Imperial Overlord

Yes, the German fleet did not come to trouble the main British fleet. . The fastest update Even in the most powerful period of the German Navy in the High Seas Fleet, they did not have the ability to fight the British main fleet.

Since it is not to trouble the British fleet, as long as the German fleet can avoid each other, it will be fine.

Lütjens found that it seemed easy to avoid the opponent's fleet now! Then why is he so nervous? As long as the naval aviation is used reasonably and avoid the enemy, it will be fine.

The reassured German fleet commander, at this time, has begun to think of his true mission.

He was now thinking about what kind of disaster it would bring to British transport ships after his fleet entered the Atlantic Ocean.

In the past, it was necessary to search aimlessly on the sea, but now there is an reconnaissance method such as an aircraft. Compared to a seaplane, this thing is much easier to use!

On one side, Lütjens wanted to understand, and on the other side, the British were also dispatching troops. Compared with the German navy, Dudley Pound has too many cards.

After fearing that the German fleet would destroy its own squadrons and could only use the interceptor fleet together, Dudley Pound began to arrange the h fleet and the Mediterranean fleet that had entered the Atlantic Ocean.

After getting the exact news of the German fleet, the h fleet and the Mediterranean fleet also made corresponding adjustments.

It was confirmed that the aircraft carrier Zeppelin had been dispatched and that the German fleet was out in full force. Dudley Pound ordered that the two fleets heading north also disrupted the sequence and formed two fleets with different tasks.

The first fleet, commanded by Sir Somerville himself, included the battleships HMS Barham and HMS Sovereign, as well as the aircraft carriers HMS Eagle and HMS Radiance.

In addition, a fleet, commanded by Admiral John Tovey, included two battlecruisers, USS Hood and USS Prestige, and the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal.

At the Naval Operations Command in London, England, Churchill was listening to Dudley Pound's briefing on the current state of the naval fleet.

The appearance of the German fleet in the waters near Iceland has put pressure on the British up and down. Churchill had already received reports of material shortages before, and now he would not dare to interrupt maritime transportation easily.

Once maritime transport is disrupted by German warships, even if it is only interrupted, it will have a huge negative impact on the United Kingdom.

"First of all, the local fleet will defend the Denmark Strait...but whether the German ships will go this way, we have no way of knowing." Dudley Pound gestured and introduced on the huge map with a pointer.

The naval aviation commander standing beside Pound embarrassedly connected with the words of Pound, the Secretary of the Navy, and said to Churchill: "Because the carrier-based aircraft is missing, we cannot judge the route and speed of the German ship."

The last time to confirm the other party's speed and course was the message from the Suffolk. At that time, the course and speed of the German fleet were delayed until this time, where can they be used as a basis?

Will the other party slow down or speed up sailing? Will the other party adjust the course? These questions depend on guesswork, and it is impossible to determine the approximate location of the opposing fleet.

Now, hours have passed, and it is close to noon. Relying on the data in the morning, it can be estimated that the location of the German fleet can almost extend over an area of ​​100,000 square kilometers...

This is almost the same as drawing a circle on the North Atlantic and saying that the German fleet must be somewhere in the circle is there any difference between saying nothing?

"Waiting is not the style of our navy! We must take the initiative to attack! We must find a way to annihilate the enemy before they enter the Atlantic!" Churchill also worked as the Secretary of the Navy, and after hearing the report, he said.

He walked to the front of the map, looked at the Denmark Strait, pointed to the approximate range and suggested: "Send another plane to search this sea area! We must determine the location of the enemy fleet at any cost!"

In Churchill's view, instead of standing here and guessing, it is better to arrange two more planes to take a look at key areas!

If you are lucky, you may be able to spot the enemy fleet. If unfortunately they are shot down again, then at least they can roughly guess the location of the opponent.

Gritting his teeth, Dudley Pound turned sideways and nodded to the commander of the naval aviation.

At a moment like this, even knowing that there is a possibility of losing the pilot, one has to take the risk again. After all, once successful, the advantages gained are huge.

As a battlefield commander, sacrificing several pilots when necessary is also a trade-off and choice. Ci is not in charge of the army, that's what he's talking about.

"Once the interception failed, the German ships entered the Atlantic Ocean." Dudley Pound continued to introduce the subsequent countermeasures.

He sketched it with a pointer: "The local fleet will follow the opponent's fleet south and drive the German fleet into the encirclement."

Having said this, his feet pointed to the sea in the south of England and further west: "The speed can keep up with the search fleet of the opposing fleet. Under the cover of the Royal Ark, it will follow the opposing fleet and keep a distance."

Then, he pointed to a position further down: "Sir Somerville will lead the fleet to block the opponent's way and surround the opponent's fleet!"

Dudley Pound's plan looked good, although the Germans' entry into the Atlantic would put pressure on shipping.

But Britain can also take this opportunity to concentrate its superior forces to gather and destroy the German fleet.

In terms of military strength, the Royal Navy has an absolute advantage of three to one, and the number of aircraft carriers has reached an overwhelming five to one!

Although there is an obvious gap in the carrier-based aircraft, in the face of the numerical advantage, the fate of the German fleet seems to have been decided.

Although Churchill was reluctant to see the German fleet enter the Atlantic Ocean, at present, Dudley Pound's battle plan was more in line with his wishes.

After all, he's worked as an Admiralty and knows some naval techniques and tactics. In his view, this plan is calm and makes full use of the naval strength, which is quite satisfactory.

There was nothing wrong with it, and Churchill finalized the battle plan. All he can do now is to wait for the front-line commander, Charles, to send back real-time news.

Charles was also very nervous at this time. Just two minutes ago, he had just ordered two Sea Fighter fighter jets on the Furious to take off, cover the two Swordfish attack planes, and go to the estimated sea area to perform a search mission.

Although they knew that this reconnaissance was in danger of dying, the fearless British Royal Navy pilots obeyed the orders given to them by their superiors.

As a low-level soldier, all they can do is obey orders and pray that they can survive.

The four planes formed a formation and flew to the target sea area. At this time, the actual position of the German fleet was really far from the British estimate.

Relying solely on the estimated position by extrapolation is not accurate at all! Fearing that the Denmark Strait would be blocked by the British, Lütjens began to speed up his voyage after he was out of sight of the British navy.

The entire fleet even soared to a speed of more than 27 knots, which was much higher than the British estimated high speed of 23 knots.

Lütjens is a veteran of evading air reconnaissance from the other side. When there is no naval aviation, he can use speed and heading to avoid a large number of British aircraft searching for him.

Now that the Naval Aviation had created a better guerrilla environment for him, he naturally played a familiar set of tactics.

Sudden acceleration and then changing course is a common method used to make it impossible for the enemy to judge one's own position. Conversely, sudden deceleration or even stopping the ship can also make opponents make wrong judgments.

When commanding the Scharnhorst, the daring Lütjens stopped the ship and waited, avoiding the search of the British battleship that was chasing him.

This time, he accelerated extremely suddenly, and ran out of a high speed that the British fleet could not imagine, which really confused the judgment of the British naval fleet.

Two hours later, the British carrier-based aircraft did not find the German fleet in the scheduled sea area, and sent back the news that they had not encountered the German fleet...

The news was sent back to the British headquarters, and the British high-level officials were in an instant mess. Right before everyone's eyes, the German fleet "disappeared"!

"What are you kidding? The Germans didn't go through the Denmark Strait?" Dudley Pound asked the officer who returned the news with an incredulous look on his face.

Churchill sat on the side with wide-eyed eyes. The Germans did not appear in the Denmark Strait. What is going on?

On the other side, British planes taking off from land bases are desperately searching for a large area of ​​water south of Iceland.

As a result, none of these planes encountered the German fleet, and of course they could not confirm the position of the Germans~www.wuxiaspot.com~ and then dispatch carrier aircraft! Be sure to block the Denmark Strait! "Fleet Commander Charles, who had no good solution, could only continue to take off planes to patrol the waters.

Of course he would not know that the German fleet had already passed his fleet at this time in the waters south of the not wide Denmark Strait.

"Could it be... the German commander knew that his fleet had been discovered, and had returned to Norway on the long way?" an admiral suddenly said in a low voice.

"Let the Dorset continue to go north and search for the possible German fleet!" Thinking of this possibility, Dudley Pound had no choice but to allocate forces to confirm.

Who knows? Maybe the German commander really did the shameful thing about turning back, didn't he...

British naval commanders, including Churchill, did not know yet that the German fleet commanded by Lütjens at this time was actually less than 110 kilometers away from their home fleet, which was blocked outside the Denmark Strait exit...——

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