Near dusk, in the chart room of the King, the temporary flagship of the German High Seas Fleet, Natsuki, dressed in an admiral's uniform and wearing a Grand Cross, was studying the operational charts, while his adjutant Gunther-Lütjens stood quietly aside, ready to be dispatched. The pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info this famous admiral of the Third Reich, who had crossed the seas and hated the oceans in history, was still a young officer at this time. In Natsuki's eyes, like many of his peers, he is smart, focused, modest and studious, quick thinking, and has an excellent memory, but he still can't see the connotation and temperament of being a fleet commander, and these may be based on years of accumulation and continuous comprehension.

Natsuki looked at the charts and pondered how to adjust his combat strategy. The "Moltke" was hit by two torpedoes in a row, and its short-term combat capability was basically not affected, but the long-distance voyage plan originally scheduled to be put into the Atlantic to break the battle was difficult to continue, and Hipper's opinion was to replace "Moltke" with the "De Fllinger" and "Gloudenz" instead of "Rostock", and still send two battle cruisers and two light cruisers to break into the English Channel, and he himself would go to the "Deflinger" to command this bold naval combat operation throughout the whole process.

The fleet's breakthrough through the English Channel at night was able to avoid the Allies' ships as much as possible, but the trip was still dangerous, and there were many factors to consider. At the initial operational meeting, most of the officers were in favor of the plan to break through the strait, but they did not necessarily consider and weigh the whole picture as Natsuki did, and their confidence was largely due to the remarkable victories they had achieved in the previous two naval battles. As typical Germans, these officers are hardworking, dedicated, resolute and tenacious, but often appear to be more courageous and less resourceful, so Natsuki feels that their opinions have a certain reference value, and the crucial decisions must be determined by themselves.

With a sound of light footsteps, I saw Captain Gord, the staff officer of the fleet, coming down from the bridge, he walked straight to Xia Shu's side, and lowered his voice: "I just received a report from a reconnaissance plane that six British capital ships appeared at the mouth of the Thames, and one of them has been damaged by our submarine. Interestingly, there was not a single cruiser around these British capital ships, but only destroyers and small cruisers. ”

"Oh?" Natsuki looked up at Captain Gold.

"I have a strong instinct...... "Captain Gord whispered," "the British have brought back their battlecruisers in the Mediterranean, and the information we have is a deliberate fabrication. These three battlecruisers, together with the light cruisers that were missing, and a certain number of destroyers, formed a formidable fast fleet, and they waited for us to engage the main British fleet, and when the battle was deadlocked, they rushed up and dealt us a hard blow. ”

Xia Shu didn't say anything, but he actually had such speculations in his heart. The reason why Britain has been able to become a world empire that dominates the seas has a lot to do with their unscrupulous and unreasonable approach to achieving their goals, so whether it is a business war or a real war, we must not regard the British as polite gentlemen.

At this time, the German dreadnought fleet was still more than 50 nautical miles away from the mouth of the Thames, and it was slowly moving westward at a cruising speed of 14 knots.

In order to clear his chaotic thoughts, Natsuki refocused his gaze on the chart in front of him, a chart of the world, on which the North Sea was not much larger than a palm, and the triangular waters of the Thames estuary had only a small outline. The map not only shows the operational deployment of the German Navy in the home waters, but also shows the latest movements of overseas forces.

In addition to the break-up ships and the scattered supply ships that fought alone, the Germans had two main fleets outside of their homeland, Wilhelm Zuchon's Mediterranean Squadron and Graf von Spee's Pacific Squadron. The former is currently anchored in the Golden Horn of Ottoman Turkey, with the star and moon flags fluttering on the masts, and the German crews wearing Turkish hats, which has become an important political weight for the Allies to win over and lure Turkey into the war; The latter left the Mariana Islands in mid-August, and the two Scharnhorst-class armored cruisers and some auxiliary ships headed eastward to South American waters to prepare for activities in the Atlantic Ocean and wait for an opportunity to return to the German mainland, while the light cruisers scattered and launched a breakthrough attack in the vast Pacific Ocean.

According to the original plan, the broken fleet composed of two Moltke-class battle cruisers and two Magdeburg-class light cruisers had enough strength to deal with the alert escort ships of the Entente countries, and there was no need to join forces with the armored cruisers of Count Spee, and in Natsuki's understanding, the two Scharnhorst-class were old warships before the appearance of the battle cruiser after all, and it was not of great significance to return to the mainland to join the main fleet. The only problem was that there was no large dock for the two ships to repair in the German colonial ports, and it was impossible to go to neutral ports for a long time to be docked and cleaned during the war.

"If that's the case, we're ......" As soon as Natsuki said this, he heard a rush of footsteps, and another staff officer hurriedly arrived.

"At the mouth of the Thames, our submarine took out a British capital ship...... It's the new battleship from before......"

Although the officer's report was somewhat incoherent, the officers and men in the chart room understood what he was trying to convey. Hearing this news, everyone was overjoyed, but Natsuki and Gord were not, they looked at each other and felt that there was still something intriguing in it.

A short time later, Scheer's lieutenant arrived, and he was ordered to ask Natsuki to go to the bridge to discuss military affairs, and told him that Hipper's reconnaissance fleet had just sent good news: their shelling had once again caused a violent explosion at the British fortress of Dover, and the shore artillery fire had been greatly weakened, and Hipper was preparing to approach the port of Dover to carry out an artillery bombardment in order to destroy the British navy's fleet of Dover. Whether or not to rush into the English Channel next day after dark requires a clear answer.

Natsuki, Gold, and Lütjans all followed Scheer's lieutenant to the bridge. From Colonel von Trota, Natsuki learned that Schell had ordered the "Bismarck" to send two reconnaissance planes to carry out a vigilant search in the waters due north and northeast respectively, and he had no additional opinion on this, because after all, this was a junior aircraft carrier converted from an old armored cruiser, with a small number of aircraft, slow take-off and landing speed, and the performance of carrier-based aircraft was still very limited. On the periphery of the dreadnought formation and support fleet, the old and sturdy Antelope-class cruisers and some large torpedo boats are acting as sentinels, able to raise the alarm in advance of enemy targets approaching the fleet.

"In such a situation, it is necessary for us to bring back Hipper's reconnaissance fleet." Scheer suddenly came up with the idea, and he looked at Natsuki with a blazing gaze, as if he wanted to enlist the support of his key partner

Natsuki didn't immediately say anything, he turned his head to look at the sea on the port side, and glanced at Colonel von Trota. The Chief of Fleet Operations, who was only below him, was full of astonishment, and it seemed that Scheer had not communicated this idea to him in advance

The redeployment of the reconnaissance fleet does not mean that the attempt to break through the strait is completely abandoned - even if it does, it is possible to try to break through from the northern part of the North Sea into the Atlantic, and the lessons of the Schlieffen plan reveal a very important philosophy of warfare: flexible tactics have a better chance of victory than rigid plans!

Although there was no clear evidence that his plan was threatened, Natsuki's intuition told him that Scheer's opinion was correct, so he turned his gaze back to Scheer's face and responded in a calm but firm tone: "With 'De Fllinger', 'Goeben', and 'Blucher' leading some light ships to the north at full speed, 'Moltke' and 'Rostock' led the escort ships to follow slowly." ”

Lieutenant Colonel von Lefetsov on the side reminded: "General Hippel said in his report that the condition of the Moltke did not warrant the withdrawal from the battle, and that the Rostock had returned early under the cover of V-192 and G-196. ”

Without waiting for Natsuki to speak, Colonel von Trotta couldn't hold back any longer, and he said: "Even if the British Navy concentrates all its fast ships in one place, our strength and the cooperation of the high-speed torpedo boat group are enough to thwart their attack, withdrawing the reconnaissance fleet at this time will inevitably dampen the confidence and morale of Admiral Hippel and his officers and men." ”

Seeing Scher's resolute attitude, Natsuki calmly explained to Colonel von Trotta that the Moltke had been hit by two mines and it was unknown whether it would be able to maintain a high speed, so it was better to let it wait and standby, and go north with three intact battle cruisers. With three more capital ships, the chances of defeating the British capital fleet again will be much greater, and it will be able to cope with all kinds of unexpected situations.

Colonel von Trotta was a long-time friend of Schell's, and was used as "his own" because of his appointment as commander of the High Seas Fleet. His dissent was only based on personal differences, there was no contradiction, and the duty of a soldier made him choose to obey without hesitation.

As soon as the telegram to the Hipper's fleet was sent, the communications department of the "King" received an urgent telegram from the "Bismarck": The reconnaissance planes had discovered a powerful British fleet 40 nautical miles northeast of the fleet, with five large warships and more than 20 light ships, and the speed had reached 23 knots.

"Sure enough!" Lieutenant Colonel von Lefetsov exclaimed softly, "The enemy is fighting on both sides so that we can't take care of each other!" ”

Natsuki had just arrived from the chart room, and he had a very intuitive grasp of the position of his own fleet at this time, and the direction in which the British fleet appeared was indeed unusual, and its spearhead was likely to be directed at his own support fleet. In the previous two naval battles, the German Navy's aircraft-carrying carriers and high-speed torpedo boat carriers played a non-negligible role, and it was difficult for the British to find a way to deal with these two new equipment for a while, and direct destruction should be the best option under the existing conditions.

(End of chapter)