"Oh my God, my fleet is more of a shelter, all the things that the high seas fleet doesn't want or are going to be thrown at me, the King-type armored cruisers that have become obsolete in this war, and the Braunschweig-class quasi-dreadnoughts, these guys with only 11-inch guns or even inferior to the Ninghai-type battleships have also thrown me at me." At this time, the Count of Spee was full of frustration and dissatisfaction. He can be regarded as having shed blood and loyalty to Germany. (Well, an indirect blow to the future Russian Baltic Fleet.) Also scratched by shrapnel during the battle. It was thought that the German Far East Fleet, which was to be rebuilt, would be a small and sturdy fleet, but judging by the first batch of warships allocated by the German Admiralty, these things were completely old goods! Is there a mistake, Scheer and Hipper took charge of the Grand Fleet when they returned from participating in the Spanish-American War, and they beat the Russians themselves, but they used a bunch of old ships to make up the numbers? It's so unreasonable, right?

However, Tirpitz's letter later mentioned that in the future the Far Eastern Fleet would be assigned new dreadnoughts, and that the Turks would be "persuaded" that they could cooperate with the Far Eastern Fleet after the curtain of war opened. This made Count Spee's heart feel a little more comfortable. IF THERE IS NO MAJOR DEVIATION IN THE FUTURE, TURKEY CAN HAVE TWO DREADNOUGHTS EQUIPPED WITH 14-INCH GUNS, AND THE GERMAN ADMIRALTY IS READY TO START WORKING ON 350MM CLASS NAVAL GUNS, ALTHOUGH IT IS BUILT BY THE REPUBLIC OF CHINA, BUT IT IS ESTIMATED THAT THE ARMAMENT AND RELATED EQUIPMENT ON IT WILL BE MAINLY GERMANY. In real wartime, it is very likely that the Turkish Navy will be included in its command, so that it will have at least 2 new super-dreadnoughts in its hands. 2 quasi-dreadnoughts, and 4 King-type armored cruisers (including two in the hands of the Turks) and even if necessary, there may be dreadnoughts that the Chinese Navy will change hands. Of course, if the Navy can fulfill its plan to add new dreadnoughts. It is also possible to increase the number of dreadnoughts in your own hands to 4.

In this way, if you don't count all kinds of miscellaneous fish, your fleet will have at least 6 battleships and 4 armored cruisers, as well as more than 10 light cruisers of various types (including those of the Turkish Navy). In this way, his fleet can compete with Hipper's fast fleet, at least in terms of numbers. That's not a bad result, Hipper thought after a while. Feeling balanced, he continued to read the letter that followed, in which the German Admiralty's request seemed simple, that is, to strike as closely as possible at the British shipping routes in the Indian Ocean, and to attack all British and French ships coming from Oceania, the Far East, and India.

These tasks are really easier said than done for Lieutenant General Spee, who has been in the Far East for many years! First of all, once after the war. There is no need to think about the colonies in the Far East, it is a matter of time before they are lost, and the German Admiralty also thought of this. But the rest of the thing Tirpitz and others did not think. That's what the British Far East Fleet, with Singapore as its home port, and the Australian fleet in Oceania will do! Australia's Port of Darwin is close to Papua New Guinea Asia Pacific!

If the British had concentrated a fleet in Australia and Singapore in the early stages of the war. It is almost impossible for the Far Eastern Fleet to run away with all the mustaches and tails. Even if, according to Tirpitz, two new types of warships could be replenished. But with 2 quasi-dreadnoughts and 2 old cruisers in their hands, the British can discharge up to twice as many capital ships to besiege you, and as for the former dreadnoughts, that's at least several times! And he is at least thousands of nautical miles away from Turkey, which can be called an ally!

What does it mean to be born and die? Born near the opposing base. And then being knocked out by the dominant opponent is what it means. Relatively. Only from the point of view of escape, Xu Jie's plane on the Spee fleet has a greater chance of running away than now, because the Spee fleet at that time was all cruisers, without the previous dreadnought to slow down the speed, and the run was very timely, Japan was slow to react, and Qingdao was too far away from the British main fleet, and when the other party reacted, the Spee fleet had already run to the ocean. In other words, let's not talk about what to do with Turkey. How you come out alive needs to be carefully studied.

Even if the angel of Millega blessed, he was victorious and transferred to Turkey. Having entered the Persian Gulf and joined the Turkish Navy, is the problem solved? Absolutely nothing! A new test is just coming. Do you really think that the British Empire's military ports on the Arabian Sea coast are all decorations? Look at how close the place called Gwadar is to the exit of the Persian Gulf. It's the equivalent of a thief running into the police as soon as he goes out! If a British fleet is stationed directly in the Gulf of Oman, at the exit of the Persian Gulf, even if it cannot block itself, there is still a high probability that it will be discovered. If the British deploy a few more fast dreadnoughts, their own situation will really hang in the air! He even said that after he got rid of the encirclement and suppression of the British fleet in the Far East, he might have to fight the British in the Gulf of Oman. Of course. It depended on the strength of both sides at the time, and if their own fleet and the Turkish fleet were superior, the British would have given way to the sea.

In addition to these problems, Count Spee has other problems to solve, if nothing happens, once the war starts, in Count Spee's opinion, the route from the Far East across the Indian Ocean to the Red Sea and then the Mediterranean Sea is basically useless, because if the British do not divide a strong fleet to cooperate with the French fleet, on paper the Italian fleet and the Austro-Hungarian fleet should be stronger than the French, so whether the British fleet will be willing to test the blockade line of the Italian and Austro-Hungarian fleets with their lives is still a question to be solved, Anyway, if it were Count Spee's own, he would rather go around the Horn of Africa and go to the Atlantic.

In this way, new problems arise. The fleet of Count Spee needed to look for ...... of the Anglo-French fleet in the direction of the vast southern Indian Ocean. The requirements for endurance and seaworthiness are a bit high, and with the increasing distance, the high speed is becoming more and more unreliable. First of all, the wear and tear of the machinery will reduce the speed. Secondly, if you run hard, the power will increase by at least 2 times compared to the normal cruising speed! And in the case of ultra-high-speed sailing, fuel efficiency will definitely decrease. That is, the fuel consumption will be higher! (For example, the French battleship Richelieu in World War II had a range of 10,000 miles when sailing at 12 knots, but only 3,300 miles if it sailed at 30 knots, or almost a third.) ）

In other words, even if your own battleship is a high-speed battleship, when fighting in the distant Indian Ocean, the opponent chases after you, not to mention whether you can reach the maximum speed and turn in, even if you can achieve it, what if you can't get rid of the opponent and you have no fuel to go back? You can't get all the sheets out and make a sail back, can you? Moreover, in order to take into account seaworthiness and range, there must be some trade-offs in performance, and under the same technology and tonnage conditions, offshore warships will always be a little more powerful than far-sea warships. The slightest advantage in the performance of the German battleships would be completely negated.

In offshore operations you can turn the seaworthiness lower, but in the far seas do you dare? A low freeboard offshore is okay, and you can maintain a decent freeboard with less fuel and supplies, but what about the open sea? You have a low freeboard and for the sake of fuel and supplies for endurance, which can be considered dead to some extent, too much draft will not only cause the armor belt to sink, but also lead to a decrease in attack power in some cases, which has not been encountered by the High Seas Fleet, but the Far East Fleet of Earl Spee has encountered!

In terms of tonnage, the Scharnhorst-class pocket battlecruiser was really good, with decent protection and up to 6 11-inch guns enough to allow it to take out ships below the capital ship. But how to say it, the ocean-going seaworthiness of these two battleships was a little worse, the weight of firepower and defense was too great relative to the tonnage, plus there were a lot of things when they came to the Far East, and as a result, in the case of high sea conditions again, the front main guns of the two battleships were flooded, which made the guns unusable, and the bow was also damaged, but fortunately in peacetime, there was no need to fight. And this situation appeared less often in the North Sea, because at that time the German battleships had a low freeboard, but not to be overloaded! And if the sea conditions are not good, you can not go to sea.

But in the Indian Ocean, where do you find a safe haven in the vast sea? Is it possible to stop fighting because of the high sea conditions? People are chasing after you in the ass, and your artillery can't fire when it gets into the water, isn't that looking for death? (This incident also appeared in Xu Jie's plane in World War 2, the two German Scharnhorst-class battleships in World War 2 turned around and ran away after encountering prestige, and in the process of escaping, the No. 1 turrets of both battleships were flooded, and the bow was damaged.) So much so that the actual shells of two German ships were not as prestigious as six guns! Of course, the prestigious hull of the ship in this naval battle also suffered some losses. ）

Well, let's hang it again, even if the Spee fleet arrives in the ambush area and does not return due to supply and weather problems, how to search for enemy ships on the ocean, and face the British fleet is a problem. This requires good coordination and planning. Even if their own fleet and the Turkish fleet converged, there would be a few dreadnoughts, but judging by the British situation, these dreadnoughts were only the strength of a detachment in the British Grand Fleet. And it can be expected that because of the fragility of Turkey's basic industry and limited port facilities, its own warship combat power will definitely not be able to compete with the first-rate warships of the future. When the Scharnhorst first came out, he was also a good man. But in the Sino-Russian War, wasn't it still first beaten by the Dutch seven-provincial fast battleships, and then in the last war?

The technique had advanced so quickly that Count Spee believed that by the time the war began, the British would have more elite warships in their hands. His own battle to break the diplomatic relationship seems to be infinitely beautiful, but the hardships in it are only known to those who are mixed in the Far East. It's hard to catch, but once you do, it's dangerous! Maybe your own dreadnought can fight or run, but is it dreadnought? When you encounter the opponent's capital ship, get ready to wash and sleep! What Count Spee didn't expect was that the navies of Germany, Austria and Italy needed to face more than just Britain, France and Russia! Once again, the British Empire has begun to use its own diplomatic ultimate!

Thanks to the little pig running away from the book friend and zhouyu1976 for the tip~~~. Thank you for the monthly pass support of SWJ"MK, Techie81, and Zhiqiu Ichiye 1117~~. Thank you, thank you~~~. (To be continued......)