If you look at the numbers alone, Montgomery is right.

Although the French Toulon fleet captured by the Germans consisted of 78 ships, many of them submarines, and a considerable part of these submarines were not used...... The German Navy lacked nothing but submarine crews, which was determined by the large-scale blockade of Britain by Germany using submarines.

As a result, only five of the captured submarines have been put into service, but they have not yet become combat-ready, because most of them are novices and need time to learn and train.

In addition, some of these captured warships were French destroyers left over from World War I...... Because France did not pay attention to naval development after the war, it was difficult for Darlan to balance both large and small ships in a short period of time after taking office, and had to reuse the old destroyers of the First World War when there was a serious shortage of destroyers.

These destroyers had a high failure rate and insufficient firepower, so they were eliminated directly by Raeder.

In this way, the total number of ships of the German Navy was 45, including six minesweepers, and only 39 combat warships, which was much less than the more than 50 warships of the British Mediterranean Fleet.

If you add to this the combat experience and familiarity with equipment of the British Navy, the British Navy has nothing to worry about.

But perhaps the sixth sense of a long naval battle, Vice Admiral Tovey always felt that something was wrong with the battle.

Eventually, however, Vice Admiral Tovey ordered the fleet to attack on Montgomery's orders.

The Group A fleet quickly crossed Huwarier (the narrowest section of the Tunis Strait) into a wider sea. Group B flotilla followed, and Group C flotilla was stationed in the area around Huwari as a rearguard.

It didn't take long for the Group A fleet to receive reconnaissance reports from seaplanes in the air that the enemy ship group had been spotted...... At this time, the cruiser generally carried its own seaplane, ejected and took off with a catapult, and landed on the surface for recovery after completing the task.

The commander, Major General Webb, hurriedly ordered to set up battle formations and prepare for battle.

But what is surprising is that after waiting for ten minutes, no enemy ship appeared.

"What's the situation?" Major General Webb asked.

"General!" The pilot replied: "They stopped!" ”

"Stopped?" Major General Webb arrived puzzled.

The German fleet should have stood in their way, and now it seemed intent on letting them go.

When Major General Webb reported the situation to Lieutenant General Tovey, Lieutenant General Tovey ordered: "Advance, but be careful not to get too close to the enemy!" ”

"Yes, General!"

The fleet of Group A formed a battle formation and headed for the position of the enemy ships at a speed of 20 knots.

At a distance of 21,500 meters, Major General Webb gave the order to open fire under the guidance of reconnaissance aircraft, but due to the distance, none of the hits were made after a salvo.

Qin Chuan only heard the whistling of cannonballs in the sky, and then one shell after another exploded a column of water around the warship.

"Steady!" Raeder ordered, still standing still.

This is unusual in naval battles, where it is more difficult to hit a moving target, so you should move fast and do a serpentine maneuver.

"It's an old British trick!" Raeder held up his binoculars and looked in the direction where the shells were coming, although he couldn't see anything: "They sent in the vanguard, some fast light cruisers and destroyers, to attract us to open fire, and once the battle started, their air force would bombard us indiscriminately!" ”

QIN CHUAN NODDED TO EXPRESS HIS UNDERSTANDING, THE KEY TO THIS LIES IN THE LOADING OF THE 130MM GAOPING DUAL-PURPOSE SECONDARY GUN: THE SHELLS USED TO DEAL WITH FIGHTERS AND WARSHIPS ARE DIFFERENT, GRENADES OR ARMOR-PIERCING SHELLS ARE USED TO HIT WARSHIPS, AND TIME-DELAY FUSE SHELLS ARE USED TO HIT AIRPLANES.

IF THEY WERE ATTRACTED TO THE BATTLE BY THE BRITISH VANGUARD, THE MAIN AIR DEFENSE OF THE WARSHIP, THAT IS, THE 130MM SECONDARY GUN, WOULD BE CONFUSED DUE TO THE PROBLEM OF SHELLS, OR THE SEA AND AIR COULD NOT BE TAKEN INTO ACCOUNT.

At the same time, because the enemy light cruisers and destroyers were moving at high speeds, it was difficult for the German ships to hit the target even if they opened fire.

So, the British were trying to attract the German navy to open fire, and their air force should be on its way or hiding in the clouds.

On the other hand, naval warfare in this era was more of an out-of-sight battle.

That is, both sides have aircraft carriers, and they use reconnaissance planes to find the location of the enemy's ship group, and after finding it, they send carrier-based planes to bomb the enemy fleet indiscriminately.

In this mode of naval warfare, the warships of both sides usually do not see each other's warships, but instead face off in the air, ship-to-ship, and emphasize that the battle of the cannon giant ship mode is the tactics of World War I.

But naval battles in the Mediterranean have their peculiarities.

The first is that Mediterranean countries usually do not have aircraft carriers...... France and Italy do not have aircraft carriers, in fact, both countries have aircraft carriers under construction, but they did not work because they were not completed at the time of surrender.

Although Britain has an aircraft carrier, it is only a battleship converted into an aircraft carrier, carrying only 21 carrier-based aircraft, and it can play a very limited role.

Secondly, the Mediterranean Sea is relatively small, and with the coordination of shore-based airfields, the fighters of both sides can easily find the position of the other side's fleet and coordinate with it (which is the main reason why the Mediterranean countries have little demand and enthusiasm for building aircraft carriers).

As a result, the probability of ship-to-ship combat within line-of-sight between the two sides has increased in stages, just as it is now inevitable that the German fleet will be ship-to-ship with the British fleet in the Tunis Strait.

It's just that both sides are patient and tempting...... The Germans did not dare to act rashly because of the small number of aircraft, and the British hoped that the German warships would first engage in ship-to-ship battles because of the heavy losses of the previous air forces.

"Woo ......" hit the nearby sea from a distance again, and the impact point was more dense, but it still missed.

After thinking about it, Qin Chuan said, "Maybe we should open fire!" ”

"What?"

"We should shoot!" Qin Chuan said: "Let the other party think that we have been fooled, so that their air force will appear!" ”

Raeder nodded, and then ordered: "Prepare for battle, go full speed......"

The fleet drove at full speed in the direction of the enemy ships, and then, under the guidance of the reconnaissance planes, fired rows of shells at the British fleet, and I don't know whether it was luck or the German reconnaissance planes calculated the course of the British fleet, and one of the shells hit a British cruiser in the first salvo.

"We hit it!" The pilot reported: "Hit the catapult of the enemy ship, the plane on it was blown to pieces and set on fire!" ”

Apparently, this is a plane full of fuel ready for takeoff, otherwise it should not have caught fire.

However, Lieutenant General Tovey did not feel sorry for this loss, on the contrary, he was relieved, because the Germans had finally met the battle, so that he could let the air force attack.