One Thousand Two Hundred and Seventeen Guessed

"If the head of state hadn't insisted! I would definitely cancel this mutually consuming attack." Lütjens looked at the loss of the second wave of attack aircraft, and complained to Marshal Raeder with some pain: "Look! Look! I lost almost 50 planes in two strikes! This is literally killing me!"

Raeder was also a little afraid of losses. After all, Germany’s fortunes can now be said to be in full swing. If there is a slight mistake, even if Raeder is hanged, he will be nailed to the pillar of shame of the German country forever.

But after thinking about the order given to him by Akado, and the analysis report on the construction speed of the US Navy's warships, Raedel finally made up his mind to fight to the death. He gritted his teeth, and ordered Lütjens viciously: "Send out the fifth wave of attacking troops immediately, we must obey the order of the head of state!"

"God! I hope the Führer is right this time!" Lütjens grabbed a phone in front of him and gave an order to the other end: "Continue to take off to attack the fleet... No matter what the cost, sink the British aircraft carrier Ark Royal No. 1, and the two American aircraft carriers! This is an order! Execute immediately!...Long live the head of state!"

At the far end of the sea, the Royal Navy's Ark Royal aircraft carrier, with a beautiful turn, avoided the deadly threat of a torpedo. Dudley Pound's prayer seemed to have worked, and this time, the flagship of the British Navy once again brushed shoulders with death.

But on the other side, on the side of the US aircraft carrier fleet, things are not that simple-the temporarily refitted escort aircraft carrier lacked sufficient anti-aircraft weapons, and was finally hit by a bomb dropped by a German carrier-based aircraft. Not a spacious deck. The huge explosion immediately destroyed the escort aircraft carrier's ability to take off and land aircraft, and even the boiler was affected because the place of the explosion was very close to the chimney.

The flames ignited, reaching a height of more than ten meters. The thick smoke covered the sky and the sun, making it impossible for the nearby Allied escort ships to see clearly what happened on the deck. A nearby destroyer sent a telegram to the Ark Royal with the news that the escort carrier had been hit: "So much smoke, I see a fire, but nothing else."

On the Royal Ark, Dudley Pound found that his palms were already full of sweat. Because he was too nervous, he clenched his fists and almost pierced his palms with his nails. In the round of attack just now, the Royal Ark narrowly escaped, but because of avoiding these German planes, the formation of the entire fleet became even more messy.

"Quick! Quick! Take off all the fighter jets that can take off! Intercept the Germans' damn planes! Quickly! Immediately!" Feeling that the situation is beyond his control, the Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Navy, what can he do at this moment? Yes, the only thing left is to frantically issue combat orders one after another.

What he didn't know was that because his various orders were issued too frequently, the US Navy fleet, which had been neglected in training, had become a mess.

"Are you kidding? Let's turn,

And then it ends up taking off the plane again? Which order should be executed first? "A military officer looked at the dumbfounding telegram and complained to his superior: "There is something even more outrageous... At the beginning, he ordered us to get close to the Germans desperately, but now he wants to run away with our tails between our legs. It's..."

"Shut up! Keep the current course unchanged, and take off the remaining carrier-based aircraft, immediately!" The American captain had no choice but to follow Dudley Pound's order as much as possible, so as to alleviate the current dangerous situation as much as possible. . He knew that the remaining carrier-based aircraft in his hands were almost the entire fleet, and the final air defense depended on it.

Above the sky, the American carrier-based aircraft pilots who managed to regroup with difficulty found that they had only 7 fighter jets left. And in the sky not far from them, hundreds of German planes flew densely-these planes are the fourth batch of attack fleets of the German Navy, and there are as many as 20 FW-190 fighter jets alone.

The absolute gap between the two sides finally became apparent around two o'clock in the afternoon. The German High Seas Fleet with 7 aircraft carriers finally overwhelmed the Allied fleet with the number of carrier-based aircraft. The roar of the engine in the sky is melodious and solemn, but at this moment, the moods of the two sides are really different.

The 7 American fighter jets that finally survived the third batch of attacks could only grit their teeth and rush towards the German aircraft fleet. In this batch of clusters, the ace pilot Günther Günther in the first attack fleet Lal, once again in battle. It is a pity that none of the American fighter pilots who fought fiercely with him in the morning is gone.

The remaining American carrier-based fighters were completely unable to compete with the elite German carrier-based fighters. They didn't even have a chance to escape, and they were submerged in the sea of ​​German carrier-based fighters. The few P-40 fighter jets that had just taken off could no longer interfere with the German attack fleet. They could only hover cautiously on the edge of the battlefield to avoid the pursuit of German fighter jets.

"I said earlier that our number one enemy is the German navy, not those timid Japanese dwarfs!" Putting down the binoculars in his hand, the captain of the USS Franklin said to his adjutant: "In terms of In terms of combat effectiveness, these Germans are much harder to deal with than the Japanese!"

On the Pacific battlefield, the Japanese navy and aviation are very dangerous enemies. The U.S. military has suffered various losses in front of these enemies. However, when facing the Germans, the kind of pressure on the face still made the American captain make a more difficult judgment for the German carrier-based aircraft.

As soon as he finished his words, the escort aircraft carrier, which had been ravaged by the third wave of German attack aircraft, was still burning and smoking. In the end, it failed to withstand the bombs dropped by the new enemy. While the violent explosions continued, the modified aircraft carrier began to sink slowly, and even the fuel inside the ship leaked to the nearby sea.

"Telegram from the British Navy, cruiser Merry, sunk..." An American officer walked behind his commander and handed over a telegram. At the same moment, the fourth batch of German planes had already begun to dive and attack, rampaging in the messy Allied fleet.

"Shoot down those planes! Shoot down those planes! Hurry up!" On the sideboard of the battleship Ramirez, the air defense commanders pointed at the targets in the sky and asked the anti-aircraft guns around them to fire quickly, because there was no such thing as the German Navy. The radio proximity fuze, the Allied air defense firepower today is not as impenetrable as imagined. German planes shuttled among the Allied fleet, causing more or less trouble to various warships.

...

"What's going on? Are the British and Americans crazy?" Raeder looked at the information brought back by the second batch of attack aircraft troops, and looked at Lütjens beside him inexplicably: "They change themselves so frequently Do you think your fleet is not chaotic fast enough?"

"In the morning...the Allied fleet was still trying to approach us...Maybe they felt that their battleships and cruisers should be allowed to give full play to their absolute superiority in artillery?" Lütjens looked at the relevant Allies. Some analysis reports of warships, he frowned and replied to Raeder.

They can now confirm that there are only two battleships in the opposite Allied fleet. This information has been repeatedly confirmed, and there is no possibility of error—then the question is, the Allied fleet has been relying on it to fight the German fleet with three battleships. Whose courage is it?

"Two planes claimed that they hit a British battleship... After that, the British stopped approaching us..." Raeder thought for a while, and guessed the general idea: "The British They must have not spotted our other two battleships! They don't have a scout plane approaching, so they don't know our true strength yet!"

Lütjens also thinks it should be like this: "When they had two battleships, they tried their best to get close to them. Now that one of them was injured by us, they hesitated. This shows that they are not sure to kill us immediately. Admiral of the Navy, so the battle plan was temporarily changed. It must be like this!"

"They haven't turned around yet and are waiting for other battleships near Iceland! They want to surround us!" Originally, Germany had been monitoring the British Royal Navy squadron near Iceland. Now, after a little deliberation, Raeder immediately guessed Out of Dudley Pound's plan: "What a good appetite!"

"Then let's give them a chance to eat us!" Lütjens has only shown a smile on his face since the naval battle until now: "We will first severely damage the fleet in front of us during the day, and then give it to us at night." British battleship force a surprise!"

"The third wave of attack aircraft is returning, and they hit an aircraft carrier, the smallest one!" An officer walked to the bridge of the Imperial aircraft carrier, holding a telegram that he had just received, and told Raeder Lütjenshuis reports: "One cruiser sunk, Ark Royal not hit..."

"Hello? I'm Lütjens!" Grabbing the phone in front of him, he issued a new combat order to the hangar: "Continue to prepare ammunition and aircraft! The sixth batch of attack aircraft is on standby. My order, take off on time in half an hour!"

Putting down the phone in his hand, Lütjens looked at Marshal Raeder: "Perhaps at night, the opponent's battleship has no courage at all, and launched an attack on us! My Marshal!"