184 North Sea

The turbulent North Sea and the cold air made the breath of every soldier on the deck a white mist. A deck ammunition loader in a red vest is staring out to sea on a specific smoking platform.

Unlike the calm Pacific, the cold and windy North Atlantic can be regarded as the worst sea conditions, so American and Japanese aircraft carriers can fight openly in the Pacific, packing their decks with planes to fight easily - and if Britain and Germany Carriers are built like this, and their aircraft will be eroded by sea water, causing horrific flight accidents.

This time, the German navy came out in full force, with a full 16 warships assembled in the North Sea, two aircraft carriers, two ironclad ships that later joined the fleet, four cruisers, and eight destroyers. This huge fleet has been an operational target of the Royal Navy from the very beginning.

In order to prevent the German fleet from entering the North Atlantic, the Royal Navy mobilized heavy troops to besiege and intercept, so that the Germans who had wanted to buy something cheap instantly saw the gap in strength: 4 British aircraft carriers with 4 battleships, 11 cruisers and Twenty-three destroyers formed three huge containment fleets, which blocked the route from the North Sea to the North Atlantic.

So this time, as the commander-in-chief of the German Navy, Admiral Raeder decided to give up the combat plan completely, and played hide-and-seek with the Royal Navy with the fleet. The ship's tracking disappeared in the icy North Sea waters.

"Emergency assembly! Emergency assembly! Load the bomber formation with aerial bombs." A sharp siren suddenly sounded from the horn, and several naval sailors who were smoking together quickly threw their cigarette butts on the sea, turned and walked towards the interior of the aircraft carrier.

The entire fleet is communicating with each other using lanterns and semaphores. Because of the radio silence, since a few days ago, each warship has been using this relatively primitive method to communicate with each other.

On the bridge of the aircraft carrier Zeppelin, Reeder was confirming the intelligence data just obtained with the captain of the aircraft carrier Zeppelin. The atmosphere on the entire bridge was very tense, and the aviation command was chaotically deploying planes and arranging fighter jets. Take off and stock up the bomber.

"How did the British find out about us?" Rader frowned, scrutinizing the information in his hand, and murmured to himself.

The adjutant was silent, staring at the chart in front of him with a heavy expression on his face. Just now, the reconnaissance plane taking off from the aircraft carrier Basemarck discovered a British fleet, and it is said that it found at least three warships. The British fleet was located to the southwest of the German fleet, about two hundred kilometers away.

Raedl did not pay attention to this British fleet at first, because there were too many such British naval search fleets that the German Navy avoided these days.

It really makes him not interested. Eighty percent of these British warships are followed by an aircraft carrier. Once the war starts, he will never get any benefit, but may be entangled and unable to escape.

So the best way to deal with this kind of British search fleet is to adjust the sailing slightly, avoid them and let them continue to circle the North Sea. And Redel did just that. He ordered the entire fleet to adjust its course from northeast to due east. This was the first time he had issued an order to due east in a few days.

He had intended to feint a shot, then go south and continue in circles, but the result surprised him. The second wave of reconnaissance planes took off to monitor the British fleet, and found that the fleet was followed by two British aircraft carriers and at least one battleship, which indicated that the main fleet of the British Royal Navy was behind the German Navy.

What is even more frightening is that not long after the German Navy adjusted its course, the British Navy also adjusted its course, and it kept the same altitude as the German Navy's adjusted course. This made Rader nervous. If the fleet was discovered and targeted by the British, it would be very unfavorable for the German Navy under the current situation.

"Keep the course! Accelerate the fleet as a whole... Keep the speed of 22 knots and continue driving." Raedl rubbed his chin and ordered.

"The current fleet is not driving against the wind. The deck wind is shown as crosswind, which is not suitable for fighter jets to take off." The commander of the aviation force was obviously still not well adapted to the severe weather in the North Sea, and his face was still a little pale. He reported to Modelhui: "If To take off Stukas and fw-190s with torpedoes, the fleet needs to sail against the wind."

"If the plane takes off, the entire fleet should sail north." Raedl glanced at the chart and shook his head. If they went north easily, they would be surrounded by the British Navy's fleet in the northern North Sea, and would never be able to escape back to Germany. .

"Our army has an overwhelming advantage in aircraft range and performance. If the attack is successful, it will achieve certain results." The commander of the aviation force said: "The British Navy's aviation has no way to compare with fw-190.

"But you just explained it to me a few minutes ago. You don't have the confidence to sink the British warship, so that it can't continue to follow my fleet." Rader looked at the chart carefully, and finally because the area was too narrow, Abandoning the plan to continue going around in circles, he looked at the captain and his adjutant: "Order the fleet to keep the course and continue eastward. We will go directly to the Wilhelmshade port and wait there for a few months until the confluence of the Second Fleet."

In the face of the huge and well-trained British Royal Navy fleet, Raeder finally did not have the courage to step forward to challenge. He was going to use the safest way to send the German navy back to German port safely.

"Is the investigation clear? What is the situation that allowed the Royal Navy to know our speed and heading?" Raedl glanced at the adjutant in charge of intelligence analysis and asked: "If this problem had arisen two days earlier, we would have already Blocked to the north of the Shetland Islands, the whole army was wiped out!"

"In fact, this is what makes us feel strange." The adjutant pointed to a few encounter points a few days ago and said: "Obviously the British have not figured out our specific location here and here, but here and here and here. After contact with our reconnaissance plane here, we can determine our approximate location."

"However, they still haven't been able to get definite information, so they still adopted the strategy of containment." The adjutant pointed to the northern part of the Shetland Islands and said: "But after our fake move into the North Atlantic failed, the British siege and interception seemed a little bit. It's time for errands, they don't see us cruising in the North Sea as a threat."

"All this has just changed." The captain of the aircraft carrier Zeppelin pointed to the chart and said: "They got our detailed information a few minutes ago, so they changed their old style and prepared to stick with us for a naval battle. , completely kill us."

"Could it be that the British cracked the code when Dönitz's submarine sent us a report?" the adjutant asked suddenly.

"Impossible!" Raedl shook his head and said, "The password is almost impossible to decipher without the codebook, and we have never called back, and the submarine has not sent back any information about the specific location of my fleet. Even if the password is deciphered, the British You won't get any useful data either."

"Wait a minute!" The captain of the aircraft carrier Zeppelin was stunned for a moment, and then said loudly: "It's not our submarine! That's the British submarine! They will definitely have submarines in the North Sea! Whether it's pre-arranged or specially designed These submarines should all be in place for what we sent! So there must be British reconnaissance submarines near our fleet!"

"Makes sense! Inform all destroyers and cruisers to fight against submarines!" Raeder loudly ordered: "If it is on the perimeter, throw it away! If you find it within the fleet defense circle, sink it!"

"The destroyer Z11 sent a signal that they found a suspicious target, fired two depth charges, and the target disappeared." A signal soldier came over and handed the adjutant a record: "They asked whether to continue the pursuit?"

"Order the two destroyers, Z11 and Z17, to search and attack with a limit of 3 nautical miles! Then, regardless of the result, immediately accelerate to keep up with the main fleet!" Raedl ordered: "The fleet remains on the same course and accelerates to the east!"

"Are we going back to China?" The first officer looked at Raidel in confusion.

"We've been out for a few days, why don't we go back to rest?" Raedl said with a smile: "The head of state ordered us to contain the Royal Navy and do some training by the way. Haven't we completed both tasks?"

To the southwest of the German fleet, on the flagship aircraft carrier HMS Glory, the British admiral in white military uniform looked down at the information. It said the submarine was expelled, and more accurate information could not be provided.

"These Germans really have two strokes." He glanced at the sea and murmured to himself: "How can you figure out why the whereabouts were leaked so quickly. It seems that there are capable people in the German Navy."

"General! Shall we speed up to catch up?" the adjutant asked in a low voice.

"The chase is definitely going to be chased! It's just not so much chasing, but sending! It's just sending the German naval fleet home." The general shook his head helplessly: "Everyone's overall speed is about the same, now you're chasing me, people It's not far from William's naval port, and we have no chance."

"We have completed the task of blocking the German Navy. Although they did not suffer any losses, they did not achieve the desired results. We restricted them to the North Sea, didn't we?" said the adjutant proudly.

The general shook his head: "This kind of power comparison, only a fool would lead a fleet to the Atlantic to take a risky battle. Entering the Atlantic is just a fake action. In fact, they originally wanted to eat us in the North Sea and go back."

Before waiting for the adjutant who was stunned to continue to speak, the general continued to order: "Send a telegram to the mainland, saying that the bad news is that the German naval fleet has run away! The good news is that the German navy was scared by the Battle of Jutland, and it still remains to this day. I don't have the courage to fight."