Chapter 699: A Well-planned Operation
This unexpected encounter was beyond the expectations of both sides. Although both sides knew that they would meet sooner or later in the battles of attack and counter-attack, chase and counter-chase, when the encounter really happened, the tension from the roar of the huge cannons still made the sailors on the warships extremely nervous.
Equally louder than the roar of naval guns were the invisible radio signals on the fleet. Both the pursuing British fleet and the fleeing Italian fleet were calling for support and summoning friendly forces to give the enemy a head-on blow.
The weaker side in a war often has a unique understanding of retreat, and the Italian Navy's understanding of the Mediterranean is even deeper than that of stronger naval powers, because Italy is located in the middle of the Mediterranean.
In a sense, any corner of the Mediterranean is a home battle for the Italians. Soon, amid the roar of artillery, the explosion of torpedoes and the roar of engines, the Mediterranean received the first gift of the day: the Royal Navy cruiser was hit by the battleship Count Cavour and lost its combat effectiveness.
The watertight compartments of the ship, which had already been overwhelmed by the Italian armor-piercing shells, broke directly, and a large amount of seawater poured in! The huge energy of the torpedo explosion even ignited some oil tanks, carrying thousands of tons of seawater and flames all over the body. This cruiser, which was specially built to support the colonies, was welcomed by the Mediterranean with a body of more than 4,000 tons.
But the naval battle was far from over, and the allies of both sides were still rushing to the battle. The sinking of a colonial cruiser did not make the British sad. The French fleet that had come from major ports in North Africa was approaching the battle area. The British had reason to believe that they could keep this battleship that was symbolic of the battle.
It wasn't just the French that were approaching the battle area, there was also the Austro-Hungarian navy that had heard the news. Their size was not weak at all. Two Combined Power-class battleships brought four pre-dreadnoughts and were divided into two fleets to come to the rescue. The sun had gradually disappeared over the sea.
Around the fighting Italian and British fleets, continuous explosions and burning lights spread throughout the battlefield, and the sea surface began to boil.
As the distance between the two sides was shortened to 10,000 meters, the main guns on the battleships began to work, and their efforts finally began to pay off.
The British sailors' efforts finally paid off. The armor-piercing shells penetrated the Italian armored cruiser's turret armor effortlessly, and then with a sudden loud noise, the turret exploded. The stern of the armored cruiser was lifted out of the water, and the explosion engulfed the turret on the rear deck. A terrifying fireball rushed into the sky. The sailors on both sides saw clearly that large pieces of turret fragments and gun parts were thrown into the sky, and then slowly fell in all directions in a parabola.
Because the British Royal Navy sank its warship first, and suffered a loss at the hands of the Italians, even though it was a colonial cruiser that was sunk. Inspired by this great humiliation, the British did not stop while they were ahead.
When darkness became the main color of the Mediterranean, the battle continued, and with the arrival of reinforcements from both sides, the naval battle became chaotic. Suddenly, there was a huge explosion like a landslide, and blazing flames enveloped the entire ship. The torpedo hit the middle part of the two ammunition compartments of an Italian pre-dreadnought ship, detonating the shells stored in the ammunition compartments. The continuous explosions were earth-shattering and endless.
In an instant, all the guns and some boilers and engines of this pre-dreadnought were damaged by the huge energy generated by the explosion and became unusable. Flames shot up from the deck, and soon the speed dropped to five knots, and it completely lost its combat effectiveness.
The Austrian-Italian fleet and the British-French fleet have carried out many joint defense cooperation in recent years because of the cooperative relationship between the two camps. They are quite familiar with their allies and cooperate well. Whether it is a pre-dreadnought, armored cruiser or destroyer, they can find their own value in the battle.
This encounter battle, as other fleets of both sides arrived, had a growing trend in the dark night. The Austrian-Italian fleet formed a huge fleet represented by four dreadnoughts and ten pre-dreadnoughts. The strength of the British and French fleets was even better, and all the Courbet-class battleships appeared. If there was any shortcoming today, after this battle, there would only be two Courbet-class battleships left in the world in the Persian Gulf.
This is also the reason why the British and French joint fleets continue to increase their strength. If the Allies, who clearly have the upper hand in naval power, cannot even deal with the Austrian and Italian fleets in the Mediterranean, the German High Seas Fleet may take risky actions.
In the darkness before dawn, the strong northwest wind and the calm sea concealed all traces of yesterday's naval battle.
This chase began in the southern Mediterranean and ended near the east coast of Italy. Four pre-dreadnoughts of the Austrian and Italian fleets were sunk, and the remaining dreadnoughts successfully returned to the port.
As for the British and French combined fleet, they paid the price of two pre-dreadnoughts and one dreadnought. The unlucky one that sank was the Kolbe-class battleship, which had gone astray from the design. On the contrary, the Mammoth battleship, which was also severely damaged, struggled back to the British naval port. As long as it did not sink, it could return to the familiar ocean.
Far away in the American continent, Sheffield had no idea of the outcome of this naval battle. Now only the belligerent countries knew how much damage the fleets of both sides had suffered. But this did not prevent his League of Nations News Agency from making some artistic processing, creating some fake news to attract traffic, and lamenting in a worried tone that the British Royal Navy could not even deter other navies of the Allied Powers.
"It seems that all of a sudden, all countries have the courage to challenge the Royal Navy." The New York Daily, which likes to watch the fun and stir up trouble, is still adding fuel to the fire.
"You always take the opportunity to humiliate the British. Judging from the news now, aren't the British and French fleets in the upper hand?" Louisa Morgan knew her man. As long as it involved Britain, he would take the opportunity to step on it, whether it was a good thing or a bad thing. "The content of the New York Daily News is too exaggerated. The German High Seas Fleet is still being suppressed."
"My dear, you can't think like that. With the same number of warships, the British may not be a match for the Germans. Don't think that nonsense like the glorious tradition of the navy for a hundred years is really useful. It's just a boast. There are only traditional land powers, not traditional naval powers. The navy is the branch of the military that relies on weapons the most." Sheffield waved his hand to correct Louisa Morgan's misconception, "During the Spanish-American War, didn't the Spanish fleet have more naval traditions than our United States? What was the result? How are we better than Spain? We are just better in tonnage and artillery. In this case, any naval tradition is useless. The British don't believe in the nonsense of glorious traditions. Otherwise, they wouldn't have bothered to implement the two-power standard to deal with maritime threats."
"But now the British Royal Navy is far stronger than the Germans. As you said, the British don't believe these propaganda. On the other hand, why do you think that German warships are better than British ones? The tonnage and artillery are similar. Do you think the Germans will have the upper hand?" Louisa Morgan asked in confusion.
"My dear, the British are no longer an industrial power. In terms of scale, the United States and Germany are much stronger than Britain. What makes Germany stronger than our country is that the quality of its industry is much higher than ours." Sheffield stated his argument.
"What does this matter?" Edith Rockefeller asked puzzledly, "What does the high quality of German industry mean?"
"The entire Germany is a conglomerate-style empire. Their demonstrated strength is much higher than the numbers show. Britain, which has already relied on colonies to some extent, is not that strong. The Germans, whose industrial power exceeds that of Britain, also produce more durable weapons." Sheffield shrugged and said, "United Corporation is a conglomerate model. I know too well where such a country's internal strength lies."
The conglomerate model invented by Germany has deeply influenced many countries, including the later Soviet system countries. Such countries are extremely adaptable to the arms race and their mobilization capacity far exceeds that of ordinary countries.
As for the United States, which was influenced by Britain, it was not without the mobilization power, but it had to have a human shield to buy time and allow the United States to slowly unleash its potential. Britain's human shield during World War I was the Franco-Russian alliance. The United States' human shield during World War II was the Soviet Union. With human shields in front, Britain and the United States had time to slowly mobilize their true strength.
The subsequent impact of this naval battle was that Churchill, the First Lord of the Admiralty, believed that the opportunity to attack the Ottoman Empire was ripe. Britain had been preparing for this plan for several months. The Australian and New Zealand Army Corps and the Indian Army Corps in Egypt were already in place, and the naval escort and transport had also been deployed.
The Austrian and Italian fleets that have been hit will not come out to cause trouble at this time, but will seize the time to heal the pain after the naval battle. As for the German warships that attack the British mainland from time to time, these are minor problems. Everything is under the control of Great Britain.
Churchill then formally proposed a battle plan to the cabinet, with the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps and the British Expeditionary Force as the main force to conduct an amphibious landing on the Ottoman Empire, while the Indian Army Corps would attack the Ottoman Empire from land. The main force set out from Egypt and headed north along the Hejaz Railway. The Indian Army based in Oman set out a few days later. When the Hejaz Railway was occupied and the news of victory came, it would greatly shake the fighting will of the Ottoman Eighth Army. This army was mainly composed of Christians, and once they knew that the Ottoman Empire could not be maintained, they would turn against it.
There is also a section on instigating the Arab uprising, which can be said to be a very large and comprehensive combat plan.
The ambitious Secretary of the Admiralty did not know that the word Sheffield hated most was "pattern".
(End of this chapter)
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