Iron Cross

In the evening, the dusty Hoffman rushed into the naval headquarters. Before several senior officers could salute and say hello, he asked a barrage of questions: "Where is Kumetz's fleet? What is his formation?" How's the situation? What's the weather going to be like? Can HNA be dispatched?"

"Notice at 16:00: The center of the fleet is roughly located in the waters near 24 degrees 48 minutes east longitude and 71 degrees 16 minutes north latitude, that is, 45 kilometers west of the northern tip of Norway. It is currently heading northeast at a speed of about 20 knots." Lei Del answered calmly, "The British are still near Bear Island, but they are about 90 kilometers east-southeast. The British fleet's route is gradually drifting outward. It is probably that they want to get away from our aviation attack. The submarine reported that the sky has completely darkened." It’s dark, they can’t see clearly, and they don’t dare to get too close.”

Hoffman looked at the map carefully and listened to the enemy report, and asked doubtfully: "U-354 reported that there are only 6 transport ships and 3 escort ships?"

"Yes, that's what the intelligence says."

"I think it should be more than that, and there are also fewer escort warships. Do you believe that this fleet is only this large?"

"This..." Redel and Frick were at a loss for words. After thinking about it carefully, they felt that something was not quite right.

"Either there is another group behind this group of ships, or there is a group before them. I think the size must be at least doubled, and the escort warships are too weak to not even have cruisers. Dispatch Tirpitz The British don't know, Hipper and Lützow always know about it, and the British are not so arrogant... Therefore, I think we must search carefully and never let it go easily. "

"Yes!" Reidel's hanging heart finally relaxed - he was most afraid of the head of state interfering randomly. Who would be responsible if he lost the battle?

"If there are more enemy ships, do you plan to attack the transport ships first or the escort warships?"

While Redl was still thinking, Frick had already answered first: "Of course we will attack the transport ships first. This is the point of cutting off the Arctic route."

"I don't think so, Lieutenant General..." Hoffman slowly shook his head, "If you start from the standpoint of the Norwegian cruise fleet, this consideration is correct, but if you start from the 'Tsunami' plan, we should focus on On the escort warship - the transport ship cannot run fast. As long as the weather improves, Hainan Airlines will have a chance to catch them. "

"But the Army...the Eastern Front..." Frick glanced at Keitel secretly and found that the latter shrugged helplessly.

Hoffman sighed: "Don't worry about the Eastern Front. They can withstand the test. Even if a ship does not sink, it will only fall into the hands of the Russians at most hundreds of thousands of tons of supplies and hundreds of thousands of pieces of equipment. Just half a month's output will not significantly change the balance of power on the Eastern Front, but the escort warships are different. How many warships and skilled sailors can the British consume? "

In the eyes of Hoffman, the battle has deviated from the track from now on: without the cooperation of the Tirpitz in history, Kumets chose to divide the limited force into two groups, trying to divert the enemy's escort warships, and Preparing to intercept and kill the transport ship, the already weak fleet was forced to divide its forces again. As a result, both sides did not do well. This time, with the Tirpitz, he was probably more confident and did not choose to divide his forces. He probably wanted to Eat it directly.

A smile appeared at the corner of his mouth. It would be better if he deviated. If he didn't deviate, how could he have any hope of winning? He had a vague feeling that the course of the war had been changed beyond recognition by him. This Battle of the Barents Sea was probably the last command to be executed based on the historical process. Regardless of success or failure, future wars would not be the same. History is similar - he has to be more careful.

While the top German military officials were working hard on how to capture the British fleet, Sherbrooke, who was wandering on the sea near Bear Island, was sighing. Due to the sudden storm and poor visibility, he sailed northeast after leaving Iceland and had been sailing smoothly. The JW-51A fleet actually got separated today. The small formation he is currently in is just the largest one among them. The other 11 transport ships are now divided into three groups, scattered in twos and threes around Bear Island. Fortunately, the radio equipment of each ship is still intact. He After a lot of effort, they finally contacted other ships, and finally agreed that no matter where they were now, they would gather at a place 100 kilometers east of Bear Island tomorrow morning and set off again. Although U-354 could not see the fleet, it intercepted a large number of signals. Judging from the strength and direction of the signals, a large group of British warships was nearby. Considering that it could not alert the enemy, the submarine slowly sank.

Hoffman even had dinner in the naval headquarters. Redel and Frick still don't understand why the head of state attaches so much importance to Operation "Rainbow". It is not an exaggeration to even describe it as if he is facing a powerful enemy. In their eyes, the British escort fleet, which is at most only a cruiser level, cannot defeat the Kumetz formation. The only thing they need to worry about is letting the British slip away quietly, but since U-354 vowed to ensure that the enemy fleet is there before its final dive, Nearby, they were relieved - the British moved as slowly as possible, so that there would be enough time for Kumetz to intercept.

Hoffman didn't know that the two admirals opposite were thinking wildly. He asked: "Have the other warships in the 'Tsunami' plan been deployed? Especially the Zeppelin."

"Except for the repair project of the Gneisenau, which has not yet been completed, the other warships have been fully staffed and supplied, and are ready to set off at any time. The U-boat force has basically been deployed, with a total of 58 ships deployed. We have also prepared neutral flag ships. We have some supply ships and oil tankers, but the number is not too large and can only provide emergency supplies. "These preparations have taken countless efforts. "Only the Zeppelin is in a special situation. The warship sea trials have been completed, but the ship has not yet been completed. The aircraft formation subject has not yet been completed - Admiral Richthofen led the Japanese advisory team to board the warship just five days ago, and all the pilots and aircraft just boarded the ship the afternoon before yesterday. They were undergoing intensive training yesterday and today. He reported that at least It will take one week to ten days to complete the adaptive training - this is still extremely smooth, so the T day of the entire plan has not yet been fully determined. If possible, I hope it will be the night of February 12-13."

Hoffman quickly calculated: "Let Richthofen report to me on the use of carrier-based aircraft around the 10th, and then prepare for an extra five days of redundancy, and try to choose a rainy or snowy day to leave the port later. Alarm the British."

At 7 o'clock in the morning on February 2, the power of the blizzard finally subsided. Sherbrooke was able to collect most of the ships as he wished. All escort warships were in place. 16 of the 17 transport ships were regrouping. Only one ship left the formation. It was a bit far, so after discussion it was decided to let him take another route to the Soviet Union alone. Then the JW-51A fleet continued to move forward. He had not found any traces of the German fleet at this moment, and U-354 also temporarily lost its target - both sides were in the stage of catching each other blind.

The improvement in weather did not bring any joy to Sherbrooke. He was very worried about the appearance of German reconnaissance planes. Although the sea area he was currently in was 600 kilometers away from the German airport in Norway, he knew that the Ju-88 could still catch up. When he arrived, he hoped to be discovered by a reconnaissance plane later so that the formation would be safe.

At 9:45, the German reconnaissance plane did not arrive, and the siren on the bridge suddenly sounded loudly.

"What's going on?"

"The destroyer USS Tenacious at the front reported that their radar detected two target light spots at 60 nautical miles, and the situation was suspicious."

"Will it be the Russian response fleet?"

"Probably not. The Russians won't go so far before the scheduled pick-up point."

"Or is it the cruiser formation commanded by Rear Admiral Burnett?" But this inference was denied by Sherbrooke himself as soon as he said it. The cruiser formation had just contacted two hours ago and was still more than 50 nautical miles northwest of this formation—— In order to prevent submarine raids, the Royal Navy stipulates a safe distance for the escorting cruiser formation, which is generally maintained at about 50 nautical miles from the transport fleet.

"That can only be the enemy."

Sherbrooke pondered for a moment: retreating like this is definitely not possible, and directly calling the cruiser formation would be a bit too weak. After careful consideration, he issued the order: "Let the Tenacity and Obedience speed up and go to check clearly..."

After receiving the order, the two destroyers immediately broke away from the formation and sailed forward quickly at a speed of 30 knots. Sherbrooke continued to cover the forward movement of the transport convoy at a speed of 11 knots, but the alert level of each ship had been increased.

70 minutes later, the Tenacious reported the discovery of two warships, which looked very much like German destroyers in appearance. This result was still within the range Sherbrooke could bear. He immediately ordered the other two destroyers, the Orville and the flagship Ans, to attack The Luo stepped forward and accelerated to intercept. He wanted to use 4V2 to deal with the German destroyers as soon as possible.

At this moment, German destroyers were also cheering for the discovery of the British fleet. Not only did they know that there was the Hipper only more than 50 nautical miles away from them, but also the powerful Tirpitz and other ships were behind them further away. Warships, it was no problem to deal with this little British miscellaneous fish - they didn't know at this time that the British were also followed by a cruiser formation.

At about 11 o'clock, the destroyer Friedrich-Eikolt (Z16) wanted to take credit. After sending the telegram, regardless of the fact that it was at least 15,000 meters away from the British army, it couldn't wait to use the bow 127mm to The main gun fired first, and the Tenacious fired back immediately, not to be outdone, and the battle began in full force - but the two sides were so far apart that these gunfires were a waste of ammunition at best.

The British destroyer knew that its companions behind it had rushed to support, and there was a Royal Navy cruiser formation further away, so it was very confident and quite tit-for-tat.