It seems that the whereabouts of the Italian East African Fleet have now been confirmed by intelligence coming from the southern Indian Ocean, but Ali has always felt uneasy, because he has not found any trace of the two heavy cruisers until now. In line with the principle of not seeing the rabbit and not scattering the eagle, the Turkish fleet did not immediately enter the Mediterranean, but has been cruising directly in the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean, preventing the other side from diverting the tiger from the mountains and sending a few small ships to hunt in the southern Indian Ocean, while the main fleet is hiding somewhere in the northern Indian Ocean and waiting for an opportunity!

"The Turks haven't left yet?" At about the same time, Iyakino, who was cruising off the coast of German East Africa, also learned through Guò's own channels that the Turkish fleet had not gone to the Mediterranean. "You can afford to wait!" Looking at the routes of the Turkish fleet that have been cruising in recent days marked on the charts, Iyakino understands what the other side is waiting for! "The Turks are looking for the Sicily and Bora. We won't be reassured if we don't show up. ”

"Have any German merchant ships been in these waters lately?" Iyakino asked, turning around. "There was a merchant ship called the Hamburg Shipping Company, which seemed to be transporting a batch of soap and household chemicals to East Africa." The staff officer beside him looked at the schedule and said with a little embarrassment.

"Well, soap is better than nothing, at least you can stay and take a shower." Iya Kino, who had a black line, said. Originally, Iyakino planned to send two capital ships out this time to reassure Turkey, but who knew that the prey this time was so worthless, just a boatload of soap and daily chemicals. "Even if it's a shipload of heavy oil!" Iyakino grumbled inwardly.

Since it is to reassure the Turks, then their whereabouts must be exposed. And you have plenty of time to send a report to the other party! Otherwise, a boatload of soap was intercepted, and as a result, the telegram was not sent and the Turks could not be heard. Isn't that a waste of work? Do you want to rob a boatload of soap again?? So, two Italian warships, with the help of seaplanes, discovered the merchant ship of the Hamburg shipping company, and swaggered past! In order to ensure that the other side could send a report, they did not fire a gun after entering the 15KM, and even the seaplane did not use machine guns to strafe the deck to prevent the other party from sending a report.

"You're sending a report!" Iyakino hated it! However, the other party's long-distance communication signal was never sent, and this merchant ship, with a maximum speed of no more than 12 knots, had no intention of escaping, and watched the approach of the two 10,000-ton giant ships! Iyakino was puzzled. That's when it happened. received a short-distance communication message from the other party, and the result surprised Iyakino.

"Our ship has decided to obey your orders and not to send a report, not to resist, not to sabotage the ship. I hope you can really guarantee the safety of the people on my ship, we are Russians, there is no need to die for the Germans. After seeing this unexpected telegram, Iyakino only felt blood welling up. I almost vomited blood! What they say makes a lot of sense. It is estimated that the people on this ship are all from the German-occupied areas, and they have to work in German enterprises in order to make a living, even in peacetime, and there is absolutely no possibility of giving life to the Germans during the war. But it's not a good thing that some things are too smooth, for example, now, Iyakino is planning to let this German merchant ship reveal its location, but people directly give up resistance, how can this be done?

"Mr. Colonel. They were destroying their own wires, and it seemed that they had really given up resistance. "Poof. Iyakino, who was depressed, heard this sentence and sprayed a mouthful of water directly on the wall. "You're too professional, aren't you? How many times have you rehearsed?! "It's really not going well today, Iyakino looked at the yellow calendar on the wall, this is what he got when he was studying in Huaxia, it is said that everything should be smooth today, why is he so unlucky?

"Facts have proved that the yellow calendar still has a certain basis, and it will be fulfilled in the dark." Decades later, Iyakino said this in a playful tone when talking about the fighting in the southern Indian Ocean. "The situation on that day can really be described as a peak, a twist and turn, and the willows and flowers are bright!"

"Report, a German light cruiser is coming here! One of our seaplanes spotted him, but they didn't seem to notice us. Soon, a piece of good news fell from the sky that made Iyakino excited. Tell the Sù Bora to deal with the German light cruiser at once, and we will deal with the soap ship! Iyakino commanded loudly. But he really couldn't understand why this German light cruiser dared to come. He didn't know that there were two behemoths waiting for him here? Or was the Russian captain a spy who tricked the German light cruisers into coming here to die? A very unreliable idea popped into Iyakino's mind.

In fact, although the Russians were ready to surrender, they did not expect that there was a German light cruiser patrolling nearby, and from beginning to end the Russians sent a telegram that Iyakino had received, but this telegram did not mention the size of the Italian fleet, nor did it mention that the other side had aircraft to provide reconnaissance. And because it was sent in plain code, anyone could accept to decipher, and then it turned out that the Italians received this telegram, and then the hapless German light cruiser cruising nearby also received this telegram!

Anyway, why are there German light cruisers cruising here? It's also a crooked thing. To be honest, the break-up of diplomatic relations with Italian destroyers before that caused a lot of trouble for the German East African colonies. "We have lost 5 merchant ships with a total tonnage of almost 20,000 tons in less than 1 week. It contained hundreds of tons of lubricating oil, thousands of tons of machinery and daily necessities, and by the way, more than 3,000 tons of frozen meat and eggs. And it was only a few destroyers that caused this qiē. The governor of the German colony in East Africa said to the commander of the local garrison. In his opinion, Italy would be wiped out by the Allies in a few days, and the war was mainly in Europe, and there was a Turkish fleet cruising near the Red Sea, and only a few fish could get here, but these few fish that slipped through the net caused great trouble for themselves. This cannot be tolerated.

Unlike Italy, Germany did not have much of a fleet in East Africa at this time, partly because it was caught off guard, and partly because the German-Austrian focus was always on the Mediterranean and the Middle East. And because there was the cover of land-based aviation, I was not worried that the Italian fleet would hit the door, so I didn't care about it at first, and when the Italian destroyers caused some losses, and at the same time found no trace of Sicily and the Bora, the German East African Fleet Command believed that this was most likely a false shot from the other side, and the main force was still waiting elsewhere. In that case, why don't you send a light cruiser out to find it? So the new German light cruiser Rhine was killed!

"This is the ugliest battleship I have ever seen, but at the same time the best light cruiser in Germany!" This was what one designer said about the Rheinland. THE LIGHT CRUISER HAD A TONNAGE OF LESS THAN 10,000 TONS ON PAPER AND WAS ARMED WITH 3 TRIPLE 175MM HEAVY GUNS. However, unlike the usual ignorance, none of the three turrets are located on the foredeck, with the No. 2 turret carrying and the No. 1 and No. 3 turrets tiled. The entire aft deck is a hangar and seaplane mooring space. At most, the battleship could accommodate 6 seaplanes of various types. The main armor belt is also immune to half of the 7-inch guns, and the speed is not slow, which can be called the best among light cruisers.

"How far are we from each other?" Captain Hansen asked. "According to the results of the radio sideways, we are about 50 nautical miles to 70 nautical miles directly from the target sea area. If the direction is not wrong, we will be able to detect the opponent in a maximum of 2 hours, and now release the reconnaissance aircraft? The co-captain next to him asked.

"Wait, it has only been 15 minutes since they received the telegram, and they have obtained this transport ship in its entirety, which should not be sunk lightly, as long as it is brought to a port in China or a certain port of the Entente, they can obtain a lot of benefits. It will take them at least half an hour to deal with the ship, and now it is possible to surprise the snake by sending a reconnaissance plane. Captain Hansen shook his head. Although the speed of the Rheinland can reach 32 knots, there is still a gap compared with the high-speed destroyer, and the reconnaissance plane has enough weapons to threaten the battleship, if the other party insists on running after discovering it, he will not be able to catch up, so he decided to get closer and then act.

"Those Russians are so daring, this kind of action is almost to surrender to the enemy, they have a clear opportunity to tell us about the whereabouts of the other party! But he directly gave up resistance! A staff officer next to him said through gritted teeth. It doesn't matter, our goal has been achieved, and what to do with those Russians will be left to you when the time comes, and I think it would be a good choice to put them in prison or stay in East Africa for hard labor. Hansen said calmly.

As a result, the Rhine lost its last chance to escape, and a reconnaissance plane over the clouds spotted the light cruiser, which was in a hurry to die, and after receiving the news, the heavy cruiser Bora was approaching at high speed, and the two sides were almost opposite each other, and if nothing else, the two sides could find their opponents in half an hour.

"Get ready to take off! This is the first battle, it must be clean! And just when the Bora was about to fight the Rhine, Iyakino had already solved the Russian merchant ship, and the other party was very cooperative, stopping the ship directly, and even the entire crew walked out of the cabin and concentrated on the foredeck. After the skiff was lowered on the Sicily, Iyakino was finally free to deal with the big fish that had arrived at the door.

According to previous information, there seemed to be no threatening targets in this sea, and after the reconnaissance plane sent the information, he confirmed the identity of the other party, and a pure Italian heavy cruiser seemed to be enough to deal with this light cruiser. However, in line with the principle of leniency for the enemy, Iyakino decided to send 10 planes to help the Pola, and the Germans must not be allowed to escape!

Thanks to the book friends zhouyu1976 and hukaikaka for their tips~~~~, as well as the monthly passes of the book friends eva-xy and xiaoyongplay for supporting ~~~~~. (To be continued......)