The "battle" continues.

This was a coordinated attack by 36 dive bombers and 32 torpedo bombers.

At 13:20, two groups of dive bombers launched the first attack, and after losing four aircraft, they successfully dropped "bombs" on the warship, and almost at the same time as the dive bomber group began to attack, the torpedo group also began to pounce on several capital warships.

The battlefleet itself suffered heavy "losses" in the first wave of attacks, and there were big holes in the defense, which seemed to be even more weak.

In this wave of attacks, on the contrary, the torpedo planes showed their might, and of the 28 aviation torpedoes dropped, 9 actually hit the target. In the war room of the "Grand Duke Friedrich", the noisy shouts of the pilots were heard from the loudspeaker, and the bridge of the flagship of the battlefleet was hit by two bombs and a torpedo, which had already been judged to be "heavily damaged".

The second wave of attacks lasted about fifteen minutes, and when the voices in the horns were all gone, the communications staff officer reported to Field Marshal Horty that the carrier fleet was preparing to launch a third wave of attacks, and the marshal waved his hand weakly, "The exercise is over!" ”

Although the final "results" have not yet been counted, Horty is well aware that in just two hours of "naval battle", the battlefleet has been completely defeated, and at least half of it has been "lost".

It turned out that it was already clear that it would be useless to continue, and he did not want to continue to stay on the battleship and endure the "torment".

The final result was already established before the evening: the battlefleet "lost" two battleships, a heavy cruiser and two cruisers, two more battleships and a heavy cruiser were "heavily damaged", while the air fleet lost only 27 combat aircraft. This battle loss ratio is completely disproportionate, about 250 million to 1.2 million when converted into money, and about 200 to 1.

This confrontational exercise established the status of an aircraft carrier as the lead ship in the Austro-Hungarian Navy. It became an important turning point in the development of the Imperial Navy.

Of course, the results of the exercise were classified as a top secret of the military, and all participants in the exercise had to write a letter of secrecy. He also received several specialized training sessions on confidentiality regulations. The results of this exercise were until after the Second World War. This is what made it public.

After the exercises, the emperor hurried to Germany to attend the funeral of Field Marshal Hindenburg.

Field Marshal Hindenburg was a respected pure Prussian soldier who contributed greatly to the prosperity of the German Empire by serving as Reich Chancellor for another ten years after the war. The basis of the power of the Hohenzollern family was the Prussian officer corps and the Junker aristocracy, and Kaiser Wilhelm II naturally rushed to the Wojdijdike estate in East Prussia.

Many considered Field Marshal Hinden to be mediocre, relying on Ludendorff militarily and Chancellor of the Exchequer Gustav for governing the country. Doubts were expressed about his military and political talents. In fact, the marshal knew people well, and was good at communicating with people and listening to their opinions, which made him rarely make serious mistakes in military command and governing the country. It was precisely because of his sophistication and steadiness that the German Empire was able to survive several crises with great difficulty.

As a military collaborator, Austria-Hungary worked happily together after Hindenburg became Chief of the General Staff of the German Army. As allies, the German Empire and Austria-Hungary also maintained a high degree of unity on post-war international issues, which had a lot to do with the good communication and coordination system established by Hindenburg and Austria-Hungary during his tenure as prime minister.

As a tribute to the marshal, after the funeral. The German emperor ordered to put the marshal's eldest son, Oskar. Hindenburg was promoted to lieutenant general. However, Helton thought that Hindenburg Jr. was too fond of showmanship, and that he was far from the old marshal's talent.

During the period in Germany. Helden also made a special trip to Hanover to visit the retired Field Marshal Mackensen, and presented the 85-year-old veteran field marshal with a knightly medal of the Austro-Hungarian Empire's highest honor.

There are only a few famous generals still alive during the First World War, and Mackensen is one of them who has lived longer.

This may have something to do with his relatively simple personality, and he never cared about domestic political disputes.

Marshal Mackensen was still in good spirits, quick thinking, and talkative.

However, when he complained to Lechelton that the German army was now underfunded and somewhat outdated in equipment, Lechelton could only smile and say nothing.

The German Army remained at about 1.1 million troops after the war. It is the most powerful army in the world, currently armed with about 4,600 tanks and 3,000 combat aircraft. Although due to financial constraints. The equipment of most of the troops was not updated in time, but the German Army was in the research and development of weapons and equipment. It has always been a world leader.

As for the problem of slow equipment updates, there is no way to do this either. There are simply no countries in Europe at the moment that can pose a threat to the German Army. France has not recovered since its defeat, and although Russia has been in a civil war for nearly seven years, although the Soviet power has finally unified Siberia and Central Asia, Finland, Estonia, Latvikh, Poland, Ukraine, Donets-Don, and the Caucasus Federation have become independent, and Lithuania and most of Belarus have been annexed by Germany, and they have actually been weakened by half. Even the Russian Empire, in its heyday, still feared Russia, and even now.

In order to maintain its position as a world-class naval power, Germany spends half of its annual military spending of 12 billion marks on naval construction. In particular, in 1934, due to the expiration of the "Washington Naval Arms Limitation Treaty" and Japan's withdrawal from the treaty, the "Treaty" had expired, and the German side immediately approved the naval budget for the construction of five "Deutschland" class battleships with a displacement of 45,000 tons, which was used to replace the four "King" class battleships that were ready to be decommissioned.

After the signing of the Washington Treaty, the German Navy eliminated about half of the main battleships, retaining only four "King" class, five "Bavaria" class and five "Mackensen" class, a total of fourteen battleships. In addition, four York-class battleships under construction were converted into aircraft carriers in accordance with the treaty, and its huge submarine force retained only 136 submarines.

Even so, the German Navy has always maintained a strength roughly equal to that of Britain and the United States.

Over the years, the German Navy also did not build any more large surface ships, but four heavy cruisers were built, and the number of light cruisers and destroyers has been increasing. In particular, after more than 10 years of development, the naval aviation unit now has 1,600 combat aircraft, which can almost be compared with the army aviation and has become an important air force.

The situation in Europe, dominated by Germany and Austria, has remained relatively stable, but now it is facing new challenges in Spain. (To be continued) R580