"Damn, we've been being followed as soon as we left the Strait of Gibraltar, and those pieces of wood flying in the air are a real nuisance!" An Italian officer spat at the Allied plane, which was circling more than 10 kilometers from the fleet. The Allied Mediterranean Fleet Rapid Detachment attacked again, this time with a stronger lineup than last time, in addition to three Spanish-class battleships and three Chinese-made standard dreadnoughts, the Italians actually assigned their flagship, the Julius Caesar, the most powerful in the Allied Mediterranean Fleet, to Vice Admiral Spee. With this, this fleet has the ability to "deter" the Queen Elizabeth-class battleships! Of course, if he really fought hard, Count Spee still couldn't defeat the strong Thomas's fleet. But it's good to have one more battleship.

The Allies had great expectations for this sortie, and even internally, some officers had already made bets on how many tonnage of merchant ships they would be able to knock out this time! Count Spee was also very grateful for the full support of the Allies, after all, only one battleship in the fleet was a German battleship. The rest are the warships of other countries. What else can be said to support Spee in this way? At the same time, he is also very confident in himself, he can't beat Thomas's fleet but he will definitely be able to escape. Spee had already figured out how to make a good walk on the sea, and Thomas was the big stupid bear. In order to ensure the concealment of the sortie, Vice Admiral Spee chose to cross the Strait of Gibraltar at night, but even so, while passing through the waters around Portugal, they were discovered by the opposing airships and planes. The other party will not go away, staring at him and sailing towards the Atlantic.

The Portuguese were very dedicated, starting with single-engine aircraft tracking. As it got farther and farther away from the mainland, it then became a twin-engine aircraft, then a British V1500 heavy bomber converted into a maritime patrol aircraft, and finally an airship followed the Spee's fleet not far away, and from time to time it was radio contact, which made the allies hate the roots of their teeth! But there's no way to take the other party! There is no doubt that the whereabouts of Spee's fleet were exposed. Although there was no strong fleet in the Portuguese Entente, it would not work if it continued like this, and an airship could cruise for weeks. If the other party has a replacement airship, it will not be a problem to consume the Spee's fleet! Faced with such an embarrassment, Spee certainly won't sit still, making the most of the time he can't keep track of at night to shake off his opponents. And it worked out once. But the good times didn't last long, and it was discovered again after two days!

Looks incredible? In fact, it is very simple, Count Spee can indeed use the cover of 10 hours at night to run out about 150 nautical miles, that is, nearly 300KM. But the problem is that no matter how you run, you still have to think about the direction of the Entente route in the end, and the Entente fleet at sea is like a bait to lure the Spey fleet, and it is not as easy as everyone thinks to break diplomatic relations at sea, and the U-boat can achieve great results during World War II. Reconnaissance and intelligence sharing are essential, and Spee must base it on the intelligence obtained. For example, the number of ships of the other side is jù to choose the target, and this question arises, no matter how much information you have, can the Entente be clear? This is someone's own ship after all!

Moreover, based on the experience of past diplomatic breaks, the Entente can already guess which routes are the most vulnerable, and then these airships or auxiliary warships will accompany the fleet patrol near the route to provide a warning for the fleet. The Allies had eyes and ears at sea, but the Entente had even more! Even some Entente ships flew the flag of a neutral country and played Infernal Affairs! This caught Count Spee a little off guard, after all, it is not yet an unlimited break, and the ships of neutral countries still can't be fought casually, especially the merchant ships of China, if this is really fought, it will be a big deal, even if it really contains supplies destined for the Entente, the German fleet must avoid it! As a result, with or without intention, under the monitoring network of Majifen's subordinates, the whereabouts of the Allied fleet appeared on the drawing board of the Entente from time to time, and were marked one by one.

"If we had known, we should have swept the entire port of Portugal!" Count Spee has been in a bad mood lately, but he also knows that this is just a thought, and it is still very difficult to do. Or maybe it's a little overwhelming. How many shells does it take to completely destroy a port? Spee didn't know the exact number, but he knew that if the enemy was prepared to release smoke screens and lay mine nets to prevent the fleet from approaching, the amount of ammunition needed to completely cripple a port would be a lot.

The battle of the port of Saint-Nazaire could not be replicated, for the simple reason that the French were defenseless and did not give any cover to the port, and they piled up a large number of flammable and explosive items in the open in the warehouse, which caused more damage from the explosion and burning of these items than from direct shelling! The Spanish fleet's attack was only a fuse that ignited explosives, and now that Portugal had taken some precautions against a possible attack by the Entente, it would not be so easy for the Allied fleet to take advantage of it again. If the Grand Fleet attacked, it would naturally be able to raze a certain port with absolute firepower superiority, but the Allied fleet was also not vegetarian, and if it was blocked, those slow battleships might not be able to escape. Now the Entente has 8 fast battleships, which occupy a double advantage in quantity and quality, and once bitten by it, it will have to lose its skin. So don't look at the Spee's fleet is active enough, but the main fleet commanded by Tycho is still very low-key.

"Your Excellency, the British fleet has been spotted 40 nautical miles to the southwest!" A telegram from his subordinates made Count Spee, who had just sunk seven transports, in a slightly better mood, nervous again. If the reconnaissance ahead, whether aircraft or ships, was nothing more than a pre-dinner aperitif, then when the British fleet appeared, it was dinner time. Obviously, if the British dare to chase after them, they will definitely be sure of victory, the other side has at least 6 capital ships, and the fleet commander is undoubtedly Thomas! And Count Spee is also worried that the main fleet commanded by Magifin is also hiding around him? If the two fleets are intercepted together, then things will not be easy! In order to avoid the reconnaissance of the Entente, the German fleet made several detours and sailed at high speed. This allowed the entire fleet to consume more fuel than expected, which was intended to be refueled today, but after the discovery of the British fleet. This plan had to be abandoned, and the Germans did not dare to slow down. "Order the fleet to sail at 24 knots in the northwest direction and disengage from contact with the other side." Count Spey ordered.

Faced with the transport ships still scattered and fleeing at sea, Count Spee was not in the mood to continue to catch these fat sheep. A group of lions suddenly appeared behind the wolf, how could there be time to catch sheep? Thomas, who was chasing after Count Spee, was also very nervous, and the reason for his nervousness was shocking. If anyone were able to board the No. 4 ship of Thomas's fleet, they would find that this Dongdong, which looks very similar to the Malaya, is an out-and-out high-speed ship camouflaged! That is, at the moment Thomas fleet has only 3 Queen-class battleships and 2 fast battleships. There were only 5 ships, which means that Thomas not only did not have an advantage over the Spee fleet. There may also be disadvantages, in other words, the Thomas fleet can only maintain a minimum of security! If Count Spee comes back, it's hard to say who will kill the deer!

"General Magifin. You're too dangerous, aren't you? "Before leaving. Thomas still thinks Magiffen's plan is too crazy. According to Thomas's thoughts, he could have at least 6 fast warships brought from Britain in his hands. Before leaving, Magiffen asked Thomas to add a queen to his battle sequence. And for good reason, he needed a Queen-class battleship and two Amsterdam-class battleships to form a small fast fleet to cooperate with the main fleet to attack Tycho! Also provide Thomas with a camouflage ship to make tiger skins! This idea is consistent with the idea of the Germans to lure Betty's fleet in the Battle of Jutland, but the former is to lure Betty into the bait, and the latter is to scare Spee!

Don't say it, Spee is really scared! The other party has 4 queens! Spee was scared enough with a few battleships, and Spee was ready to break the friendship when he came out this time. The majority of the shells were semi-armor-piercing and high-explosive shells. The number of armor-piercing shells is less, for the broken fleet. The problem that can be solved with a boiler (that is, running away) is definitely not solved with shells. After all, he fought without supplies and reinforcements. If he hadn't been in too much of a hurry, Count Spey would never have fought hard with Thomas, and even if he knew that Thomas's fleet was not strong, there was no guarantee that Magifen would not arrive in the event of a battle. The battlefield now is one-way transparent for the British. The fog of war brings not only a lack of intelligence, but also psychological pressure, and the invisible enemy is the most terrifying!

"Activate the dumb machine, and immediately send a telegram to General Sù Tycho to meet us in the predetermined area at the western entrance of the Strait of Gibraltar. If we can't get rid of Thomas's fleet within three days, we will return immediately! "In the end, Count Spee, who was under great psychological pressure, decided to contact Tycho, and it didn't matter if he broke the relationship, so he didn't want to catch the fleet in the end! This decision may seem weak, but in fact it is the safest choice at the moment, and God knows if the Entente fleet has a backhand? As an experienced fleet commander, he fully considered the overall situation of the fleet, and at this time the speed on paper was simply not reliable. How far the fleet can go and how fast it can go depends entirely on the fuel and the condition of the ship, needless to say, the long high speed and detour make the fuel consumption much higher than the tone, and after more than ten days, the condition of the ship is definitely not as good as the British battleship that has just come out not long ago, and more importantly, the supply, if you can't get rid of the other party, you can't get supplies.

And now that several supply ships that should have appeared in the predetermined sea area have not appeared, I'm afraid they have already encountered an accident, right? Historically, an important part of supporting the German Navy to break diplomatic relations in World War II is the sea supply ship, whether it is a camouflage supply ship that cruises to break diplomatic relations or a cow that provides fuel to submarines is the pillar of supporting the operation of breaking diplomatic relations, and finally the collapse of Germany's diplomatic breaking tactics, the code was deciphered, and the supply ship was hunted in large numbers is a very important reason. In desperation, with the help of Huaxia, they came up with a set of cryptographic intelligence system that was only used for top secrets, which was close to the Engel cipher machine in Huaxia, but it was worse, and the Germans named him a dumb riddle. As a last and safest measure, it should not be used unless absolutely necessary.

Thanks to the book friend zhouyu1976 and the book friend hukaikaka for the tip~~~. Recommended this afternoon~~~, please subscribe for support~~~~. (To be continued......)