Some psychologists have studied why people have fear, and the result of the research is that only when people do not know the true appearance of things, people will have fear, and when they know the way things are, they will not produce fear, or they will not be overly afraid.

At that time, Chang Jianxin and Cunningham were both afraid for the same reason, because they did not understand the opponent, to be precise, they did not understand the opponent's intentions, and the specific situation, so they felt afraid. Similarly, Tan Renhao did not let the First Task Force enter the Mozambique Strait as fast as possible, but wanted to provide air defense cover for the Third Task Force first, precisely because he did not know the specific scale of the Anglo-French Joint Expeditionary Fleet, mainly because he did not know that the Anglo-French Joint Expeditionary Fleet did not have aircraft carriers in it.

All night, Chang Jiexin was very uneasy, and he was also very tired, feeling like he had lead in his head. He had been thinking about how to avoid the Anglo-French Combined Expeditionary Fleet, but at the same time he had not forgotten one point, that is, to hold back the Anglo-French Combined Expeditionary Fleet as much as possible, so as not to let the opponent slip away, as long as the First Task Force maneuvered to the northern part of the Mozambique Channel tomorrow, then he could send bombers to destroy the Anglo-French Combined Expeditionary Fleet. But the problem is that these two purposes are completely opposite, and by the second half of the night, Tan Renhao had not sent a telegram!

If you want to avoid your opponent, then Chang Jianxin has to keep the fleet as close as possible, not too scattered, and it is best to sail directly to the north of the strait, and try to distance itself from the first task force. But if you want to entangle your opponent, you should look for your opponent and try to keep your opponent within the radar surveillance range without getting too close. Do not engage in battles with opponents. Obviously, this is not a task that can be done at the same time. By two o'clock in the morning, when Task Force 3 was still about 40 nautical miles from Europa. He came up with the idea of having all the radars on all the ships in the fleet activate. A large number of electromagnetic signals are manufactured. In addition, he sent a cruiser equipped with an electronic signal detection device forward about 50 nautical miles in front of the fleet to collect as many unfamiliar electronic signals as possible.

There is no way to do this. The British and French battleships must have electronic signal receiving devices, so they should be able to receive electromagnetic waves emitted by the radar of the battleships of the Third Task Force. And it's like Chang Jianxin lighting a candle in a dark room. And if the Anglo-French joint expeditionary fleet wants to find the third task force accurately, then it must also start working the radar on its warships. It will also radiate electronic signals, so that it can be discovered by the cruiser that came out, even if it can't accurately judge the position of the other party, but you can also know the general direction of the other party, whether you choose to avoid it or choose to fight, this is much better than now having two eyes and a black eye, and not knowing anything!

It can be said that Chang Jianxin was really scared at that time. The eleven capital ships of the Anglo-French Expeditionary Fleet were not ornaments, and the Third Task Force had only five battleships, although these five battleships were more powerful than any battleship of the British and French Navy. However, the heroes were no match for the bandits, and the enemy's huge numerical superiority was enough to crush the Third Task Force. As the commander of the Third Task Force, Chang Jianxin must have to consider these, and with his character. And the goal of this campaign, he will definitely not sacrifice the Third Task Force to drag down the Anglo-French Combined Expeditionary Fleet and create opportunities for the First Task Force, and Tan Renhao will never let him do this!

This is also the reason why Chang Jianxin chose to run away at this time, he had to flee, to be precise, this is called a rational retreat. There is nothing shameful about not being able to defeat the enemy and choosing to retreat, only those generals who have no brains will rush on the battlefield. As long as you withdraw and keep the fleet, then you still have a chance to defeat the enemy, and if you choose to do it brutally, after the fleet is lost, you won't even have the power to return to the sky.

Chang Jiexin himself is also known for his steadiness, and he has been very steady since he partnered with Tan Renhao to command the First Task Force and be responsible for the fleet's navigation operations. Now, it is clear that he can't defeat Cunningham, he will definitely choose to retreat, as long as he can meet with the first task force, or enter the cover range of the first task force, it will not be too late to fight Cunningham at that time, with the support of the first task force, even if Cunningham has twenty battleships, it is impossible to win!

At the same time, Tan Renhao, who was far away on the aircraft carrier "Hongze Lake", was also thinking about the same problem, that is, how to cover the escape of the Third Task Force and then look for an opportunity to deal with Cunningham.

The biggest problem he faced was not the weather, but the fact that he was separated from Chang Zhixin by the island of Madagascar, which was the largest island in Africa, larger than most of the provinces of the Tang Empire, and this meant that Task Force 1 would not be able to provide more support to Task Force 3 without entering the Strait of Mozambique!

At that time, the only advantage in Tan Renhao's hands was the new fighter jet he was equipped with. "Golden Eagle"

The performance is a notch higher than that of the "Falcon", in which the cruising ability has been improved a lot. According to the tests during training, when flying at the best economic speed, the "Golden Eagle" can fly about 1,100 nautical miles without an external auxiliary fuel tank (which is different from the standard performance when leaving the factory, which is ideal), and when it hangs a large auxiliary fuel tank, its maximum range reaches more than 1,500 nautical miles. But the problem is that in actual use, it is impossible for the fighter to fly at the best economic cruising speed all the time, and some uncontrollable factors will also directly affect the range of the fighter. Therefore, in actual use, the "Golden Eagle" has a combat range of 900 nautical miles when it has a large auxiliary fuel tank attached to it, reserves 20 minutes of air combat fuel, and can hover for 15 minutes when returning to the fleet. Under the same indicators, the combat range of the "Falcon" is less than 750 nautical miles, and most of the time it has to be controlled below 650 nautical miles. From this point of view, the actual cruising capability of the "Golden Eagle" has been improved by nearly 50% compared with that of the "Falcon", which can be said to be an extremely remarkable progress.

Comparatively speaking, the cruising capabilities of the new "Water Birds" and "Sea Eagles", which were reequipped at the same time, were much worse. In fact, at that time, the Navy did not have too high requirements for the ground cruising ability of carrier-based bombers.

The 300 nautical mile limit strike radius already exceeds that of the US Navy's ground bombers, and in most cases, the aircraft carrier operates at a distance of between 200 and 250 nautical miles. Extreme cases are unlikely. The main thing, of course, is. The Navy did not have suitable bombers at that time. The improved "Shooting Bird" and "Sea Eagle" have not significantly improved the maximum strike radius from the previous models. At the time of testing, the ideal strike radius reached 370 nautical miles, and in combat, this distance is generally shortened, and it is quite good to be able to reach 320 nautical miles. And the fleet, when formulating the requirements for the strike of aviation. This distance is limited to 300 nautical miles.

In other words, with the island of Madagascar separated, Tan Renhao could only arrange fighter jets to provide air defense cover for Task Force 3 after dawn. If the Anglo-French Expeditionary Fleet had already exchanged fire with Task Force 3 by then, he would not have been able to send bombers to support Task Force 3. Of course, Tan Renhao also prepared a backup plan. He asked Zheng Guanhua to draw up a bombing plan, and if he had to send bombers, he could only let the bombers go. It was impossible for these bombers to return to the fleet, so he had to ask Zheng Guanhua to tell the pilots to go to the seaplane activity base when they returned.

In a forced landing at sea, the loss of aircraft is nothing, and the fleet can be replenished by returning to Colombo.

As long as the pilots can return, and it is not the first time that the pilots of Task Force 1 have made a forced landing at sea, and there have been many similar situations in previous battles. Almost all pilots have experience with crash landings!

It can be seen that Tan Renhao's first place of concern is not the battleships of the Anglo-French joint expeditionary fleet, and those fighters are not used against battleships. He had to watch out for the three aircraft carriers of the British Ground. If the three British aircraft carriers were in their fleet, if the Third Task Force encountered the Anglo-French Expeditionary Fleet, the three carriers would have retreated at night, and then dispatched bombers to take out the Third Task Force at dawn. Therefore, Tan Renhao's first guarantee was that the Third Task Force would be able to get air defense cover.

The reason for Tan Renhao's judgment is the same, he did not know the specific situation of the Anglo-French joint expeditionary fleet, let alone the three British aircraft carriers receiving emergency repairs in Cape Town, and did not go north with the fleet at all. In the absence of exact intelligence, he can only make judgments based on the worst-case scenario.

Similarly, Cunningham, who was on the battleship "King George V", was thinking about how to escape. Although he wanted to go over to fight Task Force 3, he quickly gave up on the idea. The Mozambique Channel is nominally a strait, but it is larger than many seas. Even if you can find Task Force 3, can you find Task Force 1? Also, how much time would it take to find Task Force 3 and Task Force 1, how much time would it take to get rid of Task Force 3, and how much time would he have to escape from Task Force 1 if he hadn't found Task Force 1? Taking all these factors into account, the final conclusion was that the certainty of defeating or even annihilating the Third Task Force at night was quite large, but in the end he had to use all the warships of the Anglo-French Combined Expeditionary Fleet to bury the Third Task Force!

At that time, Godfoy, who was on the battleship "Richelieu", made the same assumption, and he immediately sent the message to Cunningham, advising Cunningham to abandon the adventure and return to the port of Cape Town immediately. Goldford even hinted that if Cunningham still did not take his advice, then the French expeditionary fleet would break away from the formation and return to Cape Town alone, never going on any more adventures with the British!

Goldford's suggestion gave Cunningham a step down, and he immediately adopted Goldford's suggestion, and he also replied to Goldford, saying that the retreat of the fleet was to respect the French, and to preserve the last fleet of the French Navy, which was the basis for the reconstruction of the French Navy. Anyway, Cunningham used this opportunity to say a lot of good things, which would have stabilized Goldfoy and improved the image of the British in the eyes of the French naval officers.

After contacting Godfoy, the joint Anglo-French expeditionary overseer began to turn around at about one o'clock in the morning. Cunningham chose a route south near the Mozambican coast, and he did not think about heading south from the middle of the channel, which is the most likely area to be intercepted. In his opinion, Task Force 3 was here to intercept them, so that Task Force 1 could send bombers at dawn. In addition, this route was able to avoid the bombers of Task Force 1 as much as possible, and in the event of bombing, it was possible to sail as close to the coast as possible.

By two o'clock, the electronic signal detection devices on several British and French warships had received a large number of unknown signals, and these models were transmitted from one direction. Because the battleship itself is moving, and the distance between the battleship and the battleship is very close, it is not possible to calculate the specific sea area where the signal is sent by the triangulation method. The only thing that is certain is that these signals must have come from somebody, or many warships, in the strait, and most likely from the radar.

Now, Cunningham was even more sure that Task Force 3 was looking for them, otherwise, what would so many warships do with their radars turned on? This strengthened his resolve to retreat. Cunningham, while ordering the warships to closely monitor the activity of these electronic signals, ordered the fleet to speed up, leave the Mozambique Channel as soon as possible, and enter the storm zone in the south, as long as it enters the storm zone, then the fleet will be much safer!

All three fleets were acting according to the judgment of their fleet commanders, and none of them had thought of a decisive battle with each other here, not even the idea of an encounter. It can be said that this is a special case among the many naval battles during the Great War, in which both sides were mainly offensive from the beginning, even at the expense of themselves to destroy the enemy. But now, both sides are thinking first and foremost about preserving themselves, not destroying the enemy!

In fact, this is also a direct manifestation of the diversity of naval warfare. Because the purpose of the battle is different, the environment is different, the opponent is different, and the impact of the combination of other factors is completely different, therefore, the form of naval warfare is completely different. This is also a major feature of war at sea!