Chapter 858: Meeting on a Narrow Road (End, 600 Votes and More)

"Baby, hold on, hold on, keep flying..."

Bach, who was piloting the Ju-198 on a test flight mission, rushed toward the end of the deck at full speed while praying with all his strength in his heart.

But things went against expectations. When he reached the end of the deck, the Ju-198 did not fly as expected after he forcibly lifted it. Instead, it raised its head upwards first, and then plunged downwards. With a "plop", the plane and torpedoes fell in. After falling into the sea, the people below immediately fished Bach out with quick eyesight and hands, otherwise he would be swept to the bottom of the boat.

This "plop" was like a heavy drum beating on the hearts of Krank and others. He shrugged and said with a wry smile: "It seems that it won't work... I have to give up."

"How about we attack again with bombs? If we can't sink the opponent, we can at least paralyze the opponent!"

Krank shook his head: "Forget it, prepare to retreat."

"Sir!"

"Forget it, too many personnel have been lost today," Krank said. "Forcing the exhausted dive bomber pilots to attack again is equivalent to letting them die. You must remember that pilots are always more valuable than warships! Sink one more They can produce another batch soon. Instead of sinking one more enemy ship, I would rather kill 50 more of their pilots! You also know the situation today. The US military is larger than us. , the losses were more than ours, the reason is that the pilots are not good enough.”

"Route 290 degrees, speed 15 knots, let a few Hedgehog-class ships join us as soon as possible, go north first, we will see the situation tomorrow, there is no chance to find another opponent to fight!" At 15:21, Krank ordered to retreat. orders and gave up the idea of ​​competing with the US military.

At almost the same time, Spruance made the same decision: to give up the attack and prepare to return to Cape Town.

"Sir, why don't we attack?" Roddick asked. "The SBD sent to search in the morning has replenished oil bombs after returning. The enemy only has one aircraft carrier now. With these and spare aircraft, we can form a second aircraft carrier." Attack wave..."

Spruance waved his hand and said, "It's too far... we can't go back."

Roddick thought that there was indeed this problem. The distance between the two sides was now nearly 700 kilometers. Even with the auxiliary fuel tank installed, the range of the SBD was only a little more than 1,600 kilometers. Moreover, at a miserable speed of only more than 300 kilometers, it took more than 2 hours to fly over the Germans. The German army will run out for at least 50 kilometers, which is not enough range no matter how you calculate it, and it is already dark when you return. These pilots have basically not received night training, which is equivalent to letting them launch a desperate attack. Although Cunningham used it once during the Battle of Cape Verde, it was a last resort. Now the adverse consequences are very obvious - there are warships, but there is a shortage of excellent pilots! The more warships are in service, the less pilots they need!

The U.S. military planes continued to return one after another. They were convinced that the first attack had sunk a German fleet aircraft carrier and two destroyers and paralyzed a heavy cruiser. Spruance and others were slightly relieved, explaining that Kent had just reported to them The battle situation is accurate. In Spruance's view, the San Jacinto and Unicorn he lost did not carry much aircraft, and together they were equivalent to a fleet aircraft carrier - he did not know that the Savoy looked very large. Big, it's actually just a showpiece, barely even. In addition, the losses of destroyers on both sides were basically similar. The Wasp was severely damaged, and a Hipper-class heavy cruiser of the enemy was paralyzed - barely a loss.

But he didn't see Kent, so he asked, "Where is Lieutenant Colonel Kent?"

Many people answered that they did not know. Only one person answered that Kent took some aircraft to attack another aircraft carrier. They returned early because the attack was completed, so they did not know the specific results.

The clock slowly passed 5 o'clock, and Spruance and Roddick's expressions became increasingly ugly: They originally thought that there might not be enough storage space after losing three aircraft carriers in one go, but except for the SBD that flew back in the morning, it was basically intact. In addition, the first wave of attacks suffered heavy losses. Only about 40 aircraft were collected one after another. Many pilots reported that they ran out of fuel and forced to land on the sea on the way back. They could only send frigates to rescue - the aircraft could not be saved. It would be nice to be able to keep people.

But even so, the loss is a bit scary.

The total number of aircraft on the mission when the entire TF44 formation set off was slightly excessive, with a total of 264 aircraft. After sending 24 SBDs to perform reconnaissance missions in the morning and retaining 72 fighter jets for air defense, Kent was given a total of 168 aircraft to take out. . In the air defense battle just now, 37 F6Fs were shot down due to various reasons, and 3 more were seriously damaged and thrown into the sea. The total loss was 40. As usual, he should have 224 more aircraft.

But now, except for the 32 F6Fs on patrol in the air (which have been replenished with oil bombs once), the 22 SBDs that have landed (2 have not returned), and the 37 aircraft that have returned from the first attack wave, he actually has no aircraft. , even counting the 19 planes that made an emergency landing on the sea, he only got back 110 planes (actually 89 planes were brought back), which was 114 planes short of the standard number.

More than half an hour later, planes returned one after another. One of them was the formation plane that was going to attack another aircraft carrier. The total number was pitiful, with only 3 TBFs and 2 SBDs. Then it was reported that there were 2 F6Fs and 2 SBDs. Three SBDs ran out of fuel and made an emergency landing. As for whether the others had companions, they couldn't say.

This group of survivors brought back two pieces of news to Spruance: the first was a battle report, informing the German aircraft carrier and the German battleship that each received two torpedoes and were seriously damaged (false alarm); the second was news from Lieutenant Colonel Kent, His plane was seen being shot down and he did not eject, and he is presumed dead.

Although everyone was happy about the news of the heavy damage to the two battleships, Spruance was so sad that his heart almost broke when he heard that Kent had been killed in action. This was one of the few experienced commanders. Since the Pearl Harbor incident, Intermediate aviation commanders like Kent had lost more than ten of them with the rank of lieutenant colonel or colonel. Most of them were killed in battle, and the rest were captured. He didn't know what to do next.

Night gradually fell, and although Spruance insisted that Bunker Hill turn on the lights to greet the pilots, everyone knew that it was basically impossible for anyone to come back, and based on time, their fuel must have been exhausted. After recalling, the pilots gradually described the situation of the first wave of attacks. According to their estimates, more than 80 aircraft were lost in the first wave of attacks.

Although the battlefield is very complex, and everyone's introduction has conflicting parts, everyone is in unison afraid of the fierce anti-aircraft fire of the German Hedgehog class, thinking that "they have never seen such fierce firepower", and some people are afraid of it. The firepower and attack power of the Do-412 fighter jets were very impressive. Spruance knew this very well - he lost 40 aircraft and 18 pilots casualties in the air defense battle, while the German losses were estimated to be only in the early 20s. Of course, the pilots Either killed or captured.

In order to find out why there was such a disparity, he specially found two captured German pilots to understand the situation and asked them to report their own results.

"Kohler, a German naval captain, had 57 kill points before this battle, and was a recipient of the Knight's Cross with Silver Oak Leaves."

"Wolf, German Navy Lieutenant, with 48 kill points before this battle, winner of the Knight's Cross."

"Mr. Wolfe's Knight's Cross does not have a silver oak leaf?"

"I don't have one. You have to be eligible to apply after reaching 50 points. If today's results are counted, you will be just enough to apply. It's a pity..."

"With the record of two people, where can I rank in your country's Hainan Airlines? Can I be in the top ten?"

"I can't get in...I'm probably in my 80s."

"I must be 100 away..."

Spruance weakly waved his hand and asked them to retreat. There was no need to ask anything else - the combined record of these two people alone exceeded the total record of all pilots killed in air defense operations today. What is the reason? Say?

That night, Spruance sent a long telegram to Washington: "...Today we engaged the German fleet on Falkland Island and sank and damaged one aircraft carrier and one battlecruiser of the enemy fleet. (Gneisenau), suspected of destroying a Hipper-class heavy cruiser (Seidlitz) and sinking 2-3 destroyers; our San Jacinto and Unicorn sank, and Wasp The USS was severely damaged, its deck and hangar were destroyed, and 3 destroyers and 1 frigate were lost; our army shot down more than 50 enemy aircraft, and we lost more than 170 aircraft due to various reasons, and 134 pilots were killed or missing (group )... This ship will continue its search tomorrow to see if there is any chance of annihilating the enemy fleet. "

His telegram was still relatively cautious, and he did not dare to say "heavy damage" to the Ise, because he believed that even if 2 torpedoes were hit according to the pilots' statement (actually 1), based on the foundation of the Ise battleship's transformation, it would probably still be damaged. Not fatal, not to mention the results of the two torpedo planes were obviously doubtful. There were only single-digit torpedo planes in total. Two of them were hit in Gneisenau? Ise number hits 2 more? The Germans didn't have such a good hit rate. He thought there must be an error in it, so he simply wrote it more conservatively before he could verify it. In fact, this way of writing was just in line with the actual situation, but the United States just didn't know it.

After receiving the telegram from Spruance, Washington also frowned. Judging from the results of the battle, our side seemed to have a slight advantage. Considering the comparison of numbers and strength, it was normal. The problem was that After the battle, we still have one intact aircraft carrier left. After fierce debate, the Joint Chiefs of Staff believed that in view of the current tense situation in Great Britain, the more important goal of the South Atlantic Squadron was to help Britain stabilize India and to send reinforcements to the Pacific as soon as possible. Presumably, the German squadron would not be able to get up after suffering heavy losses, so it The TF44 fleet is clearly required to go to Cape Town to resupply and perform tasks as soon as possible.

Spruance, who received the telegram, sighed, said nothing, and asked Roddick to execute the order...