69novels Chapter 624
Chapter 624
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Prime Minister Lloyd George thought about it and found that this suggestion was a good one. The mines were very cheap, but they were very powerful, and the most terrifying thing was their huge deterrent power!
As long as the British army completed the laying of mines on the waterways where the German army entered and exited, the German army would have to be very careful if they wanted to sail. Before clearing these mines, their large-scale military operations might not be able to be launched. Otherwise, if the warships were sunk by mines, the Sun Never Sets would wake up with laughter!
So, Prime Minister Lloyd George immediately adopted this opinion and ordered the Royal Navy’s minelayers to go out to the area near the coast of Hans to lay mines!
Since the end of January, the Sun Never Sets has used various means, including merchant ships, destroyers, minelayers and torpedo boats, to lay tens of thousands of mines on some important waterways near Hans in the eastern part of the North Sea!
After these mines were laid, the British did not announce the existence of these minefields in accordance with international practice, causing uninformed civilian ships to suffer heavy losses when passing through this sea area! The more than
10,000 mines of the British blockade of Maliki are very large, and these mines will pose a huge threat to passing ships. Insufficient warships will sink if they touch mines, and merchant ships with lower armor protection levels will be more dangerous when encountering these mines!
When ordinary merchant ships were built, they did not consider the field of protective performance, so their hulls were very thin. When they encountered a powerful weapon like mines, their hulls were easily blown out with a big hole!
The locations of mine attacks are all below and near the waterline. Once a big hole is blown out of this place, a large amount of seawater will immediately pour in. Civilian ships do not have tight watertight compartments like warships, and there is no counterweight design. Therefore, once seawater is poured into them, the center of gravity of the civilian ship will immediately be unbalanced and will soon capsize and sink.
After the British had laid these mines, within less than a week, dozens of ships had been struck by mines and sunk when passing by.
Most of these ships were merchant ships, some of which were Hans’s ships, and others were ships from other countries, including the three Nordic countries, the three Baltic countries, and even some transport ships of the Eagle Sauce!
After these merchant ships were sunk by mines, a large number of crew members fell into the water. Those who were lucky might be rescued by other passing ships and save their lives, while those who were unlucky could only be drowned in the sea. Some unlucky crew members had no time to run out of the warships because the speed of the ship sinking was too fast, and they sank directly with the ship!
In just one week, at least more than 1,000 crew members died in the sea!
The sinking of dozens of merchant ships and the death of thousands of people made European countries and even the whole world begin to condemn the British!
Although the British’s mine-laying behavior seemed to be aimed at Hans, their practice actually hit everyone indiscriminately!
As long as the merchant ships of various countries pass through this route, they will be threatened by the mines laid by the British. What is more frightening is that these mines will drift everywhere with the waves on the sea. At present, they are still limited to this area, but over time, it is hard to say.
If these mines are not cleaned up, then along the ocean currents, under the influence of the wind and waves at sea, these mines are likely to spread everywhere. At that time, all European countries may be under great threat!
Therefore, all countries strongly condemned the behavior of the British. Some countries that originally remained neutral in the war also began to join the ranks of condemning the British. Even some countries that suffered heavy losses and had close relations with Hans began to clamor for compensation from the British!
This situation made the British very passive. Hans was originally trying to win over European countries. Due to Hans’ powerful military force, European countries did not dare to resist Hans.
But they may not be willing to follow Hans in their hearts, so they still have a little expectation for the British.
The Sun Never Sets has dominated the world for so long, their strength must be strong. These countries expect the Sun Never Sets to show the strength of an old power and suppress Hans’s arrogance. In that case, Hans will not have enough power to bully them, and they can play both sides between the Sun Never Sets and Hans, without being completely controlled by Hans and forced to turn to Hans!
However, the Sun Never Sets is desperate and uses this unscrupulous method, which has caused serious losses to the interests of European countries!
For the countries in the coastal areas of Europe, maritime trade is vital to their country’s economy and people’s livelihood, and the area where the Sun Never Sets laid mines happens to be their main outlet to the sea, so the Sun Never Sets’ behavior has seriously damaged their interests, forcing them to stand on the side of Hans!
Therefore, the Sun Never Sets’s approach not only did not achieve the desired effect, but also helped Hans, allowing Hans to integrate these European countries more smoothly! However
, no one expected that a tragic maritime accident that was recorded in history would also occur because of this!
At 2 a.m. on January 31, a luxury cruise ship sailing from North America to Europe hit a mine in the North Sea. After struggling for more than three hours, the ship finally sank to the bottom of the North Sea, along with more than 3,100 passengers on board!
The cruise ship, named Aldvania, had set sail from North America on January 12. When it was about to reach its destination, Hans, it hit a mine less than 50 kilometers away from Hans’ outer port.���Sink.
This area happened to be the area where the British army had the most densely deployed mines.
The cruise ship came from North America and didn’t know the situation, so she didn’t know that she had plunged into the minefield.
So she was unlucky and hit two mines in succession, and two large holes were blown out of the bottom of the ship!
The tonnage of the Aldwania is very large, with a full load displacement of 56,000 tons.
It is one of the most luxurious large cruise ships in the world.
There are all kinds of facilities on the ship, including dance halls, casinos, swimming pools and other supporting facilities.
When the shipwreck occurred, there were a total of 3,400 passengers on it.
When the mine was struck, most of the passengers had fallen asleep, so there was no time to react in the first time. When they woke up from their sleep, the cruise ship had lost its center of gravity and began to capsize.
So the passengers on the ship shouted and rushed to the door. As a result, a serious stampede occurred at the door. A large number of people were trampled to death here, and the bodies blocked the cabin doors, so that most of the passengers could not escape from the cruise ship and sank into the cold seabed with the cruise ship!
This tragic maritime accident ultimately resulted in the death of more than 3,100 people, and only less than 300 people were rescued by the German Maritime Guard who rushed to the scene. In order to rescue these passengers, a German rescue boat also hit a mine and sank.