144. Poseidon's Halberd (7)

Heavy rain fell on the sea, and in the storm, the "Mackensen" class battleships with a full load displacement of nearly 43,000 tons still maintained a fairly smooth sailing. But the 1917 ocean-going destroyers, with a displacement of only 1,800 tons, were staggered by the raging waves, and the entire foredeck was buried deep in the waves from time to time, and even the entire bridge would be overwhelmed and covered by the flying mist.

Admiral Sorochin stood on the tall bridge of the Count Spee, staring at the boiling sea, which was now in poor condition and barely discernible of the silhouettes of adjacent ships. As an admiral, Admiral Sorochin naturally chose the battleship named after the admiral as his flagship instead of the "Mackensen", which was first commissioned but named after the field marshal. Admiral Sorochin was figuring out how he could avoid the British fleet and make it possible for the entire fleet to reach the French ports in the Bay of Biscay.

Admiral Sorochin was not afraid of battle, on the contrary, he was basically a daress who took many risks during his naval career. However, due to his long experience of fighting enemies with superior battles, Sorochin did not like to engage in head-to-head battles with the enemy, preferring to use surprise raids.

Now, he has decided to take the initiative to meet the enemy.

It was getting dark, and the fleet began to turn due east in the sea at about 45 degrees north latitude. By now the German fleet had sailed more than a thousand nautical miles south, and it was foreseeable that the British would lay a net along the Bay of Biscay to prevent them from entering French ports.

Sorochin ordered the fleet to split up, himself leading the main force of the German fleet to open the way in front, while Admiral Wilennik led the Austro-Hungarian fleet to protect the convoy behind their flank, about 15 nautical miles to the southwest.

"General, perhaps we can have four Austro-Hungarian battle cruisers come up to strengthen the main fleet, while cruisers and destroyers protect the transport fleet." During combat operations, the Chief of Staff of the Fleet, Rear Admiral Herman, rarely disputed the orders of the fleet commander. Although the strength of the German battlecruiser fleet was not inferior to that of the British Rapid Fleet, the British had five Queen-class battleships, which were arguably one of the strongest battleships in the world at the moment. And using Austro-Hungarian battleships equipped with 380 mm guns to protect the convoy is indeed a bit overkill.

Everyone wants to have more large-caliber artillery on their side in battle.

Sorochin politely rejected the chief of staff, "Our cruisers are no match for the British armored cruisers, let's not forget that although they lost about 10 or so armored cruisers in the war, before the war they had 36 armored cruisers of various types. Although it is unlikely that all of these armored cruisers will be concentrated in the south of the United Kingdom, I estimate that the British have at least six or so armored cruisers in this area, which is a big threat. With the protection of battle cruisers, these armored cruisers simply could not get close to our supply fleet. The British could not stop us from entering the Bay of Biscay, but these supply tankers could provide strong support for future operations. With the help of these supply ships, we were able to enter the South Atlantic to carry out activities, which would have been a huge blow to the British. In fact, sixty percent of the freighters to Britain came from the South Atlantic, and if we could cut off this route, the British would not be able to hold out for long with supplies from North America alone. ”

"I think maybe tomorrow we'll meet our old friend Betty again." Herman folded his hands over his chest and looked out the porthole at the pouring rain, "If we can win, it will be a great blow to the morale of the British." ”

"If the battle is fierce, General Willenic will return to reinforce us as soon as he escorts the supply convoy into the Bay of Biscay." Sorochin was comforting his chief of staff.

The German 12th Army entered the territory of Turkey, and after receiving the support of a German army, the Ottoman Empire launched a counterattack in Mesopotamia, and under the command of General Sanders, the German-Turkish army regained Mosul and Baghdad and was advancing towards the Persian Gulf. The Austrians stopped and intensified the dredging of the Suez Canal.

Nothing happened all night, and in the middle of the night, the German fleet had already cleared the rainy area. By daybreak, the wind and waves on the sea were a little less, but the weather was not very good, the sky was overcast, and the visibility was not very good.

By 7 a.m., the German fleet had reached a position about 130 nautical miles west of the Bay of Biscay. The fleet released eight seaplanes, focusing on reconnaissance of the sea area on the northern side.

However, at 7:25 a.m., about 25 minutes after the German fleet sent out its reconnaissance planes, the lookout of the battlecruiser "Hindenburg" on the northernmost side of the fleet spotted three planes in the sky flying straight in his direction. German naval reconnaissance planes generally use a two-plane formation, while the opposing side is a three-plane formation.

The alarm suddenly sounded on the sea, and on the bridge of the "Count Spee", Admiral Sorochin stared at the three planes flying around his fleet under the clouds in the sky, and said in his mouth: "Finally something has been done, they are finally here!" ”

About half an hour later, in the war room of the "Queen Elizabeth", Admiral Beatty, the commander of the British Rapid Fleet, was standing at the chart table, the staff officer was leaning over the chart table, marking the position of the German fleet on the chart, and the navigator was rapidly marking and calculating some numbers on the chart with a two-legged gauge and a triangular ruler.

"Sir, the interception course is 217 degrees, and we need to increase the speed to 20 knots." The navigator lifted his head from the chart, "We are now about 45 nautical miles away from our opponents, and we should have a chance of encountering them around 3 p.m." ”

Betty frowned as he looked at the charts, where the meeting had entered the Bay of Biscay, where the German and Austrian torpedo boats and submarines were likely to provide support, and he had to withdraw from the battle before dark. It's hard to say what kind of results you can achieve in a few hours.

"Order the fleet to move at full speed!" Betty quickly decided that if the fleet had been on a high-speed voyage for several hours, the consequences would be dire in the event of a turbine failure when it arrived on the battlefield. However, now he could not care so much about it, and could only pin his hopes on the craftsmanship of the British mechanics.

Soon the British fleet picked up speed, and the ships cut through the waves and moved quickly in a southeasterly direction.

Two German planes appeared in the sky, and after a few moments, they immediately flew away and disappeared into the vast sky.

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