Count Luknal was right, the Iranian fleet was indeed struggling due to the decline in material reserves. In his opinion, it is now close to the time to close the net, as long as he slowly tightens his pockets, he will definitely be able to catch his opponent! Su Mo and the others did not think of using the last fuel to immediately go to the territory of the Entente, and then disarm and wait for the end of the war. They have been dealing with each other for months under the pressure of half the German navy, which is already very good. Some results have also been achieved. Even a battleship was sunk. But there was still a trace of luck in their hearts, the vast sea area has always been a paradise for guerrilla warfare, and neither Fletcher nor Cunningham believed that the Germans' reconnaissance capabilities could be so strong! They want to take a gamble!

A submarine is cruising at low speed on the surface of the sea. In history, when the anti-submarine power in the early stage of World War II was not very strong, submarines spent most of their time sailing on the sea, and the precious battery power was only used when attacking targets. The underwater cruising speed of about 5 knots makes the submarine much less maneuverable once it dives. The German submarine, numbered U152, turned on its radar to search the nearby sea while charging its batteries. Although it was dawn and the light conditions were not good, he could still spot large targets around 15 nautical miles with the help of electromagnetic waves.

"Tut, beep, beep" Suddenly the radio sounded an alarm sideways to the device. This indicates that there is a radar with a high power working around. Captain Ehrlichtop quickly walked over to the chart and checked the position of the signal with the position of his known ships. The other party's radar has a lot of power, and it is definitely not a small radar installed on a submarine, and it should be at the level of a capital ship in terms of power. And within a radius of 200 nautical miles, there were simply no capital ships of the German Navy. The identity of the other party has been revealed.

Soon. As the distance gets closer, the oscilloscope can already realistically determine the waveform of the other party. Skilled and experienced radar operators and the type of radar that can distinguish each other and even the frequency band in which they operate. "This should be the radar of the Americans. Judging by the intensity and frequency, we shouldn't be very far away, probably less than 20 nautical miles. An officer said.

"There is no no fleet here. The radar signal is also not ours, then there is only one possibility. Captain Ehrlichtop said categorically: "Send a report to General Lucknar at once and tell them about our situation." We sail in the direction of the target, hoping that the other side will not be too fast. ”

More than half an hour later, the intelligence of the U152 submarine was sent to Luknar's desk, and the staff officers immediately marked the location and trajectory of the opponent on the chart. "250 nautical miles from us?! This time, it looks like we're pretty close to our opponents. Lucknar muttered to himself as he looked at the blue dots representing enemy ships and the routes outlined by dotted lines. During this period of hunting, the distance between Luknar's fleet and his opponent was always between 250 nautical miles and 400 nautical miles. Theoretically, when the twin engines were 250 nautical miles apart, the German aircraft carrier fleet could already launch an attack, and the BF109 fighters were barely enough to carry auxiliary fuel tanks. But actually taking into account the lag of intelligence. Generally speaking, several hours have passed since the information was received. The distance and relative position of the twin engines had changed a long time ago, but this time, Count Luknall was very lucky, and the submarines on the front line quickly sent the information over. It is very effective.

"We also have a camouflage reconnaissance ship nearby, which should be called the Greyhound, which is an 8,000-ton auxiliary vessel with four Andora 196 seaplanes on it. Although there is no radar, it is relatively close to the target, and large warships can be spotted by sight. An officer said.

"Oh well! Let the Greyhound scout for it. Hopefully they will find this fleet. Also from the point of view of direction. Their course should be the purple target, which is near Ascension Island, which is British territory, and if it makes sense for them to resupply there. Count Luknall said.

Just about an hour and a half after the U152 submarine found the target. The Greyhound camouflage reconnaissance ship has released all four seaplanes to search the sea. Although the maximum speed of this type of aircraft is only 300KM, it cannot be compared with the speed of a fighter, but at least it is much faster than the speed of a ship. According to the information provided by the U152 submarine, the reconnaissance aircraft on the Greyhound quickly discovered the target!

An Andora 196 seaplane, codenamed Puppy 3, emerges from the clouds. The weather conditions today are not very good, and the cloud height is very low. So the reconnaissance aircraft had to lower the altitude to search for targets, perhaps by God's favor. Shortly after the plane emerged from the clouds, a slender figure appeared in the pilot's field of vision at 2 o'clock. From the air, the large, shuttle-shaped ship is heading southwest. The other party is very fast, like a flying fish gliding on the sea. And as the distance got closer, he could find that there were two slender figures next to this capital ship, which should be two destroyers from the appearance, and these two destroyers were on the left and right of the aircraft carrier, serving as escort missions.

"Something is wrong, why is there only one capital battleship? Or a separate aircraft carrier, I just don't know if it's Persia or Darius. The pilot said as he looked at the battleship that was sailing fast on the sea. The pilot was thrilled at the thought that this might be the first time in months that German naval aviation had caught an opponent at visual distance, and he cautiously approached the target, faithfully recording the opponent's tracks, and then radioed it to the Greyhound reconnaissance ship, which then forwarded it to the main fleet.

Maybe because it was too close, or because of its frequent radio contact was discovered by the other party, the aircraft carrier that was sailing in the southwest direction ejected 4 Seagull planes in the process of high-speed sailing, when the Andora 196 seaplane was staring at the aircraft carrier, 4 fighters suddenly drilled out of the clouds and caught the Germans off guard, the maximum speed was only 300 kilometers, and the bulky seaplane with almost no maneuverability at all was naturally not an opponent, after a few short rounds of shooting, The plane, along with the pilot on it, was torn to shreds. But even so, information about the ship's position and course had already been sent to Count Lukner's desk.

"Only one aircraft carrier? That's not right. "The information he just received made Count Luknal happy, and he thought he could defeat his opponent in one fell swoop. But what I didn't expect was that the other party actually divided the troops! Could it be that they were divided into two fleets to find supply fleets separately for replenishment? The Iranian fleet had a total of five large warships, including the heavy cruiser Tabrismond, which withdrew from the battle because it was wounded in the Battle of the Bay of Biscay. There was also a heavy cruiser Tehran and an aviation cruiser Qom. As well as two aircraft carriers, the Persia and Darius. And now there is only 1 battleship here, so what about the other three?

"Could it be that the other party also realized the crisis of the situation and was forced to disband the formation?" Count Luknall muttered to himself. Soon, Count Luknall realized that it would be difficult for him to annihilate the other party in one fell swoop. A small fleet is heading towards the supply point. And the other capital ships are not known yet. The most conservative approach is, of course, to follow this small fleet. And then destroy it, but what about other enemy ships? Give up? At least as soon as your capital ship moves, your position will be exposed, and the opponent can run away in the opposite direction.

"It would have been nice if I had found my opponent two weeks ago." Count Luckner said with some remorse that two weeks ago, there were a total of 4 aircraft carriers under his command, and if the opponent divided his forces at that time, then he could also split into two fleets to attack the opponent. But alas, one of the aircraft carriers was forced to return early because of something wrong with the power equipment. And the three aircraft carriers in their hands are a bit too high or too low. If you divide it into two groups, if the aircraft carrier is 1 against 1, Count Luknall is not sure to win, although the armored aircraft carrier is no problem with bomb protection, but it is also afraid of torpedoes. Once the attack fails, it will be sad to be bitten by the other party!

And the dismantling of the Iranian fleet was also the last construction proposed by Sumer. Adhering to the principle of never putting all your eggs in one basket, Su Mo proposed a compromise to build yì. Let Darius contribute some of the remaining fuel. Only fuel was left for the trip to Ascension Island. If one qiē shun lì, then the battleship could be filled with almost 3,500 tons of fuel in Ascension. It will then rendezvous with the main fleet in the pre-booked area. Redistribution of fuel within the entire fleet. And if it is discovered by the Germans, it can enter the port of Ascension and be disarmed directly by the British in the case of being really invincible. Although it is impossible to continue fighting. But somehow it also kept a capital ship.

After Summer proposed this, Cunningham asked why he couldn't send a cruiser for this mission, leaving two aircraft carriers to make the fleet more combat-ready. And Su Mo's explanation is very simple, if the other party finds out that there is only one cruiser. Then simply sending two aviation cruisers can destroy it. The split target must be strong enough to make the opponent skew. A heavy cruiser is a death in the face of two aviation cruisers, and a single Qom will hardly survive in a 1 to 2 situation, but an aircraft carrier is different. After all, people are professional, and 2 aviation cruisers really can't beat a regular fleet aircraft carrier. If the Germans were going to deal with the Darius. Then an aircraft carrier must be separated. And once you fight, the consequences are unpredictable. If you want to stabilize the dìng, you need at least 2 aircraft carriers. That's it. The remaining forces would not be enough to pose a serious threat to the remaining warships. This is a multiple-choice question, and in any case, the opponent can only choose one side to attack, and the other fleet can take advantage of the opportunity to slip away.

I have to say that Sumer's deployment made Count Luckner very uncomfortable, and it was obvious that he also realized the deep meaning. Su Mo could also think of the Count of Lucknar, but in the face of his opponent's approach, he really couldn't find any suitable way to deal with it. One of the enemy's main battleships was discovered, but he could not eat it himself, because as long as he did it, the other fleet would definitely be able to escape. It shouldn't be long before the other side is separated, and the enemy's main fleet should be in the dark sea on the map.

"If the opponent's fleet has just dispersed, then it means that the distance between the two enemy fleets is not far away at this time. If we can concentrate our efforts on reconnaissance of this area, it is very likely that the opponent's main fleet will be discovered. Count Luknal said to his officers. He is also gambling now, betting that the other party has just acted, the speed of the other party will not be very fast, and it has only been 2 hours until now, if it is calculated at an economic speed of 15 knots, then it is only 30 nautical miles, a distance of 54 kilometers. In this way, if it is assumed that the opponent has just started to act, then the position of the opponent's fleet will be limited to a small area. At this time, there are still 3 aircraft carriers in their hands, 2 aviation cruisers, and 6 cruisers left, just 6 cruisers have 24 seaplanes on them, plus aviation cruisers, the entire German fleet has no problem releasing 40 reconnaissance aircraft in one wave, and it can keep 3 aircraft carriers ready to attack at any time! Coupled with the help of submarines, the probability of finding the opponent's main fleet is still very high!

As a result, Luckner gave an order that was difficult for even the officers present to understand, and he abandoned the attack on Darius and instead threw his reconnaissance forces into the area where the opponent's main fleet might be located! There is an old saying in China that ten birds are in the forest and one bird is not as good as one bird in hand. Count Luknar, on the other hand, gave up attacking the low-hanging fruit, and instead chose to fight! He believed that he had covered the other party, and now it was only the last thing left to close the net! This unexpected situation just made him close the net in advance, and this situation also made him realize that the fleets of the two sides were not far apart, so he dared to make a desperate bet and concentrate his reconnaissance forces to conduct a dragnet search!

The entire German fleet sprang into action, one aviation cruiser quickly went heading against the wind to release fighters, while the other six heavy cruisers catapulted seaplanes. For a while, the roar of the aircraft engines resounded over the entire fleet, and one plane after another rose into the air and then carried out reconnaissance in the direction agreed upon by the implementation. All the reconnaissance planes formed a huge fan and flew towards the target sea area. And the entire German fleet followed in a northeasterly direction.

Constant radio signals from the flagship aircraft carrier Moltke activated almost all of the German fleet in the area, and submarines formed a thick warning net to shrink from all sides to the center. The camouflaged merchant ships nearby also gave up their camouflage and released all their seaplanes to search for targets, and the sea, which had been very calm an hour ago, instantly boiled. Months of entanglement are finally coming to an end. The outcome of the war is about to be known in a matter of hours!

Thanks to the book friend hukaikaka and zhouyu1976 for their tips ~~~, as well as the monthly pass support of the book friend sczboy and the baby who is cured ~~~. (To be continued......)