Captain Sheffield Clark wanted to throw away the Z4, which made people feel like a stunning feeling, but now he can't do it anyway. The only frigate that is intact and comparable to the German destroyer is not strong enough. He rushed forward and was easily sunk. After the other two warships were injured, the German destroyer would avoid it far away. If they advance, the Germans followed him in a dilemma. After several "cat-catching and mouse" actions, he decided to ignore him and was told that the J fleet (the abbreviation of the J-51b escort fleet) that came to pick him up was only more than 20 miles away. Therefore, he no longer cared about Z4's actions, but continued to rush towards the direction where the J fleet was.

But the plan could never keep up with the changes. Clark's beautiful wish was shattered at 14:00 pm: under the unremitting call of Z4, Hippel appeared in the British sight with another destroyer, and rushed over at almost the highest level, which could narrow the distance from Sheffield every hour. Considering that the J-51a fleet was not far ahead, and the J fleet would take at least 10 hours to arrive at the scene. In order to ensure the safety of the merchant ships, Clark and Sherbrook on the Onslow discussed and made a painful choice: they would cover the merchant ships to retreat and turn to the northwest at the cost of self-sacrifice, and lead the German ship in the other direction.

"Enter the northwest as soon as possible, we will cover you..." Clark sent a telegram to the Thorns, the only normal person in the formation, who had the chance to escape the German pursuit.

The captain of the Thorns knew what the word "cover" meant today. He almost left the battlefield with tears in his eyes. All the sailors silently bowed their heads to their comrades who were still on the battlefield.

"I finally caught you!" It was so difficult to see the prey that I had been looking for for the past two days appearing in front of me, Captain Hartman was so excited that he almost burst into tears.

At 15:00 pm, the excited USS Hippel cooperated with two destroyers to fight the British and ** ships. Since the two British ships had been severely damaged in advance, they were obviously at a disadvantage in the artillery battle. After several days of live-fire shooting, the German sailors were in an excited state. As one went up and down, the German fleet had a clear advantage.

At 15:14, the Shippel achieved the first victory, and the deputy gun knocked the British minesweeper to pieces; 2 minutes later, Sheffield was directly hit by a shell, and most of the bridge was destroyed; 16 minutes later, the Onslow destroyer followed the footsteps of the minesweeper, and was also hit by Hippel, but obviously the body of the destroyer less than 2ooo tons could not withstand the heavy blow of the 2o3mm shells, and the entire ship began to sink. Colonel Sherbrook refused to dissuade his subordinates and chose to sink with the ship. However, during the artillery battle, the Hans-Lody (z1o), which tried to cast torpedo on Sheffield, was hit by the opponent's 1152mm shells due to his greed for merit and was blown away by two turrets, and the heavy smoke was blown out. He was so angry that Hartman was so angry that he scolded the captain for being a pig's brain.

In contrast, the Z4 destroyer seemed much smarter. He kept hiding behind the figure of Hippel and fired cold guns. He hit Sheffield several times. Although he could not cause fatal damage, he made the opponent's rear deck mess.

At 15:35, Sheffield was hit by Hippel several times, and thick smoke came out. The hull was flooded again, and the degree had been reduced to only 11 knots. Although it was dark at this time, the radar on Hippel had returned to normal. In addition, the Mars on Sheffield deck could not be extinguished in the night, which gave the German army a reliable indicator. Relying on the radar finger and visual observation, Hippel firmly stared at the target and fired. In order to pursue the hit rate, Hartmann, who was more and more shooting, commanded the ship to continue to approach. The 2o3mm naval gun shot from 14,000 meters to 75 o meters. Finally, after wasting more than 2o shells, it sank Sheffield. Most of the British sailors failed to run out.

At 17 o'clock, Hartmann, who had cleaned the battlefield, proudly reported his victory to the Berlin Naval Command, but he did not expect that this afternoon he was less than 40 nautical miles away from the J-51a transport fleet. These British ships led the German ships at their own expense, ensuring the safety of the transport fleet to the greatest extent.

After eliminating two enemy ships that had been injured in advance, Hartman, who was still unsatisfied, led a formation to continue chasing northwest. He subconsciously believed that since the British ship had been moving northwest, the last fleeing warship also drove in the northwest, the other ships of the British fleet should be there too.

At this time, the distance between the Hippel formation, which had a completely different route, and the British transport fleet was once again increased to more than 70 nautical miles, and it became larger and larger. Until 10 o'clock in the night, Colonel Hartmann, who had been savoring the entire naval battle, suddenly realized that he was led by the British and hurriedly ordered the route to be adjusted to the southwest. At this time, the distance between each other had reached more than 120 nautical miles, which was only slightly smaller than the distance between the J fleet and the J-51a fleet. Of course, the Hippel formation had a degree advantage. Although the Z1o destroyer was damaged, its power was not greatly affected, and the average formation was still more than 10 knots faster than the J fleet.

Major General Anderson, the commander of the J fleet, who was anxious to rescue, was already tense up to the tightest nerves. He received a farewell telegram from the Sheffield fleet and knew that the J-51a fleet had only two destroyers left: one was the Cold Warship under the initial command of Sherbrook, and the other was the Aktis in the Sheffield cruiser formation, and Hippel followed him without knowing that Burnett had successfully led Hartman to the wrong route. He believed that the Germans could attack the transport fleet at any time, and he was at least 160 nautical miles away from the fleet. Tonight was the most dangerous moment for the transport fleet, and they would encounter the Germans chasing from behind at any time.

But as long as we spend the dangerous period tonight, the vanguard of the J fleet can meet with the transport fleet in the early morning of February 6, which in turn can teach the Germans a lesson. In case, he ordered three destroyers in the J fleet to advance northeast at the highest point, striving to strengthen the escort fleet's strength to entangle the Hippel and buy time for the main force of the J fleet to arrive on the battlefield.

Luck obviously did not stand completely on the side of the British. Just as the Shippel switched the route and drove southwest again, the radar soldiers on the Luzov suddenly appeared in the corner of the screen. From the position, it is obviously not the warship of our side. Because the Shippel formation is more than 90 nautical miles north of the ship, and Tilpitz was 50 nautical miles southeast of the ship, but it is also very likely that it is a false alarm. The Luzov has suffered a lot of radar false alarms in the past two days.

Chase? Or not?

Captain Luzov, Navy Captain Stanger, has always been famous for his cautiousness. He thought for three minutes and finally made a very important and critical choice: to catch up! However, until the evidence is conclusive, he did not intend to report the information to Lieutenant General Kumetz on Tilpitz, so as not to interfere with the other party's judgment. Lieutenant General Kumetz is a person who is more cautious than him.

The radar soldier's target was the last transport ship in the J-51a fleet. Although he was desperately rushing, he could only maintain a degree of 12-13 knots, while the Luzov advanced to more than 25 knots. After an hour, Colonel Stanger was more sure that this was a ship's false alarm. After a period of time, either the target disappeared or the distance between the ship and the ship was directly narrowed. However, the radar soldier reported that although the target gap had narrowed, the narrowing distance did not seem to be equal to the journey of the ship's advance.

"It's very simple. This is a ship, moving and not moving at a fast pace." Stanger smiled, "It can't run!"

Nothing was seen in the dark, but thanks to the search for sea radar and the efforts of radar soldiers, the Luzov firmly locked the target. The highlights of the British transport ship on the screen attracted Stanger to rush over without hesitation, and the distance was shortened by 12 nautical miles every hour.

"Sir!" At 2:47 a.m., the radar soldier suddenly screamed.

"What's the matter?" Stange, who had been staying in the radar room and had just entered the stage of resting with his eyes closed, was alarmed, "Is the target lost?"

"No, look!" The radar soldier pointed at the screen with his trembling fingers.

Stanger looked at the screen, and after taking a look, he took a breath of air conditioning, suddenly there were dense highlights on the screen, with as many as a dozen.

"Is this?" he suddenly shouted excitedly, "This is the British transport ship! Yes, this must be their transport fleet!"

"Good boy, good boy, you have made meritorious service!" He patted the shoulders of the radar soldier who was less than 19 years old in joy, "When the battle is over, I will apply for a medal for you. How about the first-class iron cross?"

"This... I can't even get a level 2." The young radar soldier showed a shy smile.

"It's okay, I have a way." Stanger waved his hand, "Go forward and beat the British into the bottom of the sea."

At 3:30, the Luzov, who had been tracking the highlights for more than half an hour, not only did not lose his target, but instead showed more highlights. Stanger no longer doubted the authenticity of the fleet. He immediately informed Kumetz and other warships and roughly estimated the sea area. All German ships who received the situation came to the extreme.

In the early morning of February 6, a large number of ships appeared in the northwest of Norway Sea. On one side, the J-51a fleet was fleeing desperately, and on the other side, the Luzov, who was chasing behind him, had narrowed the distance between them to less than 45 nautical miles after a night of pursuit. Moreover, the weather began to improve as the latitude went south, and the wind power decreased a lot. Not only did the visibility greatly improve, but even the aircraft could be used. Lieutenant General Kumetz remembered the great role of the North Point Cape Air Force and immediately sent the information to the nearest Trosem base, asking them to send planes to support as much as possible. In fact, the order of the Navy Command had issued to HNA.

The day to settle the accounts has finally arrived... (To be continued.)8
Chapter completed!