"Your Excellency, the fleet is ready to go." An officer said to Jericho who was contemplating.

"Well, let's go." Looking at the fleet and stars behind him, Jericho nodded. The sortie of the fleet at night was decided by Jericho. The Shetland Islands were not far from Norway, and the fleet's evening sorties could greatly shorten the chances of being discovered by German reconnaissance forces, and if you chose to choose daytime, whether it was aircraft or surface warships, you could find the smoke screen left by the Grand Fleet when it sailed at sea. But if they set out at night, most of the Germans' reconnaissance methods would not be effective, and although Jericho was determined to fight his opponent if necessary, it was better to avoid it.

Until now, Jericho's main task was to destroy the German bases in Norway. Of course, if the German Navy was willing to fight to the death with the British Royal Navy due to the small combat radius of the Royal Navy's land-based aviation, he would not mind a head-to-head fight with the other side.

"Your Excellency, Your Excellency, General Sims is here." Just as Jericho was about to give the order to attack, an unexpected visitor arrived to disrupt his plans, but in any case, out of respect for his allies, Jericho had to meet with the commander of the American detachment. Although Jericho doesn't agree much with Sims' level!

"Are we going to fight Molde?" Sims didn't have much of a politeness, and after entering the door and letting the other idlers wait to leave, Sims pointed to Molde on the king-size chart.

"That's right, the vast majority of the Germans' ocean-going submarines departed from here. Moreover, the port is very large and can supply all kinds of warships. Plus the location is relatively northern. Far from us. Therefore, the previous raid did not include it as a target, and many German ocean-going ships that originally belonged to other ports also gathered here. It is necessary to uproot it completely. Jericho said calmly.

"Could this be a trap? The Germans pulled the fleet to Molde, on the verge of our strike range. And if the Grand Fleet were to be dispatched and the German High Seas Fleet was to be stationed nearby, we would most likely be caught headlong in the encirclement of the other side. Sims said sternly.

"Eighty percent of this is a trap for them." A smile tugged at Jericho's lips. "But what about even traps? I've got a strategy in place to deal with it. If according to normal sailing conditions, we depart at night and then arrive during the day, but if we depart at night and arrive at night. At least when we attacked, we had the night to cover. ”

The scheming Jericho was naturally not given for nothing, and it was absolutely impossible to reach Molde in one night. But what if you can't get there? I'm just walking around the open sea. Then wait until the next night to shell Port Molde. I'll leave when I'm done. Didn't the Germans wait for the rabbit? They could only be deployed near Molde. The range of activity was relatively small, and it was difficult to spot the British fleet cruising in the open sea during the day. And even if it was discovered, the British could calmly retreat, and at night. Under the cover of night. It was difficult for the fleet to complete long-range shooting, and even the battleships were hand-to-hand combat. If the Germans were impatient enough to fight a night battle with the Royal Navy, the Germans' defenses would not be reliable in close combat. And it was more convenient for the Torpedo boats and light cruisers of the Royal Navy to launch lightning strikes at close range.

"Are you preparing for a night battle with the Germans?" Sims was taken aback. The night battle of the super-large fleet is something that has not happened in the previous dreadnought era, and even the Chinese navy, the decisive battle at sea is carried out during the day. Because it's too difficult to engage at night, and too many variables, even if you have more escort ships. It is also difficult to guarantee that a capital ship will be severely damaged without a single torpedo boat going on a bad day, so a strong navy will avoid night battles. Weaker navies will also shy away from night battles for training or other technical reasons. And this time. Jericho actually wanted to command the main fleet in a night battle, which really surprised Simms.

"Are you ready?" Sims was taken aback, as Jericho had never revealed the idea of fighting a night fight before. It was a practice for the U.S. fleet to shoot at low visibility, but it was completely different from the night engagement. At night, it's dark!

"The purpose of this is to maintain confidentiality. The Royal Navy had suffered a massive loss in intelligence, and the Germans had suddenly launched a completely new means of transmitting codes, which we have not been able to decipher so far. So this matter is known only to me and the officers who specialize in special tasks, and my deputies are not clear. Jericho explained to calm Sims' anger and displeasure.

"You and your fleet are fine as long as you can train at the range. We equipped some of our ships with special searchlights and flares. If the German fleet appeared, they would be responsible for providing the light source for the fleet, and our main fleet would only need to attack the German ships that were swept by the light from a certain distance. Moreover, I have specially trained several capital ships to conduct relevant exercises, and the results are quite good. ”

"But how do you distinguish between the two warships? Even when exposed to the light of searchlights or flares, it is difficult to distinguish between the type of battleship and the faction it belongs to. Sims was still a little confused.

"We just need to focus our firepower on those big guys, our warships will be far away from the special mission fleet responsible for providing lighting, so if there are large warships, then it can only be the other side! As for destroyers and light cruisers, which could get too close? If there is a mistake, the substance can say sorry. At the end of the day, Jericho's face showed a hint of sadness. Because he knows that this kind of accidental injury is almost unavoidable. And the losses of those battleships that served on special missions were definitely not small, even if the entire army was destroyed, it was not impossible. Pushing his subordinates to the point of death like this is undoubtedly a huge torment for Jericho's heart!

"I couldn't forgive myself for two things, one was the Daring and the other was in the night battle off the coast of Norway." Afterwards, Jericho once confessed his process in his diary, and people are not very clear about the Daring incident, but they are familiar with the tragic battle off the coast of Norway. In this engagement, the fleet, which carried out certain "special tasks", suffered unprecedented battle losses.

"It was a really bold decision. Don't we have a better choice? After listening to this, Sims took out a handkerchief and wiped the cold sweat left on his sideburns, the US Navy did not conduct night combat training, and night artillery battles and torpedo attacks on destroyers and cruisers were also conducted. Even the night target shooting of the capital ship has been done many times, but the problem is that the night engagement of a small fleet and the decisive battle of a large fleet of more than 20 super dreadnoughts plus hundreds of followers are completely different things. Sims thinks this is a gamble, pressing all the capital, either making a big profit or losing everything.

"We really couldn't have a better choice." Jericho smiled wryly. "We cannot sit idly by and watch the other side safely use Norwegian ports, and our capital ships will not be commissioned until after the middle of next year. So you sue me, is there any other way? Jericho paused and continued: "But fortunately, after some time of testing, we have a certain understanding of the rules of German activities, and have chosen a suitable route that can expose our fleet to as little as possible to the opponent's attack. At the same time, the fleet also conducted relevant combat training at night. We have the advantage! ”

"Now that Your Excellency has decided, and has received permission from above, then my fleet and I will fully cooperate with the British Empire in the battle. For the sake of our Motherland and for the sake of victory, we will move forward bravely. "Sims may not be a great man in terms of tactics and strategy, but he is by no means short of courage when it matters most! When Jericho says that the fight will be inevitable, Sims will definitely support it!

While the British were planning a possible night war, Schell and Hipper, who were in Norway, were also thinking about night war. "The British warships chose to attack later and later, approaching the harbor under the cover of night, and attacking the ships and shore installations moored in the harbor. We must have the ability to fight at night. "This operation of the British Royal Navy was already mentioned in the internal report of the German Admiralty a month ago. The Germans were also preparing for a possible night battle.

"We have too few auxiliary warships, especially light cruisers, and by now we have even fewer light cruisers than the capital ships, each of which is an extremely valuable resource. So we had to choose torpedo boats and destroyers as light sources, and at the same time equip them with flares. But fortunately, we have the home advantage, in addition to the battleship with searchlights and flares, our planes can also fly to the sea at night to drop flares, although the landing at night is very problematic, but when necessary, even in the face of plane destruction and death, we must also carry out the mission! Unlike the British, who had a large number of auxiliary warships, the Germans had so few warships to provide light that they had to use air power, and the night navigation and landing of aircraft was a very troublesome problem even in World War II, but the Germans did not seem to have a better choice than their precious fleet.

"Actually, we can think differently, if we can delay the other side, then they must not be able to get back to the cover range of the shore-based aircraft in one night, and we can fight them during the day, wouldn't it be better?" Hipper's construction gave the Germans another way of thinking, and the success of this line of thinking will soon be verified!

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