At nightfall, the storm in the sea area where the German air fleet was located weakened, but before Fang Yan could feel a little lucky, it was pouring rain in the sky again. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 Countless silver threads splashed on the transparent windows of the navigation command room, obscuring the vision of the insiders, and the ground crew had to urgently cover the aircraft on the deck with rainproof canvas to protect these delicate and delicate fighting machines from being incapacitated by the invasion of water mist.

Considering that the carrier-based aircraft could not be dispatched at this time, Fang Yan also calmed down. At least when encountering rainy areas, it can still be avoided by maneuvering, Fang Yan laid a solid foundation of navigation skills when he was a lieutenant-level officer, and he has rich experience in this. According to his judgment, the air flow in this rainy area is in a state of internal rotation and stasis, which will not affect the area too much, and by tomorrow morning, the fleet will definitely be able to break out of the dark clouds.

"In any case, tomorrow we will be able to meet the British fleet for the real thing." Fang Yan stared at the sea chart in front of him and said silently in his heart. At this time, 12 hours had passed since the U-99 discovered the main force of the British fleet during the day, and if the British had chosen to send a rapid detachment to storm Bergen, they would have already arrived at their destination and launched an artillery bombardment of the harbor even if they were to move forward on a Z-shaped anti-submarine route.

The Hipper's communications room still has not received any unusual telegrams, suggesting that everything is normal outside the port of Bergen; The British commander did not seem to be in a hurry for this one night, but chose to concentrate his forces in a prudent manner, waiting for the next day's dawn before launching targeted precision strikes against the German troops on the target coast.

At that time, even if the German aircraft carriers and shore-based aviation were still unable to participate in the battle due to the weather, the first artillery fleet would intercept the incoming British fleet outside the port of Bergen. And for this upcoming battle that completely deviated from the historical trajectory, Fang Yan couldn't help but feel a little nervous in his heart.

One of the tasks of the German fleet was to preserve the landing ground of Bergen as much as possible, which would somewhat affect the decision of Admiral Karls, who personally led the bombardment of the fleet, so that he would not be able to fully exploit the speed advantage of the two heavy battleships because he was concerned about the safety of his allies. What if the artillery bombardment fleet still leaves the enemy as it does in a normal naval battle, and the enemy turns around and goes to the port directly?

And if Kars chooses to favor a radical hard shock, the strength of 2 battleships and 8 destroyers will be weak. The British fleet could have completely avoided going to the battle line with the German artillery fleet, and directly let the light cruisers and destroyer boys launch a torpedo attack. No matter how high a warship's kung fu is, it is afraid of torpedoes, and after the outer hull of a mere ten millimeters is exposed to hundreds of kilograms of high-energy explosives in the face, it will enter a large amount of water and cause deceleration anyway!

At this point, Fang Yan can only choose to believe in Kars's command skills, and look forward to an ideal sunny day tomorrow. As long as the air fleet can exert its due power, the shelling fleet will reduce the pressure, and there will be no stage for them to exert their might at all. The aircraft carrier in the waters of the North Sea-Norwegian Sea is not suitable for combat, but it is not inoperable, as evidenced by the success of the surprise attack on Scarpa Bay; After experiencing so much bad weather, Fang Yan felt that it was time for him to get moving.

In the night, the German aircraft carrier continued to move towards the scheduled course in the torrential rain, while Fang Yan made up for sleep in his private lounge to recuperate for the upcoming day. At 7:30 a.m. on January 18, Fang Yan quickly opened his eyes at the call of the bell, and he first stared at the shaking of the chandelier on the ceiling for a while, and then suddenly jumped up from the camp bed and pulled the curtain of the round porthole.

Outside the window, there was still a deep black and blue, no different from nightfall, but with the help of the faint light in the cabin, the sea level less than 10 meters below it was also invisible in Fang Yan's bright eyes. The waves gently lapped against the steel ship's side, and the waves were no longer as strong as before, and the original downpour was reduced to a few thin threads of water, splashing on the outside of the portholes to form scattered splashes.

In less than 5 minutes, Fang Yan was already standing on the top of the open-air bridge on the starboard ship island. The aircraft carrier, with a full load displacement of 17,300 tons, is stable on the sea surface, and the roll is only 7 degrees at most. As the far reaches of the east gradually turned from pitch black to light yellow and bright blue, the situation on the sea surface became clear, and the morning fog that seemed to be like a regular visitor finally did not appear again, and the whole sea and sky seemed to have been washed by the heavy rain last night, clear and transparent, and the strong wind blowing in the face carried a refreshing and new breath.

"The wave is level 3, there are 4~5 northwest gusts, the sea visibility is 26km, and it is expected to continue to improve after sunrise......" It didn't take long for the adjutant to send an accurate data report to Fang Yan. Fang Yan, who breathed a sigh of relief, did not hesitate any longer, and immediately ordered the fleet to prepare a reconnaissance aircraft group. After holding back for 5 days, the ground crew finally waited for the opportunity to show their value, and acted quickly in the sound of the radio of the whole ship; One by one, the fighters tethered to the flight deck were stripped of their tarpaulins and then towed to the tail of the aircraft carrier, gradually accumulating the rudiments of a reconnaissance lineup.

"General, the Zeppelin has sent a signal asking our fleet to prepare planes to conduct reconnaissance in all directions from the south to the northwest." About 10 minutes later, a communications officer walked briskly into the bridge of the navigation ship and reported to him. According to the combat regulations drawn up by the Navy, the Hipper-class light aircraft carrier, which has a single-wave flight capability of only half of the Zeppelin-class, is most suitable for the mission of searching for the enemy and air defense, and for this reason, the proportion of fighters on board the Hippert and the Seydlitz has reached two-thirds, and the total number of fighters is equivalent to that of the two Zeppelin-class aircraft with a capacity of up to 120 aircraft.

Fang Yan nodded and didn't say anything more. At this time, our fleet was located near the 63rd parallel near the Norwegian continental shelf, and 30 nautical miles to the east was the land, and the northern fleet would not have an enemy just after sailing, and the British fleet could only appear in the south and west.

At 8:20 a.m., the sea and air, which were gradually becoming clearer, were completely suitable for carrier-based aircraft to carry out long-distance aerial reconnaissance at high altitudes. The pilots also had their breakfasts full and sat in the planes, which were also refueled, and waited for the order to attack. Just as Fang Yan was about to let the first batch of 24 fighters of one and a half squadrons attack, the nervous voice of the communications officer suddenly came from the microphone connected to the telegraph room:

"General, we have received a signal from the Bismarck that the battlefleet has encountered the main force of the British fleet 25 nautical miles west of Bergen. The enemy had 4 battleships, 4 cruisers, and more than 20 destroyers; With good visibility and moderate winds, the Bismarck asked our fleet to provide air support as soon as possible! (To be continued.) )