"What's wrong with this information?" The news of the German fleet was so exciting that even Churchill had to keep an eye on it, and after taking care of government business, he plunged headlong into the command room of the naval command.

"There are a lot of doubts. First of all, I believe that the Tirpitz's trip to Bergen is genuine, but the significance is subtle, because the German fleet has not traveled more than 2,500 nautical miles at most since its departure from the Alta Fjord, and for a battleship with a range of at least 7,000 nautical miles, if the goal is to return to the mainland, it is completely impossible to refuel halfway, unless he has another mission; Secondly, Bergen is a large city in southern Norway, with a prominent strategic location and all kinds of facilities, but the waterway into Bergen is very tortuous, not counting the refueling time, a trip in and out of Bergen will consume at least 5 hours, a task that can be completed in other ports on the coast of Norway, why waste time to run to Bergen? Finally, the German Home Fleet had been dispatched, and there was no need to put on such a posture simply to receive the Tirpitz south. Therefore, I think that ......," Tovey and Pang, with his own judgment, "the Tirpitz went to Bergen entirely for us, because the Germans knew that only a large city like Bergen could have our agents, and that its purpose was not simply to return home, but more likely to divert our attention and create conditions for the German main fleet to break through into the Atlantic." ”

Churchill, Pound, Brooke and other high-level officials all looked solemn after hearing this, and they thought that Tovey's judgment was very reasonable.

"What's next?"

"It is necessary to pay attention to the whereabouts of the main German fleet to see if it merges with Tirpitz, after which it will be much easier to judge their intentions."

Pound sighed: "If the currents merge, the superiority of the Germans in strength will begin to appear, even if you don't count the aircraft carriers that are currently in doubt, there is a big problem in calculating the strength of artillery battles, and you can't stop them with only the E fleet and the cruiser formation." ”

Churchill took stock of the comparison of forces and found that Pound was not exaggerating: Germany had 1 Tirpitz, 2 Scharnhorst-class battlecruisers, 2 Deutschland-class heavy cruisers, 2-3 Hipper-class heavy cruisers, and the main forces of the E fleet and the cruiser fleet currently have only 2 battleships (Arkansas and Ramiri), 3 heavy cruisers, 3 light cruisers, and neither Lamiri nor Arkansas can beat Tirpitz, And 2 Scharnhorst-class battlecruisers and 2 Deutschland-class heavy cruisers ate all British cruisers to death, even with the latest support of the Pennsylvania, it is not an advantage - Britain so far did not know that the Gneisenau was not involved in the tsunami project because it was still under repair.

"How many days will it take for the Pennsylvania to arrive?"

"It's 4 days for Independence, 7 days for Pennsylvania, and even slower for George V, at least 35 days."

"The area currently patrolled by the W fleet is also very important, and unless it is determined that the enemy ships have completely merged, it cannot leave the existing area for the time being." Churchill muttered, "Fleet E and the cruiser fleet continue to monitor but not engage rashly, and it is better to delay the arrival of the Pennsylvania and Independence." ”

Upon learning of the capture of the British spies by the Norwegians, Kumetz complacently believed that his strategy had succeeded, and on the one hand informed Mashal and Berlin, and on the other hand, made a great circle, re-exiting the sea southwest of Bergen, and by the early morning of the 11th had reached the vicinity of Godoo Island. At this moment, the North Sea Fleet commanded by Machar is in the waters south of Mandal, Norway, roughly about 300 nautical miles north-east of Aberdeen, Scotland, and only about 200 nautical miles away from Tirpitts' formation.

However, neither Marcal nor Kumetz expected that the idea of the Tirpitz formation to lure the enemy had actually completely failed, and the E fleet commanded by Rear Admiral Hamilton did not take the bait and remained in the waters between the Faroe Islands and the Sherland Islands, while between the two German formations there was a British cruiser formation, a British fleet that was searching everywhere in order to find out the enemy's situation.

Although the rain in the North Sea in the early morning stopped for the time being, the sky was overcast, the wind was howling, the sun that had just risen from the water antenna was mostly shrouded in dark clouds, and the mist on the sea surface had not completely dispersed because of the low temperature, and the British North Sea cruiser formation that sailed from Scapa Bay on the 7th was traveling from west to east under the leadership of the flagship Sussex (London-class heavy cruiser), and due to the very poor visibility, the lookout posts on each ship were not so much searching for enemy ships as watching the magnificent scenery of the sun rising in the North Sea. Just after 7 o'clock, the morning fog on the eastern water antenna has not yet dissipated, and the light of the morning sun is hazy. Although a sight like a sunrise over the sea may seem commonplace to sailors, the sight of it still makes people marvel at its beauty.

Everything around seemed quiet and serene, but the nerves of all the British officers and men were very nervous, they already knew that the main force of the German Navy was in full swing, and they did not know what their intentions were, although the German Navy had won tactical victories of one kind or another, but on the whole it was always the defeat of the Royal Navy, and the famous Bismarck was finally killed in the North Atlantic under a joint British naval and air attack. But this time the situation was obviously even more peculiar, and the German navy was dispatched at the weakest moment of British naval strength, which is unthinkable.

At this time, the professional technical sergeant in the radar room noticed something unusual in the dim sky, and the Type 279 sea/air search radar found several bright spots flashing in the lower right corner of the screen, and the news was quickly reported to the formation commander, Colonel Christopher. Although there have always been such and such false alarms on the radar in the past two days, he was obviously unwilling to let go of such suspicions, and immediately asked: "Could it be an enemy ship?" ”

"It's not good, it's possible."

"What's the approximate distance?"

"Between 30-35 nautical miles."

Christopher thought about it for a moment and said, "The course turns 120 degrees, the speed is increased to 26 knots, let's go over and see." ”

At this time, not a single German warship had reported the discovery of an enemy target, and all the warships were carrying out the order in a step-by-step manner—according to the current plan, the Tirpitz formation should break through to the northwest to attract the main British force for the North Sea Fleet and then move towards the middle waters of the Shetland Islands.

At 7:43, Admiral Machar issued the first order: "Turn the course to 285 degrees, increase the speed to 21 knots." Before he issued the order, Lieutenant General Kumets had already taken the lead in turning to the northwest.

At present, the Tirpitz formation led by Kumetz and the main formation led by Machar sail in the same direction, both facing northwest, 180 nautical miles apart from each other, but there is a flare angle on the route, and the distance between the two sides will gradually widen over time, and the distance between the two sides will be 10 nautical miles apart every three hours. According to the plan, the Tirpitz formation will continue to advance in a northwesterly direction until the main formation turns southwest after passing through the Shetland Islands, and penetrates again from the waters between the Faroe Islands and the Shetland Islands - if everything is normal, the two formations will enter the North Atlantic waters together on the night of the 11th, and by the early morning of the 12th, they will be able to get rid of the British mainland air defense patrol circle.

But this wishful thinking was soon dashed. At 8:34, the radar crew of the Scharnhorst, which rushed to the front, reported the discovery of the target, and then the Sedlitz, Prince Eugen, and Admiral Schell also reported the discovery of the target. In particular, the Seydelitz reported that the enemy had made Mashal even more vigilant, and the newly built heavy cruiser and the Count Zeppelin were all equipped with the latest radars, which not only had a longer detection range, but also reduced the chance of false alarms.

Although Britain is the first country in the world to develop and use radar, but Germany is the first country to put radar on warships, in 1936 it used the code name "sea beat" to the sea search radar, but unfortunately Germany does not pay special attention to science and technology in this field, so Britain soon came to the forefront in the use of radar, after the Battle of Britain, Germany has always regarded itself very high before knowing that it has fallen behind in radar, coupled with the successive air raids and air raids on radar requirements further highlighted, So vigorously develop various radars. The most concerned was the air defense radar, and then the sea and air search radars on warships also developed together, but due to the large amount of debts in the early stage, the level of German carrier-based radars not only lagged behind Britain, but even began to lag behind the United States.

After the Hoffmann crossing, he invested heavily in radar research, and the speed of related research accelerated suddenly, and after the technical exchange with Japan, the Yagi antenna and magnetron technology, which were not valued in Japan, were quickly introduced and improved by Germany, so the radar technology in the past six months or so has shown a trend of rapid development. The sea beat has been developed to the FuMO26 type (Bismarck installed the 22 type), the average distance of sea detection is 25-30 nautical miles, the maximum distance is 45 nautical miles, and the positioning accuracy error is about 300 meters at 25,000 meters (still cannot be used as a fire control radar), although the gap with Britain and the United States still exists, but compared with the Bismarck period, the gap has been greatly narrowed.

At 9:11 a.m., the distance between the two sides was reduced to 21 nautical miles, and both the German and British forces became more and more certain that the enemy fleet was close at hand. The commanders of the two armies unanimously gave orders to speed up: the speed of the British cruiser fleet was increased to 30 knots, and the speed of the German main fleet was increased to 26 knots (the Admiral Schell, the slowest in the formation, could only run up to 26 knots), and all the British and German officers and men at the lookout posts widened their eyes and carefully searched the sea for fear of missing an important target. (To be continued.) )