When the supply fleet was attacked, Cunningham's reaction was much stronger than that of Chang Zhixin and Tan Renhao, and it can even be said that he had no idea that Task Force 3 would suddenly appear at the southern end of the Mozambique Channel and wipe out the fleet that had supplied the fleet with fuel and food in a few clicks. Now, Cunningham felt a headache. It can be said that his situation at this time is even more dangerous than that of Task Force 3 and Task Force 1, and moreover, for Cunningham, the sudden killing of Task Force 3 from behind is definitely a mortal threat!

Cunningham is not much more in control of the battle situation than Tan Renhao, although he has a strict plan, but for Cunningham, it is much more difficult to realize the plan than to make a plan! And at that time, Cunningham was in far more trouble than Tan Renhao. Weather factors affected the naval fleet of the Tang Empire at the same time, but also affected the Anglo-French joint expeditionary fleet. Moreover, the weather factor is still secondary, after all, the weather here is not much worse than in the North Atlantic, and the impact of the defeat of France is the most important!

Before the capture of Poletown Harbor, Cunningham received a secret telegram from the British Admiralty asking him to keep a close eye on the movements of the French Expeditionary Fleet, especially Goldford, the commander of the French Expeditionary Fleet. Cunningham knew very well the meaning of this telegram, at that time the French mainland had lost more than half of it, and Britain and the United States were not discussing how to support France, but how to stabilize Spain and Italy after the defeat of France, and how to block Germany from landing on British soil. To put it bluntly, Britain has given up on France and no longer holds out any hope for France.

At that time, the British prime minister had already recognized the problems caused by France's defeat. Maybe. The Germans could not immediately cross the narrow channel, the British Air Force had not yet been defeated, and the British Navy was still very strong. But if the French navy is controlled by the Germans. The situation will change dramatically. It was also at this time that the British Prime Minister ordered an emergency response plan. After the defeat of France and the announcement of its surrender, every effort should be made to prevent the warships of the French Navy from falling into the hands of Germany!

At that time, Cunningham received the secret telegram to warn him that France could announce its surrender at any time. And it is quite possible that France, after announcing its surrender, will have its navy surrender to Germany.

The most powerful fleet of the French Navy is its expeditionary fleet, so it is necessary to prevent the French expeditionary fleet from falling into the hands of the enemy. Cunningham was not unaware of the importance of the matter, and although he did not want to tear his face with the French, and he believed that force was never the most effective way to solve the problem, he nevertheless made arrangements for it. For example, when the fleet was attacking Cape Town, he secretly ordered the British troops stationed on the Gold Coast to spy on the French troops, and secretly controlled important military installations, especially the port. as well as oil depots.

After the capture of Cape Town, Cunningham received a direct order to stop the return of the French expeditionary fleet at all costs. And not even let the French expeditionary fleet disarm the enemy! At this time, the French government had not officially announced its surrender, and the British Prime Minister had received accurate information and made arrangements in advance (which was also at this time. The British Mediterranean Fleet began planning to shell the French fleet in the port of Oran). At that time, Cunningham made an ingenious arrangement, he did not show any suspicion in front of the French, but confidently and boldly let Godford stay in Cape Town, support the expeditionary force to annihilate the Tang Empire army on land, and complete the operation to control the port of Cape Town. And he led the LinkedIn expeditionary fleet to kill Moroni.

It can be said that Cunningham's arrangement was quite risky, and if Goldford had rebelled, he would have been unable to stop it, but he had a reason to do so.

Cunningham and Goldford had known each other for several years, and had always had a good personal relationship, and the two had worked together several times in the Mediterranean. And when he handed over the rear to Godford, he dispelled Godford's suspicions of him and avoided an armed conflict between the two friendly armies. And all this because Cunningham believed that Goldford would not surrender his arms to the Germans, but would continue to fight in response to the call of the French government-in-exile!

This was indeed proved by the fact that after receiving orders from the French government, the first thing Gotfoy did was not to return the fleet, but to contact Cunningham. At this time, Carningham had a showdown with Godfoy. He gave Godford two options, the French fleet could continue to fight, and it would still be under Godford's command, and Cunningham would not interfere in the internal affairs of the French expeditionary fleet. Either the French fleet would go to the United States, or it would be disarmed at a port in South America controlled by the British, and the officers and men who wished to return to France would be sent to neutral countries and then repatriated to France.

After giving Goldford these two options, Cunningham also hinted that the British expeditionary force had taken control of the oil depots in all the ports along the way, and was ready to blow up the oil depots at any time, and if the French expeditionary fleet was ready to return to the mainland, then Cunningham would have no choice but to order the oil depots to be blown up, and then the French expeditionary fleet would have to stay in Cape Town!

It can be said that Cunningham's handling was very subtle, he gave Goldford enough respect and courtesy to the French naval officers and men, but at the same time, he also showed his tough side. At that time, the supply fleet of the expeditionary fleet had left Cape Town and was on its way to rendezvous with the British expeditionary fleet. If the oil depot in Cape Town had been blown up, the French expeditionary fleet would not have been able to return to the mainland, and any port along the way could have been seized by British troops.

Godford also made a rational choice, he did not directly agree to Cunningham's request, but said that he would continue the expedition, and after the completion of the expedition, Cunningham must provide enough fuel for the French expeditionary fleet to return to the French colonial ports in the Caribbean, and then it is not up to Godfoy to decide where the French fleet will go.

Cunningham immediately agreed to the request. By this time, he had already received information that the Don Empire fleet stationed in Colombo had left the port, and before that, a mixed formation of supply ships and landing ships had also left Colombo. It was at this time that Cunningham finalized his battle plan. Before leaving Moroni, he sent a telegram to Godford. Let Godford immediately lead the fleet to rendezvous with the British Expeditionary Fleet, while the flotilla that had previously supplied the British Expeditionary Fleet with fuel would return to Cape Town and be refueled before meeting the fleet. Other words. At this time, Cunningham was already determined. To intercept the Don Imperial fleet halfway!

After stabilizing the morale of the French expeditionary fleet, Cunningham still had to face a thorny problem, that is, his warships had sailed more than 10,000 nautical miles, and many of them were in a bad state. And during the storming of Capton, two battleships were slightly damaged. None of these problems have been resolved. Although these damages are not enough to render the battleship incapacitated, if it is not resolved, it will be a hidden danger sooner or later. To make matters more troublesome, the storm had a greater impact on the Anglo-French joint expeditionary fleet. The fleet of the Tang Empire could operate outside the storm zone as much as possible, while the Anglo-French joint expeditionary fleet had to operate in the storm zone!

Although the naval warships of almost all European countries at that time, especially the navies of Britain, France, and Germany, often carried out combat missions in the North Atlantic, they emphasized the ability of warships to resist wind and waves when designing, and the design standards of warships of these countries were also quite high.

Especially in terms of ship types, it has always been the best in the world. But no matter how good a warship is, there is a limit to what it can withstand. However, it is impossible to completely eliminate the effects of wind and waves by design, especially under the technical conditions of the time, it is impossible for any warship to be safe in the wind and waves.

The first to go wrong were the three aircraft carriers. During the capture of Capton, the three British Navy aircraft carriers remained in the northern seas as long as possible. Get out of the storm zone as much as possible. But the problem was that at that time, the combat radius of carrier-based aircraft on British aircraft carriers was not far, and to support the capture of Cape Town, the support of bombers was needed. As a result, when Cunningham transferred the bombers on the three carriers to the shore airfield that had just been occupied, all three carriers went wrong.

Then there were the small warships in the fleet, especially destroyers and light cruisers.

Originally, the displacement of destroyers and light cruisers of the British Navy was on the small side (compared to the Tang Imperial Navy), and the displacement was an important indicator of the ability of the battleship to resist wind and waves. By the time Cunningham had Godford lead the French expeditionary fleet to join him, eight destroyers and light cruisers had broken down, four of which were already in Cape Town harbor for repairs, while the other four were on their way back.

Then, even the battleship went wrong. The radar on the battleship "Lion" was the first to malfunction, and the strong wind blew off the entire transmitting antenna of the radar. Then, there was a problem with the communications equipment of the "Howe", which was also caused by the storm. The "Brave" had a third problem, and at the site of a shell, the pipes inside the ship ruptured, causing several sailors to be wounded. By the time the French expeditionary fleet arrived, two more French battleships had also gone into trouble.

In this case, if other commanders were returned, I am afraid that they would not consider remaining in the open sea, but would lead the fleet back to Cape Town. But Cunningham did not give up, especially after the news from Moroni's side that the Tang Imperial Marines had captured Moroni and a large number of supply ships had arrived, Cunningham firmly believed that his judgment was not wrong. The Tang Empire's fleet will use Moroni as a base and gradually advance southward, and the Tang Empire's fleet will definitely be near here, and his interception will have a great chance of success!

Cunningham ordered as many repairs as possible of the battleship's faulty equipment, and also brought the fleet to the vicinity of Ruriwang Island, leaving the fleet in the leeward direction to avoid storm damage. This is exactly the same as Tan Renhao's judgment that Cunningham did not let the fleet operate in the open sea, but sheltered from the storm near the islands!

At that time, Cunningham spent a lot of effort in order to lure the Tang Imperial fleet south and give him the opportunity to intercept. For example, leave signs of hasty retreat at Moroni, so that the Tang Imperial fleet thinks they are ready to flee, and then pursue them at full speed. In addition, the British and French expeditionary forces also used terrorist means to arrest three Tang Empire spies in Cape Town, and forced these three spies to send false information (but the British quickly executed the three spies, which aroused the suspicion of the Tang Empire's intelligence agencies). In order to prevent other Tang Empire spy personnel from sending out news, the British and French expeditionary forces also carried out de facto military control in Cape Town, arrested all suspicious persons, and also carried out comprehensive spot checks, constantly creating a terrifying atmosphere, forcing all the Tang Empire spy personnel to go underground and dare not easily expose themselves.

This is also a reflection of Cunningham's characteristic, he can do anything to achieve his goals. At that time, the Anglo-French Expeditionary Force had already committed crimes against humanity in Cape Town, and several British and French officers were sentenced to death for war crimes and crimes against humanity after the war.

But at that time, it seemed that Cunningham was indeed very courageous, and everything he did was to lure the Tang Imperial fleet south as soon as possible, crashed into his trap, and then was completely annihilated!

But the problem is that Cunningham did not fully understand the commander of the Tang Imperial Fleet, and he only obtained some information about Tan Renhao and Chang Jianxin from the United States, knowing that Tan Renhao was the number one fleet commander of the Tang Imperial Navy, and Chang Jianxin was a "generalist". It was this lack of understanding that prevented Cunningham from taking into account some of the more details. If Spruance had been in his place, the trap would not have been so simple!

By the 25th, Cunningham also felt that something was wrong, the Tang Imperial fleet had left Colombo on the 18th, and it had only been six days since it arrived on the island of Madagascar, according to his calculations, on the night of the 24th, he should have encountered the Tang Imperial fleet, but until the night of the 25th, the reconnaissance ships he sent out still did not gain anything. Moreover, the remaining fuel in the fleet was not very sufficient at this time, and Cunningham also received news that the landing fleet of the Don Empire had left Moroni. In other words, there were new actions in the Navy of the Don Empire. It was on this night that Cunningham left the island of Ruriwang with the fleet.