Then, Vice Admiral Tovey ordered his subordinates to calculate the time of contact between the enemy and us, and make sure that when the aircraft group rushed to the sky above the enemy ship group, the enemy and our warships had already made contact and started a melee.

"The main target is the enemy's battleship 'Dunkirk'!" Lieutenant General Tovey sent a telegram to the Air Force.

According to intelligence, several army officers had boarded the battleship "Dunkirk" before the start of the war, and the spies recognized one of them as the lieutenant known as the "legendary sergeant".

Of course, Tovey's move was not intended to kill the "legendary sergeant", from which Vice Admiral Tovey guessed that the "Dunkirk" was the flagship of the German fleet.

At the same time, Vice Admiral Tovey also ordered the carrier-based aircraft of the "Eagle" aircraft carrier...... although the "Eagle" aircraft carrier has only 21 carrier-based aircraft, they are all "Swordfish" torpedo attack aircraft.

Don't look at the backwardness of this torpedo attack aircraft, it is still a propeller biplane attack aircraft, but it has proved its value again and again with brilliant results in naval battles. For example, in the naval battle against Italy, it repeatedly sank Italian warships and caused heavy losses, and for example, when encircling and destroying the German battleship "Bismarck", it was it that was responsible for damaging it, which eventually led to the sinking of "Bismarck".

This time, Tovey hoped to get the torpedo attack planes mixed in with the other fighters to attack the German warships.

However, what Lieutenant General Tovey did not expect was ......

The German warship only flipped a shot, then quickly slowed down and left the battlefield again...... The French warships were fast, and it didn't seem difficult to do that.

This made Lieutenant General Tovey a bit of a dilemma, the Air Force fighters had already taken off, should they be allowed to return?

After thinking about it, Vice Admiral Tovey ordered: "The fleets of Group A and Group B are pursuing at full speed!" ”

From the point of view of the warship, this order was correct, the French warship was indeed fast, but the flaw was also very obvious, that is, there was no main gun in the stern...... This meant that British warships could chase after enemy warships.

As for the problem of air-sea coordination, it can slow down the fleet.

Originally, it was possible that the enemy and the enemy would be like this, and no one could help anyone, but an unexpected situation broke the deadlock.

Colonel Alston was a front-line commander of the Air Force, and he was somewhat dissatisfied with this caution of Lieutenant General Tovey for two reasons:

One is that this flying wing of Colonel Auston had just arrived from Crete, and the pilots had been in the air for more than an hour before rising again after an emergency refueling on the island of Malta.

Therefore, it is more important for pilots to go into battle as soon as possible, otherwise nervousness and fatigue will drag them down.

On the other hand, the longer the fighter plane was in the air, the more fuel was consumed, and Colonel Alston feared that the Luftwaffe would take advantage of the fuel shortage to strike a fatal blow at the group.

As we all know, this is very important, because if there is not enough fuel, pilots will not even dare to engage enemy fighters, even if they are targeted by enemy fighters...... This consumes fuel, and if there is not enough fuel to fly back to Malta, it means that the fighter plane will have to land on the surface or in Sicily.

Therefore, Colonel Alston complained to the Air Force command: "Those navies may not understand air combat at all, they think that as long as we want, we can fly in the sky like warships stay in the sea!" ”

In a way, Colonel Alston was right in this concern, because Tovey was indeed from the Navy and did not know much about air combat. The important thing in naval and air combat is air combat rather than naval warfare, which is why the vast majority of US aircraft carrier commanders must have pilot experience, and Britain at this time certainly did not have this awareness.

"Please, Colonel!" The commander of the Air Force, Rear Admiral Achill, replied: "He is Vice Admiral Tovey, the commander of the successful hunt of the battleship 'Bismarck', he understands the tactics of the Germans and, of course, air combat!" ”

Rear Admiral Achill guessed wrong this time, if the previous Vice Admiral Tovey knew the tactics of the German Navy, this time Vice Admiral Tovey did not...... Because he had never seen the German Navy play like this.

"He'd better understand!" Admiral Alston looked out the window at the clouds and said, "Because I already feel the danger!" ”

Before he could finish speaking, several dark shadows suddenly swooped down from the clouds, followed by a line of air from machine gun fire and bullets...... In an instant, two British warplanes were hit and fell with black smoke and a shrill whistling.

"Germans!" Auston shouted: "The planes of the Germans! ”

Colonel Alston did not hesitate and bit one of the planes with a twist of the nose...... But the plane was so much faster than he was that Auston could barely follow it and watch it shoot down one fighter after another.

Then the fighter plane climbed high in the direction of the sun, and then made a sharp turn, and killed back with the sun at an astonishing speed...... The cannon opened fire heavily, and the fighter plane almost stuck to the top of the Auston fighter.

When Colonel Auston turned around with his plane, there were only two of his own planes that had fallen to the ground on fire.

"God!" Colonel Alston said, "It's the 'Yellow 14'!" ”

"Marseilleu?" Major General Archill also knew who this "Yellow No. 14" was.

"Yes!" Colonel Alston replied: "He just shot down five of our fighters, and I lost ......"

"General!" Then Colonel Auston said: "I ask for an attack, because the Luftwaffe has already determined our position, and we do not know where they are...... They might set a trap for us! ”

Major General Archill was silent for a moment, then nodded and said, "Excuse me, I'll tell General Tovey about the situation!" ”

As a result, the British aircraft group rushed towards the German fleet at the fastest speed, including the 12 "Swordfish" attack planes that took off from the "Eagle" aircraft carrier.

Raeder got the Air Force's report in the first place.

"Sorry, Marshal!" The commander of the German Air Force, Major General Fischer, reported with some trepidation: "Several of my subordinates did not obey the order, and while they were on reconnaissance duty, they rushed into the British group and shot down several planes, which obviously annoyed them, and now the British group is flying towards you at full speed...... Not sure if this is disrupting your plans? ”

"No, Major General!" Raeder said happily, "This didn't disrupt my plans, on the contrary, they helped me a lot!" ”

"So ......"

"Get ready for battle now!" Raeder ordered, "After they attack us, it's time for you to put on a show!" ”

"Yes, Marshal!"