"General, General Pershing, Commander-in-Chief of the Lisbon garrison, asked about the movement of the fleet, how do we answer?" The adjutant asked, pushing the door open. The fleet needs to raise fire and anchor, such a big movement naturally can't hide from the Allied Army in Lisbon, although the fleet also has a time to go out to cruise, but it is still dispatched at such a late hour, and the whole fleet is moving, which is very puzzling, and more importantly, Majifen does not seem to give a reasonable explanation, which makes Pershing very dissatisfied. But at this point, Majifen doesn't seem to be able to come up with any explanation, or how to say it? Could it be that if the other side wants to launch a general offensive from both land and sea, our navy will not be able to stop it? Fight your own until the last minute! Something is going to happen if you say that!

Originally, Magifin's task was to hold Lisbon and contain the Allied Mediterranean Fleet, if Sims was in place, Magiffin would not be worried, but at the moment before Sims arrived, the other party had quietly killed him, although it was absolutely impossible for a night's rapid march to directly attack the city, but Magiffin naturally could not wait in the port. At this time, his plan was simple, wait for Sims to arrive outside the port, as long as he could meet first, there would be no problem at all, if Tycho didn't want to go, Majifen didn't mind fighting each other outside Lisbon. Although the situation was urgent, after some arrangement, Majifen decided to lead the fleet out of port, then sail 20 nautical miles to the north, and then act on the opportunity.

At this time, via a telegram, Sims also learned of the departure of the Italian fleet, and Magifin ordered him to join him at once, so he was born. The four battleships under Sims also increased their speed to the maximum, but they had no choice but to fight hard. The speed is only about 20 knots. Even at theoretical speed, the time of the rendezvous between himself and Majifen will be around 14 o'clock the next day. And at this time it was already 8 o'clock in the morning, and there were still about 5 hours, 100 nautical miles away! At this time, Sims did not know that he had no chance to join Majifin, and in the light of the morning light, a fleet was moving northeast 20 nautical miles in front of Sims's fleet, if nothing else. After ten minutes, it was possible for the two fleets, which were almost facing each other, to see the smoke screen coming out of each other's chimneys.

On February 1, 1919, it was dawn. The sun brought sunshine and warmth, but at the moment the American fleet obviously did not have time to enjoy the sunrise over the sea, and Magiffen was hesitating whether to continue north to try to meet Sims sooner, or to stay put. The reconnaissance planes discharged in the morning tried to conduct reconnaissance from the sea. But they were all intercepted by German planes taking off from the outskirts of Lisbon. Even if individual aircraft detect opponents. But it was shot down by the other side without even sending a complete piece of information. It seems that the Italians are a little bit faster! True, the Allied fast fleet again threw away the slow battleships after dawn and rushed towards the American fleet outside the harbor at a maximum speed of up to 25 knots, while the battleship formation was thrown away for almost 1 hour!

"As long as we can bite the opponent and not let them go, we will win, even if we lose some, it doesn't matter!" Tycho was not worried about his situation, if Majifen had chosen to fight rather than evacuate. Even if the other party has the advantage, it is absolutely impossible to solve yourself within 3 hours. Whether it's the battleship formation behind to join the battle or Hipper's bite Sims, as long as one of these things can happen, it is equivalent to sealing the victory! This is a strategic victory, not a tactical one that can be reversed!

Unexpectedly, the first to discover each other were Majifen and Tycho, and when the towering figure of the fast battleship Longxu appeared on the sea, Majifen suddenly had an inexplicable throbbing in his heart. He felt scared, because he found that the situation was not in his control, judging from the speed, the other side was obviously a fast battleship, so the number could only be 7, such a fleet would definitely suffer in the face of his own all-iron turtle lineup, so why did Tycho still fight hard? What's the point?

By accident, Majifen gave the most confusing and at the same time valuable order of his life. "Withdraw the fleet to the northeast and avoid engaging it!" Looking at the stunned and shocked faces of his subordinates, he ignored it, and in the face of his subordinates' questions and cross-examinations, he didn't respond, he just knew that the preservation of the fleet was the first priority at this time, and the U.S. Navy had been completely wiped out once, and this time it could not be repeated, although now he didn't know whether he was doing it right or not, but his intuition told him that if he could fight this battle today, don't fight!

Surrounded by many auxiliary warships, the U.S. fleet lined up in two columns, drew a huge U-shaped on the sea surface and withdrew to the northeast, and the Allied fast fleet in the distance tried to further accelerate the pursuit after discovering it, but because of the hidden disease and power limitations, this fleet could not catch up faster, and now the two sides were about 18 nautical miles apart, and the speed difference was about 5 knots, and the latter wanted to include the other party in the range of its naval guns at least 1 and a half hours! As for the battleships that were held behind, I am afraid it would have to wait a little longer before they could enter the battle. Both sides hesitated, with Magiffin not knowing his opponent's backhand and Tycho not knowing if Hippel would be able to bite Sims as successfully as planned! And all these doubts were completely revealed after 20 minutes!

Because of the morning fog and the direction of the wind, Hippel and Sims spotted each other much later than expected, and when they identified each other through the telescopes, the distance between them was close to about 16KM! Sims was stunned, he really couldn't imagine where the giant battleship that appeared like a ghost in front of him came from, shouldn't this huge battleship with 5 turrets and a slender body be in Wilhelmshaven? Two days ago, he received information that there was no change in Wilhelmshaven! What the hell is going on? A whole 3 Bismarck-class battleships appeared in his field of vision, which made him tremble! Thinking about the Allied fleet that suddenly appeared on the surface of Lisbon, he suddenly understood something! The Germans actually broke through the North Sea blockade line and came to the Atlantic?! They want to completely destroy the American fleet!

The battle was inevitable, he couldn't outrun the German fleet in terms of speed, the opponent's rangefinder had firmly locked itself in the center, and the main turret was also aimed at him, and after sending the relevant situation to Guò telegraph, Sims began to prepare for the battle! Four to three themselves at least a numerical advantage! At present, Sims's lineup is 2 New Mexico-class battleships, New Mexico and Ioda, as well as Pennsylvania and Nevada, with a total of 46 14-inch 45L main guns, while their opponent has 30 15-inch main guns, Sims is a person who has experienced the Battle of Jutland after all, in this case, he realized that he must not retreat, otherwise, the Majiffin fleet behind will be caught in the middle of the two Entente fleets! And since you have decided not to go, and you can't go, melee will be the only option after getting closer! In addition to this, Sims also asked all the nearby forces that could be supported to rush to the battlefield, whether it was submarines, planes or even torpedo boats! The battle in the North Sea is over, and the fate of the Atlantic will be decided in this battle!

"The opponent's escort force is very weak, only 4 light cruisers!" Soon Sims discovered the other side's problem, if in the North Sea engagement the Germans could still use torpedo boats to make up for the gap in auxiliary warships, then the lone German fleet had no way. "I guess this is the last complete light cruiser formation of the High Seas Fleet." Sims couldn't help but smile slightly mockingly. In that case, let's take it on our shoulders! Artillery, torpedoes, all that can be used together, let's greet together!

"It's a bit too much!" Looking at the U.S. fleet rushing up under Ukrainian pressure, and the huge fleet of at least 20 auxiliary warships of various kinds followed by the 4 capital ships, Hipper said helplessly. The 4 American Iron Turtles bore the brunt of the attack, and the escort battleships behind did not rush up immediately, they needed to wait for the capital ships to shoot the opponent's secondary guns and anti-lightning guns before they acted. These ships are like short, sharp daggers, delivering the deadliest blow when both sides are exhausted!

Compared to Sims's desperate blow, Hipper was a little weak, he didn't dare to fight close combat with the opponent, but tried to pull away and use the armor-piercing advantage of the 15-inch gun to hit the opponent as far away as possible! "Bismarck against the New Mexico and Ioda, Bavaria and Baden against Pennsylvania and Nevada, respectively!" Hipper gave this rather surprising order, with one Bismarck-class battleship against the opponent's two strongest battleships! Although the Germans considered the Bismarck-class battleships to be the strongest of all the warships of the belligerent countries, although New Mexico was a little worse, there was no ability to fight two in any case! Hipper is using his flagship to attract the opponent's firepower, creating a chance for the next two battleships to achieve results as soon as possible!

And it just so happened that Sims also figured out that Guò concentrated fire attack to achieve results as soon as possible, and the opposite side was the same battleship, since this was the case, it was naturally the most meaningful to attack the flagship! As many as 24 14-inch 45L guns spewed deadly bullets, and the intertwined fire net of the two New Mexico-class battleships completely covered the Bismarck! From time to time, the shells that hit made violent explosions, and clouds of smoke and fire rose from the battleship. As soon as the battle began, the fierce offensive of the two battleships of the New Mexico made Hippel feel very stressed! And the Germans did not hesitate, three Bismarck-class battleships attacked at maximum rate of fire, and after clamping each other, the Germans also abandoned half a salvo in favor of a full salvo to increase the amount of projection!

Thanks to the book friend zhouyu1976 and the book friend hukaikaka for the tip~~~~. (To be continued......)