The Rise Of Australasia

Chapter 189: Chapter 183: The War That Attracts Everyone’s Attention

For a warship, there’s nothing more awkward than a turnabout.

Even though a warship, a hulking beast weighing several thousand to tens of thousands of tons, can navigate the sea, its turning and reversing are quite cumbersome moments.

Especially during times of war, the turn of an entire fleet could potentially reverse the direction of the battle.

Looking at the layout of warships, the ship guns are typically installed on either side, and there aren’t many guns on either end of the warship, so the firepower is relatively weaker in comparison.

Therefore, during a turnabout, one must also be on guard against the resurgence of the Island Nation’s fleet. Even if the number of warships is not high, the chances of winning significantly decrease if encountered during a turnabout.

General Witteveen’s strategy was to have the first two battleships turnabout, with six cruisers by their side responsible for defense.

Once the two battleships have fully turned, they then switch to protecting the remaining cruisers.

Another advantage of this strategy is that in the face of extreme danger, some cruisers can be sacrificed to protect the decisive battleships.

A battleship is currently the most powerful warship in the world, and losing six cruisers doesn’t sting as much as losing a single battleship.

Things unfolded as General Witteveen predicted. As the fleet turned, the warships of the Island Nation began to surface one after another, forming a semblance of a semi-circle, surrounding the vanguard of the Pacific Squadron.

“Oh, shit!” General Witteveen cursed under his breath, hastily ordering the crew to prepare for battle while also sending a distress signal to the main forces and General Makarov.

Without the advantage of speed, it means that it’s hard for the fleet to escape.

So instead, it’s better to hold out until the main force of the Pacific Squadron arrives. If it were a large decisive battle between the main forces of both sides, Witteveen wouldn’t be particularly afraid.

He also knew of General Makarov’s plans during this period, which is why General Witteveen, despite also being a navy general like Makarov, would readily follow Makarov’s orders.

Just as General Witteveen was forced to counterattack, outside the Port Arthur, the main force of the Pacific Squadron led by General Makarov was also intercepted.

Upon seeing the two battleships and about ten cruisers in front of him, Makarov knew that Witteveen was in a bad spot.

The configuration of two battleships and over ten cruisers already constituted a third of the Island Nation’s fleet, especially with the cruisers, which already made up half.

If it were a large decisive battle, the Island Nation could not just deploy so few warships to obstruct the main force of the Pacific Squadron.

Therefore, their only objective would be to use these forces to delay the main force of the Pacific Squadron as much as possible and then strike at the vanguard of the Pacific Squadron.

This thought also gave General Makarov a headache. Although the main force of the Pacific Squadron possessed four battleships, two of them were the less capable Peter Pavlovskiy-class battleships.

The Oslibia Battleship, though it has decent speed and protective capabilities, similarly lacks firepower.

The main firepower of the Oslibia is merely four 254mm ship guns, which are only slightly superior to cruisers. Compared to other battleships, it’s certainly lagging behind.

Only the relatively decent Victory battleship can somewhat compete with the main ships of the Western Powers.

In contrast, the two battleships used by the Island Nation to obstruct the Pacific Squadron were advanced warships purchased from the United Kingdom in recent years.

Both of these battleships were on par with the Victory battleship and even slightly superior to the Oslibia Battleship.

For the Pacific Squadron to break through these two battleships leading more than ten cruisers would not be easy.

At least before a tough sea battle, it is impossible to repel this fleet without a fight.

With this in mind, General Makarov skillfully commanded his team into battle positions, silently praying that General Witteveen could hold out a bit longer, preferably until the main force of the Pacific Squadron arrived.

On the line from Port Arthur to the Korean Peninsula, two naval battles, powerful enough to decide the balance of war between the Russian Empire and the Island Nation, broke out.

The two battles had certain similarities – the main forces on both sides encountered a certain level of resistance from the opponent’s detachments; each side’s detachments faced a siege from the opponent’s main forces.

However, there was also good news for the Russian Empire. The Island Nation had deployed almost all of its new cruisers to obstruct the Pacific Squadron’s main force. This resulted in Witteveen facing only four battleships and six cruisers from the Island Nation.

Out of these, the biggest threat to Witteveen was the four battleships. The remaining six cruisers were either small or outdated and posed less of a threat to the battleships.

Moreover, because General Makarov did not recall the Vladivostok detachment, the Island Nation had no choice but to deploy an additional battleship and several cruisers to distract them, not allowing them to participate in the naval battle.

The battle started at around 3 PM and continued until after 6 PM before it finally ended.

This naval battle caught the attention of not only the Russian Empire and the Island nation, but also observer groups from the German Empire, the British Empire, the United States, and France.

While this battle seems merely to be a dispute between the Russian Empire and the Island Nation about the dominance of the Far East, it also involved the British Empire, the United States, and the German Empire.

The British Empire and the United States both hope that the Island Nation could defeat the Russian Empire. Even if they are not defeated, they want the Russian Empire to be greatly weakened.

This way, they could better intervene in the situation in the Far East and Asia to gain more benefits for their respective countries.

The German Empire simply wants to win the Russian Empire as an ally. At least in Europe, the Russian Empire is somewhat threatening to other powerful nations and thus a potential ally worth courting.

As for France, threatened by its rival, the German Empire, it has no choice but to support the Russian Empire to make its ally stay loyal.

Around 6 PM on April 13th, the sounds of gunfire outside Port Arthur finally ceased, and the two naval battles both concluded with definitive victories and losses.