1216 Waiting for 1 Result

On the aircraft carrier Ark Royal, Dudley Pound was listening to the report of the damaged ships of his fleet. However, before hearing the damage caused by the second wave of German aircraft attacks, an officer rushed over from the telegraph room next door. : "Sir! Something serious happened!"

"The news just came from the destroyer Avery. The radar on the Avery confirmed another batch of German planes!" The officer in the telegraph room looked at his superior with helplessness and panic in his eyes. After all, these German planes are becoming more and more deadly, which makes him feel dangerous.

"The third batch of German planes? I already know." Dudley Pound looked at his men who were too panicked, and didn't think about the worst at the beginning. But then he realized that something was wrong, because the subordinate in front of him had known the news that the third batch of German attack aircraft was coming soon.

"Sir! It's not the third batch of the Germans! It's the fourth batch of attack aircraft! There are almost 70 aircraft, which are coming faster and more than we originally estimated!" The subordinate hurriedly said to Dudley Pound. Said. In the first two waves of attack fleets, the German Navy was just conducting a trial attack. The fourth batch of attack fleets, both in terms of number and take-off speed, have increased by more than a little bit.

Dudley Pound was taken aback for a moment. He had just been forced to order his fleet to turn around again. The formation of the entire fleet had not had time to adjust, and now Germany made another surprise attack. This is simply killing him. .

"Damn! Why did the Germans suddenly become firm at this time? Give orders to the carrier-based aircraft units in the air! Tell them to persevere!" Thinking of this, Dudley Pound hurriedly issued various orders, Including scrambling to take off fighter jets, keeping the fleet on its current course and continuing to sail, and adjusting the formation of the fleet.

The commander-in-chief of the British Navy is now in a state of desperation. His originally well-planned battleship assault plan was completely bankrupt because the German carrier-based aircraft hit the Queen Elizabeth. Now his fleet can't run away, and can't fight, so he can only grit his teeth and persist until a favorable opportunity comes.

"Speed ​​up the Brigandine and the battleship Nelson! There is no way to last until night, the time for the decisive battle must be advanced!" Dudley Pound gave the order through gritted teeth. Only when the other two battleships arrived in time could it be possible Change the current situation of being passively beaten.

A series of orders have not been fully conveyed, the third wave of German carrier-based aircraft has already killed the air defense circle of the Allied fleet, the fighters of the two sides are fighting together in the sky, and from time to time, fighters explode in the air or drag Thick black smoke crashed into the sea. Fighting is not a one-sided crushing, but a process of consuming each other.

The loss of the German carrier-based aircraft was quite huge. When Lütjens got the loss report of the second wave of attack aircraft, he almost bit his tongue in fright. Of the dozens of carrier-based planes in the second wave, only less than 20 are left. The remaining planes have not been confirmed to be shot down.

Just missing.

Because of the rough waves of the Atlantic Ocean, the aircraft carriers of Germany, the United States, and the United Kingdom were forced to adopt fully enclosed decks. Such a design increases the weight of the entire aircraft carrier on the waterline, and also limits the number of carrier-based aircraft reserves.

In the Pacific Ocean, the same Essex-class aircraft carrier, the United States is equipped with 90 carrier-based aircraft, but after being modified to adapt to the Atlantic Ocean, the number of carrier-based aircraft on the USS Franklin was reduced to 70. The German aircraft carrier is also only equipped with about 70 aircraft, so after two rounds of attacks, the German Navy has almost one aircraft carrier on board, which has been exhausted.

But in the same way, the USS Franklin now has few carrier-based aircraft left. To make matters worse, the third batch of German carrier-based aircraft has confirmed the exact location and formation of the Allied fleet. It came straight to the three aircraft carriers of the Allied forces. 48 Stuka dive bombers were loaded with bombs, and another 35 Stukas were loaded with torpedoes, and rushed into the air defense circle of the Allied Navy aggressively.

"Fire! Fire me quickly!" A British officer standing on the deck directing the air defense ordered loudly. Behind him is an anti-aircraft gun position, where the multi-barreled anti-aircraft guns are aiming at the target in the sky, pouring their ammunition crazily at the fastest speed. One after another, the shell casings were thrown out of the bomb bay, and fell to the deck with a jingling sound.

The German Stuka bomber was not being beaten passively. When it began to dive, the 20mm cannon on the nose was aimed at the British warship and fired frantically to suppress the anti-aircraft guns on the ship. These planes dived and swayed from side to side to avoid various ammunition fired from the ship.

Soon, the distance between the two sides was pulled into a very close distance. The Stuka bomber dropped the bomb and then pulled up quickly. Unfortunately, it hit a dense barrage when pulling up. It exploded in the air, turned into a ball of flames and fell to the sea. And the bomb it dropped accurately hit the middle of the British heavy cruiser, and exploded next to the chimney, billowing thick smoke.

The speed of the British cruiser immediately slowed down, and not far behind it, the side of the Ark Royal was exposed to the threat of German carrier-based aircraft. As if there was a gap in the egg, the German carrier-based aircraft immediately seized the gap, and a dozen aircraft swarmed up, aiming the torpedoes under their belly at the Ark Royal aircraft carrier, which was turning slightly.

"There is a problem with the air defense cover!" An officer in charge of sideboard observation put down the binoculars in his hand and shouted to Dudley Pound: "The Merry has been hit! It is slowing down! The German planes have approached coming!"

"Leave it to the air defense forces!" Dudley Pound waved helplessly. Of course, he could not prevent the German carrier-based aircraft from continuing to attack the Allied fleet, so now he can only rely on the air defense of each ship to fight against the German carrier-based aircraft. The machine is at a high point: "Let the Liverpool speed up and catch up to fill the position of the Melly!"

George, who was standing behind the captain of the Ark Royal, leaned into the captain's ear and suggested, "Captain! I'm going down to make preparations, and organize damage control personnel just in case."

The captain nodded slightly, then waved his hand back to signal his agreement. George glanced at Dudley Pound standing on the bridge, pushed open the bridge door, and walked out. He went all the way down the iron stairs and came to the office next to his usual work. There were already 30 experienced damage control officers waiting there, and they all looked at George who entered the cabin.

"Gentlemen! The situation outside is very pessimistic. I think we may have to play in a while! Get ready, gentlemen! His Majesty the King is with us!" George didn't talk nonsense, and directly assigned each area The non-commissioned officer in charge, he didn't know where the entire battleship would be shot first, so he could only distribute the force equally and keep a huge reserve force.

Most of his men took orders and left the cabin. The rest of the people waited silently, waiting for the most undesirable thing to happen. The Ark Royal has experienced many naval battles, and most of them have returned to port unscathed - now, the time has come to really test it, and everyone on this ship is praying for good luck to continue.

The British didn't have to wait too long. Based on the principle of taking advantage of your illness to kill you, the German carrier-based aircraft gave priority to sinking the hit cruiser Meli. Two torpedoes exploded on the side of the Merry one after the other, and sea water poured into the hull at once. The cruiser immediately began to tilt, sinking rapidly at a speed visible to the naked eye.

The remaining German carrier-based aircraft bypassed a diving American fighter jet and rushed towards the Ark Royal aggressively. However, the first round of dives of these German planes did not succeed, because the anti-aircraft guns on the Royal Ark severely disrupted the dive formation of the German planes.

However, when the German plane circled around and came back again, the anti-aircraft guns on both sides of the Ark Royal aircraft carrier obviously began to become confused. Facing the German planes rushing from all directions, these anti-aircraft guns fired desperately, but with little effect.

"Boom!" A bomb dropped by a dive bomber landed on the sea near the side of the Royal Ark. The huge shock wave distorted the steel on the Royal Ark and made a creaking sound, but because of the distance, This bomb did not cause much damage to the aircraft carrier's hull, and all the British sailors in the hull were falsely alarmed.

"God bless!" Dudley Pound stood on the bridge and witnessed the process of the huge bomb exploding in the sea with his own eyes. The huge water column was twice as high as the command tower he was standing on. The British commander who witnessed the whole process subconsciously thanked God in his heart.

The battleship had not stopped shaking with the waves, and there was another lookout post, and there was an alarm of the approaching torpedo from the side: "Side! The torpedo dropped by the German plane! Turn to the right immediately! Turn to the full rudder to the right! Otherwise, the That's too late!"

Beside Dudley Pound, the captain of the Ark Royal quickly issued an order to the helmsman to turn to avoid torpedoes: "Full starboard! Hurry up!"

The sailor holding the steering wheel didn't hesitate at all, and quickly used all his strength to turn the steering wheel directly to the right, round after round. Then the entire bridge was silent for a while, everyone was waiting, waiting for the result of the evasion...

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I'm sorry, Long Ling came back late today because of something, and the second one will be delivered in the middle of the night. Please watch it tomorrow morning...