"Sir, our SBD has dealt a heavy blow to a German aircraft carrier, which is already surrounded by fire!"

The good news that the Potsdam had turned into a "fireship" reached the flagship of the British Home Fleet, the King George V. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 The people in the Info Command Tower almost cheered - since the bombing of Scarpa Bay, the British Royal Navy, the former maritime hegemon, seemed to be running out of bad luck, with fewer ships and more and more territory. Even when the German and Italian capital ships were sunk, they all killed 3,000 enemies and lost 10,000.

"Losses?" Cunningham didn't cheer with the others, but immediately asked about the losses - don't lose two-thirds of the air raid fleet or something, it will not be worth the loss.

"At the moment it is certain that 11 F4F fighters and 28 SBD dive bombers have been lost."

The aviation staff officer immediately reported on the latest statistics of losses. 24 F4F 11 and 72 SBD 28. That's a total of 39 planes! Cunningham finally showed a smile, the loss was not small, but after all, it was not more than half, and it also hit a 30,000-ton aircraft carrier, suspected of Zeppelin-class, into a heavy blow.

This shows that the British Royal Navy is coming out of the trough, and the "Falk Storm" that once swept Europe has lost its power. Under the entanglement of Mustang fighters, the Fokker Zero could no longer calmly cope with waves of British bombers and torpedo attack aircraft.

As the squadron leader of the carrier-based fighter squadron at the forefront of the line, Captain Novotny can be said to have a deep feeling about this.

His squadron took part in three aerial interception operations this morning, shooting down six P51s and two F4Fs, and four of its own planes were shot down, sacrificing two very good pilots.

"Their planes are too hard to fight, they are not very strong, they have more firepower than our Fokker Zeros, and they are so nimble that they dive as soon as you grab their tails......"

Coming down from the sky, Novotny, who was already tired and couldn't walk briskly, was eating a nutritious lunch specially provided for pilots in the officer's canteen. Major Barr complained.

"But we still shot down at least 100 planes today!" Heinz. Barr smiled and comforted his old subordinates, "This is only the record achieved by the Fokker Zero on 5 aircraft carriers, if you count the fighters flying from Bergen, we have shot down at least 180 enemy planes." Moreover, the airspace of this engagement was over our fleet, and it was simply impossible for them to salvage the pilot who had fallen overboard. ”

"But the Potsdam was badly damaged!" Novotny said with some incomprehension, "I really don't understand why we are wandering around the Faroe Islands?" Is it really going to take the island? But I don't look like it, we didn't take the landing force with us, and from the morning the fleet has been sailing north. It's getting farther and farther away from the Faroe Islands! ”

While Novotny was talking, someone suddenly shouted: "The Potsdam has been shot again, it is capsizing, oh my!" It's sinking! ”

Novotny and Barr immediately ran to a porthole where a number of pilots had gathered, and when the others saw their regimental commander coming, they all dispersed. Novotny and Barr looked out and saw that thousands of meters away, the bow of the aircraft carrier, which had been billowing with smoke, had been raised high, and the stern had sunk into the water.

"Oh my God, it got a torpedo!" Although Novotny is not from the true navy, he still has this vision. "Is there a British submarine nearby?"

"No, it was sunk by ourselves!" Major Barr did not see a destroyer dropping depth charges, "it was abandoned...... This means that we will soon accelerate north to cross the Danish Channel. The Potsdam was abandoned in order not to be dragged down by it (the speed of the Potsdam was severely reduced by the fire, and the smoke from the burning was a huge target, which could easily expose the fleet), and the Potsdam was really unlucky, and sank in the first sortie. ”

"And what exactly are we doing in the Faroe Islands?" Novotny muttered in a low voice of incomprehension.

……

"Sir, what's going on?"

In the wartime cabinet headquarters in London, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill saw that First Sea Secretary Pound had received a war report, and he read it again and again, and his brows were furrowed, so he opened his mouth to ask questions.

"It's dozens of P.108s from the Italians, who are not going to bomb the north of Scotland, nor to the Shetland Islands or the Faroe Islands...... They have now crossed the Faroe Islands and are heading west. ”

"Over the Faroe Islands?" Churchill was also stunned, "What's west of the Faroe Islands?" ”

"There are several aircraft carriers and battleships of the home fleet!"

"Haha, sir, are you kidding?" Qiu Fatzi disagreed, "Use high-altitude heavy bombers to bomb the fleet under sail?" If it does, it's good news for our American friends. They have a lot of big guys like the B-17 and B-24. ”

Dudley. Pound shrugged, "Prime Minister, actually, I think so too...... It is not possible to use high-altitude horizontal bombers against surface ships under sail. ”

"Is it necessary to take precautions then?" Churchill asked, "Like sending Mustang fighters and Mosquito planes to cover Cunningham's fleet?" ”

The current P51 fighter does not have the Grayback Falcon 60 engine, so the high-altitude performance is very poor, but it can still fight at an altitude of 8000-9000 meters.

And this time and space in the British Royal Air Force service Mosquito aircraft are equipped with machine guns and cannons, can be a cameo heavy fighter - this is actually forced out of German high-altitude fighters, and now the German BF-109, FW-190 and Fokker Zero series each have a high-altitude fighter. But there are also two high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft / bombers JU86P/R and FW-200E (high-altitude version of the FW-200) that the British hated very much. This makes the RAF urgently need high-altitude aircraft with combat capability, so all Mosquitoes have some air combat capability.

"It's too late," Dudley. Pound shook his head, "The 4th Attack Wave of the Coastal Air Force has taken off. In the north of Scotland, all the Mustang and Mosquito planes that could be put into action were put in. Mobilizing planes from the south could not catch up, and the Germans were now bombing ports and airfields along the English Channel. ”

Churchill thought for a moment and said with a smile: "It's just dozens of high-altitude bombers, and they will definitely not threaten the fleet, and Sir Cunningham will definitely be able to deal with it." ”

……

"Dozens of P.108s? Coming at us? What are Italians thinking? ”

Cunningham was only amused when he learned that his fleet was about to be bombed by Italian high-altitude bombers. Cunningham might have been a little worried if it was a German plane, but he had already seen what the Italians were in the Mediterranean.

Cunningham thought for a moment and ordered: "When they get close, let the F4F take off, don't go above 10,000 meters, just hold 6,000 meters." Then he turned his mind to the German fleet, "The German fleet is heading north?" ”

"Yes," replied Lister, chief of staff of the Home Fleet, "they are heading north at a speed of about 10 knots. ”

"So slow?"

"It is estimated that it was dragged down by the 30,000-ton aircraft carrier that suffered heavy losses."

"That is, it has not been sunk yet," Cunningham thought to himself, "and when the carrier-based planes come back, another wave of attacks will be arranged, and a German aircraft carrier will be sunk anyway!" ”

The two discussed for a while, and the radar officer of the King George V suddenly reported loudly: "A cluster of enemy aircraft has been found, more than 30 in number, 36 in direction, 100 nautical miles away, and about 10,000 meters in height!" ”

10,000 meters! What a lovely Italian......

Cunningham and Lister looked at each other for a moment, and both smiled contemptuously.

……

"I saw the British fleet, they are so small."

"Where are they?"

"Direction 222, distance about 20,000 meters."

"Okay, let me see...... Oh, see, there are 4 motherships, 1 battleship, and there is not even an air defense formation, but there are direct cover planes over them. ”

"It's F4F, its performance at high altitude is not very good, it flies very slowly at high altitude, and it is very easy to fight."

"I know, Lieutenant Colonel Castellana, now give me the command."

"Understood, Major Mussolini, now in command from you."

Although the Italian army was generally unreliable, Bruno. The bomber aviation regiment commanded by Mussolini was an anomaly. This son of Mussolini was actually a very distinguished military man, and under his leadership the 10th Bombardment Aviation Regiment of the Royal Italian Air Force became the best bomber aviation regiment in all of Italy, surpassing in many respects even the German bomber aviation regiments equipped with HE177, Ju.89 and DO-19. Moreover, the performance of the German heavy bomber of the HE177, Ju.89 and DO-19 was only produced in small quantities to maintain the factory's manufacturing capacity, and it was not as good as the P.108.

However, the Luftwaffe also did not intend for the Italian P.108S to be the first aircraft to be armed with the HS293 gliding bomb. The original plan was for the German Ju.288 medium bomber (a more desirable vehicle than the P.108 in terms of speed and range on paper) as the main vehicle for the HS239 and Fritz X, two controllable glide bombs.

However, the development of the Jumo 2222, a 2,500 hp 24-cylinder liquid-cooled engine, was delayed, slowing down the progress of the Ju.288. Therefore, it was not until December 1941 that the ju.288 was finalized, and a large number of equipment troops were probably delayed until after June 1942.

Therefore, the P.108, which had long been developed and improved, and had already been equipped with troops and participated in real combat, became the only aircraft in the European Axis that could be used to carry the HS239 gliding bomb.

Note: In this time and space, because there is no bottleneck of raw materials, German aero-engine companies can obtain alloy materials with better performance, so the development of Jumo222 is finally completed. (To be continued.) )