Chapter 208: Germania Rules the Waves

Chapter 208: Germania Rules the Waves

The British Royal Navy was having a hell of a time with the onset of the war. Not only had the Empire of Japan attacked their colonies in the East almost immediately after declaring their entry into the conflict, forcing the British to divert their maritime forces to deal with this new threat.

Nearly a month had passed since the Great War began, and Britain had already lost over a dozen transport ships in their attempts to cross the North Sea. Any attempt to ferry troops across the English Channel was met with critical failure.

Attacks occurred time and time again without warning, resulting in devastating losses as the British scratched their heads, trying to figure out just what the hell was sinking them. Their confusion was understandable.

Submarines of the era were essentially torpedo boats that could briefly submerge to escape pursuit. However, they were still visible on the surface of the waves when they conducted attacks. But Germany had produced a far more advanced U-Boat-and in significant numbers -in preparation for this war.

These U-Boats operated in "Wolfpacks," which were small units of up to 20 submarines each. These Wolfpacks hounded British shipping and transportation, destroying them before they could reach the shores of France.Nôv(el)B\\jnn

In doing so, Germany had silently cut off any and all material supplies and troops meant to reinforce the French Army's repeated failed attempts to break through German border fortifications.

As a result, the Royal Navy had no choice but to begin protecting their lone transport ships with armed escorts. After all, convoys had yet to fully develop as a logistics tactic, though it wouldn't really matter in the long run.

There was just one serious problem with this: the British sailors still couldn't detect the German submarines beneath the surface. Even so, with the mustering of the Grand Fleet, the Germans responded in kind with their High Seas Fleet, leading to the first major naval engagement of the war.

Admiral Franz von Hipper stood on the bow of the pride and joy of the Kaiserliche Marine- the SMS König, the first of a class of dreadnought-style battleships of the same name. The High Seas Fleet was behind him as he gazed upon the British Grand Fleet in the distance.

They were, after all, using advanced electromechanical computation devices with gyro- stabilization, allowing them to maintain a fairly high level of accuracy even while the ship was turning.

This completely and utterly shocked the British Admiral, who managed to get a single statement out before the shell he was gazing upon detonated right on the bridge where he was standing.

"My God..."

The German Navy had gone out of its way to focus their guns on the largest and most powerful British warships first. Not only did they attack with their large guns, but the seaplanes, which flew through the sky with impunity after effortlessly shooting down the British aircraft, managed to drop their torpedoes within range of their targets.

Britain, after all, had yet to invest in anti-aircraft weaponry on their warships, as the very idea of using planes as anything other than reconnaissance had completely slipped the minds of the other Great Powers of the world.

But not the Germans. No, they were fully utilizing air power and its many versatile roles in battle from the start of the war, thanks to Bruno's interference in the timeline.

Because of this, it didn't take more than an hour for the Royal Navy's Grand Fleet to sustain heavy losses, with over half of their dreadnoughts, battlecruisers, and armored cruisers sunk to the bottom of the English Channel.

The Germans did not pursue, choosing not to take such a risky venture and instead basking in their damn near flawless victory. While the Grand Fleet lost over half of its warships, the Germans sustained substantial damage on one dreadnought, which could be towed back to port and repaired.

They also lost two pre-dreadnought battleships, as well as three cruisers. Comparatively speaking, their losses were almost non-existent and limited to primarily obsolete ships

anyway.

Regardless, the German Navy would celebrate this victory, and the admirals in charge of the German High Seas Fleet would sing praises of the weapons produced by Bruno's factories, which had won an otherwise unwinnable battle with ease.