"The enemy is neither north nor west, has he retreated back to the east?" Tovey clutched at his hair in anguish, puzzled.

"I guess they're hiding, but they can't run!" Pound was also a little annoyed, "Let the reconnaissance plane refuel, I heard that the weather will improve after 2 o'clock in the afternoon, and then let them do a full search, and send more Caterina up when the wind is less - their range is big." ”

It has to be said that the second time the British only sent a reconnaissance plane to the north was too exaggerated: the unusually slow walrus light path consumed nearly 2 hours, which was enough time for Machar's aircraft carrier formation to sail more than 100 kilometers north, coupled with the factors of bad weather and low visibility as a whole, the difficulty of the search increased exponentially: it was not easy to catch the target on the vast sea, it was the norm not to find it, and it took very good luck to find the target.

The Admiralty staff did not regret that the second reconnaissance did not find a target, because the reconnaissance reported that the German fleet was more than 500 kilometers away from the islands (in fact, it was only a little more than 450 kilometers), and even if it did, it would be impossible to attack. It is generally accepted that if the German fleet were to break through to the Atlantic, it would most likely choose to cross tonight, before the bayonets were red.

"Sir, the fleet is almost at the 66th parallel, are you considering changing course?" At about 2 o'clock in the afternoon, the chief of staff of the fleet, Rear Admiral Schoun, reminded.

Machar subconsciously looked at the chart, the fleet changed course and unconsciously drove more than 100 kilometers north, at the moment it is about 600 kilometers away from Iceland and Meenland, and 500 kilometers away from the nearest Faroe Islands, "Sail southwest instead, otherwise we won't be able to cross the waterway between Iceland and the Faroe Islands tonight......"

Schoen smiled wryly: according to the plan, the fleet was to move to the southwest near the 64th parallel, and now it ran two more latitudes to avoid the possible follow-up of the British. "Going southwest may not work," he tactfully cautioned, "unless we intend to always go as fast as we can, and the crossing of Iceland and the Faroe Islands is exactly tomorrow morning – very easy to spot." ”

It was obviously a bad idea to always sail at the fastest speed, and it would put unnecessary pressure on the fleet - the Scharnhorst and the Prinz Eugen had a history of engine problems, and although the shipyard had sworn that all warships were in the best condition before this operation, Machar, who had suffered a lot, could not easily believe this assurance, he thought for a while, and finally decided: "Then sail west first, and then decide whether to cross the Iceland-Faroe waterway or take the Danish Strait after nightfall." ”

At 14:07, the course of the huge German North Sea Fleet was changed to 270 degrees, the speed was reduced to 21 knots, and the shelling formation under the command of Major Admiral Bey continued at a speed of 18 knots about 30 nautical miles southwest of the aircraft carrier formation.

"The rain has stopped, the wind has lightened, look, the sun is out!" After sailing due west for more than ten minutes, a staff officer who was looking out from the bridge suddenly exclaimed.

"Sir, according to the existing meteorological conditions, the requirements for the sortie of carrier-based aircraft are met......" The aviation staff officer informed Richthofen almost simultaneously.

"How long?"

"I don't know, maybe 3 hours, maybe 6 hours, it is estimated that it will not be a problem until the sun goes down."

Marcial and Richthofen exchanged glances, and both agreed to immediately launch a search, and the Japanese advisory group headed by Ozawa also held the same opinion, and boldly suggested: "Send all reconnaissance planes to reconnoiter once, focusing on the sector between 120 and 300 degrees, and it is recommended that two planes be arranged every 10 degrees to search for the enemy in the second stage." ”

Machar agreed with such a radical strategy: if nothing could be found this time, there would be basically no enemy forces today.

At 14:28, 18 Ar-272s of the first section of the enemy were ejected by the ships one after another, and at the same time, Richthofen ordered two aircraft carriers to take off Bf-219 fighters to escort the fleet, and within 20 minutes, the Zeppelin took off 16 fighters for the carrier formation escort, and the Europa took off 12 fighters for the shelling formation escort. At around 15 o'clock, 18 He-218s, which were responsible for the second stage of the task of searching for the enemy, took off one after another after carrying 500 kg of aerial bombs.

At 15:33, an hour after the first batch of reconnaissance planes took off, just when everyone thought that the search would end in "no target found" again, the communications staff officer of Commander Tali suddenly exclaimed: "Aircraft No. 3 reports that the enemy fleet has been discovered. ”

"What?" Everyone was stunned, and then immediately rushed to the chart to check the situation, the No. 3 plane was responsible for the fan-shaped surface between 270-280 degrees, and soon a more detailed report came, and the communications staff officer read out almost tremblingly: "The enemy ship formation was discovered, with 2 battleships, the rank cannot be judged, 4 light aircraft carriers, 2 treaty-type heavy cruisers, 2 light cruisers, 8 small warships, with a speed of 16 knots, heading southeast, about 400 kilometers away from this fleet." ”

4 light aircraft carriers? Everyone was startled, and then immediately reacted, it was estimated that it was the enemy's escort aircraft carrier, but if the four of them acted together, the number was enough to be scary.

"Is the information reliable?"

"You can't go wrong......"

Machar looked at Richthofen with dismay, although he was the supreme commander, but the latter had a higher rank than him, and the aviation was also in his hands.

Richthofen thought about it for only 10 seconds before he decided: "Ready to strike!" ”

This decision is actually very risky, hitting a target 400 kilometers away, the flight and attack time on the way will take at least 2 hours, and after 2 hours, it will be dark, and it will be very difficult to land, and it is very likely that the plane will be destroyed or killed or can only be forced to land on the sea. But he didn't want to let those British fleets run away in front of him, and the other side had 4 escort aircraft carriers, if he didn't strike first, he was afraid that the enemy would face annihilation after reacting.

Out of respect for the Japanese advisory group, he turned his head and asked Ozawa: "General Ozawa, what do you ......see?"

"I think we can attack, but as for ......the time," Ozawa muttered, knowing what Richthofen was worried about, "Immediately after the planes take off, the fleet moves westward at top speed, and can advance at least 100 kilometers in two hours, which will shorten their return distance and increase safety - with proper coordination, the risk is minimal." ”

One Ju-98 attack aircraft after another began to be raised, and the ground crews rushed to refuel them and mount torpedoes, faster than usual training. The Zeppelin can carry a total of 58 aircraft, usually in the form of 24 Bf-219s, 18 He-218s and 16 Ju-98s, and after all 18 He-218s have been bombed and tasked with the enemy, all Ju-98s will also be dispatched. They were escorted by 16 Bf-219s drawn from the fleet of cover planes over the fleet, and for safety reasons, the cautious Richthofen simply let all the remaining Bf-219s take off to join the escort, anyway, they had enough fuel to last until dark.

After the departure of the attack aircraft group, another He-218, which was on the task of searching for the enemy in the second stage, also sent a telegram, reporting similar intelligence to the No. 3 aircraft, and then also reported that the British aircraft carrier was taking off fighters and attack aircraft, reminding the fleet to prepare for air defense.

The fleet discovered this time was the entire main force of the W fleet, which was heading southeast almost from about 67 degrees north latitude at a speed of 16 knots, and the distance between it and the German fleet was actually reduced to just over 400 kilometers. The entire fleet has two battleships, the USS Mississippi and the USS Idaho (both of which belong to the New Mexico class and are supported by the US Atlantic Fleet), four escort aircraft carriers, the USS Archer, the USS Avenger, the USS Deceptioner, and the USS Newcastle (Southampton-class) and USS Kenya (Fiji-class), and other major warships.

The face of the fleet commander, Rear Admiral Lewis, was ugly, and when the weather conditions improved, he also sent reconnaissance planes, but nothing was gained - the reconnaissance planes due east were still halfway. What he could not accept the most was the helplessness of the carrier-based fighters against the German planes: after seeing the German seaplanes that had come to reconnoitre, the Euroswallow fighters that took off from the escort aircraft carrier immediately drove them away, but the Germans had already prepared for it, and they ran away in a puff of smoke, and the speed of escape was not slow. He thought that the whole thing would end here, but he did not expect that after 30 minutes, another German plane flew in, swaggering around the fleet to reconnoitre, the communications staff report intercepted a large number of telegraph signals, and 5 European swallows surrounded and prepared to shoot down this daring German plane, but he did not expect that the other party was extremely fast, and instantly broke free from the encirclement and fled in the direction of an escort aircraft carrier in the depths of the fleet.

Just when everyone thought that the German plane was fleeing in a panic, the most unbelievable scene appeared: the enemy plane, which was flying faster than the European swallow, actually began to dive downward, and before the anti-aircraft fire could call on it, a black bomb fell from the sky, and a few seconds later, the 500-kilogram aerial bomb penetrated the deck and exploded violently, which was transformed from a merchant ship, and the escort aircraft carrier Shooter with a displacement of 10,000 tons and nine Swordfish attack planes that had not yet taken off began to sink in despair after half a minute.

He-218, which successfully completed the attack, flew away in a puff of smoke, fleeing faster than before. "This is a He-218 dive bomber!" Someone finally remembered the new dive bomber that was incredibly fast—the same plane that dropped leaflets in Britain in the first place.

The whole W-Fleet finally felt the danger of the mountain rain coming and the wind filling the building. (To be continued.) )