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The battle at the top of the Atlantic finally arrived two years after the outbreak of the war, and the news of the battle against the Faroe Islands more than 20 years ago finally arrived, and everyone knew that a large-scale naval battle involving confidence, dignity and sea power had just begun.

According to the declassified documents of the United States after the incident, Roosevelt was once hospitalized due to a seizure of illness after learning that the two battleships had sunk one after another, and his body has become a suspense about whether the United States can continue the war. Although dozens of U.S. ships, including two North Carolina-class battleships, had rushed to the Danish Strait that evening, many officials, including Secretary of State Hull, were frustrated that the United States would lose the war. Because by the time the destroyer fired the torpedoes at the "Mississippi", the US army had lost two-thirds of its pre-war naval strength (in terms of combat capability), and the total number of military deaths had climbed to 400,000, 130,000 prisoners, and millions more wounded! Nearly 20,000 aircraft and 10,000 tanks and various types of armored vehicles were also lost.

(The lost figure includes all losses, including battle damage, sinking of sea transport, abandonment of ordinary attrition, etc.)

And at this time, only one year has passed since the United States entered the war!

In the words of later scholars of war history, the two "New Mexico"-class battleships fought a wrong classical-style naval battle in the wrong sea area at the wrong time, and achieved the reputation of "King of the North Sea" for Rutteyans. There is some truth to this, because after the war, the U.S. Navy admitted that Task Force 22 had not been trained in the rigors of North Atlantic naval warfare, and that neither battleship had any radar on board. In addition, there were also disadvantages such as weather, speed, and division of troops, which led to the inability to concentrate troops, and in the end they had to endure the pain of this kind of naval guerrilla warfare in which they were broken by each other.

Immediately after the naval battle, the US Navy demanded the installation of radar on all warships, even those old destroyers that had been in service for twenty years and were about to be scrapped. For this alone, the US political axe spent an additional $200 million in war expenses, which also made the total military expenditure of the US military in 1941 reach a staggering $100 billion! In contrast, Yanjing's total military expenditure that year was only $52 billion because of the sufficient amount of weapons and equipment in advance and the obvious consumption of advantages in land, sea and air equipment. This incident also became a lever for the US Congress to later attack the White House for "lacking preparation and rashly getting involved in the war and putting the United States in danger", which led to many chain reactions that affected the United States and even the world after the war.

On the other hand, Lütjans, who had just been crowned the "King of the North Sea", did not really win by sinking two old battleships, and the opponent in front of him was still very, very strong, and he himself was not without losses. Both the Bismarck and the Tirpitz suffered minor injuries, especially the long-wave radar of the former that was damaged by the shelling vibration and the loss of some anti-aircraft guns, but fortunately these minor injuries did not affect the speed. But the heavy cruiser "Prinz Eugen" was in more trouble, as the 356-mm shells of the "New Mexico" cut off one of its sterns, causing the rate of fuel leakage to plummet. So Lütjans secretly sent a telegram to Raeder, hoping to cancel the rest of the operation when he saw that it was good, but the battle of the Faroe Islands aroused Hitler's appetite, and he believed that it was possible to achieve a greater victory by bad weather, so he rejected the Navy's plan to cancel the operation, and instead asked the fleet to continue southward to join the battle cruisers "Scharnhorst" and "Gneisenau" waiting in the Atlantic.

After receiving the reply telegram, Lütjans secretly complained. He knew very well that the loss of two old battleships would not hurt Britain and the United States at all, but would stimulate the other side to retaliate with all their might. But Hitler's hard-worded telegram forced him to bite the bullet and continue south. In the end, he had to let the "Prince Eugen" go back first, and then send a telegram back to China again, asking Raeder to tell Vice Admiral Siriacos, the commander of the two Shane, to ask him to move closer to the Danish Strait as soon as possible, and also abandon his preconceptions and ask Dönitz's wolves to strengthen their patrols on the south side of the strait to protect the passage of the fleet from here.

The departure of a heavy cruiser, it seems, did not have much effect on the offensive capabilities of the fleet, but thinking about the long-wave radar and 65 anti-aircraft guns on the "Prince Eugen", you can see what the Germans lost. After the departure of the "Prinz Eugen", Lütjans's first trouble was who would serve as the vanguard ship, because the "Lützov" had to protect the "Zeppelin" aircraft carrier, so he could only let two battleships rush forward, which also meant that once the enemy encountered, the fleet would lose important maneuver and warning time. To make matters worse, because he did not strictly enforce radio silence and frequently sent telegrams asking for instructions from China, the telegram was intercepted by a B17 electronic reconnaissance plane in the United States. Although Britain and the United States were not able to fully decipher the telegram, they still deduced that the German fleet was likely to pass through the Danish Channel. Therefore, in the early morning of November 14, two North Carolina-class battleships, four heavy cruisers, three light cruisers, and seven Fletcher-class destroyers of the US Navy's Task Force 4 rushed in a straight line to the south of the strait. And this! It was the most important detail of the later Allied victory, because after the cancellation of the anti-submarine maneuver and the search for the "Scharnhorst" class battlecruisers along the way, Kincaid arrived a full seven hours earlier than the scheduled arrival time!

At noon, Admiral John Tovey, commander of the Royal Navy's home fleet, also boldly reduced the interception force east of the Faroe Islands, appointed Vice Admiral Holland as commander, and formed the first mobile fleet with three King George V-class battleships, two heavy cruisers, and four light cruisers, and converged with the battleship "Rodney" and the aircraft carrier "Ark Royal" that were searching and intercepting in the south of Iceland and rushed to the Danish Strait. At the same time, the second mobile fleet was formed with the aircraft carrier "Dreadnought" and the battleship "Warrior", and merged with Fletcher's second task force to search for two "Scharnhorst" class German battle cruisers and "Leipzig" light cruisers.

Time is slowly moving forward in anticipation.

At three o'clock in the morning on November 18, 110 nautical miles southeast of Reykjavik, the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal raised the first SeaSpitfire fighter to the deck amid the dull sound of gears. In the rest compartment below the island, British pilots in leather jackets began to check their flare guns, life jackets, scarves, hoods and watches, as well as some essential equipment. Among them, a young man of mixed race, dressed in a Chinese naval aviation jacket, with black hair and yellow skin, but with a tall Slavic nose and light blue eyes, stood out.

His name is Pang Xun, his father is a university teacher, and his mother is a Slavic nobleman. After escaping from Chelyabinsk to China due to domestic persecution, he was arranged by the political axe to work as an art and music teacher at the Yucheng Girls' School, and then met his father and fell in love and married.

There were many Slavs like her mother in the country, and because most of these people who fled that year were well educated, most of them were arranged to teach in schools after crossing the language barrier, which strengthened the national basic education teaching force. Many of them have become all over the world, especially the disciples of several masters of physical chemistry, who have become the backbone of scientific research in the 3010 plan. The 24-year-old, a former captain pilot of the Chinese Navy's 4th Air Wing, had to transfer to the second line to become a major instructor after being wounded in the lungs by a bullet from the Zero Battle during the Battle of Guam.

He came to deliver new planes to the British Navy on behalf of the military, but he did not expect to encounter such an incident. It turned out that after the raid on the Battle of Taranto, the British Navy immediately ordered 550 "Osprey" torpedo bombers and 350 naval "Yaksha" dive bombers from China to strengthen its aircraft carrier combat capability. Originally, they also wanted to buy the "Lightning" fighter, but after being refused, they turned to accelerate the development of their own "Sea Spitfire" fighter, which was mass-produced in May this year.

After receiving the contract, Airbus and Meteor made improvements to the two aircraft in accordance with the British combat environment and weapons standards, and also added the British initial letter U after the model number in accordance with international practice, which means "British version". The main improvements were the replacement of new engines, the use of British pylons and fuel systems, and the strengthening of the landing gear and flaps to adapt them to more complex North Atlantic sea conditions and British aircraft carriers.

The "Ark Royal" is a fleet aircraft carrier comparable to the "Beihai" class of the Chinese Navy, and because it has to adapt to the harsh environment, it is more advanced than the "Beihai" class as a whole after adopting an armored deck and a fully enclosed hangar. But its aircraft carrier is smaller than that of the North Sea class, so now there are only 20 Sea Spitfire fighters, 28 Osprey U and 16 Yaksha U on board the aircraft carrier.

Pang Xun and his comrades were tasked with escorting the planes and teaching British naval pilots how to use them properly.

Originally, the "Ark Royal" was training for a new aircraft off the coast of Casablanca, but he did not expect to rush here from Africa with a letter of order, and he did not have a chance to disembark. So according to the Allied agreement, he will participate in battlefield battles as a pilot. "Pang, they say you sank my Akagi? How? Major Esmond, dressed in a white scarf and with a handsome appearance comparable to that of a Hollywood star, walked over. He was the commander of the Air Wing and the first British pilot to be reequipped with an Osprey U-boat torpedo attack aircraft.

"I would love to sink it, but I only have one torpedo." Influenced by his mother, Pang Xun is very good at English, French and Russian, which is the main reason why he was sent here. After smiling and telling Esmond that it was only a hit and not a sinking, Pang Xun pointed to the black and white photo of the "Bismarck" on the bulkhead: "There is no skill, because every warship has an air defense blind spot, find it and use it, and then drop the torpedo." ”

Several enlarged black-and-white photographs of German capital ships were deliberately pasted on the bulkheads, mainly for British pilots to identify. Major Edmonds nodded, as the contacts between the two navies increased, he also knew that China, like the US and British navies, is actually the only three countries in the world that have done comprehensive air defense planning and exercises for many fleets, and have carefully calculated the level of anti-aircraft artillery fire and deployment positions of warships, so the air defense blind spots of the warships of the three countries are very small. Unlike the German warships, which seem to have a lot of anti-aircraft guns but are actually very poor, even the naval powers Italy and France have a big gap with the three countries.

"And where do you think Bismarck's weakness is?" Esmond wanted to test Pang Xun because he had always thought that the Chinese instructor was too young and suspected of "moisture". Pang Xun of course knew the British people's humble but arrogant temper on the surface, and his finger slipped on the bow of the "Bismarck": "As a four-turret battleship, while gaining more accurate firing capabilities from the main guns, the narrow front and rear decks and double gun flame interference will make it impossible to install too many anti-aircraft guns in the front and rear. Especially in the bow, the blocking of the tall bridge increases the range of air defense blind spots. If it were me, I would have chosen to cut vertically at a low altitude of 70 degrees from the bow. The enemy must know its weakness, and if it wants to shoot me down, it will have to steer and use the anti-aircraft fire on the side of the side, but doing so will expose it to a longer side of the side. I would be very dangerous at this point, but if I could hold on to 1300 meters before firing a torpedo, with the length of the Bismarck and a speed of 30 knots, the torpedo would have hit just right. Pang Xun pointed to the stern and hooked the corners of his mouth: "Maybe pray a few more times before setting off, you can help the torpedo kill its rudder!" ”

Esmond didn't speak, took out a cigar and handed it to Pang Xun: "I need a backseat navigator, don't worry, I've prayed three times just now." Obviously, the two thought of being together. Pang Xun smiled and nodded, and picked up the camera he carried with him to record the training situation.

Just as the two of them walked towards the hangar, a black periscope suddenly poked out from under the water 7 nautical miles in front of them.

Under the periscope, Colonel Erichtop, known as the devil, had a bright eye. He had been ordered to arrive here two days earlier, and before that he had sunk 24,000 tons of American merchant ships in one go. But this time he was unlucky, and what he saw after he surfaced was not the deadliest aircraft carrier "Ark Royal" later, but the battleship "Prince of Wales", which blocked the aircraft carrier with his body.

The thick barrels and several destroyers made him dare not be careless, and quietly started the electric motor to meet the other party at a speed of 3 knots. In fact, there was no need for him to attack a terrible battleship, because Dönitz gave him the task of dealing with merchant ships. To make matters worse, due to the previous high consumption, there is now only one torpedo left on the boat, and it is not the latest oxygen torpedo. But he decided to try his luck anyway, hoping to inflict heavy damage on the battleship that was heading for the strait to reduce the pressure on the main fleet, but since the destroyer was always with him, he did not dare to get too close, so he had to order the launch from 4,000 meters away.

The unexpected happened! After leaving the launch tube, the torpedo did not rush to the target, but plunged headlong into the deep sea at a depth of thousands of meters. German engineers later judged that it was likely that the air chamber that guaranteed buoyancy was damaged and sank. "Damn it!" Whatever the final reason, Airy missed one last chance! "Reverse, heading to 110. Calculate the time, and send a telegram to General Lütjans in an hour. Frustrated, he had to dive to the bottom of the ocean again and drift north.

Scholars who have studied this naval battle believe that if the torpedo had hit the Prince of Wales at that time, or even if there was panic, the aircraft carrier Ark Royal, hiding in the visual shadow of the Prince of Wales, would have been exposed. At that time, Lütjans would definitely let the "Zeppelin" take the lead in attacking the aircraft carrier! Rather than rashly attacking a battleship that poses little threat, leading to active exposure.

But there are no ifs in war.

At 4:15 a.m., a telegram was received from Lütjans, who had already crossed the minefield of the strait.

"This location." Lindemann, the captain of the Bismarck, immediately followed the telegram and drew a map of the position and tracks: "From Colonel Erichtop's description, I think it should be a King George V-class battleship. His speed is 23 knots, then by now it should have reached this point. Lindemann's finger pointed to the east of the outlet of the trumpet-shaped channel: "There are still 95 nautical miles from the strait." ”

"This is our last chance, and the Americans are already on their way. Pre-departure intelligence said that 2 "North Carolina-class" battleships had been training in Bermuda, and if we had set off as soon as Bergen had discovered us, there would have been six hours left in the strait. "The chief of staff, Rear Admiral Coat, also took up his pen and drew out the possible sailing route of the 4th U.S. Task Force." So within four hours, we must get rid of the entanglement through the strait! Otherwise, we will encounter the Americans head-on, and we will not be able to stop the simultaneous attack of six or even seven battleships. ”

Lu Teyans's eyes were red, and the fatigue of staying up late for a long time was like maggots attached to his bones, affecting his movement and thinking. After the two of them finished speaking, they lit a cigarette and let the smoke dispel the tiredness of the body.

"We sank 2 battleships of the Americans, so it is no longer possible to withdraw from the Atlantic and Gibraltar directions, because they still have to search for our Scharnhorst," Rear Minister Cotter continued. Therefore, the British could only send a maximum of 3 faster ships of the George V. Perhaps there will also be "Rodney" and "Resolve", but by no means more than 5 ships. Judging from the previous battles, as long as the distance and speed are well controlled, the 14-inch naval guns will not do us much damage. As I have just inquired about, the weather is now enough to allow carrier-based aircraft to take off, and I suggest that the Zeppelin attack immediately and sink the battleship discovered by Colonel Airy. If you're lucky, maybe there's a second one by its side. There is no need to sink, as long as we are wounded, we can use our speed to break through the interception and ensure access to the wider Atlantic before the Americans arrive. ”

"But the British have aircraft carriers, and there are more carrier-based aircraft than Zeppelin." Lütjans frowned, and the British aircraft carrier was always in his throat to make him uneasy. You must know that because of Goering's obstruction, the carrier-based aircraft of the "Zeppelin" have not been fully staffed so far. You must know that after many aircraft carrier battles in the Pacific Ocean, the Chinese Navy has begun to increase the number of fighter squadrons from 24 to 36 to enhance the ability to make continuous sorties, and even the US Navy has begun to strengthen the number of aircraft carrier fighters. But when he came out this time, he carried only 10 BF109T fighters, as well as 16 JU87D4 dive bombers and 20 FI-167 torpedo planes, the latter of which was even a biplane with poor survivability.

"Then we should be more proactive! Only by taking the lead can the fighters rush back to protect the skies over the continuing fleet. However, Rear Admiral Cotter was still confident, and he believed that after the attack wave was completed, the fighter could return to the "Berlin" to refuel and take off. But if he knew that the "Ark Royal" was near the "Prince of Wales" and was already equipped with "Sea Spitfire" fighters and Chinese attack aircraft that were clearly superior to his own, he would certainly not have packed the ticket.

Lütjans nodded, this seemed to be the best way to go, otherwise he would have to turn around and go home immediately.

At 4:30, the aircraft carrier "Zeppelin", which had been waiting for a sortie for a long time, turned north and began to release its planes. But unexpectedly! I don't know if it was because of the lack of fighters and concerns about the safety of the fleet's air defense, or because the lack of fighters was too confident in the ability of the attack aircraft group, Lütjans did not have fighters to attack.

This decision exposed the weakness of the German Navy's understanding of aircraft carrier warfare, and Admiral John Tovey later said: "If they were in the sky, they would entangle our "Sea Spitfire", which would cause a catastrophe. ”

But no matter what Rutyans thought at the time, it is irretrievable now. Ten minutes later, 16 JU87D4 and 20 FI-167s soared into the sky, and since the German radar was far inferior to the British, the German pilots, who had suffered enough, immediately entered the low altitude, first westward into the skies over Iceland and then south, trying to avoid electromagnetic waves with undulating surface curves. This helpless choice once again put the weakness of the German aircraft with insufficient range under the microscope. Moreover, after liftoff, the German Navy found that the speed of the FI-167 could only reach 240 kilometers per hour after being hung with torpedoes, and the Ju87D4 used a new 1400 horsepower engine and the minimum cruising speed at low altitude was also more than 280 kilometers, so the two attack aircraft could not be grouped at all, and could only fly one after the other.

In Yang Qiu's words: "Germany lost in the sky!" ”

At the same time as the "Zeppelin" released the carrier-based aircraft, Lütjens gave an order for the Lützov to stay behind to protect the aircraft carrier, then let the two battleships accelerate to 30 knots, and finally turn the course to 220, trying to stick to Greenland to the west into the Canadian coast to avoid the British and American battleship groups. But he didn't know that Kincaid, whose eyes were red, was at this moment at a speed beyond his expectations, leading two "North Carolina-class" battleships straight along Greenland towards the strait.

The American cowboys, who were bent on revenge, picked up their guns and rushed directly towards him.

At 5:15 a.m., when the "Bismarck" was the first to enter the southern exit of the Channel at a high speed of 30 knots, the radar crew of the "Prince of Wales" also suddenly picked up the phone.

"Unknown swarm! Starboard, five o'clock! Bearing 090! ”…… (To be continued.) )