February 1, 1916. Aegean Sea, 15 nautical miles south of the entrance to the Dardanelles, at the forward anchorage of Tenidos, the new flagship of the British Royal Navy's Aegean Detachment, the "Queen Elizabeth"-class battleship "Malaya", Martin. Lieutenant General Jeram's flag is waving in the wind.

The cold wind blowing from the eastern Asian continent dispelled the early morning mist, the huge chimney of the "Malaya" spewed out hot oil smoke, and the colorful flags on the signal mast rose and fell, issuing orders to dozens of warships of all sizes around it.

The "Malaya" arrived here with reinforcements three days ago. Vice Admiral Jeram immediately took over command from Vice Admiral Carden, who had been the director of the Maltese Warship Repair Depot for a long time before the war, and at the same time took over Carden's early battle cruiser "Invincible", the new French super-dreadnought battleship "Provence", five former dreadnoughts (four of which belonged to the French Navy), four light cruisers, sixteen fleet destroyers and seven submarines.

As the ancestor of the world's battle cruisers, the Invincible's technical performance was somewhat outdated before the Battle of the Bay of Bengal: the standard displacement was only 17,420 tons, the maximum speed was 26 knots, and it was armed with eight 305 mm 45 times diameter guns (4 twin turrets, one front and rear, one diagonal on the left and right sides), sixteen 102 mm secondary guns, the thickest main armor belt was 152 mm, the turret front was 178 mm (7 in), and the gun mount was 178 mm (7 in). The main deck armor is up to 64 mm inches).

As early as the eve of the outbreak of the European War, the "Invincible" cruised in the Mediterranean Sea with its sister ship "Indomitable" and the "Iron Duke" class battleship "Delhi" to closely monitor the German Navy's battle cruiser "Goeben" and light cruiser "Breslau" on a "friendly visit" here.

When the European war broke out, the "Goeben" happened to be in Constantinople to participate in the "Navy Week" parade of the Ottoman Turkish Navy, and the new commander of the Aegean Sea Detachment, Vice Admiral Carden, took the "Invincible" as the flagship, led the "Indomitable", "Delhi" and five other former dreadnoughts to blockade the Dardanelles, and briefly shelled the fortress at the entrance of the strait after Turkey entered the war, and then used light ships to lay mines at the entrance of the strait, severely damaging the Turkish army "Sultan Selim I", that is, the original "Goben" battle cruiser; Submarine broke through the Dardanelles Strait, penetrated deep into the Sea of Marmara and even the Black Sea, sank one 9,000-ton shore defense ironclad ship and one 10,000-ton pre-dreadnought battleship, and sank and damaged many merchant ships.

By June 1915, the Indian Ocean was tight, and the Royal Navy was forced to transfer the battlecruiser "Indomitable" back to the mainland, and three months later, the defeat in the Battle of the Bay of Bengal forced the Royal Navy to further transfer the battleship "Delhi" (later renamed "Emperor of India") and replace it with the newly completed super-dreadnought "Provence" by the French army.

The "Provence" is the lead ship of the "Provence" class (also known as the "province" class), which is the most powerful warship of the French Navy to date, with a standard displacement of 22,189 tons, a maximum speed of 20 knots, and ten 340 mm 45 x diameter main guns (5 twin turrets, full center line arrangement) and 22 140 mm 55 x diameter secondary guns, and the armor protection is quite distinctive: the main armor belt is no thicker than 270 mm, the frontal armor of the main turret is 340 to 400 mm thick, and the main deck armor is 70 mm thick. Plus a 40 mm thick upper deck.

The main strength of the combined Aegean Detachment and Strait Raiders Fleet were: two super-dreadnought battleships (Royal Navy "Malaya" and French Navy "Provence"), four dreadnought battleships (French Navy "Diderot", "Condosse", "Corbet", "Ocean"), one battle cruiser (Royal Navy "Invincible"), twelve former dreadnought battleships (five of which belonged to the French Navy), two large light cruisers (Royal Navy "Brave" and "Glorious"), Six light cruisers, one fleet aircraft carrier (HMS Victory), five seaplane carriers, forty fleet destroyers, ten submarines.

The auxiliary forces were: twelve shallow-water heavy gunboats, two seaplane supply ships, thirty-eight minesweepers, and dozens of other auxiliary ships.

In addition, the landing and transportation forces prepared for launching an amphibious landing war also include four dock landing ships, 12 tank landing ships, 15 large troop carriers, 38 cargo ships, more than 100 large and small barges, more than 300 vehicle and personnel landing craft, and dozens of other landing auxiliary ships.

At this time, only some of the above forces were assembled at the anchorage of Tenidos: Martin. Vice Admiral Jeram's main force of the Long-Range Support Force (Fleet C), as well as the main force of the Long Range Support Force (Fleet C) led by Vice Admiral Jellam. Morality. Direct artillery forces under the command of Rear Admiral Robeck (Flotilla Flotilla).

The former consisted mainly of six dreadnought battleships and one battle cruiser, while the latter had a base force of twelve dreadnought battleships and twelve shallow water heavy gunboats.

Rear Admiral Abbasnot's long-range support force reconnaissance detachment, consisting of the large light cruisers INS Brave and USS Glorious and the aircraft carrier USS Victory, was based in the port of Mucho on the island of Lemnos, 50 nautical miles west of the entrance to the strait, which also served as the distribution base for Commodore Wine's landing transport force (Flotilla D) before the battle.

Today. The task of the Aegean detachment was to shell the four fortresses at the entrance to the strait and open the passage for the minesweepers, for which all the basic forces of the direct artillery force would be devoted, divided into four detachments to bombard in turn, and as many as seventy-two large-caliber guns could be used, including twelve 35-fold 305-mm guns, forty-eight 40-fold 305-mm guns, eight 45-fold 356-mm guns and four 45-fold 381-mm guns.

During the shelling, naval aviation units taking off from the Victory and two seaplane bases will provide air cover and radio calibration support to the fleet, as long as weather permits, and will be ready to strike desperately Turkish naval ships that may break out of the strait.

According to the intelligence gathered before the launch of the campaign, the defense of the Dardanelles Strait was divided into three layers: the first layer was the four fortresses at the entrance to the strait, which were located at Cape Helles at the southern end of the Gallipoli Peninsula and at Kumkale on the Asian coast, which were equipped with at least 30 artillery pieces, including more than 20 heavy guns, of which only four to 6 should have a range of more than the second layer was 11 fortresses between the entrance of the strait and the narrowest part of the strait, and were equipped with nearly 100 guns of various types, of which no more than one-fifth were modern heavy artillery. The third layer is the fortress group located in Canakkale on the eastern shore of the strait, equipped with more than 100 guns of various types.

The Turkish coastal artillery consisted of a large number of obsolete and short-range guns, and the few modern heavy guns with a predominantly caliber of 210 to 240 mm were of limited power, and only a few 280 mm and 356 mm heavy guns were sufficient to threaten the battleships of the Allies.

Obviously, the Turkish army will lay mines in the Dardanelles, but according to reliable information, the Turkish Navy does not have many mines in stock, and the Entente will invest a large number of specially trained mine-sweeping forces to cleanly open a passage with the support of the "trinity" of naval artillery, aviation and landing force - of course, all this is just Martin for now. Lieutenant General Jeram and his staff team are just unilateral speculations.

"You're ready, you're ready to go."

Bridge of the ship "Malaya", Chief of Staff Roger Murphy. Brigadier General Case approached Martin. Lieutenant General Jeram reported.

"Let's go."

Lieutenant General Jeram gave the order in no uncertain terms, for a moment. He muttered to himself in a vague voice.

“…… to change history, this distorted history......"

……

On the east coast of Mexico, in the Gulf of Veracruz, the Star-Spangled Banner is flying, and hundreds of ships are gathered here. Lieutenant General Pershing's American Intervention Army was proudly driving through the streets of Veracruz to be greeted by the citizens of the Calansha Constitutionalists, one of which aroused the curiosity of the onlookers, who were pointing and marveling at the crowd of onlookers.

The civil war between Caransha's Kindas, the Peasant Army, and the Peasant Army of Vera and the Peasant Army of Shabada has been going on for more than a year, and although the Peasant Army has occupied the capital, Mexico City, it has isolated itself through its radical egalitarian policies, and the situation of the Peasant Army has deteriorated after the split between the two leaders of the Peasant Army, Vera and Shabada, and although they can occasionally receive arms smuggled in from China across the ocean, it is relatively easier for the Kindling Army to receive more aid from the United States, which is close by. And this time, the impatient United States went into battle shirtless in person, trying to eradicate this "ulcer" that threatens the backyard of the United States in one fell swoop.

In the long line of cars, where not a single horse could be seen, in the open window of a large, sleek Chevrolet 1912 "Little Four" sedan, two heroic young officers were constantly looking out.

"George, I don't think you should be here."

The younger, more composed one at first glance, suddenly spoke to his companion.

"Then what are you doing here? Dwight? ”

The one who looks a little older and full of energy. But he didn't look back, and asked indifferently.

"Because you're my chief, George. Smith. Captain Patton. ”

"Isn't that the end of it? There is nothing that should not be done, we are propelled forward by the mission of God, this mission, which is war - we are born for war, so we should be on the front line of war, lead our army, our ironclad cavalry, to rush to the enemy and accept the test of God. Tell me. Aren't you here for the war? Dwight. David. Second Lieutenant Eisenhower? ”

"Our opponent is just a bunch of farmers...... I don't think there's a lot of pride to be had, and it's hard to gain any useful experience. ”

Second Lieutenant Dwight D. Eisenhower, who was twenty-six years old at the time, still muttered unwillingly, he entered the West Point Military Academy in 1911, and just graduated last year.

"Whatever he is, as long as he is an enemy of the United States, we must destroy them! Whether it's with a rifle, a cannon or a tank track! ”

At the age of thirty-one, he had graduated from West Point two years before Eisenhower entered the school, served in the 15th Cavalry Regiment, served in the Army General Staff for a time, and at the age of 27 participated in the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm, Sweden, where he finished fifth in the pentathlon.

After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Patton was commissioned by the Army General Staff to lead a delegation to Europe to inspect British and French armored units, received basic training in operating tanks in France, visited British and French tank factories, and studied and discussed the principles and tactics of tank warfare with Colonel Fuller, an operations officer of the British Royal Armored Forces Command.

Although Britain and France had already granted their respective tank drawings and patents to the United States, the inexperienced American industry still needed time to digest the technology and renovate the factory, and Patton could only temporarily use a small number of light tanks provided by Britain and France, supplemented by non-standard armored vehicles temporarily modified by ordinary civilian tractors and automobiles, to form the first batch of "army tank schools." With the mass production of standard armored vehicles, Patton then formed six "armored car machine gun companies" and "army armored vehicle schools".

By the first combat armored battalion, consisting of a Renault FT-14 light tank company, an armored car company equipped with machine guns, an armored car company equipped with 37 mm guns, and an artillery battery towed by trucks, Patton relied on his relationship with Pershing to stuff this armored battalion with an experimental nature into the combat sequence of the expeditionary force.

"I mean, even if you want to gain experience, you should be in Europe. As for the experience of suppressing the peasant army, isn't it dispensable for us? The young Eisenhower explained.

Barton waved his hand out of the car window and sneered sideways: "Don't underestimate those guys, they once controlled half of Mexico, and now they are still entrenched in the capital of this country, and it is impossible to solve the problem in a short time just by providing arms to Caransha." That's why we had to do it ourselves - it is said that they have a lot of Chinese advisers in their team, we have to keep our eyes open, and the Chinese have surprised us enough. ”