"Report Loss ......"

Before he could regain his footing, the captain of the USS Eagle had already grabbed the phone and shouted.

"Engine room water ingress ......"

"The boiler tube is broken, the pressure is dropping......"

"Serious flooding on the starboard side."

No matter how noisy the sound on the battlefield was, the spell-like sound released from the telephone receiver clearly reached everyone's ears. The deck had begun to tilt rapidly to the right, and everyone's mood suddenly became extremely heavy and lost. As if it was not a single Italian aircraft carrier that was about to be sunk, but the entire Roman Empire......

Anzu. Admiral Aquino's face turned pale, and he no longer had the vigor he had just now, only to see his lips tremble, "Inject water to keep the balance, tell the loss management, no matter what, you must keep the aircraft carrier!" ”

"Yes!" The captain of the aircraft carrier replied loudly, and then gave the order to the captain of the damage management team on the other end of the telephone line in an urgent and fast tone. However, he also knew that the "Eagle" aircraft carrier would most likely not be able to be saved. Because the foundation of the aircraft carrier "Eagle" is the same as that of the "Sparrowhawk", it is nothing more than a cruise ship launched in the early 20s.

However, the efforts of the Italian sailors to rush to repair were not meaningless, and they at least delayed the sinking of the aircraft carrier "Eagle". This delayed the detention of British torpedo bombers on the battlefield, and at the same time gave the Fokker 99, which had just finished bombing the British Mediterranean A fleet, a platform on which to land.

After pouring a large amount of seawater into the port side, the inclined hull of the aircraft carrier "Eagle" gradually regained its balance. Although the carrier's hull was still slowly sinking, Major Williamson, who was directing operations from the air, did not notice this detail. So he gave the remaining squadrons of torpedo planes an order to attack the aircraft carrier.

However, the second wave of torpedo aircraft raids launched against the aircraft carrier "Eagle" was unsuccessful. Because several Fokker Zeros that flew from nowhere suddenly launched an attack on them, shooting down 2 of the 6 "big mackerel" that were flying over the sea and preparing to drop torpedoes, and the remaining 4 had to lose their torpedoes and flee for their lives.

"Hell, it's enemy reinforcements arriving!"

Lieutenant Colonel Williamson, who was piloting the planes at an altitude of 3,000 meters, saw very clearly that these planes were not the Fokker Zeros that were fighting the P-39 and the "Pipe Nose Swallows", but the Fokker Zeros flying from the east of the battlefield. The Fokker Zero, which was supposed to escort the Fokker Type 99 that bombed the A Fleet in the Mediterranean, is back.

The first to return were 10 Fokker Zeros, which had been flying in the sky for almost two hours and had a big battle with the P-39 "Flying Snakes" that had taken off from Crete, so not only were the pilots exhausted, but they also had little ammunition left. However, the addition of these planes still frightened Lieutenant Colonel Williamson, and he had to mobilize some of the other "Pipe Nose Swallows" who were besieging the other Fokker Zeros to entangle with them, so as to create conditions for the remaining "big mackerel" to continue their attacks.

But at this time, an Italian heavy cruiser of the "Zara" class suddenly approached the starboard side of the "Eagle" aircraft carrier. The heavy cruiser was to transfer the Italian aircraft carrier fleet headquarters on the Eagle, but its 182.8-meter-long hull blocked the route of British torpedo aircraft and inadvertently became the carrier's meat shield.

The six "big mackerel" had already entered the attack position at this time, and because of the cover of this heavy cruiser, they had to abandon the attack and turn to the left side of the aircraft carrier, and they had to carefully avoid the anti-aircraft fire of the surface ships on the way, and the whole process took more than 10 minutes.

Before these planes could enter the attack position on the left side of the "Eagle" aircraft carrier, eight more German fighters that looked a bit like P36 flew into the battlefield from an altitude of 3,000 meters. The British group, which was fighting with the Fokker Zero, immediately dispatched 8 P39s to intercept the "P36s", but what happened next surprised the British. These German "P36" fighters were extremely fast, and launched a dive attack directly from an altitude of 3,000 to the P39 at an altitude of more than 2,000 meters, and four of the P39s were beaten into "turkeys" before they could react.

"Oh God! What kind of plane is this? "Witnessing the P39 being shot down so cleanly, Lieutenant Colonel Williamson realized that these planes were not P36s at all, but a new type of fighter that had not previously been shown on the battlefield. Looking at the speed of their dive attacks, we know that this is a fighter with "one blow and leave" as the main means of combat, and it is likely to be used to replace the "short-legged" BF-109 and Fokker Zero.

"Saved?" Transferred to Anzu on the heavy cruiser "Zara". Admiral Aquino also saw the battle that had just taken place in the air, and immediately breathed a sigh of relief.

Here came 8 Fw-190s. The combat efficiency of this aircraft is obviously higher than that of the Fokker Zero, which relies on grappling to fight the world. Even against an opponent with superior numbers, you can achieve good results with the method of "quick attack and quick disengagement". Although only 8 aircraft came, they became a key force in turning the tide of air combat.

"Planes that did not drop torpedoes will attack immediately, attack freely, and we will leave here as soon as the torpedoes are finished!"

Lieutenant Colonel Williamson did not dare to fight, and immediately gave the order for a general attack to all torpedo bombers. It doesn't matter if the target is an aircraft carrier, a heavy cruiser or a light cruiser, if you hit one, you can count it as one!

At the same time, the "Blenheim" bombers, which had been pushed high into the air by the Fokker Zero, received the same order and began to rush down from low altitudes to drop bombs on the Italian ships (low-altitude horizontal drops).

The aircraft carrier "Eagle" and the heavy cruiser "Zara" leaning against it were obviously the most conspicuous targets. The "Big Mackerel", which had not yet dropped its torpedoes, and the "Blenheim", which had not dropped its bombs, took them as targets. Bombs and torpedoes rained down.

The "Zara", which was trying to get away from the "Eagle", was unable to dodge the heavy patrol, and the stern was hit by two torpedoes at the same time. Looking at the "Eagle" next to it, I saw that the stern of the "Zara" was tilted up slightly, and then it began to sink suddenly.

It turned out that two torpedoes made two large holes in the butt of the "Zara", and one of them also blew open the engine room, causing a huge influx of sea water and causing the cruiser to lose all power in a matter of minutes.

Sirens sounded from everywhere for the abandonment of the ship, and the sailors did not care about air defense and damage management, so they put on life jackets and ran in the direction of the lifeboat. Anzu. Admiral Aquino and his command had to transfer the flagship for the second time, and he, like ordinary sailors, put on life jackets and rode in a dinghy towards another heavy cruiser in the fleet.

However, he never had the opportunity to command the fleet again, because by the time he boarded the heavy cruiser "Bora", the battle was over. And when he returned to his home port of Taranto, the order of dismissal and demotion, signed by Mussolini himself, had been delivered!

The hapless Italian admiral became a "scapegoat" and had to retire from the Royal Italian Navy with the rank of colonel.

At the same time as the sinking of the heavy cruiser "Zara", the aircraft carrier "Eagle" suffered another 500-pound bomb dropped by two torpedoes and two bombers "Blenheim". One of them exploded in the Eagle's hangar, but fortunately most of the planes had already flown away and did not cause much cascading damage. Moreover, the hangar of the "Eagle" was still open, and the shock wave of the explosion was released.

But those 2 torpedoes caused enough fatal damage to the aircraft carrier, the sea water accelerated and the aircraft carrier was sinking at a speed visible to the naked eye!

Fortunately, however, the deck of the "Eagle" was also able to recover the aircraft. The 43 Fokker 99s (5 lost) who had just completed their bombing missions and the 38 Fokker Zeros (10 with battle damage) who had fought the British in the air were finally able to land on the damaged deck of the Eagle. In order to recover the aircraft that landed later, the deck crew of the "Eagle" had to push the previously landed aircraft into the sea. In the end, all the planes were abandoned, like the Eagle, but the vast majority of the pilots survived.

Of the 48 Fokker Zero pilots and 96 Fokker 99 crew members, only 15 were killed or missing in the end. If you count the pilots and crew members lost in the air raids on the main forces of the British Mediterranean Fleet and the island of Malta, the number does not exceed 150 people.

And their opponents, the Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy, lost almost 400 aircraft and more than 1,500 crew members in this day's battle! Among them, the vast majority of British carrier-based aircraft pilots who participated in the air raid on the Italian aircraft carrier fleet were not able to survive!

Because just as Lieutenant Colonel Williamson gave the order to retreat, an air raid group consisting of 45 Ju88s and 33 S.M.79s, as well as 22 Fokker Zeros, had already arrived on the battlefield. Trailing behind 11 "Tube-nosed Swallows" and 36 "Big Mackerel"!

"Major General, telegram, it was sent by Lieutenant Colonel Williamson, the commander-in-chief of the air attack group, and now about 100 German and Italian planes are following behind them......"

On board the USS Brilliant, Colonel Boyd told Rear Admiral Lister the bad news in a trembling voice.

With the speed of the "Pipe Nose Swallow" and the "Big Mackerel", it is impossible to get rid of the pursuers, and their fuel is not enough to maneuver with their opponents until it is completely dark before returning to the aircraft carrier...... In fact, as long as there were twenty or thirty Fokker Zeros among the German-Italian planes following them, all 47 British carrier-based planes could be wiped out.

Now the reason why the Germans did not do it must have wanted these planes to guide them to the British aircraft carrier.

Although it must have been dark by the time these planes landed on the British aircraft carrier, the retraction of carrier-based aircraft carriers at night had to be guided by lights. These lights also attract bombs and torpedoes......

"Let's retreat!" Rear Admiral Lister gritted his teeth and said, "Let the plane go to Crete......

"Crete?" Colonel Boyd shook his head and said, "There isn't that much fuel on the plane." ”

Major General Lister was silent for a moment and said, "Then let them make a forced landing on the water near Crete, and then swim to Crete." (To be continued.) )