In the face of the unprecedented enemy of the German High Seas Fleet, the British formulated a relatively detailed battle plan before the start of the war. Considering the minefields along the German coast and the powerful German High Seas Fleet, the British abandoned their long-standing plan of near-shore blockade, and the huge British Grand Fleet was divided into three groups, of which the main fleet, mainly elite super-dreadnoughts and dreadnoughts, was stationed in the north of England, and would patrol the northern North Sea on an average frequency of twice a week in order to meet the German High Seas Fleet that might attack. A fleet of submarines, torpedo boats, destroyers, and former dreadnoughts was deployed in the English Channel to provide protection for passing British fleets. The last fleet was completely disproportionate to the size of the first two fleets, and that was the light cruiser formation deployed in Harwich Harbor, which consisted of high-speed and elite light cruisers, whose mission was to operate in the southern part of the North Sea, maintain reconnaissance and contact with the German fleet, and wait for opportunities to pick up the benefits. If you want to run into hard stubble, you can also choose to flash people.

So, shortly after the start of the war, the Harwich fleet first sank two mine-striking ships on the first day of the war, and then sank several trawlers and minelayers within a week. IN THE DAYS THAT FOLLOWED, THE GERMAN LIGHT CRUISERS ALSO TRIED TO ENGAGE THE HARWICH FLEET, BUT THE LIGHT CRUISERS SENT ONLY 10 TO 12 105MM RAPID-FIRE GUNS, WHILE THE HARWICH FLEET WAS ALL 10 140MM GUNS, AND THE FIREPOWER OF THE TWO SIDES WAS OBVIOUSLY NOT ON THE SAME LEVEL. So Harwich became more confident in his fleet!

The loss of a few small ships, the wounding of a light cruiser, was nothing to a huge high seas fleet. But it depends on when. Now, for example, the Earl of Spee has not only made the Far East a mess, but also ruined the port of Perth. Even the Turks bombed the port of Karachi. The takeout replaced an old-fashioned patrol with a new-style cruiser. A small profit. And the German High Seas Fleet, the most powerful of the Allies, not only did not show any decent results, but even let the family fight several times at their own doorstep. Although the losses are small, in a bunch of victorious battle reports, such a record is a tragic point! This kind of trivial matter will not go to the Kaiser, but Tirpitz still waits for the others on time, and it is not okay to go on like this! What about the initiative to attack?

Originally, according to Scheer's plan, he wanted to wait for the four King-class battleships and the fifth fast battleship Lütsov to enter service before fighting. That's the case. According to the intelligence of the German Navy, the gap between the fleets of the two sides, especially for fast warships, will be compressed to a minimum. Hipper will have 5-7 fast battleships. Compared to Betty's 8 battleships, he has an absolute advantage! After all, among these 7 battleships, except for 2 equipped with 9 12-inch guns, the remaining 5 are all 8 14-inch guns. More importantly. The protection of two of the slower warships really reached the standard of battleships. And when the 4 King-class ships were commissioned, in Scheer's opinion, it was okay for him to go out and clash with the British Empire head-on.

However, the plan could not catch up with the changes, and when the British fleet outside the west wall had repeatedly succeeded, Hipper decided to go out and hang around, not seeking to achieve much success, and first plugging the mouth above. The British reconnaissance operation was still relatively detailed, and they conducted a general statistical analysis of the situation of the German navy's mine-laying. Then determine the location and direction of the channel that the other side may have reserved. But it was impossible for such a reconnaissance operation to find out all the reserved shipping lanes, and when Hipper, with four fast battleships, passed through the Kiel Canal and dared to forget the Helgoland Bay. It was taking a channel that was not mastered by the British, and at this time a British light cruiser formation was waiting on another channel, so Hipper's fleet accidentally avoided the surveillance of the British light cruisers, and then went around behind the other party in a daze!

When several huge figures appeared behind them, the British immediately thought they were their own people, and sent light signals to identify them. In the face of the signal from the four light cruisers in the distance, Hipper recognized the opponent at the first time, the reason is very simple, today's fleet recognition signal is not like this! And this time Hipper also replied with a rather dark belly, and then continued to approach. When the two sides approached about 10 km at the end of the day, the British finally saw the looming German naval flag from the morning fog.

And by this time, apparently, it was already late! 4 fast battleships against 4 light cruisers, how to fight and how to have! In less than 20 minutes, 4 British light cruisers were torn to shreds by heavy artillery fire! As a result, the German High Seas Fleet, which had been in a bear market, finally got a bull. Weeks of decline have been swept away, and this has fueled the idea of taking the initiative within the German Navy. Encouraged by this success, the Germans began to think about developing a more proactive and bold plan!

The Germans were delighted, the British were depressed, and the loss of the Harwich fleet in particular made the British Admiralty wonder whether it could really confine the German fleet to the Gulf of Helgoland by relying solely on the close reconnaissance and vigilance of light cruisers. If in terms of strength, this is obviously impossible, in the one acre and three points of land at the door of people's homes, a few light cruisers are obviously not able to toss anything, as long as the German fleet dares to attack, then this seemingly beautiful cordon will immediately be shattered, and even without the main fleet attacking, nearly 30 light cruisers of various types in the German high seas fleet can kill the Harwich fleet several times!

Now the Germans have kicked back the ball kicked by the British, you bet I don't dare to go out easily, and in fact I not only came out, but also came out with the capital ship, and packed up a few small fish and shrimp that you put in front of my house, so what do you do next? Will you send a stronger fleet to continue the reconnaissance and vigilance in close proximity, or will you give up the southern part of the North Sea? And this is definitely a very difficult question for the British, because no matter which option is made, it is not a foolproof solution.

If a more powerful fleet were sent into the Gulf of Helgoland, there would be fewer of them, and there might be a danger that the German High Seas Fleet would be broken one by one, and if the entire Grand Fleet were stationed on the doorstep of Germany, it would be an impossible thing to do. At present, the only solution Jericho can come up with is to let Betty command the battle cruiser formation to take over the Harwich fleet to maintain the pressure on the German Navy, as for what to do if the opposing high seas fleet comes out? That would only be a flash man, at least Betty's fleet was about 4 to 5 knots faster than the German high seas fleet. If you choose to retreat in the first place, it shouldn't be a big problem. Of course, there is a lot of fog in the North Sea, and if you accidentally collide directly with the main German fleet in foggy weather, there is really no way to do it, so Jericho suggested that Betty try to be as conservative as possible in the case of bad weather, and assigned Betty 4 light cruiser detachments and destroyer detachments to ensure that there are no dead spots in his search range. From this point of view, Jericho has done the best, and the rest depends on God's will and the technical and tactical level of the British Royal Navy.

And if the approaching reconnaissance is abandoned, then the German High Seas Fleet will be equivalent to gaining sea supremacy over half of the North Sea. The German Navy could have a larger mobile air force, perhaps even going around the British mainland, and submarines could sail on the surface of the South of the North Sea, increasing maneuverability and endurance. This is unacceptable for the British Royal Navy, the British fleet not only has to ensure that the Germans do not escape out of the North Sea, but also to ensure the safety of the coast, but the more tragic point is that Germany's Helgoland Bay and other places are suitable for mine laying can be defended with mine arrays, but the British coastline is too long, and there are not many places suitable for mine laying, if you want to keep the security of the mainland, you must also rely on the Grand Fleet. Therefore, the Grand Fleet must not easily abandon the entire southern part of the North Sea. After thinking about it, the British decided to take Betty's suggestion and send a detachment of battle cruisers to replace the light cruiser formation to carry out the surveillance of the German fleet.

But what the British didn't expect was that the German fleet went closer to the battlefield, and most of the fleet went to Wilhelmshaven, this fleet not only included the dreadnought fleet that had been served, but also all the quasi-dreadnoughts in the German Navy and a large number of auxiliary warships, so to speak, the Germans gathered all the elite, they were like a taut spring, ready to give the opponent a fatal blow. As the commander of the fast fleet, Hipper began to want to merge two fast battleships built under the name of "the same class of battleships as the Helgran-class battleships" into his fleet, although these two battleships are more like slender Caesar-class battleships, but still not many people think of this as a fast battleship, because its length is closer to a battleship than a battlecruiser, (for example, the length of the Lion battlecruiser was longer than the Queen Elizabeth class in history.) The length of the Queen Elizabeth-class battleship is 196 meters, the R-class battleship is 190 meters, and the Lion battlecruiser is 213 meters! ）

And for Hipper's request, at the beginning Schell ignored it, joking, before the 4 King-class ships were put into service, the German high seas fleet gave you 6 of 16 dreadnoughts and super-dreadnoughts, and he only had 10 on hand. Although there were already two King-class battleships that could be considered in service at this time, Scheer did not seem to have exposed his trump card to the British spies in Wilhelmshaven too early. He plans to knock out 4 King-class battleships at a critical moment! The British were caught off guard, so the training of the four King-class battleships was carried out in the Baltic Sea, striving for concealment, and when the King-class was fully formed, it would be the moment when Scheer officially launched his sword!

Thanks to the book friend zhouyu1976 for the tip~~~~. Yesterday the subscription was not good, and the author was very sad——! (To be continued......)