At a time when the Germans were anxious about why the British aircraft group had not yet appeared, Colonel Sean, who led the LinkedIn attack aircraft group, was also very anxious; as early as 15 minutes ago, he had led a team to the morning reconnaissance plane to discover the last location of the German fleet, but because the interval was more than an hour and a half, the German aircraft carrier formation drove more than 80 kilometers westward, and the sea was empty. The formation could only search separately, all the way to the north and all the way to the west, and when the Skua formation to the west found the exact location of the German fleet, he still had to call and wait for the formation to search north to return and attack synchronously, and a lot of time was wasted.

At 9:41, all 17 escort fighters of the lightning strike formation took off one after another after replenishing their fuel bombs, and at 9:44, the Ju-98s took off from the Zeppelin one after another, and the tense strings of the North Sea Fleet gradually relaxed. At 9:47, the lookout post issued a warning that a large number of aircraft were approaching from the east, numbering no less than 80 aircraft!

It's finally here! This was the first thought that came to mind, and they had lost their patience with the constant misreports and waiting, and thought that it was better to bravely face the judgment than to keep running away with anxiety. The second thought was that Admiral Richthofen's decision to leave them all behind for cover instead of sending fighter planes to escort the dive bomber formation now seemed extremely wise, which meant that the fleet had all the fighters at a critical moment, greatly enhancing security.

"The aircraft carrier moved at full speed, quickly released the Ju-98 formation, and was escorted by water fighters to attack the British fleet." Richthofen calmly issued an order, "The long-range anti-aircraft guns of each ship opened fire to break up the enemy formation, the fighters were responsible for the defense of the fleet, the planes with the most oil and ammunition came forward to intercept the British planes, and eight direct cover planes were left over the fleet." ”

At 9:51, the formation of lightning planes completed the formation and immediately moved to the southeast, the 128mm anti-aircraft guns, which had been silent for a long time, began to exert their power, and the shells loaded with radio proximity fuses were quite powerful, constantly exploding in the enemy aircraft group, and everyone could see clearly on the Zeppelin bridge, several planes were shot down after the anti-aircraft guns fired, and the huge enemy aircraft formation was forced to disperse.

The entire North Sea Fleet had a total of 48 standing fighters at the time of departure, and after repeated losses and the use of reserve aircraft to replenish the number, it was restored to 48 aircraft, and today it lost 3 in the first round of attack, and there are still 45 remaining and all in the air. However, their fuel levels are not the same, with 25 fighters having nearly 4 hours of fuel, 8 having 90 minutes, 12 having less than 60 minutes, and at least one having 45 minutes.

After urgent communication, the fighter commander, Colonel Rand (wing commander), quickly identified the 8 remaining planes and ordered them over the radio, "rush over and intercept them on the perimeter of medium-range anti-aircraft fire." Note that priority is given to intercepting skuas and lightning strikers, and the mosquitoes can be put in place, they are very poor in accuracy and do not pose much of a threat. ”

Seeing the dense German fighters flying over, Colonel Sean was also numb in the front, according to the dispatch at the time of departure, his formation consisted of 24 Mosquito (horizontal bombing), 24 Skua (dive bombing), 24 TBF (lightning strikes), 24 European swallows and 12 handsome fighters, the total size reached 108, but due to the waste of time and voyage due to the search and division of troops and regrouping, 12 European swallows had returned ahead of schedule due to lack of fuel, and the fleet became 96 aircraft, The remaining 12 European Swallows were basically only 2-3 minutes in the air over the fleet, and most of the entire fleet were bombers and attack planes with relatively poor combat effectiveness.

The German anti-aircraft fire just now caused him to lose 3 Skuas, 1 TBF and 1 Euro Swallow at once, the number dropped to 91, and he saw that the Germans left more than 40 fighters in the sky over the fleet to cover - considering the combat effectiveness of the Bf-219, this number was very frightening, but he had no choice but to kill it head-on.

Less than 4 kilometers to the east of the fleet's periphery, nearly 130 planes began to fight fiercely, below are more than 30 S boats maneuvering at the highest speed, they are responsible for rescuing the pilots of their own side who fell into the water at the first time, for today's battle, all German pilots put on bulging life jackets, which are easy to identify after falling into the water, and the S boats are not afraid of bombing by enemy planes - no one is idle and bored to waste time on these more than 100 tons of small things, as for low-altitude strafing, the S boats themselves have 20mm anti-aircraft guns, Also not afraid of a small number of enemy aircraft.

The 37 German fighters intercepted in advance were obviously not enough to resist the breakthrough of more than 90 enemy aircraft, but the Bf-219s had a clear goal, giving priority to targeting the Skua and TBF to open fire, and as soon as the two sides met each other, 4 Skuas were shot down in half a minute, and as time went on, the battle became more and more intense.

At 9:59, 17 Mosquitoes, 8 Handsome Warriors, 4 European Swallows, 7 Skuas, and 11 TBFs bypassed the German aircraft interception and pounced on the fleet, in order to break through the blockade line, the British paid an additional 3 Mosquitoes, 2 Handsome Warriors, 4 Skuas, 3 European Swallows and 4 TBFs, and the remaining planes were still entangled with the Bf-219s, and the Germans were shot down 4 planes, and the remaining aircraft on both sides became 71:41.

At 10 o'clock, the 8 Bf-219s left over the fleet charged at the oncoming British group, aiming at TBF and Skuas, after a fight, the British lost 2 Mosquitoes, 1 Handsome Warrior, 1 Euroswallow and 4 Skuas, the Germans lost 2 Bf-219s, and the remaining number of planes on both sides became 63:39.

A minute later, the British fleet flew over the fleet to bomb, and the Mosquito and the handsome fighters swooped down on the two aircraft carriers, and the European swallows, who had run out of fuel, completed their cover tasks and exited one after another. However, the horizontal bombardment was a bit ugly, and the British bombers had dropped their bombs as low as possible, but the blazing fire from the dense array installed on the ships below prevented them from dropping bombs below to go below 1,200 meters, resulting in a near-miss bomb on the Europa and Zeppelin, a 500-pound bomb on the foredeck of the Scharnhorst, a bomb in the turret of Prinz Eugen 2, and three Mosquitoes and one handsome soldier shot down by the warships. The mosquito after the bomb was dropped quickly left the battlefield with the European swallow, and the handsome soldiers remained in the air to fight, and the number of remaining planes on both sides became 40:39.

At 10:02, the remaining 9 Skuas began to attack under the cover of the handsome soldiers, in the face of blazing fire, the British planes could not find a better way, they could only risk death to drop bombs, the efficiency of dive bombers was higher than that of horizontal bombers, a 500-pound bomb was hit on the deck near the bridge of Zeppelin, and the Z15 destroyer on the side of the escort was hit by a bomb and was heavily damaged, but this was the only result of the British, and the rest of the planes were in vain, but were shot down by fleet fire. The Europa, which was relatively more vulnerable, was not shot – a miracle – I have to say. The remaining 7 Skuas that had completed the bombing tried to escape, but they were beaten violently by the Bf-219 that had been freed up, and 4 more were shot down, of course, accidental damage also appeared, and 1 Bf-219 was hit down by their own anti-aircraft fire, and the number of remaining planes on both sides became 31:38.

At 10:05, the slowest TBF struggled to get rid of the German fighter pursuit and launched an attack, the target was also two aircraft carriers, but it was necessary to solve the escort warship next to the aircraft carrier first, in the face of the oncoming lightning strike plane, Z15, which had lost all power and went with the flow, watched the torpedo rush to him and could not avoid it, becoming the first victim of the day - sinking in a violent explosion.

The Scharnhorst used its huge body to block a must-kill torpedo for the Europa, and the port side instantly broke through a large mouth 3 meters square, and the sea water poured into it frantically, swallowing more than 1,500 tons of seawater in less than 3 minutes, and the roll reached 11 degrees, and the captain urgently injected water on the starboard side to basically restore balance, but the speed dropped to only 24 knots. The most tragic was the Prinz Eugen, a heavy cruiser on the starboard side of the Zeppelin that helped it resist two torpedoes in order to retain its flagship. Although the Prinz Eugen was far stronger and more resistant than an ordinary 10,000-ton treaty heavy cruiser, it obviously could not withstand the toss of two torpedoes, and instantly flooded in large quantities and rolled more than 15 degrees. Five minutes later, the captain decided that it could not be saved and abandoned the ship.

The TBFs who completed the attack tried to get out of the battlefield under the cover of handsome soldiers, but seeing the tragic scene of the fleet, especially the billowing smoke rising from the deck of the Zeppelin, it greatly pierced the hearts of all the fighter pilots, anyway, there were no other enemy planes now, they chased the enemy aircraft formation all the way, and while killing 5 planes, they lost 1 more at the same time, and now there are only 37 fighters left.

At 10:15, just when everyone thought that this tragic sea and air battle was going to end, the carrier-based aircraft attack team sent by Hamilton was belated, this poor attack team was unlucky today, as early as 8 o'clock to complete the initial assembly and prepare to attack, but was disturbed by the first wave of the German He-218 attack group, and finally reassembled at 8:23, the German Ju-98 attack group came again, in order to avoid becoming the target of the Bf-219, the aircraft group dispersed to the south again, Then almost simultaneously with the retreating Ju-98 formation, which had completed the offensive mission, flew over the German fleet, but in a blink of an eye it was thrown off by the former.

It's not that they don't want to go faster, it's because the Swordfish, which form the main force of the attack team, are too slow, and when the Ju-98 runs back at a speed of more than 400 kilometers, they can only slowly "climb" at a speed of less than 200 kilometers - this road of less than 300 kilometers flew for more than 90 minutes, and by the time they arrived at the battlefield, the large-scale engagement was over, and only a group of German fighters were left waiting for them. (To be continued.) )