May 30, Republic 2758 (1917).

At 6:22 GMT, the German submarine U-9 spotted the U.S. fleet in the waters between the Faroe Islands and Iceland.

After receiving the news, the main force of the German High Seas Fleet, which was on standby in the Shetland Islands, immediately pulled anchor and set sail to meet the US Navy under the leadership of fleet commander Schell. After the victory at Jutland, Scheer was promoted to the rank of naval marshal by Wilhelm II as supreme commander, and his popularity reached its peak, even surpassing that of Tirpitz. The annihilation of the Royal Navy's home fleet had certainly earned him unprecedented fame, but he was not satisfied.

It is estimated that His Excellency Marshal's thoughts at that time were: Wouldn't it be better if our family overturned the US Navy again? The result of overturning the navies of the two great powers in a row was not only "unprecedented," but could even be said to be "unprecedented." Then our family is a well-deserved number one admiral on the earth, what Drake, Nelson and the like, compared to us, they are all scum.

For this campaign, Marshal Scheer was full of confidence. In his opinion, the US Navy had no combat experience except for a battle with Spain more than ten years ago, and Spain at that time was only a third-rate country. Even if this kind of greenhouse navy has the world's second-largest fleet, whether in terms of morale, training, or combat experience, it will definitely not be the opponent of the German Imperial Navy, which has just defeated the world's largest navy. And they were also an expedition across the Atlantic.

Schell's self-confidence was not unreasonable, and the German Navy in this period was indeed at its peak, well-equipped, well-trained, experienced, and the officers and men were united and their morale was high. On the other hand, although the US Navy is indeed not inferior to Germany in terms of hardware and equipment, it is too inferior in combat experience, especially in morale and confidence.

Americans generally hated the British, including the current Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral William Benson, who was a hardcore anti-British. The vast number of officers and men were resistant to coming to help the British, and the opponent was still the German Navy, which was in full swing, so their morale was generally not high.

As a matter of fact, even the top level of the United States is at a loss, and the battle plan they formulated is to scare the Germans with the size of their huge fleet, so that they will not dare to let go of the fight, after all, Germany has more than one opponent. They were not sure of defeating the German fleet from beginning to end, let alone planning, of course.

Vice Admiral William Simms, commander of the U.S. Interoceanic Fleet, received a vague order, Admiral Benson, the chief of operations, to "act at the opportune opportunity" and to continue with the battle plan if the German resistance was not strong, and if the German reaction was too strong, he could try to fight a battle, and if he could not succeed, withdraw to Iceland. Anyway, it means "you can do it".

Lieutenant General Sims was embarrassed when he received this order, how should this Nima fight? But now that he is ready to fly, he has to fight with Erdezi no matter what.

However, he soon received a telegram from President Wilson. Boss Wilson cheered him up and said: "Lao Xi, you just let it go, it's best to win, and it doesn't matter if you lose." Anyway, my rice country is rich and rich, some are small money, and some are productive forces. If you can afford to lose a warship or something, if you sink one, we will build two, and we will support and kill two virtues......"

After receiving this telegram, Lieutenant General Sims was relieved and prepared to give it to the Germans. He thinks he can still fight it. Not to mention the hardware stuff, the technological level and industrial capacity of both sides are about the same. As for the software, the U.S. Navy certainly has no problems with training, although it is not as crazy as the Japanese "moon, moon, water, fire, wood, gold, gold", but it is also quite formalized, and it is not much worse than the Germans.

Worse than the Germans, it was experience and morale, but the Germans only had the experience of Jutland in the dreadnought era, and they still dealt with the British Navy. And the navies of the United States and Great Britain are completely different, so the Germans have little advantage in this regard. The only thing to worry about is morale and confidence, but neither of these worries will come out of nowhere, and if you don't fight, I'm afraid there is no chance of growth.

The US Navy has also dispatched a huge fleet of 167 surface ships, including 22 dreadnoughts, escorting more than 100 transport ships to the Faroe Islands. A few days ago, 72 of their submarines had been spilled out to keep watch around the Faroe Islands.

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The German High Seas Fleet, which was partially pinned down by the Franco-Japanese fleet, consisted of only 18 dreadnoughts and 6 ex-dreadnoughts, as well as 31 light cruisers and 98 destroyers. However, they could receive air support from the Faroe Islands, as well as from the Shetland Islands. In addition, Scheer also asked the submarines from the nearby waters to gather in the Faroe Islands.

Before the main fleets of the two sides collided, the submarines on both sides had a warm-up match.

At that time, the American submarine SS-89, which was sent to reconnoiter in the Shetland waters, was patrolling 210 kilometers west of the Shetland Islands. The SS-89 had been underwater all night, and the air was already very dirty, and the officers and men who could not stand it went up to the surface of the sea to breathe.

It's 9:10 a.m. However, when the American officers and soldiers opened the sealed door and came out to breathe, they were surprised to find that there was a submarine less than 100 meters to their left, and the two sides were almost parallel.

This German submarine also seems to have just surfaced.

The U-22 submarine was also floated for ventilation, although the German submarines had snorkels, but it only extended their time under water, and they still needed to float for ventilation.

And at this time, the sealed doors of the German submarine were also opened, and the sailors who came out of both sides discovered each other almost simultaneously. The officers and men on both sides were caught by the mines, and they quickly realized that there was an enemy on the opposite side, but it was too late to dive at this time.

So the commanders of both sides made almost the same decision, and the officers and men of both sides almost simultaneously grabbed the deck guns and bombarded each other, and the other sailors also took out small arms from the submarine and started to fight in a ping-pong manner.

At such a close distance, no matter how you fight, you will not miss, and there is no hiding place on the deck of the submarine, and the two sides are almost the same as the queue shooting in the last century. Soon the decks of the two submarines were strewn with corpses and blood everywhere. The submarines of both sides were cut numerous holes by the other side, and both lost the ability to dive. After more than ten minutes of bloody battles like "queuing up to shoot", in the end, it was the character of the American SS-89 that broke out and sank the German U-22 submarine first. However, an 88-mm shell fired by the U-22 before sinking also made a big hole in the SS-89, and after the leak failed, the officers and men of the SS-89 had to abandon the ship and get on the lifeboat, and the two submarines were all destroyed.

It wasn't until more than an hour later that a German destroyer rushed over to check on the situation and scooped up the survivors on both sides. This episode gave the U.S. Navy its first victory, but it also gave Germany its first American prisoners of war.

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At 8:52, the American submarine SS-111 also discovered the main force of the German High Seas Fleet, but this submarine had a bad fate, it had just sent a telegram to the flagship, and it was discovered by a German anti-submarine patrol aircraft.

The Germans themselves have been using submarines for a long time, so naturally they have to guard against being used by submarines, so they attach great importance to anti-submarine. Objectively speaking, the anti-submarine capability of the German Navy is probably second only to China and Japan, but it has no chance to show off in peacetime. Since the occupation of the Shetland and Faroe Islands, they have deployed anti-submarine patrol aircraft in both places.

This AGO-24 anti-submarine patrol aircraft was developed by Germany itself after introducing the blueprints of China's Water Bomb-1, and it is completely different from the shape of the Water Bomb-1. This is a three-engine large seaplane, the main function of which is patrol and anti-submarine. It can carry 1,200 kg of bombs, but its most powerful anti-submarine weapons are the three 37mm guns mounted on the lower part of the nose rotating turret and the sides of the rear fuselage.

At this time, the submarines could not withstand the 37mm guns, and even if they could not be sunk, they could make holes in their hulls, making them lose the ability to dive. And submarines have no effective means of defense against aircraft.

The SS-111 was no exception, it was quickly beaten into a sieve by the 37-mm guns of German anti-submarine patrol aircraft. Seeing that he could not escape, the American captain ordered the ship to be abandoned, and personally opened the submarine's sea valve before getting on the lifeboat.

Not long after the sinking of the SS-111, the main force of the American fleet was also attacked by German aircraft from the Faroe Islands.

After learning of the location of the American fleet, the Germans quickly sent a group of planes to attack the American ships.

The German Navy tasted the sweetness of air strikes in the Battle of Jutland, so they immediately proposed to Wilhelm II after the war the formation of a full-fledged naval aviation and the construction of aircraft carriers. Wei Er, who was happy, agreed without much thought, and the construction of aircraft carriers will not be good for a while, but naval aviation will have no problem.

The German General Staff soon drew a group of planes and pilots from the air force and handed them over to the navy to form a naval force. It is mainly stationed in major ports and islands, including the Faroe Islands and Shetland, all of which have airports assigned to the HN. Now the fighters that went to attack the US fleet were all German naval airlines.

At 9:15 a.m., a US reconnaissance plane with police equipment over its own fleet spotted the incoming German planes, and a sharp siren sounded over the entire fleet.

Two regular aircraft carriers and eight temporary aircraft carriers converted from merchant ships in the U.S. fleet immediately turned to headwind positions and released fighter jets.

The battle between the Faroe Islands and the sea and air has officially begun......