Another World: Naval Storm

The cruisers of the Royal Navy of the Kingdom of Tarun are responsible for protecting trade routes from conventional raiders and auxiliary raiders, as well as capturing enemy transport ships at sea.

The Canberra and Sydney arrived too late, and the Drakes' operation had already ended, so they had to return to continue their escort mission.

While the two Drake cruisers continued to wreak havoc in the Bharata Ocean, the Drakes who were evading pursuit quickly captured a Tarun Kingdom cargo ship in the southern Gulf of Aden, and then disappeared for several days until the morning of November 1, 1915, when they reappeared off the coast of Zanzibar Town and captured the Tarun small cruiser Pegasus, which was under repair at the time and the main gun had been dismantled. The Dedel fleet quickly destroyed the Pegasus, and then the fleet headed for the uncharted Rufji River Delta, which was then part of German East Africa and could provide limited help to Dedel.

During an ordinary mission, the Royal Navy cruiser Talen accidentally intercepted a supply ship and found some documents on the ship, through which the location of the Dedel fleet was locked.

Due to tonnage issues, most of Tarun's ships could not sail in the river, so the Kingdom of Tarun imposed a long-term blockade on the fugitive, while recruiting an expedition and sending them to fight.

"It looks like our good luck has run out here!" Dedel regretted coming here. They were trapped here and died.

Talen's small expeditionary fleet finally arrived here, including three river shallow-water heavy gunboats with shallow draft and high-trajectory howitzers.

In addition, new weapons were introduced at the beginning of the war, namely airplanes. Although they performed poorly in the fierce battle of Onebaroa, here they could lock onto targets in the jungle and then correct the gunfire of the shallow-water heavy gunboats.

The Talens' continuous bombardment dealt a heavy blow to the Dedel fleet, causing the ships to catch fire and explode, and the crew had to abandon the ship and flee.

"General, Dedel's attack fleet has been completely wiped out!" Dawson told Leo Dedel's farewell telegram.

"They have tried their best!" Leo had expected this. Taren's naval power has an advantage in the world, and the Dedel fleet has achieved very good results.

"The Karlsruhe has also sunk. Our forces in the Bharata Ocean and the Pacific Ocean are decreasing rapidly!"

In 1915, Karlsruhe was stationed in the West Borneo Islands. After quickly arming the passenger ship Crown Prince Wilhelm for independent operations, it evaded the search of the national cruisers such as Talen and disappeared.

Its theatre of operations was the busy shipping lanes off the coast of the Republic of Samba, where it captured 16 transport ships. From some of the transport ships, the Karlsruhe took most of the fuel coal, and Captain Teller then used these captured ships to organize a search line in an attempt to capture more victims.

Teller sent a ship and many captured crew members to the Canary Islands. He believed that too many prisoners would endanger the safety of the anti-commerce operation. After settling the prisoners, he continued to move north.

Unfortunately, when the cruiser was about 300 miles offshore of Barbados, the front end was destroyed by an inexplicable explosion. Captain Teller was killed, and the survivors were rescued by a passing pro-German merchant ship and finally arrived safely in the Drake Empire.

After investigation, it was found that this was most likely a mine laid by the Tarun people. During the same period, the Tarun people's mines sank many ships of both sides. However, the Tarun people did not admit it and believed that this was all slander by the Drak people.

"How are our losses in the battle of breaking the enemy's border?"

"Since the war began, the Imperial Navy has lost six light cruisers and two armored cruisers were severely damaged!" Dawson recounted the numbers.

"The Tarun people suffered much more losses than us!" Leo was not happy about this. According to intelligence, the total number of ships in the Tarun Kingdom was 8587 steamships and 653 sailboats, with a total tonnage of about 1925 million tons, accounting for nearly 40% of the world's total merchant ships. In terms of logistics, the Tarun Kingdom has more than 100 shipyards, and the Drak people are at a disadvantage in terms of consumption.

Comparing the size of the Talen Royal Fleet and the Drake Empire Navy, it is very cost-effective for the Drake Empire Navy to sacrifice modern ships and well-trained crews as an important force for some merchant ships. Submarines and armed merchant ships are more suitable than light cruisers.

Learning from experience, the Drakes began to equip smaller ships with stronger firepower. The Chicken Thief, which set sail at the end of 1915, was equipped with four 4mm guns and two torpedo tubes. Hundreds of mines were piled where the sails were previously reefed. The Chicken Thief used the Sverrier flag as a camouflage to lay mines in the Pentland Firth and the Charente coast. The mines laid in the Pentland Firth yielded unexpected results.

The sinking of the dreadnought King Edward VII of the Royal Navy of Tarenta shocked the Tarenta people! It also acquired some ships near the Canary Islands and then headed for the Samba Sea.

As usual, there were plenty of prey there, but it was injured by the Taren people's escort armed merchant ship, so it had to give up its cruise and return to Kaili Naval Port to rest for several months.

In early 1916, the Drake Empire's Wolverine set sail, disguised as a Noah transport ship, but was intercepted by the auxiliary cruisers Alcantara and Andes of the Talen Royal Navy's Northern Patrol.

As the Alcantara approached the Wolverine and prepared to send a boarding party to inspect the ship, the Wolverine suddenly fired artillery and torpedoes.

The Alcántara continued to engage the enemy ships despite being fatally damaged until the Andes arrived to assist. Then another light cruiser, the Swift, arrived, and the Wolverine was defeated and fortunately escaped from the battlefield.

"Now let's use the battle cruisers to teach the Tarun people a lesson. We can also bully the weak with our strength!" By February 1916, under the unlimited attacks of the Drake submarines, the Tarun Kingdom could only adopt the escort system.

The speed at which merchant ships of the Taren and other Allied countries were sunk had exceeded the speed at which they were built. If the loss of merchant ships continued, the Taren Kingdom would soon suffer from famine and would even have to succumb to the Drak people. After all, hungry people would do anything. In fact, the Taren Kingdom had already implemented a strict food rationing system, and even the troops fighting on the western front of the continent were reminded not to waste food. The Taren Kingdom was a country that relied heavily on maritime transportation, and the global shipping routes were its lifeline. If one of them was cut off, it would be painful for the Taren people.

Now Leo's fleet is not planning to engage in small-scale fighting. He is preparing to attack a large-scale fleet. Although the Talen people have equipped this fleet with an escort force, it is nothing in Leo's eyes.