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Part One Twenty Years Chapter 12 The Star-Spangled Banner Falls (2)

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    "("King of the North Atlantic" Section 7, The End of the Union Flag[5])

    Around two o'clock in the afternoon, the decisive moment of the Orkney Islands Naval Battle came, and General Lampard's fast fleet finally arrived on the battlefield.

    In this protracted naval battle, although the American battleship squadron strolling in the northern North Sea also received an urgent call from the British Admiralty, in the eyes of John Bull, who was elegant on the surface and arrogant on the inside, only Vice Admiral Lampard's quick response  The fleet is the Royal Navy's only hope for self-salvation.

    Hope is just hope after all. The fact is that the fast fleet cannot shoulder the important task of saving the Royal Navy and sounding the clarion call for the British counterattack.

    At 8 o'clock in the morning, tens of thousands of naval officers and soldiers in the fast fleet were exhausted by Sealem's superb tactics and the hundreds of nautical miles of turnaround in the North Sea that proved to be useless. However, facing the unprecedented crisis of the Royal Navy, General Lampard  The decision was made to reinforce the main fleet of the Grand Fleet.

    This is a difficult decision.  The first is the range of more than one hundred nautical miles. Although the fast fleet is equipped with the latest battlecruisers or modified battleships in service, which can easily run at a speed of more than 27 knots, after all, it cannot ensure that the main engine can move forward at high speed without failure throughout the entire process.  The second is the ability to withstand the pressure of the main fleet of the Grand Fleet. Once General Betty's main fleet fails to withstand the final blow launched by Heidi Sealem with all the strength of the German navy, the fast fleet will "send the sheep into the tiger's mouth" and turn back.  It will undoubtedly become the most ridiculous and funniest joke in the history of world naval affairs.  Finally, there is the German underwater wolf pack. The Germans usually deploy their ocean-going submarines in the North Atlantic, but there is no shortage of three or five medium-sized submarines on the east coast of Britain, waiting for opportunistic actions like small fish and shrimps. The fast fleet is safe at night  Arriving in the Scarborough area does not mean they can safely return to the Firth of Forth.

    At 14:00 in the afternoon, the fast fleet arrived at the battlefield after all the hard work, but General Lampard had not yet breathed a sigh of relief.  Bad news appears frequently.

    In order to reach the battlefield as quickly as possible, the fast fleet, which did not deliberately choose a favorable course, lacked a favorable angle and opportunity to enter the battlefield when it returned to the Firth of Forth. As a result, the Germans discovered the reinforced British battle cruiser at a distance of almost 21 kilometers.  Only when the formation was in formation could the latter complete the transformation process from cruising formation to battle line.

    In addition to the late change of formation, the main fleet was also in poor condition. The battle patrol lookout of the Barham saw a "doomsday scene even more tragic and tragic than the sinking of the British Isles" from a distance.

    ¡®In the vast North Sea, the gray-painted German battle lines hoisted the Z-flag high, the upright bow continued to split the huge white waves, and clouds of black smoke would rise from the deck every twenty seconds.  I knew it was the Germans tilting their ammunition towards our British Empire's battle lines, and the Union Flag's battleships might be obscured by water jets.  Or they stumble forward dragging thick smoke that blocks the sky and the sun, and can only flicker in and out of sight on the surging waves of the North Sea in an extremely embarrassed manner.  ¡¯

    In addition, the fast fleet also encountered at least eleven Frederick seaplanes.  The "wooden frame" that the chief of staff of the fast fleet said would only throw away wrenches, hammers and other unsavory gadgets is undoubtedly Lord Purple Baron and his minions.  The young pilots followed the slovenly Hannah Shaw, referring to his reckless behavior of attacking a fleet of twenty-six battleships with a single aircraft after first discovering the main fleet of the British Grand Fleet, and followed suit by carrying privately modified small-caliber artillery shells.  Started working as a dive bomber.

    The British are addicted to Ai Ai all the time.  The Germans were also confused.  When the German aircraft fleet fell over the fast fleet in darkness, the pilots discovered that the information from the Naval Intelligence Office was wrong.  There were only nine battlecruisers in three-and-three combinations in the fast fleet's battle line.  There was also a big one missing.

    This surprising discovery did not prevent the German pilots from performing acrobatics in the air. They could not hear the delicate trembling of the wooden frame, and they did not expect to return to report intelligence to the flagship Bavaria. They just rushed towards the battle line of the fast fleet in a swarm.  After the fast fleet exchanged fire with the Ocean Fleet, the German observation officer also discovered this problem, but no one knew the answer.

    Late at night after the naval battle.  When Lord Otto Widigan, the king of submarines, failed to ambush the battleship St. Vincent in the depths of the Firth of Forth, he impatiently submitted a lengthy report to the German Admiralty with a cigarette in his mouth. The battle cruiser HMS King Kong of the British fast fleet disappeared for no reason.  The reason why the battle cruiser Warrior appeared at the end of the fast fleet battle line was revealed.

    ? Following the Magic Wrench at the Battle of Jutland, the Battle of Portsmouth raided Greater London and the early stages of the Battle of the Orkney Islands.  After Hannah-Shaw single-handedly challenged the British Grand Fleet, the German flying fleet once again showed its power, attacking a fearless fleet in a battle line, and achieved results.

    In fact, the British were not completely unaware of the enemy's aerial sneak attacks.  After the Battle of Jutland, the British equipped their battleships with some anti-aircraft secondary guns and anti-aircraft balloons, but the main purpose of these weapons wasThe purpose is to prevent Germany's slow-moving Zeppelin airships from dealing with high-speed flying seaplanes. So before the fast fleet officially joined the battle, they suffered two home-made aerial bombs from German pilots and countless aerial bombs for no reason.  Machine gun bullets killed seven British sailors and wounded 21 others.

    For the fast fleet, the most terrible bad news is the current maritime situation - on the battlefield, our main fleet is entangled with the Germans, heading southwest at high speed along the southern coastline of the peninsula, and the fast fleet drags out a long  The six-kilometer battle line was located on the south-west side of the two fearless fleets, about 20,000 meters away, heading towards each other at a high speed of 24 knots.

    On the fast fleet flagship Barham, the British combat staff and navigation officers rigorously restored the battlefield of the Orkney Islands naval battle on the sand table and drawings. The next step was a headache for the commander.

    The fast fleet has two options. The first is to choose to turn left, just like the Germans did, and organize the battlecruisers of the fast fleet into the front or rear of the large fleet battle line to follow the main fleet.

    This is the most beneficial plan for the Grand Fleet, because the left-turning fast fleet battle line will form a relatively vertical angle with the Germans for a period of time, which is the so-called T-shaped head. At that time, the Germans will only  Can be forced to follow the fast fleet to turn left, relax or completely give up the suppression of the main fleet.

    The main fleet has some time to breathe and recuperate. Although the performance of the battle cruisers of the fast fleet is not as good as that of the Germans, and it cannot exert its high-speed advantage in a narrow space, the two fleets heading towards each other are destined not to have a long exchange of fire.  In time, the fast fleet can easily get rid of the German entanglement and join the main fleet.  With the support of the nine battle cruisers of the fast fleet and the distance involved, the large fleet may be able to survive to the end of the naval battle.

    Of course, the left-turn tactic is not without its flaws.  First of all, the rough guys of the fast fleet do not have the ability to accurately complete the tactical turning task like a scalpel, allowing the fast fleet to join the main fleet battle line in limited space and time.  Secondly, the main fleet cannot cooperate with the fast fleet in taking action - since the half-broken battle line cannot forcibly accelerate at sea, so that the fast fleet can slow down and merge into the rear of the battle line, and it is even more afraid to pay the price of losing speed and letting others take advantage of it.  For the fast fleet to join the front of the battle line at high speed, the only possibility is for the fast fleet to turn at a small angle and hit the main fleet's battle line head-on, or for the fast fleet to turn at a large angle and build a human shield wall at the front of the main fleet battle line.  .

    Not to mention how stupid it is to set up two columns that affect the firing range of the second team's main guns during the bombardment of the dreadnought battleship. This sea of ??stars, no matter how strong the law of the jungle is, does not use the weak battlecruisers to cover the retreat of the battleships.  The reason is that the performance of our own battle patrol battleships is notoriously poor, especially the opponent's high-speed battleships are notoriously powerful.

    The second option for the fast fleet is to turn right, maintain a parallel course with the Germans, and cooperate with the main fleet to carry out a pincer attack on the Germans.

    With the current sailing posture of the fast fleet, there is still plenty of room to turn to the right, and it is full of temptation and imagination to devise a two-sided attack tactic in front of the master tactician Heidi Silem, but this is still not a good choice.

    At any time, dividing troops at sea is a taboo for military strategists.  Although the British battle cruisers based on Fisher's "Perfect Cruiser" theory had no obligation to participate in battleship duels, the Battle of Jutland, which had a profound impact on modern naval warfare, never had a heated scene in which the battle cruisers and the main fleet fought each other.  But since the Germans discovered the potential of German battlecruisers to participate in decisive battles in the Orkney Islands naval battle, it seems inappropriate for the British to continue to adhere to Fisher's theory, especially since their main fleet is nearly half disabled.

    Furthermore, the speed of the fast fleet and the Germans caused the Royal Navy to lack effective bombardment time. The terrible relative speed also made it difficult for the gunners of the fast fleet to accurately hit the opponent. As long as the Germans made up their mind to attack the weak main fleet, the ocean  The fleet did not suffer terrible losses, and a two-sided attack by the fast fleet was meaningless.

    Regardless of the fact that the Germans, who had the advantage in the number of capital ships, separated a combat force to suppress and fight back, the Ocean Fleet battle line was only about 15 kilometers long. The relative speed of the two opposing fleets was at least 30 knots, leaving the fast fleet with nine ships.  The battle cruiser severely damaged the Germans in less than 18 minutes of free attack. One can imagine the difficulty.

    Faced with the crisis, Betty was unable to make a decision, and Lieutenant General Lampard, the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, stood in the command tower of the Reputation with a frown on his face.

    At the moment when the British Empire was dizzy, the Germans turned.

    The nine battleships of the Third Battle Fleet suddenly gave up attacking the British Fourth Battle Fleet and instead cut across the advance route of the fast fleet to seize the T-shaped head.  First battleshipNot only did the fleet and the First Reconnaissance Group fail to make up for the five-kilometer gap caused by the departure of the Third Battle Fleet, but they slowed down one after another and adjusted their firepower channels to deal with the two Iron Duke-class battleships and the Second Battleship behind the third squadron of the British Fourth Battle Fleet.  The team's remaining Joe V-class battleships and two Goliath-class battleships.

    ¡®Betty, I¡¯m going to make a move, it depends on whether you choose to fight to death orkneel to death¡¯ (To be continued.)
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