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Part One Twenty Years Chapter 11 The Moment That Changed History (4)

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    (.)

    ¡°(Section 5 of "King of the North Atlantic", the fearless men who fell like meteors)

    When we comment on the day of June 21, 1917, we always use the phrase "the moment that changed history."

    The original words come from the German naval god of war Heidi Seelem.  When the dust of the Battle of the Orkney Islands settled and the German battleships returned to Wilhelmshaven with their scarred hulls, the first words from the German Chief of Naval Staff to Heidi Seelem were neither congratulations on winning the naval battle nor a compliment.  Instead of remembering the deceased, he was shocked by the June 21st that just passed, so Heidi Silem defined June 21st as 'the day that changed history'.

    Let¡¯s count how many major events happened on this day:

    On the morning of June 21, 1917, an American battleship squadron consisting of two New York-class battleships and two Nevada-class battleships passed through the Pentland Strait between Scotland and the Orkney Islands and entered the North Sea with the roar of gunfire.

    At this moment, the British Grand Fleet and the German Ocean Fleet, the two fleets that firmly occupy the top two in the world, are about to fight off the coast of the Orkney Islands. However, the Americans entering the battlefield only have some information obtained from their own intelligence personnel and naval attach¨¦s.  The information is unclear, fragmented and even contradictory.

    The Americans could not figure out the situation in the North Sea. They only knew that the German Navy and the British Navy had already mobilized to compete in the vast North Sea. Therefore, Rear Admiral Hugh Rodman, the highest-ranking naval officer in the United States at this stage, was in the command tower of his squadron flagship.  He lingered for a long time, and it was not until noon that he made the final decision that would reduce him to a situation where everyone in the United States would beat him in the following decades.

    At 11:45, the battleship USS Nevada once again broke radio silence and sent the agreed "Eagle Flag" code to their Navy Department.

    "Eagle flag" means "war". After receiving the telegram, Roosevelt, the pro-British and French Assistant Secretary of the Navy, rushed to the White House triumphantly.  Minutes later, the U.S. Congress held an unusually rare lunchtime hearing.

    12 o'clock, U.S. Congress.  The British envoy and US Assistant Secretary of the Navy Roosevelt issued reports that "Germany and its allies are threatening and harming the United States." In subsequent votes, the US House of Representatives and the Senate passed resolutions declaring war.

    At 12:30, heavy rain poured down outside Capitol Hill in Washington. U.S. President Wilson took the letter of resignation from U.S. Secretary of State and famous pacifist William Jennings Bryan in one hand, picked up the declaration of war in the other, and stood expressionlessly in Congress.  The declaration of war was read in front of the crowd, but reporters still used spotlights to record the scenes that shocked the world.

    Wilson¡¯s declaration of war marked the last major country watching from the other side to be involved in the war.  The beacon fire lit by Europeans burned in Africa, Asia, and Oceania in 1914, and finally spread to the Americas three years later.  Although the American government received countless pairs of shoes sent by the people, the power of the capitalists is unparalleled.

    The European war has officially become a world war.  Twenty years later, before the ink was dry on the armistice agreement signed in Amsterdam, Netherlands, involving dozens of countries, a new war broke out, and the war was once again renamed World War I.

    On this day, Wilson said:

    ¡®The world must be safe and secure¡­ Rights are more valuable than peace.  We will fight for what we value most.  ¡¯

    But the fact is that when the Americans gave up their cherished peace with great "perseverance" and chose to let the people and the people shine on the land of Europe.  The first Army troops, including Funston's troops in Kansas, were already on troop ships bound for the English port of Davenport and Normandy, France.  The first naval ¡®convoy¡¯ had long since crossed the vast North Atlantic, crossed the Pentland Strait and entered the North Sea.

    "Also on June 21, another drastic change occurred in the Paris Basin in France.

    This summer, Germany was in turmoil.  As usual, the naval power and the emperor were incompatible with each other, and then the workers' power rose.  They successively launched the Kiel Uprising and the Schleswig Uprising, fighting against the counterattacking conservative forces. At this time, the Kaiser, who was beleaguered internally and externally, abdicated.  The military command that wanted to replace it failed to take over the power vacuum, which eventually resulted in a situation in which the royalists, navy, army, Junkers, bourgeoisie and workers' party were entangled with each other.

    The civil strife weakened the German Army. On the Western Front, the powerful German Army showed signs of decline. So General Joffre, the commander-in-chief of the French Army, who saw hope of regaining his homeland, ignored the British and French allied forces on the Western Front in late April and early May to prevent Russia from withdrawing from the war.  After suffering heavy losses in the diversionary campaign launched, he insisted on launching a new campaign, vowing to completely recapture Paris, drive Germany out of France in one fell swoop, and spread the war to Germany.

    The British and French coalition forces launched a series of offensives under the leadership of Marshal Wavell. However, in the face of the German army, which was good at defensive operations, the confident coalition forces once again lost 200,000 people.  In mid-June, EnglandThe French army began to refuse to obey any orders from the French. On June 17, large-scale mutiny and mutiny began to occur in the French Army. At first, only a few regiments refused to obey orders. However, after General Jia Fei took coercive measures, officers and  The antagonism between the soldiers intensified and eventually spread to the entire French army.

    On June 21st, all frontline troops in Paris mutinied. The rebels attacked the frontline headquarters, overpowered the frontline commanders, sent representatives to contact the German army, and unilaterally declared an armistice with the Germans without maintaining government authorization.

    On this day, the British Empire also felt sad.

    When Dublin, which had accumulated all the army power of the British Isles, finally fell under the continuous attack of the Irish duli army, the intensifying Irish riot finally lost control completely.

    The bunch of losers in the British Defense Committee clamored to hang their War Secretary, Lord Kitchener, but could not come up with a better way to suppress the Irish riots.  Prime Minister Bonnarau hopes that Balfour can be re-appointed as Minister of Ireland and have full authority to deal with the Irish riots in "The Soul of the Sea Chapter 11: The Moment That Changed History (4)", but the Navy also needs a strongman like Balfour.  Kitchener, the Secretary of War whose position was in precarious position, could only pin his hopes of defending Ireland on the U.S. Army, which had just left New York Harbor and was still bumping on the vast North Atlantic.

    It was also on June 21 that the Russian Civil War, which lasted for more than three years, officially broke out.

    After the April Revolution broke out, two regimes faced each other in St. Petersburg, the political center of Russia.

    ¡°It is a pity that Russia has not formed a relatively stable political system with the State Duma as the core similar to the two-party system in the United States, despite the efforts of the Provisional Government and the Soviets of Workers¡¯, Peasants¡¯ and Soldiers¡¯ Deputies.

    In the all-Russian Constituent Assembly election held on June 19, a total of 27 million Russians voted.  The Bolshevik Party received 6 million votes, and the Socialist Minzhu Party received nearly 18 million votes. Of the total 707 seats in the Constituent Assembly, the Socialist Minzhu Party occupied 370 seats, winning the majority, while the Bolshevik Party only received 175 seats, and the Bolsheviks actually controlled St. Petersburg.  suffered a disastrous defeat.

    ¡°In fact, the election was not fair to the Workers¡¯ Party.  Due to the long-term slander and reactionary propaganda of the Czarist Bolsheviks, the vast majority of Russian civilians regard the Workers' Party, which represents the advanced direction of mankind, as a terrorist organization engaged in street politics. St. Petersburg people do not like the Workers' Party.  Secondly, the Russian Workers' Party has not yet extended their power into the countryside.  Peasants who knew nothing about the outside world were more likely to be seduced by landlords and rich peasants who favored the temporary government and voted for the bourgeois government.

    So on the third day after the election, the workers¡¯ uprising known as the ¡®June Revolution¡¯ or ¡®Second Revolution¡¯ broke out.

    At this time, the troops loyal to the Provisional Government were on the front line, and the troops near St. Petersburg were completely controlled and controlled by the Workers' Party.  When the cruiser Aurora, which was undergoing maintenance in the port of St. Petersburg, randomly fired several blank bombs used for training into the city.  A bloodless revolution began, and workers' armed forces attacked the "Great Power Sea Soul" temporary government along Nevsky Prospekt.  The latter only fired a few shots before surrendering.

    Noon.  Surrounded by the people, Lenin came to the entrance of the Winter Palace and announced smugly that "the Russian people have once again made a wise choice." Little did he know that his rash move started Russia's long civil war.

    During this period, the Russian economy fell into a total collapse, the port of Vladivostok in the Far East was placed under international trusteeship, and Sakhalin Island was swallowed up by Japan.  Even the interests of Mongolia and the Middle East were taken back by the Chinese. What is even more terrifying is that the Germans were neither defeated nor defeated by the "red ideology and armed subversion" exported by the Bolsheviks. A huge military that shared the same fate as the Germans  The empire is quietly taking shape on the side of the Russian couch!

    Nearly a hundred years have passed since the end of World War I. We can look back on the past from the commanding heights of history.  Comment on the merits and demerits of those figures who have profoundly influenced the course of history at this moment that changed history. However, for the big figures who were fighting on the front line or were deeply involved in political quagmire at that time, they could only follow the flow of history.  , make choices actively or passively.

    Just like in the Battle of Orkney Islands in 1917, which played a decisive role in this series of accidents, General Lampard, commander-in-chief of the British Fast Fleet, did not choose to protect himself wisely, but took on the historical mission entrusted to him by the British Empire and resolutely  Leading all ten battlecruisers to the north at full speed, they added the last tragic touch to this naval battle.

    "Just like David Beatty made a series of mistakes in this naval battle.  The "Sea Cavalry" of the British Empire has never been a believer in the idea of ????preserving ships and avoiding war. It is just that the pressure to maintain the empire's national destiny for the next hundred years is too heavy, and his subordinates cannot be like Erich Leder and the one-armed general Wall.  It was only because of the courage that Fugang and Fleet Staff Officer Leventzo gave him that the shell that was restrained in breathing couldTee appears to be worried when making any decision.

    At 12:32, after the battle patrol Indomitable reported that the turn was completed, the command tower of the British flagship Revenge was filled with an unspeakable emotion that should not have been there.

    "Entertainment Show" Regarding this sentiment, Betty wrote in his personal memoir "Two Hours and an Era":

    ¡®Our battle line has finally taken shape. The Chief of Staff reminded us that our formation is too scattered, which is extremely detrimental to naval battles. However, I can still hear the relaxed meaning from the Chief of Staff¡¯s words.

    This kind of relaxation may be the common mood of the Grand Fleet.  Please don¡¯t blame us for going out in a rage, but forgetting our ambition to fight for supremacy in the sea battle. No one can understand the feeling of discouragement when we encountered all the main ships of the Ocean Fleet far away from the Firth of Forth. No one can  I can appreciate the weakness of the seemingly majestic battleships and battlecruisers of the Grand Fleet before Germany's incomprehensible T-shaped head. What's more, I can't understand that in the dim flagship command tower, we can't see the tragedy at the rear end of the battle line. We can only see from  The battle damage and death reports that were constantly sent from the telegraph room were feeble when examining the status of this fleet.  ¡¯

    The most difficult moment seems to be over, even though the Royal Navy lost a battleship leased from Argentina and two old battlecruisers under the T-shaped head of the Germans, and the First Battle Fleet and the Fourth Battle Cruiser Fleet were half disabled.  , but after all, they have ushered in a time to breathe.

    The next step should be a long-distance bombardment of dreadnoughts in the style of the Ridland Sea Battle. Based on the experience of the Battle of Dogger Sandbank and the Battle of Ridland, Betty judged that the large fleet could hold on until General Lampard arrived with reinforcements as long as it gritted its teeth and persisted.  moment.

    However, just when this unrealistic idea took shape, the bad news came.

    The battleship Canada, which once escaped being chased and intercepted by the Germans, became a new legend of the Ocean Fleet. At a distance of more than 14,000 meters, the Derfflinger-class battlecruiser No. 3 Oden fired a shot.  The former's command tower was blown up!  (To be continued.)</dd>
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