Needless to say, Spruance cautioned that the Wildcat pilots had resorted to the Thatch scissors tactic, it was their instinct. Because the goal of the American carrier-based pilots was to fight aircraft carriers in the Pacific theater, in addition to the regular training, the focus of the training was to practice and strengthen the Thatch scissor tactics in order to counter the performance superiority of the Zero War, and they never dreamed that they would one day face off against the Luftwaffe fighters -- this is usually the job of the US Army or the British Royal Air Force.www.biquge.info

The firepower of the Wildcat is 6 12.7mm aviation machine guns, and the firepower of the BF-219 is 2 20mm cannons plus 1 13mm aviation machine gun.

In addition, the BF-219 was structurally strengthened by German designers, and although it was not as strong as the Wildcat, it was much stronger than the Zero. On the one hand, the firepower increased, and on the other hand, the defense was improved, and as soon as the face was seen, several of the wildcats that attacked head-on were directly carried down from the air.

The other conditions relied on in the Thatch scissors tactic, such as strong communication capabilities and good dive ability, were also difficult to use in front of the BF-219. The communication facilities of the German aircraft are very perfect, no matter the distance or the clarity is not inferior to the American goods, and the BMW702 engine used in the BF-219 adopts the most advantageous in-cylinder direct injection technology in Germany, which has no scruples when diving, and sufficient airframe strength can also ensure the safety of diving. Wildcats' hopes of relying on these two points to gain an advantage have been dashed. The BF-219 relative to the F4F that almost crushing speed makes American pilots completely desperate, the former (land-based version) has a maximum speed of 629 km / h, at low and medium altitudes than the improved Wildcat is generally faster than 80 km / h, in air combat, speed and maneuverability are life, the speed of the Wildcat is not as good as man, the maneuverability is not as good as man, and it is completely impossible to get rid of the situation of being passively beaten.

What is even more fatal is that the German pilots who fought against them generally have 2-3 years of war experience, and most of them are ace pilots with more than 5 shot down records, and a few squadron leaders who lead the team even have 20 or 30 battle results, while the US carrier-based aircraft pilots are just a group of novices who have just completed their training, and their technical level is simply beyond their reach.

The American sailors happily watched the planes fall one after another, cheering for their fellow pilots, but after a closer inspection, they were dumbfounded, most of the planes that fell were American planes painted with white five-pointed stars, and there were very few planes with black swastikas.

At first, the fighter was 55:65, the U.S. military had the advantage, and after a few minutes, this numerical advantage was almost leveled, Spruance looked at the air anxiously, he knew that this matter was troublesome today, the carrier-based fighters were not comparable to the Germans in terms of performance and technology, and those attack planes with three engines took advantage of the gap opened up by the fighters to entanglement and fighting, and they had lowered their altitude and pounced.

Spruance watched three combined aircraft swoop down from a high altitude in a zigzag formation, and they were still coming at the flagship at his feet, the armored aircraft carrier Victory, all the covering fighters were attracted to it, and not a single plane that could stop them was there, his heart rose to his throat, and he shouted: "Port torpedo plane, anti-aircraft ......"

The sailors used all the weapons available on the ship, including 2-pounder guns and anti-aircraft machine guns to fire at themselves, and pulled out a series of firepower nets against these enemy planes on the port side. When the three-engine engine was turned off in pursuit of a better attack position and a lower bomb altitude, his nerves were highly tense, and although the sea was bitterly cold in early March, he felt that his palms were full of sweat.

Just when the plane approached to the distance of about 8 chains from the warship (10 chains is equal to 1 nautical mile), the three attack planes suddenly released torpedoes, and the sailors watched the planes throw the lump of things under the belly into the sea, and then because of the release of the torpedoes, the whole plane was light, and suddenly rushed upward, and these enemy planes immediately broke away at the highest speed, and when they fled, one went to the left, and two went to the right, far away from the side fire of the warship.

Spruance breathed a sigh of relief and thought to himself: It turns out that these attack aircraft pilots are all novices, and if you don't look at the fact that the attack formation is maintained in a decent manner during the dive, and the posture is stretched out well during the low-altitude attack, then there is nothing to be afraid of.

This is by no means his self-deception, but the heartfelt feelings of an experienced aircraft carrier commander. The best throwing distance of aviation torpedoes in a big war is generally about 600-800 meters, and sometimes in order to ensure hits, pilots will even throw torpedoes at a distance of less than 500 meters, as far as he knows, British Swordfish attack planes often do this, which is also an important factor that leads to the high casualty rate of Swordfish pilots, but this is an awe-inspiring thing -- in the eyes of the aviation faction, torpedo attacks are equivalent to white-knuckle combat, and only by approaching enemy ships can they achieve success.

It is not impossible to drop the bomb at a long distance, either because they are in a hurry to escape for their lives and discard it at will, or those old pilots who are convinced of their personal skills will choose to drop the bomb distance to about 1,000 meters when their mobility is greatly weakened in the face of the target being attacked. Pilots like this, who take on the first wave of attack missions and throw torpedoes at a distance of 1,500 meters from the enemy ship, are definitely novices, and they are usually afraid of the dense attack fire in front of them and take subconscious actions, which seem to avoid the attack of the warship's close-range fire resistance, but also give the enemy ship time to turn calmly because of the premature release of the torpedo, which is not effective at all.

Spruance immediately felt the warship under his feet struggling to turn under the operation of an experienced engineer, and he believed that in just two minutes, or even a minute and a half, the warship would be able to adjust its course and perfectly avoid the torpedoes just now, and just as he was turning his attention back to the air, he suddenly heard the captain's frightened voice: "Ah...... How do these damn torpedoes run so fast? ”

How come there are torpedoes again? Not only can't he figure it out, but Chris can't figure it out either, even the sailors who have been paying attention to the sea surface can't figure it out, where did this torpedo come from?

There was no time to think about it, and everyone only heard the next sentence - "torpedo...... Shock-resistant! ”

There was a loud "boom", and Spruance in the bridge only felt a violent vibration, and the whole person almost fell to the ground, barely holding on to the wall to not make a fool of himself.

Based on Spruance's previous experience, this inference and analysis is not problematic, and the problem lies in the special mine - this new device can run a top speed of 54 knots in the sea, which means that it can run nearly 28 meters in one second, and it can also have a range of more than 6,000 meters, and it can pounce on the enemy ship at a distance of 1,500 meters in less than 60 seconds. This is simply not enough time for this 30,000-ton large capital ship to perfectly evade. Spruance was initially amazed, and the attack posture of the three joint attack planes was not by any means for the sake of coolness, nor for the sake of emboldening, but the fan-shaped salvo tactics of aviation torpedoes specially designed according to the technical characteristics of special mines.

To put it bluntly, special thunder has three advantages: first, it is powerful; second, fast speed; Third, the track is small. Each of these qualities is a quality that a torpedo needs, and when the triple advantages come together, it is simply the most coveted product of a sea attack aircraft. The only problem is that it is too heavy to be used in shallow water, and it takes 1-2 seconds longer than the usual aviation torpedo to float up after being thrown in other waters. In the first 400 meters of propulsion, there will still be some traces due to some air combustion, and after 400 meters, the whole process of oxygen intervention thermodynamic combustion, the trajectory is very slight, and with the frenzied speed, it is simply a lightning dagger (the Mk13 aviation torpedo used by the US Navy can only run 33.5 knots). Even if the fleet aircraft carrier with a speed of up to 30 knots wants to complete the steering and avoidance, it is impossible to complete the evasion, not to mention, the fan-shaped attack surface of the three joint attack planes using the formation is very standard, and the victory not only hit the torpedo, but also one hit two, and even the explosion time is very consistent, if you don't listen carefully, you will think that only one hit.

After all, the Victory is an armored aircraft carrier armed with a lot of money by the British, and it has very good sinking resistance, and it has not sunk immediately after being hit by two torpedoes and a large amount of seawater pouring in, giving the people on board a very precious time to escape, in the captain's decisive order to abandon the ship, Spruance and Chris can only put on life jackets and struggle to jump into the icy water, and then watch the attacks and killings occur in other corners of the battlefield.

"The engineer really didn't lie to me, special mines, 10,000 tons of ships and one tube sank ......" Facing the aircraft carrier Independence slowly sinking on the sea, Lieutenant Bloch waved his fist excitedly, and the three-plane attack team led by him only hit one torpedo on the Independence, but this torpedo alone was enough to sink the opponent. He happily observed the American sailors jumping into the sea like dumplings, and contentedly pulled up the altitude and then left the battlefield as fast as possible; without the shackles of auxiliary fuel tanks and torpedoes, the joint attack aircraft with three engines could run more than 500 kilometers at the fastest, and the wild cats were only a little faster than this, and basically could not catch up. (To be continued.) )