The air forces of the two sides first engaged in a desperate confrontation over the Gulf of Finland. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

A German combat aviation regiment (consisting of 120 single-engine fighters) took the lead in an attempt to eliminate the Soviet air force on Gogland Island and clear the way for the subsequent dive-bombing aviation regiment (80 Stuka bombers).

The Soviet Air Force on the island also poured out, and the entire 1 mixed aviation division (180 aircraft) was dispatched, and all the fighters of this division (120 fighters) flew south to meet the German combat aviation regiment.

And the remaining 60 bombers (20 Tu-2T, 40 Pe-2), under the protection of 1 supplementary fighter aviation regiment (60 fighters), flew west to attack the German naval fleet.

The forces of both sides were evenly matched, and the number of fighters was very close. However, taking into account the factor of the good quality of the German pilots, the Soviet Air Force still suffered a little on its side, but fortunately this time it was a low-altitude operation, and the Soviet fighters had a lot of advantages in low-altitude performance, which could be regarded as making up for the disadvantage in the quality of the pilots.

Just as the Soviet-German fighters began to engage and were locked in the air, Soviet bomber regiments had already flown over the German fleet.

Before the Germans could react, 40 Soviet Pe-2 high-speed bombers had already locked onto their respective bombing targets, dived down, and dropped one torpedo after another. Tu-2T torpedo bombers also began to fly low, approaching the key targets -- the Gneisenau, the Admiral Schell, and the Prince Eugen -- and dropped mounted torpedoes.

It's just that the quality of this group of pilots is not very good, the training is still a little less, and the accuracy of bomb dropping is also relatively low.

Some of the bombers dropped their torpedoes too far from the ships (presumably for fear of being hit by anti-aircraft shells), and some of them were shot down by German escorts before dropping their torpedoes, and only a third of the aerial torpedoes hit their respective targets.

As the flagship of the German Baltic Fleet, the battle cruiser Gneisenau was of course the primary target of the Soviet Air Force, and after the first round of bombardment, the battlecruiser was hit by several torpedoes.

However, the Soviet airborne torpedoes were so powerful that a few torpedoes did only enough damage to the battlecruiser, and they were unable to penetrate the 350 mm thick hull armor of the Gneisenau.

Admiral Scheer was not so lucky, this heavy cruiser with a thickness of 80 mm of armor in its hull had already begun to enter the water after being hit by one torpedo, and the hull began to tilt.

What's more, this pocket battleship, which was included in the "key strike target", had not only 1 torpedo in it, but 3 rounds! One of the torpedoes also hit the armor near the turret, igniting the ammunition depot, causing a large explosion and the gap became larger.

The icy sea water flowed into the ship through three torpedoed holes, and the hull began to tilt to the left, and the angle of inclination increased. No matter what measures the crew takes, they can't stop the inflow of seawater.

Some of the crew had already predicted the fate of the ship, and before the captain could give the order to abandon ship, they had already rushed out of the deck and jumped into the water to escape. The captain did not hold these crew members responsible, and just after the third crew member dived, he gave the order to abandon ship and escape, bidding farewell to the "great" German warship.

The fighting continued, and Soviet bombers had already achieved a good record - sinking the pocket battleship Admiral Scheer, the light cruiser Leipzig and one destroyer (Z25), and shooting down 20 escort BF109 fighters and six FW190 fighters.

However, after a round of air raids, the Soviet aviation forces had already paid a considerable price, 27 of the 40 Pe-2 bombers were shot down by dense anti-aircraft guns or escort fighters, 14 of the 20 Tu-2 bombers were also lost, and 35 of the 60 fighters were destroyed by German escort fighters, and the overall loss reached 63%.

Subsequently, reinforcements from the Finnish Air Force came over the battlefield and launched a counterattack against Soviet aircraft. The remaining planes, because of the heavy losses, were forced to turn around and turn back.

The Soviet fighters, which flew faster, quickly fled the battlefield, and the Finnish Air Force's Folker D.XXI and the Luftwaffe BF109 could not catch up with the Yak-3 fighters at all, and it was enough to catch up with the La-7 fighters. And the Pe-107 bomber, which was equipped with VK-2 engines, also flew relatively fast, and the Axis aircraft simply could not catch up.

The speed of the Tu-2 bomber is not slow, at least 528 kilometers per hour, which is much faster than the Finnish Air Force's Fokker D.XXI.

The remaining Tu-2 bombers, under the cover of a number of La-7 fighters, successfully threw off the Finnish Air Force's Fokker D.XXI fighters, and the number of BF-109 fighters that caught up was not much, and they were jointly eliminated by the B-20 cannons and La-7 fighters carried by the Tu-2 bombers, but 2 Tu-2 bombers and 6 fighters were also shot down, and only a third of the aircraft were able to escape the battlefield.

At the same time as the attack on the German fleet, the Luftwaffe raid group also flew in the vicinity of the Soviet fleet.

But this time, the Luftwaffe was not as lucky as the Soviet Air Force. They happened to meet 1 Soviet fighter aviation division that took off from Leningrad, numerically suppressed by Soviet fighters.

In the case that the Soviet pilots generally mastered the new tactics (mainly used to deal with the FW190 and avoid being hit by the nose of the FW190), the Soviet Air Force also had a good record this time, successfully repelling the raid group and ensuring the safety of the Soviet Baltic Fleet, but this time the Soviet aircraft still lost more than the German planes shot down by them.

The situation over Gogland Island was similar, at first the two sides were deadlocked, and the Soviet Air Force suffered slightly greater losses, but after the reinforcement of 1 aviation division of the Soviet Air Force, the German flying group was suppressed by the Soviet Air Force in numbers, and as a result, the Luftwaffe was still repulsed.

Otto Fein, captain of the battleship Gneisenau, finally breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the Soviet plane disappear into the sky.

Although the air raid ended in failure, the Soviet aircraft group involved in the air raid lost 70% of its aircraft, but it sank such a "capital battleship" as Admiral Scheer, and also sank 1 light cruiser and 1 destroyer. This was a major loss for Germany, which was already weak in naval power.

However, less than half an hour later, the Baltic Fleet of the USSR appeared! Above the Soviets was an even larger fleet of airplanes. These hundreds of aircraft, combined with the strength of the Baltic Fleet itself, were enough to inflict heavy losses on the German fleet, and even if the Germans won the naval battle, they would have to pay a lot of money.