The morning sun had just risen over the sea in the east, and the officers and men of the aircraft carrier were nervously preparing for the battle. On the flight deck, the flight crew was busy while the pilots began to eat breakfast.

According to the predetermined scheme, the battlefleet carried out combat cruises from the Tripolian Sea to the east, while the aircraft carrier fleet searched westward in the waters near Benghazi. Now the two sides are about 260 nautical miles apart, and they don't know each other's exact location. Now that the order for the exercise has been issued, the two sides are moving in the opposite direction, and it is expected that in about six hours, they will be within the visual range of the other side.

Vice Admiral Sucker did not want one side to get too close, and ordered the air fleet to move at a cruising speed of 15 knots, while the battlefleet was somewhat anxious for battle, and Admiral Leibniz ordered the fleet to sail quickly to the east at a speed of 24 knots.

At 9 a.m., the two sides were about 180 nautical miles apart, and almost simultaneously the commanders of both sides ordered reconnaissance aircraft to search for the positions of their opponents. However, the aircraft carrier fleet dispatched 16 "Petrel" fighters, while the battlefleet sent only 6 "Albatross" seaplanes.

On the "Grand Duchess Irene", the pilots were already waiting in the standby room on the first floor of the bridge, and the aviation commander, Colonel Müller, was anxiously waiting for news in the war room on the third floor.

"Heinrich, do you have to go into battle yourself?" Captain Wagner leaned over the huge chart table, spread his right hand, and used two fingers to gesturing on the chart.

"Yes, this is an important event, and if it was in battle, maybe I would have stayed in the position of commander of aviation all the time." "If we've taken the right path, it may not take an hour for the news to come back," Mueller said. ”

"Haha. Perhaps General Leibniz may have changed course on a whim. ”

"There are no problems, we need them out of the protected range of shore-based aircraft. It's just a matter of discovering them later. "If they get too close, anyway." We're going to keep a distance from them, and we're going to be able to attack from 200 nautical miles away when the guns on those battleships are just a showpiece. ”

"That's true, obviously, why don't some people see that?"

"They saw it, they just didn't believe that a heavily armored battleship could be sunk by a small plane." "The inertia of conventional thinking is enormous. Their minds are already being eliminated. ”

"I wonder what Marshal Horty's face was after being bombed?"

"Haha, it must be very exciting!"

Suddenly, the ship's alarm sounded.

At this time, the communications staff officer ran in and reported, "The 'Andromeda' sent back a report: port side, enemy reconnaissance aircraft has been spotted!" ”

The aircraft carrier fleet was first spotted by the battlefleet.

Vice Admiral Sukel ordered the ships to dispatch two fighters to begin to dislodge the enemy's reconnaissance planes, and the "Albatross" water reconnaissance planes were no match for carrier-based fighters, and only 10 minutes later, the exercise command ruled that the two "Albatrosses" had been shot down. One escaped.

While pursuing the enemy's reconnaissance aircraft, the 12th squad reported: "The enemy's main force has been spotted and headed southeast." Directions...... "Admiral Suker, seeing that the battlefleet had not yet run out of the protected area of the shore-based combat aircraft, did not immediately give the order to attack, but ordered the fleet to turn north.

The aircraft carrier fleet kept four fighters tracking the battlefleet, and the battlefleet did not know anything about the turning of the aircraft carrier formation and continued to move at high speed towards the predetermined location.

At 11 a.m., the communications staff officer reported to Mueller: "Sir, you have received an order from the flagship, you can start!" ”

Three flares were raised, and the carrier began to turn into the wind. And began to sail on the surface of the sea at a maximum speed of 30 knots, and the first in the sky were 12 fighters. Hovering over the aircraft carrier, escorting. Thenceforth. Two squadrons of "wild bees" began to rise into the air, and finally a squadron of torpedo machines.

A total of 42 fighters, 60 dive bombers and 36 torpedo aircraft were dispatched from the four aircraft carriers. Forty-five minutes later, the planes had all risen into the air, completed their formation, and began to fly towards the position of the battlefleet. The aircraft carrier quickly changed course and returned to the formation.

Each aircraft carrier retains about a third of its combat aircraft to carry out the second wave of attacks.

At 12 o'clock, the general command of the exercise received a report from an observer stationed on the aircraft carrier: The aircraft carrier fleet had sent the first wave of attack planes and launched an attack on the battle fleet first.

The current shape has been clearly marked on the charts, and the attack aircraft sent by the air fleet are rushing towards the battlefleet, while the battleship 150 nautical miles away has no idea about the situation of the aircraft carrier fleet and is still moving at high speed towards the expected position of the aircraft carrier fleet.

At 12:30, observers from the aircraft carrier side reported that the air fleet sent a second group of attack aircraft, totaling 36 dive bombers and 32 torpedo aircraft.

At 1:10, nearly 100 fighters of the first attack wave had already flown over the battlefleet, the group began to disperse, the dive bombers began to climb to the high altitude, and the torpedo bombers began to approach the battleship formation at an altitude of about 150 meters. The first group of 24 dive bombers first launched an "attack" on the battleship from an altitude of 3000 meters.

Later, the torpedo aircraft formation also cut into the battle fleet's air defense circle from three directions, and then 36 dive bombers on standby at high altitude also joined the battle group. Ships without air protection can only be intercepted by anti-aircraft artillery, but it is difficult for anti-aircraft artillery to capture and track high-speed moving fighters.

Moreover, the incoming planes attacked at the same time from almost all directions over the fleet, and it was simply impossible to defend against it. The attack of the first attack wave lasted about 10 minutes, and when the group of planes that had already completed the bombing roared out of the sky over the fleet, the exercise command had already determined that the battleship "Hungary" and the heavy cruiser "Sarajevo" had been sunk, the "Grand Duke Maximilian" and "Croatia" had been severely damaged, and 60 percent of their firepower had been lost, and the light cruisers "Corfu" and "Pegasus" and "Sagittarius" had withdrawn from the battle.

In just one round of the battle, the battlefleet had already lost almost a third of its forces, and they had not even seen the shadow of the air fleet, while the opponent had only "lost" 11 aircraft.

In the bridge of the "Grand Duke Friedrich", Admiral Horthy had a gloomy face, but he had already witnessed and felt the horror of the aircraft attack, when the dive bomber flew down from an altitude of 3,000 meters like a small black dot, in fact, it was like a bomb falling from the sky, and it was difficult for the anti-aircraft artillery to hit such a high-speed moving target.

Before they could catch their breath, the second wave of attacks began. (To be continued) R580