Over the Atlantic Ocean west of the English Channel, the weather is good, with a few thin white clouds floating at low altitude, 4,000 meters above the clouds, and the warm early summer sun shines through the bright airplane cabin glass, bringing some warmth to the cabin that has become cold due to the low temperature at high altitude. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

Johannes. Major Steinhof carefully steered the plane with the joystick in both hands, observing his surroundings through the huge semicircular glass pod at the nose.

What entered his eyes was an unforgettable spectacle, and the huge formation of 162 JU88s, S.M.79s, FW-190s, FW-200Cs, HE-115s and Fokker Zeros already had a sense of obscurity in the air. Johannes. Everywhere Major Steinhoff looked, there were planes in a dense crowd, layer upon layer.

And that's just the first assault wave, there will be the second and third assault waves to follow! If all the aircraft of the three assault waves were concentrated, it would be several times more spectacular than the current scene!

Johannes. Major Steinhoff thought to himself: "There is simply no fleet in this world that can compete with our Luftwaffe and naval aviation!" Air superiority is now the most crucial factor in determining the ownership of maritime supremacy, and Germany is fortunate to seize the opportunity of a revolution in naval military ......"

"Major, reconnaissance aircraft No. 087 sent a telegram and found that the enemy ship formation had been disbanded!"

At this time Johannes. Major Steinhoff's navigator/telegrapher, Karl Steinhoff. Miller exclaimed the information he had just received.

"Disbanded the formation? When did it happen? "Johannes. Major Steinhofer asked.

"Just discovered," Carl. Miller said, "The telegram said that it had just been discovered, but it should have been some time since the enemy fleet disbanded the formation, and at present the No. 087 reconnaissance aircraft is tracking only four enemy ships, one large transport ship and three destroyers." ”

Reconnaissance Aircraft No. 087 was an FW-200C equipped with a FUG200 radar system, which had taken over from another FW-200C three hours earlier to track the British Fleet (Flotilla E). However, the FUG200 radar system has a limited detection range and is not very accurate. The 087 was afraid of being spotted by the British fleet (many British warships also had radars), so they didn't dare to get too close. As a result, it was discovered at dawn that the British fleet that was tracking had "shrunk", from at least 30 ships to 4 ships, presumably at night with radar to detect the following German reconnaissance planes, so they disbanded the formation and scattered and ran away.

However, this was not a big problem for the first assault wave under the command of Major Steinhoff, because in the formation of the first assault wave there were already 9 FW-200Cs and 9 HE-115s, which were used to search for enemy fleets.

"Attention all reconnaissance aircraft, I am Major Steinhoff, the commander-in-chief of the 1st assault wave." Major Steinhoff turned on the communicator and began to give orders, "I ordered the reconnaissance aircraft to start searching for the enemy fleet......"

……

The hum of aircraft engines was heard in the sky, the sky was clear and cloudless, the view was very good, and the anti-aircraft lookout post of the battlecruiser "Prestige", the flagship of the E Flotilla, which had disbanded the formation, soon spotted the approaching British group from the eyepiece of the telescope.

"Azimuth 050, the number of more than 30, all single-engine aircraft! It should be our plane! The lookout post reported loudly. Although it is not clear what type of aircraft it is in, it can be confirmed that all of them are single-engine aircraft. The German bombers and torpedo bombers deployed in Brest were twin-engine and three-engine aircraft. This means that there are no bombers and torpedo bombers among the planes flying over now, so it is almost certain that there are British planes.

Hearing the report from the lookout post, Vice Admiral Phillips, commander of the E fleet, breathed a sigh of relief, in fact, the 279 radar on the "Prestige" had already spotted these planes, but the radio station on the "Prestige" had not been able to contact each other for a long time.

At this time, the communications officer on the "Prestige" suddenly reported loudly: "Sir, they have been contacted, and it is the fighters of the 71st, 121st and 123rd squadrons that are flying!" ”

It turned out to be 3 "Eagle" squadrons, no wonder they couldn't be contacted at first! Vice Admiral Phillips thought to himself. The so-called "Eagle" squadron is actually a fighter squadron composed of American volunteer pilots.

Due to the heavy losses of Britain's own fighter pilots over the past year or so, there is now a great shortage of experienced veteran birds. Under Roosevelt's arrangement, some experienced pilots were recruited from the US Army Air Corps to form three "Eagle" squadrons.

However, these pilots from the United States were new to the United Kingdom and were not very familiar with the situation in Britain, and they always had problems when they cooperated with the British Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force.

"Great, let 3 squadrons of 'Eagles' cover our retreat to the west." Lieutenant General Phillips immediately gave the order to the communications officer of the "Prestige".

These three "Eagle" squadrons dispatched a total of 12 P-51s and 24 P-40s, a total of 36 aircraft, hovering over the "Prestige" and another large oil tanker used to pretend to be an aircraft carrier, as well as one light cruiser and three destroyers.

However, to Vice Admiral Phillips's surprise, the 36 fighters of the "Eagle" squadron had been spotted and tracked by an FW-200C equipped with radar on the way to the sky over the "Prestige".

"Major, reconnaissance aircraft No. 082 reported the discovery of a British battleship and a British aircraft carrier, plus about 30 British fighters in the air cover."

Johannes, who was leading the group of planes to hover in the air. Major Steinhoff received the report and immediately led a group of 144 attack aircraft (18 reconnaissance aircraft less) to pounce on. In fact, the distance between the two sides was not very far, less than 120 kilometers, and 10 minutes later, the 279 radar on the "Prestige" detected the German group.

"The radar room reports that enemy aircraft, numbering more than 100 and at a distance of 50 km, are flying towards us!" The first mate of the Prestige shouted loudly.

"Pull the alarm and prepare for air defense operations." Phillips had long anticipated this situation, and in fact this was also the meaning of the composition of the E Fleet - without the sacrifice of the E Fleet, there would have been no victory for the C Fleet!

"Well, now let's see how powerful the Germans' planes really are!" Lieutenant General Phillips walked to the side of the conning tower and picked up his binoculars to look into the air.

Fierce air battles were already underway by this time, with 32 Fokker Zeros and 32 FW-190s against 12 P-51s and 24 P-40s!

However, the current P-51 has not been replaced with a Rolls-Royce "Merlin" engine, but relies on a 1,150 hp Alison liquid-cooled engine with only a supercharger for the first-class and one-speed model, which is even less powerful than the Fokker Zero. The reason why the British Royal Air Force purchased it is because of the "laminar flow wing" and better aerodynamic layout, so that the P-51 has excellent medium and low altitude performance, and seems to be able to fight with the Fokker Zero.

But today there are only 12 P-51s in the air, how is it a match for 32 Fokker Zeros? Each P-51 was besieged by at least 2 Fokker Zeros! And at medium and high altitudes, 24 P-40s are also no match for 32 FW-190s. The P-40 was already inferior to the FW-190 in terms of performance, and was at a disadvantage in numbers, and was quickly defeated.

The dogfight in the air soon turned into a one-sided slaughter, and the American planes piloted by the American "old birds" either turned into turkeys and fell straight down, or fled the battlefield desperately. In less than 10 minutes, not a single P-51 and P-40 were left in the air.

Seeing that the German fighters easily eliminated these "American Eagles", Lieutenant General Phillips felt his stomach swell, and his whole body felt weak.

"Lieutenant General, what should I do?" The captain of the Prestige asked in a somewhat dry voice as he handed Phillips a steel helmet.

"The primary target of these planes may not be the Prestige, but the tanker!" Vice Admiral Phillips gritted his teeth, pushed away the steel helmet handed over, and began to give orders to the panicked captain. "They're likely to think of it as an aircraft carrier...... This is our chance, the left rudder of the whole ship is 45 degrees! Start doing an S-type evasion maneuver! ”

Phillips's guess was really good, the large tanker and the aircraft carrier were similar in appearance, and Johannes was preparing to dive and drop bombs at an altitude of 3,000 meters. Major Steinhoff really took the tanker next to the "Prestige" as an aircraft carrier, and drove his JU88 bomber into the nose and dived down!

1000 meters! 900 meters! 800 m ......

The altimeter on this JU88 is constantly scrolling, and the numbers are getting smaller and smaller, which means that the altitude is getting lower and lower! Suddenly, a shrill bomb siren sounded, and everyone in the plane felt that the plane was diving at a 60-degree angle. This was the signal that the 1000 kg bomb had been successfully dropped.

"Pull it up!" Major Steinhof shouted, and at the same time pulled the control stick of the plane hard, pulling the nose of the ju88 up. At that moment, a loud bang came from the sea below.

"Hit!" Major Steinhoff glanced out into the sea through the transparent engine room below, and immediately roared excitedly. I only saw that on the sea below, a huge column of smoke and fire was coming out of the amidship of a huge "aircraft carrier", which was obviously hit by a 1,000-kilogram bomb!

This "aircraft carrier" is finished! Major Steinhof glanced at an Prestige-class battlecruiser that was maneuvering in the S shape on the sea.

It's the next goal! (To be continued.) )