At 8 p.m. on 11 February, the combined German North Sea Fleet returned to the coast of Norway, about 100 nautical miles northwest of Bergen, just over 100 nautical miles from Meenland Island in the Shetland Islands, and about 300 nautical miles from the Faroe Islands.

Taking advantage of the nightfall, the entire fleet was reorganized and replenished, and most of the warships were not short of fuel and supplies at this time, but the S-boats, which had a cruising range of only 700 nautical miles, urgently needed to replenish fuel and torpedoes. The 50-odd S-boats were supplemented by transports and oil tankers temporarily mobilized by the Navy Command from Bergen, and in addition to supplies, the transports were also responsible for escorting the surviving officers and men of the British Navy who had been fished out of the sea today back to Norway and later to the domestic prisoner of war camps.

"You guys can really toss around, using more than 50 torpedoes this morning? Sunk capital ships or merchant ships? ”

"No...... Just one destroyer, the other ran away. ”

"Against destroyers with the latest model torpedoes? You can figure it out, torpedoes don't cost money? ”

"The orders given by the commander, those who understand must obey, and those who do not understand must also obey, no matter how you calculate, it is cost-effective to consume 50 torpedoes to sink a destroyer."

The slower but powerful Tirpits, the Lützov, the Admiral Scheer plus 4 destroyers formed an artillery group; The Hipper, Prinz Eugen and Seydlitz were grouped into the carrier group as the core escort. Taking advantage of the regrouping, Machar also made changes to the commander, believing that Rear Admiral Bey was more offensive and changed him to commander of the artillery fleet, while Vice Admiral Kumetz's cautious nature allowed him to play a more prominent role as commander of the carrier escort. This adjustment was not only approved by the Navy Command, but also happily accepted by both parties.

The only disagreement was over the Scharnhorst, Rear Admiral Bey wanted to bring the battlecruiser under his command, while Kumetz believed that the aircraft carrier formation's artillery firepower was insufficient and that it was better to serve as a fleet escort, and after careful study, the Scharnhorst ended up remaining in the carrier formation, but should the shelling formation need to rush the first to reinforcements.

Raeder didn't relay Hoffman's whining to the troops—that was it, and he didn't want to pour extra cold water on the fleet. However, as the excitement of destroying the enemy ships passed, the drawbacks of wasting five hours in pursuit of the British cruiser formation this morning gradually became exposed, and not only Marchar, Kumets, and other senior officers realized this, but also the staff officers who drew up the plan began to worry: According to the original plan, the Tirpitz formation should attract the British fleet away that afternoon, and then the main fleet would take advantage of the darkness to break through the middle waters of the Shetland Islands and smoothly break into the Atlantic. However, as soon as the battle was fought, not only did it take an extra five hours, but it was also more than 100 nautical miles away from the original position, and the cumulative consequences made the fleet's original plan to cross at night come to naught.

If the original plan was carried out in the same way, it would have to be passed through the waters of the Shetland Islands in broad daylight, and no one would dare to take such a risk. Even though the weather forecast report indicated that there would be wind and snow tomorrow morning, poor visibility, and the fact that planes would still not be able to sort, the staff officers still did not think that they could be sure of it: There was only a 40-nautical-mile wide waterway in the middle of the Shetland Islands, and if they were convinced that the enemy fleet had been transferred away, they would dare to try to cross at night, and now they had to give up if they did not meet either of these conditions, otherwise they would not have crossed and infiltrated but would have attacked by force.

In addition, after the cruiser formation was hit, the position and movement of the North Sea Fleet were exposed, and the enemy could easily judge the next stage of movement, and the staff officers believed that the British fleet was likely to wait in the triangle of the Faroe Islands, the Sedland Islands, and northern Scotland, and the fleet could only throw itself into the net when it rushed over.

Ozawa and the Japanese staff team were bold and suggested that the combined fleet force its passage during the day, and their judgment was based on the fact that the Royal Navy's dispatch in the sea area had not yet been completed, and its current strength was not strong, and even if there was a fleet to block it, it could kill all the way through, but this suggestion was rejected by Mashal and others without hesitation -- he believed that the British fleet should have 4-5 capital ships, although none of them could compare with the Tirpitz in terms of combat effectiveness of a single ship, but Germany could come up with such a capital ship. The 283mm naval guns on several warships such as Scharnhorst were more than enough to deal with cruisers or merchant ships, but not enough to deal with capital ships.

No one expected that, although it sounded risky, the Japanese staff group's view was closer to the truth: at the moment, the Royal Navy in this triangular sea had only one E fleet, two core warships, one Arkansas and the other Lamiri, and the entire German fleet could have the upper hand in a hard-fought battle, but it was a pity that Marshall's caution made him refuse this risky behavior.

In the end, the fleet was ready to find a different way, changing the originally planned breakthrough into the Atlantic Ocean on the night of the 11th to the night of the 12th, and the tsunami plan was postponed by one day as a whole. Since the Sherland waters were no longer used, there were only two routes left when a new breakthrough route was chosen: the first was the Danish Channel between Greenland and Iceland, which the British called the Western Route, and the second was the waterway between Iceland and the Faroe Islands, which the British called the Middle Route.

After careful calculations, the staff officers found that it was not safe to take the western front if they were to cross at night: from now on the fleet would have to march overnight at a speed of more than 26 knots, without the slightest delay in between. This was a very dangerous tactic, not only could all the ships not move at an economical speed, but there was no room for manoeuvre in case of an enemy warship - no need to run into a Royal Navy warship, and only a trawler or transport ship with an alarm signal would cause unnecessary trouble for the fleet.

"Only on the Iceland-Faro waterway?" Machar asked uneasily, "Does the submarine have any clear information in this direction?" ”

"No, but we think that the enemy will definitely have a fleet there, the question is the number, the size of the ships, and the speed at which we can cross." Schoen, chief of staff of the North Sea Fleet, said, "Based on the repeated operations on the map, we have drawn up a plan: the main force of the fleet will move northwest along the existing course at a speed of about 18 knots, and reach the 64th parallel at 6 p.m. tomorrow evening, and then turn southwest at a speed of 24 knots and cross the Iceland-Faro waterway, and if all goes well, it will enter the Atlantic Ocean in the early morning of the 13th, at which time the distance from Iceland, the Faroe Islands, and the British mainland will be more than 400 kilometers, and it can effectively get rid of its air defense circle." ”

"What's the biggest risk?"

"If the enemy is discovered on the way, we can only turn around and move farther away, and the breakthrough time will be postponed for another day, and it will become a night of the 13th through the Danish Channel into the Atlantic." Schoen sighed, "It's best not to delay any longer, all kinds of intelligence show that the British are mobilizing fleets on all sides to encircle, and the news from the naval command that reinforcements from the US Atlantic Fleet have departed and will arrive in 3-5 days, and the later the time is delayed, the more bad it will be for us." ”

Machar deeply believed that although the fleet was dispatched at a time when the Royal Navy was relatively weak, the fleet was to carry out the tsunami plan rather than to find the enemy for a decisive battle, and if the Gibraltar passage was opened at this time, all the axial naval forces gathered in the Mediterranean could erupt, and there would be no fear of a decisive battle, and the strength of the North Sea Fleet alone would still be weaker.

"Send the changed plan to Berlin, let Major General Bey lead the artillery formation to set off first, and we will act in an hour."

The destroyer Overwatch, which had escaped this morning, sailed out of the war zone as fast as it could, and then headed for Edinburgh, and as soon as it arrived at the docks, the officers of the Naval Intelligence Service, who had been waiting there, immediately took off the film taken by the warship and sent it to the Admiralty in London by plane. Originally, there were a number of such photos on the Loyalty, but they were sunk in the North Sea, so the Admiralty brass saw only photos taken from the left flank by the officers and men of the Overwatch at the risk of their lives.

"It's really an aircraft carrier...... although the photo effect is not particularly ideal because of the distance and the sky, naval experts can see at a glance that this is a "genuine" aircraft carrier, not a warship dressed up by oil tankers or other ships, and by comparing the volume with the surrounding frigates, it is confirmed that the tonnage is not under 40,000 tons.

This judgment made all the top echelons of the Admiralty frown: the Germans did not come well!

"After the Linxian left the battlefield, we lost contact with the main force of the German fleet, but one thing is certain, in terms of the size of this fleet and the number of aircraft carriers, they were not there to take the Tirpitts home."

Churchill asked worriedly, "What is your judgment?" ”

"The most likely possibility is that the enemy will move in a northwesterly direction, and then wait for an opportunity to break through the channel or take the western front or the center line."

"Do we have any other deployments on this route?"

"Nope." Shaking his head, Tovey explained, "All the merchant ships in the area have returned to port in accordance with the alert order, and we have only a few trawlers deployed, but if the enemy ships move at night, it will be of little use." "Great Britain is not rich enough to install radar on fishing boats, and they still use the most traditional forms of visual observation, which can be almost negligible at night in the snowy North Atlantic.

"What now? Let the E Fleet and the W Fleet hold separately? ”

"We intend to place the main force of the W Fleet about 100 nautical miles northeast of Iceland, and whether the Germans take the western or central routes, we will have the opportunity to encounter and intercept them."

"Are you sure?"

"Once the interception is successful, the W fleet is not prepared for a head-on engagement, but only attracts them, and then allows the E and W fleets to converge before meeting them." Tovey sighed, "At the moment, we are not strong enough to adopt this strategy. ”

Churchill was silent, and after half a day made up his mind: "You can deal with this strategy first, and under no circumstances will you allow the Germans to enter the Atlantic route." (To be continued.) )