After two rounds of torpedo attacks, the formation of the W fleet was in disarray, all the warships were maneuvering at top speed, Lieutenant Commander Hans now looked back at the situation of the Catcher escort carrier, and found that the latter's gap was finally revealed, he immediately seized the opportunity to lead the last 6 Ju-98s to attack, the Predator was finally in danger, and the Sirius (Dedo-class air defense cruiser) was sunk after one torpedo each, and the remaining 4 were dodged by other warships.

Although Hans still wanted to attack, he had no choice but to return after all the torpedoes had been thrown. At 4:53, the German attack group left the disorganized W Fleet and immediately flew back at maximum speed, while the German aircraft carrier group was moving west at a speed of 31 knots to meet its own attack group. By 5:25, the distance between the British and German fleets had narrowed from about 400 kilometers to 310 kilometers. Although the shortened distance was also conducive to the British Swordfish attack group to launch an attack as soon as possible, but unfortunately, they were discovered by the escort group before they reached the sky above the German fleet, and the 20 Bf-219s that had been idle immediately swarmed up, and it took less than 5 minutes to shoot down all the British planes in the sky, and they only lost one plane, and the parachuted pilots were picked up by the quick-eyed S-boats, and the desperate attack of the W fleet was declared a failure.

By 5:47 a.m., the Zeppelin and Europa had finally recovered the last of their planes.

In the first aircraft carrier battle over the North Sea, the German fleet was undoubtedly a complete victory, at the cost of 6 aircraft (3 Bf-219, 1 He-218, 2 Ju-98), they sank 3 British escort carriers, 1 Fiji-class light cruiser, 2 Dedot-class cruisers and 1 O-class destroyer, severely damaged 1 escort carrier, and inflicted a medium wound on the Mississippi, in addition to the fact that the aircraft on 4 enemy aircraft carriers were almost completely destroyed.

What is even more unexpected is that at the same time as the W Fleet launched a desperate attack, Admiral Fraser also ordered all 24 Barracuda torpedo attack planes on the Faroe Islands to attack the North Sea Fleet under the escort of 16 Sea Hurricane fighters, the speed of the Barracuda was half faster than the Swordfish, but the distance of 480 kilometers allowed them to fly for an hour and a half, plus the German aircraft carrier drove out for nearly 100 kilometers to the west, and when the sky was completely dark, the British attack aircraft group had not found the target of the attack, and the Barracuda could only fly back in a huff. As a result, only 19 of the 40 planes returned to the Faroe Islands intact at the time of departure, and the rest either did not find their way home, got lost in the air, ran out of fuel and had to make a forced landing, or were destroyed during a night landing due to poor visibility and finally rushed off the runway.

After learning that the British fleet had only 2 battleships and that one of them had been hit, Machar became emboldened, and he thought that this ship was trying to support the British fleet of the Iceland-Faroe Islands general, and if there was an interceptor fleet in front of the fleet, he did not think that the strength would be particularly strong, so he decided to cross the Iceland-Faroe Islands sea overnight, and the staff officers calculated that since it was now less than 13 hours before dawn, even if the fleet was moving at a maximum speed of 26 knots, It will also be difficult to completely break through the blockade of the defenders of Iceland and the Faroe Islands at dawn tomorrow, and the risk will be greater.

After hearing this news, he immediately frowned, but Ozawa's statement quickly strengthened his confidence: "We can't delay any longer, we must take a little risk no matter what, while a British fleet is disabled by us, we will immediately break through the waterway, otherwise we will pay a greater price when the Royal Navy completes its assembly." ”

At 6:14, the North Sea Fleet changed its course to the southwest and pounced on the Icelandic-Faroe waters at a speed of 26 knots.

"Our losses are huge?" After receiving the telegram from the W fleet, Admiral Tovey couldn't sit still, "What caused it?" ”

"The Germans had fast planes and advanced performance than us, and they achieved reconnaissance results earlier than we did." After learning that the four escort aircraft carriers were reimbursed, Pound sighed, "We not only lack excellent carrier-based aircraft pilots, but also lack aircraft that can be compared. ”

As if to confirm his words, five minutes later, the staff officer reported: "Sir, Admiral Fraser has sent a telegram that the Faroe Islands Air Force did not find its target in today's sortie, and then lost 21 aircraft. ”

"Damn, what now?" Churchill asked, somewhat angrily, "Is there nothing you can do about watching the Germans flaunt their might?" ”

"Prime Minister, although the W fleet has suffered heavy losses, the two battleships have been preserved intact, the main force is still there, and we judge that the German fleet will try to pass through the Iceland-Faroe Islands sea tonight, so we intend to intercept them." Pound pointed out on the map, "The preliminary plan is to let the W fleet continue to advance to the southeast and the E fleet to the northeast, and the two fleets will try to meet in the middle of the waterway tonight, join forces, and intercept the German fleet." After daybreak, we will use all the attack aircraft groups in Iceland and the Faroe Islands to destroy them. ”

"Can you stop it?" Churchill asked suspiciously.

"It should be possible, Rear Admiral Lewis has 2 battleships and 1 heavy cruiser in his hands, although he does not have an advantage over the German fleet, the gap is not too big, because the German aircraft carrier formation cannot be put into artillery battles."

"What if the Germans go through the Danish Channel?"

"With the current position of the German fleet, they can only pass through the Danish Channel during the day, and we will send planes to reconnoitre. Even if they did take the Danish Channel with a single shot, the fleet would have had time to move southwest, take advantage of the inside line to cut corners and intercept them. Tovey explained the reason for this, "After the enemy has converged, we can't continue to divide our forces, otherwise we will be easily defeated by each one." ”

"What if...... I mean, what if ......," Churchill put forward a hypothesis, "what if we failed to stop the German fleet and let them rush into the Atlantic in the worst case?" ”

"This ......," Pound could only say helplessly after thinking for a while, "then we can only temporarily stop the Atlantic transportation line for a month, and in a month we will have a large number of warships returning from the United States, and the siege network can be rearranged." ”

"I understand, let the fleet search carefully, don't let the Germans go, and strive to launch a general attack tomorrow to destroy all this German fleet." Churchill encouraged his two men, "I am confident that the Royal Navy will be able to accomplish this noble and difficult task." (To be continued.) )