Going to the ocean has been Tirpitz's dream for many years, but the naval competition between Britain and Germany and the overwhelming strength of Britain once made Tirpitz lose confidence, but now a golden opportunity has appeared.

In the direction of the Mediterranean, the French navy is at an all-round disadvantage to the Austrian and Italian navies. With the current configuration, even with the strength of the British navy in the Mediterranean, if a naval battle breaks out, it will of course be a life-or-death battle.

Tirpitz did not believe that with the current balance of power, the British and French combined fleets would choose to take the initiative.

Then there must be a not weak fleet joining, giving the British and French Mediterranean fleets the courage to do this.

There is no other choice for the source of this force besides the large fleet in the UK. Although Tirpitz did not know how many dreadnoughts the British had deployed to launch operations against the Austrian and Italian navy,

But he could feel that this was an opportunity that the German High Seas Fleet and others could not wait for.

After coming out of the palace, Tirpitz immediately contacted the Italian Navy and the Austro-Hungarian Navy through the Naval Command. Italy's procrastination in this war made the German military dissatisfied. However, the Triple Alliance already had two

For more than ten years, the contacts between the militaries of Germany, Austria, and Italy have not been interrupted, and the three-nation joint defense of the Allied camp has been held more than once. I don’t know if the Italians know the movements of the Mediterranean navy of the Allied Powers, but he still feels the need to remind them.

Look at your allies.

Tirpitz's guess was not wrong. The British Royal Navy had an advantage over the German Navy in the three fields of dreadnoughts, battlecruisers and pre-dreadnoughts. This time, it transferred two dreadnoughts from the huge naval fleet.

, two battlecruisers, seven pre-dreadnoughts, and ten armored cruisers formed a task force that could be called a huge task force in the eyes of any country except the German High Seas Fleet. It headed to the Mediterranean to complete the Allied Powers' Mediterranean Navy

A blow of power.

After deploying such a huge fleet, the British mainland fleet still has one-third more strength than the German High Seas Fleet. The current ratio of the British and German navies is very close to the 70% fleet theory.

As for some unexpected interference factors, such as the Imperial Russian Navy in the Baltic Sea, Tirpitz was not within the scope of consideration. Not to mention that the Imperial Russian Navy suffered heavy losses in the Russo-Japanese War. The geographical environment alone could help the German Navy a lot.

When the Imperial Russian Navy faced the German Navy, it was like the Austro-Hungarian Navy facing the Italian Navy. There was only one outlet, the Strait of Otranto, and there was no way out if it was blocked.

As for the four battleships belonging to the slave owners, claiming to be the First Fleet of the Indian Ocean, and actually doing nothing but escorting supplies to the Persian Gulf, they were far away from the scope of Tirpitz's thinking.

Tirpitz contacted the Austro-Hungarian Navy Commander Baron Haus, and the Austro-Hungarian Navy Commander-in-Chief Admiral Anton von Haus was convinced that the war would end in a short time, so he did not focus on strengthening the navy. On the contrary

Then allow the labor force of the shipyard to be diverted to the construction of the army.

Fortunately for the navy, the Austro-Hungarian Empire did not have a naval department. The navy was just a naval department affiliated with the army. The naval commander had greater independence. He could take charge of many matters such as the construction, management and command of the navy.

Issues are reported directly to the emperor. Therefore, compared with the army, it will not be involved in too many political confrontations, and there is no need to adhere to more traditional constraints.

Baron House paid great attention to Tirpitz's news. Compared with the Allied camp and the Allied camp, Germany's military power, whether it is navy or army, is the number one in the Allied camp. The three Allied countries, Britain, France and Russia, each have their own advantages.

, when formulating combat operations, they need to take care of each other's emotions.

Because Germany had an extremely obvious advantage over the Allied Powers, most of the time, the other Allied Powers cooperated with the combat plans formulated by Germany. After learning about Tirpitz's ideas, Baron House immediately expressed his willingness to cooperate.

Then the Austro-Hungarian Navy quickly activated the three-nation joint defense mechanism and told the news to the Italian Navy, which also felt the danger. The secret military operation was transmitted invisible between Vienna and Rome through wireless telegraphy.

Italy eventually became a staunch supporter of the Allies and had a huge relationship with the slave owners. Historically, the Entente wooed Italy and promised to divide the territory of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The Allies offered a price to divide Tunisia to Italy.

And due to the operation of slave owners, not to mention Tunisia, even Libya was robbed by the French. This shameful humiliation made the Italian Navy firmly opposed to getting closer to the Allies.

The Commander of the Italian Navy, the Duke of Abruzzi, quickly went through the naval battleships currently in his mind. Five dreadnoughts are ready for battle at any time, and four are under construction. There are also eight pre-dreadnoughts and ten pre-dreadnoughts.

Armored cruisers can be used. Together with the four combined force dreadnoughts and ten pre-dreadnoughts of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, this is a force that cannot be underestimated if joint operations are carried out.

Through Baron House, the Duke of Abruzzi already knew that the German High Seas Fleet had discovered the actions of the British and French combined fleets and was launching a counterattack. He quickly agreed to the Austro-Hungarian Navy's request for joint defense!

The Austrian-Italian navy knew that the British and French combined fleets were coming this time, so they quickly finalized a similarly tit-for-tat plan, based on a decisive battle in the ocean, to severely defeat the invading British and French navies.

On this day, the Austro-Hungarian fleet, with four Combined Forces-class battleships as its core, sailed out of the Strait of Otranto from major military ports and headed south to join the Italian Navy. The huge turrets of the battleships told people that they were not traveling.

The calm Mediterranean suddenly became weird because of this two-on-two interaction.

The slave owners who felt that 1915 was a bit boring suddenly felt no longer sleepy. They sent some trustworthy people to live next to the military port. It was not difficult to count when passing by the military port every day. And it was similar to the port of Toulon.

It is not difficult to observe Alexandria, Egypt, and it is not a completely military port like Gibraltar.

After learning that the French and British fleets in Toulon and Alexandria had disappeared, couldn't he still guess what it meant? Most battles in the World War were not sudden. Even the Battle of Jutland,

When the German High Seas Fleet left the port, the British side also knew about it.

"I just want to know, are the Germans just looking at this? Are they not going to help the allies?" Of course Sheffield didn't know that Tirpitz had noticed this situation. Anyway, with his normal IQ, he also felt that this was an opportunity.

Can't miss it.

It seems that after the boring first half of 1915, the fighting will become more intense from now on, and the fierce fighting will move to the sea.

On the eve of both sides foreseeing the outbreak of a naval battle, the battlecruiser Goben, which had been hiding in the Ottoman Empire, once again passed through the Dardanelles Strait and became a spoiler in the Mediterranean. Even the British had forgotten that the war was going to begin.

Later, the battlecruiser staged a life-and-death battle royale in the Mediterranean and pulled the Ottoman Empire into the Allied camp.

On June 27, the Austro-Hungarian navy arrived at the Italian port and joined the Italian navy. The Austro-Hungarian navy arrived in Italy and was welcomed by many local residents. Italy has a long coastline, but the military ports have been tightly defended since the war began.

The port was not shelled by the British and French fleets against civilians. The whole of Italy was considered very safe except for the French-Italian border.

The maritime power of this group of nine dreadnoughts, eighteen pre-dreadnoughts, and twenty armored cruisers was very shocking. After the war on the southern front against Serbia ended, the land of the Austro-Hungarian Empire

The pressure was greatly reduced. The German-Austrian Allied Forces had already invaded the territory of Imperial Russia. The Austro-Hungarian Empire, whose strategic environment had improved a lot, finally agreed to Baron House's suggestion and was willing to go to the navy to give it a try.

Churchill had foreseen possible difficulties in the Mediterranean direction, and was even prepared for fierce resistance from the Italian or Austro-Hungarian navies. However, in the face of the Italian navy and the Austro-Hungarian navy, which was also not good at navy, he still believed in the British and French navies.

The Combined Fleet has enough reasons to destroy or, at worst, severely damage the maritime power of the Allied Powers, ensuring sea control in the Mediterranean for the next period of time, allowing his plan to destroy the Ottoman Empire to be easily realized.

But Churchill did not expect that he was not the only one paying attention to the situation in the Mediterranean. German naval commander Tirpitz was also thinking about using this situation to deal a harsh blow to the British.

"I heard that your German navy's code book has been leaked. Of course, I have no evidence! It was said by some British friends." Sheffield sat next to Gretel Thyssen very naturally, as if chatting with each other.

"Mr. William, are you telling the truth?" Gretel Thyssen asked in surprise.

"The news is not accurate! But sometimes it is good to think about it. For example, you know that the code book has been leaked, and the British still use the previous code book to decipher your military operations. You can take advantage of this." Sheffield smiled.

He said, "I am a media person, and I have created a lot of fake news."

While the two were chatting, a large-scale naval battle was approaching the stage of breaking out. Such a large fleet could not be mobilized quietly. The British and French knew that the Austrian and Italian navies were gathering. At the same time, the Austrian and Italian navies also passed various news,

After learning that the British and French combined fleets were about to converge, both sides were eager to find each other.

Whether to divide the forces to prevent the British fleet with ports in Alexandria, Egypt and Malta from converging with the British and French combined fleets in the Western Mediterranean, or to wait until the other parties converge for a face-to-face decisive battle has become a new problem.

No one expected that the long-lost German battlecruiser Goben would open the record this time. Goben suddenly appeared and quickly grabbed an armored cruiser for attack. The huge enemy ship was directly hit.

A tall water column was stirred up on the side. One shell hit its generator room, and another hit the rear boiler room. The enemy ship began to list. Nine minutes later, as the sailors jumped away one after another, it finally sank into the blue sea.

Among the black waves, this warship is a British 11,000-ton armored cruiser.
Chapter completed!