Chapter 7

Fierce battle with Thames

After tearing open the Thames defense line like a scalpel, the ankle of Achilles, a premature baby in 1915, who had made the "Fokker Disaster" by hand, the ankle of Achilles, a carrier-based aircraft that fabricated the "Fokker Disaster".

Although Hanna-Xiao's subordinates had tried their best, in an era when the aircraft could not perform dive bombing, only simple sights, and aviation bombs were modified from stock 150mm pointed bombs, they could only gain insignificant results: a 300-ton oil tanker was sunk, and two merchant ships with a total tonnage of less than 1,000 tons were slightly injured. This level of damage was nothing more than a scratching the surface of London.

When eighteen Folk E5s turned home over Greater London, Hanna Shaw was operating the carrier-based Fokker E5 with damaged wings and flying along the crisis-ridden River Thames. It was not that Hanna Shaw was not afraid of the anti-aircraft artillery deployed by the British in the Thames, but that he had no choice: the Purple Baron had only a compass and a map of London that could not be simpler. If the Thames were not used as a reference, he would have been lost in Greater London, which was known for its size and chaos.

Hanna-Xiao's disaster originated from the British secretly arranged air defense positions of the pounding cannons deep in the Thames. A 37mm shell passed through the right wing of Hanna-Xiao's plane, and the lowest wing was cut off at a corner. The metal bracket structure between the first and second wings was destroyed, and the high-speed friction was also lit up the wooden wings. Fortunately, the flame did not spread, and after flying with the smoke for a while, the flames went out on their own.

Even so, the situation of the special flight squadron captain is still not safe. Hanna Xiao, who had fallen into the order, had almost no ability to protect himself: the machine gun bullets were blown away in one breath by him, the pistol magazine was empty, and there was only a "fleet decisive battle" wrench left in the toolbox. The most terrifying thing is that the plane's flight performance was degraded due to damage to the wings. Hanna Xiao could not even control the aircraft to make larger steering and maneuvering actions, otherwise the first right wing might be completely damaged or peeled off.

The Thames bombing point is 30 kilometers away from the Zeppelin seaplane mothership, which is cruising on the outer sea. This usually only takes more than 20 minutes to fly from the Folk E5, but now, Hanna-Xiao dares not speed up at all. British planes may appear at any time, and dense pounding cannon shells may appear on the ground at any time. Looking at the descent oil gauge, the elegant and graceful Baron Purple can only smile bitterly.

"The river surface is getting wider and wider, and it seems that it is almost at the mouth of the Thames!"

There was no British interceptor plane in the sky. After carefully avoiding the pounding cannon position that caused his wings to be damaged, he flew east for twenty minutes and the river surface under his feet became wider and wider. Hanna Shaw saw the famous Tower Bridge without surprise.

According to the retreat route formulated before the war, the attacking aircraft group would return along the Thames River and turn to the northeast at the first lighthouse on the main channel downstream of the Tower Bridge, avoiding the Thames coastal fortress group with a large number of light artillery, crossing land to return to the mothership cruised off the coast. Hanna-Shao took his attention back from the lowermost right wing that could fall off at any time, and probed to observe the river surface.

The first lighthouse arrived soon, Hanna Shaw flipped over the map and slowly pushed the joystick. The moment he turned the head, a ray of noon sunlight flashed by on his right cheek, and there was not only the sound of wind, but also the suffocating sound of bumps in his ears.

This is not all. Hanna-Xiao, who once longed for the sky of the Western Front, was attracted by the magnificent scene comparable to the Battle of Jutland that he had seen inadvertently when he turned around.

The sea outside the Thames without sea fog was mixed with yellow green color. Several big guys sprayed with coal smoke formed a formation on the sea surface, which seemed to be raising deep questions to the earth. There were also many giant steel ships far away from the pool of green water and patrolling the south under the stars of many small warships. The funnel-shaped estuary of the Thames River was like a thick yellow ribbon, deeply engulfing into the land. The invisible rain of bullets smashed white waves and black smoke on the smooth ribbons.

The columns swayed on the ribbon, and dozens of warships condensed into a small duckweed, flowing upwards on the bumpy ribbon in a storm with a metal texture. What wrapped and accommodated the thick yellow ribbon were undulating hills and narrow plains. Both the former and the latter were covered with gratifying green. Occasionally a few rays of cold light shone through the warm noon, occasionally a few scattered fires with killings pounced on the solid earth, and occasionally large pieces of new green were replaced by desolate earthy yellow.

"No one would think that the young, immature and relatively weak ocean fleet could defeat the arrogant Royal Navy and bombard the British capital!"

Hanna-Xiao's depressed mood swept away at this moment, and a drunken blush and unrestrained flashed across his fair face. The embarrassed Baron Zi clenched his fists unconsciously, punched the empty air hard, and roared softly:

"General, you're doing a pretty job!"

The war between naval guns and coastal guns has been around for a long time. If we have to be serious, history may be traced back to the birth of warships carrying artillery.

Compared with coastal guns, naval guns have advantages in some aspects. A battleship can easily carry eight to ten large-caliber naval guns. British ship designers even created a famous seven-turret holy relic equipped with fourteen 305mm heavy artillery. It is hard to imagine a coastal fortress with so many large-caliber heavy artillery.

In addition, the quality of naval guns is often better than that of coastal guns. Except for a small number of specially developed large-caliber coastal guns, most of the coastal guns are dismantled from old battleships and light ships. These guns have a certain gap in firing rate and power than naval guns.

Secondly, naval guns and coastal guns have different definitions of heavy guns. A battleship has a large number of secondary guns, and the British capital ship's secondary guns are usually 4.7 inches or 6 inches, while the German capital ship's secondary guns are usually 150 mm and 88 mm. In the artillery sequence of surface ships, they are just inconspicuous small roles, but in many coastal fortresses with less strength, they serve as the backbone.

Again, the latest naval guns can always have a generation difference in caliber with coastal guns. For example, the surface ships of the British Royal Navy were equipped with 15-inch main guns as early as 1912 on the Iron Duke-class battleship, while the 15-inch coastal guns planned to be equipped in 1915 are still far away.

Finally, warships have strong maneuverability, and their speed advantage is enough to offset the accuracy of coastal artillery.

Even so, the naval gun was still at a disadvantage in the duel against the pint against the wheat.

Although coastal artillery is mostly old goods sold from old warships, they still have the ability to fight against large-caliber naval guns, and coastal artillery set up on land usually has better observation conditions and shooting accuracy.

Furthermore, coastal artillery is usually built in places with relatively dangerous terrain or hidden locations. These places are difficult to detect or directly attack. They are protected by safe mountains, steel plates and reinforced concrete. Unless large-caliber artillery hits continuously and directly, it is difficult to completely destroy these maritime defense fortresses. In contrast, although warships have thick armor protection, complete watertight design and good pipe damage system, as long as they are hit by a 280mm armor-piercing bomb, it is still a big trouble for them.

Historically, real coastal fortresses are usually not ended by naval guns, but are attacked from both sides. The failure of ground wars led to the guardians of these fortresses giving up resistance. This is the case with the port of Sevastopol in the Crimean War, and the port of Vladivostok in the Russo-Japanese War. As for the port of Lushun in the Qing and Japanese War, it was just a stupid accident.

Major General Kyle, the commander of the North Shore Fortress Group of Thames, did not understand how the first-class maritime commander who commanded the battles of Helgolan Bay, Dogel Sands and Skaglak Straits had confidence. He had 6 14-inch guns, 12 12-inch guns and a large number of 9.2-inch heavy guns, which could easily form the Thames River with cross-fire.

Major General Kyle is still suspicious, and the No. 4 auxiliary fortress northeast of the main subway where Kyle is located has felt the pressure.

"The Germans' masters have entered our range!"

The observant officer used the humor used by British gentlemen to report to everyone a not-so-great news-the No. 4 auxiliary fortress had been exposed to the muzzle of the large-caliber artillery of the German attack fleet.

The blue pupils of Lieutenant Colonel Taylor, the commander of the No. 4 auxiliary fortress, were already gray. In the artificially created mist, light warships composed of more than twenty ships took the lead and rushed in the minefield carefully constructed by the Admiralty. Five old battleships and four old dome cruisers followed far behind, with 240mm main guns and a large number of majestic 150mm muzzles pointing directly at them.

Lieutenant Colonel's auxiliary fortress was located on the North Sea coast and existed as a barrier on the main seas. Since it was an auxiliary fortress, and the British Empire had not suffered from maritime invasions from enemy countries for hundreds of years, this fortress was just a circular fortress fortress similar to Harriche Port before the British-German naval arms race. It was urgently modified after the war broke out, forming a semi-permanent fortress mixed with grey, sandbags and stone.

Compared with the weak protection of the No. 4 auxiliary fortress, its firepower is even weaker. The No. 4 auxiliary fortress has twenty-eight guns, which is an excess of firepower for an auxiliary fortress. However, most of them are 6-inch coastal guns equivalent to the main gun of the Navy cruiser and 4.7-inch coastal guns equivalent to the secondary gun of the main ship, with only two 9.2-inch and four 8-inch heavy guns.

"For Britain, open fire!"

Lieutenant Colonel Taylor stubbornly issued an order that could lead to the destruction of his auxiliary fortress, because he was facing the main force of the German attack fleet with twenty 240mm rapid-fire guns and many 150mm guns, which were 17 kilometers away from the main plug. In the direction they were in, except for the 12-inch heavy artillery with a good range of long-range shooting in the main plug, it was difficult for other artillery to cover.

But Lieutenant Colonel Taylor had no regrets. This is London, the Empire of the Sun, and this is the heart of the British, and the Germans cannot let go wild!

More than 20 coastal artillery warned fearlessly with five old battleships and four dome cruisers. One side was the German Navy with a powerful momentum, and the other side was the No. 4 auxiliary fortress with no retreat. The two countries that had been linked to eternal peace for brothers were used all their might to project fireworks of revenge on the other side.

The shells of various caliber jumped over the vast land and ocean, splashing endless fire mist. The soft beach soil and hardened cement were flying in the air, thick smoke rose, the smoke of war was spreading, tons of sea water splashed, slamming wildly near the warships.

After more than ten minutes of artillery battle, Fort No. 4 was defeated. The high seas fleet that had been through battle for a long time was not a fame. More than ten artillery pieces of this auxiliary fortress have been destroyed.

Willis Bay, April 29, 1915.

The remote and desolate harbor is no longer quiet. The news that the Ocean Fleet went out to sea at night has caused the newly defeated Royal Navy to be in a panic. Even though the Fleet had retreated to Willis Bay, the Fleet Command still ordered all the main ships to retain 2.

3 fires, all personnel are not allowed to leave the ship.

"Although the German First Reconnaissance Fleet and the Fifth Reserve Battle Fleet both appeared in the Thames, the Ocean Fleet has not yet appeared. We cannot conclude that the Germans' main attack direction is London!" The small commander's tower of the Iron Duke battleship is filled with Jackson's roar: "Let the deputy commander of the base Major General Brock strengthen his reconnaissance and patrol strength, perhaps they are lying in a dark corner!"

"General, there will be no more surprises. We will find the main force of the Ocean Fleet in Nez Point!" As soon as Jackson finished speaking, Lieutenant General Hood, the new commander of the Quick Fleet, rushed into the Commander Tower panting.

"River of Thames?!" The commander's tower was filled with the sound of senior officers of the large fleet gasping.

Will the fleeing of the large fleet without fighting become the biggest joke of the 20th century? Will the officers be responsible for this? The lost navy looked at each other but did not receive any comfort, so their eyes gathered on the face of General Jackson who was softly lying on the chair.
Chapter completed!