"You said there were German planes coming at us?" Major General Burnett gave a look of disbelief.

"Yes, Colonel Sherbrooke sent an urgent telegram that his destroyer formation had been sunk by two, and it was now changed to a retreat to the southwest......"

"It's a pity...... he didn't wait for him to say the second half of the sentence, and the alarm in the command tower had suddenly sounded, "Enemy planes, air strikes, ......"

Schroeder's caution and good eyesight brought good luck to the North Cape Air Force, 8 minutes later, he saw the British cruiser formation floating on the sea, all the pilots were excited, just now the commander on the radio forcibly stopped the momentum of the attack, many people were confused and didn't figure out what was going on, and they only reacted when they saw the big guys below.

Looking at the black and overwhelming enemy planes in the air, Major General Burnett scolded angrily: "Damn, why did you attract these flies?" ”

It was the best time of the day for the sunshine, which was very conducive to the aircraft to identify the target, and Schroeder did not rush to attack, but reported what he observed first: "A treaty-type heavy cruiser was discovered, suspected to be of the Kent class; two light cruisers, suspected to be of the Fiji class or Southampton class; Two destroyers. ”

When this news was relayed by the Hipper and poured into the naval headquarters in Berlin, everyone was dumbfounded -- if the planes had not been dispatched today, and the Hipper had rushed directly to it, it would have been a tragedy under the siege of the British, three cruisers, and seven destroyers.

Hoffman, who had been moody, only then said: "You see, I will say that the British have more than that. ”

Frick wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, and couldn't help but feel a thrill at the thought of almost giving the Hippel to the Barents Sea just now because of the unknown enemy, and now he could only shout God bless Germany.

"What about Tirpits?"

Raeder looked at his watch: "It's 13:17 p.m., and Tirpitts estimates that it won't arrive until about half past four." ”

Hoffman nodded: "Look at the results of the Air Force, I hope Lieutenant General Kumetz will be able to share a little scraps...... Oh, no, it can't be said that the scraps are cold, but it should be said that it is a sumptuous feast - there are more than a dozen British transports in the back. Even he couldn't help laughing when he said this.

A group of high-ranking Navy officials laughed along, apparently imagining Tirpitz storming the convoy and killing all sides.

The Burnett formation, which had three cruisers to support and had already set up a circular anti-aircraft formation, was obviously more difficult to deal with than the destroyer formation, Schroeder carefully observed the sea surface, and did not attack lightly, he knew that he only had this opportunity to attack today, and he must take advantage of it - the weather forecast indicated that the weather conditions in the waters near Tianxiong Island were going to deteriorate again, so the air force would not be able to dispatch.

He first asked the escorting Bf-219 to go down to "clean" the deck, the Bf-219 could have hung small bombs, but because of the long-distance attack, the auxiliary fuel tank was added, so now only the cannon can be used. They penetrated the smoke released by the British ships, and in the fierce strafing of MG151/20mm aviation guns, the ships were shot one after another, and the blood flowed on the deck, especially the flagship Cumberland, which was most "cared for" by German aircraft. Three minutes later, seeing that the deck fire had weakened, Schroeder immediately had both formations dive down at the same time - instead of choosing the Cumberland in the center, he aimed at the Jamaica on the periphery of the left flank, and rushed down from the front and rear decks.

Although the Jamaica was a cutting-edge warship that was only completed and commissioned at the end of June 1942, equipped with two eight-pack two-pounder (40mm) "bang bang" guns and four 20mm machine guns, this anti-aircraft fire could not stop the extremely fast He-218, under the attack of six aircraft, let the ship maneuver left and right, the main deck was still hit by two 500-kilogram bombs one after the other, this is after all a treaty-type light cruiser made according to the London Naval Treaty, and its obvious shortcoming is that the defense is weak. Under the patronage of two bombs, the 8,500-ton cruiser was dying, collapsed on the water, and after a few moments, finally began to capsize due to excessive flooding, and then sank rapidly.

After the Jamaica was settled, half of the 24 He-218s were left without bombing, and Schroeder correctly assessed the current situation, and instead of rushing to attack another cruiser, he let a three-plane formation attack the destroyers on the periphery.

Although it did not let a bomb fall on its own deck, the He-218's dive attack capability was not covered, and the aircraft were all the elites of the Norwegian Air Force, and the three bombs dropped all formed a port side near miss, and the fragile underwater part of the destroyer could not withstand this continuous explosion, and was forced to tear a gap by the impact force, and the sea water was just poured in, and the captain was finally forced to abandon the ship.

At this time, there were still 9 planes in the North Cape Air Force that had not dropped bombs, and because the He-218 was a built-in magazine, it was impossible to tell whether it was completed or not if it was not carefully looked before dropping the bombs, so the other aircraft groups hovering in the air had very great pressure on the surface ships to contain the sea ships, and the remaining British warships fired desperately, but their sparse anti-aircraft fire was ridiculously weak in Schroeder's eyes.

Schroeder set his sights on the Cumberland, with its flagship logo, and he personally led six planes down with him - bent on sinking the enemy ship. As a result, three bombs were hit in a row in the area near the bridge of the ship, and the entire bridge was completely blown away, although the British also shot down a He-218, but the fate of the Cumberland was irretrievable, and all members of the command, including Rear Admiral Burnett, were killed on the spot in the violent explosion, and the warship was broken in two and began to sink rapidly.

In the end, there were 3 bombers left, Schroeder thought about it, and told them to drop the bombs on the bow of the remaining cruiser as much as possible, he knew that they might not be able to sink it, but as long as they could damage the enemy ships, the Hipper would definitely send them to the bottom of the sea when the time came. His strategy succeeded, the 500-kilogram bomb successfully opened a large hole in the foredeck of the Sheffield, the two turrets in front were blown away, and the entire warship entered the water by 2,500 tons, and the speed was reduced to only 13 knots.

"Major Schroeder reported that the North Point Cape Air Force ended today's air raid, lost two He-218s, sank two British cruisers, three destroyers, and severely damaged one British cruiser, and now the whole group is returning to ......"

As soon as the words of the report on the enemy's situation fell, thunderous applause erupted in the naval headquarters.

"Major Schroeder has done a good job and should be commended......" Hoffman said with a smile as he glanced around, "and then we're going to hear good news from Hippert and Tirpitz?" ”

At the same time that Schroeder led the North Cape Air Force into a fierce attack, the Hippert and three British destroyers exchanged fire, and fortunately for the British, the long anchorage greatly reduced the Hipper's proud shooting skills. The British destroyers often hid in the water curtain, which caused the German gunners to waste a lot of ammunition. Hartmann, who was in a hurry, also made mistakes in his tactical arrangement, and when only the two main guns in the bow could fire, he also divided a turret to deal with the Chung Shun, and later decided to concentrate his fire on the British flagship Anslow.

After a long bombardment, the German sailors finally made significant progress. A shell hit the Angslow, the shell landed on the part between the bridge and the chimney, tearing the chimney in half, the nearby radar control room was completely destroyed, the boiler was out of order, and the power dropped below 20 knots at once. Two minutes later, the destroyer Z16, which was accompanying the battle, hit the Angslow with shells, one of which hit the A turret, killing all the gunners inside, and the other hit the deck between the B turret and the bridge, most of the nearby sailors were killed, and the fire broke out in the non-commissioned officer's cabin under the bridge, and the total number of casualties on the ship exceeded 60, but the Anslow was still fighting back.

Colonel Sherbrooke was badly wounded by shrapnel on the left side of his face, his flesh was blurred, and his left eye was protruding from his socket, but he calmly ordered to slow down to L5 knots to reduce the fire, and then retreated westward under the cover of a smoke screen while handing over command of the fleet to Lieutenant Commander Kinglock, the captain of the Chungshun. Sergeant Major Cook, whose legs were blown off and dying, crawled down the aisle dragging his injured leg while complaining that the infirmary only gave him "damn aspirin - I'd rather swap these for a daily rum ration...... and a few minutes later he passed out from bleeding profusely.

Faced with the Honslow fleeing from the battlefield, the Hippel did not chase after it, but only replaced the next target for the Chung Shun, Hartman had learned from the telegram of the impressive achievements of the North Cape Air Force, and also knew that the air force had left him a heavily damaged cruiser, and he was eager to sink the opponent in front of him to deal with the British cruiser.

In the face of the unfavorable situation, the British destroyer was forced to play a game of cat and mouse with the Germans, while casting a smoke screen, while firing torpedoes, the Hippert was unmoved, and continued to concentrate its fire against the destroyer Zhongshun, the Zhongshun was finally sunk under the concentrated fire of the 203mm naval guns, but the Orville, which was hiding behind the smoke, seized the opportunity to cast 4 torpedoes, the Hippert was not affected by the torpedo, but the Z16 destroyer, which was the first to enter the battle, was unlucky this time and actually hit the torpedo, Captain Alfred Shermel could only give the order to abandon the ship.

Frustrated, Hartmann was furious, poured all his firepower on the Orville, sank his opponent in less than five minutes, and then had no choice but to rescue the Z16's sailors - who could not be saved after more than 20 minutes in the ice.

At 14:47 in the afternoon, Hoffman received the latest report: the Hipper severely damaged 1 destroyer and sank 2 destroyers, and then his own Z16 destroyer was torpedoed and sank, leaving only the Hipper, the bare-rod commander, on the sea. (To be continued.) )