Chapter 1162: The Battle of the English Channel

  Chapter 1140 – The Battle of the English Channel

Accompanied by the whistling sound of airplanes, the English offensive and defense war that shocked the world was officially kicked off.

The first to start is naturally a fierce air war, below is the respective naval fleet, now there is no room for both sides to retreat.

The airplanes in the sky are fighting fiercely, and the warships below are also engaged in a life-and-death duel. The United Continental Fleet and the Royal Navy had already mixed together, and the great battle to decide the fate of the two camps had begun.

The Holy Roman Empire Chief of Staff, Molex, has already personally visited the front line, commanding the multinational allied forces to fight, and Crown Prince Frederick is personally serving as the commander-in-chief of the allied forces.

Just by looking at the specifications, one can tell that this is a war where only victory is allowed and no defeat is allowed.

In fact, the appointment of such personnel is also forced. The commander-in-chief of the coalition army is not anyone can serve, the ability is secondary, the key lies in the identity or prestige to be high enough to be able to coordinate the relationship between allies.

Such a person was naturally not unavailable to Shen Luo, only that after considering ”high merit”, there wasn’t much room for choice.

In theory, Franz was naturally the best candidate. With the prestige accumulated over the years, as long as Franz stood there, anyone would have to be obedient, and no one would dare to jump out and stick a thorn in their side.

Unfortunately the reality does not allow, the war time domestic need to coordinate more places, can not leave the emperor to sit down.

In this context, the position of commander-in-chief of the allied forces, very naturally fell to Frederick head.

Anyway, the most important work of the commander-in-chief of the allied forces is to coordinate the relationship between the allied forces of various countries, the specific military command of the professionals responsible for.

If one carefully studies the personnel appointments of the various battlefields of the Shen Luo, one will find that the highest military commanders in the main battlefields of the South Seas, Central America, and the Near East are all royals.

From this aspect, this war is also a sign that the Shinra royal family is strengthening its control over the military.

Did not make a mess, mainly or Franz on top of the pressure, the deeper reason is that the emperor is generous enough to buy people’s hearts and minds even the bottom of the officers and soldiers are taken care of.

Now everyone is thinking of hurrying to win the war, so as to quickly share the spoils, the right not power can not have the fiefdom incense.

The situation is so, even if an individual has other ideas, can only be held in the heart.

The allegiance of the empire was originally the emperor, the continuation of thousands of years of tradition, not a new idea a short period of time to impact the collapse. Especially in the Holy Roman Empire, where the aristocratic system is still at its peak, the impact is even smaller.

The military has no opinion, the government can not have an opinion. In the Holy Roman Empire, the separation of military and government is not a joke, politicians who dare to reach out to the army, have long been cool.

The first time he commanded a million troops in battle, even though he was only responsible for coordinating the relationship between all parties, Frederick also felt the pressure.

Unlike the last gold plating, now it’s time to do something. The armies of more than a dozen countries are gathered together, and it is difficult just to smooth out the relationships among them, not to mention the joint operations together.

If you simply calculate the combat power, this time 1+1 is no longer equal to 2, can have 1.6 are considered to be a good match.

And the more countries that participate in the coalition, the more the coalition’s combat power will be weakened. Essentially, this attack on the British Isles is a battle with a bunch of piggy teammates.

No matter how pitiful the pig teammates were, the coalition army still had to be there. Even the small country of Monaco sent a company over to make up the numbers.

In addition to the need for cannon fodder on the battlefield, it is more of a political need.

In the long run, the more countries tied up now, the greater the power to suppress the backlash in the future, the more stable the newly established international system would be after the war, and the more the hegemony of the Holy Roman Empire would naturally be consolidated.

Calais allied forces command headquarters, looking at the back and forth shuttle combat staff, listening to the ”drip drip drip” telegraph sound, the gas-supporting Frederick, also have no reason to feel a burst of annoyance.

Anxious waiting is the most simmering, it is better to be on the front line to watch the battle. Just ”the son of a thousand gold sitting not pendant hall” concept has been rooted in Frederick’s mind, can not let him arbitrary.

Time passes by, the battlefield exchanges are more and more intense, the English Channel has been shrouded in smoke, the sea water has changed color.

The sound of artillery fire overpowered the sound of the tide, deafening. From time to time, there were also airplanes falling, slapping the sea, stirring up waves.

The killing on the surface of the sea is even more ferocious. The roaring explosions tell of the glory of the cannons and giant ships, and the tumbling waves tell of the sunset’s afterglow.

This is the most glorious era of the artillery giant ships, but also the beginning of the artillery giant ships from prosperity to decline. The emergence of aircraft carriers has changed the mode of naval warfare.

The wind and waves of the Atlantic Ocean can only renew the last wave of life for the big gun giant ship. The Battle of the English Channel was destined to be the last song of the big guns.

Both sides totaled more than four hundred warships, directly set up a position for bombardment, as if two dueling knights.

No matter how tired the spirit, no matter how many injuries on the body, for the honor of the knight, both sides are fighting to the death.

In the fierce melee, both sides of the fleet have no formation. It was a child’s play to be shot at, and up to this point in the battle, it was almost impossible to find a single warship that was unharmed.

Certain unlucky destroyers, cruisers, accidentally involved in the battleship duel, the scene is a miserable. Even some unlucky god possessed warships, directly be cut into two parts.

In the midst of blood and fire, both sides killed their eyes. Everyone’s thinking came to a standstill, with only one goal in mind – to finish off the enemy.

Certain grumpy ones, after their hulls were severely damaged, even directly drove their warships to crash through, an unusually tragic scene.

Along with the passage of time, both sides of the sunken warships are constantly increasing, a true play of “a general’s success, a hundred ships sunk”.

It was an evenly matched battle. Although the Royal Navy had the highest quality and more warships, it had fewer dreadnoughts than the Allied Forces.

In the age of big guns and huge ships, whoever had the bigger ships and the sharper guns would have the advantage.

In order to entangle the extra dreadnoughts in the Shen Luo Navy, the Royal Navy could only use three or five ordinary battleships and risk being sunk.

With skillful tactical coordination, both sides also fought. The continental coalition’s advantage in the number of dreadnoughts did not really come into play.

There was no way to drag the navies of various countries into the battlefield together, the number of warships went up, but the tactical coordination was unsustainable.

It seems to be a joint effort, but in reality, everyone is still fighting on their own. The cooperation of the fleet of their own country was fine, but once they joined forces with their allies, it turned out to be very poor.

Simply from the situation on the surface of the sea, the overall situation is equal, no one can see which side will become the final winner of the sea battle.

Compared to the searing battle on the sea, the air battle is much clearer. The number of downed fighters in a single cluster shows that everyone knows who has the upper hand.

The gap is always a gap, not by a few slogans, a few words, can make up for it.

However, compared to the previous air battle in London, the current British Air Force is obviously much more mature. The battle had just erupted when it swarmed, nearly pushing back against the Shen Luo Air Force by virtue of a sudden outbreak of numerical superiority.

Unfortunately, it still fell short by a hair, and with the arrival of subsequent fighters, this advantage was quickly reversed.

The initial head start gained was quickly eroded. The battle carried on to the very end, and could only be held back by a desperate rush of blood.

Dumplings rained down on the sea, filled with airplanes and warships, among them a variety of subdivided flavors that whetted the ocean’s appetite.

The weather gradually darkened, the battlefield has been difficult to clearly lock the target, both sides had to sound the retreat.

The sea was a mess at the moment, and the darkness had saved both warring sides. Only what tomorrow would bring, no one could say.

After the ceasefire, each side sent out search and rescue boats with searchlights to rescue the fallen officers and soldiers. No distinction was made between the enemy and us, as long as they were alive, they were fished out.

At the moment, no one has the heart to fight, and even if they encounter one, they will pretend not to see it, and then walk away from each other.

Of course, the most important thing is that the search and rescue ship is not armed, you can not go up to the collision, right?

At midnight, Crown Prince Frederick, who was still waiting in the command center, finally got the daytime battle report.

The sea battle was not lost, for the Continental Union, this is definitely an uplifting news. That’s right, everyone’s demands were that high.

For the Continental Union, it doesn’t matter if the sea battle is won or not, as long as it can remain undefeated, or not lose too much, that is a strategic victory.

Just after reading the battle report, Frederick couldn’t be happy.

Both losses would have been good news, the industrial strength of the Continental Union is stronger, warships replenishment speed faster, fight consumption absolutely no problem.

But an ally had been massacred, and there was more than one.

In the daytime battle, Montenegro, Sardinia, the two Sicilies, Belgium, four countries naval forces were completely wiped out; the Greek Navy was left with only one destroyer, and the Scandinavian Federal Navy also suffered more than half of the casualties.

The navies of the aforementioned countries did not have many ships in the first place. Even if they were all wiped out together, the military impact was not great, but the political impact was much greater.

As the commander-in-chief of the allied forces, Frederick now needs to give the victims a reasonable explanation.

The heavy losses of Greece and the Nordic Confederation is just, the battlefield shells without eyes, to blame only their own bad luck. The big deal is that when the spoils of war are divided, a few more warships will be given to compensate for it.

But for the regimental destruction of several countries, can not be so perfunctory. In the absence of defeat in the case of total annihilation, do not let the allies think more difficult.

Want everyone to accept the reality, at least to prove that the daytime battle did not use them as cannon fodder, the total destruction is also a normal loss of battle.

Unfortunately for this stuff, there was no way to explain it. Even if there were survivors and other navies from other countries that could prove it, the victims would selectively ignore it.

Politics is many times similar to children, most of the time it’s the child that cries that has milk to eat, and the good child that doesn’t cry and doesn’t make a fuss is often the one that is ignored.

Now with such a great opportunity, if you don’t sell out and ask for compensation, it would simply be a shame for the sacrifices the Navy has made.

If nothing else, this is just the beginning. In the next battle, there are more and more similar troubles.

Such as the Monaco that sent a company of troops and the Montenegro that sent a battalion of troops, when it came to the battlefield, they were all masters that could be annihilated in a matter of minutes.

In fact, the land battle is not bad, the big deal is to put them in the back as logistics soldiers, or sent to maintain order in the occupied areas.

In the past years, the Vienna government is also many times group brush copies, have not appeared in the mass destruction, response experience is also rich.

This time the situation is different, the land forces can be put back, warships can not be snowed in not on the battlefield.

One more ship in a sea battle is one more hope for victory. Even if it was just a thousand-ton destroyer, it could be the last straw that broke the camel’s back.

If the navy continued to hold a tie, the air force gradually gained the upper hand, and the landing operation was in full swing, the enemy would surely attack the troop carriers.

Small countries send a limited number of troops, and one ship can pack it in. If you were unlucky and happened to catch an enemy attack, there was a good chance that you would go straight down to the sea and feed the fish.

This is something that can not be helped, to maintain an alliance at least explicitly to a bowl of water, the care of small countries also has a limit.

No matter how many troops you send, in the end, you have to go to the battlefield. Otherwise, not only would the other allies have a problem with it, even their own soldiers and officers would have a problem with it.

Duty calls for it, no matter how troublesome it is, it must be done. In addition to these issues, the logistical supply of each country’s troops, cooperation in times of war, fire support provided at critical moments, and so on, all needed to be coordinated.

The commander-in-chief of the coalition forces is, in fact, a comprehensive post with a handful of political, military, and diplomatic responsibilities.

Because of the special nature of the war, the commander-in-chief of the coalition forces is even given the right to make decisions on the spot.

A high-powered position is never a good job. This is only the beginning of the trouble, far from the peak.

Closing the battle report, Frederick’s brows wrinkled tighter, slightly hesitant, he asked, “Your Excellency, Chief of Staff, during the daytime battle, our army suffered such heavy losses, what about the results achieved?”

The loss is really big, according to incomplete statistics, in the daytime battle, the sunken warships alone are 37, which also includes three conventional battleships, almost all of the warships have been damaged in different degrees.

Fortunately, the super battleships have thick skins, and the worst of them are only half-sunk, not directly sunk, and can still be salvaged.

Shot down by the enemy 318 fighters, wounded thousands of fighters, nearly all the planes involved in the war need to be overhauled, air force losses for the most since the beginning of the war.

As for the specific loss of personnel, the countries involved are too numerous to summarize in a moment. The preliminary estimate of the number of casualties will not be less than 10,000 and the number of wounded will not be less than 15,000.

Moorcakes waved his hand and said: ”There is no statistics yet, and it is certainly not small. Analyzing the situation on the battlefield, it is certain that the number of enemy fighters that have crashed and warships that have sunk is much higher.

However, this cannot be generalized. The air force we have the advantage and should have taken advantage of it.

The navy is impossible to say, after all, we have a greater number of new battleships, the enemy with the old warships entanglement, the number of sunken warships more is also normal.

Comprehensive calculation of damaged and repaired warships, the short-term existing naval combat power, who is more dominant is still an unknown.”

(End of chapter)