"The 101st Naval Aviation Squadron is ready and requests to take off." The pilot's voice echoed over the radio in the ship's island.

"Permission to take off, good luck!" The air traffic controllers approved their application for take-off.

The 12 torpedo bombers parked on the deck began to slowly accelerate in turn, and then flew into the blue sky.

"General, you say, with these planes, can we really beat the blue side?" Dönitz looked at the planes flying into the blue sky and asked Raeder next to him suspiciously, "They have three battleships." ”

"I don't know." Raeder shook his head, "It's the first time I've commanded an aircraft carrier, so I don't know how effective it is. ”

Dönitz and Raeder are currently in the command room of the newly commissioned aircraft carrier USS Count Zeppelin, leading the newly formed aircraft carrier group to participate in a special naval combat exercise.

The reason why this exercise is special is that the Count Zeppelin will face three battleships alone.

In Raeder's and Dönitz's view, the exercise was very difficult, even though the three battleships that were opponents were all old Helgoland-class dreadnoughts.

"The 141st Naval Aviation Squadron requested to take off."

"Permission to take off, good luck!"

The last group of 12 dive bombers took to the skies from the brand new deck with permission from the tower.

A total of 48 planes, consisting of 2 dive bomber crews and 2 torpedo attack aircraft crews, flew to their target after a simple formation in the sky.

Before the Count Zeppelin was completed, the Navy's ship design team planned to equip it with 20 fighters, 20 dive bombers, and 15 torpedo attack aircraft.

However, when the Count Zeppelin was completed, the naval design team realized that they had underestimated the Count Zeppelin's carrying capacity—when the originally planned aircraft were crammed onto the ship, there was a large amount of more hangar space.

So they expanded the original squadron of fighters and bombers per 10 aircraft to 12 squadrons, and reduced the torpedo attack planes per 15 aircraft squadron to 12 squadrons, but carried one more squadron of torpedo attack planes than the original.

In this way, the aircraft carrier USS Count Zeppelin carried a full 72 aircraft, and its combat effectiveness increased by 30% compared with the original plan.

While the two of Raeder, who were on the red side, were nervously waiting for the results, the three Helgoran-class battleships on the other side, which were imaginary enemies for the exercise, did not look nervous because of the approaching "enemy planes", and the sailors on the ships even leaned on their posts and chatted with laughter.

"Hey, Hans, where do you want to go after the drill? I heard that a striptease pub had just opened in Port Kiel. A young sailor leaned against a 37mm anti-aircraft gun and smiled to the sailor next to him who was in charge of ammunition loading.

"Really? New striptease tavern? "That's great," said Hans, "but Merkel, we have to deal with Admiral Raeder and his aircraft carrier first, and the winner of this exercise will be able to take a vacation." ”

"Hell an aircraft carrier." Merkel pouted, "I don't think a single aircraft carrier can beat three of our battleships alone." ”

"That's just as well." Hans nodded, "Well, I don't know what the Führer thinks. There's no point in arranging such a drill. ”

"Hey, don't care what the Führer thinks, in my opinion, it's better to have a few more of these exercises." "A drill is a vacation, how awesome." ”

"Haha, you're right." Hans laughed.

"For the first time, I felt that the Helgoland was slow." Merkel kicked the hull and complained, "Why does it have a top speed of 21 knots?" It would have been nice if it had been Section 31, so that we could have found the Count Zeppelin sooner and kicked it in the ass. ”

"Enemy aircraft spotted! Anti-aircraft artillery on alert! "Just when the two of them were chatting one by one, their opponent arrived.

"Merkel, you can't kick the ass of the Zeppelin now, but you can kick the ass of naval aviation first." Hans teased.

"Let's teach naval aviation a lesson first." As he spoke, Hans operated the twin 37mm anti-aircraft guns beside him, "Come on, naval pilots, let Daddy's anti-aircraft guns ravage your ass!" ”

It didn't take long for the attack formation that had taken off from the Count Zeppelin to come to the sky above the blue ship formation.

"Hey, boys, come to Daddy!" Merkel aimed the sights on the anti-aircraft guns at the cluster and said with a smile.

As if hearing Merkel's words, the heavenly group of planes separated 12 dive bombers and began to dive down the Helgolan.

"Fire! Fire! The order to open fire was heard from the loudspeaker next to the battle station, and in the next second, two twin 88mm anti-aircraft guns and three twin 37mm anti-aircraft guns on the Helgolan began to spew flames into the sky.

However, the rate of fire of these two types of anti-aircraft guns was pitifully slow, especially the 37mm anti-aircraft gun, as a small-caliber anti-aircraft gun, its rate of fire was only 30 rounds per minute, compared to the theoretical rate of fire of the 40mm bangbang gun equipped by the British was 160 rounds per minute.

"I'm Hans of Zhnima, do you dare to reload faster?" Merkel yelled at Hans, who was sweating profusely as he loaded his shells.

"Whew! Shit! I've reloaded fast enough! Hans gasped as he reloaded the cannonball, and scolded back, "It's not the first day you've used this cannon, you don't know what rate of fire it is?" ”

"Hell! After this exercise, I must apply for a change of department! Merkel said and fired another shot, and then waited for Hans to reload, "or transfer to a new ship, I heard that their newly equipped 40mm anti-aircraft guns have a super fast rate of fire!" ”

"Whew!" Hans slipped the cannonball into the cannon, then closed the bolt, "I'm going to go, and you're not the loader!" ”

Merkel saw that Hans had finished loading, so she aimed at another "enemy plane", but before he could open fire, a sentence came from the radio behind him.

"The Helgoland was hit by 10 250-pound bombs, all anti-aircraft gun emplacements were destroyed, the hull caught fire, and the 131 Naval Aviation Squadron, which dropped the bomb, shot down a dive bomber."

"I'm going to hit his plane! Tired and tired to fight for a long time before a fight! Merkel slapped the anti-aircraft gun in front of her fiercely, and then took Hans, who had a soft hand, and walked back to the ship with the other anti-aircraft gunners.

In place of the anti-aircraft gunners, more than a dozen damage management crews poured out of the ship, spraying water on the hull with high-pressure water cannons to simulate extinguishing fires.

At this moment, inside the bridge, Rear Admiral Johannes Bachmann, the captain of the Helgoland and the commander of the blue side, was nervously looking at the six torpedo planes that were getting closer and closer on the right, and gave an order in a trembling voice: "The torpedo planes on the right are coming!" Left full rudder! ”