Lawrence made an emergency evasive move, first diving at a large angle, then cutting inward in a small radius, and then rolling a dozen or so in a row to get rid of it, and only after releveling to see that the enemy did not follow up before he was slightly relieved. The pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info then realized: what about his wingman?

Several calls were made, but the wingman did not answer, either the equipment was broken in the engagement, or the plane had crashed, the latter being considered more likely.

He was now far away from the battlefield, and after observing the situation a little, he could see the door: the German fighters were not strangled around their own fighters, their main targets were still those attack planes with bombs and torpedoes, in the eyes of the fighters they were very clumsy, and they were very easy targets for slaughter, so in just 1-2 minutes of observation time, he saw no less than 10 attack planes shot down and fell into the sea.

The larger group was still desperately pushing forward, and the surrounding escort fighters were doing their best to protect it, but in Lawrence's opinion, such a breakthrough was hopeless - the Do-412 and Fw-190 in large formations would reap a string of lives every time they plundered, like a fat sheep desperately fleeing, and the German sharp knives were constantly picking off the wool and even mutton, and by the time they rushed to the real target, they were afraid that they would have been bled out.

This is not the saddest, the saddest thing is that these planes have all dropped the auxiliary fuel tanks, and now they are completely relying on their own fuel in the plane to support it, and the consumption is extremely high, even if they can rush to the German warship and drop bombs, only all of them will die in battle and there is no way to live.

Lawrence's inference fully reflects the value of an experienced pilot, and his judgment is completely in line with Ozawa's requirements for the Air Force: Vice Admiral Koch was originally from the Air Force, and the task assigned to the interceptor air force group was to constantly disrupt and weaken the US attack formation, emphasizing that in this kind of battle, we should not be too entangled with British and American fighters, but should fight attack planes that are more stupid and have worse resistance capabilities, and bleed all the way with a battlefield width of 250 kilometers, and in the end there are very few people who can pounce on the fleet.

Another bonus of this interception is that these air force pilots were all experienced in intercepting B-17\29 at the beginning, and their posture at the beginning was completely to treat the enemy as four heavy bombers, but the problem is that these attack planes not only do not have the height and speed of heavy bombers, but also do not have the corresponding counterattack firepower, and the fuselage is not as good as four heavy bombardments, and it is simply too easy to fight.

Out of the conscience of a pilot officer, Lawrence couldn't bear to watch the planes wipe out, so he tried to find a hidden corner of the battlefield to shoot a telegram to the rear.

"Sir, a telegram from the commander of the fighter was received."

"Read!"

"Our army was intercepted by a large group of aircraft of the enemy air force, and all the planes have abandoned the auxiliary fuel tanks in advance, and they are currently in a bitter battle, and it is impossible to complete the task, so we ask for a retreat!"

"This is from Lawrence?" Cunningham was shocked, Lawrence was a veteran air force officer who had experienced the First Battle of Britain, and he was extremely experienced, and he had dug it out of the air force at the beginning, and he said this, presumably the situation could not be wrong.

"I'm fooled! Inform the commander of the formation, the whole army retreats! Nimitz thought for a moment and added, "Tell the second attack wave, ditch the fuel tanks and bombs, and return as fast as possible!" ”

"Sir!" There was an exclamation from the bridge.

"Execute the order." Cunningham scolded, "What is the responsibility, I and Chief Nimitz will take it on together after the war." ”

In fact, when the two heard the interception of the air force group, they knew that they had made a great mistake, and these planes were obviously sent by the Azores, although they could not hit themselves, but they could completely replace the fleet to carry out air defense tasks. Nimitz knew very well that there were a lot of planes on the Azores, and if the Germans really fought for the loss of planes and took out all the fighters for defense, then they would definitely not be able to gnaw. What's more, the attack aircraft group of this side has even thrown away all the auxiliary fuel tanks, even if it breaks through? He could not afford the price of the total annihilation, and in the present situation, he would rather lose the warships than keep the pilots -- this is a contingent of experienced pilots that the British and American carrier-based planes have managed to put together with great difficulty, and if they all die, only rookies will be able to fly after a large number of aircraft carriers are put into service at the end of this year.

To be honest, if Nimitz and Cunningham didn't think of this possibility at all, they were also wronged, everyone has conducted in-depth research on the naval battle in the South Pacific, and this trick has already been played by Horikichi once, and it is still somewhat eyebrow-raising. The only problem is that this engagement was completely an accidental encounter, and when the Ozawa fleet was discovered, it was already at the point where it had to fight, otherwise it would have to turn around and run, not to mention how demoralizing it was to turn around and run, at least it would be inevitable to be chased and killed, and in desperation, he could only choose to fight hard. At the same time, there was a little bit of luck, thinking that the incident happened suddenly, and the German army could not coordinate the air force units on the Azores so quickly and there might be an opportunity.

If this happened in Japan, Nimitz and Cunningham would probably have succeeded -- with the coordination system of the Japanese army and navy, it would certainly not have been possible to make decisions without half a day. It is estimated that at least 1-2 hours will be wasted on the United States or the United Kingdom, but Germany will not. Because the German Navy was systematically transferred and transferred by the Luftwaffe units, it is said that it is naval aviation, but in fact, the Air Force's dispatch of troops in the Navy is almost the same, and they are all their own brothers. Without the bigwigs coming forward, Koch alone will settle down. What's more, the Azores is one of the places with the highest alert level in Germany, and every day the clockwork is full of wars, how can the reaction speed not be fast?

"Hey, ready to run?" As he fought, Rand, who was in charge of interception, found that the US planes were busy dropping torpedoes and bombs, and at the same time began to turn around and retreat northward, and the remaining F6F fighters were desperately broken to cover the retreat of the group.

"It's not so cheap, is this a place where you can come and go whenever you want? 412, forcibly climb over! ”

The Germans used the characteristics of the Do-412 formation's strong climbing ability to the extreme, only to see more than 40 Do-412s break away from the formation and climb up to an altitude of 7,000 meters - at this altitude they can exert the maximum speed of the extreme sprint, they quickly passed the F6Fs entangled with the Fw-190, crossed the SBD and TBF who desperately escaped, flew forward a little further, and then turned their heads in the air in a dashing manner, pounced down again to intercept and kill, as for the fuel or anything, they basically didn't care. Before today's departure, the commanders explained that when the time came, they would make a forced landing or parachute jump by the fleet -- "Please take a bath in the North Atlantic!" ”

The German pursuit lasted for an hour, and they did not stop until they ran out of fuel (FW-190) and ammunition, and 102 air force planes shot down 109 British and American planes at the cost of losing 14 planes, and the results of the battle reached a terrifying 1:8, if it were not for the fact that more than 10 British and American planes abandoned auxiliary fuel tanks, torpedoes, and bombs at the beginning of the war and fled at full speed, more than 1:8.

"Sir, the interception mission has been completed, the Air Force has shot down more than 100 enemy planes, forcing the rest to flee and return home, our army has suffered slight losses, and is currently preparing for a forced landing or return." Koch's eyebrows fluttered, he used to be an Air Force man, and he was just as happy that the Air Force had won a big victory.

"What?" Ito stood up with a "huh", almost speechless in shock. This enemy plane hasn't even looked at it, and it actually said that it repelled the attack? Many of the direct cover fighters flying over the fleet have not even thrown away the auxiliary fuel tanks, is there anything more incredible than this? "Over-the-horizon combat" is so terrifying?

"Americans have finally woken up, but it's too late." Ozawa said with a smile, "Without elite and powerful pilots, an aircraft carrier is a pile of scrap metal, and the aircraft and pilots are the ultimate embodiment of combat effectiveness, 1 Essex-class and 100 excellent pilots, I would rather have the latter." Guys, am I right? ”

Everyone including Ito nodded again and again, and Ito thought to himself: Ozawa used to think that pilots were consumables to complete tasks, and they used as much as they wanted, but now when they come to Germany, their concepts are more radical than those of the domestic aviation faction. According to this tone, pilots should not only be officers, but also consider the allocation of resources.

Machar humbly asked: "If we are in the position of the American fleet, what do you think is better to do?" ”

"Retreat first...... Lure our troops to catch up and release the first attack wave, and then the US military mobilizes all its fighters to intercept it to minimize the casualties, and then sends out an attack group in the afternoon. Ozawa made a gesture on the map, "For example, if we are led to a place 800 kilometers away from the Azores, the ability of land-based protection will be greatly reduced, and at least the over-the-horizon interception effect will not be good." ”

"So the enemy may lose at least one aircraft carrier, right?"

"Yes, but this will save at least 2 ships and launch a counterattack, and maybe sink 1 of us. In this case, the enemy will have no chance directly, and if he hears that he has a smaller second attack wave, it will be even more dead. ”

"I don't see it that way." Machar shook his head and said, "In exchange, I will recall the second attack wave, and then the formation will directly split into two and retreat!" ”

"Really?" Now it was Ozawa's turn to widen his eyes, "Just running away with such dishonor?" How will you meet people in the future? ”

"If you don't run, you can't do it." Marchar smiled, "Based on my experience of breaking friendships for many years, it is not honorable to run away, but it is even more dishonorable to sink!" ”

"Also, I won't do anything with him when I go back anyway, isn't Spruance, who has lost 3 times in a row, leading the team again this time?" Ozawa smiled at Ito, "We also have to learn this way of thinking, and we must be tolerant of others." Aoki-kun has lost the aircraft carrier three times, the first time in Japan (Akagi) and never used it, and the second (Europa) and three times (Aquila) lost in Germany and was promoted to rear admiral. There is a way that is not a family to get together, he went to Argentina to meet Spruance again this time, ha! And his Ise was once again hit by a thunderstorm and almost sank in the South Atlantic. ”

Everyone burst into laughter, and the bridge was filled with a cheerful atmosphere......