Just after the Germans and Italians decided that they would carry out the operation, codenamed Thunder Thurbrus, they began to think about how to proceed. The best way is naturally to meet everyone and then besiege it, but this method is the most difficult to do, in Portugal, the Entente has airships, airships, and various destroyers and sentinel ships with a certain ocean-going reconnaissance capability. Even if it was not detected in the Atlantic, it would certainly be discovered when it entered the waters near Portugal, and the American fleet did not only provide fire support to the army in the harbor, but also often operated in the nearby waters to attack the German forces along the coast. In other words, the Allies can only know what the other side is operating in that area, but it is difficult to say where. Moreover, the US Navy still has aircraft cover, and it is not enough to rely on warships alone.

As a result, after a high-level exchange of high-level naval forces between the two sides, the air force was decisively pulled into the water! The task of the air force is mainly divided into two parts, the first part is to consume the Allied air force in Portugal as much as possible, especially the Sailfish torpedo aircraft and twin-engine bombers with sea capabilities, and then after the convergence of the Allied fleet, the air force will send elite squadrons to cooperate with the navy to besiege the American fleet, after many actual battles, it has been proved that if there are no planes to join the current naval battle, what a tragic thing, the naval battle off the coast of Britain, the British swordfish made the Germans lose 1 King-class battleship, And in the Battle of Norwegian Naval Battle, the German bombers inflicted heavy damage on two more American battleships. So now both sides attach considerable importance to the Air Force. Airplanes will no longer be a dispensable role, but will gradually become the master of war. For this reason, the Luftwaffe specifically talked about the transfer of three flying groups stationed in the mainland in the direction of Portugal.

And in order to respond to the actions of the Hipper's fleet. The Allies mobilized as many submarines and attack ships as possible to the Atlantic to increase the pressure on the Entente escorts. And after a qiē was ready, on the night of January 18, 1919. Hipper was to command three Bismarck-class battleships to the Mediterranean, and under the cover of night, the German fleet would first sail north. It then joined up with a German supply ship from Norway, refueled, and turned northwest. "Hipper, you will create a history, let's take the final step of the war, as long as you can join the Italian fleet in Tycho, we will win this war." Before leaving. Scheer said.

"Don't worry, even God will help us, in these days. The weather in the vicinity of our route is not good, and the reconnaissance effect of the British will be greatly reduced, both by aircraft and by surface ships. "Hipper wasn't very nervous about the attack. As he said. God is helping them. Subsequently, three capital ships and four light cruisers left the anchorage at Wilhelmshamn. Heading north.

And at this time, Majifen was also considering this next battle plan. Just two days ago, Thomas's fleet left France for England, and if nothing else, three days later, the British would let the Sims fleet go, and his four battleships would first go to the French port of Saint-Nazaire to replenish ammunition and complete the tail sweeping work and accept the new crew, after a week or so of corrections. The Sims fleet will go to Lisbon to join itself. The original plan was for the Sims fleet to go directly to Lisbon to join the Majifen fleet, but later the Italian fleet voluntarily retreated to the fortress of Gibraltar. The pressure in the vicinity of Lisbon was greatly relieved, and because the Sims fleet did not have some business to deal with and a large number of new recruits from the United States, Magiffen agreed to the Sims to be rearmament in the safer France.

At this time, there were only 9 super-dreadnoughts in Majifen's hands, namely 2 Tennessee-class battleships, 1 Nevada-class battleship, 2 New York-class battleships and 1 battleship Utah that had just completed the refinement, this battleship was the No. 2 ship of the Florida class, and the only remaining 2 super-dreadnoughts of the French and the Dutch fast battleship Seven Provinces. The combat effectiveness of this fleet was slightly stronger than that of the fast fleet commanded by Count Spee. (At least on paper.) And when the Sims fleet joined, Majifen had 13 super dreadnoughts in his hands. In addition, there is the Greek dreadnought Athens. And the Allied Mediterranean Fleet has 12 super-dreadnoughts. Numerically, the American fleet has a slight advantage.

Then look at the quality. The Americans have always thought that the Tennessee-class battleships may be inferior to some 15-inch battleships of the same period, but they are certainly on a level. The Americans believed that the Tennessee-class battleships should be slightly stronger than the Queen-class fast battleships and slightly weaker than the Bismarck-class battleships and the Longxiang. Although the American officers and men were slightly inferior, after the baptism of fighting during this period of time, Magifin believed that the two Tennessee-class battleships were still stronger than the Italian Caraciono-class battleships, and the Allied side had the highest combat effectiveness of the two Tennessee-class battleships and the Nevada battleships and two French super-dreadnoughts, and the actual combat power of these five battleships was close to or equal to that of the Italian Longxiang and the four Caracionot-class battleships.

Although the Allied fleet still has 3 Huaxia standard fast battleships, this is okay, Majifen still has 2 New Mexico-class battleships and a Pennsylvania-class battleship in his hands to occupy a slight advantage. Then there were the three fast Moltke-class battleships of Spain and the Austro-Hungarian Super Dreadnought, and the remaining six battleships in Majifen's hands could have some advantage. Although the advantage of the capital ship is not big, but there are still some of them, and in terms of auxiliary warships, the United States has also invested in it this time, the Americans have invested almost all the armored cruisers that he can use, a total of 6 armored cruisers equipped with 6 10-inch guns will be responsible for cleaning up the opponent's light cruisers and mine-striking ships, and at the same time, the Americans have also concentrated 24 destroyers and mine-striking ships. On the other side, there are only a dozen destroyers in terms of auxiliary warships, and it is estimated that there are only two or three light cruisers, "We can't concentrate more forces until the Maryland-class battleships are commissioned, so although this battle is very dangerous, we can only fight!" Majifen hesitated and hesitated when he looked at the fleet, which did not have much advantage, but finally decided to fight.

As a keen naval commander, he knew that relying on the surface fleet alone was not enough, so he specially transferred 18 submarines from the continental United States and divided them into three groups to set up a cordon to be responsible for reconnaissance and sneak attacks. And for the Air Force, he demanded more aircraft for reconnaissance and air defense. "If I could, I would like the RAF to provide more Sailfish torpedo aircraft." However, Majifen's most important request was denied, and even the request for more fighters and reconnaissance aircraft was severely curtailed, not because there was a deliberate embarrassment, but because the Allies could only transport supplies to Portugal by sea. However, sea transportation takes a long time and also has to face attacks from the Allies, and the U.S. government requires that important equipment such as aircraft can only be sent to the battlefield if there is a guarantee of safety, and this naturally takes a lot of time.

On the one hand, the US forces in France had to resist the key German attack, so they naturally could not provide more aircraft, and the British and French had to watch their own homes and were also unable to provide enough aircraft, especially after a transport ship carrying fighter jets was sunk by an Italian submarine in the Bay of Biscay, the French theater of operations was even more conservative in its action of mobilizing fighters to the south. Coupled with the air offensives launched by the Allies in Portugal, the Allied air forces in Portugal felt a lot of pressure, and it was naturally difficult to draw up strength to cooperate with Magifin's actions. So, in terms of aviation, Majifen was completely tragic! It would be nice to be able to keep the original scale!

From this series of changes, Majifen seems to have found some clues, although as a naval general, he does not know much about the army and the air force, but the soldier's intuition tells him that the other party is not normal! Under normal circumstances, the purpose of the opponent's deployment of a large number of air forces should be to cooperate with the ground corps to launch a centripetal assault on Lisbon, otherwise the significance of conducting a large-scale air engagement alone is really limited, but in the current situation, the Allied air force is extremely active, but the pace of the ground force offensive has not accelerated, on the contrary, in order to avoid the attack of the Entente fleet, they have abandoned part of the coastal positions, and at the same time, the land forces besieging Lisbon have also retreated a little to avoid the blow of naval artillery. In addition, the Allied Navy adopted a new code, which the Allied Allies had never successfully deciphered in the Battle of Gibraltar, but this time the other side decided to change the code, and generally speaking, a sudden change of code would mean a big operation. So what will be the purpose of the other party's action this time? Majifen was a little confused.

"If only Thomas's fleet were still around." Majifen looked at the Allied fleet division marked on the chart and said with some depression. There was already a disagreement between Britain and the United States about war and peace, the United States meant to be determined to fight, and the British wanted peace talks with Germany if necessary. And when Huaxia acted as a mediator, Britain's attitude towards Huaxia was not clear, and he could not understand whether Huaxia was only neutral, or whether it would also be involved in the war if necessary.

If Huaxia joins the Allied camp, then the Entente will really be over, and the Americans are also worried about this, so this operation is somewhat shocking in addition to defeating the Allied Mediterranean Fleet. But Magiffen knows that the United States really has nothing that can threaten China now, and in the coming year, the United States will successively serve 3 Maryland-class battleships equipped with 16-inch guns after August 1919, and Huaxia will serve 7 ships one after another! The number is equal to the sum of the new British and American ships! "The mobilization of the United States is still too late, and the expectations for war are still too optimistic!" Magifen sighed. What I thought was an easy victory would be so difficult!

Thanks to the book friend Flying Pig's tip~~~~, as well as the book friend Zhiqiu Yiye 1117, dafudao's monthly ticket support ~~~~. (To be continued......)