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I slowly read the document that the man in the black suit handed me.

“Okay. Thank you for your hard work.”

It seemed the activities of the Aviation Association were more vigorous than I had imagined. They were even starting to extend their reach into areas like postage stamp issuance and fundraising, not just posters.

It was good to see them exceeding expectations in everything they did, especially when it was a matter of national destiny. I smiled faintly.

‘And…’

I picked up the next document and slowly read the contents written on it.

[Operation OF-1: Operation Rosencrantz.]

The operation involved concentrating the main fleet scattered throughout the colonies at Havana, the capital of Imperial America, and then withdrawing them to Hamburg, the home port of the High Seas Fleet.

‘But… to assess it coldly, it’s still an operation with a high probability of failure.’

Of course. We’re not the only ones who know the benefits of concentrating forces. The British Empire will also be gathering its own fast-moving capital ships from various locations to counter our movements.

‘But… we have no intention of just meekly taking it.’

“It seems like it’s about ‘time’ now.”

I picked up the receiver and contacted the Admiralty.

July 20, 1915.

Shortly after the chaos caused by the emperor’s assassination had been somewhat settled,

Operation Rosencrantz was launched with the strong support of some naval admirals and Crown Princess Yulia (at the time), to withdraw the main fleet stationed in the colonies to the mainland.

The ultimate goal was to safely evacuate a total of seven Battlecruisers belonging to the East Asia Squadron, the American Squadron, and the African Squadron to the mainland.

Whether they would succeed in returning safely remained to be seen.

And aboard the flagship SMS Scharnhorst of the East Asia Squadron,

“Ha… what bad luck… why this…”

Maximilian von Spee, the captain of the Scharnhorst and commander of the East Asia Squadron, quietly grumbled.

Currently, the forces at his disposal consisted of three Battlecruisers and two Armored cruisers.

By no means a small force. Enough to easily win against most small and medium-sized countries.

But… compared to the British colonial fleet… well, frankly, it was hard to avoid calling it a meager force.

“Can’t we go any faster?!”

He shouted at the engine room in desperation.

“It’s impossible! If we increase the speed any further, the engine will break down halfway!”

“Ugh…”

He pressed his forehead with his fingers and groaned.

The Scharnhorst was a ‘decent’ Battlecruiser, so it had a fast speed of easily over 25 knots. But that was only fast compared to ordinary battleships. It was much slower than the full-fledged British Battlecruisers.

In the first place, the Scharnhorst was developed by forcibly increasing the size of an Armored cruiser to counter the British Invincible-class Battlecruisers. In a battle of firepower against firepower, it might be a match, but in a chase, they were overwhelmingly at a disadvantage.

“Just need to get through New Spain (Panama Canal). Once we get through the New Spain Canal, it’s Havana, the capital of Imperial America.”

The canal, which had just opened last year, had proven its stability by withstanding the tonnage of numerous large cargo ships and passenger ships.

Then a fleet of this size should be able to cross safely as well.

“…From now until we arrive at New Spain, maintain radio silence.”

“Sir? But if we do that, it will be difficult to guide the other warships.”

“It’s better to get a little lost than to become fish food together in the middle!”

“…Understood.”

The East Asia Squadron maintained radio silence and advanced at full speed towards New Spain, praying that the British cruiser fleet would not discover them.

Meanwhile, a single order was issued to all naval bases in the Imperial mainland.

It was an order that was difficult for the navy to understand: to send the battleships out of the harbor and then immediately return them.

“Well, an order is an order, so we have no choice but to follow it…”

The sailors grumbled and stoked the boilers of the steam engines.

And these large-scale, organized movements of the Imperial Navy naturally caught the eye of the Allied intelligence agencies.

“Leave only the mainland fleet, excluding the cruiser fleets.”

Even if the Empire launched an offensive, they could defend against it with the battleship force of the mainland fleet. The battle against the Empire would be a steadfast defensive war, not a dynamic mobile war. In such a theater, Battlecruisers would only be a hindrance. That was Britain’s judgment.

“Please, just help us once!!”

That was until the ambassador of the Tsardom of Rus grabbed their trouser leg and pleaded.

“If the Baltic Fleet starts moving, the only thing that can immediately check those German Empire bastards is a fast-moving cruiser fleet!!”

The Tsardom of Rus, which once boasted the third-largest naval power in the world in terms of displacement, had virtually ‘evaporated’ all of its navy after the Russo-Japanese War.

Although the Holy Roman Empire’s Baltic Fleet was a meager force compared to their High Seas Fleet or the British Grand Fleet, for the Tsardom of Rus, which had almost all of its fleet evaporated, the Baltic Fleet armed with new Dreadnought-class Battleships was practically a disaster.

“Damn it…”

Unlike the Holy Roman Empire and its satellite states, the Allied nations were not a group moving towards a single goal, but a collection of numerous countries united by different interests.

If they lost control of the Baltic Sea as it was, a landing could occur in Petrograd right now.

“Okay! Then let’s compromise appropriately!”

They made the decision to leave 1/2 of the cruiser fleet on the mainland.

Although the Admiralty raised objections to this… unfortunately for them, Britain was a normal country where politics took precedence over military affairs.

“Ha…”

In the end, the British cruiser fleet set sail for Bermuda, a British island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, with uneasy hearts.

The New Spain Canal.

Its history dates back to the mid-1800s.

In the mid-1800s, the Iberian Union was in a state of extreme turmoil.

Its colonies were too large for its size, its national treasury was beginning to run dry due to constant wars, and to make matters worse, the silver coming from its American colonies was dwindling, leading to bankruptcy declarations almost once every five years.

The Iberian Union was already a crumbling giant tree.

A rotten giant tree, in other words, was also easily flammable firewood, so revolutions broke out throughout the colonies in the New World.

Eventually, the Iberian Union was forced to relinquish all of its colonies except for Central America and Cuba, which are called New Spain in the modern era, as well as the Philippines and parts of Africa.

And just then, the Holy Roman Empire proposed to the Iberian Union that they sell their colonies in Central America and Cuba to them.

For the Iberian Union, it was better for their cadet branch (unlike in the original history, the Habsburg dynasty was not severed), the Austrian Habsburgs, to take over the colonies than to hold onto colonies that they could not maintain and then be forced to relinquish them.

The two countries had a history of winning the Thirty Years’ War together, so their sense of solidarity was stronger than most personal unions.

Finally, in 1892, exactly 400 years after Christopher Columbus discovered the American continent,

All of the New World colonies held by the Iberian kingdom were taken over by the Holy Roman Empire.

That was how the land where the great canal that Maximilian von Spee was now looking at came into the Empire’s possession.

“Good. We’ll pass through the canal as is and then enter Havana Harbor.”

The Scharnhorst spewed black smoke as if responding to his words.

At that moment,

Along with an unpleasant sound as if something was rapidly cutting through the air, a shell fell about 100 meters away from the Scharnhorst.

“A, a cruiser fleet?!”

“Enemy! Two Pre-dreadnought battleships, three Dreadnought battleships, five Armored cruisers! That flag is… the British East Asia Squadron and the fleet of the Australian Autonomous Region!”

“You son of a bitch!!”

Bang! He slammed the table hard.

“Why now, when the canal is just starting to come into view…!”

‘We can’t just blindly advance towards the canal. We have to fight here.’

“All ships! Fix the cannons to the left! Turn 90 degrees to the right! As quickly as possible!”

Following the Scharnhorst, a dozen warships cut through the waves and turned.

Even in the midst of this, the enemies were gleefully firing shells without giving them a moment’s rest.

Splash!!!

The pillars of water created by the enemy shells gradually narrowed the distance, and soon the droplets of water that bounced off the pillars of water were close enough to wet the bridge.

“H, straddling! We’ll be hit if this continues!!”

“Tch…”

Straddling.

The cannons of this era were not fired in the hope of hitting, but rather to form a barrage and pray that just one would hit, requiring an element of luck.

And what straddling meant was that the ship had entered the barrage.

There was no way that a Battlecruiser, which was created with the logic of ‘minimizing armor and securing speed advantage,’ could withstand the firing of a Dreadnought-class Battleship.

“Are you just going to sit there and get hit?! Fire! Commence firing!”

Bang! Boom!

At his command, the cannons began to fire.

“H, straddling! We did it! It’s a straddle!”

“Good!”

They clenched their fists tightly as they watched the pillars of water rising near the enemy ship.

But for some reason, Spee could not shake the uneasy feeling he felt in one corner of his heart.

He quietly gazed at the sun slowly setting beyond the horizon.