Chapter 879 Accident (8)

Before the second wave of the US attack took off, the second wave of the German attack had already taken off. This batch of aircraft included 64 Ju-198\Ju-98 and 36 Bf-219C, exactly 100 aircraft. Including the second wave of attack, the strength comparison of the two attack groups changed from 190:168 to 240:268. The German army not only had the upper hand in terms of quantity, but also in terms of attack speed.

As if the capital of the side was not big enough, at 13:38, Koch, the commander of the naval aviation in the Newfoundland Campaign and promoted to Vice Admiral (currently the deputy chief of staff and chief of aviation staff of the fleet), announced two messages to everyone in the bridge in a loud voice:

"Sir, Rear Admiral Seidlitz sent a telegram, and he is about to launch an attack on the enemy; at the same time, it was found that the second wave of the US attack has been organized, but it was not intercepted because the enemy attacked at low altitude."

"The second batch of reinforcement combat power of the Azores Army Aviation, a total of 54 Do-412 (land-based version) arrived."

In Ito Seiichi's view, the German fleet formation is closer to the intention of focusing on the aircraft carrier formation. The fleet commander and the fleet chief of staff are both on the fleet flagship Zeppelin, and under the chief of staff, there are two deputy chiefs of staff - one is also the chief of aviation staff, and the other is also the chief of firepower staff (on the flagship of the bombardment fleet Tirpitz).

Although the aviation force of the Combined Fleet has become the core force, the traditional First and Second Fleets are still battleship units. Only after Hori Teikichi adjusted the personnel, Tsukahara Jishisan finally became the second person in the Combined Fleet in terms of qualifications and rank. Ito Seiichi finally understood the mystery of personnel adjustment.

He looked at Ozawa and suddenly thought that with the other party's current power and status, he might not be satisfied with a mobile fleet commander. By then, Hori Teikichi and Tsukahara may all withdraw from the front-line troops, and the position of the commander-in-chief of the Combined Fleet will be worthy of Ozawa. Only Hoffman knew that in history, Ozawa finally became the last commander-in-chief of the Combined Fleet in May 1945, but he did not hold the rank of general.

Ozawa nodded, turned around and smiled at Koch: "We are lucky today. Since the air force reinforcements are coming again, we can test the new tactics of interception beyond the line of sight. Please give the order, Mr. Koch."

Koch executed it immediately.

Marshal also nodded and smiled happily.

Ito Seiichi and the advisory group were confused and asked what "out-of-sight interception" meant.

Out-of-sight interception is a new tactic that Ozawa has studied again after the ultra-long-range cross-platform tactics. It refers to relying on the number, firepower and mobility advantages of our own air defense fighters, relying on the advantage of radar to first discover the enemy attack aircraft group and intercept it at an ultra-long distance. Compared with the previous interception methods that took into account both firepower and regional air defense capabilities, it can better erect a barrier for the fleet: on the one hand, it prevents accidental injuries from our own air defense firepower, and on the other hand, it avoids the inevitable attack on our fleet after the enemy advances.

"This tactic can only be used when you have an absolute advantage. It does not depend on the ship but on the aircraft and pilots." Ozawa explained, "This is the best luck I have had since I went to Germany. The Americans would never dream that there are so many planes on the Azores, right?"

The number of planes on the Azores is of course extremely terrifying. The 800 estimated by Ozawa is still too few - there are nearly 1,000 planes on it, and there are even nearly 200 Me-262 and Ta-152. The latter two are not very useful for fleet combat, so they were not sent out.

Ito Seiichi watched Koch skillfully command the fleet (48 Fw-1412) to move further forward to 250 kilometers away from the fleet. There were only 56 Do-412 (ship-based version) sent by the Navy Air Force in the air, but the third batch of reinforcements from the German Air Force - 64 Bf-219 (land-based version) appeared in the rear view again.

Ito Seiichi initially understood Ozawa's idea. Like everyone else, he was concentrating on listening to the radio and waiting for news from the front - now he could not see anything.

At 13:41 on April 26, 1944, Major General Seidlitz, the commander of the German Navy Air Force, led a large formation of more than 160 aircraft to attack the TF46 formation.

Seeing the three Essex-class ships guarded in the center and the US military formation surrounded by four world-class battleships, Seidlitz did not dare to act rashly. While sending nearly 60 Do-412s to attack the opponent's fighters, he carefully looked for opportunities. He felt that there were two difficult points today: first, the anti-aircraft fire of the US military was very fierce, almost piece by piece, row by row, blocking the attack channel tightly; second, the US anti-aircraft fighters seemed to perform well, and did not rush up foolishly to die, but waited in the air for their own planes to swoop down and fight, they must be veterans.

Nimitz and Cunningham watched the battle in the air very nervously, and ordered the warships to release smoke at the same time - although this would increase the possibility of accidental injuries, but now there is no need to worry about so much.

"Torpedo planes, attack from the right wing, disrupt the enemy's order first..."

36 Ju-198s immediately swooped down to release torpedoes. Seeing the enemy attack aircraft coming from high altitude, the Allied pilots who were fighting with Do-412 immediately abandoned their opponents to intercept the attack aircraft. Seidlitz guessed correctly. The US aircraft carrier fleet was reorganized after Nimitz took office. It included 100 excellent pilots transferred from the Royal Air Force, 60 (groups) of excellent crews drawn from the Pacific Fleet, and several months of desperate training of dozens of elite crews from Lv.5 pilots. It was called "5+2, white and black" (the American version of the moon, water, fire, wood, gold, gold), and the overall level was improved compared to the Cape Verde period.

About one-third of this combat force was allocated to the TF44 formation, and the remaining two-thirds were retained in TF46. This was the confidence of Nimitz and Cunningham to fight the Germans. Now all the attack planes were sent out by Nimitz, and the fighter pilots transferred from the Royal Air Force accounted for 70% of the remaining 66 anti-aircraft fighters. Therefore, the German army no longer used to play the exchange ratio of 1:4 or 1:5 as before. With similar numbers, the loss ratio of both sides was less than 1:2.5. Before the attack, the US military lost 27 F6Fs, the German army lost 7 Do-412s, 5 Ju-198s, and 4 Ju-1412s shot down by anti-aircraft artillery fire. The loss ratio of both sides in the first round was 27:18.

32 torpedoes appeared in an increasingly large fan-shaped surface and attacked the US formation. The TF46 formation was forced to turn and evade one by one. The 7 battleships were lucky and basically avoided the torpedoes. Only the veteran Memphis (Omaha class) was hit by a torpedo. In less than 2 minutes, this 7,000-ton light cruiser was forced to sink.

Due to the huge loss of British and American naval cruisers in the past two years, the slipway has tried its best to replenish them, but because there are still 24 Essex-class ships/year, they can only find other ways. Old ships like the Omaha class, which are more than 20 years old, were originally only in service in the escort force, but because the front-line forces lacked available cruisers, the Omaha class can still run more than 30 knots and has a displacement of more than 7,000 tons. After installing several new anti-aircraft guns and radar facilities, they were also pulled to the front line. A total of 8 Omaha-class ships were dispatched this time, but they didn’t expect to lose one as soon as the war started.

Originally, in order to fully guarantee the construction of aircraft carriers, the Navy Committee intended to convert the Oakland-class light cruisers (starting from the CL96 Reno) and the Cleveland-class light cruisers (the remaining 11 ships) into light aircraft carriers in imitation of the Independence-class. However, from the actual situation, the Independence-class had poor survivability and was basically destroyed after being hit by 2-3 500 kg bombs. The construction time was not short, and coupled with the cruel reality of the shortage of cruisers, the Navy Committee finally gave up on light aircraft carriers and built the Essex-class exclusively.

Nimitz's analysis at the Joint Chiefs of Staff meeting also supported this view: "A light aircraft carrier with a capacity of no more than 30 aircraft also needs to be equipped with an experienced aircraft carrier captain and a group of aviation staff. An Essex-class aircraft carrier with a capacity of up to 100 aircraft only needs one captain and a group of staff. From the perspective of saving talent, it is obvious that the larger the aircraft carrier, the more combat effectiveness it has."

This conclusion is shocking, but it is the truth: Up to now, the United Kingdom and the United States have not only seen a gap in the supply of ships, but also a shortage of naval command talents and skilled sailors. They have to mobilize former naval personnel to serve again and again. Not to mention the "dad" soldiers in their 30s, even the "old dad" soldiers in their 40s are not uncommon.

Take the US military as an example. Not only the captains of destroyers during World War I were reused, but even those old sergeants in their 30s and early 40s who had never fought in a war but had served in the navy were also very popular. Many of them only did ordinary work in factories after retiring. Now the army suddenly re-recruited them and gave them the ranks of second lieutenant, lieutenant or even captain, which they had never dared to think about before. Many people have a second spring and have always maintained high morale. This emotion infected the grassroots officers and soldiers, which prevented the navy from falling into trouble.

The first batch of torpedoes was not very effective, which was within Seidlitz's expectations, but as long as the US military formation was in chaos, there would be a chance, "left wing torpedo attack!"

Another 24 Ju-198s launched torpedoes. Although 3 were shot down during the attack, the second and third results of the battle have appeared today. The Concord and Trenton (both Omaha-class light cruisers) were hit and sunk by torpedoes one after another.

"Now is the chance!" Taking advantage of the disruption of the U.S. military's formation and the sharp reduction of the left wing's anti-aircraft firepower, he immediately led 16 Ju-198s carrying 400 kg bombs to attack the Ticonderoga...