"What a bunch of elm heads the guys from the Navy Staff! They know that they sit in their offices and imagine that they don't understand what a real war is all about! If they had planned and commanded the naval battles at Jutland and Flanders, we would have lost a long time ago! ”

In the office of Admiral Reinhardt-Schell, the commander of the German High Seas Fleet in Kiel, the chief of fleet operations, Colonel von Trota, unceremoniously attacked the Naval Staff that the Pacific Detachment under the command of Count Spee, would not have ventured to the Cape Verde Islands to refuel without their decision-making arrangements. Leaving aside www.biquge.info diplomatic friction between Germany and Portugal, the whole world now knows that Germany's Pacific Fleet has arrived in the waters of West Africa, and its intention to return to Germany is well known after a short voyage and a low-key journey. Once they joined the German High Seas Fleet, they were bound to be like fish in water, so it was likely that the Allied navies would send ships to intercept them on the way.

Although there were no members of the Naval Staff present, and Colonel Trota's comments were spontaneous, if such words reached the ears of some members of the Naval Staff, they would inevitably add new divisions to old differences. Vice Admiral von Speer, the veteran commander of the reconnaissance fleet, deliberately turned the subject back to the right path, saying: "Since the incident has already happened, whether it is a human error of decision-making or not to blame will be determined in the future, and the problem that we urgently need to solve now is how to help Count Spee's Pacific detachment return to the North Sea smoothly." ”

"In fact, even if the British and French navies deliberately send ships to intercept Spee's fleet, they may not be able to make operational deployments, and judging from the current situation, Earl Spee's two armored cruisers have been separated from the auxiliary vessels, and they can continue to operate at a speed of more than 14 knots when they are fully refueled." Senior Staff Officer Lieutenant Colonel von Lefetsov analyzed.

"Anyway, we have to prepare for the worst."

The Chief of Staff of the Fleet, Rear Admiral Joachim Franz Hubert, the genius of the Hohenzollern royal family, has long been a god-like existence in the minds of his colleagues. He didn't speak in a loud voice, and his tone seemed very calm, but after he spoke, everyone obviously didn't bother with anything else, but followed this line of thought.

Lieutenant Commander von Lefetsov, a senior staff officer of the High Seas Fleet, said: "I think that in the current situation, the enemy has three options for interception: one is to send ships from the Mediterranean to intercept Spee in the middle of the North Atlantic; the second was to send a fleet from the south of England to intercept Spee in the waters of southwestern Ireland; The third was to send a fleet from Scotland to intercept Spee in the waters of northwestern or northern Britain. From the point of view of time, the latter two are undoubtedly more feasible. ”

Vice Admiral von Speer's deputy, Major Raeder, chief of staff of the reconnaissance fleet, who was the lowest-ranking officer present, spoke weakly: "In order to win in a losing streak, the enemy may also bet on all three areas, after all, a short-term movement of forces will not affect their military layout in the Mediterranean Sea and the British mainland." ”

"Makes sense." Natsuki nodded in response.

Raeder continued: "Six hours ago, Earl Spee's Pacific Fleet was at 37°20'N, 18°04'W, 460 nautical miles from the Port of Gibraltar. In the experience of Count Spee, the sudden breaking of radio silence must have been the result of some special circumstances. If the British Navy had discovered this fleet at the first time and sent warships from Gibraltar to the northwest to pursue it, the fast light ships might catch up the day after tomorrow, and then try to hold off the Speese fleet and wait for their own capital ships to come and complete the front and rear entrapment. ”

"I can't think of any other way than to have Earl Spee change his voyage and delay his arrival in Ireland." Colonel Trotta spread his hands and said, "The Blucher is still in Greenland waters for repairs, and our main fleet is still in home waters, and there will be no large ships of ours in Irish waters before November 4." ”

Xia Shu said: "It is inevitable that the original rendezvous plan will be cancelled, and before dinner, I spoke on the phone with Admiral von Pohl's first staff adjutant, and they are starting to adjust the battle plan. ”

"With their poor wisdom......" Colonel Trota shook his head with contempt, "to tell the truth, they ought to ask your Highness to give them some advice, so that their plans may seem clever." ”

Natsuki sneered wordlessly, he was Tirpitz's protégé and a believer in the theory of naval offensive, and the chief of the naval cabinet Mueller and the chief of the naval staff Boll were supporters of the theory of naval existence, and the two sides were at odds for a long time. On the surface, the resounding victories of the German Navy at Jutland and Flanders made this divergence of strategic doctrine meaningless, but behind this there was a hidden struggle for power at the top of the navy. With the development and growth of the German Navy, the position and power of the head of the Navy rose, and Tirpitz was not only an ambitious, energetic and brilliant leader, but also a power-rich, stubborn and arrogant right-winger, some people stood on his opposite side because of different political views, and some people wanted to break his special position of arbitrary and arbitrary in the German Navy. Monarchs who are susceptible to the inducement of others, especially in the period when war has not yet broken out but Europe is already cloudy, Wilhelm II was worried that Tirpitz's combat strategy would bury the German Navy, so he deliberately alienated Tirpitz and reused Muller and Pol, and handed over the Navy's war plan to the staff led by Pol to take full responsibility, and the result was a ridiculous scene - on the eve of the war, Tirpitz, as the supreme commander of the Navy, did not know what the Navy's war plan was, and what was even more ridiculous was that The conservatism of the Naval Staff's war plan, which was preoccupied with how to resist the oppressive blockade of the British Navy, and had no courage to take the initiative to attack, proved to be a sign of their low strategic wisdom.

Fortunately, the adventurous Kaiser Wilhelm II approved Natsuki's battle plan at the last minute, giving the German High Seas Fleet a chance to give it a go, which led to the brilliant victory of the Battle of Jutland, and the next two Flanders naval battles were carried out by the High Seas Fleet, so it was the High Seas Fleet Command that formulated the operational strategy, which was approved by the Navy top brass and the Kaiser himself, and this time the combat operations in the Irish Sea involved the High Seas Fleet, the Marine Corps, the Submarine Force, and the Pacific Fleet. In the middle and later stages, it also needs to be cooperated by the government's foreign affairs department, and many areas are beyond the authority of the High Seas Fleet, so the overall coordination of the naval staff is required.

"From what I know of Admiral Bol, I'm afraid he's not the kind of person who is flexible." Scheer, who was sitting on the top seat, said a little gloomily.

Natsuki looked at his hardcore comrades-in-arms and said, "If the final decision of the Navy Staff is not to change the timetable of the plan, then I will directly state to Your Majesty that there is a fatal problem with this combat plan." ”

There was a brief silence in Scheer's office, and internal friction was clearly the last thing the soldiers wanted.

Although the lowest-ranking Raeder was a young officer with little command and staff experience, he was already quite accomplished in the field of naval scholarship, for which he was appreciated by Tirpitz and Kaiser Wilhelm II, and was even awarded the Red Eagle Medal by the Kaiser for his academic contributions. At this time, he obviously didn't mind being a sharp prick: "At dinner, I kept thinking, if our opponent has his eye on the Speese fleet, why don't we use it as bait to see if we can catch a few big fish?" ”

This proposal immediately brought a breath of fresh air to the somewhat dull office, and the idea of turning passive into active was also very much in line with Natsuki's appetite.

Receiving the approving glances from the generals, the 38-year-old Raeder elaborated: "My initial idea was to have a series of schemes. Feint in the waters off Flanders (a geographical concept that includes the coasts of the Netherlands, Belgium and northeastern France) to contain the main fleet of the British Navy, and at the same time send the main fleet to the waters southwest of Ireland, where the Earl of Speey lures the British fleet into a preset ambush circle, and allows the reconnaissance fleet to beat the armored cruisers of the British Navy. Next, we will send troops to land on the west coast of Ireland in response to the Irish insurgents, the Spee's fleet and the reconnaissance fleet will continue to operate on the Irish coast, and the British Navy will definitely send the capital ships through the English Channel, and we will deploy a large number of submarines at the western end of the English Channel and ambush the main fleet in this area, and then fight an ambush battle for the British Navy. ”

Raeder's voice fell, and there was a silence in the office again, and several of the main generals and the most senior staff officers of the High Seas Fleet all had serious expressions, some with empty eyes, some with closed eyes, obviously seriously pondering the meaning of this strategy.

After a while, Natsuki was the first to break the silence: "What a serial plan, if it can be successful, we will give the British Navy the most fatal blow, and the end of the war on the Western Front will be just around the corner." ”

"This is indeed a brilliant battle plan, comparable to the one we made in the waters of Jutland." Colonel Trota's tone was clearly first raised and then lowered, and he immediately raised his doubts: "I am not worried about whether the British will be led by our nose, but our own ships participating in the battle must first be able to carry out according to a strict schedule, and there must be no problems in any link, so that it is possible to complete the plan in a tight manner, and then our enemies, who must also cooperate with our actions very tacitly." ”

Raeder immediately explained, "It may seem like a difficult thing to do, but we are actually taking advantage of the enemy's eagerness to encircle and annihilate Spee's fleet and get them to follow our schedule." After winning the first victory, we landed in Ireland, which was actually more difficult for the British to accept than landing directly on the British Isles, as long as they were convinced that our capital ships were deployed in the waters of Flanders, they would definitely send the best part of their capital ships to Ireland, and it would be a battle to save their national fortunes, and they could only win and not lose. ”

(End of chapter)