Just two months ago, the US-British coalition captured Corvo Island and threatened the island of Flores with its main fleet, while the damaged "Prince Heinrich" was still being repaired at the island's only harbor, Santa Cruz. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 infoIn order to prevent the capital ship from falling into enemy hands, von Oldenburg ordered the installation of an initiating device in the ammunition depot in order to completely destroy it if it was forced to do so. The news of the trapped "Prince Heinrich" came back to Germany, and there was an uproar from all walks of life, from nobles to commoners, countless people spontaneously went to the church to pray, and the German General Staff and the naval department also did their best, and Admiral Beinke, who was under heavy pressure, led the main fleet of the Central Powers to mourn the battle, and finally showed convincing strength in the key battle, successfully rescued the "Prince Heinrich", which greatly encouraged the confidence of the front-line soldiers and the people in the rear.

Time has passed, the situation of the Battle of the Azores has taken a dramatic turn, the United States and British fleets, which once had a significant advantage, suffered a Waterloo-style defeat in the Second Battle of Flores, the "Washington" and "New Mexico" were sunk, the "Colorado" and "Mississippi" were seriously injured, the "Indiana" and "Queen Elizabeth" were not lightly injured, only the battle cruiser "Howe" was in better condition, but in the face of the main fleet of the Central Powers cruising the open sea, this British battle cruiser did not dare to sail easily. Helplessly, the surviving capital ships were trapped in the port of Santa Cruz.

The loss of the aircraft carrier formation first, the loss of the battlefield air superiority, and the folding of the capital ship group, the use of "a complete defeat" to describe the situation of the US-British coalition forces in the Azores is quite appropriate, and the complete defeat of the British Commonwealth army in Britain makes people feel that there is no suspense in this war. However, looking at the strength of the warring sides from an objective perspective, it is not difficult to find that the US and British camps still have a chance to achieve a big turnaround. First of all, the industrial capacity of the entire North American region was comparable to that of the Allied countries combined, with the former having a high degree of versatility due to the close cooperation after World War I, and the latter basically operating independently, with different technical standards and uneven distribution of resources, and the efficiency of transforming industry into war potential was significantly inferior to that of its opponents. Second, after the early attrition of the Battle of the Azores, the Allied navy was unable to organize a fleet capable of transoceanic expeditions in the short term, and therefore could not pose a real threat to the east coast of North America, and the US and British forces may have enough time to repair their damaged ships -- including nine capital warships and four aircraft carriers, and rapidly expand the strength of land-based air forces, so as to build their oceanic ramparts to resist attacks from the Atlantic direction, and at the same time open up a second theater of war in Southwest Asia and the Middle East, so that the enemy can not take care of the end.

The Germans were unwilling to admit defeat at the beginning, and now the US-British coalition will not give up easily. After the end of the Second Battle of Flores, it rained continuously for nearly 30 hours on the Azores islands, and the fighters of both sides could not be dispatched, and the activities of the ships were also restricted to a certain extent, and when the rain stopped on the morning of the third day, more than 300 American and British fighters took off from Texel, Pico, and São Jorge to counterattack the Allied troops on the island of San Miguel with a rapid momentum. At this time, the first aviation units of Italy and Austria-Hungary have arrived, and the air forces of Germany, Ireland, Italy, and Austria have joined forces to resist the enemy on the battlefield for the first time. If the US-British coalition had put in a larger number of fighters, the Allied air force deployed on São Miguel Island would have been torn apart.

There are two direct reasons for the lack of counterattack strength of the US and British air forces: First, their air facilities and combat equipment suffered extremely heavy losses from the continuous air raids of the Allied Air Force in the previous stage, and second, they simultaneously dispatched more than 20 fighters and more than 60 bombers to Flores Island to attack the Allied fleet. The Allied air force quickly adjusted its deployment and used the Fokker G-51, which had a long endurance, to cover the flexible light bomber Ju-30 to carry out a rapid counterattack on the islands occupied by the Allied countries, destroying the Allied side's plan to launch continuous air strikes.

By the afternoon, the US and British air units had given up their initiative to attack and instead concentrated their fighter units on protecting the two air bases on Pico Island, and the air defense tasks on the islands of Texel and São Jorge were completely handed over to the ground antiaircraft artillery units, and the rest of the combat planes were all transferred underground. Although the Allied air force regained air supremacy, it was unable to ravage the opponent as hard as it had done earlier, so it once again adjusted its strategy and flew to Flores Island with long-range bombers to cooperate with its own fleet to encircle and weaken the main fleet of the United States and Britain.

In the evening, under the cover of 14 Fokker G-51s and 10 Me-50s, the 22 Ju-17s of the 9th Bomber Wing of the German Navy were transferred from San Miguel Island to Corvo Island, and returned to the place where they had fought after two months, but it is embarrassing that among the 44 pilots of these 22 dive bombers, only 7 stayed on Flores Island or Corvo Island, and the rest of the pilots were later added to the 9th Bomber Wing. This shows what a heavy price the Allied air forces paid to turn the tide of the war.

With a pleasant roar, the "Thunder Hammers", painted with the Iron Cross logo and the logo of the Naval Aviation, bounced down on the hastily restored runway. Even though the volcanic island, which had been devastated by shelling and bombing, had been transformed by the rain, the open area at the southern end had become a large mud pond, people and livestock had fallen into muddy craters if they were not careful, and wheeled vehicles could not move on the roads at all. In order to solve the American and British fleets trapped here in the shortest possible time and at the lowest possible cost.

When night fell, bright stars hung all over the sky, and the US and British fleets, which had not taken advantage of the wind and rain to break through the encirclement two nights before, would actually take the initiative to attack in such weather. Knowing the enemy's situation through the outpost reconnaissance ship, Natsuki immediately gained insight into the enemy's intentions, and he immediately ordered the fleet to switch into a fish-scale formation, with destroyers and light cruisers in front, heavy cruisers and capital ships behind, and seaplanes carrying parachute lighting to launch and launch, and when the radar found out the location of the enemy ships, they fired flares and searchlights at the same time, so that the enemy lightning ships had nothing to hide thousands of meters away.

As Natsuki expected, Chatfield dispatched a group of light ships to come out, ostensibly to achieve the purpose of weakening the opponent through lightning strikes at night, but the real intention was to cover the main fleet to break through. The reason why it did not move for the first two nights was because the sea conditions were bad, the enemy situation was difficult to identify, and the power system of some of the capital ships was damaged during the battle, so it was impossible to follow the fleet at a relatively fast speed. After two days and one night of emergency repairs, the deadliest problem has been temporarily solved, and the tactical counterattack of its own air force has failed to achieve the expected results, Chatfield is unwilling to sit idly by, and the only way left is to break through.

As for whether to go to Texel or go to North America after the breakout, with the Allied fleet sitting on four aircraft carriers, the answer is unquestionable.

On the majestic flagship of the bridge, the Hanover, Natsuki quietly watched the fireworks display-like scene, except that the festive fireworks bloomed in the air, and the fireworks here appeared at or slightly above the level of sight. The Allied fleet was arrayed on Korvu Island, with 8 large warships, 11 medium warships, 34 light warships, and 20 small warships in an orderly and strict manner, and more than 20,000 officers and men of the Navy were well-trained and high-spirited.

The battle lasted from 9 o'clock to 12 o'clock in the night, and the Allied fleet sank and captured 25 American and British ships at the cost of losing 3 destroyers, and the rest of the ships, except for a few seriously wounded, fled in the direction of Pico Island.

Taking advantage of the opponent's concentration on dealing with their own mine-striking ships, Chatfield really quietly withdrew from Flores Island with the main fleet, and sailed to Pico Island at a speed of 16 knots, if the Allied fleet chased at full speed, another life-and-death battle might be staged that night or early the next morning, but Natsuki did not order the pursuit, his fleet fought with a wrecked body, and it was very lucky to be able to experience a high-intensity naval battle without losing the capital ship, and now it is neither suitable for pursuit, nor can it withstand the weight of another big war, Moreover, Pico Island is now only a more comfortable cage than Floris, so only light ships are sent to monitor the enemy's movements.

By dawn the next day, the U.S. and British fleets had reached the waters north of Pico Island and entered the protection area of land-based fighters, so Natsuki did not send aircraft carriers and carrier-based planes to pursue them, but threw them all into the air raid on Flores Island. In the following week, Allied aircraft carriers, land-based fighters, and surface ships took turns bombarding the island day and night, rain or shine, turning over almost all the areas worthy of attack on the island, sinking and destroying 29 American and British ships huddled in the port of Santa Cruz.

Under the continuous attack of the Allied Navy and Air Force, the morale of more than 40,000 Allied officers and soldiers on Flores Island plummeted, although they had a strong bunker to shelter, plenty of dry food to eat, and support and encouragement from the rear, but the situation of strong enemy siege and day and night bombardment made them feel more mental pressure, if this continued, within two months, even if the enemy did not land, most of them would collapse on their own, but the enemy's supply line was not enough to sustain a long island hopping attack, When the U.S. and British fleets returned to Pico Island to repair their ships, adjust their tactics, and reinvigorate their military morale, they would soon be able to cut off the maritime connection between São Miguel and Corvo Island.

The hopeless tide of war seems to have another chance to turn things around.

(End of chapter)