Chapter 426: Recovering Gibraltar

The entire world was shocked by the results of this naval battle. When people learned that the Spanish fleet had traveled thousands of miles to launch a surprise attack on the British Mediterranean Fleet at Malta, and had successfully sunk five British battleships while heavily damaging two more, they immediately realized that the war between Britain and Spain would not unfold as they had anticipated.

Having lost another five battleships, the British Navy was no longer as formidable, and Britain's throne as the world's premier naval power was already tottering.

Two consecutive naval battles had left the British Empire with no face left; these two battles had cost Britain a total of ten battleships, with two more unable to be deployed back into the war in the short term.

This added up to twelve battleships, a naval lineup that most countries in the world could not even dream of assembling.

One must know that before the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War, there were only five countries in the world with more than twelve battleships. Aside from the four traditional powers of Britain, France, Germany, and Russia, the only other country with more than twelve battleships was Spain.

After the end of the Russo-Japanese War, Russia was left with only eleven battleships, which caused Russia's naval strength to instantly plummet to fifth in the world.

Originally, it was thought that Russia's losses in the Russo-Japanese War were already quite disastrous, but no one expected that a country could make Britain suffer losses even more severe than Russia's.

This was twelve battleships! Any country possessing twelve battleships could instantly become one of the world's top eight naval powers.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire, as a great power, only possessed seven battleships. The island nation, an emerging power that had just defeated Russia, currently only possessed six battleships.

Under these circumstances, Spain being able to cause Britain to lose ten battleships directly and two indirectly was a battle result sufficient to shock anyone.

European countries immediately realized that the Spanish Navy must definitely have one or more battleships with powerful performance in service. It was precisely because these battleships formed a crushing superiority over the battleships of the British Mediterranean Fleet that the Spanish Navy was able to defeat the British Mediterranean Fleet so easily.

Now, what the European countries had to consider was: could Britain, with its Mediterranean Fleet having suffered such heavy losses, still defeat Spain in the subsequent naval battles?

If Britain could not even defeat Spain in naval battles, then could Britain still achieve victory in this war?

If Spain were to win this war, where would the world situation head?

This war that broke out between Britain and Spain instantly plunged Europe into a fog; the European situation became chaotic, and the high-level government officials of countries around the world realized that a more critical moment might be about to arrive.

The navy had spent three days on the long-range surprise attack on Malta, and the army had also spent three days on the assault on Gibraltar.

Although Spain had utilized heavy artillery of over 10 inches, the sturdiness of the Gibraltar fortress was not just talk. The two sides had engaged in intense fire over these three days, and the Spanish Army had already fired hundreds of thousands of shells; it could be said that they were spending tens of millions of pesetas in funds every day.

Consuming so many shells was not without results. Gibraltar was originally a narrow peninsula about 1 kilometer wide and 7 kilometers long; the frontmost 3-kilometer area had already been completely occupied by the Spanish army, and the British army could only rely on the winding tunnels beneath the fortress to resist the Spanish army, but they could not hold on for much longer.

Not long ago, as the commander-in-chief, Kaman Esposito had reported the progress of the attack on Gibraltar to Carlo, swearing that he would end the battle within a week.

Carlo naturally also hoped to recover Gibraltar sooner. In order to achieve this goal as quickly as possible, Carlo decided to continue increasing the pressure on the British army inside the Gibraltar fortress.

How to increase the pressure? Naturally, by deploying more artillery with larger calibers to rain shells down on the Gibraltar fortress together.

Because of Gibraltar's narrow terrain, it was very difficult to mobilize artillery from the front. But this was not without a solution. Precisely because Gibraltar was surrounded by the sea on three sides, the threat from the navy to Gibraltar would be greatly increased.

Furthermore, since Spain had already defeated the British Mediterranean Fleet, they could completely withdraw a portion of their warships to conduct a four-sided encirclement of Gibraltar.

A four-sided encirclement could not only increase the firepower of the attack on Gibraltar but also strike a great blow to the morale and fighting will of the British army inside the Gibraltar fortress.

Coupled with the news that the British Mediterranean Fleet had been defeated, the British army in Gibraltar would, if not shaken in their resolve, at least see their morale significantly lowered.

Following Carlo's order, the Spanish Navy also took action once again, launching an encirclement of Gibraltar.

At this time, the Spanish Navy had completely set its mind at ease; the threat Britain posed to Spain had been greatly reduced. Even if a naval battle deciding the outcome of the war were to break out with Britain immediately, the Spanish Navy had full confidence in being able to achieve victory.

Previously, European countries feared Britain because the throne of the world's number one naval power had been occupied by Britain for too long. In terms of naval affairs, everyone naturally had a sense of fear toward Britain.

But the Spanish Navy's two engagements with the British Navy made everyone discover that Britain's strength seemed to remain only on the surface.

If the Dreadnought-class battleship had not been born, it would have been very difficult for Spain, relying on its existing navy, to make the British Navy suffer two consecutive losses.

But there was no help for it; this was an era of transition between battleships and dreadnoughts. Whoever could prioritize mastering dreadnoughts would be able to gain the right to speak in naval warfare.

The British were lagging behind Spain in the research and development of dreadnoughts, and they had to bear the corresponding consequences.

Carlo had always been preoccupied with recovering Gibraltar, which led the Spanish Navy to deploy a total of double-digit battleships and battlecruisers for this purpose, rushing toward Gibraltar in a grand manner with the momentum of leveling all the hills of Gibraltar.

The arrival of this fleet also brought the war in Gibraltar to a quick end, because Gibraltar, with a total area of less than seven square kilometers, truly could not withstand such violent bombardment from Spain.

On July 28, 1904, the Spanish army officially entered the core part of the Gibraltar fortress, declaring that this land, which had been occupied by the British for over a hundred years, had returned to the embrace of Spain.

It was also on that day that the news of Spain's successful recovery of Gibraltar instantly became a hot topic of discussion throughout Spain and even all of Europe, receiving high attention from the Spanish public, the European public, and the high-level governments of various countries.

Recovering Gibraltar was good news for Spain, but in order to recover Gibraltar, Spain had also paid a great price.

First was in terms of personnel casualties. Shells could indeed destroy the Gibraltar fortress, but the task of occupying Gibraltar still required soldiers to carry it out personally.

In the final occupation phase, the surviving British troops caused great trouble for the Spanish army, also causing the Spanish army to suffer nearly a thousand casualties.

It was precisely because of the desperate resistance of these British troops that the thousands of British garrison troops in the Gibraltar region were almost completely wiped out; only a small number of soldiers were fortunate enough to become prisoners because they surrendered early.

In fact, keeping some British soldiers as prisoners was also something the Spanish army did intentionally. Because of the final violent counterattack by the British army, Spain had suffered heavy casualties.

This also caused Spain to launch an even more intense retaliation against these remaining British troops; not a single one of the hundreds of surviving British troops in the fortress was able to walk out of the fortress alive.

Having these prisoners, the British government naturally could not frame Spain for massacring prisoners.

Within Spain, when the public learned that the army had recovered Gibraltar in just one week, people could not wait to gather with their friends and family to celebrate what was, for Spain, the greatest moment.

As the King of Spain, Carlo's name was also mentioned many times by the Spanish public. It was from this day on that Carlo officially became the greatest king in the minds of the current Spanish public, and the Spanish public's support for the monarchy and the King climbed to its peak; no one could ever shake Spain's monarchy or threaten Carlo's position again.

For Spain, the war had actually sounded the prelude to the victory song at this point.

Unless the British Navy could also produce something similar to the Dreadnought-class battleship to contend with Spain's Dreadnought-class battleships, it would be impossible for them to turn the tide.

And let alone turning the tide, it would already be quite good if Britain could ensure that its colonial empire did not collapse.

When the news that the Mediterranean Fleet had suffered heavy losses reached Britain, it immediately caused shock, anger, and panic among the British public.