In the waters of the Orkney Islands in the north, the British fleet encountered unexpected difficulties. At about the same time, Newcastle upon Tyne welcomed the second batch of planes of the day. They were three in total, and the wings of the fuselage were not painted with German iron crosses, but with brightly colored rice-shaped flags, namely the flags of Great Britain and the United Kingdom of Ireland.

The three Thorpevis-D-type seaplanes belonged to the Royal Naval Air Service Team. They quickly landed on the Tyne River and then arrived at the Newcastle Pier with their own power. The handsome and handsome pilots were favored by the local military and civilians, and their morale was immediately restored. According to the instructions of the Admiralty, the naval forces stationed here were prepared in advance. They filled the planes flying from Grimsby, provided ice drinks and chocolates for the pilots, and pointed them out the exact direction for the German planes to fly away. At this time, nearly two hours had passed since the German planes arrived in Newcastle.

Like the Short Brothers, Thorpeways Aircraft Company is also a local British enterprise, which is an important reason why they received orders from the Royal Flight Team and the Royal Navy Air Service Team. However, by the time the war broke out, the aircraft was only 11 years old. The design ideas and mechanical technology were still in the initial stage of exploration. Almost every year, there will be amazing models, so the aircraft purchased by each * team are also diverse. There are more than ten models of nearly 60 aircraft equipped by the British * team, from six aircraft manufacturing companies. This not only brings great challenges to the logistics maintenance of the aviation troops, but also makes the commanders' headaches in combat use.

Surrounded by flowers, six British pilots boarded their planes with confidence, but seeing them struggling to leave the water and flew away with the Germans, many people wondered: Just by these three clumsy big geese, can they find the German fleet and escape unscathed?

Most people have this idea to be anxious, but some people are destined to be ordinary people. Shortly after the three Thorpevis seaplanes left, another plane flew over Newcastle with a roar of ears, and some sharp-eyed people screamed: Isn't that Johnson's "little dragonfly"?

In the first few years of the birth of aircraft, governments and military governments were little interested in them. It was actually the civilians who really loved and supported the development of aircraft. They regarded flight as an emerging sport and invested money in the pursuit of faster speeds and longer ranges. So before this war gave the aviation force a new military status, the latest and best aircraft were usually held by civilian flight sports enthusiasts. In Newcastle upon Tyne, Fox Johnson was such a person with

The young rich man with "special ambition" prefers French aircraft. He never misses the aviation exhibitions and competitions held in France every year. His new toys are the "little dragonfly" made by France. The aircraft adopts a single-wing design and a light and compact appearance. It is a typical land race aircraft. It sets an informal flight record of 173 kilometers per hour in 1913, almost twice as fast as those two-seat Thorpevis seaplanes.

Without any aviation control, Johnson and his "little dragonfly" quickly crossed the coastline of England and caught up with the three stupid gooses without any trouble. As for the aviation technology at the outbreak of the war, the Thorpevis-D type seaplanes were not undesirable. They had a maximum air stagnation time of 3 and a half hours, could descent and takeoff in relatively bad sea conditions, and could carry an additional 200 kilograms of load when two pilots were filled with fuel, making it possible to carry radio equipment or install combat weapons. If the British Air Force had 60 instead of 6 Thorpevis-D at this time, the doom of the British Navy's main force would have a chance to reverse.

Simply greeted the pilots in uniforms, and the rich man Johnson drove his extremely cool private plane away. There was only blue sky, white clouds, and blue sea in front of his eyes. Although he was not very at ease, he still flew forward with great enthusiasm.

The 30 minutes passed quickly, and I could no longer see the three stupid geese when I looked back. The sea below the wing was empty, with only a tiny shadow of the boat flashing occasionally. Johnson deliberately did not pay attention to the decreasing readings on the fuel meter. He tried to look into the distance of the sky. After a while, several flying objects different from clouds appeared at the end of his sight. They might be seabirds flying high, but their strong intuition told Johnson that it must be a German plane!

The reading of the fuel meter finally dropped to halfway. For the victory of the country, Johnson was ready to sacrifice the plane. He stepped on the accelerator and pulled the plane up smoothly. Although it was midsummer, the chill kept coming, penetrated his clothes and penetrated his bones. Johnson, with his teeth trembling, poked his head out of the cabin to the right. The flying objects were already under the wings, looking only the size of a fly. Johnson took out his telescope, and the vibration of the plane made him realize after a lot of effort that they were several German aircraft with the iron cross logo.

However, there was no trace of the German fleet on the sea below these German planes. Johnson soon realized that they were still flying eastward. At this time, he simply ignored the plane's fuel meter and continued to fly away from England along the route of the German plane. After only a few minutes, black smoke clouds appeared in front, and then smoke columns gathered into smoke clouds. Crowds of ships suddenly appeared on the sea in the telescope!

Johnson took out his pocket watch and looked at it. At the average speed along the way, he estimated that he was 150 kilometers offshore and the German fleet was still 20 kilometers away. In other words, the Germans were less than 100 nautical miles away from the mouth of the Tyne River. For the new main battleship, this was only a four-hour flight.

As a civilian, Johnson did not know what military significance this distance had for both sides of the war, but he knew that the position of the German fleet must be the intelligence that the British Navy urgently needed.

Despite his reluctance, Johnson still looked at his fuel meter. The fuel left in the tank was less than one-fifth of the amount. Even if he included the 10 liters of gasoline he carried, he would definitely not be able to bring the £26,000 "little dragonfly" back to the land this time.

Johnson let out a sigh of relief and was about to count the number of German ships, but he saw two "flies" flying to the same height as him and rushed over from the right side with great momentum.

During the tense period of relations between Britain and Germany, newspapers and magazines were always keen on describing the Germans as cold-blooded war machines. Johnson traveled to Europe personally and had a good impression of the Germans' hard work, punctuality and first-class education. At the same time, he was disgusted and worried about the Germans' keen expansion mentality. In general, the Germans were by no means a terrible man-eating monster in his mind. Moreover, judging from the flight exhibitions and aviation activities of various countries, aircraft were not like guns and cannons. Since it was invented, it was contaminated with the violent and bloody smell of war. Therefore, Johnson not only did not feel nervous and fearful at this time, but even planned to joke with the German pilot in German until a series of bullets hit and a row of bullet holes appeared on the wings. Johnson realized that heroes were not so easy to behave, especially during this war!

Before he could think about which machine gun the Germans had put on the plane, Johnson quickly turned the plane, and the German plane fired continuously at a distance of about 100 meters. Fortunately, the German pilot's skill in controlling weapons was not exquisite enough. Once the target abandoned simple linear motion, the shooting accuracy would be greatly reduced.

After narrowly avoiding the disaster, Johnson hurriedly stepped on the accelerator to the bottom, and the speed advantage of the racing plane quickly showed up. The two German planes were quickly left behind by him. When Johnson looked back again, he could no longer see the German fleet on the sea.

With a sense of gratitude and regret, Johnson shivered alone in the cabin and shivered. He hoped to meet the three stupid geese, but this expectation was not realized until all the fuel was used up.

As the engine and propeller stopped operating one after another, Johnson's "little dragonfly" entered an unreliable gliding state. If the plane suddenly lost control and fell from the cloud height, it would probably be a dead end. Under Johnson's constant prayer, the plane flew along the wind toward the coast for a long distance, the sea surface was getting closer and closer, and a British warship was miraculously sailing not far away!

Half an hour later, when the British naval crew on the protective cruiser "Spartans" rescued Johnson, who was floating on the sea alone, the wealthy adventurer seemed to enjoy the temperature of the sea. If he had not witnessed him and his plane falling from the sky, the crew would have difficulty believing everything he said. You should know that the Royal Navy used hundreds of ships and more than a dozen seaplanes, and there was no accurate information about the German fleet until then. Of course, due to the constraints of communication methods, the ships and planes had no time to issue an alarm when they were suddenly attacked by the enemy, which created the illusion of "invincible at sea" in a short time.
Chapter completed!