On a windy autumn day, the newly formed U.S.-British Task Force 4, under the command of U.S. Rear Admiral Ernest Joseph King, quietly left the Chesapeake Bay and sailed into the depths of the Atlantic Ocean under the auspices of anxiety. Pen~Fun~Pavilion www.biquge.info This medium-sized task force is mainly composed of four ships, "Georgia", "Anson", "Yorktown", and "Brilliant", with six light and heavy cruisers and nine destroyers. Of these ships, except for two destroyers, which were participating in the war for the first time, the rest were damaged and repaired in the Azores, and some of them received technical modifications in passing. After a long period of rest and replenishment, all combat teams with warships as units have regained their high fighting spirit, and they have seized all available time to conduct actual combat exercises, and their combat state is basically close to or at their peak.

The combat effectiveness of a fleet depends on the technical level of its equipment and the quality of its combat personnel, and the ability of the commander is undoubtedly the most important of the latter. Ernest King is one of the few "all-rounder" generals in the United States Navy who can go to the podium, sit in the office, enter the laboratory, sail on the water, dive underwater, and fly in the air, his style of action is steady but not conservative, brave but not aggressive, intelligent, talented, and prestigious, and all the qualities required of a good commander can basically be found in him, but after the outbreak of war, he did not become a member of the command team of the US Atlantic Fleet. Rather, he assumed the role of director of the Admiralty Aviation's more organizational and training role, largely because of his unlikable character and unfriendly attitude towards Great Britain - a prejudice that arose not because of a specific matter, but because of his sense of national superiority as a member of the United States of America, which he never concealed, which made it difficult for him to get his rightful place in the military system of the American-British alliance.

It is gold that always shines, it is sharp weapons that will always be used, the Battle of the Azores was defeated, Standley gave way, and the Englishman Chatfield, who took over the command of the fleet, was not only unable to turn the tide, but was also accused of indecision and missed the war. In desperation, Chief of Naval Operations Pratt thought of King. Kim didn't care about being put on the cold bench, he accepted the appointment happily, and when the ships were assembled, he set out on the journey in a low-key manner.

After the fierce fighting in the previous stage, the neat lineup of the US and British navies was already incomplete. Although Chief of Naval Operations Pratt strongly recommended that Kim take the "Langley" with him on this trip to enhance the combat strength of the fleet aviation, King did not want it to slow down the fleet, and he did not take a perfunctory approach, but bluntly rejected Pratt's suggestion.

No sooner had Task Force 4 left the Chesapeake Bay than German intelligence agents lurking in Norfolk Harbor secretly sent out the information, and two hours later, the information was relayed to Natsuki, who had landed on Flores Island and was in a relaxed mood to inspect the lost strategic location.

"Ernest Joseph King?"

Natsuki stroked his shaved chin and pondered his new opponent. This monarch is not as well-known in history as Nimitz and Halsey, because he has never been on the front line to command a battle, in fact, he has excellent staff and organizational skills, and has made great contributions at the strategic level, and he has reached the pinnacle of military and political heights compared with famous generals.

Historically, Kim has no experience in commanding battles, and Kim in this time and space has not even been on the battlefield (the United States did not participate in World War I), even so, Natsuki can still guess his tactical style from his rich experience, this all-round officer has been committed to the development of naval aviation for nearly 7 years, and has served as the captain of the "Lexington", this time he led the task force to reinforce the Azores front, and will definitely give full play to the combat effectiveness of the aircraft carrier, and he has long served as a submarine commander and submarine base commander, The important role of submarines should not be overlooked, and in comparison, his use of capital warships is likely to fall into the middle.

The opponent's reinforcements had already set off, and the advice given to Natsuki by the subordinate officers was to let the "Hesse", "Prince Heinrich", and "Bavaria" continue to stay on the front line, and then let them return to Europe for overhaul when the victory was decided, but after weighing the pros and cons, Natsuki decided to let these seriously injured capital ships return as scheduled, and at the same time made a bold decision, let William Marchar lead the "De Fllinger" and "Lutzov" to the east coast of the United States for a long-range assault operation, and then go south to Argentina. Military visits to quasi-allies of the Central Powers.

After the departure of the three capital ships and the two quasi-capital ships, Xia Shu ordered the aircraft carrier formation to return to Santa Maria for rest and replenishment, and he personally led the three capital ships "Hanover", "Baden", and "Mackensen" to continue activities in the waters near Flores Island, and with the arrival of 20 Italian ships and 16 Austro-Hungarian ships, the Allies' maritime vigilance, escort, and combat forces in the Azores and even the eastern Atlantic Ocean were relatively satisfactorily supplemented. With the arrival of the "Caesar-Wilhelm II" convoy, the land-based aviation forces, which had been very depleted at the previous stage, were reinvigorated, and the bombing of the islands such as Texel continued. During this period, the U.S. and British fleets stationed in the waters off Pico Island cautiously launched several naval raids, and the number of successes and misses was roughly equal, but only the "Howe" was able to dispatch the capital ships, and the risk of the attack was obviously not proportional to the results, so Chatfield quickly stopped this kind of operation, and only used submarines and torpedo bombers to attack and harass the maritime activities of the Allied ships, and the intention of waiting for the arrival of reinforcements to seek the future was very obvious.

After the occupation of Flores Island, Natsuki readjusted the deployment of military forces here as the commander of the theater of operations, and the Allied troops stationed on the islands of Corvo and Flores increased to 27,000 men, the army units worked hard to stock up supplies and repair fortifications, the naval units were responsible for clearing mines and reorganizing coastal defenses, and the air force units took advantage of the few good weather to carry out special battles, so that the number of combat planes in the northern Azores increased to more than 400, which was enough to deter the US and British fleets.

At the same time, Allied forces quickly transferred more than 26,000 American and British prisoners of war from Flores Island to the islands of San Miguel and Santa Maria, and then to prisoner of war camps in Ireland and France. In this way, even if the American and British forces had a chance to recapture Flores Island, they would not be able to find this group of well-trained and experienced soldiers.

The normal voyage from the Chesapeake Bay to the Azores is more than 3,600 kilometers, or about 2,000 nautical miles, and an average cargo ship needs to sail for a week, while a new cruiser takes only about three days. Based on the adversary's style of conduct and the overall situation of the war, Natsuki judged that the American and British task force would arrive in the waters of the Azores on the fourth or fifth day. As he expected, the 4th U.S.-British Joint Operations Task Force Fleet led by Ernest King left behind its slow ships and supply vessels, traveled lightly, day and night, and arrived in the waters northwest of the Azores on the evening of the fourth day of its departure from the East Coast of the United States. Although they carefully avoided the area of activity of Allied ships, the fortunes were often out of their control, and a German long-range reconnaissance plane from the island of Flores spotted the American and British task force before nightfall. Now that his whereabouts have been revealed, King did not hesitate to break the radio silence, and the American and British troops stationed in the Azores in the early stage also launched a countermeasures. That night, Chatfield personally led the British battle cruiser "Howe", two heavy cruisers, and four light cruisers out of the waters off Pico Island, appeared in the waters south of Flores Island before midnight, and carried out a brief artillery bombardment of the port of Santa Crouch, which was occupied by Allied forces, and then quickly retreated eastward.

Due to the great loss of vitality of the main fleet of the United States and Britain in the Second Battle of Flores, it is not difficult to guess Chatfield's raiding actions and navigation routes, and all he can rely on at this time is the high speed of the "Howe". On the way back, the "Howe" radar detected a fleet coming from the northeast at high speed, and Chatfield commanded the fleet to make a detour to the south, but he did not expect that the other party's speed was much faster than he expected, and he understood his own intentions, and took advantage of his position to jam his return route. Unable to return to Pico before dawn, the fleet would be exposed to the iron wing of enemy aviation, and Chatfield, knowing that his opponent was scheming, dispatched a detachment of destroyers from the waters off Pico Island to meet him, while directing the artillery fleet to set up an offensive formation.

Because the battle took place at night, Chatfield was initially unaware of the opponent's true strength, and the radar detection results contradicted the opponent's speed. It wasn't until after the exchange of fire that his hanging heart was slightly relaxed, because from the falling shells, it was inferred that there were no capital ships in the enemy fleet, and the number of ships on both sides was roughly equal, and such a naval battle should be beneficial to the American and British fleets.

Chatfield did not dare to underestimate the enemy, and he sent two British light cruisers to rush forward at high speed in front of the fleet, using flares and searchlights to point out targets for the "Howe" and the accompanying heavy cruisers. To date, the shipborne radars of both warring sides do not have fire control accuracy, but smart commanders know how to use existing technical equipment on the battlefield. Before the two British light cruisers could play their role, the Allied fleet preemptively launched a quick attack, and all the ships turned on their searchlights in unison, so that the enemy light cruisers had nothing to hide on the sea, and the fierce artillery fire smashed over them, and the two British light cruisers were shot one after another and caught fire, so such a battle is by no means as easy as expected.

(End of chapter)