Iron Cross

Since all friendly ships including Hipper and Tirpitz were rushing here, in order to avoid alerting the enemy, the cautious Stanger slowed down and only tracked at a speed of 20 knots, while anxiously waiting for the arrival of other warships on his side - it was impossible to wipe out all these ships with just one cruiser and one destroyer.

At 9:17, the sky began to brighten, and the distance between the two sides had narrowed to less than 30 nautical miles. Stanger decisively commanded the Lützow to launch a seaplane to search and confirm the situation of the enemy fleet in the nearby waters. At this time, the center of the JW-51A fleet was about 480 kilometers southwest of Bear Island - exactly in the middle of Bear Island and Jan Mayen Island.

15 minutes later, the reconnaissance results of the seaplane were reported back, but this thin telegram almost shocked Stanger to the point of falling off the bridge - "Two large enemy fleets were found, one was a merchant fleet, including 15 transport ships and 5-6 escort warships, all of which were small destroyer-class ships; the other was a combat fleet, including a battleship, suspected to be a Sovereign-class, a small aircraft carrier, a treaty-type heavy cruiser, 2 cruisers of unknown type, and 3 destroyers. The combat fleet was about 80 nautical miles away from the ship, heading 45 degrees, and sailing at a speed of 18 knots..."

"There are also aircraft carriers and battleships?" Stanger muttered to himself, "This is a big trouble."

"Führer, they were found, but the enemy fleet is much stronger than expected." Raeder tried his best to suppress his excitement on the phone and reported everything that the Lützow had found to Hoffman in a calm tone.

After three consecutive days of disappointment, Hoffman finally received good news: "Very good! Kill them, I will come to the Navy Headquarters immediately."

At this moment, Major Schulte, the commander of the Trossum Air Force, looked at the planes behind him that had been started one after another, and shouted on the radio: "Trossum Air Force, everyone follow me to attack!"

The results of the North Cape Air Force inspired all the officers and soldiers of the Navy in Norway: Major Schroeder, who commanded the battle, was not only promoted one level immediately after the battle, but also won the Knight's Cross Medal that many people dream of. All members of the air force who carried out the attack mission received promotions, medals or bonuses to varying degrees regardless of the size of the results. All the crew members on the two missing planes (almost equivalent to death) received generous pensions-the Navy has always had poor results except for U-boats, but promotions are extremely fast, so it feels like a profit to transfer from the Air Force to the Navy.

Major Schulte and Schroeder were not only classmates who graduated from the same aviation school, but also good friends for many years, and comrades who secretly competed on the battlefield. Of course, he didn't want to be left behind by his old friend, otherwise he would have to salute and call "Sir" when he saw Schroeder in the future, which would be so embarrassing... So, when he heard the enemy situation report of the surface ship unit and the weather conditions of the base that "it can take off", he immediately couldn't wait to lead 24 He-218 dive bombers to take off under the escort of 12 Bf-219.

Almost at the same time, the anti-sea attack aircraft group of the Narvik Air Base, which is further south, was also making final preparations before taking off. The scale of the base is much larger than Trossum or North Cape, and the corresponding aircraft are also much more, but it is farther away from the battlefield. In the end, only the Ju-98 attack aircraft with a more advantageous range was selected. A total of 36 Ju-98s and 16 Bf-219s were launched into the attack. Half of the attack aircraft were equipped with aerial torpedoes and the other half were equipped with bombs to prepare for horizontal bombing.

The pilots of JG5 ​​were very lucky: the intelligence provided by the Ar-272s was not only accurate and detailed, but a brave reconnaissance plane had been hanging far above the British fleet to provide real-time reports, and even followed the JW-51A transport fleet for a while, until the escort carrier Active began to take off the European Swallow fighter (the British version of the F4F) and then escaped calmly. The direction chosen by this smart pilot was not the location of the Lützow, but to the Norwegian mainland. The poor European Swallow had a maximum speed of only 515 kilometers per hour, which was not much faster than the Ar-272 at low altitude. After chasing for 15 minutes, it could not catch up with the reconnaissance plane and could only go back in disappointment.

Although the seaplane's escape looked like it was sent by the Norwegian land-based aviation team, the experienced Major General Anderson was not deceived by this appearance. Instead, he keenly judged that there might be enemy ships staying nearby and immediately sent Swordfish attack aircraft to search for the enemy. Although the Active was named as an escort aircraft carrier, it could only carry 12 aircraft (9 Swordfish and 3 European Swallows). Considering the combat effectiveness and fleet air defense needs, the Active retained all 3 fighters on its own fleet, and let all Swordfish attack after mounting torpedoes. The intention of doing so was clear: to use the Swordfish's relatively long range and long hovering time to search, and destroy the German warships when they were found.

The Swordfish was developed more than ten years ago, and it is still an outdated biplane. It is worse than the Type 96 carrier-based attack aircraft that Japan has long eliminated. It is now completely outdated, but because it made great contributions in the surprise attack on Taranto and also made great contributions in the encirclement and suppression of the Bismarck, the British have been using it. Although it can carry 3 crew members and torpedoes, its speed is slow and less than 250 kilometers per hour.

It’s not that the British don’t have better attack aircraft, but first of all, carrier-based aircraft must first meet the needs of fleet aircraft carriers. There is a severe shortage of carrier-based aircraft pilots now, and even the carrier-based aircraft squadron of the Glorious-class aircraft carrier is not fully staffed, so don’t expect escort aircraft carriers to get good and sufficient equipment; secondly, the deck length of the escort aircraft carrier is not long enough, and it is impossible to take off and land newer and heavier aircraft - the Swordfish weighing less than 2 tons can take off with torpedoes, but the Bluefin tuna weighing more than 3 tons will face great problems if it is also hung with torpedoes, so it has been used as a makeshift. On the contrary, American escort aircraft carriers generally carry more advanced TBFs (which can carry 1,000-pound bombs but most of them cannot carry torpedoes).

If the Germans were so obsessed with dive bombing that even a four-engine heavy bomber like the He-177 was required to have dive bombing capabilities, then the British were so obsessed with torpedo attacks. In the eyes of the Royal Navy, any carrier-based aircraft that could not provide three crew members and carry torpedo attacks was not worthy of being called an attack aircraft. Therefore, the outdated Swordfish not only continued to serve in the navy, but was even regarded as the main force.

At 10:11, before the JG5 wing and other warships arrived at the battlefield, two British Swordfish attack aircraft finally discovered the Lützow formation that had been following behind. While notifying the fleet commander of the situation by telegraph, they bravely launched an attack on the German ship. Although the anti-aircraft firepower of the Lützow was also average, the speed of the Swordfish was too slow and the number was small. The torpedoes dropped by the two aircraft were easily avoided by Stanger. The British pilot who missed the first shot did not regret it, and immediately flew back to the mother ship to replenish the torpedoes and prepare to launch a new attack.

Since he had been discovered, Stanger felt that there was no need to hide, and immediately rushed towards the British transport fleet at the highest speed. At this time, the J fleet was no more than 15 nautical miles away from the vanguard of the JW-51A fleet, and no more than 50 nautical miles away from the Lützow. Seeing the Lützow coming aggressively, the destroyers Achtis and Grim, which had been guarding the transport fleet, cast smoke screens to cover the fleet's retreat to the south, and bravely turned around to fight. The other three destroyers that reinforced yesterday also rushed over desperately, ready to snipe the Lützow together.

Although the Lützow is now classified as a heavy cruiser, it was originally built according to the standards of a pocket battleship. The main guns are 6 more powerful 283mm naval guns, which are exactly the same as the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. It is not afraid of the challenge of cruiser-level warships at all. Moreover, Stanger knew that in another hour, both the Hipper and the Tirpitz would appear on the battlefield, so he felt relieved and bold to fight them.

Also because of staying in the Alta Fjord for too long, and the sea was filled with smoke screens released by the British army, the six main guns and eight 150mm secondary guns of the Lützow spent nearly 200 rounds of shells, but achieved nothing except hitting the Grim with two near misses. As the main force of the J Fleet was speeding up, the British destroyers were not in a hurry to attack, but played a game of hide-and-seek with the Lützow. The cautious Stanger was worried about the torpedo threat of the destroyer, and also did not dare to get too close. He only fired from a distance and then anxiously called his companions to come. During this period, three more Swordfish attacked the Lützow, one was shot down, and the other two, although they dropped torpedoes, still missed the target. Although the Swordfish were old, they still played a powerful role in dealing with the Lützow.

At 10:45, the Trossum Air Force, flying at full speed, led by Schulte, arrived at the battlefield first, putting a heavy weight on the change of the balance of the war.

"Oh my God, how big is this fleet?" After a rough scan of the sea surface, Schulte couldn't help but exclaimed in the air. At this moment, the J Fleet and JW-51A had begun to merge. There were a large number of British warships densely distributed on the sea surface. The number and variety made him simply unable to believe his eyes. Although the sea surface was filled with smoke, he still found the most valuable target among them - a Sovereign-class battleship, and also found a small aircraft carrier - the Active escort aircraft carrier. What surprised him even more was that such a large fleet had no air cover. He looked for a long time before finding three aircraft for escort missions.

Although the battleship target was very tempting, Schulte was very clear about locking the first strike target on the Active - the ship was receiving the returning Swordfish attack aircraft. Seeing the large number of German planes coming, the European Yan fighters still bravely rushed forward even though they only had 3 planes. However, their performance was far behind that of the Bf-219. In addition, the Norwegian Naval Aviation pilots were all veterans, and they were all shot down by the swarm of German fighters in less than 2 minutes.