More than one hundred and sixty airships formed a spectacular formation in the sky. Under the dumbfounded gaze of the British soldiers on the landing ships, they lowered their height to 500 meters, and then faced this column sailing towards the mouth of the Elbe River.
The landing fleet passed by from front to back.
At this time, the captains of the landing ships finally understood what they wanted to do. Then a series of chaotic orders to turn the rudder to the right or to the left were sounded on each landing ship. As for those standing on the deck watching
The lively soldiers also woke up from the shock caused by the formation of more than 160 airships. They screamed in terror and fled to the cabin in a hurry while looking at the airships that were almost pressing above their heads. There were many others.
Be careful of falling into the sea.
Unfortunately, it was already too late. Just as the landing ships were turning around one by one, the light under the first airship to remind the formation to jointly release bombs suddenly turned on. Then, at almost the same moment, under all the airships, countless
The black spots roared and fell.
If it were the Russian infantry who had been on the Eastern Front for a long time, I am afraid that the moment these airships re-formed, they would understand what kind of terrifying hell they would face next. It is a pity that the captains of the British Navy do not have this
This was a painful experience, and their mistakes caused the fleet to suffer an extremely heavy blow. Although those airships did not take any aim at all, many even simply dropped coagulation bombs on the sea between the two landing ships.
, but the carpet bombing that dropped thousands of coagulation bombs at once still hit fourteen landing ships at the same time in an instant.
It burned the Allied Powers to fear and even burned the Fortress of Verdun into a vitrified hellfire. Then one after another exploded on the uppermost oak deck of these British landing ships, splashing out the paste-like solidified qi.
The decoy caused the deck to burst into flames instantly. There was no possibility of putting out this fire. If even one coagulation bomb exploded on any landing ship, the fate of the landing ship could only be...
A floating fire pot, steel hull, and wooden deck give this warship unparalleled beach landing capabilities. But now this has become their most fatal flaw.
Of course, it wouldn't be a big deal if it was just a burning fire pot, but each landing ship contained a thousand army soldiers and more than a hundred crew members. These more than 1,100 people were completely covered by steel.
The hull is sealed inside, with raging fire spreading downwards above the head. The front, rear, left and right are all made of hard and unburnable steel. Of course, it is also impossible for them to open it. These desperate soldiers scream every day and the earth.
It didn't work, and each of them could only wailing in the fire and waiting for death.
Coupled with the ammunition detonated by the fire, every landing ship that was hit turned into the most brilliant fireworks that General Jellicoe expected. Unfortunately, this was not to celebrate their victory.
As for those landing ships that were not directly hit by the coagulation bombs, life was not easy at this time. The hell fire that exploded on the sea would not go out. There were floating flames everywhere on the sea. After seeing those in
After the tragic situation of the bombed landing ship, how could the remaining ones dare to stick to this thing? Each ship fled in a panic. Two of them even broke into the minefield, and soon hit a mine each.
Then it sank with the infantry on board in the explosion.
"Free attack, drop all the remaining coagulation bombs." Lieutenant General Hall looked at the fourteen still burning landing ships below and said with a sneer. This is the best result he can get.
, it doesn’t matter what effect the next free attack can achieve.
After seeing the semaphore sent out by his airship, all the airships dispersed and searched for their targets. They dropped all the coagulated qi decoys they carried. At this moment, the naval battle at the mouth of the Elbe River came to an end.
After paying the price of one French battleship and two British battleships, the British and French fleets also sank three German battleships. Now there are only three German battleships still fighting on the sea.
On the half-sunken Deutschland, the injured Prince Heinrich woke up after being bandaged. As soon as he woke up, he received a message forwarded by the Naval General Staff. Lieutenant General Hall led the airship force to sink more than half of the British landings.
ship, news that at least one British division was in flames, and an order for them to retreat.
"Retreat? Is there still room for retreat now? Send a message to all the remaining warships that are still fighting, and immediately sail to the outskirts of Cuxhaven to be stranded to serve as a fixed fort. As for the destroyers and torpedo boats, withdraw to Kiel." Heinrich
The prince looked at the telegram and ordered without hesitation.
After receiving his order, the remaining three German battleships and two heavy cruisers, all of which were covered with bruises, and the four light cruisers immediately sailed to Cuxhaven, withstood the gunfire of the British cruisers around the port, and then ran aground.
The outer shoals served as fire support for the coastal defense forces. In addition, there were a small number of destroyers and torpedo boats that relied on their small size to pass the shipwreck blockade on the channel, and then turned into the Kiel Canal and sailed to Kiel Port. They and
The First Squadron led by Lieutenant General Holzendorf, who was rushing in at full speed for reinforcements, was once the second largest naval fleet in the world and the last strength of the German Empire's High Seas Fleet. Germany completely lost its defensive power in the North Sea.
The strength of the five battleships also made William's previous ambitions completely come to nothing. Now even Emperor Joseph's naval strength is stronger than him. Of course, he is not the worst. The worst is France, with only one ship left.
The French navy with the battleship France is now inferior even to Greece.
As for the Hipper fleet outside the Helgoland Bay, after sinking six British troopships, one light cruiser, and six destroyers, the remaining two light cruisers and eight destroyers of this small fleet circled northward.
Jutland sailed to the neutral country of Sweden and stayed in Gothenburg until the end of the war.
"Your Highness, what should we do?" Scheer asked Prince Heinrich as he looked at the remaining battleships heading to Cuxhaven. They were now trapped in the command tower of the Deutschland. At least half of the battleship was still exposed to the sea.
On board, in fact, situations like theirs are very common. On every half-sunken warship, there are a large number of sailors waiting for rescue, including Germans, British and French. These bored sailors are watching the naval battle there.
It's over.
Of course, the British will definitely be rescued, but what they get is definitely not rescue.
"We? I think my dear uncle will not refuse us to be guests." Prince Heinrich said with a relaxed smile.
His dear uncle was about to vomit blood at this time. Although the Royal Navy finally won the battle, it lost a total of eleven battleships. It can almost be said that the overall strength was directly cut in half. As for the loss of the landing force, it was even more
Horrifying, more than 30,000 British Army soldiers were buried in the sea before they even landed on German soil. Almost 20,000 people were burned to death and drowned on the landing ship alone. In the subsequent freedom attack, Hall
The Lieutenant General's airship force destroyed two more landing ships. Now there are only fourteen landing ships left that the British can use to seize the beach. This means that even if the High Seas Fleet is cleared, after the next landing, the British army will
There is no ability to raid Hamburg and Bremen in a short time, and the subsequent landing operation will not be easy, because there are many German warships used as fixed forts stranded around Cuxhaven.
Of course, this war has been fought until now. It is definitely not possible to give up halfway. We have to bite the bullet and continue to fight. What's more, the German reinforcements are still halfway there, and at this time, they include the Eastern Front, France, and Italy.
All the Allied armies on the battlefield have launched diversionary attacks. Especially the bravery of the North American troops on the Italian battlefield shocked the onlookers who were unanimously dismissive of them. Although their casualties were also tragic, their fighting will was enough.
Wash away the shameful marks on this army.
In this case, it is impossible for the Germans to draw out enough reinforcements, but the British army still has 200,000 people on standby at home. In addition, after the U.S. military enters the French battlefield, they can continue to draw out more group armies from there. Of course, the most important thing is
What is surprising is that the first batch of China's army has already assembled at Cam Ranh Bay. In the eyes of Britain and France, this giant dragon from the East will soon enter the European battlefield and use their terrifying power to completely knock the Allies back to their original shape.
In this way, with infinite longing and expectation for victory, after completely solving the High Seas Fleet, despite the heavy losses of the landing fleet, the British army launched an attack on Cuxhaven according to the original plan.
There is no suspense about the ensuing landing battle. This small port only has less than 10,000 motley German troops, and even a large part of them are emergency call-up reserves. It has reached this point. What kind of German reserves are natural?
Needless to say, even though there were stranded battleships to provide support, they could not stop more than 10,000 elite British troops, not to mention the artillery fire suppression of the British fleet. In this way, the British army finally caught up with the German reinforcements before dark
Arrive and capture Cuxhaven.
However, it would be impossible for the British to raid Hamburg and Bremen as originally planned, because at the same time, two elite German divisions arriving by train from the Netherlands rushed to these two cities respectively, taking thousands of soldiers with them.
A car attack was no different from suicide. In this way, the British had to consolidate the defense in Cuxhaven while beginning to unload infantry and equipment from the troop carrier, turning the original surprise operation into a steadily advancing formal tactic.
Continue to mobilize army reinforcements from within the country. (To be continued...)