It was just dawn, and Admiral Yankel was napping from the back of his chair in the flagship war room. Last night, Admiral Lukins was constantly harassing the British convoy, sending telegrams every twenty or thirty minutes to report the situation of the enemy, to the annoyance of the naval command in Berlin and the commanders of the fleet at sea, and no one could sleep peacefully.

Yankel simply put on his clothes and was on duty in the war room for a night.

Soon to enter the combat area, looking at the gradually clear figure of the aircraft carrier on the sea, the chief of staff of the fleet, Brigadier General Lunack, could not help but be excited, eager to enter the battle immediately.

"Are you ready for battle? Checkmate! Luckner left the chart table and walked over to Yankel.

"Huh?!" Admiral Yankel came to his senses, "Did you find out where the main British fleet was?" He asked, raising his sleepy-eyed head.

"Not yet, but I reckon they're probably already there." Luckner said.

Yankel got up and walked to the chart table, "That's just an estimated position, besides, the enemy has just entered our attack range, and the pilots don't want to be forced to land on the surface of the sea without much fuel left, and then wait for the destroyer to rescue, I need them to attack continuously." ”

"But now that it's dawn, the enemy planes must have taken off. We know the range of their planes and may find out where we are. Luckner held out his finger and drew a circle on the map, "They have seven aircraft carriers, and we are actually within range of the opponent's attack." ”

"So what, we need to attack the opponent's aircraft carriers directly after the British planes start to attack, and again, the first target of the attack is the aircraft carrier, not the battleship!"

"Then we're going to have to take off some fighter jets to guard the sea, right?!"

"No, the distance at which the aircraft is detected by the enemy's radar in the air is too far is not conducive to covert navigation. Well, remove the Dawn combat readiness and move to the second level of combat readiness! ”

Luckner sighed and reluctantly gave the order to lift the guard, while Admiral Yankel leisurely descended to the dining room on the first floor and went to have breakfast.

At the same time, the main fleet led by Admiral John Tovey had already joined the transport fleet and began to return together. He had briefed London of the possible danger the previous night, but because the supplies were so important, Churchill ordered the home fleet to move on to protect the fleet.

The fast fleet led by Vice Admiral Holland arrived on the battlefield earlier than Tovey and was currently actively searching for traces of the German fleet led by Luggins, preparing to entangle the enemy and then buy time for Tovey's attack.

Admiral Lukins broke away from the battlefield before dawn and began to rendezvous with the air fleet.

Both sides sent a dozen reconnaissance aircraft to search and confirm the current position of the enemy fleet.

At 11:20 a.m. on 3 December, reconnaissance planes on both sides found their opponents almost simultaneously, and Lukins' fleet was about 80 nautical miles north of the British fleet, and the German fleet was sailing at full speed in the direction of the Faroe Islands to the northeast in order to open up the engagement.

Like an assassin hiding in the dark, the Austro-Hun Task Force approached its prey from some 420 nautical miles southwest of Ireland.

At 11:30 they received a telegram from Admiral Lukins informing of the exact location of the enemy's fleet. The entire warship was immediately busy, and the navigating officers quickly marked the enemy's position on the charts.

"It's about 220 nautical miles now, sir!"

"Oh, that's not a good range, we need to get within 180!" "We've got to change direction, north-northeast!" Yankel said. ”

"Is it 5 degrees to the left? Sir! ”

"Well, left-hand drive 5, full speed ahead!" Yankel said, "Inform the aircraft carriers that in 45 minutes, the first attacking fighters will take off as planned!" ”

At this time, the combat staff officer said: "Sir, 180 is a bit far, if our torpedo machine consumes too much time in the search, it may not be able to fly back!" ”

"We're going to keep going and get to a distance of about 150 nautical miles." "Admiral Lukins could not withstand a few attacks from the British!" ”

The blackboard in the waiting room showed the latitude and longitude of the enemy fleet, and the large charts hanging on the walls marked the enemy's position in eye-catching colors. On the aircraft carriers, the pilots who were anxiously waiting suddenly became excited, gathered in front of a large map, and calculated with their hands the time it took from takeoff to arrival over the enemy's fleet.

About 20 minutes later, the voice of the aviation commander came from the loudspeaker in the standby room: "The fighter squadron of the first attack wave begins to board the plane!" ”

The Austro-Hungarian Navy's latest SM39SK Saker Navy carrier-based aircraft has not changed much in appearance from its predecessor, but the wings have been replaced with the latest laminar airfoils, and two self-sealing fuel tanks have been added between the wings, increasing its maximum range to nearly 2,000 kilometers.

After the middle of 1940, German and Austrian fighters began to be equipped with new engines with more powerful power and exhaust gas turbochargers, however, the current turbocharged engine performance is not very stable, the navy's carrier-based fighters are not equipped with this supercharging device, the maximum speed is 628 kilometers, compared with the British Navy's latest equipment Spitfire fighters, the performance is not superior.

Messersmitt also absorbed some of the advantages of the Austro-Hungarian "Saker" fighter, starting from the BF109H, improving its short range and weaknesses, after adopting a new laminar flow wing and installing a self-sealing fuel tank, its performance has been greatly improved compared with the earlier model, and has always occupied the position of the main German fighter.

According to the previously drawn up operational plan, the seven aircraft carriers took off a total of five fighter squadrons, seven dive bomber squadrons, and three torpedo squadrons of nearly 200 fighters to carry out the first wave of attack missions; half an hour after the first attack wave sorted, the second attack wave continued to launch the second wave of attacks after adding a torpedo squadron, and then four fighter squadrons and four dive bomber squadrons remained on the four Austrian-Hungarian aircraft carriers to carry out the third wave of attack missions.

The total number of aircraft dispatched by the Austro-Hungarian task force was 550, while the British fleet had a total of more than 380 combat aircraft, and what was even more fatal was that the number of fighters they carried was only about 120, which was a fatal weakness.

Admiral Vilmotsyankel was transferred from the position of commander of cruisers and battleships to the commander of the air fleet, but so far in this world no one has more experience in commanding aircraft carriers in battle. Of course, the Austro-Hungarian admiral was more directing his task force to attack land, and this was actually the first time he had commanded an air fleet to engage in naval combat with the enemy.

Admiral Yankel's estimate was that John Tovey had sent his planes to attack Lukins' fleet, and that he would send planes to depart now, and when they arrived over the British fleet, just in time for the enemy planes to return and land, which was also the time when the aircraft carriers were at their most chaotic and weakly defended.

However, he was worried that he would encounter the British when they first set out, so he resolutely revised the battle plan, changing the original attack every hour to half an hour, and such a dense and high-intensity attack was to prevent the British from getting a chance to breathe and recuperate. As a result, the Austro-Hungarian task force launched three successive waves of attacks almost without interruption. R1152