"Keep sending a report to Admiral Milne! We must inform the battlefleet that this is a trap! "Major General Trubridge is almost insane. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

The enemy's battlefleet had come close to a distance of 20,000 yards, and through the telescope, Rear Admiral Trubridge could already see that the turrets of 13 battleships had been rotated to port side, and that nine 12-inch and 76 11-inch naval guns had been aimed at him. In the face of such firepower, one's own fleet will be torn to shreds in an instant.

But it is clear that the Germans were clearly not content with the total annihilation of their own fleet. The transmitter has changed the radio frequency several times, but none of them worked. Trubridge understood what the noise on the radio meant, which meant that there was a nearby source of higher radio power than his own that was interfering, and that the Germans were preventing themselves from sending intelligence to the battlefleet.

This is a trap, the Germans are not at all cunning prey pursued by the combined Anglo-French fleet, they are the hunters waiting for the prey to be delivered to the door!

At 16 to 13, the Anglo-French combined fleet still had an advantage in the number of capital ships, but after experiencing the performance of the light cruisers of the Croatian-Slovenian Navy in long-range artillery battles, Trubridge was no longer confident that the combined Anglo-French fleet could defeat the Germans with the superiority of only 3 capital ships.

Moreover, the Germans were radio-suppressing themselves, which showed that they knew that there were other fleets nearby, and they did not want to send the information themselves, and they waited for the next prey to get into their trap - the main battleship of the combined Anglo-French fleet!

Although there is no time to analyze what the Germans used to deceive everyone, Trubridge has understood that the Germans will not flee at all, they are eager for a decisive battle, and they are confident that they will defeat the combined Anglo-French fleet!

Even though he understood that the Germans could not give themselves any chance to send a message to the battlefleet, Trubridge ordered the radio room to continue trying, without stopping, until his own fleet was destroyed.

"The Croatians did a great job." On the bridge of the Tyrol, Didrichs looked at the British armored cruiser billowing with smoke 20,000 yards away, and praised him heartily: "House must be quite happy now." ”

"Our Croatian counterparts beat their opponents at 12,000 yards, we can't do any worse than our Croatian counterparts!" Diedrich put down his binoculars and turned to the German officers and men on the bridge and said, "Keep up the radio suppression!" So that they can't utter a single letter! Zoom in to 15,000 yards and use your main guns to give me 30 minutes to finish them off! Don't spend too much time on the appetizer, we're going to have the main meal next! ”

Diedrich's state of mind at this time was very relaxed, not long ago the reconnaissance plane from the second squadron of the cruiser detachment of the German Mediterranean Fleet had discovered the whereabouts of the main force of the combined British and French fleet, although the fleet of 2 dreadnoughts, 14 former dreadnoughts, 2 armored cruisers, 4 light cruisers and 6 destroyers should not be underestimated, but for Didrichs this was enough to let himself go.

In order to lay the foundation for the future situation in the Eastern Mediterranean here in one fell swoop, the General Staff of the Navy developed an extremely complex deception plan. Beginning with the attack on Alexandria, to the leaks through the Italians, and then to the constant diplomatic contacts with the Greeks, they were all designed to give the British the illusion that Greece would soon join the Central Powers and that Crete would soon become a strategic pillar for the Germans in the Eastern Mediterranean. The British, unable to accept that Crete was under the control of the Central Powers, would inevitably react, so that Germany would be able to completely control the Eastern Mediterranean through a decisive naval battle, thus affecting the entire Eastern Front.

But there was also a great risk that the annoyed British would inevitably pull in the French, who were also unable to accept the complete loss of the Eastern Mediterranean, and if the British and French naval forces in the Mediterranean did not care about dragging their families and families into battle together, the German Navy's Mediterranean Fleet and the naval forces of the allies of the Kingdom of Croatia and Slovenia would not be able to face the wrath of the British and French at all.

Therefore, in order to ensure that the fleet forces dispatched by Britain and France were on the bottom line that they could engage with, the General Staff of the Navy had to use a series of transfers to create the false impression that the German-Croatian combined fleet was scattered and could be broken by each of them. At the same time, Britain and France were left with a small window of time, forcing them to send a moderately sized elite force as soon as possible to find an opportunity to annihilate the combined German-Croatian fleet in one fell swoop.

Nine 260-mm pre-dreadnoughts of the 4th and 5th Battleship Squadrons of Negoro, which had been shelling and blocking the gates, swapped identities with 10 283-mm gunned quasi-dreadnoughts of the 2nd and 3rd Battleship Squadrons in Trastai Bay, 9 ex-dreadnoughts passed through the Otranto Strait at night under the cover of a small number of escort ships, while 10 quasi-dreadnoughts waited in Trastai Bay to join the 1st Battleship Squadron.

And the 1st Battleship Squadron was followed by 4 Elizabeth-class armored cruisers of the 1st Squadron of the cruiser detachment of the German Mediterranean Fleet. The 10 would-be dreadnoughts once again swapped identities with the Elizabeth-class armored cruisers, and then followed the 1st Battleship Squadron through the Strait of Otranto, also at night.

The performance of the aging Elizabeth-class armored cruisers was outdated, the slow speed could not handle the reconnaissance mission of the cruisers, and the weak firepower did not play a role in the decisive battle of the fleet, but the huge hull and the power of the 210 mm naval guns still made the illusion that the Germans' former dreadnoughts were still conscientiously bullying the Necoro buns who had never seen the door of the world.

The only question was whether the Italians would find out if the 13 battleships were passing through the Ottorant Strait, because even if the Italians could not distinguish the types of ships at night, the presence of six more large battleships was a huge hole. Fortunately, a large German fleet had passed through the Strait of Otranto before, and due to the inaction of the Italian Navy, the German Navy never gave any face when encountering Italian naval ships in the waters close to Italy.

The 4th and 5th battleship squadrons, which took the place of the 2nd and 3rd battleship squadrons, deliberately sailed close to the coast of North Africa and intercepted the incoming ships to expose their movements, which eventually caused the British and French to have the illusion that 10 German quasi-dreadnoughts were heading to the Eastern Mediterranean, 9 former dreadnoughts were bullying Negoro in the Adriatic Sea, and the German-Croatian combined fleet in the Ionian Sea had only 3 dreadnoughts and 4 armored cruisers.

However, even if the whole deception plan went extremely smoothly, and the German Navy's seamless deception plan could be written into textbooks and become a classic case in the history of warfare, the Germans still had to face a variable that they had no control over, whether Britain and France would send a fleet force with which they could engage according to their own ideas.

And in the whole plan of the General Staff of the Navy, if the worst-case scenario occurs, Britain and France bring more than 20 capital ships in disregard, then the whole plan will be declared a failure, because the size of such a fleet is more than 2:3 of the number that the General Staff of the Navy thinks can be engaged.

Then, all the previous deception work will be wasted, 13 battleships will be retracted back into the Adriatic Sea, and 9 ex-dreadnoughts used as decoys will break through the interception of 4 ex-dreadnoughts of the British Mediterranean Fleet according to the response plan, flee to the Ottoman Empire, and then serve as the so-called Black Sea Detachment to help the Ottoman Navy against the Tsarist Black Sea Fleet.

This would minimize losses, but the gains of the German Mediterranean Fleet in the Eastern Mediterranean would be in vain. Although for the German Navy, the situation in the Eastern Mediterranean is nothing more than a return to the old way of relying on submarines to break diplomatic relations, and it does not suffer much loss from a purely military confrontation, all countries will see that Germany is not capable of directly confronting the naval forces of Britain and France in the Eastern Mediterranean, and the political impact will be very great.

Although it is not possible to say that Italy and Greece will immediately turn against each other, the external environment of Germany in the Mediterranean coastal region will become extremely bad. This is also the reason why the naval moderate, led by Bohr, vigorously opposed this battle plan, which could be called a big gamble

So, even if the battle plan had already begun to be executed, Didrichs would have had a rough time until the size of the combined Anglo-French fleet was determined. But now, Didrichs, who had let go of the big stone in his heart, felt that his whole person was about to float with ease.

The enemy has only 16 capital ships, only 3 more than his side, and the light combat ships are still superior to his side. I can hit it! To fight! And to win!

The armored cruisers of the British were unable to send out wireless telegraphy at this time under their own radio suppression, and the main force of the combined Anglo-French fleet, which knew nothing about the situation, was approaching here in ignorance, and I really wanted to see the expressions of the British, who fantasized about their total annihilation, when they saw that 13 battleships were waiting for them.

The three British armored cruisers that were already in ruins in front of him were not even qualified to plug their teeth at this time in the eyes of Diedrichs, and the main force of the combined Anglo-French fleet was the main meal for themselves!

"15,000 yards away!"

"Let's get started." Didrichs waved his hand as if he had done something insignificant.

"Boom!" The muzzle of the Tyrol's 305 mm guns burst into orange fireballs!