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Page 248
At 8:23 AM, US Navy carrier strike group aircraft entered the battlefield and, after successfully destroying all Britannian missile relay aircraft present, launched an air strike against the Britannian support fleet. Simultaneously, US and British army air forces from Western Europe launched the first attacks on the ports of Wismar and Rostock.
At 8:25 a.m., the Burkina Faso support fleet's mobile formation was completely disrupted by the attack formation of carrier-based aircraft. It was then overtaken by a large column of US destroyers and suffered the first round of shelling from the latter. It had no choice but to abandon its escape and hastily engage in battle. The US destroyers then formed a loose formation to suppress it at close range.
With almost all air support tied down, and facing an overwhelming disadvantage of 3 battleships, 5 cruisers, 13 destroyers, and over 300 American carrier-based aircraft, the Burkina Faso support fleet had absolutely no chance of fighting back. After managing to land some hits on the American destroyers, eight of the guided-missile destroyers were immediately struck by a barrage of shells, torpedoes, and rockets, caught fire, and subsequently sank. Only two heavily damaged destroyers managed to evacuate west of Rügen Island.
In the next 10 minutes, the Britannian military still failed to organize any naval and air force of sufficient size to intercept in the waters off Visma and Rostock, resulting in the sinking and varying degrees of damage of a total of 16 transport ships in the two naval ports. At the same time, the naval port facilities that had been painstakingly rebuilt were also mostly destroyed under the bombardment and air strikes of the US Navy.
At 8:41 a.m., the main Britannian fleet arrived 17 nautical miles northwest of Rügen Island, with 22 guided-missile destroyers advancing in a double column formation. At the same time, American carrier-based aircraft returned to base, creating a gap in American air power. The Britannian side then regrouped and launched another attack on the American fleet, which became known as the "20 minutes of bloodshed."
At 8:42 a.m., two US destroyers pursuing the Burkina Faso support fleet were sunk after being hit by missiles due to their excessive distance from the main force and lack of adequate air defense cover. The Burkina Faso main fleet then began to conduct a circular maneuver and launched a missile attack on the main force of the US assault fleet.
Upon seeing this, the remaining 11 US destroyers immediately began to deploy smoke screens to cover the battleships and cruisers as they regrouped and hastily faced the missile attack from the main Britannian fleet. In this wave of attacks, the already damaged light cruiser USS Brooklyn was hit by four missiles in a concentrated attack, causing devastating damage that broke the entire foredeck. It became the second Northern Union cruiser to sink after HMS Cleopatra.
Subsequently, the US forces continued to pursue the main Britannian fleet in a scattered formation of battleship columns, cruiser columns, and three columns of destroyers. Although the US still held the advantage in naval gun firepower, the lack of coordinated attacks from naval air forces led to increasing losses.
In the next 15 minutes, four more destroyers sank under the attack of the Burkina Faso fleet, and the No. 2 main gun turret of the USS South Dakota was also hit by concentrated fire and rendered combat ineffective. At 9:02 a.m., after 40 warships from both sides were engaged in a fierce battle for 15 minutes, the second wave of carrier-based aircraft support from the US carrier battle group arrived and widened the distance between the two sides.
Out of restraint, as it was not a do-or-die battle, both fleets quickly and coincidentally moved away from the battlefield, and the naval battle ended just one step away from a desperate fight.
The Battle of the Southern Scandinavian Sea was the second engagement between the Britannian Expeditionary Force and European surface ships after the Battle of Rügen, and the first direct confrontation between the Britannian Imperial Navy and the North Atlantic Combined Fleet. Its scale far exceeded any battle in the Baltic Sea during the two World Wars of the 20th century.
On the Northern Front, the British and Americans lost a total of 2 cruisers and 9 destroyers, while the Swedish Navy lost 4 destroyers with a total displacement of approximately 41000 tons. In addition, the battleships South Dakota and Washington, the cruisers Honolulu, San Francisco and Liverpool, and 8 destroyers were damaged to varying degrees. They also lost about 106 aircraft and more than 3200 naval and air personnel were killed or wounded in the naval battle.
On the Imperial side, the expeditionary force lost a total of 14 missile destroyers, including 8 from the support fleet and 6 from the main fleet, all lost during engagements with the Northern Alliance assault fleet. The total displacement was approximately 70000 tons. Of the remaining 21 destroyers, 10 required repair. In addition to severe damage to port facilities and sunk transport ships, approximately 97 KMF aircraft and fighters were lost in the battle, and about 2500 officers and men were killed or wounded.
The Battle of the Southern Scandinavia was not only unprecedented in scale in the Baltic Sea, but its evaluation by later generations has also been highly controversial.
One side believes that the Northern Alliance achieved a strategic victory. In addition to losing ships with a larger displacement, the Britannian Expeditionary Force's naval power and facilities were severely damaged in this battle. Not only did it fail to completely annihilate the Swedish Navy, but it also affected the plan to land on Bornholm Island in the short term, and even in the long term, the Expeditionary Force's progress in landing in Scandinavia and invading Denmark was significantly delayed as a result.
The other side argues that the Britannian Empire was the beneficiary of the naval battle. Although it suffered a severe tactical defeat, from another perspective, the Swedish Navy became completely insignificant in the Baltic Sea after this battle, forced to choose between working temporarily for the Northern Union or relying on the struggling Soviet Red Navy.
Meanwhile, due to the destructive effects of ship-borne missiles in naval battles, both Britain and the United States completely abandoned the idea that "large ships and heavy guns are enough to block the German coast head-on." Instead, they adopted a strategy of blockading the entrances and exits to the Baltic Sea from the Danish coast and slowly eroding the Imperial Navy with carrier battle groups. This gave the Britannian Expeditionary Force, to some extent, absolute control of the sea within the Baltic Sea.
In addition, if the expeditionary force had not devoted itself to improving the new shipborne missiles, and if the US carrier-based aircraft and the strike fleet had not made coordination errors during the naval battle, resulting in the "20 minutes of bloodshed" in the later stages of the battle, the Northern Union could have completely destroyed the Britannian expeditionary fleet at a very low cost in this battle.
……
Episode 9 of the Compilation: The Great Battle of Southern Scandinavia, now concluded.
Chapter 342, Section 436: Soldiers and Home
Angelie, who was supposed to take a nap in the afternoon to rest and rejuvenate, was about to leave for the front lines in Hanover early this morning, but she just couldn't stay in bed. So she went to her superiors and asked for a small task to do.
In the imperial capital of Pendraken, each of the empire's knightly orders has its own dedicated plot of land—perhaps a hall of fame, a monument, or a small backstreet park with statues—used to record the glorious deeds of each order.
On the outskirts of the capital city lies a place resembling an underground catacombs, which belongs to the Knights of Agincourt. Beside the entrance to this pavilion-like "catacombs" are pedestals where statues will one day be erected, while the underground interior is brightly lit, containing numerous records belonging to the knightly order, or memorials to certain members.
Angelie is now entrusting a set of souvenirs to the people waiting in Berlin for her: a black female knight's uniform with a picture of Lilizia on it, and a sword engraved with her name.
However, this sword is actually a replica. If a member's family or friends request it, it is permissible to hand it over to them for safekeeping.
Before the courier arrived, Angelie had no choice but to sit down by the roadside and gently wipe Lilizia's photo.
Because of her reclusive nature, Lily rarely has close-up photos of her face except for her old ID photos, so the headband with medals on her head that is originally in this photo frame was not there.
It wasn't just the headband; when everyone found her body, the only valuable thing Lily had left was her epaulets, which hadn't been picked up by the Soviet soldiers. Now, the group members have volunteered to do a lot of post-processing on the photos, which shows how much they respect her as a deceased hero.
……
Angelina was filled with melancholy as she thought of Lilizia, who was now all alone. She didn't even notice that a little girl, about ten years old, was patting her on the shoulder.
Turning back, the girl's eyes were fixed on Lilizia's photo. Her father was also there, seemingly an Imperial settler who had settled in Berlin, with another young man.
So who was the young man accompanying his father? It was none other than Blanco, the American soldier who had come to Berlin from District 11, and whose truck caught fire halfway through the journey. He never expected to run into this uncle named Delban again today, and also get to know the local customs and culture of Britannia firsthand.
"That's right, Dad, it's this older sister!"
"Please calm down, I want to know what happened." Angelina panicked when she saw the little girl clutching the photo frame tightly.
"I apologize, my daughter was probably too excited." The father paused with a wry smile, "It's like this, at the orphanage my daughter used to go to, a female soldier donated a statue of a black dragon, which is still standing in the backyard today."
"Wait? An orphanage? A dragon statue?" Looking at her biological father, Angelie became more and more confused.
“Sally’s mother took her away shortly after she was born, and we lost contact. Later, her mother died in an accident and couldn’t reach me, so she sent Sally to an orphanage. I only found out about all of this a year ago.”
“As for the black dragon in the orphanage I mentioned, it’s more of a specimen than a statue, because it looks too much like a living creature.” The father rubbed his hands, his expression becoming somewhat uneasy. “Sally doesn’t remember much else, only that the older sister who donated the statue was a soldier, around 20 years old, with short white hair like a knight from a medieval manor, and her surname was Lu…Lu…”
“Lütjens, is it?” Angelie sighed and brought over the replica sword bearing Lilizia’s name. “It’s a pity that you can only say goodbye in this way today.”
“Oh my God…” The father’s eyes were filled with disappointment and sorrow. “Then, Lütjens, are her relatives in Berlin? I want to go and see them.”
“I’m sorry, sir.” Angelie touched the photo frame, remembering Lilizia’s traitorous father, whose remains had been reduced to ashes. “Her orphanage was this battlefield; she’ll never escape it…”
[System notification: Lilizia Lütjens' character profile has been fully unlocked.]
……
As the two groups chatted, the courier arrived to pick up the package. Just as they were about to say goodbye, Angelie saw a familiar figure flash by in the distance.
"Isn't that Ipel?" I saw her carrying a bag that was rattling inside, and she ran forward without looking back—judging by the direction and the logical distance, she was most likely running towards the Capitol Building.
As expected, Angelina quietly followed behind, watching her run to the cemetery north of the Capitol, where fallen mid- to high-ranking military officers were buried.
The Britannian flag still stands on a flagpole not far away, and Her Highness Elizabeth's words, "Let us always remember those who made outstanding contributions to this new world," have been engraved from an ordinary sign into a stone monument.
From her initial arrogance to her current composure and humility, Her Highness the Princess has transformed from someone whom everyone barely acknowledged into a leader whom all people admire, writing her own story of growth.
Ypel knelt down in front of her brother's tombstone, took out two bottles of rum and two bottles of cola from her backpack. Angelie watched from afar, intending to wait until she cried her eyes out as usual before offering comfort. But to her surprise, this time, without saying a word, she simply opened the bottles for herself and her brother on the ground with her bare hands, sat down, and started chugging them towards the sky.
"Huh?!" When Angelie went over with a curious look, she didn't expect that Ypel hadn't even noticed that she had been followed all the way.
Ypel was indeed stronger than before, but compared to the officials respectfully bowing to the heroes' tombstones not far away, her demeanor was rather down-to-earth. And looking around, her brother Eddie Hill, as a lieutenant colonel, didn't seem to have a very high rank.
That's how it is—neither high-ranking officials nor from prestigious families, Ypel and her brother are both from ordinary backgrounds, naturally different from those of Lilizia or Angeli.
……
Britannia is a martial nation, which is the foundation of its existence, so it is common for its citizens to enthusiastically join the army.
The Groen family, born to Ypel, embodied this principle even more firmly: her grandfather was a naval officer, her maternal grandmother was a quartermaster before retiring, her parents both served in the military, and her brother also resolutely took up the position of military strategist after reaching adulthood—such a family of loyal martyrs was extremely rare in the entire empire, whether nobles or commoners.
Unfortunately, the older generation passed away quite early, and apart from her brother's company, Ypel was mostly raised by her maternal grandmother from childhood.
When she was about to graduate from junior high school, her maternal grandmother passed away due to illness, and then the Britannian Empire broke with the EU and declared war. Her only contact with her parents and brother, who were unable to leave the front lines, was through letters and the money sent home.
Eddie Hill and his parents were all deployed to the Atlantic front, fighting in Western Europe and North Africa respectively, and even then, they rarely had the chance to meet. Aside from the war, a family of commoner origin, unlike nobles, had virtually no access to preferential treatment.
As time went by, when Eddie Hill finally got his wish, all that remained were two heavy coffins—he received news that his parents had both died in Algiers while he was in Lisbon, which had already been occupied by Britannia.
"How is this possible?" He wasn't skeptical of his parents' sacrifice, but he found a survivor who had served in the same unit as his parents on the front lines. The information he obtained shocked him.
According to the above, at that time, the troops under my parents were in a valley, defending against the EU army that was attacking from the plains with twice the strength. However, later statistics showed that the number of Imperial soldiers who died in battle was actually more than the number of EU soldiers who died on the battlefield.
"So, how is this possible?" At this time, Eddie Hill was still a captain, and neither his rank nor his background gave him any right to hold this foolish field commander accountable.
On the flight home to visit his family, he was trembling and cold all over, clutching his father's watch and the blood-stained family photo in his mother's pocket. He almost fainted from grief several times on the plane. When he set foot on the American soil again, he didn't know how to face his sister who was running excitedly towards him.
"You're finally back, brother! Huh? Why are you all alone?" Ypel sang as she clutched the family's favorite rum and cola, but as she approached, Eddie Hill's panicked expression, as if trying to hide, couldn't escape his sister's eyes.
"Where's Dad? And Mom? Why haven't they come back?" Knowing her brother's personality, she was already in tears upon seeing this scene.
"Tell me! Brother! What happened!... You, and Mom and Dad, promised to stay with me for the rest of my high school years! Tell me!..."
……
Just as a broken glass bottle can cut your skin, Eddie Hill never wants to think back to how he fell asleep that night.
The brother and sister, who had lost their parents, lay on a cold, barely-there place, with their parents' belongings on the table in front of them. Ypel clung tightly to Eddie Hill's arm and cried until she fainted. When she woke up, she couldn't stop the tears from streaming down her face like beads of water falling from the eaves.
He wondered how he fell asleep that day when even his older brother couldn't get in. He only remembered that before waking up the next day, whenever his younger sister cried until she was hoarse and coughing, he would feed her water and pat her back. He quietly wrote down in his heart the promises that his parents had made when they were still alive, which Yper was crying out.
His younger sister was not yet an adult, and the family had no relatives to rely on. The symbolic pension from his parents was not enough to support her living expenses for the rest of her school years, so he had no choice but to return to the army early to try to get some more military pay.
Afterwards, Eddie Hill participated in the attack on Barcelona, but it was a poor assault. His marine squadron fought and retreated, eventually escaping to a small village in the hills surrounded by trees.
The EU has thrown out the bait, and they are the fish that took it. Now, these few hundred men are trapped here, surrounded by EU troops several times their size, even though their next task is to "hold their ground and wait for the main force to retreat."
"The lieutenant colonel has already died for his country, what else can we do!" The morale of the troops was already low, and even if they surrendered, it was hard to believe that they would be able to return to their homeland alive.
“This can’t be, we can’t let one sister after another lose her parents and brothers…” Eddie Hill was also trapped, but believing there was still a glimmer of hope, he began searching around the village.
……
The next day, the EU army attacked, only to find the village deserted; the imperial soldiers had already fled to the more remote west.
It was an undeveloped forest wetland, rarely visited by anyone other than the original villagers.
Even more surprisingly, EU soldiers found the Imperial lieutenant colonel who had died alongside his KMF aircraft in the village. Underneath him was a set of blueprints—it turned out that shortly before the war, a small resort area was planned to be built here, and the plans had been completed after on-site surveys and designs.
"Oh, lovely Britannians, you're going to die here today!" The EU commander was overjoyed and immediately deployed his troops along the swamps, dense forests, and flat grasslands marked on the map, launching an attack from all directions into the depths of the forest.
This place is indeed nice, with beautiful mountains and clear waters. The only downsides are the abandoned construction machinery and building materials along the roadside, which are a bit of an eyesore. It's also a pity that none of the EU soldiers grew up here. Just think, annihilating the enemy of your country on your own doorstep is indeed a very satisfying thing.
But as they marched on, the EU commander noticed something was amiss: some of the troops that had split up to fight for their own path had inexplicably grouped together; and the two teams that had been advancing side by side and supporting each other had inexplicably encountered a fork in the road and were separated by the woods.
As a result, some combat vehicles that were originally traveling through the rocky area got stuck in the mud. The EU commander, who had a bad feeling, was about to take another look at the terrain on the design drawings when Britannian soldiers started sniping at him.
……
"Report from point F: We have successfully cut off the EU forces' retreat! Squadrons at points D and E, please cooperate to encircle and annihilate them!"
"Report from point A: The EU forces are stuck in the swamp. We have launched an attack! Please provide fire support!"
The intricate woodland maze, which the EU army initially knew like the back of their hand, turned into a hunting ground where Britannian soldiers either charged down the mountain covered in bullets or crouched in camouflaged KMFs and tanks, firing freely like orcas hunting penguins and seals in the polar ocean.
This is the sentiment of every true Britannian soldier: yearning for victory, ashamed to surrender, and at the same time, a consolation to Eddyhill's weary body and soul.
He was sleeping peacefully in the cave at this moment, while the other officers wrapped him in blankets and took on the task of commanding the soldiers in various places. Among them were two completely different design drawings, several burnt-out candles, and drawing tools such as compasses and rulers.
They didn't believe the scheme would actually succeed, and Eddie Hill never imagined that his altered map would actually rewrite the fate of hundreds of people—this place was indeed originally intended to be a resort, but that wasn't the plan of the real designer.
Even as the EU commander was killed by their guns, he never imagined that Eddie Hill had spent the entire night before they entered the village drawing up a fake map and placing it in front of the fallen lieutenant colonel's body—even the damaged KMF found next to the lieutenant colonel's body in a house was an elaborate deception.
Leaving behind hundreds of corpses, the EU soldiers fled in panic to the edge of the woods, no longer daring to attack. After a stalemate of more than a week, these exhausted but still spirited imperial soldiers were finally able to retreat to the rear to rest with the reinforcements of the main force.
……
"I don't want others to call me a hero. I just did what I was supposed to do to bring my comrades home alive." Eddie Hill naturally became the hero chosen by everyone to receive the award, but he chose to refuse the promotion to the rank of colonel.
He changed his request: to recommend his younger sister, Ypel, to enlist after completing her studies, and to serve in a "safe" unit. His real intention was to give Ypel a civilian position, essentially providing her with a quasi-high school education within the military.
This time, fate finally smiled upon the two children who had lost both parents. In addition to her academic excellence, the younger sister also demonstrated impressive KMF driving skills. Soon, when Ypel was showcasing her recoilless rifle skills at the KMF range, hitting every shot, two letters filled with good news arrived in her hands.
One letter came from the Knights of Agincourt, who wanted to recruit a pilot skilled in operating heavy firepower from among the civilian soldiers; the other came from Eddyhill's unit, where the brother, carrying the praise and recommendations of many comrades, had been successfully promoted to the rank of field officer.
Although the Knights are often on the front lines of firefighting, their members are certainly not ordinary people. If the younger sister can achieve great things in such an environment, why not?
……
"It really surprised my brother: he hoped that you could speak with real talent and hard work, but he didn't expect that you could speak with Qiangzi Cannon this time."
Angelie and Ypel chatted and laughed. Yes, the bouquets of flowers surrounding Eddie Hill's tombstone said it all—this was no longer a murky pool where one could speculate and profit based on status and lineage, nor a corner where ordinary people could fish in troubled waters.
This place belongs to insightful people like him; this is truly a stage built for the future of Britannia.
At this time, Xixi'an also came to find the two of them, bringing with her a mission assignment letter—she and Angelie were assigned to the front-line assault force, while Ypel was to be responsible for long-range fire support along with several assault guns and KMFs.
"Please tell Mom and Dad that I won't let them down." Before leaving, Ypel hugged her brother's tombstone and gently kissed Eddie Hill's name.
Chapter 343, Section 437: The Beginning of Deadly Resentment (Part 1)
Black smoke billowed from behind the woods, forcing armed helicopters passing overhead to detour—below, a convoy of burning US military trucks was ablaze.
This was an ordinary flat piece of land, surrounded by a large number of Britannian KMFs and vehicles, and Trosa and General Windsor were busy inspecting it.
Aside from the American soldiers' bodies that were removed, this was the original purpose of these trucks—the makeshift parking lot was surrounded by scattered fragments of oil drums and ammunition boxes, marked with "USArmy" and white five-pointed stars.
Any soldier who had witnessed the Soviet military tactics of a few months prior would understand that such a large supply convoy fully loaded with provisions was deployed on the front lines in this way, with only one possibility: the US military had planned an offensive to retake Lüneburg from the Hamburg direction, but this was disrupted by their preemptive strike.
The two generals looked at a map they had seized from the ground, which depicted the American offensive plan. Fortunately, the fuel and ammunition that exploded on the truck destroyed another booklet; otherwise, the entire order of the troops would have been discovered.
Although no one knows the full extent of the Yankees' strength, the sheer number of large arrows on the map suggests the Americans are serious—which only plays into the hands of the Lion and Snake flag.
"I have to say that the warriors we left in and around Hamburg seem to have played a subtle but significant role." Trosa looked at Windsor, somewhat speechless. "Plus everything that happened today, the Americans are absolutely convinced that we won't let the Danish direction go."
“Really? Then I hope my tens of thousands of captured and surrendered children can happily watch the American guards in the POW camps dejectedly pack up and run away.” Windsor looked calm, having recovered from the previous big defeat in Hamburg. “I believe that Her Highness the Princess, who is waiting in front of the portal and looking towards Area 11 with great anticipation, will sleep soundly these next few days after hearing this.”