Less than 100 meters. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

If it's daytime, looking down from this height, the sea level is almost attached to the belly of the plane, and everything on the water can be seen at a glance. And at night, even if the moonlight and stars twinkle in the sky, the water is still dark, like a bottomless abyss, ready to swallow everything that falls from the sky!

In fact, without a sophisticated radio altimeter and airborne radar, the Ju188, a large twin-engine medium bomber, would not have been able to skim the sea at night at an altitude of less than 100 meters. This is no different from suicide, as long as the slightest mistake will throw people and planes into the sea.

The reason why Colonel Peltz, who personally piloted the plane to lead the attack, pressed the flight altitude so low was not to show off his superb piloting skills, but to avoid the detection of the US ship's radar as much as possible to ensure the suddenness of the attack.

Colonel Peltz gently held the steering wheel with both hands, carefully maneuvering the plane to a smooth flight. Sergeant Schmidt stared intently at the PPI screen of the onboard radar, trying to discover the location of the American fleet.

However, because the flight altitude is too low, the field of view of the airborne radar is not very good, and the target is not too far away, so Wolfe. Schmidt for a while did not discover the location of the American fleet.

And just when Sergeant Schmidt was feeling anxious, a flash of red suddenly appeared in the darkness, and then about ten seconds later, about ten kilometers to the west of the original red light, an even more fiery red light appeared again, as if a volcanic eruption had suddenly occurred on the ground.

"Shelling!" Colonel Peltz excitedly shouted, "At 12 o'clock, it was the Yankees' fleet shelling the shores of Georgetown...... We've found them! ”

"Colonel," said Navigator Wolf. Schmidt also shouted at this time, "The radar has found the target!" 2 o'clock direction, distance 40, quantity 8. ”

The ship found by the radar was clearly not the ship that Peltz saw was shelling the coast. The latter is closer and has a different orientation. In fact, what was detected by the radar was the target that Peltz's Ju-188 needed to attack - a ring of destroyers and light cruisers.

However, Peltz ignored Schmidt, but pressed the lower throat communicator and gave an order to the whole team: "Attention everyone, I am Colonel Peltz, and now I give the order, the target is in the direction of 12 o'clock, and it is firing, about 50 kilometers away. The squadrons prepared for the attack, adopted the golden comb tactic, and immediately after the attack, they raised the altitude to more than 6,000 meters and circled over the enemy fleet! ”

His choice is also understandable, the airborne search radar of this era is not very reliable and simply cannot be compared with the naked eye. So in the case that the target can be found with the naked eye, no one will rely on radar.

At this time, less than 30 nautical miles away, more than a dozen Fletcher-class destroyers of the 31.8th Destroyer Group of the U.S. Navy were shelling the city of Georgetown with their 127mm high-level dual-purpose guns.

According to the intelligence available to the Americans, this dilapidated city on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean is practically undefended. The bombers that had flown in from Trinidad had not encountered any ground artillery counterattack, and smoothly dropped thousands of tons of bombs and incendiary bombs, turning the shanty towns inhabited by Indians and blacks into a sea of fire.

Therefore, Halsey did not arrange for his 9 super battleships to bombard Georgetown with 406mm main guns, but only ordered the 31.8 Destroyer Group, which had completed the minesweeping mission, to clear the obstacles on the beach with 127mm high-level dual-purpose guns.

However, the 80 127mm guns of the 16 "Fletcher"-class destroyers opened fire at the same time, and the scene was still very spectacular. From "William. Looking out from the bridge of the destroyer USS Porter, the beaches of Georgetown and the nearby city were constantly rising with fireballs, and the effect of the shelling seemed to be very good.

Walter, the unlucky captain of the destroyer, was in a good mood right now—when the shelling was done," said William. The main task of the destroyer "D. Porter" in this landing operation can be considered a successful completion.

Considering that this destroyer has always been unlucky, it is not easy to successfully complete such a dangerous mission without any mistakes.

Just as Captain Walter was about to thank God in his heart, his second mate almost exclaimed: "Enemy plane! Southwest direction! The distance is about 18,000, the height is less than 100, the number is unknown! ”

"What? Less than 100 in height? Are the Germans crazy or is the radar broken? It's night! Captain Walter was taken aback by the sudden situation, and before he had time to give the order to verify, the flagship destroyer "Anthony" had already called the words "all air defense" and "take an S-shaped evasive course...... It seems that "William. The radar of the destroyer "D. Porter" did not fail this time.

The air defense sirens were immediately sounded, "William. The 127mm guns on the destroyer D. Porter also immediately stopped firing at the shore, pointing their muzzles into the air, and all the 40mm and 20mm guns were also prepared for anti-aircraft fire in the shortest possible time.

And just when everything seemed perfect, a high-powered searchlight on the ship was suddenly turned on, and the eye-catching pillar of light was impartial, shooting right at the location of "William. D. Porter" The flagship "Anthony" directly in front of the destroyer.

"Damn, who's hitting the searchlight? The Germans' planes haven't been in range yet! As soon as Captain Walter's shouting came out, the "boom" cannon rang out again, and at the same time another searchlight shone brightly.

Now the position of the American destroyer formation is completely exposed!

The German Ju-188 bombers in the air immediately seized the opportunity, and the 36 planes were divided into two large formations of 18 aircraft. One of the formations, lined up in echelons, fired 36 torpedoes from a distance of 2000 meters to the right of the American destroyer formation (each Ju188 could carry 2 torpedoes) from a distance of 2 meters from the right side of the American destroyer formation.

And the other formation fired the same number of torpedoes at an angle of 90 degrees. This tactic, which the Germans called the "golden comb", made it difficult for the attacked target to avoid the torpedo even after turning.

……

"Boom! Rumble! Boom ......"

In the distance, Admiral Halsey was standing on the extraordinarily tall bridge of the battleship Iowa watching the shelling of downtown Georgetown. Just as he was stunned, the voice of the staff officer's report rang out.

"Admiral, the 31.8th Destroyer Group reports the discovery of an enemy aircraft flying at an ultra-low altitude!"

"What?" Halsey was shocked when he heard this, "Ultra-low-altitude flight at night? Could it be that the explosion just now was an attack by a torpedo machine? Is it the Golden Comb Tactic? ”

Although Halsey himself had never seen the German "golden comb tactic," he had heard of the prestige of this tactic -- when the "golden comb" was raging in the Atlantic, he commanded aircraft carriers in the Pacific Fleet to deal with the Japanese, and although the Japanese naval aviation was also powerful, it was not their style to play this kind of "black technology."

The staff officer reported again: "Admiral, the flagships of the 31.8th Destroyer Group, the USS Anthony and the USS William D. Porter, were each hit by 2 torpedoes, and the two destroyers are sinking!" The Bennion and the Beale were also hit by a torpedo each......"

"Damn the Germans!" Halsey scolded fiercely, and immediately reacted, and hurriedly ordered loudly: "All ships should strengthen their search in the air to prevent enemy planes from using ultra-low altitude to raid!" ”

As soon as his order was given, dozens or hundreds of searchlights were shot out of the sea almost simultaneously, and then the 127mm high-level dual-purpose artillery boomed into fire.

It turned out that the 34 Ju-188s that had just finished firing torpedoes (1 was shot down and 1 was damaged) did not fly away immediately, but increased their altitude according to the plan, and at the same time dispersed into 3-plane formations (10 3-plane formations, 2 twin-plane formations), and circled around the US fleet, pretending to continue to launch air strikes.

As a result, the radars of many US destroyers and cruisers on the surface of the water detected that enemy planes were approaching, blindly turned on their searchlights and opened fire indiscriminately, completely exposing themselves, and most of the American sailors' attention was focused on the air.

"Twin boat formation, 11 o'clock direction, full speed ahead!" Colonel Johansen had already chosen the target to attack at this time, and the torpedo boats he commanded did not penetrate through the gap between the warning ring of the American destroyer/light cruiser and the coastline like an airplane, but rushed directly to eight escort destroyers of more than 1,000 tons.

The main role of escort destroyers is anti-submarine, and the anti-aircraft and anti-ship firepower are relatively weak, generally two 127mm high-level dual-purpose guns, one 40mm gun and five 20mm machine guns.

However, for the S100 boat, which can fire T1 533mm torpedoes at a distance of 6,000 meters, only two 127mm guns on an escort destroyer is a threat, and it is difficult for such firepower to sink the torpedo boat speeding at a speed of 42 knots. And the attention of these 8 escort destroyers and the other 2 escort destroyers in the vicinity was attracted by several Ju188s hovering in the sky, and all the 127mm guns were firing at the air.

And once these eight escort destroyers performing anti-submarine alert missions around the Grand Fleet are sunk or heavily damaged, there will be a gap in the alert circle of the US Grand Fleet, and the opportunity for the six Type 21 submarines under water to break through will come.