Chapter 823 Queens of the Indian Ocean

And just when the Bavarian Army launched a limited-scale offensive, a massive encirclement and annihilation battle also kicked off in the distant Indian Ocean. The prince's intelligence was correct. The British really could not tolerate the Su Xiong fleet showing off its power in the inland seas of the British Empire! After some discussions, the British Empire decided to send their most powerful squadron into the Indian Ocean to encircle and suppress these two warships stained with blood donated by Allied officers and soldiers!

In the Port of Mumbai in India, the entire port has been almost emptied. This largest military and civilian port in India is now only used to stop a mere 10 ships! 4 fast battleships and 6 light cruisers! With the help of the guide ship, the large Queen Elizabeth-class battleships entered the port through the twists and turns of the channel. The leader was the flagship Queen Elizabeth of General Evan Thomas, followed by Warspite, Balem and Malaya. The Fifth Battleship Squadron is the pride of the British Royal Navy. In order to allow this fleet to sail south smoothly, Admiralty Minister Churchill and Sir Fisher often had a war of words with Jericho. Jericho was very dissatisfied with the deployment of this fleet to the Indian Ocean to hide and seek with German fast battleships. "The German battleships are very fast. According to the intelligence we have collected, these two battleships are most likely battlecruisers. The Queen Elizabeth-class battleship has a top speed of less than 25 knots and has no speed in ocean pursuits. Speed ​​advantage, since Sir Fisher admired battlecruisers so much and tried to use high speed and strong firepower to solve all problems, then let Betty go." In order to prevent the German High Seas Fleet from "jailbreaking". Jericho is always ready for a decisive fleet battle. At this time, he will dispatch a fleet to the distant Indian Ocean, and he still doesn’t know when he will come back. Naturally, Jericho is unwilling! Churchill was a civilian after all, and his understanding of the navy was definitely not as good as those of Fisher and Jericho who had been promoted step by step from the fleet. He once asked Fisher if he could let Betty's "Perfect Cat" goes out for a spin. As the father of the battle cruiser, Fisher naturally knows the level of the goods in his hands. These battleships were actually designed to deal with cruisers at the beginning. Logically speaking, the two battleships of Su Xiong's fleet can destroy Japanese battleships. Although Satsuma Aki and his like are pre-dreadnoughts, from a defensive point of view, they are really no worse than the Dreadnought-class battleships of the Grand Fleet, so Fisher is right These two battleships are positioned as queens with small guns. What is used to deal with cruisers cannot be used to deal with fast battleships. And the most critical thing, in Fisher's view, is that the Betty fleet is used to deal with the German battlecruiser fleet. From a base point of view, the Grand Fleet's battleship group is 4 less than a big problem, but there are only 10 battleships in total. If there are four less patrols, it will be very passive. After all, according to British intelligence, Germany has five battle patrols. Without the most powerful battle cruisers, Fisher believed that the British fleet in the North Sea would fall into "asymmetric passivity." "If we use the battlecruiser formation, then we will have no way to restrict Hipper's First Reconnaissance Detachment in the North Sea." After Fisher said this, no matter how dissatisfied Jericho was, If he is willing, Churchill can only ask the fifth fast battleship formation to attack. And when Major General Thomas brought the fleet to the Gulf of Aden, he finally understood why the Royal Navy was so anxious to kill Su Xiong as soon as possible! "This used to be one of the busiest sea areas in the world. Every day, hundreds of merchant ships of various types carrying hundreds of thousands or even millions of tons of cargo passed through here to enter the Red Sea, from India, through the Red Sea, into the Mediterranean and then to The British transportation line is not an exaggeration to call the lifeline of the British Empire, but now, my fleet has been sailing in the Gulf of Aden for nearly a day,

You can count the number of ships we encountered on one hand! Among them, there are only 3 ships belonging to the Allied Powers! "

"A British ship met us, and he hoisted a flag of greetings to us. The crew cheered for our arrival, and we responded enthusiastically. However, when they asked how long it would take us to kill those annoying German pirates, I couldn't answer. It may be a week, it may take a month, or even longer. It is not an easy task to catch two fast battleships armed to the teeth on the vast ocean. " Thomas wrote in his diary. When the British fleet arrived in Bombay, he realized how much influence these two warships had on the British Empire! After reading the relevant records provided by the Port of Bombay , he found that almost 80% of neutral transport ships were no longer transporting supplies for the Allied Powers, and ship insurance premiums had increased by more than three times! The entire shipping volume had dropped by nearly 90%! Because there were not only 2 battleships in this sea area, There are also an unknown number of camouflaged raiding ships. The damage caused by these raiding fleets is even greater than that of battleships! (Historically, it is said that in September 1914, due to the Emden raiding ship, the Indian Ocean Maritime transportation volume dropped to only 22% of the normal level (data from "The Fearless Sea") It is not that the British Navy distributed in the Indian Ocean has not made efforts. The old-fashioned pre-dreadnoughts and armored cruisers bravely shouldered the responsibility for the fleet. However, this was of no use. The British discovered that the two German fast battleships could always find these transport convoys quickly, and then used their terrifying main guns to take out the convoy fleet within half an hour. , and then arbitrarily massacred those transport ships together with the camouflaged assault ships. After throwing away 2 pre-dreadnoughts, 2 armored cruisers and several auxiliary cruisers, the only thing the British Navy in India could do was lay mines! That's right , you read that right, it was mine-laying! And it was mine-laying in its own port! Because just before the mine-laying, two battleships rushed into the vicinity of Bombay Port and bombarded them indiscriminately, but fortunately, the German shells seemed Not much, so the damage caused was limited, but even so, when Thomas came to Bombay Port, he could still see the ruins of the shipping and machinery in the distance, as well as half of the chimney exposed to the sea not far from his berth. . Looking at the shadow under the water, Thomas can tell that this is a large ship with a displacement of at least 8,000 tons and a length of more than 160 meters! "If the Mumbai Port were not big enough, I'm afraid we wouldn't be able to let your fleet come. Here it is. "Major General Cook, who was in charge of welcoming us, said bitterly." Let's talk about the current situation. We need to kill these guys as soon as possible, not only because of the crimes they committed, but also because we cannot stay in the Indian Ocean for a long time. Thomas said.The third update~~~! Please subscribe and reward~~~!