When the Bavaria evacuated, the three German heavy cruisers immediately hid in the smoke screen and prepared to turn in, but this was an unexpected thing, another American cruiser fired a water bomb that successfully penetrated the Munich's underwater defenses, and cleanly drilled into the Munich's power room, with a loud bang, half of the Munich's boilers were destroyed. Battleships with severely damaged power quickly fell behind. And when the Longwei, which had its hands free, aimed its guns at the German heavy cruiser, the result was already doomed, there was no way out if it resisted stubbornly, and if it sank early, it would have survived a few more people

Lindemann walked reluctantly, according to common sense, the Germans were completely defeated in this engagement, looking at the watch on their wrists, from the beginning of the engagement to the defeat in less than 1 hour, the German fleet threw away 2 heavy cruisers. It is impossible to say that such a loss does not hurt the flesh. Don't look at this plane, the German Navy is far more powerful than the Japanese Navy in history, but if you talk about the number of cruisers, it is really inferior to the Japanese, "our battle process has not reached its peak and it is over" Lindemann did not know how to explain himself when he went back, although this battle was very accidental, but defeat is defeat, and objective reasons cannot be an excuse for defeat.

However, it was still a little too early to determine the victory, although the attack of the German fleet on the transport ships was probably coming to an end. But let's not forget that the German fleet had a more important task, that is, to use seaplanes at night to determine the location of the Allied fleet, it was still early, the Germans had 6 hours to search for targets More than 20 seaplanes of various kinds were searching in the night sky, they were looking for the huge fleet of the Entente through radio side radar and even optical equipment.

"Something is wrong with the situation tonight" A night battle of such a scale broke out, Deng Yu would naturally report it immediately, and when the battle was not over, Su Mo had already received an alarm that the two sides were fighting. At this time, the combined fleets of China and the United States were only 400 kilometers away from the place of engagement, and the principle of Soumer and Nimitz was not to let any capital ship leave their own air defense combat radius

"It was supposed to be a small night attack. The Germans, it seems, could not wait any longer and began to take risks. Fletcher looked at the telegrams that had been spoken one after another.

"I'm afraid it's not that simple, it's a loss-making business. There are about six hours between now and dawn, and if we send a detachment in pursuit, even if it is only in the general direction. The probability of them running out is also not high. After all, we could take off 1 hour before dawn. Unless they have the main fleet to provide air defense cover. In Nimitz's eyes, this small German fleet came up with an absolute death, and the current naval aviation of the Entente countries was not a few months ago, and Nimitz believed that in a fair confrontation. The current Entente fleet was definitely not going to lose to the Germans.

"So what are you waiting for, let's go up and kill this fleet, they sank at least 100,000 tons of supplies in the sea, and we lost a cruiser," Halsey said very dryly.

"So now the question arises, how many fleets do we send out? A detachment? Or two? Or are we all pressed on? How many receiving fleets were there for the Germans? Where are they? We only saw the bait. What about behind the bait? Su Mo asked with a frown.

"But the Germans don't know our troops, and if we press them all, we won't lose even if we fight. To be honest, the situation was not ideal, and every hour the transports were sunk by the Germans, which greatly increased the difficulty of our defenses. I think it's a crime that your country and the United States of America have worked so hard to save up and throw it into the sea to feed the fish. We have great power but we are not doing anything. Nimitz was clearly in favor of Halsey. And as the commander of the American fleet, he was under great pressure, and the constant loss of the transport fleet and the German fleet floating outside like a ghost made him extremely stressed.

"We have to find the position of the German fleet, or at least prove that there is no opposing fleet within 600 kilometers of our fleet, and the safety of the fleet is a minor problem. I want to eat this goal too. But before that, I hope we can send out all the seaplanes to reconnoiter in advance," Su Mo said after a moment's thought.

Summer was a first-hand witness to the Iran War. In his opinion, the Germans used seaplanes to track targets very successfully, and in this sortie, the Huaxia and Entente fleets also carried a number of seaplanes, and even 4 specialized seaplane carriers, which could be used to park twin or even 4-engine large seaplanes. At this critical juncture, Summer sent them all out and began to reconnoiter in the dark of night, unlike the Germans' operational thinking of focusing on attacking and finding the Allied fleet. Chinese and American seaplanes are to closely monitor the 500 to 600 kilometers around the fleet, and tend to be more defensive, at least for an hour

"The perimeter warship spotted several unidentified planes, which seemed to be using the German communication frequency band, and the radar signal signature was also correct," just as the seaplane carrier catapulted one seaplane after another into the air. Another piece of news from the Ministry of Intelligence made the already somewhat solemn atmosphere even more tense, and the number of Allied fighters flying in the sky at night was not very large, and they generally flew near the fleet, and the target that suddenly appeared on the periphery could only be German planes.

"They can only have one goal, that is, our main fleet, the Germans are going to make a move" Ye Ming was the first to react When he was in Huaxia, Ye Ming, who was known for his whimsy, had planned such a tactic, that is, to use night planes to reconnoiter in advance. Then attack at dawn. The key to this tactic is to find the opponent at night. However, due to the objective conditions at that time, it did not succeed in the end. However, when the Germans used a similar tactic, Ye Ming quickly realized that it was the Germans who resurrected this tactic

The staff officers quickly marked the positions of the discovered German planes on the charts, and an incoherent curve covered the Allied fleet like a large net. It was already clear that it was a premeditated operation, and eighty percent of the planes were sent from the cruiser fleet that attacked merchant ships. They're not just for the convoys

Now, a serious question is in front of everyone: in the face of a possible German offensive, should the fleets of the two countries retreat, or should they take the initiative to attack and understand the Germans? Time was running out, and taking into account the possible existence of a fish that slipped through the net, the Germans' seaplanes could have discovered the location of the main fleet, that is, if the Germans had a complete possibility of launching a dawn attack

Of course. If the Allied fleet had chosen to retreat now, the Germans would have missed this blow. However, in this way, the main German fleet will be able to take advantage of a time difference to wipe out all the transport fleets with a radius of about 400 kilometers around, and this loss is absolutely unbearable for the Entente countries, and if they do not leave, the Allied fleet may face the Germans who have the advantage of the first move

Of course. It is also possible that the Germans are tempting, and the Germans may have just arranged the reconnaissance with the idea of trying it out, but after all, the stakes are high, and everyone will think that the difficulties are greater. The premise is that the Germans already know where we are. And what should we do in the event of an offensive?

"Let's fight, if we win, then even if Britain is saved, we have at least a 60% chance of winning, even if we suffer a loss, as long as these supplies can be safely delivered to Britain, we will win strategically" Although Su Mo spoke to Nimitz in an inquiring tone, the determination was already obvious.

"So what are you waiting for? Let everyone move, and after this battle, we will go home" Nimitz also agreed to fight, and the situation that was completely beneficial to his own side was almost impossible to find, although the situation this time was a little bad, but it was also an opportunity for the Entente fleet to seize the main force of the Allied fleet, and now there were about 5 hours before dawn. Enough for the fleet to go into combat readiness

"Put some night fighters out of the way, cooperate with the sentry ships to kill those intruders, and let the warships on the periphery release interference. The fleet moved to the south, and all the reconnaissance planes carrying radars were dispatched to search for a range of 500 to 600 kilometers around the fleet" Su Mo quickly gave the order, and the entire Entente fleet was quickly activated. An atmosphere of slaughter before a major battle enveloped this huge fleet.

"In addition, order all the escort carriers in the theater of operations to assemble to the main fleet, and release aircraft to help the fleet search for German targets, and all transport fleets will sail north, as far away from the battlefield as possible, and we will concentrate all our forces to fight the Germans," Nimitz added.

Nimitz was resolute, and he summoned all the forces on the battlefield to launch this attack. Even the Hellcat fighters and even the Wildcat fighters on those escort aircraft carriers did not let go, and it just so happened that the Entente countries had a total of 9 escort aircraft carriers within a radius of 600 kilometers, and the number of aircraft on them reached more than 250, although these aviation units were not good in terms of quality or equipment level. But it played an unimaginable role in the future battle

"God bless Germany Lindemann actually discovered the main Allied fleet" Just when Summer and Nimitz decided to fight the Germans, the German seaplanes had already sent the approximate location of the Allied fleet by telegram. However, it should be noted here that the reconnaissance of German seaplanes was still somewhat biased, and a certain lucky plane spotted a large detachment on the periphery of the Entente and mistook it for the main fleet of the Entente, but the Germans were lucky. This detachment was not far from the main fleet.

Count Spee also received a telegram from Lindemann's fleet, saying that in a night battle that had just ended, the German fleet had been defeated and ended miserably at the cost of 2 for 1, but it was okay. This loss was nothing in the face of this great success, and the Allied fleet finally captured the opponent, and without the knowledge of the opponent, at least the Germans thought so. The distance between the two sides at this time is about 650 kilometers, and there are still five hours before dawn, during this time, the Germans have every chance to bring the opponent into the combat radius, at this time the whole fleet can advance at a high speed of nearly 30 knots, at most 6 hours, the bombs of the German naval aviation will fall on the heads of the other side, and at this time, the American GIs should be having breakfast, what a wonderful thing

The huge Allied fleet began to move towards the target, and at the same time, all sorts of reconnaissance planes began to take off from aircraft carriers, cruisers and even seaplane carriers, and they rushed over like moths in the dark night. The huge fleet was stretched into a long action formation, and the four main sub-fleets sailed in a row in the dark night. Before the sun rises, the confrontation between the two sides has begun.

"Your Excellency, what about Lindemann's fleet?" Just then, a staff officer asked.

"There is no problem that he can withdraw from the battlefield and even to the safe zone of the Azores. As for the covering forces? All I can say is sorry. Count Spee said with a calm face. With this unexpected occurrence, all plans were disrupted, and it was clear that the forces that had been used to meet the withdrawal of Lindemann's fleet were to be used for the general offensive. In this regard, in addition to maintaining deep apologies for the latter, he could only let them go back on their own.

If someone opens God's perspective at this time, they can see that two huge fleets are moving opposite each other on two parallel lines. The course of the German fleet was slightly easterly in the north, while the course of the Allied fleet was in the south, and the general position of the other side was relatively correct, but in order to be safe, they tended to attack around the front of the other side. After all, the general aviation reconnaissance range is a fan, and the search for the surrounding area will be relatively weak.

The result of this is that everyone's positions are constantly changing, and it is difficult for both sides to determine the exact position of the other side, and even at dawn, when the carrier-based aircraft of both sides are already on the deck and ready to be dispatched at any time, it is difficult to determine each other's positions

Thanks to the book friend zhouyu1976 for the tip~~~, and the book friend day sleeping animal sczboy hell queen daughter monthly pass support ~~~. To be continued