Chapter 881 Accident (10, 2400 Votes Plus Additional Content)
Lawrence made an urgent evasive move, first diving at a large angle, then cutting inward with a small radius, and then rolling for more than ten times before getting rid of the German fighter that was biting his tail. After leveling again, he was slightly relieved when he saw that the enemy did not catch up. Suddenly he realized: Where is his wingman?
He called several times, but the wingman did not respond. Either the equipment was damaged in the battle, or it had crashed. Lawrence thought the latter possibility was more likely.
At present, he was far away from the battlefield. He was not in a hurry to fight on the battlefield again. Instead, he carefully observed the situation first, and then he saw the door at once: the German fighters were not surrounding their own fighters, their main target was still the attack planes with bombs and torpedoes. In the eyes of the fighters, they were very clumsy and easily became the target of slaughter. In just 1-2 minutes of observation time, he saw no less than 10 attack planes shot down and fell into the sea.
A larger group of attacking aircraft was still desperately rushing forward, and the surrounding escort fighters were also doing their best to protect them, but Lawrence believed that there was no hope for such a breakthrough - each raid by the large formation of Do-412 and Fw-190 would harvest a bunch of lives, just like a fat sheep desperately fleeing, the sharp knives of the German army were constantly picking off the wool and even the mutton, and they would probably have bled out before rushing to the real target.
The saddest thing is that these aircraft have all released their auxiliary fuel tanks, and now they are completely relying on the fuel in the aircraft to support themselves, and the consumption is extremely high under full-speed maneuvers. Even if they can rush to the German warships to drop bombs, all the crew members will die in battle and there is no way to survive.
Lawrence's inference fully reflects the value of an experienced pilot. His judgment is completely in line with Ozawa's requirements for beyond-visual-range interception: Lieutenant General Koch was originally from the Air Force. The task assigned to the interceptor group was to constantly disrupt and weaken the US attack formation. He emphasized that in this kind of battle, they should not get too entangled with British and American fighters. They should mainly attack bulky attack aircraft with poor resistance. Even if they force the enemy to drop bombs and torpedoes, it is a victory. They use the battlefield width of 250 kilometers to bleed all the way. In the end, there are only a few who can pounce on the fleet.
Another bonus of interception is combat experience. This group of air force pilots are all the teams that intercepted B-17\29 at the beginning. They are experienced and started to take the enemy as a 4-engine heavy bomber. But the problem is that this group of attack aircraft not only does not have the height and speed of heavy bombers, but also does not have the corresponding counterattack firepower. The body is not as solid as the 4-engine heavy bomber, so it is too easy to fight.
Out of the conscience of a pilot officer, Lawrence couldn't bear to see the whole batch of planes destroyed, so he found a hidden corner of the battlefield and sent a telegram to the rear.
"Sir, I received a telegram from the fighter commander."
"Read it!"
"Our army was intercepted by a large group of enemy air force formations. All aircraft have abandoned the auxiliary fuel tanks in advance. We are currently in a difficult battle. It is impossible to complete the mission. Request to retreat!"
"Is this from Lawrence?" Cunningham was shocked. Lawrence was a senior air force officer who had experienced the first Battle of Britain. He was very experienced. He was a mid-level officer who had racked his brains to get from the Air Force. He must be right when he said this.
"I was fooled! Notify the formation commander, the whole army retreat!" Nimitz thought for a while and added another one, "Tell the second attack wave to abandon the auxiliary fuel tanks and bombs and return as quickly as possible!"
"Sir!" There was an exclamation in the bridge.
"Follow orders," Cunningham shouted, "Commander Nimitz and I will take full responsibility after the war!"
When the two heard the air force interception, they knew they had made a big mistake: these planes were obviously sent by the Azores. Although they could not hit the fleet, they could completely replace the enemy fleet fighters to perform air defense tasks. Nimitz knew that there were many planes on the Azores. If the Germans really took out all the fighters for defense at the cost of losing planes, we would definitely not be able to do anything. What's more, our attack group had thrown away all the auxiliary fuel tanks. What if they broke through? He couldn't afford the cost of the annihilation of the whole army. In this situation, he would rather lose the warship than save the pilots - this is an experienced team of pilots that the British and American carrier-based aircraft have finally reorganized. If they all died, after a large number of aircraft carriers were put into service at the end of this year, only rookies would be able to fly.
To be honest, it would be unfair to say that Nimitz and Cunningham had never thought of this possibility. Everyone has conducted in-depth research on the South Pacific naval battle. Hori Teikichi has used this trick once and has some clues. The only problem is that this battle was a completely unexpected encounter. When they found the Ozawa fleet, they had to fight, otherwise they had to turn around and run. Not to mention how much it would dampen morale, at least they would be chased and killed. They had no choice but to choose to fight head-on. At the same time, there was a little bit of luck, thinking that the incident happened suddenly and the German army could not coordinate the air force on the Azores so quickly and might have an opportunity to take advantage of it. If this happened in Japan, Nimitz and Cunningham would definitely succeed - with the coordination system of the Japanese army and navy, it would definitely take half a day for the decision to be made. It is estimated that the United States or Britain would also succeed - the two countries would waste at least 1-2 hours in coordination, but Germany would not. Because the German Navy Air Force was systematically transferred and drawn from the German Air Force. They are called naval aviation, but in fact they are the Air Force dispatched to the Navy. They are all brothers, and Koch alone can handle it without the big guys stepping in. Moreover, the Azores is one of the places with the highest alert level in Germany. They are always on high alert and think about war. How can their reaction speed not be fast?
"Hey, are you ready to run away?" As the battle was going on, Lant, who was in charge of interception, found that the American planes were busy dropping torpedoes and bombs while turning to retreat northward. The remaining F6F fighters fought to the death to cover the retreat of the group.
"It's not that easy. Is this a place where you can come and go as you please? 412s, force your way over!"
The German army used the strong climbing ability of the Do-412 formation to the extreme. More than 40 Do-412s broke away from the formation and climbed up to an altitude of 7,000 meters - at this altitude they could exert the highest speed of the extreme sprint. They quickly passed the F6Fs entangled with the Fw-190, passed the SBDs and TBFs that were desperately fleeing, flew forward for a while, and then turned around in the air and swooped down again to intercept and kill. As for fuel, they basically didn't care. Before departure today, the officers told us to make an emergency landing or parachute beside the fleet - "Please take a bath in the North Atlantic together!"
The German army's pursuit lasted for an hour, and they stopped only when they ran out of fuel (Fw-190) and ammunition. 102 air force planes shot down 109 British and American planes at the cost of losing 14 planes, and the result was nearly a terrifying 1:8. If more than 10 British and American planes had not abandoned their auxiliary fuel tanks, torpedoes, and bombs at the beginning of the war and fled at full speed, it would have been more than 1:8.
"Sir, the interception mission is completed. The Air Force has shot down more than 100 enemy planes, forcing the rest to flee and return. Our army suffered minor losses and is currently preparing to make an emergency landing or return." Koch reported the battle situation with a beaming face. He was also an air force man, and he was just as happy when the Air Force won a great victory.
"What?" Ito stood up with a "huh", shocked and almost speechless. The enemy planes haven't even been seen yet, and they said they had repelled the attack? Many of the direct-cover fighters over the fleet now haven't even thrown away their auxiliary fuel tanks. Is there anything more incredible than this? Is the "beyond visual range combat" tactic so terrifying?
"The Americans have finally woken up, but it's too late." Ozawa laughed, "Without elite and powerful pilots, aircraft carriers are just piles of scrap metal. Aircraft and pilots are the ultimate embodiment of combat effectiveness. Compared with one Essex-class and 100 excellent pilots, I would rather have the latter. Ladies and gentlemen, am I right?"
Everyone, including Ito, nodded repeatedly. Ito thought to himself: Ozawa used to think that pilots were consumables to complete the mission, and they could be used as many as they had. Now that he has come to Germany, his concept is more radical than that of the domestic aviation school. According to his point of view, pilots should not only be officers, but also consider resource allocation.
Marshal humbly asked: "If we were in the position of the US fleet, what do you think would be a better approach?"
"Retreat first... lure our army to catch up and launch the first attack wave, then the US military mobilizes all fighters to intercept, minimize casualties, and send out attack groups to counterattack in the afternoon." Ozawa gestured on the map, "For example, lead us to a place 800 kilometers away from the Azores, so that our land-based aircraft protection capabilities will be greatly reduced, at least the beyond-visual-range interception effect will not be good."
"The enemy may lose at least one aircraft carrier in this way?"
"Yes, but at least two can be saved and counterattacked, and maybe one of ours can be sunk. Now the enemy has no chance at all. I heard that he has a smaller second attack wave, which is undoubtedly a suicide mission."
"I don't think so." Marshal shook his head, "If it were me, I would recall the second attack wave, and then form a fleet. Split into two and retreat!"
"Really?" Now it was Ozawa's turn to widen his eyes, "Running away in such an ignominious way? How can we face people in the future?"
"You have to run away." Marshal laughed, "Based on my years of experience in breaking diplomatic relations, running away is certainly not honorable, but sinking is even more dishonorable!"
"That's right, anyway, we won't do anything to him when we go back. Didn't Spruance, who lost three times in a row, lead the team again this time?" Ozawa smiled at Ito, "We should learn this idea and be tolerant to others. Aoki-kun has lost an aircraft carrier three times. The first time he lost it in Japan (Akagi) he was replaced by a permanent ban. The second (Europa) and the third (Tianying) were lost in Germany and he was promoted to major general. It is said that enemies will not meet again. This time he went to Argentina and met Spruance again, ha! And his Ise was hit by a torpedo again and almost sank in the South Atlantic. "
Everyone laughed, and the bridge was filled with a cheerful atmosphere...