Chapter 1,457 The Situation in the Eastern Mediterranean

Chapter 1457 Situation in the Eastern Mediterranean

"What I said is right, we will return to the battlefield soon! This time, we will definitely achieve greater glory!" Earl Spey said with confidence!

"Call back to His Highness and tell him that I will rush to his residence as quickly as possible." Count Spee turned to his students and said: "Before I come back, prepare everything. Fate has once again put us at a critical moment. Work hard, my child!”

While Count Spee was leaving, Ruprecht was also preparing for the upcoming naval battle, and before that, he needed to understand how the fleets of both sides were deployed in this sea area. of!

"It seems that in the last battle, the Spey fleet's attack on the French dreadnoughts and super-dreadnoughts was still a bit weak, but the quasi-dreadnoughts have almost been cleaned up." The prince looked at the list of Allied fleets currently active in the Eastern Mediterranean and felt a little confused. He said helplessly.

Was Count Spey's night attack successful? Of course it was a success! Killed a dreadnought, severely damaged another dreadnought, and killed three Dandong-class quasi-dreadnoughts and three armored cruisers, all in one night! This result is quite astonishing, isn’t it?

And if you include the previous attack by the UB-12 submarine on the Normandy, the fourth ship of the Brestany-class battleship, the French Navy now has a total of 4 super-dreadnoughts in this area. Yes, you read that right, it was this number. The Normandie ultimately failed to return to France and was ambushed by an Austro-Hungarian submarine while being towed back, resulting in its eventual sinking. At this time, the French Navy commissioned a new Brestany-class battleship, so the number of super-dauntless ships is still 4!

Among the dreadnoughts, the Guba was completely killed, and the Paris was severely damaged and successfully towed back, but it was left in the shipyard without repair because the damage was too great and it was very troublesome to repair. And after the British agreed to send a super-dreadnought squadron, the French felt that the Mediterranean was already stable, so there was no need to spend much effort repairing the Paris. As a result, the French still had 2 dreadnoughts left, but these two dreadnoughts were not deployed to the Eastern Mediterranean.

As for the auxiliary battleship? The other three Dandong-class battleships are resting. After a period of rest, they will immediately head to the Eastern Mediterranean. In addition to the six accompanying fleets, the armored cruisers are also busy with other things. Therefore, although the current French fleet deployed in the Eastern Mediterranean is the main force, not all of it is here.

Currently, the French fleet's pre-dreadnoughts, armored cruisers, and landing forces are mainly concentrated on the Greek islands to the west of Asia Minor, such as Chios, Lesbos, and Somes. The four super-dreadnought battleships are concentrated on Crete, because areas close to the Turkish coast will be attacked by aircraft, submarines and mines. Therefore, unless the French main fleet will go there when launching a landing, Otherwise, under normal circumstances, the French fleet would choose the safer Crete area.

The majority of the Mediterranean fleet is still the British. Now the British Royal Navy has finally figured it out. After deciding not to challenge the German sea control in the North Sea and deciding not to block the entrance and exit of the North Sea, the British fleet that is just shrinking in the mainland is still very strong. Because, in the eyes of the British, no matter how fierce the Germans are, they cannot come within the combat radius of the Royal Navy bombers to cause trouble. In fact, this is indeed the case. Apart from camouflaging mine-laying ships and submarines, the German Navy really has no plans to wander around the British coast.

Ruprecht said he could accept the current situation. After all, the key to sea power lies in the use of sea lines of communication. Whether it can destroy the opponent's main fleet is not the most important. As long as merchant ships from the United States and all over the world can succeed After arriving in the German mainland, the German navy can sleep all day long!

And the British are satisfied with the current equipment? Well, it’s also a feeling I can’t afford to offend easily. However, the main fleet had surplus under the protection of aviation. Therefore, according to the previous agreement with the French, the British decided to send a super-dreadnought fleet to the Mediterranean. The French naturally hoped that the Queen or Revenge-class battleships would come, but the British believed that Without these two town houses, Dongdong would not be able to sleep well, so he decided to send the next-level battleship. Since General Jericho already had a new Revenge-class battleship as his flagship, 4 Iron Dukes -class battleship arrived in the Mediterranean under the command of Rear Admiral Duff.

The four battleships were HMS Iron Duke, HMS Marlborough, HMS Benbow and HMS Emperor of India. Along with these super-dreadnoughts came three pre-dreadnought squadrons and nearly a dozen and a half pre-dreadnoughts...

At present, the British fleet is deployed in this way. The pre-dreadnought squadron goes south to join the French pre-dreadnought squadron to prepare to support the French Army's landing operations in Turkey, while four Iron Duke-class super-dreadnought ships are deployed in Athens, the capital of Greece. Both the British and the French have chosen to stay as far away from the German Air Force's combat range as possible. They do not have detailed data on the combat radius of Germany's newly commissioned K-6 bomber, but they can also estimate it by relying on their own FB27 bomber. , the British decided it was too dangerous for them to leave their precious Super-Dreadnoughts exposed in the Aegean Sea.

As for the pre-dreadnought? This is equally dangerous, but how can I put it, sinking a ship is not heartbreaking, and there must be someone to provide fire support, right? So these pre-dreadnoughts were concentrated in the above-mentioned areas. However, in order to reduce the threat of the German Air Force as much as possible, Britain and France established an air base on Chios Island and stationed 6 fighter detachments there to provide cover for the pre-dreadnoughts there and also to provide Aerial reconnaissance.

Basically, this is the naval deployment. In addition to the fleet, there are also a large number of transport ships gathered near the above three islands. According to the French plan, they will open a total of two landing sites, one starting from Lesbos Island , entered the Gulf of Edremit, and occupied the coastal city of Edremit. The other one set out from Chios Island, crossed the narrow strait and landed directly in Cesme on the opposite side, and then occupied Izmir, an important Turkish port city from the land!

So far, at least 40,000 French troops have been transported to Chios and Lesvos. If you include naval personnel, air force personnel and Greek auxiliary personnel on the island, the total number of troops may reach more than 110,000. It is no exaggeration to say that these two islands are a large military camp!

Here comes the second update~~~! Please subscribe and reward~~~!