In order to ensure that in 1916, there would be no loss on land, the Entente did whatever it took to transport supplies to the British side, and even for these supplies, they sent an unimaginable escort fleet to contain the attack of the sea wolves in a short period of time, but the backyard caught fire again, 50 merchant ships, compared to the previous 200 is not much, but for the American route, it is already a considerable part.

South America is also very important to the United States, and the materials obtained from South America are considered to be an important direction for the United States' raw materials, and once it is attacked, the United States will have difficulties in obtaining one-tenth of the raw materials, which will affect the industrial production and total volume of the United States.

It's a pity that at this moment, no matter how powerful the Entente is, it is impossible to escort in two aspects, especially the South American route, there are too many branch routes, and it is very difficult to escort, after weighing the pros and cons, the United States made a difficult decision to reduce shipping from the east coast, anyway, the United States has a large railway connecting the east and west, and the two sides are under the sea, which can be made up from the west coast.

This is indeed a good way, American merchant ships can be transferred through the Panama Canal, but it is impossible for submarines to chase them into the canal, and submarines can hide themselves with the help of the sea, but in the canal, there is no way to hide at all, and if you want to think of the west coast, you can either detour from the southernmost tip of South America, or send new submarines from China, and it is almost impossible for Deng Jie's cadres to get involved in this aspect.

After the United States reduced the number of merchant ships on the east coast, Deng Jieqian's troops reduced their operations and continued to disperse to the North Atlantic; at this time, they relied on the help of a small number of reconnaissance planes to select some ships that were not so tightly escorted, but unfortunately there were not many such opportunities, and with the efforts of the Entente countries, the number of sunk ships was greatly reduced from 1.5 million tons, and sometimes only two or three ships were sunk a day, and sometimes not even one.

Such a dull situation made the Entente breathe a sigh of relief, if the German submarines, in the face of their higher level of protection, can still attack, then it is really troublesome, they do not know, although the submarines have reduced their movements, it seems to be restricted, but in fact, they are covering up another action.

The powerful escort of the Entente, the submarine is not impossible to deal with, and even if it is raided, it can severely damage those escort fleets, but unfortunately it is useless, the main force of the escort is the destroyer, such ships, from the beginning of the United States to focus on production, the production has been increasing, since 1915, the number of destroyers delivered to use is as high as 600, these destroyers, even now, have not all been used, this is also the heritage of the Entente, whether it is a battleship, or the person who operates the battleship, is much stronger than Germany.

It is impossible for the submarine to attack forcibly, and it is at a disadvantage to the destroyer, and a forced attack may result in losses, and Deng Jie's cadres are here to take revenge and suppress the suppressive effect of the Entente on the Central Powers.

However, after the submarine sinking rate was greatly reduced, the German staff proposed a combat plan, using reconnaissance planes to reconnoiter and probe the concentration of British military supplies, and then use Germany's advantage in airships to carry out a sneak attack on British warehouses.

Deng Jieqian is a navy and does not know much about air warfare, but fortunately, the airship officers who once supported Germany are still there, and they are still helping Germany to train airship personnel.

It is certainly impossible for the United States to send supplies to Europe directly to Bordeaux, where is the war zone, and the range of some artillery is more than 20 kilometers, in case of unloading at the seaport, encountering a large shell, then even the ship will have problems with supplies.

Only by unloading and storing in Britain first, and then passing through small merchant ships, Germany did not think about using airships for raids, but Britain made a lot of camouflage, plus from the United States, the Entente ordered a large number of airships, although Germany has the largest airship army in the whole of Europe, more than 700 large airships, but Britain also has 250 ships, may not be able to come to Europe, support the war, but it is enough for Britain to hold the British sky.

However, if there is a definite and extremely accurate map, the airship can also use the method of sneak attack, set off at night, in the early morning with the support of ground forces, carry out a precise bombardment of the warehouse, and then leave, as long as there is enough secrecy, they will have 40 minutes to 1 hour.

This kind of fixed-point special bombing has very high requirements for intelligence; before, there was no way to conduct in-depth investigations into British warehouses, but after having a reconnaissance plane, there will be no problem, and the reconnaissance plane not only has a large range and high speed, but also has special equipment for reconnaissance, which is enough to accomplish this task.

From the beginning of this idea, it took three days for the German General Staff to perfect the entire battle plan, and then it was time to negotiate with the reconnaissance troops.

After all, under the premise that the Entente strengthened its escort forces and Deng Jie's cadres were unwilling to fight hard with the Entente, the role played by the reconnaissance planes was decreasing, and although they could still provide two or three large-scale ship groups every day, these ship groups were more than 100 merchant ships, and the escort force was as high as 60 large ship groups, with several layers of protection, and they would react to any disturbance and throw depth charges unreasonably. Even if Deng Jie's cadres can enter perfectly, it is impossible to kill 60 escort fleets in a short time, and even at some time there will be losses, so this information has no effect, occasionally there will be some small, low-escort ship groups, and they will also choose to pass quickly at night on the more remote waterways, in short, Deng Jie's cadres can play a very limited role, rather than this, it is better to support the airship, which is also reconnaissance, but from the sea, turned to the British Isles, not too troublesome, Because weapons capable of dealing with reconnaissance planes have not yet appeared, reconnaissance planes will not drop below 10,000 meters when they are reconnoitring, and this will put an end to the attack of antiaircraft machine guns; as for airships, they can only reach a speed of about 70 kilometers per hour, and the maximum ceiling can reach the height of reconnaissance planes.

In the following week, 72 reconnaissance planes carried out reconnaissance of Britain in batches, because Britain was closer to the location of the airport, the British Isles were not large, and they did not search every inch of the British Isles in a carpet manner, but the German intelligence agencies still got some suspected targets, and after expanding the range, they finally listed 24 targets, and these reconnaissance planes mainly focused on these targets.

In fact, the role of reconnaissance planes is very great, 60 of the 72 planes, almost in the daytime, uninterrupted reconnaissance of 24 important locations, high-speed cameras can take 1,200 high-definition photos every day, and Britain in order to support the army operations in Europe, the scale of his warehouse can not be small, covert transportation and storage, and it is impossible to be able to see flaws all the time, under the situation of long-term monitoring, whether it is transported in or out, on the high-definition photos, are obvious targets.

Tens of thousands of photos every day were fed back to the General Staff, and the General Staff organized at least 1,200 young staff officers to look at the photos, and from these photos, looking for clues, and finally, among the 24 targets, 8 targets were confirmed, and among the 8 targets, 5 of them were non-weapon targets, mainly logistics supplies, food, clothing, tents and other auxiliary facilities, and the remaining 3 were the most important arsenals.

In order to support the operation of a million troops, especially in winter, supplemented and strengthened the army in Bordeaux, the three arsenals are huge, each is enough to equip more than 600,000 people, especially now, a batch of new weapons have been added, and the arsenal is full, especially under the threat of German submarines, the Entente gritted their teeth, with a large number of escorts, sent a large number of supplies, temporarily placed in the arsenal, and waited for the right opportunity in the future, these weapons, with small boats, were sent to Bordeaux.

The English Channel, the narrowest position, is only more than 30 kilometers, fast merchant ships, 2 hours to be able to pass, even if the German high seas fleet, occupy the absolute upper hand under the premise, block the English Channel, there is a certain chance of sending things to Bordeaux, not to mention now, the two sides are only in the Baltic Sea to form a confrontation, there is no way to affect the English Channel for the time being, here has become a liaison between Britain and France, a large number of materials through the British sorting and transit, transported to Bordeaux, Support modern level warfare.

The three positions are very clear, and even took another 3 days to figure out the surrounding topographic maps, references, and even the route of action, in the General Staff, there is even a top-down view and a model of comparative construction, for accurate design schemes, after at least 1,000 people to discuss, hundreds of revisions, finally formed a relatively mature plan, the whole Germany will be at night, concentrate all the airships, go to England in a broken boat, detour to take the most deserted route, and strive to arrive at 2 target areas at about 3 o'clock in the night, and then there are 30 minutes of free play, no matter what the final effect is, they must break away as quickly as possible, and the newly formed German anti-aircraft machine gun air defense units, which will be picked up on their way back, for the reaction of the British, they have made at least 12 response plans, and while fleeing, they are also preparing for an attack.

Everything was kept strictly secret, and all the 1,200 young staff officers who were involved in the revision of the plan, except for some German generals, were almost limited to freedom, and were not allowed to go home or have contact with the outside world in a specific area of the staff, and they were almost kept secret to the best, and they were waiting for the moment when the plan was carried out. (To be continued.) )