The advice that the naval command received from the emperor was to sweep and occupy as many military bases as possible by the LinkedIn nationals in the Indian Ocean, preferably to attract reinforcements from the British and Japanese fleets.

Located less than 150 nautical miles from Cape Guadafoy at the southeastern tip of Somalia, Socotra is geographically important at the choke point of the Red Sea inlet. It was originally owned by the Sultanate of Mahri, but when the British refused to buy the island from the Sultan, they forcibly occupied it and used it as a supply and military base in the Indian Ocean.

Socotra is the largest island in the Arab region, with an area of about 3,650 square kilometers and about 30,000 inhabitants on the island, mainly Arabs. The British originally built strong fortifications on the island and stationed a brigade of marines. Since the British had retreated from Somalia, and the British Navy foresaw that they might be forced to abandon it, the garrison defending the island had largely retreated, leaving only about a company of defensive force.

Yankel had planned to launch a tentative attack on Socotra first, but as soon as the planes approached the islands, the British troops defending the island simply surrendered. The capture of Socotra without much effort was strange to Yankel, and when he landed on the island on a destroyer, it became clear that the British had not thought of holding it at all. The island's vital supplies have been emptied, and some important facilities have been blown up, leaving only a symbolic force on the island.

Yankel sensed a hint of danger, and it was confirmed that the Japanese had sent their air fleet south, with four aircraft carriers, and now did not know that they were hiding somewhere in the Indian Ocean waiting to deliver a fatal blow to his fleet. The advent of aircraft and aircraft carriers has completely changed naval warfare, and the fleet that first exposes its target is in great danger.

This is completely different from the time of battleships, back then. Yankel, who led two "Mackensen" class battleships, had absolute self-confidence, and he could still run if he couldn't beat them, and the speed of the "Mackensen" class was faster than that of ordinary battleships. But now. It took only an hour for the plane to fly the day's journey, as long as it was within the range of the enemy's aircraft. The battleship simply could not get away from the attack of the aircraft.

Generally speaking, a commander-in-chief like him should stay in a naval base, strategize and give orders, and rarely personally command the fleet to fight. But now it was different, he was going on an expedition and knew nothing about the road ahead.

"Sir, the Chinese came over and asked about the direction of our next move." Back on the ship, Amin. Rear Admiral Sparšić came over and said to the commander of the fleet.

"We'll have to wait here for a while. Wait until the Marines come over and take over the defense of Socotra. "In addition, the submarine forces were ordered to send reconnaissance forces to Ceylon, the Chagos Islands, the Seychelles and the Maskleine Islands." ”

"Are we going to attack Ceylon directly?" Spasic asked.

"No, let's go first and clear the bases of the British and French on the African islands." At the Zanzibar naval base, where the German and Austro-Hungarian East African fleets are stationed, reconnaissance planes taking off from British naval bases in Seychelles and Mauritius have been monitoring their movements, making the German-Austrian fleet's movements unfree, Yankel said.

"However, the Chinese are anxious to return to fight in the Far East." Spašić said.

"That's their problem, and now they have to follow my orders." Yankel said the Indian Ocean is essentially the domain of the British. But there are not many islands in the Indian Ocean, and if you occupy a few islands near Madagascar, you basically block half of the Indian Ocean's exports. This would lightly cut off the sea transport line from the Indian Ocean to Africa, and the British would have to make a detour to the Pacific Ocean to maintain contact with India, which would increase the distance by half.

This was also one of the strategies of the Imperial Navy.

The Austro-Hungarian Navy has a naval base in Puerto Suarez, in the north of the island of Madagascar, which is a well-known harbor in the Indian Ocean. It is just over 20 nautical miles from the northernmost tip of the island of Madagascar, and access to the port is only through a three-quarter-mile wide waterway in Guò. The navy built a large number of coastal fortifications here, and two airfields were also built.

The main force of the British Royal Navy was pinned down by the Germans, and their forces in the Indian and Pacific Oceans were very weak, when the Austro-Hungarian fleet sailed into the Indian Ocean. All at once it changed the balance of forces in the region. The British and French, with a weak cruiser fleet in this area, simply could not compete with the Austro-Hungarian navy.

"We need to be cautious. The navy of the Japanese is well organized, they now have 9 aircraft carriers. Much stronger than the British. As can be seen from the attack on the German fleet in the port of Qingdao, they were also good at making sneak attacks. "We're going to push eastward." ”

"I don't think the Japanese can achieve much of a big deal, their ambitions are too big, their own industrial base is quite weak, and they still want to annex Chinese territory. Now that their supplies have begun to scarce, they cannot hold out for a long war. I think in another two years, the Chinese may start to launch a full-scale counterattack. "Although the Japanese navy now looks strong on the surface, after a few battles of attrition, they will be lost." ”

"It is precisely that, in fact, we should not prematurely enter into a full-scale contest with the Japanese Navy, and now the focus is on clearing the strongholds of the French and British in the Indian Ocean." Yankel said.

"But the emperor seems to be anxious to open up ties with China." Spašić said.

"He's trying to use China's land forces, and we can't send a lot of ground troops to the Far East and the Pacific." Yankel said, "To fight on land, you need Chinese to come forward, and they have enough soldiers." ”

A week later, the Marine Corps sent the 11th Brigade to take over the defense of Socotra and sent a large number of engineers to begin repairing the military base on the island.

The journey south began to become difficult, and on the night of 5 December, the fleet was attacked by submarines in the waters off British East Africa, but fortunately the torpedoes did not hit any targets. The destroyer fleet was busy on the surface of the sea for half a night, and the depth charges were fired, and in the end the submarine did not hit. The British, and possibly the French and Japanese, had already sneaked away after the attack.

The fleet had finally arrived safely in Zanzibar, but they would have to wait for the arrival of the Marines before launching an attack on the islands where the British had entrenched. (To be continued) R466