"The Ju188 night raid on the base on Georgetown Island? Is it enough? ”

Hersman asked, looking at Raeder. The Pen~Fun~Ge www.biquge.info Georgetown Island base is 2,500 kilometers away from the Atlantic Ocean southeast of Bermuda, where the fighting is now taking place, and not only exceeds the combat radius of Ju188, but even the largest combat range has gone out.

"Enough," Kesselring said, "the maximum speed of the Soviet-class was 28 knots, or 51.8 km/h. If at this speed a trip to the southwest for 4-5 hours, the combat range of the Ju188 will be enough. And there are 3 cruisers that track that Soviet-class to provide navigation, and those Ju188s will not deviate from the course either. ”

"Enough range?" Hersman asked, "Do you fly one way?" ”

Kesselring nodded, "After completing the attack, let the plane make a forced landing at sea, and let the Vienna and Deguet who are in charge of tracking it. The Truan and Cologne just went to the rescue of the pilots. Now there are 30 flying Ju188E-2 torpedo bombers at the Georgetown Island base, which can carry 60 torpedoes and can also carry out night attacks. Even if it can't sink that Soviet-class, it can be slowed down hard, as long as it can be slowed down significantly, it's finished. ”

Hersman looked at Raeder, and the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy nodded, and said, "The 12-type U-boats belonging to the 2nd Submarine Group 21 are operating in the Atlantic waters northeast of the Leeward and Windward Islands. As long as the speed of this Soviet-class battleship drops to about 10 knots, it will not be able to run. ”

Because this Soviet-class battleship slipped away after the disbandment of the fleet, there were not many destroyer escorts around -- now the Americans' sea front was too long, the Hawaiian Islands were still fighting, there was a fleet in the southeast Pacific to contain the three German aircraft carrier task forces, there was also a fleet near Guyana, and there was a huge aircraft carrier fleet near Bermuda, all of which needed destroyer protection. So Halsey's main fleet didn't have too many destroyers, and now it's divided into many parts, so the number of destroyers used to protect a few fugitive battleships is not much.

If one of the battleships had been wounded and besieged by a Type 21 U-boat, it would have been a dead end.

"That's all!" Hersman thought for a moment and added, "The safety of the Ju188 pilots must be guaranteed, we will soon attack the Caribbean, and may even land on the North American continent, when there will be extremely fierce air battles, every pilot is precious." ”

"Ludwig, don't worry, there's no problem." "Because the Ju188 is a fairly strong tactical bomber, and the Ju188E-2 is a naval aviation model, the need for a forced landing at sea has been fully considered," Kesselring said. ”

The Ju188 is not the same as the Ju288 and the Me264, which rely on high altitude and high speed to break through, and the Ju188 is an aircraft that can carry out dive bombing and torpedo bombing, and the main combat area is medium and low altitude. Therefore, it was built very strongly, with an empty weight of 9.9 tons, which is heavier than the Japanese "Wyvern" (8.9 tons) and "Milky" (7.2 tons), which is naturally strong enough.

The Me264, a long-range four-round heavy bombardment, is only 20 tons of empty weight (if it is too heavy, it will not fly high or fast), and it does not have the function of dive bombing (which shows that the body structure is not strong enough), and it is relatively easy to fall apart if you want to make a forced landing on the sea. This is why Kesselring chose the Ju188 instead of the Me264, which has a larger range (the combat radius is not enough to take off from the Cayenne base).

……

"Sir, the air raid plan is ready."

About 550 nautical miles east of Bermuda, Hersman Jr. walked into the command tower of the Zeppelin, bringing with him a plan for an air raid that had just been developed. However, the plan was not imminent, as it was already 5:50 p.m. Bermuda time. The sea was dark, and it was not a good time to send planes to carry out air strikes -- it was not that the carrier-based aircraft did not have the ability to make sorties at night, but it was very dangerous to carry out dive bombing missions at night, and the German aircraft carriers did not have torpedo bombers on board.

So now Hersmann Jr. handed over to Rear Admiral Christiansen, chief of staff of Task Force 21, the plan for the next day's air raids.

"Oh, 30 Fw190TEs and 48 Fokker 636s on the Zeppelin?" Christian Sen looked at the plan.

"Yes, sir." "The Fw190TE is a two-seat bomber, and its bomb delivery accuracy is much higher than that of the Fw190T and Fokker 636," Hersman Jr. said. And the Fokker 636 is also much better than the Fw190T in air combat. Therefore, we should concentrate the Fw190TE and Fokker 636 for air strikes. If we sortie 30 Fw190TE and 24 Fokker 636, we should be able to inflict heavy damage on Soviet-class battleships in one attack. ”

"Very well, so be it." Christiansen looked at the sky outside the command tower, it was not particularly dark, and it was completely possible to take off and land several planes, and all the fighters that were ready to attack in the early hours of tomorrow morning were deployed to the "Zeppelin".

The USS Zeppelin, protected by a dozen cruisers and destroyers, would then break away from the main force of Task Force 21 and venture northwest under cover of night, with carrier-based aircraft dispatched in the early hours of 7 September.

……

Just as the Germans began to turn their attention to annihilating several Soviet-class and Washington battleships that had fled the battlefield, the battle continued on the battlefield nearly 600 nautical miles from Bermuda.

However, the number of ships involved in the battle was much reduced, and all the battleships on the side of the European Community fleet, except for the old Provence, were gone. On the American side, there are three super-battleships on the battlefield, the USS Iowa, the USS Missouri, and the USS Wisconsin, which are almost completely incapacitated.

In addition to the battleship Provence, the European Community fleet also had three heavy cruisers, the Deutschland, the Count Spee, and the Admiral Scher, the light cruiser Glory, and 10 destroyers, including the Mogador, Volta, Klebel, Fantasy, Terrible, Dreadsome, Daring, Lomarin, Victory, and Eagle.

On the U.S. side, there are three lightning strike formations centered on three treaty heavy cruisers, including the USS New Orleans, the USS Tuscaloosa, and the USS Houston, and each lightning formation includes 10 Gridley-class destroyers (because there are a large number of destroyers in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, so this American heavy mineship is mass-produced), Burnham-class (a copy of the Gridley class) or Sommus-class (an evolution of the Gridley class) destroyers.

In addition, several Cleveland-class light cruisers and a dozen Fletcher-class destroyers escorted the three largely ineffective Iowa-class ships.

At this time, the battle revolved around the 3 Iowa levels. The 15 ships of the Combined European Community Fleet were clearly unwilling to let go of the three heavily damaged Iowa-class, and they formed a horizontal formation under the leadership of the Provence, following behind the three Iowa-class, and did not dare to get too close. Because the stern turrets of the three Iowa-class Missouri ships are still usable - the stern fire of the Missouri is mainly near the power compartment, and the stern fire was extinguished after a power compartment was filled with water, so the stern turret was not affected by the fire. The stern turrets of the Iowa and Wisconsin were ineffective due to water filling of ammunition depots or turret malfunction (turrets that could not rotate due to missiles hitting nearby aft decks).

So Halsey let the stern of the ship sink significantly behind the Missouri and intimidate the opponent with three 406mm cannons. It was just an intimidation, because the USS Missouri's fire control radar malfunctioned when attacked by missiles, and the sinking of the stern also affected the accuracy of the shot, so it was difficult to hit targets at a distance.

But even in the face of 3 406mm cannons that missed, the battleship Provence, which was relatively thinly armored, did not dare to approach.

However, Halsey, who was aboard the Cleveland-class light cruiser Little Rock, did not dare to let the 15 EC ships follow all the way - he also wanted to drive the three crippled super battleships back to the continental United States for overhaul!

Therefore, when it was about to get dark, three US lightning strike formations, under Halsey's orders, turned their bows and launched a counterattack against the 15 European Community ships that were trailing.

The counterattack of the 3 American lightning strike formations seems to have had some effect, at least holding back the pursuers. The two sides fought fiercely less than 20 nautical miles from the Little Rock on which Halsey was riding. From time to time, columns of water and fireballs rose from the sea, and heavy cruisers and battleships on both sides fired shells at each other, and destroyers exchanged torpedoes.

Losses and results were constantly reported to Halsey, and the situation seemed to be not bad, the torpedoes fired by American destroyers hit several destroyers of the opponent, and one more torpedo seemed to hit the Brittany-class battleship (Provence)!

Of course, the American side was not without losses, and the three treaty heavy cruisers, the USS New Orleans, the USS Tuscaloosa, and the USS Houston, were all hit by the enemy's shells, and the USS Tuscaloosa was also hit by a 340mm battleship's main gun shell, which ignited a fire.

However, the losses seem to be worth it, at least now that the waters where the fighting is taking place are getting farther and farther away from the three Iowa-class battleships.

Halsey breathed a sigh of relief, turned to Chief of Staff Callahan and said, "Dennis, it seems that our three battleships have a chance to escape. ”

Before his words fell, a staff officer exclaimed: "Sir! Discover the submarine! The sonar has spotted the submarine! ”