreak of the Great War changed Albert's life, and as a senior officer, he was re-recruited to return to active duty, and after several terms as deputy captain of a cruiser, he finally acquired his own warship for the first time, which was the MONS.

As the lead ship of the late M-class destroyer, this little guy with a displacement of 1,000 tons was nothing at all conspicuous in the Royal Navy, and even Albert did not like his own ship, because he was ridiculed by his colleagues as an old cow eating tender grass. As the oldest destroyer captain in the Royal Navy, this was really no honor, and it was the main reason why Albert was desperate to retire.

However, the Russians disrupted Albert's plan, because the Entente was preparing to interfere in the Russian Revolution, and the Royal Navy could not put swords and guns into the storage of Manan Mountain, so it had to run to the small bathtub of the Baltic Sea to continue tossing.

"Cheer me up, my eyes are a little wider!"

It stands to reason that the last shift before the early morning is on duty, and Albert, the captain, does not need to do it himself. Originally, the task was not particularly important. It's just a routine patrol of the perimeter of the port. No one believed that the Russian Navy would dare to take the initiative to kill them. Unless the Russians are completely insane, they will come to the abuse. Anyway, the Royal Navy is quite contemptuous of the Russian Baltic Fleet, even if they annex the main force of the German High Seas Fleet, in the past few years, the High Seas Fleet has not only been able to pretend to be a grandson when facing the Royal Navy, what is there to be afraid of.

However, Albert was a very cautious person, and when he graduated from the military academy, the school's evaluation of him was that he was more cautious than enterprising. The Royal Navy, although conservative in its bones, sees the so-called aggressiveness as very important, and people like Albert are basically not used.

The same is true of the actual mountain, during Albert's military career. Basically, it belongs to the green leaves who beat the side drums, and in the end, there was only one destroyer captain, and to be honest, this position can be filled by a senior captain, and it is simply a shame for a senior major like him to hold this position.

Fortunately, Albert has already looked down on honor and shame, and if he really values those, he will not leave a lack of enterprising evaluation on it. Anyway, Albert now wants to spend the last of his military career in peace and honesty, and it's better not to have anything happen. So in order to prevent a tragedy at the last moment, he, the captain, is leading by example. Personally supervise the hardest part of the day.

The sky was overcast, and the Baltic Sea began to fog close to October. It's not very big, but it affects the line-of-sight a lot. For the lookout post on the bridge, this job is really worse than death.

"Port side is normal!"

"Starboard side is normal!"

"The stern is normal!"

Albert put down his binoculars and rubbed his swollen eyes, slightly relieved. Seeing that the night is about to pass, and the vision is better after dawn, as long as you maintain your observation, at the speed of the MONS, the Russians will not be able to catch up at all. Naturally, there is nothing to worry about.

I have to say that Albert really looks up to the Red Banner Baltic Fleet, he has made the worst estimate, and is already thinking about what to do when the Russians come to the door.

Truth be told, it's a lot like doing useless work. Anyway, his co-captain and the crew were very speechless about the overly nervous captain, and they all wanted to get rid of him as soon as possible.

And just as the long night was about to pass, and just as the MONS could return to Kiel to rest, the observation post on the mast seemed to have made a discovery: "A large number of planes of unconfirmed nationality have been detected at 25 degrees to starboard!" ”

This news immediately attracted Albert's attention, as a captain who likes to be a soldier, he almost subconsciously ordered to enter the first level of combat readiness!

First Officer Barnett thought this was a big deal, and he said, "Captain, maybe it's the Air Force doing routine training again, you know, they've been practicing a lot lately!" ”

This is true, in order to sneak attack the Red Banner Baltic Fleet, the air forces of the Entente countries are also training with their lives, and it is normal to get up early and be greedy for darkness. Unfortunately, for the nervous Albert, any wind and grass is worth noting, and the concept of so-called normal phenomena is no longer in his mind.

"Level 1 combat readiness! Send a telegram to Colonel Bazel informing of this discovery! ”

The first mate is really a little speechless, as long as he enters the first-level combat readiness state, all the crew must stick to the battle position, and this means that he must stay on the bridge and continue to drink the northwest wind for a few hours of night shift, which is completely unreasonable and unnecessary in the eyes of the first mate!

So he reminded for the last time: "Captain, have you forgotten the day before yesterday?" Last time, Colonel Bazel was quite unhappy! ”

Yes, just two days ago, Albert had encountered the same situation, frightened by a large wave of his own planes, and in a panic sent a telegram to his superiors, which turned out to be a false alarm, which made the fleet look quite foreign. Anyway, the first mate didn't want to continue to accompany Albert to be embarrassed.

However, for a "coward" like Albert, being embarrassed is not worth mentioning at all compared to a small life, isn't it just a fool? Lao Tzu has made enough ugliness in his life, and any more is nothing!

Captain Albert, who had no discipline at all, gave the order of first-class combat readiness without hesitation, and promptly informed the port of his discovery. For Sukhoi, who is gearing up for a big fight, this is really not good news.

That's right, Albert discovered the group led by Sukhoi. Make a surprise attack completely sudden. If nothing else. Sukhoi will face a heavily guarded port. Smoke and air-proof balloons will greatly interfere with their movements, and even hordes of fighters are already waiting for them.

Well, if Albert's report had been heeded, Sukhoi would have befallen it. Fortunately, Albert's personal credit was poor, and he was not appreciated by his superiors, and his findings were not taken seriously based on his previous jokes. Colonel Bazel threw his report directly into the trash.

So. The Kiel direction was defenseless, the soldiers were sleeping, the sentries were deserting, they were waiting for Sukhoi like lambs to the slaughter!

Half an hour later, when Sukhoi flew over the port of Kiel with the first wave of attack, there was no movement in the port below, no air defense siren, no anti-aircraft guns, so calm that even Sukhoi involuntarily shook his mustache.

"Yushchenko, lead your men to attack anti-aircraft positions. Destroy them! ”

"Malinov, follow me to the airport!"

The first attack wave instantly split into two groups. A group of whizzing into the dive, roaring towards the anti-aircraft artillery positions in the harbor, bombs were dropped, and in mid-air they suddenly "disintegrated" and threw out hundreds of small bombs in the "belly" in one go.

Cluster bombs were still a novelty in those days, at least not before the Allied soldiers stationed in the port of Kiel. So when these deadly columns exploded in the air, they didn't react.

In an instant, the anti-aircraft artillery positions in the port of Kiel were covered with cluster bombs, and after a series of loud explosions, the equipment on the positions was heavily damaged. Fortunately, there were not many soldiers stationed in the battle positions early in the morning, otherwise the loss would not only be some artillery equipment.

After the first wave of cluster bombs was dropped, the second wave was dropped, and this wave was still cluster bombs, at least they looked like them, but in fact they were spreaders, and the bullets thrown were butterfly mines, that is, the BLU-43BDragontooth (dragon's teeth) anti-infantry mines widely used by American imperialism in the Vietnam War.

The mine, which resembles a small butterfly, can be dropped directly by an aircraft and, once activated, can never be disarmed (the only way to disarm it is to explode). This kind of gadget is actually not very powerful, basically can't blow up people, but it can make you disabled in minutes.

This nefarious weapon is simple and cheap to produce, but it can make the unfortunate infantry more alive than dead, and can greatly increase the logistical burden of the opponent.

Of course, the use of the mine in the port of Kiel this time was not aimed at abusive people, but completely cooperated with the submunition to paralyze the air defense of the port of Kiel. In fact, the effect was quite good, when the poor artillerymen just rushed out of the barracks and rushed to the preset position, one butterfly thunder after another was stepped on, and the screams continued for a while, and the poor artillerymen hesitated for a while.

"We need sappers, the sooner the better! Why? Idiot, our positions are full of mines! What do you ask where did the mines come from, of course, falling from the sky...... I'm not crazy, you TM come and take a look with your eyes wide open! ”

Anti-aircraft fire in the port of Kiel was paralyzed in minutes, and even the lads of Sukhoi were amazed at what they had achieved. You must know that the defense of Kiel Port is still quite good, it can be said that it is armed to the teeth, but such a defense turns out to be a paper tiger, which can be broken with a stab. This made the Sukhoi boys very happy.

So after completing the first wave of bombing, they did not return immediately, but entered the attack route again and again, constantly creating chaos in the port of Kiel, even if they did not fire, just a dive could scare the Allied soldiers on the ground.

On the other hand, Sukhoi, who were in charge of going to the paralyzed Kiel airfield, were in trouble, not that they were met with fierce resistance, but in fact the resistance of the airfield was minimal, and the unsuspecting Allied soldiers waved and cheered the Sukhoi boys before they dropped their bombs.

Such a state of preparedness naturally can't withstand the toss of Sukhoi's young men, but what makes Sukhoi more depressed is that there are not many planes on the airport! You must know that when the last aerial reconnaissance was carried out a day ago, the runway here was still densely packed with planes on both sides, how could it disappear in a day?

Sukhoi couldn't help but think of a very bad possibility, they were late, and all these planes had already taken off! In other words, he and his boys could be besieged by hordes of enemy planes at any time!

Come to think of it. Sukhoi broke out in a cold sweat. I don't have the good mood I had before. The radioman in the back seat was ordered to quickly contact a certain immortal hundreds of kilometers away.

In the waters off the island of Bornholm, a large fleet of two super-dreadnoughts, six dreadnoughts, and 10 cruisers is slowly heading west. On the flagship Bavaria, the commander of the fleet, Vice Admiral Basilev, and the political commissar of the Baltic Front, Li Xiaofeng, were anxiously awaiting a telegram from Sukhoi.

The success or failure of Sukhoi is directly related to the direction of the war, as the first large-scale air-to-sea attack in human history, even Li Xiaofeng, who has tried his best to promote this before, is completely bottomless.

Although he had already provided Sukhoi with a number of new weapons and developed tactics based on the experience of later generations, this was 1919 after all. The conditions are still too simple, and it is the first time that the eldest girl has been on the sedan chair, and there may be a lot of unthinkable problems during this period, and these problems may ruin the whole operation.

"Comrade Sukhoi called!"

Li Xiaofeng almost blurted out: "Read!" ”

"The situation has changed, no enemy aircraft have been found at the airport, please instruct."

This news caught Li Xiaofeng a little off guard, he thought that Sukhoi's call would either indicate success or failure, but he didn't expect the message to be so strange that no enemy plane was found? If you don't find it, you don't find it. The point is to get rid of the enemy ships in the harbor!

Li Xiaofeng wanted to beat his chest, but he reacted immediately. It's not normal for enemy planes to disappear, where did they go? Could it be that they learned the news in advance and transferred?

Li Xiaofeng thought of many possibilities in an instant, but immediately he ruled them out one by one, if the enemy was prepared, then Sukhoi would definitely be intercepted, and now there is no sign of this at all. From this, it is very likely that the enemy's air force is on a mission.

"Oops!" Li Xiaofeng stood up suddenly, he thought of a possibility, and immediately instructed Basilev: "Call Danzig and Königsberg and tell them to prepare for an air attack!" ”

In fact, Li Xiaofeng's reaction was a little slower, and not long after his telegram arrived at Danzig and Königsberg, a large number of enemy planes came to watch. Similar to the procedure in Sukhoi, the Allied air raids were also divided and cooperated, some suppressed anti-aircraft fire, some destroyed port facilities, and of course, the most of them were aimed at the ships in the port. And the biggest difference between them and Sukhoi is that the Entente planes are more numerous and look more intimidating.

Huge puffs of smoke rose over Danzig and Königsberg, explosions and the whistling of airplanes were deafening, and the Allied air forces seemed ready to wipe these two cities off the map in one fell swoop!

Anyway, for the inhabitants of Danzig and Königsberg, the day was black, and they suffered heavy casualties. Vast expanses of dwellings were destroyed, and wailing was everywhere, like hell on earth.

When the Allied fleet left Danzig and Königsberg, they were quite satisfied, and they could not wait to send a report to the rear to report the great results of the battle. According to them, Danzig and Königsberg were completely destroyed, and the enemy's ships suffered rather heavy losses, and at least more than half of their combat strength was lost!

So is this the case? It's a pity, no! The Allied air forces were overly optimistic about the damage they had inflicted. In fact, the main force of a certain immortal's fleet was not in the harbor at all, and only some warships were moored in the harbor, and most of the others were civilian ships.

Moreover, even these ships did not suffer too heavy blows, the Allied torpedoes were not suitable for use in shallow waters, most of the torpedoes were inserted directly into the soft mud and sand of the seabed, and a few struggled to float up and launch a charge but failed to destroy many targets. The air forces of the Entente countries were so excited that they regarded the splashes as explosions, and the results on paper were naturally quite exaggerated.

As for aerial bombs, it has to be said that the hit rate of high-altitude horizontal bombing is really miserable, 99.9% of the bombs are off target, and most of the bombs are dropped on ships on the bottom of the sea and in urban areas rather than in ports, which is the key reason why the inhabitants of Danzig and Königsberg have suffered even more heavy losses.

Of course, in addition to the reason for the poor effect of air raids, organizational chaos is also a key factor, although the Entente bloc has a division of labor, but this division of labor is still too rough, several waves of aircraft with different tasks almost at the same time to fly over the target, and almost at the same time to launch an attack, everyone interferes with each other and affects each other, the chaos is needless to say.

According to the statistics of East Prussia afterwards, the greatest damage to the Allied air force was not the anti-aircraft fire on the ground, but the chaotic organization of the Allied countries, at least more than 20 planes died or indirectly died at the hands of their own people!

All in all, the results of the Allied air raids, in addition to their magnitude, can only be described as lackluster. The blow to the Red Banner Baltic Fleet was basically nothing more than flesh wounds, and with the exception of a few destroyers and cruisers that were too much of a bit torpedoed and bombed, most of the ships suffered only minor injuries and could continue to fight without repairs.

At the same time, Sukhoi's lads also launched an attack on the warships in the port of Kiel, and would their cousins be better than the thunder and rain of the Entente? (To be continued......)

PS: Bow and thank you to the minister, zz120 and the glorious comrade Charter!