The rough North Sea, the cold air made the breath of every soldier on deck carry a white mist. A deck ammunition loader wearing a red vest is staring at the surface of the sea on a specific smoking platform.

Unlike the peaceful Pacific Ocean, where the cold and rough waters of the North Atlantic can be considered the worst sea conditions, the American and Japanese aircraft carriers can fight in the open top of the Pacific Ocean, stacking their decks with planes to fight with ease - while if Britain and Germany build aircraft carriers in this way, their planes will be eroded by the sea, causing terrible flight accidents.

This time, the German Navy poured out of the nest, with a total of 16 warships assembled in the North Sea, two aircraft carriers, two ironclads that were later added to the fleet, four cruisers, and eight destroyers. This huge fleet became an operational target for the British Royal Navy from the beginning.

In order to prevent this German fleet from entering the North Atlantic, the Royal Navy mobilized heavy forces to encircle and intercept it, so that the Germans, who originally wanted to pick up some cheapness, instantly saw the difference in strength: 4 British aircraft carriers with 4 battleships, 11 cruisers and 23 destroyers formed 3 huge encirclement fleets, blocking the route from the North Sea to the North Atlantic.

So this time, as the commander-in-chief of the German Navy, Admiral Raeder decided to completely abandon the combat plan, and led the fleet to play hide and seek with the British Royal Navy, and he sent a large number of fighters and reconnaissance planes to cooperate with submarines to monitor the position of the British fleet, and then evaded the tracking of the British * ships and disappeared into the icy North Sea waters.

"Assemble urgently! Assemble urgently! Load the bomber formation with aerial bombs. Suddenly, a sharp siren sounded in the loudspeaker, and several Navy sailors who were smoking together hurriedly threw their cigarette butts on the surface of the sea, turned around and walked towards the interior of the aircraft carrier.

The entire fleet was communicating with each other in the language of lights and flags, and since a few days earlier, the warships had been communicating with each other in a more primitive way, as radio silence had been maintained.

On the bridge of the USS Zeppelin, Raeder was confirming with the captain of the Zeppelin aircraft carrier the number of information he had just obtained, and the atmosphere on the entire bridge was very tense, and the aviation command was chaotically deploying planes, arranging fighter takeoffs, and preparing bombs for bombers.

"How did the British find out about us?" asked Raeder, frowning as he examined the information in his hand.

The adjutant was silent, staring at the chart in front of him, the expression on his face was so heavy, just now, the reconnaissance plane taking off from the aircraft carrier Bismarck spotted a British fleet, and it is said that at least three warships were found. This British fleet was located in the southwest of the German fleet, at a distance of about two hundred kilometers.

Raeder didn't pay attention to this British fleet at first, because the German Navy had avoided too many British naval search fleets in the past few days, which really made him not interested, and these British battleships were followed by an aircraft carrier, and once the war started, he would definitely not be able to get any benefits, but might be entangled and unable to get out.

So the best way to deal with this kind of British search fleet is to adjust the voyage a little, avoid them and let them continue to circle the North Sea. Raeder did exactly that, and he ordered the entire fleet to adjust its course from northeast to due east, and for the first time in several days he had given the order to go due east.

He wanted to make a false shot and go south to continue going around in circles, but the result surprised him. The second wave of reconnaissance planes took off to monitor the British fleet, and found that this fleet was followed by two British aircraft carriers, and at least one battleship, indicating that the German Navy was followed by the main fleet of the British Royal Navy.

What is even more terrifying is that not long after the German Navy adjusted its course, the British Navy also adjusted its course, and it actually maintained a high degree of consistency with the course adjusted by the German Navy. This made Raeder nervous, if the fleet was discovered and targeted by the British, it would be very disadvantageous for the German Navy in the current situation.

"Keep course! The fleet as a whole accelerated...... Maintain a speed of 22 knots and continue driving. Raeder commanded, touching his chin.

"At the moment the fleet is not headwind. The deck wind is shown as a crosswind, which is not suitable for fighter takeoff. The commander of the aviation unit, apparently still not well adapted to the bad weather in the North Sea, and his face was still a little pale, he reported to Moder: "If you want to take off Stuka and the FW-190 fighters with torpedoes, the fleet needs to sail against the wind." ”

"If the plane takes off, the whole fleet should sail north. Raeder glanced at the charts and shook his head, if they went north, they would be surrounded by the fleet of the British Navy in the northern part of the North Sea, and they would never be able to escape back to the German mainland.

"Our army has an overwhelming advantage in the range and performance of the aircraft, and if the attack is successful, it will achieve certain results. The commander of the aviation forces said: "There is no way for the aviation of the British Navy to compare with the FW-190. ”

"But you just explained it to me a few minutes ago. You don't have the confidence to sink the British warship and keep it from following the fleet that is following me. Raeder looked at the charts carefully, and finally gave up his plan to continue going around in circles because the area was too small, and he looked at the captain and his lieutenant: "Order the fleet to keep course and continue east." We went directly to the Wilhelmsport and waited there for several months until the convergence of the Second Fleet. ”

In the face of the large and well-trained fleet of the British Royal Navy, Raeder did not muster up the courage to challenge him, and he was ready to send the German Navy back to German Port safely in what he thought was the safest way.

"Is the investigation clear?What is the situation that let the British Royal Navy know our speed and course?" Raeder glanced at the adjutant in charge of intelligence analysis and asked, "If this problem had arisen two days earlier, we would have been blocked north of the Shetland Islands, and the whole army would have been wiped out!"

"Actually, that's what makes us feel weird. The adjutant pointed to a few encounters from the previous day and said: "Obviously, the British have not yet figured out our specific location when they are here and here, but after making contact with our reconnaissance planes here and here, they have judged our approximate location." ”

"However, they still haven't been able to get accurate information, so they still use the strategy of containment. The adjutant pointed to the northern part of the Shetland Islands and said, "But after our feint to break into the North Atlantic failed, the British encirclement and interception seemed to be somewhat of an errand, and they did not see us cruising in the North Sea as a threat." ”

"This qiē has just changed. The captain of the USS Zeppelin pointed to the charts and said, "They got our detailed information a few minutes ago, so they changed their old style and prepared to stick to us in a naval battle and kill us completely." ”

"Could it be that the British cracked the code when Dönitz's submarine sent us a message?" the adjutant asked suddenly.

"Impossible!" Raeder shook his head and said, "The code is almost impossible to decipher without a codebook, and we never called back, and the submarine has not sent back any information about the specific location of our fleet, and even if the code is deciphered, the British will not get any useful numbers." ”

"Wait a minute!" The captain of the Zeppelin aircraft carrier was stunned for a moment, and then said loudly: "It's not our submarine! That's the British's submarine! They will definitely have submarines in the North Sea! Whether they are arranged in advance or sent specifically for us, these submarines should be in place! So there must be a British reconnaissance submarine near our fleet!"

"Makes sense! Inform all destroyers and cruisers to fight against submarines!" Raeder ordered loudly: "If it's the periphery, get rid of it! If it's found in the fleet's defense circle, sink it!"

"The Z11 destroyer sent a signal that they had spotted a suspicious target, fired two depth charges, and the target disappeared. A signal soldier came over and handed the adjutant a note: "They asked if the pursuit would continue?"

"Order the two destroyers, Z11 and Z17, to search for and attack with a limit of 3 nautical miles! and then immediately speed up to keep up with the main fleet regardless of the result!" Raeder ordered: "Keep the fleet on course and speed east!"

"Shall we go home?" the first mate looked at Raeder suspiciously.

"It's been a few days since I came out, why don't you go back and rest and rest?" Raeder said with a smile: "The Führer ordered us to contain the British Royal Navy and do some training work by the way, haven't we completed both tasks?"

In the southwest direction of the German fleet, on the huge British fleet flagship aircraft carrier Glory, a British admiral in white military uniform looked down at the information that came in. It says that the submarine was ejected and could not provide more accurate intelligence.

"These Germans really have two hits. He glanced at the sea and muttered to himself, "I can tell so quickly why I leaked my whereabouts." It seems that there are capable people in the German Navy. ”

"General, shall we speed up and catch up?" asked the adjutant in a low voice.

"The chase is definitely to be pursued! It's just that it's not so much a chase as a send-off! Send the German naval fleet home. The general shook his head helplessly: "The overall speed of everyone is about the same, now you are chasing me, they are not far from William Military Port, we have no chance." ”

"We have completed the task of blocking the German navy, and although they have suffered no losses, they have not achieved the desired results. We confined them to the North Sea, didn't we?" said the adjutant triumphantly.

The general shook his head: "With this kind of comparison of strength, only a fool would lead a fleet to the Atlantic Ocean to risk a decisive battle." Entering the Atlantic is just a feint on their part. In fact, they originally wanted to eat us in the North Sea and go back. ”

Without waiting for the stunned adjutant to continue to speak, the general continued to order: "Send a telegram to the mainland, saying that the bad news is that the German naval fleet has fled! The good news is that the German navy has been frightened by the Battle of Jutland and has not yet had the courage to fight a decisive battle." ”