The black clouds are churning, the wind is blowing, and the waves of the vast North Sea are rolling, and the surging waves are more than three meters high. A well-formed fleet is riding the wind and waves, heading towards the deep ocean to the northwest. The dark blue waves continued to hit the bow side of the battleship, gushing out thousands of tiny waves and foaming at the white foam.

The waves fluttered, and the layers swept towards the head of the battleship under sail, like an avalanche of ice peaks; In the face of the mighty power of nature, even the most powerful weapons of war created by human beings are as small and powerless as a flat boat in a torrent. The capital hull swayed left and right, leaned forward and swayed backwards, the bow of the ship constantly haunted the snow waves and silver waves, and the majestic and heavy forward main turret was cleaned by the seawater. The rifle and subguns on both sides of the board also closed the revolving windows early, lest water ripple in from the freeboard, which was just over 3 meters long.

This was not the case with the broad and majestic battlecruisers, but even more so with the slender and light light cruisers and torpedo boats. Although the light cruiser had a freeboard that was not inferior to that of the battle cruiser, the steady height was much lower than that of the large capital ship, and it became extremely difficult to navigate in such harsh sea conditions. Due to the lack of recovery caused by the low center, the battleship was almost always in a state of tilting and swaying under the impact of the waves, and even the occasional righting of the hull was fleeting. And those torpedo boats weighing several hundred tons can only hold on to not being crushed by this raging storm, and the soldiers on the ships are like being in a roller coaster, and they can only hold on to the fixed objects next to them so that they will not be thrown around. Rao is that they have been through the waves for a long time, and they can't help but be a little dizzy at the moment; Such sea conditions were almost impossible to encounter in the previous South of the North Sea and the Baltic Sea!

This line of fleets. It is currently the most powerful fast-strike force in the world. By Franz? The German reconnaissance fleet under the command of Vice Admiral Hipper.

More than two months ago. The fleet fought an unprecedentedly fierce artillery battle against their fateful enemy, the British Rapid Fleet, in the North Sea; After the victory, these patrols resolutely joined the battle between the main forces of the High Seas Fleet and the main forces of the British Home Fleet, and endured a large amount of artillery fire from the other side. Although no more irreparable losses were suffered in the end, the damage to each ship far outnumbered the battleships in the fleet, after all, the number and firepower of the British battleships were there, and even the Blücher, which was the least damaged, was hit by a total of 22 large-caliber shells of the battleship class. And the explosive power of the British Navy's large-charge shells is definitely strong enough!

Because the battle cruisers were covered in bruises. The main force of the High Seas Fleet was obviously inseparable from these ears and dogs, so the German Navy's plan to attack again was greatly delayed. In the time that followed, the German battleships that had been repaired did not make any major moves except to go around the Baltic Sea and scare the Russian Navy into staying in the Gulf of Finland honestly. It was not until two and a half months later, on 7 November, when the most badly damaged Zhòng, the Lützov, once again made its way through the sea with a new attitude, that the plan for a fleet sortie was put back on the agenda, and it was implemented three days later.

Completely different from the previous situation, the main mission of the current High Seas Fleet. It was no longer a head-on battle with the British fleet, but a submarine hunting in the Atlantic. Completely tighten the current skein on the British sea line. After all, the main force of the British Home Fleet had already suffered a crushing defeat in the Battle of the North Sea, and the remaining forces at this moment were completely insufficient to confront the German High Seas Fleet head-on; And the British are aware of this, so they have decisively abandoned the Scapa Bay base in the northeast of Scotland and transferred the anchorage of the home fleet to Ortebay in the west of Scotland to avoid a direct confrontation with the main force of the German fleet.

For the German Navy, this was undoubtedly a completely new and difficult and complex task. For a long time before, the strategic technology they had studied was how to engage the British Navy in a decisive battle, and they never imagined that they could achieve such a big victory, let alone plan the road they would take in the future. However, this does not prevent them from adapting to the situation and coming up with the right strategy for the current environment. In fact, the German Navy has completely grasped the current battlefield initiative and is waiting to turn the advantage in their hands into victory!

With Qing Ying's participation, the German navy quickly formulated a plan of action for the subsequent war. The main fleet will first seize the Shetland Islands, 200 kilometers northeast of Scotland, based on the island of Fair that was conquered in the early stage, so as to uproot the remaining British forces in the North Sea and create an absolutely safe rear environment for German warships to enter the Atlantic Ocean from North Scotland. At the same time, the engineering team worked heavily on the port of Fell Island, which was used as an outpost for fuel and supplies for German naval vessels. Compared with Wilhelmshaven in Germany, it is nearly 450 nautical miles from Fair Island into the Atlantic Ocean, and it is 900 nautical miles round trip; And for those German torpedo boats, which could only fly more than 2,000 nautical miles at low cruising speeds, this was undoubtedly a prerequisite for them to be able to accompany their capital ships into the Atlantic.

On 12 November, the main forces of the German High Seas Fleet gathered in Shetland for the first large-scale operation since the decisive battle. The British Home Fleet was almost helpless against this action of the High Seas Fleet: it was undoubtedly suicidal to send a surface fleet to stop the Germans, and it was equally impractical to attack an entire fleet with a large number of light ships to attack it with submarines. Because even if the submarine successfully reaches the destination and finds the target, those enemy escort warships scattered in all directions will force the submarine to choose to dive at a great distance from the target, so that it will not have the opportunity to attack or even retreat later.

Under the absolute fire of the German fleet, which totaled more than 200 large-caliber naval guns, the target beachhead was instantly bombarded to the surface of the moon; The marines in small boats swarmed up and soon occupied the landing area. And the main forces of the High Seas Fleet, which had completed the task of delivering the landing force, did not choose to continue to wait in the same place. After leaving a detachment of light ships most unsuitable for long-distance voyages to guard the landing grounds, and continuing to provide shore bombardment fire support to the army, the main fleet, which had completed the refueling at sea, headed west into the Atlantic Ocean to launch a naval assault that all German naval officers and men looked forward to.

In order to deal with the threat of the remaining strength of the British Home Fleet, and at the same time increase the efficiency of hunting, the entire high seas fleet was naturally divided into two parts by Commander Ingnorl. The reconnaissance fleet led by Hipper, as the eagle dog for the hunt, searched for targets at sea with guò seaplanes, while Ingnoll hoisted behind Hipper with the capital ship, keeping the two fleets at a distance from each other. Ingnoll's intentions were clear, with the strength of 6 battle cruisers, 8 light cruisers, and 32 torpedo boats in Hipper's fleet, it was enough to sweep away all the British convoys discovered by reconnaissance aircraft; And if the British Home Fleet had any idea of the German reconnaissance fleet, the 22 dreadnoughts, 8 light cruisers, and 32 torpedo boats of the High Seas Fleet would directly teach the other side how to behave.

"In less than an hour, we'll be out of this storm area." In the navigation room of the De Fringel, Major Raeder, who was nearly forty years old, looked at the cloudless sky and sea in the distance, and couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. The sea conditions in the Atlantic Ocean were very different from those of the Dogle Sandbank and the Baltic Sea, which were familiar to the German navy, and the reconnaissance fleet encountered three thunderstorms in two days after passing through northern Scotland; The first two times were avoided by the fleet turning the rudder, but this time it was unavoidable, so I could only choose to meet it. And even on this battleship with a full load displacement of 27,500 tons, Raeder clearly felt the terrifying power unleashed when the sea was angry, not to mention the other warships in the fleet!

"After sailing out of the storm area, each ship immediately counted the remaining fuel and reported it to the flagship, and the torpedo boats gave priority to coal replenishment." The balding Vice Admiral Hipperer spoke lightly, and his words also revealed a little relief. This fierce storm was indeed a big test for the German battleships with limited seaworthiness, and the fuel consumption of the battleships was several times higher than usual. In order to hunt in the Atlantic for as long as possible, the German Navy specially prepared as many as 5 coal carriers to accompany the Hipper's fleet; The expedition of the Russian Baltic Fleet nine years ago was indeed a real send-off journey, but the rich experience they gained in refueling at sea was carried forward by the German Navy, which learned from others, and applied it to the current surface warfare.

The wind and rain whimpered, the waves turned smaller, and the German sailors, who had been tossed and turned in torpedo boats, finally got their long-awaited respite. The sun poured down through the dispersed clouds, and a calm blue was restored in the sky and sea. The German sailors walked onto the deck with joy and smiles on their faces, and there was a touch of vicissitudes and roughness on their faces that only those who have been galloping in the blue water for many years can have. With the wave of signal flags up and down, torpedo boats slowly approached the coal carriers whose freeboard was pressed low; Sailors carried bales of coal to the bunkers of the boat, using planks erected between the boat's sides.

The machinery roared, the waves were pleasant, and while the torpedo boats were coaling, the battle cruisers also released seaplanes as planned, and for a time the air was full of the whistling sound of gasoline engines. At Qingying's suggestion, the war cruisers of these reconnaissance fleets were equipped with booms and seaplanes in the middle or tail of the hull in the process of restoration; These improved seaplanes were equipped with auxiliary fuel tanks, which allowed the German surface fleet to increase its detection range in the Atlantic Breach Engagement. (To be continued......)

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