100 kilometers was a matter of minutes for a group of aircraft on both sides with a relative speed of more than 800 kilometers, and soon the Germans were in front of the Allied aircraft group, which was busy gathering their ranks and adjusting their formations, and the latter was forced to meet in a hurry. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

Hartmann is not as arrogant as Marseilleu, the combat target is only to pick fighters, he does not refuse to come, big and small, he has beaten the B-17 and beaten the old swordfish, where Britain and the United States can fly at sea, there is nothing he does not fight, he stared at the target at the beginning was SBD, rushed over and fired 2 SBDs in a row in just 40 seconds, the efficiency is unbelievable.

There was a peculiar scene in the sea and air, the smaller number of German planes pressed the Allied aircraft group hard, the latter flashed left and right, and never found a good way to break through, the worst was the torpedo-mounted TBF formation, which was slow and flew low, although there was the best cover of the F6F-5 fighters, it still became a live target for the Bf-219 and was "taken care of", and one after another fell into the sea.

As the battle between the two sides unfolded, both sides could not help but feel surprised, the German pilots thought that the opponent's strength was not weak, and that it was much stronger than the combat effectiveness of the American units encountered in the past few days, and that it was not an opponent that could be easily dealt with, while the British and American pilots were shocked by the skillful skills and vigorous fighting spirit of the German pilots -- didn't the commanders say that the German fighters were almost worn down by other units on their own side before they set off, why could a large group still emerge, could it be that Germany was all supermen? If you are dead or fallen, can you be resurrected? As for the skills of the German pilots, they are also miraculous, I really don't know how the Germans brought together a bunch of ace pilots for HNA?

According to the standards of Britain and the United States, the German HNA especially the fighter is an out-and-out ace concentration camp, the worst pilots here also have a history of shooting down 7 enemy planes, and pilots who shot down 30-50 aircraft abound, and now 50 points is the starting point of the German fighter ace (1 point for shooting down a single-engine aircraft, 2 points for twin engines, 4 points for 4 shots, and so on), and those who have not been transferred to HNA from the Eastern Front are embarrassed to come out to meet people, otherwise, who will master the complex cross-platform tactics? Even if the students who graduated from the HNA Independent Aviation School had to go to the "novice village" of the Eastern Front to practice before they dared to take it back and use it, if they couldn't survive on the Eastern Front, then going to HNA would be fatal sooner or later.

Five minutes passed, 10 minutes passed, although the Allied planes fell down vigorously, but the sweaty Koch found that his own losses seemed to be quite a lot, and the difficulty of solving the enemy in 15 minutes that he had just boasted about seemed to be not small, and what was even worse was that as time went by, the planes that the Allied troops arrived at the scene continued to gather.

Seeing that the situation was somewhat more than expected, Koch immediately asked the fighter unit to retract and prepare to regroup in formation...... In the 15-minute battle, the Germans lost 17 planes at once, the Allied losses were 55, and the exchange ratio between the two sides was only more than 3:1, because the follow-up Allies gathered more than 30 planes, and now the ratio of troops over the battlefield is 43:85, and the Allies still occupy a numerical advantage of more than double. Seeing that the Germans were defeated, they rushed over unrelentingly.

Cunningham's fleet has a total of 7 aircraft carriers, including 4 U.S. aircraft: USS Bunker Hill (Essex)-class, USS Langley, USS Capote, and USS Monterey (all of which are of the Independence class); The British army has 3 ships: the Unicorn, the Brave (Essex class) and the Cowbans (Independence class), although there are many of them, but the Independence class and the Unicorn have only 30 aircraft/ship, so in the end, by overloading the Essex class, they have a total of 326 aircraft, and the cautious Cunningham transferred 242 aircraft to launch a full-deck attack, leaving the remaining 84 aircraft for fleet cover.

If more than 240 planes had swooped down on the original plan, these 72 German planes would certainly not have been able to stop them, but because of the uneven quality of the pilots, only 94 planes rushed to the battlefield in the first batch -- the most elite pilots in the entire British and American aircraft carrier formations, and then other planes rushed to the scene in small formations one after another, and when the German interceptor group retreated, the number of planes that had rushed to the attack site had reached 140, and there were still 85 planes after the loss of 55 planes.

The pilots who fought on the front line did not know these situations, they only felt that the enemy seemed to be endless, as if they could never finish fighting, and when they heard the order to retreat, they alternately covered each other and retreated, Hartman was killing up, just now he solved 4 planes alone, it was when his hands were hot, and he suddenly heard the retreat order and couldn't help but be a little stunned, and subconsciously carefully observed the entire battlefield, it was this hesitation that made him fall into the encirclement and pursuit of 4 F6F fighters in just a dozen seconds.

In the face of such a tricky situation, Hartmann was not afraid, and immediately dived at full power, and the enemy planes behind him also dived and pursued, knowing that the F6F in their hands was faster than the Bf-219 when diving-although the gap was not hit, but not to mention that Hartmann only had 1 aircraft, and the number of planes was completely down. After the U.S. planes pursued, the two sides became faster and closer, and the British pilots fired from time to time, and Hartman smiled while shaking his wings to dodge the 12.7mm bullets behind him.

At a height of only more than 800 meters from the sea, Hartmann used the trump card compulsory course on Socotra Island - cleaning the trio small somersault, using the dense atmospheric assistance and dazzling movements at low altitude, he forced three consecutive somersaults at low altitude, and also turned the plane upside down, and the enemy plane chasing behind him was caught off guard, although he tried to pull up and change to dive, he still inevitably rushed over his head, and Hartman, who happened to be upside down, calmly observed the position of the enemy plane below him, After scolding the stupid bird, he directly launched a vertical attack, and the 20mm cannon fire quickly drilled a row of holes in the opponent's cabin cover, and the pilot let out a few screams before falling directly into the sea and died.

The other 3 planes couldn't help but be taken aback, and the pursuit action was also slowed down, Hartman immediately seized the opportunity to attack the second F6F, which was also at a low altitude, in terms of low-altitude hovering and flexible maneuverability, the F6F was far from being an opponent, and was detoured to the side by Hartman under three rounds and two rounds, and opened fire fiercely when the two sides staggered past - the last 12 rounds of 20mm cannon ammunition were all given to the opponent, and the unlucky pilot also fell headlong into the sea and was helpless.

The other two planes were so frightened that they didn't dare to continue fighting, so they simply turned their heads and pulled up and walked away, and Hartman, who had already used up all the cannon ammunition, didn't dare to make a mistake, so he immediately changed directions and quickly left the scene, and only after confirming his safety did he shout on the radio: "Ah...... Yes...... I took out 2 more, and I've taken out 13 of them today...... There are 4 more than the record! ”

Marseilleu's feat of killing 17 British planes in one day was brought to the screen, and he became a household name in Germany, establishing his prominent position as Germany's number one ace pilot, and all fighter aces with ideas have worked hard to surpass this goal, and Hartmann is no exception -- by killing four more planes, not only can he tie the record, but also break the 100 mark in total shot down. However, he was in a hurry to escape for his life when he ran out of ammunition, and he was very calm when he fled: now he must be looking for death when he landed on the aircraft carrier, and he immediately thought of going to a land-based airfield on the island of Newfoundland, where not only fuel is available, but ammunition is also sufficient!

Koch was busy directing the anti-aircraft fighters to meet the enemy, and he vaguely heard Hartmann's voice just now, but he had no time to be distracted now, because the Allied aircraft group was opening fire on the fleet, and although the anti-aircraft fire below was very fierce, it still could not prevent the enemy from launching a decisive attack, and the German losses were soon coming.

With a "boom", the integrated aircraft carrier Elbe ate a 1,000-pound bomb, located on the deck near the bridge, and immediately blew up a huge gap, and this was not the end, a torpedo thrown by TBF also hit the warship. In just 2 minutes, the Elbe began to be unable to hold on, after all, it was a comprehensive aircraft carrier rebuilt from a cruise ship, although the block looked larger than the Aquila and the Harrier, but in fact the defense capability was very fragile, not only the port side began to tilt into the water, but also the engine and boiler were also damaged, and the speed suddenly decreased to only 12 knots.

"Sir, the Elbe has been badly damaged and may not be able to save it."

Machar's face turned pale, and he immediately threw himself on the porthole to look, although he could not see the damage of the Elbe clearly because of his line of sight, but the billowing smoke fully explained his embarrassment, and he said hatefully: "If you can't keep it, you can only abandon the ship......"

Before he could finish his words, there was another loud "boom" next to him, and a column of rushing water rose from the starboard side of the heavy cruiser Suffron -- just now he had resisted a torpedo for the flagship Zeppelin, which had been wounded by a bomb that had destroyed a turret yesterday, and this time it could no longer hold on, and began to slowly sink at a speed visible to the naked eye less than 15 seconds after the captain gave the order to abandon the ship.

After Koch commanded the fleet's air defense fighters to retreat, he organized a second air defense interception line at close range, although the Do-412 in the rear tried their best to rush and kill, but still could not protect thoroughly, so far, the Germans have shot down a total of 104 Allied aircraft of various types, and they have also lost 29 of their own, but the US aircraft groups that are attacking the aircraft carrier formation from all directions are still in an endless stream, and it is only a matter of time before there will be losses, but I did not expect to lose a heavy cruiser and an auxiliary aircraft carrier all of a sudden.

At 3:47, Mashal received a telegram that caused him great pain: "The Aquila has been hit by 2 bombs, it has lost its ability to take off and land, and is now trying to save ......" (to be continued). )