In the second half of the night, Tan Renhao was called by Du Xing.

When he came to the command cabin, Zheng Guanhua was discussing in a low voice with several senior staff officers.

"Telegram received?" Tan Renhao walked over while arranging his shirt.

"It hasn't been fully translated, it's the intelligence of the commander of the Anglo-French joint expeditionary fleet." Zheng Guanhua gave the front page of the telegram to Tan Renhao, "This time we have met a strong opponent, Andrew Cunningham!" ”

Tan Renhao frowned slightly, he had heard this name a long time ago, he was the most outstanding fleet commander in the British Navy, and his status was very similar to Spruance's status in the American Navy. But Tan Renhao doesn't know much about this British "peer".

The telegram was quickly translated, because there was no relevant information about the British admiral in the fleet, so the naval command sent all the information of Admiral Cunningham together, and the reception and translation of the telegram alone kept several correspondence officers busy for more than an hour, and the translated telegram was dozens of pages!

Tan Renhao didn't waste any time, he asked Du Xing to make himself a cup of strong tea, and then read the telegram carefully.

Cunningham was not of noble origin, his father was a professor of anatomy at the University of Edinburgh, and he was not a pure Englishman, with Scottish ancestry. In 1897, nearly a decade before the outbreak of the First Global War, Cunningham joined the Royal Navy as a naval cadet and began his naval career aboard the HMS Britannia. Later, when the British were suppressing riots in the African colonies, Cunningham fought for the first time, however. This is a ground battle, not a sea battle. In the First Global War, he had become the captain of a destroyer. After the end of the Great War. He has always commanded destroyers, which is similar to Spruance. Halsey is a bit similar. And, thanks to his excellent work, he was recognized at that time as the best destroyer commander.

By the years leading up to the war, Cunningham had been assigned to the Royal Navy's Mediterranean Fleet, which at the time was the most prestigious in the British Royal Navy. And one of the most powerful fleets. Just a few months before the outbreak of the war, Cunningham was inaugurated as commander of the Mediterranean Fleet. The first thing he did when he took office was to completely reorganize the fleet, sweeping away the lazy style of former commander Pound on this side, and in a few months, the Mediterranean Fleet had completely changed its appearance, not only did it operate more efficiently, but also the mental outlook of its officers and men was completely renewed. Immediately, war broke out, and the Persian Empire began to strengthen its Mediterranean fleet. The Royal Navy's Mediterranean Fleet was also rapidly strengthened. It was also from this time that Cunningham reached the pinnacle of his naval career.

In the first years of the war, Cunningham had several outstanding combat operations. And almost every combat operation can be described as wonderful.

At the beginning of the war, Cunningham commanded the Mediterranean Fleet to attack Alexandria, using carrier-based bombers on aircraft carriers to attack the Persian fleet in the harbor, in more than two hours of bombardment. Cunningham flew dozens of bomber sorties, dropped more than 20 torpedoes and more than 30 bombs, sank two battleships of the Persian Imperial Navy, severely damaged the other two, and destroyed the main fleet of the Persian Imperial Navy in the Mediterranean Sea at that time. Later, the Persian Empire transferred the Indian Ocean Fleet to the Mediterranean, and it never had an advantage in the Mediterranean theater, which had a lot to do with this raid.

Subsequently, Cunningham commanded several battles with the Persian Imperial Navy. Although for most of the battle, the British Mediterranean Fleet was not the main force, but assisted the Italian fleet, and the Spanish fleet and the French Mediterranean fleet against the Persian Empire. However, during these operations, Cunningham not only accurately judged the tide of battle and turned the tide several times, but he also showed the confidence and flexibility characteristic of a good fleet commander. It was precisely because of this that the admirals of the Italian, Spanish and French navies were very dissatisfied with the way they were acting out of the group.

Cunningham's last operation in the Mediterranean was to assist the allied forces in Crete against the attacks of the Persian and Tang Empires. This was a skirmish that took place before the defeat of France, when France was not far from defeat, and the only way to improve the situation in the Eastern Mediterranean was to capture Crete, drive the British and Italian fleets out of the Eastern Mediterranean, and completely secure the Eastern Mediterranean route. Although the battle ended in a crushing defeat for the British, French, Spanish, and Italian forces, Cunningham managed to rescue more than 20,000 allied officers and soldiers on the island, preventing them from being captured or killed in battle. Because of this, Cunningham's heroic actions were unanimously praised, but he also lost several ships in the battle.

Originally, the British Navy did not let Cunningham command the expeditionary fleet, after all, the Mediterranean theater was very important, and the British mainland also needed naval defense. The British Navy first identified the commander of the expeditionary fleet as Samoville. But before the expeditionary fleet departed, Satsumville suffered from acute appendicitis, and as a result, he was hospitalized with a knife and could not board the battleship for at least a month or two. And the fleet could not wait for Samoville to recover from the hospital before departing. Therefore, the British Navy urgently recruited Cunningham back and made him the commander of the expeditionary fleet, and after Satsummerville recovered, he went to the Mediterranean Fleet to take Cunningham's place. On the third day after returning home, Cunningham boarded the flagship "King George V" and led the expeditionary fleet out of Portsmouth Harbor. And at this time, it was less than ten days before the end of the Battle of Crete!

The content of this information sent by the Navy Command is quite detailed, and even lists the school Cunningham attended as a child and the situation in the family. Tan Renhao and Zheng Guanhua both looked at it very seriously, this is rare information, and of course this is also the best way to understand the opponent. Both noted several important details in the telegram.

The first is Cunningham's experience of development in the British Navy. Unlike Spruance, Cunningham's development experience was much smoother. From being the captain of a destroyer to becoming the commander of the Mediterranean Fleet, Cunningham has come along the way without too many setbacks. More importantly, before the outbreak of war. He was already the commander of the Mediterranean Fleet, and Spruance was only then transferred to the Pacific Fleet, and at the time the United States entered the war (by which time the war had broken out for more than two years). Cunningham had already fought a few beautiful naval battles in the Mediterranean), and Spruance was nothing more than the commander of the cruiser formation of Task Force 16. This is the biggest difference between Cunningham and Spruance. Spruance rose to prominence through the exploits he had built during the war. And Cunningham already had a high enough status before the war.

Secondly, Cunningham is very different from the traditional British admirals, which is mainly reflected in the way he fights, especially in the application of aircraft carriers. The sneak attack on Alexandria can be said to be a miniature version of the "Naha Port Incident". Although its scale is not as large as Yamamoto's sneak attack on Naha Port. But the way it was applied to aircraft carriers, as well as the results of sneak attacks, were not much different. This is enough to show that Cunningham is not an old-fashioned general. Perhaps, his understanding and application of aircraft carriers are not as high as Spruance and Tan Renhao, and even worse than many aircraft carrier fleet commanders in the Imperial Navy and the U.S. Navy. But among the admirals of the British Navy, and even of all European countries, he can definitely be regarded as a commander who is proficient in aircraft carrier operations!

In addition, Cunningham's own ability to command a decisive battle of the fleet should not be underestimated. Because in the war, the main battlefield of the British Navy was not in the Mediterranean. Rather, in the North Sea and the North Atlantic, the position of the Mediterranean Fleet of the British Navy was not high, and it was not able to replace Italy. Spanish and French naval Mediterranean fleets. Cunningham, however, was not a supporting player in the Mediterranean.

In several battles between the combined fleets of the four European powers and the Persian naval fleet, Cunningham's ability was admirable, and his command of the battleships in decisive battles was also very good. Not only bold, but also innovative, more able to accurately grasp the subtle opportunities. These are indispensable abilities for a good fleet commander.

Another important characteristic of Cunningham is that he was extremely strict with the officers and men of the fleet. This was very evident when he arrived at the Mediterranean Fleet. When Pound, the former commander of the British Royal Navy's Mediterranean Fleet, was in office, although the Mediterranean Fleet had a high reputation, the troops were undisciplined and extremely inefficient, and their combat effectiveness can be imagined. The first thing Cunningham did after taking office was to completely reorganize the fleet, kick out a group of incompetent officers, and promote a group of talented young officers who were previously unusable. In addition, he comprehensively strengthened the training of the fleet, and formulated detailed rules on how to wear clothes that were extremely strict and detailed down to the company level. In just a few months, the Mediterranean Fleet was completely transformed, and in the ensuing battles it exploded into great force.

Of course, Tan Renhao did not ignore one point, and that is Cunningham's Scottish roots. This issue is directly related to the internal contradictions of the United Kingdom. During the Tang Empire's colonization of Britain, Britain was divided into two kingdoms, one was the Kingdom of England and the other was the Kingdom of Scotland (Wales was a colony of the Tang Empire at that time). The biggest difference between the two kingdoms is that the Kingdom of England is Protestant, while the Kingdom of Scotland is Catholic. At that time, the policy of the Tang Empire was to pit the two kingdoms against each other, but they could not destroy each other, so as to rush to profit from the middle. Later, when the European independence movement broke out, the Tang Empire was forced to leave Britain, and the Kingdom of England quickly defeated the weaker Kingdom of Scotland, unified Britain, and even sent troops to occupy Ireland (Britain's first colony). From this point of view, the main body of Britain is England, and there are not many records of Scots serving as senior admirals in the post-independence history of England. Clearly, Cunningham was an outlier.

The telegram also mentioned a detail, that is, Cunningham also had a younger brother named Alain, who served in the British Royal Army and was a general in the army. This also directly illustrates another problem, that is, Cunningham's background is relatively similar to Tan Renhao, he is not from a naval family, and his father is just an ordinary anatomy professor, and he has nothing to do with the navy at all. And Cunningham's ability to become one of the best fleet commanders in the British Navy is closely related to his own efforts and his own abilities.

Finally, and most importantly, at the end of the telegram, Nie Renfeng personally told Tan Renhao not to underestimate this British admiral, let alone underestimate the enemy. In fact, even without the principal's advice, after reading the telegram, Tan Renhao would not have any thoughts of underestimating the enemy. If you want to give a figurative analogy, then Cunningham is the Spruance of the British Navy, an extremely difficult opponent to defeat. Moreover, in terms of experience, Cunningham was still above Spruance, and he was more experienced in combat, very familiar with various naval battle tactics, and more focused on commanding fleet decisive battles.

"General Tan, it seems that we have encountered a difficult opponent this time." Zheng Guanhua's feelings were the same as Tan Renhao's, "Perhaps, Cunningham is the best fleet commander in the British Navy!" ”

"Even if it's not, it's one of the best." Tan Renhao let out a sigh and put down the message in his hand. "Judging by the operation he planned to attack Cape Town, this opponent was very difficult to deal with. And he's not in control of the situation below us, and maybe now he's thinking about how to get us to the bottom of the sea. ”

Zheng Guanhua also put down the message in his hand.

"At least, we now know who our opponent is, which is much better than not knowing anything."

"Yes, no matter how good the opponent is, we have to get to know him first. The information sent to us by the principal was very timely, very detailed, and of course, very important. Tan Renhao stood up, "What kind of general do you think, Cunningham is?" ”

Zheng Guanhua pondered, and after a while, he said: "He is adventurous, but he never takes risks without certainty, and he will not easily obey the command of others, and he is very autonomous on the battlefield." Most importantly, he has a keen sense of judgment and is often able to seize opportunities that others don't notice, or don't notice at all, and win with it! If there is a characteristic of him, then I think he is a general who is more inclined to attack! ”

Tan Renhao nodded slightly, Zheng Guanhua's analysis was very in place. To be more precise, Cunningham was a general who was able to take advantage of all the favorable factors, avoid the negative ones, and then turn them into victories, a most difficult general to deal with!