"According to the report, the number of Western aircraft has increased to 65~70, and the direction is east-southeast, and it is expected to fly over our ship in 21 minutes. Pen ~ Fun ~ Pavilion www.biquge.info "After a while, the Tirpitz reported to the Bismarck through the flag and lights. The correspondent who received this information did not dare to slack off, and hurriedly reported the translation to the command bridge where Kars was located. Since Bismarck's radar had been destroyed in previous artillery battles, the German fleet relied entirely on the Tirpitz for early warning: when the Bismarck's radar detected an anomaly, the information was transmitted through normal intership communication.

Kars listened to his subordinates' report with a solemn expression, and for the first time a sense of danger rose in his heart. This batch of planes could not have come from its own aircraft carrier at 1 o'clock, then it could only be the air power of the British. The British must have planned a general attack early this morning and prepared for an attack in advance at night, otherwise they would never have appeared in the war zone at this point in time!

If the shelling fleet had been intact, Kars would not have been overly worried about the attack of this batch of aircraft. First, the British attack aircraft had a limited carrying capacity and could only carry lightweight bombs or torpedoes, and the two battleships could completely carry multiple hits without danger; Second, they have intensive anti-aircraft firepower, and it is definitely extremely dangerous for British attack planes to drop torpedoes in a straight line at low altitudes.

Now, however, both battleships were wounded, and the open-air anti-aircraft guns were damaged, especially the Bismarck's in the worst condition. If it is bombed by the British planes again, whether it can hold on will really be a big question mark!

"Your Excellency, could it be that these planes were sent by the British to bomb the port?" Seeing Kars's face suddenly turn grim, and his eyebrows locked a little worried, Lindeman was nervous and asked a little dryly.

After working with Fang Yan for a period of time, Lindeman's head, which was full of big ships and huge guns, was also instilled with some aviation knowledge, and he had some three-dimensional understanding of today's naval warfare. If the target of the air force is a land port, then it carries high-explosive bombs; And if the aviation is dealing with a naval warship, then it will carry armor-piercing bombs and aviation torpedoes, which have very different ammunition options for each other.

Lindemann's meaning was very clear, since the previous British main fleet was preparing to attack Bergen, then these planes should also be here to bomb the port. Even if the British pilots discovered and attacked the Bismarck, ordinary high-explosive shells that did not have the ability to pierce armor could only destroy the superstructure of their own battleship, and posed no threat to her survival at all.

Kars shook his head slowly: "No. The artillery fire of the British main fleet was enough to sweep the Bergen docks, and there was no need for dozens of planes to carry out a one-time bomb attack. Their target could only be the fleet of our army. If the main British fleet successfully sailed outside the port of Bergen, these planes would turn around to search for our ships; And if the main fleet is frustrated by the enemy, they will have to launch an attack on the sea. What's more, the British fleet discovered us at the first moment of dawn. When the group of attack planes in the rear is ready to attack the enemy, they do not need to make adjustments at all, and they can directly take off quickly with their weapons on the ship! ”

Lindemann froze in place, and for a moment he felt that his chest was like a boulder, and he was out of breath. In the past few years, he has worked hard to study his professional skills, and finally stood out from the robe and became the glorious captain of the Bismarck; How could he have imagined that he would face a dangerous situation in which his dreams would be shattered today, when he was full of ambition to command the world's strongest battleship and raise the prestige of the German nation? Of the more than 60 enemy planes found by the Tirpitz at this time, one-third of the attack planes were also attacked, which is the number that the current injured ship is absolutely unable to deal with!

"Order the whole ship to prepare for air defense, and all anti-aircraft gun positions will give priority to attacking low-flying torpedo planes." Lindemann gritted his teeth, dispelled all the negative feelings, and ordered in a serious voice. He deeply understands that this is by no means the time to panic, and he must find a way to take the most appropriate countermeasures. Compared with bombs, the biggest threat to the Bismarck is the torpedo, although the aircraft dropped aviation torpedoes are far less powerful than submarine-launched and ship-launched torpedoes, but the explosion of more than 150kg of TNT can still easily destroy hundreds of cubic meters of hull space and cause hundreds or even thousands of tons of water.

It is precisely because of this that even though the world's navy entered the era of 16-inch guns 20 years ago, and the threat of aerial bombs is increasing day by day, the biggest weapon of destruction in naval warfare is still torpedoes, and there is no one!

"Report, Tirpitz detected a batch of air targets about 110 kilometers east-north, with a number of 35~40 and a speed of 220 knots, and the direction is also our fleet!" After a few moments, the communications officer spoke loudly again through the microphone. Lindemann's body trembled slightly, and he suddenly rushed out of the navigation command room without any image. Standing on the broken flybridge, Lindemann held a telescope and looked into the distance, and sure enough, he saw a colorful flying flag hanging from the top of the Tirpitz mast behind him. For him, the captain, it was undoubtedly easy to recognize these flags.

"Bomay's plane has finally arrived." Kars breathed a long sigh of relief, and his tense expression finally relaxed. As early as dawn when the British fleet was discovered, he sent a telegram to the aircraft carrier Zeppelin asking for help, and now these planes are flying from the direction of his own aircraft carrier, and there is no doubt that the camp to which he belongs. As long as this wave of planes joins the battle group, the pressure on their two battleships will be drastically reduced, and there is no need to worry about being watched by the torpedo group.

It's just that in addition to the joy, Kars can't help but have some doubts in his heart. If Bome had only started preparing his plane after receiving his telegram, they would have come much faster. According to Kars's estimates, he will have to wait 2 hours to see this first wave of attacks. In addition, the number of aircraft in this wave is too small. You must know that there are 4 aircraft carriers under the command of Bome, and even if each aircraft carrier only dispatches 1 squadron, the total number is more than the number discovered by the Tirpitz.

Kars knew that in the Scarpa Bay raid on September 3 last year, the first round of attack by the German aircraft carrier group released a full 180 aircraft; Only 2 Zeppelin-class took off 96 aircraft, and its strong and mighty lineup shook the world!

"What's the matter with Bomay, has he found a more valuable target than this British fleet?" Kars frowned in thought, puzzled in his heart. But soon, he put this idea behind him, at least the arrival of this batch of planes relieved his urgent need, and then he could take countermeasures according to the development of the situation.

At this time, in the radar room of the battleship Tirpitz, the dark green screen seemed to be from the perspective of God, and the movements of the two waves of aircraft were fully visible.

The spot from the north is still at the edge of the screen, but twice as fast as the spot from the west, and as time goes by, the former comes first and comes to the center of the screen. After a while, these points of light seemed to spot the uninvited guests coming from the west, and they immediately stopped patrolling in place and swooped towards each other. Soon, the technical non-commissioned officer sitting in front of the screen couldn't tell which of the stars in one place were friends and which were enemies. Although he was so anxious that he scratched his ears and cheeks, eager to get out of the hatch to see how the battle was going, the strict training and military discipline in normal times allowed him to continue to sit firmly in place, and he didn't even take his eyes off the screen.

Inside the bridge of the Bismarck, Lindemann looked excited with a telescope and observed the fierce air battle more than ten kilometers away. Hundreds of planes on both sides were entangled in one place, suddenly raising their heads to the sky, suddenly diving and falling, swaying and rolling, chasing and biting, dazzling and dizzying. But even so, a discerning person can see that the side sprayed with the swastika logo clearly has the upper hand.

Although they are only half as many as the Circle Logo faction, they are all fighters, fast as lightning and powerful as thunder. They worked in pairs to cover each other, until they were like tigers entering the wolves, and the British planes that rushed in front of them fled in confusion and retreated. The British fleet numbered nearly 70 aircraft, and the torpedo-mounted turtle Swordfish bombers accounted for nearly half. The rest of the fighters are also outdated biplane "Sea Fighters", and the maximum level flight speed is less than 400 km/h. In the face of the German cutting-edge fighters with a speed of 540 kilometers per hour and better firepower and protection, the sea fighters fell behind on the spot, and even counterattacks almost became a luxury!

"Bang! Bang! Bang! "In the advance of the German fighters, the slow and fragile Swordfish was the first to be sacrificed. Their mobility is so poor that they can't even evade their pursuers, and a single 20mm high-explosive round can turn them into a mass of fire in ten seconds. In just five minutes, as many as 12 swordfish broke their wings and turned into flames and fell straight down from the sky. The Sea Fighters also suffered heavy losses, with a total of 5 of them dragging smoke into the sea and falling into a pile of parts in the rushing waves. The Germans lost only two of them, one of which was the result of a torpedo detonation in their torpedo while shooting down the Swordfish.

Seeing that their teammates hung up so quickly, the remaining British pilots no longer dared to carry out suicide attacks in Swordfish. I don't know which crew took the lead in dropping the torpedo (no one admitted it to the British Navy after the investigation!) The swordfish abandoned their loads to increase their altitude and fled towards the mothership without their lives. The rest of the Sea Fighter pilots cursed in the communication channel, but they could only choose to climb the altitude and fight and retreat - their mission was to protect the swordfish, and even the swordfish had run away, so what were they staying here for? The Sea Fighter did not load bombs or torpedoes, and was completely helpless against those German battleships at sea!