When night fell, a large double-chimney warship sailed across the Shannon River estuary accompanied by a light battleship and two barges. Unlike the dreadnoughts, which galloped across the North Sea, were majestic and often appeared in mainstream books and pictorials, this huge warship did not have a long sleek-shaped hull. Its ship was wide and thick, with full lines. There was only one double turret on the front and rear decks. All the secondary guns were placed in the cannon silhouette like candles inserted across cakes. The razor-like angle-collision bow seemed majestic, but it was not conducive to increasing the speed of the ship.

It is the old star battleship "Revenge" of the Royal Navy. It is worth mentioning that its captain is named John Hill, and is a member of the English Hill family.

When the war broke out, this old-fashioned battleship was organized in the British Mediterranean Fleet. After the Battle of Jutland, the British Navy, which was severely damaged, adopted the strategy of shrinking its troops from overseas. Six old men's star ranks were transferred back to their homeland from the Mediterranean and the Pacific Ocean and were incorporated into the Strait Fleet. Most of them failed to catch up with the First Battle of Flanders. In that battle, the main force of the British Strait Fleet was ravaged by the German main battleship group, which allowed people to see the amazing gap between the former dreadnought and the dreadnought. During the Second Battle of Flanders, the entire British Strait Fleet was on standby behind the Dover Strait. In the final stage, the German Navy's "Blüchel" and "Gloudenz" crossed the English Channel under their noses. The Germans made a legend in the history of naval warfare, but the British Strait Fleet was nailed to a pillar of shame.

Under full load, the draft of the old man's star battleship is 8 meters, while the draft of the dreadnought is generally above 9 meters. At high tide, the Shannon River channel downstream of Limelic is enough to pass through such large warships, but there is a possibility of stranding after the tide is low.

The Old Man Star is the first battleship equipped with water pipe boilers. This boiler can provide higher power and greater economy. However, after fifteen or sixteen years of service, many equipment has been seriously aging, and it has caught up with the British Navy and the Germans to carry out shipbuilding competition. The maintenance of the old-fashioned main battleship was placed at a secondary position. The speed of the "Qi Jin" has dropped from the early 18:25 knots to about 16 knots. Although the old 12-inch mkviii type gun has a large caliber, its range and power have lagged behind the times. It is impossible to penetrate the main armor of the German dreadnought at a long distance. It is a better choice to support the other side or exert residual heat.

Taking the two protective cruisers that arrived in advance as reference for navigation, the huge "Revenge" slowly moved forward along the central channel. The sound of gunfire and explosions on the shore did not disrupt its rhythm. It did not anchor at the pre-determined berth until 9 o'clock in the night. The four 12-inch main guns on the ship pointed domineeringly at the south bank of the Shannon River.

"Seeing the illumination signal sent by our troops from the shore, we requested to carry out continuous shelling at coordinates 443-374!"

The British troops on the shore were commanded by Duke Hill, and Colonel John Hill naturally said nothing. In order to ensure the correctness of the shooting parameters, he also checked them himself and ordered the fire to be opened with confidence.

In the field in the distance, the soldiers of the Irish-German joint combat forces were still stationed behind the east-west ridge. After annihilated the vanguard composed of more than 100 British new troops, they soon ushered in the attack of a large number of British regular troops. In addition to the changes in numbers, the combat qualities and experience skills of these British soldiers were much stronger than those "chicks". They thought that the few field artillery and Vicks-style water-cooled heavy machine guns were used to suppress fire. The infantry launched the attack one by one. After approaching the enemy's position, they first used the Lee Enfield Mki rifle to fire a dense and fierce volleyball array, and then launched a charge. This simple and effective tactic almost broke through the defense of hundreds of coalition soldiers. Fortunately, their support troops quickly arrived at the battlefield and consolidated the precarious flanking positions.

The second time to repel the British attack, the coalition soldiers were taking advantage of the combat space to withdraw the wounded and replenish their ammunition. Suddenly, two harsh roars attacked in the air. Immediately afterwards, two huge fireballs suddenly rose in the fields, and the huge explosion like a crack in the landslide caused the earth to tremble significantly.

"Architecture! Enemy shelling! Everyone hides! hides!"

Several German officials subconsciously shouted that the German navy soldiers wearing round caps quickly stopped what they were doing and hid nearby. The soldiers of the Irish Volunteer Army had never seen such powerful artillery fire. They were all surprised and at a loss. Many people stood there no matter how hard they stood, and some people ran to the position of their company.

The smoke and clouds left by the previous round of explosion were still rising, and the harsh whistle sound of the previous one came again. Under the shock of people, two equally huge balls of fireballs rose in the fields a little further away, and the huge roar was still deafening.

"It's really a death--it's the British battleship..." A German official frowned and shouted to the people around him: "Everyone, hide quickly, the enemy's artillery fire will continue to come!"

Next was a silence that lasted for two or three minutes. The time was not long. The extremely solemn atmosphere made people feel breathless, and the tension and fear in their hearts increased.

The night sky in the direction of the Shannon River flashed red. After a moment, a terrifying whistle came again. The loud bang of the explosion and the violent vibration caused were even more than before. The shells were no longer kilometer away, but were so close that it was so close that people were terrified. The flames of the explosion instantly illuminated the ridges of the field, but few people dared to raise their heads to watch this strange landscape!

"Retreat quickly, we will be killed here by blowing!"

The terrified shouts caused a stir among the Irish people

"Stay calm! Everyone stays calm! Stay where you are and run around and die faster!"

The last sentence obviously acted as a deterrent, but this front is now two or three kilometers long. In a further place, the Irish Volunteer Army commander retreated without authorization.

After only about one minute, another round of British shelling attacks came like thunder and brought real damage to the Irish-German joint combat forces.

In this case, if you stand still in place, you will definitely suffer heavy casualties. If you retreat across the board, once you are attacked by British troops during the retreat, the consequences will be unimaginable.

After consultation by the three main commanders, the Irish Volunteer Army retreated to the assembly area five kilometers away and re-arranged defenses, and the German Marine Force stayed behind the temple.

Including the troops that came up with subsequent reinforcements, more than 3,000 Irish volunteer soldiers rushed to retreat to the rear. It looked like a scene of ebbing tide.

As the German commanders were worried that they had encountered in France, the British only carried out five rounds of heavy artillery bombardment, fired twenty large-caliber grenades, and launched a resurgence with three or four battalions of infantry. If these more than 200 German naval infantry had tried their best to deal with it, the British would have chased the retreating Irish independent armed forces. They could not only defeat the Irish offensive against Limerick, but also had the opportunity to win a great victory that was strategically comparable to the Battle of Cork.

In Pigini, north of Amiens, there were three battalions of German Marines who were beaten by the British and ran away in a panic. Although only a few of these German naval infantry had experienced that battle, their statements made their companions feel empathetic. Now is a great time for revenge. They fought and retreated with a calm mind, causing considerable casualties to the British troops who were eager to break through, and gave the Irish time to reorganize defense in the rear. The new front of the joint combat force was more than ten kilometers away from the bank of the Shannon River, and it had already exceeded the main gun range of the British battleship. Friendly and neighboring troops deployed in the surrounding areas also rushed to support. The two sides fought until dawn, and the British failed to realize their established combat intentions. The coalition was frightened by the amazing power of the British battleship's artillery bombardment on the other side and did not launch a tactical counterattack, and also temporarily suspended the offensive against the Limerick Port Area.

The land battle surrounding Limerick was in a stalemate, and the "Revenge" was stationed there. The British laid two lightning protection nets around it, and ambushed more than 20 high-speed torpedo boats in the hidden river upstream. After the war broke out, the Prinz shipyard, famous for the manufacturing of small submarines and high-speed speed boats, was taken over by the British authorities and turned to produce submarines and high-speed torpedo boats for the British Navy. Due to the lack of raw materials and the passive slack of workers, etc.

The shipyard production speed was much slower than before the war. No submarine was completed in the past three months, and only 17 high-speed torpedo boats were built and delivered. The British arranged these warships into the patrol fleet on the west coast of Ireland, equipped with well-trained naval personnel, and were trained, but due to the range restrictions, these high-speed torpedo boats did not play any military role during the German fleet's landing on the southern coast of Ireland.

The "Revenge" deployed to the lower reaches of the Shannon River has become a piece of bait to lure German ships. At the same time, a British fleet of more than a dozen ships arrived in the southern waters of Ireland. Six old battleships formed the main force of the fleet. They are three old-fashioned "Glory", "Ocean", "England", two fear-class "Resistance", "Discord", and a London-class "Queen". The standard displacement of these six British battleships totaled 8.40,000 tons, much more than the total tonnage of the two German battleships. They were equipped with 24 12-inch main guns, half of the German 16, and the number of crew members also exceeded nearly 3,000 of the two German warships with 4,000 people. Although these data seem to have an advantage, even the British themselves may be against both sides.
Chapter completed!