The situation at sea in Europe was like dominoes, the reaction was dizzying, the Italians did not expect that their two torpedoes in France would cause so many variables, the Allied fleet moved quickly like a stimulated bull, the American and French fleets combined forces, and then the two fast battleships of the Dutch fleet also came, and the scale of 15 super dreadnoughts made Tycho dare not act rashly. And then another fleet with 6 former dreadnought battleships came from the continental United States to join Magifin's fleet, and with it came a large number of armored cruisers and destroyers, if you look at the tonnage, the size of the Entente Mediterranean Fleet at this time was at least about 1.8 times that of the Allied Mediterranean Fleet! Faced with the opponent's all-round crushing from capital ships to secondary capital ships to auxiliary warships, Tycho did not have the slightest idea about this.

"Don't give people a way to live?" Tycho really didn't prepare for a big operation, the Allied Mediterranean Fleet had not yet completed the final preparations, whether it was sending submarines or directing the fleet to swim around the Strait of Gibraltar, it was more of a gesture action...... Or in other words, to meet the demands of the Germans. But I didn't expect that this time it was like stabbing a hornet's nest, and the Americans killed it without saying a word. At this time, Tycho was secretly scolding Magiffen in his heart, saying that why are Americans so real? At that time, the French asked the British to send a fleet to support, but the British waited for nearly a year to send a detachment, and this time the Americans went south without saying a word, pointing their swords at the Mediterranean. It made Tycho feel very stressed, after all, although the U.S. Navy had just been cleaned up two years ago, it was not too unjust to lose at the hands of the Huaxia Navy. Long Wu's combat power is there, and it can't be changed to other countries. Moreover, Tycho also knew that the combat effectiveness of the US Navy would definitely improve after a long period of preparation, which made Tycho not very optimistic about the future war situation.........

While the Italians were worried about the American fleet that had been slaughtered, the German Admiralty was already cheering. In the opinion of the Germans. The Italians are simply too powerful, three good allies (navy only). Not only did they pull all the American fleets to the Mediterranean, but they also transferred two Dutch warships to the Mediterranean, so that the number of warships in the British Grand Fleet was only 24. In the eyes of Scheer and others, their chances of winning a battle are greater, as long as the British Grand Fleet is destroyed, what is the 11 super dreadnoughts of the American fleet? During the Battle of Jutland, the Germans were able to fight hard against their opponents when the gap between the two sides was huge, but now when their own troops are strong and the Grand Fleet is unprecedentedly weak, the High Seas Fleet really can't find a reason not to fight.

The time never came again, and Schell also realized that this window would not be long, when the American fleet swept away the Allied Mediterranean Fleet or when the secret of the German Navy's warship modification was discovered. The Entente side will definitely strengthen the power of the North Sea, and by that time it will be too late. So Scheer had to hurry up and act. In order to inflict heavy damage on the British Royal Navy through a clean and clean battle of the main fleet, and then achieve the goal of forcing the Allies to admit defeat through victory at sea. Only this engagement against the British Navy would result in another Jutland-like victory. From Germany's point of view, the British should really think about how to end up ..........

The German navy began to actively prepare for this battle, they would go to the British coastal waters, force the British Grand Fleet to fight it by attacking ports and fleets, and at the same time, because of the stimulation of the British Royal Air Force on the land battlefield, the German navy began to put the issue of air defense in a more important position. After all, no one knows what would happen if a 1,000-pound bomb was thrown on a battleship. Although the German Navy experimented with horizontal bombing of moving warships with aircraft, the accuracy of their hits was disastrous. But no one can guarantee that they can really ignore the bombing of the other side. It is important to know that the fleet must have a formation when marching or fighting, and even if the enemy's bombing cannot directly kill the German naval warships, even if it causes confusion in the formation, it will have a considerable impact on the engagement. The British were very weak, but the German Navy was also pressed on the coffin! …。

For this reason, the Germans also decided to convert some high-speed merchant ships into seaplane carriers, the purpose of which was to disperse the slow bombers when the British bombers came. At the same time, seaplanes will also provide reconnaissance assistance to the fleet. In order to ensure the monitoring of the whereabouts of the British Navy as much as possible, the German Navy also specially dispatched a group of submarines to cruise in the waters near Britain. All naval airships also began to undergo final maintenance and repairs. They will accompany the High Seas Fleet to England. The whole war was on the verge of breaking out. In addition to this, the Germans, in order to defend themselves against torpedo boats and possible bombardment by the opposing side, began to add a large number of 88mm anti-mine guns and anti-aircraft guns, although the pitch and rotation speed of this thing were not satisfactory, but in the spirit of only increasing the number. No matter how low the probability is, it can be blinded, no matter what the actual effect is, put these things on it first!. …。

Because of the multiple means of reconnaissance, the first-line generals of the High Seas Fleet, such as Scheer, thought that it no longer made sense to include the capital ships in the avant-garde fleet...... After all, there are airships and seaplanes in the air, light cruisers and torpedo boats on the water, and submarines under the water, and it is very uneconomical to weaken the combat strength of the fleet purely for reconnaissance purposes. After all, you are going to fight in the opponent's waters this time, and the opponent's control of intelligence must have an advantage, if the avant-garde fleet collides with the opponent's main fleet for various reasons (such as weather or misjudgment), the result will be devastating. Rather than this, it is better for everyone to hold together directly, and more than 20 capital ships are gathered together, and if they meet, they will die.

Just as the Germans were ambitiously preparing to solve the final problem with naval guns, the British were also preparing a big gift for the Germans on the other side of the North Sea! Although the transfer of the two Dutch capital ships made Jericho and others dissatisfied and angry, the days still had to pass, and the war still had to continue! The British Royal Navy has never seen anyone else's face since it dominated the oceans. Although the situation was unprecedented, and despite all the signs that the Germans were about to embark on a major operation, as Jericho put it: "In spite of the dire situation, I believe that the Royal Navy can still win this war!" "Where does Jericho's confidence come from? He's from the air! The unrivalled technological superiority of the British in the air force made a very important change in naval warfare! …。

Can aircraft pose a threat to capital ships during World War I? The average person may say no, after all, in fact, the successful example of the air force's attack on a mobile battleship occurred during World War II, such as the Battle of the Atlantic, the Swordfish destroyed the battleship Bismarck, and the British Royal Navy's ballista operation against the French Navy and the air attack on Taranto. The latter, in particular, cost the Italian Navy dearly with less than 30 torpedo aircraft. Rear Admiral Jean Lister was the first to attack the military port from the air.

But in fact, the British had already produced aircraft that could throw aviation torpedoes as early as the First World War, such as the Thorpurvis Cuckoo torpedo bomber, which entered service in mid-1917, this 8.68-meter-long, 14-meter wingspan, 2199 pounds empty-weight, and 3883-pound maximum weight aircraft was the world's first single-engine torpedo engine, which was equipped with a 200-horsepower engine and had a maximum speed of 103.5 miles per hour at an altitude of 2,000 feet. It has a stay time of up to 4 hours and can carry an 18-inch MKIX aviation torpedo. To a certain extent, such a torpedo machine had an extremely powerful attack power against the fragile air defense forces of the navies of various countries during the First World War. The reason why this kind of torpedo attack aircraft, which produced 232 planes in history, did not show its might, on the one hand, was that the German Navy was completely reduced to an existing fleet by 1917, and the British and American powers blocked the North Sea so that the German High Seas Fleet did not have the slightest idea. On the other hand, the effective range of this aircraft is still too close, and it can only fight at close range. …………。

Because of Xu Jie, this plane has a lot of technology ahead of history, and this torpedo machine called Cuckoo has already been put into mass production in 1916, but at the beginning this kind of aircraft was used by the Royal Air Force for bombing missions in France, not for torpedoes, and now, with the departure of the Dutch, the pressure on the Royal Navy has increased greatly, and under Churchill's strong request and even pressure, the British Royal Air Force finally agreed to hand over 100 Cuckoo torpedo bombers to the Royal Navy in batches.

But in the days that followed...... The British Royal Navy found a lot of problems when using this kind of aircraft, the first problem is that the range is too short, 4 hours of air time plus not high speed, the combat radius is about 200km, the engine horsepower is too small and the margin is too small, the result is that once the torpedo is installed, it cannot be equipped with auxiliary fuel tanks. Therefore, the short range was jokingly called a watchdog by the British Royal Navy. Another problem is that the Cuckoo bomber has only one crew, that is to say, during the battle, this crew member has to operate the aircraft and throw torpedoes at the same time, considering the tragic operation performance of the 1st combat aircraft, and then look at the sights at that time, in this case, the actual strike effect can be quite tragic..........

But it doesn't matter, Churchill's greatest ability as a qualified bureaucrat is not to command battles. Instead, he can solve various problems for the Navy through his own connections and communication skills, and Jericho and others reacted the problems to Churchill, who patted his chest and said: "Just tell me what you want, and I'll handle the rest!" After Jericho handed over a series of documents to Churchill, the later British Prime Minister immediately arranged a tender without saying a word, and directly skipped the Royal Air Force to contact the major aircraft manufacturers, hoping that they would provide the Navy with a suitable torpedo attack aircraft.

Thanks to the book friend zhouyu1976 for the tip ~~~~~