Chapter 2122: Hide and Seek
"The two armored cruisers are to be preserved as much as possible, and their speed is enough to escape the attack of the British battleship. Well, now, the two armored cruisers are under the command of Colonel von Röhler. Retire from the battlefield. I will send half of the destroyers to accompany Colonel Liole in action, and I will command two battleships to continue to lure the main British fleet. My mission goal is very clear. Before 4 o'clock, I will never allow the British to leave The Straits of Dover!" said Earl Spey.
The earl's order was quickly transmitted to all warships through light signals, and a moment later, a set of light signals was played on Colonel von Liorer's flagship Cologne: "My fleet will do its best to cooperate with your Excellency's actions." Then the two armored cruisers began heading northwest.
"Your Excellency, Colonel Liole doesn't seem to be planning to leave," said an officer.
"I have handed over the commander to him, and how to deal with it is his business. Now, let's start our operation and prepare to send a report!" Earl Spey said.
That's right, it is to send a report. Earl Spey has only one means to contain the British fleet, and that is to expose himself! Of course, the method of directly ordering the flagship to send a report to expose oneself is too low. The British can easily kill themselves without saying anything. Use the sending equipment on the destroyer to send a report to attract the attention of the British. At the same time, the two capital ships continued to attack the British warships in the strait, so that the British felt that this was a normal exchange between the German fleet and the aviation force!
Ten minutes later, in the conning tower of the battleship Daring, the British received a piece of information as promised.
"Your Excellency, Commander, we have found a radio signal source in area C42. According to our comparison, this should be sent by the German fleet that has just evacuated." The officer in charge of radio analysis said.
"Is it from the German battleship?" Thomas asked.
"Probably not. We are very familiar with this signal. It should be sent by the leader of the destroyer. The Germans have done a very good job of keeping the signal of the capital ship secret, and we have never been able to confirm it." The officer said.
"It's okay, we can wait slowly! The Germans don't have many destroyers, and there shouldn't be many torpedoes. For artillery battles, these guys can't even beat the third-class protected cruisers 30 years ago. We have to do it now." There are only two things, the first thing is to cooperate with the air force and patrol forces to seal the exit of the Dover Strait, and the second thing is to find their capital ship and kill it!"
Naturally, Thomas would not immediately command the fleet to rush up because of a telegram. What if the Germans used destroyers to lure themselves out of their current positions and then took the opportunity to slip away? Thomas' idea is very simple. I will attack after seeing your battleship. Anyway, in the battle just now, all of Germany's records were wounded. The speed of the former dreadnought battleship is definitely not as fast as his own dreadnought, so it is no problem to catch up.
And judging from the terrain of the Strait of Dover, the further east you go, the wider the sea, the harder it is for the British fleet to block it, and the Germans chose to go west. Well, the Strait of Dover began to narrow gradually. The detection density of the enemy will also increase, just like combing hair, the German fleet will definitely not be able to escape! Now, the only thing that makes Thomas feel troublesome is time. The British and German navies are racing against time. According to Thomas, the Germans want to stay until dawn and wait for air support, while the British must escape a safe distance before dawn!
"Your Excellency, Commander, we have actually severely damaged our opponents. We have already won tactically. One of their three battleships was sunk, and two were seriously injured. They are no longer able to perform their missions in a short period of time.
Colonel Wells, the captain of the Bold, glanced at the clock on the wall and persuaded him in as tactful a tone as possible.
"The Germans have 7 former dreadnought battleships and 4 armored cruisers." Thomas' tone was very calm: "According to the information we collected before, these battleships are rotated every day, and 3 of them will be in a state of maintenance. After all, they are all Old ships, the German fleet needs to maintain a fleet size of 4 to 5 ships. If we let them go this time, the Germans will have at least 2 cruisers in a usable state, so they will still come to many ships the next night. Fore Strait prevents us from moving, and if we can't deal with them tonight and reduce the number of their available warships to a certain limit, we may never have another chance!"
To be honest, Thomas' plan can only be executed once! This time Thomas was able to bite the Spey fleet to a large extent because Major Admiral Gaunt's former dreadnought fleet dragged Earl Spey. Attracted a large number of reconnaissance forces of the German navy and air force, which gave Thomas an opportunity!
However, the price of this delay is also very heavy. The Gaunt fleet has suffered casualties. It is estimated that before the end of the war, those remaining warships will have no chance to go to the battlefield again. Now, more than 30 former dreadnought battleships and armored battleships have gathered The Channel Fleet of cruisers has become a thing of the past, and the Channel Fleet can no longer take out the fleet as a bait! And the German fleet, which has been stolen once, will definitely improve its defense system. It is too difficult to count an old oil field like Earl Spey again. Moreover, this kind of behavior itself is a tiger's mouth. At night, the British fleet chases the German fleet. During the day, it becomes a German bomber chasing the British fleet.. … One more danger is one more point! So, Thomas decided to have a break with each other tonight!
Under the command of Thomas, the British fleet began to gradually shrink the encirclement net. At the same time, in a building in Wilhelmshaven, senior officials of the German High Seas Fleet were also planning tomorrow's battle.
"The current situation is like this. If the British choose to leave as soon as they are good and evacuate immediately, then we can only block the way home for the British fleet by dispatching an aircraft carrier tomorrow." Admiral Scheer pointed at the Said the large-scale chart hanging on the wall. On this sea chart, several curves of different colors are used to indicate the track of the British Navy. These tracks are all estimated based on the return time of the British fleet at different points in time. At daybreak, the possible position of the British fleet! And this location will be the focus of the German aviation force's investigation.
"According to the analysis of the earl's telegram, we only have one battleship sunk?" Ruprecht asked.
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