Chapter 184: The North Sea

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On the turbulent North Sea, the cold air made the breath of every soldier on deck visible as white mist. A deck ammunition handler, wearing a red vest, was staring out at the sea from a designated smoking platform.

Unlike the calm and balmy Pacific, the cold and stormy North Atlantic could be considered the harshest of maritime conditions. That was why American and Japanese carriers could have open-hangar battles in the Pacific, easily operating with their decks full of planes. If the British and Germans were to build their carriers in such a way, their planes would be corroded by the seawater, leading to terrible flight accidents.

This time, the German Navy had sortied in full force. A full 16 warships were assembled in the North Sea: two aircraft carriers, two armored ships that had joined the fleet later, four cruisers, and eight destroyers. This massive fleet had become the primary target of the British Royal Navy from the very beginning.

To prevent this German fleet from entering the North Atlantic, the Royal Navy had mobilized a large force to pursue and intercept them, which instantly made the Germans, who had been hoping to pick off a few easy targets, see the disparity in their strength. Four British aircraft carriers, leading four battleships, eleven cruisers, and twenty-three destroyers, had formed three massive blockade fleets, completely sealing off the routes from the North Sea to the North Atlantic.

Therefore, the Commander-in-Chief of the German Navy, Admiral Raeder, decided to completely abandon his combat plans and play a game of hide-and-seek with the Royal Navy. He dispatched a large number of fighters and reconnaissance planes to coordinate with submarines to monitor the British fleet’s position, then evaded the British warships’ pursuit and disappeared into the cold waters of the North Sea.

“General quarters! General quarters! Load aerial bombs for the bomber formation,” the sharp sound of an alarm suddenly blared from the loudspeakers. Several naval sailors who had been smoking together quickly threw their cigarette butts into the sea and turned to head inside the carrier.

The entire fleet was communicating with each other using signal lamps and flags. Because they were maintaining radio silence, the various warships had been using these more primitive methods to communicate with each other for the past few days.

On the bridge of the aircraft carrier Graf Zeppelin, Raeder was confirming the intelligence data he had just received with the Zeppelin’s captain. The atmosphere on the entire bridge was very tense. The air command center was in a chaotic state, dispatching planes, arranging for fighters to take off, and preparing bombs for the bombers.

“How did the British find us?” Raeder asked himself, muttering as he studied the intelligence in his hand with a frown.

The adjutant stood silently, staring at the sea chart in front of him, his expression heavy. Just a moment ago, a reconnaissance plane from the aircraft carrier Bismarck had spotted a British fleet. It was reported that at least three warships had been sighted. This British fleet was to the southwest of the German fleet, at a distance of about two hundred kilometers.

At first, Raeder had not paid much attention to this British fleet. Over the past few days, the German Navy had evaded so many of these British search fleets that he could no longer muster any interest. There was probably an aircraft carrier following behind these British warships. If a battle broke out, he would definitely not gain any advantage and might instead get entangled and unable to escape.

Therefore, the best way to deal with this kind of British search fleet was to slightly adjust their course, evade them, and let them continue to circle the North Sea. And Raeder did just that. He ordered the entire fleet to change course from northeast to due east. This was the first time in days he had given the order to head due east.

He had originally intended to make a feint and then head south to continue circling, but the result stunned him. The second wave of reconnaissance planes sent to monitor this British fleet discovered that it was being followed by two British carriers and at least one battleship. This meant that the force tailing the German Navy was the main fleet of the British Royal Navy.

What was even more terrifying was that not long after the German Navy changed course, the British Navy also changed course, maintaining a high degree of consistency with the German Navy’s new heading. This immediately made Raeder nervous. If the fleet was discovered and tailed by the British, it would be very disadvantageous for the German Navy in the current situation.

“Maintain course! The entire fleet is to increase speed… Continue at 22 knots,” Raeder ordered, stroking his chin.

“The fleet is not currently sailing into the wind. The deck wind is a crosswind, which is not suitable for fighter takeoff,” the commander of the air group, who was clearly still not used to the harsh weather of the North Sea and whose face was still a little pale, reported to Raeder. “If we are to launch Stukas and torpedo-armed Fw-190s, the fleet needs to sail into the wind.”

“If we launch planes, the entire fleet will have to sail north,” Raeder said, shaking his head after glancing at the sea chart. If they were to turn north so easily, they would be surrounded by the British fleet in the northern North Sea and would never be able to escape back to Germany.

“Our army has an overwhelming advantage in aircraft range and performance. If the attack is successful, we will achieve some results,” the air group commander said. “The British Navy’s air arm cannot compare with the Fw-190.”

“But just a few minutes ago, you explained to me that you had no confidence you could sink the British warships and stop them from pursuing my fleet,” Raeder said. He looked carefully at the sea chart again and, finally, because the area was too narrow, gave up the plan to continue circling. He looked at the captain and his adjutant. “Order the fleet to maintain course and continue east. We will enter the naval port of Wilhelmshaven directly and wait there for a few months until the second fleet can rendezvous with us.”

Faced with the massive and well-trained British Royal Navy, Raeder ultimately did not muster the courage to challenge them. He prepared to use what he considered the safest method to bring the German Navy safely back to its port.

“Has it been clearly investigated? What was the situation that allowed the Royal Navy to know our speed and course?” Raeder asked, looking at the adjutant in charge of intelligence analysis. “If this problem had appeared two days earlier, we would have been trapped north of the Shetland Islands and completely wiped out!”

“In fact, this is what we find strange,” the adjutant said, pointing to several encounter points from a few days ago. “It’s clear that the British did not know our specific location here and here. But after making contact with our reconnaissance planes here and here, they were able to determine our approximate location.”

“However, they still couldn’t get exact intelligence, so they still adopted a strategy of encirclement,” the adjutant said, pointing to the north of the Shetland Islands. “But after our feint to break into the North Atlantic failed, the British pursuit became somewhat perfunctory. They did not see us cruising in the North Sea as a threat.”

“All that changed just now,” the captain of the Graf Zeppelin said, pointing at the sea chart. “A few minutes ago, they obtained our detailed intelligence, so they changed their previous style and prepared to stick to us and fight a naval battle to finish us off for good.”

“Could it be that when Dönitz’s submarines were transmitting to us, the British cracked the code?” the adjutant suddenly asked.

“Impossible!” Raeder shook his head. “The code is almost impossible to break without the codebooks. And we never replied. The submarines also did not send back any information about the specific location of my fleet. Even if the code were cracked, the British would not have gotten any useful data.”

“Wait a minute!” The captain of the Graf Zeppelin was suddenly taken aback, then said loudly, “It wasn’t our submarines! It was the British submarines! They must have submarines in the North Sea! Whether they were deployed in advance or sent specifically for us, these submarines should be in position by now! So there must be a British reconnaissance submarine near our fleet!”

“That makes sense! Notify all destroyers and cruisers to engage in anti-submarine warfare!” Raeder commanded loudly. “If it’s on the perimeter, shake it off! If you find it within the fleet’s defensive screen, sink it!”

“The destroyer Z11 has signaled that they have detected a suspicious target. They have dropped two depth charges, and the target has disappeared,” a signalman said, walking over and handing a record to the adjutant. “They are asking whether to continue pursuit.”

“Order the destroyers Z11 and Z17 to search and attack within a three-nautical-mile limit! Then, regardless of the result, immediately accelerate and catch up with the main fleet!” Raeder commanded. “The fleet is to maintain its course and accelerate eastward!”

“We’re going home?” the first mate asked, looking at Raeder with confusion.

“We’ve been out for a few days. Why not go back and get some rest?” Raeder said with a smile. “The Führer ordered us to tie down the Royal Navy and, at the same time, conduct some training exercises. Haven’t we completed both of these missions?”

To the southwest of the German fleet, on the bridge of the massive British fleet’s flagship, the aircraft carrier HMS Glorious, a British naval admiral in a white uniform looked down at the intelligence that had just come in. It stated that their submarine had been driven off and could no longer provide more accurate intelligence.

“These Germans really have some skills,” he muttered to himself, looking out at the sea. “To be able to figure out so quickly why their position was compromised. It seems there are capable men in the German Navy as well.”

“Admiral, shall we give chase?” the adjutant asked in a low voice.

“We will certainly chase! But it’s less of a chase and more of an escort—escorting the German fleet home,” the admiral said, shaking his head helplessly. “Our overall speeds are about the same. Now that they’re running and we’re chasing, and they’re not far from Wilhelmshaven, we’ve lost our chance.”

“We have already completed the mission of bottling up the German Navy. Although they didn’t suffer any losses, they didn’t achieve their desired result either. We’ve contained them in the North Sea, haven’t we?” the adjutant said triumphantly.

The admiral shook his head. “With this disparity in strength, only a fool would lead his fleet into the Atlantic for a decisive battle. Entering the Atlantic was just their feint. In fact, their original plan was to take a bite out of us in the North Sea and then go home.”

Before the stunned adjutant could say anything more, the admiral continued his command. “Send a telegram to the homeland. The bad news is the German fleet got away. The good news is the German navy was scared witless by the Battle of Jutland and still doesn’t have the courage for a decisive battle.”