April 27 at 9:20 a.m

Lütjans picked up the binoculars and looked at the British planes that were already visible in the distance, and ordered, "Prepare for the enemy's air attack, speed up, and contact the air force to cover us!" But then he realized that there were not many planes on the other side, and he frowned and said, "All ships stay in formation, don't panic." Pen %Fun %Pavilion www.biquge.info"

Due to the exploratory attack, the British army dispatched less than twenty aircraft, the main of which were Sea Hurricane fighters and Barracuda bombers, and two Swordfish torpedo attack aircraft.

You must know that at this time, the British Army's Athletic God and Unicorn can take nearly 50 aircraft, plus the Victory and the Dreadsome can take a total of more than 160 aircraft, although the aircraft in this era is not as large and heavy as later generations, but whether it is the catapult system or the aircraft carrier itself is not as perfect as the later development, the Athletic God can only take 20 aircraft as an old-fashioned aircraft carrier, and with the gradual increase in the size of the aircraft, the number of aircraft is also decreasing.

This is also the reason why the aircraft carrier faction could not fully gain the upper hand during this period, and a dozen or so aircraft were really not enough in front of the fleet that was ready for battle.

At this time, more than a dozen British planes had just lowered their altitude and ushered in extremely fierce anti-aircraft fire, such as the Bismarck-class battleships were armed with 8 twin 105-mm guns, 8 twin 37-mm anti-aircraft guns and 20 20-mm anti-aircraft guns. The Richelieu-class battleships had three triple 152-mm high-level guns and six twin 100-mm anti-aircraft guns. At the same time, there are quite a few destroyers and cruisers around.

But it has to be said that both the German anti-aircraft guns and the French anti-aircraft guns were too slow to create enough threats to the aircraft flying faster and faster, and when the enemy aircraft were few, there was nothing, and once the enemy aircraft reached a certain number, it would be miserable.

The British army was originally testing the German anti-aircraft fire, torpedo bombers and dive bombers dropped bombs far away, and then hurriedly retreated, but there were still two or three fighters were hit by the anti-aircraft fire of the mixed fleet, and at the same time all the torpedoes and bombs dropped were flexibly dodged by the mixed fleet, and the British lost three aircraft, which confirmed that this mixed fleet really did not have aircraft carriers, and also thought that they had figured out the German anti-aircraft fire network. John Tovey got the news and felt that he had made a little money.

"Four battleships, two cruisers, eleven destroyers, and submarines that I don't know if they will exist." Johann Tovey holds a few chess pieces on the chart, and he will not forget the most mysterious and terrifying submarine force in the German Navy.

"Your Excellency, Commander, at the speed of the submarine, it should be impossible for them to act with the main fleet." Immediately there were officers who raised objections.

John Tovey glared at him and said, "Pedantic! Have you forgotten what the various armies did when submarines were first unable to sail alone? ”

Immediately, someone said in surprise, "Your Excellency the Commander means that their submarine may have been taken away by battleships, and then let go when it is time for the battle, if this is the case, although we have the advantage of the sky, but at the bottom of the sea is a complete disadvantage." ”

John Tovey nodded and said, "Don't underestimate any enemy, our British Imperial Navy has been crisscrossing the seas for hundreds of years, as long as we don't underestimate the enemy and deal with it carefully, no one is our opponent, and the most feared thing is nothing else, that is, our pride and complacency, why we lost the French battle, to put it bluntly, we are too complacent with the Maginot Line!" ”

After being reprimanded by John Tovey, all the British generals regained their attitude, and John Tovey said with satisfaction: "We have four battleships, the USS George V, the Prince of Wales, the Duke of York, and the USS Nelson, just like the enemy, and we have air force support, all the destroyers only need to surround the battleship, don't be greedy for merit, the only task of the destroyer team is to ensure that there will be no submarines to interfere with our army, once the capital ships start a war, we must ensure that the firepower is concentrated, in order to win the first battle!" ”

A naval officer next to him suddenly proposed, "Your Excellency, why don't we join forces with the H Fleet, so that we have a total of seven battleships and can have an absolute advantage." ”

John Tovey nodded, shook his head again, and said, "Your idea is good, but it's naïve, what is our strategic goal?" It's to hold the Gibraltar Fortress, so what does it take to hold the Gibraltar Fortress? What is needed is the planes to attack their train guns. So how did the plane come over? The only way is to reach Gibraltar by aircraft carrier transit, which makes us have a capital fleet in the eastern Atlantic, with four battleships by your side, can you sleep? ”

John Tovey pointed to the charts and said, "So we must crush the naval forces of the Franco-German army at the very beginning, although now our advantage is not obvious, but we still have support, where can Germany get battleships?" I have already given the order for the H Fleet to dispatch the two battleships "Warrior" and "Determination", the Italian Navy is still in Parma, and when they are dispatched, the Revenge should also arrive in Gibraltar, he and the battlecruiser Prestige are enough to stop the Italian army, we only need to entangle each other for a maximum of two days, and victory will definitely be ours! ”

After hearing all of John Tovey's deployments, everyone was immediately full of confidence and began to act.

At this time, Lütjans again sent four or five reconnaissance planes to reconnoitre, but one reconnaissance plane never returned, and Lütjans immediately knew that his reconnaissance plane should have been defeated by the British army, and he immediately ordered the fleet to move in the direction of the reconnaissance plane.

At 9:50 a.m., the German fleet was again harassed by the British, and the attack damaged an anti-aircraft gun of one of the German cruisers.

At ten o'clock, the German fleet was harassed by the British Air Force for the third time, the Luftwaffe arrived, the first air battle broke out, the British aircraft was not the opponent of the professional fighter Mozu at all, but the Mozu was in the air for less than ten minutes, and was soon forced to leave, everyone understood that this meant that the two sides were extremely close, Lütjans was extremely nervous, and the result of no air supremacy was that the other party fully understood their formation, which was extremely passive in naval warfare.

"General, something is wrong." A middle-aged naval officer said suddenly.

Lütjans looked at him and asked, "What's wrong?" What did you find? My Colonel. ”

The colonel immediately said, "Your Excellency, I just calculated, if our two armies should be within 60,000 meters at this time, then it means that the other side actually found out about us, and immediately met us without waiting long, which is not in line with the other party's strategic purpose, this time they are going to rescue Gibraltar, not to fight a decisive battle with us, so I am worried that the British army is planning something, after all, we have no air supremacy." ”

Lu Teyans touched his chin, thought for a while, and then asked, "Your name!" ”

The colonel immediately said, "Gerhard. Wagner! My sir! ”

Lütjans nodded and asked, "Okay, Wagner, what do you think?" Why did the British do this. ”

Wagner pointed to the charts and said, "According to intelligence, the other side has five battleships, but there are two more in Gibraltar, and I am afraid that the other side's purpose is not to fight a decisive battle with us, but to entangle us first, and then while we are fighting, Gibraltar's H fleet will be killed from the diagonal side!" Give us the fatal blow! ”

Lu Teyans smiled and said, "Then let them come, we have at least one more day, enough to send them to swim." Order the fleet to turn southeast! ”

The officer next to him asked strangely, "The planes of the British army are all from the west, aren't we so far away?" ”

Lu Teyans shook his head and said, "Don't worry, they will catch up, come on, send me a telegram to the Air Force." ”

Since he knew that the British army also had the idea of fighting with him, Lütjans naturally wanted to make full use of this idea, and if he went southeast, he would be closer to the land, so that he could also get some air cover, and most importantly, force the British army to chase him as fast as possible, but he knew that his ship was several knots faster than the British army's. The Nelson, an old ship with a speed of 23 knots, was undoubtedly holding back.

At thirteen:40 a.m., the Germans turned to the southeast.

John Tovey was stunned for a moment when he received the report from the Air Force, he never thought that the Germans would retreat without a fight, he looked at the chart and said suspiciously, "Why is this?" ”

After thinking about it for a while, he could only attribute this behavior to the cowardice of the German-French mixed fleet, and John Tovey was unwilling to let the mixed fleet leave like this, and immediately ordered the pursuit. Knowing that his speed might be slow, John Tovey simply sent more than 120 planes to form a super-large group to attack first, and told him that there was no need to sink it, just slow down the mixed fleet.

The planes were very fast, and they had already gotten the route of the Germans, and at fifteen twenty o'clock a huge group of planes came near the mixed fleet.

Looking at the huge fleet of aircraft, Lu Teyans was extremely nervous, could his fleet survive it? He himself had no confidence, but this was the only way, and it would be the worst if the planes came out when they were bombarded by the British fleet.

The British fleet did not rush to attack directly, but relied on its own speed to begin to divide its forces, until after the encirclement was formed, under the order of the commander, hundreds of planes pounced on it like a swarm this time.

"Fire! Fire!! "Stop them!!" "Keep in formation, don't mess around! Don't mess around!! ”

The scene of hundreds of planes circling around the fleet to attack obviously shocked everyone, more than half of the planes were torpedo planes and dive bombers, because the mixed fleet did not have fighters at all, so the British fighters acted as decoys, these fighters constantly hovered in front of the fleet to attract firepower, torpedo planes and dive bombers broke through the dead ends of the fire network with all their might, and launched a fierce attack on the mixed fleet.

In the fourth minute of the start of the air raid, the formation of three Swordfish torpedo attack planes found an opportunity to fire torpedoes at the battleship Richelieu, and a torpedo hit the lower right part of the battleship. The battleship was only slightly flooded, which did not affect the combat effectiveness in the slightest.

But it was only a few minutes, and everyone in the mixed fleet was clouded with a haze in their hearts, and then, explosions broke out one after another, and all the torpedo planes and dive bombers chased after the four battleships, and in the sixth minute, the Bismarck was shot on the deck, in the seventh minute, the Tirpitz was hit by a torpedo and a bomb, and in the eighth minute, a destroyer began to sink in order to stop a torpedo for the Richelieu.

Of course, the losses of the British air force were not small, more than 20 planes were shot down in ten minutes, but everyone could see that the British army had a greater advantage, after all, the British battleships had not yet shot.

In the twelfth minute, two bombs in quick succession pierced the deck of the Jean Bar, knocking out a secondary gun. In the thirteenth minute, a torpedo hit the rear of the Jean Bar.

At this time, a large number of aircraft groups suddenly appeared from a distance, and when he heard the shouts of the soldiers, Lütjans let out a long breath, and finally caught up, only to see more than 20 German fighters brazenly rushing into the British air group, which immediately disrupted the rhythm of the British army's attack, and saw that the mixed fleet of reinforcements immediately rose in morale, and the sound of anti-aircraft guns rang out.

Looking at the fleet of smoke everywhere, the British air commander was extremely unwilling, he firmly believed that if he continued to fight, he would definitely be able to force this fleet to slow down, and looking at the fleet that had lost more than thirty aircraft, he ordered a retreat, ready to come again. After all, it was too far from land, and he didn't believe that these land planes could stay long.

The British were right, and the army planes quickly retreated, and at this time the two armies were about 45 nautical miles apart, and the mixed fleet was about 180 kilometers from land.

At 15:15, the British again dispatched more than 100 planes to attack the mixed fleet, and the mixed fleet waited for the support of the ground aviation at the cost of losing one cruiser, three battleships to varying degrees, and the overall speed of the fleet to 21 knots, and the British lost more than 40 planes, so that the number of British planes dropped to less than 100.

"Something is wrong!" John Tovey looked at the returning fleet and exclaimed in surprise, "How could it be such a coincidence? This is the case once, and the second time is like this, how could the other party's land aviation arrive in such a timely manner every time. ”