Published at 13th of February 2023 07:09:26 AM
For all officers and men of the Royal Navy Grand Fleet, this battle is doomed to failure. However, for the sake of the British Empire, they had to do their best to fight the German Navy. Because, only in this way can the British Empire have a chance of winning this war.
Admiral John Jellicoe and Lieutenant General David Beatty even set their goal to sink fifteen or twenty battleships of the German Navy. It can be seen that they are undoubtedly very familiar with this naval battle, knowing that if they want to win, it is almost impossible. Therefore, we can only settle for the next best thing, hoping to exchange our own sacrifices for the opportunity to severely damage the German navy.
If this goal can be successfully achieved, then Britain may still have a chance to win. Otherwise, Britain is doomed. In this war, the British Empire, which has dominated the world for hundreds of years, will completely collapse. The world colonial system they have painstakingly maintained will also collapse because of this. The German Reich would step on their corpses and rise as the new world hegemon.
In this regard, every British person is naturally unwilling. Therefore, the officers and soldiers of the Royal Navy will know that they are dead, and they will fight hard. The spirit of Nelson has always inspired them.
Time passed little by little, and at around 10 am, a group of small black spots appeared in the eastern sky. No one paid attention, and even if someone occasionally saw it, they thought it was just a migrating bird.
However, soon these small black spots continued to grow larger. At the same time, there was a buzzing sound, as if a wild bee was flying.
"My God! What's that?" A lookout used a telescope to see the planes approaching them.
"Damn it, the plane! That's a German plane!" shouted an officer. Because the Iron Cross on the wing is so obvious.
General John Jellicoe and Lieutenant General David Beatty also immediately learned of the news, and they all used binoculars to observe the approaching planes. The faces of the two of them became very, very ugly. Obviously, the appearance of the German aircraft also exceeded their expectations. As for how these planes will affect them, they still can't think of it. But there is no doubt that both of them have a bad feeling in their hearts.
"How could the German planes appear here? There is no airport near here." Admiral John Jellicoe frowned.
"Did the Germans develop an aircraft with an extremely long range? It can fly here from their homeland." Lieutenant General David Betty also felt a little incredible. After all, Britain's own aircraft don't have a long range.
"Your Excellency, Commander, are the Germans planning to use these planes to attack us?" An officer asked.
"Planes attack warships? How is that possible? Our warships are so huge and have thick armor, how could they be threatened by those toy-like planes." Lieutenant General David Betty said disdainfully.
"Let the ships be carefully protected. It is impossible for the Germans to send these planes without any effect." Admiral John Jellicoe said.
"Yes, General."
But, no matter how protected they are, what can they do to the planes in the sky? These warships of the British Navy are not equipped with anti-aircraft weapons.
On the other side, the battlecruiser formation of the German Navy also spotted the plane in the sky, which caused some commotion among the officers and soldiers of the German Navy. However, after learning that those planes were all their own planes, they calmed down and began to happily prepare to watch the performance of their own planes.
"Your Excellency, Commander, is really cautious. You actually let the aircraft carrier force take the lead in attacking the British. However, if this happens, the British will be even more powerless!" Lieutenant General Hipper couldn't help shaking his head, obviously a little bit Feel sorry for the British.
As a senior general of the German Navy, Lieutenant General Hipper also has some understanding of the combat effectiveness of aircraft carriers. Obviously, he didn't think the British could withstand the attacks of these carrier-based aircraft.
Lieutenant General Spei stared closely at these carrier-based aircraft with binoculars. He wanted to see with his own eyes how powerful these carrier-based aircraft are in actual combat. After all, Qin Tian said that in the future, the combination of carrier-based aircraft and aircraft carrier will replace capital ships and become the master of future naval battles. As the senior generals of the German Navy, they were extremely convinced of Qin Tian. But at the same time, they also wanted to test it out with their own eyes.
"Initiate an attack!" When the German Navy's carrier-based aircraft unit flew over the British Navy's main fleet, the commander immediately gave the order to attack.
A signal flare was fired from the cockpit of a fighter jet. Because radio miniaturization is still a work in progress, there is no way to install radios in every aircraft. In order to direct the actions of the carrier-based aircraft, only the responsible commander can be equipped with a signal gun for commanding the fleet.
After seeing the order, whether it was a fighter jet or a torpedo attack plane, they all started to attack. The fighter jets strafed the deck of the British battleship with aviation machine guns, causing damage to the personnel of the British Navy. The torpedo attack aircraft, on the other hand, dropped torpedoes directly at those battleships. Of course, in order to ensure greater damage to the battleships of the British Navy, the primary targets of the attack were set to be the 'Bellelophon-class' battleships, the 'Saint Vincent-class' battleships and the 'Giant-class' battleships.
These third-tier battleships belong to the early battleships built by the British Navy, and their defense is relatively weak, and they are easy to be damaged or even sunk.
When he saw the German planes began to lower their altitude and rushed towards them, Admiral John Jellicoe suddenly screamed inwardly.
"Damn, these German planes are going to attack!"
However, they had no way to defend themselves, they could only watch those German planes start to attack.
"Da da da!"
A fighter jet began to fire, and the aviation machine gun on the nose fired dense bullets. The bullet hit the battleship, shooting out sparks one by one.
"what!"
There was a scream, and some unlucky guy was hit. The bullets of aviation machine guns are already powerful, and after being hit, they are often torn into pieces.
The other British naval officers and soldiers who looked strange were also frightened, and hurriedly fled back to the cabin to hide.
While these fighter jets were strafing, the torpedo attack aircraft also launched an attack. These planes, in a group of four, directly attacked the British Navy's "Belle Luofeng-class" battleships and "St. Vincent-class" battleships.