"Little Richthofen has finally done the right thing, and the next time I see his uncle, I will praise this junior." Looking at the battle report sent by the Air Force, Count Spee also had to praise the Air Force for doing a good job, which saved him a lot of trouble. Even 1 week ago, the German Navy and Air Force were fighting a war of words over the budget for the next year, but now Count Spee decided that the Richthofen the Younger should be awarded the Diamond Cross with oak leaves. As Nimitz had predicted, when the Luftwaffe broke one of the fangs of the tiger of the Allied fleet, it was time for the German Navy to intervene!

In addition to the air battlefield, the German Navy's operations at sea were also smooth. After wreaking havoc in the South Atlantic with Colonel Crank, Raeder's fleet finally embarked on the return journey according to the scheduled plan, and as the Allied fleet withdrew to the north, Raeder's fleet was smooth sailing, only at the last moment, a reconnaissance plane occasionally spotted the French fleet hanging 500 kilometers behind him, but in the end, as night fell, Raeder successfully shook off his opponent, and then changed course to the north again. After the convergence, Raeder transferred the already exhausted Carrier Air Wing to the rear to rest, and the new Carrier Air Wing was on board to prepare for the future war.

Raeder, who had just returned to the Mediterranean, got on the plane to Sicily without even having a chance to get a good night's sleep, and by this time the top brass of the Entente fleet had already gathered and was waiting for him alone! Imagine Earl Spee and Jordy, the old men who had been in battle for a long time, waiting for him, and Raeder felt a little nervous. The army pays attention to seniority and military exploits, although everyone has participated in the first battle in the same way, but compared with those old commanders who lead one side alone, the qualifications of Raeder's mixed staff officers are really nothing.

"Twenty-two years ago, you and I, along with the former Italian Admiral Marquis Tycho, planned a naval battle that shocked the world, and now you and I are still working together in the largest naval battle of all time. Our former ally has turned into an enemy, and I have a hunch that we will meet him again in the near future, but the only difference is that. We're going to make a difference on the battlefield. In the preset conference room, Count Spee looked at the fleet outside the harbor and said to Marshal Jordy.

"Marshal Tycho was a venerable old sailor who built the Italian fleet and led it to its zenith. Compared to him, now the so-called commander of the Italian Navy is just a ridiculous clown. For respectful opponents. We can only defeat him with all our might! Use our strategy and mighty fleet to make him famous! If I could, I hope that after this war is over, no matter what the outcome is, we will still be able to sit together and reminisce with him. Jordi agreed with the Count's words. The nostalgia for the past and the present quickly dissipated, and the two bigwigs of the Allied Navy came here not to reminisce about the past, but to look forward to the future! They are thinking about what means can be used to completely defeat the Entente fleet and thus end the entire war in Europe!

Half an hour later, the heads of the Allied fleet began to plan the next step around the huge sand table, and according to the information sent by the German General Staff, the Allied fleet had retreated to the north. The Allied Ibilis Air Group, which had lost its restraints, together with the Home Air Group, further reduced the Allied air force, which was already at the end of its power, and under the attack of tens of thousands of aircraft every day, the Allied air force deployed in France further lost blood. If it was just a cut on the opponent's body before, then now the Luftwaffe stabbed the opponent's artery, and the blood flowed loudly!

"We can repeat the actions of the adversary, if we attack under the cover of land-based aviation, we can sweep the west coast of France in a month at most, and if the Entente fleet is dispatched, we can also block the opponent's attack under the cover of land-based aviation. This is the safest way, steady and steady, and there will be no major loopholes. "Count Luknall first proposed a more prudent approach, which was also the plan of the German Navy that had been discussed a lot in the previous paragraph.

This plan is good, but there are also many loopholes, first of all, it is a slow tactic, and it takes dozens of days to slowly suffocate the opponent. China had already intervened in the war, and it was only a matter of time before it finally entered the war, in order to solve the problem as soon as possible, France won a relatively stable rear for Germany. The Count of Spee must act as soon as possible. And this method is not thorough, this is not completely reflected in two aspects, one is that the Germans can continue to oppress the opponent under the cover of land-based aviation, but as long as the other side does not make a mistake, it is impossible to hit the Allied fleet in a wave, after all, they also have land-based aviation to provide cover, judging from several sea and land confrontations, the attack of the side with land-based aviation may not be enough, but self-protection is still no problem.

On the other hand, the so-called incompleteness is because the German fleet was imprisoned off the coast of France, and the North Atlantic route was still open, and even if the Americans were more bold and guessed that after the Raeder fleet had returned, the South Atlantic communication line would be restored to be unblocked, if so, the Allied Countries' combat effectiveness in Europe would be maintained, and the German offensive would be more difficult. France will not succumb so quickly.

In the usual case, Count Spee might have chosen this time-consuming but definitely inrelevant plan, but now the situation is different, and recent events have made the old Earl have confidence in the Confederate fleet. Not to mention that some time ago, Raeder commanded the fleet to beat the Allied fleet of almost the same size, and exchanged two aircraft carriers for the other side with very small losses. Then the Luftwaffe ambush of the Allied fleet caused the already weak tiger to break a few teeth. According to the estimates of the German Navy, if nothing else, then the stock of carrier-based aircraft of the Allied fleet may not be as good as that of the Allied fleet, and with the dual superiority in quantity and quality, the Allied fleet has no reason not to fight with the other side!

Therefore, in the recent discussion, the German Navy put forward a more radical and adventurous plan, that is, the German Navy is ready to use the Azores as the pillar and directly use the Allied fleet as the main force to enter the North Atlantic route and completely cut off the sea supply lines of the Entente! As soon as this move came out, the Entente was almost forced into a corner, no matter what Nimitz thought, there was only one way for him to do, and that was to fight to the death with the other party! The two sides will start a dignified battle on the ocean, and the winner will become the king of the North Atlantic and the master of the European continent!

When the Earl of Spee proposed this plan, even Marshal Jordy was shocked, although there was no shortage of decisive battles in his past experience. However, this is the first time that this kind of tactics of desperately trying to play with the other side has been encountered, because the outcome of this war is not only related to the fate of a war zone, but also determines the national fortunes of the two major military blocs! If Germany were to lose, I am afraid that even if France was taken, it would not be possible to force Britain to surrender. Then the war will turn into a protracted war of attrition, and with the attrition of national strength, China and the Entente will definitely launch an offensive in the Middle East, and without the full support of the Germans, the Turkish Empire will definitely not be able to stop it. After the loss of the oil fields of the two river basins and the Transcaucasia, German industry will have problems, leading to a decline in combat effectiveness, military defeat, and thus entering a vicious circle. And if it wins, I'm afraid that not only France will choose to give in, but even Britain is very sure!

Huge risks are often accompanied by huge gains, and a step forward can lead to the pinnacle of glory or fall off a cliff and fall to pieces. In the face of this big gamble plan, everyone was silent, and everyone was thinking about what the odds of both sides would be in this big battle. Although the Allies seem to have an advantage in terms of air power, but in fact the battlefield situation in the ocean changes too much, for example, the weather, if the sun is shining on your side and the clouds are thick on the other side, then needless to say, no matter how sharp your attack aircraft group is, it will not be able to have a fatal impact on the opponent's fleet, and for example, the Germans can find the whereabouts of the Allied fleet through submarines, and the Entente may also use the same method to find themselves. Whether or not you can take the lead in the ocean depends largely on the luck of both sides, and if the Germans don't look at the yellow calendar one day and let the other side catch them and still know nothing, no matter how big the advantage is, it may be in vain!

This is not the time to be angry. So no one said where the courage of the Imperial Navy went, and no one stood up and impassionedly encouraged everyone to pass this plan, it was a reckless man's doing, and the real general would carefully calculate the gains and losses and the odds of victory in this battle in the dark, and then use the resources in his hands to plug the loopholes one by one through reasonable planning! And actually, a long time ago. The Earl of Spee is already getting ready! Although this plan is only now on the table, as a veteran of World War I, he also knows the importance of preparing a backup plan, and even the submarine deployed in the Bay of Biscay itself is a foreshadowing of this plan.

In order to ensure the accuracy and timeliness of intelligence, the Germans emptied almost all of their submarines half a month ago and deployed these submarines to the vast North Atlantic. About half of these submarines were not responsible for attacking their opponents, but merely acting as outposts in the water to record everything they saw, such as the Allied shipping schedules and routes, the range of aerial reconnaissance, and other circumstances that might be useful. And several submarine cordons were deployed in the North Atlantic.

Of course, this is not enough, this time, the importance of the Azores occupied by the Germans is manifested, and the long-range maritime patrol aircraft dispatched from this base can completely cover a large area of the sea, as long as the American fleet appears, it will definitely not escape the eyes of the Germans! Moreover, there are also some fighter units deployed on this island, they are all carrier-based aircraft units, which can supplement the consumption of the forward fleet when necessary, and at least can also support a not too reliable air defense umbrella for the fleet!

Generally speaking, before this meeting, Count Spee had discussed many times with the people in his small circle, and even with Holdie, and the two naval bosses agreed that the tactics of steady and steady fighting were tantamount to chronic suicide to a certain extent, and if the Entente fleet could not be broken, then once the other side and the Chinese fleet converged, they would have an overwhelming advantage in terms of strength, and for this reason alone, the Germans would have to find ways to inflict heavy damage on the other side's fleet. Therefore, although this time it was brought up to discuss the matter, whether it was the Count of Spee or Marshal Holdie, they thought it would be better to use a new plan. The Allies wanted a short war, not a protracted campaign, and there was no point in simply dragging out time! So after a discussion, at the insistence of Count Spee, the plan was finally passed.

"Also, we must strengthen secrecy and weather forecasting, and in order to ensure the safety of this operation, I recommend replacing all the cipher machines in the fleet, using new ciphers and cipher machines with more wheels. I also need to know what the weather is like on the Atlantic every day. Count Spee added.

The commander of the Navy has already set the tone, then the remaining thing is to check and fill in the gaps around this plan, a large-scale fleet in the ocean operation is related to many aspects, supply is a problem that cannot be run, a fleet with a displacement of more than 1 million tons needs up to thousands of tons of supplies every day! Under such tremendous pressure, even with the national strength of the Central Powers, it is necessary to carefully arrange the routes for the supply fleet and routes, after all, the Allies have a future and the Entente also has submarines!

After several days of discussions, the German fleet finally completed all the preparations before going to war. The huge fleet was surrounded by hundreds of auxiliary vessels of various kinds and sailed towards the Strait of Gibraltar, and when the fleet entered the Strait of Gibraltar, Count Spee received another unexpected good news, the Spanish side finally agreed to integrate the two aircraft carriers Ibilis and Madrid into the Allied fleet, and after this strengthening, the number of aircraft carriers in the entire Allied fleet reached a staggering 22! More than 2,000 ships! All the aircraft carriers were organized into four separate aircraft carrier groups. It was completely different from the situation last time when Raeder's fleet sneaked out, this time the Germans went above board, and the Americans got the news in the first place. So the whole west coast of France is on the verge of a great enemy! And the Entente fleet, which had just been repaired for a few days, was ready to attack again. "It's going to be an unprecedented battle. God bless America! Nimitz said after reading the telegram. Then he let out a long sigh.

Thanks to the book friend zhouyu1976 for the tip~~~~. (To be continued.) )