The captain of the Sheffield, Colonel Clark, wanted to get rid of the Z4, which felt like a man's back, but found that it could not be done anyway, the only frigate that was intact and had a speed comparable to that of the German destroyers was not good, and it was easy to be sunk when it rushed up, and the other two warships were not fast enough after being damaged, and once they closed the distance, the German destroyers would be far away, and if they advanced, the Germans would follow them haunted. After a few "cat-and-mouse" maneuvers, he decided to ignore it - he had been told that the J flotilla (short for JW-51B escort flotilla) was just over 200 nautical miles away, so he no longer cared about Z4's actions and continued to pounce in the direction of J Flotilla.

But the plan could never keep up with the changes, and Clark's good wishes were shattered by 14 o'clock in the afternoon: under the unremitting efforts of the Z4, the Hippel appeared in the sight of the British with another destroyer, and swooped down at almost top speed, closing the distance to Sheffield 15 knots per hour, considering that the JW-51A fleet was not far ahead, and the J fleet would take at least 10 hours to arrive at the scene, in order to ensure the safety of the merchant ships, Clark consulted with Sherbrooke aboard the Anslow and made a painful choice: they would cover the retreat of the merchant ships at the expense of themselves - turn northwest and divert the German warships in the other direction.

"Evacuate to the northwest as soon as possible, we'll cover you......" Clark sent a telegram to the Thorn, the only one in the formation that was at normal speed and had a chance to escape German pursuit.

The captain of the Thorn knew what the word "cover" meant today, and left the battlefield almost with tears in his eyes, and all the sailors silently bowed their heads to their comrades who were still on the battlefield.

"I've finally caught you!" Captain Hartmann was so excited that he almost cried when he saw the prey he had been looking for for two days appear in front of him—it was not easy.

At 15 o'clock in the afternoon, the Hipper, full of excitement, joined forces with two destroyers to engage in a battle with the British warships, because the two British ships had been heavily damaged in advance, and were obviously at a disadvantage in the course of the artillery battle, while the German sailors were in a state of excitement after several days of live firing.

At 15:14, the Hipper achieved its first victory, and the secondary guns smashed the British minesweeper to pieces; After 2 minutes, the Sheffield was hit directly by a shell, and most of the bridge was destroyed; 16 minutes later, the destroyer Anslow followed in the footsteps of the minesweeper, and was also hit by the Hipper, but obviously the body of the destroyer of less than 2000 tons could not withstand the heavy hit of 203mm shells, and the whole ship began to sink, Colonel Sherbrooke refused the dissuasion of his subordinates and chose to sink with the ship, but during the artillery battle, the destroyer Hans-Lodi (Z10), which tried to fire torpedoes on the Sheffield, was taken by the opponent with 1 152mm shell due to greed, and 2 turrets were blown off, billowing smoke came out, and the damage was not light, Angry, Hartman scolded the captain for being a pig's brain.

In contrast, the Z4 destroyer was much more clever, hiding behind the Hipper's figure and firing cold cannons, hitting the Sheffield several times, although it could not cause fatal damage, but it beat the opponent's back deck to a mess.

At 15:35, the Sheffield was hit several times by the Hippel, billowing smoke and the hull of the ship was flooded again, and the speed had been reduced to only 11 knots. Although the sky was already dark, the radar on the Hippert had returned to normal, and the sparks on the Sheffield deck could not be extinguished in the night, giving the Germans a very reliable indication of the target. Relying on radar pointing and visual observation, the Hippert firmly aimed at the target and opened fire, in order to pursue the hit rate, Hartmann, who was fighting more and more, commanded the ship to continue to approach, and the 203mm naval guns fought from 14,000 meters to 7,500 meters, and finally sank the Sheffield after wasting more than 200 shells, and most of the British sailors failed to escape.

At 17 o'clock, Hartmann, who had cleaned up the battlefield, triumphantly sent a victory report to the Berlin naval command, but he did not expect that this afternoon he was less than 40 nautical miles away from the closest JW-51A transport fleet, and these British warships did not hesitate to divert the German warships at their own expense, ensuring the safety of the transport fleet to the greatest extent.

After destroying the two enemy ships that had been wounded beforehand, Hartmann led the formation to continue the pursuit to the northwest, and he subconsciously thought that since the British warships had been moving to the northwest, and then the last warship that escaped was also heading northwest, the other ships of the British fleet should also be there.

At this time, the distance between the formation of the Hipper and the British transport fleet, which was on a north-south course, was again stretched to more than 70 nautical miles, and it was getting larger and larger, until 10 o'clock in the night, when Colonel Hartmann, who had been reminiscing about the whole process of the naval battle, suddenly came to his senses -- he was led crooked by the British, and hurriedly re-ordered to adjust the course to the southwest, and the distance between them had reached more than 120 nautical miles, which was only slightly smaller than the distance between the J fleet and the JW-51A fleet. Of course, the Hippert formation has a speed advantage, and although the Z10 destroyer was damaged, its power was not greatly affected, and the average formation speed was still more than 10 knots faster than that of the J fleet.

Rear Admiral Anderson, the commander of the J Fleet, who was anxious to come to the rescue, was nervous to the fullest, and he received a farewell telegram from the Sheffield, knowing that the JW-51A fleet now had only two destroyers left by its escort ships: one was the Ruthless under the original command of Sherbrooke, and the other was the Aktis, the sheffield cruiser formation, with the Hippel following behind - he did not know that Burnett had succeeded in steering Hartmann on the wrong course. He believed that the Germans could attack the convoy at any time, and that he was at least 160 nautical miles away from the convoy, and that tonight was the most dangerous time for the convoy, and that they would be attacked by the Germans from behind at any moment.

But as long as the dangerous period of this night is passed, the advance force of the J Fleet will be able to join up with the transport fleet in the early morning of February 6, and in turn will teach the Germans a lesson, and just in case, he will order the three destroyers of the J Fleet to move northeast at the highest speed, and strive to strengthen the escort fleet in advance to entangle the Hipper, so as to buy time for the main force of the J Fleet to rush to the battlefield.

Luck was obviously not entirely on the side of the British, and just as the Hipper turned around and headed southwest again, the radar crew on the Lützov suddenly found a bright spot in the corner of the screen, and it was inferred from the position that it was obviously not our own warship -- because at this moment the Hipper formation was more than 90 nautical miles north of the ship, and Tirpitz was 50 nautical miles southeast of the ship, but it was also very likely to be a false alarm -- the Lützov had had enough of the endless radar false alarms in the past two days.

Pursue? Or not chasing?

The captain of the USS Lützov, Admiral Stange, is known for his prudence, and after three minutes of thought, he finally made a very important and crucial choice: catch up! However, he did not intend to report the information to Lieutenant General Kumetz on Tirpitz until the evidence was conclusive, so as not to interfere with the judgment of the other party, who was more cautious than him.

The target discovered by the radar crew was the last transport ship in the JW-51A fleet, which could only maintain a speed of 12-13 knots despite its desperate efforts, while the Lützov could reach more than 25 knots at full speed. After an hour, Colonel Stanger became more and more sure that it was a ship—if it was a false alarm, after a while the target would either disappear or the distance between it and the ship would simply decrease. However, the radar crew reported that although the target gap had narrowed, the reduced distance did not seem to be equal to the distance the ship had advanced.

"Quite simply, it's a ship, moving and not fast." Stanger smiled, "It can't run!" ”

Nothing could be seen in the night, but thanks to the search of the sea radar and the efforts of the radar crew, the Lützov was firmly locked onto the target, and the bright spot of the British transport on the screen was like a torch that attracted Stanger to rush towards it, and the distance was shortened by 12 nautical miles every 1 hour.

"Sir!" At 2:47 a.m., the radar soldier suddenly screamed.

"What's the matter?" Stange, who had been staying in the radar room and had just entered the stage of closing his eyes and recuperating his mind, was alarmed, "Lost the target?" ”

"No, look!" The radarman pointed to the screen with a trembling hand.

Stanger looked at the screen, and gasped - there were suddenly a dense number of bright spots on the screen, more than a dozen.

"What is this?" He suddenly shouted excitedly, "This is the British's transport!" Yes, this must be their convoy! ”

"Good boy, good boy, you have made a meritorious service!" He happily patted the shoulder of the radar soldier who was not yet 19 years old, "When this battle is over, I will apply for a medal for you, how about a first-class iron cross?" ”

"This ...... I didn't even get level two. The young radar soldier smiled shyly.

"It's okay, I have a solution." With a wave of his hand, Stanger said, "Full speed ahead and knock the Englishman to the bottom of the sea." ”

At half past three o'clock, the Lützov, which had been tracking the highlights for more than half an hour, not only did not miss the target, but found more bright spots, and Stange no longer doubted the authenticity of the fleet, and immediately informed Kumetz and other warships of the news, and roughly estimated the extent of the sea area, and all the German warships that received the briefing rushed desperately at maximum speed.

In the early morning of 6 February, a large number of ships appeared in the northwestern waters of the Norwegian Sea, with the JW-51A fleet desperately fleeing on one side and the Lützov chasing after them - after a night of pursuit, the distance between them had narrowed to less than 45 nautical miles, and as the latitude went further south, the weather began to improve, the wind had decreased a lot, and not only the visibility was greatly improved, but even the planes could be used. Remembering the tremendous role of the North Cape Air Force, Vice Admiral Kumetz immediately sent the information to the nearest base at Trothham, asking them to send as many planes as possible to support them - in fact, the naval command had already given the order to the HNA .

The day has finally come to settle the ledger...... (To be continued.) )