Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 528 Atlantic Naval Battle

In the three years leading up to the outbreak of World War II, although naval battles broke out between the Central Powers and the Allied Powers, they were limited to relatively small-scale naval engagements.

The main fleets of both sides did not deploy on a large scale, partly because the navies of the Allied and Central Powers were not significantly different, and partly because the outcome of the naval battle would have little impact on the land battle.

After all, Britain and Spain were not involved in the early stages of the war, and the main battlefields of the three major powers, France, Germany and Russia, were on land, so the outcome of the naval battles was not particularly important.

With the entry of Britain and Spain into the World War, the participation of these two naval powers further enhanced the naval strength of the Allied and Central Powers.

The problem is that the naval forces of Britain and Spain are roughly equal. Although Britain has a larger total naval tonnage, Spain's achievements in dreadnoughts far surpass those of Britain.

Only a few years had passed since the outbreak of the Anglo-Spanish War. If the Spanish navy was able to defeat the British navy in the war, it was not impossible for the same scenario to be repeated now.

This is why, even though the combined size of the British and German navies was already quite large, Britain still disagreed with Germany's plan for a large-scale naval war.

Of course, this does not mean that Britain was completely afraid of Spain in naval warfare. The British government planned to launch a counter-offensive against Spain after continuously building dreadnoughts and ensuring that the British Navy had absolute superiority.

In order to gain an advantage in dreadnoughts, Britain increased its investment in the navy before entering the World War.

After joining the World War, Britain doubled its investment in the navy, building several dreadnoughts and a large number of other types of auxiliary warships every year.

Through tireless efforts, by 1915, the total tonnage of the British Navy had exceeded 212 million tons, including 34 dreadnoughts and 86 submarines. In terms of both total tonnage and the number of dreadnoughts, the British Navy could be considered the world's number one.

Spain, a major threat to Britain, has a navy with a total tonnage of only around 117 million tons. Although Spain has 26 dreadnoughts and 91 submarines, it lags behind Britain in both total tonnage and the number of dreadnoughts.

That's not all. Germany, a British ally, also boasts a naval tonnage of 112 million tons. With 17 dreadnoughts and 37 submarines, Germany is the world's third-largest naval power after Britain and Spain.

Spain's allies, France, Russia, and Italy, combined only had a comparable number of dreadnoughts to Germany, with a slight lead in submarines.

While the British navy was deployed across its colonies worldwide, so were the navies of France and Russia. Although Russia did not have colonies all over the world, its navy was divided into three parts: the Baltic Fleet, the Black Sea Fleet, and the Far Eastern Fleet.

Like Spain, the French fleet was divided into the Atlantic Fleet and the Mediterranean Fleet on its home soil, as well as the African Colony Fleet and the Asian Colony Fleet.

In terms of the tonnage of the fleet that can be mobilized from the mainland and the number of dreadnoughts, the Allies are clearly ahead of the Entente Powers so far.

With its navy already in a superior position, the British government naturally had the confidence to fight a naval battle with the Allied Powers.

Now that the Allied powers are finding it increasingly difficult to achieve significant results in land warfare, it is time to turn their attention to naval warfare and seek more opportunities and breakthroughs.

If the Central Powers could defeat the Allied Navy, they could not only reclaim the Mediterranean Sea, which was controlled by the Allies, but also blockade the Allied Atlantic coast.

Britain could also avenge its defeat and even find an opportunity to retake Gibraltar. This was certainly a golden opportunity that Britain could not afford to miss, after all, the defeat in the Anglo-Spanish War and the loss of Gibraltar had directly led to the British Prime Minister's forced resignation.

Although both Britain and Germany hoped to gain some advantage at sea, both governments also understood that if a large-scale naval war broke out, it was hard to say who would win or lose.

Naval warfare is inherently a matter of luck; even the disadvantaged side can win through sheer luck.

Having already suffered the consequences of a naval defeat, Britain naturally hoped to achieve victory in the naval battles of this world war.

How can we avoid defeat in naval warfare? The best approach is to avoid large-scale naval battles altogether and gradually erode the Allied navies.

This is actually quite easy to handle. Ignoring Russia's fleet holed up in the Baltic Sea, the Allied forces actually had fewer fleets available than the Central Powers.

The French Mediterranean Fleet has indeed joined forces with the Spanish fleet, and even with the Italian fleet, forming a three-nation joint fleet that controls the situation in the Mediterranean.

However, France also had a fleet in the Atlantic, which included several dreadnoughts, making it a prime target for both Britain and Germany.

Defeating the French Atlantic Fleet would not only give us a good start in the naval battle, but also effectively reduce the number of dreadnoughts available to the Allied powers.

More importantly, once the French Atlantic Fleet is defeated, the entire French Atlantic coast will be left defenseless.

If France did not want the British Navy to land on its coast, it would have to divert part of its fleet back to the Atlantic coast.

This would weaken the Allied naval power in the Mediterranean. Meanwhile, the French fleet supporting the Atlantic could become a secondary target for the Allied fleet.

In summary, the strategy was to slowly erode the Allied navies. As long as France cared about its Atlantic coast, it was impossible for it not to send its navy to defend those coastlines.

As long as the French navy remained along the Atlantic coast, this presented the Central Powers with an opportunity to gradually erode the Allied navies. If the French navy were gradually eroded, the remaining Spanish and Italian fleets, even if united, would pose little threat to the powerful Anglo-German fleet.

The French Atlantic Fleet was actually easy to deal with; it didn't even require a combined British and German fleet. Sending a squadron would have sufficed.

The real question was how to lure the French Atlantic Fleet out of the water. After all, if there was no chance of victory, they could have simply stayed in port and used the shore batteries for defense.

In order to lure the enemy out, the British Navy devised a rather meticulous plan. Although there were no large-scale naval battles between the Central Powers and the Allied Powers during these nearly three years, neither side's navy remained completely inactive.

Once they encounter small enemy fleets, or unprotected transport fleets, the navies of the Allied and Central Powers will be deployed to destroy them.

Submarines are usually the ones that do this kind of work, but sometimes a large fleet will be deployed if the enemy has main warships.

To lure the French Atlantic Fleet into attack, a fleet of a certain size, but not large enough to pose a significant threat to it, would have to be dispatched.

The fleet to be dispatched must have capital warships, but the number of dreadnoughts should not be too large, so as not to arouse the vigilance of the French fleet.

To allay French concerns, the British gave the fleet a more elaborate disguise. A convoy consisting of two dreadnoughts, six cruisers, and four submarines protected a large transport fleet with four transport ships carrying supplies.

If it were just the transport fleet, the French would certainly have had concerns. But with two dreadnoughts protecting it, it seemed perfectly normal and reasonable at first glance.

Indeed, when the French Navy discovered that a British fleet was escorting a transport fleet toward the English Channel, the French Navy decided to destroy the fleet, thwarting the British efforts.

Although some high-ranking French naval officers believed it might be a trap set by the British, there had been several previous instances of British and French attacks on each other's transport fleets, and there were no traps or ambushes.

In addition, the Allied fleet had already left the Mediterranean and planned to conduct a joint exercise along the Atlantic coast of France and Spain.

Under such circumstances, even if the fleet discovered was a trap set by the British, it would not have a significant impact on the French Navy.

On March 17, 1915, a large-scale naval battle unfolded in a way that neither the Allied nor the Central Powers had anticipated. Confident in its strength, the French Atlantic Fleet chose to launch its attack and simultaneously contacted the Allied Combined Fleet, which was located off the southern coast of Spain, hoping that the Allied Fleet would sail north to support the French Atlantic Fleet.

Although it was a joint fleet composed of France, Spain and Italy, the commander-in-chief of the joint fleet was Spanish Admiral Martín Hernández because Spain had an absolute advantage in the number of dreadnoughts.

Upon receiving the request from the French Atlantic Fleet, the Combined Fleet did not hesitate for long and immediately chose to accelerate its northward journey.

Whether this was a British scheme or not, there was no harm in the Combined Fleet heading north. Even if it was just an accident, it would still be able to easily defeat the two British dreadnoughts and weaken the British navy.

If this was indeed a British scheme, the Combined Fleet's northward advance was bound to catch the British off guard. Had the British and German navies not mobilized their entire forces, the Combined Fleet's surprise attack could have enabled the Allies to win the naval battle, thus establishing their dominance at sea.

This is also why Spanish Admiral Martín Hernández chose to immediately head north to support the French Atlantic Fleet.

Unless Britain and Germany can form a joint fleet and launch a large-scale operation, the combined fleet of Spain, France, and Italy is currently invincible at sea.

While the Allied fleet chose to head north, the French Atlantic Fleet, after a period of sailing, finally encountered the British escort fleet that they had discovered.

As the intelligence gathered, the British escort fleet consisted of only two dreadnoughts, and there were no other warships in the surrounding dozens of nautical miles, as if the British escort fleet was simply carrying out a normal mission.

Although nothing seemed amiss, the French Atlantic Fleet remained cautious. After spotting the British fleet, the French fleet did not immediately attack, but instead lingered behind it for dozens of nautical miles, only accelerating to pursue it after confirming there was no danger.

At that moment, on one of the British dreadnoughts in the British escort fleet, the British commander was watching the approaching French fleet with a smile on his face.

As bait, the British escort fleet was well aware of its mission. Their task was to lure the French Atlantic Fleet into attacking, and now that they had accomplished that, they only needed to hold off the French Atlantic Fleet in front of them and quietly wait for the arrival of the main British fleet.

To say that two dreadnoughts could defeat the French Atlantic Fleet is utterly impossible. However, if the goal is simply to stall them for a period of time, the speed and firepower of the dreadnoughts would make it possible.

Currently, France has only nine dreadnoughts, and the Atlantic Fleet has only four. Although this is twice the number of the British fleet, the French dreadnoughts are only early-generation products, while the two dreadnoughts in the British escort fleet are newer models that have only entered service with the navy in recent years.

Although both are dreadnoughts, the two dreadnoughts in the British convoy are actually completely different products and can be called super dreadnoughts.

Under such circumstances, the British fleet was confident that it could hold off the French Atlantic Fleet for several hours, which would be more than enough time for the British fleet, which was dozens of nautical miles away, to arrive.

Regardless of what the British thought, the French Atlantic Fleet was quite excited after seeing the British escort fleet, which consisted of only two dreadnoughts.

The commander-in-chief of the French Atlantic Fleet immediately gave the order to attack. More than a dozen submarines of the Atlantic Fleet began to dive, and the four fastest dreadnoughts also pointed their guns at the two British dreadnoughts.

Although the British escort fleet included other cruisers and submarines, the commander-in-chief of the French Atlantic Fleet knew that only dreadnoughts could determine the outcome of the naval battle.

France only needs to deal with Britain's two dreadnoughts first, and the remaining cruisers and submarines will be no problem.

Although submarines lurk on the seabed and are difficult to deal with, France also has its own submarines, so it's not like they're completely helpless against them.

Compared to the four French dreadnoughts heading straight for the enemy's dreadnoughts, the mission of the more than ten submarines of the French Atlantic Fleet was not so arduous.

Because the dreadnoughts were very fast, the mission of the dozen or so French submarines was to circle around to the rear of the British escort fleet and prevent its withdrawal, in order to completely annihilate the British escort fleet in front of them.

While preventing the British convoy from evacuating, the French submarines also needed to find an opportunity to sink four British transport ships.

Without a doubt, these transport ships were carrying military supplies bound for Britain or Germany. The French Atlantic Fleet would find it difficult to capture these four ships quickly, as the British Navy would certainly dispatch more warships to support them upon learning of the attack.

Since they could not capture these transport ships, France could not allow them to reach Britain or Germany unharmed.

The best solution would be to sink them directly, leaving all these supplies to rest in the ocean and wasting British and German funds.

On the main battlefield, after traveling a certain distance, the four French dreadnoughts stopped sailing.

Both fleets began to turn their ships around in perfect unison, the massive battleships forming a parallel battle line, their turrets slowly rotating to aim at the enemy ships.

More than ten minutes later, the two British dreadnoughts opened fire, firing the first shot in this naval battle.

The reason the British Navy fired first was quite simple. Although the French fleet outnumbered the British fleet, the British fleet, upon spotting the French fleet, completely halted its course and immediately changed its formation.

Compared to the French fleet, which still needed to sail for some time, the British fleet was well-rested and ready, having already adjusted its deployment and aimed its guns at the French warships.

While French warships were still adjusting their strategic deployments, British warships were already preparing to fire.

Although the lead was only a few minutes, in naval warfare, those few minutes meant that the British Navy could fire first.

Fortunately, it wasn't long before the French fleet retaliated. With both sides firing heavily from their naval guns, a thick layer of grayish-white smoke filled the sea, completely obscuring the traces of both warships.

Only the huge red flames that occasionally shot from the muzzles of the cannons could help the naval soldiers on both sides determine the exact location of the enemy warships.

Under such circumstances, even elite naval soldiers would find it difficult to hit the enemy's warship in a short period of time.

To hit an enemy warship with naval guns, in addition to close cooperation and extremely strong mental fortitude among the soldiers, a little bit of luck is also required.

The good news is that the French fleet has a greater chance of hitting British warships because its number of dreadnoughts is twice that of the British fleet.

After a battle that lasted several minutes, a shell struck the top armor of a British dreadnought's turret, causing a violent explosion in the ammunition magazine.

The explosions engulfed the entire battlefield, and from a distance, only a clear mushroom cloud could be seen rising from the warship before the British dreadnought broke in two.

The good news is that the headquarters of the British escort fleet is not located on this dreadnought, but on another dreadnought next to it.

The bad news was that, due to the intense naval battle, the commander of the escort fleet could only order smaller warships that were unable to participate to retrieve the soldiers who had fallen into the sea, while he himself focused on dealing with the French warships.

If a warship is only damaged, it sinks very slowly. Unfortunately, this British dreadnought was blown in two, which caused it to sink very quickly, leaving the British soldiers on board almost no time to react.

The lucky soldiers jumped into the sea further out and, if they swam fast enough, were able to escape the whirlpools created by the sinking warship.

Unlucky soldiers were quickly sucked into the whirlpool, and in that case, they were certainly never found.

(End of this chapter)