Chapter 988 Nimitz's Counterattack (21)

At 12:06, the German aircraft group went forward to intercept under the guidance of radar, and the pilots of the Air Force fighter planes that came over were even more ruthless.

On the surface, the strength of the first wave of attack groups was 260:182 between the United States and Germany, but a careful analysis showed a big difference.

Since the German army used Ju-198, a general attack aircraft that combines dive attacks and torpedoes, earlier, the proportion of fighter planes was higher than that of the United States. Usually, the proportions of fighter planes, reconnaissance planes, and attack planes were 40%, 10%, and 50%, respectively. This time, there were two Rhein-class escorts, and the proportion of fighter planes exceeded 45%. Among the 182 German attack groups, there were 85 fighter planes and 97 attack planes. This is also the reason why the German fighter planes were able to repeatedly entangle the US air defense fighters when attacking the Nimitz aircraft carrier group, because the number of both sides was close, which could effectively open up gaps for the attack planes.

The proportion of fighters in the composition of US carrier-based aircraft is generally around 33%. Since the US military does not have dedicated reconnaissance aircraft (its reconnaissance aircraft can perform attack missions after recovery), its attack aircraft account for as high as 67%. Nimitz originally brought 6 escort aircraft carriers to accompany the battle. After the F6F on them was included in the calculation, the proportion of fighters rose to about 42%. Unfortunately, when passing through the submarine formation, 4 escort aircraft carriers and all the aircraft on them were lost in one go. Therefore, the number of fighters in the attack aircraft group was 92, accounting for only slightly more than 35%, while the number of attack aircraft was as many as 168.

So on the surface, the US military deployed 43% more aircraft than Germany in the attack, but the actual number of attack aircraft was 73% more than Germany. In addition, it should not be ignored that 144 of the 168 newly equipped BTD attack aircraft of the US military were included. This batch of aircraft can carry 2 torpedoes or 4 1,000-pound bombs (2 bombs can be dropped through horizontal bombing when fully loaded, and the other 2 bombs can be dive-bombed). Judging from the amount of ammunition carried, the US military has more than doubled.

In order to preserve more experienced pilots, Nimitz was forced to make adjustments before the war: more experienced fighter pilots were concentrated on the main aircraft carriers for direct cover operations, and pilots with less experience were placed on escort aircraft carriers for offensive cover. The pilots lost in the submarine attack last night were relatively not the most elite ones, which is why the exchange ratio of the German offensive aircraft group was not high during the attack - the US military (including many British pilots) was good, and there was no performance gap after replacing the F4U, and the exchange ratio of 2:3 was just right.

However, this helpless guiding ideology exposed problems during the attack. The US military's cover fighter pilots were obviously not as elite as the air defense fighter pilots. The interception operation based on Do-412 achieved ideal results, but looking at the three waves of American aircraft rushing forward and one after another, no one dared to take it lightly.

The electric 128mm anti-aircraft guns on the Richelieu, located in the center of the fleet's defense, and the anti-aircraft guns of other ships desperately carried out interception shooting and played a huge advantage. The fierce barrage forced the US attack formation to disperse, which created an opportunity for the next stage of fleet regional air defense. Those US attack aircraft pilots who were eager to directly attack the central aircraft carriers were ruthlessly killed by the dense array. Only 3 of the first 11 aircraft successfully dropped bombs and hit the German ships. Even so, the US pilots still rushed to the center like moths to a flame.

The onion peeling tactic is conducive to maximizing the lives of the pilots of the attack group, but it is not conducive to the initial results. The current desperate situation of the US military, with strong offense and weak defense, does not allow this leisurely style of play, so Nimitz's task to the pilots is very clear-give priority to attacking enemy aircraft carriers.

It was the first time that the BTD attack planes carrying two torpedoes appeared. Everyone was quite surprised. After the explanation of the aviation staff, Crank, Hintz and others felt their scalps tingling - the maneuverability of carrying two torpedoes was even worse, but the American pilots still swooped down without hesitation. The two knew that the Americans were going to fight to the death, and the situation today would never end well.

At 12:09, the King was the first to be hit by two 1,000-pound aerial bombs. The main deck was destroyed, but the power loss was not great. It could still evade at a speed of 23 knots. Looking at the enemy aircraft carrier with smoke and blazing flames, the American pilots rushed forward like crazy. The pilots of the second and third echelons rushed here desperately, and they could not be stopped.

In the next 4 minutes, more than 20 US aircraft surrounded the King and dropped bombs. The ship was hit by 3 bombs again. After all, it was just a comprehensive aircraft carrier converted from a large cruise ship. How could it withstand the concentrated fire attack? After being hit by the fifth bomb, the ship's power compartment was severely damaged and the main structure suffered heavy losses, and it began to sink.

In order to sink this aircraft carrier, the US SBD and BTD were beaten down by the surrounding Hedgehog-class aircraft carriers at one go.

At 12:11, the fate of sinking fell to the 11th ship of the Rhine class. The ship was first hit by two 1,000-pound bombs, and then hit by a torpedo. In less than 2 minutes, it began to sink slowly.

Almost at the same time as the ship sank, the French-built De Grasse light cruiser, which was also built by France and was covering the Jean-Bart aircraft carrier, was hit by two torpedoes and sank rapidly; watching the American torpedoes passing by the stern of the Jean-Bart, Hintz's back was covered with cold sweat.

Although the success rate and hit level of BTD bombing were not high, they could not resist the fact that they could carry two torpedoes. Hintz had never thought about what an attack aircraft that could carry two torpedoes would look like. Just as he was rubbing his forehead and rejoicing, the staff suddenly exclaimed: "The Ise was hit by a torpedo!"

A torpedo penetrated the cover of the German outer ships and hit the Ise's port amidships without any bias. The ship was hit by a torpedo last time. Due to the fierce fighting situation, emergency repairs were only carried out in Argentina and Italy. There was no time to completely repair the ship. Unexpectedly, it was hit by a torpedo again today. However, his background as a battleship Ise saved him. After more than 3,000 tons of water came in, he successfully plugged the leak, but the hull tilted 7 degrees.

"No!"

While the Ise was busy doing damage control, seven more SBDs carrying aerial bombs fell from the sky, slamming 1,000 pounds of aerial bombs on the deck of the ship. One bomb hit the forward elevator position and quickly killed it. It got stuck, and another bomb landed at the junction of the two decks, completely paralyzing the take-off and landing functions of the angled aircraft carrier.

This was not the whole story of the Ise disaster. Taking advantage of the ship's continuous hits and greatly reduced speed, another group of eight BTDs pounced down to release torpedoes. Although five of them were killed by the Hedgehog-class destroyers covering them at close range, Three of them successfully released torpedoes, and six torpedoes headed towards the starboard side of the Ise. At this time, the Ise, which was traveling at only 11 knots, used all its strength to avoid three of them, and all the other three were hit.

No matter how strong the hull is, it cannot withstand the intensity of this attack. Captain Aoki, who tried his best, could only order the abandonment of the ship - this was the third aircraft carrier he had lost since Germany entered the war. If it had been regarded as ominous in Japan, it would have been long ago. But Krank encouraged him: "Don't worry about sinking the ship. The head of state will continue to give us new aircraft carriers. We must live bravely. If the enemy does not surrender for a day, we cannot stop fighting for a day..."

After giving the instruction to abandon the ship, he calmly put on his life jacket and jumped into the sea, and swam hard towards the nearest Hedgehog - they were all very skilled at fishing for dragonflies now.

At 13:08, the huge US military attack group finally retreated, leaving the sea devastated.

"Sir, the preliminary battle report of our attack group has also been sent back. Do you want to listen?" Seeing that Turner's expression was better than the first telegram, Admiral Jin breathed a sigh of relief and handed all the telegrams to the adjutant, "Can you help me?" Let me read it, first the results, then the losses..."

“260 attack aircraft of our army launched an attack and sank 2 German fleet aircraft carriers, 1 light aircraft carrier, and 2 light cruisers;

One of its battleships was severely damaged (Scharnhorst ate a torpedo, but it was not fatal, and it was actually a moderate damage), and one of its fleet aircraft carriers was suspected of being severely damaged (the Jean-Bart ate a torpedo, which was not serious and did not affect normal operations). combat);

Zhongchuang has 2 battleships (the Richelieu suffered 1 torpedo and 2 bombs, which is a little higher than Zhongchuang; the Gneisenau suffered 1 bomb, which can only be considered as minor damage), and one cruiser of Zhongchuang (The Hipper received 1 bomb, the situation was not significantly affected);

One of its light aircraft carriers was lightly damaged (the Rhein-class No. 12 ship nearly lost two bombs and several anti-aircraft guns, but the rest were the same);

There are 6 other uncertain results (actually only 2 - 2 destroyers were sunk by bombs, and all German destroyers before Z40 have been lost). "

Admiral Jin asked in a trembling voice: "So we at least killed three enemy aircraft carriers, 2 large and 1 small?"

"This is the battle report. We may need to verify it again."

He nodded: "Read the battle damage report as well."

"...The aircraft carrier Hancock, which was heavily damaged by bombs, was hit by two torpedoes and sank in the end; the battleship Wisconsin suffered extremely serious losses after two consecutive battles, with more than 12,000 tons of water taken in, all power lost, and the front deck was submerged in the water. It is currently in Abandoned ship, still floating on the sea for the time being;

The USS Bennington was hit by two bombs, both located in the non-core area. The rear elevator was damaged and the take-off and landing functions were partially damaged;

The last two Casablanca-class ships were sunk, the last Cleveland-class cruiser was sunk, two anti-aircraft cruisers were lost, and three destroyers were lost. "

"Our losses are smaller than the enemy's?"

"It is true during the day, but the losses in submarine warfare are not small." Turner saw that Admiral Jin was in good spirits and analyzed, "Now the fleet only has 2 aircraft carriers, 2 anti-aircraft cruisers and a bunch of destroyers. The defense is extremely weak, and there is almost no fleet. I would have known that the New Jersey would be left behind."

Admiral Kim nodded, but who knew this would happen? He asked Turner: "What next?"

"I would choose to retreat, but Nimitz refused to give up. He planned to recover the plane and launch a second attack to fight the Germans to the death - if he could not win bravely, he would sink gloriously!"

Admiral Jin stood up excitedly, trembling and wanted to say something, but he couldn't stand firmly and fell down...