"Bastard, brute......" Royal Admiral Cunningham stood in the lifeboat and couldn't help but stand up, pointing at the sky and scolding.

At 11:55, the second round of attack waves commanded by Mitsuo Fuchida returned to the battlefield of the air raid just now, aiming at the destroyers that were still rescuing the officers and soldiers who had fallen into the water. This result was still expected by Cunningham, for he already knew that the Japanese were sending not a small fleet or a sub-fleet, but the entire main force of the combined fleet, which he estimated to be 300 aircraft.

In the face of this kind of force, it is impossible for his fast column to match it, so even if he falls into such a predicament, he is still glad that the slow fleet did not come up together, otherwise it will be a complete defeat. But what happened next made Cunningham's eyes tremble -- after sinking all the warships, the flaunting Zero fighter jets actually flew into a low altitude and unscrupulously fired at the sea with aviation machine guns, reaping the lives of those officers and men who had no power to resist. Standing in the position of Mitsuo Fuchida, he thinks it's not a big deal, hasn't the person who fell into the water below surrendered yet? Since he was still an enemy if he didn't surrender, the chief of staff said, "Don't take prisoners."

"Pull him down." Peters felt that something was wrong, and shouted loudly, and several staff officers hurriedly dragged Cunningham, who had fallen into a state of complete rage, down. Sure enough, before everyone could sit down, a shuttle of bullets had already grazed the position just now. "Flutter flutter" all fell into the water, if it was a second later, Admiral Cunningham would have been loyal to the British Empire. The Zero pilots did not hit at a glance. He didn't continue to entangle, he waved his wings and pulled up again and flew away, he was still in a hurry to attack the transport fleet, he didn't know that he had just passed by such a valuable target.

"They went to attack the transport echelon, I don't know how many of George's men can survive, I must avenge this revenge." Cunningham's forehead was bruised, and he said through gritted teeth.

"Alas......" a boatload of people sighed.

"Let's find a place to land first. Otherwise, you will have to die in the sea. Peters turned his gaze to Cunningham.

The latter nodded, and said in an extremely sad tone: "The Japanese planes will come again, and they must be dispersed...... It's easy to get out after dark. ”

Cunningham was right. His new friend Patton was worse than he was at the moment, and less than 3 kilometers from the coast, the group of Japanese planes that followed like a demon had arrived, and it was only a dozen sorties of dive bombing. All four destroyers, which had been working diligently to protect the transports, were sunk. His adjutant, two confidential staff officers, and the driver were all killed by the bomb, but he was the only one who miraculously survived without even the slightest injury.

Originally, according to the maximum speed of the destroyer of more than 30 knots, he had the opportunity to run to land first, and he would not encounter a second round of attacks at all, but Patton did not want to leave his troops and flee for his life first, and still insisted on running slowly to the coast with the large force of the Second Panzer Division, preferring to run slowly to the coast at a speed of less than 19 knots. Maybe God opened his eyes, this time the transport ships of the transport echelon did not break down. All of them swooped down to the shore at maximum speed—that was the way to live.

But the destroyer was sunk anyway, and in the end Patton could only jump into the sea helplessly holding a lifebuoy that he didn't know who stuffed him. Then paddling desperately towards the shore.

After jumping into the sea, Barton realized how lucky he was - it was the Horn of Africa, near the equator, that the icy waters of December alone could freeze people to death in the North Atlantic. But even so, he couldn't help but shiver several times in a row. The strong physique of his youth and the habit of focusing on exercise developed in his years of military career finally came in handy at the moment of life and death, and people who were nearly 50 years old could swim no worse than young people. In order to speed up, he also struggled to shake off the boots that were in the way on his feet.

"Help me...... Save me......" had just swam not much, and 10 meters in front of him to the left, an arm was struggling desperately, and his head was floating and sinking in the water.

"Hold on man." Barton shook his swimming ring in front of the other man, "hugging the ......"

In desperation, the man clung to the swimming ring, and after a while poked his head out, spitting out the seawater and panting for breath.

"Man, you can't swim." Barton swam a few steps tightly and then picked up the edge of the swimming ring, playfully teasing him, "This should also be a combat skill." ”

"Hey, I'm from Utah, and I haven't even seen the sea before I became a soldier, thank you so much today, otherwise I'd have to die here, this damn Japanese devil." The corporal on the other side spoke intermittently as he turned his head with difficulty, trying to see who had saved him.

"Ah...... You're General Patton! He suddenly exclaimed.

"That's right."

The corporal hurriedly tried to return the swimming ring to Patton, but before he could push it away, he just let go and fell headlong into the sea, and Patton quickly grabbed him.

"Don't be reckless, swim faster, or you'll die here."

"Thank you, thank you." He kept saying thanks—not only for someone who saved him, but also for General Patton himself.

Shame! What a shame!

Patton didn't care about the rescue, it was just a trivial episode, and all he felt was bitter hatred for what had happened today, and worry about what to do next—the Japanese plane was still hovering overhead.

He could see very clearly that although the officers and men of each transport ship spontaneously operated antiaircraft guns and machine guns to fire at the air, it was obvious that they were no match for the planes, and the fire from the air was extremely ferocious, and the US officers and men fell on the antiaircraft gun positions one after another.

Mitsuo Fuchida was also distracted by the sudden anti-aircraft fire from the transport ship, but although this firepower caused a lot of trouble to the plane, he still had to be grateful for the existence of these resistance firepower, which allowed him to justifiably suppress it with firepower instead of sinking it with bombs -- otherwise the traces of the plane's aerial landing on the beach would be too obvious to ensure that the Americans did not want to think about other aspects.

With a "bang", the bow of a 12,000-ton transport ship slammed into the shallows, and then it couldn't move.

"Stranded...... Run! Otherwise, they will all die on the ship! ”

Groups of American soldiers braved aerial firepower and jumped into the sea along ropes to swim to shore - although the transport ship ran aground, the current depth of the water was still more than enough to submerge one person, and they had to flee to shore as soon as possible to survive. More and more US soldiers jumped out of the transport ship and fled to the shore, unable to carry any other supplies except the field backpacks and rifles they carried, so they had no choice but to give up.

As more and more U.S. troops climbed the shallows and pounced inland, Mitsuo Fuchida's main target of attack finally shifted, and instead of continuing to deal with the transport ships, he began to strafe and bombard the U.S. troops on the beachhead. The corporal who had just been rescued by Patton also wanted to run to the beachhead as soon as possible, but was caught by the quick-eyed Patton and signaled him to continue to hold on to the lifebuoy, while hiding at the end of a transport ship, not far from the position of the propeller.

"Don't rush up, a lot of people will die there - the planes will give priority to the targets that come ashore."

"Yes...... Didn't they all go up? The corporal asked suspiciously, "If it's dangerous to go up, why don't the officers stop them?" ”

"Block? What to stop? It is human instinct to survive, they have seen too many companions struggling in the water, and only land will give them a sense of security, so they will definitely climb up as soon as possible, not to mention ordinary soldiers, and the officers are the same now. ”

"This ......," the corporal was stunned for a moment, but couldn't help but ask, "Shouldn't the generals give clear orders?" ”

"In the morning of a sudden attack, it is not easy to find an escape route for the fleet to rush to the beach and land, the whole team is in chaos, even I fell into the water, who cares about whom?" Barton smiled bitterly, "Besides, is it still useful for me to speak?" Who but you would recognize this man with no hat and boots, soaked from top to bottom, and embarrassed like a chicken in soup, as a general? If I shout, I will only make myself a target for enemy aircraft. ”

Although he said that, seeing the soldiers who came ashore being knocked down by enemy planes one by one, Patton couldn't help but shout: "Disperse...... Disperse...... Hide in the water, hide in the water, don't rush to the shore, don't rush to the shore......"

Only the brightest warriors realized that such a brazen pounce on the landing was a dead end, and that the covert practice of grabbing a reef or something near the beachhead and letting himself sink would have a chance to save his life. Of course, a smarter commander would have kept the soldiers out of the cabin, the deck was thick enough to defend against bullets, and the stranded transports were no longer afraid of bomb attacks. In this respect, the British were much stronger than the Americans, because most of their officers had experience of the Dunkirk retreat and knew how terrible it was to be exposed to the beachhead during the indiscriminate attack of the aircraft.

After more than 40 minutes, Fuchida Mitsu, who had poured all the ammunition, led his team away contentedly, and in the attack just now, more than 1,000 British and American officers and soldiers fell on the beachhead, and the sea and the beach were littered with corpses, and their blood stained the sea water red. (To be continued.) )