Lieutenant General Hovalt returned from Vienna to Malta, the most important maritime stronghold in the Mediterranean, now under the control of the Austro-Hungarian Navy, and Admiral Mayer's Marine Corps General Headquarters was also located in Valletta. After his hard work, the Emperor finally agreed to place the 5th Marine Division under the command of the North African Corps.

Due to transportation and supply constraints, it is difficult to support too many troops in Libya for long-term operations, and all operational and logistical supplies must be brought in from within the country. In the Supreme High Command, a considerable number of high-ranking generals oppose the devoting a large amount of manpower and material resources to this battlefield.

However, the Emperor had long coveted the Suez Canal, and he told Sù Hovald that after the end of the French campaign, whether the campaign was successful or not, the Austro-Hungarian army would turn its main attention to attacking Egypt. The Emperor demanded that the North African Army draw up a well-developed operational plan for attacking the Nile Valley.

Before that, however, he needed to launch a major attack, preferably by capturing Tobruk and entering Egypt, to give the British the illusion that the Austro-Hungarian army would attack Egypt with all its might.

Hovald returned to Libya and set up his headquarters in Benghazi. North Africa is already in high temperatures in May, and the yellowed mountains of Cyrenaica look green from afar.

The battle began first at sea.

May 15, 1915, early morning.

The sky had just dawned, and a layer of mist was still shrouded over the Mediterranean, and a fleet could be faintly seen sailing south on the gray sea. The bow was splashing with white waves, and the flotilla of more than two dozen warships was approaching the waters off Alexandria in a dawn battle formation. The ships flew the Austro-Hungarian twin eagle flags, and the fleet consisted of five battleships, two armored cruisers, and four cruisers, as well as eight destroyers and two fuel supply ships on escort duty.

At the head was the flagship of Vice Admiral Pachner, commander of the Austro-Hungarian First Battlefleet, the Empress Teresa, which was the weakest of the Austro-Hungarian fleet, with only two battle cruisers at the beginning of the war. After the defeat in Italy, the Austro-Hungarian Navy received three battleships of the "Count Cavour" class as reparations and renamed "Prince Schwarzenberg", "Marshal Dawn" and "Johann. Strauss". These Italian dreadnoughts were added to the First Battlefleet after some modifications, but even so, the First Battlefleet was not able to surpass the other battlefleets.

However, Vice Admiral Pachner led the First Fleet to fight for the Empire's southern and northern wars, and made great contributions.

In the quarters of the chief of the stern of the "Empress Teresa", the vice admiral was having breakfast with the chief of staff of the fleet, Brigadier Divac.

"Erit, I think this operation is still very risky." Divac filled the last piece of fruit salad on the plate into his mouth, took a sip from his coffee cup, and said, "Although the British are not strong in the Mediterranean, they still have eight old dreadnoughts, plus a few French dreadnoughts, and they still have strong combat capabilities." ”

"Of course I know this, but the main forces of the navy have recently all been transferred to the western Mediterranean, and this sea area can only rely on us. As for adventure, the navy itself is an adventure at sea, and I would like to have a fierce battle. ”

"Will the Navy have a big operation in the Western Mediterranean?" Divac said.

"Perhaps, the French fleet is now hiding in Toulon and refusing to leave the French coast, and it will be difficult for the fleet to find any opportunities." "Our mission is to blockade the port of Atlanta, and possibly the Army is going to do something to Egypt," Pachner said. ”

Now the British in North Africa has become very dangerous, the Mediterranean transport route has been cut off, all supplies can only be detoured to the Cape of Good Hope and then transported to Egypt, fortunately food can be provided by the Egyptians and Indians, otherwise, it is difficult for the British army to maintain a war of nearly 350,000 men.

On the Cyrenaica front, the British army had four divisions of more than 70,000 men, but most of the supplies of these troops needed to be transported by sea.

The two came to the bridge, and at this time the sky was already twilight, and the eastern sky was showing milky white, and the sky was piled up with layers of clouds, and the weather was not very good. The captain of the "Queen Teresa", Ostenglenberg, had already arrived on the bridge, and he was standing on the left side of the bridge outside the command tower, staring at the several warships on the side that were sailing side by side with them in formation. Less than 1,000 meters from them, the former Italian battleship was refitted, removing the triple turret from the amidships, and adding a crane and a hangar with three seaplanes there.

This greatly increased the range of reconnaissance of the entire fleet.

At this time, he saw Vice Admiral Pachner coming up from below along the gangway, the expressionless face of the fleet commander was intimidating, and the officers and sailors who were on duty hurriedly put away their lazy appearance and straightened up. Major Herman, the combat staff officer, was smoking on the bridge outside the war room, quickly extinguished the cigarette and ran to the officer's side.

"What's new?" The lieutenant general asked.

"Report to the sir, one qiē is normal!" Herman hurriedly replied.

Lieutenant General Pachner nodded and entered the war room with Brigadier General Divac, "When will the reconnaissance plane take off?" He continued.

"At 6:30 a.m., three seaplanes were dispatched from the Strauss." Herman said.

The vice admiral climbed to the map table and studied the charts, they were now about 180 nautical miles from Alexandria, and the enemy was still far away.

Finally, a glimmer of light appeared in the sky, and the sun leaped up from the sea level, but the fog did not clear. The vigilant sailors on each ship searched the sea level in their binoculars, but there was nothing.

The Strauss had reduced its speed and was about to lift the seaplane to the surface, when the communications officer on the flagship entered the war room with a telegram in his hand and reported to Pachner: "Sir, the order of the Admiralty. ”

Pachner took the telegram, glanced at it quickly, and then said to the operational staff: "Order the fleet to turn and sail to the west-southwest." ”

"Sir, is it a coastal target?" Herman reminded.

"Meet ......," Pachner glanced at the telegram again, "Selum, the enemy's fleet has appeared in Selum Bay. ”

So, the whole fleet began to make a big turn, and then began to move in the direction of the Libyan-Egyptian border.

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