Iron Cross

After two rounds of torpedo attacks, the W fleet's formation was in chaos, and all the warships were maneuvering at the highest speed. Lieutenant Colonel Hans now looked back and carefully observed the situation of the escort carrier Hunter, and found that the latter's gap was finally exposed. He immediately seized the opportunity to lead the last 6 Ju-98s to launch an attack, so the Hunter was doomed. It and the Sirius (Dido-class anti-aircraft cruiser) were declared sunk after being hit by one torpedo each, and the remaining 4 were avoided by other warships.

Although Hans still wanted to attack, he had no choice but to return because all the torpedoes had been thrown. At 4:53, the German attack aircraft group left the messy W fleet and immediately flew back at the maximum speed. At this time, the German aircraft carrier formation was traveling westward at a speed of 31 knots to meet its own attack aircraft group. By 5:25, the distance between the British and German fleets had been reduced from about 400 kilometers to 310 kilometers. Although the shortened distance was also conducive to the British Swordfish attack group launching an attack as soon as possible, they were discovered by the escort group before they arrived over the German fleet. The 20 Bf-219s that had been doing nothing immediately rushed up and shot down all the British planes in the sky in less than 5 minutes. They only lost one plane. The parachuted pilot was picked up by the quick-eyed S boats, and the desperate attack of the W fleet failed.

When the sun set at 5:47, the Zeppelin and Europa finally recovered the last batch of planes.

In the first carrier battle over the North Sea, the German fleet undoubtedly won a complete victory. At the cost of 6 aircraft (3 Bf-21218, 2 Ju-98), they sank 3 British escort carriers, 1 Fiji-class light cruiser, 2 Dido-class cruisers and 1 O-class destroyer, severely damaged 1 escort carrier, and caused moderate damage to the Mississippi. In addition, the aircraft on the 4 enemy carriers were almost completely destroyed.

What was even more unexpected was that at the same time that Fleet W launched its desperate attack, Admiral Fraser also ordered all 24 Barracuda torpedo attack aircraft on the Faroe Islands to attack the North Sea Fleet under the escort of 16 Sea Hurricane fighters. The Barracuda was half as fast as the Swordfish, but the 480-kilometer journey took them an hour and a half to fly. In addition, the German aircraft carrier sailed nearly 100 kilometers to the west. When it was completely dark, the British attack aircraft group still had not found the target to attack. The Barracudas could only fly back in disappointment. As a result, only 19 of the 40 aircraft that set out returned to the Faroe Islands intact. The rest of the aircraft either failed to find their way home and got lost in the air and finally ran out of fuel and made an emergency landing, or ran off the runway and were damaged during night landing due to poor visibility.

After learning that the British fleet had two battleships and one of them had been damaged, Marshal became bolder. He believed that this ship was trying to support the British fleet in Iceland-Faroe Islands. If there was an intercepting fleet in front of the fleet, he thought that the strength would not be particularly strong, so he decided to cross the Iceland-Faroe Islands waters overnight. After calculations by the staff, since it was less than 13 hours before dawn, even if the fleet was advancing at a maximum speed of 26 knots, it would be difficult to completely break through the blockade of the Icelandic and Faroe Islands defenders at dawn tomorrow, and the risk was relatively high.

After hearing this news, he immediately frowned, but Ozawa's speech quickly strengthened his confidence: "We can't delay any longer. We must take some risks anyway. While a British fleet is crippled by us, we must immediately break through the waterway. After the Royal Navy completes the assembly, we will pay a greater price."

At 6:14, the North Sea Fleet changed its route to the southwest and rushed to the Iceland-Faroe Islands waters at a high speed of 26 knots.

"The loss is huge?" Admiral Tovey couldn't sit still after receiving the telegram from Fleet W. "What caused it?"

"The German aircraft are very fast, more advanced than ours, and achieved reconnaissance results earlier." After learning that four escort aircraft carriers were written off, Pound sighed, "We not only lack excellent carrier-based pilots, but also lack comparable aircraft."

As if to confirm his words, 5 minutes later, the staff reported: "Sir, Admiral Fraser sent a telegram that the Faroe Islands Air Force not only failed to find the target today, but also lost 21 aircraft."

"Damn it, what should we do now?" Churchill said angrily "Can we just watch the Germans show off their power and do nothing?"

"Although Fleet W suffered heavy losses, two battleships were intact and the main force is still there. We judge that the German fleet will try to cross the Iceland-Faroe Islands waters tonight, so we plan to intercept them." Pound pointed on the map, "The initial plan is to let Fleet W continue to advance to the southeast, and Fleet E to the northeast. The two fleets will try to meet in the middle of the waterway tonight, join forces, and intercept the German fleet. After dawn, we will use all the attack aircraft groups on Iceland and the Faroe Islands to destroy them."

"Can we stop them?" Churchill asked doubtfully.

"It should be possible. Major General Lewis has two battleships and one heavy cruiser. Although he does not have an advantage over the German fleet, the gap is not too big, because the enemy's aircraft carrier formation cannot be engaged in artillery battles."

"What if the Germans go through the Denmark Strait?"

"Given the current position of the German fleet, they can only cross the Denmark Strait during the day. We will send aircraft to track and investigate. Even if they really make a feint and go through the Denmark Strait, the fleet will have time to move southwest, take advantage of the internal line to take a shortcut and intercept them." Tovey explained the reason for doing so, "After the enemy has joined forces, we can no longer continue to divide our forces, otherwise they will be easily defeated one by one."

"What if... I mean what if..." Churchill proposed a hypothesis, "In the worst case, if we fail to stop the German fleet and let them rush into the Atlantic?"

"This..." Pound thought for a while and could only say helplessly, "Then we can only temporarily stop the Atlantic transport line for a month. After a month, a large number of warships will return from the United States, and the siege network can be re-arranged."

"Shipping cannot be suspended. All materials of the British Empire rely on overseas imports..."

"But..."

"Let the fleet search carefully, don't let the Germans escape, and strive to launch a general offensive tomorrow to completely destroy this batch of German fleets." Churchill encouraged his two men, "I believe the Royal Navy can complete this noble and arduous task."