The breeze on the Baltic Sea in August was gentle, and three warships with German naval flags drew white water marks on the sea surface and slowly advanced northward. Behind them were four black submarines, one of which stood a very young naval captain, whose eyes as blue as the sea were looking out in the distance with confidence.

When the war broke out in 1914, the Allied Navy had 762 surface ships and 74 submarines; Germany and Austro-Hungary had 433 surface ships and 85 submarines. Due to the large number of maritime war zones, German Navy Secretary Tirpiz felt that his strength was insufficient, so he placed the main force of the navy in the North Sea area to break the British maritime blockade and at the same time, he used a small amount of troops to restrain the Russian Navy in the Baltic Sea.

When all the main forces of the German navy were on standby in Wilhelmshaven and Kiel Ports, Tirpiz gave Chentian's Baltic Squadron the power to operate freely in the Baltic region.

The task of the Russian Baltic fleet was to defend the Gulf of Finland and Petrograd. At the beginning of the war, they were busy deploying their troops in the Gulf of Finland, strengthening their defenses, and waiting for the opportunity to face the German Navy's actions to break into the Gulf with heavy troops.

Karl von Denitz, 23 years old, joined the German Navy in 1910 and served on the cruiser "Brest". In February 1912, he received a strange transfer order, ordering him to report to the Baltic squadron, and then he began his submarine career.

As Chen Tian expected, Denitz was a natural submarine commander. This man was born for a submarine. He had already figured out the performance and technology of the submarine in just three months and showed a unique talent in submarine tactics. So, the commander of the engine, the first mate, the deputy captain, and the deputy captain, Denitz was promoted at an amazing speed. In May 1914, he finally became the captain of the U-039 submarine, the youngest submarine captain in the history of the German navy.

On August 23, Denitz and his U-039 accompanied another light cruiser, two destroyers and three submarines to form a small task force. They set off from the Port of Cornisburg to the Gulf of Finland in the northeast corner of the Baltic Sea, preparing to attack merchant ships and Russian naval patrol ships there.

The next morning, the task force entered the combat waters, and Denitz and the submarine forces remained behind to respond. The cruiser "Magdri" and two other destroyers began to accelerate, and once the target was discovered, they would contact each other via radio.

"Notify U-014, U-019, U-028 to be deployed according to rectangular tactics. U-014 occupies the northwest corner. U-019 goes to the southwest corner. U-028 goes to the southeast corner. We are in the northeast corner and ready to dive at any time!" The young Denitz was appointed as the interim commander of this submarine formation. In other German naval forces, he has no qualifications, no experience, and no military achievements. It is impossible to become a captain, but fortunately he is in Chentian.

The Baltic Squadron, a very young fleet. Except for the light cruisers "Magdri" and "Augsburg" dispatched by the Navy Department for more than 10 years, the others are new warships that have been launched shortly after the recruitment of a group of skilled sailors, the other sailors of this fleet are naval recruits who have only served for a few years, and the commanders of each ship are also from the Naval Class of the Cornisburg Military Academy and the German Naval Academy after 1910.

The young officer. Although this force is full of vitality, the lack of experience also has considerable hidden dangers. Chen Tian is very clear about this. Unfortunately, in recent years, the German Navy has added too many new battleships, and other naval fleets cannot allocate many experienced officers. Moreover, people also believe that the Baltic Squadron will only be suppressed by the Russian Navy in the harbor, and they are more willing to join the high seas fleet that will be about to fight the British. Therefore, new naval records related to age are constantly appearing in the Baltic Squadron - the youngest pilot, the youngest captain, the youngest captain, and the youngest squadron commander, mainly those with ability and motivated spirits, can find a suitable position here. After several years of rigorous training, everyone was delighted to find a large number of energetic and well-trained sailors and officers in the fleet, and what these people lack at present is practical experience.

"Captain, each boat sent a signal that they had reached the designated position, and our deployment has also been reported to the captain of the 'Magdrie' Major Ras!" The correspondent's report pulled Denitz back from his memories.

"Well, it's great! Let's wait quietly and ask all boats to pay attention to the sea surface!" This was the first time that Denitz participated in a practical operation, and the first time for the Baltic Squadron.

The "Magdri" originally belonged to a light cruiser of the German North Sea Fleet. Five years ago, at Chentian's request, Navy Minister Tirpiz transferred the warship from the North Sea Fleet to the Baltic Squadron. The former captain and most sailors of the "Magdri" have returned to the North Sea Fleet. Major Lass graduated from the Cornisburg Military Academy three years ago with excellent results. He has served as the first mate of the destroyer and deputy captain of the destroyer. He was just promoted to the captain of the cruiser 4 months ago. His promotion speed is like a dream. His wish since childhood is to command his own battleship to defeat the British Navy. Although the battleship he commands now has some deviations from his dream, and his opponent has become the Russian Navy, he is only 27 years old and his future is full of hope.

"Major, the reconnaissance plane sent back the report. There was a small Russian tugboat 20 nautical miles ahead!" The officers marked the marks one by one on the nautical chart in the command room. In one hour, the reconnaissance plane discovered a total of 2 small fishing boats and 1 tugboat, all of which were targets that were stuck in the teeth.

"Continue to reconnaissance!" Ras looked silently at the calm sea surface in the distance, with fresh and transparent air, only a few wisps of smoke floating on him. "Magdri" was accepted by the Baltic Squadron and carried out a large-scale modification. The turret at the rear of the ship was demolished and replaced with a water reconnaissance aircraft. At present, they are carrying the "Flying Fish III" water reconnaissance aircraft, with a double-wing and two-seater and a transmitter, with a range of 200 nautical miles.

After a long wait, the reconnaissance plane finally sent back an exciting report - a Russian patrol ship, a destroyer with a displacement of about 1,500 tons and two 300 tons gunboats were found 30 nautical miles east.

"Great, please inform the ships to move forward at full speed!" Major Ras waved his fists. This time his mission was to tentative attacks. If he encountered a large Russian ship, he would lure the opponent into the submarine ambush circle. However, what he had just discovered was only a few small fish and shrimps. He decided to rush over and easily wipe them out. He would become the first German captain to sink an enemy ship. Just thinking about the shiny medal, he forgot Denitz and his submarine troops to the back of his mind.

Half an hour later, the reconnaissance plane, whose fuel had been basically exhausted, slowly landed next to the "Magdri". Ras spent a quarter of an hour to retract the plane. Because he was worried that the missing fighter plane would let the Russian ships slip away, Ras did not let the reconnaissance plane take off again for reconnaissance.

Soon, a few wisps of clear smoke appeared in the horizon in the east. Las commanded the "Magdri" and two other destroyers in a row, and drove towards the Russian ships quickly at a speed of 20 knots. At this time, several Russian ships also discovered Las' fleet, which were the naval patrol ships "Warrior", "Shishen" and "Cossack", with displacements of 1,450 tons, 390 tons and 380 tons respectively. The Russians were far inferior to the tonnage and firepower, and they soon began to turn.

"It's great, order 'Gedingen' and 'Shure' to maintain speed!" Seeing this, Russ couldn't help but be excited.

When Lars' fleet was 8,000 yards away from the Russians, the Russian ship had completed its steering and began to retreat eastward at full speed. The Warrior destroyer was faster and it left two other slow gunboats ready to escape the battlefield alone.

"Captain, Gdingen's flag utterance and ask whether to fire the gun!" 8,000 yards had basically entered the range of the Las fleet, but encircling and annihilation of the two Russian gunboats pulled behind still pursued the Russian destroyer in front with all their might. Las faced a choice.

"Go forward at full speed and shoot at the Russian gunboat with the bow of the ship!" In the end, Ras did not choose to attack the opponent with the side guns, but maintained his head and aimed at the enemy ship with the bow at the enemy ship, and pursued with all his strength while shooting the opponent. The "Magdri" standard displacement is 4,100 tons, and the main gun is made of 10 Krupp's 40-diameter 105mm rapid-fire naval guns. The bow of the ship is arranged on a single-mounted gun mount on both sides, protected by a light gun shield, and the other 8 are arranged on the gun mounts on both sides by a contour or shield.

The guard is also equipped with some 37mm small-caliber artillery and some machine guns as auxiliary firepower. The waterline is equipped with two 450mm torpedo tubes. The Gedingen and Shure are both standard-class destroyers built by the Cornisburg shipyard. The displacement is 1,080 tons and the maximum speed is 26 knots. The main gun is 3 40-diameter 105mm rapid-fire naval guns. The most powerful weapon on this standard-class destroyer is two 533mm torpedo tubes with a range of 1,500 yards.

Las' cruisers and destroyers opened fire, and then water columns rose around the Russian ships. The shooting accuracy was not high during the high-speed advance. All dozens of shells fired by Las' fleet in minutes were lost. At this time, the Russian gunboats also began to fight back with two 76mm caliber cannons at the stern of their ships. However, for the German warships in high-speed motion, the Russians' hit rate was also astonishingly low. It was not until a distance of 4,000 yards that a shell from Gedingen hit the central part of the Russian gunboat "Cossack", blowing out a huge hole in the superstructure of the "Cossack", and thick smoke rolled out from the large hole.

"That's great, I finally hit one!" Before Las could be happy, another Russian gunboat's shell hit the command tower of the "Magdri". Fortunately, the armor thickness of the cruiser's command tower reached 100 mm. Only Las and several other officers were slightly injured, and blood soon dyed a large area of ​​Las' uniform red.

"Full the right rudder, use the cannon on the side of the ship to kill it!" Las roared, and the medical soldiers who rushed over wrapped a circle of thick gauze around his head.

Under the leadership of the "Magdri", the German fleet began to turn, and the power of the cannons on the side of the ship was finally released. Two Russian gunboats quickly ignited a raging fire. With a few loud noises, they sank into the dark green sea water of the Gulf of Finland one after another.

Just as the German ship was entangled with these two Russian ships, another Russian destroyer had disappeared from a distance. Rass was wrapped in a head like a rice dumpling, and he looked helplessly at the Russian sailors struggling desperately on the sea.

"Hold prisoners of war and return!"
Chapter completed!