PDLP Chapter 136 Joy and Sorrow
Chapter 136 Joy and Sorrow
"On December 1916, 12, the Grand Fleet shamefully ambushed the returning Leo Fleet. With Vice Admiral Leo's head-on attack and Admiral Aperven's main force of the Ocean Fleet's rapid reinforcement, the Drake Navy crushed another sneak attack by the Talens. We sank three battlecruisers and two pre-dreadnoughts of the Royal Navy at the cost of sinking a battlecruiser and an armored cruiser!"
On December 12th, the Drak Empire was also filled with the sound of gongs and drums, and all the Drak people were drinking beer to celebrate the hard-earned victory.
Both sides declared themselves the winners immediately after the war, but in this era when information transmission was not very convenient, some things could not be thoroughly investigated. However, in the eyes of many national governments, it was indeed the Drakes who took advantage of the Battle of Shipwreck Bay.
In the Battle of Shipwreck Bay, both sides deployed more than fifty battleships. Given the status of both fleets at the time, if a decisive naval battle was launched, there was a high probability that the Ocean Fleet would severely damage the Grand Fleet.
It was a high probability, not a sure win! General Apeman chose to quit at the last minute and turned to rescue the Moltke instead of annihilating Talen's Vincent Fleet and then confronting the Grand Fleet.
Due to the time of departure and the speed of the warships, the Drake fleets had time differences with each other, and it was impossible for all the troops to be deployed to the battlefield at once. Multiple waves of attack were not a good option for Admiral Apewen.
The large fleet led by Jericho was very powerful, but he could not take risks with the large fleet. The survival of the large fleet was responsible for the life and death of the three islands of Talen. This pressure forced Marshal Jericho to choose to retreat to his homeland. So the two largest fleets in the world left the Shipburial Bay after a period of confrontation.
The action started off well but ended badly, which made both sides feel very frustrated, especially the Royal Navy's fighting spirit, which was visibly lost.
In the absence of intervention from the main fleet, the only ones involved in the battle were Liam's First Battlecruiser Squadron, Leo's raiding fleet, and the three battlecruisers led by Admiral Apeven. The battlecruisers were the main output of this naval battle, so this naval battle was also called the arena of the battlecruisers of both sides.
In the Battle of Shipwreck Bay, the Talens lost the new battlecruiser Queen Mary, the battlecruisers Lion and Tiger, the pre-dreadnoughts Bharadostan and Union, the Royal Princess was seriously injured, and the dreadnoughts Sovereign, Conqueror, and Thor were slightly injured.
The Drakes lost one of their most advanced battlecruisers, the Seydlitz, and one of their armored cruisers, the Broud. The battlecruisers, the Moltke and the von der Bella, were severely damaged. Judging from the results of the naval battle, the Drakes won a brilliant victory in the battle, but this naval battle failed to achieve the strategic goal of severely damaging the Grand Fleet. The task of severely damaging Liam's First Battlecruiser Squadron was accomplished well.
Unfortunately, the Ocean Fleet's efforts to break the blockade were unsatisfactory, and the Grand Fleet still had the strength to continue to blockade the Drake Empire's sea transport lines.
The impact of this naval battle was enormous. Some neutral countries began to sell small amounts of supplies to Drake and had frequent secret contacts with him, which helped to reverse some of the Allied Powers' decline.
The Yemelikas learned from the experience and advantages and disadvantages of the Battle of Shipwreck Bay and began to build new battleships and battlecruisers of their own; the Rakshasa people marveled at the strength of the navies of Taren and Drake and wanted to rebuild their navy, but they felt their pockets and found no coins, so they could only stare at the sea; the resource-poor Japanese were more interested in sneak attacks and giant ships and cannons, and they sympathized with the plight of the Taren people. That bastard Leo had attacked the Japanese capital and was still using Leo's name to scare children, which was more effective than any native Japanese ghosts.
In order to appease the people of Tarun, the Navy Department of the Tarun Kingdom did declare the two pre-dreadnought battleships, Bharatshan and Union, as slightly damaged and were being repaired in the shipyard, and then announced that they had hit mines and sunk in mid-January of the following year.
Major General Vincent, who made command mistakes in the naval battle, was sent to a secret military court and ordered to retire.
In the Battle of Shipwreck Bay, the Talen battlecruisers performed poorly. The Talen Admiralty requested the construction of new battlecruisers to deal with the threat of the Drakes, and required the fast battleships on the slipway to be launched as soon as possible to supplement the combat power of the grand fleet.
The people of Drake were jubilant, and of course the Ocean Fleet also had to celebrate, although many of the Ocean Fleet's commanders did not seem very happy.
They knew that the Ocean Fleet had missed an opportunity to defeat the Grand Fleet, and for a long time, the Grand Fleet would never be easily deployed again.
In addition, Emperor Drake's counterattack against the navy was even more fierce. The new Navy Minister Holding von Beck stepped down. Although he was the emperor's eyes and ears planted in the navy, his stupidity was hated by the emperor, and his inability to control the navy was his greatest sin.
After Admiral Aperwin had a private conversation with the emperor, he was appointed Minister of the Navy and promoted to the rank of marshal. However, the Chief of the Navy General Staff was replaced by the emperor's man, and the obedient Paulin took care of the shackled ocean fleet for the emperor.
The good news is that the warlike Vice Admiral Leon was promoted to admiral and served as the commander-in-chief of the Ocean Fleet. His existence partially frustrated the emperor's idea of tying down the Ocean Fleet. As for Vice Admiral Leo, the emperor seemed to have forgotten him. He was still the commander of the First Reconnaissance Fleet, without any reward or promotion.
Leo had no complaints about this. From the end of the naval battle to his return to Port William, he had been thinking about whether the naval battle was worth it.
In the Battle of Shipwreck Bay, a battlecruiser, an armored cruiser, and a destroyer of the Drake Empire Navy were sunk, many warships were damaged, and the casualties reached 2,100.
When the ocean fleet, which had traveled through mountains and rivers, and the endangered battlecruisers Moltke and von der Bera returned to Wilhelmshaven, the entire Drake Empire was in an uproar.
The Drakes who rushed to the scene after hearing the news stared in amazement at the badly damaged Moltke and von der Bella. They could not imagine how fiercely the Leo fleet fought against the Liam fleet.
The front of the Platinum Navy Headquarters was filled with worried families of sailors. What the Navy could give them might just be an incomplete body, which was still lucky. More people would only receive a notice of the death of their loved ones.
The cheers at the dock formed a sharp contrast with the cries in front of the Admiralty Headquarters. Flocks of white doves were flying over the city. Occasionally one flew to the head of the goddess of victory on the dome of the palace and looked at the crowded people in front of the palace.
At 2 p.m., enthusiastic Drake people gathered in front of the palace. In a few minutes, a naval medal awarding ceremony would be held in the palace, and there would be a celebration ceremony in the evening.
The warriors who returned from the Battle of Shipwreck Bay marched into the palace in an orderly manner. They washed and changed their clothes in a very short time, and accepted the inspection of the people in front of the palace in the best spirits.