"Reported that the fleet's ten-degree turn right has been completed, heading 16 degrees northwest and 20 nautical miles from the target port."

In the commander tower that is heavily protected by armor, a young and steady officer with neat and concise uniforms uses a straight voice and a middle-aged general with a thin body and a well-standing posture.

The middle-aged general was wearing a dark blue navy uniform with a short waist, and the color mark on his chest represented the German lieutenant general. He had short hair about inch long, thin and dark, with neatly trimmed upper lip, a short goat whisker on his chin, and a black-shelled binoculars hanging on his chest, and his small eyes looked very smart.

Through the porthole of the commander tower in front of you, you can see that the far sea surface in front of the port side is filled with a large amount of gray-black gun smoke. There is only one lonely ship on the open sea between this ship and the gun smoke. Its high-speed navigation state can be seen from the white waves stirring up by the bow. The two guns stacked on the fore deck spewed out flames from time to time, but the falling shells are still thousands of meters away from the ship.

Near the sight, two huge double-mounted main turrets point quietly to the front of the port side. The double-mounted secondary turret located next to the side of the No. 2 main turret is rotating, and the straight and slender barrel has crossed the sideline and is finely adjusting the height and low angle.

It was estimated that the poor British destroyer had entered the effective range of its own sub-gun. The German lieutenant general with short-haired goat bearded lightly opened his lips and teeth, and said a clear word with a calm expression: "Shoot!"

The officer standing in front of the sound tube was a big guy with wide shoulders and round arms. He immediately conveyed his shooting instructions to the perforation chamber with a sonorous baritone.

A few seconds later, the double-mounted secondary guns under the porthole in front of the commander tower sprayed bright flames. The 4.1-inch gun roaring sounded much softer than the magnificent roar of the main gun, and the tremor was also lighter, but this does not mean that they were insignificant. These new naval guns developed by Krupp were originally used to be installed as main guns on German naval light cruisers. They fire faster and have a longer range than the previous artillery of the same caliber, and the high-explosive bombs and armor-piercing bombs were equipped with stronger destructive power. After the German Navy's senior management changed the firepower configuration plan of the light cruiser, these naval guns were used on newly built large ships, and most of them used flexible and fast dual-mounted secondary turrets to provide abundant and dense firepower output at medium defense distances.

In a blink of an eye, the shells fired by the fleet ships landed on the sea surface like raindrops, and the waves they aroused instantly wrapped the weak but unruly British destroyer. With the strength gap between the two sides, the suspense of this battle is only how long it can last. After ten seconds, the double-equipped secondary gun below the porthole opened fire again without any pressure, and the smoke from the muzzle immediately dissipated with the wind. After ten seconds, they fired three times, and the speed of fire was astonishing.

In the distance, a new scene soon emerged from the waves of the water. The short-haired goat slowly raised its telescope. After the enlarged view, the arrogant British destroyer was still moving forward, but the fore deck and bridge were in a mess. The cannons were in a strange and distorted shape, and the crew was scattered around the battle position in a row, and the bleak scene of blood flowing pictically was like purgatory.

Another round of bullet rains hit the bridge of the British destroyer, and the ships exploded one after another. More and more space on the ship was swallowed by flames and thick smoke. Several figures running to put out the fire could be vaguely seen in the telescope. Their efforts were so helpless and tragic. Another shell hit the hull, and the most tenacious figure fell down...

The violent bomb rain lasted only three or four minutes, and the British destroyer could no longer take a step forward. Its rolling deck gradually approached the water surface, and all the guns stopped roaring. After the short-haired goat whisker ordered a ceasefire, the sea suddenly became terrible. Just when people felt that the surviving British sailors should seize the last chance to escape, a embarrassed figure stayed at the torpedo launch position near the tail of the ship. Suddenly, a faint smoke came out of the mouth of the round launch tube, and a pointed torpedo rushed into the water. However, even if it could sail to its target position, the long distance provided the other party with sufficient time to avoid it.

Shortly after the torpedo was shot out, the messy destroyer experienced an extremely violent explosion without any external force, and quickly sank in a split state. The battlefield was completely quiet, and the British sailors who escaped by chance could only watch the broken Saint George's cross naval flag on the mast disappear from the sea.

From the appearance of the German fleet to the sinking of two British warships one after another, it was just a cup of afternoon tea.

A few minutes later, the German fleet sailed by near these battle survivors. On the mighty battleships, the main turret and the secondary turret on the side opened the hatch and hatch doors. German gunners in white uniforms were staring at the British sailors floating on the sea with a hatchless gaze. Although the machine guns on the ship could kill these poor people in seconds, the Germans were not as bloodthirsty as some newspapers described. Through a majestic officer on the bridge, several German sailors left their lifebuoys. Although this place is not far from the British coast, the current wind and waves consume a lot of energy to the swimmers. They may swim back to the coast or support them until the rescue ships arrive. Those who are worse are all due to luck.

Holding the lifebuoy thrown by the Germans, the British sailors were able to observe the sudden appearance of the German fleet. The 11 battleships were divided into two rows, one of which was five large warships. They all used four double main turrets, arranged in full axis, and were stacked in two behind the main bridge and the secondary bridge. The main bridge adopts a towering tower structure, with a towering three-legged mast behind it. There are two chimneys of the same size between the two bridges. There are traffic boats, sampans and some objects included with canvas. The appearance of the small boom is not surprising, but the purpose of the two slide rails is unpredictable. The bow shape is not the common razor shape today, but the lower part is vertical and the upper part is floating outside. The side hull on the side of the waterline seems to be arc-shaped and raised.

Returning to the whole from the details, the sharp-eyed British sailors saw the "clues": the sizes and lengths of these five warships are different, but the side outlines are exactly the same, just like a template enlarged and reduced in size!

During the relatively abundant observation time, some British sailors also carefully observed another German warship. They should be newer cruisers, with tonnages ranging from 3,000 to 5,000 tons, and four dual main turrets along the central axis, just like the warships. British cruisers of different levels usually have their own characteristics, and the side profiles of these German cruisers are quite similar. In fierce naval battles, it is easy to cause misjudgment by the opponent's viewers. In addition, some British sailors were anxiously seeing that the German cruisers were carrying a considerable number of mines. This trigger weapon with extremely strong destructive power is very simple to deploy, and it is difficult to completely remove it. Once it is laid on the British near-sea route, it will have a disastrous impact on shipping in eastern England in a short time.

In the distance, the cover smoke screen released by the two British warships desperately gradually dissipated, and the shadows of seven ships fleeing to the coast were still clearly visible. After adjusting their course again, the German fleet launched another thunderous shelling, and the main guns of the stern that obtained the shooting world also joined in, and the firepower was doubled compared to before. After only two rounds of fire, a cargo ship was in artillery fire, and black smoke came out of the injured hull.

"Butchman! Devil! You damn German guys, go to hell!"

A British sailor lying on a lifebuoy waved his fists angrily as he walked away at the German fleet, and the red and white lifebuoy read German "The Emperor's Battleship Seedlitz".

About twenty minutes later, the Germans stopped their pressure-free long-range shells, and powerful heavy shells smashed three British civilian ships into the sea. This unilateral maritime attack was in line with the "maritime blockade" envisioned by some naval warfare theorists, that is, to attack enemy transport ships with fast speed and long range, thereby achieving the goal of blocking enemy countries from sea. However, on the sea surface near the estuary of the Abs River in the UK, the German fleet's attack on British ships seemed to be just a way to do it. Next, they pointed the high-rise muzzle at the Port of Grimsby, protected by the coastal defense fortress.

At this moment, the alarm of British ships and the sound of cannons from the sea had already made Grimsby and the British military and civilians around him inform the news of the German fleet's attack. This terrible news was like a black plague with amazing communication, spreading across the east coast of England at an unexpected speed, and then the entire UK. In less than a few hours, it would appear in newspapers and media in various commentary tones, reminding people that the war was evolving in complex and diverse ways.

"The Germans are here!"

The scream was like a sharp knife that pierced into the hearts of the British people's extremely proud. For many years, they used strong ships and guns to bombard the doors of backward countries, plundered the wealth of these countries in extremely barbaric ways, and oppressed the people of these countries. They probably never dreamed that the ruthless war would burn into the sacred and inviolable territory of the Empire in this way, and how great a provocation and insult it would be to the arrogant British Royal Navy!

With an extremely nervous mood, the British officers and soldiers stationed at the Fortress of the Abs River were staring at the sea with all their attention. Behind them was Grimsby, a traditional harbor in eastern England. It was neither a military port nor a political and economic location, and its greatest significance now lies in its standing on the coast of Britain.

This is the absolute forbidden area of ​​the British Empire!

Watching several civilian ships flee in panic under enemy shelling, the British officers and soldiers guarding the fortress were full of anger but could not vent. A vulnerable island country like Britain, coastal defense is the top priority of national defense, but in recent years, the Royal Navy has had to devote most of its funds to the Germans' shipbuilding competition, so that they have neither the energy nor the financial resources to strengthen the construction of coastal defense fortresses. If it were not for the dismantling and selling of a considerable number of old warships to raise funds for shipbuilding, and transferring their still-usable naval guns to the coastal defense forces, the British fortress garrison troops might even have to use antiques.

Class artillery has a large caliber and a good power to deal with the enemy's old warships. However, the range is a great weakness. Before 1906, most battleship main guns were only a range of over 10,000 meters, and the effective distance of fleet artillery battles was considered to be 6,000 to 8,000 yards. By 1914, the improvement of metallurgical forging technology allowed the latest naval guns to obtain a range of more than 20,000 meters. The adoption of new sighting equipment also greatly improved the long-range accuracy of the naval guns. This means that once the British coastal fortress encounters a new German warship, long-range artillery battles will only suffer.

Receiving the enemy situation, the police ships stationed in the upper reaches of the estuary were dispatched urgently, but when these old notification ships retreated to the second line and torpedo boat destroyers with smaller tonnage, the gunboats sailed to the distant sea, the fortress artillery was feeling no relief. When the despairing freighter barges finally approached the coast, the shadow of the German fleet also appeared on the east sea. The combat alarm bell suddenly rang through the fortress, and the target position of the enemy ship and the distance parameters were continuously transmitted from the sighting post to the artillery battle position. The fortress artillery of large and small caliber has been raised to the maximum elevation angle, and now it is only waiting for the enemy to enter the range.

Far beyond the range of the fortress artillery and even beyond the effective sighting distance of ordinary optical equipment, the German fleet opened fire and witnessed the flames and smoke appearing at the far end of the sea. The British officers and soldiers guarding the fortress were also surprised by their partners on the warships, but few of them linked this to the gray plane making a slight noise in the sky, which would soon bring them extremely painful lessons.

At the beginning, each round of artillery bombardment of the German fleet was divided into two relatively close stages. This is the common "fire-observation-adjustment-fire" tactic in naval battles. That is, one of the double main guns fires first, the commander adjusts the firing parameters according to the landing point of the first shell, and then fires with another cannon, and goes back and forth until the blasting point approaches the target. After several rounds of adjustments, German heavy shells began to cross the British fortress and hit Grimsby. Once landed on the shore, each of these large-caliber high-explosive bombs can bring about landslides and cracks, and the earth shakes. They can easily flatten houses, kill and hurt nearby people and animals, and break glass in a radius of kilometers, but these are not the most deadly. As the artillery fire continues to extend to the port dock, a giant mushroom-shaped fireball suddenly rises into the air. It is the Royal Navy's 10,000-ton fuel reservoir in Grimsby!

Under the leadership of Sir Fisher, most of the British ships built after 1906 used oil-fired boilers. Compared with traditional coal-fired boilers, the characteristics of liquid fuels being burned efficiently and easy to store, transport and use brought great convenience to the Royal Navy, but the British did not produce oil. In order to prevent the shipping problems that occurred during the war, the British Navy had to store combat readiness fuel in the local area for several months. Given the huge scale of the local fleet, under the stimulation of the Second Moroccan crisis and the two Balkan crises, the British Navy had already reserved millions of tons of fuel in the local area by the summer of 1914. They were scattered and stored in coastal ports. Although they had relatively complete warning mechanisms and fire prevention measures, they could not withstand the bombardment of large-caliber naval guns.

Seeing the raging fire spreading in the port, the British officers and soldiers guarding the fortress were already indignant. When they saw the ships bravely facing the German fleet were intercepted by dense fire on the sea, they opened fire in anger. The fierce artillery fire burst out waves in vain and stirred up the sea mud, and even the German fleet was not next to each other.

The huge and eye-catching fireball seemed to be a clear command signal. After a moment, the German fleet, which was about to enter the range of the British fortress, ceased fire. The 11 warships drew a simple and smooth arc on the sea surface, and the course changed from the estuary of the Abs to parallel to the British coastline, which made the furious British gunners stare at them with hatred.

Fortress cannons were useless, and people naturally placed their hope of revenge on the first day of the unparalleled Royal Navy War, the main force of the British local fleet sailed from the southern military port of England to the northern Scotland base, and together with the Straits Fleet, blocked the passage of the German Navy into the Atlantic Ocean. This "long-range blockade" is different from the "coastal blockade" commonly used by the British Navy. It left a considerable space for activities for the German fleet, and was considered by many to be a manifestation of the British fearing the German lightning strike fleet. In fact, it conforms to the technological development trend of naval warfare weapons and is a correct judgment of the naval war situation. With its obvious strength than the other side, the British Navy created an unprecedented cage for the high seas fleet built by the Germans.

The beast with sharp teeth and sharp claws is not willing to be trapped in the cage, but to break the iron cage built by the British with their elite talents, it is far from enough to just use a reconnaissance fleet with battle cruisers as the core. Sinking several ships and destroying a fuel reservoir is not enough to have an essential impact on the strategic situation. The strategic situation has long been formed and the war has broken out. Before the victory or loss is decided or the deadlock is at a dead end, all parties in the war hope to defeat their opponents with the most direct military means. If they can achieve their contributions in one battle, it will be the most ideal result.
Chapter completed!