The clouds were low on the sea, the waves were surging, and in the bitter howling wind, a large fleet was sailing rapidly to the northwest. The red and white St. George's Cross flag fluttered on the dense and towering forest masts – a flag that was hard to find in the North Atlantic in August 1940!

Looking down from the air, the remaining elite warships of the British Royal Navy have gathered in this icy sea at this moment. The two high-speed battle cruisers of Hood and Prestige were located in the center of the array, and the entire eight heavy cruisers of Norfolk and Dorsec were lined up in two columns, and the splitting waves sailed at the front of the fleet. In addition, there were 4 light cruisers leading 16 destroyers around the perimeter of the battle cruiser. Although the number of light ships serving as escorts was relatively small, they were all the most cutting-edge warships completed after 1937, and the four light cruisers were all of the same displacement as the heavy cruisers, and they were armed with 12 152mm guns that were enough to form a one-sided slaughter on the destroyers.

In the wide bridge of the Hood, John Tovey, who had just been promoted to commander of the Home Fleet, looked full of ambition. The staff officers around him also became positive and optimistic under his infection, and gradually forgot the tragic defeat that also happened in the ice sea half a year ago. However, beneath Tovey's confident exterior lies a worried heart. No one could see that his teeth were clenched, and he was releasing the heavy pressure in his heart that was almost overwhelming him through repeated subtle rubbing.

In this operation, although the British home fleet was exhausted, the lineup of core warships was completely different from the last Norwegian naval battle. Only two old combat cruisers that are more than 20 years old are left, and the most critical aircraft carrier is not a single one, and the situation is so grim that it is almost desperate. Tovey could not have forgotten the fate of the capital warships that Britain had lost since the start of the war - even the Bismarck-class, armed with nine 18-inch guns (estimated by the British Navy itself), had not really killed a single British capital ship as in the Battle of Jutland, and all the losses came from the air raids of German carrier-based aviation!

If this fleet were to be discovered by German carrier-based aircraft in fine weather, the results would be catastrophic. With the experience of the Norwegian naval battle, with only one wave of 50 aircraft, both Hood and Prestige would be killed or maimed, and then the British fleet could only flee like headless flies. Otherwise, if the other party seizes the time to take advantage of the daytime to harvest the heads of another wave of planes, the losses will only be even heavier. At that time, let alone the interception of the German fleet, the entire Royal Navy, including the national fortunes of Britain, will all be buried because of the loss of this coffin!

In this situation, all the daytime battle plans of the British fleet were declared bankrupt. First of all, it is difficult to predict the weather conditions in the ocean, and it is not uncommon for rain to rain today and the weather to be sunny. If the weather forecast was wrong and the German carrier-based aircraft that were originally planned to fail to take off could be lifted into the air, the British fleet's operations would collapse completely, and there would be no chance of success. What's more, if the German commander was a cautious man and scattered his warships to reconnoiter around in areas of bad sea conditions, it would be difficult for the British fleet to catch the main force of the opposing side: as soon as the German ships more than ten nautical miles away accelerated, they simply slipped away without even a shadow.

After much thought, Tovey found that it was only possible to win by pressing the treasure on the night battle and relying on the chaotic battle of close artillery fire + torpedoes. Although the British fleet was bound to suffer unpredictable heavy losses in this bayonet fight, this was undoubtedly the only chance for the British navy, which lacked new capital ships. As long as the German aircraft carriers can be eliminated, Britain's maritime predicament can be alleviated by half, and even the Bismarck-class battleships, which claim to be more than mountainous, have a great chance of being wiped out in the face of a terrifying torpedo salvo!

However, while it is easy to talk on paper, getting the fleet to the right place at the right time is still extremely difficult and the consequences of failure are unbearable. Even though Tovey had received "definite information" from London about the timing of the German fleet's departure, the interception would have required careful planning and the indispensable stroke of luck. The British fleet had to evade the reconnaissance of German carrier-based aircraft during the day, and then rush to the ambush area overnight, relying on radar to conduct sector searches, and call for nearby friendly forces to come to support after discovering targets. If one of the links goes wrong, the whole operation will be buried.

The only thing that made Tovey feel a little reassuring was that it was already the beginning of August, when autumn was about to begin. The Danish Strait, located near the Arctic Circle, has been out of polar day for more than a month, and the sea conditions are affected by the cold current of the newly born Greenland Sea in the Arctic Ocean, which is not suitable for aircraft to take off and land on aircraft carriers for nearly half of the day. If it weren't for that, Tovey would have picked it up long ago. Now Tovey is waiting for a telegram from the submarine forces in the eastern part of the Danish Channel to find the enemy, and only when he learns this premise information can he command the fleet to make corresponding changes.

Time passed in a hurry, and in the blink of an eye, the sunrise and sunset intersected in the sea and air. From the early morning of 6 August, Tovey began to lead the fleet through the clouds and rain southwest of Iceland to avoid the possible arrival of German fighters, and if the German fleet headed straight for the Danish Strait by the nearest route, the German reconnaissance planes with auxiliary fuel tanks should have arrived. British officers and soldiers geared up to prepare for the bloody battle that would break out next. However, by the time the sun set that day, the Hood's communications room still did not receive a signal of an encounter with the enemy ahead.

Tovey wasn't surprised by this. If he was a German commander, he would also choose to stop in a Norwegian port to refuel before heading north. He returned to the commander's cabin and slept for a long time, and the next day continued to cruise in the cloud and rain area. However, the key telegram that determined the movements of the fleet never appeared. Only the weather station at Cape Houn, the northernmost point of Iceland, dutifully sent a weather forecast before the night of the 7th: tomorrow there may be fog in the Danish Strait, visibility will be below 7 kilometers, and there will be large waves of more than 4 meters.

In the navigation command room of the Hood, seven or eight staff officers had solemn faces, and they stared at the magnet-held chart on the table, their eyes as if there were electric flashes in their eyes. There is really too much to say about the fact that the German fleet did not appear according to the script. The other side either hit a mine in the Norwegian waterway and delayed time, or it has broken through into the Danish Strait, but the submarine has not found it. The most worrying thing for the staff officers was that the German fleet would break into the strait at high speed at night, and that they would not choose to take this route at all.

At present, the British fleet is dormant in an area about 70 nautical miles southwest of Iceland, in order to be able to get out of the predetermined position before the first opportunity to intercept the German fleet in the strait. However, this has a premise, that is, the British side must first rely on submarines to detect the position and speed of the other side, and then be able to respond to the situation and strike a preemptive strike. Otherwise, the shelling fleet will be small at night, and the air threat in the strait the next day will be fatal. The reconnaissance method of submarines can only rely on visual inspection during the day, and if the German fleet moves at night, the British submarines will definitely not be able to detect it!

In addition, if the German fleet had entered the Atlantic Ocean from the Faro waterway instead, the operation would have been declared a failure without any suspense. Although the British fleet was located next to Iceland and could theoretically turn southeast to intercept the German ships, the Faro Channel was more than three times as wide as the Danish Channel, and the chances of blocking the Germans here were no less than going out and getting hit by a banknote. What's more, the British Navy concentrated its main search forces in the Danish Channel, and at this time the density of troops in the Faro Waterway was thin; Maybe the German fleet has already been smuggled in, and Britain is still in the dark!

"The Germans will definitely go through the Danish Strait. It took us two months to deploy, and this is the time we waited, which is an inevitable situation due to information asymmetry. Tovey's expression was determined, suppressing the wavering panic of his staff officers. The reliable information from London was the top secret of the whole of Britain, and Tovey himself only obtained the information of the Scaly Claw from Pound after becoming the commander of the Home Fleet. At this time, in the face of subordinates who did not know the truth, Tovey naturally could not explain it clearly, and directly ruled out this possibility.

"As for the passage of the German fleet through the strait at night, it should not have happened. For since the Germans had chosen to pass through the Danish Channel on the safe side, they would not have sailed at night on this waterway, which was only about 120 nautical miles wide, and the risks they had to take were obviously not proportional to the benefits. "I think the Germans will still make the most of their air superiority and choose a calm daytime to pass." In this way, they will be able to avoid a possible attack to the greatest extent, and their carrier-based aircraft will be able to detect and destroy the few alert warships that our troops have deployed here. ”

Listening to Tovey's analysis, Captain Cole, the captain of the Hood next to him, finally came to his senses. He tentatively spoke: "According to the message from the Horn Point weather station, tomorrow there will be fog and big waves in the Danish Strait. That is, the Germans, most likely, will not act tomorrow? Tovey nodded and said, "That's it." It's a pity that Cape Horn is not equipped with an anti-aircraft detection radar, otherwise we would have one more source of completely accurate information. ”

"If there is no news from the submarine forces tomorrow, it means that the German commander is a cautious man. What we're going to do next may not go well. Cole said with a worried face. Tovey nodded slowly and drew a cross on his chest: "We can only do everything we can." As for the final outcome, leave it to God to decide. ”