Marshal Lütjens, who survived the disaster, must have blessings, found himself consuming the most expensive bait in history in the early morning of December 12. A patrol team deployed in the Denmark Strait discovered a huge fleet of Allied countries!

"Marson, we may be able to intercept the waters near the Faroe Islands... If we go straight, it will be about 600 nautical miles."

Lieutenant General Messel, Chief of Staff of the Fleet, came up with a plan to intercept at the first time. Because there were a large number of slow ships in the fleet of the Allied Powers that could only drive up to 10 knots or 11 knots, and the European Combined Fleet's warships were fast, so it was easy to run up to 20-25 knots. So as long as you don't take the z-shaped anti-submarine route, you can get in place within 30 hours at most.

"No, it's not safe." Marshal Lütjens immediately denied Messel's suggestion, "Since the enemy has paid such a great price, it is impossible for him to have no other preparations... The British submarine base is in northern Scotland and the Faroe Islands, and there must be dozens or hundreds of submarines waiting for us halfway."

His guess was correct. Ingersoll did arrange a backup plan, not only dispatching all submarines that could be deployed, but also allowing destroyers and torpedo speedboats stationed in the Faroe Islands and Scarpa Bay (there are no lightning strikes in the UK), preparing to use extreme nights and snowy weather as cover to sneak attack the main ships of the European Combined Fleet.

"Then let the lightning strike team go out," Lieutenant General Messel thought for a while and said, "this way, you can at least get some results with the T-93 torpedo."

"Yes, but... what's the weather in the Norwegian Sea in the next 60 hours?" asked Marshal Lütjens, "It won't keep snowing, right?"

"No," said Lieutenant General Messel, "this rain and snow weather is caused by cold air from the north. As long as the temperature in the Norwegian Sea drops to a sufficiently low level, the rain and snow will stop. The weather forecast says that the rain and snow will last for 24-36 hours."

"That is, it is impossible to launch an air strike today," said Marshal Lütjens, "but there will be a chance tomorrow and the day after tomorrow."

"Air strike?" asked Lieutenant General Messer, "send ju288 and do217 from Bergen?"

"And our aviation fleet!" Marshal Lütjens paused and said, "General Hayes has 5-10 hours, and if he is lucky, he will be able to launch several air strikes."

Although it is the polar night period of the Arctic, Iceland and northern Scotland are not in the Arctic Circle after all (most parts of the Arctic Circle also have short daylights), so in December, Iceland has less than 4 hours of daytime every day, and in northern Scotland there are 5 hours of daytime. Therefore, aircraft carriers are not completely useless in the polar night period of the North Atlantic Ocean. If a good day is encountered, it can be used for 4-5 hours a day. Therefore, Marshal Lütjens took Admiral Helmut Hayes' aviation fleet to the north together this time.

...

At noon on December 12, in the dim light and a storm, the commander's flag of the Allied Atlantic Combined Fleet rose on the battleship New York. Admiral Ingersoll has finally escaped the "Soviet Chairman" and has become the only supreme commander of the fleet again.

However, he also knew that after losing two South Dakota-class battleships and a 1 million-ton transport ship, his term as commander was almost over.

Standing inside the tall bridge of the New York, looking at the back of the Soviet-class battleship gradually fading away, Admiral Ingersoll sighed softly and said to the British Lieutenant General Fraser beside him: "We are the only one left now... The next two and a half days will be very difficult!"

"Admiral, the next difficult time is not 2 and a half days, but 5 hours." Fraser said. "The latest weather forecast, the wind and snow will continue until tomorrow night. Starting from the 14th, the weather will clear up."

Weather forecast is also a combat power. In this regard, Britain is still stronger than Germany. After all, the Norwegian Sea and the North Atlantic have been the backyards of the British Empire for the past two or three hundred years. The British Royal Navy's climate research on the Norwegian Sea and the North Atlantic has far exceeded that of the German Navy.

Therefore, the weather forecast Fraser has obtained now is much more accurate than Marshal Lütjens has obtained.

“That is, we will be air strikes between the Faroe Islands and the northern Scotland?”

"I think that's the case," Fraser said. "Because the snow and snow can last for 24 hours, we can get the fleets first so that they can arrive at Scapa Bay before the daytime arrives for 14 days. At least... we can get 108,000 US Army safely."

The lives of 108,000 American soldiers are too precious, so the best and fastest ships used to transport them are the best and fastest ships. Three 80,000-ton luxury cruise ships can run to more than 30 knots, and the other troop transport ships (mostly passenger ships) also have speeds of about 25 knots.

Therefore, they can enter Scapa Bay first, but the free wheels that transport oil weapons and equipment can only move forward slowly at a speed of 10 knots. Before the daytime arrives on the 14th, they will definitely not be able to reach the safe Scapa Bay.

"More than a hundred ships will not be sunk," Ingersoll sneered, "I think there will always be some ships that arrive safely... and we in the United States have many ships that can bear huge losses! So we will not give up supporting Britain anyway."

The American tycoon is so awesome. It is said that there are so many ships that you are not afraid of fighting!

...

In the early morning of the 14th, the North Atlantic Ocean, which had been roaring in the snow for several days, finally returned to peace. On a dark ocean, the flagship aircraft carrier "Earl Zeppelin" of the aviation fleet under the European Union Fleet was sailing slowly under the escort of two light cruisers and six destroyers.

The current location of the "Zeppellin" is less than 200 nautical miles from the Ireland Islands and 250 nautical miles from the Faroe Islands-Okney Islands (Scapa Bay) route, which is about 460 kilometers. Just from the current location of the Zeppelin aircraft carrier, you can know how difficult the UK is now. This is the backyard of the British Isles!

"Commander, he219, which took off from Ireland, arrived," said Colonel Weiner Hartman, the chief of staff of the aviation fleet, who was born in the submarine force. He said to Admiral Hayes, who was in the command center on the second floor of the bridge. "There were 16 he219s in total."

These He219 are long-range night combat models, with radar installed on the aircraft. If combined with surface ships with air search radar, they can easily hit British reconnaissance aircraft trying to approach German aircraft carriers.

"Okay," Admiral Haye looked up at the sky with stars (it was early morning, but the sky was still dark). "It was a sunny day... how many hours before dawn?"

"At around 10:30, there are still 3 hours left." Hartman replied, "If the reconnaissance aircraft can detect the enemy's transport fleet in time, the carrier-based aircraft can be released in two hours."

Hayes' aviation fleet now has five aircraft carriers, namely Zeppelin, Strasser (Zepplin class), Europa, Bremen and Alsace. Among them, Zeppelin and Strasser are both large fleet aircraft carriers. They can carry 92 fighters during the North Atlantic combat. Because the F-190t, Folk Zero D and Folk 100 both use foldable wings, the number of carrier-based aircraft of Europa, Bremen and Alsace has also increased to 66 due to the new model.

The five aircraft carriers now carry a total of 382 aircraft, including 34 backup aircraft and 348 commonly used aircraft. The 348 commonly used aircraft belong to 29 squadrons, 10 squadrons equipped with Folk Zero D carrier-based fighter jets, 7 squadrons equipped with F-190t carrier-based fighter bombers, and 11 squadrons equipped with Folk 100 carrier-based bombers.

This carrier-based aircraft marshalling method of low-altitude zero-type + medium-high-altitude combat bomber + fast dive bomber is not good in the Pacific Ocean. Because the positioning of the f-190t is a bit strange, it is a multi-purpose aircraft with a carrier-based + medium-high-altitude + combat bomber, but its main focus is still medium-high-altitude rather than medium-low-altitude that other carrier-based fighters are good at.

However, for the European Combined Fleet on the Atlantic, the F-190t is an indispensable fighter, because its main mission is not to attack ships and direct air cover, but to escort the super-large range of Ju288. It does not need to defeat its opponents' carrier-based fighters at medium and low altitudes, as long as it can defeat them at an altitude of 10,000 meters and clear the interference of the offensive for Ju288.

Therefore, the main attack method of carrier-based aircraft troops of the European Joint Fleet is a joint attack of ship-based + shore-based, rather than being attacked by carrier-based aircraft alone.

Therefore, whether Helmut Haye's aviation fleet can release carrier-based aircraft in time depends on when the 1st Division of the German Navy Aviation Force, whose base is located in Bergen, can send a long-range bomber. Since the ju288 has a long time to stagnate, it is usually ju288 that takes off first and arrives near the enemy ship formation. Usually, the f-190t will take off after ju288 arrives.

"Commander, telegram from the Bergen Command," the communication officer on the Zeppelin reported to General Haye at 8:35 am on the morning of the 14th. "The reconnaissance plane discovered the enemy ship formation, located in the F3 sea area, 170 nautical miles from the Onik Islands."

"When will ju288 take off?" Haye asked.
Chapter completed!