Chapter 262 Iron Pliers Operation

Add coal, add water, and lunch, all of this is done at the cruise speed. Since it has entered the cruising waters of the British Pacific Fleet, Major General Spee ordered the fleet to slow down its speed to avoid the formation of large black smoke on the sea surface and be discovered by the British Fleet in the direction of sunlight.

Due to the reverse sunlight, the fleet released the airship early, and a gray spot appeared at the sea-air junction in the West - the airship with silver painted skin was specially prepared for this combat operation.

Their purpose is to seek to annihilate the British patrol squadron near this sea area, or to attract the opponent to do his best to help. Therefore, at what time it is extremely critical to be discovered by the enemy.

"Change the flag, the first and the second guerrilla fleet set sail." Spee calmly gave the order.

At about 1:00 in the afternoon, the entire formation was divided into three groups. The first and second guerrillas were composed of ten cruisers and five in groups. After replacing the German naval flag with a flying dragon flag, they swam to the two flanks.

The command of the entire fleet was completed by radio. Messages were transmitted to the telecommunications room on the Nagoya, where commander Major General Spee planned.

After more than an hour of voyage, the second cruise fleet of the British Empire Pacific Fleet, the Western Port of Singapore was dazzling in the sun, while the vast sea ahead had a faint scent of disturbing smell.

Major General Watson, the commander of the squadron, is a friend of Major General Betty for many years, and is of the same age. This is also an important reason why he served as the commander of this cruise fleet. Years of getting along and similar situations have made him feel about Major General Betty’s recent depression, and has further affected himself.

A dozen nautical miles away from Singapore, and a 50 nautical miles away, the mission of this day was almost the same. Recently, it was a turbulent autumn. After being ordered to return safely from the battle to shell Penang, he never relaxed his vigilance for a moment. The Germans would definitely take revenge. It was not their style to suffer a silence.

In this sense, Watson was dissatisfied with the Admiralty's explanation of this mission - to anger them and use their emotions to eliminate them. A wolf that is ready to go may not be able to eat the other person when the tiger is angry. If one is not good, it may be eaten by the other person in anger.

Therefore, at the senior fleet meeting in the past two days, he once proposed whether the cruise range should be narrowed to shrink the defense line and avoid being taken advantage of by the enemy and eating up the squadron with poor strength.

However, due to the integration of new and old fleets, his suggestions did not receive most support. The group of officers from Hong Kong believed that this was a sign of weakness and could not be accepted. If the cruise range was narrowed, the German fleet would have the opportunity to gather strength in the nearshore seas. This would be a more dangerous choice for fleets and ports.

Therefore, the fleet still had to continue cruising, but it was just increasing its vigilance. This has been the case in the past two days.

Watson is a smart man and he has many ways to adapt. For example, today, he just plans to drive to a certain sea area and then make the airship work hard. As a captain, he is responsible for his crew, and he often feels that he is right.

Since his squadron did not have a higher-level commander here, and the afternoon cruise was relatively safer, the only thing was that the battleship Remilius was led by an imperial power-class battleship detained in Singapore's newly established Pacific Fleet. The remaining six ships, two were ironclad ships from the 1980s, and the other four were cruisers of similar age. For the East India Fleet, which had no challenges except for some pirates for many years, these belongings were enough.

But who knows that a Pacific Fleet will be temporarily set up? Or is it the East India Fleet as the main body and the Sino-British Joint Fleet in Hong Kong?

Without clarifying the personnel, personnel and personnel relations, they took the initiative to attack as Germans to attack Penang. On the one hand, it was a bit risky, but on the other hand, it was a helpless move. Based on the existing strength, this method is really the best solution at the moment.

Watson was opposed in his heart, but his duty was to be a soldier, and the duty of a soldier was to obey. He was now obeying orders and on his way to death.

"The distance is about fifty-seven nautical miles, please be careful with the clip! Be careful with the clip!" The iron clamp is the code name for this operation, and the telegraph soldiers are called the clip.

At 15:53 ​​on November 5, 1903, 29 nautical miles from Singapore and 57 nautical miles from the main fleet of the German Pacific Fleet, the warship birds saw their prey for the first time.

Major General Watson stopped his pace and watched the airship heading east and inform the port of safety. All he had to do was wait for the airship to return. The entire fleet was only one battleship, the battleship, Remilis, carried a light airship, and now the fate of this fleet is all tied to this airship.

"The vulture approaches and asks to retreat." The German airship requested the mothership.

In order to avoid being noticed by the other party, the airship retreated to the north. Although it was very careful, the British still captured it due to the reflection of the western sunlight.

After receiving the notice, Watson quickly judged that at least a large battleship was on the way north. These people were obviously malicious.

After reporting to the port and preparing for return, Watson felt that his heart was almost about to pop out. Could it be that the German attack that had been worried about was coming today?

Under Watson's order, the British airship tracked northward.

"It's a fleet with the dragon flag. It seems to be the five Chinese cruisers. I really envy them. Their cruisers can also carry airships." Half an hour later, Watson learned about the other party's identity.

This is a strange answer to him. If the Chinese fleet can appear here, it is almost an unexplained thing. From Manila to here, it is not a one-day voyage. What's more important is that they have no reason to appear here.

The port ordered him to find out the enemy's purpose, but in desperation, Watson decided to go and take a look in person.

At 16:43, the fleet of dragon flags fluttered in flags and sent a signal that they were not allowed to approach. Watson indicated their identity and asked them for their purpose. The other party's answer was even more strange. He actually went around a big bend and headed towards the east. He also fired a demonstrative shot with a tail cannon.

Judging from the outline of the opponent's ship, the opponent's cruiser is better than the ones of their own cruisers. The speed is also extremely fast, but the sparse black smoke from the chimney shows that the opponent obviously slowed down the ship speed so that he could keep up.

From this point of view, Watson felt a little murmur, "Tell those men, I suspect this is the German trap, I request a return, and a return!"

Five minutes later, the base replied that he could return, and Watson breathed a sigh of relief and ordered a turn to turn around.

At 17:01, Watson's fleet returned to Singapore. In Cong Telecommunications, he knew that for security reasons, his fleet had begun to raise fires and prepare to sail to welcome him to prevent the German conspiracy, which gave him much peace of mind.

Of course he didn't know that the German iron pliers had already started biting him.

The cruiser behind began to accelerate and squirted out thick black smoke unscrupulously. Judging from the distance and speed, the opponent would shorten the distance to the combat distance within half an hour. Intermittent artillery fire splashed waves in the sea. Obviously, the opponent had bad intentions. Watson had more reason to believe that this was just a German ship with Chinese flags.

With these ships, Watson sneered disdainfully and ordered to be prepared for combat. He was confident that when his reinforcements arrived, he would first achieve certain results.

"The battle begins, advance at full speed, the second squadron bites the opponent!" Major General Spee issued an attack order from a pile of contact messages.

His main fleet is driving at full speed toward the west, and it is expected to take another two hours to reach the battlefield that will begin, and the first squadron will be able to arrive at the battlefield in about 45 minutes. Ten cruisers dragged the opponent for more than an hour, and when the new force of their side arrived, it was the time to harvest the results.

Considering the time when the enemy raised fire, after packing up these seven ships, Singapore’s reinforcements should have arrived just in time. Let’s start from that moment.

At 17:34, when the German Navy's first long-lost bomb fell into the water, the battle officially started. 31 nautical miles away from Singapore, on the third line of zero point north latitude, the cruiser Blüchel, who was rushing in the front, launched the first attack. Almost as the British tail gun shells splashed a wave on the left front of its side, the Blüchel's front main gun opened fire on the British battleship Remilis, which landed at the end, and fired two torpedoes.

Because of the wake, these two torpedoes do not seek to hit the opponent. They bet that the opponent will definitely change the formation to meet the enemy. If any unlucky guy in the fleet ahead sails to the torpedo's channel.

The British army finally dispersed, two ironclad ships turned left and four cruisers turned right. While starting to fire at the German fleet that had changed formations, they covered their flagship Remilius, so that the power of the artillery fire could be fully exerted.

When dealing with the five cruisers, Major General Watson's strength was not inferior to the other party. However, he believed that since the other party had the courage to face him with five cruisers, there must be other groups of ships around him.

Therefore, he assigned two cruisers as a warning and search for enemy missions, leaving the combat mission to his main fleet - Imperial Power-class battleship 1, Old Iron Craft 2, and Old Cruiser 2.

Five to five, nothing fair or not.

The German army's strategy was very clear. He put down the Remilius and entangled the other four old ships to chase and fight hard, leveraged his own speed to avoid enemy artillery fire, and strived to get close to the melee effect, and torpedoes to attack the opponent's Remilius.

By 18:03, the two sides were completely entangled. Amid the roar of artillery fire, the British also saw that the fleet with dragon flags were full of blonde and blue-eyed Europeans, and the conspiracy was officially exposed.

The battle lasted for half an hour, and both sides were injured. The British army's aging age problem killed them. The two old iron armored ships were already slow and were entangled and beaten by opponents who were twice as fast as their own. Due to melee combat, the power of the main gun was unable to be exerted. They could only bear the opponent's killing tactics round after round with thick skin.

Of course, the German cruisers would not aim to sink these large ships as their main target. Their targets were personnel on enemy ships. Relying on the advantage of high speed, the cruiser cluster completed shooting at high speed and minimized the chance of their own being hit.

The British army suffered the most severe damage to the old cruiser Queen Bee. In the half-hour battle, it had suffered more than 20 bullets, with holes in the hull, and the crew suffered heavy casualties. As a last resort, Captain Remitt ordered to move closer to Remilis to seek help from the flagship.

At this time, the main gunner of the Blüchel seized the opportunity and fired continuously at the Queen of Bee, which was fleeing with a 280 mm caliber main gun. The two cruisers cooperated with it also seized the opportunity and fired at the Queen of Bee's escape route with all their might. Within ten minutes, the Queen of Bee was hit by four more bombs and was finally hit by the eleventh shell of the Blüchel main gun, which was already scarred by the side of the cabin. The cabin was flooded with water, lost its combat ability, and was slowly sinking.

Watson suffered a severe blow when he lost one ship first. The Remilius, where he was located, was unable to exert the power of the large-caliber main gun. The enemy's rapid maneuvering tactics made him unable to exert his advantage, making the enemy's close battleship like a Titan entangled in chains, and was uncomfortable. In the gap between the main gun's clumsy rotation and angle firing, their secondary guns were also firing at the enemy, hitting more than ten shells on the opponent, but it did not seem to have much effect on the overall situation.

Seeing that the Queen of Bee was about to sink, Watson remembered the two cruisers that were released to guard. When he was about to issue orders to the messenger, he saw the southern cruiser, the shells, black smoke, and water columns, and the battle started there.

"Damn reinforcements! They said how long will it take!" Watson roared and asked.

"It will take another hour and fifteen minutes, and they say they are already moving forward at full speed."

"Shit!" Watson slammed the command table with anger and ordered: "Order the entire fleet to move closer to me and tell them! Hold on for another hour and reinforcements will come!"

Half an hour later, the British cruiser Chicken fled back to his own fleet and joined the battle group. Watson thought he had seen all the enemy's main forces - ten cruisers, so he took back another alert cruiser Scepter.

"Tell those bitchers to pick the fruits quickly!" Watson cursed habitually and issued an order: "The entire fleet can fight on its own, mainly to save itself! Do the German affairs and let those bitchers do it."

The battle situation is becoming increasingly unfavorable for Watson. The enemy's strength has obviously exceeded several sides. If the luck is worse, the other party's shell almost hit the commander's tower. Although several old ships from the 1980s allowed them to escape and save their lives, how could they run faster than the other party's 20 knots?

The second cruiser, the Cruiser, sank, just as they saw the smoke columns on the western seas.

At 19:17, British reinforcements finally arrived.

This time it was the Germans' turn to feel cold. The Victoria, Palefon and Huali arrived earlier than expected, and they quickly informed Major General Spee of the situation.

"Escape! When the battleship is still out of range!" Spey's order was direct and decisive. It was his decisiveness that gave these ten cruisers valuable time to escape and laid the foundation for his next tactics.

The First and Second Squadron, led by Blüchel, quickly evacuated the battle, drove at full speed, and fled to the northeast. Although the range of the Victoria-class battleship could theoretically reach eight nautical miles, as the enemy's distance grew wider, no one thought it would be possible to catch these hateful Germans.

In the darkness of the sea gradually being shrouded in the darkness, the British fleet cleaned up the mess on the sea, saved life, salvaged it, and prepared to return. The cruiser serving as a guard was cruising not far away, observing the northeast direction with vigilance.

At this time, the German cruiser actually rekindled and used his superb maneuver to force him to a distance of about five nautical miles, and fired demonstrably, so as to show his presence as well as the flames.

The British fleet is facing a choice. With their strength, of course there is no need to fear the attacks of these ten cruisers, but it is unwilling to be hung like this by them.

So three British battleships set off and approached the enemy at a high speed of 21 knots, trying to attack the enemy with high range while the opponent was unprepared. At a close distance of five nautical miles, the maximum speed of the enemy cruiser's 24 knots cannot be guaranteed to escape safely from the giant muzzle of the Victoria-class battleship.

"Does the enemy have other combat powers?" Before making up his mind, Major General Betty asked Watson. The reply was no, which became an important factor in supporting Betty's decision.

Therefore, at 19:31, three British battleships left more than ten fleets of their own side and chased them in the direction of enemy cruisers. Ten minutes later, the second naval artillery battle began on the gradually darkening sea surface.

Of course, the German cruiser would not be stupid to defend directly with such a behemoth. Their choice was to use tail gun fire to symbolically fight back and retreat eastward at full speed.

At this time, the British army who survived the disaster were happily paying attention to the east where the fire was rumbling. In the night sky, only this kind of thing was the most realistic. No one noticed that the huge shadow of death was approaching, and gradually covered their gaze under the cover of the night sky.

At 19:59, Major General Spepe's iron clamp plan was finally fully realized, although it changed from the original iron clamp to the opponent's cruise fleet to the current main battleship of our own side being clamped by the enemy's left and right ships.

"Boom!", "Boom boom boom!", the sudden series of loud noises from behind scared the three British battleships who were chasing them. They thought that some of their own ships had exploded. It was not until the series of loud noises continued, and artillery fire shot towards them, and one hit the tail flank of the Huali, that they realized that the enemy's new vitality had arrived at the battlefield.

On the central line of the two British ships, which are more than ten nautical miles away, from south to north, the four battleships, Nagoya, Samoa, Carolin and Mariana, each have twelve main guns, half of which are facing east and west.

The twenty-four 305 giant cannons completely blocked the British army's sight in the originally fighting waters in the West with their own flames. Here are the British scarred battleships, the USS Remilius, two old ironclad ships, two old cruisers, and two old ironclad ships that came with the battleship regiment, and eight old cruisers.

The other twenty-four 305 cannons were greeted by the Victoria, Palefon and Huali.

Major General Betty, who was stunned by the new situation, quickly ordered a counterattack with eighteen 305 guns on the stern of three ships, and ordered the west regiment to be commanded by Major General Watson to detour to the northward waters, waiting to meet with the main regiment.

The Battle of the Sea, which he had been waiting for for a long time. The glory of the newly established Pacific Fleet will be written by himself. Major General Betty looked excitedly at the outline of the enemy fleet reflected by artillery fire. He judged that the strength of both sides was stronger than that of their own.

However, in order to pursue a battle position, the enemy put their main fleet in the center of two squadrons on their own, giving him a chance. Of course, he also knew that the situation was the same on his own, and he was in the center of two squadrons on his opponent. The current situation is forming a situation where two iron clamps clamp each other.

The old British ships have begun to fight back one after another. Because they are concerned about the main fleet behind the opponent's ships, the torpedoes have not yet obtained permission to use. The 152mm or 280mm artillery fire hit the thick armor of the German battleships without any substantial effect.

The Betty's regiment began to slowly turn the hull in the artillery fire, trying to advance to the waters north of the enemy battleship regiment and meet with its own fleet. In an attempt to use the cover of night to escape from the battlefield and return to Singapore Port not far away, where relying on shore defense artillery fire, the German army's slight strength advantage will no longer exist.

The turn before them was the German cruiser fleet led by the USS Blücher. The commander of the cruiser Colonel Helstensen also wanted to seize this opportunity and move his ships to the north of the enemy battleship, facing the opponent's side side to facilitate torpedo attacks. If it weren't for the clamps of the iron clamps that were biting each other, he wouldn't even have to move to the flank.

In the night, more than ten torpedo boats were put down by both sides. Both sides hoped to carry out low-cost attacks on the other side without the cover of the cruiser. Of course, the German army had two cruisers to protect the battleships in front of their own, but the other side did not discover it.
Chapter completed!