Iron Cross

Ps: In the past few days, the company has been training and holding meetings, and it will also be involved in the evening, so updates will not be regular. I am very sorry and ask for your understanding.

The news of the discovery of the German fleet was quickly transmitted to the Admiralty via a telegram from the Walrus water reconnaissance aircraft. After Pound confirmed the news, he immediately reported the situation to Churchill.

"Prime Minister, have we found the Germans?"

Churchill, who had been looking at the map, stood up suddenly and asked anxiously: "Where is it?"

"About 350 kilometers east-north of Mainland, the target is moving northwest, but only the Tirpitz and two heavy cruisers were found, and no aircraft carrier was found."

"Can we successfully eliminate them?" Churchill knew that the deputy commander of the Home Fleet, Admiral Bruce Fraser, was now sitting in Akurea, Iceland, commanding the naval aviation of Iceland and the Faroe Islands. The pile of aircraft under his command were only I'm afraid I'm ready to go.

"We can't do it now. Due to weather conditions, planes can't fly out for the time being." Pang De said bitterly, "At this critical moment, even this damn weather is messing with us."

"Don't be anxious, keep an eye on them, we will definitely have a chance to take action today." Churchill comforted this confidant.

"But a few minutes ago we could no longer contact the pilot." Tovey said distressedly.

"Shooted down or wrecked by weather?"

"Not sure, it's all possible. Maybe the possibility of a crash is higher, because many reconnaissance planes complained about the bad weather. And he didn't find the enemy aircraft carrier. It's difficult to shoot down a reconnaissance plane with anti-aircraft artillery alone. of."

"Contact me a few more times, maybe it's for other reasons." Churchill frowned and asked, "Where are the German aircraft carriers? Have they divided their forces? Are there any results from searches in other directions?"

Pound and Tovey shook their heads helplessly.

Ten minutes have passed, and no new information has arrived, and the reconnaissance plane that first reported the discovery of the German fleet has never been able to contact them.

"We have intensified our search efforts. No other findings have been found so far. Admiral Fraser is ready to re-send the reconnaissance plane, but it will take some time to reach the place where we just lost contact." The staff pointed at the map with their pointers to explain to the Prime Minister. Said, "From the intelligence point of view, the W fleet is currently about 300 nautical miles away from the enemy fleet, and the E fleet is about 400 nautical miles away from the enemy fleet. Admiral Tovey has ordered the two fleets to speed up and strive to intercept the Germans. They must not let them They rushed into the Atlantic Ocean..."

Churchill saw the advance route outlined on the chart by the staff: Fleet W sailed southeast, with the goal of intercepting head-on; Fleet E attacked from the southern waters of the Faroe Islands, passing through the waters between the Faroe Islands and the Shetland Islands. Traveling south to north, the goal is to outflank the German fleet from behind - this is an interception plan to deal with the German fleet entering the Atlantic through the center line. In the event that the German fleet temporarily turns to enter the Atlantic from the east line between the Faroe Islands and Shetland, then The roles of Fleet W and Fleet E were reversed, with Fleet E conducting a frontal interception and Fleet W conducting a flank and rear outflank.

Churchill quickly understood the reason for adopting this plan: both W Fleet and E Fleet, due to the drag of slow battleships, could hardly exceed 21 knots, while the German fleet was expected to reach 26 knots. Frontal interception alone would not be able to catch the enemy. Using this method of outflanking front and rear, and it is still unclear which waterway the Germans will choose to take, this kind of flexible deployment is relatively more reliable and secure.

"If the enemy's course remains unchanged and the relative speed of the two sides exceeds 45 knots, they will encounter each other as early as this evening."

"Very good, please inform me of the latest situation as soon as possible." Churchill repeatedly told several senior naval officials, "Don't be anxious, be patient, and use planes to eliminate them as much as possible."

At the same time as another Walrus reconnaissance aircraft took off from Mainland Island, the Ar-272s ejected by Major General Bei began to return to the artillery formation one after another. In the first round of search, in addition to confirming the path forward within 400 kilometers ahead, Apart from the absence of enemies, they found nothing. In fact, they could not find any enemies. After all, the nearest W fleet was still nearly 550 kilometers away. Major General Bei reluctantly accepted this reality and sent a telegram to Machar on the Zeppelin.

Machar was also deeply troubled by this matter. The downed Walrus reconnaissance plane weighed heavily on his heart like a big stone. Although it shot down the opponent in time, the current weather was not conducive to the aircraft dispatching, and our reconnaissance plane was also unfavorable. No enemy was detected, but his intuition told him that he was getting closer and closer to danger. Although he did not know that the British had not discovered the aircraft carrier formation following them, he had already concluded that the entire fleet had been discovered.

At 9:07, just five minutes after the British second Walrus took off for supplementary reconnaissance, Machar decisively issued an order. Not only did the fleet's course change from northwest to true north, but he also requested that it be increased to the maximum speed - he wanted to increase the speed as soon as possible. Break away from the British air defense perimeter.

At 10:54, the extremely slow Walrus reconnaissance aircraft arrived at the place where his comrades lost contact, but there was nothing on the sea except waves. He tried to search in all directions around him, but wasted a full half hour with no results. If anything is discovered, the telegram can only be sent back reluctantly.

The senior officers and staff of the Navy Department who received the report were immediately at a loss, but their analysis was completely consistent with the facts: the first reconnaissance plane must have been shot down by the enemy ship after discovering the enemy situation. The German fleet, which was now missing, decided to disengage after realizing that its position was exposed. There were three directions to disengage: one was to go back, the second was to go forward, and the third was to go north. The only thing that was impossible was to go south - because the second plane took off from Mainland Island in the south. In view of the performance of the German fleet, the staff discussed and decided: it is recommended that this plane continue to search north, and then take off the reconnaissance plane from the Faroe Islands to search east. As for the W fleet, it can continue to maintain the current route and speed.

"The Germans will break into the Atlantic sooner or later. I think this arrangement is okay." After Pound and Tovey nodded together, the order was quickly passed on.

But as if to play a joke on the British, after another hour, the walrus sent back a report saying that it had continued to search northward for more than 150 kilometers and had not found any enemy ships. Now the fuel on board was nearly half gone and the distance to Mainland Island was more than 500 kilometers. It had to return. The standard range of the walrus was only 915 kilometers. The fuel was overloaded when it set off, but because it was heading against the wind and the strong wind consumed a lot of fuel. If it had not been for the consideration of a tailwind on the way back, the pilot would not have dared to risk flying so far with little remaining fuel. Several reconnaissance planes that set out from the Faroe Islands and were responsible for searching eastward also found nothing.