These 12 TBFs were also ruthless, regardless of the fact that they threw torpedoes at more than 600 meters, and the hit rate naturally increased a lot, but they also suffered heavy losses themselves - 4 crashed before the mine, 3 were shot down after the mine, and only 5 escaped in the end. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

Their desperate efforts paid off, and at 13:39 the Port side of the Sedelitz was torpedoed, flooded in large numbers, and floated on the surface of the water to lay dying - but not yet!

Kent was furious at this scene, and just as he was about to order the attack planes to pounce again, he suddenly received a telegram from SBD, which was on a reconnaissance mission: "A German aircraft carrier and a battleship have been discovered, 160 kilometers north-east. ”

The red-eyed Kent suddenly reacted, and he almost missed something big - he was going to attack the second enemy aircraft carrier, how could he waste all his energy here? He glanced at the Sedlitz hatefully, then turned away from the battlefield and flew towards the location of the Ise formation.

But flying and flying, he suddenly felt that something was wrong, how could there be so few planes following behind him? There are only 11 TBFs, 7 SBDs and 9 F6Fs following their own SBDs, and only 28 aircraft, including command aircraft.

"Where are the other planes?" He subconsciously asked, "Didn't you keep up?" ”

"Many of them were shot down, some of them have completed the bomb dropping and returned home, some of the F6Fs fought too hard, and they had to return home due to lack of ammunition and fuel, and all the remaining planes that could attack should be here!" The pilot thought for a moment, "Oh, and a couple more SBDs that you sent out to reconnoitre......"

Kent's head "buzzed", and he finally realized that he had made a big mistake: he had wasted too many troops on this fleet, and he brought out an attack group of nearly 170 planes in total, at least 100 planes were directly or indirectly involved in the attack, and more than 30 planes were shot down without even touching the edge of the attack - 36 were shot down by the free-hunting Do-412, plus more than 40 planes shot down by German anti-aircraft fire, the entire formation lost nearly 80 planes, The combination of waste and profligacy resulted in only 28 attack groups that could be used for a second attack......

"Fight with the Germans!" He made up his mind to pounce on the Ise formation.

"Sir, some enemy planes are coming to us."

"What about the losses of the detachment?"

"The Savoy sank, the Sedelitz was heavily damaged, the captain was forced to abandon the ship after judging that it would be difficult to save, the Z29 sank, the Hedgehog-class sank 1, the air defense fighters may have lost 10 units, and the rest of the destroyers are salvaging the officers and men who fell into the water." Simon reported, "I've telegraphed Walter to land with us. ”

Kranke nodded: "Everyone did their best, now it's up to us, at the critical moment, Germany needs everyone to fulfill their duties!" ”

At 13:56, the U.S. attack formation found the Ise, pounced on the attack, and the last 7 Do-412s covering the sky over the Ise did not hesitate to pounce and intercept them!

As soon as the two sides met, the Do-412 took out 4 SBDs and 2 TBFs, and was shot down by the F6F himself. After saying this, he ordered the pilot to pounce and attack, and although he successfully dropped the bomb and hit the Gneisenau, he was also hit by the ship's anti-aircraft fire and fell directly into the sea, killing the pilot along with the pilot.

The planes of the two sides were in a ball in the air, and the American planes that killed the red eyes greeted the Ise with all their ammunition, and the bombs and torpedoes fell together, and Taijiro Aoki personally steered the helm and dodged the attack with all his might, except for the deck being swept by the F6F, there were no bombs falling on it, but the Z30 destroyer next to it was unlucky and sank after being hit.

The U.S. SBD quickly dropped all the bombs and broke away, only the slow TBF continued to drop torpedoes, due to the absence of the hedgehog class caused the interception firepower was not strong, a total of 5 torpedoes from different positions rushed to the Ise, Aoki Taijiro quickly dodged 3 of them, but the other 2 couldn't dodge anyway, and finally Gneisenau blocked the gun hole with his body, and carried one for the flagship, and the other hit the starboard side of the Ise, tearing open a huge gap, and the sea water continued to pour in. Of course, these TBFs did not bargain much, and in the end 3 more were shot down.

By the time the American formation left, there were only 12 aircraft in total, and only 2 of the 7 Do-412s were still in the air. For this fight, both sides paid a great price.

"Plug the leak! Plug the leak! ”

With the concerted efforts of hundreds of officers and men, the Ise finally stopped the water after swallowing more than 2,000 tons of seawater, but the speed had dropped to only 18 knots and the hull had a 7-degree tilt.

"Sir, you must fill the port side with water, otherwise you won't be able to restore your balance." Captain Aoki was sweating profusely, "The attack group will return to the ship when it comes, and they must be prepared for the landing position, and the time is very tight!" ”

"Fill it with water."

The port side began to be filled with water, and in order to prevent the water from entering too quickly and causing reverse capsizing, Captain Aoki's command was very cautious, and a large number of planes had gathered in the air at this time, all of them were returning from an attack mission, and everyone was sweating profusely.

Crane and the others on the bridge were even more anxious: the attack group flew more than 600 kilometers when it set off, and nearly 700 kilometers when it returned (because the Ise turned back in reverse), and also participated in a fierce attack battle, everyone was exhausted, and what was worse was that the fuel was also exhausted, and if it was delayed, these planes were in danger of crashing into the sea.

As the port side flooded the ship, the Ise's inclined hull began to improve little by little, and the angle slowly decreased, but as the water inlet increased, the waterline began to descend at a speed visible to the naked eye, and the sailors desperately threw any discardable debris into the sea in order to lighten the ship's weight. At 14:19, the whole warship returned to the situation of tilting one degree, although it was not completely balanced, but it was basically in line with the landing conditions.

As soon as the signal was given to allow landing, the planes that had been hovering in the air for a long time immediately rushed down, and the first few Do-412 fuel tank gauge pointers had already fallen below zero, and the least one plane could only support another 1 minute before falling into the sea, but the last six remaining air defense fighters on the Savoy still had more fuel, and they stared vigilantly around, and actually killed a lone American plane -- I don't know how this guy found here.

At 14:37, all the attack groups had landed, and the ground crews began to quickly replenish the fuel bombs, and many of the pilots were so tired that they collapsed, and they didn't even have the strength to climb out of the cabin, and they were helped out by other comrades-in-arms and ground crews. Of course, there are also gifted people, so energetic that instead of feeling any loss of strength, they are extremely excited, and as soon as they get off the plane, they will describe the scene of the attack with their companions, and their eyebrows will dance.

"Sir, the Essex class is very hard, 400 kg bombs can't deal with it, you have to torpedo!" Walter gasped and reported the attack to Crank, "The enemy also has an intact Essex-class, which is a great threat, we hit another ship with at least 6-7 bombs, but the other side is just not sinking, and even the speed has not decreased much, but the take-off and landing must have been destroyed." ”

"Torpedoes?"

"Yes! The bomb was useless, and the sky was hit hard. ”

Although the distance between the fleets of the two sides has reached more than 700 kilometers, there are still at least 3 hours before dark, and with the range and speed of the Ju-198, the problem of carrying out this mission is not too big, and it is easier to solve it as for the pilots. Because the Ju-198 had both dive bombing and torpedo attack functions, the pilots were proportionally proportional - some pilots were more focused on lightning strikes, others on dive bombing than on all-round. This can reduce the cost of training and improve the success rate, of course, there are people who are proficient in everything, but the proportion is not too high. In other words, the first wave of sorties was the dive-bombing pilots, and this time the lightning pilots could be replaced.

Cranke hesitated for a moment: now there are still 62 planes after collecting all the planes (several of them are seriously damaged and declared scrapped), and the enemy army still has an Essex-class, which is estimated to be fully loaded (100 planes), although it is a little weaker in terms of strength, but it can still fight.

However, Simon's face suddenly changed: "Sir, if the bomb is useless, we may be forced to abandon the attack." ”

"Why?"

"Not enough speed!"

"Hey!" Cranke looked outside, reacted, and slammed his fist into the bulkhead.

The top speed of the Ise is only 26 knots when it is intact, which is slightly slower for a regular aircraft carrier, but since it is positioned as a broken carrier, 26 knots is not a big deal. Today, however, it has become a fatal key -- the speed of the Ise dropped to only 18 knots after the mine was hit, and then the burden was increased by reversing the water injection and restoring the balance, and now the speed can only reach 16 knots, and the deck wind after the headwind is not enough. It is not too much of a problem to take off a fighter or a light-loaded attack aircraft, but it is estimated that it is not enough to take off a heavy-duty torpedo plane (which must be filled with fuel due to the long distance, with a total weight of nearly 6 tons).

"Sir, let the boys give it a try." An unwilling Walter pleaded, "There are not many opportunities like this." ”

"Just give it a try." Crake thought for a moment, "You go pick a pilot to experiment with, and be careful not to pick the best." ”

Walter understands that the best pilots can fly does not mean that other people can fly too, and if an airplane takes off very little, it is basically a food delivery to people - a lightning strike plane must be formed to be large-scale to be valuable.

Soon a torpedo-loaded, fuel-laden Ju-198 was pushed to the take-off position at the very end of the deck, and the ground crew first plugged the wood and pressed against the wheels of the plane, waiting for the pilot to turn up the horsepower to the maximum, and then quickly pulled away, and the plane quickly rushed forward, and everyone raised their hearts to their throats......