"A bunch of cowards!"

In the cockpit of the plane, William Cainney, a Navy ensign pilot from the Irish Capital Territory, muttered disdainfully. In the blink of an eye since the first publication of this article, those Italian fighters have fled without a trace, making people wonder if they are really the descendants of the ancient Romans who roamed the Mediterranean and dominated Europa more than 2,000 years ago?

After a while, the voice of the squadron commander came from the flight headset: "Attention everyone! Attention all! Next, the 1st squad was responsible for air alert, and the 2nd and 3rd squads attacked the enemy ship formation. Green Cross 22, you approach the enemy ship formation from the north at low altitude, Green Cross 23, you approach the enemy ship formation from the south at a medium altitude, your mission is to test the enemy's anti-aircraft firepower. Got it? ”

"Green Cross 22" is William Keyney's landline number, and he frowned slightly: "Green Cross 22 understands!" ”

Another familiar voice immediately came from the radio communication channel: "Green Cross 23 understands!" ”

As soon as the squadron leader said "let's go," Kenny nudged the flight control stick and fine-tuned the trailing edge flaps, causing the graceful carrier-based fighter to drop to sea level like a falcon swooping down. In sight, four Italian light cruisers lined up in an equidistant column, forming an almost perfect picture with the white sea.

Kenny selected the enemy ship at the head of the platoon, adjusted its course more than ten kilometers away from the target, pushed the accelerator forward, retracted the flaps, and drove the plane straight towards the target like an arrow from a string amid the loud roar of the engine. After full acceleration, the IR-44T flies a range of more than 11 kilometers per minute, which means that it only takes a little more than a minute to fly over a dozen kilometers.

Before the blue-gray painted new British Navy fighter approached, four Italian light cruisers opened fire fiercely in the direction of starboard, and in an instant, a dense rain of bullets stirred up a series of columns of water on the sea, and Kenny and his fighter plane soon entered a white "Lost Forest" - where "trees" grow wildly and disappear without a trace, and if you are not careful, you may crash into one ......

In front of Kenny, there is a row of green crosshairs that arc sharply and a row of red crosshairs that arc slowly down, which are used for gun aiming and rocket aiming, respectively. When the outline of the enemy ship appeared in the first grid of the red crosshair, he skillfully manipulated the rocket readiness on the dashboard and the combat mode control buttons with his left hand: the four red wrenches in the upper row corresponded to the four groups of rockets under the wing pylons, and two groups were used when driving back the Italian fighters before, so there were already 2 red wrenches facing downward, and then the third one was pulled down, so that the third group of rockets was in a state of readiness to fire; The four blue knobs in the middle row correspond to the combat mode of each group of rockets, which are divided into wireless guidance control mode and self-guidance mode, the former is manually controlled by the pilot through the four-way control stick in the left-hand position, and the latter is automatically guided by the airborne radar to track and attack enemy aircraft; The four black buttons in the lower row correspond to the trigger mode of each group of rockets, and their default state is to enable the radio proximity fuse, and only in special cases will the pilots adjust these black buttons to make the rocket enable the delayed trigger fuse.

After 27 months of flying the IR-44T, Kenny was able to control the carrier-based fighter with his eyes closed, quickly adjusting the red and blue knobs, and then opening the rocket fire safety on the flight joystick.

At this time, the air generated by the explosion was constantly surging, and the fighter plane sometimes swayed from side to side, sometimes up and down, but even so, Kenny still controlled the fighter calmly. When he reached a position about 6,000 meters away from the target, his eyes suddenly narrowed into a slit, and he caught the moment when the outline of the enemy ship coincided with the countdown image of the red crosshair, and the thumb of his right hand decisively pressed the firing button of the rocket. A sharp and short whistle sounded, and two IM-483 guided air-to-air rockets with a diameter of 127 mm flew towards the enemy ship in self-guided/wireless proximity mode!

As soon as the rocket was launched, Kenny immediately used both his hands and feet, controlled the fighter plane to make a continuous horizontal sharp turn, and got rid of the dense coverage area from the enemy's anti-aircraft fire in three strokes and two blows, and then climbed upwards while turning his head to observe the rocket's attack on the enemy ship.

Airborne radar guides rockets to automatically search for and attack targets, which sounds like a very advanced and very bullish way of fighting, but in this era when electronic computers are as huge as dinosaurs, the so-called automation is still a mechanical conduction mode, and its efficiency and accuracy can be imagined. Judging from technical tests, live-fire drills, and a small number of actual combat situations, self-guided rockets can exert the best results within one or two kilometers, and if they are launched at a long distance, enemy fighters can easily get rid of attacks through large-scale maneuvers, while compared with fighters, the speed of ships is slow and large, so self-guided rockets projected five or six kilometers away can usually achieve a high hit rate - this is the conclusion reached by the Irish through a large number of live ammunition tests. In the battle between the United States and Japan in the Philippines, US fighters did use self-guided rockets to damage Japanese ships. However, whether it is the IM-475 "Kaye's Arrow" with an early 80 mm diameter or the IM-483 "Ruger's Spear" with a 127 mm diameter, its attack methods and explosive power are not enough to kill combat ships of more than 1,000 tons, and the cost is expensive, so it is not cost-effective to use against enemy ships.

In sight, two rockets swept across the sea pulled out two parallel white smoke trails, and directly in front of these two eye-catching smoke trails was the leading Italian light cruiser. At a distance of about twenty meters from the target, two rockets exploded in the air. Of course, this explosion position could not cause damage to the main structure of the Italian battleship, but they were by no means used as fireworks for the Italians - the "Ruger's Spear" used a fragmentation high-explosive warhead, and the prefabricated fragments were tungsten bead fragments with strong penetrating ability, and the killing range was considerable, and it was very easy to deal with the dense formations of enemy fighters, and it was also very good at attacking ground targets that were unprotected or protected by light armor. The Italian light cruiser in a state of anti-aircraft combat had a considerable number of officers and crews operating in the open air on both sides, and external equipment such as rangefinders, antennas, and searchlights were also extremely vulnerable to damage......

Seeing that the explosion position of the rocket was enough to cause soft damage to the Italian battleship, Second Lieutenant Keni immediately turned his gaze back to the front, changed the flight trajectory one after another, in order to completely get rid of the anti-aircraft fire of the Italian ship, and then reported by radio: "The Green Cross 22 successfully completed a double-bomb attack, and approached 5,000 meters ago, and the enemy ship's artillery fire was not threatening." ”

"Roger." The squadron leader replied, "Well done, Green Cross 22!" ”

Kenny said politely: "Happy to serve!" ”

Later, the voice of another IR-44T pilot came from the communication channel: "Green Cross 23 completed the attack, my situation is not good, the right wing was hit by shrapnel a few holes, and the tail also has a little problem, please withdraw from the battle and return directly." ”

"Roger!" The squadron leader replied, "I see you, Green Cross 23." You are allowed to withdraw from the battle and return to the mothership. ”

"Yes, sir!" The voice was slightly depressed, "The Italian fleet's medium and low altitude defense firepower is very strong, and the shooting accuracy is good, everyone be careful." ”

"In this case, our next attack will be an ultra-low-altitude penetration tactic, and everyone will attack freely...... Green Cross 22, how about you protect the return of Green Cross 23? ”

Kenny hesitated: "I still have two loaded bombs, do you want to attack again?" ”

The squadron leader also hesitated for a moment, and then said, "Green Cross No. 23, you evacuate first, and we will follow soon." Green Cross No. 22 is a quick battle and a quick fix, so you don't have to deliberately pursue precision. ”

"Understood!" Kenny responds while controlling the pedals and steering the landline horizontally. When he turned around, the four Italian light cruisers were still lined up in a neat single column, and judging by the long white water marks on the sea, they had not changed course because of the air attack by enemy aircraft.

"Let me see, are you really braver than the Italian Air Force?" Kenigu muttered to himself.

In accordance with the squadron leader's combat deployment, the remaining 6 IR-44Ts of the 2nd and 3rd squads performed ultra-low-altitude penetration moves from different angles. Flying close to the sea could not evade the anti-aircraft fire of enemy ships, but took advantage of the characteristics of radar waves propagating in a straight line and being susceptible to interference. Even the combat ships of the new United Kingdom Navy are much less efficient than conventional operations in dealing with ultra-low-flying combat aircraft and small lightning strike ships under the condition of using only shipborne fire control radars.

Faced with the ultra-low-altitude penetration of several enemy aircraft, the four Italian light cruisers had to disperse their anti-aircraft fire. At this time, the resistance to attacking is naturally much smaller than before. After a while, 6 IR-44Ts successively dropped rockets, some in two salvos, some in four salvos. The rockets, trailing bright tails and long trails of smoke, rushed through rising columns of water and foam, approaching in tandem under the horrified gaze of the Italians...... After that, almost every burst of roar would bring casualties and losses to the Italian Navy, and when the smoke and dust of the explosion gradually dissipated, almost every Italian light cruiser had one or several parts showing a bleak scene full of holes, and the replacement of reserve gunners enabled these Italian battleships to maintain anti-aircraft fire output, and it was difficult to find qualified replacements for the officers and non-commissioned officers who could command the shooting on the spot once they were killed or seriously injured and left the field, and once the observation and shooting control command equipment was damaged, it was difficult to repair it in a short time.

The timing was in front of him, Kenny did not forget the squadron leader's instructions to "fight quickly", he stared at the Italian cruiser at the end of the queue, advanced to a distance of five kilometers from the enemy ship in an ultra-low-altitude penetration, skillfully projected the last two rockets, and then turned, climbed, and followed the wounded friendly plane away from the battlefield quickly, leaving a group of Italians whining and wailing......