While the Royal Navy was distracted by the withdrawal from Dunkirk, the German High Seas Fleet was fully committed to the North Sea, a sea northeast of the British Isles.

It was the only way for the German Navy to enter the Atlantic, and it has always been the key maritime defense line of the British Navy to blockade Germany. By now, however, the British Home Fleet had been defeated by a detachment in Norway and a detachment had been created for Dunkirk. Correspondingly, the North Sea blockade line of the British Royal Navy at this time was weaker than ever.

However, it is said that it is weak, and at this moment, the British naval force still has a full 4 large aircraft carriers and 6 battleships as the core force. Coupled with the British Empire's huge escort fleet, this fleet can almost be regarded as a behemoth-like super-powerful fleet.

At Narvik Heights in Norway, they suffered a surprise attack by the First Fleet of the German High Seas Fleet, which was far superior to them, and suffered a narrow defeat. But now, if the First Fleet of Lütjans dared to collide, their end might not be so easy.

Through a network of spies planted in Norway, British naval commanders had learned that the German High Seas Fleet and the Norwegian fleet were going to launch a surprise attack on the North Sea. But they did not tremble because of this, on the contrary, they were very happy and relaxed.

Needless to say, the Norwegian fleet was just a bunch of obsolete cannon fodder battleships, and the British Navy only needed a destroyer fleet to annihilate them all.

As for the German High Seas Fleet, it is estimated from Narvik's battle report that it is only two more aircraft carriers. This can also be seen from the propaganda report of the German social worker newspaper. Therefore, the commanders of the British Navy had always believed that the German High Seas Fleet, with only two aircraft carriers, was indeed somewhat powerful, but it was far from strong enough to make the British Empire fearful.

You know, their battleships and battlecruisers sank 15 in one go in Scapa Bay 20 years ago, that's a whole 15!

It stands to reason that even if the German Navy developed rapidly, they would not have too many battleships now. After all, their naval expansion started almost from scratch, and their family base is simply not worth mentioning.

Such an upstart can also fight the Norwegian naval battle, which bullies the small with the big. If they really meet the main force of the British Royal Navy, they will still have to lose!

So, after some discussion, the Admiralty of the British Empire came up with a confident battle plan. They set up an encirclement in western Norway, with destroyers and cruisers with superior speed on the periphery, and battleships and heavy cruisers with a slightly slower speed cruising in the inner circle. The aircraft carrier, on the other hand, is far to the west and further behind to ensure safety.

They were confident that once the German fleet was discovered and entangled by the outer destroyer formations, the capital ships in the inner circle would quickly rush over in a straight line along the radius to sink the so-called capital ships of the Germans. As for the 4 aircraft carriers that they left further in the rear, it was just an extra layer of insurance.

I have to say that these generals of the British Royal Navy are indeed very carefully calculated.

Because Germany's new-class destroyers, in addition to strengthening their air defense and anti-submarine capabilities, are only as powerful as Britain's large gunboats in naval warfare. The German cruisers were also only slightly stronger than the British destroyers. As for the new German battleships, they were in no way inferior in quality to the British, but they were embarrassingly pitiful in number.

In this way, the melee capabilities of the German Navy are completely incomparable to those of British veterans who are good at playing naval guns. As soon as the British battleship approached, it really had to turn around and run quickly.

It's just that the British Admiralty miscalculated, the large aircraft carriers owned by the German High Seas Fleet were not the 2 ships that the social worker newspaper publicly advertised, but 6 more aircraft than during the Norwegian Sea War!

In other words, although the German High Seas Fleet is a rookie in close combat, its long-range offensive strength and long-range defense are first-class. Theoretically, the German Navy's mode of operation was already a whole generation more advanced than that of the British Navy.

It's just that the British themselves have not yet realized it.

"Report!" A German staff officer walked quickly to the command platform where Lütjens was and handed a document to Lütjens, who was standing in his hands: "Deputy commander! This is the intelligence that General Dönitz's submarine forces have just gathered. The British fleet has been fully spread out in the waters of the North Sea. They were numerous in their fleet, roaming at high speed about 40 kilometers away from us. In addition, the number of British destroyer patrol formations discovered by the submarine force alone has reached four. ”

"Oh?!" Hearing the staff officer's report, Lu Teyans raised his eyebrows, reached out and took the document and looked.

In less than 1 minute, Lütjans finished reading the contents of the document. But he didn't speak immediately, but dragged his chin and thought about it repeatedly.

After about 3 minutes, Lu Teyans took a deep breath before he spoke to the staff officer: "Order, first-level combat readiness." Immediately send all reconnaissance planes to reconnoiter the nearby seas. In addition, the captains of the ships were informed to rush to the headquarters of the flagship 'Tirpitz' within ten minutes for a meeting. ”

"Yes!" The staff officer immediately stood up and saluted, and then prepared to turn and leave.

"Wait," said Lütjans, stopping the staff officer who was walking out, "the fleet has lifted the radio silence, and must contact the Second Detachment of the High Seas Fleet before the meeting to ask where they are now?" ”

Compared to Lütjans's First Fleet, Raeder's Second Fleet was much larger and more powerful. If Lütjens's first fleet was a collection of purely German warships and aircraft carriers, then Raeder's fleet was a mixture of more German warships than Lütjens, in addition to a large number of captured warships, and coordinated with the main force of the Norwegian Allied Fleet's High Seas Fleet.

Although Raeder commanded the Second Fleet, if calculated by the standards of the First Fleet, his Second Fleet was said to be a Squadron, but in fact it had the strength of about 3 First Squadrons. And if you count purely by the number of warships, this multiple will be even greater!

Therefore, Raeder's Second Fleet is the force at the bottom of the box for the High Seas Fleet.

"Yes! Deputy Commander! The staff officer stood up and saluted again, then quickly turned and left.

Lu Teyans turned to look at his first mate: "You go and pass my order, let's turn on the warship loaded with radar." We also took this opportunity to almost test the working of this batch of new equipment. ”