Aboard the German Home Fleet flagship, the aircraft carrier Poseidon, Fleet Commander Marshal Lütjens's face was ashen. Fleet Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Karl Weizel's expression was equally grim. Throughout the operations room, every officer barely dared to breathe, afraid of provoking Marshal Lütjens while he was in a rage.
Several anti-submarine escort ships were attacking a patch of sea. Depth charges plunged into the water one after another, followed by columns of water shooting into the sky. The sonar operators aboard the escorts listened intently to the sounds beneath the surface.
"Sir, the noise has disappeared. The target should have been sunk!" a sonar operator reported.
The officer nodded. "Report to the flagship. We have sunk the enemy submarine."
Yet although they had sunk the enemy submarine, no one could find any joy in it. Earlier radio interception had made it abundantly clear that the enemy submarine had already sent a telegram. Without question, the fleet's position had been exposed. For the Home Fleet, this undoubtedly posed an enormous threat. One misstep, and they might face utter annihilation.
"Commander, the anti-submarine detachment reports that it has sunk the enemy submarine," a staff officer reported.
Marshal Lütjens nodded. "We may have sunk the enemy submarine, but our position has certainly been exposed. What should we do next?"
Without a doubt, the Home Fleet had now fallen into a crisis. Once the American and British fleets discovered their trail, they would certainly launch an encirclement offensive against them. The carrier-based aircraft of the American and British fleets might even have begun taking off already and would soon be flying over their heads.
"Commander, perhaps the Americans and British are still quite far away from us. Even if they know our position, they may not be able to threaten us," Lieutenant General