"But isn't that a bit far away?" Rear Admiral Simon, chief of staff of the fleet, worried, "Now that the distance between each other is more than 600 kilometers, although it is barely within the range of attack, but if there is a mistake, I am afraid that it will ......."

Cranke nodded, this was also the factor he had been worried about just now. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 info changed the previous Crank, in the face of such an unfavorable comparison of forces, he fled with his troops early, but now he can't just leave, because he doesn't have much fuel, he can't hold out at sea for too long, if he has to go back to Buenos Aires to replenish, the other party can wait for him halfway, and then he won't necessarily have the advantage of being the first to fight.

After so many battles, especially after following the Japanese Combined Fleet many times, the confidence of the German Navy, especially the confidence of the head-on engagement, has been raised to a good point, if it runs now, the self-confidence that has been accumulated with great difficulty will suffer a setback, and after entering the era of aircraft carriers, the space for engagement has been greatly expanded, what if the Americans find themselves first tomorrow? Wouldn't that be more dangerous? So he thinks that at present, this risk must be taken, and killing one is one, otherwise the consequences will be unimaginable.

"At present, the distance is 600 kilometers, and it will take at least 3 hours to return after the sortie, and the fleet can run forward 150 kilometers at this time, which is equivalent to allowing the returning aircraft to fly 150 kilometers less, so I think the distance is enough, of course the pilot will be very hard." Cranke added, "If the pilots don't work hard today, tomorrow we might all feed the fish!" ”

"Let's fight, then." Simon clenched his fists, "I believe in them!" ”

At 10:07, just as the two aircraft carriers were in full swing to load the oil bombs, a supplementary reconnaissance message from the second adjacent sector was sent back: the enemy ship formation was advancing at a speed of 23 knots, the course was 145 degrees, and the enemy seemed to have sent reconnaissance planes......

"You see, the opponent is very cunning, although he doesn't know our specific location, but he guessed the position of our military and deliberately widened the distance, trying to win time for his reconnaissance plane!" "This strengthened my determination to fight right away!" ”

The essence of the reconnaissance plane in the adjacent sector is to rely on the strong speed and extraordinary range of its own reconnaissance planes, and use the reconnaissance planes in the adjacent sectors to forcibly reconnoiter again, and continue to maintain contact with the other side, so that it can constantly indicate the direction of its own attack aircraft group and avoid flying in the air. In order to realize this routine, Japan did not hesitate to squeeze out the precious space of the aircraft carrier to develop its own reconnaissance aircraft, while the US military's thinking is multi-purpose, and using the SBD as a reconnaissance plane can ensure that its own attack force will not be weakened.

These two tactical ideas have their own merits, and it is impossible to say absolutely who is good and who is bad: when it comes to long-distance encounters, Japan has a clear advantage; In close combat, the United States has a clear advantage due to the large number of attack aircraft. This line of thinking is in line with Japan's other tactical ideas, including the idea of cross-platform long-range operations, and carrier-based aircraft with ultra-long ranges (especially Zero Combat), which are all prepared for long-distance combat; And the U.S. military emphasizes a wave of full-deck attacks, hoping to overwhelm the adversary with numbers. When the German Navy came to the German Navy, it not only absorbed Japan's long-range warfare methods, but also learned the characteristics of the US military's deck carrying, and in addition, the German planes performed well, and the results were remarkable.

Spruance turned blue when he saw the second reconnaissance plane appear over the fleet, he knew that the fleet could not escape the continuous tracking of the other side, and he bet that even if the fighters drove the reconnaissance plane away, the Germans would send new planes to keep an eye on him after a while. His judgment was very correct, and the third and second reconnaissance plane in the adjacent sector was ready to forcibly reconnoiter at 11 o'clock to provide final attack guidance for his own formation.

As the time passed, the reconnaissance planes of the TF44 fleet continued to expand their reconnaissance horizons to the north, and the planes of the four aircraft carriers were ready, and everyone craned their necks in anticipation of the exact location of the German fleet. While they were waiting, the planes on the two aircraft carriers, the Ise and the Savoy, had already taken off one after another, circling the whole group and preparing to leave.

In order to improve the efficiency of the first attack, Kranke required all Ju-198 attack aircraft (Meteor change) to mount bombs instead of relatively bulky torpedoes, and the Meteor was changed to a dive/torpedo dual-purpose attack aircraft, which was well received by the fleet and gave full play to the value of all-rounders when the strength of the side was weak.

The Ju-198 designed and improved by the European Joint Design Bureau has many differences from the original Japanese Meteor (Meteor Modification), in addition to the engine power increased to 2,200 horsepower, the body structure has been greatly strengthened, including a series of defensive measures such as self-sealing fuel tanks and armor, the maximum speed is nearly 570 km / h, and the maximum ceiling is more than 11,500 meters.

In order to maximize the use of the bomb load, the German military has specially developed and designed a 400-kilogram aerial bomb (actual weight of 385 kilograms) with a smaller size and weight on the basis of the original 250 and 500 kilogram aerial bombs, so that a single Ju-198 can carry 2, compared with He-218 can only carry a 500-kilogram bomb.

This arrangement is particularly popular with the fleet whose main responsibility is to break diplomatic relations, after all, in a diplomatic breakage operation, not to mention 500 kilograms, 250 kilograms of bombs are enough to reimburse a ship. In the case of a 250-kilogram bomb, the Ju-198 can carry three - one on each wing and one in the belly, which is still one more than the He-218.

Coincidentally, due to the aging of SBD dive bombers and the unpopularity of SB2C in the fleet, the United States was under great pressure from Japan and Germany in the face of the endless new aircraft (mainly He-218 and Ju-98 at that time), so it launched an emergency carrier-based attack aircraft tender (the fighter F6F was half a pound and a half with the Bf-219 at that time), Douglas submitted the BTD Destroyer, Martin submitted the BTM Thug, Henry Kaiser submitted the XBTK, Curtis submitted the XBTC, a total of 4 designs, In the end, the BTD destroyer, which integrated dive bombing and torpedo attack, won the bid -- the military believed that it was more reliable for Douglas to engage in dive bombing, and by the beginning of 1944 the mass production model was basically ready, but because of some problems in maneuvering and adaptation, it was still in domestic training and could not fight. Although this progress has exceeded the level of the same period in history, it is still lagging behind Germany.

From the point of view of conventional performance, BTD performance is not as good as Ju-198, regardless of speed, altitude, range is behind the latter (of course, much better than SBD), but there is a point BTD left Ju-198 far behind, the former can carry 2 torpedoes or 4 1000-pound bombs, from the bomb load analysis alone, one BTD is equal to two Ju-198, of course, after doing so, the weight of BTD reached an unprecedented 8.9 tons - that is, the Americans can afford to play such a heavy behemoth.

Of course, BTD was only an emergency plan, not the ultimate goal of Douglas, and the company's drawings still had the latest improved design, the A-1 Sky Raider, lying on the board, but the development process was relatively slow, with optimists believing that it would be ready for service by June 1945 and pessimists believing that it would not even be mass-produced by 1945. If you compare the A-1 with the Ju-198, then it has a clear advantage in all aspects, but it is a pity that now the German army is using the Ju-198 to fight, the A-1 is still lying on the test bench, and the Spruance on the front line can only continue to use the SBD that has been changed and changed! Finally, the fighter improved to the F6F-5 and overwhelmed the Bf-219, the problem is that the Americans do not know that it is the Do-412 that is about to fight them, no matter who can become the main force of the future Axis carrier-based fighters in the Do-412 and Bf-319, the Bf-219 is destined to complete the mission and withdraw from the front-line stage.

At 10:41, the German attack formation flew towards the intended target, in order to shorten their return distance, the whole fleet still advanced south at a speed of 24 knots, in order to maximize the attack effect, Kranker only left himself 20 air defense fighters, and released the remaining 84 aircraft, due to the losses of the attack on Brazil a few days ago, he had replenished the formation of spare aircraft carried by two aircraft carriers, and the potential was almost exhausted, and now there are only 3 Do-412 spare planes left in the huge hangar, With them assembled by ground crews and subsequently taking off to form an air defense formation of 23 fighters, he could not come up with a single aircraft that could replace the battle damage.

Twenty minutes before the formation set off, Spruance calmly instructed four aircraft carriers to take off 60 fighters, plus the 24 SBDs that had been released for reconnaissance, and he still had nearly 200 combat planes in hand.

In order to ensure that the Atlantic Fleet had enough carrier-based pilots, Nimitz not only transferred 60 skilled pilots from the Pacific Fleet, but also forcibly transferred 100 pilots from the Royal Air Force to the HNA Navy.

In May, two more Essex-class ships were put into service, and there was a shortage of nearly 200 pilots (groups), and it was expected to continue to transfer 100 pilots from the Royal Air Force to transfer to other jobs, but now the German army is violently attacking the British Isles, and the Royal Air Force has lost more than 300 pilots in one breath in three days. In the face of such an aggressive posture as the Japanese fleet's breaking of diplomatic relations, the Pacific Fleet was no longer able to support the Atlantic direction.

In other words, without these two sources, he doesn't know how to fill the gap in May! Is it possible to forcibly upgrade the LV.4 in the escort aircraft carrier formation to LV.5 and stuff it into the main fleet?

ps: I will start writing this month's monthly pass tomorrow, please continue to enjoy the monthly pass......