Although there have been some twists and turns and suffered considerable losses, as a whole, the combat operations to attack the Transit Island are within expectations.

What to say can even be considered smooth.

This is also what Bai Zhizhan is most worried about.

In the five days from June 28 to July 3, the largest battleship dispatched by the Newland Navy, namely two heavy cruisers!

Where did those two small aircraft carriers go, and those two fast battleships that have already left the port of the West Coast of Newland.

In addition, at least 6 heavy cruisers have unknown whereabouts!

These warships are enough to form a large special mixed fleet.

Although the aviation combat capability is a little poor, it is not weak in other aspects, especially the night combat capability, which exceeds the 21st Special Mixed Fleet.

As long as you can catch the opportunity, this fleet will definitely cause severe damage to the 21st Special Mixed Fleet.

What's more, the 22nd Special Mixed Fleet is now being pushed.

Of course, this is also the key to Bai Zhizhan's decision to exchange with the 22nd Special Mixed Fleet before the landing operation began.

When it comes to commanding night artillery battles, there are three most famous ones in the Imperial Navy, one of which is the acting commander of the 22nd Special Mixed Fleet.

As early as the beginning of the war, the guards took four "Wuzhou" class to the Shuangche Strait to block the Sai fleet and challenged the Sai Navy's battleship at night!

According to Bai Zhizhan's speculation, if the Navy of Newland wanted to launch a counterattack, it would make full use of the night cover.

If it is during the day, the Newland Navy's chances of winning are almost zero.

Only at night can you have the opportunity to save your main battleship while severely damaging your opponent.

That's why Bai Zhizhan decided to postpone the time for launching the login operation by 3 days.

In these three days, the 21st Special Mixed Fleet can complete ammunition and fuel supply, and can also replenish carrier-based aircraft lost in combat.

Because combat losses were considered long ago, when making arrangements, the supply ship was equipped with dozens of spare aircraft.

The main reason is that it is too far from the rear, which exceeds the maximum flight distance of the carrier-based aircraft, so it can only assemble the spare aircraft on the front line to supplement the losses.

However, Bai Zhizhan arranged this mainly to see the reaction of the Newland Navy.

The Imperial Navy was coming in full force and reached a sudden battle. The Newland Navy might not be able to react in time, and perhaps it had not yet come back to its senses.

Most importantly, the Newland Navy may consider this a feint before the landing fleet arrives.

In short, the Newland Navy has to spend some time preparing to confirm Liang Xia’s true intentions.

Supply work starts on the morning of July 4th.

Because battleships and cruisers need to replenish shells and aircraft carriers need to replenish carriers, the entire supply operation will take at least 48 hours.

If the weather is not good, it may take more than ten hours.

The key is that ammunition replenishment is too troublesome.

The Imperial Navy has always attached importance to combat supply, but until now, it has not found a way to improve the efficiency of ammunition supply.

The only way is to let the warships anchor and transport ammunition from the supply ship to the warships through a crane.

Let’s not talk about safety issues, but the operational efficiency is scary.

Even if everything goes well, it takes one day to replenish 150 tons of ammunition to a battleship!

Usually, because everything is impossible to do well, all kinds of problems will always emerge, so it often takes two days to supply ammunition to battleships.

In addition, it is a matter of safety.

Because of the lack of effective anti-submarine measures, or the submarines cannot defend themselves, the anchorage location must be constantly changed when conducting combat supply.

According to the regulations of the Imperial Navy, the time for anchorage in each sea area shall not exceed 12 hours, and the distance between the two anchorages shall not be less than 20 nautical miles.

This is true. In actual combat, we must try to avoid ammunition replenishment on the battlefield.

If possible, it is best to go back to the port, or anchorages protected by anti-submarine networks.

In the past few battles, the Imperial Navy would set up anchorages not far from the battlefield, or seize a port to solve the supply problem so that the warships would not risk anchoring in the outer sea after using up ammunition. For example, when attacking Sai Island, they seized Ata Island to the north, and when attacking Lion Spring City, they obtained Songkhla of the Kingdom of Deman and Saigon in the South Tyr area.

But this time, it is obviously impossible.

If we say, the Navy is also preparing.

According to the plan, after the landing operation begins, anchorages will be set up near the landing ground for landing ships and transport ships to berth, and provide safe anchorage areas for warships and supply ships, so that warships supporting landing operations can replenish ammunition on the front line.

However, now we have to replenish ammunition one time in advance.

It's really troublesome, but there's no way.

Considering the subsequent fierce battle, Bai Zhizhan dared not be careless at all.

It was during this period, to be precise, on July 6, that I received a telegram from the Navy Command, an information that has not been confirmed yet.

On the night of July 5, a submarine operating near the Gilbert Islands discovered a fleet.

The key is that the captain reported that an aircraft carrier was observed through the periscope!

Unfortunately, it is night to encounter it.

Of course, only at night do the submarine dare to float up and observe with a periscope.

If it was during the day, I would definitely not dare to do this.

As a result, there are great problems with the feasibility of this report.

In fact, even the captain who sent the newspaper felt that it might not be an aircraft carrier, perhaps it was just a fast cargo ship in a fast transport fleet.

There are many fast transport fleets between Newland and Austria.

The main thing is that there are a large amount of military supplies to be transported, and ordinary fleets are not only prone to submarine ambushing, but also have low transportation efficiency.

In order to increase transportation speed, Newland Federation specially formed a rapid transport fleet.

Under normal circumstances, the speed of the fast fleet can reach 20 knots, which is about 10 knots higher than that of the ordinary fleet, and can shorten the operating time of a cycle by more than 40%.

The key is that fast transport fleets can rely on speed to reduce the probability of being attacked by submarines.

In fact, unless you have very good luck, submarines lying near the route basically do not have the opportunity to fire at the fast fleet.

Although the transportation cost of fast fleets is much higher, the overall cost is cheaper if the losses are taken into account.

Not to mention anything else, just reducing the escort warships by two-thirds can save a lot of money.

If the contribution of escort warships in other directions is included, the comprehensive benefits of forming a fast transport fleet will be far greater than that of ordinary fleets.

In fact, it was the success of the southwest-East Ocean that Newland Federation increased the order volume of fast freighters and prepared to form a fast fleet on the Beixiluo Ocean.

The key point is that this report can attract the attention of the Navy Command and forward it to Bai Zhizhan.

The telegram mentioned that there were battleships with tonnage far exceeding the fast ships in that fleet, and the captain suspected that they were fast battleships.

The reasons are also sufficient. The fast battleship has obvious characteristic noise and other ships cannot imitate it.

If there are really two fast battleships, they will definitely be the main fleet of the Newland Navy, and there are likely to be two small aircraft carriers in it.
Chapter completed!