At 3:30 a.m., the carrier-based reconnaissance plane's second positioning of the NG-215 was clarified, and it successfully found out that there were no other British and American fleets within 300 kilometers of the surrounding area -- this was not a decoy, it was really a big fish. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

Half an hour ago, the ground crew sent a report, "So the attack aircraft is ready to attack at any time." According to theoretical calculations, because there are two decks that can take off, all carrier-based aircraft should be pushed onto the runway as much as possible and then released at the same time -- fighter planes take the short runway at an oblique angle, and attack planes take a long straight runway, and if the catapult on the main runway is added, it will only take about 8-9 minutes for all the planes to take off, and the combat efficiency is much higher than that of the traditional aircraft carrier.

In addition to this line of thinking, the Japanese advisory team led by Ozawa also proposed an innovative way of playing: cross-platform ultra-long-range combat.

Since the Dunkirk was relatively sturdy and had two runways, they thought the ship could be used as a platform for long-range attacks. After the Anglo-Canadian route turned to Greenland, the attack aircraft taking off from the Azores could not hit the long-range merchant fleet, at this time, the Dunkirk could be deployed at a distance of about 800-1000 kilometers from the Azores, and then the planes would take off from the Azores to the Dunkirk and land once and resupply the bombs, and then set off again to attack. On the return trip, the ship will return to Dunkirk for relay resupply before flying back to the Azores. Since the Dunkirk has two runways, theoretically, as long as it is properly dispatched, there is no conflict problem.

If command and coordination are further upgraded, the platform can be used to continuously transport carrier-based aircraft, which can expand the strike range from 600 km to 1,200-1,500 km. Considering the fatigue of pilots in long-distance flight operations, we can take advantage of the fact that the German carrier-based aircraft pilots currently have a relatively sufficient number of pilots and are horizontally layered to optimize them, and deploy the best attack aircraft crews on the Dunkirk, and the pilots who take off from the Azores only need to ensure that they can drive the planes to the aircraft carriers, and then change the pilots to attack when the planes are replenished, and then the incoming pilots will fly the planes back on the return trip. If there are losses of carrier-based aircraft during the attack, then it is enough to simultaneously reduce the number of aircraft returning to the base, and the carrier-based aircraft owned by the carrier itself can always guarantee a constant.

As soon as this set of tactics was reported, Hoffman understood -- isn't this the ultra-long-range tactic that Ozawa used in the battle of the Marianas in history to use the armored aircraft carrier Taiho; although history has proved that the effect was not very good at that time, it does not necessarily mean that Germany cannot use this method. With the deterrence of the Joint Strike Aircraft and the Atlantic Inspector, the Dunkirk is still very safe to stay within 800 kilometers of the Azores, so it is agreed that they will try, even if it fails.

Of course, there are also people who oppose this, on the grounds that the requirements for command are too high; Second, it is believed that it is unfavorable to expose this tactic too early, especially after the exposure of the oblique aircraft carrier, it will affect the suddenness of the future big battles. After thinking about it, Hoffman believes that there is a chance of failure, but everything has to be tried to understand, and he is especially not worried that the exposure of the beveled aircraft carrier will increase his difficulties.

The reason is very simple: Germany's own remaining oblique aircraft carriers will be commissioned one after another in the next six months, while the United States will not be able to spare time and energy to transform oblique aircraft carriers within six months. The Americans also have to study and analyze a new thing, and it is impossible for Germany to use whatever the United States uses -- this is not a land weapon, this is a warship, and he believes that Britain and the United States still have confidence in their warships. Moreover, in the long run, the oblique aircraft carrier is more suitable for the jet era, and the German aircraft carrier was deliberately created because of the small hangar area and the accumulation of various factors, and the Americans will most likely laugh at this design first

Taking a step back, even if the United States grasps the value of the beveled aircraft carrier through careful analysis, it is impossible to adopt it on the Essex class, because the Essex class is a product built in batches, and the construction speed is the biggest advantage.

After discovering that the enemy had four escort aircraft carriers, he was worried that his strength was not enough, so he immediately called for support -- not only did there be a large number of idle pilots on the Azores, but even Machar's main fleet stayed nearby, and it was not a matter at all to provide attack planes, and soon after the four pilot reconnaissance planes took off, the Azorean reinforcement attack group was also released. The only regrettable thing is that the distance is a little far, not 800 kilometers as envisaged in the tactical theory, but it is actually nearly 1,000 kilometers, but now the German carrier-based aircraft generally have a range of more than 1,500 kilometers, and the latest Ju-198 (Meteor Modification) attack aircraft has a maximum range of more than 1,800 kilometers.

At 15:45, 22 attack aircraft of the first attack wave accompanied by 14 BF-219s sorted, and at this time, about 50 aircraft of the second wave of attack aircraft taking off from the Azores were on the way to the attack......

It is not necessary to use torpedoes against weak escort carriers, only a 250-kilogram bomb can solve them, this thing can carry 3 JU-198s, and Hintz optimistically expects that these hundreds of aircraft will be enough to damage this fleet.

"Sir, the radar is showing an enemy plane coming."

"What?" Colonel Richmond, who commanded the NG-215 fleet, was taken aback, although he was also worried after the appearance of the AR-352, but it was more of an old experience and bad thing to be inspected by the Atlantic, thinking that this attack was still coming down from the water, focusing on strengthening the anti-submarine and setting up the anti-submarine formation, and the German planes pounced on them without being caught off guard.

He exclaimed: "There is the main German fleet nearby, didn't the intelligence say that they were in the Azores?" ”

"What should I do?"

"The remaining aircraft took off immediately, the anti-submarine patrol mission was canceled, and the air defense was prepared." After thinking about it, he added, "The combat formation has been changed to an anti-aircraft formation." ”

But his order was too late, the aircraft carriers only had time to take off a few planes in the face of the German attack aircraft group approaching, although the fastest speed of the Ju-198 is a little slower than the He-218, but it is a set of torpedo attacks and dive bombing in one attack aircraft, and after the ammunition is thrown, it can also act as a fighter air combat if necessary, compared to the F6F is certainly not beatable, but the gap with the F4F is not so big, the experienced German pilots first use horizontal flight to lure the enemy aircraft to the bait, Then swooped down to carry out a dive attack, and before the US troops below could effectively react, three of the four escort aircraft carriers were shot, instantly losing their ability to take off and land, and the planes parked on the deck were also hit and killed. Many of the destroyers next to it suffered from pond fish, and they also began to sink after being hit.

The air raid was very successful, 22 attack planes perfectly achieved the expected results, and the last one escort aircraft carrier that escaped by luck was beaten by German escort fighters and lost its armor although it did its best to take off fighters to intercept it. However, this is not the end of the NG-215, the real despair is the second wave of attacks an hour later, the British and American fleets that are rescuing the drowning people are again encountering air attacks, the fourth escort aircraft carrier is also hit dumb fire, and the remaining merchant ships are hit one after another.

The results of this lightning-fast air raid were huge, Germany only lost 4 attack planes, 3 fighters, but shot down 19 enemy planes, this is not the key, the key is to almost completely defeat the entire NG215 escort force, and also make the remaining merchant ships dare not disband the formation and run away, because it is about to get dark, and the scattered breakthrough will definitely be patronized by submarines, so that once they fall into the water, there will be no rescuers.

Of course, Hintz also made a lot of mistakes, such as deciding that the attack was too late, so that the attack wave flying back to the Azores was completely dark, and he relied on the commander to turn on the lights to land safely, which was an extremely dangerous behavior; Secondly, 250 kg of bombs cannot guarantee the destruction of the Casablanca-class escort carrier, the 2 Borg-class sank very happily, and the 2 Casablanca-class have been struggling to sink, and even Richmond's own Casablanca can maneuver at a speed of 11 knots, which was taken by the Richelieu in close hand-to-hand combat early the next morning.

Also because of the Richelieu's sortie, the fate of the entire NG215 was very unfortunate: in the afternoon, they were attacked by air raids; During the night, they encountered wolves; At dawn, the Richelieu, with its eight 380mm guns, swaggered into the sight of the seafarers with the destroyer. Faced with the situation that he could not be defeated and could not escape, Richmond had no choice but to order the surrender of the 8 surviving ships (including 1 oil tanker), and only one destroyer tried to escape at its own speed, but it was useless, and the Meteor that took off from the Dunkirk quickly performed a sea attack target tactic in front of the seafarers.

Now, tens of thousands of tons of fuel, thousands of jeeps or other vehicles, hundreds of Sherman tanks, and scattered supplies have all fallen into the hands of Hintz, and the broken fleet has won a beautiful start, but he regrets that he should not have let the plane bomb so refreshingly yesterday afternoon, and it was all golden Mark!

Roosevelt received the last telegram from Richmond, and he was very uncomfortable: the Anglo-Canadian route was attacked by the enemy's air, underwater and naval guns, the escort ships of the NG215 convoy were all destroyed, and the remaining merchant ships were forced to surrender...... (To be continued.) )