From the Scarpaflo Naval Base in the northernmost part of Britain to the Faroe Islands, the straight-line distance is 290 kilometers, the round trip is nearly 600 kilometers, and the journey to Iceland is twice that, which is far more than the maximum range of any aircraft equipped by the British team. To conduct efficient aerial reconnaissance on the main waterways from the Norwegian Sea to the Atlantic Ocean, the British had only two ways: to send airships or call seaplane motherships.

At this moment when the country is at risk of survival, the British no longer have any stinginess. They took a two-pronged approach, and while transferring 12 of 17 airships from the southeast defense zone, they dispatched 3 of all 5 seaplane motherships, and carefully divided the reconnaissance area. Even the route of each airship and each mothership was determined in advance. In combination with the sea search of a large number of submarines and light ships, they could theoretically clear any reconnaissance blind spots.

After all, theory is theory, and there is often a big gap between reality. When the war broke out, the British Navy was not equipped with hard airships with better flight performance but expensive prices like the Germans. Although traditional soft airships are simple to maintain and operate, there is a significant difference in load capacity and flight speed with Zeppelin airships, the reconnaissance efficiency naturally needs to be discounted. The same is true for the seaplane and motherships. Once the sea conditions are severe, the British aviation reconnaissance will be difficult to sustain. The meteorological conditions in the northern seas are complex, and the autumn is rainy, foggy and strong winds. In the more than two weeks from early to mid-November, the effective reconnaissance area of ​​the British Navy only reached the expected forty percent. The vast areas of the north are still unknown.

This made Sir Jackson, the commander of the British local fleet, very annoyed. So before leading the fleet to the Faroe Islands, he repeatedly warned the Admiralty that if naval aviation forces could not be organized to carry out carpet explorations of the Faroe Islands and surrounding waters to eliminate the potential threat of the German fleet's ambush here, the local fleet's desperate combat operations may become the historic end of the British Royal Navy.

Due to the adverse weather and unavoidable technical failures, only 7 of the 12 airships transferred from the UK to the north can be dispatched. The crew and pilots of the three seaplane motherships gritted their teeth and persevered despite the fatigue of their days of attendance. After two days of hard work, they finally conducted a thorough search of the 100 nautical miles of the area around the Faroe Islands.

In addition to seeing a German submarine in the eastern waters of the Faroe Islands, British airships and seaplanes have not found any suspicious situations in the waters near the Faroe Islands.

On November 22, 1914, the British local fleet arrived at the waters east of the Faroe Islands and temporarily stayed at only 20 nautical miles from its main port, Thors. At this time, there was no unified standard for the division of island territorial waters in the international community. According to the Denmark Government's declaration of the Faroe Islands territorial waters, the British fleet was already within the Denmark's territorial waters. Even so, on the day of arriving in the Faroe Islands, the British fleet detained two Danish fishing boats that entered their sight. When the British destroyers forcibly seized them, the actual location of the two ships was only more than ten kilometers away from the shoreline!

In order to win, the British had already used any means, but they did not expect that the intensive reconnaissance carried out by the Faroe Islands would be alert to the German naval intelligence personnel lurking here. The information was transferred to Reinhardt Schell and his aides, who immediately captured the key information.

In the early morning of November, the German high seas fleet quietly arrived in the northern waters of the Faroe Islands. After dawn, six Hubert-d type carrier-based reconnaissance aircraft were taken off from the "Prince Heinrich" in one breath. Two auxiliary aircraft carriers "Gotingen" and "Kassel" modified from trans-ocean cruise ships also took off three reconnaissance aircraft of the same type. They deliberately avoided the town ports of the Faroe Islands and carried out air reconnaissance in the surrounding waters carefully. The first wave of reconnaissance, the German pilots did not make any news.

Now, after returning and refueling, they set out for a second wave of reconnaissance. At around 10 o'clock, the No. 3 reconnaissance plane taken off the Göttingen saw the British fleet in the southeast of the Faroe Islands. A few minutes later, it sent a radio signal to its fleet: 30 kilometers south of Swan Island, 10 to 12 dreadnoughts and battlecruisers, 7 to 8 old battleships, about 10 cruisers, and about 30 destroyers. The entire fleet lined up in three columns and headed south slowly.

First, he saw the gray-painted German carrier-based reconnaissance aircraft, and then monitored the radio waves emitted from close range. The British, who were highly focused, immediately realized that their whereabouts had been discovered by the enemy, and the location of the German fleet was not far away. At this time, three seaplanes and motherships had been included in the support ranks of the British local fleet, and Sir Jackson ordered them to send water reconnaissance aircraft to reversely detect the location of the German fleet. British seaplanes were reckless

Flying over the Faroe Islands at 11:42 am, one of the Schott reconnaissance aircraft discovered the German fleet on the sea. Before being shot down by a German carrier-based aircraft, the British pilots took a telegram in time, but the telegram was not encrypted. After the German fleet intercepted it, it quickly interpreted the content and saw the German main fleet, which included 18 to 20 large warships, 3 aircraft and motherships, 40 to 50 cruisers and destroyers, with a speed of 12 knots, and headed east.

The figures provided by this telegram are not very different from the actual situation, because old battleships such as "Brunswick" and "Lorraine" and the armored cruisers of Sharnhorst class also fall into the category of "large battleships", and all light cruisers and large torpedo boats have 42 combined. However, the vague concept is likely to fatally mislead the British fleet commander. 20 dreadnoughts and 10 dreadnoughts and 10 front dreadnoughts, 20 cruisers, 20 large torpedo boats and 10 cruisers, and 30 large torpedo boats have completely different combat forces, and the corresponding combat strategies should also be very different.

Unlike the calm and moderate atmosphere of everyone on the German flagship, the British flagship "Iron Duke" has been shrouded in tension and suppression since the moment the German reconnaissance aircraft appeared. On the one hand, people are anxiously waiting for their reconnaissance aircraft to find the German fleet hidden in the dark earlier, so that their fleet can get rid of the simple passive situation. On the other hand, German carrier-based aircraft have shown their ability to attack ships in several important naval battles. British officers and soldiers with a little vision are worried that the next batch of German aircraft coming will drop bombs or torpedoes. With the current air defense capabilities of the British fleet, it is difficult to withstand the German naval aviation bombings.

After receiving a desperate telegram from his reconnaissance plane, the fleet commander Sir Jackson was like a man who was struggling to find light in the dark. He instantly saw the direction of hope, but what made him feel extremely entangled was that the road to light was full of thorns. At present, he had to make a crucial choice in the shortest time possible: how to attack, how to attack? How to retreat, how to retreat?

In the flagship combat command room, Sir Jackson said to his staff officers in an eloquent tone: "The Germans have a dual advantage in strength and psychology. They have no need to cross the Faroe Islands and bypass the archipelago eastward for a two-hour voyage. If we also sail eastward, the sea on Swan Island will be our decisive battle. The Germans must have planned everything. Before we get there, their flight will cost us a lot of energy and our mood will be greatly affected. So we have to take the risk to the end, insert it from the strait between East Island and Boroy, and launch an attack from behind the German fleet!"

The Faroe Islands have 18 islands and rocky reefs, the four largest islands are close to each other, with a narrow distance of only 200 meters and a wide distance of only 5 or 6 kilometers. If the Germans knew the direction of the British fleet and used the main warships to occupy the dominant position to intercept it, they would easily win a victory in the Mingliang naval battle.

Despite Lieutenant General Maden reminded this, Sir Jackson remained his own opinion, and the academic theorist General Edward also supported Jackson's adventure strategy.

"But how can we avoid the reconnaissance of German aircraft?" Lieutenant General Maden asked back.

"Of course it's God!" Sir Jackson pointed his right hand out of the porthole. The clear sky was covered by clouds floating from the north throughout the morning. The wind and waves on the sea surface were getting higher, and the take-off and landing of seaplanes had become very difficult. The German aircraft carriers had stronger adaptability in harsh sea conditions, but it was impossible to completely ignore the influence of the weather.

General Madden fell silent. He knew that if Betty and Thomas were present, they would definitely try their best to stop Sir Jackson's adventure, but before the dust settled, no one could conclude that this "delusion" would definitely fail, and the sudden change in the weather invisibly brought people a psychological hint: no matter who wins or loses, it would be a heroic and tragic battle.

At 11:55, the "Iron Duke" hung a decisive flag that inspired British soldiers in the Battle of Trafalgar. This flag signal has magical magic for the soldiers of the British Royal Navy. It can instantly eliminate their worries and fears in their hearts and allow them to face any strong enemy with a brave and fearless spirit. This is also the key reason why the British fleet has repeatedly fallen into extreme tactical dilemmas in Jutland and Flanders, but can always make the Germans pay a heavy price for victory.
Chapter completed!