"Damn, if you come 5 hours earlier! We can rewrite history! When Georges Legge was dying, a telegram was delivered to him by an agitated French officer. Just ten minutes ago, Thomas, the commander of the British Indian Ocean Fleet, finally got in touch with George Legg, and his four overseas consul-class fast battleships and their cruiser formation were heading towards the battlefield at a high speed of 22 knots, and after receiving the information that the Kingdom of Italy had declared war on the Entente, Thomas concluded that the Italians would definitely join up with the Austro-Hungarian fleet and surprise the French fleet that was on a mission in the eastern Mediterranean.

The British had already received some news through the intercepted German naval telegrams, and at the same time had thought earlier that the Italians would be in trouble at sea, but the British did not expect the Italians to move so quickly and thunder as soon as they struck! This is completely incomparable to the performance of the Italian Army! Therefore, Thomas failed to join the French fleet in time, and Georges Legge did not retreat immediately due to some objective and competent reasons, and finally fought with the Italian-Austrian fleet in Malta, almost killing the French Navy for nearly 20 years! At this time, although Thomas has arrived, it is at least 50KM away from the battlefield! That is to say, it will take another hour to arrive at the earliest, and after an hour, what will be left of the French fleet?

In the face of Thomas's proposal to flank the Italian-Austrian fleet with the French fleet, Georges Legge rejected with a wry smile, not that he didn't want to, even if the 6 battleships of the French fleet were still floating on the surface an hour later, how much firepower was left to use? Now the French fleet has lost at least 6 percent of its main guns. To some extent, the purpose of continuing to shoot is to show one's attitude, not to really hope for any results. The skin of the opponent is rough and the meat is thick. Even if you have an occasional hit, your side won't have much effect. What about the addition of 4 new Dreadnoughts? The combat power of the French fleet was negligible, while the four Caracionot-class battleships in the Italian fleet did not suffer much loss except for ammunition consumption, and the three Cavour-class battleships also maintained at least 6% of their combat strength. Thomas is here, and he will never be cheap.

"Our fleet has lost the ability to fight a decisive battle, and will withdraw to the mainland for correction, and the current number of Italian-Austrian capital ships fighting with our fleet is 8, in addition to one sunk, two have fallen out of battle." George Leger's telegram was so brief that it could even be described in vague terms. It's not that George Legge can't even speak, but because it contains too many words to put on the table, if something happens later. Then this telegram will be turned into a court-martialed testimony! And the situation is changing rapidly. George Legge also lost his judgment on the battle situation!

Georg Legge naturally hoped that Thomas would rush over with his fleet like a savior to block the Italian fleet and cover his escape. But if you look at the big picture, there are too many things that the Entente and the Central Powers are pressing on this square inch of the Mediterranean at this time! As soon as this gamble opened, almost all the belongings of France, Italy and Austria were all the belongings of the three countries! And now, on the side of the Allies, the British Empire's most powerful overseas fleet, is on the side. Thomas's Indian Ocean Fleet! Even if it was an hour ago. If Thomas could get there, George Legge would have dared to keep fighting, but now, he doesn't have the guts.

The French fleet is no longer good, and if the British fleet loses any more heavy losses, it will be equivalent to the loss of the two separate battlefields of the Eastern Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean in one day! Do not forget that in the Indian Ocean there are also 4 fast battleships of the combined German-Turkish fleet, as well as auxiliary ships, in the event that the Thomas fleet is heavily damaged. It was obviously impossible to reach Toulon or the British mainland through the Mediterranean, and Alexandria could not be repaired by the Dreadnought. Then they can only evacuate along the coast of Africa across the Atlantic to the mainland. And this can only be achieved without being blocked by the German-Turkish fleet.

In the next step, the Italian-Austrian trio will concentrate their forces to attack Egypt and then seize the Suez Canal. And to achieve the convergence of the fleet of the four Italian-German countries, by that time, this powerful fleet could even enter the western Mediterranean and completely cut off the connection between France and French West Africa, and it was not impossible to break through the fortress of Gibraltar at the very end! If it really came to this point, the situation of the Entente could be called dangerous!

Now in this bet, the French have lost, and for the sake of their own strategy and that of the Entente, Georges Legge really does not want to pull Thomas into the water. However, he still provided a message that two capital ships had broken away from the battle, and the Italian-Austrian fleet did not have fast ships, and if Thomas was lucky enough, he should be able to destroy the two injured ships again and get out safely!

After Thomas received this telegram, he was really entangled, as a senior admiral of the Royal Navy, Thomas is still very aggressive in his heart, but it does not mean that he can't see the situation clearly, after summarizing and analyzing the situation of the war, Thomas agrees with George Leger's point of view, and he has passed, and he may not be able to turn the tide of the war. However, just as Thomas was struggling with his next move, a telegram came from the light cruisers that were scouting ahead, and they had found two Austro-Hungarian capital ships! At this time, it was slowly sailing northeast at a speed of 12 knots.

"Huh?!" Thomas was shocked at first, he really couldn't understand why the Italian-Austrian fleet would divide the troops, but after comparing several telegrams before and after, he finally found a way, that is, in the battle, the Austro-Hungarian fleet had a battleship that was heavily damaged, and in order to take care of this battleship, the Austro-Hungarian fleet also left a super dreadnought, because the overall situation had been decided, so the Italians did not stop it, and more importantly, the situation was completely consistent with Georgeleg's report, Thomas really did not expect to catch up with such a big piece of meat when he first came to the Mediterranean! If these two ships can be destroyed, then it won't be too much of a loss! As a result, Thomas immediately commanded the fleet to abandon the reinforcement of the French fleet and instead attack two lone Austrian battleships!

"The Lone Pull has finally sunk! We have made a new history of the Austro-Hungarian Navy! The captain of the St. István said excitedly as he looked at the battleship Guba, which was slowly sinking into the water in the distance. For him, the war was over, and it was the Italians to encircle and suppress the French fleet, and now he just had to return safely with the Taghoff. But at this moment, the column of smoke rising from the southeast caused the Austrians to rush to a hint of crisis, judging from the smoke situation, this should be a large fleet, but just after contacting the main fleet, the Italians are fighting to the death with the French, how can they suddenly rush over? Almost all of the Allied possessions in the Mediterranean are here, so who will this fleet be?

"Enemies anyway!" Without giving the Austrians much time to think, 18 km away, the huge rice flag finally appeared in the Austrians' telescope. And the two triple turrets in the bow of the ship also clearly indicate their identity, they are the Indian Ocean Fleet of the British Empire! Shock, fear, and despair instantly filled the small fleet, and a whole 4 top-notch fast battleships vented their anger on the Austrians with a salvo of fury! Although the first salvo did not even form a straddle due to the distance, it was enough to terrify the Austrian fleet, which had just experienced a big battle!

Soon, by telegram, Tycho and Count Spee received enough news to shock them! "We walked around the abyss. I never imagined that victory and defeat could be so close! Tycho couldn't help but wipe his cold sweat when he received the news of the arrival of the British Indian Ocean Fleet. Just a little bit! The French and British fleets could easily defeat the Italian-Austrian fleet in the Mediterranean! Thankfully, this time God was on their side!

"Immediately order the fleet to come up, we will deal with the French fleet as soon as possible!" Tycho took a deep breath and poured a glass of cold water over his head in order to sober himself up! In less than a minute, Tycho decided to continue attacking the French fleet! Now the French fleet is left with the last breath left, and if they are allowed to go back, then the efforts and sacrifices of the Italian navy will be in vain! Two Austrian battleships sank and sank! As allies, Tycho regretted their sacrifice! But it also bought time for the Italians to continue attacking the French fleet.

"The St. István converges with the main fleet and abandons the Taghoff, which can choose to sink itself if necessary." Almost at the same time, Count Spee also gave an order that it was impossible to let two battleships wait for rescue, and at the same time it was impossible for the Italians to abandon the French fleet, and in that case, let the losses be as small as possible! The Taghoff is dead, but the St. István still has a chance!

Because of a telegram, the battle between the two fleets came to a new climax, and the Italian fleet began to attack as much as possible before the French fleet could strike. Thomas's British fleet also headed for the Austrian fleet at maximum speed. In the face of the menacing British, the St. István left the already badly damaged Taghof and sailed towards the Italian coast, where there was a minefield laid by the Italians, and the British did not dare to take risks easily. And the Italian liaison officer on this battleship can let this super fearless and safe entry.

The Taghoff went to the last moment of its life, and was attacked by more than 30 guns when it was already heavily flooded, so that the impact point was too dense to be effectively observed, and soon, the British discovered the problem, leaving 1 super dreadnought and 2 armored cruisers to continue to attack the dreadnought, while the rest pursued the fleeing super dreadnought, at this time the speed difference between the two sides was only about 2 knots, that is, it took a full 1 hour to pull into a distance of about 4KM, In addition, the auxiliary warships guarding the surrounding area emitted smoke from time to time, which made the accuracy of the British's artillery bombardment drop terribly. Eventually, the St. István managed to sail into the safety of the offshore, while the Taghoff was sent to the bottom of the sea by two torpedoes after all its main guns were knocked out.

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