The remnant sun of the west slowly sinks below the horizon, and only the last fiery red sunset is left in the deep and boundless sky. In the Williams Military Harbour www.biquge.info, naval ground crews dressed in gray have begun to dismantle the temporary passage brackets connecting the warships. The figures on the dock also rapidly decreased at a speed visible to the naked eye, bringing coldness while also giving this world a different kind of slaughter.

Fang Yan stood on the bridge of the USS Hipper, quietly gazing at the situation in the harbor through the glass window. Because the freeboard of the aircraft carrier itself is much higher than that of other warships, this allows Fang Yan to surpass most people and have a full view of this picture-like scene in Wilhelmshaven. I saw dozens of warships gathered in the wide and quiet waters, and the wide swaska-shaped flags were blown by the cold wind of the forest; Against the backdrop of the last rays of the evening, the gray-black bodies of these sea monsters are full of evil meanings, hideous, terrifying, majestic, and elegant.

"General, the replenishment of the fleet before departure has been completed. Admiral Kars sent a signal ordering the fleet to set sail at 7 o'clock tonight. Captain Norman walked into the navigation room and reported to Fang Yanyu with a solemn expression. Fang Yan withdrew his gaze from the window, nodded slowly, and said, "Give this order to the encyclical." In addition, the ship's radio was used to inform all the officers and men of the Second Air Combat that the combat mission of our trip was to patrol the Norwegian Sea to protect the safety of the Norwegian landing fleet. If the British dare to show their heads, we will make the Norwegian Sea their cemetery. ”

As soon as Fang Yan's words came out, all the officers in the navigation room, including Norman, showed a look of shock and shock. Little did they know that the target of the battle would be Norway, a small country in northern Europe, and everyone knew in their hearts that Britain was the unchanging enemy of their fleet. Fang Yan raised his eyebrows and did not make any superfluous explanations; He paused slightly, and his expression was full of solemnity and solemnity: "In the course of the entire campaign, the Second Air War will be mainly responsible for the air defense and regional reconnaissance tasks of the fleet. Therefore, our mission will be directly related to the trend of the naval war situation, and all personnel must fulfill their duties and must not make mistakes because of mental slackness! ”

All the people obeyed. Fang Yan's battle confession made them feel a strong responsibility, and a solemn sense of the fate of the navy and the country in their own hands spontaneously emerged. Without further instructions from Fang Yan, the entire battleship was already running efficiently: the officers and men of the power department bore the brunt, and they lit four of the six boilers of the warship in turn, and then began to gradually heat up and increase the pressure, waiting for the order to set sail.

At 6:45 a.m., Wilhelmshaven was covered in night with a long whistle one after another. Naval officers and sailors had long been accustomed to this, and the mountain infantrymen who had boarded the ship for the first time were quite curious, constantly looking around the deck. According to the plan drawn up by the German High Command, the 1st Fleet, which was responsible for capturing Narvik, would set off at the same time as Fang Yan's support fleet; Each of the 10 destroyers under the command of Commodore Bont carried 200 heavily armed mountain infantrymen, including their commander, Rear Admiral Dieter.

Seeing the faint figures on the deck of the destroyer hundreds of meters away, Fang Yan couldn't help but begin to sympathize with these army soldiers. As the designer of the Z-type destroyer, Fang Yan knew very well that this ship was actually not suitable for carrying personnel outside the establishment: in order to reduce the weight and cost as much as possible, the living area of the ship was very carefully reduced to only 350 people. Among them, the space of 30 people more than the rated crew was left for those captured foreign seafarers in consideration of the fact that this type of warship might carry out a separate mission to break diplomatic relations.

Now there were 200 people on the ship at once, and there was no room for them to sleep. Fang Yan estimated that these poor mountain infantrymen could only sleep in the canteen, ammunition depot, and even the engine room with the roar of machinery - because sleeping on the deck of a destroyer was purely seeking death. As long as a big wave hits, and the presence of the warship itself, it can sweep away everything that is not fixed on the low deck in an instant. Perhaps the only thing that comforted the mountain infantrymen was that such days only lasted 2 days and 3 nights. By the early morning of the third day, they would be able to set foot on the land of Narvik, Norway, completely cut off from the raging sea.

The night breeze is cold, and the whistle is loud and high-pitched; At 7 o'clock in the evening, dozens of German warships that had completed their firing began to leave the port one after another. Ten destroyers loaded with mountain infantry were the first to leave the berth, followed by a support fleet with two Bismarck-class battleships as the core. Seeing those two behemoths with identical outlines, Fang Yan couldn't help but feel a lot of emotion in his heart.

The two sisters in history only had a group photo on the occasion of the Bismarck's expedition, and then they were separated forever because of the latter's battle, and they never fulfilled their promise to fight together. And in this plane, they not only got super strong equipment, but also went hand in hand a year and a half in advance to fight the ocean. If they can return safely, they will have two more sisters join their team next summer.

Soon after the German fleet entered the North Sea, the surrounding sea conditions deteriorated dramatically. The stars and moon in the sky were shrouded in clouds, causing the sea visibility to drop to zero completely, and the violent sea wind carried huge waves several meters high, constantly slapping against the side of the jolting warship. The deck of the destroyer soon turned into a swimming pool, and even the front main guns of the battleship began to be frequently swept away by the sea.

However, there was no distraction in the formation of the entire fleet. Positioning each other by flickering signal lights, the German warships were always moving at high speed in the waves in accordance with the established formation. In the steering engine room, which was located under the protection of the 75 mm deck, the data on the instrument clearly showed that Fang Yan's aircraft carrier Hipper, which had reached a high speed of 27 knots in the rushing waves.

In mid-January, Beihai is in the shortest day season of the year; In the area around 55 degrees north latitude, there are nearly 15 hours of night each day. This apparently provided excellent natural cover for the German fleet's assault sprint, which by the time the sun rose again the next day, the fleet had advanced 350 nautical miles north. The northern tip of Jutland has been left behind, and it is less than 100 nautical miles away from being completely out of the North Sea.

"General, we may still not be able to send planes to conduct reconnaissance now." Norman felt the ship under him drift through the peaks and valleys of the waves, and his two brows furrowed deeply. At present, the roll of the aircraft carrier definitely exceeds the maximum safety degree for fighters to take off and land, and even if an experienced veteran can successfully glide and jump into the air, there is a chance that an accident will occur when landing. In addition, there were thick clouds in the sky, which not only caused the visibility on the sea surface to be only six or seven thousand meters, but also made it difficult for returning planes to spot the mothership platform below from high altitude.

Faced with Norman's depression, Fang Yan laughed. The current sea conditions certainly limited the power of German carrier-based aviation, but also made it difficult for the British Air Force to detect the German fleet. Compared with the two, Fang Yan believes that the help brought by the latter is more important.

At this time, the German fleet was still within the strike range of the British land-based air force, and even though the number of fighters carried by the four aircraft carriers was enough to compete with the British Air Force, this practice of using aircraft carriers to force the land-based air force was obviously too unworthy. First of all, in terms of tactics, carrier-based aviation cannot guarantee the absolute interception of enemy bombers, as long as the enemy's incoming aircraft group is equipped with a sufficient number of escort fighters, the German fighters will become discouraged, and they will not be able to take into account the breakthrough of the bombers in the entanglement of the opponent's fighters.

At that time, a few bombs on the battleships and armored aircraft carriers with strong armor and thick armor may not be harmful, but if the light aircraft carrier commanded by Fang Yan or the Z-class destroyer is shot, even if it is only the smallest 250-pound (114kg) bomb that is hit, there will be a high probability that it will return to the home port in disgrace!

And from a strategic point of view, German carrier-based aviation should not be in a confrontation with the British land-based air force. The core mission of this elite force was to destroy all British ships floating on the sea: because the British were much slower to build ships than they were to build airplanes, not to mention that ships were the basis for the island's survival. In Fang Yan's plan, the German aircraft carriers should be outside the strike radius of the British land-based air force, and strike hard at the British fleet and merchant ships without being real. It would be nice to avoid a confrontation with the British land-based air force.

Since the aircraft carrier was temporarily unable to dispatch carrier-based aircraft due to sea conditions, the task of reconnaissance and vigilance immediately fell to the 12 armored destroyers accompanying it. With the raising of the signal flag of the Bismarck, the four destroyers of one of the detachments began to accelerate and gradually advanced to 15 nautical miles in front of the main fleet. They form a 120-degree sector and closely monitor movements in the eight nautical miles ahead with sea-sounding radars. If an anomaly is found, these destroyers can deal with it first, so as to ensure that the main warships in the rear continue to hide in the fog of the battlefield as much as possible.

"Note that the forward destroyer detachment has collectively changed course. They turned to the right and rudder 5 compass points, and are now heading east-northeast! The USS Hippel was located in a dark room under the hangar, and the radar crew, staring at the screen, loudly reported what he had observed. Fang Yan, who received this news, replied with a password according to the norm, and his eyes were engrossed in watching the movements of the Bismarck at the front of the fleet. After waiting for about half a minute, Fang Yan saw that the heavy battleship flying the commander's flag also began to turn sharply to the right, he breathed a sigh of relief, and said, "Order, this ship will follow the flagship to maneuver." ”

The orientation of the entire German fleet, led by a detachment of destroyers at the front, shifted eastward by about 5 nautical miles. It was only a small distance, but it allowed them to pass southeast of a British destroyer. For the upcoming Norwegian campaign, the slightest change would be a surprise and dangerous uncertainty for the entire operation. Having been freed from this enemy, the Norwegian Sea is already within easy reach; At this point, there were less than 48 hours left before the campaign began. (To be continued.) )