On November 1, 1914, gunfire sounds in Cork Port, Ireland were like lightning flashing across the night sky, and heavy rainstorms immediately poured in. Inland towns such as Yore Port, Kincel, Clonakierty, Scar Port, Banterry, Banden, McClum, and Fmoy, which belong to County Cork, raised the Irish tricolor flags symbolizing freedom. Just that night, the Liberty Ireland Provisional Government was established in Cork Port, with the power being led by the Interim Supreme Committee composed of five main leaders of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, McElner, Clark, Kanter, Planckett and McDermott.

Next, the situation of armed independence was like a spark that was unstoppable. Within two days, the southwestern Ireland County Kerry County, Limerick County, Wickle County, Wexford County, North Tipperary County, and Lisch County in the central part of the country also announced their separation from the rule of Great Britain and the United Kingdom of Ireland and supported the Liberty Irish Provisional Government established in Port Cork. Supporting independent armed personnel to attack police stations and garrison barracks, control communication lines and railway hubs, and British garrison troops in these areas were either annihilated or besieged. At the same time, many transportation facilities in the northern counties were damaged, which made the mobilization of British troops stationed in northern Ireland stagnant and could not rush to the central and southern counties that declared independence as soon as possible.

On November 3, Ireland declared independence to have nearly half of the entire island area and continued to spread northward at an astonishing speed. On this day, more than 2,000 armed personnel and a large number of supporters entered Southern Dublin from County Wakelo and continued to advance towards Dublin, the capital of Ireland. Dublin was martial law throughout the city, and police and troops loyal to the British government began to block the access to and from the city, but supporters were already eager to try in secret, waiting for the armed independent personnel to sound the horn of attack, and they could cooperate inside and outside, turning this city, second only to London in the British islands, into the fruit of victory of the Irish independence movement.

On the evening of the 3rd, when the Supreme Council of the Liberty Ireland Provisional Government was enthusiastically discussing the situation of independence, a British fleet quietly appeared in Cork Bay.

Cork Port is an inner coastal harbor, connected to the outer sea through the Leigh River and Cork Bay. The ship's voyage from Cork Port to the outer sea reaches 10 nautical miles, and there is also a narrow 3-kilometer channel in the middle. In order to prevent the British Navy from attacking Cork Port, the Irish Volunteers had used two small torpedo boats seized during the uprising and several high-speed torpedo boats they secretly prepared to block the channel, and deployed alert patrol ships in Cork Bay. Seeing the British fleet, the patrol ships of the Irish Volunteers immediately issued an enemy attack alarm.

The leaders of the Free Irish Provisional Government and the leaders of the Irish Volunteer Army obviously did not expect the British fleet to appear in Cork Bay so quickly. In fact, in just two days, the Cross Haven coastal defense fort they seized from the British garrison will be able to re-enter the battle. By then, the German Navy's submarines will also arrive at Cork Bay and assist the Irish Volunteer Army in setting up mine defense lines. When the coastal defense system is built, even if the British main fleet comes, they will not be able to easily enter Cork Bay.

The Irish Volunteer soldiers who took over the Cross Haven shore defense fort were rushed to fight. The fortifications here were very strong, but the design structure was too old, and the artillery was equipped with very old artillery, which had more deterrence than actual combat significance. Although the British fleet suddenly attacked did not have large battleships of the battleship level, the fierce shooting of the two armored cruisers defeated the turret defenders within half an hour. Next, the British fleet did not try to break through the narrow channel upstream, and

It was a landing operation along the coast of Cross Haven. The beaches here were covered with reefs and large ships were difficult to get close to, but the British were prepared. In less than three hours, they used torpedo boats, traffic boats and small yachts to transport the two battalions of Marines to ashore. This powerful combat force almost effortlessly eliminated the guard forces deployed by the Irish Volunteers in Cross Haven, and then used the dock facilities here to transport subsequent troops and equipment and materials, including artillery, to ashore.

After nightfall, the Irish Volunteers sent a group of high-speed torpedo boats from the upper reaches of the Leigh River into Cork Bay, intending to attack British ships, but in the sky that night, the British fleet discovered the incoming high-speed torpedo boats from afar. Without any cover firepower and proper tactics, only three high-speed torpedo boats successfully approached the British fleet and fired torpedoes, but the hit rate was only one-third. The British Navy's old-fashioned armored cruiser "Lancaster" was injured and stranded on the shore. In the end, only two high-speed torpedo boats were able to withdraw from the battle. In addition to the directly destroyed warships, three warships with dead or damaged crews were abandoned because they were not rescued, and were captured by the British Navy the next day.

The night attack of the high-speed torpedo boat group failed to achieve the expected results. That night, more than 800 Irish volunteer soldiers who set out from Cork Port to Cross Haven were suddenly bombarded by the British fleet during the fire with British marine forces. As a result, they did not drive the British into the sea, but instead collapsed under the fierce artillery fire of the opponent. By the morning of the next day, the British troops landed in Cross Haven had increased to more than 4,000. The British fleet completely blocked Cork Bay and opened fire from the bay to Cork Port. Before the landing troops approached the place and provided school shooting guidance to the fleet, the fleet's long-range artillery accuracy was low, but under the continuous shooting, many shells still fell into the port area, sinking and injured some ships, and igniting some port buildings.

At this time, there were nearly a thousand Irish Volunteer soldiers and more than 3,000 newly recruited soldiers from the Port of Cork and the surrounding areas. The Provisional Government of Free Ireland declared that they would swear to stand firm on Cork and call on all citizens to join the battle and use street fighting to eliminate all British invaders. However, the Supreme Provisional Committee knew that it could not resist the British attack with its current strength. While quietly preparing for evacuation, it asked for help from the German government that promised direct military assistance.

The Irish eagerly hoped for the reinforcements, 4,000 German naval infantry who were scheduled to land in Ireland, had been wandering on the sea for several days. Many people were physically uncomfortable due to the bumpy wind and waves, but the landing fleet transported them to Ireland was still unswervingly sailing towards the Irish waters. By the early morning of November 4, the landing fleet was only 200 nautical miles away from the west coast of County Kerry, where it was scheduled to land, and as long as it maintained a high-speed cruise of 15 knots, it could arrive around the evening.

As the "Westphalia" injured by torpedo withdrew from the battle, the German main battleship that directly protected the landing fleet was only the "Border Governor", but the powerful German high seas reconnaissance squadron always maintained a cover distance of about 60 nautical miles. Although the combat power of the British Navy was reduced by more than half through three major nautical battles, the top leaders of the German Navy still had a relatively objective understanding of the strength comparison between the two sides. Under the supervision of the German Emperor, the naval intelligence department did its best to do its best

Although the accuracy rate of collecting the British Navy is far from satisfactory and sometimes even interferes with the judgment of the naval generals, the effect has been greatly improved compared to before the war. The German Navy can be confirmed at this time that the British main ships gathered in southern England, and there are only a few combat and escort ships on the west coast of Britain and the ports of Ireland. Even if they all gathered, they were not enough to challenge Hippel's four German battlecruisers.

As a result, the main dreadnoughts group of the German High Seas Fleet quietly cruised north of the Faroe Islands and southeastern Iceland. From the map, they were like a group of war eagles occupying the commanding heights of the air, waiting to give the enemy's main aircraft group a rush. As Xia Shu expected, in recent days, the number of British ships and aircraft entering the Norwegian Seas Fleet had increased sharply, but the dreadnoughts group of the German High Seas Fleet had never entered their field of view. The virtual and real radio signals continued to confuse the British naval intelligence department, and the British main ships never left the English Channel.

In addition to surface ships, submarine troops sent by the German Navy to the North Atlantic also gathered in the Irish waters in advance, closely monitoring the two major channels in and out of the Irish Sea day and night, and deployed two cordons in front of the English Channel to the southern waters of Ireland. Unfortunately, on November 3, u-49 and u-107 discovered the British landing fleet heading to Cork Bay one after another.

Due to poor location, they were unable to launch an attack immediately. When their intelligence was transferred to the Irish, the British landing operation was coming to an end. By the morning of November 4, five German submarines had been ordered to arrive outside the Cork Bay to wait for an opportunity to attack the British fleet. They soon discovered several British ships returning from Cork Bay to the island of Britain. The U-36 was the first to sink a British transport ship that had returned to the idling ship, which forced Cork to
Chapter completed!