Born in Leipzig in eastern Germany in 1864, Wilhelm-Zuchon was 50 years old in 1914 and became commander of the German Mediterranean fleet with the rank of rear admiral. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 He has been in the army for more than 30 years, familiar with every post on the warship, quick in thinking, broad-minded, and is called "a clever old sailor" by his colleagues. In 1913 he hoisted his command flag on the "Von der Tann", and since then he has been sailing the inland seas and straits of his new defense zone, traveling back and forth to coasts and headlands, circumnavigating islands and visiting ports. He traveled to Constantinople and met with the Turks; He also paid homage to Italians, Greeks, Austrians, French, and in short, all but the British. He reported to the Kaiser that the British would never allow their ships to dock in the same port as the Germans' ships at the same time. The British had always been accustomed to appearing immediately after the departure of the German ships in order to dispel the impression that the Germans might have left or, as the Kaiser put it, a bad act of "spitting in the soup".

On the morning of August 6, 1914, the "von der Tann" and "Breslau" sailed out of the east mouth of the Strait of Messina, and the British light cruiser "Glaserstelle", which was waiting there, immediately followed. The ship belongs to the Bristol-class light cruiser, and is in the same weight class as the "Breslau", but the construction period is slightly earlier, the maximum speed is only 25 knots, and it is equipped with two powerful 6-inch MKXI naval guns, 10 4-inch MKVII naval guns with average power, several small-caliber rapid-fire guns, two 18-inch torpedo tubes, and the level of armor protection is slightly stronger than that of the "Breslau" The ship's triple main guns were capable of beating the British light cruiser to the ground at a distance of 15,000 kilometers. With the tragedy of the French protective cruiser "La Gravière" in front of it, the "Grassestelle" had to follow the Germans far behind, constantly informing its own fleet of the location and movement of the target by radio.

Von der Tann and Breslau tried to use their speed to shake off this annoying tail, but the coal they added in Messina was of poor quality, and the black smoke coming out of the chimney formed a striking buoy, and it was possible to determine their position from a long distance by the smoke column. Towards dusk, there was a slight problem with the engines of the "Breslau", and the speed of the German fleet slowed down to 18 knots, and the "Garestelle" took advantage of this opportunity to catch up, and for a time closed the distance between the two sides to the range of the "von der Tann", although the German battleship aimed its main guns at the British cruiser, but did not attempt to shoot at night at a long distance.

"Glaserstelle" was firmly eyeing William Zuchon's fleet, but by this time the commander of the British Mediterranean Fleet, Admiral Milne, and his three battle cruisers were still in the waters of Malta. In Milne's view, if Zuchon were to take his two warships to the Adriatic-controlled seas, they would soon be intercepted by the Trubrich fleet monitoring the Adriatic, but he was inclined to think that the Germans' course was an illusion that they would eventually turn north, hunt troop carriers laden with the French Foreign Legion, and then cross the Strait of Gibraltar into the Atlantic.

At about 10 o'clock in the evening, the engine failure of the "Breslau" was cleared, and William Zuchon, who was extremely disgusted with the English hound behind him, immediately ordered a full speed north. The two German shipbuilding triads were roaring in the calm Mediterranean, and the poor Glaserstel had been operating at full capacity for 11 hours, when mechanical failures began to torment the sailors and engineers accompanying the ship, and it could only watch the German fleet go away.

Leaving Messina and heading north, through the Strait of Otranto, into the Adriatic Sea, and since the Austro-Hungarian Empire declared war on Serbia on 28 July, a detachment of armored cruisers under the command of Vice Admiral Sir Ernest Trubridge of the British Navy has been stationed in the Strait of Otranto, whose mission is to "prevent the Austrians from coming out and the Germans from entering", but his four armored cruisers and eight destroyers are neither enough to compete with the Austro-Hungarian fleet nor to stop the "von der Tann". Therefore, according to Sir Trubridge's understanding, his first task was to monitor the enemy's movements, and once the Austro-Hungarian fleet attacked, he would use the speed advantage of the armored cruisers to contain it, and if it encountered the German battle cruisers, he would shrink the formation and fight and retreat.

That night, knowing that "von der Tann" and "Breslau" were heading towards the Adriatic, Trubridge nervously set up a battle array. The "Duke of Edinburgh", "Black Prince", "Warrior", "Defence", these four armored cruisers in three classes are the last armored cruisers built by the British Navy, and the most powerful armored cruisers in the history of the world's navies, with a standard displacement of between 1. 350,000 tons to 1. Between 460,000 tons, equipment 9. 2-inch (234 mm) main gun and 7. 5-inch (191 mm) or 6-inch (152 mm) large-caliber secondary guns with a maximum speed of 22 or 23 knots. The Russo-Japanese Naval War of 1904 was the golden age of armored cruisers, and the more expensive and powerful battlecruisers made these old battleships, which were once strategically important, completely obsolete.

During the Russo-Japanese War, Trubridge served as naval attaché in Japan and knew not to underestimate the effectiveness of long-range artillery fire. He was a well-known family whose great-grandfather fought with Nelson on the Nile, and who had the reputation of being "the finest officer in the navy in his youth," and who believed in seamanship what Europeans believed in the Bible. Churchill valued him and appointed him to the newly formed Naval Operations Staff in 1912, but in the face of a critical World War I was a man of choice, seamanship and staff excellence did not necessarily help a commander.

By 4 a.m., Trubridge had not yet waited for the von der Tann, and he had concluded that he no longer had any hope of engaging it on favorable terms. He believed that in broad daylight, even if the von der Tann was intercepted, it would be able to evade the range of his cannons and sink four of his armored cruisers one by one. He knew very well that once he had engaged in this skill of shooting and killing, there was very little chance that any of his four cruisers and eight destroyers would hit it with artillery fire or torpedoes. So, he telegraphed Milne of his concerns, and then sailed out of the Strait of Otranto with the fleet.

The door to the Adriatic Sea was wide open, but Wilhelm-Zuchon did not take the opportunity to enter the Austro-Hungarian-controlled seas. In fact, even without a secret order from the German Admiralty, he was reluctant to huddle in the harbor of Pula with two cutting-edge warships and accept the protection of the Austrians. After midnight, about an hour before the Strait of Otranto, Zuchon ordered a U-turn, and two German warships galloped along the Greek coastline, arriving near the island of Zakynthos in the southeastern part of the Ionian Sea at dawn. In view of the large amount of coal and heavy oil consumed by the high-speed voyage over long distances, Zuchon decided to refuel again in the Aegean Sea.

In preparation for war, Germany had long since divided the world's seas into a series of zones, each headed by a German quartermaster, who had the right to order all the ships in the zone to go wherever the German warships might have to rendezvous with them, and to requisition the assets of German banks and trading houses to meet the needs of warships, while in the Mediterranean, the quartermaster was headed by a major officer on the von der Tann.

After studying the charts, Zuxiong set the junction on the deserted island of Tinos, and radioed a merchant ship capable of providing coal and a secret supply ship loaded with heavy oil to sail to the island in advance. The British Navy's radio listening station in Malta intercepted the powerful signal sent by the "von der Tann", and although it was unable to decipher the German communication code, it was able to use radio lateral technology to deduce the position of the sender of the telegram, but at this moment, Milne still believed that the "von der Tann" had the intention of turning westward, and he returned to Malta with three battle cruisers to refuel and overhaul, preparing to deal a fatal blow to the German war cruisers in the best condition. Milne sent a telegram to the frustrated Grisestal to abandon its pursuit and join the Trubrich fleet. It is clear that the British, having grown fearful of the German Navy over the years, saw the von der Tann as a pirate ship that could attack merchant ships at sea. They hoped to besiege it anyway, but they lacked urgency in their pursuit, for they waited for it to turn around, and did not see at all that it was trying to get out of the east, or rather, sail to the Dardanelles with a very important political mission.

By midnight on 6 August, Milne's three battle cruiser fuel tanks were filled with coal and heavy fuel oil as they sailed out of Malta and headed east. With the German fleet in mind that it would have to turn around, Milne ordered his fleet to move slowly at a speed of 12 knots, lest it go too far and let the Germans take advantage of it. In fact, two of Zuxiong's warships had already sailed through Cape Matapan at the southern tip of the Greek island into the Aegean Sea. However, in the early morning of 7 August, "von der Tann" and "Breslau" were unexpectedly confronted by an Italian liner bound for Venice from Constantinople, and although Zuchon ordered the ships to lower the German flag and raise the British flag of St. George, his attempt to pass the customs was not realized. There happened to be two British intelligence officers on board the passenger ship, who identified the silhouette of the German battlecruiser, and a few hours later the news reached Milne, but he only thought that the Germans were planning to attack the Suez Canal, or find a Greek port for shelter, and as for the possibility of the two German battleships sailing to Turkey, like the British Admiralty, he did not think about it at all.

At 2 p.m. on August 7, Zuxiong, who had been circling the sea to hide his eyes, finally arrived on the island of Tinos with his two warships. There, "von der Tann" and "Breslau" were like two hungry beasts who finally got their food from their companions. In order to guard against the British, the boilers of the two battleships were full of steam so that they could depart within half an hour at the first alarm. Zu Xiong also set up a lookout post on a hilltop on the island, but the British were watching the Austrians from 500 nautical miles away.

From dusk to early morning of the next day, the Anglo-German navy engaged in a magnificent fleet battle in the waters of Jutland, but the Mediterranean Sea was so quiet that night that it seemed to have nothing to do with war. By midnight, Zuchon's fleet had enough fuel to continue eastward, and they were getting closer and closer to the Dardanelles, but the Turks did not enter the war as decisively as the German government had hoped—on 28 July, the day Austria declared war on Serbia, Turkey formally demanded that Germany conclude a secret offensive and defensive alliance, effective in the event of war between either side and Russia. On the same day, Berlin received this suggestion, accepted it immediately, and sent back by telegram a draft treaty signed by the Prime Minister, but at the last moment the Turks hesitated, and they could not tie the knot with the rope and tie their fate to the Germans, unless they were sure that the Germans would win......

(End of chapter)