Chapter 233: Hide and Seek on the Norwegian Sea (Part II)
In 1939, the British Empire did not have a professional long-range reconnaissance aircraft, and those who could carry out such long-distance maritime reconnaissance missions could only be temporarily "part-time" by Wellington bombers. As a result, most of the time, the bombers that took off from such land-based airfields did not even see the shadow of the attacking fleet, and they were directly intercepted by the opposing ship-carrying fighters halfway, and then they were beaten down like wild ducks.
Although the range of the Wellington bomber, which is part-time on reconnaissance mission, is long enough, its speed is too slow, and when it is intercepted by carrier-based fighters, it can only be shot down.
However, due to the harsh climate in the North Atlantic, there were several occasions when the German fleet had already discovered the traces of British Wellington bombers in advance, but because of the bad sea conditions, it was unable to take off and land fighters, so it had no choice but to give up, which allowed the opponent to send back important information.
However, due to the guidance of Hannah and Linhan, the German fleet changed course in time, and most of the time avoided the search of the opponent. Coupled with the bad climate, poor visibility, and the reluctance to take off British land-based aircraft in bad weather conditions, the number of times the German fleet was found was not continuous, so the pursuing fleet was always unable to catch the traces of the German ships in time.
As for the search for underwater submarines, nothing was found, but two submarines "inexplicably" lost contact during the search.
Today is the 29th of November, and the intelligence gathered by the British Empire from all quarters confirms that the German fleet has entered the Norwegian Sea and is cruising in the area.
The opponents of the Royal Navy are now playing a game of hide-and-seek with them on the Norwegian Sea.
On the 29th, the Royal Navy finally received a piece of extremely important information. A fishing boat returning from the port of Christianshavn, Norway. Hundreds of British and American sailors were brought back, all of whom were sailors on transport ships that had been captured and sunk by the German fleet in the Atlantic Ocean over the past month or so. According to the Norwegian crew, on the 27th they encountered the German fleet about 300 kilometers northwest of Christianshavn, and the Germans sent back all the sailors captured in the previous battle with their fishing boats.
After receiving this information, the staff officers of the Royal Navy took a ruler and measured it on the map, only to find that their search fleet was on the 27th. The "closest" distance to the opponent is also as much as 230 kilometers. The opponent is like opening a "map hanging". The Royal Navy conducted a large-scale naval search, but did not even catch their shadows.
Twenty-nine days later, however, the luck of the British seemed to have come. After getting the news from the Norwegian side. Soon from the shore land-based aircraft. Traces of the German fleet were also found. Their exact location was provided - about three hundred and twenty kilometers northeast of the British main fleet.
In the past few days, the Norwegian Sea has been extremely bad due to the cold air from the Arctic moving southward, and the German carrier-based aircraft have been unable to dispatch. Finally let the land-based take-off of the British plane found the track.
After receiving this good news, in order to seize this German fleet as much as possible, the fleet commander Phillips ordered the "division of forces", and the three battle cruisers, the fastest Hood, the Counterattack, and the Prestige, combined with the fastest aircraft carrier Ark Royal, to form a fast fleet, separated from the main main fleet, and conducted a separate search, while the main fleet followed.
Considering the performance gap between these three ships and the German ships, the Royal Navy incorporated four Southampton-class light cruisers and six Kent-class heavy cruisers into the fast fleet, separated from the main force of the Grand Fleet, and advanced to search. And the Grand Fleet, limited by speed, was dragged behind to follow.
The advantage of this is that high-speed warships are no longer dragged down by a fleet of old low-speed battleships and aircraft carriers, and can fully exert their own high-speed advantage. According to his vision, the task of this fast fleet was to entangle the German fleet and buy time for the main fleet to follow up and annihilate the opponent.
The only problem is that in this kind of division of forces, the strength of the fast fleet is not as good as that of the opponent, and once it encounters the main force of the German navy, it is very dangerous to fight hard.
However, after consulting with the fleet staff, Commander Phillips believed that as long as the advancing high-speed fleet did not break away from the main force of the Grand Fleet for more than 150 kilometers, it would not be a big problem. The three aircraft carriers, such as the Glory and the Brave, are slower and cannot accompany the Ark Royal, but the biggest advantage of the aircraft carrier is that the carrier-based aircraft are fast enough. Once the high-speed fleet is in danger, the lagging three ships can quickly send fighters to the battlefield within dozens of minutes to reinforce it, so this danger is not great, and it is still within the range of what it may bear.
In order to strengthen the fast fleet, Commander Phillips incorporated all the high-speed cruisers in the fleet into the fast fleet. It was under these circumstances that the light cruiser Glasgow was incorporated into the Rapid Fleet, but he himself was extremely opposed to the Rapid Fleet acting alone from the formation of the main Grand Fleet.
Captain Hawke of the Glasgow served as captain on a destroyer in 1935 and participated in China's intervention war. He even watched the USS Fury sink in front of his eyes.
At that time, in Hangzhou Bay, the saying "eyes that watch the entire battlefield" that was prevalent in the British and Japanese forces was widely spread, and he himself left a deep impression after experiencing it himself.
The climate in the North Atlantic is extremely harsh, especially in winter, and there is very little time for aircraft carriers to fly aircraft during operations at sea. Many times, in bad sea conditions, the fighters on the aircraft carrier are purely a spectacle, and it is difficult to fly at all. However, there were only a few occasional "window periods" suitable for the release of fighters, and the planes released by the German aircraft carriers always achieved the desired results, and every time they released the planes, they never returned empty-handed.
For Captain Hawke, who had participated in the Chinese intervention war, the opponent gave him a feeling that was too familiar.
There is information that the German Navy may be armed with a device called a radar, which can detect targets at great distances in advance. The Royal Navy is now also experimentally preparing to put radar on board.
However, the Hawker believed that the situation was definitely not as simple as radar, and he raised the objection to the fleet commander against the division of troops, but was rejected by his superiors.
The current Commander Phillips is under tremendous pressure at home, and the British Empire has lost more than 400,000 tons of transport ships, two light cruisers, and several destroyers in a little more than a month, and it has reached a very dangerous situation.
However, the warplanes that turned the tide of World War I also appeared in front of the Royal Navy in this situation.
That is, the arrogant Germans had brought almost all of their wealth into the Atlantic, and were now blocked by the Royal Navy on their way home.
The most "dramatic" thing about this branch of the navy in war is that a commander can win or lose this war in half a day. The German Navy has only a little bit of a family background, and now it is strategically at a serious disadvantage, as long as it can catch this group of "German pirates" in the Norwegian Sea and force it to fight a decisive battle, the Royal Navy can turn over in a war.
After all, the temptation to annihilate the surface fleet of the German Navy in World War I was too great.
When the Royal Rapid Fleet, with the battlecruiser Hood and the Ark Royal as the main force, broke away from the main force of the Grand Fleet and began to pounce on the position of the German fleet, Hannah and Linhan on the Scharnhorst were also the first to notice their movements.
"It's done!"
In the past ten days or so, due to the opening of the map hanging by the soul of the ship, Germany is fully capable of avoiding the main force of the Royal Navy, breaking into the North Sea and returning to Germany safely. The reason why they still stay in the Norwegian Sea and play this game of hide and seek with the British is simply that they are here looking for fighters.
The biggest feature of the North Atlantic is that the climate is harsh, and the time window for carrier-based aircraft to dispatch is very small. If it weren't for the weather in the past few days, the German Navy, which has been floating between 200 and 300 kilometers away from the main British fleet, would have planned to launch a surprise attack with its planes and knock out the British aircraft carriers that they "hated" the most.
However, on 29 November, the crew of the Scharnhorst received a telegram from the German climate department that in the next few days, the Norwegian Sea region would have better weather and the time for an aircraft carrier sortie was approaching.
After receiving this good news, Commander Raeder discussed with Hannah, and deliberately revealed the location of the fleet, in order to lure the British Navy to divide his forces to chase him.
For her opponents, Hannah has great ambitions, and sinking one or two aircraft carriers alone will not satisfy her, and she also wants to use this battle to sink as many British capital ships as possible, especially those high-speed battle cruisers. As soon as these high-speed battlecruisers sank, the Royal Navy's operations in the Atlantic were even more stretched in the days to come.
On the battleship Scharnhorst, Hannah and Lin Han are now in a state of merger, and after the two become one, the maximum perception distance has reached as much as 304 kilometers at the cost of consuming the power of faith. At this range, the activity of any surface ships is under their surveillance.
After sensing that the British fleet was beginning to divide their forces, they deliberately slowed down the speed of their own northward "escape", so that the opponent's high-speed fleet could get closer to them.
The British fleet was divided at 3 p.m. on 29 November, when the weather over the Norwegian Sea was still harsh, but Hannah and Lin Hantong Guò showed signs of improvement in the weather 300 kilometres to the north. According to the current situation, the weather will improve to the point where carrier-based aircraft can take off and land by tomorrow morning at most.
The two now deliberately moved the fleet north, and even in order to "expose" themselves, they even asked the Scharnhorst to break the radio silence and intentionally send a telegram to Berlin, so that the British could determine their approximate position through radio mapping, so that the Royal Navy's high-speed fleet could get closer to their position.
That night, Commander Raeder ordered the entire fleet to have a meal and make the final preparations before the decisive battle.
Ask readers to like it and spend two cents to support this book (to be continued......)
PS: I'll be out of town tomorrow. I can only come back on the sixth day of junior high school. Remember to give this book a thumbs up