Iron Cross

"What's wrong with this intelligence?" The news that the German fleet was out in full force was so exciting that even Churchill had to pay attention to it at any time. After handling government affairs, he plunged into the command room of the naval headquarters.

"There are many doubts. First of all, I believe that the Tirpitz's behavior of going to Bergen is true, but this is very subtle, because the distance traveled by the German fleet since it set out from the Alta Fjord is no more than 2,500 nautical miles at most. For a battleship with a cruising range of at least 7,000 nautical miles, if the goal is to return to the mainland, there is no need to refuel in the middle of the journey unless it has another mission; secondly, Bergen is a large city in southern Norway, with a prominent strategic location and complete facilities, but the waterway to Bergen is very tortuous. Not counting the refueling time, it takes at least 5 hours to go in and out of Bergen, a task that can be completed in other ports along the Norwegian coast. Why waste time going to Bergen? In the end, the German home fleet had already been dispatched, and if they just wanted to pick up the Tirpitz and go south, there was no need to put on such a posture. Therefore, I think..." Tovey revealed his judgment, "The Tirpitz went to Bergen just for us to see, because the Germans knew that only a big city like Bergen could have our intelligence officers, and its purpose was not simply to return home, but more likely to divert our attention and create conditions for the German main fleet to break into the Atlantic. "

After hearing this, Churchill, Pound, Brooke and other senior officials all looked solemn, and they thought Tovey's judgment was very reasonable.

"What should we do next?"

"We must pay attention to the direction of the German main fleet to see if it will merge with Tirpitz. After the merger, their intentions will be much easier to judge."

Pound sighed: "If they merge, the Germans' military advantage will begin to emerge. Even if we don't count the aircraft carriers that are currently in doubt, there will be big problems in simply calculating the artillery strength. Fleet E and the cruiser formation alone cannot stop them."

Churchill took stock of the comparison of forces and found that Pound was not exaggerating: Germany had 1 Tirpitz, 2 Scharnhorst-class battlecruisers, and 2 Deutschland-class heavy cruisers, 2-3 Hipper-class heavy cruisers, the main forces of Fleet E and the Cruiser Fleet currently only have 2 battleships (Arkansas and Lameiri), 3 heavy cruisers, and 3 light cruisers. Moreover, neither Lameiri nor Arkansas can defeat Tirpitz, and 2 Scharnhorst-class battlecruisers plus 2 Deutschland-class heavy cruisers have eaten all the British cruisers to death. Even with the latest support of Pennsylvania, there is no advantage - Britain has not yet known that Gneisenau is still under repair and renovation and has not participated in the Tsunami Plan.

"How many days will it take for the Pennsylvania to arrive?"

"The Independence will take another 4 days, the Pennsylvania will take another 7 days, and the George V will take even longer, at least 35 days."

"The patrol area of ​​the W Fleet is also very important. Unless it is confirmed that the enemy ships have completely joined, it cannot leave the current area for the time being." Churchill pondered for a moment, "The E Fleet and the Cruiser Fleet continue to monitor but cannot engage in battle rashly. It is best to delay until the Pennsylvania and Independence arrive."

After learning that the Norwegian side had captured the British spy, Kumets was complacent and thought that his strategy had been successful. On the one hand, he informed Marshal and Berlin of the situation, and on the other hand, he made a big circle and turned out from the waters southwest of Bergen. By the early morning of the 11th, he had arrived around Godu Island. At this moment, the North Sea Fleet commanded by Marshal was in the southern waters of Mandal, Norway, roughly 300 nautical miles east-northeast of Aberdeen, Scotland, and only more than 200 nautical miles away from the Tirpitz formation.

But neither Marshal nor Kumets expected that the Tirpitz fleet's idea of ​​luring the enemy had actually completely failed. Fleet E under the command of Major General Hamilton did not take the bait and remained in the waters between the Faroe Islands and the Shetland Islands. Between the two German fleets was a British cruiser fleet, a British fleet that was searching everywhere to find out the enemy's situation.

Although the rain in the North Sea stopped temporarily in the early morning, the sky was gloomy and the wind was howling. The sun that had just risen from the horizon was mostly shrouded in dark clouds. The mist on the sea surface had not completely dissipated due to the low temperature. The British North Sea cruiser fleet that sailed from Scapa Flow on the 7th was sailing from west to east under the leadership of the flagship Sussex (London-class heavy cruiser). Due to the very poor visibility, the lookouts on each ship were not so much searching for enemy ships as admiring the magnificent scenery of the North Sea when the sun rose. Just after 7 o'clock, the morning mist on the eastern water horizon has not yet dissipated, reflecting the light of the rising sun and making it look hazy. Although scenes like sunrise at sea are commonplace for marines, they still make people admire its beauty every time they see it.

Everything around seems peaceful and serene, but all the nerves of British naval officers and soldiers are very nervous. They already know that the main force of the German Navy has been dispatched in full force, and they don't know what they intend to do. Although the German Navy has had various tactical victories, it has always been defeated by the Royal Navy in general. The once famous Bismarck was eventually buried in the North Atlantic under the joint attack of the British sea and air. But the situation this time is obviously more special. The entire German Navy was dispatched at the moment when the British Navy was at its weakest, which makes people think about it.

At this time, the professional technical sergeant in the radar room found something strange in the dim sky. The Type 279 sea/air search radar found several bright spots flashing in the lower right corner of the screen. The news was quickly reported to the formation commander, Colonel Christopher. Although the radar has always had false alarms in the past two days, he was obviously unwilling to let go of such doubts and immediately asked: "Could it be an enemy ship?"

"It's hard to say, it's possible."

"What's the approximate distance?"

"Between 30-35 nautical miles."

Christopher thought about it and said: "Turn the route 120 degrees, increase the speed to 26 knots, and let's go over and take a look."

At this time, no German warship reported the discovery of enemy targets, and all warships were executing orders step by step - according to the current plan, the Tirpitz formation should advance to the northwest, attract the main force of the British army for the North Sea Fleet, and then head towards the middle waters of the Shetland Islands.

At 7:43, Admiral Marshal issued the first order: "Turn the route to 285 degrees and increase the speed to 21 knots." Before he issued the order, Lieutenant General Kumets had already turned to the northwest.

Now, the Tirpitz formation led by Kumets and the main formation led by Marshal are sailing in the same direction, both facing northwest, 180 nautical miles apart, but there is a trumpet angle on the route. As time goes by, the distance between the two sides will gradually widen, and the distance between them will be widened by 10 nautical miles every 3 hours. According to the plan, the Tirpitz formation will continue to move northwest until the main formation passes through the Shetland Islands and turns southwest, and re-enters the waters between the Faroe Islands and the Shetland Islands - if everything goes well, the two formations will enter the North Atlantic waters together on the night of the 11th, and will be able to get rid of the British mainland air defense patrol circle in the early morning of the 12th.

But this wishful thinking was soon shattered. At 8:34, the radar soldiers of the Scharnhorst, which was in the front, reported that they had found the target. Then, the Seydlitz, the Prinz Eugen, and the Admiral Scheer also reported that they had found the target. It was not surprising that one warship reported that they had found the enemy, because radar always had false alarms, but four warships reported that they had found the enemy in succession, which was an unusual situation. In particular, the Seydlitz's report of finding the enemy made Marshal highly alert. The radars carried by this newly built heavy cruiser and the Graf Zeppelin were all the latest models, which not only had a longer detection distance, but also reduced the probability of false alarms a lot.

Although Britain was the first country in the world to develop and use radar, Germany was the first country to put radar on warships. In 1936, it used a sea search radar code-named "Sea Beat". Unfortunately, Germany did not pay much attention to the technology in this field, so Britain quickly took the lead in the use of radar. After the Battle of Britain, Germany, which had always been self-esteem, realized that it had fallen behind in radar. In addition, the air raids and air defense raids that were carried out one after another further highlighted the requirements for radar, so it vigorously developed various radars. The most concerned is air defense radar, and then the sea and air search radars on warships were developed together. However, due to the large amount of debt in the early stage, the level of German shipborne radar not only lags behind Britain, but also begins to lag behind the United States.

After Hoffman's crossing, heavy investment was made in radar research, and the speed of relevant research suddenly accelerated. After the technical exchange with Japan, the Yagi antenna and magnetron technology that were not valued in Japan were quickly introduced and improved by Germany. Therefore, radar technology has shown a rapid development trend in the past six months. The sea rhythm has developed to FuMO26 type (Bismarck is equipped with 22 type), the average distance of sea detection is 25-30 nautical miles, the maximum distance is 45 nautical miles, and the positioning accuracy error is about 300 meters at 25,000 meters (still cannot be used as a fire control radar). Although the gap with Britain and the United States still exists, it has been greatly narrowed compared to the Bismarck period.

At 9:11, the distance between the two sides narrowed to 21 nautical miles. Both the German and British armies were more and more certain that the enemy fleet was in sight. The commanders of the two armies issued orders to speed up at the same time: the speed of the British cruiser fleet increased to 30 knots, and the speed of the German main fleet increased to 26 knots (the slowest Admiral Scheer in the formation could only run at a maximum of 26 knots). All British and German officers and soldiers in the lookouts opened their eyes and carefully searched the sea surface, fearing that they would miss important targets.