When the water reconnaissance plane returned empty-handed for the second time, Shepael couldn't help but feel inexplicably disappointed. Six reconnaissance planes conducted a large-scale search of the sea area in front of the fleet and in front of the flanks, but the huge British special fleet actually evaporated as if out of thin air.

"General, telegram! Our submarine has spotted the British fleet! As the communications officer hurried into the command room, Sheppel almost jumped out of his chair.

The telegram was sent by Dönitz, who sent two submarines on the Icelandic-British route to discover the Churchill fleet more than 50 nautical miles southeast of Iceland. Hillael took the telegram to the charts, and after a brief calculation, he found that Churchill's fleet was 15 degrees east-north of him, about 60 nautical miles away. It wouldn't be long before Churchill's fleet could slip from there to the north of Scotland and then head south along the coast of England, eventually avoiding the ambushes of the German raiding fleet and submarine formations.

"The fleet immediately turned around and sailed at full speed 30 degrees north-east! Inform the submarine formations to catch up as soon as possible, and let the two submarines delay or disrupt the normal navigation of the British fleet as much as possible! ”

This time, Sheppel finally really learned Churchill's kung fu. However, the door to victory was not completely closed to the German raiding fleet, and the Sheppel fleet had absolute superiority in speed, with the "Elector" and "Oldenburg" at 19.5 knots, the "Frenburg" at 25 knots, and the "Munich" and "Will" at 24 knots.

The German water reconnaissance planes, which had been reconnoitring in the wrong direction until then, could now play their role as well. The pilots devoured a few hamburgers to satisfy their hunger, and the sailors refueled the planes as fast as they could, so that the naval eagles could get back into the blue sky as soon as possible.

The German submarine U-053 was suspended in the water like a piece of soaked wood, and the sailors on the boat were busy preparing for the launch of the torpedo, and the sound of a large number of ship propellers turning and engine roaring continued to reach the ears of the listeners from near and far.

The captain's eyes were glued to the periscope, "Torpedo No. 1 ready, Torpedo No. 2 ready, confirm the boat!" ”

"The ship has been confirmed! Nearest ship! The distance is 700 yards, and the launch angle is 82 degrees! The torpedo is set to a depth of 3 meters! ”

U-053 was aimed at a large British armored battleship, its white hull clearly visible through the periscope. Due to the complete cessation of work of the submarine engines, the British hydrophones, which only had noise amplification, did not allow the British to discover the U-053 and its companion U-062, and the periscopes of the German submarines were not yet discovered by that British fleet due to the combined action of wind and waves and inexperienced sailors. Despite the fact that the armored battleship was accompanied by several destroyers, the poor British were unaware of the impending catastrophe.

"Torpedo No. 1 fired, torpedo No. 2 fired!"

Since the white trail of the torpedo dragging out of the sea would reveal the general position of the submarine, the captain of the U-053 ordered the periscope to be put away after the torpedo was fired, and the submarine's engine was running at full speed.

About 40 seconds later, two dull explosions came from not far away, and the submariners high-fived each other, this time not ordinary small fish and shrimp, but an armored battleship with a displacement of 13,000 tons, made in the United States, owned and controlled by the United Kingdom.

It was only after turning and moving at full speed for some distance that U-053 was back in hirk. From the periscope carefully raised, the captain made sure that the armored battleship had been hit, and the white behemoth began to tilt to one side, billowing smoke and raging fire covered most of the battleship, and the sailors on board were jumping into the icy waters. The entire British fleet was not in much confusion from the formation, two destroyers were approaching the battleship that was about to capsize, and several others were heading towards the position of U-053.

After a while, another explosion was heard in front of the British fleet. In the periscope of the U-053, a high column of water rose from one side of the other British cruiser, and before the water column had completely fallen, the bow and stern of the cruiser had already begun to warp from the water in a lonely manner, and although one of the two torpedoes fired by the U-062 missed, the other one blew up the keel of the British cruiser. Eventually, before the armored battleship in front of it could sink sideways into the near-zero water, the cruiser was left with a desperate group of sailors and a pair of floating garbage.

Churchill looked at this scene in amazement and helplessness, it was really unrealistic to let the whole fleet take a zigzag anti-submarine route in the hands of those sailors who had just been recruited temporarily, in which case the damage caused by the collision of his own warships might be greater than that caused by the German torpedoes.

"With the exception of the destroyers of the 1st and 3rd Destroyer Detachments, the other ships returned to their respective positions, and all the destroyers equipped with hydrophones paid close attention to the situation in the water nearby. The 1st Destroyer was responsible for rescuing people who had fallen overboard, and the 3rd Destroyer was responsible for finding and destroying the German submarines that attacked us! Churchill calmly gave one order after another, but he knew very well that the rookies he led were simply not able to stand up to the experienced German submarine captains. The only thing he wanted to do now was to get the fleet out of the area before German submarines could send more British ships to the bottom of the sea. As long as German submarines did not surface, they could not keep up with the British fleet at the speed of their underwater travel.

A few minutes later, four destroyers of the 3rd Destroyer Detachment dropped depth charges on what appeared to be the hiding place of German submarines, and after a column of water mixed with fish, shrimp and seaweed rose, the Canadian, Australian, and New Zealand rookies drove away in their destroyers. These people had never even seen what it was like for a submarine to be hit, but they dared to have the audacity to report that everything had been solved.

Because the British fleet possessed certain anti-submarine weapons, U-053 and U-062 did not rush in to attack the British transports clustered in the center of the fleet, but followed the British fleet from a distance, constantly transmitting the position of the British fleet back to the German Atlantic submarine formation and the Sheppel raiding fleet.

At a quarter past 3 p.m., the appearance of a German maritime reconnaissance plane caused great panic among the sailors in Churchill's fleet, and the air raid sirens sounded for the first time in this fleet. For the Canadians, Australians, and New Zealanders, it was the German plane that was said to have devoured most of the British main fleet, and the few British sailors who participated in the Pascalflo air raid or the naval battle of the Anglo-German main fleet had a lingering shadow in their hearts, and it seemed that this ugly flying machine had far greater power than a submarine.

When flying over the British fleet, the German pilots were very surprised by the panic on the decks of the British battleships, and in order to increase the range as much as possible, the carrier-based reconnaissance planes carried no weapons other than a machine gun and a few hundred rounds of ammunition. When the reconnaissance plane turned back but was still some distance away from the British fleet, many of the battleship's secondary guns, machine guns, and machine guns began to fire at the air in a haphazard manner, and many of the secondary guns did not seem to be firing scattered grenades against low-altitude targets, but ordinary artillery shells against surface ships.

The German pilots contemptuously pulled up the plane and circled high above the British fleet, with a full view of the entire British fleet. It took a while for the officers on the British battleship to stop the sailors from firing blindly and in vain into the air. Although there was sufficient ammunition, the American warships, which had not experienced naval and air battles, were not designed with sufficient anti-aircraft weapons, and the effect against aircraft was self-evident.

Since German aircraft carriers were all preparing for the landing, this time Churchill did not put the threat of German aircraft in the first place. However, if these reconnaissance planes carry one torpedo or two bombs, they will naturally be a great deterrent to this fleet. After circling for about half an hour, the German plane finally reluctantly left, and the mixed sailors in the British special fleet breathed a sigh of relief.

Churchill stood silently on the bridge and looked in the direction of the departure of the German plane, and the plane appeared, so its mothership must not be far from here. He knew that with the speed of his fleet, he couldn't retreat at all, but he didn't feel desperate, after all, it couldn't be the main German fleet, since he couldn't escape, it was better to go all out, once he repelled the German fleet, the morale of the British soldiers and civilians could be unexpectedly boosted.

Thinking of this, Churchill called the navigator and said, "How far are we from the Isle of Lewis, the northernmost part of Scotland?" ”

"It's about 40 nautical miles, and at the current speed, it can be reached in just four hours!" The navigator's tone was more optimistic.

"Well, send a message to the Admiralty that we are likely to encounter a German raid fleet, and ask them to send Rodel's patrol fleet to meet it! Destroyers, mine-strikers, and patrol boats, as long as the ships with weapons are sent, otherwise it will be difficult for me to guarantee the safety of this fleet! "Churchill, staring at the seas to the southeast, seemed to have seen the British coastline, and for him and the British fleet was only one step away from success.

"Yes!"

After a brief discussion, Admiralty Fisher telegraphed the British patrol fleet stationed at Rodell Harbor on Lewis Island to dispatch the entire fleet to meet Churchill's fleet, which was laden with arms and hope.

One destroyer, six mine-strikers and seven patrol boats of the Rodel patrol fleet had not yet left the harbor, and a group of five German seaplanes flew over Churchill's fleet again. This time, the British sailors could clearly see through the binoculars that the German planes were all hung with long and round aerial torpedoes under their bellies, and the air raid sirens sounded again on the sea.

"The secondary guns were replaced with grenades, and once the German planes lowered their altitude, they spared no effort to shoot at them! Machine guns and machine guns are ready to fire and intercept German torpedoes entering the water with all their might! ”

Although Churchill did not personally participate in the two Anglo-German naval battles, he had a more detailed understanding of the tactics of German aircraft from the surviving British naval officers and men, and was working on writing a pamphlet entitled "German Aircraft, There Is Nothing to Fear" to dispel the blind fear of British officers and soldiers, especially the naval forces, of the German air force. But judging by the current situation, the Germans did not leave much time for him to write that little book.

"Also, the battleships broke away from the fleet and evaded torpedo attacks on their own!" Churchill had already lost one armored battleship in previous German submarine attacks, and he did not want anything to happen to the remaining two Dreadnoughts-class and three old armoured ships, which the British government intended to use against the German navy, before making it to the ports of British home.

"As for those submarines, the destroyers towing them untied the cables and did their best to protect the transport ships, and the submarines followed at full speed on their own power!" In Churchill's eyes, those American submarines launched before 1910 and with average performance were not as important as large transport ships loaded with large quantities of munitions, and the sudden rapid development of anti-submarine technology by the German Navy suddenly overshadowed the British submarine force that intended to "return the other way." Most of the British submarines that had been rampant in the North Sea in October and November had sunk to the bottom of the sea or had been captured in the German docks, and the few that were the only ones had to hide in safe harbors.

The German planes did not attack immediately after flying closer, but circled at medium and high altitudes in search of the most valuable targets, and the most massive British battleships naturally attracted their attention the most.

After the temporary leader gave the order to attack freely, these reconnaissance plane pilots, who were usually accustomed to standing by and watching, finally had a chance to show their skills. Although the "Exocet" series of planes flew the slowest of all German military aircraft, for Churchill's "rookies", the planes on the left and right were a little dizzy, and the guns on the battleships were also aimed at their respective targets in a chaotic rhythm. Cannonballs and bullets continued to fall on the sea surface in the distance or near the battleship, splashing water columns and splashes one after another, high or low, and many sailors even fired machine gun and machine gun bullets at the nearby battleship in a hurry, and the sparks generated by the violent collision between metal and metal scattered and splashed in all directions, and gradually British sailors fell under the muzzle of their own guns.

Seeing that his own fleet was already in chaos before the German planes dropped their torpedoes, Churchill suddenly had the feeling that it was difficult for a clever woman to cook without rice. There are no excellent warships, and there are no excellent sailors, even if he is Nelson, he may only sigh helplessly in the face of a strong enemy!

"Torpedo !!"

The German plane finally dropped the first torpedo, and the panic of the sailors on several nearby battleships suddenly reached a climax, and the sailors who ran aimlessly could be seen everywhere, and many Canadians, Australians, or New Zealanders were looking for lifebuoys and life jackets, and the few British veterans were powerless to change this chaotic situation, and they were even infected by this panicked atmosphere, and the outermost battleships suddenly seemed to have lost their souls. Few sailors stayed in machine-gun and machine-gun positions to fire at the speeding torpedoes. And the target of the first torpedo, the 9,000-ton heavy cruiser "Las Vegas", did not have time to make any evasive moves.

After a loud bang, flames and smoke rose high on the cruiser, which had been launched in 1905, and the German pilots were ecstatic with the first torpedo hitting the target. The aerial torpedoes used by the reconnaissance planes did not deal a fatal blow to the heavy cruiser with a certain amount of waterline armor, but unfortunately when a large amount of seawater poured into the battleship, there were not many sailors and officers on it who planned to make amends, and most of the people chose to jump into the sea in a panic to escape.

Accompanied by the "fluttering and fluttering" sound of the sailors jumping into the icy water, four other German planes also dropped their torpedoes. Compared to the posture of the British sailors, the German torpedoes were "elegant" into the water, and after a long distance of sneaking back to the surface, they were moving quickly towards their target at a speed of about 35 knots, and the white wake of bubbles and splashes remained on the surface for a long time.

Suddenly, a German plane that had just finished throwing a torpedo and was about to be pulled up from a low altitude was hit by a cannon grenade, and the fragile body of the skinned plane disintegrated instantly, and dozens of large and small parts were immediately scattered on the sea.

Churchill and his sailors rejoiced in less than half a minute, and the torpedoes, which were now on a mission of revenge, were loaded head-on with steel hulls. When the great flames rose, Churchill no longer wanted to close his eyes and mourn. Two of the next four torpedoes hit the same armored cruiser, and the violent explosion quickly turned the 12,000-ton guy upside down, leaving the hull with white paint to lie quietly in the mud of the ocean floor soon after. Churchill's flagship, the USS Utah, which was completely controlled by British sailors, managed to evade the joint attack of two German torpedoes, but the armored battleship USS Mitchell, which was located more than 200 meters on the other side of the USS Utah, became unlucky. A German torpedo that grazed the tail of the "Utah" hit the 14,000-ton battleship impartially, and although it did not hit the fatal position, its speed suddenly dropped to the extent that it could barely match the turtle.

The remaining four German planes hovered over and over the chaotic British fleet, with smoke and countless drowning victims, initially waiting for a survivor to surface, but over time this expectation evolved into mourning for their fallen comrades. It wasn't until about a quarter of an hour later, when another German plane flew in from the southwest, that the four planes reluctantly left.

The air raid sirens in the British special fleet had not stopped, but the chaotic anti-aircraft fire of the new German plane was remembered as it approached the fleet, but the German plane did not seem to have any intention of lowering its altitude, and it did not have torpedoes under its belly like the previous planes.

After a while, when a thunderous sound came from the southwest, Churchill suddenly realized.

"Hell! Calibrators of the German fleet! ”

As the thunder gradually turned into a sharp whistle that stimulated people's eardrums from far and near, a row of powerful cannonballs instantly broke through the air, and a huge column of water rose on the sea, and the entire British fleet suddenly fell into a dazed panic.