After the end of the thrilling Battle of San Miguel, the US and British fleets were stationed on Texel Island, and the Allied fleet was stationed on San Miguel Island, and throughout the first half of June, the main fleets of both sides did not make any new major moves, and the Azorean front temporarily calmed down, but this by no means means means that the two sides will coexist peacefully here, and the calm and calm on the surface cannot hide the breath of the storm. www.biquge.info During this period, both sides were looking for ways to increase their forces and at the same time cut off the other's sea supply lines, and the submarine forces, which had few opportunities to play in fleet battles, found a place to play. In just 10 days from 3 to 12 June, US and British submarines sank and damaged 41 enemy ships in the waters off the Azores, and Allied submarines also achieved an outstanding record of sinking 16 ships and damaging 19 ships.

On June 14, the American and British forces launched a landing attack from the island of Texel to the neighboring island of São Jorge, and the American and British fleets supported it with a number of battleships, while the Allies had only 3,000 troops on the island of São Jorge, and the fortifications here were far inferior to those of Texel, Flores, and San Miguel. Faced with a powerful offensive by the American and British forces, the Allied forces were faced with a dilemma: to sit back and watch the enemy occupy São Jorge, or to commit naval and air forces to prevent the opponent's landing operation. After repeated weighing and debate among the command structures of the German General Staff, the Naval Staff, and the High Seas Fleet, a compromise strategy was finally reached -- the air forces deployed in the Azores were to attack the US-British landing ships and support ships with all their might, while the main fleet of the Central Powers under the command of Admiral Beinke was only waiting for an opportunity in the rear.

If the battle had been carried out according to the German assumption, land-based fighters taking off from Pico, San Miguel, and Flores islands, as well as aircraft carriers and carrier-based planes from the Allied fleet, would have sunk a large number of enemy landing ships and severely damaged the enemy's artillery fleet, thus killing two birds with one stone while holding São Jorge and striking at the main fleet of the United States and Britain, but the development of the battle had deviated far from this assumption, and the beautiful vision had turned into a terrible nightmare. And an effective radar early warning system has been established. On the morning of the 14th, the US and British fighters shot down 78 Allied planes at the cost of losing 44 planes, and by the afternoon, the air battle was even more one-sided, with the US and British air forces shooting down 74 Allied fighters with a mere loss of 31 planes, while less than 20 US and British ships were sunk and damaged by Allied planes in the battle!

On the 15th, the American and British troops who landed on the island of São Jorge stormed the commanding heights occupied by the Germans, and the American and British fighters taking off from the island of Texel effectively supported the offensive of the ground forces, while the Allied air forces were afraid of the heavy losses of the previous day, and several sorties on this day ended hastily. In desperation, Admiral Beinke led the fleet north, shelled the port and aviation facilities on Texel Island in the early morning of the 16th, and sent a cruiser detachment to launch a night attack on the landing ground of the American and British troops on the island of São Jorge, this action greatly encouraged the German troops trapped on the island of São Jorge, but after dawn, the nightmare that the American and British fleets had encountered befell the Allies, and groups of American and British fighters pounced on Beenke's battleship, and the "Mackensen" with infinite scenery in the naval battle of San Miguel Island The company was hit by four bombs and one torpedo and sank at 9:34 a.m. on the 16th at a position more than 60 nautical miles south of Texel Island, the German-class battleships "Prussia" and "Silesia" were also heavily hit by enemy air raids, and the heavy cruiser "Admiral Hipper" as the rearguard was sunk by the powerful American battle cruiser "Lexington" in a battle with the American and British cruisers.

As a result of this battle, the Allied forces in the Azores were so demoralized that even if two Bavaria-class battleships and De Vellinger-class battlecruisers arrived on São Miguel, they could not reverse the decline. By the 19th, the American and British forces had cleared the German resistance on the island of São Jorge; On the 22nd, the U.S. and British troops launched a landing attack on Pico Island, which was heavily defended by the Allies, and the Allied troops who had lost their naval and air cover suffered heavy losses under the ravages of enemy fighters and naval artillery, and the depth of Pico Island was not enough to support them to carry out in-depth defense or guerrilla operations. In order to rescue more than 7,000 Allied soldiers who were trapped, the Allied fleet again took advantage of the night to encounter the main American and British fleets west of Pico Island.

On the 24th and 25th, the Allies reluctantly withdrew about 2,000 soldiers from Pico Island using destroyers and submarines, and on the 26th, the remaining Allied defenders surrendered to the American and British forces, and before that, the American and British forces occupied the other two small islands in the central Azores without blood, and with the end of the Battle of Pico, the central island group of the Azores was completely occupied by the United States and Britain.

In June, the situation in the Azores turned extremely unfavorable for the Allies, and the difference between Austria-Hungary and Italy becoming more apparent whether or not Austria-Hungary and Italy entered the war. However, no matter how much Germany tried to woo and lure, the authorities in Vienna and Rome still held a wait-and-see attitude, and after the fall of Pico Island, the German naval staff found through war games that even if Austria-Hungary and Italy quickly entered the war and threw all their capital ships into the Azores battlefield, the chances of the Allied fleet defeating the American and British fleets were less than 30%. As a result, the idea of a strategic abandonment in the Azores is growing at the top of the German hierarchy.

On the other hand, the German and Irish armies were slower to attack the British mainland, but after more than a month of fierce fighting, the Allies' greatest gain was to crush the British Royal Air Force and thus gain air supremacy in Wales and England. In the last week of June, the decisive Battle of Snowdonia was fought in central Wales, with the result that the Allied forces won by a landslide. From a grand strategic point of view, as long as the British Isles are successfully captured, even if the British royal family and government continue to fight abroad, the Americans will have no foothold in Europe if they want to set foot in Europe.

On July 10, 1933, the Sovereigns, Heads of Government or Plenipotentiaries of the Allied Powers gathered in the picturesque Bavarian town of Berchtesgaden for the first summit since the outbreak of the Great War. Since the conclusion of the Triple Alliance in 1882, after half a century of development and expansion, the power of the Central Powers has spanned Asia, Europe and Africa, and its military and political tentacles have spread all over the world. In today's Europe, except for Switzerland, Norway, Sweden, Luxembourg, Britain, and Soviet Russia, all European countries have joined the Allied camp, but the alliance treaty still retains its original defensive nature, so in the case of Germany taking the initiative to attack Britain, only Ireland should enter the war in response to the military agreement between Germany and Ireland.

The reason why the arrogant Germans were able to tolerate these "little brothers" on the sidelines was, on the one hand, the strength of the German and Irish armies was more than enough to deal with the British homeland forces, and the armies of other Allied countries would not only be useless, but would in turn drag them down; On the other hand, the neutrality of these countries amounted to the creation of a large buffer zone around Germany, which allowed Germany to avoid fighting on multiple fronts as much as possible, and the German war machine was running at high speed, and the resources of almost every Allied country were being used directly or indirectly.

"I have good news for you, the Battle of Snowdonia, which ended a few days ago, has been completed, which annihilated the British Continental Army...... Two hundred and twenty-three thousand nine hundred and sixty-one, captured...... 94,470 men, and the flag was captured...... One hundred and thirty-four, capturing officers of major and above...... Two hundred and nine people, destroying the chariot...... Nine hundred and sixty-nine, captured vehicles...... One hundred and thirty-two, captured artillery...... 405 gates, and another annihilation and capture of the Commonwealth army...... One hundred eighty-four thousand three hundred fifty-eight. ”

In a tone of frustration, the German Crown Prince Wilhelm the Younger informed the heads of the monarch of the latest fruitful victory, and as Chief of the General Staff of the German Army and commander-in-chief of the war against the British, he had every reason to enjoy the glory of this victory.

When the applause had subsided, William the Younger owed himself to his father as a sign of this great gift to His Majesty the Great Emperor, and then he triumphantly said: "After this battle, the road to the heart of England is open, and in a few weeks our army will sweep through Wales and England until it reaches the city of London." Our blockade of the British mainland has lasted since the beginning of the war, and a few fish that have slipped through the net are not enough to maintain the material consumption of the British, and now the British native army is close to exhaustion of both men and equipment, and the morale is declining day by day, and some British Commonwealth troops even collapsed in the first battle. In view of this, we have readjusted our plans for the war against the British, and in two months, at most before the leaves fall, we will conclude our operations on British soil, and the direction of the war will shift from land to sea. As you know, we have recently lost a battle in the Azores, the losses of the navy are extremely sad, the situation there is not optimistic, maybe we can hold the line, maybe not, we plan to build thirty new capital ships and twenty aircraft carriers in four to five years, plus the modernization of the existing ships, then the German high seas fleet will have the strength to crush the American and British navies, and until then, we will continue to fight the enemy in the Atlantic, and we will do our best to prevent the enemy from approaching Europe. Perhaps, this war will end with the compromise of the enemy, but we must prepare for the worst, we must be prepared for the enemy to attack Europe, and after the occupation of the LinkedIn country, this line of defense of Europe should extend from Iceland to Gibraltar, the name of which I have already thought of...... European barriers. ”

Much of what Crown Prince William said was expected, and when he spoke of Gibraltar, anyone with a keen sense of smell could not help but perceive the extraordinary meaning behind it. The failure to secure the fortress of Gibraltar from the British was considered Germany's greatest failure in the signing of the London Armistice, and during the Portuguese crisis, the Germans tried to seize both the Azores and the fortress of Gibraltar, but for various reasons failed. Now that the Germans want to build a European barrier, the southernmost and most important link in this line of defense is the fortress of Gibraltar, which guards the entrance and exit to the Mediterranean, so it seems that the Germans are determined to win it this time.

(End of chapter)