In the face of the enemy's unbridled killing, Eisenhower felt as if his heart was dripping blood, and suddenly he thought of something, and immediately nervously informed: "Tell the group of planes that are now airdropped in the direction of Somalia, after the mission is completed, find a suitable airfield to land inland, and never return to Mombasa......

When all the planes had completed their offensive mission, the entire city of Mombasa was in flames, and there was billowing smoke everywhere, and the Combined Axis Fleet lost only 11 aircraft, of which 7 were shot down in air battles and 4 were shot down by anti-aircraft fire during ground and sea attacks.

"Well played! Well played! "All the officers were dancing, and the pilots returning to the carrier were also recalling the remarkable results achieved with the new aircraft, and asked the ground crews to replenish their fuel bombs as soon as possible in preparation for a second attack on Mombasa, which was to be replaced with bombs this time as all the ship's targets had been sunk.

Richthofen was very satisfied with the results of the first wave: a total of 81 aircraft were ejected and taken off from the Shozuru, except for 16 Bf-219 aircraft that served as fleet cover aircraft and were not put into foreign operations, 65 aircraft were put into operation, a total of 60 aircraft returned to the mothership, and only 5 aircraft were lost in the battle, and the losses of the Japanese air force were similar to those of the German army, only 6 aircraft were lost, and they shot down nearly 50 enemy aircraft, and the pilots of these 11 aircraft were not necessarily all killed, After a while, the fleet will dispatch seaplanes to search and rescue the pilots as much as possible. Although several planes on the Xianghe had problems during landing, they did not cause a particularly major accident, and the pilots rescued them unharmed, while the damaged planes were pushed into the sea by the quick-eyed ground crews to avoid damage to subsequent landings. From this point of view, the immature German Sea Eagle can already take on the heavy responsibility.

Richthofen was particularly satisfied with the unexpected gain of sinking the aircraft carrier Fury, and according to the comprehensive analysis of intelligence from all sides and the analysis of today's results, there are currently only four Brilliant-class aircraft carriers left in the British regular fleet, of which three are fighting in the Pacific theater (I don't know the specific name), and Britain has only one Brilliant-class fleet aircraft carrier left at most on its homeland. When extrapolating the strength of the troops, he did not expect that Britain did have an aircraft carrier (the Indomitable) that did not appear in the Far East, but it was not stationed on the mainland as he estimated, and the ship was hit by several bombs in August and has been repaired at the Norfolk shipyard in the United States, and it is scheduled to be fully repaired by the end of February. Coupled with the test and return time after the completion of the repair, it means that the British will have at least 2 months without a regular air carrier in the North Sea direction. The British Navy also knew the essence of its weakness, so on the one hand, it hurriedly recalled two Tejas class ships from the Far East, and on the other hand, ordered several escort aircraft carriers to play the role of fleet aircraft carriers to intimidate the German Navy.

"Prepare to launch a second wave of attacks, focusing on material warehouses and all kinds of port facilities, so that the Americans will not be able to get supplies, will not be able to use the port, and completely paralyze the entire city of Mombasa......" He resolutely gave the order, and at the same time he sent a secret telegram to the naval command Raeder, telling him that the British only had one aircraft carrier at most in the North Sea, and it was the "Tsunami Plan" to seize the launch of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Judging from the performance of HNA this time, it is not difficult to complete the run-in with Zeppelin as soon as possible and give full play to its combat effectiveness, and the Germans with Zeiss are far more developed than Japan in the field of optics and observation, and if a HNA pilot can successfully land on the Xianghe with guidance and his own experience, it will be easier and easier to land on Zeppelin. Now it's time for him to have a headache about which people to choose to be the first to be on board.

Tsukahara 243 looked at him with a smile and reminded: "If it is found that the enemy target is more than our fleet, and the first wave of feedback is particularly smooth, we should pay attention to increase the search for the surrounding area to see if there are any fish that have slipped through the net, and at the same time beware of the defenders launching a counterattack......"

After being reminded, Richthofen remembered that none of the pilots who had engaged enemy planes, nor the pilots who had gone to attack airfields or aircraft carriers, had reported seeing enemy bombers or attack planes, and it was clear that something was wrong.

Kusaka Ryunosuke also expressed doubts about this, although everyone did not believe that Britain and the United States still had aircraft carriers lurking around, but they all believed that it was necessary to carefully search Mombasa in all directions, not to let go of all suspicious points, and at the same time to increase the number of fighters in the fleet to cover again, to prevent those bombers or attack planes that had slipped through the net from attacking the fleet.

Just as the ships were about to launch a second wave of attacks, the second order from the commander-in-chief, Hori Tsukichi, came down: "The artillery fleets are advancing at full speed and launching an artillery bombardment of Mombasa, while the rest of the fleet escorts the mobile fleet forward 50 nautical miles according to the plan." ”

"Ahead of schedule?" Richthofen was puzzled: didn't he say that he would act in the afternoon, use the night to launch an artillery bombardment of the port? It was just after 9 o'clock that the order had been given, but since there was a clear order, the ships, which had already been itching, immediately complied with the order, and pounced on Mombasa at a speed of 25 knots under the leadership of the chief flagship Musashi.

Since the reconnaissance of the surrounding 300 kilometers did not find the enemy fleet, the main target of the second attack wave prepared by the mobile fleet was still the port, and in order to strengthen the defense of the fleet, up to 54 fighters were left behind to cover - anyway, the fighters and airfields in the direction of Mombasa were basically emptied, and the combined fleet of the Axis had absolute air supremacy.

In the underground headquarters in the port of Mombasa, after the Japanese and German planes retreated, Eisenhower instructed the troops to rush out to carry out the rescue, while gritting his teeth and listening to the emergency reports from all sides, more than two hours later, more and more information poured in:

"Land-based fighters and carrier-based fighters (also deployed on land airfields) lost a total of 52 aircraft, of which 47 were shot down in air combat, 5 were destroyed on the ground or during the take-off stage, about 33 pilots successfully parachuted, 17 people have been successfully searched and rescued, the rest are missing, and two Japanese and German pilots have been captured, our airfield has been completely destroyed, and a large explosion occurred in the oil depot and ammunition depot, and the losses are extremely great, only the No. 3 oil depot buried deep underground is safe. More than 400 airport defenders, ground crews and other personnel were killed and wounded......"

"All warships, transport ships or merchant ships anchored in the harbor have been sunk, the aircraft carrier Fury has blocked the shipping lane, and more than 2,000 naval officers and sailors have been successfully rescued, and it is estimated that no less than 2,0......00 people were lost or killed in the air raids."

"The docks and near-shore fortifications were attacked by the enemy, about 24 medium and large-caliber anti-aircraft guns were destroyed, there were about 12 remaining anti-aircraft firepower, and half of the 40mm and 20mm small-caliber anti-aircraft gun groups remained, with an overall casualty of more than 700 people, and there were 49 material warehouses at the wharf, of which 17 were intact and buried in the rubble, and 14 could still be saved, and the rest of the warehouses were completely destroyed or still on fire, of which the No. 2 ammunition depot, No. 5 and No. 6 two gasoline and diesel depots were destroyed, and the No. 1 heavy oil depot was on fire, ...... can't be rescued at the moment."

"The ground troops basically took refuge in the anti-aircraft fortifications, and the tanks, armored vehicles, artillery and anti-aircraft guns exposed to the ground were attacked by the enemy, and the losses were slight, and the overall casualties did not exceed 100."

"The radar station and communication hub have been damaged and are currently being repaired, and the water supply and power supply facilities are basically intact, but the hospital is understaffed, and the supply of medicine and plasma is in short supply, and assistance is urgently needed."

Eisenhower had just ordered them to save the wounded at all costs, when the mournful sirens sounded again, and a second wave of air raids arrived, this time focusing on the fortifications, batteries, warehouses and buildings near the shore, and under the attack of 500 or even 800 kilograms of aerial bombs, all the fortifications were swept away, and Mombasa was completely undefended.

At about 3 o'clock in the afternoon, as soon as the air raid planes had retreated, the observation post set up on the top of the hill was horrified to find that a black warship had appeared on the black surface, and it was rushing towards the port at a relatively fast speed.

Before they could figure out what was going on, the huge Axis Combined Fleet artillery formation had arrived at its designated position, and at a distance of 25,000 meters, the shelling was launched under the guidance of the Musashi's 460mm caliber main gun, and the commander-in-chief of the artillery fleet was Admiral Iyakinso, commander of the Italian Navy. Although such staffing and command capabilities may not be the strongest, at least the balance between the three countries is well managed.

On the battleship Veneto, Iyakinso was methodically assigning artillery targets to each ship, because the Japanese battleships' shells could not be replenished, and could only firing 7-8 rounds of symbolic salvos, and the main force of the shelling was taken by the Italians, and the Italian Navy, which had returned from many naval battles such as Taranto and Cape Matapan, finally waited for the moment to raise its eyebrows, and the three Litorio-class battleships with a total of 27 381mm caliber main guns opened fierce fire, and the commander of the German Mediterranean Fleet, Admiral Krake (he was defeated by the Black Sea Campaign, The battlecruiser Strasbourg, commanded by the battlecruiser Strasbourg, which was successfully promoted to the rank of admiral a few months earlier than in history, was joined by the chorus of artillery fire, and then the 203mm guns of the heavy cruisers opened fire in turn.

Since the port forts of Mombasa were not strong and most of them were destroyed in the second round of air raids, the artillery fleet confidently and boldly approached the attack, starting from 25,000 meters and continuing to 5,000 meters from the port. By this time, Eisenhower finally understood what was going on in the dense bombardment of the defenders of Kuah Island, with more than half of them suffering casualties. (To be continued.) )