"Attention fighter squadrons! Attention fighter squadrons! The Swabian and Emanuele squadrons carried out a charge attack to disintegrate the enemy fighters; Joachim's squadron followed up the assault and hunted down enemy bombers; Garibaldi's squadron conducts defensive interceptions, blocking enemy aircraft from approaching the fleet. Remember www.biquge.info three kilometers around the fleet is an indiscriminate defensive zone, and squadrons should try to avoid this hemispherical area! ”

On the bridge of the German aircraft carrier "Swabia", the officer in charge of directing aviation operations used radio equipment to issue combat orders to the pilots who went into battle. Radio communication technology was born in 1906, more than 20 years, in the military and civilian field of application increasingly mature, now every continent has appeared commercial broadcasting, radio has gradually entered the ordinary home, and the main reason for restricting it to replace code communication is two, one is the stability of long-distance communication is not good, the other is the communication content can not be effectively encrypted.

The real-time radio communication on the battlefield is very easy to be eavesdropped on by the enemy, even so, for the commanders who are in charge of the aircraft carrier and can clearly observe the battlefield situation through radar equipment, the advantages of this method of communication outweigh the disadvantages, especially when organizing defensive operations, its advantages are magnified and the disadvantages are reduced, so no commander with vision will ignore the tremendous combat utility of this communication technology.

In the face of the first wave of enemy aircraft, Natsuki's Allied main fleet took off 22 He-25s and 9 IR-30Ts for air defense. After receiving the battle order, the battle-hardened German pilots pounced on the enemy planes like a flock of ferocious birds of prey, and although the Italian pilots had experienced actual combat in the waters north of the Azores, it was the first time they had encountered the enemy's carrier-based aircraft. The IR-30T they flew was of course a famous aircraft of a generation, but at this time it was relatively outdated, and it was difficult to compete head-on with the most advanced carrier-based fighters of the US and British navies. After the carrier-based fighters from the three German aircraft carriers roared out, nine Italian Navy carrier-based aircraft lined up in a beautiful but impractical V-shape, waiting for the enemy planes to arrive at the door.

The group of U.S. and British carrier-based planes flying close to the Allied fleet was roughly divided into three air echelons, and several others were left alone. In the face of the superior number of German fighters, the "Sea Hawk" and "Eagle Falcon", which were covering the arrival of the bombers, stepped forward to meet them without fear. After the exchange of fire began, wonderful air tumbling and diving could be seen everywhere, long or short neighing and machine gun fire were mixed together, and the fighters on both sides were no longer in formation, and the most primitive catch-and-fight became the most effective way to solve the problem. Every few tens of seconds, a fighter plane crashes into the sea with thick smoke in tow, and the fighters who constantly change direction during rapid flight dazzle the spectators on the sea.

While the fighters of the two sides fought fiercely, more than a dozen American-made "Guardians" with aerial bombs on board tried to avoid the IR-30Ts on standby at medium and high altitudes attacking the Allied fleet on the surface of the sea. In modern times, the Italian army has been a man of many defeats and few victories, and its poor performance has often become a laughing stock in the world, but this does not mean that all Italian soldiers are unqualified soldiers. Finding that the enemy carrier-based bombers were not escorted by fighter planes, nine Italian naval fighters swarmed under the leadership of the long plane. The Vought SB2U "Guardian" is perhaps the most powerful carrier-based bomber of this era, surpassing the Ju-17T that the Germans are proud of in many ways, and they fly at the fastest speed of bombers in various countries, but they still cannot compete with the light-armed IR-30T, and the Italians correctly use the battlefield situation to attack from the flanks of the "Guardian" formations that are difficult to defend.

After a round of fighting, the Italian pilots got the first shot down record since the war, the previous nervousness and apprehension were all left behind, with the long pilot of the pilot's order, the planes immediately put into free hunting, but the prey was not as unbearable as they imagined, the experienced American and British pilots stabilized the formation, using the nose and the recoiler machine gun to resist the enemy plane, and then two "Sea Hawks" broke free from the entanglement of the German fighters and rushed to relieve the siege, and after a while, the Italian fighters were chased into a dog.

The long-distance attack of the United States and Britain carrier-based aircraft group, the Sea Hawk / Eagle Falcon fighter and the Guardian bomber account for the majority, the torpedo bomber is only 7, and all of them are American-made TBD "destroyers", the structure and characteristics of this monoplane torpedo aircraft are similar to the German Ai-33 carrier-based torpedo aircraft in service, although the power and aerodynamic performance are greater than the early biplane torpedo aircraft, when carrying torpedo operations, their flight speed is still around 300 kilometers per hour, the climb is slow, and the steering is clumsy, This is an ideal battlefield target for any fighter in service. Because of this, the torpedo bomber pilots on both sides of the war have a common battlefield style, that is, low-key forbearance in the front, bold and crazy in the back. Taking advantage of the fact that the aggressive German fighter pilots focused on the difficult Osprey/Falcon, the Italian pilots who had just entered the battlefield were inseparable from the "Guardians", and the seven "Destroyers" quietly lowered their flight altitude, flew under the air combat area, and then entered the "three-kilometer exclusion zone" of the Allied fleet.

The battle in the air was fierce and inseparable, and on the sea, all Allied ships were always on full alert. This powerful mixed fleet consisted of 2 battleships, 1 battlecruiser, and 4 aircraft carriers, which means that the Allied Navy stationed in the Azores was actually dispatched. Having had many combat experiences in dealing with enemy air raids, the Allied crews did not give the sneaky enemy torpedo planes a chance. As soon as the target came into range of the naval guns, the main guns of the light ships and the medium-caliber secondary guns of the large ships opened fire fiercely, instantly weaving a terrifying net of firepower, and when the enemy planes went further, the 37-mm anti-aircraft guns and 20-mm machine guns of each ship began to rain down bullets...... Under the combined attack of the large, medium, and small-caliber anti-aircraft guns of the Allied ships, two of the US and British bombers that penetrated the defense were blown up on the spot, and the other was hurriedly forced to land on the water after the engine was damaged, and was blown to pieces by the German destroyers' artillery fire in a short time.

The bomber pilots of the U.S. and British navies were terrified by the strong air defense of the Allied fleet, but they nevertheless plunged into the attack, and after the torpedo planes were repulsed, several "Guardians" that broke through the air interception flew over the Allied fleet and dropped bombs on the Allied aircraft carriers. The 30,000-ton aircraft carrier "Swabia" was the most concentrated attack, and the nearest aerial bomb was less than 20 meters away from the starboard side, and the waves of water caused by the explosion easily splashed onto the flight deck, and the shrapnel also caused damage to the gunner of an anti-aircraft gun position on the side of the ship, but fortunately, although the "Swabia" was not the most defended aircraft carrier in history, it was able to resist attacks from near-miss bullets with its thick armor and tight compartment structure.

In terms of tactical significance and strategic value, the current weight of the four aircraft carriers seems to exceed the three capital warships, so most of the fleet's anti-aircraft artillery fire is concentrated against the American and British bombers attacking their own aircraft carriers, taking advantage of this opportunity, the torpedo planes that had not been able to find fighters before passed through the smoke of artillery fire, secretly attacked the two Allied battleships, and dropped four torpedoes at a distance of 1,000 to 1,500 meters, and under the alert of the wingmen, the "Hanover" and "Baden" quickly turned, There were those torpedoes that were avoided without danger.

Of the 15 Seahawks and Falcon that arrived on the battlefield, 7 were shot down, 6 were damaged to varying degrees, and only 2 were able to retreat in their entirety, and although the opponent lost 8 He-25 and 3 IR-30T, only 4 pilots were killed, and the rest were successfully parachuted and rescued.

At the end of the first wave of air raids launched by US and British carrier-based aircraft, the first wave of carrier-based aircraft of the Allies had already found the orientation of the US and British fleets under the guidance of reconnaissance planes. Because the number of aircraft carriers was twice that of the opponent, the Allied fleet naturally sent a lot more carrier-based aircraft in one go -- 31 He-25s led 18 Ju-17T, 10 Ar-33 and 6 IK-22T torpedo planes to cover up. Relying on the strength of the outnumbered people, the attack methods of the Allied carrier-based aircraft were also simple and rude: the fighter groups concentrated their forces to crush the alert defense of the American and British fighters, and the swarms of dive bombers roared to attack from a high altitude, and in the face of the enemy's dense firepower, the German naval pilots still carried out a large-angle dive attack without hesitation, accurately throwing the aviation armor-piercing bombs under the belly and the high-explosive bombs under the wings to the enemy's warships; Taking advantage of the continuous pressure on the other side when the Ju-17T dived, the German and Italian torpedo bombers divided into two groups and launched torpedo attacks on two American and British aircraft carriers, most of which were thrown at a distance of 600 to 800 meters.

Spotting the incoming torpedoes, the "Yorktown" and "Brilliant" hurriedly turned, and the crew quickly turned some of their guns to the surface in an attempt to intercept the deadly torpedoes. The British aircraft carrier was slightly more powerful, maneuvered better, and the commander had a better sense of timing, so he narrowly avoided danger, and the aircraft carrier "Yorktown" was not so lucky. As a torpedo hit the bow, the huge battleship shook violently, and several carrier-based aircraft parked on the edge of the flight deck were thrown out. In an instant, a large cloud of smoke gushed out of the crack, and the fire on the ship was like a small blowout, and many panicked sailors began to jump into the water, fluttering and fluttering like a pot of dumplings in the water.

Before the "Brilliant" could lament for its companions, it was hit by an armor-piercing bomb dropped by a German dive bomber, which penetrated the flight deck and the upper hangar, and exploded violently in the lower hangar, sweeping through the entire lower hangar, not to mention the flight fuel magazine, causing a raging fire in the tail of the British aircraft carrier.

In less than 10 minutes, the two US and British aircraft carriers have basically lost their combat capability. Faced with this sudden scene, Ernest King and his subordinate officers were dumbfounded.

(End of chapter)