Another World: Naval Storm

After a brutal battle, Bilis was finally captured by the Drak people, and the door to the Frantic Republic was opened.

Tarrant, 10 Downing Street.

"The Drakes must be forced to leave that hard turtle shell!" Talen's Navy Minister Fisher had a gloomy face.

"It's not that easy. That's a fleet that the Drak people spent a huge amount of money to build. Now we have the upper hand in strength, they won't come out easily!"

"We have to find a way. Although this is good for us, it is not a long-term solution!" Albert said dissatisfiedly.

"Then let the Royal Navy try to attack and see if they can get out!"

Since the two countries of Taren and Germany entered a state of war, the situation faced by the Drake Empire Navy was extremely bleak. The Taren Kingdom Navy concentrated 2/3 of its forces in its home waters. The large fleet with 20 dreadnoughts as the core was stationed in the Zirasa Bay to block the northern exit of the North Sea. The Channel Fleet composed of 17 pre-dreadnoughts guarded the English Channel, which made the Drake Empire Ocean Fleet completely trapped in the North Sea pond! The Taren people hoped to lure out the main force of the Drake Empire Fleet and annihilate it, while the Drake Empire Navy planned to continuously consume the opponent's strength through small-scale battles to balance the power comparison between the two sides.

"Why aren't the Talen people here?"

"I don't know, maybe it's still far away!"

"I thought the Talen fleet wouldn't let us get close to here!"

"Don't be careless, the Tarun people may appear at any time!" The fleet sailed cautiously on the sea.

The Drake Navy torpedo boats and minesweepers, led by light cruisers, plowed through the Heligoland Bight, but were surprised to find that the expected Talen blockade fleet did not exist at all!

Since the Talens were not here, the Drakes had no choice but to take advantage of the situation and decided to extend the battle line outward. While the minelayers and submarines went to the coast of the Kingdom of Talen, the defense area of ​​the light ships was gradually expanded.

With their losses on the Western Front, the Talens desperately needed a victory. However, while the Royal Fleet waited outside the Heligoland Bight for three weeks, the Drakes remained calm and unmoved.

The Talen reconnaissance ships quickly figured out the movement trajectory of the Drake light ships. The bay was divided into two patrol lines, the inner and outer lines, with several light cruisers supporting them. The inner line was patrolled day and night by minesweepers, while the outer line was originally patrolled only during the day. The torpedo boats set out at dawn every day, returned after reaching the farthest end of the defense line at noon, and entered the port after dark.

Shortly after the war began, the Drake Navy added outer night patrols and gradually expanded its defense area. At the same time, its behavior became more aggressive, and it often advanced to the area around Shipwreck Bay in order to pursue submarines or attack Talen Kingdom fishing boats.

Since Drake's main force was unwilling to move out of the protection range of the shore artillery, the Royal Fleet was determined to charge in and attack the patrol team.

The Kingdom of Talen decided to split the 4 submarines of the 8th Submarine Division into two groups, with 3 submarines lurking on the west side of Heligoland Island as bait and 5 submarines setting up ambushes separately. The Harden Squadron, consisting of 2 light cruisers and 31 destroyers, followed the outer night patrol returning in the second half of the night and broke into the Heligoland Bay from the north.

Use submarines to surface, lure Drake's torpedo ship to the west, and then cut off its retreat and destroy it. The whole plan requires quick attack and quick retreat, minimizing the time exposed at the enemy's gate, and making sure to end the battle before Drake's reinforcements arrive.

At daybreak, the Harden Squadron headed for the scheduled assembly point northwest of Heligoland Island. The Linn was leading the 3rd Destroyer Squadron in front. Two miles behind, Captain Blunt on the scout cruiser Fearless was commanding the 2st Destroyer Squadron.

Unlike previous days, the North Sea was unusually calm that day, but the fog was gradually gathering and visibility soon dropped to 6000 yards. Following behind Harden was DiNozzo's 10st Light Cruiser Squadron, which was 1 miles away. If Harden got into trouble, these six light cruisers would come to support at a very fast speed.

Beatty led his fleet to meet with the cruiser M Squadron. The five battlecruisers, Lion, Queen Mary, Grand Princess, Invincible and New Zealand, were arranged in a single column 5 miles northwest of Harden's fleet to provide long-range cover for the operation.

Another long-range support force, Cruiser Squadron B, was still 100 miles to the west and was destined to fail to reach the battlefield in time.

"What is that?" The lookout on the patrolling Drake battleship saw the bait thrown by the Talens.

"That's a submarine! Not ours! Sound the alarm!" As the alarm sounded, the Drakes entered combat status.

"torpedo!"

The lookout of the Drake Empire's First Torpedo Squadron seemed to see a surfaced Talen submarine firing two torpedoes at them. The detachment commander, Lieutenant Colonel Wabus, immediately ordered a search formation to chase westward, while sending out an alarm via radio that an enemy submarine had appeared in the bay.

The Fifth Torpedo Squadron anchored at Heligoland Island immediately started to make a fire and prepared to set out to destroy the hateful Taren submarine. The Drak people may be afraid of the Taren’s large fleet, but not the submarines.

The first battle between the two sides' surface ships was about to take place. The German First Torpedo Squadron had been searching westward for two hours without any results when it suddenly spotted the Harden Squadron heading south through the fog on the far right.

Seeing that the situation was not good, the torpedo ship Talen turned around and fled to the southeast of Helgoland Island. Lieutenant Colonel Reese, the commander of the 3th Squadron of the 4rd Destroyer Squadron of the Kingdom of Talen, who was eager to fight, chased after it with the four ships Laurel, Maogang, Lysander and Laertes.

The distress signal reached Wilhelmshaven, and Aperven ordered the two light cruisers on duty, Stettin and Frauenlob, to meet the enemy first, and the other eight light cruisers off duty also started to light fires and prepare for battle. At this time, Aperven was the commander of the cruiser formation of the Ocean Fleet and the commander of the defense of Heligoland Bight, commanding all cruisers including battlecruisers.

In order to save time, they dispatched as many ships as possible without waiting for the formation. In the next few hours, eight light cruisers set out from their respective anchorages. According to Aperven's plan, the Mainz would cut off the retreat of the Talens from the west, and the other seven would sail to the north to assemble, eventually forming a siege from the west and north.

"The Talens are trying to pull teeth out of a tiger's mouth with just a few cruisers?"

Based on the intelligence, Apeven judged that 10 light cruisers were enough to deal with known enemies, so there was no need to use battlecruisers.

At this time, the weather in Jade Bay was very clear. Although it was unreasonable for light cruisers to dispatch sporadically, under good visibility, a lone light cruiser could be discovered and avoided early at a long distance even if it encountered a superior enemy. Unfortunately, no one reminded Apewen that there was heavy fog at this time.