The clouds on the sea hung low, enveloping the entire sea and sky as far as the eye could see, and the cold east wind blew wildly, whipping up rolling waves two or three meters high. Machinery roars, waves fly, and the German fleet, with the heavy aircraft carrier Count Zeppelin as the core, is sailing against the wind; The black mist of exhaust fumes coming out of the chimneys quickly drifted away with the wind, and even in the center of the fleet, there was hardly the slightest column of smoke to be seen.

"Looks like we'll have to go back home this time." In the navigation command room, Fang Yan whispered to himself with a little regret. According to his plan, after the few wounded ships had been settled, the fleet should return to the North Atlantic and continue the planned strangulation at sea. After all, the fleet he is in still has 4 main aircraft carriers intact, even if the current lineup is much less than when it set out on the expedition, but with carrier-based aircraft, radar, and escort destroyers, its comprehensive combat effectiveness is still several times higher than that of the three single-ship safari pocket combat cruisers. Wilhelmshaven, however, sent them a telegram to return home. When Fang Yan saw that the signature at the end of the telegram was not the familiar German Navy Fleet Command, but Adolf? By Hitler's time, he knew it was a foregone conclusion.

Unlike Fang Yan's entanglement, Hoffmann, the captain of the Zeppelin, was extremely excited. Although the fleet's cruise lasted a short time, it created a great victory, and he could not wait for the victory and triumph, and enjoy the supreme honor in front of hundreds of millions of people. Most of the officers and men in the fleet also had the same thoughts as Hoffman, and even the commander, Vice Admiral Bomei, was seen by Fang Yan in his expectant gaze hidden under a calm exterior.

Faced with the strange plans of his colleagues, Fang Yan, who was powerless to change the status quo, could only choose to go with nature. As for Hitler's practice of overstepping his authority and directly giving orders to the first-line fleet, Fang Yan also guessed his motives in his heart. At the end of the day, Hitler was a statesman and in many cases needed to look at the country as a whole. If it can ignite the people's enthusiasm for the war and make them willing to sacrifice everything for the current national war, then the benefits will be far greater than the sinking of a few more British merchant ships by the navy.

After understanding this layer, Fang Yan put all his efforts into the navigation command of the fleet's return. As for the choice of route, Fang Yan, after careful consideration, finally agreed with Bomay's opinion that the fleet would return to the Norwegian Sea through the Danish Channel. In addition to the fact that this waterway would allow the fleet to reach Murmansk, which is also part of the Arctic Circle, another reason was to take the British by surprise. After all, under normal circumstances, the waters south of Iceland, with its better climate, were obviously the first choice for the German fleet with air superiority to enter and exit the Atlantic; Since Britain did not know about the shady collusion between Germany and the Soviet Union, it was difficult to imagine that the German fleet would return to the Norwegian Sea from the high-latitude Danish Strait.

After three days of sailing, the German fleet gradually moved from the warm West Europa basin to the Reykjanes Ridge, near the Arctic Circle. 300 kilometres to the northeast is Iceland covered in ice.

As the second largest island in Europe after the United Kingdom, Iceland was almost completely untouched at this time. More than 90% of the island is covered by ice fields and inhospitable volcanic rocks, and only a small amount of lowland plains in the south have abundant precipitation, making them suitable for human activity. Iceland has been a Danish overseas possession since the beginning of the 19th century, but the Danes apparently had no intention of gaining any colonial benefits on this remote island, and Iceland had almost no economic resources other than inshore fishing.

Since Iceland had only a small population in the south and no industrial facilities, it was unlikely that the German fleet's passage through the Danish Strait to the north would be detected by shore-based patrol aircraft or local patrol boats. The only thing that worried Fang Yan was the possible obstruction of the British fleet here. After all, in another plane, Bismarck and Hood collided in the Danish Channel and killed each other too famously; Now that the German fleet has revisited its old place, Fang Yan cannot help but be vigilant and worried.

However, it soon turned out that Fang Yan's worries were unfounded. Historically, the reason why Bismarck encountered a strong enemy in the Danish Strait was because it was targeted by a British reconnaissance plane shortly after leaving the house, and the latter called for friends and support. Now that the German fleet has not appeared for a long time, and the British Navy has devoted a large number of troops to the search for the German pocket war patrols, it is naturally difficult to lay a net in the Danish Strait as it did in history. Keep in mind that the Danish Strait is 1,800 kilometres away from the British mainland, and there is a 1,000-kilometre wide body of water south of Iceland that can also be crossed by ships. If you don't prepare in advance and have a purpose, it will definitely not be easy to stop the target in the Danish Strait.

As the German fleet moved into high latitudes, Fang Yan found that the ice floes on the sea were more threatening to him than the British. In October, the Danish Strait was in the wind, and large patches of gray ice had appeared on the rough sea; And no seafarer would take these humble floats lightly, as they hide almost 10 times the volume of the surface of the water. In the event of a collision with the hull, it may cause extensive damage to the watertight compartment of the ship. In the past, the Titanic luxury cruise ship was sunk by an iceberg impact, although the watertightness of the German warship is far from being comparable to the former, but in the current voyage home, any situation that causes the ship to slow down should be avoided.

At this time, the value of the German Navy's ocean-going training, which had been carried out since the end of the 20s, was finally fully demonstrated. Each captain has crossed the Atlantic Ocean in the winter and has extensive experience in maneuvering warships to avoid the ice floes coming from the front. Occasionally, ice was hit from the side, but because its relative force was far less ferocious than that of a frontal impact, it was mostly withstood by the high-performance St-52 shipbuilding steel. At night, the German fleet turned on the navigation lights, but fortunately, this area was remote, and Fang Yan did not have to worry about being attacked by British submarines again.

In the early morning of October 11, Fang Yan woke up from his cabin, and when he saw the navigator's latest route of the fleet, he couldn't help but breathe a long sigh of relief, and his bright starry eyes were full of joy. At this moment, the German fleet had entered the Norwegian Sea and was currently in the western part of the Lofoten basin. Fang Yan was still a little uneasy, so he found a sextant and made a rough measurement of the red sun on the horizon in the east; The results showed that his coordinates were about 5 degrees west longitude and 67 degrees north latitude, and he was less than 1,700 kilometers away from Murmansk in a straight line.

"We escorted the wounded warship to Murmansk, and then refueled it with the Soviets and returned to Germany." Bomay handed Fang Yan a page of a telegram, the initials of the German Naval Fleet Command clearly printed at the end. Seeing Fang Yan frowning slightly, Bo Mei thought that he was worried about the trouble that the German fleet would bring to the Soviet port, so he explained: "This is an order received in the early hours of this morning, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has already negotiated all relevant matters with the Soviets. We also bought 10,000 tons of heavy oil from the Murmansk stockpile, and when the fleet arrives there, we will be able to replenish it as soon as possible. ”

Fang Yan carefully read the words on the telegram, and couldn't help but be slightly surprised in his heart. He did not expect the Navy Headquarters to be so cautious on the issue of the return of the fleet: not only did the main force of the fleet have to send the wounded ships all the way to Murmansk, but even the fuel replenishment was ready. At this time, no less than 40% of the oil depots of the ships remained, which would be enough to return to the German mainland even at a speed of 20 knots. If another 10,000 tons of fuel can be replenished, then the ships can be at full power and rush all the way back to Germany from the Barents Sea.

"The Führer and the Marshal have really spent a lot of money in order to guarantee 100 percent victory and propaganda effect." Fang Yan opened his mouth, attracting strange eyes from everyone around him. In the hearts of all current German naval officers and sailors, both Hitler and Raeder are already divine figures. Seeing Bo Mei's stern gaze, Fang Yan knew that he was speechless, but after all, he was a battle-hardened figure who had talked and laughed with high-level dignitaries in Germany and Italy, so he immediately changed the topic without a trace.

In the following time, the German fleet began its voyage in the wind-swept Arctic Circle. It was late autumn, and although the polar night had not yet entered near the Arctic Circle, the daylight hours had been greatly reduced, and according to Fang Yan's statistics, there were less than 8 hours a day when the sun could be seen. At the same time, however, the ice floes, which was a headache for the German fleet, disappeared: the Lofoten Basin, where the North Atlantic Current is active, never drops below 5 degrees Celsius, even in the coldest of winters. Seeing this, the German sailors also put their hearts back in their stomachs, and the waves and clouds on the sea outside were a strange and curious adventure for them, worthy of adding a touch of color to their own maritime history.

Near the northern part of Norway, sporadic ships began to appear on the sea, which was the daily commercial transportation brought by the Norwegian port of Narvik and the Soviet port of Murmansk. Relying on the cover of radar, the German fleet avoided these civilian ships and continued to the northeast. Over time, Cape Norchen, the northernmost point of Scandinavia, was also left behind by the German fleet. On the evening of October 14, under the dark curtain, the canine-toothed continental shelf of the port of Murmansk was already in sight. (To be continued.) )