At 11:37 a.m., just as the first wave of reinforcement destroyers of the JW-51 escort formation was approaching, Sherbrooke, who had been observing the surrounding enemy situation on the bridge, suddenly changed his face - a German seaplane suddenly appeared in the distance, painted with a bright iron cross under its wings, and carrying a huge pontoon.

Although the destroyers engaged in the battle earlier reported that only two enemy ships had been found, he broke out in a cold sweat - at least there were cruiser-class enemy ships in this area, otherwise it would be impossible for German seaplanes to appear, I don't know if it was the Hipper or the Lützov, he only hoped not to get too close to his side. So he sent a telegram to the cruiser formation for help, and on the other hand, he asked the transport ship formation behind him to turn around and leave the battlefield. Considering that the enemy cruiser had not yet appeared, he gritted his teeth and asked the destroyer Chungshun to also come forward to join the battle group, striving to form a 5V2 advantage and deal with the German destroyer as soon as possible.

His judgment was very accurate, what he saw was the seaplane ejected by the Hipper - after technical exchanges with Japan, the German Navy has begun to eliminate the Ar-196 water reconnaissance aircraft, and successively replaced it with the German version of the Japanese Zero three-seat reconnaissance aircraft - the Ara Dao company is called Ar-272 after improvement, the new water reconnaissance aircraft has 3 members, one is responsible for piloting, one is responsible for navigation and observation, and one is responsible for taking telegrams, the combat effectiveness has been doubled, and the maximum speed of the aircraft is 400 km / h, With a range of up to 3000 km, it is better than the Japanese original, far surpassing the performance of the Ar-196, and is deeply loved by the fleet. The progress of this model far exceeds that of any other imported carrier-based aircraft, so this time the carrier-based high-speed reconnaissance aircraft project (Caiyun) was taken away in advance by the Aladao company, project number Ar-352.

Just when Sherbrooke was determined to make the five destroyers pounce quickly and try to deal with the German destroyers in one fell swoop, the telegraph operator on the Hipper also received an enemy report from the Ar-272: "There are 9 small ships and more than 10 merchant ships, and the position is roughly 130-170 kilometers east of Bear Island, and the current course is 305 degrees. "The reports of the reconnaissance planes were generally accurate, but they only saw the British destroyers and the JW-51A formation itself, and the British cruiser formation further away remained undetected due to visibility.

After the reconnaissance planes arrived at the scene, the British transport fleet and the merchant fleet moved in two directions, and the reconnaissance planes could only maintain surveillance over a part of the warships; because Hoffman's instructions to attack the escort warships first had been issued, the reconnaissance planes did not hesitate to keep an eye on Sherbrooke's destroyer, and at the same time called for other companions to come to support as soon as possible -- the Hipper had brought a total of three reconnaissance planes, and now they had all been released in all directions.

Colonel Hans-Hartmann, who received clear information, was overjoyed: "Inform General Kumetz and the Norwegian base that the ship is ready to press up - catch the big fish." ”

Under his command, the Hipper suddenly accelerated, and the demeanor of a fast-breaking ship leaped into the sea, and the speed suddenly increased to 30 knots.

At 12:05, the first wave of British destroyers rushed to reinforce arrived at the scene of the firefight, the first tenacious and obedient and two German destroyers have carried out no less than 30 rounds of artillery fire with each other, and the combat distance has also been shortened from 15,000 meters to 8,000 meters, but both sides are not good at the head, plus each other is a high-speed destroyer, 30 rounds have not been directly hit, each has hit some near misses, Z16 lost 2 sailors, and Obedience lost 1 sailor and 1 2-pounder gun.

Seeing that another British destroyer had joined the battlefield, forming a 4:2 advantage over its own side, the German destroyer did not dare to pounce forward, but instead changed and withdrew, slowly moving closer to the direction of Hipper. Sherbrooke knew what the Germans were up to, but he couldn't turn around - because his cruiser formation hadn't arrived yet, and the convoy hadn't opened his sight yet, he had to pretend not to know that the German destroyers were still following the cruisers, and continue to direct the troops to besiege the two German destroyers.

The U-354, which had been lurking at the bottom of the sea, also surfaced at this time to join in the fun, but its speed was too slow, and it was far away from the battlefield, so it could not help but serve as an observer, and the captain of the ship, Hebschleib, immediately sent a report to Berlin: "From the situation on the ground, the war has begun, and I see a red patch in the distance. ”

"Bite the enemy!" With a loud shout from Vice Admiral Flick, Chief of the General Staff of the Navy, everyone in the headquarters was alarmed.

He excitedly waved a telegraph and walked towards Hoffman and the others, and said flatteringly as he went: "Führer, your inference is correct, the reconnaissance plane has discovered nearly 20 ships of the enemy - the overall scale is indeed larger than that reported by the U-354. ”

"Z16 reports that they are exchanging fire with 4 British destroyers, have called for reinforcements ...... Hippel"

"Is Hipperl enough? What about Tirpits? Hearing that only Hippert had gone up for reinforcements, Hoffman's brow furrowed—Hippert was historically scared away by British destroyers.

"Tirpitz is also on his way, but it's a bit far, I'm afraid I won't be able to make it before 3 p.m."

After Flick's explanation, Hoffman understood that Kumetz had set up a chain defensive formation: he lined up all the warships from south to north, with the Tirpitz in the center, and the Hippers and Rützov in the north and south. In this, Kumetz made two bets: first, when he received a report from the naval command that the enemy was found to be under-manned, he bet that the other British warships would be left behind and not east of the chain line; Second, the ships in the chain defense system can only maintain an interval of 15-20 nautical miles, and they cannot control it any further, because the Norwegian fleet is relatively small, and it can only control the observation range of less than 200 nautical miles from north to south, which is not enough to cover the entire sea area, so he gave up the southernmost part near the coast of Norway and Finland - he bet that the British convoy would not dare to go close to the coast.

It seems that he got both bets right, but because of the chain defense, Tirpitz is at least 100 nautical miles away from the nearest British warship, and the southernmost Lützov is more than 180 nautical miles away. Upon receiving the enemy briefing, Kumetz immediately asked the other warships to move closer to the engagement area, and Tirpitz headed northwest at a speed of 25 knots - unless the British took the initiative to ram Tirpitz, it would be difficult for the two sides to exchange fire before dark.

Seeing Hoffman's sullen appearance, Frick cautiously explained: "Führer, U-354 reports that the two sides have engaged in a fierce battle, the results of the battle are unknown at present, the approximate location of the enemy fleet has been determined, and they can't run - at most let them survive one more night." ”

Hoffman nodded in understanding and asked, "Can you send the Air Force?" ”

"The JG5 Wing reported that 15 minutes ago, the North Point Point base had been fully dispatched, with a total of 24 He-218s, escorted by 10 Bf-219s, but due to the distance, it would take at least more than an hour to arrive at the scene."

"It's okay, I can wait. Let the HNA seize the opportunity, some warships bomb warships, and no warships bomb transport ships. "Hoffman calculated, the enemy was discovered only at 12 o'clock, plus the distance was more than 600 kilometers, so the aviation had only one chance to strike today.

Raeder and Frick nodded, there was nothing wrong with the Führer's instructions, and the HNA at the North Cape base was indeed not controlled by Kumets.

At 12:19, the German destroyer Theodore Riddle (Z6), which fought and retreated with the Z16 destroyer, was hit by the Tenacious and caught fire on the deck, and the damage management team could not extinguish it for a while, the fire made the warship's position exposed very eye-catching, 4 British destroyers began to concentrate fire on it, and within 5 minutes, 3 shells fell on Z6, although Z6, who fought back, also hit a shell from the Obedience, but it was obviously much more embarrassed, Z16 saw that his companion was shot, and slowed down the pace of retreat, while taking advantage of the favorable opportunity when the attention of the 4 British destroyers was on the Z6, he began to return fire violently, and also hit the Obedience, which rushed to the front.

The red-eyed British destroyer ignored the bombardment of Z16, and the raindrops of shells smashed on Z6's head, and the closest distance was even pulled to within 2000 meters, and within 7 minutes, the Z6 superstructure was beaten to pieces, more than 40 sailors were killed, the whole ship emitted billowing smoke, and the hull began to tilt in many places, and the captain had no choice but to announce that he would abandon the ship.

The battlefield result was 1:0, and the British army took the lead!

Seeing that nothing could be done, Z16 released the smoke screen and fled as quickly as possible, anxiously asking how long it would take for the Hippers to arrive.

Sherbrooke commanded the warship to rescue the German sailors who fell into the water, and let people use torpedoes to sink the Z6, which was already riddled with holes, at this time the 5th destroyer Zhongshun who rushed to reinforce also arrived at the scene, and now the ratio of destroyers on both sides is 5:1, just when he hesitated to continue the pursuit of Z16, suddenly shocking news came from the Obedience: "Hipper!" The guy came, and I saw him. ”

"Retreat!" He did not hesitate to give instructions.

Hans-Hartmann rushed over with the Hipper, he had learned about the battle process just now in the telegram, and at a distance of more than 20,000 meters, he directly fired with the 203mm main gun, stirring up a column of water more than ten meters high, and the Z16 was saved, and the captain did not have time to cry about the misfortune of the Z6 being sunk, so he immediately turned the bow of the ship and followed the eldest brother to avenge his companions - now it was the turn of 5 British destroyers to retreat.

"Five minutes ago, the Z6 destroyer was sunk by the superior strength of five British destroyers, and now the Hippel has arrived at the scene and is attacking, and the bomber group is expected to arrive on the battlefield in eight minutes."

The combat staff officer reported the latest enemy situation, and the faces of Raeder and the others suddenly became gloomy - they had such a big advantage that they were first sunk by the British who pulled out their teeth and sank a destroyer, and everyone's faces were very unsightly, and Flick secretly glanced at Hoffman, only to see that the Führer's face was calm and there was no sign of anger. (To be continued.) )