The weakness of the British fleet, the old admiral Ruetjance saw at once - this fatal weakness was the speed of the voyage and the coordination of the fleet!

At this time, there were as many as four British transport fleets to be protected in the Atlantic, and there were no more than seven or eight of them. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

With such a large fleet of transport ships, there may be more than 200 transport ships inside. Counting the ships escorted, three hundred could not be stopped.

With such a large transport fleet, the coordination of just one is already a headache, let alone several in one go?

Presumably, at this time, the entire fleet is still coordinated, and unified command cannot be achieved at all, and it will become a serious problem if it is barely assembled and sailing.

How could such a makeshift fleet be dispatched like an arm's command, and how could it be very high?

Therefore, in Lütjans's opinion, such a huge naval transport fleet can have a speed of seven or eight knots, even if the British seamen and sailors are well-trained.

There is also a small disadvantage in equipment, that is, such a large fleet of ships has been assembled on the sea, but there is a serious shortage of air defense.

Most of the ships were unarmed, and the anti-aircraft guns of the surrounding destroyers were very mediocre.

In the Atlantic in 1940, British battleships ready for air combat could probably be counted on one hand.

A month ago, no one would have believed that there would be German warships in the Atlantic. Of course, there are fewer warships, not to mention aircraft.

It is precisely because of this that Lütjans and Hines are sure that their carrier-based aircraft will go to the bad luck of hundreds of British ships.

If this is placed in the Pacific Ocean, in the middle and late stages of the war, just the battleship's own anti-aircraft artillery will make more than 20 carrier-based aircraft scold their mothers in frustration.

The speed of the voyage was extremely slow, and there was not much anti-aircraft firepower, and the dense formation stretched for tens of kilometers over the sea...... With such a fleet, Hines felt that it was too suitable for the attack of carrier-based aircraft.

"Is there any news from the reconnaissance plane that took off earlier?" Thinking of this, Hines even couldn't wait.

He turned sideways and asked his men: "Ten planes, five formations, and none of them found the location of the British fleet?" ”

The Zeppelin aircraft carrier did not have a dedicated carrier-based reconnaissance aircraft, and it was entirely a cameo with fighters. Even so, it is impossible for the fleet to send 10 valuable fighters to reconnoiter at once.

In fact, the fighters that really took off from the Zeppelin aircraft carrier only made cameo appearances in reconnaissance in a two-plane formation.

The remaining six planes were all seaplanes that took off from battleships. Battleships such as the Prinz Eugen, the Tirpitz, the Gneisenau, and the Scharnhorst took off their own seaplanes to help with the reconnaissance.

Even so, it is not easy to find the opposing fleet's fleet in the vast sea.

Last time, Britain was in the Danish Strait, because of the time difference, and did not find the German fleet that rushed into the Atlantic.

It can be said that the search for the opposing fleet at sea is really a key factor in determining the outcome of a battle at sea.

The current German naval fleet has no experience in this area, and can only rely on their rigorous attitude, little by little to try and explore.

The good news was that they had the approximate location of the opposing fleet, and had just received a telegram from a German submarine indicating the exact location of one of the opposing convoys.

Using a compass and a drawing tool, I measured it on the chart table, and then made a cross with a pencil. Lu Teyans probably guessed the other party's assembly point, and he could send his own reconnaissance plane more targeted.

The four fastest FW-190T fighters have just been dispatched, and it is in this direction that they are flying.

"How's your preparation going? We were in a hurry...... There may be other annoying things as well. Seeing Hines return, Lutjans asked, pressing the chart.

Hines, who had just returned from the deck, dropped his hat on the corner of the chart table and replied: "25 JU-87C bombers, all ready." ”

Hearing the news that there were only 25 aircraft in the attack group, Lütjans looked a little dissatisfied. You must know that these planes have been inspected at the port when they sail, and they are all in a usable state.

Unfortunately, there were many failures in World War II aircraft, and being able to maintain such a state of attendance was already a manifestation of the professional level of German ground crew.

"There is an aircraft oil pipe failure, another engine is in the state of repair, and another is being debugged, which is estimated to catch up with the next batch of attack missions." He knew his own business, Hines opened his mouth to explain.

Lütjans also had to accept the fact that he was able to dispatch fewer planes.

In the first wave of attack, the German carrier-based aircraft force will exert all its strength, and 25 attack aircraft, covered by 6 fighters, will carry out a surprise attack.

"All attack aircraft carry torpedoes, not bombs, to attack, increasing the effectiveness of the attack." When it came to the attack mission, Hines himself made some modifications.

In view of the fact that it was impossible to install a large number of anti-aircraft guns on British transport ships, Hines decided to attack with torpedoes in full.

First of all, torpedoes are more powerful than aerial bombs for the killing of surface ships. This option maximizes the power of the attack and sinks more British transports.

Secondly, Hines was convinced that the enemy's anti-aircraft firepower was limited, and there was no need to use dive bombers to interfere with the enemy's anti-aircraft artillery fire and fight for bombing trajectories for torpedo planes.

With these two reasons, Hines radically chose all his attack weapons as torpedoes, without a single bomb.

In this way, if he is lucky, his 25 attack aircraft can sink about 20 British transport ships!

"There's nothing wrong with torpedoes, right?" After hearing Hines's choice, Lütjans asked with some concern.

Recently, the naval side has been plagued by the instability of torpedo fuses. Many commanders of the Navy's submarine forces are responding to a problem, whether it is a magnetic fuse or a collision fuse, there is a serious defect that cannot be detonated.

There are many ways to improve it, for example, the magnetic fuze torpedo has been deactivated, and the collision fuze has been set to a more reasonable depth of use.

After a series of improvement measures, Hines believes that the torpedo in his hand can be regarded as a relatively reliable attack weapon: "Don't worry, I don't think there is any problem!" ”

"Report!" An officer excitedly walked over and handed over a report record: "Long live the Führer!" Reconnaissance aircraft discovered the enemy fleet, which was quite massive! ”

"Location!" After returning a military salute, Lütjans was most concerned about the exact location of the enemy fleet. Now that the enemy has been found, he feels his heart beat faster.

"Right here!" The officer pointed at the chart, which was not far from the fork that Lütjens had made.

Thinking about it, if the distance is too different from the inference, it is impossible for the reconnaissance plane to find the target.

Hundreds of ships look huge, but in the Atlantic, they are still very small. If you want to find such a fleet, you can't even have an error of tens of kilometers.

"Hines! Sortie attack aircraft swarm! Fleet Readiness Increases! Enter the first-level battle state! Start attacking! Straightening up from the chart table, Lütjens gave the order to attack.

"Uh......h Woo! Piercing battle sirens sounded in all the battleship's cabins, and the crew looked at the constant flashing red light overhead, ready for battle.

The towering bow cut through the icy waves, and on the deck of the USS Zeppelin, a JU-87C Navy Stuka's propeller began to turn.

Soon, another Stuka behind it also started its engine. Under the guidance of the ground crew, one after another Stuka attack planes aimed their noses at the slender runway.

With the take-off commander's command flag waved down vigorously, the first Stuka, with a long torpedo on its belly, rushed to the end of the runway.

There, the heavy fuselage, the moment the landing gear detached from the deck, sank slightly in the direction of the sea. Then the plane was steadily pulled up by the pilot and flew into the gray sky.

It seems that for as long as I can remember, the sky above the Atlantic Ocean has been gray. Even though it should be sunny, it's always a distance away from the blue.

In this gray sky, the second Stuka rushed into the sky, forming a small two-plane formation with the first plane.

Immediately after, the third and fourth planes joined the formation, and more planes were on deck ready for takeoff.

Soon, all 25 Stukas were in the sky. Next to take off are the FW-190T fighters responsible for protecting these Stuka aircraft.

The reason why the fighter took off after was because of the difference in range. The short legs of the German fighters made the officers who commanded the operation have to arrange the take-off sequence as reasonably as possible.

Comparatively speaking, Japan's Zero fighter is indeed a miraculous weapon, and it can take off first, hover in the air for half an hour, and wait for the attack aircraft unit to take off and fly to the target together......

Unfortunately, just as Japanese aircraft did not envy the excellent dive performance of German aircraft, German aircraft were indeed inferior to their Japanese counterparts in terms of range.

"Now, all we have left is to wait." Looking at the fighter plane flying away, Hines sighed.

"yes!" Lütjans felt uncomfortable, for it was the first time he had experienced such a naval battle - the enemy was out of sight, and victory seemed out of his control......