1219 Strange Fighter

No one waits patiently in war for the opportunity to develop weapons. Even China, which was backward and poor, developed its own military industry during the Anti-Japanese War and completed the imitation and production of many weapons.

This is still the case in China, which has no industrial foundation, let alone the United States, which has the strongest industrial power? Therefore, the Americans have not given up on catching up with Germany's advanced weapons. On the other hand, they have not given up their hope of developing better weapons on their own.

The main reason why Iceland, an aircraft carrier on the unsinkable Atlantic Ocean, has no way to radiate its influence to the British Isles and Norway is its distance, which makes the various aircraft of the US Air Force a bit embarrassing—— The range of the bomber is indeed enough, but the fighter cannot provide escort.

Therefore, before the first plan to use Iceland as a base to take off bombers to bomb the Norwegian iron ore production area was drawn up, the Americans were developing ultra-long-range escort fighter jets to escort their strategic bomber B-17. However, due to the progress of the development, the Americans had not yet produced this aircraft when they bombed Norway for the first time, so they could only carry out night bombing where the accuracy could not be guaranteed.

This time, the Americans created this long-range fighter, using two Rolls-Royce high-horsepower engines, plus the fuselage of two P-40 fighter jets - pieced together into a more powerful ultra-long-range twin-engine heavy-duty Fighter: The United States named it the P-39 fighter.

The P-39 fighter is actually a P-38 fighter in another time and space, but because of the early outbreak of the war, the United States went astray in the development of fighter jets, so it was a year late before entering service. Of course, the design of this aircraft is not as mature as the P-38. It is completely made up of two P-40 fighter jets.

In fact, this aircraft cannot be completely regarded as a P-38, because its appearance is obviously different from the P-38-the P-38 has an independent fuselage in the middle, while the P-39 does not. From this point of view, the P-39 is more like a relative of the German long-range fighter ME-109Z-1, because they are both intuitively using two single-engine fighters to piece together a design pattern of a heavy fighter.

In any case, American designers used the shortest time to design a long-range escort fighter that meets the requirements of the United States. This kind of aircraft can fly to Norway with B-17 fighter jets, which can somewhat alleviate the embarrassing situation of some bombers without escorts.

It is precisely because of this kind of fighter that the United States and the United Kingdom are so bold to go to war with the German High Seas Fleet outside the traditional Greenland air defense circle-they have more fighter escorts, but they come more slowly.

Because of this reliable backup, it is possible to fight a "evenly matched" air battle with the German Navy at a specific time, so Dudley Pound finally made up his mind to bet the fate of the Royal Navy on such a seemingly unfavorable battle. on the naval battle.

A P-39 fighter jet flew over the Allied fleet,

Followed by the second and third, these twin-engine fighters have a very fast speed, but they cannot compare with single-engine fighters in terms of flexibility. However, the appearance of these planes on the endless sea brought considerable shock to the enemy on the opposite side.

"Dragon No. 4, pay attention to the front! A special enemy fighter! We don't know the performance of this enemy fighter, be careful!" Controlling their own aircraft, the German fighter pilots have no habit of shrinking back. They are used to being the protagonists in the sky, just like the British are used to being kings and hegemons on the sea.

The FW-190 fighter jets roared and charged towards their enemies, and after staggering, they chased each other's tails. This battle became bloody again, and the roar of the machine guns echoed among the white clouds.

...

"Long live the Führer! Marshal, General... The situation is not good! The British fleet is turning again and is approaching us..." An officer walked up to Lütjens and Raeder , Lizhenghui reported: "American aircraft that have never been seen on the battlefield have appeared on the battlefield, and the air supremacy has not yet been fully controlled by us."

"A new plane?" Lütjens' eyelids twitched, and he was really about to exhaust all his patience and courage. The emergence of new enemy planes means that the German Navy's carrier-based aircraft will suffer more losses, which means that this naval battle will continue to be out of control again and again. For him, the German Navy's aircraft carrier fleet For the commander in charge, all this was too much for him to accept.

"Hurry up and take off the reconnaissance plane to confirm whether there are other American aircraft carrier fleets in the north that we haven't found?" Lütjens is most worried about the emergence of new forces in the Allied fleet, which will make all his previous calculations come to nothing. It also made him doubt about winning. After all, if there are more American aircraft carriers in the invisible north, then the comparison of aircraft carrier strength between the two sides will not be 7 to 2... What if it is 7 to 5, or 7 to 7? Is there any point in fighting this naval battle?

After giving the order to take off the reconnaissance plane and continue the reconnaissance to the north, Lütjens looked at Admiral Raeder, who was not very good-looking, and then he persuaded: "My admiral, we must increase the distance between the fleets. It's gone... We don't need to take the risk of luring the British to come up, it's more beneficial for us to keep the distance away."

After he finished speaking, he looked behind and found that everyone was still some distance away from the two of them, so he lowered his voice and continued: "Now we dare not say whether there is a third or fourth ship in the Allied fleet. The aircraft carrier... if it is consumed in this situation, we will not benefit from it, will we?"

Raeder also felt that it would be too reckless to maintain the current position under the current circumstances. After some consideration, he nodded to Lütjens and agreed: "Maybe you are right, we as generals Possessing limited temporary decision-making power on the front line...letting the fleet adjust its course may be a good way to avoid risks."

"The fleet slows down! The course is changed from true north to 25 degrees north by east!" After receiving Raeder's approval, Lütjens quickly issued an order to adjust the course. The German High Seas Fleet adjusted its course for the first time after the war, and the entire fleet aligned its bow in the direction of Iceland.

Since Lütjens became an aircraft carrier fleet commander, he has become more and more adapted to his role. He actually didn't know that the new main guns equipped on the new heavy cruisers of the German Navy had already outperformed the Allied ships of the same type in terms of rate of fire and accuracy. Coupled with the three battleships in his hands, even if there is a real artillery battle, the Allied fleet does not seem to be able to take advantage of it.

However, the commanders who use aircraft carriers to fight, especially the commanders of the German Navy, have become accustomed to fighting to take advantage of the enemy. In their view, evenly matched battles are considered a disadvantage-at least giving up the advantage of the aircraft carrier is irrational performance, isn't it?

Of course, what no one knows is that although the Dudley Pound Fleet, which lacked detection capabilities, did not discover this turn in time, in fact, the retreat of the German Navy's High Seas Fleet made them change their course more. It was approaching the British Royal Navy squadron that was outflanking.

"The dogfighting capabilities of these aircraft are very average...Although the firepower is strong, it is not flexible enough." While driving the aircraft to get rid of an American P-39 fighter jet with smoother rolling movements, the German pilot in the cockpit turned to himself. The friendly army summed up the shortcomings of the enemy's aircraft: "I think they should be land-based fighter jets. It is absolutely idiotic to use an aircraft with two fuselages on an aircraft carrier."

He swung the joystick of his plane neatly, and quickly threw away the slightly clumsy American P-39 fighter jet. His wingman fired repeatedly at this clumsy enemy fighter, directly smashing the opponent into a piece of burning parts.

Although the P-39 fighter jet is equipped with a lot of armor to protect the pilot and fuel because of its large size. However, when faced with the 20 and 30 mm caliber aircraft guns equipped by German aircraft, it still seemed a little pale. Even the bigger and stronger B-17 strategic bomber can't get cheap in front of the German large-caliber cannon, let alone a fighter like the P-39.

The temporarily developed P-39 fighter is not the opponent of the battle-tested FW-190 fighter after all. During the short firefight, 11 P-39 fighters were shot down, and only two FW-190s were not adapted to the opponent. Changes and buried in the sea.

On the other hand, before the hostile two sides in the sky were fighting each other, the German attack fleet had already caused the chaotic British fleet to pay a heavy price. A cruiser of the Royal Navy was hit and was already on fire, and was forced to slow down and leave the fleet. The Queen Elizabeth was destroyed by several anti-aircraft artillery, which caused a loophole in the anti-aircraft fire network, and was hit by a German aircraft again.

The British battleship's side exploded into flames and affected many of the side anti-aircraft guns. What annoyed Dudley Pound even more was that due to the inexperience of the damage control personnel, the fire on the Queen Elizabeth was getting bigger and bigger, and it was getting out of control. As a last resort, the battleship Queen Elizabeth slowed down again and retreated to a slightly rearward position, seeking the protection of several destroyers and cruisers around.

Anxiously looking at his pocket watch, Dudley Pound found that the time had only reached 14:30 in the afternoon, and there were still two long hours to suffer before he expected around 4:30 in the afternoon. The land-based P-39 fighter jets have a limited range and cannot stay for too long. Now it seems that the situation is becoming more and more unfavorable for the fleet of the Royal Navy...