"Hey, No. 2, where do you think the German fleet will appear?" a pilot in the British No. 1 reconnaissance aircraft asked on the communication channel.
They have been flying and patrolling along the target route for more than 10 minutes, but they have not found even a trace of the German High Seas Fleet. They have not encountered any trace of the German High Seas Fleet for 10 minutes. They replaced it with the slower warships of the Royal Navy.
, if you want to meet the German High Seas Fleet, you will have to wait even longer.
"I don't think the Germans will show up." The pilot of another No. 2 reconnaissance plane chatted with his partner on the communication channel: "The German fleet is not as powerful as ours in any aspect.
Royal Navy. With our large-scale attack this time, the Germans may not get the news. And once they know that the Royal Navy is massing heavy troops to encircle and suppress them, they will probably immediately flee back to the port to hide."
There are only two reconnaissance planes on the sea. Because the First Squadron of the British Home Fleet does not have an aircraft carrier, they are all surface fighters that take off from the battleship. How many seaplanes can the battleship carry? It is not an aircraft carrier. It can carry two
The stand is already pretty good.
"Eh?" No. 2 had just finished speaking his morale-boosting words when he suddenly spotted something unusual from the distant sea: "What is that?"
"No. 2, did you find anything?" the pilot in the No. 1 reconnaissance plane asked doubtfully on the communication channel.
However, before No. 2 could answer him, he had already answered the question with his own eyes.
At the end of the line of sight, countless small black spots slowly rose from the sea in the distance... After a while, the black spots became more and more numerous, getting bigger and bigger, overwhelming and densely packed.
"Enemy plane?!" the two British pilots shouted out in surprise at the same time.
From the beginning, they ignored the possibility of this happening. According to the internal experience of the British Royal Navy, in normal naval battles, the reconnaissance opportunities sent out often find the enemy warships first. Because the aircraft moves faster, the warships
The speed is much slower. When the enemy's and ours' fleets are at the same distance, reconnaissance aircraft can often find the enemy's warships one step ahead of the warships.
However, this time, the German High Seas Fleet did not follow the conventional naval battle process and put battleships on the front line as the main force of naval battles. From the beginning, Lütjens, who commanded the First Fleet, pinned the outcome of the duel on aircraft carrier fighters.
Because it no longer relied on warships sailing on the sea, but on fighter planes flying in the air, Lütjens's combat range expanded from the battleship's artillery range to the battleship's flight radius.
The expansion of combat radius also means a change in combat methods. The First Mixed Fleet of the High Seas Fleet, which has changed its combat methods, will naturally not place warships in a range that can be quickly searched by British reconnaissance aircraft.
"We are thinking in the wrong direction! We must turn back and warn the fleet..." The pilot of the British No. 2 reconnaissance aircraft was preparing to turn the aircraft while reminding his comrades in the communication channel: "Leave immediately, leave immediately...
....."
Unfortunately, as soon as the two British reconnaissance planes completed their turn, a dense burst of fire flew from behind. Their planes were also damaged to varying degrees in an instant.
Listening to the noise of the damage warning equipment in the cabin and the row of dazzling red lights, the hearts of the two British pilots suddenly sank to the bottom of the cold water, completely losing the calmness of the relaxed chat before.
Two minutes later, the two destroyed planes turned into two fireballs, fell diagonally into the blue sea, and turned into two beams of black smoke...
Farther away, two huge Zeppelin-class aircraft carriers were moving slowly in an inverted V-shaped escort formation.
.............
"Why did the reconnaissance plane suddenly lose contact?"
"Where is the German fleet? Without the report of the reconnaissance plane, there is no way to confirm it!"
On the British fleet's flagship HMS Ark Royal, a group of combat officers were discussing anxiously. More than 20 minutes had passed. According to the deductions that had been repeatedly verified before, by this time, the reconnaissance aircraft should have confirmed the German vanguard fleet.
location.
However, the current result is that the reconnaissance planes not only failed to send back any intelligence, but also lost contact with the rear.
Without the report of the reconnaissance aircraft, relying only on the small reconnaissance ships and destroyers deployed on the periphery, even if the German fleet is discovered, the best opportunity to prepare will be lost, and a hasty battle will be fought at an extremely close distance.
It shouldn't be like this! Not to mention the anti-aircraft firepower of the German warships, it is impossible to accurately shoot down every batch of British reconnaissance aircraft. Even the reconnaissance ships and high-speed destroyers cruising in the periphery should not be completely targeted.
There was no trace of the German fleet. It was as if their battleships had never come near at all.
The battleship... did not come any closer...
Repeatedly chewing on the previous information words, Cunningham seemed to have discovered something, but also seemed to understand nothing.
Shouldn't the Germans be determined to fight a decisive battle with themselves? Why, except for the first batch of reconnaissance planes that discovered the peripheral high-speed patrol ships of the German fleet and confirmed the existence of the German High Seas Fleet, no further discoveries were made
Their main position?
The discovery of the peripheral high-speed patrol ships of the German First Squadron was actually due to the good luck of those British reconnaissance aircraft, which inadvertently avoided the German fighter planes. If they had not happened to avoid the fighters released by the Zeppelin-class aircraft carriers, the outcome would have been as well.
Just like those missing fighter planes.
However, they did not bring back the most important piece of information, which was that the German First Mixed Fleet had strong carrier-based aircraft capabilities.
Now, with only a little information, Cunningham can only rely on the first discovery of the location of the German peripheral patrol ship, and rely on his own common sense to roughly calculate the location of the main force of the German vanguard fleet. After all, it was through the discovery of the German peripheral training ship
To reason, the location range speculated in this way will naturally be very vague and broad, but having a direction is better than nothing.
"We can't waste it aimlessly like this!" Cunningham clenched his fists and ordered through gritted teeth: "Let our first squadron advance at a constant speed in the direction where the reconnaissance plane first discovered the German peripheral patrol ship. Our second squadron will
The fleet will follow closely behind. Once you encounter or discover the German fleet, immediately attack at full speed and defeat them quickly!"
If nothing is done to break the current deadlock, the pressure on the officers will continue to increase, which will not be a good thing for subsequent operations. In order to relieve the pressure caused by this silence, Cunningham had to change his strategy and actively search for the German High Seas Fleet.
