Just as the two sides fought for the first time in the Indian Ocean, the navies of Britain and Germany also launched a years-long battle in the waters near the North Sea and Britain. Perhaps it was not as exciting as the counterattack between the main ships, but this kind of war was more hidden and had a far-reaching impact!

At the beginning of the war, a hunting brigade of more than 50 German submarines entered the waters around the UK. Many submarines even ignored the British mine array and directly chose to pass through the English Channel. What is even more unbelievable is that they succeeded! No submarine suffered from mine losses! The reason for this result was that a German submarine sailing in the English Channel accidentally entered the British mine array and encountered multiple torpedoes, but there was nothing wrong with it!

"Their mines do not seem to explode..." The captain wrote in a telegram to the headquarters. (This is a historical fact, and the torpedo problem in the US in World War II, and the torpedo problem in the first battle was very unreliable, at least before 1917. The British mines were reliable because they obtained German mines and studied them. The information came from the Sea of ​​Fearlessness.)

For this reason, the subsequent submarines chose to go through the English Channel and embark on the west coast of Britain. Unpredictable, British merchant ships suffered heavy losses first, and more than 350,000 tons of merchant ships were destroyed. This happened when German submarines had no practical experience.

The British have never encountered such a large-scale submarine warfare. There is no precedent to follow, there is no sufficient technical support, no reliable mines, no reliable deep-water bombs, and the hydrophones are also very backward, there is no escort system. In short, there is no plan and plan, and there is no sufficient technology and force. When the wolves launched a large-scale hunt in the cold sea water, the British were completely caught off guard.

War is the bloodiest and most intense method of human beings, so people always set various rules to make war less terrible and bloody. These rules can still be used at the beginning, such as submarine breaking. According to the capture bill, warnings should be issued before submarine attacks, and then the other party releases the boat to transfer personnel. This was originally a very gentleman approach, and German submarines did do this at the beginning. But soon, when the British used this rule, the situation completely changed!

Second Captain Campbell, the captain of the British submarine q-1, first invented a camouflage hunting tactic. They would disguise the submarine hunting as an ordinary merchant ship. After floating on a German submarine, they did not fire, and even made panic fake moves. For example, people ran back and forth, put down the boat to prepare for evacuation. When the submarine approached to prepare for execution, the hidden artillery of the camouflage hunting will suddenly attack the submarine that was close to the nearest! This tactic obviously stimulated the Germans! This very villainous approach will naturally incur revenge from the German submarine troops!

After successfully capturing the head of a submarine and injuring another submarine, Campbell was retaliated for his fifth hunting. After successfully attracting the attention of a German submarine, Campbell repeated the same trick. He put down the boat again and made a very hasty fake action under the German shelling. But when he opened the hidden artillery again to prepare for attack, two torpedoes suddenly appeared in the water blew up the Q-1 submarine to pieces in a few seconds!

Then, another German submarine floated to the surface and used 105mm artillery and the submarines on the task of luring the enemy to slaughter the majority of the people who fell into the water! "Go back and tell your head! This is what you broke the rules first!" After leaving behind a few people who participated in the naval battle for the first time and a lifeboat, the two German submarines left.

(Casked submarine hunting is also a historical fact. Captain Campbell in the article is indeed a man, and the battle results are brilliant. This guy sank 3 submarines. In fact, this camouflage submarine hunting tactic is not efficient. In history, only 15 submarines were sunk, while 24 submarines were sunk...)

The most basic trust between people is broken, so the remaining ones are even compared with each other! From then on, most German submarines no longer warn when attacking British national ships, and directly use shelling or torpedoes to send them into the water. The British began to kill submarine personnel in revenge. As a result, the battle between breaking the diplomatic ties and counter-breaking diplomatic ties became even more bloody and cruel!

However, the difference is that this time, the Americans did not stand on the side of the British. Although the trade between Britain and the United States continued, the US government refused to use its own ships to transport materials to the Allies, at least prohibiting entry into the war zone. In this case, without the influence of the United States, the behemoth, it would be fine if the German submarine had a larger attack range.

In terms of tactics, with the help of Prince Ruprecht, German submarines established a basic cooperation mechanism, and several submarines cooperated in a certain sea area. When a submarine discovered a fleet-level target, it would notify the other two to three submarines in the exhibition area to act together. The so-called large population and strong force, three submarines equipped with 105mm or even 150mm artillery even faced the front with the destroyer! The firepower was more than that of the destroyer!

The effect of submarine combat made the entire German Navy very excited. In addition to ensuring the continued completion of the main battleship that has started construction, almost all the remaining resources were used on submarines! More submarines were started at the Brom-Foss Shipyard, Kiel Navy Shipyard, William Royal Shipyard, and Germania Shipyard! In the first month of the war, more than 15 new submarines were put into service, making up for the five submarines lost for various reasons!

Although the war had just begun and the British suffered heavy losses, it was not damaged for the British Empire, which was used for tens of millions of tons. However, as time continued, the entire Britain fell into a shortage of resources, and even the British fleet became a fleet of existence in a sense due to fuel issues! Two years after the war, the British's material reserves were not better than those of Germany.

Take oil as an example. After the end of 1914, the country's oil reserves were less than 2 weeks (less than 3 weeks in history!) Some oil storage bases only had 3 days of fuel reserves! So much so that the destroyers of the large fleet were required to have a maximum speed of not exceeding 18 knots! The speed of main ships such as battlecruisers cannot exceed 17 knots! (The lowest fuel reserve base in history is only 6 days, and the speed of destroyers is indeed limited to less than 20 knots. This is a real thing, and the information comes from the Sea of ​​Fearlessness.) Of course, this is a later story, so I won't mention it for now.
Chapter completed!