Chapter 1396: Confrontation
Walking on the blood-stained road, the US pilots finally saw two slender figures in the field of vision, at this time, they still have the last two levels to pass, one is the JU90 bomber, and the other is the anti-aircraft artillery on the battleship, the first to attack is the F4F aircraft, they carry 250KG bombs to the target swoop, with the help of gravitational acceleration, most of them successfully shook off the interception of the JU90 bomber, looking at the US aircraft diving down from the sky, Two aviation cruisers began to evade, and the huge hull walked an S-shaped track on the sea. ALL SHIPBORNE ANTI-AIRCRAFT GUNS BEGAN TO FIRE INTO THE AIR, AND THE HEAVY ROAR OF 128MM GUNS AND THE ROAR OF 40MM BOFORS ANTI-AIRCRAFT GUNS RESOUNDED ACROSS THE SEA.
Black bombing dots filled the air, and the German anti-aircraft artillery unit continued to fire while modifying the angle of the gun and the time of the fuse according to the fire control information, and a series of orange fireballs rose into the sky, forming a sparse barrier at the outermost part of the fleet. AMERICAN PLANES SHUTTLED IN THE FIRE NET, TRYING TO AVOID BEING AFFECTED BY THE FLYING SHRAPNEL, BUT AS THE DISTANCE DECREASED, THE GERMAN'S ARTILLERY ATTACK ACCURACY BECAME HIGHER AND HIGHER, AND FROM TIME TO TIME THERE WERE SHELLS THAT EXPLODED NOT FAR FROM THE PLANE, UNTIL FINALLY AN F4F FIGHTER WAS HIT BY THE ONCOMING 128MM ANTI-AIRCRAFT GUN, AND THE POWERFUL SHELLS DIRECTLY BLEW THE PLANE INTO A PILE OF ALUMINUM SHEETS, WHICH FELL FROM THE SKY ONE AFTER ANOTHER. After repeated defenses and interceptions, there were only 4 bombers that finally broke into the inner circle! In the air-to-air barrage like a hole, the four F4F bombers could not effectively complete the supply in the absence of suppression, and the two bombers dropped their bombs 200 miles away from the battleship. AND BEFORE THE OTHER BOMBER COULD DROP THE BOMB, IT WAS HALVED BY A 40MM MACHINE GUN SHELL. The last F4F bomber finally dropped the bomb within 50 meters, but it was still useless. The Nuremberg air cruiser, which was intensively attacked, was unscathed in this attack.
And when the last F4F fighter broke off the bombing course. Three torpedo planes also launched an attack on the Nuremberg, in the process of finally breaking into the inner circle. There was even 1 TBF shot down by JU90! The other 2 were forced to drop the torpedo before they could fly 800 meters away from the battleship, and in the end only 1 torpedo machine successfully fired the torpedo, but it was far from the target!
"That's the end of it?" After watching all the American attack planes throw away their ammunition, Colonel Hoffman couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. His own crisis has passed, the attack of the Americans has not worked, and the A fleet should have launched an attack, Hoffman is very optimistic. However, at this time, the mutation was abrupt, and a TBF torpedo plane that threw away the torpedo did not leave the battlefield. Instead, he continued to accelerate towards the battleship! The position of the other party was well chosen, it launched an attack from the front of the Nuremberg's hull, the number of anti-aircraft guns in the front was small, and the Germans were really careless, and finally the interception was missed, and the plane crashed directly into the front flight deck of the Nuremberg.
The impact of the multi-ton fuselage plus the explosion of the remaining hundreds of liters of aviation fuel was absolutely amazing, and part of the airplane's fuselage penetrated from below deck, successfully entered the hangar after smashing the sidewall of the hangar more than ten meters long, and then "detonated" the "aviation gasoline incendiary bomb". The deck in front of the deck, which was several tens of meters long, and the catapults deployed in the front were directly blown to pieces by a huge explosion. And the back deck was not spared, and huge energy was vented in the hangar. A large section of the deck formed a huge bulge under the strong impact. And because there were no planes left in the hangar, there was no secondary explosion, after summing up the lessons. The Germans tried not to reload in the hangar, so they didn't get out of control like the Aegean in those days, if the Nuremberg had been hit in the middle of the ocean. Nine achievements can't go back!
Even so, the Nuremberg was in dire straits. The BF109 fighter can barely recover and take off with a light load, while the JU90 aircraft does not take off empty. It can't even be recovered after landing. Colonel Hoffmann almost died of anger after being hit at the last moment, but now was obviously not the time to think about these problems, the Nuremberg had almost lost its aviation ability and was helpless in the face of the next attack, so Colonel Hoffman was preparing to contact Fleet A while preparing to withdraw from the battlefield. In this war, his battle is over! The rest is up to the allies.
And when the bomber fleet of the SN12 fleet Nuremberg was bombing indiscriminately, the 36 planes that took off from the A fleet also appeared on the radar display screen of the Americans, and when the staff officer told Colonel John the news, he even wondered if the radar operator had read it wrong, or that this was a British plane, and he knew the news that the British fisherman's squad was in this sea area. But soon, he knew that it was impossible, because the British could not be so fast! If the TBF could still be used in the early days of the war, then the Swordfish that the British equipped the escort aircraft carrier with could not even meet the standard of improvisation! The swordfish, which is jokingly called by the Americans with planks and net ropes, is extremely slow, except for the low requirements for take-off, it really has no advantages at all! Judging from the amount of displacement, the cruising speed of the other side has reached more than 300 kilometers, and apart from the fact that the situation of the Chinese naval aviation is not understood, only the German Navy can achieve such an offensive speed, and the United States itself cannot reach it. "Where the hell did these planes come from?" After Colonel John confirmed the identity of the other party, a drop of cold sweat fell from his head, although there is still some time before it can be reached, but the number of planes that can take off from the two escort aircraft carriers is really limited, when the German carrier-based aircraft appeared in the field of view of the lookout post, there were only 12 fighters in the sky over the SN14 fleet!
"It's over!" When he saw the fleet of Germans, the first thought that popped into John's mind was this! The F4F fighter first got entangled with the BF109TF fighter who assisted in cover, and the scene of BF109 beating the wildcat was once again staged on the battlefield. In the face of the flexible and high-speed BF109 fighter, the F4F can only rely on a fairly thick fuselage to maneuver with the opponent, as for attacking the attack aircraft flying above itself, it is better to wash and sleep. "In skirmishes. The performance advantages of the BF109 fighter have been vividly brought into play. We had to go as low as we could and try to drag it into the grapple to win. Of course, from this point of view. We can only hope that the opponent will make a mistake and engage in a grappling with us, otherwise it will be difficult for us to catch the opponent, although our planes are more durable, but if you dare to chase the opponent's attack aircraft and leave your tail to the opponent, the opponent can still knock you down! An American pilot once described the situation after the battle. The disparity in the performance of the aircraft made the Americans very helpless.
"Start attacking!" BF109TF fighters carrying 250KG bombs and a small number of JU90 bombers carrying 500KG bombs began to attack the US fleet, and the poor maneuverability of the escort aircraft carriers was fully exposed when evading the attack. But it is difficult to achieve this goal, both in terms of the weak firepower of the old destroyers and in terms of tactical literacy, after all, their main task is anti-submarine, and it is really difficult for them to participate in a brutal naval battle!
Disaster soon struck, CVE19 was the first target, 5 bombers braved dense fire to launch a dive bombing, JU90 bombers launched a dive at a large angle of 70 degrees, and the aircraft began to dive from a height of 2500 meters, accompanied by an increase in speed. The airbrakes under the wings are opened as the aircraft approaches the target, and the airbrakes with cut-out holes reduce the speed of the aircraft, allowing the bombardier in the back seat to better lock onto the target, when the cross in the eyepiece coincides with the target. THE BOMBARDIER PULLS THE HANDLE, AND A 500KG BOMB IS PUSHED OUT BY THE PUSHER. Whistling and smashing into the target below!
"The first hit!" Ten seconds later, the dull sound of explosions and fires from below exhilarated the Germans involved in the attack! THE 500KG HIGH-EXPLOSIVE BOMB SMASHED DIRECTLY INTO THE MIDDLE OF THE FLIGHT DECK. The longer time-delay fuse gave the bomb enough time to penetrate the hull, and the bomb smashed through the fragile hull. Penetrated the hangar deck and went all the way into the power room before exploding. More than 200 kilograms of explosives are a devastating blow to the hull of a fragile civilian ship! The power system, which did not take the layout of the compartment, was completely destroyed by a single bomb, and even more deadly, a huge hole was blown out of the bottom of the hull, and a large amount of seawater poured into the hull, quickly flooding a large number of cabins, and only a few minutes later, the ship entered an uncontrollable state of flooding.
Another CVE08 aircraft carrier performed well when resisting the first wave of attacks, and none of the bombs dropped by the 4 bombers hit directly, and huge water columns rose one after another next to the battleship, but even so, the vulnerability of this battleship was vividly displayed, and a bomb explosion that fell 25 meters on the starboard side of the battleship tore a hole. Too few compartments greatly affected the storage buoyancy of the aircraft carrier, and the battleship tilted slightly, and the speed also decreased. Then the second wave of attack aircraft quickly seized this opportunity, and two 250KG bombs hit the poor battleship one after another, one blew up the deck elevator and caused a fire, while the other bomb landed in the middle and rear of the hull, completely destroying the engine room. After the battle was fought to this extent, in fact, the overall situation had been decided, and the Americans' plan of encirclement and suppression had completely failed, and not only that, but they also boarded 2 escort aircraft carriers and 1 destroyer!
"Great! We sank 2 light aircraft carriers! "When the battle report of the forward attack fleet reached the A fleet, the German naval officers in the control tower were boiling, this was the first victory in the naval air battle after the start of the war, which was very memorable, at this time the two aviation cruisers of the A fleet were ready to meet the returning attack group, and then after the group was reloaded, they continued to attack the TY33 transport fleet, until now, the Germans believed that there was no other force at sea to stop themselves.
"How's the situation with Fleet B? We can converge a bit. Concentrate on taking out the TY33 transport fleet. After a moment, Colonel Cranke thought of his companion, and wondered what was going on with the B fleet after it was attacked, and the scarcity of air cruisers was a precious resource for breaking diplomatic relations, which had to be kept as much as possible. And ten minutes later, when Hoffman's telegram came, the damage to the Nuremberg air cruiser made Kleke feel worried, although he was only hit, but the aviation facilities of the air cruiser were too fragile, although the fire had been controlled, the core warehouse was fine, but it was estimated that it had to withdraw from the battle.
Soon, the group released by Fleet A returned victoriously, and the two air cruisers were ready to receive these Sea Hawks returning from a long journey, the flagship Emden Good Air Cruiser first entered the headwind course and then received the aircraft, and the other battleship followed, and from this point on, before all the aircraft were recovered, the two aircraft carriers had to sail on a fixed course. This is when aircraft carriers are at their most vulnerable. All aircraft fly in a spiral over the carrier, descending in altitude as they fly until the final altitude and speed meet the standards, and the aircraft will land. A JU90 entered through the tail of the carrier, with the landing gear and landing tail hook lowered, and when the arresting line was pulled, the aircraft's speed dropped sharply and finally stopped on the foredeck.
The ground crew then immediately went up to disengage the hook and the arrest cable, and then waited for the arrestor cable to reset, and the aircraft was pushed to the elevator position by other ground crews, and then quickly sent it into the hangar. After one plane is completely put into storage, the next plane will start to land, although in the aircraft carrier operation there is also an emergency landing mode of piling the landed aircraft to the front of the overtime, but now, when Cranker thinks it is very safe, the Luftwaffe can slowly recover the plane, and there is no hurry at all. But at this moment, a flying and swaying plane appeared in the field of vision of the Emden, and this was definitely not a German plane!
"The Swordfish found a second German fleet, two aviation cruisers, who destroyed the SN12 fleet." Soon, with the ticking sound of the transmitter, the position of Fleet A was finally revealed, and the British Fisherman's Fleet, 270 kilometers away, successfully discovered the opponent. Having received a telegram from the Swordfish torpedo machine, the British began to make final preparations. Because before this, the news of the attack on John's SN12 fleet had already been known to the British through a telegram, so the escort aircraft carrier Giant had already begun to prepare for the attack, and when the telegram from the front-line fighters was received, the aircraft fleet of the aircraft carrier Giant was also ready to be dispatched at any time.
Thanks to the book friend zhouyu1976 for the reward~~~, as well as the book friend's ethereal monthly pass support ~~~~~. (To be continued......)