Chapter 80： The Battle of Jutland (Part 1)

Just as the anti-Denmark coalition was progressing smoothly on land, the anti-Danish coalition fleet was not idle above the sea. According to the previously agreed strategy, Lübeck is temporarily conservative, and the Hamburg fleet and the East Frisian fleet will lure the Danish fleet to a decisive battle.

The specific method is that the Hamburg fleet departed from the port of Hamburg with great fanfare, and made a gesture to reinforce Lübeck. Moreover, in order to allow the Danes to accurately obtain the whereabouts of the Hamburg Fleet, the Hamburg Fleet deliberately slowly moved north against the west coast of Denmark to lure the Danish Fleet to intercept.

At the same time, the 40 warships of East Frisian Lambert will cruise over the surface of the Hamburg Fleet more than 30 kilometers away. Once it was discovered that the Hamburg Fleet and the Danish Interceptor Fleet were in contact, they immediately detoured to the side of the Danish Fleet and intercepted their retreat. Of course, the East Frisian Fleet will not immediately enter the battle, but will wait for the fleets of both sides to make a porridge. When the Danish Fleet cannot be easily evacuated, it rushes out, hits the side of the Danish Fleet, and intercepts any escaped Danish wars. ferry.

Although it is more than 20 kilometers, the telescope will not be able to see the ships in the distance. For more than 30 kilometers, it is almost impossible to see the opposite mast. But Marin thought of a way to let the Hamburg warship set up a beacon on the top of the ship building to report to the East Frisian fleet.

Even because of the curved surface of the earth, the telescope cannot see the Hamburg fleet 30 kilometers away. But as long as the beacon smoke is lit, the smoke goes straight to the sky, and in the distance, it can still be seen with a telescope.

To this end, the Hamburg parliament specially purchased a batch of wolf dung, and the fuel that is particularly smoky when it is burned, to signal. After testing, the excavation effect is good.

Moreover, no matter whether it is Hamburg or Lübeck's fleet, they have received instructions from the Marin banner. Now, Hamburg ’s fleet command is very convenient, and the herald can stand on the bow and wave a big flag. Even if the cannon sounds again, it can accurately transmit commands on the battlefield.

In fact, semaphore also needs to cooperate with the telescope to achieve the maximum effect. Because, in the case of hundreds of ships, the slogan on the first ship and the person on the last ship must be invisible to the naked eye. Without telescopes, the battleships between Hamburg and Lübeck could only rely on semaphore relays to convey naval warfare instructions. But in any case, the coalition fleet using semaphore is much better than the Danish navy who does not know the semaphore. In particular, Marin ’s fleet, each warship is equipped with a telescope, the flag is very convenient to convey.

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Information about the Hamburg fleet sailing along the Danish West Coast with great fanfare was reported to the Danish intercepting fleet. As a close associate of Navy Secretary Thomasson, the commander of the Danish Fleet who commanded 120 warships was not incompetent. At 40 years old, he is also an experienced naval commander. This time, Thomason sent him to lead the 120 Danish warships to completely destroy the Hamburg fleet. As long as the Hamburg Fleet is defeated, Lübeck alone can't afford to deal with it. And, in any case, 120 ships hit 90, it is still very advantageous.

Although it is said that whether it is the navy of Denmark or Hamburg, the strategy of "hiding soldiers from the people" is popular. It was to recruit large merchant ships and elite sailors from the merchant ships during the war to join the navy and participate in battles.

However, Denmark and Hamburg are different. Denmark controls the huge Kalmar Union, from Denmark to Norway, and even to the Faroe Islands and Iceland. In order to control these sites, Denmark has maintained the size of 50 warships for a long time, often cruises in the waters under its control, and cleans up pirates.

Hamburg, as a small force with only one main city and one auxiliary port (Cuxhaven), although there are many merchant ships, it does not retain a standing fleet. Only in wartime will large ships and elaborate sailors be drawn from the merchant ships to fight.

Therefore, in terms of combat readiness, the level of combat readiness of the Hamburg Navy is not comparable to that of the Danish Navy. More specifically, most of the Admirals in Hamburg are part-time jobs. The Danish navy has 50 warships with a total of 5,000 people working full time.

This time, the Danes encircled the Hamburg fleet, and the Danes recruited 3,000 people from the 5,000 full-time sailors to come to the war. Most of the more than 9,000 sailors in Hamburg were drawn from merchant ships. There are no more than 500 people with real sea battle experience. Even, these 500 people were still invited by the pirates from Hamburg for money ...

Therefore, whether it is from the number of warships or the quality of the sailors, Denmark has completely exploded Hamburg. However, no one has considered the fleet of East Frisian Lambert.

Because Europeans are also very conservative in this era. They value tradition, and no one pays much attention to a traditional naval weak chicken like East Frisian Lambert. What's more, the last time the Danes besieged Emden Port, they did not see a warship sent by East Frisian Lambert. Therefore, it is normal for European countries to ignore the maritime power of East Frisian Lambert. At this time, only Spain, which sold 17 large and small Clark sailboats to Marin, knew Marin was still a bit powerful ...

Although Alkinson feels that Hamburg ’s approach is a bit wrong, out of confidence in the Danish navy ’s combat power, he still decisively led a huge fleet of 120 warships to bypass the northern end of the Jutland Peninsula and follow the Jutland Peninsula The west coast went south, intercepting 90 warships in Hamburg ...

A few days later, on the day Marin took the army across the Elbe, the Danish interception fleet and the Hamburg fleet finally met 30 kilometers northwest of the port of Esbjerg on the west coast of the Jutland Peninsula ...

"Quick, light the flames!" Rolf, the commander-in-chief of the Hamburg Fleet, ordered loudly. After hearing the instructions, the flag soldiers on the side immediately climbed to the top of the ship building and began to wave the two flags in his hand to convey Rolf's order.

Subsequently, the top of the shipbuilding of several large ships with high shipbuilding in the Hamburg fleet quickly lit up. Because of the addition of wolf dung and strong smoked wet wood, the smoke is very large and it goes straight to the sky ...

On the sea surface 30 kilometers west of the Hamburg fleet, Vihari, the adjutant of Kidd, commander-in-chief of the East Frisian Navy, who had been using telescopes on the roof of the flagship Hoffman 1 ship building, quickly observed the smoke, and then Shouted:

"Sir Kidd, the Hamburgers have lighted up! The Hamburgers have lighted up!"

Kid was taking a nap in the captain's room at this time. It was February, when the sea was windy and cold. Therefore, he gave the adjutant the burden of blowing and observing on the roof of the ship building. As for himself, he hid in the captain's room to avoid the wind. But after hearing Vihari's shouts, Kidd rushed out and ordered loudly:

"Banner, let all the captains come out and wait for instructions!"

At this time, most of the captain stayed in the captain's room to avoid the wind. But now the battle is about to start, and these guys are naturally going to command.

The flag spokesmen waved the flags in their hands hard, and then the adjutants of the captain responsible for the observation began to call their captain out.

Wait until the captains came out neatly, Kidd ordered again;

"Tell them that all the warships started sailing north for 1 hour, and then heading east again, outstriping the Danish fleet!"

After the commanders heard the command ~ www.novelhall.com ~ they immediately started to wave their flags and send orders ...

At this time, the Danish Fleet and the Hamburg Fleet had just met and had not really fought. Therefore, Kidd ordered the fleet to head north and then east.

Because if the 40 warships of East Friesland go early and are discovered by the Danish fleet, the other party will most likely choose to face the local 40 ships first instead of the Hamburg fleet. After all, the persimmon must be picked softly.

Although the East Frisian Fleet has a lot of artillery and advanced tactical thinking. However, those naval officers are not confident enough ... after all, there is no precedent for using artillery to defeat the traditional navy. Therefore, the Marines under Marin are not very confident. If it is discovered by the Danish navy early, causing the Danish navy to rush to the East Frisian navy first, it is easy to cause a crash due to the lack of confidence in the soldiers.

Therefore, these young soldiers who have not experienced sea battles, it is better to wait until the Danish fleet and the Hamburg fleet have become a pot of congee, then suddenly appear, attacking the Danish side.

Moreover, in order to frighten the Danes, Marin also taught Kidd to play the banner of Lubeck when entering the battlefield. This is because, according to common sense, Lübeck ’s fleet should be blocked by the Danish fleet. If the Danish fleet attacking the Hamburg fleet finds that there are 40 Lübeck warships behind it, it may be guessed: Is the fleet guarding the Øresund Strait defeated? Otherwise, why is there a Lübeck fleet behind us?

In this way, if the Danish sailors suspected that the defender ’s fleet might be defeated, they would lose confidence and the Danish navy ’s military might easily shake and collapse. By then, the East Frisian Fleet and the Hamburg Fleet will be easier to defeat the Danish Fleet ...