Chapter 737 Atlantic Strangulation War (46)

The Skyhawk was not the end of the German losses that day. Because the Zeppelin was the largest, had the most obvious target, and carried the flagship flag, it became a thorn in the side of the Allied fleet. SBD and TBF rushed towards this regular aircraft carrier one after another. Captain His flexible maneuvers allowed him to avoid at least 4 bombs, but 2 torpedoes were impossible to avoid. At the critical moment, the heavy cruiser Algeria, which took the place of the heavy cruiser Suffren after it sank, used its own body to block the two torpedoes for the flagship. A deadly torpedo.

Even though the Algeria is a representative of the treaty-type 10,000-ton heavy cruisers with excellent defensive capabilities, it does not mean that it can withstand two aviation torpedoes without being damaged. The US military has unanimously criticized the reliability of torpedoes, coupled with the strong resistance of Japanese and German torpedoes. Stimulating, the quality of the US military's torpedoes that have been repeatedly improved has been greatly improved, and the explosion power is not small. Two huge holes were opened directly on the starboard side. The fleet leaders could only watch as a large amount of sea water poured into the ship. It was too many and eventually capsized. Due to the rapid sinking speed, at least half of the officers and soldiers failed to escape.

"Sir, good news. Our attack fleet sank a fleet aircraft carrier, two heavy cruisers, severely damaged a fleet aircraft carrier, suspected to be the Skyhawk, and..." The staff officer was just halfway through reporting to Cunningham, when suddenly A shrill siren sounded over the radio, "Radar detected a large number of aircraft, 200 in total, at an altitude of 5,000 meters, a distance of 140 kilometers, a speed of 250 knots, and a direction of 175 degrees..."

Spruance sighed and said helplessly: "I guess this is an attack group released by the enemy... The Army Aviation boasted to us again. They didn't consume many enemy aircraft at all. Otherwise, they would have deducted it based on the five German aircraft carriers. How could the air defense fighters left behind dispatch so many aircraft?”

Cunningham's slightly happy smile suddenly froze, and he was speechless for a long time, remaining silent without saying a word.

The surrounding staff officers were all dejected. The news reported by Washington was that the German army had lost at least 200 aircraft. The fleet originally estimated that the total number of German carrier-based aircraft was between 320-350. After deducting the 200 lost aircraft, at most 150 aircraft would remain. Based on the number of enemy air defense fighters reported by the offensive fleet, which exceeds 80, it is believed that the Germans can only dispatch an attack formation of 70-80 aircraft at best. Now that the fleet has 84 air defense fighters, everyone is very optimistic about blocking possible attacks by the enemy. Now it seems that this is a completely false judgment of the enemy's situation. It is hard to say whether the German losses exceeded 80 aircraft. The Army Air Force lied about military information but made the fleet suffer. This is really terrible!

In fact, the German aircraft carrier formations commonly use less than 280 aircraft in total, including spares and backup aircraft. If Ozawa had not mobilized 140 aircraft through cross-platform operations and added more than 70 land-based aircraft during the day, the German side would not be able to get it together. Big attacking formation. Although the 200 battle results reported by Arnold were a bit exaggerated, in fact the number of German aircraft lost after continuous operations exceeded 160. The gap with the number reported by Army Aviation was not too large and fell within the reasonable deviation range.

Canning calmed down and said in a calm tone: "Now is not the time to worry about this. Set up an anti-aircraft formation, use fighter jets to interfere with the enemy's attack as much as possible, and let the anti-aircraft guns fire fiercely. Gentlemen, we have not failed yet. Everyone must cheer up. Courage and persevere!”

"yes!"

At the Joint Chiefs of Staff meeting in the afternoon, an anxious atmosphere enveloped the entire venue. Everyone was restless, eagerly looking forward to the battle report from the front line - the Army Air Forces dispatched a total of 7 rounds today, calling in more than 500 aircraft, to transport the nursing mothers. I have used all my strength. Whether or not the results will be achieved depends on the decisive blow in the afternoon.

"Report..." Before the hurried telegraph officer could say the word "sir" behind it, Ingram had already grabbed the telegram and started reading it. After a few seconds, he breathed a sigh of relief and quickly read the telegram again. Passed it to Admiral Jin.

After reading it, the latter slumped down in his chair as if relieved, but immediately sat up straight again. While handing the telegram to Marshall, he criticized Arnold sternly: "General Cunningham complained that the Army Air Force reported incorrect military information. They Attacked by 200 enemy aircraft, it is estimated that the Germans only lost 80 aircraft!”

"How... this... this... how is this possible?" Arnold was speechless in shock. He leaned back and retorted excitedly, "We found nearly 30 German aircraft wrecks on Prince Edward Island alone, and also searched 20 The remaining German pilots parachuted, and the Germans also suffered such heavy losses in the direction of Corner Brook. Add in the other losses one after another, there is no way there are only 80 aircraft!”

"This is the situation now, otherwise how could the Germans have so many aircraft to attack?"

"It's possible to go in and out a little, but it's not right to have so many differences. Could it be that the enemy still hides some power that we don't know about?" Eisenhower had an idea and asked, "Will their aircraft carrier that broke diplomatic relations on the British-Canada route also join in?" "

"The current investigation has not found anything, but this possibility cannot be ruled out."

"Okay." Admiral Jin reluctantly accepted this explanation. "In any case, let's wait for the admiral to fight this battle first. The Army Aviation still needs to mobilize enough troops to bleed the German aircraft carrier formation tomorrow."

Marshall turned his attention to Admiral King and asked: "You just said that the British have stated that they have two aircraft carriers that are basically ready. Can you let them support Admiral Cunningham?"

"this……"

Currently, the United States has delivered but not put into operation a total of three aircraft carriers, two large and one small, including the USS Hornet, USS Wasp (both Essex class) and USS San Jacinto (Independence class), among which the USS Hornet The USS San Jacinto and the USS San Jacinto both belong to the British Army, and the USS Wasp is used by the US military. These are all new ships that were just delivered to the troops for final sea trials in mid-to-late November. Among them, the Wasp took part in sea trials for only 5 days, and the longest Hornet only took 13 days. However, because the British Navy has relatively many personnel Moreover, they have richer experience, and the carrier-based aircraft pilots are also better than the US military. Therefore, they can master the performance of warships and become familiar with combat much faster than the US military.

Due to the tense war on the front line, the delay in opening up the British-Canadian shipping route, and the destruction of a large number of supplies and ships, the British were so anxious that the British military delegation stationed in Washington sent an urgent inquiry and wanted to bring these warships out to fight. I got a clear answer this afternoon, but the reinforcements can only be the Hornet and the San Jacinto. Now the last batch of Royal Navy officers and soldiers with practical experience in the war and carrier-based aircraft pilots are all gathered on it. The last bit of blood in the British Empire, mostly new recruits, was absolutely out of the question. The reinforcements Marshall referred to were these two aircraft carriers.

"Since the British have this wish, I think they can be satisfied... The Cunningham fleet will definitely suffer heavy losses today, but as long as the backbone of the fleet is preserved, the two fleets can launch another attack on the German army tomorrow after joining forces, or There is a chance to keep the entire German fleet! Tomorrow, Army Airlines must deploy more than 300 aircraft. Even if they are all used up, I will still have to use up 100 aircraft from the other side!" Admiral Jin said with a serious look, "Hai Airlines will go out. 200 land-based aircraft have the same combat requirements. I have to knock down the Germans! If Congress asks them to come to me in the future, I will bear full responsibility!"

Admiral Jin was talking about this, and Boss Marshall didn't stop him. Arnold could only agree with a sad face. He couldn't guarantee whether this order would cause a backlash from the pilots, but obviously he couldn't care about it now. .

Just as the Joint Chiefs of Staff was intensively planning to increase troops to Cunningham, Frank had already led the first wave of attack aircraft to launch an attack. He did not know at this time that two of his own motherships had been killed by the enemy. In order to prevent him from being separated, However, Ozawa did not inform him of the news. The fighters of both sides quickly became entangled. Cunningham left behind 84 fighters, most of which were American. The number of German escort fighters was less than that of his opponents, but they were completely overwhelmed technically. Because the remaining US military aircraft were not the most capable, on the contrary, they were weak and could not fly in large formations so far away, so Cunningham left them behind for fleet air defense missions.

Seeing the huge formation of 7 aircraft carriers and other warships forming a wheel-shaped air defense formation on the sea, Frank was also startled. He did not rush in directly to attack the two Essex-class ships in the center with the most intensive firepower. It is to choose to start from the independent level on the periphery. Due to the remote distance of this attack, the He-218, which was relatively short on fuel, immediately launched the attack without waiting for the fighter jets to exchange fire to determine the outcome.

Following Frank's order, four He-218 attack groups volleyed down. The 12 aircraft ignored the intensive firepower below and dived at an angle of nearly 90 degrees towards the target. This perfectly explained the world's largest dive bombing power. With the prestige and technical level of Socotra Island Aviation School, 12 500kg aerial bombs roared in and exploded one after another. 4 bombs directly hit the opponent, 3 near misses, and the other 5 bombs were destroyed. Each was hit by 2 bombs. The Capote and Monterey immediately struggled and sank. One lost all power and was paralyzed and floating on the sea like a dead fish. The gap on the right wing of the US defense formation was immediately opened.

Taking advantage of the wide opening, the Joint Strike Fighters and Ju-98s began to descend hand in hand, launching torpedoes from a fan-shaped attack surface. Several aircraft were hit by US anti-aircraft fire and crashed into the sea, but most of the torpedoes were successfully launched. In particular, the special mine mounted under the belly of the Joint Attack Aircraft can be launched from 2,000 meters away at a very fast speed, making it the number one anti-ship weapon.

The huge fleet immediately dispersed and turned to avoid, like fish that fled hastily after being frightened...