This huge formation was sent from the direction of Iceland, consisting of 24 Swordfish, Big Mackerel attack planes and 12 Hurricane fighters, witnessing the black pressure in the sky, Major General Pei's face was gloomy and his face became ugly: although the Swordfish, Big Mackerel and Hurricane are old, but there are too many of them, and more than 30 planes attacking at the same time are basically equivalent to one covering fighter to deal with two enemy planes, those "flying grid lines" Carrying under the belly is no longer a 500-pound bomb that understates the capital ship, but an aviation torpedo that can cause lethal damage.

He turned to the aviation liaison officer: "When will Admiral Richthofen's reinforcement fleet arrive?" ”

"The telegram said that ...... had been dispatched 10 minutes ago"

The aircraft carrier formation is about 120 kilometers away from the shelling formation, and according to this distance, the reinforcements should arrive soon, but since he didn't see the plane, Major General Bei's tense strings couldn't be relaxed, and his tone was very serious: "Major, we have to let them find a way to hurry up, otherwise we will be surrounded, and jumping into the sea in this weather is not a good errand." ”

"Sir, I understand, I don't want to jump into the sea either!" The aviation liaison officer yelled into the radio, "Reinforcements, please fly at maximum speed, we have encountered a large school of swordfish." ”

"Roger! Arriving soon, guaranteed to be faster than the swordfish! ”

In fact, the aircraft carrier formation could not be blamed for the inappropriate response of the aircraft carrier formation, although the latter was not discovered by enemy aircraft, but some escort fighters had to be retained for the sake of safety, so the rotation of the cover aircraft group over the shelling fleet would be carried out in a gradual replacement method. Richthofen's tactical arrangement was very delicate, reflecting the rigor characteristic of the Germans - since the Bf-219 could hold out for 5 hours, he gradually considered the rotation from nearly 4 hours, and before the cross-rotation, the cover group on the carrier formation itself was divided into two echelons for refueling and replenishment.

In the process of replacement, the aircraft carrier formation first let the support fighters fly to the shelling fleet, and then those shelling fleet fighters who began to undertake the covering task early in the morning flew back to the mothership to refuel and replenish, and after they took off again, the remaining planes over the aircraft carrier formation and the remaining unreplenished cover planes of the shelling fleet were cross-replaced again, and then the replenishment process was repeated. The whole process will be completed within 75 minutes, and the core point is to ensure that there is aircraft cover over the two formations at all times.

Everyone's mood returned to calm after hearing the reply that had arrived immediately - despite the proximity of the British fleet, they were too slow, almost a third of the Bf-219s. Sure enough, after only 2 minutes, the lookout post on the bridge shouted excitedly: "Sir, the support fleet is here!" ”

"Very well, give the British a little color."

Seeing the arrival of their support planes, all the pilots were immediately demoralized, and from the morning to the present day, they felt that they were fighting every moment, and that the battle with four successive waves of British planes was at first by skill, then by will, and finally almost by instinct. Everyone is worried that if there is another wave of enemy planes, I am afraid that they will really drown in the sea of planes today, and now that the reinforcement group is about to arrive, their fighting spirit will immediately be rekindled.

"The five planes with the least ammunition will stay behind, and the rest will charge ahead with me, entangle the enemy planes, and don't let them get close to the warship......" Wagner yelled through the throat intercom, "After teaching this batch of Swordfish, fly back to refuel." ”

As soon as the words fell, six two-plane formations rushed towards the enemy planes, and the five planes remaining over the fleet were to make a final interception in case a British plane broke through.

The 12 German fighters soon intertwined with the 36 British planes, and Wagner's thinking was clear: deal with the hurricane first, and leave the slowly swallowed torpedo planes to the reinforcements. This decision also played into the hands of the Hurricanes, who tried to drag down the German escort fighters and create a breakthrough for the Swordfish. However, they clearly overestimated themselves, whether circling, climbing or diving, the Hurricane was no match for the Bf-219, and was completely suppressed, and it had only been 2 minutes since the fight, and 2 Hurricanes had already been beaten into the sea.

5 minutes later, the German reinforcement group arrived at the scene and hit the 24 Swordfish group head-on, these slow biplanes tried to break through the interception of the Bf-219, but they were inferior in terms of firepower, speed and maneuverability, and the heavy torpedo made this weakness even heavier, Major General Bay saw it clearly: the enemy planes had been diving down to more than 300 meters above the water, trying to evade the interception, but before they could disperse in the usual sector array, the Bf-219s had already swooped down in the air, The 20mm cannon smashed the wooden biplanes to pieces, and they crashed into the icy North Atlantic with their torpedoes.

Only 8 Swordfish broke through the blockade and pounced, they divided into 3 attack groups, flew in a column, continuously descended in altitude and kept approaching the warship, and the last 5 fighters left in the sky over the fleet did not hesitate to assume the role of scavengers, ready to block the deadly attack of enemy aircraft.

The officers and men of the German ship were shocked by the dense formation of the British aircraft and the sacrifice of the British aircraft - these actions seemed to them to be tantamount to suicide, while the British pilots were shocked by the excellent performance of the Bf-219, although the Royal Navy knew some of the performance and tactical characteristics of the new German aircraft from the Russians and the North African Air Force, they did not engage the Bf-219 on a large scale, and this time they finally collided face to face, and all the British pilots felt like they had kicked a nail board.

Watching the British planes fluttering left and right on the sea just couldn't find a suitable launch opportunity, people have to sigh that Taranto's hero - the Swordfish attack aircraft is too old, many Swordfish and big mackerel attack planes have not yet entered the bomb trajectory by the volley or trailing Bf-219 explosion, to the end of a total of only 4 attack aircraft successfully dropped the torpedo, but the place where they fired the torpedo is far away from the fleet, the torpedo speed is not fast, and it is easy to be avoided by the shelling formation.

Seeing that nothing could be done, the Hurricanes who had been fighting for a long time finally decided to retreat, and in this short one-on-one battle, the Hurricanes themselves lost 7 but only shot down one Bf-219, and 24 Swordfish \ Big Mackerel attack aircraft lost 17 planes, and only 7 escaped by chance, Wagner saw very clearly, there were a few British attack planes that could not break through, and threw the torpedo at will and turned around and ran.

Seeing that some of the pilots were still eager to go forward in pursuit, Major Wagner stopped them in time: "Don't chase them...... All fighters with less than 40 minutes of fuel or running out of ammunition immediately went with me to the mothership to refuel...... The rest of the planes will be patient for the time being. ”

It was only then that the crowd re-examined their fuel gauges, and several found that the fuel was less than 20 minutes left...... Wagner gave an order and left 13 planes at once, plus the 1 plane lost when intercepting the Swordfish just now, there are only 14 planes that can still fight in the sky above the fleet.

At 10:27, Major General Bey looked at his watch again, and the artillery formation was now 430 kilometers from Iceland and more than 650 kilometers from the Faroe Islands, and he had his troops turn to the northwest on Marshall's orders. But at this moment, the terrifying sirens sounded again, and the lookout post called for another enemy plane, numbering no less than 20!

Everyone secretly complained: there were only 14 covering planes left, and 2 of them were on the verge of supply, and they could withdraw from the battle at any time due to the lack of fuel and ammunition, and the second wave of rotating support planes could not catch up in a short time, and it was the weakest time for the fleet, and if a large group of enemy planes came again, the formation might not be able to parry.

However, after the group of planes gradually flew closer and saw clearly the composition of the enemy planes through the telescope, Major General Bei breathed a long sigh of relief - all the attack planes that came were two-winged Swordfish or Big Mackerel, and there was not even a single fighter.

"Are the British crazy? Escort planes are not sent? ”

"Who knows? Or maybe it's a new trick from the British, let's help them clean up the garbage......"

In fact, the commanders of the previous air raid formations had made it very clear on the radio: The Germans not only had a good number of fighters, but also had quite good performance, and what was even worse was that because the German fleet had been moving northward, they were getting farther and farther away from Iceland and the Faroe Islands, and the Hurricane fighters that took off from the Faroe Islands, even if they had added auxiliary fuel tanks, could not provide full escort due to the range, and were forced to turn back when they were still 50 kilometers away from the shelling formation. Admiral Fraser delegated command to Major Johnson, the commander of the attack wave, to determine whether to proceed with the offensive and, if he deemed it too difficult, to abandon the mission.

Although the German cover aircraft group was unprecedentedly strong, and the results of the previous waves of air raids were not good, this did not discourage Major Johnson's fighting spirit at all, but made him think in his heart that this was a severe test that he should accept - this is a contest of will and persistence, he does not believe that the German fighters can continue to fight for another hour, and whoever can hold out until the end will win! Even without fighter escorts, he planned to lead the formation forward, because he knew that this formation was the last attack wave today, and if he didn't succeed, he could only watch the Germans slip away.

It's a pity that he only guessed half correctly - the original German fighters really couldn't hold on, but the standing fighters of the German aircraft carrier formation were not 24, but a full 48, and now 12 fighters have been newly supported from the aircraft carrier formation - they are in high spirits and high morale!

Although the Swordfish had 10 more German fighters, and although there were 2 German planes that were forced to withdraw from the battlefield due to running out of ammunition and fuel shortly after, the power and firepower of the Bf-219 were still beyond the reach of the Swordfish or the Great Mackerel...... (To be continued.) )