With its clear blue waters, bright sunshine and cool southwesterly winds, it's the perfect coral sea for vacation. For the officers and men of the Combined Pacific Fleet, who have been in the tropics for more than three months, this is too comfortable. Without the storm and the heat that can kill people, this trip south feels like a vacation.

At this time, the fleet sailed alone in the endless sea, and there was no sign of its ships.

It was rare for the officers and men to relax, but for the commander of the fleet, Count Spee, there was no relaxation.

At this moment he was on the flagship armored cruiser Scharnhorst, looking at the chart in front of him. On the table where the nautical charts are placed, there are also rulers, compasses, compasses and other tools.

"Report, the Pierre sent a telegram that they have passed through the Mare Island and are already on their way into the South Fiji Sea."

Spee immediately took out a pencil and marked its location on the chart. A punctuation mark on the chart showed the island of Mare which belonged to the southernmost island of the Royalt archipelago, and when he crossed the island with his fleet, he would be closer to the target.

That's right, the combined Pacific fleet led by Count Spee was composed of German, Italian and Austrian warships in Southeast Asia and the Far East. The fleet consisted of the armored cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, the light cruisers Nuremberg, Emden, Karlsruhe, Pierre (Italian), Rubel (Italian), Sorensen (Austria), and the fast supply ship Torrio (Italian).

Three days before the outbreak of the war, the fleet was formed. Platoon-wise, this fleet is worthy of its name of Combined Pacific Fleet. But this is already a warship that Germany, Italy and Austria can do here, so if the name does not live up to the name, it will not live up to the name.

After the three countries formed their fleets, they gave the task to Commander Pace to Italian East Africa, where they would join Italy's East African fleet and contain the Allied maritime forces in the Indian Ocean.

Obviously, for the Confederate camp, the colonies in the Southeastern Continent were initially abandoned, so Vice Admiral Spee was allowed to lead the battleship to evacuate. (Shame on the people of Southeast Asia who support his rule)

However, Vice Admiral Spee did not intend to do so, believing that such a retreat with the navy would affect the morale of the colony and would not be conducive to the return of victory in the future. So he was going to do something, and he had to make Britain and France remember what hurt.

So he hid with the fleets that had converged before the battle.

That's right, just hiding. Spee hid for more than three months next to an uninhabited desert island in Indonesia's Maluku archipelago, far from the shipping lane.

In the past three months, the fleets formed by Britain and France have traveled all over the world to find this small fleet of the alliance camp. Britain and France understand too well that although the strength of this fleet is not strong, its position is too important, and if the other side makes a fuss in Southeast Asia, they will have a headache.

And after waiting for more than three months, Vice Admiral Spee decided that it was time for him to take the fleet out to let the British know that their fleet would not just go away. And the target he chose was the Australian continent in the southern hemisphere.

Count Spee set out from the Lugu Islands with a fleet. First eastward through the northern part of the Bismarck Islands, then southeasterly through the waters of Nauru, and then into the Fiji Sea, there were no ships on the way, only a few isolated islands in the vast sea, and there was no need to worry about leaking their whereabouts.

If Lieutenant General Spee had been more daring, he could have replenished supplies and fuel at the Anglo-French supply base. Don't think it's a joke, there are no high-power radios in the inhospitable Southwest Pacific, and news is often delivered by incoming and outgoing ships. And this is basically a few months or even a year, and it is very normal for the news to lag behind.

Historically, the Emden was resupplied on the island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, because the British on the island did not yet know that war had broken out.

Australia and New Zealand were British pastures at this time, and the vast and sparsely populated land and extremely suitable climate created the fame of Australia and New Zealand's animal husbandry. In addition, Australia and New Zealand are also good places for British soldiers because of their large number of cowboys. Since the outbreak of the war, ANZ has provided 80,000 troops to the UK, and the current formation of 5 ANZ divisions has arrived in Egypt.

Needless to say that Spee was a famous general, when he said what he thought, the fleet officers were shocked, because no one had thought of it. A careful analysis of the results shows that the success rate is still very high. The only point is to take the surprise by surprise, which is why the Combined Pacific Fleet will make a big circle to the east from the Maluku Islands in a covert departure. At the moment, they are still 2,400 kilometers away from Sydney, and they still have a long way to go.

While Spee was sailing south with his fleet, the atmosphere in the northern waters of the Maluku Islands was quite tense, with warships and other ships constantly patrolling the seas, and every island, whether manned or not, was surrounded by it. Especially on uninhabited islands, it is necessary to send people to the island for inspection.

This kind of unscrupulous behavior is clearly looking for something. As the ruler of the archipelago, the Dutch government allowed the ships to patrol the islands as if they did not know about it. It's not that the Dutch don't know, but they don't dare to care at all, the contest between the two camps, with the small size of the Dutch, is next to each other, rubbed and died, what can be done, can only pretend not to see.

For example, the huge Southeast Asian fleet that stopped outside the port of Morotai and was tasked with hunting down the Allied fleet.

The fleet had an overwhelming advantage over the Spey fleet, with four former dreadnought-class battleships, the Duncan, the Albemarle, the Exmouth, and the Russell, six armored cruisers, the Drake, the Cape of Good Hope, the King Alfred, the Leviathan, the Monmoth, the Exes, and more than a dozen other small and medium-sized warships.

If they were caught, Count Spee would not be able to defeat each other even if God was there. As for the reason why the British fleet is so prosperous, it is because the Southeast Ocean is a busy British trade route, and if it is attacked by Pest, then it is called bad.

Now the British have a headache in addition to the Spee, and that is Italian East Africa. It was also a fatal location, whether it was the Suez Canal or the Cape of Good Hope, Italian East Africa was a threat, and there were many British warships in that place. Otherwise, those Italian battleships suddenly do it from time to time, who can stand it?

It's not that I haven't thought about taking down the East African region, but it's not easy. Italy has been operating in East Africa for more than twenty years and has built quite a few fortifications. Moreover, the Italians are also armed with four 305-mm shore defense guns in the two major ports, Massawa and Mogadishu, which is simply mad. So the Italians in East Africa look very uncomfortable, but it is not easy to deal with.

In line with the principle of picking up soft persimmons, the British Navy intends to give priority to the problem of easy points.

And the Spey fleet is a good object to solve, as the commander of the fleet, Rear Admiral Craddock has been looking for his enemy for more than three months. As early as the outbreak of the war, the British Navy discovered that the warships of the Allied camp in Southeast Asia were missing. Thinking that the ships were going to attack the shipping lanes, the British Navy was so nervous that they sent warships to search for their whereabouts. As a result, after three months of searching, there was no news from the other party, as if there were no such warships.

Some say that these warships were flooded by a storm, and some say that these warships should have escaped. Others said......

No matter what others say, for Craddock, he didn't believe these words, the enemy must still be there, just hiding. After unremitting efforts, there is finally news. Some people say that they have seen a group of warships here for more than three months, and they also point out that it is the battleship led by Spee.

After receiving this news, Rear Admiral Craddock immediately came here with a fleet to search, and not only that, but he also came with three airships, vowing to find out the fleet of the Alliance camp hiding here.

"Report, there's news."

A communications officer ran in with a telegram.

"What news."

Faced with the question of Major General Craddock, the officer immediately said. "The destroyer Boulder has just sent a message that they have found traces of the life of a large number of people on an uninhabited island twenty nautical miles west of Obi Island, and by examining the abandoned objects left behind by it, we can be sure that it is the Allied fleet that has been looking for them, and compared with the other traces, they should have left seven to ten days ago."

Upon hearing this, Major General Craddock slammed the table, angry that the other party had run away early. "Immediately send a telegram to the surrounding cities and warships, telling them to beware of a small fleet of the Allies."

At this moment, Major General Craddock very much wanted to know where the other party had gone. He stared at the hanging chart with a pair of eyes and pondered.

Don't mind why a rear admiral from Craddock brings so many ships, it's a fateful showdown.

(End of chapter)