Something was ignited, and the hole in the deck that had been blown out quickly burst into flames, but it was quickly extinguished by the ship's damage management team, leaving only black smoke gushing out of the two holes.

Seeing that the attack on the Count Zeppelin had been quite effective, the commander of the British attack aircraft group, Dereck, excitedly ordered all the pilots of the carrier-based aircraft by radio: "The enemy ship has been damaged!" The squadrons are intensifying their attacks, and we must avenge our fallen comrades! ”

In fact, there was no need for the commander's order at all, and the pilots of the various squadrons had already rushed towards the Count Zeppelin.

After all, persimmons have to be pinched softly, and warships have to find injured beatings.

In the face of the frantic siege of the enemy planes, the anti-aircraft artillery crew of the aircraft carrier Count Zeppelin did not show the slightest cowardice, they stood firmly in their positions, ignored the bombs that were constantly falling like raindrops, and heroically fired wildly at the enemy planes in the sky with the anti-aircraft guns of large or small caliber in their hands.

There were constantly bombs smashing on the hull of the Count Zeppelin, but fortunately, the direct hits were all 100-pound small bombs, and only a few of the 1,000-pound big ones were close misses.

Soon, a squadron of 24 SBD-1s of the British army threw away the aerial bombs they carried, and although the besieged Count Zeppelin was devastated, the density of anti-aircraft fire did not decrease much, and more than 70% of the anti-aircraft guns on the whole ship were still in normal use.

Seeing that one-third of his carrier-based aircraft had finished dropping bombs, but although the Count Zeppelin caught fire in many places, the deck was sparse, but it still maintained its top speed, and even the density of anti-aircraft fire did not decrease much, and the whole ship showed no signs of sinking, Drake was anxious.

After thinking about it carefully, he seemed to have made up his mind, gritted his teeth and said: "Don't return after the plane that dropped the bomb, stay behind to cover the dive bomber that didn't drop the bomb, and use the machine gun to strafe the exposed anti-aircraft gun positions of the enemy ship!" ”

"Torpedo bombers also joined the attack, and today more than one German aircraft carrier will be sunk anyway!"

The dive bombers who were raising their altitude and preparing to return were silent when they heard this order.

They had already completed a dive under German anti-aircraft fire, and by luck they were not shot down, but they were all more or less wounded.

Although these injuries are not fatal, they have a certain amount of damage to the aerodynamic shape of the aircraft, and the maneuverability of the aircraft is definitely reduced, which is not comparable to the intact aircraft.

And now these crews who were supposed to return home are required to dive with the injured planes and those who are flying the intact planes, and the better is to let them cover, to put it mildly, or, to put it honestly, to let them use their lives to attract German anti-aircraft fire, so as to create a bomb opportunity for the remaining dive bombers.

And another order to torpedo bombers actually meant something about the same.

Although they both drop a lump of things, torpedo bombers drop torpedoes and dive bombers drop aerial bombs are actually very different.

The latter has no requirements for the state of the aircraft, as long as the pilot aims accurately and boldly enough. The former, on the other hand, has highly demanding requirements for flight angle, flight speed, flight, etc.

Because the aviation torpedo is not as stupid and black as the aerial bomb, the aviation torpedo itself is a sophisticated weapon, if the flight speed is too large or the flight altitude is too high or the flight angle is not right when thrown, the thrown torpedo will be damaged or exploded due to the violent impact on the water surface.

Therefore, when the pilot maneuvers the torpedo bomber to drop the bomb, he must keep the plane low enough, low enough speed, and smooth enough angle to make the aerial torpedo that enters the water work normally. At the same time, due to technical limitations, the range of aviation torpedoes is generally very close, so this requires that torpedo bombers must be close enough to the target ship.

However, those who can become the navy generally do not have IQ problems, so it is impossible for the average anti-aircraft gunner to watch the enemy's torpedo bombers approach their warships and remain indifferent, on the contrary, most anti-aircraft gunners will choose to give priority to concentrated torpedo bombers.

Because compared with aerial bombs, torpedoes have a much greater ability to damage warships.

Therefore, in order to ensure the survival rate of torpedo bombers as much as possible, the general naval commander will ask the dive bomber unit to attack first, and wait until the anti-aircraft guns on the enemy ship are almost cleared before letting the torpedo bombers harvest, which is the torpedo bomber/dive bomber cooperative tactic - this tactic is the most slippery in the high seas fleet.

And now, although the Count Zeppelin was wounded, it still retained 70% of its anti-aircraft firepower, which was not suitable for torpedo bombers to drop torpedoes at close range, but the British commander gave the order to attack, which was no different from sending the torpedo bomber group to death.

However, this is not to say that Derek does not understand coordination tactics and blind command, but he was really forced by the German anti-aircraft firepower to have no choice but to let all the fighters go on together to share the firepower as much as possible.

"I know that this order is very unfair to those who have completed the mission, so the choice of whether to go or stay is left to you, and I will not force you to order as a commander." Derek thought about it, but changed the order and let the pilots choose freely.

Although he was now at war, as a noble British commander, the concept of freedom was still deeply ingrained in his heart.

Therefore, there are two choices in front of the pilot, one is to fly back and go home safely. The second is to stay and risk being shot down to assist comrades in sinking the German aircraft carrier.

Soon, Drake got the answer - most of the SBDs that had already made their way home turned and flew back and rejoined the formation, and only a few of the seriously injured planes apologized and continued to return.

It has to be said that the sacrificial spirit of the British Navy is a big factor in the reason why the British Navy has been able to gallop across the ocean for hundreds of years and why Britain has been able to become a world hegemon as an island country.

Of course, in this world, when it comes to the spirit of sacrifice, it is still a certain two peoples in the East that are the most prosperous.

As a squadron of SBDs rejoined the group and used their aerial machine guns to dive and strafe the exposed anti-aircraft positions of the Count Zeppelin, the casualties of the German anti-aircraft gunners began to skyrocket, and many of the positions saw the guns die without bad guys.

Faced with this situation, the commander of the anti-aircraft gun position had to run into the hangar and recruit others to join the anti-aircraft position where there was a shortage of manpower.

"There are not enough people in the air defense position! Did anyone go up there voluntarily?! The commander shouted with blood on his face, "But first tell you, it's dangerous up there, and the casualty rate is high!" ”