Wilhelmshaven, located in northwestern Germany near the North Sea, is a natural military port surrounded by land and the entrance to the bay is very narrow, less than 4,000 meters at its narrowest point. Several pre-World War I forts lined up the entrance to the bay, blocking the only entrance with cannons. The interior of the bay is very spacious, and before 1918, the calm waters here were often filled with majestic steel ships.

But now, there are less than 10 warships in the military port of Nuoda, all of which are docked at berths at the port dock in the northwest corner of the bay, and are closely protected by 88mm and 40mm anti-aircraft guns. The sky was overcast, and occasionally two small light blue planes emerged from the clouds and circled low in pursuit. This is a Fokker Zero aircraft of the Naval Air Corps conducting training.

"Rudolph, I caught you again, haha, already aiming, the distance is just right, you can shoot with 20 machine guns and machine guns. If it's actual combat, you're already smoking in the ass! ”

Rudolph. Feng. Heinsberg Hersmann's headphones came from the handsome Austrian man Walter. Novotny's voice. Rudolph Jr. considered himself the most skilled supplementary pilot, but he rarely had the upper hand when training with his team's Novotny.

"It's not that my skills are bad, it's that this plane is not very capable of diving, if I change to a BF-109, I will definitely be able to get rid of you heel." Rudolph Jr. argued as he gently pulled up the nose of the plane and began to hover over a 200-meter-long aircraft carrier that looked a little slender from the air.

This is the aircraft carrier "Seydlitz", with a standard displacement of 15,240 tons, a full load displacement of 20,500 tons, and a high speed of 31 knots, which is the best "broken aircraft carrier".

This class of aircraft carriers can carry 36 carrier-based aircraft. The standard configuration is a squadron of 20 Fokker Zero carrier-based fighters; A squadron of 9 Fokker Type 99 (that is, the 99 ship explosion of the book, Anthony. Fokker bought a production license, opened a production line at the BF-FK plant in the Baltic) carrier-based reconnaissance bombers; In addition, there are 7 reserve aircraft (4 zero, 3 99).

Both Rudolf and Novotny were trained according to the standards of carrier-based pilots, and in addition to the standard course for Luftwaffe pilots, there was also a carrier-based pilot course for the Japanese Navy. Therefore, the training has not yet been completed, and the first batch of aircraft carriers will not be available. According to the plan, the two of them will be the pilots of the Fokker Zero on the aircraft carrier "Seckert" (Seydlitz class), and will not be officially on board until the beginning of next year. However, they have already taken off and landed on the "Seydlitz" a few times, and they know that aircraft carrier can make people's blood boil.

"Walter, look below!" Little Rudolph suddenly shouted, "It's leaving the dock, it's going to strike!" ”

"Sortie? Who? Novotny craned his neck to look down. I saw that there was smoke from the chimneys of three warships on the pier of Wilhelmshaven, and the ships were slowly leaving the pier.

"It was ...... light cruisers 'Seedliz', 'Scharnhurst' and 'Leipzig'." Rudolph's voice came from the earphones, "They must have gone to the Atlantic to break relations, I really want to go with them!" ”

Rudolph Jr. guessed correctly, the 'Sedlitz', 'Scharnhorst' and 'Leipzig' had formed the "First Atlantic Squadron," which was under the personal command of Vice Admiral Shamal, commander of the High Seas Fleet, and was ready to break through into the Atlantic.

……

"Lieutenant General, the weather forecast, the clouds over the North Sea today are very thick, and there are many places with moderate to heavy rain, and the sea conditions are generally around level 4."

Chief of Staff of the fleet, and at the same time captain of the battleship "Scharnhorst", Kurt . Rear Admiral Leifman was reporting the weather to Vice Admiral Machar, commander of the High Seas Fleet, who personally led the attack.

Despite the intimidating title of "Commander of the High Seas Fleet", Vice Admiral Machar did not have a few real capital ships in his hands. The three "German"-class armored ships were too slow to effectively carry out the operation of breaking diplomatic relations. None of the "Bismarck"-class battleships and "Admiral Hipper"-class heavy cruisers, let alone the H-class, P-class, O-class and B-class ships, have yet been put into service.

Therefore, there are only three capital ships available to the high seas fleet, "Scharnhorst", "Gleisenau" and "Seydlitz", and the aircraft carrier "Seckert" is undergoing sea trials in the Baltic Sea, and it should be able to join the high seas fleet at the beginning of next year.

However, at present, the "First Atlantic Fleet," which consists of two capital ships, has already included most of the belongings of the High Seas Fleet. That's why Vice Admiral Machar personally went to the "Scharnhorst" as the commander of the detachment.

"The weather is bad for us," Lieutenant General Mashal sighed softly while standing in the command tower and looking at the empty Wilhelmshaven, "We don't have the strength to fight the British now...... Only those crazy people at HNA would fantasize about a decisive battle! ”

Commander Graeme, who had just been promoted to admiral, put forward a "decisive battle plan" to lure the British home fleet to the North Sea with all the resources of the High Seas Fleet as bait, and then send 1,000 planes to bomb -- this time it was really 1,000 planes! Because the Air Force has nothing to do at the moment, their He-111, Do-17, Ju88 and BF-110 can all be dispatched!

However, this plan, which gambled on the fate of the German navy, was immediately met with resolute opposition from the upper echelons of the navy. And the arguments they put forward for their opposition were also high-sounding - the winter climate in the North Sea was changeable, which was not conducive to air force sorties.

"Admiral, although the weather is not very good, the naval aviation will still provide air cover as much as possible." Rear Admiral Lefman said, "In addition to the planes on the 'Seydlitz,' HNA is fortunate to be on the Fw-200C, with the Fokker Zero, BF-110, Ju88 and He-115 on board." Within 800 kilometers from Wilhelmshaven, HNA can provide strong cover, and within 800 km to 1000 km, HNA can also provide some cover. 1,000 kilometers away we are on our own. ”

"Nothing," said Lieutenant General Machar, "will pass through the waters near Scotland at night." ”

"It's 10 o'clock," Maj. Gen. Leifman said, "We need to get out of the 800-kilometre safe range in 32 hours." In addition, a group of destroyers will escort us to the waters near the Faroe Islands (Danish territory). After that, it's up to us. ”

A group of destroyers was now circling outside Wilhelmshaven, and their mission was anti-submarine - the British also had submarines. However, the destroyer's voyage was short, and it was impossible to follow it all the way, so it had to be sent to the Faroe Islands between the British Isles and Iceland, and then immediately returned under the cover of night. After that, the broken fleet was left to move around the Atlantic on its own.

"If all goes well, we will arrive in Reykjavik, Iceland, in 80 hours, where we can stay for 24 hours, according to the Convention on Maritime Neutrality, and also refuel and supplies." "There will be a Swedish-flagged tanker waiting for us there, and in eight hours we will be able to fill up our fuel and supplies and go hunting in the North Atlantic!" ”

The Convention on Neutrality at Sea allows warships of belligerents to stay in neutral ports for refueling, replenishment and overhaul. However, the maximum number of warships docked at the same time is three (which is why the 1st Atlantic Fleet has only 3 ships). The docking time is usually 24 hours, and if the ship is damaged or malfunctions, the time can be extended to more than 24 hours. If fuel is not available within 24 hours, the port stop can be extended for up to another 24 hours.

In addition, a neutral country may legislate to prohibit ships of belligerents from entering port, but must treat all belligerents equally.

In fact, all three German ships had a cruising capacity of more than 6,000 nautical miles and did not need to enter Iceland for refueling at all. Now this arrangement was only intended to induce Britain to take the initiative to undermine Denmark's neutrality.

……

"Your Excellency, the German 'Scharnhorst' has left Wilhelmshaven!"

Wilhelmshaven itself was a medium-sized city with a well-developed shipbuilding industry and at the same time an important base for the German Navy. Naturally, it was the focus of British intelligence investigations, and they planted many agents there.

Just eight hours after the "Scharnhorst" left Wilhelmshaven, the British Admiralty Churchill received a report from First Sea Secretary Pound.

"The aircraft carrier 'Seydlitz' also left at the same time." "There's a good chance they're sailing into the North Sea!" ”

"A battleship and an aircraft carrier?" Churchill took his eyes off the pile of war reports from Poland and looked at Pound, "These are two huge prey!" ”

"Hunter at the same time!" Pound said.

"How are we going to catch them?" Churchill asked.

"Let the Hood and the Ark Royal strike!" The First Sea Secretary said, "Only they can catch up." ”

Due to the losses at the Battle of Scarpa Bay, the Royal Navy now had a large fleet in the air, but there were few capital ships that could pursue the 'Scharnhorst' and 'Seydlitz'...... There are actually only two of them!

"In addition, several slower formations will be dispatched to intercept it." Pound frowned and said, "The biggest problem now is that there is only one high-speed aircraft carrier, and ...... The Germans seem to have a carrier-based aircraft with extremely high combat effectiveness! (To be continued.) )