Admiral Lukins did not send planes to attack the British fleet in the first place.

His main purpose now is to defend.

Both the "Marshal Speer" and the "Marshal Hindenburg" received some damage during the two consecutive days of artillery battles. However, for a heavy battleship with a displacement of more than 47,000 tons, generally speaking, the shells do not cause fatal damage to it, but the damage to the superstructure is not small, so the small anti-aircraft guns like hedgehogs could not withstand the blow of heavy artillery, and the anti-aircraft fire of both battleships was greatly weakened.

In the winter season, the daylight is already very short, and the sun has just risen over the sea at half past nine, so it was not until 11 o'clock that the combat reconnaissance planes sent from the aircraft carriers of both sides found their respective targets.

The British were not slow to react.

At 12:10 p.m., the first group of incoming British planes appeared on the radar screen of the "Admiral Speer", and the air defense sirens of the entire fleet suddenly sounded. The German Navy equipped with the 1940 seetakt III. detection radar with an air detection range of 80 kilometers, and after the radar found the target, it immediately guided the fighter groups of the two squadrons on air alert to immediately go to intercept it.

Immediately, the fighter squadrons on standby on the aircraft carrier also began to rise one after another.

Admiral Lukins did not need to redeploy in this anticipation scenario, and the entire fleet had maintained an air defense formation since the morning: the destroyer fleet was acting as an air defense guard and the outermost air defense in the outer layer, four heavy cruisers and four anti-aircraft cruisers armed with four twin 127-mm anti-aircraft guns formed the middle air defense network, while the three aircraft carriers were in the center of the fleet's air defense circle, and the two battleships were on either side of the aircraft carrier. Protects its flanks from torpedoes.

About 40 Spitfires and 36 Messersmitt BF109G fighters in the sky were chasing, circling and disengaging each other at high speed in mid-air, in the sky behind the British fighters. Groups of gulls dive bombers and Swordfish biplane torpedo planes tried again and again to break through the interception of German fighters and fly over the German fleet, looking for an opportunity to deliver a fatal blow to the German ships.

Dozens of slow British bombers and torpedo planes were intercepted by the fighters and soon suffered heavy casualties, but the British pilots were very brave and braved anti-aircraft fire to break into the air defense circle of the German ship's defense, so that the German fighters chasing behind them had to quickly pull up. Urgently evade the anti-aircraft fire fired by their own warships, in vain.

However, the German fleet's air defense circle, composed of thousands of anti-aircraft guns, weaved a dense network of fire over the fleet, and in the stubborn assaults one after another, some British planes were wounded and retreated, some fell, and only a few lucky pilots dropped bombs on the heads of German ships. It's a pity that they made the battleship a key target.

Ordinary aerial bombs could not penetrate the thick armor of the battleship, and three hit aerial bombs could not cause fatal damage to the battleship, and smoke billowed from the two German battleships. Instead, it obscured the figure of the aircraft carrier. The aviation torpedoes dropped by several torpedo planes in a hurry were also effectively evaded by various warships.

Fierce naval and air battles were still going on, and the German aircraft carriers were risking their take-off fighters, and the German fleet appeared in front of a gap of firepower several kilometers wide.

The British attack was repulsed, the losses of the German fleet were not very large, the destroyer S-26 was hit by a torpedo in the confusion and could not be rescued, in addition to this, "Speer" and "Moltke" each received an aerial bomb. The "Hindenburg" was hit by two bombs, and the decks of these warships were on fire. Black smoke billowed and looked terrible, but the damage to the hull was not very severe. Now the firefighters on the warship are rushing to extinguish the fire.

"Alright, now it's time for us to act, order the carriers to send all the bombers and torpedo planes, pay attention. Our target is those transport ships, and two more squadrons of fighters are sent to escort them! Admiral Lukins had received a telegram that the Austro-Hungarian Task Force had begun to attack in full force, and now he was relieved and began to order a counterattack.

The taste of not fighting back is indeed very uncomfortable, and now Admiral Lukins has finally waited for the time to sulk. According to the instructions of the Admiralty in Berlin, the target of the Lukins fleet was the transport fleet and those escorting warships, while the British fleet was mainly left to the Austrians to solve.

Forty-five minutes later, at 1:35 p.m., a group of attack planes sent by Lukins completed formation over the fleet and whizzed away in a southwesterly direction.

At this time, the aircraft carriers began to recover the fighters of the first two squadrons to carry out patrols over the fleet for refueling and replenishing ammunition, and the flight deck was busy again.

In the air raid just now, the German fleet lost a total of 14 fighters, but shot down 18 British fighters, 9 dive bombers and 12 torpedo planes, the British Swordfish torpedo bombers were too slow, a total of 16 Swordfish were dispatched in this attack, only 4 survived.

As a result of the operation over the German fleet, 8 pilots were rescued and 6 were killed, but the casualties on the warship were not small, more than 150 were killed and more than 200 were injured. And the British lost only 56 pilots, most of whom were captured, and the exchange of losses of aircraft and warships, completely disproportionate.

At 2:15, the German fleet sounded the air defense alarm again, and this time, perhaps due to the weather, the British group was only discovered when it flew to a distance of about 65 kilometers from the battlefield.

Tovey also sent two waves of attacks in the direction of the German fleet.

Now the fleet is in disarray, and the aircraft carriers are once again speeding up against the wind in order to release all the fighters stranded and spare on the deck of the warship, and some fighters who are running out of fuel are still in a hurry to land.

The voice of the pilot of the combat reconnaissance plane came from the loudspeaker on the warship: "09 call the base, the enemy aircraft are at an altitude of 4,500 meters, 4 formations of 16 aircraft, 2 formations of 12 aircraft, and two other formations of fighters escort them!" Warrior! ”

I heard the voice of the fighter pilot who took off in a hurry: "Our altitude is 3,000 and we are climbing, and the enemy plane is 16 nautical miles southwest of yours, and the speed is very fast, I am afraid that it will be impossible to intercept it!" ”

At 2:25 a.m., the aircraft carriers were still accelerating, releasing the planes on the ships, and the formation of the entire fleet was a little messy, at this time, the two destroyers that served as the outer air defense of the fleet began to open fire, the anti-aircraft guns sprayed fire, and clouds of smoke exploded in the air on the right side of the fleet.

"Starboard, torpedo machine!" The lookouts on the warship shouted, the enemy appeared over the starboard side, and the British torpedo planes flew very low, almost close to the sea, broke into the circle of anti-aircraft fire of the fleet, and then fired torpedoes. The German warships appeared even more chaotic by maneuvering urgently on the sea surface to avoid torpedo attacks.

"Oh my God, up there, dive bombers!" At some point, a group of British planes hid in the clouds above the fleet, and while the warships were fighting those "swordfish" with all their might, they suddenly burrowed out of the clouds and dived down from a high altitude. There are nine small black dots in total, which get bigger and bigger. Red and white bullets flashed in mid-air, and the planes rained bombs on the heads of the German ships.

The German warships below were hit one after another. (To be continued......) R1292