Before May 23, 1933, the coast of Ramio, northwest of Texel Island, was a small place with no name, and it quickly became known as the "Bloody Coast" as the first landing point for the capture of Texel Island by the United States and British forces. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 infoIn order to gain a foothold on this coast, which is only six kilometers wide, the United States and Britain have invested six elite marine regiments, and within three hours of launching the landing, the attackers have already paid a heavy price of more than 4,000 casualties, and the blood of American and British officers and soldiers has almost soaked the dark green coastline......

Even when many fortresses were heavily attacked by American and British warships, the garrison still organized strong resistance at the first time when the United States and Britain launched the landing, which was the direct cause of the heavy casualties of the American and British forces in the beachhead area, and another key factor was that the United States and Britain failed to grasp air supremacy before the landing attack was launched. If it were not for the timely role of the radar early warning system deployed on Texel Island, the United States and Britain would probably achieve the established combat intentions, then in the early morning of May 23, the German fighters over the coast of Ramio would have greatly reduced their chances, and the American and British ships would provide accurate fire support to the landing force closer to the coast, and their carrier-based aircraft would have devoted more energy to sabotaging the German defensive deployment and troop movements. The fact is that on the day of the engagement, the carrier-based air forces of the US and British fleets destroyed only about 60 percent of the German air force on Texel Island, and their own side lost more than 40 percent of their carrier-based planes and a considerable number of pilots.

On the German side, on the other hand, the aviation units stationed on the island of Texel accounted for 70 percent of the air force of the Azores, and most of the best-performing Fokker G-51s were lost in the first two rounds of air raids launched by the enemy. Under the blocking and interference of the enemy's carrier-based aircraft, the German aviation unit failed to grasp the essentials, and the attack of more than 300 sorties caused only minor damage to the enemy's two aircraft carriers, and they also felt exhausted by the second day of the battle, so they failed to produce sufficient deterrence against the enemy's landing and covering ships approaching Texel Island.

It was in this stalemate and delicate situation that the young German naval commander Gunther Lütjens embarked on an unexpected adventure with his assault formation of old battlecruisers. Having received a clear reply from Wilhelm Auguste von Oldenburg, commander of the German Atlantic Fleet, Lütjens ordered the reconnaissance planes to keep an eye on the enemy supply ship sailing alone, while carefully avoiding the view of enemy ships and aircraft, and patiently waiting for his two aircraft carriers to take position. The "Ottoman Sultan," which was located to the north and had not suffered any losses before, was the first to arrive at the command position of Lütjans, and the "Emperor Karl," which had lost half of its fighters in the early battle, made a short stop in the sea near Flores Island, and the naval pilots took off from the base on Flores Island with spare fighters, and then landed on the "Emperor Karl" to strengthen the combat capability of the aircraft carrier by means of reinforcements in the line of fire.

By about 2 p.m., both German aircraft carriers were in the waters south of the Lütjens fleet ready for battle.

With the main attacker in place, Lütjans took to the scene with three of his old war cruisers, and they violently attacked the enemy supply ship "Eston", which was returning alone. This huge 10,000-ton ship is equipped with single-mounted naval guns, machine guns and quadruple machine guns, and has a certain air defense capability, looking at the galloping German war cruisers, the captain and his sailors were dumbfounded: there is no need to think about it, and it will definitely not be able to run, but fortunately, all the cargo on the ship has been filled into the oil tanks of their own light cruisers and destroyers, and at this time it is only an empty ship, and they quickly use the transmitter to shoot the information about the position of the ship and the visual inspection of the enemy fleet, and then wait very calmly for the enemy ship to approach, Even a white flag was raised at the flagpole at the request of the Germans.

At this moment, the main forces of the US and British fleets are gathered in the waters of Texel Island, which is more than 100 nautical miles away, and it is impossible to kill the location of the "Eston" in a short time, but such a distance is not far for the aircraft carriers, and the Germans do not seem to plan to stay here for long, they demand that the American crew immediately abandon the ship, and after everyone boarded the lifeboats and left, the German battle cruisers happily fired a round of target shooting, and several large-caliber shells bombarded the "Eston" into a fire. The Americans, adrift on the sea, could only watch as it slowly capsized and sank.

Having ravaged the defenseless Eston, the German fleet continued northward, and before they could disappear from view of the American crew, a fleet of white-painted fighters flew in from the southeast. Although they don't know whether they belong to the United States or the British Navy, and they don't know which aircraft carrier they come from, the angry American crew cheered indulgingly, the news that the American carrier-based aircraft annihilated a German super battlecruiser in the early morning has spread all over the world with the airwaves, since the so-called invincible big guy can be sunk, what are these old German battle cruisers in front of them?

Discovering that the "Eiston" had been sunk, the torpedo planes that had arrived from afar did not hesitate to catch up with the German fleet, and a powerful naval and air battle ensued. Before the outbreak of the war, the Germans had systematically modernized all their old capital ships, and their air defense capabilities were greatly enhanced compared with the earlier state, but due to the constraints of hard conditions, it was still more difficult to confront enemy aircraft than the new warships built in the mid-to-late 20s. The fierce battle lasted about ten minutes, and the German fleet shot down only one enemy plane, which was crushed by torpedoes dropped by enemy planes, and black smoke billowed from one of the three battle cruisers.

Seeing this scene, the American sailors who had been stranded in the ocean cheered, and the news of the damage to one enemy ship was quickly reported to the rear fleet by the pilots of the carrier-based aircraft participating in the battle.

Two Count Tirpitz-class battlecruisers were sunk and one damaged, and with the exception of two aircraft carriers with their heads and tails, the most threatening force of the German Atlantic Fleet was the three old-fashioned battlecruisers that had dominated the previous war. Of course, the commanders of the American and British fleets were well aware of this, and although the fierce fighting was raging on the front line on Texel Island, the torpedo planes on board the ships were not of great use in the land and air battles, and they effortlessly dispatched three squadrons of torpedo planes, and had the posture of killing all three old German battle cruisers in one go.

Following the flight path of friendly planes, 37 American and British torpedo planes that took off from five aircraft carriers successfully found the German fleet that exposed its position for the sake of an empty ship, and the pilots who liked to think would be curious about the stupidity of the Germans, and when they were about to attack, they suddenly found themselves in an ambush circle of German fighters, some of them finally realized part of the reason, while others did not understand anything wrong with it until they died.

In less than a quarter of an hour, 22 Albarrot H-25 carrier-based fighters from the "Emperor Karl" and the "Ottoman Sultan" shot down 21 enemy torpedo planes with great ferocity, and the remaining 16 American and British fighters scattered in panic without fighter cover.

The victorious German carrier-based fighters quickly climbed to the height and quietly followed the retreating American and British torpedo planes towards the southeast. The high cost of the H-25 is reflected in its excellent flight and combat performance, and its long endurance is one of its major advantages as a carrier-based fighter, not to mention that they carry auxiliary fuel tanks in this battle, and it is not a problem to sprint back and forth in the waters of the Azores.

As the torpedo planes approached the fleet's airspace in disarray, the radio monitoring equipment on a number of American and British warships picked up a monotonous and regular radio signal, which was obviously not used to convey complex information, and some sensitive officers quickly realized that this signal was likely to be the enemy's navigation beacon, but by the time they began to take interfering measures, it was too late. 26 Ju-17 dive bombers and 17 IK-22T torpedo planes that took off from two German aircraft carriers approached the American and British ship groups under the guidance and cover of their own fighters.

By the afternoon, the US-British landing force on the coast of Ramio continued to expand its beachhead, and in order to suppress the US-British warships shelling the opposite shore, the German air force launched two large-scale bombardments in succession, severely damaging the US battleship "Massachusetts" and damaging the British battleship "Sovereign," posing a great threat to the US-British warships operating in the coastal area. At this critical moment, most of the carrier-based fighters and bombers on the US and British aircraft carriers were sent to the front line on Texel Island, and several fighters left behind to serve as guards were swept away by the German Albarrot H-25s that swarmed up.

The US and British fleets withstood a series of air raids by the German land-based air units the day before, and now in the face of the sudden attack of dozens of German fighters, most of the officers and men did not fall into a panic, and they calmly used anti-aircraft guns to organize defense; however, many of these German carrier-based planes took part in the battle to attack the "Hood" and verified their attack tactics in actual combat, and a simple tactic that proved effective could become a key factor in changing the outcome of the battle. The Ju-17s, in pairs of fighters and torpedo planes, repeatedly found good opportunities for sneak attacks, and if the bombs had hit a higher rate, they might even have lost the suspense of the Battle of the Azores this afternoon.

(End of chapter)