On the aircraft carrier Aquila, Admiral Cranke asked Jizaburo Ozawa curiously, "What does it mean that General Horikichi ordered the Z-shaped flag to be raised?" After the opening of the Strait of Gibraltar, the German Navy intends to consider reorganizing the High Seas Fleet, with Martial as the commander of the High Seas Fleet and Kränke as the deputy commander. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

"The Z-shaped flag has a unique position in the Japanese Navy, and it is only raised at moments of great decisive significance, and as far as I know, since the Battle of Tsushima, the Combined Fleet has only been raised three times, and this is the fourth time -- the commander is preparing for a decisive battle."

"A decisive battle?" Crake paused for a moment, "Who are you fighting with?" Panamanian U.S. Army? ”

"The enemy may not be the only one we see."

"You mean the U.S. fleet?" Crake frowned, "It's been a long time since I heard from them. ”

"It's going to be a tough battle and he's going to have to inspire the whole army." Ozawa paused, "Although there is no evidence yet, I also have this intuition. ”

"Hopefully your feelings are wrong, or we'll be in big trouble." Cranke looked at the pilots of the carrier-based aircraft who were about to take off, and sighed, "After so many days of training, I'm really looking forward to their performance!" ”

At 3:25 a.m., in the darkness of the night, one after another HE-218 (known in Japan as the comet) dive bomber took off from the deck and pounced in a southwesterly direction.

In view of the strength of the US ground defense force and the complete radar system, and the fact that the water reconnaissance report said that the enemy has a new type of air defense fighter, in order to restrain this advantage, carrier-based aircraft must attack the enemy first. It was obviously not possible to carry out an air attack after dawn, because the planes of the first attack wave would be intercepted by superior enemy planes, so he planned to take some risks -- a night attack. Use the cover of night to achieve the suddenness of the attack.

It is not without precedent for carrier-based aircraft to attack the port at night, the British army used the night attack to fight the Battle of Taranto and won the victory in the past few years, but compared with the night attack of the British army, the night attack of the Axis fleet is more difficult: first, they are driving the He-218 with a cruising speed of more than 400 kilometers per hour, which is far from a slow Swordfish that cannot even fly 200 km / h, which increases the difficulty of maintaining an air formation; Secondly, the British army had a complete picture of Taranto and a relatively comprehensive deployment map before the air raid, and this time the Axis pilots knew nothing about the deployment of the US military except for the basic photos of the Canal Zone; Again, the sortie was 100 kilometers away from the Battle of Taranto; Last but not least, the vigilance and air defense capabilities of the U.S. military far surpass those of the lazy Italians.

Better than the Battle of Taranto, Horikichi was not aiming at the canal or warships, his first target was the airfield, and as long as the airfield was destroyed, the days of the subsequent attack wave would be much better. To deal with the airfield, the He-218s not only carried 250 kg of high-explosive bombs, but also carried a batch of coagulated ******.

The only thing that made him feel confident to take the plunge was that the Axis Fleet now had the best carrier-based pilots in the world - none of them. Britain and the United States also had quite good carrier-based aircraft pilots in the past, but after the continuous loss of aircraft carriers, the old birds among the British and American carrier-based aircraft pilots were almost lost, and the few were also retained as instructors, so although the British and American reserve carrier-based aircraft pilots were more than the Axis, the overall level was much lower.

After the Combined Fleet entered Europe, the pilots of the carrier-based planes did not go into storage like other officers and men, but worked Socotra Island with the German Navy: The German pilots learned to master the essence of aircraft carrier operations, and the Japanese pilots learned to master the essence of the new aircraft. The starting point of this training was very high, and instead of using large aircraft carriers such as Xianghe or Zuihe, two light aircraft carriers, Xiangfeng and Longfeng, were directly used, which had narrower decks, shorter landing distances, and were closer to the needs of actual combat.

In February, the new Italians were intimidated by the intensity of the German and Japanese purgatory-style training - eight hours a day, all day long, and the island's air base empty, with no entertainment but a bar left by the British.

When the Italian pilots asked what kind of training syllabus it was, the officers and men of the German Navy issued the Japanese pronunciation in a strange tone: "Moon, Moon, Water, Fire, Wood, Gold, Gold, ......" Fortunately, the Italian Navy was not the Italian Army, and finally gritted its teeth and persevered, adapting to this kind of high-intensity training.

Later, some people pointed out that the naval aviation school with the highest axis level is not in Germany, Japan or Italy, but in Socotra, this "aviation school" that does not issue diplomas is a holy place in the minds of all naval aviation carrier-based aviation, because it is really difficult to meet the "graduation" standard here: the standard for dive bomber pilots is to perform the "cleaning trio" with three planes with bombs, and then drop bombs on targets with a diameter of no more than 5 meters; The graduation standard for fighters is to withstand the attack of four planes for 10 minutes with the cooperation of two planes - the opponents are all ace pilots with more than 50 crash records; The standard for a torpedo attack aircraft pilot is to fly at an altitude of 20 meters above sea level for 2 minutes, while also being able to hit a maneuvering destroyer at a speed of 30 knots with a torpedo...... As for night take-off and landing, it is a must for the old birds.

In a word, this is not a place for ordinary carrier-based aircraft pilots to learn, but a place for the promotion of elite carrier-based aircraft pilots to temper and improve themselves.

Germany has provided all the resources for the "aviation school" on Socotra Island, including sufficient aircraft management, fuel management, ground handling and supporting services, and even a 5,000-ton oil tanker specially equipped for transporting fuel, which is specially responsible for the itinerant transportation between Iranian oil refineries and Socotra Island.

In addition to the members of the carrier-based aircraft air force itself, Japan also arranged for more than 40 HNA reserve pilots to follow the team of aviation technical experts from the mainland (including the famous Zero War designer Jiro Horikoshi), and the German HNA also accepted and provided sufficient training equipment and supplies, and more than 100 planes were dropped in just three months. High-grade aviation fuel is even more calculated in the tens of thousands of tons -- which is equivalent to Germany contributing money and resources to help Japan and Italy train excellent pilots.

This is where Horikichi is most satisfied with and admires Hoffman's generosity, and it is also the place where he thinks he owes the most affection.

Now, this sharp blade, which has been forged for three months, has finally come out of the sheath, and Horiyoshi did not arrange escort planes for it, because the more planes there are, the more troublesome it will be to dispatch and organize, and the first attack wave relies on fast and sudden.

At 4:45 a.m., the U.S. radar man, who had been tormented all night, noticed a large spot of light on the screen, and at first thought he was dazzled, but after carefully reading it three times, he was sure that he was not mistaken. The sergeant major, who rushed to hear the news, turned into the phone and roared: "The enemy plane is coming, the altitude is 4,000 meters, the speed is 470 km / h, the number is not less than 70, and the distance is 150 km...... The announcement sounded the air defense alarm. ”

Poor Lieutenant General Ross was woken from his sleep by the adjutant, who had just closed his eyes for less than 30 minutes after a busy day. Hearing the news of the attack of enemy planes, he was taken aback: "The Japanese devils are crazy, night attack? From which corner did they come from? Immediately notify the fighter to take off! ”。

The chief of staff cried with a sad face: "Fighter pilots are not trained in night combat, and we do not have night fighters, so it will not help at all to ascend!" ”

"Then I have to fly up, and I have to knock the Japanese devil down for me!"

Looking at the commander, who was obviously in a state of madness, the chief of staff could only give this order head-on, but when he gave it, he changed his tone to be more gentle, and the pilot could voluntarily choose whether to carry it out or not.

"Has the smoke from the canal been released?"

"It's released, but it's not big enough right now!"

"Damn it!" Ross slapped the table indignantly, "Anti-aircraft fire is immediately ready!" ”

At 5 o'clock in the morning, the first attack wave of the Axis Fleet burst into the sky above the target, and the US anti-aircraft guns spewed out countless tongues of fire, and the entire sky was covered with a network of fire, like lightning in a storm, piercing the sky, which looked numb. But the Axis group was still like moths to a fire, and without hesitation, they threw themselves into the attack net. The air raid began five minutes later, 16 Japanese He-218s took the lead in rushing into the port from the northeast, the US searchlight column kept turning, and white, red, and yellow tracer bombs erupted like erupting volcanoes.

The flares dangling under the small parachutes illuminated the entire canal zone as if it were daylight, and the fleet quickly discovered the location of the airport, which they increased to the fastest speed, and rushed towards the runway and hangar in the face of the harsh searchlights and a dense rain of bullets. The German assault formation led by Major Wilhelm launched the attack first, and the 250 kg bomb he dropped accurately hit the main runway, and the concrete runway was blown out of a large crater, and then the incendiary bombs that fell ignited a raging fire, and the light of the fire pointed the way for the subsequent bombing of the aircraft. They swooped down as fast as they could, dropping bombs into runways or hangars, and the groups of attack planes that had been refueled and ready to strike first in the morning unfortunately became the biggest victims, and one after another of the planes of fuel and ammunition were detonated and a deafening roar was released. (To be continued.) )