"Attention Caesar's squadron! Enemy fighters are accustomed to using guided rockets, which are very aggressive at about 2 kilometers, so our tactic is to shoot all the rockets at a position of 3 kilometers before they shoot rockets, and then take advantage of their evasion, all rush over, and stick to them in close combat, understand? ”

In the Italian G.59 carrier-based fighter with the O39-O1 tactical number painted on the back of the cockpit, sat a pilot wearing the rank of major, most of his face was hidden in an oxygen mask, but through his thick eyebrows, it could still be seen that this was a handsome Italian guy from Peugeot.

"Understood!"

"Yes!"

"Understood!"

The voices of the pilots were heard through the radio headsets.

At this time, the black dot in the line of sight was getting closer and closer, and it was already clear that the enemy fighters were divided into several small flying formations.

In the Italian-made G.59 carrier-based fighter numbered O39-O1, the major pilot stared at him and said: "Very well, gentlemen, it's time to show those Irish how good we are!" ”

In the squadron's communication channel, the Italian pilots screamed strangely, and this kind of excitement is really rare in the Italian Air Force and the Navy's 6-base air force.

At a distance of more than 3,000 meters from the enemy, eight G.59 planes lined up in a horizontal line fired 1o5 mm air-to-air rockets one after another. As the long, straight trails of white smoke stretched, the blue sky turned into an irregular pool track. On the other side of the track, the 12 Ardation-made IR-44Ts in the lead quickly climbed up and avoided the Italians' rockets without much effort.

The fighter pilots of the new United Kingdom Navy showed their composure and steadiness as usual, but they soon appeared in front of them, and these Italian fighters were completely different from what they had encountered before, and they were unexpectedly rushed towards them - two groups of fighters who had passed 14oo kilometers relative to each other only took seven or eight seconds to cross a distance of 3ooo meters!

The Italians talked about tactical strategy, and the "strongest naval battle group" on the other side, which had been cultivated through long-term rigorous training and a large number of live-fire exercises, was not ambiguous; without waiting for the Italian fighters to get close, the IR-44T leading the formation waved their wings, adjusted their attitudes, and displayed their "second shot" skills at close range -- when the enemy planes were close to six or seven hundred meters or even three or four hundred meters, the Irish pilots had to complete the aiming and firing operations of the rockets in one second or even less time. They had no time to control the rockets' flight trajectory in any case, so they could only let them shoot in a straight line and attack enemy fighters under the effect of proximity fuses.

As a result, the "Luger's Spear", a 127-mm guided rocket named after one of the four legendary Celtic soldiers, once again gave the Italians a hard time......

The two sides led the first to face each other, and the slightly superior squadron of IR-44T carrier-based aircraft shot down three G.59s, and the fragments of the rocket explosion also caused some damage to several other Italian fighters. The rest of the Italian Navy's carrier-based pilots showed no intention of flinching, and they flew their planes to roll sharply in the air, dodging the bullets fired at close range by the opponent in an almost juggling flight maneuver, looking for an opportunity to seize the attack position. After a while, the Italians actually shot down and damaged one IR-44T with a traditional rear-end attack, and this routine of punching and killing the master made the Irish pilots very uncomfortable.

The fierce battle lasted less than two minutes, and another 1o Italian carrier-based fighters were killed. Seeing that the opposing carrier-based fighters formed a tight cover for the carrier-based attack aircraft, the Italian pilots gave up the idea of tricks and devoted themselves to fighting the enemy fighters.

The two batches of 18 Italian carrier-based fighters intercepted from the "Aquila" were all G.59 nicknamed "Cygnus". Known as the "elegant swan" in the Italian Navy, the G.59 not only inherits the design of the belly double air intakes with the front appearance, but also has a pair of wide, foldable wings, so it has superior air combat maneuverability and good carrier performance.

At the 1947 International Aviation Exposition, the Italian representative boasted that the G.59 was the best piston carrier-based aircraft of the moment, and in the joint exercises of the Allies held in the same year, the G.59 equipped by the Italian Navy did indeed show a convincing performance. Unfortunately, due to the high cost and some political reasons, the G.59 received very few overseas orders, and the Italian Navy, which had been expecting jet fighters on ships, only used it as a transitional equipment, resulting in the overall production of the G.59 in small quantities, not enough to become a classic fighter with the influence of the times.

The G.59, with a total combat weight of 4.4 tons, is a full circle smaller in front of the IR-44T, which has a total combat weight of 6.8 tons. In the routine military exercises of the Western allies, the new British Navy has mainly sent early models of IR-44T to combat in the past two years, and deliberately uses jet carrier-based aircraft that are still in the experimental stage to confuse the public......

After several rounds of fierce battles, the Irish relied on the advantage of strength to occupy the absolute upper hand, the Italian G.59 of the two squadrons lost more than half, and the surviving Italian pilots had to face the disadvantage of being one enemy and two enemies, and finally escaped the attack of one enemy plane, and in the blink of an eye they were bitten by another enemy plane, which was not the worst. Knowing that the enemy's carrier-based attack planes were approaching their aircraft carriers step by step, but they were powerless to stop them, the Italian fighter pilots could not help but feel worried when they heard the rumbling sound of artillery and the explosion of anti-aircraft shells not far away.

On the sea, the "Aquila," which had been attacked by an air raid, had stopped the work of retracting and releasing carrier-based aircraft, and the service personnel hurriedly put the two carrier-based planes that had just returned home into the hangar, and the gunners controlled the anti-aircraft guns on both sides of the ship to fire fiercely, and the ammunition handling personnel kept going back and forth between the ammunition depot and the gun position, and the damage management team was ready to fight the deadly flames at any time with water taps, fire extinguishers, and fire axes.

The "Aquila" only dispatched two groups of combat reconnaissance planes and a wave of attack planes, and then it attracted a group of enemy carrier-based aircraft, and Vice Admiral Biangkelly, who commanded the fleet of the "Emanuele II," was really dumb and could not tell if he had any bitterness. If you order a U-turn and retreat at this time, the previous losses will definitely be irreparable, and there is a possibility that the enemy fighters will be chased all the way, even if the two main battleships and the "Aquila" aircraft carrier are able to escape, the morale of the entire fleet will definitely be greatly damaged, as for his personal reputation, Bionkelly is no longer willing to think about it.

Whether to make a desperate and brave attack, or to compromise and retreat in embarrassment, in the face of the surging enemy fleet, Biankelly quickly made a choice. He resolutely ordered the fleet to adjust its formation, the two main battleships were in front of the left and right of the "Aquila", and the destroyers and submarine hunters formed a complete ring of defense around the three capital ships.

At the critical moment, although Bironkelly no longer wavered, he inevitably made up his mind a little late. The two main battleships were still adjusting their positions, and the new British Navy fighters approaching the air defense circle of the fleet had already launched the first wave of attacks: four IR-43Ts took the lead in performing their best 100-step piercing stunt, throwing from a height of 10,000 meters enough to penetrate the battleship's deck "Angel Flying Wing", this attack weapon that combined radar sight and radio guidance technology has already made the Japanese Navy pay a heavy price, when those Japanese ships that were lucky enough to escape returned to port, Representatives of the Italian military also came aboard the ships to inspect their damage and learn more about the course of the battle, when they were amazed by this revolutionary naval weapon, which in recent years they have been trying to introduce and imitate. The Italian officers who had witnessed the tragic situation of the Japanese ships at that time may have had a premonition that this doom would one day befall their own ships, so they took precautions to formulate plans to upgrade the vertical protection capabilities of the ships in service, but unfortunately due to various technical and financial constraints, only a small part of these plans were implemented.

In this day and age, the best carrier-based radar is not enough to provide an effective early warning of aerial bombs dropped by enemy aircraft, and aircraft carrier commanders like Rear Admiral Andrei Mandragora must rely on their own experience and observation of the situation on the ground to make judgments. Now that a small group of enemy planes was flying at an altitude of more than 10,000 meters and approaching the fleet from the front, Mandragora hurriedly ordered the aircraft carrier to maneuver in an S-shape and coordinated the two battleships and escort ships to respond and cover.

Although the "Aquila" temporarily joined the Biankelly formation, in the past few years, it has conducted many joint exercises with the two Emanuele II classes, and most of the escort ships accompanying it this time are frequent visitors in the main fleet lineup, and in the process of maneuvering and evading on the battlefield, they have maintained good coordination, and there have been no obvious flaws in the naval air defense formation, still less the farce of ships colliding with each other.

The first of the "angel wings" dropped from a height of 10,000 meters fell about 20 meters in front of the starboard side of the "Aquila". A few seconds later, the second one landed on the starboard side of the Aquila, and the column of water that rose in an instant almost touched the flight deck of the Italian aircraft carrier, and the explosion of the bomb in the water made the whole ship feel a clear shock.

Having dodged two guided aerial bombs in quick succession, the good fortune of the "Aquila" soon came to an end. In the blink of an eye, the third "Angel Wing" roared and hit the heart - the bomb penetrated from the center of the flight deck of the Italian aircraft carrier, and under the action of huge kinetic energy, it pierced through three decks one after another, reaching its No. 2 boiler room, the bomb's time-delay fuse worked normally, and a moment later, the violent explosion instantly destroyed the four oil-fired boilers in the No. 2 boiler room, cut off a large number of pipes inside the hull, and caused a fire. After a few seconds, the fourth "Angel Flying Wing" hit the left position of the bow of the ship, directly smashed through the twin 127-mm anti-aircraft gun platform in front of the port side, detonated the opponent's spare ammunition on this platform on the spot, and triggered a small-scale explosion, the bomb then fell into the sea against the hull, although the explosion position was more than three meters away from the bottom of the ship, but due to the multiplication effect of the explosion in the water, it still blew up a terrifying hole in the relatively fragile bottom position of the Italian aircraft carrier.

(End of chapter)

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