Britain, London, Naval Ministry.
First Sea Lord Churchill just sent Prime Minister's residence back. The current situation is becoming increasingly unfavorable for Britain. As expected, Russia made peace with Germany, which made Germany no longer have to worry about fighting on two fronts. It is foreseeable that the Germany people will launch a large-scale attack on the Western Front soon. Whether Anglo-French Allied Forces can withstand German offensive will be directly related to whether they can persist in this war.
Under such circumstances, not only French is going crazy to arm more troops. At the same time, Britain is also thinking of ways to strengthen Expeditionary Force, trying to withstand future attacks from German military.
And British Navy has not yet recovered from the severe trauma. Although, 'Queen Elizabeth-class' Battleship has already entered service, and 'Revenge-class' Battleship will soon enter service. This allowed British Navy's strength to be restored again compared to before.
However, Churchill is not optimistic at all about the future decisive battle at sea. Because he knows very well that even if British Navy has ten more Battleship equipped with 381mm Main Gun, I am afraid that it will not be the opponent of German Navy. Therefore, he can only place his hopes on those Battleships built in the future. However, Germany obviously will not give them that much time. German Navy is frantically strangling Britain's maritime transportation line. Every British merchant ships was either sunk or captured directly. This makes Britain, which relies heavily on maritime trade, almost trapped. If the United States merchant ship hadn't been transporting various supplies to Britain, they might not have been able to hold on long ago.
As if to further intensify the attack on Britain, German submarines and Commerce Raiding Fleet launched attacks on Britain's fishing boats. This directly caused a sharp decline in the seafood products that Britain could obtain from the ocean.
The UK is a highly industrialized country, and its domestic food production is not high. Most of the food they consume comes from abroad. As an island country, seafood is also an important food on the British table. After the sea transportation lines were cut off, in order to avoid famine, the British government called on fishermen to increase fishing to ensure domestic food supply.
But it is a pity that when more and more fishing boats were sunk by Germany people, those fishermen were directly afraid to go to sea again. Even if you go out to sea, you only go around the sea. In that case, how many fish can be caught? This also makes the possibility of famine in Britain greatly increased.
Prime Minister Asquith summoned the ministers of British Cabinet to discuss countermeasures.
"No, we can't let the Germany people continue to be so rampant. Otherwise, our cutting-edge warships haven't been built yet, and Britain will have been dragged down. By then, Britain will lose everything in this war. British Empire The colonial system that has been maintained for hundreds of years will collapse." Churchill murmured.
It would be the best if we could defeat German Navy in one fell swoop and resolve the current crisis. But it is a pity that the current Royal Navy simply does not have such strength.
"The Commerce Raiding Fleet of the Germany people are very strong, especially when there are Battlecruiser equipped with 380mm Main Gun. Even if we send 'Queen Elizabeth-class' Battleship to fight, we may not be able to get a bargain. Since there is no way to deal with the Commerce Raiding Fleet of the Germany people, let's find a way to deal with their submarines. If German submarines can be solved, our threat will be much smaller!" Churchill thought.
Among the losses caused by German Navy to British merchant ships, Commerce Raiding Fleet's share is not the largest. Those seemingly inconspicuous submarines have become the main force in cutting off Britain maritime transportation lines.
Especially when German Navy takes the initiative, a large number of merchant ships and transport ships can be dispatched to provide supplies for these submarines and increase their stay in the ocean. These submarines, with their mysterious attack methods, were hard to guard against and directly caused great losses to the Britain merchant ship. A large number of Britain merchant ships were sunk by Germany submarines.
Although Commerce Raiding Fleet of German Navy is very strong, due to its quantity, it is impossible to completely block the coast of Britain. If German submarines can be solved, then the crisis of Britain can be alleviated to a certain extent.
Under such circumstances, Churchill directly issued an order to British Grand Fleet, asking them to find a way to solve German submarines.
John? Admiral Jellicoe also had a headache after receiving the order. German submarines, hiding underwater to launch an attack is not so easy to be discovered. Although, the scientists of Britain developed Sonar. However, the Sonar of this period was extremely crude and was not at all like the Sonar of later generations, which could accurately locate underwater targets.
Therefore, British Navy launched several attacks against Germany's submarine, but did not achieve much results.
Although, from the outbreak of the war to the present, Germany has also lost more than a dozen submarines. But except for a few that were sunk by British Navy, most of the others were lost due to their own faults.
The loss of these submarines resulted in the Britain's maritime transportation lines being cut off. This price is undoubtedly worth it.
When John? Admiral Jellicoe was trying to complete Churchill's order, a staff officer from British Navy proposed a combat plan. John? Admiral Jellicoe was very satisfied after reading the plan and immediately flew to London to report the combat plan to Prime Minister Churchill.
"Prime Minister, this is the battle plan we came up with. German submarines, often surfaced, threatened our merchant ships with Naval Gun, and surrendered to them. Many unarmed merchant ships were captured under such circumstances. Captured. Therefore, we can use this situation to ambush German submarines, or set a trap for German submarines, waiting for them to step in." John? Admiral Jellicoe said.
British Navy plan, prepare twenty merchant ships. On these merchant ships, small-caliber rapid-fire guns were secretly deployed, and they pretended to return to British mainland from North America, or from British mainland to North America. Once a Germany submarine surfaced and prepared to capture these Britain merchant ships, the Britain sailors put on civilian clothes and operated those small-caliber rapid-fire cannons to attack the German submarines and sink it.
There is no doubt that this is a very stupid approach. However, with no other alternative, Churchill could only adopt this tactic.