Chapter 184

In the rough North Sea, the cold air made every soldier on the deck breathe with white fog. A deck ammunition loader in a red vest is staring at the sea from a specific smoking platform.

Different from the peaceful and warm Pacific Ocean, the cold and windy conditions in the North Atlantic Ocean can be regarded as the worst sea conditions. Therefore, the aircraft carriers of the United States and Japan can fight in the Pacific Ocean open and easily with planes piled on the deck. If Britain and Germany build aircraft carriers in this way, their aircraft will be eroded by the sea and cause terrible flight accidents.

This time, the German Navy poured out, with 16 warships assembled in the North Sea, two aircraft carriers, two armored warships, four cruisers and eight destroyers. From the beginning, this huge fleet became the target of the Royal Navy.

In order to prevent the German fleet from entering the North Atlantic, the Royal Navy mobilized heavy forces to encircle, chase and intercept, which made the Germans who wanted to pick a little cheaper see the gap in strength instantly: four British aircraft carriers with four battleships, 11 cruisers and 23 destroyers formed three huge encirclement fleets, which blocked the route from the North Sea to the North Atlantic.

So this time, as commander-in-chief of the German Navy, general Reidel decided to give up his combat plan completely, and played hide and seek with the fleet and the Royal Navy. He sent a large number of fighters and reconnaissance planes to cooperate with submarines to monitor the position of the British fleet, and then evaded the pursuit of the British warships and disappeared in the cold North Sea.

"Emergency assembly! Emergency assembly! To load the bomber formation with air bombs. " There was a sharp alarm in the horn. Several Navy sailors who smoked together threw their cigarette ends on the sea and turned to the inside of the aircraft carrier.

The whole fleet is communicating with each other in light and flag language. Because of keeping radio silence, since a few days ago, various warships have been communicating with each other in this primitive way.

On the bridge of the Zeppelin aircraft carrier, Reidel is confirming with the captain of the Zeppelin aircraft carrier the intelligence data he has just obtained. The atmosphere on the bridge is very tense. The aviation headquarters is busy deploying planes, arranging fighter planes to take off and preparing bombers.

"How did the British find us?" Randall frowned, looked at 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 USS Bismarck found a British fleet, which is said to have found at least three warships. The British fleet is located in the southwest of the German fleet, about 200 kilometers away.

At the beginning, Reidel didn't pay attention to this British fleet, because there are too many British search fleets that the German Navy has avoided these days, which really makes him not interested. Most of these British warships are followed by an aircraft carrier. Once they go to war, they will never get any benefits. On the contrary, they may be entangled.

So the best way to deal with this kind of British search fleet is to slightly adjust the navigation, avoid them and let them continue to circle in the North Sea. He ordered the whole fleet to adjust its course from northeast to due east. This was the first time in several days that he gave the order of heading due east.

He had intended to bluff a shot, and then go south to continue to circle, 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. This shows that the main fleet of the Royal Navy is following the German Navy.

What's more terrible is that shortly after the German Navy adjusted its course, the British Navy also adjusted its course, keeping a high degree of consistency with the course adjusted by the German Navy. This makes Reidel have to be nervous. If the fleet is found and targeted by the British, it is very unfavorable for the German Navy in the current situation.

"Keep your course! The fleet is speeding up as a whole... Keep going at 22 knots. " Randall ordered, touching his chin.

"The fleet is not going against the wind at the moment. Deck wind shows crosswind, not suitable for Fighter take-off. " The commander of the air force is still obviously not adapted to the bad weather in the North Sea, and his face is still a little pale. He told modlehui: "if you want to take off Stuka and fw-190 fighters with torpedoes, the fleet needs to sail against the wind."

"If the plane takes off, the whole fleet should sail north." Reidel took a look at the chart and shook his head. If they went north easily, they would be surrounded by the fleet of the British navy in the north of the North Sea and would never escape back to Germany.

"Our army has an overwhelming advantage in the range and performance of the aircraft. If the attack is successful, we will achieve certain results." The commander of the air force said: "there is no way to compare the air force of the British navy with that of the fw-190."

"But you just explained it to me a few minutes ago. You don't have the confidence to sink a British warship so that it can't continue to follow my fleet. " RedAll looked at the chart carefully again. Finally, because the area was too small, he gave up the plan of going around in circles. He looked at the captain and his adjutant: "order the fleet to keep the course and continue eastward. We'll go straight into the port of William and wait there for a few months until the second fleet meets

Facing the huge and well-trained fleet of the British Royal Navy, Reidel did not have the courage to challenge. He was ready to send the German Navy back to the German port safely in the safest way he thought“ Is the investigation clear? What is the situation that let the Royal Navy know our speed and course? " "If this problem had come up two days earlier, we would have been locked up in the northern Shetland Islands and the whole army would have been wiped out," he asked“ In fact, that's what makes us wonder. " The adjutant pointed to the encounter points a few days ago and said, "it's obvious that the British didn't know our specific location when they were here and here, but after contacting our reconnaissance plane here and here, they judged our approximate location."“ However, they still did not get the exact information, so they still adopted the strategy of containment. " The adjutant pointed to the northern Shetland Islands and said, "but after our false act of breaking into the North Atlantic failed, the British siege and interception became a bit of a problem. They didn't see us cruising in the North Sea as a threat."“ This has just changed. " The captain of the Zeppelin aircraft carrier 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 to us to fight a naval battle and kill us completely."“ Could it be that the British cracked the code when Donitz's submarine sent us a message? " The adjutant asked suddenly“ No way RedAll shook his head and said, "the code can hardly be deciphered without a codebook, and we have never called back, nor have submarines sent back information about the specific location of our fleet. Even if the code is deciphered, the British will not get any useful data."“ Wait a minute The captain of the Zeppelin aircraft carrier was suddenly stunned, and then said aloud, "it's not our submarine! That's the British submarine! They must have submarines in the North Sea! These submarines should be in place, whether they are arranged in advance or specially sent for us! So there must be a British spy submarine near our fleet! "“ with reason! Inform all destroyers and cruisers to fight against submarines "If it's the periphery, get rid of it," he ordered aloud! If you find it in the fleet circle, sink it! "“ Destroyer Z11 sent a signal, they found a suspicious target, launched two depth bombs, the target disappeared A signalman came up to the adjutant and handed him a record: "they asked if they would continue to pursue?"“ Command two destroyers Z11 and z17 to search and attack within 3 nautical miles! Then whatever the result, speed up immediately to catch up with the main fleet Reidel ordered: "keep the course of the fleet unchanged, speed up eastward!"“ Shall we return home? " The chief officer looks at Randall suspiciously“ I've been out for a few days. Why don't I go back and have a rest? " Randall said with a smile: "the head of state ordered us to contain the Royal Navy and do some training work by the way. Haven't we accomplished both of these tasks?" In the southwest of the German fleet, on the aircraft carrier glorious, the flagship of the huge British fleet, the British admiral in white looked down at the information. It says that the submarine has been expelled, and it can't provide more accurate information“ These Germans really have two talents. " He took a look at the sea and murmured to himself, "how can you judge so quickly what's leaking the whereabouts. It seems that there are capable men in the German Navy“ general! Shall we speed up our pursuit? " Asked the adjutant in a low voice“ Chase is sure to chase! But it's not so much chasing as sending! To send the German fleet home. " The general shook his head helplessly: "the overall speed is almost the same, now you catch up with me, people are not far from the port of William, we have no chance."“ We have completed the task of blocking the German Navy. Although they have not suffered any losses, they have not achieved the desired results. We restricted them to the North Sea, didn't we? " The adjutant said triumphantly. The general shook his head: "this kind of strength contrast, only a fool will lead the fleet to the Atlantic Ocean to risk a decisive battle. Going into the Atlantic is just a sham. In fact, they wanted to eat us in the North Sea and go back. " Without waiting for the adjutant to continue to speak, the general continued to order: "send a telegram to the local government, saying that the bad news is that the German naval fleet has run away! The good news is that the German Navy was terrified by the battle of Jutland and has not yet had the courage to fight a decisive battle. "