1855 United States Tycoon

Chapter 607, Search (2)

“Mr. Secretary of the Navy, in the past half month, 16 of our merchant ships have been attacked by German assault ships, and four merchant ships have been attacked by German submarines and sunk.” An officer carried a report. Reported to Churchill, Secretary of the Navy of the United Kingdom.

“Where did these attacks happen?” Churchill asked.

“Mr. Secretary of the Navy, please come here.” The naval officer took Churchill to the wall, on which there was a large chart.

“Mr. Secretary of the Navy, this is the location where the first attack took place. According to the telegram sent by the attacked ship, it was a battlecruiser that attacked them.” The officer picked up a pointer and pointed to the location on the map. “Then the second attack took place here. They were also attacked by a battlecruiser. The two attack locations were more than 600 nautical miles apart, and they were only a few hours apart in time, so this was done by two battlecruisers. No. The three attacks were in this position, with two cruisers. The fourth time was here, with a battlecruiser, three hundred nautical miles from the location of the second attack, probably by the same battleship, and then… ”

“In this way, there should be two battlecruisers and two other cruisers in this area.” Churchill nodded and said, “Where is our fleet now?”

“Your Excellency, our two battlecruiser formations have already rushed to this sea area, and now they are in this position—and this position. In about two days, they will arrive here, and here.” The navy officer pointed out the positions on the chart.

Churchill put his hands on his chest and looked up at the chart in silence. After a while, he whispered: “The German battlecruiser can reach a speed of more than 20 knots for a long time when necessary. After sailing, two days later, they may have been hundreds of nautical miles away. We have so many routes to protect. This is really like finding a needle in a haystack.”

“Your Excellency, it is difficult for the Germans to obtain supplies, so they cannot continue to sail at this speed. Our situation is different. Our fleet can always maintain a higher speed. Every time the Germans attack us, Merchant ships will reveal their own position once, and we can chase them closer. We must be able to catch them.” The navy officer replied.

“It’s not that simple, my friend.” Churchill shook his head. “If I were a German, I would leave the route for a period of time after every two attacks and move to other areas, for several days. I will not launch an attack. So when I attack the merchant ship again, maybe I will be thousands of nautical miles away. As for the supply, the most important thing is the supply of fuel, and it is best to be able to get from the captured merchant ship. Get fuel supplies. In addition, those damn German battlecruisers have a pretty good range, much better than ours. It’s all the damn United States guys!”

“Your Excellency, maybe…” The officer hesitated again when he said this.

“Maybe what? What do you think?” Churchill asked quickly.

“Your Excellency, maybe we can deal specifically with the ships that transport fuel.” The officer replied, “All the ships that transport fuel are in formation, we use old-fashioned battleships to escort them. These battleships are too slow. It is difficult to be incorporated into a large fleet to fight, but the battlecruisers against the Germans should still be able to fight.

Moreover, the Germans lacked port support. Once a warship was damaged in a battle, it would not be able to recover its combat effectiveness. At that time, it would only take the risk to break through our blockade in the North Sea and escape back to China. The Danish Strait is so easy to get in and out. ”

The British still had some old-fashioned battleships in their hands. Some of these battleships had already been sent to the shipbreaking yard, but after the war broke out, these ships were also left behind. Although these things are a bit old, It can always come in handy. For example, now, these ships can be used to escort those oil tankers. Of course, the state of these old battleships is not very good, and the firepower and defense are also lower than modern standards. The British felt that if this kind of old battleship pitted against the German battlecruisers, it would really not be able to beat others. However, it is estimated that the Germans, considering the maintenance problems after the damage, most of them dare not do anything with these old things.

Churchill thought for a while, and said, “This idea is good, and it can be handled like this in the future. In addition, we should also station naval fighters on every transport ship. We should set up bombs on the keel of each ship. Once the enemy ship is bitten, the ship The staff immediately reported their location, and let them turn on the timing device of the bomb, and let all sailors have lifeboats, and we took the initiative to blow up these ships. In this way, where can I see the Chinese people go to get supplies!”

…

Churchill’s tricks did cause a lot of trouble to the Germans. However, the German attacks were still not contained. There are rumors that the Germans had already purchased some ships in private capacity in some countries in South America before the war. When it came time to fight, these ships loaded some necessary cargo and went out to sea, communicated with the Germans on the radio, and sent supplies to the German warships. In short, the German attacks continued.

The actions of the British were not without results. A few days ago, a battlecruiser and a cruiser of the British fleet and the Germans encountered and attacked the Germans. The German warships evaded in a hurry. Finally, under the cover of thunderstorms, The battlecruiser finally escaped, but the other cruiser failed to escape and was torn to pieces by the British battlecruiser cannon.

But this small victory didn’t change much. The German raiders were still in action. Within a month, they sank as many as 300,000 tons of transport ships and sent a large amount of strategic materials to the bottom of the sea. It also includes some very important things, such as the large quantities of chemical protective clothing ordered by the French in the United States. This also caused a serious crisis on the front line of the Marne River. Fortunately, at this time, the French also had a little mustard gas in their hands. After that, the Germans also suffered heavy casualties, which stabilized the battle line. (Germany lacks rubber, coupled with full-body protective chemical protection clothing is not conducive to offensive operations, and they are also insufficiently prepared for the French mustard gas. As a result, they suffered a French mustard gas shell during the offensive, and lost one on the spot. Ten thousand people.)

If the number of sinking German submarines is added, the German navy sent more than 400,000 tons of transport ships to the seabed in one go in this month. If this situation cannot be changed, the situation of Britain and France will become extremely difficult.

…

As Minister of the Navy, Churchill also felt a lot of pressure, but because of the containment of the German High Seas Fleet, he really couldn’t send more combat fleets to do searches. The French also sent the own fleet to help. However, in order to contend with Germany on land, France had to relax the construction of the navy, so the French navy’s ships are far behind the United Kingdom and Germany. , There is no such thing as a battlecruiser in hand, so search or something is useless and can only be used for escort. Churchill has also taken some measures recently. He organized transport ships into a fleet and escorted them with old battleships. It’s just that the number of old battleships is insufficient, so some of the strongest warships in the escort formation are nothing more than cruisers.

Speaking of the British Imperial Navy’s invincible Jackpot for many years, it is still very useful. As long as you see the P-shaped flag flying on the mast of the escort warship, even if it is just a few cruisers and destroyers, the Germans also behave very cautiously. But the French Navy has no such prestige.

On August 22, 1914, two German battlecruisers and two German cruisers attacked a merchant fleet escorted by a French squadron and sank 22 merchant ships in the merchant fleet. Fifteen of them damaged an escorting French warship. According to the escaped merchant ship, when the German assault ship pair appeared, the French fleet only fought the Germans for less than fifteen minutes. Just like the wind turned in, the Germans did not chase the French fleet. It was a fight against the merchant ships that fled in all directions. If it weren’t for the fact that the German warships had only four ships and couldn’t catch up with all the merchant ships that fled, the entire formation would suffer even greater losses.

Of course, the French would not admit this statement. They claimed that the largest warship in the own escort formation was only a cruiser. In the face of the overwhelming German warship, they still fought bravely. The fleet suffered heavy losses, mainly because the enemy was too strong, not because we were incompetent.

…

Just when Churchill was still worrying about the German attacking fleet at home, a guest came to visit him.

“Anthony Lawrence?” Churchill frowned when he saw the name on the business card passed by the servant. Churchill knew that the Lawrence family was almost the spokesperson of that pesky United States guy in the UK. Churchill was very disgusted with such a guy. If it weren’t for those damn United States guys who don’t know anything except money, how could a German guy be? There are those battlecruisers that are so disgusting.

But frowning and frowning, Churchill still asked the servant to invite the visitor in. After all, the United States people behind this visitor are too important to the UK now.

“Mr. Lawrence came to the humble house, and I don’t know what’s going on.” Churchill didn’t go round with Anthony, but asked directly.

“I know from the newspapers that the Germans are attacking ships very rampantly now. And I just know that there is a technology that may be able to deal with these Germans.” Anthony also replied bluntly.