For Spee, his proactive attack is undoubtedly a key event that concerns the survival of the fleet and even whether the German Far East strategy can be implemented smoothly. It would be fine if he wins, but once his main fleet is destroyed in battle, not only will the Allies fully control the water surface and sea power, but the thousands of kilometers of coastline in the Philippines will also be in a state of opening the door and allowing people to land.

In order to plan for this attack, Spee made careful preparations in advance. According to the report sent by the U-13 submarine, the staff officers first roughly determined the possible location of the British fleet; then, Shimao convened several other submarines and the "Dresden" light patrol to reconnaise, and ensure that there would be no other powerful Allied fleet on his retreat road blocking the way. At present, in addition to several other British battleships and mount patrols, a strong fleet is also stationed in Cam Ranh Bay, France, which is opposite to the Philippines across the sea: more than a month after the war started, the two Russian mount patrols had already moved south from Vladivostok and joined forces with the French. Although these ships were not opponents of the German Shane class, if they showed up at the least, it would be extremely unfavorable to Shimao's combat operations!

Fortunately, Spee felt that since he had never let Sister Shane go to the ocean to take risks before, he had always patrolled the offshore area in a stable manner; so although the Allied Fleet hated these two German ships to the core, it did not risk being attacked by German submarines to organize large-scale encirclement and annihilation that was difficult to dispatch. In fact, without British battleships, the weak French and Russian fleet was obviously unwilling to be cannon fodder to intercept the German fleet. Once the other side fled, only a few old-style French and Russian fleets would be worried because of the 12 11-inch cannons they owned by the other side.

In the early morning of June 23, Spee arrived off the coast of Malaysia and began to search for the target fleet. This was the first time since the war began, he brought these two precious patrols to an area so far away from the base. Although he did not have any reports of the whereabouts of the other two British battleships, Spee was very confident that the other party would not appear nearby. Because in the case of carrying out the mission of searching for attack ships, in order to expand the search area, the two squadrons could not be very close. What's more, the lineup of one battleship, two large armored cruisers and two protective cruisers is absolutely powerful for the German fleet. If it were not for the orders of the Berlin Admiralty Department, Spee would not have provoked him. In this case, how could the British carry out meaningless joint activities?

The sea breeze was blowing and the waves were shaking. Two German ships patroled one in front and one after another, and launched an enemy search operation in the target waters at a speed of 16 knots. Although the economic cruise speed of this class of ships was 10 knots and had an excellent range of 8,000 nautical miles at this speed, it is obviously not the time to save fuel. After a morning of careful search, the German lookouts finally saw a faint black smoke in the sky far southwest; against the backdrop of the blue sky and white clouds, it seemed quite clear and abrupt.

On the towering tower of the Schanehorst, Spey looked at the wisp of black clouds that suddenly appeared in the distance, and his thin face showed a little complexity, as if expectant, excited, worried, and hesitant. According to the information he had, the British search fleet was near this sea area, and corresponding to his current location, the probability that this wisp of coal smoke was generated by the British fleet was more than 70%!

Spee looked down at the watch on his arm, and two pointers, one long and one short, pointed to 1:18 in the afternoon. The orange-red sun was hanging in the south-centered position. The light was shining; the sky was high and the clouds were light, and you could clearly see things more than 20 kilometers away. Seeing that the weather was so good, Speee's rather anxious heart returned to peace again. Once he showed signs of defeat, he ordered the fleet to turn and evacuate. At present, such excellent visibility would undoubtedly allow the lookouts on the mast to provide timely warnings and avoid being blocked. After the power modification in 1909, the two Shane ships of the steam turbine were replaced. They could run at a speed of 22 knots with an output power of 23,000 horsepower; as long as he wanted to leave, it would be difficult for the former British fearlessness with a maximum speed of only 18 knots.

As the warship sailed, the faint wisp of coal smoke in the distance became thicker and clearer; after about fifteen minutes, a strange situation finally occurred on the blue sea. Five small gray dots suddenly appeared at the junction of the sea and sky, as disgusting as rat shit on sapphires. After a while, the sound of a mast lookout suddenly came from the top of Spey's head, and he could have concluded that it was undoubtedly a British combat ship!

"Telection. The fleet immediately sounded the first-level combat alarm!" Spey took a deep breath and suddenly said loudly.

The alarm bell roared sharply, through every corner of the battleship; hundreds of German sailors began to run quickly across the deck, aisles and gangways, and quickly arrived at their scheduled battle position. In less than five minutes, the dense and rapid leather boots rubbed away from Speer's ears, leaving only the blowing sea breeze and howling alarm bells. Speer's heart moved and turned to look, but saw that the "Gneisenno" not far behind was also completed in combat preparations: the huge main turret began to rotate slowly under the drive of the motor, and its calm and powerful shape made every German sailor excited and full of confidence. At this time, the outlines of the ships had gradually appeared: without the need for the lookout soldiers to identify, Speer himself could recognize that this was the British fleet he was looking for!

While Spey discovered the enemy's traces, the British also saw the German fleet at the end of the sea. Unlike the expected situation, the German warships that appeared this time were not the light patrol of the "Dresden" guerrillas in the South China Sea, but two Schänhorst-class patrols with two chimneys and three main turrets! A shrill alarm began to resound over the entire British fleet.

Twenty kilometers away, British Rear Admiral Chris put down the telescope in his hand. His face, baptized by the sea breeze, was filled with uncontrollable surprises. In the past month, these two evil German patrols frequently appeared in the South China Sea. Although the other party was like a tiger in the mountains and did not take any radical strategies, it also greatly restrained the actions and forces of the British Far East Fleet.

Under the deterrence of these two heavy artillery patrols, the British fleet had to be equipped with enough warships every attack. The consequence of this was that the British fleet could only take into account a single point and could not spread the cruise area to cover the entire South China Sea. The German pirate light patrol was as if in water in this sea area, calmly avoiding the cruise of its own fleet, causing the sea route to panic, seriously affecting the normal shipping of blood transfusions from Japan, South China, Vietnam and other places to the British mainland.

Due to this reason, the British Far East Fleet planned to round up two German-equipped patrols several times, but they all failed under Spey's cautious command. The British Fleet all wanted to get rid of these two German-equipped patrols and quickly. At present, the Germans whom they had been searching for countless times were actually delivered to their door by themselves. How could Major General Chris not be excited and surprised?

Before the battle began, Major General Chris believed that he had a sure victory. The battleship "Hate" in his hand, the two armored cruisers "Minotao" and "Shannon" were slightly better than the Scharnhorst class with a standard displacement of 13,000 tons.

The "Qi Jin" has a regular displacement of 14,500 tons and a full load displacement of 15,800 tons. Thanks to the Royal Navy's excellent maintenance and maintenance of the active ships, this Fear-Class battleship, which was in service in 1899, can still run at the speed of 18 knots of that year with an output power of 15,000 horsepower. In terms of firepower, it is equipped with weapons commonly equipped by former British dauntless battleships: two dual-mounted 305mm L40 main guns are located at the front and tail, and 12 152mm secondary guns and 16 76mm rapid-fire guns are distributed on both sides. The ship also has 4 450mm underwater torpedo tubes, and the configuration is comprehensive, but in the current battleship duel, this weapon with a relatively close range is difficult to have a chance to play.

In terms of protection, the "Qi Jin" actually has a full industry-conscientious quality. Its main armor is not only 229 mm (9 inches), but also has a considerable height of 3.66 meters (12 feet), which is in sharp contrast to the British later dreadnought and super dreadnought playing paper kung fu, and the main armor belt is seriously short of pounds and short. In the silhouette part of the main armor, there is also a 6-inch thick armor that protects the safety of the secondary gun; even if it is currently in place, it can effectively resist the attack of the second-class main gun of the front dreadnought.

In the field of horizontal protection, the "Hate" that served in 1901 actually has the strength to look down on its own fearlessness and even super fearlessness. Its inclined dome armor is 76 mm (3 inches) thick and the main deck is 63.5 mm (2.5 inches). This protection is a completely satisfactory data even in 1913 when the war broke out! In addition, the 300 mm thick main turret front armor, the 250 mm main gun mount, and the 350 mm command tower protection all make the super fearless younger generations who were built ten years later than it were ashamed!

In fact, although the tonnage utilization rate of British ships in the pre-Dreadnought era was quite different from that of Italy in the same period; but because the Royal Navy was not short of money at that time, it still created warships with remarkable performances in all aspects by increasing the tonnage in a simple and crude way.

PS: Thanks to the book friend Zhouyu1976 for his reward~~~Subscribe to continue tragedy...
Chapter completed!