Chapter 578 Huge Fleet

Before entering the era of dreadnoughts, Britain built a large number of pre-dreadnoughts. Although the German Navy has already begun to catch up with the British Navy in terms of capital ships. However, in terms of the number of former dreadnoughts, the British Navy still has about twice the advantage. It can be seen how many pre-dreadnought ships the UK has built in total.

After the battleship "Dreadnought" of the British Navy entered service, it immediately put the former dreadnoughts under construction or already built in various countries, and it became obsolete in an instant. Equally obsolete are the Royal Navy's own pre-dreadnoughts. It's just that the Royal Navy is rich and powerful and doesn't care. They believe that as long as they always occupy the leading trend of naval development, the British Navy can always be the number one in the world.

However, the subsequent development of the facts made the British face swollen. In the era of dreadnoughts, the German Navy successfully achieved corner overtaking, surpassing the Royal Navy in one fell swoop. And in one naval battle after another, the British Navy was knocked down from the altar. Under such circumstances, the situation of the British Navy is undoubtedly very bad. If they are still unable to defeat the German navy, then it seems inevitable that Britain will lose this war.

Portsmouth Naval Port was originally one of the most important naval ports of the British Navy. However, after the military port at Scapa Flow was put into use, in order to prevent the German navy from entering the Atlantic Ocean, the Royal Navy deployed almost all its capital ships there. What remained in Portsmouth Naval Port were nothing but old and weak warships. Among them, there are a large number of pre-dreadnought ships.

"General, an order from His Excellency the Minister of the Navy!" A communications officer hurriedly rushed into the office of the commander of the Royal Navy's Portsmouth base.

Lieutenant General Caveson, the commander, took the telegram disapprovingly. He thought that there would be no important tasks for him anyway. After all, the entire Portsmouth Naval Port is in a state of neglect.

However, when Lieutenant General Cavison read the telegram, he seemed to be a different person. As a senior general of the Royal Navy, he is undoubtedly full of fighting spirit. However, due to helplessness, there is no other way but to muddle through. Now, with a new combat mission issued, it naturally gave him a lot of confidence.

"Order the base, sound the alarm, and everyone return to the ship immediately!" Lieutenant General Cavison ordered.

"Yes, General." A staff officer immediately gave the order.

"Woo!"

A shrill siren sounded over the military port, and the sailors immediately put down what they were doing and rushed to their warships. Good training enabled these officers and soldiers of the Royal Navy to react immediately.

"Commanding all eight 'Edward-class' battleships, two 'Fast-class' battleships, six 'Duncan-class' battleships and five 'London-class' battleships, and 'Minotaur-class' armored cruisers, 'Warriors Class' armored cruiser, 'Devonshire-class' armored cruiser, get ready. One hour later, leave the port and prepare for battle!" Lieutenant General Cavison ordered.

"General, are we going to fight the Germans?" asked an officer. After all, this time they dispatched as many as 21 battleships and 13 armored cruisers. Although these warships are all old-fashioned warships. However, the performance is still good, accounting for about half of all warships in the Portsmouth Naval Port. With so many warships dispatched, it is obvious that something big is about to happen.

"A decisive battle with the Germans? Did you get kicked by a donkey? We are all warships. If we go to a decisive battle with the Germans, it will be death!" Lieutenant General Cavison said coldly.

If we say that ten years ago, Lieutenant General Cavison still had the confidence to lead such a powerful fleet and sweep away the navies of other countries in the world. But now? He didn't dare to say such an answer again. The fleet he led seemed huge. But these old dreadnoughts and armored cruisers are simply vulnerable to the new dreadnoughts.

Even the most cutting-edge battleships of the Royal Navy were sunk in the decisive battle with the German Navy, not to mention their old dreadnoughts and armored cruisers. sunk.

"General, what are we going to do?" Another officer asked.

After all, they dispatched 21 battleships and 13 armored cruisers this time, plus other small and medium-sized warships, there are more than 60 mighty ships. In terms of the number of fleets alone, this is undoubtedly a very large fleet. Obviously, Lieutenant General Caveson organized such a huge fleet to go for a joyride.

"His Excellency Churchill issued an order to go to Le Havre. The Germans are storming Le Havre, and those bastards of the expeditionary force are about to be unable to hold on under the heavy shelling of the Germans. So, Your Excellency Churchill I hope we will go to reinforce them immediately. This is also good, our warships are not the opponents of the German warships. However, it is not a problem to bully the German infantry with a huge main gun. I want to see , What will it look like when the Germans are torn to pieces by the shells fired by our huge naval guns!" Lieutenant General Cavison flashed a ferocious smile on his face.

It has been almost a year since this war broke out. The British Empire, which dominated the world in the past, is about to be beaten to the ground in this war. This makes many British people blame all this on the Germans. Think that all this is caused by the Germans and that the Germans are to blame. The British Empire would not have come to this state if the Germans had not started the war. This naturally caused many British people to hate the Germans.

For the soldiers of the British Empire, whether it is the army or the navy, they all hope to defeat the Germans, or cause them more casualties, and avenge their dead comrades.

This time, Lieutenant General Cavison naturally had this purpose in mind.

For them, bombarding the German army besieging Le Havre was undoubtedly a very simple and easy task. They just need to keep firing based on the coordinates provided by the British Expeditionary Force. The powerful shells of the battleship's main guns would tear all the German soldiers into pieces.

At four o'clock in the afternoon on May 7, a large fleet of the British Royal Navy left the port of Portsmouth. This fleet crossed the English Channel straight to Le Havre on the other side of the Channel.