In the drizzle, British Rear Admiral John Kelly and his officers stood quietly on the dock of the Gibraltar military port, waiting for the French fleet to enter the port.

The Port of Gibraltar is not large in size, but it belongs to a natural deep-water port. At the heyday of the British Empire, there were naval fleets that no country dared to underestimate. It symbolized the absolute dominance of the marine overlord in the Mediterranean region, and no one dared to peek at. Time flies and the world is unpredictable. The Port of Gibraltar now seems empty. After the main ships retreated to their homeland one after another, the British Mediterranean Fleet only retained two armored cruisers and some inconspicuous old cruisers and destroyers. They defended the glory of the Windsor Dynasty alone and lonely, and it flickered like a candlelight in the wind, which could be extinguished at any time...

Due to the unfavorable interception and encirclement of the German Mediterranean squadron at the beginning of the war, the German war patrol "Von der Tann" sneaked into the Dardanelles, resulting in the war stance of the Ottoman Turkish Empire being controlled by the Germans, which greatly infringed on the British military and political interests in the Near East. Admiral Milne, formerly commander of the British Mediterranean Fleet, and Admiral Trubridge, the commander of the armored cruiser fleet, both became scapegoats.

The former was recalled to the UK and retired from the Navy, while the latter was prosecuted by the investigation court. Even if he was found not guilty, his future in the British Navy had reached its peak. At present, Britain was under unprecedented threat from Germany, so the British Navy had to make the decision to abandon the car and protect the general, shrink the overseas deployment of troops, and completely hand over the military defense of the Mediterranean to French allies, and only symbolically retained some ships in Gibraltar and Malta.

It was in this case that John Kelly was able to serve as the new commander of the Mediterranean Fleet and became the lowest rank of military personnel to hold this important position for hundreds of years.

The two armored cruisers under Kelly, the Defense and the Samurai, were anchored in the Port of Gibraltar. They belonged to the last two-stage armored cruisers built by the British Navy, with a standard displacement of about 14,000 tons, comparable to most former dreadnoughts at that time. Their firepower was designed with a dual-mounted 4mm first-class main gun with a single-mounted 191mm second-class main gun, which was considered to be the top-notch powerful in the ranks of armored cruisers. The British Navy has built in recent years.

The many armored cruisers have powerful paper data, and their tactical role is second only to the dreadnoughts and battlecruisers. However, once they arrive at the battlefield where the British and German navy is most fierce in confrontation, they can only act as high-level cannon fodder. It is precisely because of a more full and accurate understanding of the German main battleships that the British Navy withdraws the remaining armored cruisers from the North Sea front and organizes them into several mobile teams to operate in the English Channel, Irish waters and the Mediterranean.

The French fleet sailing into the port of Gibraltar, with the British St. George's flag and the French tricolor flag flying on the masts, were not taking over Gibraltar, but at the invitation of the British Navy, they launched a joint combat operation with the British Mediterranean Fleet.

The most eye-catching of the 10 French ships from afar is the two giants with six chimneys. They are the last class armored cruiser designed and built by the French Navy, Edgar is in the inner class. Their tonnage and speed are similar to that of Kelly's armored cruiser. It has 14 191mm main guns and 20 65mm secondary guns. Their firepower is stronger than that of the German Schánhorst class equipped with 8 210mm main guns. If both sides fight one-on-one, the German ship may win with its slightly better range, armor defense and power output, and the French also have the opportunity to defeat their opponents with storm-like artillery fire.

Following two Edgar-Juint-class armored cruisers to the Port of Gibraltar were eight French destroyers with a displacement of less than 1,000 tons. During this period, the French destroyers were well equipped but had moderate designs. The gun firepower was not as good as that of British destroyers, and their speed and torpedo combat power were not as good as that of German large torpedo boats. The endurance and airworthiness performance were not good. Even so, for the embarrassing British Mediterranean fleet, the arrival of these French destroyers could at least play a useful tactical role.

After the leading French armored cruiser landed, Kelly and his officers moved to the gangway. A tall French Rear Admiral walked down the gangway with a proud look and looked at the British Navy officers in front of him.

In the British official who came to greet him, a lieutenant standing in the back whispered to his companion: "This arrogant Frenchman is Victor Baptistine Senes, French Rear Admiral, and commander of the Second Cruiser Fleet."

"Then we have to follow his orders before this interception is over?" Another British lieutenant looked at the guy who was shaking hands with Kelly, with a look of contempt in his eyes.

"There is no way, their number of warships is greater than ours. From the beginning of the war, the total loss of warships by the French navy is only single digits. Apart from winning a huge victory in the Adriatic Sea in the first month of the war, they have never fought much. Unlike us, they have fought head-on with the Germans in the North Sea from the beginning."

The British official said that the French Navy has not lost any main ships since the war started. Their combat sequence has 4 Guba-class dreadnoughts and 17 front dreadnoughts, and their strength seems to be quite strong. However, on the one hand, they need to beware of the Austro-Hungarian fleet sailing out of the Adriatic Sea, attacking the Mediterranean routes of the Allies, and even threatening the southern French ports. On the other hand, their design style and lagging technical principles are too ideal.

The French Navy built a bunch of "the latest outdated ships". Whether it was the Charlemagne-class who served at the turn of the century or Henry IV who designed and built in the early 20th century, they were criticized and notorious. They could only suppress the slightly inferior Austro-Hungarian navy and had to travel a long distance to the North Sea to save the British. The French had neither confidence nor courage, and they could only continue to stay in the Mediterranean and continue their mediocre war journey.

Just as these low-level British officials were whispering, the two major generals had finished their brief greetings. They turned around and walked towards the car parked not far away, Senes walking in front with his head held high, and Kelly followed him. This scene appropriately reflected the strategic situation of Britain and France in the Mediterranean at this time.

At the land headquarters of the British Mediterranean Fleet, the commanders of the two fleets and the main staff members sat together to discuss the next combat plan. The goal of this joint combat was very clear, that is, to intercept the German Pacific Squadron from the waters of West Africa. In fact, on the day when Earl Spee left the Cape Verde Islands, the British Navy received intelligence provided by spies, basically confirming that the Spee fleet had only two armored cruisers and several auxiliary ships. The British Mediterranean Fleet stationed in Gibraltar had the advantage of geographical location and had the opportunity to intercept the German fleet in the middle. However, the Spee fleet, filled with fuel and supplies, did not sail along the West African coastline. It seemed like a ghost fleet, suddenly appeared and then suddenly disappeared. The British could not grasp its whereabouts at all, and could only roughly speculate on its trajectory.

With the orientation and speed of the Speer fleet, the two old British battleships stationed in Malta were completely useless. It was difficult to ensure victory with only Kelly's two armored cruisers and a small number of light ships. The British Navy had to turn to French allies and promised that the French would command the operation. The French agreed happily and sent the Senes fleet, which was patrolling the western Mediterranean, to Gibraltar. In this way, the coalition fleet had four best armored cruisers. Once the German fleet was caught, even if Count Von Speer had amazing talents, he would probably have to find ways to escape. At that time, even if the prey slipped away by relying on the advantage of speed, the Allies could make a big splash in publicity to encourage the precarious morale of the frontline soldiers.

Compared with the expatriate squadrons led by the two German battlecruisers, "Blücher" and "Von der Tinn", Earl Spey's armored cruiser is the softest persimmon.

In order to find out the whereabouts of the Spee fleet, before the French fleet arrived in Gibraltar, Kelly had sent three old protective cruisers and three destroyers to the Atlantic Ocean to search. He also took an unconventional measure to send people to board the Allies and neutral ships entering the Atlantic through the Strait of Gibraltar, and followed these ships to the Azores. In this way, when encountering suspicious ships, it is not easy to get away with the opponent's simple disguise, and can use the radio to be put on to inform the enemy. If the German fleet is not encountered, these officers would take a boat back to Gibraltar in the Azores.

Just early in the morning of the fourth day after the Spe's fleet left the Cape Verde Islands, almost at the midpoint of the route from the Strait of Gibraltar to the Azores, an Italian cargo ship discovered the German fleet on the sea, but a dramatic scene occurred. The Italian captain refused to send telegraphs with the radio on the ship because this was an obvious violation of international neutrality. Once the telegraph was intercepted and deciphered by the Germans, the Italian ship and the people and cargo it carried were not protected by neutrality.

The anxious British official actually drew his gun toward each other. After a dispute, the Italian finally made concessions, but asked the British official to send a message in obscure words to avoid leaving any evidence to the Germans.

The British official promised to write the content and frequency band of the message to be sent on paper: "This ship's 'Goddess of Fez' is heading to Azores according to the scheduled voyage, and there may be rain today."

The Italian captain looked at it several times before handing it over and over again.

Not long after, the telegrapher of the "Scharnhorst" listened to the clear-coded radio telegram sent from close range. After the interpretation, the seemingly inexplicable telegram was handed to Count Spey.

"What is coming is finally coming." Earl Spee realized that this was the British warning telegram, but he did not immediately order the fleet to enter combat. Instead, he broke the radio silence and reported his position, direction and speed to the German Navy Staff with a password telegram.
Chapter completed!