At the end of June, a move by the Germans pushed the war clouds in the east to a new level.

An infantry corps of the 12th Army under Army Group E traveled from Kiel to the port of Vaasa in the Gulf of Bothnia, Finland, on transport ships under the pretext of reinforcing the German base in Bechaimo, Finland, under the cover of the first heavy cruiser detachment of the German High Seas Fleet, through the Baltic Sea.

However, when this infantry corps arrived in Finland, it did not go to the Bechamo German base, as the Germans had said at the beginning, but to the Finnish-Norwegian border.

This move frightened Norway, and King Haakon VII of Norway immediately appealed to the Central Powers for assistance.

Lebrun replied quickly, reassuring Haakon VII that the first 50,000 of the 300,000 Allied reinforcements had already set sail for Norway on transports. In terms of navy, under the pressure of Germany, Britain also adopted Churchill's plan to blockade the German High Seas Fleet, and ordered the British Royal Navy's home fleet to form a battleship detachment of the Revenge-class battleships HMS Royal Monarchy, HMS Royal Oak, HMS Revenge, Nelson-class battleship lead ship Nelson, Queen Elizabeth-class battleship lead ship HMS Elizabeth-class battleship, HMS Fury and HMS Ark Royal aircraft carriers to form an aircraft carrier detachment, and four London-class heavy cruisers (HMS London, HMS Devonshire, HMS Sussex and HMS Shropshire), Two York-class heavy cruisers (the Yorks and the Exeters) formed a heavy cruiser detachment and sailed to the North Sea to establish a British naval base in Norway and block Germany's only Atlantic outlet.

After receiving the news of the dispatch of the British Royal Navy, Lyon immediately ordered the High Seas Fleet to attack and search for the Royal Navy formation, so as to prevent the recurrence of the scene of the High Seas Fleet being empty of combat power but blocked in Kiel like World War I.

The High Seas Fleet, which had received orders from Lyons, immediately refueled and set sail through the Baltic Sea to the North Sea, where it began to search for the whereabouts of the British fleet.

North atlantic.

Standing outside the bridge of the aircraft carrier "Leon Andrés", the flagship of the High Seas Fleet, Raeder looked at the other five aircraft carriers that were cleaving the waves not far away, and smoked a cigarette with a lot of thoughts.

The "Leon Andrés" class aircraft carrier is the third type of German aircraft carrier, and it is also the newest and most powerful aircraft carrier, it is more than 300 meters long, with a full load displacement of a terrifying 45,000 tons, a power of 200,000 horsepower, and a speed of more than 33 knots.

In terms of carrier-based aircraft, its carrying capacity has surpassed that of its predecessor Deutschland, reaching an unprecedented 137 aircraft!

It can be said that the aircraft carrier "Leon Andrés" carried the expectations of all Germans for the victory over the British Royal Navy.

A gust of cold wind poured into Raeder's collar made him shiver and tighten his neckline, Raeder extinguished the cigarette in his mouth, pushed open the hatch of the bridge behind him, and walked in.

"Hello sir!" When the officers and men on the bridge saw Raeder walking into the bridge, they all stopped what they were doing and saluted.

Raeder waved his hand and motioned for everyone to continue their work, then went over to one of the officers in charge of the fleet's communications and asked him, "How is it?" Did our radar sentry ship spot the fleet of the British? ”

"Report to the sir, the reconnaissance fleet has found no trace of the enemy fleet!" The officer replied loudly.

"What about the reconnaissance aircraft formation? Did you find anything out of the ordinary? Raeder asked.

"Nothing unusual was found except for the discovery of a Norwegian distant-water fishing vessel 120 kilometers northwest of the fleet a few minutes ago."

"Distant-water fishing vessels?" Raeder was stunned for a moment, and wondered, "Why are there still fishermen fishing now?" Aren't they afraid of war? ”

"I don't know, maybe it's the difficulty of raising a family, so they have to risk war to go out fishing." The fleet liaison officer shrugged.

"Well, let the reconnaissance aircraft and radar sentry ships continue to be vigilant." Raeder patted the liaison officer on the shoulder and ordered, "It's not far from Jutland, and the underwater Heroes are watching us." ”

"Understood! Sir! The liaison officer saluted.

Ten minutes ago, a certain sea area.

Alan stood on the deck of the fishing boat, tucking his net and watching warily as he watched the neighborhood.

Suddenly, Axel, who was collecting the net with him, suddenly stopped and put down the fishing net in his hand, which made the unsuspecting Alan stumble through the fishing net.

"Hey man, what are you doing?" Alan stood firm and controlled the nets, and complained to his companion in dissatisfaction.

"Shh Axel gestured quietly, listening carefully.

"What do you hear?" Alan asked curiously.

"The sound of airplanes, the sound of airplanes!" Axel said to Alan.

"The sound of airplanes?" Alan's face changed, and he turned his ear to listen carefully.

Sure enough, he heard a faint roar of aircraft engines in the southeast, and it was getting closer.

"There's really a plane, it looks like it's coming to us!" After Allen confirmed that there was really a sound of an airplane, he became excited, "Damn, it's definitely a German plane!" We haven't been frozen for so long, so I'm going to inform my superiors! ”

"Don't be in such a hurry, let's see if it's first." Axel stopped the excited Allen and said calmly, "If it weren't for it, we might have killed our allies by passing on false information to our superiors." ”

"Okay." Alan smiled wryly and replied, and then continued to pretend to be collecting the nets with Axel, glancing east from time to time.

It didn't take long for the two planes to appear in the sky to the east of the fishing boat, and the iron cross emblem clearly visible on the wings indicated where the two planes had come from.

"Sure enough, it's a German plane!" Alan said happily, and then he threw down the fishing net in his hand, ran back to the cabin and turned on the longwave radio, and skillfully followed the codebook to send what he saw into the distance.

100 km away, the bridge of the battleship Nelson.

"Sir! The reconnaissance ship No. 13 sent back news that they had discovered the Germans' reconnaissance plane! An intelligence officer ran up to Charles Forbes, commander of the Home Fleet, with a copy of the information, and handed it to Forbes.

Forbes took the information and looked at it twice, then got up and walked to the chart and asked the chartman, "Soldier, where is the reconnaissance ship No. 13?" ”

Hearing this, the chartman leaned down and looked at it, then pointed to a place on the chart, and said, "Sir, here!" ”

Forbes took a compass from his side, drew a large circle centered on the place where the No. 13 reconnaissance ship was located, and then pointed to the east side of the No. 13 reconnaissance ship and said, "They are in this place!" ”

"The waters off Jutland?" The captain of the Nelson, who was standing on the sidelines, smiled and said, "They chose a good place, hoping to achieve a tactical victory at Jutland like World War I, and then be sealed by us in Kiel?" ”

"Nope." Forbes shook his head, "This time they can't win by practicing tactics!" ”