At 11:25, the German reconnaissance plane forcibly reconnoitred and arrived at the TF44 formation for the third time, not only determined the specific location of the formation to guide the attack wave for the last time, but also confirmed the news that the US attack wave had not yet taken off, but the air defense fighters took off a lot, and they were forced back by the F6F not long after. Spruance put aside his thinking about www.biquge.info the pilots and simply ordered the fleet to turn its course 180 degrees, and he was now 100% sure that the enemy was in the north.

"Sir!" Roddick suddenly shouted excitedly, "The reconnaissance plane has discovered that the enemy fleet has two fleet aircraft carriers about 580 kilometers east-north, but the rest of the situation is unknown - the telegram was cut off in the middle of the transmission. ”

Spruance nodded, it is estimated that this plane has been shot down, compared to the German Ar-352, which is amazingly fast, the speed of SBD is really not fast, and it is reasonable that it cannot escape the pursuit, but at least he sent the position back, he nodded and said: "Arrange for the attack group to take off...... It is estimated that the enemy's attack group has been released, and we must hurry up and release the attack planes and strive to kill the opponent at one time! ”

"Full speed ahead!"

Half a minute after the order was given, the first F6F left the deck and took off, followed by the four carriers flying SBD and TBF at maximum speed.

Looking at the fleet of planes that were constantly taking off and forming a whole team, Spruance thought for a while and added: "Leave 12 more fighters to participate in the air defense of the fleet!" ”

As a result, the number of air defense fighters in the TF44 formation reached 72 units.

At the same time, on the USS Ise, Simon looked at Crake very nervously: "Sir, what to do?" We've been found out too! ”

Crank's face was very solemn, but he was still calm, and asked, "Remember when Tsukahara and General Ozawa talked about what to do in this situation?" ”

Simon blurted out: "I know that when the strength is weaker than the opponent and the distance is still far away, once the enemy plane is discovered, there are two better response strategies: first, the fleet scatters and escapes, without considering the recovery of the aircraft, the attack group launches a decisive attack, and does its best to protect the ship!" Second, take the initiative to divide the troops, abandon some ships as bait, and retain the living forces to wait for the second counteroffensive! ”

"Judging from the current situation, because the US attack group did not take off and the distance is relatively long, plus the time it takes for them to take off, form a team, and fly, it is expected that it will take at least 2-2.5 hours to arrive, and these two methods are possible, but I plan to use the second option." Kranke said in an accentuated tone, "Ships are not the most scarce thing for us, there are more than 10 aircraft carriers lying on the slipways of Germany and Italy, and after the new construction of the Axis class in the future, European countries can start construction of 20 ships a year, and we will not be short of warships in the future." But pilots are the most precious, and the reason why we still have a little advantage over Britain and the United States in the early stage is because the pilots are stronger than them, and these elite fighters must not give up. So I decided to go for the second option! ”

The dilemma of British and American carrier-based aircraft pilots can be grasped quickly through the interrogation of captured personnel, so Japan and Germany are now very happy with pilots, especially excellent pilots, how dare they give up casually?

At 11:29, Cranke gave the order for the formal division of the fleet, and the whole fleet was divided into two: the heavy cruisers Savoy and Seydlitz continued to advance southward, but the speed was reduced to 16 knots, attracting the enemy's attention, and the Ise and Gneisenau turned north-east, increasing the speed to 26 knots. The few destroyers were also divided, and Cranke gritted his teeth and assigned 6 destroyers, including 4 Hedgehog-class, to the Savoy, bringing only 2 destroyers with him, and then divided 16 of the 23 air defense fighters into the Savoy formation.

His logic was very clear, using the Savoy formation as a decoy to attract the enemy's attention, and since the two sides were far apart, the situation would be easier to handle after the US attack plane group was entangled for a long time -- if the US planes still wanted to return home, they could only give up pursuing and attacking the Ise formation. Of course, this strategy is also very risky, and it will be troublesome if the enemy bites the Ise first, but in this case, the probability of Savoy's decoy formation being saved will increase considerably.

At 11:49, the radar room informed Spruance: "Sir, the enemy plane is coming, the distance is about 140 kilometers, and the number is more than 80 aircraft......"

He turned his head and asked Roddick: "How long will it take for our planes to take off?" ”

"It could be another 8-10 minutes."

"Let the fighters come out as far as they can."

Unexpectedly, Roddick looked embarrassed: "I'm afraid, this is difficult to ......"

"Why?" Spruance was surprised, "The enemy is fast? ”

"No, it's high!" Roddick smiled bitterly, "The radar shows that the enemy aircraft group is coming from an altitude of 9,000 meters, and our army's F6F is very slow to move above 7,000 meters, although it can reach 9,000 meters (the maximum ceiling is 11,000 meters), but basically there is no ability to maneuver, and it is so heavy that it is to death!" ”

"Damn it!" Spruance's heart sank suddenly—the enemy had new equipment!

Roddick's worries soon became a reality, and after discovering that the German attack group approached from a high altitude, several F6Fs on the periphery did not admit defeat and directly chose to climb and volley, but at an altitude of 9,000 meters, these F6Fs were simply a weighing stone, and as soon as they fought, 8 F6Fs were shot down by the escorted Do-412. The starting point of the design of the Do-412 itself is a high-altitude volley, which can be used to fight heavy bombers like B-17 \ B-29, not to mention 9000 meters, the performance at an altitude of 10,000 meters is still basically normal, of course, the horizontal dogfight at low altitude relative to the Bf-219 is definitely not as good, but now the German pilots only want to play high-altitude and high-speed, who will play dog fighting with you again?

The F6F's strategy of trying to climb first and then lure down the enemy planes did not work, and the Germans ignored the US planes that dived and broke away, and rushed straight towards the US fleet. Today, there are no torpedo planes in the German attack formation, and the most customary onion peeling tactic is difficult to work, but the advantage brought by high altitude and high speed is also obvious, and it directly occupies the attack position in the middle of the fleet.

The 76mm anti-aircraft guns installed on the US aircraft carriers and destroyers in service in late 1943 were equipped with VT proximity fuses, but at an altitude of about 9,000 meters, the lethality of the 76mm anti-aircraft guns was not strong.

Although Lieutenant Colonel Walter, who led the team, wanted to directly pounce on the two Essex-class ships with more obvious targets, judging from the density of anti-aircraft fire, these two were by no means easy targets, and there were dozens of fighters eyeing them below, maybe they would be covered in bruises. He took the group around and said over the radio: "Cohen, wait until you take the fighter jets down to tease the Americans, I will use Plan 3!" ”

"Understood!"

"Attention members, Plan 3!"

"Understood!"

All of a sudden, the large formation of 84 planes was broken down into more than 10 small formations, and then began to dive, and the height plummeted, 8,000 meters, 7,000 meters, 6,000 meters......

Seeing that the enemy began to attack and entered the predetermined altitude where the F6F was stationed, the US pilots around immediately flew over to prepare for an interception, but at this moment, the attack planes that were originally diving suddenly quickly changed to climb, and the Do-412 swooped down in the air to play BZ tactics, and one after another F6F were originally aimed at attack aircraft, and they also followed the German planes to climb when they were caught off guard, but they were hit by the Do-412. In less than 90 seconds, Captain Cohen led a fighter formation to kill 17 F6Fs that were intended to intercept, and his side only lost 3 planes, which made the US pilots scream.

The attack aircraft group again climbed to an altitude of about 8000 meters, then regrouped, dispersed, dived...... Dive to a height of about 5500 meters and quickly leveled, this time the F6Fs who learned to be obedient were not fooled, and continued to stay in the middle of the altitude to monitor the top, to prevent another wave of enemy fighters, but never expected, this time they were fooled again, not long after the leveling, the attack aircraft group did not choose to climb but continued to dive directly, aiming at the Unicorn and San Jacinto in the middle of the formation.

"Oops!" Spruance and Roddick, who were watching the game below, still not know that they had been fooled?

The fighter pilots also found out that they had been fooled and hurriedly flew over to remedy it, but it was too late.

More than 20 Ju-198s began to attack around the two smaller US air planes, and the brave German pilots even resorted to a long-practiced combo tactic -- dropping two 400-kilogram bombs in the magazine at a speed of 0.2 seconds apart. They have tested this tactic during their training in China, and if they have a full grasp of the bombing accuracy and the judgment of the landing point, the trajectory of the bomb under the two consecutive hits will be very close to the landing point, which can maximize the effect of joint destruction, and when they are lucky, there will even be an incredible result -- the first bomb explodes to form a large hole just enough for the second bomb to pass through, and then the second bomb can fly down along the blown hole to attack the deep structure and compartment of the ship.

The German pilots, who knew that the attack opportunity was precious, now directly used the combo, instead of dropping the bomb first to pull up the effect and then carry out the normal action of the second round of bombing.

The sailors of the Unicorn and San Jacinto below tried their best to avoid the bombs falling from the sky, and the 40mm and 20mm anti-aircraft guns opened fire fiercely, pulling up a barrage of fire nets in the air, trying to envelop the attacking German attack planes, and two Ju-198s could not avoid it, and were hit by the dense fire that turned into a fireball in the air and fell.

But there were too many German planes that pounced, and they ignored the casualties of their comrades, continued to grit their teeth and rush down, attacking the two warships one after another!