144, Sea God's Halberd (7)

It rained heavily on the sea. During the storm, the "Markensen"-class battleships still maintained a considerable stability during their voyage. However, the 1917 ocean destroyers with a displacement of only 1,800 tons were hit by the surging waves, and the entire front deck was buried deep in the waves from time to time. Even the entire bridge was covered with the sky and the splashing mist was hidden.

Admiral Sorochin stood on the tall bridge of the "Earl of Spee", staring at the sea surface that seemed to be boiling. The sea conditions are now very poor, and the outlines of adjacent warships are almost impossible to distinguish. As a naval general, Admiral Sorochin would naturally choose a warship named after the admiral as his flagship, rather than the "Markensen" who was first served but named after the Army Marshal. Admiral Sorochin was thinking about how to avoid interception by the British fleet so that the entire fleet could successfully reach the French port in the Bay of Biscay.

Admiral Sorochin was not afraid of fighting. On the contrary, he could basically be regarded as a bold and arrogant person, and he had many risky moves in his naval career. However, due to his long-term battle with enemies with superior warfare, Sorochin did not like to fight head-on with the enemy, but prefer to adopt unexpected raid-style combat methods.

Now, he decided to take the initiative to fight the enemy.

The sky gradually darkened, and the fleet began to turn east in the waters at about 45 degrees north latitude. So far, the German fleet has sailed more than a thousand nautical miles south. It can be foreseen that the British would definitely lay a net of heaven and earth on the Bay of Biscay and do their best to prevent them from entering French ports.

Sorochin ordered the fleet to operate separately and led the main force of the German fleet to open the way in front, while General Verennik led the Austro-Hungarian fleet to protect the transport fleet and dragged it around 15 nautical miles southwest.

"General, maybe we can let four Austro-Hungarian battlecruisers strengthen the main fleet, and cruisers and destroyers protect the transport fleet." During the operation, Major General Hermann, chief of staff of the fleet, rarely objected to the commander of the fleet. Although the German battlecruiser was not inferior to the British fast fleet, the British had five "Queen"-class battleships after all, which could be said to be one of the strongest battleships in the world. And using Austro-Hungarian battleships equipped with 380 mm main guns to protect the transport fleet is indeed a bit of a lack of talent.

Everyone hopes that their side will have more large-caliber artillery during the battle.

Sorochin politely rejected the Chief of Staff’s suggestion, “Our cruisers cannot fight against the British armored cruisers. Don’t forget that although they lost about 10 armored cruisers in the war, they had 36 armored cruisers of various types before the war. Although these armored cruisers could not all be concentrated in the southern part of the UK, I estimate that the British had at least about 6 armored cruisers in this area, which is a big threat. With the protection of battle cruisers, these armored cruisers

The cruisers simply cannot get close to our supply fleet. The British could not stop us from entering Biscay, but these supply tankers could provide strong support for future operations. With the help of these supply ships, we were able to enter the South Atlantic to conduct activities, which would be a huge blow to the British. In fact, sixty percent of the cargo ships heading to the UK came from the South Atlantic. If we could cut off this route, the British would not last long with the supplies from North America alone."

"I think maybe tomorrow we will meet our old friend Betty again." Hermann crossed his hands and hugged him in front of his chest, looking at the pouring rain outside the porthole. "If we can win, it will greatly blow the morale of the British."

"If the battle goes on very fiercely, General Wilenick will immediately return to reinforce us after escorting the supply fleet into Biscay Bay." Sorochin comforted his chief of staff.

As the war went on, it was difficult for Britain and the United States to defeat the Allied Group alone. The 12th German Army entered Turkey. After receiving the support of a group of German troops, the Ottoman Empire launched a counterattack in Mesopotamia. Under the command of General Sanders, the German-Turkish coalition forces recovered Mosul and Baghdad and were advancing towards the Persian Gulf. The Austrians stopped and stepped up dredging the Suez Canal.

It was fine all night, and in the middle of the night, the German fleet had already passed through the rainy area. By dawn, the wind and waves on the sea were a little smaller, but the weather was not very good, the sky was gloomy and the visibility was not very good.

At 7 a.m., the German fleet had arrived about 130 nautical miles west of the Bay of Biscay. The fleet released eight seaplanes, focusing on reconnaissance of the waters on the north side.

However, about 25 minutes after the German fleet sent a reconnaissance aircraft, at 7:25 am, the lookout hand of the battlecruiser "Hindenburg" located on the northernmost side of the fleet discovered three planes flying straight towards him in the sky. Although there was no enemy-to-me recognition system in this era, the captain of the "Hindenburg" quickly determined that it was not his own aircraft. German naval reconnaissance aircraft generally used a two-plane formation, while the other side was a three-plane formation.

The alarm suddenly sounded on the sea. On the bridge of the "Earl Spee", Admiral Sorochin stared at the three planes flying around his fleet under the clouds in the sky, and said in his mouth: "Finally, there's something done, they're finally here!"

About half an hour later, in the war room of the "Queen Elizabeth", the commander of the British Express Fleet, General Betty, stood at the chart table, and the staff were leaning over the chart table, marking the position of the German fleet on the chart. The navigator was quickly marking and calculating some data with two-legged gauge and triangle ruler on the chart.

"Sir, the interception course is 217 degrees, and we need to increase the speed to 20 knots." The navigator raised his head from the chart. "We are now about 45 nautical miles away from our opponents, and we should have the possibility of encountering them at around 3 pm."

Betty frowned at the chart. The meeting location marked on the chart had entered the Bay of Biscay. The torpedo boats and submarine troops deployed by the Germans and Austrians may provide support for Sorochin. He must withdraw from the battle before dark. It is hard to say what kind of results he can achieve within a few hours.

"Order the fleet to move forward at full speed!" Betty quickly made a decision. If the fleet sailed at a high speed for several hours, if the fleet arrived at the battlefield, the consequences would be unimaginable. However, now he could not care about so much and could only pin his hopes on the craftsmanship of British technicians.

Soon the British fleet accelerated its speed, and the warships cut through waves and advanced rapidly towards the southeast.

Two German planes appeared in the sky. After a while, they flew away immediately and disappeared into the vast sky.

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Chapter completed!