The combined fleet, consisting of the German Far East Fleet and the Chinese South Pacific Fleet, quietly sailed out of the anchorage of Legazpi Harbor in southeastern Luzon before dawn. As the fleet sailed past the island of Catandanes, most of the officers and men of the warship came to the deck and watched the island gradually move away in the dawn of dawn. In the rising sun, the land gradually disappeared from sight, and the newly formed South Pacific Fleet embarked on its first voyage.

Affected by a tropical storm a few days ago, the sea was very windy and choppy.

The entire German-Chinese fleet was sailing through the island of Catandanes, but instead of Guam, which the Americans had been fearing, the target was turned north.

The two cutting-edge "Deutschland-class" battleships "Prussia" and "Lorraine" were at the forefront of the fleet, while the "Marquis Bismarck" and "Prince Wilhelm", two "Mackensen-class" battleships built during the First World War, were in the rear of the entire column. "Prussia" hangs Wilhelm? Flag of Admiral Marshallese. As the battleship broke through the waves and tilted its bow forward, the gray waters rushed to the solid foredeck, and the warship's main guns, which had fallen sharply, disappeared in the waves. The escorting destroyers tossed and fell in the black waves set off by the typhoon, appearing and disappearing from time to time. In the gloomy sky after the storm, fragments of blue sky are beginning to emerge.

"A dream come true!" Hans, Chief of Staff of the German Fleet? Vice Admiral Spee stood on the bridge of the "Prussia" and said to the commander of the Italian fleet, Admiral Yakino, "You know, when I was forced to flee Qingdao with my father's Far East Fleet, I swore that one day we would come back and teach the despicable Japanese a lesson that they would never forget. Now seems to be exactly what I had dreamed of, with a mighty dreadnought fleet riding the waves on the seas. In fact, we are much stronger now than I thought back then! ”

He lifted his face and let the warm spray splash on his face, which made him feel very comfortable.

"The strength of the Japanese fleet is stronger than we thought, but their planes really can't compete with us!" Admiral Akino said that the entire Italian Far East Fleet also joined the battlefield. His command included almost half of the main strength of the Italian navy: looking around, this fleet included the battleships "Vanneto" and "Litorio", the aircraft carriers "Aquila" and "Saker", and the heavy cruisers "Zara", "Taranto", "Bolzano" and "Grazia", and it was precisely because of this fleet that Mussolini not only earned enough face, but also won enough benefits for Italy at the negotiating table.

"We'll send them all to the bottom of the sea!" Spee said with a smile on his face, because of his strength, it gave him enough confidence. On his orders. The signal flag fluttered and fluttered on the flagship's mast: the entire fleet turned due north. The entire fleet of battleships, aircraft carriers, cruisers, and destroyers all hoisted the flag in response, and the large task force quickly changed course.

On the morning of 25 May, the Austrian-Chinese fleet departing from Manila Bay also appeared in the waters northeast of the Philippines, and the two fleets converged together, about 30 nautical miles apart. The huge fleet, which consisted of more than 130 warships of all sizes, continued to sail eastward, only to suddenly turn north in the evening. Now the entire fleet is under the unified command of General Yankel and is slaughtering towards the Miyako Strait.

Meanwhile. In the Seto Inland Sea, south of Hiroshima City, there is a maximum concentration of combat ships of the Japanese Combined Fleet. This is the standby anchorage of the Combined Fleet. Since the beginning of the war, the Combined Fleet Command has been exercising its functions from the flagships moored here.

On the red water drum of the anchorage, the flagship of the commander of the Combined Fleet, Admiral Go, Admiral Yamamoto, with a standard displacement of 64,000 tons, was moored the battleship "Yamato", which had three triple 460-mm guns, and next to it was the sister ship "Musashi" of the same type. In terms of tonnage and caliber of the main gun. These two "super battleships" are undoubtedly one of the most powerful battleships in the world, but unfortunately they were born at the wrong time, and now they are already in the world of carrier-based aviation, and everyone understands that if there is a lack of air protection. These two giant warships can only become "live targets" for carrier-based aircraft on the sea.

In fact, the two super battleships had been in service for more than half a year, and apart from replacing the "Nagato" as the flagship of the Combined Fleet, they could only do nothing in the Seto Inland Sea or Tokyo Bay, and could not play the slightest role in turning the tide of the war that the Japanese Navy hoped at the beginning of construction.

The submarine cable to the shore would allow the Yamato to communicate directly with Tokyo and maintain close contact with the Kure Naval Port. Around the "Yamato," more than 60 warships were assembled, accounting for the vast majority of the combined fleet's main surface forces.

The Japanese No. 1 Battleship Squadron, under the direct command of Admiral Yamamoto, consisted of four battleships, the Yamato, the Musashi, the Nagato, and the Mutsu, and together with the Ise, Hyuga, Fuso, and Yamashiro of the Second Battleship Squadron, a total of eight battleships, forming a powerful battlefleet. Around each huge battleship, mine barriers were laid to protect the ship from torpedoes. Other warships were moored around the battleship to further protect the battleship from aircraft and submarines.

In comparison, the Third Fleet, which was reorganized and moored to the north of the so-called main fleet, had 29 capital warships, including the First Air Force, which had the aircraft carriers "Xianghe," "Zuihe," and "Zuifeng," and the Second Air Force, which had three converted aircraft carriers, "Flying Eagle," "Hayabusa," and "Longxiang." In the Battle of Sumatra, the Japanese Navy lost more than half of its aircraft carriers and naval aviation forces, which are currently the only naval aviation forces in the hands of the Japanese Navy.

After suffering heavy losses, the Japanese Navy finally changed its course, realized the importance of aircraft carriers, readjusted its forces, and reorganized the four "Kongo-class" battleships of the original Third Battlefleet into the air force and reorganized into the Third Fleet. Due to his heavy losses in the Battle of Sumatra, Nagumo Tadaichi was "assigned" to Saipan as commander of the so-called "Northern Mariana Defense Command", leaving the position of fleet commander, and the new commander of the Third Fleet was succeeded by Vice Admiral Jizaburo Ozawa, who had distinguished himself in operations in Southeast Asia.

"It is clear that the enemy fleet is in a big move, and the target is not Guam, which we expect, but one link in our fragile island chain from Taiwan to the mainland. …… Don't tell me what's impossible! We must now fight back at them immediately and resolutely! Beat them! Stop them outside the absolute defense circle, and the homeland must not be attacked in any way! Now the fleet must leave the port immediately! ”

In the war room of the "Yamato", Yamamoto was conveying the orders of Admiral Nagano, the Minister of the Navy and the Minister of Military Orders of the Navy, to the commanders of the fleets, with a hint of bitterness in his words. When the Japanese Army and Navy launched a major attack on German Indochina two years earlier, the Japanese Navy was very glamorous, and the Combined Fleet was the most powerful force in the entire western Pacific. In order to win over Japan, the British even promised to hand over the entire Dutch East Indies to Japan for "entrusted management" after the war. However, in the blink of an eye, with the German and Austrian fleets launching a large-scale counteroffensive in the Far East, the "British and American ghost animals" that they had hoped to fight side by side with Japan disappeared, and the British ran away to Australia, while the US Navy allowed the Philippines to fall and did not send any rescue.

The Japanese army and navy suffered huge losses in the Southeast Asian operation, and the Combined Fleet lost most of the main force of the mobile fleet in the Battle of Sumatra, and with the entry of the German and Austrian fleets into the South China Sea, the sea supremacy of the entire South Sea region was completely lost. The Army put all the blame for the failure of the entire Nanyang operation on the head of the Navy, and the Admiralty has been enduring the reproach of the domestic public and the cabinet, and the Minister of the Navy, Keisuke Okada, was forced to resign, and Yamamoto's opponent Nagano Shumi took the position, making the life of the commander of the Combined Fleet even more difficult.

After occupying the Philippines, the Axis bloc did not turn the war on Australia, as the Japanese expected, but pointed the finger at Japan.

Now, Japan as a whole has to bear the wrath of the enemy on its own. (To be continued.) )