69novels Chapter 587
Chapter 587
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: 0.094s Scan: 0.021sOn the Bismarck, Captain Stirling is reporting to Fleet Commander Lütjens
“General, we sailed along the coastline of Norway yesterday, bombarded Stavanger, and sank two merchant ships flying the British Navy. Before one of the merchant ships was sunk, according to your information, you gave them some time to send out a distress call. I think the British Navy should have known that our navy has been dispatched!”
Lütjens nodded:”Very good, as long as the British Navy gets the information, they will definitely not sit idly by, they will definitely send a fleet to encircle us!”
Lütjens participated in the First World War and served in the High Seas Fleet.
The biggest battle between the High Seas Fleet and the British Royal Navy was the Battle of Jutland in 1916, although he was only a small major in charge of a destroyer at the time, with a low official position and only served as the captain of a cannon fodder-level destroyer.
However, as someone who had the honor of participating in Jutland, the largest naval battle in human history so far, Lütjens’ qualifications are naturally beyond doubt!
Moreover, because he had dealt with the British, he knew the British’s thoughts very well.
For the British, if they want to control the sea power and ensure the safety of their own shipping, then they will never tolerate Hans’ fleet leaving the port and operating in the Atlantic.!
Once Hans’ fleet enters the Atlantic Ocean, the situation of these merchant ships heading to the British Empire from all over the world will be very dangerous! The British
Empire is different from Hans. They are an island country, so all material transportation must be carried out by sea. At this time, air transportation is not well developed. In addition, Western Europe has been completely controlled by Hans, so the British Empire cannot use Gaul and other countries as transit stations to take air transportation routes!
And the key is that so far, all countries lack large transport aircraft, so the aviation transportation industry has just emerged at this time, and it is far from prosperous.
Moreover, even in the 21st century, the aviation transportation industry of various countries has been quite developed, but the transportation of various materials still needs to rely on railways and waterways, and relies on airplanes to transport large quantities of materials. Not only is it unrealistic, but it is also extremely expensive and the cost is too high!
As an island country, the British Empire also has the most powerful navy in the world. Their shipping and transportation industry is extremely developed. So far, the number of large merchant ships registered in the British Empire exceeds 3,000, with a total tonnage of more than 56 million tons.
These large merchant ships and transport ships transport materials from the British Empire’s major colonies to the British Empire, ensuring the supply of living materials for 40 million people in the British Empire.
When they return, they transport various industrial products produced by the British Empire to the colonies and dump them in the colonies to earn money from the colonies.
This kind of trade system is the British Empire’s colonial system. In this system, relying on the market of hundreds of millions of colonial populations, the British Empire does not even need to negotiate with the country. Trade, relying solely on the plunder and exploitation of their own colonies, can support themselves!
However, this model has a very fragile weakness, that is, the British Empire must gain control of the sea!
If they cannot gain control of the sea, then they will immediately lose contact with the colonies, and the materials and goods of the colonies will no longer be delivered to their homeland. Their homeland’s connection with the outside world will be cut off. At that time, the 40 million pampered British Empire people who have always relied on the colonies for support will probably starve to death on the island!
It is precisely because of this huge weakness that the British Empire attaches great importance to maintaining maritime hegemony. Decades ago, their navy has always adhered to the two-power standard, which means that the strength of the British Empire’s navy must exceed the sum of the world’s second and third!
So when the Second Empire vigorously developed the navy under the auspices of Emperor William II, the British Empire immediately became alert!
Even though William II is the grandson of Queen Victoria and he is a cousin of King George V, the British Empire still feels that their national security is seriously threatened by Hans.
After their concerns and warnings to Hans were ineffective, the British regarded Hans’s High Seas Fleet as their biggest imaginary enemy. Then, in World War I, they mobilized most of the troops of the Home Fleet to encircle the High Seas Fleet. Once they found that the High Seas Fleet had left the port, the British immediately came out in full force to besiege Hans’s fleet.
The Battle of Jutland broke out under such a background. The scale of that naval battle was large, and both sides suffered losses. Relatively speaking, the British suffered greater losses. Several of their warships were sunk, but the actual losses on the German side were greater. Many of their warships were damaged, forcing them to return to the shipyard for repairs.
And because of the absence of these warships on their flagship for repair, the strength of the High Seas Fleet was severely damaged, and they did not have the conditions to continue to go to sea to fight. Therefore, before the end of World War I, they did not have any good opportunities and could only be blocked in the port until the end of the war, and then humiliated themselves in Scapa Flow!
For Hans, the British Royal Navy can be said to be their lifelong enemy. The result of the Second Empire’s annihilation of the High Seas Fleet gave them an excellent reference, letting them know what the result would be if they could not break through the British blockade!
The standard for measuring the strength of a country’s navy is to look at the total tonnage of the opponent’s warships!
Before the First World War, the British Royal Navy could maintain the standard of one or two powers, but after the First World War, the strength of the British Royal Navy was weakened a lot, and it had to accept the status of being on par with the Eagle Sauce. The tonnage of warships was also restricted and was stuck within 520,000 tons. However,
Hans’s naval tonnage increased to 400,000 tons. Although it was not as good as the British Royal Navy, the gap between the two sides had been narrowed.
At this time, although they were not as good as their opponents in terms of quantity and total tonnage, their weapons and equipment were more advanced, and they also had two super battleships such as the Bismarck and the Tirpitz, while the British Royal Navy had only one battleship, the Hood, that could match these two battleships.
Although after the outbreak of the war, the British side desperately began to design and produce warships with larger tonnage, thicker armor, and more powerful firepower, completely breaking through the restrictions of the Fog City Naval Treaty, and wanted to completely overwhelm Hans’ Bismarck-class battleships.
However, a battleship needs to go through a long process from design to construction to launching and commissioning.
So before the new battleships of the British side were launched, the Bismarck and Tirpitz were the most powerful battleships in the world!
Such an advantage was never available in the High Seas Fleet at that time.