"The Coast Air Force reports that they have just severely damaged a 30,000-ton German aircraft carrier!" Lieutenant General Fraser, the Third Sea Lord, rushed into the conference room of the wartime Cabinet Headquarters with a surprise on his face. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

"A 30,000-ton aircraft carrier?" First Sea Lord, Dudley. Pound asked, "Is it Zeppelin?" ”

"It's not clear, it's only known that the aircraft carrier was most likely hit by a torpedo, and the hull tilted."

"What about our losses?" Winston. Churchill asked.

"Sixty Mustang (P51) fighters, 20 Povrefit torpedo bombers, 62 Boston attack aircraft (A-20) and 21 Mosquito reconnaissance bombers have already returned."

Churchill frowned and asked, "That means there are 36 Mustang (P51), 45 Bofritt and 3 Boston that have not returned?" ”

"Yes," Fraser nodded, "not very lucky, when the first wave of attacks was about to end, dozens of German FW-190s came, so we Mustang fighters suffered large losses." As for the Povrefit torpedo bomber...... They have always had a high rate of loss. ”

All torpedo bombers are easy to shoot down, so in the standard air attack tactics, the dive bomber goes first, and the torpedo bomber makes up the knife. But the British Coastal Air Force did not have a working dive bomber.

According to the original plan, the British were going to equip the coast air force with American SBD dive bombers (shore-based type), and the order was placed in June 1941, and deliveries were supposed to begin by the end of December 1941. As a result, the powerful version of Pearl Harbor was encountered, and the Americans suspended the delivery of Lend-Lease supplies.

Therefore, in this battle of the Faroe Islands, the British coastal air force did not have SBD dive bombers available, so they could only let horizontal bombers cooperate with Povlitt torpedo bombers. And horizontal bombing poses little threat to surface ships, and it is difficult to create opportunities for Povrefit torpedo bombers to mend their knives.

So these torpedo bombers could only bite the head and rush into the fire net of the German fleet. And their attack was not over, 48 FW-190 and 48 Fokker Zeros took off from Bergen. As a result, the British Pofritt torpedo bombers were immediately attacked by 48 Fokker Zeros, and the losses were quite heavy!

"The damage is a bit big," said Churchill, frowning, "but it's worth it to damage an aircraft carrier...... Has the second wave of attacks begun? ”

"It should have begun." Fraser replied. "Moreover, the four Tejas class aircraft carriers of the home fleet also sent 24 F4F and 72 SBD, which are estimated to reach the sky over the German fleet at the same time as the second attack wave sent by the coastal air force."

"Great, two attack waves arrived at the same time, it should be foolproof." Churchill thought for a moment and asked, "Our aircraft carriers will not be in danger, right?" How far were they from the aircraft carriers of the Germans? ”

"It's almost 500 nautical miles, and Fleet A is still sailing west." "The Germans can't reach their carrier-based planes unless they want to." ”

"Then I'll be relieved."

Churchill breathed a sigh of relief when a rush of footsteps came from outside the conference room, and then he saw a staff officer in an Air Force uniform walk in briskly and hand a note to Lieutenant General Fraser.

"What's wrong?" Churchill asked.

Lieutenant General Fraser looked at the note, his brow furrowed. "The Mosquito aircraft found dozens of high-altitude bombers sent from Bergen...... It was the Italians P.108, probably trying to bomb airfields in the north of Scotland. ”

After Norway entered the war, Bergen became an important forward base, and the German army invested a lot of manpower and material resources to build it. There are now 12 regimental airfields near Bergen with a capacity of up to 1,500 aircraft, as well as large military ports and barracks. Naturally, the British also regarded Bergen as an important object of surveillance, and there were at least three submarines with reconnaissance missions patrolling in the North Sea west of Bergen for a long time, and as long as the weather conditions permitted, there would certainly be five Mosquito or Sunderland "Short" seaplanes equipped with radar patrolling in the air.

So the fleet that took off from Bergen or the fleet that sailed out of it usually could not escape the reconnaissance of the British.

Speaking of this, Vice Admiral Fraser smirked a little, "But they won't succeed, the Spitfire 10 fighters of the Coast Air Force will treat them well." ”

The Spitfire 10 fighter is a fighter specially designed for medium and high altitude combat, which is not only equipped with a Grayback Falcon 60 liquid-cooled engine with excellent high-altitude performance, but also specially designed aerodynamic shape, so that it can obtain greater lift, which is conducive to high-altitude combat.

……

"How far are we from the aircraft carriers of the Germans now?"

"About 500 nautical miles."

Hearing the nautical staff's answer, Cunningham let out a sigh of relief. 500 nautical miles equals about 926 kilometers, which is far enough. The German Fokker Zero might be able to get it, but a carrier-based dive bomber with bombs on it could not have such a large combat radius.

"50 nautical miles further northwest." Cunningham gave his aircraft carrier another layer of insurance.

At this time, the chief of staff, Lister, took a copy of the telegram from the hands of the fleet communications staff, looked at it and said to Cunningham: "Commander, Bergen has sent dozens of P.108 bombers...... They were supposed to bomb airfields in Shetland or Onik. ”

"It's just a small nuisance," Cunningham laughed and shook his head, "the Coastair Force will send Spitfires...... Inform the Commander-in-Chief of the Air Raids, Major Daniel, and keep him in touch with the Northern Command of the Coastal Air Force. If one of the Shetland Islands or the Onyik Islands is hit by an airstrike, land at an airfield elsewhere. ”

……

"Major, that mosquito bomber is still following us."

Bruno. Mussolini's headset heard the voice of the captain of a P.108S heavy bomber behind the hall.

"Damn it!" Bruno. Mussolini scolded, but was helpless. The P.108S, improved by the German company Fokker, has very good high-altitude performance, equipped with four BMW W801R turbocharged engines, and can complete bomb drops at an altitude of 11,000 meters. Moreover, the aircraft's self-defense firepower has also been strengthened, and it is equipped with a total of 13 12.7mm machine guns, which is fully capable of penetrating without escort.

But 60 P.108s had nothing to do with 1 Mosquito. The latter has a light fuselage and is equipped with two high-horsepower and excellent performance of the Grayback Falcon 60 engine, which is far faster than the self-bulky P.108S.

Fortunately, it was only a reconnaissance aircraft. Bruno. Mussolini thought to himself that if the British sent 30, 40 high-altitude combat "Mosquitoes" armed with large-caliber cannons, their own 60 P.108s would be in danger. It seems that if Germany and Italy really want to be heavily equipped with the P.108S (the P.108S now also has a German model, called the Fokker 108) to bomb the British mainland, they also need a high-altitude fighter that can escort the whole process.

"Let it follow!" Bruno. Major Mussolini said in a tone of indifference, "Let this British plane see how we destroyed their aircraft carrier with the HS293 bomb!" ”

……

"Boom!"

The British aircraft carrier was not damaged for the time being, but a German aircraft carrier "Potsdam" near the Faroe Islands had just been hit by a 1,000-pound armor-piercing bomb. This aircraft carrier, which looks very similar in size to the "Zeppelin" class, has become the target of siege by SBD carrier-based dive bombers who have just arrived on the battlefield because of its tilted hull and smoke.

Although with the superb skills of Rear Admiral Landsdorf, the captain of the Potsdam, he dodged 8 bombs in a row. But the 9th dropped bomb still penetrated the flight deck, which had only thin armor, and then passed through the top floor of the hangar, and there was a big explosion in the closed hangar. The fire from the explosion then ignited the Fokker 100 dive bomber on the flight deck, which was waiting to attack, causing a series of explosions.

The 30,500-ton aircraft carrier Potsdam plunged headlong into a sea of fire. The fire and smoke began to spread throughout the ship's hull, and the damage management team tried desperately to fight the fire with a water hose, but it was still a drop in the bucket.

"Commander, Rear Admiral Landsdorf reports that the fire on the Potsdam is getting out of control!"

Gunther. When General Lütjans heard the bad news, his brows furrowed. The Potsdam was really unlucky, in the 3 waves of air raids launched by the British, the other ships did not even rub off the paint, but this aircraft carrier was unlucky, first was injured by a near-miss bomb dropped by the British horizontal bombers, and now it has become a target for the SBD. Look, even if it doesn't sink, it's a heavy blow! And it's not close to Bergen, and I don't know if the hapless Potsdam can go back?

"Order the evacuation of unnecessary personnel!" Gunther. Admiral Lütjans ordered, "Only the damage pipe and part of the engineer crew will be left for the final rescue, and if the fire cannot be extinguished within one hour, the ship will be abandoned!" ”

"Commander, this is an aircraft carrier!" Chief of Staff of the Fleet, Erich. Bey was taken aback by Ruetjens's words.

Lu Teyans waved his hand and said expressionlessly: "It's nothing, it's just an aircraft carrier...... We'll get it back soon! ”

It's just an aircraft carrier!

Under the leadership of Germany, the industry of European countries was able to run at full speed because the resource bottleneck was lifted, and the German navy was also expanded. The shipbuilding plan Z, which was originally regarded as a fantasy, has been increased and increased, not only has the order for the Zeppelin been increased 3 times, from 2 at the beginning to 10 now, but also a large number of C ships (12,000-ton escort aircraft carriers) with simple structure and economic and practical are being built. (To be continued.) )