Maintenance over, the ships were sent back to their previous positions, albeit with precautions, in case the Kriegsmarine had used the three days of no control to once again sail into the Baltic.
The 17th Fleet was to protect Köenigsberg from German shore bombardment, if there was any possibility of it, and be ready to support any advances the Red Army might attempt to do from there.
The Main Fleet was once again designated to blockading the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Kanal, and escorting the new transports - empty - to Copenhagen.
Meanwhile, and under terrible weather conditions, the
Dekabrist-class submarines, the oldest in service, were proving to have heroes for crews.
The month passed, and unusually late came the yearly espionage reports.
A note was quickly sent to the NKVD, their agents in the German Navy were obviously compromised, if they reported only 1 Battleship.
Either way, intelligence on an enemy that had been faced and expelled out of the relevant theatre of operations was not really essencial. At least not as much as intelligence on possible enemies whom we hardly know about.
And news weren't good on those.
10 Battleships or Battlecruisers, plus 8 carriers, which the Red Fleet was ill-equipped to face, against a still-rebuilding Pacific Fleet.
Hardly better. The next phase of the Navy plan was obviously going to have to dedicate more resources to the Far East.
Not that things were much better to the West, but at least these were allies for some good years to come still, unlike the Japanese and American wild-cards.
Strangely enough, the French report ignored a ship where Soviet officials had dinned and there was no Italian report.
As the days passed, it became clear that the Germans had not taken advantage of the 3 day window into the Baltic, and so the only action seen by Soviet Sailors continued to be that of submarines in the North Sea.
Moderate but continued success meant the morale was kept high all around the Red Fleet, even without more confrontations with the
Bismarcks.
Alas, it seemed Admiral Raeder knew that as well, and reacted accordingly.
Unable or too scared to send in his Battleships, it seemed the
Großadmiral was resigned to send old ships on anti-submarine runs.
Unfortunately, it worked.
After the retreat imposed by the Kriegsmarine's submarine hunting efforts, only the oldest Soviet Submarines were operating. They would either keep the morale afloat, of provide ample source of dead heroes...
And then, relief.