Since establishing military prestige in the bloody Battle of Verdun in 1914, Crown Prince Wilhelm Jr. has gradually become the supreme commander of Germany's military forces, and in the mid-to-late 20s, he has entered middle age, with the continuous accumulation of life experience, less impetuous, more steady, this military empire with increasing national strength has also entered a mature period of political stability and popular stability, so the ancient Kaiser Wilhelm II has less and less attention and interference in military and political affairs. William Jr.'s rule over the country was only one name away. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 InfoOn the question of whether to appoint Schell as commander of the Allied fleet, Wilhelm II only asked a few cursory questions before agreeing with the Crown Prince's opinion.

As a result, Field Marshal Reinhardt-Schell, who turned 70 a month away, became the first admiral to be the commander-in-chief of both the High Seas Fleet and the Allied Fleet in the capacity of the supreme commander of the German Admiralty. After his appointment, instead of taking the time to return to Kiel for deployment, he set off directly for the port of Brest in northwestern France.

When France was defeated and surrendered in 1915, the shipbuilding facilities of the port of Brest were far inferior to those of Hamburg, Bremen, Danzig and other ports with shipbuilding as the pillar in Germany, but it was located in the north of the Bay of Biscay, adjacent to the west mouth of the English Channel, facing the vast Atlantic Ocean. In order to make it a strategic base for the German navy to move into the open sea, the German government forced France to sign a separate Lend-Lease agreement, which unconditionally leased the port to Germany for 99 years. This was followed by the approval of a budget of 3 billion marks for the renovation and expansion of the port of Brest. By the end of the expansion project in 1925, the whole port became a new look, brand new wharves, cranes, huge warehouses, waterway fences together with coastal defense fortresses, radar base stations, military airfields formed a strict and complete defense system, it is no exaggeration to say that Brest has become a large military base comparable to the port of Kiel and Wilhelmshaven, and the shipbuilding facilities controlled by German capital here account for more than 80%, from German ship engineers, Technicians and even ordinary shipbuilders surpassed the French residents who worked in the shipbuilding industry in the area, and the number of Germans living in Brest increased with their families and profit-seeking merchants, so much so that the French port was nicknamed "the German military port on the French coastline".

When Scheer arrived at the port of Brest, two German battleships of the German Navy were being repaired here - the "Hesse" was almost finished, it was docked next to the dock, workers were still assembling it with new anti-aircraft guns, and supplies for sea operations were being loaded onto the ship; The "Prussia", which had been badly damaged in the naval battle, was docked for overhaul, and the repair work was expected to continue until October.

In addition to "Hesse" and "Prussia", 3 German cruisers and 5 destroyers who participated in the Battle of the Azores were repaired here. In order to ensure the progress and quality of the repair of these German warships, the authorities requisitioned a number of skilled workers from the shipyards in Germany and greatly increased the alert level of the shipyards. Rational engineering scheduling, coupled with the abundant raw materials at present, the efficiency of these warships in Brest maintenance is not inferior to that of domestic shipyards, and the need to travel hundreds of kilometers between Germany and France is eliminated, avoiding the risk of being attacked or hit by mines on the way.

A considerable part of the manpower and material resources of most of Europe, half of Africa, and even the Near and Middle East were used by the military apparatus of the Central Powers, but this did not help to change the situation of operations at sea in a short period of time. It is expected that it will take at least three to four weeks for the "Deutschland", "Silesia" and "Hindenburg" to return to the German mainland for repair, which means that among the damaged ships in the early battle, only the "Hesse" can return to the battlefield as soon as possible , "Lützov", and three old battle cruisers "Seydlitz", "Moltke", and "Goeben", which belonged to the former Atlantic Fleet, fought against a formidable opponent.

Among the German ships remaining in Europe, only the two King-class battleships that participated in the Battle of the Gibraltar Fortress were about to follow the "Hesse" to support the Azores battlefield, and the remaining two King-class, two Caesar-class, and three Helgoland-class battleships that had been reassigned from the reserve to active service were strategic forces that had to stay in European waters to contain the opponent and stabilize the situation. As for Italy and Austria-Hungary, although they agreed to enter the war, they invariably insisted on the bottom line, that is, their fleets were only active east of Gibraltar and would never intervene in the battle of the Atlantic.

The current bad war situation, the top of the navy repeatedly discussed, that the wise strategy is to decisively abandon the Azorean front, gather forces, and rely on the "European barrier" for defense, but both the Kaiser and the crown prince hope that the Allied fleet can rescue the "Prince Heinrich" trapped on the island of Flores, so as to complete a decent retreat. As a traditional German soldier, Schell decided to follow the will of God, despite the difficulties. After arriving in Brest, he resolutely mobilized the forces of all sides, trying to gather the maximum combat strength.

Due to the need for military secrecy, the German military kept Schell's appointment as commander of the Allied fleet secret, and the common people were ignorant of it, but among the high-ranking military and political figures, the news still spread far and wide, which quickly attracted the attention of the British side. In order to disrupt the deployment of the Allied navy and delay its plans to reinforce the Azores, the British navy launched a daring night attack on the heavily fortified port of Brest - three T-submarines armed with 150 mm guns floated outside the approach channel and fired 14 shells at the docks and shipbuilding areas 12 kilometers away. The power of these shells was not enough to sink a battleship of the cruiser rank and above, but the fire they caused caused a lot of trouble to the Germans, hundreds of tons of war materials in the port warehouse were burned, a light cruiser was slightly damaged, the "Hesse" docked at the dock was also almost damaged, and some of the shipbuilding facilities at the shipyard responsible for repairing the "Prussia" were damaged, and more than a dozen shipbuilders were unfortunately killed.

At the time of the attack on the port of Brest, Scheer had moved to the Hesse with his temporary command and was preparing to leave for the Azores two days later with a reinforced fleet. Due to the accidental damage of some war materials, it was not good for him to postpone his trip at this time, and it was not good if he did not postpone it, which led to a rush of fire and fainting at an operational meeting. After the doctor's diagnosis and treatment, Marshal Schell's physical condition was no longer suitable for ocean voyages, and he could not be stimulated by the fierce naval battle, so the German General Staff had no choice but to change the commander on the spot, but the German Navy did not have a second Schell, and no one had the confidence to take over this anxious stall, because if he did not do well, he would ruin the merits and prestige accumulated in most of his previous life, and the admirals knew this very well.

The already unoptimistic situation of the Atlantic naval battle was suddenly overshadowed by another layer.

On July 28, 1933, on the eighth day after the American and British troops occupied Corvo Island, Vice Admiral von Oldenburg, commander of the German Atlantic Fleet, took advantage of the rainy night to lead the fleet to break through, and the "Prince Heinrich" was interrupted for maintenance and forced to go to sea, and Admiral Beinke also led the main fleet of the Central Powers to the north in time to respond, but their actions could not escape the eyes of the opponent, and the main fleets of the United States and Britain poured out, and the ships of the two sides encountered on the sea about 300 kilometers west of Texel Island, and then staged a Jutland-style naval battle. The Allied fleet used 51 combat ships against 59 of the US and British fleets, and the number of ships on both sides was close, but there was still a big difference in strength -- the Allied side had only five super-dreadnoughts, and only two capital ships with a standard displacement of more than 40,000 tons, while the U.S. and British fleets had nine super-dreadnoughts, five of which were capital ships of more than 40,000 tons. The close-range torpedo attacks in the night battle were regarded as naval bayonet battles, and the Allied fleet frequently used bayonets against the enemy that night, and on this torpedo-ridden battlefield, no one could have predicted whether the next second would fall into the abyss or open the door to victory. As a result, luck did not favor either side that night, two capital ships of the American and British fleets were heavily damaged, two cruisers and five destroyers were sunk, while on the side of the Allied fleet, the acting flagship "Hanover" was hit by two torpedoes, and the "Bavaria" and "Seydlitz" were each hit by heavy shells of the American and British fleets, and finally lost the ability to sail, and after all the crew was evacuated, their own destroyers were painfully sunk.

After the brutal night battle, the U.S. and British fleets under the command of U.S. Admiral Standley relentlessly pursued the Allied fleet commanded by Beanck. Had it not been for the rain of its carrier-based aircraft and land-based fighters coming in the rain and launching a frenzied attack on the US and British fleets, the "Hanover" would have become another core capital ship lost by the Allied Navy in the waters of the Azores.

In an extremely difficult situation, Bernke and von Oldenburg joined forces to complete the rescue of the "Prince Heinrich", but few people regarded this as a victory - the heavy damage of the "Hanover", the damage of the "Bavaria", and the sinking of the "Seydlitz" in exchange for the temporary safety of the "Prince Heinrich" were not only mentally inspiring, but also a more than worth the loss.

Now that their fleet had withdrawn, the defenders of Flores Island saw themselves as abandoned orphans, gritting their teeth for three days in the face of a powerful naval and air offensive by the American and British forces, and then surrendering to their opponents under the leadership of their commanders. So far, more than two-thirds of the islands of the Azores have fallen into the hands of the United States and Britain, and only the southern islands of São Miguel and Santa Maria remain under the control of the Central Powers. In the current situation, unless strong reinforcements can be received in time, the Allied forces will soon be completely expelled from the Azores......

(End of chapter)