As we move into mid-January, Europe is getting its coldest time of the year, and the North Sea, which is known for its high winds and waves, is much colder than on land.

"It's damn weather." Auston tightened his coat, then glanced at the three huge ships that were breaking the waves not far away, and said to himself, "The general really chose a good day, let us come out to train on such a cold day......"

"Hey, Alston." Just as Auston shivered in the cold wind, one of the most beautiful voices for him came from behind him, "When the time comes, I'll take the shift." ”

"God." Auston let out a sigh of relief and dragged his numb body off his sentry post, "Ian, if you don't come here I think I'm going to freeze to death here." ”

"yes, it's terrible." Ian said, "But we can't help it, we need to hurry up and train to get familiar with this new ship." ”

"That's right." Auston nodded, "The Germans relied on their new battleships to make us suffer several small losses in the North Sea, and now we also have new battleships, so we have to show the Germans some color as soon as possible!" ”

At the same time, inside the bridge.

"Admiral Cunningham, an urgent telegram from Navy Headquarters." A communications soldier ran briskly to Cunningham with a document in hand.

Cunningham withdrew his gaze from the distance and took the document and looked at it.

The message was not long, only a few sentences, but Cunningham was thrilled when he read it.

"Admiral Cunningham, the position of the German High Seas Fleet has been confirmed, and the French Navy will do everything in its power to hold them back. There are only three heavy cruisers left in the port of Den Held, and the 'Bird Drive' plan can be carried out! ”

Yes, the real reason for Cunningham's voyage was not training, but a sneak attack on the port of Den Held, an important Axis base in the Netherlands.

In order to paralyze the German troops, the Royal Navy not only incorporated the battleship "King George V" and the aircraft carrier "Brilliant," two new ships that had not yet fully formed their combat effectiveness, into the "training fleet," but even brought half of the shells with empty shells in order to guard against German spies among ordinary soldiers.

And now all these efforts have finally paid off, and the German High Seas Fleet has really come out of the nest for the decisive battle, leaving only three heavy cruisers to guard the house!

"Herald, inform the whole fleet!" Cunningham clenched his fists, "All turn to the southeast, and the fleet speed will be increased to 28 knots!" The USS Brilliant released reconnaissance planes, and carrier-based fighters, bombers, and torpedo attack planes began to refill fuel and carry ammunition. The battlecruiser "Prestige", the battlecruiser "Counterattack", and the battleship "King George V" have all replaced their training shells with live ammunition, and the fleet has been renamed the "HMS-TF4 Task Force Strike Fleet", and the fleet has entered a state of combat readiness! ”

"Huh?" The herald suddenly heard this long list of battle orders and was stunned.

"Didn't you hear? Do you need me to repeat it, soldier? Cunningham glared at the herald unhappily and said.

"Oh...... Oh! Good general. The herald came to his senses, hurriedly picked up the microphone in front of him, and quickly conveyed Cunningham's order.

As the order arrived at the various cabins of each ship, the originally "leisurely" sailors were suddenly busy, although they did not understand why this low-combat training fleet suddenly entered a combat state, but as soldiers of the British Royal Navy, the pride and glory engraved in their bones still drove them to quickly and efficiently operate their own responsible parts, so that the ship's guns were raised high in the face of unknown enemies.

"Good day, gentlemen." After the fleet had turned and the speed was gradually increasing, Cunningham walked to the herald's seat, grabbed the radio phone, and said to the entire fleet, "I must be curious why we are suddenly turning into a state of rotation when we are training in a step-by-step manner?" ”

"First of all, I would like to apologize to you for this question, in fact, we did not sail this time to run in training, but to find an opportunity to destroy the important naval base of the Germans in the Netherlands-Den Held, which should have been told to you before the fleet set off, but for various reasons, we deceived you and concealed the truth - this is really not what a gentleman should do, I hope this incident did not damage my image in everyone's mind."

(Everyone laughs twice at Cunningham's humor)

"Alright, then we'll talk about why we're going to the trouble of sneaking up on the German base, which isn't what a gentleman should do. As we all know, the Second Battle of Jutland caused us to misjudge the strength of the German High Seas Fleet due to the mistakes of our command, resulting in the loss of the battleship Revenge, the battleship Royal Oak, the aircraft carrier Fury and almost all the treaty heavy cruisers and thousands of excellent naval officers and men. ”

"The Cabinet convened an emergency meeting immediately after the end of the naval battle, and while we reflected deeply on the mistakes we had made, we also discovered the problem, that is, all German warships were cutting-edge ships, and our warships were all built during the First World War or the Naval Holidays. In response to this problem, we have accelerated the construction of the battleship under me and the aircraft carrier 'Brilliant', and these two types of battleships will be added in the next year! So the only problem we face now is how to reduce the threat of the Germans to the North Sea during the year. ”

"We are here today to solve this problem! As soon as we succeed in destroying Den Halder, the only German base in the North Sea capable of resupplying the entire High Seas Fleet at once, they will have to reduce the number of voyages until they succeed in repairing the base or building a new one! ”

"Guys, for the sake of the Army that fought so hard in Belgium, for the glory of the Royal Navy, this operation, we must succeed! England wants all to do their duty! ”

"For the glory of the Royal Navy!" The soldiers shouted.

On the other side, the Axis naval base in Den Held.

There were only three heavy cruisers and more than a dozen escort destroyers moored in the huge military harbor at the moment, which made Den Helde seem a little empty.

"Woo~~~" The battle alarm suddenly sounded throughout the base, startling the commander of the base, German Vice Admiral Erich Zegg.

"What's going on? What's going on? Tsig threw down the pen in his hand, stood up and ran quickly to the door, shouting angrily, "Who pulled the alarm?" Who's pulling the alarm without my orders? ”

"General!" A naval lieutenant hurriedly ran over, "The naval reconnaissance plane at the base reported that the British fleet was found 70 kilometers northwest of the base!" ”

"Fleet? The fleet of the British?! ”

"Yes, there are two battle cruisers of 'Prestige' and 'Counterattack', a new aircraft carrier, and a capital ship with ten gun barrels that we have never seen before!"

"God!" Tsig's mouth opened in surprise.