Another World: Naval Storm

The Drake State's Fifth Torpedo Ship Squadron was chasing in the fog. They received orders to hunt down slower submarines, so their speed was increased to 21 knots.

When they heard the rumbling of artillery fire in the distance, they realized that they should retreat. The armaments on the ship were not enough to deal with the naval artillery battle. But before they could complete the retreat, a large group of troops from the Ha squadron emerged from the fog.

A chase that lasted half an hour broke out. The Drake Empire torpedo ship was speeding towards Heligoland Island, trying to seek the protection of the 210mm coastal artillery on the island. Harden led the fleet to closely follow it.

The Talen fleet had the advantage on the scene, but the poor visibility obviously affected the gunners' performance, and they only managed to severely damage one torpedo ship.

Soon, the Ha and other fleets, which were advancing vigorously, broke through the inner patrol circle. The Drake Empire's third minesweeper squadron fled in all directions. The bridge of a minesweeper was hit, the captain was killed, and many sailors were seriously injured. Although the Drake warship used signals for help many times, the shore artillery was blinded by the thick fog and never fired a single shot.

The Harden fleet, which was in pursuit, could vaguely see the coast of Heligoland Island through the fog. At this time, Stettin and Frauenlob came to the rescue and immediately changed the tactical situation.

The destroyer Talen knew it was no match for the enemy, so it immediately stopped chasing and retreated to its own cruiser in accordance with the regulations. The cruisers of both sides started fighting as soon as they met. The shells of the Fearless fell like raindrops, and a 105mm gun of the Stettin was quickly destroyed. Since it had achieved the purpose of covering the retreat of friendly forces, the Stettin, which also did not reach full speed, did not try to fight and turned around to retreat.

On the other side, Lincian was in a tough battle with Frauenlob. Two 2-inch guns jammed, one was damaged, and the torpedo tube was scrapped. For a time, only the 4-inch gun at the bow could fight back. The situation was extremely passive. It was hit by 6 bullets, but miraculously only 15 were killed and 14 were injured. Although the firepower density was limited, Lincian's return fire efficiency was very high. It hit Frauenlob with 18 bullets in total, one of which was a 10-inch bullet that hit the bridge, killing or injuring 6 people below the captain. Frauenlob had to drag the right-leaning ship out of the battle.

The gunfire gradually died down, and Harden and his fleet could no longer see any trace of the enemy ships. He began to reorganize his fleet, and his pursuit eastward brought him very close to the Drake Empire Naval Base. During the battle, the Lin Mill had been damaged, and the engine room was flooded. The speed dropped to 20 knots, and it was unable to break away at high speed, which was very dangerous.

The Harden Squadron began to turn back west and almost immediately encountered the Drake Empire's First Torpedo Squadron that was following it. Most of the German ships used the cover of the fog to bypass the Taren fleet, but the squadron's flagship Merlin was met with a sudden hail of bullets.

Merlin saw that the situation was not good, so he turned south quickly, but was suddenly horrified to find that two Talen light cruisers appeared in front of him and blocked his way. Nottingham and Lowestoft, heading south, inadvertently formed a pincer attack with the Harden squadron! After three salvos, the light cruisers' shooting became more and more accurate.

"We can't go on like this. If we stay here any longer, we'll die!"

Merlin made a desperate move and turned back. The 1st Destroyer Squadron of Tarun was caught off guard. The high speed of both sides affected the hit rate. Miraculously, the Merlin passed through the Tarun destroyer formation without any damage.

But good luck doesn't always come. The Talen battleship on the other side was already prepared and soon paralyzed the Merlin on the water.

The destroyers circled around the injured opponent, and the 4-inch guns fired at a distance of 600 yards, turning the Merlin into a dice, with flames and explosions occurring from time to time.

The Merlin was unable to resist and sank. Her fate was sealed. The seriously injured captain ordered the ship to sink with explosives. The Talen warship also stopped firing and lowered a small boat to salvage the survivors.

The Merlin then sank with an explosion, and rescue work slowly began on the sea. Some of the uninjured captives were taken away by the Talens, while the other Drakes were released, as the medical treatment on board would kill them.

Talen was almost hit by friendly fire due to communication problems. DiNozzo sent two light cruisers and led the remaining four ships south to support Harden's westward sweep.

The Les formation, which was completely unaware of the reinforcements, saw two light cruisers approaching from afar and immediately thought they were enemy ships. He only had two destroyers on hand, so he could only leave first and send a radio message to the original support force flagship Invincible for help. Of course, he didn't know that Liam on the Lion was now commanding a larger battlecruiser fleet. At this time, Liam was a vice admiral of the navy, and was promoted faster than Leo! Now the two good friends are fighting for their respective countries. They will not show mercy, but the friendship between the two sides will last forever.

DiNozzo also received the message and was overjoyed that he could finally achieve victory. He did not realize that Rice was actually talking about Nottingham and Lowestoft, so he turned the ship around and went to rescue.

When DiNozzo arrived, Les became even more frightened. He found that four light cruisers appeared from another direction. The enemy surrounded him. He turned around and fled to the battlecruiser, trying to lead the so-called enemy ships to the battlecruiser's guns, and his tone of asking for help became more urgent.

This new telegram for help was intercepted by DiNozzo again. Knowing that the enemy was in a serious situation, the four light cruisers chased more vigorously. Harden, who didn't know what was going on, also came to make trouble. He heard that Rice was in a difficult situation, and sent a telegram to DiNozzo to quickly resist the pursuit of the enemy ships.

The chaos continued until Rice recognized the Southampton, but before that, the Talen submarine almost caused an accidental attack.

The Talon submarine fired two torpedoes at Southampton at a distance of 500 yards. Southampton made a sharp turn to avoid it and then rushed forward at high speed to try to hit it. It only managed to avoid it by making an emergency dive. Afterwards, the crews of both sides rolled up on each other at the naval base. The amount of shells contained was astonishing!

After clarifying their identities, DiNozzo and Rice sailed west together. DiNozzo tried to recall the advance Nottingham and Lowestoft, but neither ship received the telegram and so was not involved in the rest of the battle that day.

In order to help Les, Harden took the risk of turning east again. This decision required considerable risk, not to mention that the Linxian was already injured, and the destroyer formation was scattered everywhere due to high-speed maneuvers. At this time, the reinforcement ships of the Drake Empire must be coming quickly.

Harden was almost about to catch up with the Stettin. After a short pursuit, the eight destroyers of the 1st Destroyer Squadron that had been separated by the Stettin also reappeared and returned to the fleet.

The attack of the Talens brought chaos, and now the Drake Empire's counterattack was about to begin. The Drake light cruisers were originally dispatched in a scattered manner. In order to save time, the Drakes did not deliberately gather their forces along the way, so they arrived and engaged in battle separately, lacking the necessary communication and coordination between each other.