Chapter 6 Misunderstandings about Scapa Bay (I)

This is perhaps the most secure sleep Betty has ever had since been under house arrest.

Since Jackson left the villa at 4 a.m., Betty unexpectedly received a warmer and relaxed heartwarming than his wife's greetings. This sleep went from sleeping in the early morning to deep night until nine o'clock in the evening, when Betty turned slightly on the hard bed board, accidentally knocked over the wooden model of the Tiger Battle Cruise that had been made for three days and four nights, and then woke up quietly.

The wooden Tiger Battle Patrol model parts that were glued together were broken all over the floor, and the British tragedy that had been staged in the Scarglake Strait was repeated in front of Betty. Betty rolled out of the bed in shock, regardless of the faint cold air, kneeled barefoot on the cold floor, carefully gathering the scattered models and the fragments in the depths of memory.

The model's own part was broken, and the cannons, bridges, watchtowers and propellers were fragmented. Just as there was no regret, it could not recall the steel giant ship lying on the bottom of the Scarglake Strait. No matter how good the glue was, it could not stick to the broken battle patrol model. Betty wanted to whistle to the sky according to his temperament, but in the end he could only sigh heavily.

The night was long, but Betty no longer felt sleepy. He took out his slippers from under the bed, put on his coat, and went out staggeringly.

"General, the large fleet has withdrawn..." Major General Osmond Brock, deputy commander of the Scapa Bay Naval Base, stood far away at the end of the villa corridor, leaning against the navy blue brick wall to smoke. When Major General Brock saw his old boss, he quickly threw down the cigarette butt and panted across the passage.

"Oh..." Betty's hand buttoned with military uniform stopped in his heart. The last hearing had just ended, and the "poor man" who was about to learn the result of the trial in May was like a winner, grinning and smiling faintly.

Why not laugh? Even though he has become famous since the Battle of Helgolan Bay, he has been invincible and has strong capital, but it has caused the battle to sink six battle patrols and one main battleship. Even if he is about to become the scapegoat of the Battle of Scarglak Strait and always leave the naval battle, but as long as he can still serve the British Empire, why not laugh?

"I didn't expect that the submarine shelling of the Haric Fleet of Helgoland Island in Germany was the masterpiece of the British Navy in this war." Betty pointed to the empty Scapa Bay and comforted with a smile: "The Germans rushed towards the large fleet in a blatant manner. Whether it was helpless or dissatisfied, it was time to forget the past of the Royal Navy and put down the pride of the Sun-Don't Set Empire. As long as the large fleet is still there, Britain will not have completely failed!"

Is it the big fleet and not Scapa Bay?

This was not the first time Brock came to ask for advice from the former fast fleet commander. Memories flashed one by one in his mind like slides, Brock then noticed details that he had never paid attention to: David Betty was not sure about the speculation of the German offensive target from beginning to end, but repeatedly emphasized that the Germans' goal was the large fleet.

Scapa Bay, the Great Fleet, although the two were equal, they were still different in the end. After a cold sweat came, Brock blurted out:

"But, General, the First Reconnaissance Fleet has gone south!"

(--Gorgeous dividing line--)

"Mr. Balfour, the First Reconnaissance Fleet has been dispatched!"

The door of the Navy Headquarters conference room was pushed open, and First Maritime Secretary Goff Karthorp broke in panting, fumbled on the wall near the door to find the switch of the light, and spread the expected news.

Arthur Belfort sat alone in the gloomy and claustrophobic conference room, his muddy eyes suddenly disappeared in the dark conference room, and then asked.

"Oh, they went to Scapa Bay?"

"No!" The lights were on, and the strong light made the Navy minister unable to open his eyes. The First Sea Minister raised the intelligence paper in his hand, stepped on the cigarette butts all over the ground, and said panic. "The First Reconnaissance Fleet heads southwest!"

The cigarette butt seemed to burn out, and the scorching temperature was transmitted through the cigarette butt, forcing Belfort to wake up from his astonishment. The Navy Minister threw away the charred cigarette butts in anger, endured the pain at his fingertips, and made his opinion seem non-trivial.

"Maybe this is just a tactical deception of the Germans..." King Arthur explained in an uncertain tone for the first time: "From the difficulty and motivation, it is easier to attack Scapa Bay than to attack the Thames, and destroying the large fleet is much more decisive than shelling our capital and blocking the Thames channel. Judging from the course of the Ocean Fleet, the large fleet seems to be their fundamental purpose. Although the First Reconnaissance Fleet heads southwest, the speed advantage determines that the Battle Patrol team can easily play tricks in front of British intelligence personnel. As for the Ocean Fleet lacking the support of light ships, please don't forget that in the early morning and daytime, a large number of light ships in the Jade Bay disappeared from the sight of the intelligence department, and the old German battleships in the Baltic Sea have moved westward, and they are not lacking in support at all!"

Belfort's explanation made the worried Karthorp speechless. If the wonderful Battle of Helgolan Bay and the Battle of Dogel Sands only made the British know the flow of Heidi Silem's troops, then the raids in the Bay of Mudros and the Battle of Scarglak Strait are enough to remember the entire Empire of Sun-Downset.

"But we can't underestimate the defense of the Thames." After wandering for a moment, Goff Kalthorp still dared not give up the symbol of Britain - London. The First Minister of Maritime Affairs knew that even if only one shell fell in the suburbs of London, it would be a devastating disaster for the Royal Navy that had just emerged from the haze.

There was an interesting research topic in later generations, that is, the completely opposite performance of the head and deputy head of the Royal Navy in dealing with the German suffocation plan. Arthur Belford, a cabinet member and politician, was more like a soldier than the First Minister of Maritime Affairs. Although he was used to using the skills of a politician to deal with complex problems, these black-hearted methods were always based on his personal military judgment.

As the highest commander of the Navy, the First Maritime Secretary Goff Kalthorp's ability to formulate specific maritime operations can be said to be far beyond the mediocre level of the Royal Navy's management officer, but we only evaluate him. As the highest-ranking naval officer, Goff Kalthorp's premise for considering all actions is always based on politics.

It can be said that civil servant Arthur Belfort is more in line with the navy's temper, while Goff Carthorp is just a contradictory group that dislikes the navy, but makes the National Defense Committee, or civil servants' politics happy.

"Since the National Defense Commission decided to strengthen local defense, the transportation volume of the English Channel has dropped sharply, so the Germans' target cannot be there. Therefore, we can temporarily draw and strengthen the 12 modern destroyers stationed in the Port of Dover and strengthen them to the Thames, and the patrol missions outside the English Channel will be handed over to the armored cruisers, destroyers and English patrol minefields of the Channel Fleet."

Although Britain has successively deployed tens of thousands of mines in the English Channel after the outbreak of the European War, the cautious Goff Kalthorp still felt that it was not enough:

"It is recommended that the Straits Commission stop the transportation route from Folkestone to Brun, so that even if the Germans are willing to sneak attack the English Channel and be able to fly over the minefield, we can provide up to two hours of early warning for the Portsmouth to Le Havre and Cherbourg routes!"

(--Gorgeous dividing line--)

The intense sailing overnight, and when it was almost dawn, the flying hero Hanna-Xiao, who was almost sleepless, slipped out of the pilot's lounge and walked alone on the deck of the mothership of the Zeppelin seaplane.

In fact, the positioning of the "seaplane mothership" of the Zeppelin is no longer true. More than a month ago, it looked like an island, but the Zeppelin, which retained the seaplane platform, still had the temperament of a generation of jellyfish. However, when Zeppelin and its brother-in-law, the Li Lintal, came out of the Danze Bay Shipyard, it was already "not like humans, and not like ghosts."

The arrangement of the three-story island-shaped buildings and three vertical chimneys has not changed. The port-side space originally used to place the seaplane platform was cleared, and the open-air camera position became an in-ship hangar under the deck of the ship, connected by an electric lift. As for the wealthy port-side space, the whimsical designers installed an auxiliary warship modified from a civilian ship that should not be too much.

After the trouble, the lazy Naval Ship Design Bureau stubbornly defined these two unrecognizable auxiliary warships as seaplane motherships. Faced with such a magical artifact, the Italians felt inferior to themselves, and the British smiled like flowers, but the American newspapers with "fire eyes" fully exerted their humorous spirit and gave these two "unique" warships a pertinent nickname - "port battleship".

No need to be angry, as long as you are not blind, sweep from the lift at the stern to the front of the island, and count the hedgehog suits you want to install on the hull that are less than 100 meters long, you will understand the profound connotation of the "port-side combat ship":

In addition to a large crane for lifting seaplanes and two lifeboats, the two seaplane motherships also arranged two 150mm main guns and 14 88mm secondary guns and six 500mm water torpedo tubes on the port side deck. These guns only had two 150mm main guns and four 88mm secondary guns that could fire to the right, so two 88mm secondary guns were installed in the gap on the starboard side of the island.

Compared with the 9,000-ton tonnage, the partially strengthened civilian ship hull has so many artillery arrangements for the two seaplane motherships. The Americans "admired" that the German designer's courage to destroy their reputation in the industry because of the performance of the German navy, and could only name this strange guy by "port battleship".

Hanna Xiao was walking along the port deck full of artillery, surrounded by repair technicians, traumatists and ordinary sailors. Hanna Xiao had no intention of going up to ask. As the captain of the seaplane mothership of the Zeppelin seaplane, he knew that the scary number of artillery was just a lump of wood made by the Admiralty.

There is no need to blame the Navy and Ship Design Bureau. Those designers are gentlemen who cannot do such a terrifying thing. If nothing unexpected happens, such insidious tricks are accurate and are the heroes of the Imperial Navy, Hanna-Xiao's life mentor, and Heidi Silem, the idol of countless middle-aged and elderly German women.

"Thank God, the captain is finally going to clean up these illegal buildings standing on the flight track!" Hanna-Xiao touched the iconic purple scarf on his neck and said sadly: "This is the first good news since his marriage escape!"
Chapter completed!