Cunningham's judgments and guesses were not wrong; however, he had severely overestimated Bai Zhizhan.
Of course, more accurately, he had overestimated the Eleventh Special Mixed Fleet.
On the morning of the 26th, when the Expeditionary Fleet dispatched the "Swordfish" for a reconnaissance mission, the Eleventh Special Mixed Fleet was still about 1500 kilometers to its northeast, traveling southwest at its fastest cruising speed of 18 knots. Even by evening, the distance from the Expeditionary Fleet exceeded 1000 kilometers.
It was not that the battleships weren't fast; it was that there wasn't enough fuel.
Short operation ranges had always been a flaw of Imperial warships.
Not just in the era of treaties, but even after, when setting performance standards for battleships, the first thing the Imperial Navy sacrificed was endurance.
Therefore, the Imperial Navy built a fleet of fast oilers.
