Chapter 646: Survival from Despair
In Wilhelmshaven, Germany, Admiral Scheer was anxiously awaiting news of victory.
"We should be victorious, right?" Admiral Scheer asked himself over and over again.
With accurate intelligence and three battlecruisers in command, this battle should be a sure win.
But for some reason, Admiral Scheer was still feeling uneasy.
After thinking for a long time, Admiral Scheer believed he had found the reason: the opponent was Charles.
Charles was already in command of the reconnaissance aviation corps in Antwerp, and the French Navy might also be operating under his command, or at his suggestion.
Admiral Scheer could ignore all of Charles's successes on land, including the advance at Antwerp and Hasselt.
Those were all victories on land, which is completely different from naval battles.
However, Admiral Scheer could not ignore Charles's victories in the Dardanelles, such as his development of landing craft, amphibious landing ships, depth charges, and especially equipment that could detect submarines.
Will Ciel have new equipment for this battle?
No, that's unlikely.
Naval equipment is different from army equipment. It cannot be developed in a short period of time, and the tactics have basically stabilized, so it is unlikely that there will be any major changes.
The naval tactics that Admiral Scheer had in mind were "big guns and big ships". He believed that the future tactical development would be "dreadnoughts" and "super-dreadnoughts", in short, piles of armor and piles of cannons.
What Admiral Scheer did not expect was that in the near future naval tactics would undergo earth-shaking changes, even to another dimension.
In the telecommunications room, a communications soldier received a telegram with a "beep, beep" sound. He immediately operated the cipher machine to translate it, and with a series of "click" sounds, the message came out quickly.
The signalman glanced at the telegram and his face instantly lost color, but he still stood up immediately and delivered the telegram to General Scheer.
"General..." The signalman swallowed his saliva. He didn't even dare to report.
Admiral Scheer had a bad premonition, stepped forward to grab the telegram and took a look, then was stunned.
He had thought he would fail, but he had never thought he would fail so miserably.
Seven warships were lost, including a battlecruiser, but no results were achieved, only three enemy ships were damaged.
After a while, Admiral Scheer looked up at the signalman and shouted, "Ask the reason, what led to this result!"
"Yes, General."
Before he finished speaking, another signalman delivered the second telegram:
"The French have a new type of torpedo with a longer range, at least 3 kilometers, and it is probably a wire-guided torpedo. More importantly, they mount the torpedo on bombers to attack warships..."
Admiral Scheer's head was buzzing with confusion.
Torpedoes mounted on bombers?
They actually mounted torpedoes on bombers!
Admiral Scheer, holding a telegram in his hand, almost fell down. Fortunately, the signalman and staff officer came up in time to support him.
With the help of his staff, he slowly sat back in his chair and let out a long sigh.
Admiral Scheer's ideas were similar to those of Major General Caves.
It's over, it's all over!
Since France has such equipment and weapons, do the British have them too?
So, is there still hope for the German Navy?
But unlike Major General Cavis, it wasn't long before Admiral Scheer's eyes gradually regained their vitality.
We are not dealing with the French fleet, but the British Royal Navy, which is the ultimate target of the German fleet.
There was no hope of breaking through the siege in the first place, even with a surprise attack.
It is possible to win with one or two raids, but three, four... it is impossible to succeed every time.
On the contrary, now, although it seems that we have reached a desperate situation, there is actually a way out.
Admiral Scheer thought about it and felt that this was right. He stood up and ordered, "Prepare the plane. I want to go to Berlin."
…
Berlin Palace.
Under the afternoon sunlight, the snow melted faster, and everything seemed to come back to life. Even the fountain that had been frozen for months began to spray water.
However, the atmosphere in the reception room was extremely depressing. William II and Falkenhayn sat on the sofa, looking at each other with sad faces.
William II seemed to have become accustomed to failure, and at this time he would no longer get angry because of a particular defeat.
After a long while, William II said in a muffled voice: "This is incredible. The French fleet actually defeated the First Fast Fleet, despite the huge difference in strength."
Falkenhayn raised his eyebrows. "As I said, Your Majesty, we should not take the Shire as our opponent, whether it is the army or the navy."
William II hummed, his face looking a little ugly.
Falkenhayn did remind him, as did Admiral Scheer.
"Char is the one who can control the war." Falkenhayn said seriously, "Whether it's equipment or tactics, or... some kind of foresight."
What Falkenhayn actually meant was that Charles seemed to be able to know the future.
But this is not something a normal person can say.
"Don't worry, Chief of the General Staff." William II replied at the time: "I believe that Charles can do very little in the navy."
However, William II found himself too arrogant.
A bomber equipped with torpedoes suddenly appeared on the battlefield, shocking everyone just like the appearance of tanks on the battlefield.
At this time, Admiral Scheer pushed the door open.
What made William II angry was that Admiral Scheer not only did not show any self-blame or guilt on his face, but instead looked very high-spirited.
William II gritted his teeth and asked in a cold voice, with a hint of sarcasm in his tone:
"Anything to be happy about, Admiral?"
"If I hadn't received the telegram, I would have thought you had just won a battle!"
Admiral Scheer bowed calmly to William II and said, "Your Majesty, I think Charles has made another mistake."
"Another mistake?" William II snorted coldly:
"I remember that you thought Ciel made a mistake last time."
"You think Ciel doesn't know we have bombers, so we can safely find weaknesses in their defenses."
"It turns out this isn't Ciel's fault, it's our fault!"
William II's voice became louder and louder, and finally he even yelled at Admiral Scheer.
Although he knew it was not Admiral Scheer's fault, he could not tolerate Admiral Scheer's attitude.
Admiral Scheer did not take it seriously. He responded calmly:
"Your Majesty, I wonder if you have ever considered this."
"If Ciel can defeat us with a combination of cruisers, destroyers, and bombers with torpedoes."
"Does this mean that we can also defeat the British Royal Navy with this combination and this method?"
William II and Falkenhayn were stunned.
Then William II suddenly laughed: "That is to say, we should upgrade the bombers and mass-produce them!"
(End of this chapter)
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