The Aquila was not the end of the German losses of the day, because the Zeppelin was the largest, the most obvious target, and the flagship logo, which became a thorn in the side of the Allied aircraft group, SBD and TBF rushed towards this regular aircraft carrier one after another, the captain maneuvered nimly to dodge at least 4 bombs, but there were 2 torpedoes that could not dodge, and at the critical moment, the Algerian heavy cruiser, which took its place after the sinking of the heavy cruiser Suffron, used its body to block these two deadly torpedoes for the flagship. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

Even if the Algeria is a representative of the relatively excellent defense capability in the treaty-type 10,000-ton heavy cruise, this does not mean that he can resist two aviation torpedoes and be unscathed, in fact, the US military unanimously criticized the torpedoes and added the stimulation of the Japanese and German torpedoes, the quality of the US torpedoes that has been repeatedly improved has been earth-shattering, and the explosion power is not small, and two huge openings have been opened directly on the starboard side, and the fleet top brass can only watch the ship finally capsize due to excessive water inflow after pouring into a large amount of seawater, due to the rapid sinking speed, At least half of the officers and soldiers did not escape.

"Sir, good news, our attack aircraft group sank a fleet aircraft carrier, 2 heavy cruisers, and severely damaged 1 fleet aircraft carrier, suspected to be the Aquila, and ......" The staff officer had just reported halfway to Cunningham, when suddenly a shrill siren sounded on the radio, "The radar found a large number of aircraft, the number is enough 200, the altitude is 5000 meters, the distance is 140 kilometers, the speed is 250 knots, and the direction is 175 degrees ......"

Spruance sighed and said helplessly: "It is estimated that this is an attack group released by the enemy...... The army aviation bragged to us again, they didn't consume many enemy planes at all, otherwise with the German 5 aircraft carriers and deducting the remaining air defense fighters, how could they send so many planes? ”

Cunningham's originally slightly happy smile froze suddenly, and he was speechless for a while, silent and did not say a word.

The surrounding staff officers were gloomy, and the news reported by Washington was that the German army had lost at least 200 aircraft, and the fleet had estimated that the total number of German carrier-based aircraft was between 320 and 350, and after deducting the loss of 200 aircraft, at most 150 remained, and according to the number of more than 80 enemy air defense fighters reported by the attack group, it was believed that the German army could only send an attack formation of 70-80 aircraft at best, and now the fleet has 84 air defense fighters. Everyone was very optimistic about holding back a possible enemy attack. Now it seems that this is a completely false judgment of the enemy's situation, and it is difficult to say whether the German carrier-based aircraft have lost more than 80 planes, and the army aviation has lied about the military situation but has made the fleet miserable, which is really fatal!

In fact, the German aircraft carrier formation usually has less than 280 planes in total, and if it were not for Ozawa's 140 planes called in through cross-platform operations, plus more than 70 land-based planes added during the day today, the German side would not have been able to gather such a large offensive formation. Although Arnold's 200 aircraft reported exaggerated the German army's losses, in fact, the number of German aircraft lost more than 160 planes after continuous operations, which is not too far from the number reported by the Army Aviation and is within a reasonable deviation.

Canning calmed down and said in a calm tone: "Now is not the time to think about this, set up the anti-aircraft formation, let the fighters interfere with the enemy's attack as much as possible, and let the anti-aircraft guns fire fiercely." Gentlemen, we haven't failed yet, so we have to have the courage to stay the course! ”

"Yes!"

At the joint meeting in the afternoon, an atmosphere of anxiety and anxiety enveloped the entire venue, and everyone was restless, eagerly waiting for the battle report to be sent from the front -- the army aviation dispatched a total of seven rounds and mobilized more than 500 planes today.

Before the "...... could say the word "sir" in a hurry, Ingram had already snatched the telegram and read it, and after a few seconds, he was greatly relieved, and quickly handed the telegram to Admiral King.

The latter also sat down in his chair with relief, but immediately sat up straight again, and while handing the telegram to Marshall, he criticized Arnold with a fierce voice: "Admiral Cunningham complained that the Army Aviation had misreported the military situation, that they were about to be attacked by 200 enemy planes, and they estimated that the Germans had lost only 80 planes!" ”

"This ...... This...... This...... How can it be? Arnold was speechless in surprise, and retorted excitedly after leaning in, "On Prince Edward Island alone, we found nearly 30 wreckage of German planes, and also found more than 20 German pilots who parachuted, and the Germans in the direction of Konabrook also had such a big loss, plus other losses one after another, how could it be that there were only 80 planes!" ”

"Now this is the case, otherwise where did the Germans get so many planes to go on the offensive?"

"It's possible to get in and out a little, but it's a bit wrong to go in and out so much, is the enemy still hiding a power that we don't know?" Eisenhower had an idea and asked, "Could it be that their aircraft carrier, which broke diplomatic relations on the Anglo-Canadian route, has also joined?" ”

"The investigation has not found it now, but this possibility cannot be ruled out."

"Okay." Admiral Kim reluctantly accepted this explanation, "In any case, it is better to wait for the admiral to fight this battle first, and the army aviation still has to mobilize enough troops and bleed the German aircraft carrier formation tomorrow." ”

Marshall looked at Admiral King and asked, "Didn't you say just now that the British said that there are still 2 aircraft carriers that are basically ready, can you let them support Admiral Cunningham?" ”

"This ......"

At present, the United States has delivered a total of three aircraft carriers, one large and one small, including the Hornet, the Wasp (both Essex-class), and one is the San Jacinto (Independence-class), of which the Hornet and the San Jacinto are both British forces, and the Wasp is for the US military's own use. These are all new ships that have just been delivered to the troops for final sea trials in mid-to-late November, of which the Wasp has only participated in sea trials for only five days, and the longest Hornet has only 13 days, but because the British Navy has relatively more personnel and more experience, and the carrier-based aircraft pilots are also better than the US military, it is much faster than the US military to master the performance of warships and be familiar with operations.

Based on the tension of the war on the front line, the Anglo-Canadian route has not been opened for a long time, and a large number of supplies and ships have been destroyed, and the British are also so anxious that they are smoking, and the British military delegation stationed in Washington has sent an urgent inquiry to pull these warships out to fight, and the news was obtained after noon today, but the reinforcements can only be the Hornet and the San Jacinto, and now the last group of officers and soldiers and carrier-based aircraft pilots of the Royal Navy who have participated in the war and have practical experience are all gathered on it, which can be called the last bit of blood and blood of the British Empire, The Wasp, which is mostly a recruit, is a no-no. Marshall's reinforcements were referring to these two aircraft carriers.

"Since the British have this wish, I think it can satisfy them...... The Cunningham fleet will definitely have big losses today, but as long as the backbone is maintained, the two fleets can launch another attack on the Germans tomorrow after they join forces, and there is still a chance to leave the entire German fleet behind! Tomorrow, the army will have to send more than 300 planes into battle, and even if they are all exhausted, they will have to consume 100 planes for me! Admiral Jin said with a serious expression, "The HNA has 200 land-based planes, which is also the same operational requirement, and I have to knock the Germans down if they collide!" In the future, if Congress asks questions and asks them to come to me, I will take full responsibility! ”

"Yes......" Admiral King said this, Boss Marshall didn't stop it, Arnold could only agree with a sad face, he didn't dare to guarantee that this order would not cause a backlash from the pilots, but now obviously can't care about this.

While the Joint Chiefs of Staff were intensively planning to increase Cunningham's troops, Frank had already led the first wave of attack aircraft to attack, and he did not know that his own mothership had been killed by the enemy, and in order to prevent him from being distracted, Ozawa did not inform him. The fighters of the two sides quickly became entangled, and Cunningham was left with 84 fighters, most of which were American, and the German escort fighters were fewer than the opponents, but technically crushed. Because the American planes left behind were not the most capable among the enemy, on the contrary, they were weak and could not fly that far in large formations, so they were left by Cunningham to serve as the task of fleet air defense.

Frank was also taken aback by the huge formation of 7 aircraft carriers and a large number of other warships lined up in a wheeled air defense formation on the sea, but he did not directly rush in to attack the 2 Essex classes in the center and with the most dense firepower, but chose to start from the independent class on the periphery. Due to the remote distance of this attack, the He-218, which was relatively short of fuel, did not wait for the fighters to exchange fire and split the obvious victory and defeat.

With Frank's order, 4 He-218 attack groups pounced in the air, 12 planes ignored the dense firepower below, and scattered towards the target at an angle of nearly 90 degrees of dive, perfectly interpreting the prestige of the world's first dive bombing power and the technical level of the Socotra Aviation School, 12 500 kg bombs roared and exploded almost at the same time, directly hitting the opponent 4, nearly missing 3, and the other 5 were lost, and the Cabot and Monterey, which each hit 2 bombs, immediately struggled to sink, The ship lost all power and floated on the surface of the sea like a dead fish, and the gap in the right flank of the American defensive formation was immediately opened.

Taking advantage of the opportunity of the gap opening, the joint attack aircraft and the Ju-98s began to join forces, showing a fan-shaped attack surface to launch torpedoes, several planes were blown up by the US anti-aircraft fire and fell into the sea, but most of the torpedoes were successfully launched, especially the special mines mounted under the belly of the joint attack aircraft, which can be launched from 2,000 meters away, and the speed is still fast, which can be called the first anti-ship weapon.

The huge fleet immediately dispersed and turned to evade, like a frightened fish fleeing in a hurry...... (To be continued.) )