Everyone was in a hurry, first sent Admiral Jin to the hospital, this time the ill Admiral Jin did not recover from the hospital like last time, and only barely woke up after emergency rescue, several bigwigs did not say a word on the road, I don't know what to say. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

After Admiral Kim recovered, Li Haicai, who had straightened out all aspects and all kinds of relations, said to him: "Don't worry, the telegram came twice later, and it was made more clear that in the face of all the main forces of the combined fleet, they really held out until the last moment......

In the afternoon of the same day, Tsunoda took advantage of the fact that the distance between the two sides was only more than 400 kilometers to organize 67 planes to launch a second round of attacks, and the aircraft carrier Bunker Hill used the repaired deck of the aircraft carrier to magically organize an air defense group of 11 fighters, and finally all 11 planes were exhausted. Although Tsunoda was a little anxious, he did not lose his mind, knowing that he had the advantage of carrier-based aircraft, and he thought that he could not use the same method of striking with a tooth for a tooth to die with the Americans -- that would not be cost-effective!

"You must know that you are the best pilots of the Imperial Navy, built over many years with countless money, sweat and even blood, several of you have even been fighting since the Battle of Pearl Harbor, we must fight bravely, but we must not die easily, everyone must survive, because there are many more and more important enemy warships waiting for you to sink! The empire has not yet won, how dare you sacrifice your life lightly! Give me a good life! ”

However, the second round of the attack on which he had high hopes did not completely work, and the Iowa played the role of a strong backbone, using its large and solid body to resist 5 torpedoes, and even used its crippled body to resist 2 in order to cover the Bunker Hill, in addition to eating 6 bombs, the Bunker Hill was hit again with 1 torpedo and 3 bombs, and this time the deck of the aircraft carrier was finally completely destroyed - but the American army also had no planes.

Since these two capital ships absorbed most of the firepower, except for one light cruiser that was sunk, the rest of the destroyers were the same - the battle report made Kakura Tsunoda almost bite his teeth but there was nothing he could do, and this time the second air battle lost 9 planes!

But soon, Minoru Genda shouted excitedly: "Chief Tsukahara has sent troops, and he sent Yuanda to carry out a third round of attacks with 50 of the most elite aircraft!" ”

"Onboard!" All the officers and men on the warship cheered.

At first, many people did not think so, thinking that Chief Hori made a big mistake and that only one US detachment would have committed all the main forces of the Combined Fleet, and even did not hesitate to postpone the Battle of Midway.

The TF44 fleet, which thought it would finally be able to escape victoriously, finally failed to resist Fuchida's third attack wave -- these 50 planes were like the last straw that broke the camel's back, and the US fleet finally couldn't hold on, and the two warships were sunk or abandoned one after another, and when Iowa was finally sunk, it was sunk into the sea with the scars of 9 torpedoes and 11 bombs, and the Bunker Hill had eaten a total of 4 torpedoes and 9 500-kilogram bombs, which was really not the best for an aircraft carrier of more than 20,000 tons.

In the third round of attack, 2 bombs hit the bridge, the first bomb caused the chief of staff Roddick and more than 20 staff officers to be killed on the spot, Spruance wanted to sink with the ship, but then the second bomb left him seriously injured and unconscious, and finally was carried into the sea by a Mississippi River grown-up, struggling to climb into the lifeboat to escape, and finally the fleet had 1 destroyer left to escape the pursuit, and Spruance was rescued on the destroyer.

By nightfall, the captain escaped the pursuit circle and advanced in the direction of Australia, and turned to the south halfway, what is more embarrassing is that due to the distance, the ship itself has limited fuel and has experienced a death escape, in order to prevent the fuel from running out and floating on the water, he must ask the Australian side to rescue.

Upon learning of the fate of the TF44 fleet, Ingram, who was at Pearl Harbor, instructed the Australian Navy and Air Force heavy bombers to come to meet them at all costs, and at the same time asked the heavy seaplane Katrina to go first to rescue the seriously wounded - the original intention was to rescue Spruance, of course, but it cannot be said so bluntly.

Whether Spruance survived or not was still a matter of doubt, but the fall of TF44 was clearly an indisputable fact, which ruined the original plan to reinforce the Pacific direction. Of course, this time the board can't hit Spruance, it was the damn political factors that made him go to that doomed place in India to send reinforcements and was caught, if he had quietly run directly from South Africa, what would have happened? Moreover, Spruance is still fighting for an aircraft carrier of the opponent in the case of superior enemy forces, which is not ineffective.

"This is a great stupidity that we have done, and we must not do it in the future, otherwise in the future the American people will not even have a proper answer when they ask why they want to send the fleet to India."

In front of Admiral King's hospital bed, Truman suddenly came out with this sentence, and everyone present immediately understood: The vice president is using the TF44 incident to indirectly express his stance on the Icelandic rescue war -- the meaning is okay, don't bet your hole cards and your net worth and your life. In particular, the fleet in Nimitz's hands is the last aircraft carrier fleet of the US Navy in the Atlantic Ocean and even in the global oceans, and it cannot be lost again.

Arnold, who understood this, immediately adjusted the scale of the army bomber sortie tomorrow to 180, and it must also "voluntarily participate", and Admiral Lehi and Admiral Kim nodded, knowing in their hearts, the saddest thing is Marshall -- after all, there are three army divisions in Iceland, but he can't say anything, war always has a price, but this time the price is the army's turn to bear, he bowed his head and returned to the joint staff meeting without saying a word, not knowing what he was thinking. Eisenhower tried to comfort him, but he didn't know where to start.

To tell the truth, if this kind of thing happened in Newfoundland, the army, army, and navy would have tried their best to press it over, but in Iceland, the sense of distance is too far, and even Britain intends to give up when necessary.

While the U.S. military was discussing a reduction in the number of troops to be sent tomorrow, the British side was also caught in an atmosphere of indecisiveness.

Judging from today's results, the British and American air raids still had certain results, severely damaging one fleet aircraft carrier with the greatest threat and sinking or seriously damaging three light aircraft carriers; if we can maintain today's rhythm and sink (heavily damage) the enemy's three or four aircraft carriers, the German army will lose its most important air force.

But the telegram sent back by Marshal Deere made their hearts cold for a while: the Americans reported that due to the heavy losses and the fact that tomorrow the distance was even longer (more than 2,600 kilometers each way), the US Army would be able to dispatch only about 200 planes tomorrow.

Everyone was mentally prepared for the US military to reduce the number of planes, and they had to reduce the number of planes, but the Americans suddenly dropped to only one-third of the original number, which made them very uncomfortable, but the news sent back by Marshal Dill about the TF44 fleet made London not know how to speak -- after all, this fleet was sent by the US side in accordance with London's demands, and now that the whole army has been destroyed, it seems that the other side should not be blamed.

"Tomorrow we are going to send 300 planes to attack the German beachhead." Portall sighed, "Today, the losses of both airfields, pilots and planes are too great to afford to consume, and judging from today's battle situation, the accuracy of horizontal bombers attacking warships is too poor, and it is only at the level of 1-2 out of 100, and then it is interfered with by enemy fighters, and the hit rate is even lower." ”

"My opinion is to attack the German fleet." Pound said, "Without the support of the fleet, they can't get on the ......"

"But the Germans have begun to land, and that damn armored ship is shelling coastal positions." "The enemy has several powerful battleships in the open sea, and if you must strike the enemy fleet, then simply attack these warships." ”

Pound shook his head: "It is useless to deal with battleships by aerial bombs, especially the bombs of horizontal bombers, torpedoes." ”

"Then get on the torpedo machine!" Brooke muttered.

"Forget it, more than 1,000 kilometers of road, the torpedo machine is a live target."

After an introduction, Brooke learned that whether it is a domestically produced swordfish, barracuda, or tuna or an American TBF, the flight speed is very slow after carrying a torpedo, and the Royal Navy will only engage in torpedo attacks for some carrier-based aircraft pilots, because German heavy warships are few and almost do not operate in the North Sea direction, land-based torpedo planes are not only small in number but also can be used by fewer officers and men.

In the end, in desperation, everyone agreed: send 400 planes to make a final effort, half to attack the German landing force on the beachhead, and half to attack the German aircraft carrier formation.

After reading their battle plan, Churchill was not satisfied: "Can we only send such a small number of planes?" Didn't you tell me that the Royal Air Force has tens of thousands of combat aircraft? ”

"There are so many combat planes, but many of them are short-legged hurricanes and Spitfires, and the F6F and Tubenose Swallows can't fly that far with a slightly longer range, even the P-51\P-47\Mosquitoes that can fly far lack enough range and can only parachute or make a forced landing in Iceland, originally we optimistically expected that Blenheim should be able to return normally after hanging the drop fuel tank, but it turned out that some of the planes were not successful, and then the planes that were able to carry out the mission smoothly lost a lot in the operation today - whether on the ground or in the air, The losses inflicted on us by the enemy are very large. In addition to 4 bombers, the main force of tomorrow's air attack will be a medium bomber. "And there's not much aviation fuel, and if we continue to fight at this intensity, we won't wait until the end of next month to get rid of the fuel." ”

"Really?"

"The Navy sent us 20,000 tons of fuel, but do you know how much fuel was lost today?" Potter held out a hand and waved it at Churchill, "A full 50,000 tons of fuel oil was reduced to ashes in the air raid." I've even stopped using pilot training oil for the time being, sir, we're actually drinking to quench our thirst......"

"Well, at least increase the number to 500?" Churchill came up a long time later.

"500 is 500!" Potter sighed, blank for what to expect......