Admiral Beinke's staff officers were very surprised to learn that an American and British fleet had shelled Formigas, destroying the island's facilities but not taking a landing action, and in view of the timely dispatch of air force fighters on São Miguel Island, they agreed that their main warships did not need to act rashly until the situation became clear. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

The island of Formigas was within the effective operational range of land-based fighters in San Miguel and Santa Maria, and the US and British navies dispatched two heavy cruisers, one light cruiser, and two destroyers to Formigas under favorable weather conditions, and then sailed eastward after a short shelling. At this time, about 500 nautical miles east of Formigash, there was a Confederate escort fleet codenamed "Frederick-Caesar", which consisted of 12 ocean-going cargo ships, 4 oil tankers, 1 hospital ship, 5 naval supply ships and 10 escort ships, carrying more than 3,000 combat personnel, more than 400 technical, medical, and engineering personnel, more than 40,000 tons of fuel, 60 aircraft components, a large number of maintenance parts, and various combat materials. There is no doubt that this convoy will be of great benefit to the continued operations of the Allied forces in the Azores, and the heavy losses caused by the attack of the enemy fleet will inevitably make the current operational situation even more difficult.

The 10 ships escorting this mixed fleet included 1 heavy cruiser, 1 light cruiser, 4 destroyers, 3 large minesweepers, and 1 auxiliary aircraft carrier converted from merchant ships. In other words, if the "Frederick-Caesar" fleet encountered the American and British fleets shelling the island of Formigash head-on during the voyage, and could not receive timely support from their own naval and air forces, the situation would be very difficult.

Admiral Beinke, who had been hit in a row before, should have felt very nervous at this time, but he calmly looked at the battle chart, and this calmness was not pretended. The day before yesterday, he received a secret telegram from the King of Ireland in his personal name, and he was like a reassuring pill, and now in terms of time and voyage, the support fleet headed by the "Hesse" should not be far from the "Frederick Caesar" fleet, and with the extraordinary wisdom of the genius commander of the Hohenzollern family, he would certainly not ignore this convoy, and if he thought deeply, perhaps he had already regarded this fleet of ships as an important pawn in the battle plan.

More than half an hour later, the air force command of São Miguel Island received a message that a group of fighters sent to the waters off Formigash Island caught up with the enemy fleet about 40 kilometers east of the island and launched an air attack on it, successfully damaging two enemy cruisers and one destroyer, and also discovering and severely damaging one enemy submarine in the sea area. In view of the possible impact on the speed of the enemy's injured ships, the Air Force has dispatched a second wave of attack aircraft groups, and if the Navy sends warships to participate in the battle, the Air Force can provide accurate orientation guidance.

According to common sense, Beanke should have mobilized three old battle cruisers of Lütjens or two Deflinger-class ships of Marchar to pursue the enemy fleet and wait for an opportunity to dispatch the main warship and aircraft carrier formation to respond, but Beanke decided to go against common sense this time, and he asked the air force to conduct continuous reconnaissance of the activities of the US and British capital ships in the waters of Texel Island, and at the same time expand the reconnaissance range in the waters of Folkmish waters. As for whether and when his main fleet would be dispatched, he deliberately avoided mentioning it.

After consulting with the Air Force Command, Beinke instructed the communications officer: "Send a coded telegram on frequency Z5, with the call sign 'King,' and the contents of the telegram ...... Today, the enemy dispatched 2 heavy cruisers, 1 light cruiser, and 2 destroyers to attack Island F, and after a short shelling, they left to the east. ”

Beanke said in such detail that the communications officer only needed to send it as it was, and he seemed to be completely confused about the content and intention of the telegram, and even if such a guessing communication was intercepted and deciphered by the other party, it would require a high IQ and reasoning ability to spy on the opponent's hole cards.

The main Allied fleet was held in the waters off San Miguel, but in view of the heavy damage to the military facilities on the island of Formigas, Beanke sent a destroyer and a minesweeper to carry equipment and supplies to the island. The small support fleet arrived at Formigash Island at about 2.30 p.m., with destroyers cruising and minesweepers crossing safe lanes in the minefield to reach the reef. At this time, the swell increased, and the minesweeper could not directly dock, so it had to use rubber boats to load and unload supplies back and forth, so the efficiency was low, and it was not declared until dusk.

During this period, the hostile situation at sea took a new turn. When the German reconnaissance planes were conducting aerial photographic reconnaissance of the waters of Texel Island, they found that the number of US and British capital warships stationed here had suddenly decreased by more than half, and then the German reconnaissance planes that took off from San Miguel and Santa Maria searched everywhere for enemy traces. When the sun went down, they finally found the traces of the enemy's capital ships about 120 nautical miles east of São Miguel Island, and the German bomber group quickly dispatched to attack before nightfall, but this American and British fleet, composed of 1 battle cruiser, 2 battleships, and 11 light ships, was fully prepared for battle, and in addition gradually accumulated rich experience in air defense operations in the early stage, they evaded most of the bombs and torpedoes dropped by German fighters. Only one battleship and one destroyer were wounded.

A little later, a German submarine operating in the area reported that they had observed an enemy light ship suspected to be a destroyer stuck in place, then suddenly exploded, capsized and sank, while the enemy fleet headed east at a speed of about 20 knots.

The German admiral finally hesitated: although his support fleet had three battleships, except for the "Hesse", the rest were old ships that were embarrassed, while the American and British fleets had six battleships and two battlecruisers that had left the waters of Texel, and the fleet that the Luftwaffe attacked before dark alone had three capital ships of first-class combat power. In this way, the situation of the "Frederick Caesar" convoy was quite bad, and the most rational way to do it at the moment was probably to order the convoy to return halfway and withdraw to European waters.

In the middle of the night, Beinke was entangled in the middle of the night, seeing that the "Frederick Caesar" ship group was getting closer and closer to the waters of the Azores, and the American and British warships that sailed away from Texel may have cast an invisible net, waiting for the fat prey to get in. Near midnight, just as Beinke was about to take precautions, the communications officer sent a brief telegram: To Admiral Beinke, since the enemy's capital ships had been dispatched, the K-ship regiment should immediately change its plan to avoid unnecessary losses, and our capital ships should make arrangements in advance.

The telegram was not signed, and since it was sent encrypted on the Z5 frequency, there was no doubt about the identity of the generator. Behenke put down his worries, and he hurriedly sent an order to the "Frederick Caesar" regiment in his capacity as commander of the Allied fleet, asking them to turn around and return to the sea, disband the fleet if necessary, and retreat as quickly as possible to European waters.

Immediately afterwards, Behenke contacted the Joint Operations Command and the Air Force Command on San Miguel Island by telephone, informing them that the main fleet would take combat action at any time.

The acting flagship "Hanover" was seriously damaged in the early Battle of Flores, and after emergency repairs, it barely recovered its navigation capability, but its combat effectiveness was greatly reduced, and in order to deter the enemy, it continued to stay in San Miguel, and the "Bavaria" and "Prince Heinrich" were also in poor condition, and they were temporarily retained because of the same considerations, and now the main warships with complete combat strength are actually only "Baden", "Mackensen", and "De Fllinger". To compete with the U.S. and British fleets, the aircraft carrier group hidden in the waters of Santa Maria is the real main force, this formation has five combat aircraft carriers, one auxiliary aircraft carrier, and is covered by three old-fashioned battle cruisers led by Lütjans.

Under the direct command of Beenke, the "Bavaria", "Baden", "Mackensen", and "De Fllinger" set out from the waters of San Miguel with 14 light ships, and the "Swabian", "Joachim I", "Emanuele III", "Ulster", "Seydlitz", "Moltke", and "Goeben" with 15 light ships set off from the waters of Santa Maria.

The command ship of the "Frederick Caesar" convoy was the Irish Navy's standard military salute-class heavy cruiser "Ruger", with German Rear Admiral von Heinke as the first commander of the escort fleet and Captain Captain "Ruger" as the second command. For the sake of command and liaison, von Heinke boarded the ship with a team of ten men and received a telegram from the commander of the Allied fleet. As soon as the German general saw the contents of the telegram, he hurriedly summoned Colonel Farrell to discuss.

After reading the telegram, the Irish spread their hands, the "Ruger" is a better performance among the heavy cruisers, and it should not fall behind in a single battle with the American and British heavy cruisers of the same level, but the enemy has two heavy cruisers in the advance fleet alone, and there are at least two battleships and one battle cruiser in the back, no matter what the situation encounters, there is absolutely no chance of victory, and it is really the best policy to take the initiative to retreat. However, it is not easy to make such a convoy of more than 30 ships turn around at night, and the first problem is how to ensure that each ship receives accurate steering instructions. Unless an accident occurs, the escort fleet will maintain radio silence at all times during the voyage, thus preventing enemy ships from using radio direction finding to determine its position. Second, cargo ships and oil tankers are not as good as naval vessels, their performance is uneven, how to keep all ships in the process of steering at a relatively consistent pace, to avoid large loopholes in the escort formation, or their own ships colliding with each other, all these are thorny problems at hand.

(End of chapter)