"Our task was to attack the convoy between Alexandria and Tobruk, to bring the British to a temporary standstill in the supply of supplies to the front. This is a great support for the Army's offensive, and if possible, the Marines will land at Sellum under our escort. ”

On the morning of May 17, the weather was clear and the Mediterranean Sea was calm, and the First Battlefleet was approaching the Gulf of Serum. Lieutenant General Pachner sat on a canvas recliner on the back deck, chatting with his subordinates.

"This would be an easier task for us than an attack on Alexandria, and it would be impossible for Robeck to concentrate his entire Mediterranean fleet in the Gulf of Salem, and I think that even if we met their escort fleet, we would be sure to get them all in the water." Commodore Divac had recently been working on the tactics of breaking diplomatic relations at sea, and thanks to the strict escort regime imposed by the British, the German submarine forces suffered heavy losses in the Atlantic, and it was becoming increasingly difficult to attack the enemy's transport convoy at will, and then escape unharmed.

In his opinion, if the surface fleet is not mobilized and the submarine forces are relied on, it is simply impossible to completely cut off the sea lanes of the other side.

In the Mediterranean, the Austro-Hungarian submarine forces also encountered such difficulties.

"Something is wrong with the Marshal Dawn, sir." At this time, the signal officer looked at the battleship behind him and said.

"What's the matter?" Pachner sat up straight.

"The engine of that Italian battleship has some malfunction." The signal officer was reading the flashing light signals on the "Marshal Dawn", and soon the communications officer on duty came running and reported the same situation as he said.

"Italians do have some problems with the reliability of things made by the Italians, it's an old problem." Vice Admiral Pachner lay down again, "The speed of the fleet has dropped to 15, and the dispatch of 'Daun' is to be repaired immediately. ”

"After this mission, I am afraid that these warships will have to go to the shipyard for overhaul and replace these unreliable power systems, and if they encounter a failure in the fierce naval battle, the consequences are simply unimaginable." Commodore Divac said that the overall performance of the Italians' battleships was okay, but there were some weaknesses in the hull structure and protection, and some minor problems in the power system greatly reduced their combat performance.

"General, are you still sending reconnaissance planes as planned?" Herman asked.

"Hmmm! Execute as planned! Pachner did not think much about it, now the seaplanes carried by the ships have become the main force of maritime reconnaissance, and the tasks of cruisers and destroyers are not so obvious, after all, the range of activities of cruisers and destroyers is much smaller than the reconnaissance range of aircraft.

The large surface ships of the Austro-Hungarian Navy have been equipped with generally equipped seaplanes since 1916, which has expanded the range of fleet reconnaissance dozens of times. In this era, it was almost impossible for an aircraft to carry 20 or 50 kg of aerial bombs to do little damage to a warship, but warships were already equipped with some light anti-aircraft guns.

Half an hour later, two YI-5 seaplanes were dispatched from each of the two battle cruisers, the "Empress Teresa" and the "Zreini," and began to conduct a large-scale maritime reconnaissance in the direction of Sellum Bay.

Meanwhile, in Sellum Bay, a British convoy was leaving Tobruk, escorted by a fleet led by Rear Admiral Weems, including four old former dreadnought battleships, and a French fleet under the command of Rear Admiral Geprat from Cerum.

As the industrial age began, the empire of the sun never set became increasingly unable to maintain its maritime supremacy, not to mention the German navy, which was almost equal to them, and even in the face of the Austro-Hungarian navy, which was much weaker than the Royal Navy, the British were unable to draw their main fleet to provide adequate support.

The German fleet pinned down almost all of the main forces of the Royal Navy, leaving them simply unable to fight on two fronts.

The Royal Navy convoy under the command of Rear Admiral Weems is now a good symbol of the decline of the British Empire: four aging Duncan-class ex-dreadnoughts serve as the main force of the fleet, which seems to be not weak in firepower, but is no longer able to adapt to the current battle at sea. The French were also delayed by their ridiculous doctrine of the "green-water navy", which was even inferior to the Italian navy. Now Rear Admiral Geprat commanded two old former dreadnoughts, the Safren and the Bouvey, to join Weems's convoy, which on the surface looked formidable but could not withstand the attacks of any Austro-Hungarian fleet.

Two small black dots appeared in the sky, circled twice around the outer edge of the British fleet, and then flew away in a northeasterly direction.

"Enemy aircraft spotted!"

The alarm sounded on the flagship "Albemarle", and the anti-aircraft guns of several warships began to fire, but it had no effect except to blow up clouds of smoke and dust in the sky. Enemy aircraft had long since run out of range of anti-aircraft artillery.

From the moment the Austro-Hungarian reconnaissance plane appeared, Weems had a bad premonition in his heart, and he stared at the two enemy planes that were gradually flying away, realizing that he might encounter a bad situation.

Despite the outward appearance of the Duncan-class battleship, armed with two twin 12-inch main turrets, the old battleship has been outdated since the advent of dreadnoughts and cannot adapt to the requirements of a fierce naval battle. That's why the Royal Admiralty uses them for shore support and ancillary combat missions such as escorts. Except for bullying the Turks, who were not capable of fighting back at all, they did not experience regular naval battles.

Despite this, the honor of the Royal Navy made him fearless of fighting the Austrians, but he also needed to protect the convoy of transports that were defenseless. Vice Admiral Robeck strongly opposed the army's attack on Cyrenaica, in fact, the Admiralty had already relinquished control of the Mediterranean, from Alexandria to Tobruk is more than 1,000 kilometers, the Mediterranean Fleet can not guarantee maritime security at all, after all, the strength of the Austro-Hungarian fleet is much stronger than the Royal Navy's Mediterranean fleet.

Weems could not expect his convoy to avoid the Austro-Hungarian fleet, the enemy was much faster than his own, and after a moment's hesitation, he ordered the entire fleet to turn around and return to the port of Tobruk.

By the time the British fleet began to turn, in the sea about sixty nautical miles northeast of them, Vice Admiral Pachner had already received the pilot's report, and since the plane was not yet equipped with a radio station, he had received the news 30 minutes later. The Vice Admiral ordered four more seaplanes from the "Prince Schwarzenberg" and "Strauss" to monitor the movements of the British fleet and ordered the fleet to begin to accelerate towards the target sea.

In the war room of the flagship "Empress Teresa", the staff officers were analyzing what was happening, and finally the staff officer, Lieutenant Colonel Hessen, concluded that the British would return.

"We've got to run out of the harbor to contain them!"

Lieutenant Colonel Hesson's prediction was indeed accurate.

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