.Before spring comes, the bitter sea breeze in the northern Mediterranean is still mixed with a deep chill.

A large number of Austro-Hungarian naval warships waiting to leave the port are gathered near the waterway of Pula Military Port. Every minute or two, the port's lighthouse will send a signal, and then another warship will slowly sail into the waterway leading to the outer port.

Whether it is the warships that have already left the port, are leaving the port or waiting to leave the port, busy sailors can be seen everywhere on the deck. They are doing various preparations in an orderly manner in the cold wind, clearing up the accumulations and collecting cables. In this state of war, the sailors who are sticking to the battle positions of searchlights and anti-torpedo boats will not dare to relax at all.

With such a large-scale departure, Admiral Anton House had no way to let his fleet sail out of the narrow channel in the dark. In addition, the German submarines were basically equipped with sonar, so he simply let the fleet lights open to discover the traces of German submarines at the greatest extent of the time, and at the same time defended against possible torpedo attacks.

After each battleship sailed out of the channel, it quickly put down the lightning protection net on both sides of the warship. Although this would have a considerable impact on the speed of the warship, every warship in General Anton was extremely valuable. The funds for the Austro-Hungarian Empire to build new ships were quite short of funds. Even during the war, there were less than three large warships launched every year!

What's more, while waiting for subsequent ships to leave the port, these battleships that left the port first only sailed slowly on the sea surface. Once they were attacked by torpedoes, their evasion ability was not satisfactory, so they simply used lightning protection nets to increase the defense of the battleship.

In the captain's command room of the "Prince Eugen", Admiral Anton House wore a military cap, windbreaker, and scarf, and took himself tightly, but after boarding the ship, he stayed in this command room protected by thick armor.

Rather than saying that General Anton was afraid of the cold, it would be better to say that his body was seriously damaged due to years of overwork. In fact, the Hungarian Kingdom, which had no naval tradition, had neither relations nor willingness to provide financial assistance for the construction of the navy. The huge Austro-Hungarian Navy was always maintained by the Austrian family. Austria-Hungarian economy developed very quickly, but the emperor and parliament's support for the navy was still very limited. In many cases, the development of the Austro-Hungarian Navy relied entirely on the support of several important figures such as Grand Duke Ferdinand and Earl of Montskukoli. If it weren't for them, the Austro-Hungarian Navy would not have been of this scale.

For example, the two famous Joint Force-class battleships in front of them were reluctant to allocate funds at the beginning, so the Navy had to directly use self-funding without receiving the funding to start the initial construction project. By 1911, when Congress finally passed the shipbuilding budget. The first two Joint Force-class battleships had been in operation for a long time.

Whenever he recalls this bitter history and looks at the huge fleet in front of him, Admiral Anton couldn't help but sigh in his heart. The human body is like a machine, and long-term overload operation will only accelerate the loss of various components. The doctor warned this admiral over 50 years old that if he continues to work like this, his life span will probably not exceed one year.

However, General Anton cannot do without his beloved navy, and the Austro-Hungarian navy facing a powerful enemy cannot do without his core generals. The fate of the two has been combined.

Let us usher in a turning point, or we will die together!

At 11:23 pm on February 6, the flagship of the Austro-Hungarian local fleet, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, slowly sailed into the channel accompanied by the sister ship "Saint-Istvan". At present, only two of the four most elite joint force battleships in the Austro-Hungarian Empire were in Pula military port, the "Trotov" was in Gibraltar and the "United Force" was in Taranto. Previously, Admiral Anton House had sent orders to the other two main fleets of the Navy. The 2nd Fleet continued to be stationed in Algherasis, Gibraltar, and the main force of the 2nd Fleet came from Taranto to meet with his 1st Fleet.

At this time, the 3rd Fleet where the United Forces was located had already set sail from the Taranto military port, but unfortunately, they were targeted by German submarines as soon as they left the port.

As the British said before, the German submarine force was simply a group of omnipresent demons!

For the three German submarines lurking outside Pula Port and their commanders, the orders sent from Tunisia were a bit ambiguous, at least gave them the power to take the initiative to fire torpedoes at the enemy.

The political issue is naturally considered by politicians. Major Flink, the captain of the u213 boat, quickly made a bold decision - to both surveillance and attack, and this time, at least one or two 10,000-ton warships were added to his own battle results book. This glory is not something that can be obtained by sinking those cargo ships with no power to fight back!

When General Anton House recovered from his memories, his ship "Prince Eugen" had already sailed out of the channel. At this time, outside the port, more than 50 small and medium-sized ships had already set up a warning formation. Gunnaires and patrol boats were patrolling at high speeds at the outermost perimeter. Destroyers and cruisers were alerting in the inner circle at a slightly slower speed. The battleships "Gusvik", "Leonard" and "Kremus" that left the port first, were accelerating while sailing outside.

Behind the "Prince Eugen", the "St. Eastwan", the "Earl of Cafur", and the "Grand Duke Ferdinand" have entered the channel, and finally, the two battleships, the "Zorini" and "Radec", are waiting to leave.

His eyes silently stared at the busy sea surface. Anton House's mind was running quickly.

"Send a signal to the 3rd Battleship Team and let them take the 4th and Counter Fleet to the south!"

Among this local fleet, the 1st battleship detachment is composed of the most powerful "Prince Eugen, St. Istervan and Earl Cafur". These three ships are also the largest displacement ships in the Austro-Hungarian Navy; the 2nd battleship detachment is composed of the "Grand Duke Ferdinand", the "Zorini" and the "Radec". These three ships are all the Terradec-class battleships built by the Austro-Hungarian Empire themselves, with a displacement of 16,000 tons; the 3rd battleship detachment is the first three ships to leave the port - the "Gusvik", the "Leonard" and the "Krems". The three ships are all vicious ships seized from the Italian Navy, with a displacement of 12,000 to 14,000 tons, and their firepower and defense can only be considered medium.

Admiral Anton's intention was very obvious. He asked the three worst battleships to sail south first. Even if all German submarines outside the port could not be diverted away, it would give the other party an illusion that he was going to enter the Mediterranean. In fact, his fleet would head north to the Gulf of Venice to cooperate with the Austrian army entering the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia to fight the invading German troops.

Major General Aruzu, the commander of the 3rd Battleship Detachment, was not dissatisfied with the orders of General Anton House. The three battleships that were painted gray-green immediately drove towards the Mediterranean with more than a dozen escort destroyers.

In the Austro-Hungarian Empire's local fleet, in addition to the 1-3 battleship detachments, there are also 3 cruiser detachments, 6 destroyer detachments, 7 torpedo boat detachments, 4 minesweeper detachments, 4 gunboat detachments, 1 seaplane mothership detachments, 4 submarine detachments and 10 transport detachments.

It is worth mentioning that Admiral Anton originally had 3 seaplane motherships and 31 submarines, but between March and August 1915, the German Navy transferred three seaplane motherships and 14 submarines belonging to Germany. After that, the Austro-Hungarian Navy designed and built two seaplane motherships themselves. The engineers were two Austrian officers who had served as observers on German seaplane motherships. In addition to an Austrian self-built submarine launched in Venice, Admiral Anton's naval aviation and seabed troops had their pitiful capital.

Currently, the two Austro-Hungarian Navy's seaplane motherships were named after two late Counts. One was called "Earl Montskukoli", with a displacement of 1,700 tons and can carry three "Sea Breeze" seaplanes, and the other was "Earl Andrachy", with a displacement of 2,300 tons and can carry four "Sea Breeze" seaplanes. Before the two ships were modified, they were coal ships and the upcoming cruisers. The "Sea Breeze" seaplane was the Austrian version of the German "Flying Fish 2" seaplane. The skeleton, skin and floats of this seaplane were produced in Austria. However, there was a pure "German heart" - it was the 120 horsepower inline Rapid Aviation engine produced by the German gg Aviation Group. This slightly clumsy "Sea Breeze" seaplane can fly out of the water and reach a maximum speed of 95 kilometers per hour.

By 1916, the engine technology of the Austro-Hungarian Empire was in its infancy, and the gap between them and Germany and the United States in this regard was not only a small step. However, the Austro-Hungarian Empire's shipbuilding technology was not bad, especially after occupying the Venice region in Italy in the mid-19th century, they were able to independently build the best warships in the Mediterranean region. Moreover, the weapons used by these warships were quite excellent. Most of them were produced by the famous arms company in Europe and even the world. Unfortunately, this famous arsenal located in Bohemia is no longer owned by the Austro-Hungarian Empire!

"Put down the lightning protection net and drive north slowly!" Admiral Anton decisively gave his ship orders. This stubborn old man was not afraid of German surface ships, but he had to be careful about those German submarines that could use a few torpedoes to kill a large ship.

The concept of lightning protection nets appeared in the 1970s, when the British Navy began to worry about the motorboat team equipped with white-headed torpedoes. In front of these torpedoes and torpedo boats, a large and expensive warship became very fragile. So the British began to study various means of defending against torpedo attacks. One of them was to add lightning protection next door to the gangway walls of the warship, but the effect of this setting was not obvious. In this case, the lightning protection nets hung around the warship appeared.

By the beginning of the 20th century, Britain, Germany, Russia, Italy, and Austria had adopted lightning protection nets to varying degrees on their warships. The only exceptions were the French and Americans. At this time, the lightning protection nets were usually placed below the secondary gun, and the pole extended close to the water surface. The lightning protection nets below were composed of steel rings of a certain size and weight. In addition, the head and tail of the ship were generally not arranged with lightning protection nets, so that they could sail at a low speed while the net was lowered, and if the net was damaged, it would not be easily wrapped around the thruster.

Just after 12 o'clock, most of the warships of the Austro-Hungarian Empire's local fleet had already left the port. At this moment, a burst of cannons came from the west of the port, and it was not far from the port.

For a moment, the nerves from generals to sailors in the fleet became even tighter.

The gunfire lasted for about 5 minutes, and then a signal was sent from the Flying Detachment in the Code Area that they found the submarine's periscope on the sea. After a burst of shelling, the submarine seemed to quickly dive into the deeper seabed.

"Let the 2nd destroyer team go to that area!" Admiral Anton once again issued an order. His 2nd destroyer team is a special anti-submarine force. Three of the destroyers were equipped with sonar and deep-water bombs introduced from Germany and used these weapons to deal with the Germans' own submarines. Admiral Anton did not feel ridiculous at this time.

Less than a quarter of an hour later, the explosion sounded again in the sea, and the explosion seemed more muffled and thicker. After about 20 times, the 2nd Destroyer Team returned arrogantly, although they only exploded a few sea fish.

All of this seemed to be within Admiral Anton's expectations. He waited patiently. As time went by, fewer and fewer ships had not left the port.

However, more patient than the sea hunters from Germany are the number one.

Major Flink's eyes were pressed against the periscope and shouted: "Torpedo No. 1 is ready! Torpedo No. 2 is ready! Torpedo No. 3 is ready!"

What locked in the periscope is a vague and huge black shadow.

Half a minute later, the torpedo room reported that the first three torpedoes of the boat had entered a state of waiting to be launched.

"Confirm the ship!"

The weapon commander quickly reported the data: "The ship has been confirmed! The nearest ship! The distance is 1,200 yards, and the launch angle is 85 degrees!"

"Torpedo volleys of 1,2,3!"

A few seconds later, three 533mm G5 type steam torpedo pulling white water marks rushed towards the target at a speed of 45 knots under the cover of night.

Major Flink closed the periscope with a snap, "Dive quickly!"

At this time, on the Austro-Hungarian Navy's largest battleship, Earl Cafur, 1,702 sailors were still confused about the approaching German torpedo. The nearly 30,000-ton battleship was following the "Prince Eugen" and "St. Eastwan" at a speed of 6 knots slowly heading away from the port.
Chapter completed!