69novels Chapter 599
Chapter 599
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: 0.059s Scan: 0.021sPah!
With a muffled sound, a newspaper was thrown fiercely in front of the Minister of the Navy!
The Minister of the Navy looked up and bumped into the angry eyes of Prime Minister Lloyd George.
The newspaper on the table is the front page headline of the Times, the most influential newspaper on which the sun never sets!
The title reads: Waterloo of the Royal Navy-the empire’s strongest battleship Hood and three other battleships sank!
This title is absolutely eye-catching!
The Battle of Waterloo was a battle that broke the fate of Napoleon. After the end of this battle, the empire established by Napoleon became history completely, and he himself was exiled to St. Helena Island and withdrew from the stage of history.
Using the Battle of Waterloo to compare the Battle of the North Sea is a bit too much for the Royal Navy!
It is true that the Battle of the North Sea dealt a heavy blow to the Royal Navy. They lost five battleships, including the battleship Hood, four of which were sunk. The Royal Oak was seriously injured and captured, and was pulled back to the mainland by the Hans as a trophy for exhibition!
The two aircraft carriers, the White Eyed Titan and the Hermes, were ravaged by the Tirpitz. The two aircraft carriers were hit by more than 30 shells in total, and were riddled with holes and sank into the Atlantic with hatred.
In fact, the German army had the opportunity to capture these two aircraft carriers, but when Dönitz sent a telegram to Mainz to ask about this matter, Mainz only said two words: sink!
The performance of these two aircraft carriers is really rubbish. As the earliest generation of aircraft carriers, both the Hermes and the White Eyed Titan have weak combat effectiveness.
This type of aircraft carrier has an unreasonable layout, a small deck area, and cannot take off and land large aircraft.
Its own tonnage is small, the space occupied by the artillery is too large, and the space in the hangar is small, and it can hardly carry too many warships!
If Hans didn’t have any aircraft carriers at this time, Mainz might still have some interest in these two aircraft carriers, but Hans already had aircraft carriers at this time. Although the number was small, it was better in quality. Moreover, this naval battle had proved that in front of the Midway-class aircraft carriers, the British light aircraft carriers had almost no ability to fight back and were completely crushed!
Therefore, capturing such aircraft carriers did not make much sense for Hans. Not only could it not improve their combat effectiveness, but it would also cause a great burden on their logistics.
Moreover, the status of aircraft carriers in the hearts of people in various countries is still relatively low, so if captured, the display effect as a trophy is very poor, far less than the effect of pulling back a battleship to display.
Therefore, after confirming that the Germans had captured the Royal Oak, the main battleship of the British Army, Mainz did not need other trophies, so he simply ordered the navy to sink the two aircraft carriers!
Therefore, the battleship Tirpitz volunteered to rush up and surrounded the two aircraft carriers in a 360-degree angle without dead angles. It not only tested the power of its own naval guns, but also tested the anti-strike capability of the aircraft carriers. It also found the soft underbelly of the British aircraft carriers, laying the foundation for dealing with the British in the future!
For the British Navy, the fleet that attacked in this naval battle was almost completely lost, five battleships and two aircraft carriers, more than 7,600 soldiers were killed, and more than 5,200 were captured. The combat effectiveness of the Royal Navy was no longer there!
This tragic defeat in the naval battle can be regarded as a tragic defeat for the Royal Navy, a tragic defeat that hurt its bones.
However, it is too early to call this naval battle a Waterloo. The British Navy still has more than ten battleships at this time, as well as a large number of cruisers, destroyers and submarines.
If only the paper strength is calculated, they still exceed Hans’s navy!
There is still the strength to fight against the Hans Navy, which is different from the situation after Waterloo when Napoleon was powerless to turn the tide, so the title of the Times is suspected of being a headline party.
However, within the British Navy, they all know very well that this naval battle is indeed the British Navy’s Waterloo! The
Royal Navy has been invincible in Europe and has dominated the world for hundreds of years. It does not rely solely on strength, but on a deterrent force accumulated over hundreds of years.
This powerful deterrent force will put tremendous pressure on their challengers, making them subconsciously fear the Royal Navy, and unconsciously think that they are not as good as the Royal Navy, and that the Royal Navy is invincible!
This feeling is prevalent in the hearts of European countries.
Countries along the North Atlantic coast and even the Mediterranean and Pacific coasts, no matter who they are, will unconsciously feel fear in their hearts when they hear the famous name of the Royal Navy!
This is their real magic weapon to maintain their position as the hegemon of the sea. If there is no such fear, if they want to fight against the navies of various countries, the size of the Royal Navy must at least double its current size!
And this is not allowed by the current national strength of the British Empire!
Therefore, the reason why the British Empire can maintain its position as the world’s hegemon is entirely due to their accumulated prestige over the past hundreds of years, and the fear of various countries towards them, which barely maintains the situation.
The Battle of the North Sea happened to be the turning point to break their balance!
As a rising star, Hans’s navy won a great victory when almost everyone was not optimistic about it. With almost no losses, it completely wiped out the most powerful battleship and aircraft carrier mixed fleet of the British Empire!
This shocked the whole of Europe and even the whole world!
At this time, all countries are still in shock and have not come back to their senses, but the British Empire knows in their hearts that once they come back to their senses, they will immediately realize the weakness of the British Empire. At that time, the fear in their hearts will disappear along with the shattering of the undefeated myth of the Royal Navy!
If countries no longer fear the British Empire, then with the current power of the British Empire, they may no longer be able to maintain their rule in the world!
By then, European countries will definitely join Hans completely. Even the younger brothers who once followed him, such as Norway, Fairyland, Portugal, Yugoslavia, etc., will immediately turn to Hans and even help Hans to deal with them!
Moreover, those colonies with a strong tendency to independence outside the British Empire may also be ready to try to split from the British Empire after learning the news of the British Empire’s navy’s disastrous defeat!
And their allies, the Foot Basin people, will also reconsider their relationship with the British Empire.
After all, an ally who can’t protect himself will have very limited significance to the Foot Basin.
In this case, the Foot Basin is very likely to send troops to capture Lijiapo, seize the Strait of Malacca, and close the road to the Far East. It is also possible to send troops south to attack Australia and seize the rich iron ore on the Australian continent!
……
The direct loss of a tragic defeat may not be fatal, but the collateral effects of this loss are enough to bring down the British Empire!
This is the huge crisis that the British Empire is currently facing!