Chapter 375 Tsunami (22)
At about 4 o'clock in the afternoon, the weather began to improve and the wind weakened greatly. This was by no means good news for the fleet, because the fleet was sailing more than 220 kilometers northwest of Iceland and was very easily exposed. The cautious Machar quickly sent a plane to investigate the enemy's situation, and at the same time quickly took off the Bf-219 to serve as cover. As a result, no enemy troops were found in the south or east, and no British aircraft came to carry out air strikes. The situation lasted until the sun went down at 6 o'clock. The sky turned dark again, and his hanging heart was relieved.
In fact, Fraser had been preparing to send out a reconnaissance plane, but it took until about 4 o'clock to find a way to take off. The slow seaplane was not qualified for the job. He directly used the Mosquito. Due to the German attack on Jan Mayen Island yesterday, The intelligence misled him. He did not expect the German fleet to run so fast. He still focused his investigation on the due north. As a result, he gained nothing, but he firmly believed that the Germans would eventually be exposed one day.
In order to make up for the losses in aviation operations the day before, he focused all his energy on increasing air power. Since the Skuas performed best on the first day of the battle, he took great pains to mobilize 24 Skuas from the mainland and mobilized 24 Skuas from the Royal Air Force. 12 Handsome Warrior fighter-bombers - His wishful thinking was very good. The Handsome Warrior first carried bombs to participate in the attack, and then escorted the Skuas. Since Pound ordered not to use Swordfish and Bluefish to carry out fatal attack missions, he temporarily transferred TBF (Avengers) from two carrier-based aircraft squadrons - originally these were to undertake follow-up combat missions for the Glorious-class aircraft carrier. of supplementary troops.
While he was intensively preparing for the next day's war, in the other direction, the commander of Fleet E, Rear Admiral Hamilton, felt so depressed that he almost spit out a mouthful of blood: he received a warning that Fleet W had encountered an enemy in the early hours of yesterday morning. He immediately rushed to the rescue at top speed, but by the time Fleet E arrived at the scene, the sky was almost bright and the German warships had already sailed away. He only had time to rescue a few officers and soldiers who had fallen into the water and were not frozen to death. In order to prevent the Germans from retaliating, he retreated again at dawn, preparing to continue to lurk in the Iceland-Faroe Islands waterway. However, he did not find any enemy signals and only received reports of wave after wave of fruitless air raids from the headquarters. information.
At the worst moment, Admiral Fraser even ordered him to send out the carrier-based aircraft from the four escort aircraft carriers to participate in the attack. This foolish idea was firmly resisted by him, and the lawsuit went all the way to Admiral Tovey, because Tovey defended him, Pound did not express any opinions, and the matter ended in nothing. General Fraser was very dissatisfied with this. He also ridiculed the latter's command ability and dispatching level. When news later came that a large number of fighter jets and attack aircraft had been killed without any substantial results, he felt that it was unfair. Razor is an idiot.
Major General Hamilton had vaguely heard rumors that the Prime Minister had been dissatisfied with General Tovey's performance and was planning to replace him with Fraser. He scorned this decision. He believes that the best general of the Royal Navy is Admiral Cunningham. Although he encountered many difficulties due to the defeat in the Horn of Africa, this man of great fortune was lucky enough to save a life, and the Horn of Africa is so beautiful. In his opinion, General Cunningham made no mistakes at all in this battle. As for Fraser, he doesn’t think that a stupid general who only knows how to execute orders mechanically is capable. This can be seen from yesterday’s move of sending a large number of swordfish, mackerel, and hurricanes to the Germans to gain experience - here Tovey and his point of view are surprisingly consistent.
"Sooner or later, these bastards will kill us under the guns of the Tirpitz!" After receiving the intelligence to intercept the German fleet in the Denmark Strait, he said angrily to his staff in the command tower of the flagship Ramiri, "After two battles in the Mediterranean and the Horn of Africa, the local fleet only had so few troops left. It was kicked in the head by a donkey before sending warships to the Far East... Yesterday, it was not enough to send away 2 New Mexico and 4 escort aircraft carriers. Now we have another If you send us to intercept, sooner or later we will be sent away too!”
No one refuted his opinion. On the contrary, these words resonated highly with everyone. Especially in the afternoon, after he resisted pressure and refused to send carrier-based pilots to engage in a fatal air raid, his prestige rose to the highest level. To a very high degree, all pilots were grateful to him - especially when he knew that the attack aircraft force involved in the air raid had a loss rate of more than two-thirds that day, his strong resistance to Fraser's unreasonable orders won him more popularity .
"Sir, what do you think we should do now?"
"Wait! Wait! Wait for the support troops to come up." Hamilton said, "When the battleships from the Far East, the battleships repaired in the United States and South Africa, and the battleships from the Americans to support us are all in place, we will then encircle and suppress the Germans. The Royal Navy is not We have never dealt with the Bismarck class. When we surrounded and suppressed the lone Bismarck, we used 6 new battleships, 2 fleet aircraft carriers and countless aircraft, and now we even lost a Hood. Not only the Tirpitz, but also the entire fleet does not have enough power to overwhelm the enemy. Even if it encounters them, it will be fatal. "
"But this would interrupt the Atlantic shipping line."
"It's broken?" Hamilton smiled slightly, "So what if it's broken, it only takes about 30-40 days, and Great Britain won't be able to survive even this time. In addition, even if we let the Germans fight, it will only take a month How many merchant ships can they sink? 400,000 tons or 500,000 tons? - It takes less than a month for the Americans to build ships. But warships are different. It takes less than 2-3 years to build a battleship. No, we have lost 150,000 tons of warships one after another this month. It is difficult to build so much tonnage in a year, let alone the naval officers and soldiers above. How many years will it take to train them into an army? "
Everyone was silent, because everyone understood that Hamilton was telling the truth, and the tragedy of last night was still vivid in their minds: the two New Mexico-class battleships were all occupied by the U.S. Navy. In theory, there should be more than 3,000 officers and soldiers in total, but the ones that were finally salvaged There are only about 300 survivors, and many of these 300 people still need to have their limbs amputated because some of their limbs have become necrotic due to being immersed in the cold sea water for too long. Thinking back to the fact that Admiral Cunningham was forced to jump into the sea after the failure in the Horn of Africa, and finally returned to the mainland after going through all kinds of hardships with a broken leg, I don't know how lucky he should be. In the final analysis, everyone is not afraid of death, but of dying in vain.
But now the orders from Churchill and the Admiralty are here. Even if Hamilton complains, he can only execute them. He has already thought about it: if Admiral Tovey is really dismissed after this battle, he will choose to resign as well. ——He has contributed enough to Britain and the Royal Navy, and it is time to think about himself and his family.
February 15th was another early morning. The weather gradually improved. The center of the North Sea Fleet was more than 550 kilometers west of Iceland and less than 300 kilometers away from Greenland. However, Machar was not worried that Greenland would be detrimental to him. The above It was a land of ice and snow, and there were not even a few people alive, let alone airplanes.
At 6:05, the first wave of Ar-272s was dispatched on time, focusing on searching southward. Later, the He-218s, which were covering fighters and carrying bombs for reconnaissance, were successively released. At this time, the fleet was still heading southwest at a speed of 25 knots. , due to the possibility of facing enemy interception at any time, Machar reduced the distance between the two formations to 15 nautical miles to facilitate nearby support.
At the same moment, Fleet E, which had arrived at the designated position, also began to eject the reconnaissance aircraft, but Hamilton could only use the slow Walrus; 10 minutes later, the Icelandic land-based reconnaissance aircraft took off at the same time. The reconnaissance found no trace. Today, the search focused on the west. Fraser deployed the fastest Mosquito reconnaissance aircraft in this direction.
At 7:05, Ar-272 sent shocking news: the enemy fleet was discovered about 250 kilometers away in the southeast, including 2 battleships, 4 light aircraft carriers, 3-4 cruisers, and 6 destroyers.
"Great! The dive bombers are retracted and assembled, and the attack planes are ready to dispatch!" Machar waved his fist, "Kill them all!"
However, the good times did not last long. Just after 12 Bf-219s covering the He-218 fleet took off, at 7:28, a mosquito reconnaissance aircraft appeared in the sky above the North Sea Fleet. The escort fighters quickly shot it down, but the fleet Still intercepting the telegram sent by the British, Machar and Richthofen's expressions instantly darkened - the fleet's position was exposed!
Facing the Icelandic aviation force to the east and the enemy aircraft carrier fleet to the south, the North Sea Fleet is now forced into a blind corner, and the time is only 7:30, and it is at least 10 hours before dark. Machar asked everyone anxiously: " What to do now?”
Ozawa gave a piece of advice: "The entire fleet should speed up and move forward in a straight line to the west. Increase the distance from Iceland as far as possible. It will take an hour at the earliest for the enemy aircraft group to reach the fleet. Use this time. It can completely extend the distance between the fleet and Iceland to more than 600 kilometers!”
Richthofen nodded. The most dangerous thing now was the enemies on the east and south sides. One had to be killed first, and the enemy aircraft carrier formation that was closer was obviously more of a threat. After thinking about it, he suggested: "Destroy him quickly. At least those four light aircraft carriers must be eliminated, and at least one of the two groups of enemies must be killed first, so that today’s battle will be easier!”
Ozawa and the Japanese advisory group agreed with this, and the decision was quickly implemented: Richthofen gritted his teeth and once again took out 8 Bf-219s to cover the Ju-98 attack fleet and attacked the enemy fleet, leaving only 16 aircraft above the fleet. A Bf-219 was used for cover, and the second batch of direct cover aircraft was scheduled to be released around 8:30, bringing the total number to 28 - that is all the available fighter jets in the fleet.
The most severe test of the tsunami plan has finally come...