The Americans apparently rejoiced too soon, and the land-based assault group on the island of the Azores did not want to let him go. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 At 4:07 p.m., the first wave of joint attack planes arrived, and at this time, the entire US fleet did not even have a single aircraft that could cover it.

The joint attack planes launched an attack in a manner that was almost like training to shoot targets, and the two attack teams went down and sank the Dreadnought aircraft carrier, which had obvious targets on the left flank and was slow. Spruance made the fleet desperately try to keep the Indomitable on the right flank, but this could not stop the German aircraft group preparing to go on a killing spree, and the three strike teams paid the price of three planes being shot down, and sent the battleship Anson, which would continue to block the guns of the Indomitable to the bottom of the sea.

After the sinking of the Anson, the battleship of the same class, the Hao, which had been hit by a mine and wounded yesterday, pounced on it to fill its position. In terms of the level of blocking guns, the German army was far inferior to the American army, no matter how the German aircraft group swayed left or right, it was impossible to find a perfect attack gap against the Indomitable, and could only honestly deal with other enemy ships first. At 4:19, the battleship Hao ate another torpedo, the angle to the right increased to 14 degrees, the speed dropped to less than 11 knots, it was obviously impossible to fulfill the heavy duty of cover, the New Orleans heavy cruiser went forward to replace this position, the last two attack teams had no choice but to continue to throw torpedoes, the 10,000-ton heavy cruiser ate two torpedoes and sank quickly, the more than 1,000 officers and men of the whole ship only escaped less than 90 people.

After the first wave of joint attack groups retreated, the indominable Indomitable still did not hit the mine, and all the fleet leaders, including Spruance, did not have time to be sentimental, and immediately asked the ships to rescue the officers and men who had fallen into the water, and then resolutely retreated.

The situation of the North Sea Fleet is also very bad, the deck of the aircraft carrier Zeppelin, which has been restored to balance after water injection, is in a mess, although the horizontal armor belt of the main deck above the power compartment has played a complete defensive performance, but the runway, hangar and other parts have been completely destroyed, and although the flight deck after emergency repairs has vacated a vacant space, it cannot guarantee the safe landing of the aircraft, and even if it lands, there is nowhere to place these aircraft, let alone allow the carrier-based aircraft to take off again. Considering that the forced landing on the sea was too dangerous, Ozawa reluctantly gave the order for the pilots to abandon the plane and parachute, and the HE-218 and Ju-98 crews jumped first, and finally it was the turn of the BF-219.

In this way, the aviation combat power of the North Sea Fleet, like the American fleet, was completely exhausted, and the only thing to be thankful for was that most of the pilots were retained.

"Send a telegram to Berlin informing the situation that, given that the Strait of Gibraltar has not yet been opened, the fleet can only go to Spain or France for urgent repairs." Machar sighed and gave the order helplessly.

"Ready for an artillery battle?" Vice Admiral Pei sent a telegram, "I have heard that there are still unsunken ships of the enemy on the sea. ”

"Artillery formations are ready!" Cranke gritted his teeth, "Except for the aircraft carrier and the Admiral Scheer, the rest of our capital ships are basically intact, and these American warships can no longer let them go back alive." Both Machar and Ozawa agreed with this idea.

The attack was not completely over that day, and at 5:37 a.m., in the last rays of the setting sun, Lieutenant Commander Schiller arrived on the battlefield with a third and final wave of combined attack planes, dealing a fatal blow to the American fleet - almost everyone, including Spruance, despaired.

The plane simply sank the battleship Howe and the heavy cruiser Minneapolis, and then sent 2 torpedoes to the Indomitable, a strange situation appeared, the Indomitable just refused to sink, and still stubbornly floated on the sea in the case of more than 3,400 tons of water and 12 degrees of rolling, and even slowly drove westward at a speed of 5 knots, and at this time the torpedoes of the joint attack aircraft had all been dropped. Faced with this situation, Schiller obviously had no choice but to leave with a long sigh, thinking that he would have to sink this stubborn battleship again tomorrow morning.

However, without waiting for dawn, in the early hours of the morning a U-boat spotted the Indomitable floating on the surface of the sea like a dead fish, and after a closer look through the periscope, the captain found something even stranger - the whole warship seemed to be empty, and he did not venture to approach the enemy ship, nor did he want to launch a torpedo to sink this tempting target, but ecstatic to send a telegram: "Our ship has captured one enemy ship, which is a seriously damaged aircraft carrier. ”

This news caused a huge sensation, and after Raeder and Hoffmann, who were far away in Berlin, were alarmed, Hoffman immediately gave instructions: "Save the ship as much as possible and tow it to the nearest suitable place." ”

At this moment, in the south-west of the Azores, the remnants of the United States, with only a few destroyers left, are rapidly retreating towards the shores of the United States.

"Sir, I understand you giving up the Indomitable, but why didn't you send a destroyer to sink him?"

Spruance replied bitterly, "To save ourselves." ”

"Savage?" Chris looked confused, "The capture of this warship by the enemy is a great damage to our honor. ”

"He was wounded so badly that it was impossible to save or repair." Spruance looked up to the east, as if he could still see the Indomitable, "but he can draw the enemy's attention and let them go and inspect the warship first, so that the Germans will not be able to deal with us." ”

"But ......"

"I'm going to bring these officers and men back as much as I can." Spruance pointed to the crowd behind him, which looked crowded and depressed by the sudden influx of officers and soldiers, "They have fought with the Germans with the surviving pilots, and they have sufficient experience and technology, and they are precious treasures that we cannot regenerate, and I must bring them home, and these glory are not important compared to their lives." ”

"You're saying that we were defeated, and Spruance lost all of his capital ships and came back with only a few destroyers?" Roosevelt couldn't believe his ears when he heard the news.

"Yes, on the face of it, but I don't think it's a complete failure, there are some positives in it." Admiral King opened his mouth, "We sank an aircraft carrier, severely damaged the Zeppelin and a heavy cruiser, and sabotaged the German fleet's attempt to break diplomatic relations in the South Atlantic." ”

"But we lost 5 battleships, 4 aircraft carriers and 4 heavy cruisers."

"We lost tactically, but not strategically." Admiral King's tone was firm, "President, at least we have achieved the desired goal - the enemy does not have a single aircraft carrier in the Atlantic that can be used, and we still have three at our disposal, and there will be two new aircraft carriers USS Berlauwood (Independence-class) and USS Yorktown (Essex-class) at the end of this month and the middle of next month, and within three months, we will have five aircraft carriers available for combat again." At the same time, the battleship USS New Jersey (Iowa class) will enter service at the end of next month, and we are far from a failure. ”

"We've sunk 2 George V-class battleships and 3 valuable armored aircraft carriers backed by the British, how are you going to get me to account for it with Winston?"

"He has nothing to complain about, his troops lost 300,000 tons in the North Sea, as a result of which only one German heavy cruiser was sunk, and we took out at least 2 German aircraft carriers." Admiral King stepped up, "If he has to care, we can give him the USS Berlauwood (Independence) and the Yorktown, and at the same time promise to support the British with an additional 10 escort aircraft and 500 naval carrier-based aircraft, and fuel and tanks will do everything possible to meet the needs of the British." ”

"What's next? We are inferior to the enemy in numbers. Roosevelt sighed, "The Navy is going to lie dormant for 3-5 months and then the Germans?" ”

"No, I want Turner to direct Plan A."

"You ......," Roosevelt trembled and pointed at Admiral King, "are you crazy?" ”

"I'm not crazy, really! Believe me, president, Turner made changes to Plan A, and now there is a better and more complete Plan A+, which is very suitable for the situation after the loss of aircraft carriers in Germany. Admiral Kim quickly elaborated on the plan in concise language.

After hearing this, Roosevelt was skeptical, and the expression on his face changed for a long time before he finally said: "This plan must be seriously discussed and studied by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and must be supported and agreed by the majority of the people." ”

"Of course." Admiral Kim smiled confidently, "I'm sure they'll approve of the revised plan." ”

"Führer, the situation is not ideal." "After an urgent assessment, it will take at least 5-6 months for the Zeppelin's injuries to be repaired, and the Admiral Schell is no longer worth repairing, so we suggest finding a place in the Azores to sit on the bottom and sink on the beach and let those guns be effective." ”

"Okay." Hoffman waved his hand in disappointment, "So we don't have an aircraft carrier in the Atlantic?" ”

"It's all to blame on that damn Portuguese merchant ship, or ......"

"I will tell Ribbentrop to negotiate with the Portuguese." Hoffman barely managed to squeeze out a smile, "Anyway, we killed 5 battleships, 4 aircraft carriers and 4 heavy cruisers this time, and the loss was less than a quarter of the opponent's, which is always a good deal." By the way, can that indomitable be dragged back? ”

"I'm afraid it won't be able to withstand too many storms, so Tirpitz has dragged it to the nearest Madeira island." Frick stole a glance at Hoffman and whispered, "Repair may work, but it's more expensive than rebuilding and a waste of time." ”

"Don't waste energy on restoration, let our ship designers learn and observe. This is good propaganda material for us - Minister Goebbels will understand what to do next. ”

"Yes."

"This incident shows that the armored aircraft carrier has a strong vitality, combined with the Japanese Taiho reform drawings and the study and reference results of the Indomitable, we are ready to build two armored aircraft carriers on the mainland." Hoffman said viciously, "What the Americans have, we have too." (To be continued.) )