“…… The fleet encountered the enemy at a distance of about 90 nautical miles 40 degrees south-west of Pico Island, and the enemy had a total of 6 heavy cruisers and 2 light cruisers, and our light cruiser "Fearless" had been sunk, and the situation on the battlefield was unfavorable to our side, and the 2nd and 3rd destroyer detachments were approaching at full speed, and the battle situation might turn for the better......

In the cabin of the commander of the "Yorktown", Ernest King, wearing a white tank top and dark blue boxer shorts, sat on the bed with his eyes closed, and quietly listened to the adjutant read the contents of the newly received telegram. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

When the adjutant finished reading, he opened his sleepy eyes, and his face could not hide his surprise.

"Sorry, please read it again."

"Yes, General." Without hesitation, the adjutant repeated the contents of the message as it was.

Kim is a very calm person, and at the same time a very straightforward person. In front of the adjutant, he unabashedly complained: "What the hell, didn't the previous battle report say that the battle cruiser was in good condition?" How could it be that there was nothing to be done about a couple of heavy cruisers? Even if the range advantage cannot be exerted because of night battles, the protection of the admiral class is enough to resist the attack of large-caliber naval guns and ordinary torpedoes! Could it be that the morale of the front-line troops has fallen to the point of self-defeating? ”

"The situation on the battlefield may not be as simple as we think." The adjutant speculated.

"Could it be that genius of the German royal family really has the power of an unpredictable prophet?" Jin shook his head, a wry smile appeared on the corner of his mouth, but this unreasonable inference has the possibility of existence, if that is the case, the US-British coalition is afraid that the defeat is certain?

The adjutant was speechless, and stood silently in front of the bed waiting for instructions.

Kim stretched out his hand and scratched his head slightly, and then said to himself: "Since the enemy has anticipated our whereabouts, the best way for now is to temporarily change the original route, not to meet Chatfield on Pico Island, nor to rest on Tercel Island, and take a route they did not think of...... Yes, go to the island of Flores and launch a surprise attack on the Confederate forces there as soon as dawn! ”

"Wouldn't that be too risky?" The adjutant spoke softly.

"Yes, very risky, if our actions are expected by the enemy, then there is a good chance that this battle will suffer a crushing defeat." Kim replied with a frown.

The adjutant did not squeak.

After a moment of thought, Kim had already made up his mind. When the US-British coalition attacked Texel Island and won a good start, why couldn't he repeat his old tricks and surprise the enemy by surprise attack on Flores Island?

At this time, there were still three hours before dawn, and there was barely enough time, so King immediately got up and changed his clothes, commanded the reinforcement fleet to turn south, and gathered the officers under his command to formulate a plan for an air attack on Flores Island with astonishing efficiency, and formulated a number of tactical plans for the discovery of the Allied fleet and the absence of the enemy's main ships.

Unconsciously, the night passed, the dawn came, when the first rays of the morning sun illuminated the western sky, 55 low-flying fighters approached the island of Flores from the northeast - since the birth of military radar, people are committed to improving their technical performance, while trying to find their weaknesses and weaknesses, and war is worthy of being an efficient catalyst for scientific and technological progress, during the Azores campaign, both warring sides have invested heavily in the field of electronic detection and counter-detection, pulse signal alarms, Airborne radar detectors have moved from theory to practice, and the principle of low-altitude and ultra-low-altitude flight breaking through the radar early warning network has also begun to be applied to actual combat, which is an important reliance on Ernest King's fame!

Early that morning, Natsuki and his fleet were not in the waters around Flores Island, but advanced to a position about 150 nautical miles southwest of Flores Island, on the one hand, to plan the combat operations of their own cruisers, and on the other hand, to cover the convoy that was about to sail from Santa Maria Island to Flores Island, and this past night, the Allied Cruiser Fleet commanded by the German-Irish Admiral Conrad Huber smashed the American and British Cruisers under the command of British Admiral Chatfield in the waters west of Pico Island. As a result, the other side damaged one light cruiser, and the rest of the ships were attacked by artillery fire, leaving an incalculable psychological shadow on the US and British officers and men. The Allied cruisers' cruisers won small victories with ease, allowing the opponent to see the positive impact of the participation of Italy and Austria-Hungary on the Allied navy, and played a role in shocking the tigers, and made a perfect paving for the future tactical deployment between virtual and real.

According to Natsuki's prediction, the U.S. and British reinforcement fleets sailing from North America should go to Texel or Pico Island for temporary rest, and if its range was tight enough, it might also go directly to the battlefield to join forces with Chatfield's fleet, so he led the three capital ships "Hanover," "Baden," and "Mackensen" to ambush and receive them at a position about two hours behind his cruiser's fleet, and deployed the aircraft carrier formation in his right rear -- after the Battle of Flores Island, the aircraft carrier formation was reduced by one and increased by one, "Ulster" The ship went to the island of San Miguel for repairs, the Italian "Garibaldi" arrived at the front line, and the aircraft carriers put into the battlefield remained four in size, and they were undoubtedly the most advantageous weapons in Natsuki's hands when many of the main warships returned to Europe for overhaul.

The Allied forces on Flores Island were taken aback by the appearance of the American and British carrier-based aircraft groups due to the failure of the radar to warn them in time, but they were not unprepared. Drawing profound lessons from the Battle of Texel, the Allied forces led by Germany made drastic improvements to the deployment and defense system of the aviation units in the front-line zone, and the proportion of alert fighters on standby to take off at any time was increased to 25 percent of the fighter units, that is, one out of four squadrons was on combat duty, and in the event of an emergency, the pilots on duty could take off without orders from their superiors, and there were many more emergency runways around each air base or field airfield than before. The fighters on duty are scattered, the overall lift-off time is shortened, and the probability of being destroyed on the ground is correspondingly reduced.

Most of the 55 U.S. and British carrier-based planes that arrived on Flores Island were fighters and bombers, and they were clearly targeted at killing land-based radar stations and airfields on the island, and the remaining six torpedo planes flew to the port of Santa Cruz at the southern tip of the island, but instead of forcibly entering the military port where air defense was relatively heavily guarded, they attacked ships operating outside the port, and the Austro-Hungarian destroyer "Magnat," which had recently arrived on the battlefield, was unfortunately selected by the opponent. Although most of the sailors serving on this destroyer had served for four years, were familiar with and loved their posts, and the officers had received formal military education, the anti-aircraft firepower of this destroyer, which had a full load displacement of less than 800 tons, was weak, and the officers and men were basically participating in actual combat for the first time, and they lacked experience and skills, so they could only watch the enemy's torpedoes devour their battleship.

The Italian destroyer, which was on anti-submarine alert duty in the waters near the port of Santa Cruz, was also attacked by enemy carrier-based aircraft, but the speed of the crew's reaction allowed the light ship, which was about the same tonnage as the "Magnat" and was a year old, to survive, and even used the ship's machine gun to wound an enemy fighter plane that had turned back to strafe after dropping a torpedo, and then slipped into the port of Santa Cruz without looking back.

Returning to Flores Island, Allied forces took over an air base and three field airfields from the American and British defenders, and after more than a week of repairs, all aviation facilities have been restored, and three new emergency runways for fighter takeoffs and landings and two hidden backup airfields have been repaired. The US and British carrier-based aircraft groups succeeded in the surprise attack, with some fighters dealing with enemy fighters already in the air, and the rest all flying to the airfield to attack those fighters on duty who had just taken off or were preparing to take off, and the bombers launched attacks on important targets such as combat planes, hangars, ammunition and oil depots on the tarmac. Five minutes before the battle, Allied fighters on combat patrol and in an emergency lift were fighting hard against the "Sea Hawks" and "Eagle Falcons" -- the US and British aircraft carriers that had returned to their homeland for maintenance had now been completely replaced with new fighters that had been tempered in actual combat, and their combat effectiveness had been greatly improved compared with the beginning of the Azores campaign; The German anti-aircraft artillery on combat duty tried their best to block the incoming enemy bombers, and various types of antiaircraft guns and machine guns and machine guns were fired one after another, and for a time the sky over the airfield was filled with gunsmoke. After surviving the most difficult five minutes, the number of Me-50s taking off from the concealed runway of the alternate airfield increased to 14, and their participation made the situation of the air battle quickly reversed, and at this time the American and British bombers had basically dropped their bombs, and seeing that the situation was not good, they gave up their attempt to strafe and suppress the runway of the airfield, and decisively turned around and withdrew from the battlefield.

After the first wave of the enemy's air attack, the Allied troops on Flores Island naturally took full precautions, and the number of fighters on alert in the air increased to more than 30, while the opponent's carrier-based aircraft engaged in the second wave of air attacks were only more than 40, and the hope of victory was completely lost at this time. The American and British pilots immediately turned the spearhead of the attack to the Allied ships on the sea, and achieved good results in sinking two ships and damaging three ships in a short air raid.

Natsuki was taken aback by receiving an urgent battle report from the garrison troops on Flores Island, since he took command of the Azores Islands, the enemy has not taken a single action that was completely unexpected by him, and the opponent destroyed more than 50 warplanes and many aviation facilities of the Allied army at a negligible cost in a round of air raids, and although the Austro-Hungarian destroyer "Magnat" sank in battle did not have much tactical value, the adverse effects caused by its sinking far exceeded the weight of an ordinary light ship. After ascertaining the battle process, Natsuki was both relieved and worried, relieved that the front-line troops were in a virtuous circle of getting stronger and stronger, worried that the enemy really had a strong military regeneration capability, and that the American and British carrier-based fighters that appeared this time no longer had the "Hound Dog", "Flying Barrel", "Gladiator", "Hunting Fan", "Sailfish" and the like, the types of aircraft types were halved, and the combat effectiveness was doubled, and it was foreseeable that the longer this war dragged on, the more difficult it would be for the Allies to take advantage.

(End of chapter)