In early February 1915, Davenport Shipyard's colorful flags fluttered and champagne splashed everywhere. Both the Royal Navy officers and soldiers and the people of the British Empire were ecstatic about the completion of the Queen Elizabeth-class battleship No. 2, because the Great Fleet's self-salvation day could be brought.

Although the performance parameters of the Sedlitz-type battleship after Germany are closer to those of the fast battleship, the British media still stubbornly and stubbornly believe that Queen Elizabeth-class is the world's first fast battleship.[..com]

To be honest, the Queen Elizabeth-class battleship is a battleship with excellent performance and outstanding advantages. Its standard displacement is 29,150 tons, uses a fully fuel boiler, has a designed speed of more than 25 knots, is equipped with 4 double-mounted 15-inch main guns, and the side waterline has a main armor and turret main armor reaching 13 inches. In early January 1915, the first ship of the Queen Elizabeth battleship, was completed. In less than a month, the Queen Elizabeth ship, the Battle-Devouring, was built in advance with the efforts of workers in the Davenport Shipyard.

At this point, the number of main ships of the large fleet reached a daunting twenty-seven, including twenty-two dreadnoughts and five battle patrols. The German Ocean Fleet on the opposite side of the North Sea had only seventeen dreadnoughts and five battle patrols. At the end of January, the German army launched an offensive on the Eastern Front. In order to restrain Russian troops, six main ships of the Ocean Fleet blocked and deterred the Eastern Baltic Sea. In early February, the repaired Moltke battle patrol and the newly completed German battle patrol followed the Seidlitz to carry out cruise training in the southern waters of Sweden. There are only thirteen dreadnoughts in Wilhelmshaven and Jade Bay now, and the large fleet has regained the coveted numerical advantage. The Royal Navy is ready to move and tries to regain the sea control rights of the North Sea.

Since Germany and Britain declared war on August 4, the Germans used shameless submarine warfare and mine warfare to cause the Royal Navy to fall into the quagmire of asymmetric combat. On November 1, 1914, the British King George V class daring battleship sank when it hits a mine. On November 26, 1914, the London class barrier in front of the dreadnought in northern Scotland. On January 1, 1915, the former dreadnought in the Fear Class was sunk by a submarine in Cape Portland.

.This is just the number of casualties for large ships. In the busy English Channel transportation line, the Strait Fleet patrol line, the Thames River estuary to the north shore of Scotland, casualties of British light ships and merchant ships are common. Under the cover of the Ocean Fleet, German light patrols, destroyers, submarines, and even airships that carry only a machine gun or a few 50 kilogram aviation bombs can chase the deaths in the British North Sea!

It was not the Royal Navy that the Battle of Helgolan Bay, the Haric Fleet, which was responsible for the defense of the southern North Sea, suffered a heavy blow. The raid before the Battle of Dogel Sands interrupted the last touch of Haric Fleet's fighting spirit. In the Battle of Dogel, the British lost two battle patrols. Even in the Battle of Dogel, the Invincible and Indomitable Battle Tour, the British fast fleet, which had one tiger class, two lion class and two invincible class battle patrols, was by no means an opponent of the German battle patrol fleet. The equipped patrol could not fight against the "cruiser killer" - battle cruisers. The Battle of Coronel has proved this. The British lacked reconnaissance power and lost their purpose to the Great Fleet could only give up the North Sea to control the sea.

In January 1915, the unfavorable situation in the North Sea finally changed, and the British's long-lost competitive spirit was found again. Taking advantage of the favorable opportunity of the ocean fleet eastward to regain the sea control power in the southern part of the North Sea, the cut off the German North Sea transportation line was put on the agenda by the British Navy Staff.

On January 26, two Minotao-class patrols, and four Warrior-class patrols, sailed out of Scarpa Bay, headed south to sweep the North Sea, and sank the third reconnaissance fleet, the Munich light patrol, which was patrolling the northwest waters of Hornsrev's shallows.

On February 1, the Battleship of the USS War-Yang was completed and organized into David Betty's First Battle Cruise Fleet. In order to enable the USS Elizabeth and the USS War-Yang were able to form combat effectiveness as soon as possible, the British Admiralty formulated the North Sea Combat Cruise Fleet.

On February 3, Scarpa Bay, which had been silent for a long time, became lively. The British decided to use fighting instead of training, and through combat cruise and low-intensity naval battles, the two Queen-class battleships formed combat effectiveness as soon as possible. So David Betty's First Battle Cruise Fleet left the port again, and five Battle Cruise and First-Cruise Fleet covered the two Queen-class cruisers along the Denmark coastline.

"Commander, ahead is what the Germans call the 200 nautical mile defense circle..." Major General Lampard, deputy commander of the First Battlecruiser Fleet, pointed to the foggy sea area, looking a little excited. "Do you want to conduct a fire reconnaissance?"

"Next time..." Betty picked up the telescope and tried to penetrate the young empire's determination to the ocean behind the heavy fog. Chunyilan said: "This is just the first long-distance sea trial between Elizabeth and War Warfare. When they form combat power, I will bravely enter the Helgolan Bay defense circle created by my old friend!"

****

In January, a German fleet consisting of six battleships and seven former dreadnoughts suddenly broke out, quietly blocking the Gulf of Finland, seizing and sinking Russian merchant cargo ships, and even landing on the Gulf of Gary.

The German fleet put more than a little pressure on the Russians. Before the four Gangu special-class dreadnoughts were completed and put into service, Admiral Essen had only the French-made dreadnoughts, the former Far East Fleet flagship, the former Far East Fleet flagship, the Russian copycat version of the Glory, the two former dreadnoughts of St. Andre and Paul I built after the Russo-Japanese War, and the British built the Rurik ii ​​armored cruiser to support the facade. The Baltic fleet, which had four front dreadnoughts, five armored cruisers, four light patrols, sixty-two destroyers and twelve submarines, was not enough for the German blockade fleet to block the gap between the teeth.

Faced with such a sinister situation, the Russians had to use iron barrel formations, and all ships were shrunk in Helsinki, Tallinn bases and Kronstadt in the Gulf of Finland, and blocked the waterways of the Gulf of Finland with destroyers, mines and coastal artillery. In order to prevent possible landings by the Germans, 200,000 Russian troops were drawn and strengthened to the Baltic Sea.

Although the waterway of the Gulf of Finland was blocked with mines and supported by the army, the sentiment of failure was still thriving among the Russian sailors, just like the most terrible plague. The morale of the Baltic Fleet fell to freezing point in Russia's cold winter, and the enterprising Baltic Fleet Commander General Nikola Essen had no choice.

Fortunately, Colonel Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak stepped forward. The forty-two-year-old Kolchak is definitely an alternative among the mediocre and conservative Russian Navy seniors. He graduated from the St. Petersburg Naval Academy, knows many foreign languages, and is part-time hydrologist and chart expert of the Arctic Ocean Expedition Team, insists on using active tactics to keep the German fleet away from the coastline as far as possible.

On January 26, 1915, at the insistence of Kolchak, four Iriya-Murometz-type strategic bombers bombed the blockade fleet.

The Iriya-Murometz strategic bomber is the world's first heavy bomber with a flight speed of 137 kilometers per hour, a maximum ceiling of 4,000 meters, a maximum range of 540 kilometers, and a crew member of 4 to 8 people. The Iriya-Murometz can be equipped with up to 8 machine guns, equipped with pilot and pilot instruments, and bombing sights, and used electric bomb droppers for the first time. The aircraft has a bomb load of 400 kilograms and can reach 700 to 800 kilograms when overloaded... Historical community recognizes that the Iriya-Murometz strategic bomber is the most powerful strategic bomber in World War I, because throughout World War I, neither enemy nor allies have ever created a heavy bomber comparable to it.

This was the first decisive battle of ships and air in human history. Although it foreshadowed the end of a large ship and a giant cannon, the bomber's ability was ruthlessly humiliated in 1915. Although the Ocean Fleet Training Outline compiled by Wang Heidi included a new subject of fleet air defense, the well-trained German gunners were still in a hurry in the face of unfamiliar air defense operations, and they set countless firsts in panic: the first time they formed an air defense formation, the first time they adjusted the elevation angle of the 88mm high-level dual-purpose secondary gun to the maximum, and the first time they opened fire on enemy aircraft.

After more than ten minutes of air strike, four Iriya-Murometz-type strategic bombers sloppyly threw a total of one ton of ammunition at the German blockade fleet and fired with machine guns. The results obtained were only scratches of the starboard armor of the Border Governor, several feet of holes on the Madegburg light patrol lifeboat, and bloodstained at the stern of the destroyer B-98. A total of two German sailors were killed in the air strike, and four sailors were injured.

Although the air strike failed, Colonel Kolchak was not discouraged, because as the commander of the Mine Corps, he also had an elite minecraft detachment and the long winter night in Russia.

****

Under the insistence of the army, Wang Heidi became the commander-in-chief of Operation Albion. Just like General Hippel at the beginning of the war, the neurasthenia Wang Heidi had to serve as the commander of the First Reconnaissance Fleet and the commander of the Baltic Blockade Fleet.

Operation Albion has lasted for a month. The boring life on the ship and the unsustainable Baltic fleet made the fleet officers and soldiers feel a little relaxed, but Wang Heidi saw the hidden fangs of the polar bears from the Russians' unique air raid. It is obvious that the Russians did not give up on counterattack, they were waiting for the opportunity in the dark.

Wang Heidi tried to hold a captain's meeting, but in early February, the news that the first reconnaissance fleet's Norwegian waters combat cruise and the German war patrol were about to be completed distracted. On February 2, Wang Heidi temporarily participated in the completion ceremony of the German war patrol. On February 4, the Berlin Navy Headquarters called on Wang Heidi to attend the Berlin Navy high-level meeting to discuss how to deal with the recent aggressive situation of the large fleet.

Wang Heidi, who was unable to clone his body, had no time to take into account the specific affairs of the blockade fleet. Before leaving the ship on February 2, Wang Heidi strictly ordered the blockade fleet to not approach the Russian coastline, and immediately entrusted the fleet to the deputy commander, Lieutenant General William Suxiong, the Fourth Battleship Fleet.

This resolution was natural at the time, but Lieutenant General Su Xiong failed Wang Heidi's expectations. After February 6, this decision became the best excuse for those who are interested in dealing with Wang Heidi, and eventually turned into a storm.

In the early morning of February 6, the Imperial Army intelligence department learned that the Russians were secretly dispatching troops from the Baltic coastal defense forces. Marshal Hindenburg and General Rudendolf requested the blockade fleet to take strong actions and organize the Russians to draw troops to reinforce the Eastern Front battlefield. Compared with Wang Heidi's clear understanding of the essence of Albion's operation, Lieutenant General Su Xiong was obviously a little nervous. He ordered the Fourth Battleship Fleet to shell the Siwuma Island on the west side of Estonia and approach the coastline to make a landing battle.

At noon on February 6, Wang Heidi took a supply ship to return to the battle patrol of the Flagship of the Blockade Fleet. He was exhausted and found that seven old battleships of the Fourth Battleship disappeared, and the sound of cannons rumbled in the direction of Xiwuma Island.

Wang Heidi walked into the fleet command tower angrily. Before the question was released, Deputy Commander Lieutenant General Su Xiong came over and handed over a telegram with red eyes.

"General, what happened? Could it be that the light patrol of the Madeg Castle has sunk?" Wang Heidi's face was tense, and with inexplicable heartache and awkward joke, he was reluctant to answer the telegram. Until General Su Xiong spit out a few words that were enough to make Wang Heidi crazy, Wang Heidi finally changed her face and roared and grabbed the telegram.

"Commander, I'm sorry, Colonel Oden died heroically in the Falkland Islands!"

Bernhard von Oden was killed?! Wang Heidi's eyes turned black and dizzy came like a tide. Even Su Xiong was quick to see his eyes and hands, but he couldn't hold on to the fallen Wang Heidi. The battle patrol command tower of the Luzov was in chaos. At this time, a dull explosion sounded faintly from the direction of the coastline.

A warship was shot or touched a mine! He participated in and directed two naval battles. The experienced "veteran" Wang Heidi was familiar with the sound and couldn't help but sucked in the air.

"General, something is wrong. The Brunswick hit a mine!"
Chapter completed!